Books!!

Finished 'Water for Elephants' by Sara Gruen. I really liked it!!  I think I will have to check out the movie when it comes out!!

Didn't have any plans for the weekend so I stayed home, mostly in bed and read.  Started and finished 'Slow Man' by J. M.  Coetzee.   It was a interesting read.  A different perspective I must say.  It was one of the books that I have collected intending to read sooner or later from the list '1001 Books You Must read Before You Die' by Peter Boxall.  When I went to cross it off my list I found out that they have updated the list and a few of the books that I have read already have been deleted, including this one!!!  Wow!!  The only reason I read this book is becasue it was on that list!!  LOL!!  Oh well!! 

After doing a bit of research I found out that there have been three books published, also found a list of all the books included in the three publishings for a total of 1294 books.  I guess with each new publshing they have deleted some books to add more newer books.  Not sure how they decide which books to add and which to delete!!  I think I will stick to full list!(makesmy list not look so bad).   So here is the total list with the ones that I have read marked: updated list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (all included).  May never get to read them all, but will have fun trying!! 

Update on books I am reading!!

Yes!!  I have been reading, just forgetting to blog what I've been reading!!

I finished reading both book 2 and 3 of 'The Book of Swords' by Fred Saberhagen.  Just before I left for a little vacation to see the kids and grandchildren. Very interesting if you like the fantasy sci-fi type.  Kept my interest, although they were each fairly long books!! 

Needed a break from that type of fantasy, and since I was traveling I decided to read a book of short stories about time travel -- 'Veils of Time', which included 4 short stories.  'And the Groom Wore Tulle' by Lynn Kurland, 'The Con and the Crusader' by Maggie Shayne, 'A Bride Most Common' by Angie Ray and 'Conyn's Bride' by Ingrid Weaver.  All very entertaining and mindless, just perfect for long plane rides.






I noticed that 'Water for Elephants' the movie will be coming out in the next few weeks.  I have had that book for a couple of years and hadn't read it.  I just hate to watch a movie that was made from a book before I read the book.  Mostly because the book is so much more than the movie. 

So I sat down and started reading 'Water for Elephants' by Sara Gruen.  Almost finished with it!!  Excellent book!!  I hope the movie can do it justice.  Don't hate me for saying that I am not that great a fan of Robert Pattinson though.

My two favorites from last weeks DWTS's

So I went to ABC.com and watched last weeks performances and elimination round.  I must say they all did a wonderful job, such improvement in such a short time.  I think we tend to forget that they all are amatuers and not professionals, but expect a professional dancers performance from them.  Some people are natural dancers and others just can't dance!!

Can't believe that Kirstie's shoe came off, but what the . . .

From the Dances for last week my two favorites were . . . drum roll please!!

Hines Ward and Chris Jericho with Ralph Machio and Romeo close behind.  But, I feel, that Hines and Chris gave very strong performances last week.  Did you see their strong leading frames?!!  And I just love Hines's smile!!  We'll see what happens this week!!








Saturday Nite Live at SIP!!

Who wants to go with me Saturday night to SIP!!

SIP! Mendocino Saturday Nite Live

Saturday Nite Live will be a monthly program featuring one winegrower or winery. The winemaker or grower will be “live” in person and talk about the wines, vineyards, history, and winemaking philosophy of the brand. A selection of tasty appetizers will be provided to enjoy with the wines.

Cover charge is $20 for non-wine club members and no cover charge for one person per each SIP! Mendocino wine club membership.

Saturday Nite Live April 16th - CORO MENDOCINO

Coro Mendocino is a collaborative effort by Mendocino winemakers to create a class of distinctive wines that showcase the heritage varietal of Mendocino County - Zinfandel. Each Coro Mendocino wine must contain between 40% -70% Zinfandel, and adhere to strict production protocol set by the Consortium Mendocino. The 2007 vintage has 10 different Coro producers: Graziano, McDowell, McFadden, Fetzer, Golden, Dunnewood, Brutocao, Philo Ridge, Parducci and McNab Ridge. Join the fun as the Coro winemakers host this fabulous evening and special chance to taste all 11 Coro Mendocino wines. Delicious food will be served to complement these big bold wines.

