Mando's, Dinner at Ben's Grandma's, Caching and Buffalo Wild Wings

We were going to go spend some time with Ben's mom up in Bonney Lake since we both had a few days off in a row.  We drove up as soon as he came over from the station.  For some reason the night before I was feeling a bit under the weather.  Ben added that we were going to have dinner at his grandma's house around 6.  To avoid traffic on 167 we drove through before everyone got off work.  We didn't realize we would get to Auburn so quickly so we wasted some time at the Mando's Disc Golf shop in downtown for a while.

http://www.mandosdiscs.com/

Ben spoke to the gal about his driver and how aggressive it was.  We tried out some of the putters and even bought ourselves our first disc golf bag.  I've always wanted one but never had the extra money to get one.  they all fit perfectly inside.

We headed up towards the casino and parked in the back yard of his grandma's place.  Trish and Amy were already there.  We visited for a while and his aunt and uncle and their dog showed up.  We continued to visit as they got dinner ready.  They made dumplings, chicken and carrots, broccoli and cauliflower, biscuits and for dessert, a strawberry cheesecake.  I was full afterwards.

His grandma had a sleeping pad, a very nice one, that she didn't need anymore so she gave it to him.  We put it in the car and visited for a little while more.  Then it was time to go because it was getting late.  We took the back road to Bonney Lake past Lake Tapps.  Ben insisted we stop at this one cache that he had been to with his mom previously and could not find, Will My Sister Find It #5 (GC23VRB).  We ended up finding two containers, a bottle and a round thing hanging in the tree.  We signed both just because.

We drove further down the road towards a couple of communities off of Lake Tapps and grabbed a cache called 0672010 0730Z (GC24TYA).  It was similar to a few I've found in the past.  Ben has never seen one like it before.  It only took me a few seconds to locate it when it wasn't the other types of magnetic caches.

We saw we should have driven down the street a little farther to grab Welcome Home Daddy! (GC32TD9) first and then grabbed the previous one but stuff happens.  When we got there, I saw that it was in front of someone's house and then I saw the trackables on their cars so knew this "in front of someone's house" was more than okay.  I actually knew who's house it was.  I took a picture of their trackable and then we went on a looked for the cache.  It could only be in one spot but which one?  Ben found the lucky one.

We got back in the car and searched for the next one, Wedding Day Cache (GC3PNCX) near the edge of Lake Tapps at a small intersection.  We found a parking spot and went and searched.  I let Ben look for it while I took some pictures of the lake.  He had a little trouble but when I started looking I saw all the rocks and figured it had to be a rock cache.  He was impressed on how well it blended in.  It was even one of Lisa's containers from Cache Advance.

We found one more just before it got dark.  It was at a ball field called Play Fair (GC3E3N2) and that one was similar to the baseball one at St. Martin's in Lacey.  Ben found it.  Afterwards we kicked the soccer ball around for a bit until our shoes got wet from the moisture on the grass.  We went back to his house, set up the awesome bed pad, watched some TV and went to bed.

The next day we slept in, ate breakfast and did some errands that lasted almost the entire day.  We went over to Michael and Eliane's house to visit because we haven't seen them in a while.  Mowing the lawn and having dinner at the house with his mom and Amy turned into all of us meeting up at Buffalo Wild Wings for food and trivia.  It was a blast!  We sat out on the patio, talked, laughed and ate food.  We went home afterwards and stayed the night one more time.

Next Adventure:  Salty's and Redondo Beach

Mono

I thought I had dodged a bullet back in college when my brother and sister both got mono and I didn't.  I didn't think I would ever get it since it is mostly common in people from high school up through college.  I was wrong.

I started a new job in April, people wanted to hang out, I worried about my car, I didn't get enough sleep, busy, busy, busy!  I was doing things non-stop for a few weeks now and I thought I was getting enough sleep.

It started on a Tuesday, the last one in May.  I felt fine the entire day.  I went to work, mowed the lawn and even had time to work out...I actually wanted to get a head start on the June challenge so I did the extra reps.  I ate, took a shower and my right side of my neck started hurting and I got really tired.  I just assumed that I over did it that day and needed to rest.

The next day I woke up feeling really awful and my right lymph node was HUGE!  

The next five days I had a raging headache.  The kind that would not go away even with pain meds.  Work was really hard on me.  I really needed the money so I went to work the days I was scheduled and tried to rest on my days off.

