ROAD TRIP!!! (sort-of) - A Wee Geocaching Adventure

Yay for blogging again...

So, the inspiration for this post is Geocaching.com's summer Road Trip 2015. (If you're new to Geocaching, here's a Geocaching 101 for you!)

Geocaching.com this summer decided to shake things up a little. The last couple of summers, August specifically, they have done a souvenir thing that you could "earn" for your profile (one year was find a cache every day in August you'll get the souvenir, the other year was "find this kind of cache" and you'll get the souvenir). This year to celebrate 15 years of geocaching, they decided to spread the fun out over the ENTIRE SUMMER! So every two weeks, beginning June 19th the website has enabled a new "challange" for it's users to get more shiny for their user profiles.

I'm excited, this year you have 5 different types of caches to find and earn a total 6 souvenirs. . So far, I got 3 of the 5. What's nice is everyone has until Sept 2nd to find the 5 different caches.

What's the kind of caches you're finding, you ask? I'll tell you! :D








On June 19th, you had to find a cache that had at least 10 favorite points, earning you "Fun With Favorites". Favorite points is usually a good indication of a nifty/cool/awesome cache (sometimes it's for the journey to the cache - like walking along a trail with the most spectacular views).

July 3rd brought us together, attending a geocaching event earned you "Meet Your Road Trip Crew". :) Had fun discovering a nice out of the way winery and a new favorite wine. ~.~

The most recent one, starting on July 17th, "Let's Get Extreme", was finding a cache that had a difficulty level or terrain level of 5 (caches are rated out of 5 on how much of a challenge it is, mentally or physically - a 5 terrain (or T5 if you want to get technical), you should have some sort of safety gear, like hard helmets and spelunking gear).



The next two are coming up on July 31st and August 14th will round out the summer fun. July 31st is "High Five for the Earth" - getting an Earth Cache or a geocaching event where you "Cache In - Trash Out" (i.e. clean up trash as you geocache). And August 14th is "Putting on Your Thinking Cap" for finding a Mystery Cache.

I will admit the "Let's Get Extreme" had me a little worried, only b/c I was afraid I would be trying to find this one by myself.  ~.~ Luckily I got a friend who caches as well to come with me and discovered it relatively quickly (if she wasn't there, I would have left sooner after looking for a short time. Took us about 15 min before I found it, granted it should have taken us a bit longer, but I would have walked away a lot sooner than that by myself).

My friend and I went to a near by National Park to find a couple more caches and to hike a little to an overlook with an awesome view. Well worth it in the heat and sweating buckets.

And in case if you were wondering about the different cache types, they can be found here.

An Every Day is a Holiday

I was thinking the other day how fun life would be know each day was celebrated like it was a holiday (not the dreaded I have to get someone else something holiday - just a day to celebrate).

It could be as simple as "Smile Day" or even "Laughing Day". I remember overhearing a conversation about a fairy book that talked about how the fairies have a holiday every day (that celebrated stuff like "Drinking the Dew from Rose Petals" and just got me started thinking). Just how life should be celebrated more.

Just a thought.

Cuddle Me Silly!

So, I'm kind-of excited about this Friday.

Wanna know why?


IT'S A CUDDLE PARTY!!!


*rofl*

What is a cuddle party you ask?

Here is a little blurb about it from the website:

What a Cuddle Party Is: A structured, safe workshop on boundaries, communication, intimacy and affection. A drug and alcohol-free way to meet fascinating people in a relaxing environment. A laboratory where you can experiment with what makes you feel safe and feel good.

This playful, fun workshop has been a place for people to rediscover non-sexual touch and affection, a space to reframe assumptions about men and women, and a great networking event to meet new friends, roommates, business partners and significant others.

Can Cuddle Party restore your faith in humanity? It just might. But at the very least, you'll have a great time, and leave feeling relaxed and inspired.


I personally think it's going to be a fun time!!!!

Lets Sing a Song.....

acapella



I dont know how I find somethings. They just show up at my feet practically. How fun.

Concerts Galore!

Well, maybe not galore. But I am seeing a concert next month up in Charm City!
(for those who arent in the know, Baltimore is called Charm City for some reason).

