Geocaching

Today Jim and I set out to the lakeshore to do a couple of geocaches. Last weekend I went along with him and the boys and did some locally. At one of the ones last weekend we took a travel bug coin and decided to take it to visit Lake Michigan.

For those that aren't familiar with travel bugs here is some info: Travel Bug FAQs

At our first stop we found the area where the cache was hidden but there were a few people fishing so we decided to go to the next one and then come back.

While at the first one we did see a swan in her nest and then a few feet away the other swan was hanging out:





The area where this first cache was:



The second cache in the area we found out was in Pere Marquette State Park which is right on Lake Michigan. It was nice to walk through the sand and while I found the area this cache was, Jim was the one to find where it was hidden.





Me with the GPS

And some extra's, this is Pere Marquette State Park on Lake Michigan

Excerpts from the dog and cat diaries

I've seen this before but it seems fitting given the weekend episode with the lack of cat food :)

Excerpts from a Dog's Daily Diary

8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 pm - Lunch! My favorite thing!
1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
5:00 pm - Milk bones! My favorite thing!
7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!


Excerpts from a Cat's Daily Diary

Day 983 of my captivity.

My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling
objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my
strength.

The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an
attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a "good little hunter" I am.

Bastards.

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I
was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However,I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of "allergies." I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow -- but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and
snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded. The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicate with the guards regularly. I am
certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now ...

I'm getting old!

After work tonight I stopped to get my eyebrows tidied up (gotta love waxing!) and I went to the place I get my nails done, cheaper than where I get my hair done plus it's in the same strip mall as the tanning parlor.

I get in there and the girl asks if I wanted to wax my upper lip too. :::blink::: Excuse me? I was like, do I need it? She said well you could a little and there is a small black hair starting.

Wait a second. I don't have black hair, I'm blonde. I kinda got upset and said well yeah just fix it! Make it go away! Is this what happens when you get older? I know I have a birthday coming up but seriously.

Anyhow, I got my eyebrows done and my upper lip done. I didn't even know I needed it but I'll add it to the routine I guess, though now I'll be inspecting that area constantly to see if it grows back.

For now I'm telling myself that black hair was a cat hair. Abbie has black fur. Not too far of a stretch.

An open letter to all cats

You.will.not.starve. if you can see the bottom of your dish. Yes, I am aware that I just filled your dish up last night with the last of the cat food. Yes, I have more cat food and it's in the trunk of my car. Maybe if you didn't eat so much I wouldn't have to buy really big bags and then leave it in the car because it's too hard to carry in with tons of other things.

It is also not acceptable to try and wake up your owner at 8am on a Saturday morning when she has a chance to sleep in to let her know that you did not ration your food for the night and ate it all in a panic.

Once again, you.will.not.starve.to.death.

Staring at me is not going to make me go get that food any quicker for you. Once you let me wake up and get some caffine I will most likely go and get your cat food but I do ask that you don't try and escape into the hallway when I try to open the door to bring the food in. This is not a smart move on your part. You know who you are, Willow.

:)

Concert update

So the Kenny Chesney concert is fast approaching, May 10th! Jim put the set of tickets for the 2nd show (May 11th on eBay) so if you want to go to that show please go bid on them :) He said if they don't sell we may have to go twice. That would be really hard on me and such a sacrifice! *heeehee*

I can't remember if I blogged about this or not but I did get tickets for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill too, in July. They are playing in the round and I didn't get tickets the day they went on sale but about 3 weeks later I was looking and found really great seats really close to the stage so I went for it. I had not planned to get them since they were a bit expensive and I have seen them before - but that was like 8 years ago. Now that I did get them I'm getting excited about it.

I don't know that I will hit 7 in '07 kinda like my 6 in '06 last for concerts but 2 is great so far :)

Don't drink the water!

There is a boil water advisory for my area right now. There was a dip in the water pressure at the water plant and there is a fear of bacteria in the water so they are telling everyone in our area to boil our water before drinking it.

We can still do laundry if we use hot water, run the dishwasher since it runs with hot water and shower but can't drink it unless it's bottled or boiled.

I boiled some water tonight and have it in a pitcher in the fridge and got some odd looks from Willow and Abbie when I was using bottled water to fill up their water dish.

Willow was particularly sad this morning when I didn't turn on the faucet in the bathroom sink for him to drink from and play with - that is our routine.

They fixed the problem on Tuesday but are taking samples to make sure everything is safe so we may be able to use the water again on Thursday.

Definitely a city mouse

On Sunday this big city gal spent the day in the country! Jim invited me to the annual family Easter Egg/Scavenger Hunt. A little late this year since there were conflicts scheduling but the date was perfect, 80ish degree weather and sunny! Doesn't get much better than that at the end of April.

Anyhow, this was at his aunt and uncle's place and they have what I like to call a petting zoo! A bull, cow and twin calves, 4 horses, a donkey and barn cats! I had fun petting the cats and horses and looking at everything else.

I also got to meet his aunts and uncles, cousins and newphews and nieces. Everyone brought a dish or two to pass and something to throw on the grill and a lawn chair to hang out in. It was really nice to just mingle and enjoy some good food!

After we ate his uncle took everyone on a hay ride while the easter eggs were hidden for the kids and then the scavenger hunt for kids and adults. After that we took another hayride, this time over to this place called devil's soupbowl which is a huge thing that looks like a soupbowl. Several people climbed down it and then had to go back up the other side. I was content to just watch and walk over to meet everyone :)

On the way back we got stuck in the sand because the 4 wheel drive wasn't locking in. Everyone got off the trailer (we were sitting on hay bales) and were able to get the truck going and the 4wd locked in.