Three days after I started showing symptoms, I had a fever.  I was cold, hot, cold, hot...I woke up in the mornings just drenched with sweat.

The next few days my left side between my kidneys and ribs started hurting.

A week after I started feeling bad, my boss made me call the doctor to find out what was going on.  Of course I am one of those people on Obamacare, it's terrible insurance by the way, I had to find a preferred provider and no one wanted to touch Obamacare.  They gave me one but that person, phone number and address did not exist.  I had to call the people who issued me my card to tell that we found an office that would take that insurance.  I got it all squared away and it was in effect immediately.  I called Tenino and made an appointment for Tuesday. 

Tuesday showed up and I left work early to go my appointment.  They checked all my vitals, asked me questions and I waited for the nurse practitioner to see me.  I guess the doctor was gone?  She didn't tell me much.  I knew I had a virus.  I just wanted some information on what kind of virus it was and she didn't provide it.  She wrote me a prescription for hydrocodine for my head pain and sent me on my way.

I drove to Walmart and got my prescription, which didn't cost me anything and neither did the doctor's office visit, grabbed some more IB Profin and some other things and went home to relax.  I was hoping that the medication would help me sleep.  It really didn't.

The next day I woke up and felt nauseous.  I thought maybe eating something would help...maybe it was the medication?  I had to get up and run to the bathroom.  I puked and I was not happy.  My head hurt, my side hurt and I was tired.  Mostly I worried about not getting better because I had to work in a few days.  Most of the day I sat in the chair drifting in and out of sleep.  I felt like crap.  Just before dinner time, Ben came over and said to get up because we're going to the ER.

I grabbed my phone, wallet, pillow and blanket and joined Ben in his Explorer.  When we got to the hospital, I checked in and waited about an hour and a half before being seen in the "triage".  They got my vitals, I told them what was happening, etc.  Then we sat inside there for about an hour.  I just laid there talking to Ben.  I was in so much pain.  My head hurt really bad and I was tired of waiting around.

A lady came in and told us we had to go back into the waiting room...we waited for another hour or so and saw a lot of people come and go.  Eventually we got called back.  I had my vitals taken again, I told my story three more times and then they ran a few tests based on the two sicknesses I could have.  One was a blood test to see if I had mono and the other was a spinal tap to rule out meningitis.  Both tests were horrible.  I hate needles.  They had to give me an anti anxiety pill before they numbed my lower back.  After harvesting the liquids that they needed, I waited an hour to 90 minutes to hear that I tested positive for mono and negative for meningitis.  I asked the nurse to give me something so my head would stop hurting...another needle went into my arm.  The drugs were fantastic.  My headache went away but I didn't feel like moving.  I just wanted to sleep.

It was time to go.  I couldn't walk or stand upright.  Ben had to put me in a wheel chair.  All I remember doing before we checked out was waving my arm vigorously to get someone's attention before I barfed all over the floor.  Ben grabbed a barf bag quickly and it caught it just in time.  He wheeled me out to the Explorer and we headed home.  I don't remember much about the ride home except just before we got onto Rainier Road I barfed again.  Then two seconds later, we were in my driveway.  He helped me to the door and into my room.  He even helped me brush my teeth before I passed out for good.  He went back to the station.

The next few days my headache went away but I was tired all the time.   Then about a week later my throat started hurting.  I found out that mono could turn into strept throat.  It was horrible.  I couldn't eat, sleep or swallow.  I begged my mom to get me some antibiotics.  A day later, I started taking antibiotics and within the three hours of me taking them, I started feeling better right away.  It took about 30 days to feel better.  I do not wish this misery upon anyone, it is a waste of time and I hope I never get it again.

Next Adventure:  Mando's, Dinner at Ben's Grandma's, Caching and Buffalo Wild Wings

More Bonney Lake Adventures and Disc Golf at Riverside

We decided to go visit Bonney Lake and to see his mom and sister for a bit.  We left just before dinner time and traffic wasn't all that terrible.  We got to the house about an hour later and Trish had just gotten home and told us we were having Mexican food at the nearby restaurant.  We sat in the bar area and got our chips, salsa and bean dip along with our water and Trish's margarita.  We talked about various things and then ordered our food.  I had the enchiladas, beans and rice.  I ate the entire plate.  I usually don't have that much room, lol.