DWTS's Elimination week #4

What a disappointment this week's DWTS's turned out to be.  Wasn't able to see the dancing as I had to work both Monday and Tuesday night, but checked on the results tonight and saw that Sugar Ray was eliminated last night.  Hoping to find a site with the videos tomorrow so that I can watch them.

I feel he made an excellent effort, but someone had to go!!  To bad it was him. . .

Definately plan to watch next week -- not scheduled to work either night!! 

Hey!!  TRish you need to get back home so we can all watch it together!! 

4/5 Caching on the way to Colorado Springs - #290

I found out that tuesday was the only day during the week while I was out visiting that my older son, Chris, had off. 

So I drove into Colorado Springs to spend some quality time with him. 

But just had to get out and do a bit of caching along the way.  Candace and I have found most of the caches along Highway 25 so I took a side road that looked like it had a few caches along it and drove the frontage road most of the way there.  Well, at least, to Fountain.

'Old Homestead'

A quick cache and dash, even though I had to run accross the road and back, good thing there was very little traffic.  Signed the log, took a plastic gold coin and left a Travel Bug 'Mrs Micro is Homesick' a travel bug trying to travel to Colorado!!!  What luck!! 

4/4 Geocaching in Colorado - #289

'Tweens



We were heading to get this cache, but when we got to ground zero a gardener was practically working on top of the geocache.  We decided that it would be best to come back a little later.  We other business to attend to nearby later anyway!!

So we found a few other caches then came back.  Sondra jumped out and went around one side of the bushes while I went the other way.  Almost immediately Sondra yelled out 'I found it'!!  Sure enough there it was.  She was so sure that the gardener would find it and  destroy it!!  Not this time around.

We signed the log, took a poker chip and left an angel pin.

Looks like this was going to be it for our day of geocaching.  Had a couple other things to do and then be back to the house in time for Alexis to get home from school.

 

All in all not a bad day - we looked for 8 caches and we found 8 caches  with 3 of them being previous DNF's.  I'm pretty sure that Sondra had a good time too!

4/4 Geocaching in Colorado - #288

'Wildhorse Creek'



Another cache that I have looked for in past visits to Colorado.  This one I looked for back in October with my daughter.  Looked all over that darn bridge to no avail.  Was sure that it was another MIA.  On this visit as I pulled up caches to look for, this one came up again with recent finds.  So it was NOT a MIA cache.   I just needed to look a little harder.

Sondra and I looked all over that bridge, was pretty sure that it was a magnetic cache too! We even walked across the street to the other side, but GPS freaked out and told us we were going away from it.  So back to the original site.  Even had the GPSco-ordinates downto 3 feet. 

I was sure that we had looked in every cuby hole at every post.  I climbed over the railing and started to sit down on the cedment siding for the bridge.  As I sat down Iwas saying to Sondra 'Sometimes these caches are too easy and are right in front of your face"  Looked up and low and behold there it was.  I am sosure that we looked there more than once. 

Signed the log and Sondra fit one of my flower masgnets into the container too.

4/4 Geocaching in Colorado - # 287

Colorado Spirit Quest #202 - Pioneer Cemetery

The Colorado Spirit Quest is a series of Caches placed by many individuals, near cemeteries and historic sites in hopes of paying respect to the many pioneer ancestors that have 'walked' before us.

During previous visits to Colorado I have found a few others in this series!!

This particular cache I have searched for before with my grand daughter on a previous visit with no luck.  I knew it was a small cache container, but so many branches to look through.

Sondra and I were about to give up, in fact, Sondra had wondered over and was looking at some of the nearby headstones,  she probably gets that from her dad as he is the avid geneologist in the family and has been known to visit graveyards during his vacations to find more 'buried family'.

I perservered and out of the blue looked up and there it was.   Probably had my hands on it more than once.

The log was full, so we replaced the log - I posted a note to the cache owner that I would be more than happy to send the old log to them if they wanted - and signed it.  Then hung it back in its place!!

Glad to get this one off my list!!!



4/4 Geocaching in Colorado - #286

'Bullseye'

Premium cache

Premium caches aren't necesarily better than other caches, they are just caches that are available for cachers who pay for a premium membership.  I have found a few of them in the past.  This next cache was one of them.