Oh, the band I'm seeing is only the greatest band ever. Well, the band is called Great Big Sea and they're one of my favorites. And I think it'll be one of the few times I'll get a chance to dance w/o feeling all awkward and stupid about it. (Haven't danced in a really long time).

I saw them this past year at ShamrockFest. I would say that it was THE best live concert I've seen. Granted, I haven't see all that many, but it still tops my charts of awesomeness.


Here are some of the Youtube.com clips of the band:

When I Am King


Feel It Turn


When I'm Up

Oh Harry.....

Well, I probably should be saying oh Albus.

I am a big Harry Potter fan and on this knitting/crocheting network I'm apart of a Harry Potter group. One of the posts had the following Harry Potter test (one that would determine who would be your husband).

I gave it a try and this is my result:

Your result for The Harry Potter Husband Test...

Mrs. Dumbledore

Your perfect HP man is Albus Dumbledore.

You like 'em powerful and brilliant. And why not? A guy like this, you can have intelligent conversation with, laugh with, and you know he can protect you. Sure, he may have a weakness for power, but he's got that under control. And sure, he let his sister die, but he learned from that. And sure, he harbors a secret, forbidden love for a man widely known to be his mortal enemy, but...well, no, that's actually a pretty big obstacle. Good luck with that.

Take The Harry Potter Husband Test at HelloQuizzy

All I can say is enjoy!

Knitting Contests!

Oh! How inspiring!

An avid knitter, I whole heartily support contests involving my fav. hobby, knitting!!!!

I'm going to mention a knitting contest that, I feel, supports a good cause.


On Scout's Swag, it's having a contest that supports the Red Scarf Project. The project sends wonderful handmade knitted scarves as a Valentine’s Day Care Package to an Orphan Foundation of America student enrolled in college or trade school. Its a way to show support or care (even from a stranger) to someone who has had adversity growing up. I like to think of it as a small gesture that makes your day (like someone holding the door for you, or that random smile from that cutie across the street), but in a more permanent way.

All the knitty gritty details are about 1/3 to 1/2 way down the page. But I would like to mention it should be a unisex scarf! (Think if a brother, father, uncle, grandfather, male friend would enjoy receiving this scarf).

Send your scarves to:
Orphan Foundation of America
The Red Scarf Project
21351 Gentry Drive
Sterling, VA 20166


Ohh! They're only receiving the scarves between September 1st and October 31st.

Happy Knitting! (or crocheting if that's your thing)

Winning Left and Right!

OK. August is when my local county has it's Ag. Fair and any county resident can enter stuff to try and win ribbons (and nominal amounts of $ - first place usually garners somewhere around $3-$5, well, the knitting & crocheting categories at least).

This year I've entered about 6 pieces into the county fair and all have won ribbons.

I made these pair of fingerless mittens in like a couple of days. I was highly impressed with my speedy efficiency.


I was so relieved when this scarf was finished! It seemed that it took FOREVER to finish but I was happy with the end result. I unraveled the edges for fringe and was tickled pink (ha ha) to see how well the fringe held up (and actually TWISTED) after a cycle in the washer and dryer. I don't have a pic with the fringe (finished the scarf just in time for the county fair) but these other photos give a good idea.






Crocheted Octopus. 100% wool - dyed with kool-aid. 'Nuf said.


This is a had that I saw in the movie "Golden Compass" (the books are 1,000,000 better than the movie version - granted movies can not capture 100% of the book version, but you can get the essence of it and still maintain a reasonable stream of logic). But I liked the hat.


Cookie Monster Hat. I think this won 2nd place to a hat that had more color. Meh.


Last but not least, my glove hat. With this one b/c i had so many hats going into the county fair, I needed something to qualify it to go into another category. So, it's a had and fingerless glove set.





They all won ribbons (the pink scarf got first) and I'm glad that I have another year to make more stuff.

Ravelympics 2008.

Yes, yes, it's actually Ravelympics 2008. I've entered myself into the frenzy of the knitting scheme of knitting something, as sort of friendly competition, with the heavy dose of Olympic theme thrown in.

Here's a quote from Ravelry.com web page about it:

"The Ravelympics (not to be confused with the Knitting Olympics, which take place every four years, just like any other Olympic sport, and will be orchestrated by the Yarn Harlot) are open to any knitter or crocheter on Ravelry ready to take on the challenge of completing a project (or projects) within 17 days during the 2008 Summer Olympics."

