Dancing with the Stars - Mondays

Last night was the first Dancing with the Stars for this season!! 

Was pleasantly surprised at how well most of them did.  Will be an experience to see who actually improves and who doesn't. 

Going to keep my predictions to myself for the moment.

Knit-Along Update

Bet you thought that I had abandoned that project!!!  LOL!! 

Nope.  Just set it aside for a wee bit.

Finished up the left and right front this weekend and pinned them out to block them.  Almost done with one of the arms too!!

Looks like its coming right along nicely. Still not sure who I am making it for!!   But looks like the pattern way over-estimated how much yarn you would need.  At the rate I'm going I'll have enough to make a second hoodie!!  Anyone want one?! LOL

Monday - found Geocache # 278!!

Yes, it has been raining like the Dickens around here lately, but I saw a bit of sun out Monday and decided to try my hand at finding a cache or two -- so it was only one cache I actually found and signed. 

Pretty sure about a second one, but will have to go back when there are less people around.   Thought it would be pretty deserted with the ground being so wet and all. There were no children playing nearby, but plenty of adults sitting around in vehicles pretty close to ground zero!!

Re-walked a third multi-cache one that I was having trouble with.  I thought I was only wrong on a couple of the stages, but after checking all the stages again I found that I had a couple of mistakes on a coule of the other stages.  Came up with a whole new number for the coords, but still not sure I'm in the right spot in the end.  Will probably have to contact the owner of the cache and see what I'm doing wrong on that one.



near ground zero

cache site after a bit of clearing

The cache I found was a very traditional cache.  Once I figured out where ground zero really was.  The GPS was bouncing a bit due to the trees and the cloudy skies overhead.  It was covered well, but with the help of a nearby branch/stick I was able to figure out just where it was.  Picture was taken after I misplaced some of its ground cover.  Ground was pretty wet and muddy and no place to sit and check out the stash, and I didn't want to take chances walking all the way back to the car to look at it.  So did a quick look, signed the log and took a sudoku clue (one of three) to a secret cache.  Will just have to find the other two sudoku caches to actually get all the clues to find that secret cache.  The nearby creek, which is pretty low during the summertime was mighty full today!!



Orr Creek



Sunday get-together at Trish's update!

So sunday we did get together at Trish's and played a couple games of Skip-Bo while eating our potluck Haystacks.

Alycia found the cutest little cake - and I mean little -- that she just had to buy for no special reason other than it was just too cute.  It was of Sponge Bob Squarepants and just the right size for a little slice of cake for each of us!!

 

Picture of 'Encahnted' from the Web

We did watch 'The Socerer's Apprentice', which was a pretty good, looks like a set-up for a sequal though if you ask me. Although I was wrong about watching 'Ella Enchanted'.  It was just plain 'Enchanted' instead. Close but not quite the same, and it was my Netflix DVD. LOL!!  It was a cute Disney film though.

We, also, took an updated picture of our toes of all four of us!!  Next time we will have to take Trish with us!!  I noticed that her toes were unpainted!! 

While up there it started to hail - wasn't able to get a picture that clearly showed the hail, but we could feel it and hear it.  So glad that the weather cleared up enough when it was time for me to head back down the hill to home.

I was so tired when I got home that I went straight to bed -- thus why I'm blogging about it today instead of Sunday evening.

Ate out at Windmill's tonight



Interior of Windmill's

Wow!!  For someone who hardly ever eats out anymore I ate out a second time today. 

Was vegging out at home when and ex-neighbor/girlfriend called wanting to get-together for dinner and gossip!

Ended up at Windmill's for a burger and fries.  Hadn't eaten there in years.



Haystack or Taco Salad

 At home I have a pot of chili on for our girl's Sunday movie and game get-together at Trish's.  We decided on a mexican theme.  Haystack's (Taco salad) was a easy alternative to the traditional tacos.  Each of us are bringing some of the ingredient's for it.  We plan to watch 'Ella Enchanted', 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' and play 'Skip-Bo!!

Although I really, really want the rain to stop so I can  head out geocaching! It's just not quite as much fun in the rain though, as you get pretty wet and muddy, not to mention cold.

Note:  All pictures found on the internet

Had a girly day with the girls!!

Been raining like cats and dogs around here the last couple of weeks.  I am so ready for the rain to go away!!  I am sure the ground is totally loving all this rain though.

Got together with friends this morning for breakfast and small talk at Lumberjack's in Willits -- again.  guess since it's the new place around here we will probably go there pretty frequently for awhile.  At least it is cheaper than the new restaurant in Ukiah and has nice traditional hearty food!!