GPS led us to the parking lot of a Target store.  After parking as close to ground zero as possible we looked around and saw a small 'Target' sign with the distinctive 'Bullseye' logo, and knew that it had to be there.  After checking out the sign and realizing that it couldn't because it was an all wood sign, and the 'hint' clearly stated 'magnetic'. 

We then looked around for something nearby that you could put a magnetic cache in/on.  Walked a little ways into the parking lot to check out the cart return area -- it was all metal, but soon realized that it was taking us away from ground zero.  Turned around and looked again for something metal!!

Aha!!  The curbside drain was edged with metal.  Could that be something near the edge??  Sure enough!! What a clever hide.  The first time I have found one in this kind of place!!!

Signed the log and Sondra was able to fit an angel pin into the container too!!

4/4 Geocaching in Colorado - # 285

'A Hole in One'

This is definately gonna be another one of my favorite caches.  If not for the pictures in the log I probably wouldn't have found this as quickly or most likely not at all.  Not that the pictures give it away.  Just my geosense kicking in.

If we had realized where the cache actually was we could have driven right up to the cache, but we weren't completely sure and the description did mention the frontage road.  So we parked nearby in the parking lot and walked the short disance to ground zero.  As soon as we got close I told Sondra that that was the post in 3 of the 3 pictures postged in logs for the cache, it had to have something to do with the cache site.  So we walked up to it, Igrabbed the pole at the top and yanked on it a few times then asked if either of the ends unscrewed.  Sondra was sure that they didn't.  I gave it a good turn and off came the end!!  Looked down the metal tube and there was the log to sign!!! 

Didn't take or leave anything, just signed the log and replaced the tube back in the hole and scewed the end back on!! 

Nice hide!!

4/4 Geocahing in Colorado - #284

Boy!!  We were on a roll!!! 2 for2 so far, with one of them being a previous DNF!  Woohoo!!

Onto cache 3 for the day!!

'Apres' le Deluge'

View from cache site

Another one that we had to find a safe place to park and walk a little ways in.  From the description we thought for sure that it was closer to the water, and the GPS lead us there initially.  But after letting the GPS settle down it then led us up and away from the water to a little road and embankment further up.  We walked up there and followed the GPS along the edge till I couldn't follow the edge anymore - GPS still said 12 feet further. I decided to stop where I was, bent down and picked up one rock --  yep!!  there it was.  Sondra was a bit impressed that I picked the correct pile of rocks along a whole embankment of 'piles of rocks'

Nice lock-n-lock box.  Signed the log took nada, left green wooden coin advertising eatstayplay.com and a penny since the SWAG was on the sparse side.



Monday 4/4 Geocaching in Colorado- #283

The second geocache of the day that Sondra and I looked for titled 'AVery Nice Trail' had us parking and walking 1/4 of mile in on the bike trail.  A nice, easy and pleasant walk with evidence of a fire recently.  Was a little concerned that the fire might have wiped out the cache.  As we neared Ground zero we veered off the bike trail, as the instructions indicated and followed the GPS readings.  Found the cache safe and sound just outside of the burned area, although a tree very nearby the cache was burned to a crisp with just black branches sticking up out of the ground.

Had contemplated leaving a Travel bug here that I picked up in CA, but decided not to due to the closeness of the recent fire.  The smell was still in the air.  Took nada and left a small basketball and leopard bead as the SWAG was a little sparse.

Monday 4/4/11 in Colorado geocaching - #282

Monday the children headed off to school, Bob and Candace off to work early.  Little Donnie went to spend the day with his other grandma, Janice.  That left Sondra, my niece who is living with Candace and Bob, and I with a day to ourselves. 

So what did we do?  We went out geocaching, of course!!!

This first one we headed out to was a cache that Chris, Carleen, Alexis and I had looked for back in October when I was out visiting for my birthday.  We looked all over the area, even walked a ways out into the field thinking that maybe the GPS co-ordinates were off.  Didn't find the cache, but did find a tarantula!!!  I understand that the wild tarantulas are born and live for a few weeks in October, then they die -- avery short life span. Candace and I found a cache in Pueblo last May that was called 'Tarantula' that had that fact in it.  Too bad that cache has gone belly up!!

The cache we decided to look for was called 'Eagles &Thunderwolves crossing'.  Sondra and I were all over that site, even filtered through quite a few of the rocks with no luck.  I didn't pay much attention to the nearby tree as I thought that when I was out here before we searched there pretty thoroughly.

