Last Day of 2005

Well its the last day of 2005 so that means it is time to sumerize all that was good about the year. Some of my personal highlights include

• Hid 9 caches and 2 events
• Reached the 600, 700, and 800 Find marks
• Had 34 finds on 03/20/05 with Duck & Biggieet_al
  
• Had 35 finds on 12/11/05 with Riddlers
  
• Introduced SallyC to geocaching
• Completed the Coin Quest
  

Some of my favorite caches of 2005 include

• Grants Pass Peak
• Roxy has a nice backside
• Roxy View - the other side of the mountain
• Other People's stuff
• Almost Perfect
• Hoffman Hidaway
• Ka-Ho-Nee Falls
• Bigfoots Lair
• Here kitty, kitty, kitty...
  
• Chin Up
• Forgotten
• Blue Star Memorial

Thanks to everyone who made 2005 a great year for caching. Looking forward to more in 2006!

Flood

Well its not at '97 level yet but the water is rising. It has probably already claimed the cache NEAR Side of the Park as the location was under water. My cache Applegate Treasure may soon be in trouble as well but I wasn't able to go check on it. Here are some pictures at Fish Hatchery Park and Applegate Golf Course.

Will it ever stop raining?

I remember New Years day 1997... it was a lot like this... then it flooded. The flood of '97 really raised the Applegate river and washed a big channel through the Applegate golf course which is still a major golf ball hazard to this day.

Since I had to work one day of my vacation I took today off just to sit around. While I may have started my blog in June 2004 I didn't really start keeping it up until December. So to celebrate one year of blogging I changed the look of the site a little. Let me know what you think of it.

Well...

I officially sat around all day and did nothing. Its a pretty nice feeling especially since I have a bad feeling I am going to be way busy at work. Friday's server problems at the bank scared me... I'm kinda lazy and not sure that I like hard work and resposability :)

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my loyal blog readers. Its been a pretty good day and I can smell the turkey... Mmmm turkey.

Today rather than just one Christmas cache I found 2
Diamonds Are Forever II
The Eyes Have It

I'll try to be better about blog updates for the rest of the year :)

Cruddy

Well I've been on vacation all week. Took my time finding gifts... didn't find a single cache, but that's ok. Then today I got an urgent call from work...

What I found was disaster... the short story is that the RAID server had a drive failure (well 2 actually) and it was dead. Lucky for me one of those drives was just mostly dead, so I was able to get it back up. Still a bad problem... took me most of the day and I'll be dealing with it for weeks to come... what a Christmas gift. On the bright side I'll soon be getting a new server like I've been asking for.

I'll have to see what caches I have sitting around as I've made it a tradition to find a cache on Christmas day. I don't think I have a shortage of nearby caches.

Blazer game adventure

Well Sunday my friend Dave and I had planned to go to Portland to look around for Christmas gifts and watch the blazer game. Sunday morning at about 9am I ventured out into the cold and started my trip north. Usually I only worry about the montain passes as far as weather goes, and they were clean and dry... not a problem at all... after that I figured I was home free... wrong.

Now I've driven I-5 many, many times in all sorts of bad weather. I've seen mini tornados of hale in the freeway near eugene before, rain so hard you could not see, snow and wind... I've driven through them all. On Sunday however I saw something new... freezing rain. Now its really nothing new... it happens sometimes especially up in Portland... I've just never actually encountered it myself.

When I saw the first sign mentioning wrecks and freezing rain I should have probably turned around... but of course the blazer game was calling me. Soon I came up on the stopped traffic and waited... and waited. A semi truck from the south bound lane had slid into the north bound from what I could tell. The road at this point was wet but not icey... at least were I was. After a bit I got passed that wreck and was able to travel along at about 30-35 mph until coming up to the next wreck... an SUV that had rolled. Traffic was stopped there too and after several minutes I got though that one... had I-5 south not looked 10 times worse than North I would have turned around about then. I came up to stopped traffic once more, but never saw a wreck. I pulled into Sutherlin to get gas and when I stepped out of my car I almost fell down because I was walking on ice... I was second guessing myself but knew it was either continue on or wait it out where I was... I wanted to go to the Blazer game so on I went.

In between these time periods I had a chance to flip through the radio stations and listen to the Seahawks try there best to lose. In between about each play they would interupt to give weather updates... "wrecks along I-5"... "I-5 South closed"... "Freezing rain in Springfield"... by the time I was in Sutherlin Seattle had pulled it out and conditions were improving in Springfield.

Traffic was slow, but I-5 north was moving and I saw no more wrecks on my side. On the South bound side however I saw at least 6. Eventually I made it to Cottage Grove and stopped to eat. Mmmm... Arby's. By this time the freeway looked much better and I made the drive to Albany in a reasonable time. So when I got to Albany I had been driving for just over 5 hours. I met Dave there and since the freeway had been so much better, we decided to keep going.

The trip from that point went pretty well... we came past Salem and all was clear. We were just a few mile outside of Portland when things seemed to get worse. First there was some snow/ice at the side of the road, then slush between lanes... soon were were driving on packed snow/ice. At this point I was all about turning around... we weren't really in a position to get off and the roads off of I-5 looked worse than what we had... we slowly continued on at about 4mph. By this time I was sure glad I own an AWD as other cars were slipping and sliding, many pulled over and chained up, others were abandoned. As we got closer to PDX the traffic thinned and we made it to the Rose Garden... at this point we thought the west garden garage might be where we would stay the night.

Now I need to back up a few blog entries to remember winning free blazer tickets that weren't waiting for me... well this time we were picking up Dave's free tickets... if they were not there we might have gone postal. This time we were not disapointed... free tickets were waiting... regular price $131 each... sweet! Turned out not to matter... the crowd was so small after the first quarter they told everyone to come on down and sit closer... that was cool... we sat center court just a few rows back... best seats ever. Crowd was counted at 2923 and the blazers played to win for once... final score 97-92 blazers.

On the way back ODOT had come through for us... the road had some fresh sand/gravel and we made it to Corvallis without problem. I only found one picture that kind of shows the road conditions in Portland (it is from thismorning... looked worse last night)... it was quite a trip

Neglect

Well I've been a bad boy about updating my blog again... looks like I'll be getting a lump of coal for Christmas... again.

Yesterday I got my Coin Quest prize in the mail. The prize was of course a coin, not really a special coin for the quest but its a personal type coin with the names of the cachers who created the quest and their website... and a button for participating. Pretty nice for a free game.

SallyC put up the next pizza event

GeoPizza35: The Pizza Stikes Back

That should be a fun time... and a good way to start out 2006!

Gasquet and back

Well today I took off with Riddlers to find Two Tracks' series of Chess and Shotglass caches. The caches pretty much stretch fro Selma, OR to Gasquet, CA all together I logged 35 caches today. That was a pretty big day... but I think I have found more than that a couple of times before. One of the highlights today is that I logged my 800th cache on Chess #13.

Saturday was Pizza XXXIV which was a good time. Even Lazyboy showed up... guess the stars were aligned right. SallyC and I picked up 5 caches before the event... and we also stopped to hide one, Sally's Toy Cache. We hid the cache at Cantrall Buckley park which like many parks in Jackson County has been avoided because of a day use fee... which is sad because it is a great park and could easily support many caches. No lack of good hiding spots either. No one was around to collect the fee on Saturday so you might go get this one now while it is not as highly enforced.

New Caches

Iseek & Eyeseek2 hid a bunch of new caches today. Noticed it didn't take uncle duck long to get out and find them all.