It is most exciting, for me at least, to have a challenge like this, with a dead line. Otherwise, it will take me forever to finish something simple (I tend to have multiple projects going on at one time and tend to have a short attention span for any one project).

If it wasn't for the county fair, I probably wouldn't finish some things in less than a year.

Ok. Back to the Olympic based topic.

Some of the catagories include (oh screw it, I'm posting everything):

• Afghan Marathon
• Amigurumi-n-Toys Toss
• Baby Dressage
• Bag-n-Tote Backstroke
• Balance Beads
• Cable Steeplechase
• Colorwork Cross-Country
• Cowl Jump
• Designers Discus
• Fantasy DecKnitathalon
• Felted Freestyle
• Free-For-All Freestyle
• Fleece to Finished Fencing
• Glove Decathlon
• Gift Knits Pentathlon
• Hand-Dyed Hurdles
• Handspun Heptathalon
• Hat Dash
• Holiday Handbal
• Home-Stuff Hammerthrow
• Itsy Bitsy Bikini Breaststroke
• Laceweight Long Jump
• Mitten Medley
• Pets Pommel Horse
• Scarf Stroke
• Shawl Relay
• Sock Put
• Sweater Sprint
• Synchronized Flirty Skirts
• Vest Vault
• WIPs Wrestling

Personally, I've entered *starts counting on her fingers* 9 projects.

ALL hats.

I'm planning on showing the hats as I finish them (both here on my blog and on Ravelry). A couple of them I've done before:

Glove Hat



Cookie Monster Hat


Tychus Hat



And some were chosen b/c I thought them funny:
Bataclava


Brain Monster



Please note the pictures that dont showcase my lovely face, are from their respected pattern web pages. The names above the pictures should link you through to their respected web pages.

If not, here are the web addresses (I used TinyURL to condense the long web addresses):
Tychus: http://tinyurl.com/8bfgk
Bataclava: http://tinyurl.com/5nd548
Brain Monster: http://tinyurl.com/3cu446

I really like the different "event" names and their variance/combination. I'm itching to get started on any one of them. My strategy is doing the easiest first and getting them out of the way.

Hrm. I got to thinking....

...which can, or might be, dangerous! (just kidding)

My good friend Heather just did a contest on her alter-ego (Heather, please correct me if I'm wrong) blog page. Got me thinking. What a fun thing to do. (Also, I got a couple of calls from a rep . at an electrolysis place near me, saying that my name was drawn for their third place prize via a website I am a member of - MyPoints. Thing is I dont remember entering a contest via MyPoints, but it's quite conceivable b/c I just click through the links I'm sent to earn points to get gift certificates to places like Starbucks and Barnes and Noble - it's all about the coffee and books).

I digress.

My thought was to make a little knit things to give out as prizes. It may be something along the lines of a coin purse or hot pad - when I'm trying out new stitches. Or it could end up being a nifty hat or something.

Get comments on something and randomly draw name(s).

Will wonders never cease.

Naughty Bits!

Ok. I made a pair of pasties for a friend of mine for her bachelorette party. From this she, and a few others (after a "Guess what Nandi made me!"), said I should make them and see if the local adult stores would buy them. Interesting thought. Here are a couple of examples of what I would possibly make:


The top is a condom cozy that's an owl. It has a hidden compartment (opening at the bottom) for more condoms or lubricant (or what ever else - that could fit in there). Then we have the pasties. Self explanatory.

*shrugg*

Dance Yourself Silly!

Ok, now this is something I'm really excited about for the following reasons:

1. It involves dancing
2. It charges your cell phone

Yes, it's for the same item! It's actually a device that charges your cell phone while you dance!

I absolutely LOVE it!

A company called mobile phone company, Orange, created it in conjuncture with a renewable energy firm, GotWind.

Here's a quote:
"We wanted to create a fun, engaging and interactive product which would encourage users to have a laugh while charging their mobile phone and at the same time test out a new energy-efficient prototype," said Hattie Magee, Head of Partnerships at Orange UK.

This is absolutely brilliant! This way you can have your cell phone when you go out to the club (provided you can stash it somewhere on your body like a under a pants leg) or the likes with out worry of your cell dieing on its last bar of power.