We had given this one up as a Do Not Find (DNF) and were even in the car getting ready to back out when Sondra asked me, yet again, what were we actually looking for.  This was her first time out geocaching.  So I was explaining to her the different types of caches that I have found, and that lots of cachers just use recycled containers that they have on hand like old pill bottles camoed with tape.  She stopped me there and said pill bottle, there was a pill bottle back there with silver duck tape on it.'  We quickly reparked the car and she showed me the camoed pill bottle at the base of the tree.  Sure enough it was the geocache. 

So Sondra on her first time out found the cache and didn't even know it till I started describing some cache containers. LOL!!!

We STL, didn't take or leave anything.  Then headed on our way to the next cache!!

DWTS

Two down!!  With 'Psycho' Mike out last week and Wendy Williams this week!!  Who will be next?

Wow!!  What a blunder that Kirstie Alley made and they still pulled off a decent score!!

Girls Sunday out and Pedicures!!

After such a beautiful Saturday, Sunday was pretty windy and ended up snowing by dark.  But Candace, Alexis, Sondra andIdid get out for a girly day!! 

Sondra had a manicure while Candace, Alexis and I had pedicures.  We played Yatzee while we waited for our toes to dry.

Candace had her toes done in purple, Candace picked the green out forme and Alexis did hers in peach!

Our New Babysitter!! JK!!

Saturday afternoon we BBQ'd, oh what fun!!!

Afterwards while everyone was just sitting around and gossiping,  and the children were playing.  We looked up to see them all inside the dog cage!!  Could this be the new baby sitter?!!

Children can be so funny sometimes!

Saturday 'Haircuts'!!!

Saturday afternoon Candace, Alexis and I had haircuts.  Donnie was feeling a little left out I guess and kept putting the hair clips in his hair.

Fridays quick visit with my youngest son

After getting to Sacramento plenty early for my flight I caught up with my youngest son, Cody,and spent sometime with him.  Also a nice place to leave my car instead of at the airport parking lot!!

4/1 Geocaching on the way to the Airport #281

The second geocache that I stopped to look for on my way to the Sacramento airport last friday was one that I had stopped at a couple of times before and had no luck.

'Lucerne Switzerland of America'

Nice tribute to a child nearby.  Kept trying to look for it in the 'Lucernce Switzerland of America' sign, but to no avail.  The hint led me to an old 'no camping' sign.
 
This time around my geosence, finally,  kicked in and I found it.  Now I am kicking myself that I didn't find it on any of my previous visits!!

4/1 Geocaching on the way to the airport #280

Friday morning I headed to Sacramento to the airport to fly to Colorado to see the children.  Leftearly enough to stop along the way and catch a few caches.


First one I stopped at was a cache that I had tried to find awhile back and it seems was a MIA back then most likely due to recent roadside restoration.  I was pretty sure then that it was a guardrail cache and the nearest end of the guardrail to ground zero had recently been refurbished.  I noticed on my through this time that the cache owners had replaced the cache and others had been finding it.  Parked the car and walked right up to it, had to reach a ways in to find it but there it was.  Kind of cool glueing the computer chips and such to the outside of the container!! 

Took nada, left one of the flower magnets that Candace, Alexis and I made last summer to use as SWAG.

Luckily as I was ready to head back and replace the log,traffic was clear.  Replaced and was soon on my way again.  I didn't eventurn the engine off while getting and replacing this cache.

Last weeks geocache

Been busy with work and getting ready to go to Colorado and visit with my two older children and the grand children.  Just now sitting down at a computer to catch up myblogging.

During a short lull in the rain last week I ventured out to look for some geocaches.  Think I found a few more, but need to return when less muggles are present - probably when I get back home now.



Log #5 to sign!!!

 I did find one quick cache 'Wasting Time Hanging Around'.  It's a fairly new cache back home in fact I am one of the first 5 loggers!!! 

Had walked up and decided where the cache was, but when I tried all the fence tops near ground zero they didn't seem to move.  So I looked around a bit more and then came back and tried those fence tops again.  Yep!!!!  There it was, just needed to give it a good tug.  Ran it back to the car and signed the log, then replaced and on my way!