PIZZA XXXIV is this weekend and if the stars align just right, the water is cold enough and his students can actually swim and think at the same time then Lazboy himself might be at the event. Oh sure we make fun of him a lot online but the honest truth is... its way more fun to make fun of him in person. So maybe we'll get the chance.

WooHoo!

I did it! Last night I completed the Coin Quest! The final puzzle had me royally confused for a while, but eventually I was able to solve it. There are several people who are one cache from completion... most of them waiting for an event... some drove hundreds of miles to attend one (yes, all for a coin) makes me really glad we have such a great group with regular events.

Weekend

Try as I might I couldn't make a blog update last night as the blogger update site seemed to be down everytime I tried... oh well you'll just have to read yesterdays news today. On Saturday Sally and I went to the EVC Coin Event and had a fun time. Before the event we found 3 caches.

Camp Howitzer
Al Quacka Sleeper Cell - Oregon
Infirmary

We looked for another that I had coords for but no hints... I guess it was up in a tree. Not really worthy of posting a DNF.

After we left the event we found 2 more caches

Passion Cache
Gary Who?

We couldn't find Fully Contained 2 which was one I needed for the coin quest as it had 3 numbers matching in the coords. I did find a letterbox which has been confused for this cache in the past. Rather than just log the letterbox I decided to do things right and yesterday I took off to Eagle Point to find Blue Star Memorial which met the same requirement.

So tonight I'll be able to log my last cache for the Coin Quest and hopfully I can solve the puzzle and get a coin. The quest has been a lot of fun and I kind of hate to see it come to an end.

3 more to go

Well I have 3 more caches to complete for the coin quest. Last night I got Roots and Wings which was also by a statue, but I needed the FTF more. I'll be able to log it for the Coin Quest today and that will leave me with 3 caches to complete

last 3 digits match
placed in 2003
virtual

Tomorrow I am going to Eugene and within a couple miles of the EVC Coin event are caches matching all the requirements I need. It is coming down to the wire for me as I will probably just squeak into the top 250... if not for the archiving of jfreaks virtuals I could have been finished as a trip to Medford could have easily netted me these last requirements. Oh well... I suppose if I really wanted to be done I would have went on a road trip last weekend.

statue cache

Well I've been needing a statue cache for the coin quest and there has been one within .15 miles of my office all this time. Today I found DrDan's The First Brick Building in GP Town. Within 10 feet is an 8 foot tall nutcracker statue. Dan nicely sent me an email last night to remind me of that fact. I knew all those nutcrackers around town were good for something. So now I have 4 requirements left

FTF
Last 3 digits matching
Placed in 2003
Virtual

Saturday SallyC and I are going to the EVC Coin Event. While coins might have been enough to lure me there it will be easy to pick up the last 3 of those requirements. Now I just need a FTF. Only the first 250 people to complete the quest get a coin and I am sitting at 204. If anything new pops up tonight I've got my raincoat and flashlight ready.

More Coin Quest

Today I found 2 caches

Watching Over The River
"au naturel"

These are older caches that have been on my "to do" list for a while and I just happened to pick them out for today. Watching Over The River qualified for one of my Coin Quest requirements. "au naturel" was once the closest unfound cache to my house and the last time I went to find it the place was crawling with fishermen... several there today but not intimidating enough to make me turn around. Both were fun caches. I'm still 5 caches from completing the coin quest.

Cache hidding

Friday sitting around at work bored stiff I get an email from Sally with no message besides the subject line "Interested in hiding some caches tomorrow morning?"

Well how could I resist? So we went and hid 4 caches

Oink Oink
Place to Hibernate?
Kiss & Makeup
Rafter's Pit-Stop

We also stopped to find one cache.

Pull Up A Rocking Chair

Sally had to be back by noon so after we got back I decided to scout a few new spots and ended up hiding another cache.

GC101 - Geo Basics

With all this cache hiding today a lot of finding went on as well. A quickly organized cache crew went out this morning for the many new caches that popped up Friday night. I'm sure at some point Iseek & Eyeseek2 got their 2000th find. So congrats to them on the many finds!

Turkey hangover

Well here I sit at work and I think I'm still miserable from yesterday. Lets face it when you have a lot to be thankful for you have to eat a lot... right?

So this year my brother and his wife wanted to put on Thanksgiving dinner... I have to admit that I didn't know how good that would be. I had alternative chinese food plans if dinner turned out unedable. But it was pretty good. With Khristi's family there I thought I'd be a light weight eater by comparison (her brothers are pretty big boys) but they had done given up by the time I was just starting... pass the turkey, and some rolls, and the gravy... and the cranberry sauce... if they had had better stuffing they might have needed to roll me out the door.

I considered going geocaching but I just sat around lazily instead. Maybe this weekend I'll venture out into the cold for a cache or two.

1000 Finds

I noticed my Aunt and Uncle (aka Duck-n-Deedy) have reached 1000 finds. They probably would have reached that mark sooner if they didn't take the summers off. Still a pretty good mark to reach.

I logged my 7th cache for the coin quest today and have one more to log tomorrow... after that I will need to go and find more caches. Since I am going to my brother's for thanksgiving maybe I can go a little early and find a few caches. If I keep it up maybe I'll reach 1000 finds some day.

More caching...

Today I went and found two caches.

Historical Place
Have a Heart, Don't hate I-5

I logged my 6th cache for the Coin quest today. Of the 10 requirements left I have 2 of them completed already. I have caches chosen for 3 other requirements. I still have a ways to go and it has been fun just contemplating how to complete the quest.

Trip to CJ

During the week I got word that Uncle Duck and Kelly were planning a caching trip to CJ. Of course I invited myself and made them stop at all sorts of caches they already had. I ended with 14 finds on the day and a few of them will be usable for the Coin Quest. I am up to 5 of 16 requirements right now. I might go and pick up a couple of caches tomorrow. Uncle Duck ended up 5 caches short of 1000. I took a few pics of some different sites today.

move that bug

Today I found The Return to Ogle durring lunch. While I was there I traded travel bugs to complete my 4th requirement of Coin Quest. I am now 1/4 of the way done, but things get a little harder after this. Looks like some of the requirements will require a road trip. One of the requirements is to simply log a virtual cache... this might seem simple but my nearest is over 41 miles away. Sadly this would have been an easy one just a couple months ago as I had not logged a couple of jfreaks' virtuals which are now archived.

Staying on target

Well I logged my third of 16 caches needed for Coin Quest. With limited daylight I might be done until I can pick up some caches on the weekend. We'll see what I can come up with.

This weekend is the Civil War. OSU's last chance to qualify for a bowl game is by beating UofO on their own field. Both teams will be without their starting quarterbacks. Civil War is always a toss up and it should be a fun game. Go Beavs!

Cache Dash

Well in an attempt to complete my 16 caches needed for a new geocoin I made a mad dash after work headed for Uncle Duck's new cache Remember When. One of the requirments is a FTF and I thought I had one for sure... got to the cache and found I'd been beat by Iseek. Oh well, another of the requirements was a cache in the woods so it still counts. I did end up getting a nice STF prize though... have a look.

new reason to cache

There is a new contest for geocachers... the prize for completion is a new geocoin. Coin Quest requires you to log 16 different caches on or after Nov 12 that fit different criteria (you can't revisit a cache.) Some of the requirements include a cache in a graveyard, a cache by a cave, and a cache near a statue. While the cache may meet multiple requirments you can only use it for one. The first 250 cachers to complete the 16 requirements get a coin. So far I've completed one, and can soon log a second (you can only log 1 every 24 hours.) Like most contests a new cacher could clean up on this one.