It was nice to spend the day outdoors and get some sun and meet the rest of his family. As his son said, all that's left is to meet the family in Kentucky!
I didn't get teased too much about being a big city gal and I really enjoyed my day out in the country! I still dont' think I could ever live on a dirt road but I would agree to living out of the big city a bit ... I'm making progress :)

Cider gone wrong

Friday after work Jim and I along with some of our friends/co workers went to The Hideout which is where one of our co workers lives, er hangs out. We call him Norm (you know, Norm from Cheers) because he's been talking about having us all come to visit for quite some time now and assured me that there was wine and some apple cider gone wrong that is now apple wine.

I had some of the cider gone wrong and it tasted great! It was like drinking a Granny Smith apple, I had a couple of glasses of it :) There was about 7 or 8 of us and we ended up leaving under 1:30am.

This morning I had to get up before 8 because I had an appointment for Dish Network to come out to try and set me up so I could ditch Comcast once and for all. Since they don't give exact times you just get windows - 8am to noon. He showed up at 9:45 and was able to get a signal but had to leave to go get a tripod and long pole to set it up and said he'd be back about 1pm. Now I am set up with Dish Network and I have a DVR! I'm totally addicted already and have the shows I regularly watch already set up on the timer to automatically record and I've been enjoying fast forwarding through commercials :)

I get the pleasure of calling Comcast on Monday and telling them to you know what with their overpriced service :)

Oh, and I got alot of compliments on my matching sandals and handbag - appropriately worn on Friday since I was drinking apple wine while wearing my apple colored sandals!

Not much of anything

It finally is starting to feel like April again around here ... I'm so ready for sandal weather!

I did some summer shopping last night and got a cute handbag with matching sandals (I blame a certain Snow White in FTL for this because they are a cute apple-y green like a pair of sandals she was showing us on a message board!) so now I need something cute to wear with it :) I have a cute pair of capri jeans that would look good so I need a cute blouse now.

Not much going on ... stopped at Cost Plus Market tonight looking for these: Tim's Cascade Chips with Johnny's since Mom told me she saw them and was going to get them for me for my birthday and then when she went to get them can't find them but they didn't have any. I ended up leaving with a bottle of reisling wine though - it's sweet and tart and really yummy.

Pretty uneventful week so far.

Bunny goodies!

I took over organizing the bunny swap on ScrapShare and I was pleased to come home earlier this week and find my bunny box at my door!

I had an aweosme bunny who got me so many cute things, but my favorite things were my altered letter and my card! I got her permission to share the pictures - she does such great work! I am planning to put the card in a picture frame and I already have the letter up on my entertainment center :)

My altered letter:



The gorgeous card she made me:



Thank you secret bunny!

Ticket scalpers

Last Friday Jim invited me to the hockey game with he and the boys since he had a few unused season tickets to trade it. The plan was to trade in the ticket when we got there. Turns out it was sold out completely. We debated for a bit about me just leaving and coming back to get them after the game or we could go out and ask some of the guys selling tickets outside what they wanted for them. If we could get a ticket I'd just sit whereever and then come down and visit during the breaks between the periods. (Is it periods in hockey? I almost typed innings but that's baseball lol)

I've never bought tickets from a scalper so I was feeling kinda naughty like we could get in trouble, but I ended up getting a general admission ticket for $20! In the section his season tickets are in there is usually a seat next to his 3 that is always open so I was able to sit there with them and enjoy the game!

Oh, and I got my soft pretzel fix too *wink*

Hoppy Easter!

If you are reading this I hope you had a great Easter weekend!

My day was very nice and pretty low key, the easter bunny brought me some chocolates and an umbrella because I keep taking someone's *wink* and a chocolate bunny and a cute pair of earrings.

Jim's parents invited me over for lunch and it was yummy! We had ham, potatoes and tons of other goodies. A very nice, relaxing day of good food and sitting around chatting and napping afterward.

After such a nice weekend I'm not really looking forward to going back to work.

Paid in full

I paid off 2 credit cards today and included nice notes asking them to please close my accounts and not to bother me anymore and dropped them off at the post office.

I have 2 more to go but I am on track to have them paid off by the end of the year then I tackle my car payment.

It's a very liberating feeling having 2 of those payments gone. I'm throwing the money I was paying on them to my next credit card and that should be done in just a couple of months! I just have had alot of little debts laying around that I could never seem to shake off.

Girly girl pampering

I got my first ever manicure tonight. My nails are finally grown out and staying grown out that I decided to splurge and treat myself to my first manicure. It was so fun and my nails are so pretty, I ended up with a french manicure.

I really wanted a pedicure too, but I just did my own home pedi a couple weeks ago so I'll wait until closer to my birthday when the weather is more likely to be sandal weather all the time and then treat myself, I haven't had one since last summer! *gasp*

It was fun to treat myself and it's nice to see my own real fingernails looking this nice!

Yep, I'm a girly girl.

Peeps

I love stale peeps. I got a package of yellow chicks this weekend and brought them home, opened the package, ate one and then put them up in the cupboard to get stale.

I tested them tonight and they are about 1 day away from being ready to eat!

Even though you can now get peeps pretty much year round, I always associate them with Easter so this is about the only time of the year I pick up a package or two.