My toes and Carrie's toes!!

After breakfast, a few of us decided to head into Ukiah to have the toes done.  It's been months since I had a good pedicure!!  Loved it.  Danielle had her toes done in black with white flowers, Alycia had hers done in a teal with dimonds and white flowers,  Carrie had hers done in kelly green with sparkly lines, and I had mine done in dark purple with diamonds and white flowers!!  Felt kind of funny heading out into the rain in our flip-flops, but didn't want to mess up the paint job.

Then headed to the grocery store to pick up supplies for the girls movie and game day tomorrow!!! 

Now just vegging out, watching T.V. and playing on the computer!!

Another pair of slipper socks for next Christmas

Finished a second pair of slipper socks for next Christmas, now both the boys will have socks!

The hard part is deciding who gets the blue pair and who gets the brown. 

What do you think?

What I'm reading now!!!

Finished book 1 of the 'The Book of Swords'.  First of the trilogy!!! 

The Swords were forged on a lifeless, wind-scoured mountaintop, with fire drawn from the Earth's belly, and metal that fell from the sky. They were tempered with human sweat and human blood by the hand of the god Vulcan, Master Smith.

There were Twelve Swords, created as the playing pieces in a whimsical game of the gods. Into each Sword was placed an awesome power -- to vanquish in battle, or stay by even more horrible means ...to deceive an enemy's eyes, or destroy his soul. . . to bestow unfailing luck, or heal . . .

Only one man had seen the Forging of the Swords of Power, a human smith named Jord. And for the arm that Vulcan took from him that unforgettable night, Jord received one of the Swords. It would be his legacy to his son.

Mark grew up with the Sword hanging on his father's wall. He knows well its keen edge and its unearthly perfection. But he does not realize its power until Duke Fratkin's men arrive one day to wrest the Sword from Jord. As Mark watches, the Sword strikes out, screaming with an inner fury that cares little for safety of its wielder. When the fight is over, the Duke's men are dead; but Jord and Mark's older brother, too have fallen.

Carrying the Sword with him. Mark flees the Duke's vengeance, heading for the lands of the Kind Sir Andrew. Along the way, he joins forces with the dragonhunter Nestor--owner, too of a Sword--and his two assistants, the big simple-seeming Ben, and pretty Barbara.

But they do not find the peace they seek at Sir Andrew's. For mighty forces are on the move, set in motion by hunger for the mastery over their fellow men promised by the Swords . . .

Taken from the cover blurb of The Complete Book of Swords

Onto the second book in the trilogy!!

Trish is 50!!!!

Had a small get-together last night for Trish's 50th birthday!!

Nothing formal, just a get-together with friends, thats all that Trish wanted!!  Found the balloons in town on monday while I was trying to do those puzzle/multi-caches that I had no luck on and need to do some mulling over on!!

Had Pizza, scalloped potatoes and boston Cream Pie. Watched some videos, gossiped and played Skip-Bo!  Yahoo!!  I won!!  Not that we get anything for winning except the knowledge that we won.  Carrie was pretty close to winning though!!

Geocache #277 and Dinner at Simona's

After finding the last cache I decided to cactch a few more in the area so headed out to the 'Blue Eyes' Cache.

In a nice hole in the rocks!



Can you tell where the cache is?



After parking just past the GPS co-ordinates I started back to Ground Zero and saw a couple of deer in the middle of the road -- too bad I wasn't able to get my camera out fast enought to get pics of them.  I then looked around and following the clues/hints decided that I needed to get to the top of a small fenced in mound and that the cache was probably on the other side of the fenced in area -- no not inside the fenced area as that is against geocaching guidelines.  Found an easy path up and around and walked right to the cache at the top of a slide of rocks!!

nice size cache and lots of SWAG!

Took a green plastic dinosaur and left an angel pin.

As I was logging the find in my book and via my iphone at geocaching.com I recieved a call from a really good friend of mine wanting to head out to dinner at Simona's.

Ok, so maybe I wasn't all that dressed up, but I couldn't resist a dinner out at Simona's.

After dinner we went to visit another friend, back when I was taking  dance classes, who now owned the 7-11 Club and had a couple of drinks and socialized with the pool players there.

Not a bad night for a Monday night!!

Geocache #276

After my aborted end to caching on Saturday, I decided I needed to get out and find a few more on Monday.  I had to go into town to look for a 50th birthday party stuff anyway.  Tried to do a couple of the puzzle/multi-caches while there.  Looks like I need to mull them over a bit, as I didn't seem to have to right co-ordinates to find either one of them in the end.