Pizza XXXIV is up and this will conclude a successful year of monthly events. The old record for consecutive monthly events was 4... the first 4 to be exact July to October of 2002.

Pizza 33

Well today was Pizza XXXIII. Really it seemed like a smaller turnout than normal, but it was a good group.

Before the event I found one cache
Led Robster

I searched for one other cache in a pile of junk that doubled as a homeless hangout... gave up quickly. I need to get out into the woods and find some real caches... I've heard rumor there might be one of those hidden soon.

Blazer tickets

Well I called today to talk to the Blazers about the tickets I was suppose to have won. I didn't quite know how I should handle it... it was disapointing, and actually kind of embarrasing to go up to the window expecting tickets and not have anything waiting. Anyway the lady I spoke with was very appologetic and didn't know what had happened. So to make a long story short I should be mailed 4 tickets for a game April 1 vs. Utah. The reason I chose a game so many months from now is because there are no games on Saturday until then and Saturday is just the easiest day for me to go. So I was suppose to get two tickets and now I get 4... not too bad I suppose.

Paul McCartney Rocks!

Well we got to see Sir Paul on Friday and he's still got it. For a guy that is 63 years old he still has a lot of energy... he probably sang for 2 hours and then came out for 2 encores. He mostly sang Beatles songs with a good mix of his solo stuff... And spectacular canon fire and flames for the "Live and Let Die" performance. It was great... better than I could have expected.

Yesterday we went to the Blazers game. I won tickets to the event that I was suppose to pick up at the box office... so I went to pick them up and there were no tickets waiting! They asked who I had talked to and of course I didn't remember the name and didn't have the paper (Shouldn't have needed it.) I was a little peeved (I'm probably too nice to complain as much as I should, but I plan to give them a call and let them know what I think.) Lucky for us the blazers suck this year and we could pretty much pick up tickets in any section. So I bought tickets in one of my favorite sections, and it was fun. The game ended with a last second free throw for the win.

Despite the rain we also found 5 caches
Chin Up
Tool Time
Auburn Park
Forgotten
Summer Home

:)

Well tomorrow is Paul McCartney since it will be late and I dunno when I'll be able to make an update I just thought I'd leave a note about it. The weather doesn't look like it will be so great for geocaching, but Sally and I might pick up some on Saturday.

Today I got a brand new third edition Moun10Bike geocoin. I've never met him personally but from what I do know of him he is a really nice guy. It is truely an awsome coin, but I am still not a fan of the 2" size. Really its too big even for the cardbord holders in my new binder pages. I'll have to get larger plastic flip cases for the 2" coins.

My new geocoin binder works great... for now... I might have to buy a second binder soon. I should have it to show off at the next pizza event.

well

I figure its time to make my weekly blog update. Maybe soon I'll get into the habit of updating every day again. There have been a few geocaches hidden around here latley and I've even driven by one of them and not bothered to stop.

This is a short work week for me as I took Friday off so I can go see Paul McCartney. I've had the tickets for months... bought them on April 23rd... thats a lot of waiting. Of course my favorite of the Beatles was George, who only toured once in my lifetime... 1992 in Japan, but last week they released The Concert for Bangladesh on DVD. George, Ringo, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Billy Preston, Badfinger and Leon Rusell. Would have been a great concert to see in person... after watching it and the interviews included I'm a little disapointed that I didn't go see Leon Rusell when he was at the Rogue Theater last year.

If I didn't mention it earlier I recently got my own office at the bank... So to decorate I bought this great framed print called A Friend In Need... for those not familier with fine art it is probably the most famous of C.M. Coolidge's paintings of dogs playing poker :)

Ouch

Well after years of neglect I went to the dentist a total of 6 times this month. Today I got a filling and ended my trips until next year. I spent about 90 minutes there today but half of that time was waiting. Actually it wasn't that bad... I'll have some soup today and eventually I should be back to normal.

Tuesday I called to redeem the blazer tickets I won. I have no clue where we are sitting but the game will be Nov 5th (the home opener). Sally and I were already going up to see Paul McCartney on the 4th so we'll get to spend back to back evenings at the Rose Garden. I can't wait I'm really looking forward to both events. It will probably be pretty easy to talk her into a geocache or two as well :)

Blazer game

went and saw the Blazers yesterday as we picked up free tickets for the game. It was just a pre-season game so it doesn't matter but the blazers pretty much sucked it up. It was still fun and I got a chance to do something I never dreamed of before... when walking around the Rose Garden looking for something to eat this guy come up to me and says "hey Oregon State" refering to my t-shirt... then he asked if I'd like to participate in a contest on the court just after the first quarter... so I got to go out on the court and ride a tricycle around a couple of times (I came in second to my friend Dave who was also picked because he was there) It was a blast... and despite how well we did in the race we all won the same prize, tickets to a future game. I have to call some lady and get my seats so I don't know when I'll go yet.

:)

I've been stuck at the bank until 7pm for three nights in a row.... tonight it is almost 8pm and I'm still here.

I also went to the Dentist for the fifth time this month... just for cleaning... this lady scraped on my teeth worse that all the others... I'm still bleeding... and not just a little like last time.

Tomorrow I am going to the Blazers pre-season game with my friend Dave. That should be cool.

hmmm...

Well I have neglected my blog for over a week. I usually do updates at work, but this was a busy week and I just really didn't have much to say.

Haven't done any geocaching lately. Did buy a new binder for all my geocoins today... we'll see how well it works.

Been looking at my poker table a lot but haven't actually done any work on it. I don't want to screw it up... and I think that could happen pretty easy. I've been wondering if I shouldn't just take it to an upolstry shop and have them finish it up for me... wonder how much that would cost? Building it was no problem... use of power tools is just second nature... fabric, foam and sewing however is another story.

Pizza

Well today was Geo Pizza XXXII in Roseburg. Sure Roseburg is a little out of the Rogue Valley but it was pretty fun. Cachers from all over... Bend, Albany, Portland... it was quite a turnout.

Found a number of other caches on the day and ran into Iseek & Eyeseek2, Riddlers, GlenMart, FiveDucks, and Mitchell's Ark at different caches around town.

Now we need to figure out where the November pizza event will be... just have to make sure to schedule it on one of Lazy's dive weekends... hahaha

My poor suffering blog

Well I have been bad at writing new blog entries. Not a whole lot is going on. I'm not going to post a pic of my hair until after this weekends event... so everyone who shows up gets the first laugh.

Looks like there will be plenty of new caches in Roseburg to find. I hope the weather is nice.

Silliness

Well over the weekend I had a bout of silliness and decided to turn my hair blond. It is now very different... as soon as it grows back to normal I think I'm done with hair changes for a long while.

Cache day

despite the early rain Sally and I went out and found a few caches and went by the coin show today. Caches found were

Do Waves and Water go together?
Cat in the Hat #3
Home of the Nuggets

We also visited Starlite Water which I had previously found.

The coin show actually was surprising as the number of tables was way more than last year. I saw several coins I wouldn't mind having. Some day I might invest a little more in my US coin collection. Right now my collection is pretty cheap... and while I can it might pay to collect a few nicer coins.

Hmmm

Well it has been one of those weeks were I've been busy and my blog has suffered. Over the week I did have time to collect a FTF

Olivia's Cache

Sally went out and bought a new GPS and hid this one by the river. This weekend we had planned on hiding another cache, but the weather might not agree. Might just look for a few of these new ones around... as long as its not raining too hard.

Also there is a coin show this weekend and Undle Duck returns from the coast.