After dinner, we took them to a geocache just outside the woods...The Unknown Future (GC31KYC), the same one I found with Bob a while back and one I took Ben too a few months ago.  We had Amy and Trish look for it before we gave them a few hints.  They thought it was a clever hide.  We grabbed another one that I found with Bob, New Red & Green Signal #12 (GC33THJ).  I couldn't remember where Bob pulled it out of but after a few minutes I figured it out.  Trish could not believe how small it was.  She saw her first nano.

We went across 410 to Entwhistle Road (GCHA9H) and found another nano on a fire hydrant.  We had fun.

We all went back to the house and I felt like going on another adventure...this time we went out at night in the woods to grab CacheMoneky03's Trackable Catchall Cache (GC4224A).  We parked at the gate and followed the quad trails to the given coords.  It was hidden underneath a uprooted stump.  It was fun finding this one in the dark by flashlight.

The next day Ben worked on his Explorer, changed the oil, the filter, pumped his tires up etc.  We waited for the rain to stop before we went to play disc golf at the nearby Riverside Park.

http://www.pdga.com/course_directory/course/riverside-disc-golf-park

It was a fun experience but we spent most of our time looking for our discs because the grass was really high.  We got soaked when we bush whacked for our discs.  We each had a beer an had a good time together.

Afterwards we grabbed a few more caches on the valley highway between Orting and Puyallup.  The first one was Gardella (GC1B477), second was Go Light Green Series #4 (GC2Q2PV) and the third was Nearby Stumped (GC2QN46) one I have driven past probably close to a hundred times.  It was a fun way to end the evening.  We had pizza with Amy and Trish and then had to come home for my work week.  Until the next adventure!

Next Adventure:  Mando's, Dinner at Ben's Grandma's, Caching and Buffalo Wild Wings

Buttloads of Aluminum Cans

I have been saving aluminum cans since August 2011.  The last time we cashed in we made a little over $250 and took that money and went on a mini vacation to the San Juan Islands, specifically Friday Harbor.  It was fun exploring an area I wasn't all that familiar with.

My dad was getting tired of seeing all the junk in the yard...my cans included so he decided we were going to get rid of them on Friday.  We loaded them in the suburban the day before.  Around 8, dad came into my room and said we were leaving.  I got my stuff on and headed outside and he was gone.  I called him and I had to meet him at Grammie's house.

When we got to South Sound Steel and Recycle, we got in line and they brought us a few bins.  We had 17 bags of smashed cans in 55 gallon bags.  We filled the entire trailer and crammed six of them inside the suburban.  We unloaded them into three huge bins.  We've never even come close to that in the past...we barely filled up two.

They weighed it and we ended up with over $300.  They gave us the price break of $.60 lb for having over 500 lbs of cans even though we were going to have to bring another load later on that afternoon.  We got back home and dad had to leave to go to Shelton for a co-worker's retirement lunch.

I loaded the last 11 bags in the suburban, ate lunch and hung out until dad got back around 2.

I waited for Ben to come over but he fell asleep and ended up coming after we left so I had him go to Grammie's house to visit until we got back.

We got another check for about $300 and came home.  We started saving them immediately for next time.

I made $400 of that money and dad put it into my savings.

Next Adventure:  More Bonney Lake Adventures and Disc Golf at Riverside

Mariner Game and Feather Boas

Amy wanted to go to a Mariners game and hang out with the girls because her husband has been deployed to the middle east for a few months and she was bored at home by herself.  She mentioned to us at work if anyone was interested in going to a Mariner game one Friday.  We decided to go on the 9th against the Kansas City Royals.  She mentioned it was ladies night and wasn't sure who got the feather boas.  We heard a certain thousand ladies, a certain section or whatever.  Amy was going to get a boa.

We met up at work and Amy drove.  We drove towards Graham to pick up Kim and Skylar from their new house.  We haven't seen their new house yet.  We got there with a few moments to spare.  She gave us the tour and let us look at the backyard.  Meanwhile, the Seahawks had their first draft pick.

We all piled into Amy's jeep and off we went via the valley highway, 410, 167 to 516 and finally onto I-5.  Traffic was surprisingly not that bad for a Friday afternoon.  We got off our exit and we navigated Amy to our famous free parking spot.  We walked the few blocks to Safeco, had our tickets scanned (after our bags were searched), and walked up the steps of the left field gate.  We noticed there were no boas being given out when we walked in.  Hmm...