After that failure I really needed to pacify myself by finding, at leat, one cache.  In the end found two before I got a call from a girlfriend and headed out to dinner -- but thats a nother story!!  LOL

So for geocache #276 I headed up Redemeyer Road to find 'Fault Line #3~ Redemeyer Road'.  Parked in front of one of many vintage 'No Tresspassing' signs.  Big hint in the description of this cache.  Only walked back and forth accross the bridge a couple of times before I found it.  Best hint was

"If You find it, Pick it up~All Day long you'll have good luck!" You do not need to go into the creek to access cache

I love these benchmark/coin typecaches.  Would really like to know where this guy find these things!!

Ground was a little wet and muddy from the rains over the weekend, good thing I didn't need to get off the road!!  Gued to the top of the cache container was what looked like a penny, but was actually an official benchmark geocache coin!!

Free DVD rentals from Redbox!!!

Redbox is the best - you can rent DVDs for $1 a night with no membership fees! You should try it out. If you click on my link and it's your first time renting online, they'll give you a free one-night online rental credit. And I'll get a free rental each time you rent via my link through 3/17/11.

It's a Win - Win situation!!

http://redbox.tellapal.com/a/clk/pD7x3

Thought this was too good not to pass on!!!

It's
'World Best Friends Week'

Luv Ya!

Think about this for a minute....

 

If you happened to show up on my door step crying,

I would care!

If you called me and asked

me to pick you up because something happened,

I would come!

If you had one day left

to live your life,

I would want to be part of

that last day!

If you needed a shoulder

to cry on,

I would give you mine!

This is a test to see who your real

friends are or if you are just someone

to talk to you when they are bored.

Do you know what the relationship is between your two eyes?

They blink together,

they move together,

they cry together,

they see things together,

and they sleep together,

but they never see each other;

....that's what friendship is.

It's

'World Best Friends Week'

Sunday with the gals!!

Trish and Alycia at a Colts game!!

Headed up to Willits yesterday to spend Sunday with the gals!! 

 Started out awhile back as Sunday football get-togethers.  Trish and Alycia are BIG Colt and Peyton Manning fans!! 


After football season it turned into Sunday evenings getting together to watch 'True Blood'.  Then 'True Blood' season ended and it was back to football.  

Now we are between football and 'True Blood' but have enjoyed our get-togethers so much that we are still getting together. 

Sometimes we have movie days, games and gossip- a couple of sundays ago it was Viggo Mortensen Movies. 

Yesterday we decided to check out the new Lumberjack's Restaurant in Willits.  Food was pretty good, big helpings, guess they think everyone eats like a lumberjack!!  

We then headed back to Trish's to play Skip-Bo.   We had an all around good time just being silly!!  Didn't even watch any movies, just had the radio playing in the background and were drinking Long Island Ice Teas and Screwdrivers!!   Boy did we have fun!!!

Note all photos found on the web!!!

Geocache #275 and unexpected last of the day!!

Woot!!  Woot!  Woot!!!

Looked for 5 caches today and found all 5 caches!! 

Quick find!!! Parked at the head of a long private drive within 50 feet of the cache.  Guess they named it after the private road 'Black Bark West'.  Nice SWAG took a factory reject geocoin (guess it's not a trackable coin anymore as it was rejected and number removed, but it was pretty) and headed up to the car to replace it with some of my SWAG.


Bad news. . . locked my keys in the car when I went to look for this cache.   What to do??



Good Karma side



Bad Karma side

I called my BFF's husband to help me, and found out that my BFF was in town, he called her and she went to my house to pick up my spare key and bring it to me!   Whew!!  What a relief!  While waiting I checked out the deactivated geocoin.  OMG!!!  It's a Karma coin --- one side 'Good Karma'  the other ' Bad Karma'  What a hoot!!  Guess I'm having the 'Bad Karma' today!!!

OK, got spare key, oh no it doesn't work.  Called BFF's husband again and he came up to try to get into car.  No go!!  These new cars (well its a 2002) are made harder to break into I guess.

cache under the rocks!!

Long story short, I ended up calling my insurance company who said I was covered under my emergency roadside services.  Yahoo!!!  Guess I should have called them first!!  It only cost me $3 out of pocket in the end!!

So 3 wet hours later, yep the rain started up again, I was able to get into my car!!  BFF's daughter found the cache during that time too and we added some SWAG from her stash!!

Instead of caching more today in the rain BF, her daughter and I went out for a nice relaxing Italian dinner nearby!!  Her hubby headed back home to sleep before he had to head off to work.

Geocache #274

Woot!!  Woot!!  3 for 3!!!  And onto the next Redwood Valley cache!!