Pizza :)

Today was Pizza XXXI and I'm just now getting around to logging it. It was a fun time as always and I even won a couple of caches... now I just need to figure out were to hide them. A few new faces in the crowd including SallyC my favorite new recruit... though I may be bias. A lot of cachers were missing though... everyone misses Mighty Mite, and a few might even miss Lazyboy.

Iseek passed me a printout of the cache Which?. After getting home and looking at it I had it solved in a few minutes. I'll have to venture down and find that someday. Of course I solved the cache Code Breaker - Oregon months ago and haven't been over to find it yet.

Wow, at the caches

Lots of new caches about in preperation for this weekends pizza event. Looks like I need to get out and find a few. BIGGIEET_AL has already been out collecting more FTFs. He might just be ahead of uncle Duck. One of these new caches is just down the road from work but I couldn't find it without my GPS. I've had my GPS in my car for weeks just anticipating caches... took it out after my trip to Reno... so it will have to wait.

Tonight is poker night at my boss's house. We'll see how much money I can take from them today. Its pretty fun win or lose, but more fun when you win.

In the news

Its always fun to read things that happened in Oregon in the national news. This time it was 2 middle school girls in Klamath Falls charged with attempted murder after putting rat poison in another students milk. I'd say the world was going to hell, but then again when I was in the 6th grade a few kids improvised an explosive device in an attempt to blow up the classroom of a teacher they didn't like. Boy do I miss school days.

All of my new caches have now been visited. I forgot to put a pencil in one and Iseek had to log it with a piece of bark... oops, but I did have a warning note on the page. Sometimes the simple things slip my mind. I'd like to hide a couple more before the end of the nice weather.

New Caches

Sally and I went and hid 3 new caches in the area to prepare for Pizza XXXI ... and who's got the Log Book??? As soon as they are approved you should be able to use these links.

Haines Apple Tree
Ferry Hole Cache
Far side of the park

Wedding day

Well today was my brother's wedding day. It was a pretty big event and it turned out to be a really nice day. They went all out... even had M&M candies with their names on them. Here is a picture of my family.

Tomorrow

Well tomorrow is my brother's wedding. Yesterday was rehersal and I guess we kinda know what to do. It is going to be a big event.

I'll give some advanced warning that Sunday I plan to hide a geocache or two in preperation of the pizza event next week.

Naughty Naughty

Here are the pics I took of different "Ranches" down in Nevada

The Kit Kat Ranch


The Bunnyranch 2 (formerly Kitty's)


The Sagebrush Ranch


These all share the same parking lot


Last but not least the World Famous Bunny Ranch

I'm back

Well I got back from my trip last night. I might have made blog entries if I actually had internet... the room advertised a dataport, but it was actually an extra phone jack to dial out. Wireless was charged by the hour. My PDA seems to surf the net fine and handle cache pages fine, but this blog site it really has trouble with.

Day 1: Driving down I found several caches on I-5 and the hwy. Got them all logged last night. Had a lot of fun and even found a wooden nickel from a Canadian geocacher. Then it started raining pretty hard around Susanville so I scrapped the last few caches and drove on down.

Day 2: I made the trip to Carson City. I wanted to see the capital and maybe check out the museum. I also knew CC would be much easier to navigate for caching... and it was. Sadly I had goofed up my PDX files on my PDA so I had no desciptions or hints. I looked for a few caches, but gave up on most. I found 3 total... and a lot of rocks... two of the caches were out Hwy 50 near the world famous Bunny Ranch :) I had to go have a look... just the outside I swear. I have pictures maybe I'll post them. Anyway I never ended up in the museum I mainly spent my time at the Carson Nugget and the Pinion Plaza before I went back to Reno and the Silver Legacy Casino.

Day 3: On day 3 I had the conference. The conference was boring, all very general info... there were a lot of venders and I was looking for stuff... so that was nice. After the conference I spent some time in the Casino and then I walked around Reno a little.

Day 4: The conference ended after lunch, but I skipped that part to get a head start on the drive. I didn't stop for any caches just gas and lunch. I made good time and was home well before dark.

I hope it is in Vegas next year.

Friday!!!

Well it is Friday and I'm very happy for that. Tomorrow morning I'll leave for Reno. I did my pocket queries last night and I researched the route and saw many posable stops... I'll research some more tonight and get them downloaded and ready. I'll take my PDA and the bank's laptop so if I get around to it I might make blog updates. I doubt I'll have any pictures up until I get back.

Misc happenings

If I had been thinking I would have started a Reno countdown last week... I've counted down to everything else it seems. Oh well. I looked at caches last night but didn't print or download any... I'll have to get going on that if I want to find any. I've been very slow at caching lately... a lot of us have been... am I suffering from burn out? The last few times I've went out with others I've had fun, but I've had a hard time getting out to look for caches by myself. Maybe this Reno trip will help me.

Lazyboy finally got himself worked up enough to archive all his caches. There are quite a few I hadn't found but I guess I don't care anymore. There are a lot of new cachers over there so hopefully they will step up and fill the void. With some cooler weather and my new found geocaching relative maybe I'll spend a little more time over in Jackson county.

Hmmm

I could have swore I wrote something for this blog yesterday... must not have gotten sent. Well I am just a few days from leaving for Reno. I need to figure out what caches I'll do... so tonight I'll do some searching along my route and pick out a few along the way as well as a few when I get there. In those 4 days I hope to find a few caches... I could find a bunch but I doubt I'll dedicate that much time to caching. I have to find a good balance of caching, sightseeing, gambling, driving, eating and sleeping... oh yea, there is some sort of conference I have to attend I guess.

Last night I talked to my cousin Shelly for a while and discovered her husband Tony is into geocaching... but she isn't. So it sounds like one of these weekends we'll go geocaching... that should be fun, maybe I can talk them all into coming to an event.

Funny stuff

Dogs playing poker :)

More Poker Table Stuff

Well today I sanded and sanded until my cup holders fit. I still have to fix my felt top and add the rail. It looks more table like every day.

getting closer

Well yesterday I went and borrowed a big 1/2" drill... and I am pretty sore from using it. I drilled the holes for the cup holders and it was hard work. For each hole the drill had to get started into the wood and until it did it would catch and twist me and the table around. The holes are just a little small but I think just a little bit of sanding will make them the right size.

Before I sand those I wanted to get to the finish. The stain was pretty easy... I did it exactly as I would have at masterbrand. My first attempt was bad, but I sanded it off and got it pretty good on the second try. Now I am applying the clear coat... I'm on layer 3 right now and I think I'll go for 5.

here are some pictures of the last few steps

Well last night I got the oak boards attached to my table. I even remembered to take a few pictures to document the progress. In case you are wondering... No, that is not a bible I was using as a weight on the boards it is "The Illustrated Dictionary and Concordance of The Bible" Which is a very useful book for looking up names of people and places mentioned in The Bible... but I usually use it to hold stuff down.



This next picture shows a little more clearly how the table was constructed. Notice I attached the legs as well.






Last Night I got the last board glued on and had one bad corner that needed clamped. I took the clamp off today and it seemed to be straighted out. Today I'll drill holes for the cup holders. and I'll put in some wood filler. This weekend will be sand and finish... followed by the rail... and hopefully done :)

Progress

Well my poker table took a huge step forward. I got all the oak boards cut, and today I should get a few of them glued on. I only have enough clamps to do one board at a time... so progress will be slow.

As soon as I get all the boards glued I'll drill holes for cup holders and then I'll sand them. There are a lot of steps left and already there are troubles... mainly the boards don't exactly fit together perfect... will have to use a little wood filler. And the felt top will need a little work before all is said and done. I'll probably go ahead and put the legs on tonight an make it more table like.

Looks like I'll be heading to Reno with gas prices at an all time high. Good thing I'm not paying! I wonder if Reno gets more traffic from people driving or flying? I'll try not to let gas prices get me down too much... I'll plan for a few caches. I also booked a different hotel a day in advance so I'll go down Saturday the 10th and come back Tuesday.

the opposite of 60

Well Iseek, the all wise guru of life and geocaching, set me straight on cutting angles. Like I mentioned I got D's in geometry. Anyway if I set the saw to 30º it is perfect. It makes perfect sense... I just needed the hint. Sometimes I just get stuck on one way of thinking and can't spot the obvious.

Poker table building 101

So last night I take a big step in getting my table done... I got out my grandpa Garner's old radial arm saw. This saw can be set at an angle so I can cut my oak boards. Well it will only cut up to 45º while I need 60º angles... I never bothered to look that hard. So now I am set back again. There is a chance that my grandpa Breedlove has a saw that can do the job... since he is in Highland House winning horses and such I don't think he'll be using his wood working tools any time soon. My uncle Randy has all of those things stored away so I'll need to ask him what he had. If I had the space I would have a little wood shop of my own... sadly I can't afford to buy a home or even rent a home with any space for such things. I still hope to get something done with my table this weekend.

Hurricanes suck

Well as I watch the news today I'm glad I'm not in New Orleans. My boss was just on vacation there and was able to get out in time. He had to convince his mother in law to go with them and then had to listen to her complain all the way to Houston. It was a pretty funny story as far as that part goes... I think I heard him mutter "I should have left her" under his breath. For those who didn't take the warning to leave or couldn't leave it doesn't look to be a good situation.

I'm done with house sitting for a while. Nice to be finished with that. Now I can get to work on my poker table again. Last night I did some pre sanding... mainly to test my new sander... it works nice. Tonight I have some more sanding to do... and then hopefully some cutting will get done. If I can get it cut and glued this week then I can do the finish over the long weekend.

geocoin sale

My geocoin sold last night for $47.50 exactly 38¢ less than the high set by a Georgia coin. I probably would have had the record but someone else put another geobash coin on eBay just a few hours before mine ended... pretty much that ended the bidding on mine. I was a little upset that someone didn't wait for mine to end to list another... especially since they used my picture! Oh well, thats the way things go. Since it did go so high and I made such a profit I sent him one of my personal coins as well.

House sitting

Well I've been house sitting for my uncle this weekend. Since he took his laptop his slow dialup internet was not available. However I found that in his living room you can steal a neighbors wireless connection. I was able to surf the web a little and log a couple of FTFs, but was not able to make blog updates. My PDA doesn't like the blog website for some reason. I'll have to find a solution for that before I go to Reno.

Anyway this weekend was Southern Oregon Pizza XXX. It was a fun time, and while I was there I hid a new cache Pizza XXX lives on.

Also this weekend I was FTF on two DrDan caches.

A Pop Up Cache For A Park
Soft-Q-Cache

Those were both fun and easy. Nice to get a few caches found. I had planned to go find caches after the pizza event, but it was too damn hot and I had other stuff to do. I went to Joanne's Fabric and bought some foam and vinyl for my poker table rail. It cost me a fortune, but I did buy a little extra just in case. I also thought one of their employees was very rude. I'll probable try to find a local source for future projects. I also bought myself a new sander. So my table is ending up costing a little more than expected simply because I needed some tools to do it right.

Another Friday

Another week has passed and not a cache has been found. My geocoin is up to $26 and will end on Sunday. That should be interesting.

This weekend I am house sitting for my uncle again... usually I have dial up internet on his laptop but this weekend he's taking it with him. I suppose I can live a day or two without a computer. I'll just have to prepare my GPS and such at home before I go to tomorrows pizza event. It will be fun to get out after a cache or two and have some pizza.

Also I'll go have a look for more poker table related items. My hope is to get it done by Labor Day... we'll see how it really goes. I still have a lot to do...

busy

Wow was yesterday a busy day... I visited every branch of the bank and probably didn't sit at my desk for 30 minutes total. Around 5:30 I was still in Cave Junction and still not done, but I left things like they were and called it a day, but a couple hours later I went back to the main branch to finish up some other items. So thats why my blog had no update.

My geocoin on eBay is up to $23.50... which isn't bad. It will end Sunday and that is when the bidding will probably pick up a little.

Recently I've been having a lot of problems with my jaw popping when I eat... and it is pretty painful... and for a fat guy to be in pain when he eats is not a good thing. I got to reading online and I think I have a magnesium deficiency. As silly as it sounds I found a lot of websites that said I need more magnesium in my diet and it also said to set up your computer workstations correctly so you had good posture... and my PC at home is not correct at all. So I guess I need to get in the habit of sitting straight, and I'm taking some magnesium suplements. Also I scheduled an appointment for a dentist but as a new patient I couldn't get in until October if it wasn't an emergency... I'm not paying extra just for him to tell me to take some magnesium.

My poker table has made very little progress... none actually... I bought a brand new and spendy holesaw to drill holes for my cup holders. This weekend I'll go buy the vinyl and padding for the rail... all I really need is some time and this weekend I agreed to stay at my uncles so I probably won't get anything done.

Geocaching? I remember when I use to go about every weekend... I ought to find a few in Medford on Saturday... that should be fun.

eBay

My geocoin auction is up to $11.02

I have several extra geocoins... at first I considered putting them in one lot, but I think they sell better individually. I don't want to list too many of them as that will cause market overload. Right now there are 14 listings on eBay if you search for "geocoin." I can use the extra money for my upcoming trip to Reno...

Next month I get to go to a Bank Technology Summit. I could care less about the conferense... I get 2 days off work to play in Reno! I've never been so it should be fun. I've even got a cache or two planned. I already booked my hotel for the conference days, but I am considering going a day earlier on the weekend... sadly the hotel I was staying at is full... so I'd have to stay at someplace different. I expect this to be a pretty expensive trip.

Big event

Looks like I missed a big event yesterday on the coast

Duck in for Pizza

A lot of cachers in attendance. Must have been fun. Yesterday was my mom's birthday so it didn't work out as a good time to go. I almost had her convinced though :) Instead we stayed around town.

I havn't found a cache for a while... and every time I find one I forget this travel bug I have. I've had the poor bug for a couple months it seems. I brought it with me today so I hope to drop it off someplace. It is small enough to fit in a micro container, but also small enough to forget.

My NWGB coin is up to $8.26... not bad so far.

Lazy weekend

Well this was kindof a lazy weekend for me. Saturday I went and looked at a lot more poker table stuff... but I didn't end up buying anything or doing any work on it. I decided it needed a padded rail despite the problems I might have getting it on there. I found my dad does have a saw that can cut those oak boards, but I need something to drill the 3.5" holes for the cup holders. I can order a holesaw on the internet... might be the best way to go. Next weekend I am house sitting for my uncle so I probably won't get any work done for another week.

Today I also listed a geocoin on eBay. There is a lot of controversy over selling geocoins on the internet. I guess they think selling them will make people more apt to take them from caches and sell them on eBay. There is a strong market for geocoins... and I own this one legit... so its mine to sell. I just thought I'd see how it does... this is a pretty rare geocoin I think it will do well.

Step 1, 2, and 3

Well I was going to take pictures documenting all of my steps to making a poker table... I have failed at that already. More or less I got more involed in building then in picture taking. I've completed the following steps

1. Cut Plywood
2. Glue on foam
3. Applied suited poker cloth

This is the completed playing surface



Now comes the hard part... cutting the oak boards to make a ring around the playing surface. Then I have to drill holes for cup holders, glue the boards in plce, sand, finish, apply clear coat, sand, apply clearcoat, sand, apply clearcoat, build a rail and attach the legs. No problem...