Cheese Factory

 'Who Cut the Cheese???'

As I was heading back towards the Highway I decided I would try to find this cache.  The closer I came to ground zero I realized that there was a truck with its parking lights on and a driver in it where I wanted to park, another cacher???  Hmmm. . . . what to do. . . . catch it another day or wait it out!! 

Decided to drive a bit down the road and turn around. By the time I got back to ground zero the truck and driver was gone and I was free to park there myself.  As I was parking another truck pulled out of the driveway of the cheese factory that was there.  Looked like a little mom and pop place making and selling Mexican cheese Queso Fresco . . . hmmmm a few months ago a friend of mine and I were looking for a place that sold authentic Queso Fresco.... I'll have to keep this place in mind next time we're looking.

Cache was pretty easy to find, getting it was the problem with so many muggles driving by.



inside pole hanging from line



First attempt to pull it out was unsuccessful, darn thing was heavier than I thought and another car headed this way.  Second attempt I was able to get something to the top and saw what looked like a dead bird. . . yuck!!!  I promptly dropped it back down in the hole!!   OK, way clear again. . . I pulled it up and heard the bird drop on through and was able to get the cache out, but unable to take the whole thing to the car to sign as it was attached and only the top came off in my hand.  Pulled log out and signed it, added a marble and replaced cache as found. 

Wow!!  Sure glad that the fishing line didn't break,  felt like I was pulling pretty hard.

Geocache #273 and Wholphin TB drop

Now I'm feeling really good -- 2 for 2 today!! 


2nd half of steps



Steps heading down

 

 Now onto the next one -- 'Mariposa Creek Cache'.  Looks like another park and walk to it cache. 

After locating the 'steps' referred to in to info I headed on down them and away from the tunnel and water.  Followed a small path until the blavkberry bushes started getting a little bothersome and GPS said not in that direction anyway.  So I stopped and took a quick look around.

Root & bark

Hmmm. . . . up there, looks kinda suspicious, like that bark was put there on purpose to hide something.  Now just need to find a path or way up to it without breaking my neck.  Nice hint 'Stached under a root and covered by bark. . .up high.

Well from where I am on the path it is up high.  Almost didn't make it up there with the damp, slippery ground and my poor balance.  No way I would have come back up this way to exchange SWAG!!  LOL

nice SWAG

Good thing I put some SWAG in my pocket as there was plenty of SWAG in this cache. . .decided that I would drop off the Wholphin TB that I picked up a few weeks ago as this was a good size cache and didn't look like it had a problem with water or not being found on a regular basis.  It was a hard choice to pick which SWAG to take, just about took the small wine bottle -- it was so cute but decided on a small tupperware like container its next to the wine bottle in the picture. . . and I mean small.



Tunnel



The view of the river and tunnel mentioned in the info was nice with the water running as it is rainy season, but am sure that by the end of the summer the water gets pretty low to non existent.  You can't really see it in the picture, but the inside of the tunnel is covered with grafitti!!

Geocache #272

Feeling pretty good about finding the first cache I went out searching for pretty quickly today.  Some days you look for lots and find few, other days you find most but maybe not all!!  Today I am hoping to find them all!!!  How's that for optimism?

Yep there was SWAG

 Second cache of the day was just a little around the corner from the first one.  It's called 'Bird Bridge'  (hmmmm not sure why, didn't see any birds around)  Ok so it was about a half a mile.  In the info it said to 'park and walk' so I parked the car in a turnout and headed in the direction the GPS was taking me. . .down towards the river. . .under the bridge. . .up the other side. . .hmm, GPS points back to the other side. . .down, under and up again. . .Oh yeah, there is a hint. . .Look up and X marks the spot. . . now I'm close to ground zero and looking up for that crazy X . . .

I was so busy looking for the X I didn't see the piece of wire on the ground and ended up on my knees in the mudd. . .bummer. . .didn't get hurt just a bit of mudd on the knees and so glad no one around to see. 

An arrow pointing to the cache and

I, finally, decided that it had to be in the rocks and started looking there and moving rocks. . . moved one just enough to notice that it sounded hollow underneath.  Sure enough there it was!!

GEO spray painted on the rocks

After laying the SWAG out and backing up enough to get a picture I noticed what the rocks directly above the cache said!  This cache was all but jumping up and down waving its arms at me!  Boy did I make it harder than it should have been.  But still looking for that X. . .maybe they should have said 'Look up and the arrow points right to it'.

Cache was larger than I thought, so I didn't bring any SWAG with me.  Decided that I had had enough and didn't want to take chances with that wire again so took nothing and left nothing!!