Friday!!!

Well this waymarking thing has already slowed down. On day one my blog had like 10 finds... day 2 it had one... day three, nothing. We'll see if someone logs it today.

I actually started on my poker table as well. I got the top and bottom plywood cut. Right now I am really second guessing myself on the design... I think I might have to find a solution so I can add the padded rail. I guess first I have to do some other stuff. Today I'll glue on the foam that goes on the playing surface and then I'll cover it with the poker cloth. Once that part is done then I can start thinking about the race track and rail. I also need to go buy some more stuff. Mainly I need wood finish and some spay adhesive. I just hope it looks something like a table when I'm done.

Building time

I now have all of my poker table supplies in hand. I was able to dig out a sheet of plywood and now all I have to do is draw it out and cut it. I'm going to the fair again tonight so I will probably start tomorrow.

I've decided this whole waymarking.com thing is pretty silly... that was probably Jeremy's point all along. I'll keep up with the site's progress, but its hard for me to imagine it getting much better. Maybe as more is listed it will be more interesting... maybe.

waymarking.com

Hello to all my new visitors from waymarking.com!

Feel free to read all you like (or can stand) and please leave comments if you like.

For those who don't know me I have a pretty odd sense of humor... as you have probably noticed. I try to keep everything in my blog light hearted and never too serious. No one will confuse me as being Politically Correct... and I think that's a good thing (just a warning to those of you who are easily offended and have no sense of humor.)

Thanks again for visiting and come back soon if you like

The Solution

Jeremy has introduced his answer to locationless and virtual caches.

waymarking.com

This site is in its early stages of development and is currently open only to premium members. Your finds are seperate from GC.com... it is a game all its own. I think it is interesting but not sure how well I like it... seems like you can have infinate finds of infinate items. You can even log this website.

Gentlemen's Clubs have already been proposed as a category. While support is lacking I'm surprised there isn't more opposition... I'm trying my best to stir up the embers :) Of course I myself don't see anything wrong with the idea... its just a bunch of waypoints... and it looks like you can log about anything else. Do we really have to protect children from info they could get out of the phonebook?

Maybe next I'll propose brothels :) that should get some people worked up.

Sunburn

Well this weekend I managed just two caches. The Friday before I left I was able to grab a FTF on a new DrDan cache. And Yesterday I got a cache that has eluded me twice before.

Top This Cache #5, The last One, Very Berrie
South 97 cache

Like I said I searched for South 97 a couple of times the last being almost exactly a year ago. It was in a place I normally wouldn't want to reach into. My dog was dead set against even approaching the cache site... he didn't like it at all. Now there are places my dog doesn't like... that bridge in Fish Hatchery Park comes to mind, but thats not the same. At this spot he was fighting against his leash to avoid being anywhere near it. Usually I'd take that as a sign to leave... and I probably shouldn't have been reaching my hands in there... but I did and I logged it.

Other caches on my trip were the kind to be reached by water... unless you wanted a long hike. Silly me didn't put enough air in our boat and we had a hard time paddling... that and no sun block and I decided we needed to head back. I re sunburned myself, but not nearly as bad as last time. I would have walked in yesterday but you needed a damn NW forest pass... I bought one for the first time, but I wasn't going to buy another. I hate the idea that you need a pass... that portion they withhold from my paycheck should be enough.

TGIF

Well this week has been torture. As part of my job I am suppose to strictly adhear by the banks IT Policy... that policy has to meet federal regulations. So occasionally we have Regulators or Auditors to check up on how well we follow these policies. There are 3 kinds of audits... Federal, State, and Internal. This week was my turn to have an internal audit on just the IT department (which is pretty much just me.) Internal means we hire a third party company to come in and look at our practices. Since we hire them they are usually much nicer, but it is still un-nerving to have someone going through all the work you do looking for problems. My big problem is that the feds like to see documentation on everything... and I hate to document anything... in fact before any audit I usually have to fudge a few items :) Well anyway this has kept me pretty busy and I haven't really thought much about geocaching or poker tables even.

My poker table items were on back order but were shipped Wednesday. I figure I should get them next week. Then I can start the build... being that I have yet to start I had better not quote a timeline, but I know how fast I'd like it done.

Tonight I am heading up to Waldo Lake camping. I plan to do a cache or two as well depending on the weather. Will be nice to relax for a while.

More table making

So yesterday I bought some folding table legs. I also decided that the padded rail might just be too hard for me to do... I thought I had a perfect solution but the cup holders are in the way. I might still look into it, but if I can round off the edge of the oak boards it will be good enough. So anyway if I scrap the rail I have everything I need (at least on order)

Now I just need to start cutting... I think I can cut the plywood with a regular circular saw... all the oak boards will require something a little better. Lucky for me I work with a guy who has some better woodworking tools. My one big problem right now is that my dad has plenty of plywood, but it is buried... it will take some work to get it out of the shed. I can't wait to get it started... since I'm going camping this weekend I would guess that I won't get much done until next week. We'll see how long it takes for all my stuff to get here.

Poker Table

I've been looking around for a poker table... the ones I've found online are pretty expensive... ones I've seen for sale around here are pretty cheap. So I have decided to make my own table. Most tables are either large ovals (for 10 players) or octagonal (8 players)... a large oval table is much too large for myself so I decided to try an Octagon... I took some quick measurements and decided that 8 people at such a table would be pretty cramped... besides most of the time we play with 6. So I have decided to make a rare 6 sided table... only problem is that I was never very good at geometry... I got A's in Calculus, but I got a D in geometry. Anyway I now have in hand or on order

1 sheet 1/2" plywood
3 Oak boards for an outside edge (3/4"x6"x96")
4 feet suited poker cloth
4 feet backing foam
6 stainless steel cup holders

I still need some folding table legs, stain + finnish for the oak "race track", and foam with covering to make a padded rail. So now I only have one more problem... I have to put it all together... that requires some woodcutting... Sadly I don't have a table saw or anything accurate enough to cut all the pieces. Let alone I don't really have anyplace to work on it. Sometimes I ought to think my projects through a little better.

Geocachin'

Well yesterday I did make it to one cache, O' TO THE DUCK (BARNEY, MIKE, OR WHATEVER). I've been pretty busy here at work the last few days and didn't notice this one pop up. We still got there first as there is little competition since it was Kelly's cache.

I noticed this Georgia geocoin sold on eBay yestertday for $47.88. Quite a bit considering the coin was originally purchased for around $4. I've seen most geocoins on eBay sell for over $30 and the prices are rising. At those prices my collection is valued over $2000. I wonder if it would be against geocaching ethics to put my collection up for sale... $2500 takes all. Do you know what I could do with $2500? Me neither but I'm sure I could think up something.

:)

Well my sunburned knees are feeling a little better and its my birthday. The last couple of years I've gone out for at least one cache on my b-day... this year I have a few to choose from so I'll probably get out for a little while today.

Poker

Today I decided to invest in my poker game and I bought a handful of books to help.

Doyle Brunson's Super System: A Course in Power Poker
The Theory of Poker
Caro's Book of Poker Tells
Harrington on Hold 'em: Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments
Small Stakes Hold 'em: Winning Big With Expert Play

There are a few other books I might have bought, but these 5 tended to rate pretty high and I think they'll teach me a lot.

As for geocaching nothing new is going on, but I do plan to do at least one cache tomorrow as long as my knees feel ok about it.

ouch!

So saturday night I got a call from a friend of mine inviting me to go rafting Sunday. So then Sunday I prepared to go rafting and was smart and put on some sunscreen... only one problem... I was wearing long shorts and didn't put any on my knees... of course sitting in the boat my knees were exposed... they got rather toasty. Today I could hardly walk... no amount of Aloe Vera could help. Well anyway my lesson is learned for this summer at least... more sunscreen! At least rafting was fun. I had only ever been down in a large raft, but this time I went in a single person boat... it was a lot of fun. I'll try it again when my knees recover.

Hmmm...

Sorry I haven't been updating lately. Really not much to say... not that its ever stopped me before. There are a handful of newer caches in town I could go get, but it has been so hot I just decided to wait on them. I think I'll probabably take a break from caching for a month or so and let it cool down.

CJ Cache Machine

Yesterday was Geo-Pizza XXIX. We had a great turnout and some great food. I took a lot of pictures, but they are at home and I'm writing this at work. I'll update the blog again with some pictures later. Along with the event Riddlers, ChrissySkyking + Blaze, BDC and I went on an extended caching trip from GP all the way to the Oregon Caves. I found 17 caches on the day, 2 locationless caches that I have yet to log, and was stung by a bee. The final cache of the day, Bigfoots Lair, was probably the most well thought out and placed caches I've ever found. It was a long day of caching and a lot of miles traveled, but it was fun.

CJ

Looks like a pretty good group of people are gathering for a caching trip around CJ before the pizza event. Plans are to meet at McDonalds on Redwood Hwy at 9:30 and find every cache between there and the Oregon Caves. I've found a few of them, but I have a lot of them to do... and with a group we should be able to manage even the most dificult of them. It should be fun.

I notice a few new caches have popped up in the area. I might have to brave the heat and look for them.

Happy birthday to me

No its not my birthday yet, but I did get a gift already. My federal jury duty that was scheduled for my birthday has been cancelled :) That made me pretty happy as I really didn't want to go.

As far as geocaching goes I've only seen one cache pop up lately from Kev911er and Family while I was gone this weekend. I'll have to go out and grab it... looks like I could still get a white jeep if I wanted. Seems like last year those yellow jeeps would be gone as soon as someone left them.

Take a look

Well I got a lot of pictures uploaded to my cache finds this weekend. Here are some highlights. The rest can be found in my gallery.

Damn I'm tired

Well I went today and found Ka-Ho-Nee Falls. It has been on my "to do" list for a year. We got a late start and then it took us a lot longer than I expected. Seriously it was pretty damn hard going... I was ready for that kinda, but maybe I should have dropped 40 pounds first :) and I'm tired... so tired we forgot about doing the pipeline cache or even visiting Multnomah Falls. So on the day we found 3 including the earth cache. When I get back home I'll get to posting the pictures.

Road trip

Going to head up to Corvallis tonight and then drive up to the PDX area tomorrow. I have 6 caches planned but Saturday is the one day of the week it could rain up north. I doubt a little rain will stop us. Sunday I plan to go to a convention near the PDX airport, might look for some caches after that.

In my planned caches I have one of those newer earthcaches. An eartcache is like a virtual that has to do with geology. There are 3 Earthcaches I know of in Oregon... the one I plan to do, Beacon Rock, is actually in Washington. There is another in Portland called Mount Tabor Cinder Cone... it is not too much out of my way for Sunday... I'll have to think about it.

It should be a fun trip. I hope to have some pictures for my blog when I get back.

1000 Finds

ChrissySkyking + Blaze have reached 1000 finds with Crag View #10. My 30 year cushion to be the youngest Rogue Valley cacher to reach 1000 just got a little smaller (even though they cheated coming from such a cache dense area)

Congrats on 1K!

Great day

Early yesterday we took off for a newer cache in the area by Seahorse, FrogFish and Becky called Waters Creek Trail - Extended.

Also yesterday was my latest event Jeeps, Coffee, and WiFi. It was a great time Riddlers, Iseek & Eyeseek2 (and son), Two Tracks, GeoLady, Biggieet_al, GPCaveman, and Kev911er were all in attendance. I even won a jeep that I quickly passed to Kevin... I'll see if I can get it back from his newest cache (very unlikely as these things are highly sought after)

During the event Geolady and Riddlers were discussing some caches to go find and many of them were on my "rainy day" list. Since the weather was fitting I kindly asked if I could tag along with them in Riddlers' new Geo-Truck. I didn't have my GPS with me but they'd point me in the direction and I was able to find a few of them... proving that despite my slow down in cache finds I still have some geo-senses left. On the day we found 9




"Lil Ole Me"
Silly Me
"Is Biplor Bad" ??
"Not Careful Enough"
its all about the water
"Beary Girly"
Look at the Bright Side
"Samuel Ralph"
Safeway

I took quite a few pictures but most turned out pretty fuzzy. I guess I have a lot to learn about my camera.

Uh oh!

I saw this news article today. To summarize the story, this man was charged with stealing a WiFi signal (technically unauthorized access to a computer network.)

As many of us have learned it is pretty easy to drive into a residential area and find a open wireless signal we can use to check the nearest caches or email. Now I think ethically we'd all seek out coffee shops or libraries that were set up for our use... but its hard to turn down an open signal if you find one when you want it... even if that signal may not have been meant for our use.

In my opinion it is all the fault of the owner for not setting up security on his router. It is very easy to do, and it elimintates the problem. Now you could argue that its like leaving your car parked on the street unlocked with the keys in it... it is still theft if you take it. To me I guess I think there should be a level of personal accountability... if I have a wireless router it should be my responsibility to make sure that if I don't want others to use it they can't. That way it would only be a crime if you tried to hack a closed connection. It seems easy enough... maybe I'm way off base.

Sweet

Blazers got a new coach. More or less we stole Nate McMillan from Seattle for $6 Million a year... about $1.5 million more a year then Seattle offered. Amazing how much just a coach makes. I'd coach the team for $45,000 and a bag of Cheetos... and that price is negotiable.

Weekend

Well its a nice weekend for geocaching and here I am sitting in the nice air conditioned house that I just happen to be house sitting this weekend. Since I need to be here I probably won't venture too far away this weekend. GC.com hasn't exactly been working for me today anyway... every time I go to view it I just get a timeout page.

Draft Day!

Today was the NBA Draft. Early in the day Portland did trade their #3 pick to Utah for the #6, #27 and a 2006 first round pick. At #6 they drafted the player I wanted Martell Webster. Later they traded the #27 and their second round pick to Denver for Jarrett Jack who was taken with the 22nd pick. In the end they ended up with a couple of guards that I think can make an impact on the team.

As for geocaching Two Tracks didn't seem too thrilled that I logged one of his caches without finding the first stage. I considered changing my log to a DNF but considering is as far as I've gotten for now. Personally I'm not a big fan of multi caches or micros in the woods... just personal preference. This one is an 80 mile round trip for me. I'll go have a second look when I get out to the area for the other caches... maybe around the July event depending on what caches Riddlers and BDC want to go after. I tell you what though, the final stage was full of nice trade items.

Waiting sucks... a lot

It is now one day until the NBA Draft.

The wait is almost over, and the anticipation is building. Rumors are flying and who knows whats true and what isn't. What I do know is I'm really looking forward to finding out.

No News Today

It is now 2 days until the NBA Draft.

There is still a lot of debate over what the blazers will do with there draft pick. I'm pretty excited at what could happen. It should be an interesting couple of days.

Community Day

It is now 3 days until the NBA Draft.

Well today was community day at the caves so I went up to take a tour. Went with the idea of finding all the new caches in the area and all the First Finders associated... however BIGGIEET_AL had the same idea and beat us to them. After the tour I was getting hungry so we only found 4 caches and called it a day.

A cache in the hand is worth ......
Where's that confounded bridge ?
Hope you got Triple A
Happy trails to you

"Happy trails" is a multi but the first stage was no where to be found, but we did find the final stage by looking around a little :)

"A Cache in hand" is a little over a mile from Boxerlovers' new house and they were beaten to it... sad, very sad. We only drove by the new house, but it looks pretty nice. Honestly the place looked huge... no wonder it has taken so much of their time.

Oregon Caves

It is now 4 days until the NBA Draft.

I set up a new event cache, Jeeps, Coffee, and WiFi, at the advice of Riddlers so they could hand out some white jeep travel bugs. The event is at Dutch Bros on 6th and D St. in Grants Pass. Should just be a nice time to sit around and chat... depending on how busy it is.

Tomorrow is community day at Oregon Caves... which means you can go and take a tour for free. Tours start at 9am and the last one goes at 5pm. Lots of new caches up that way... I might have to have a look.

Even more waiting

It is now 5 days until the NBA Draft

Not much news today... Portland doesn't have a new coach yet... I haven't found any geocaches. My newest cache did get another visit yesterday by Iseek and Eyeseek2... they didn't openly curse my name or threaten revenge so they must have thought it was alright :)

More waiting

It is now 6 days until the NBA draft.

Today Milwaukee fired their head couch Terry Porter. Porter of course was a long time player for Portland and since the blazers need a new head coach I think he is the obvious choice. In the NBA teams often play musical chairs with coaches... one team fires then and another hires them. Porter may not be the best coach available, but he couches the style that the blazers want to move to and he is a fan favorite. I'll be disapointed if Terry isn't the next blazers coach.

Counting down again

It is now one week until the NBA Draft.

There has been a lot of talk on Portland's plans for this years NBA Draft. After the draft lottery the blazers hold the 3rd pick overall. I think Chris Paul is the most likely pick. He is the best Point Guard in the draft... and while the blazers don't really need another young PG he should be easy to trade. The player I'd most like to have is Martel Webster. Taking him at #3 might be a little early, but maybe a deal can be worked out with a team picking after the blazers. Another posablility is Gerald Green, but I'm not sold on him. Of course we'll find all of this out in one week, draft day is always exciting.

As for geocaching I haven't found one since the 5th. That might change this weekend... we'll see

Return to normalcy?

Well for the last few weeks there has been peace and quiet in the valley... but today Lazyboy returns... there goes the neighborhood :) hahaha... j/k... really

I should be ashamed letting my blog sit for a whole week without an update... I use to be pretty good at daily updates even when no one read it. Now I have 2 or 3 loyal readers and I've let you down, but I vow to do better... at least for this week :)

To my surprise Saturday someone found my newest cache, Washington Monument Quarry. I figure it will have at least 6 finders in the next 3 years... if it stays around that long. I have a couple more caches planned to hide this summer and none of them will be especially easy. I think the valley needs a few more "harder to reach" caches. I'm not talking a 30 mile drive in the woods... I'm talking a good hike... were you might sweat a little and enjoy a nice view... were you might see a deer or bear or a rare mountain goat... ok probably no mountain goats, but you get the idea. You can get burned out driving from lamp post to lamp post, but how can you ever tire of a nice hike in the woods?

Amazing

CCCooperAgency has passed the 10,000 find mark. Lynn travels extensively through New England and accross to Tennessee picking up caches all the way. She also has a whole lot of hides in all of those areas. With the help of other cachers she attempted to hide caches in all 50 states (not sure if she succeeded)... the one in Oregon was hidden by Rooster (and Lazyboy?) and called Beaver State Happy. She had actually written to me about hiding it, but I had skipped over the email because at the time I had many logs from my 5 newest caches, by the time I got to actually reading it I didn't know how to respond... oh well, Rooster was a better choice.

This month the first printed issue of Today's Cacher magazine will come out. It's exciting to see a magazine dedicated to geocaching in print... even if it is just quarterly. To support the magazine I bought 3 extra issues and will probably give them as prizes at the next pizza event.

Spring cleaning

Well its been a while since an update because I haven't been doing much. Yesterday I spent doing some much needed cleaning... including some cache maintenance. Uncle duck had about 3 caches reported as missing and I had two. Two of uncle Ducks were also reported to have wet log books. Well anyway all of the caches reported as missing I found... 4 of them in place and one on the ground a few feet away. One of the "wet" log books was dry and didn't look bad at all, the other was really bad and I had to replace it. So of 7 caches 5 were fine one needed put back in place and one needed a log book.

PDX trip

On July 16th I am planning a trip to PDX to do 2 caches... thats right just 2. These are what I'd call above average caches... I've been looking at them for a while and I decided it is time to go and find them.

Ka-Ho-Nee Falls
The Pipeline*

Now I'm all about numbers, but sometimes you have to go out and find some better caches.

Oooops

Got to looking and I found 3 caches I hadn't logged from my coast trip... dunno how I did that, but I did. So my trip total was 47.... even better than I thought

Pizza

Today was Pizza XXVIII. A fun event at the location of the original. Not too many showed up today, but it was a fun group. After the event I found two whole caches.

Broker Cache Canterbury Park
The Fifth Gate

I've been pretty slow the last few days of my vacation. I've just been sitting around and taking it easy.

Back from the coast

Well I drove back last night after a nice day of caching in Coos Bay. Ended up with 24 on the second day, and 44 total including a few locationless caches.

I am now sitting at 666 finds... Iseek will appriciate that one. I was kind of hoping to end up getting One Hell (gate) of a Cache just because it would seem to fit that number. Oh well... it ended up being Hoffman Hidaway which was a fun cache in a Myrtle tree grove. Had to pay attention to the hint on that one, and look around and enjoy the park a little because no GPS could keep a good signal down there.

At the beach

Well its no Maui but I'm sitting on the beach here in Bandon. Pretty nice spot here, and a nice day for caching. I found 19 on the day and have a bunch planned for tomorrow.

Memorial Day

Early this morning I took off to find a new cache in town called Starlite Water. I took the hardest path in imaginable mainly because I was afraid that the road path lead to private property (lots of new very expensive houses up here.) Anyway I made it and was tired and out of breath... at least I was FTF. No FTF prize or certificate though. After that I went to a picnic and to watch the Boatnic Hydroplane Race.

Tomorrow I'm going over to the coast for a few hundred caches... haha. Should be fun as long as the weather cooperates.

New Cache

I hid a new cache today called Washington Monument Quarry. It has yet to be approved as of this post but it should be available soon. This is probably the hardest to reach cache I have ever placed. It is a pretty good up hill hike on a gated road just outside of Williams. Once you get there it is easy enough to find. Because it is hard and remote I doubt it will get many visitors... but it should get at least one because I placed one of my coins there :)

Coastal

I've been neglecting my blog again... I'm a bad boy.

Last night was some majore storm with some 7000 recorded lighting strikes and rain so hard it kept everyone awake all night... that is everyone but me. I slept right through it. Heard it start raining and that was it.

It was pretty cold today compared to the 90 degree days we'd been having. I have all week off of work so I plan to go to the coast on Tuesday... I'm hoping for good weather. Uncle Duck hid some 6 new caches over in Bandon... that will give me a lot to do.

Woohoo!

Blazers got pick #3 :) which I am pretty happy with. I think chances are good that they trade the pick... we'll see. Its still nice that they were able to move up. It give the Blazers a whole lot of options.