We went into the stadium and walked around towards the stairs, we were on the 300 level behind home plate.  Before we went upstairs, we noticed a booth giving out the feather boas and a line behind it.  We walked over there to see how we could get a feather boa.

Apparently you needed to purchase tickets in the 100 level in the three sections being offered for the boas and Amy didn't do that.  She was really disappointed in herself.  We walked up to our seats and sat down.  I decided to go get some food before the game started and everyone sat down.  I walked out and called Grammie for a bit and took some pictures of the Seattle skyline.

And one of the people entering through the gates down below.

I got in line for my most favorite meal when I am in Seattle, Ivar's.  I got my fish and chips basket (and one for my mom of course), a drink and headed back to my seat.  We ate and watched the ball game.  We didn't play too hot but it was still fun...and a bit chilly once the sun went down.

 

The Mariner moose even did a dance for us to Beyonce's All the Single Ladies in a leotard.  It was hilarious.

We lost 6-1 and after the game we went down to the 100 level where the drunk ladies with boas were.  If I learned anything from working as a custodian at Beasley Coliseum after sporting events, people always leave the free give-aways behind...and then some.  I found two unopened bags of feather boas and the security people ushering people out of the stadium found four more boas but those were opened.  They gave one to Sue, Amy, Kim and Skyler.  Amy's night was complete...she got her feather boa.

The concourse looked like a bunch of green and blue birds were massacred.

We walked back to the jeep, dropped them off and headed back to the office.  We got home after midnight.

The stats from the game:

http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/mlb/scoreboard/index.jsp?c_id=sea#date=5/9/2014

Next Adventure:  Buttloads of Aluminum Cans

Spanaway Lake CITO (GC52MQ2)

Today I gave back to the geocaching community.  Hoovers69 planned a CITO for us at Spanaway Lake Park and I was so happy to see it was on a Thursday instead of a Saturday, a day I actually had off.  I knew Ben had a shift at REI but some stuff happened and now he didn't.  We went and picked up Bev and while en route towards Spanaway Ben got a call back from REI.  They wanted him to come into work after all.  I turned around and dropped him off at the house.  I had to turn my car off to let him in the house to get his stuff.  He had about 45 min to get to the Westside from my house.  And my car wouldn't start.

We called Grandma to come get us and take us back to Bev's house to use her car.  Sometimes I hate my car.  I've had car problems since I could drive.  I always get the hand-me-downs.  I can't wait until I can afford to buy a new car.  We were off to Spanaway.

We arrived at the cannon and talked to the cachers while we waited for everyone to arrive.  Bev and I were there as well as Hoovers69, Adammack75, Verteron, Tysapper73 and his two kids.  We shared some TB's and he decided that it was time to start so he handed us some bags and we were off.  Bev and I picked up a ton of garbage just in the first ten minutes or so.

As we got closer to the lake, a woman who said she wasn't from the area, asked what we were doing and if we were a part of a club.  I told her we were part of a community club and we were giving back by picking up garbage at the local park.  She genuinely said thank you to me and that she really appreciated it.  A few minutes later a couple were having a small BBQ down by the creek and she asked me if I was a part of a group picking up trash and I told her the same thing I told the other lady.  Before I left, they told me thank you as well.  People do still notice when others do something good.

I followed everyone up across the bridge and up towards Muzzle Loader Medium Range (GC50PXZ), a cache Ben and I could not find a few weeks ago.  Ben and I spent at least a half hour looking everywhere.  Today, the clean up crew spent at least that much time on it until Bev called Frisbee'r.  He gave us some hints and what do ya know, Adam pulled it out of its hiding spot.  Yes!  We turned that frown upside down!

We followed Hoover69 to Muzzle Loader Short Range (GC4ZMCK) on the back side of the park along the fence line.  Adam also came up with that one.  It was a fence cap hide.  We tried looking for the Muzzle Loader Long Range (GC4ZMDF) but came up short.  There was way too many spots to look in the woods without a decent hint and jumpy coords.

We threw our garbage away in the nearest dumpster, used the restroom and made our way back to the car.  We talked to Hoover69 and Verteron before heading into the south side of the park to find Muzzle Loader Backfire (GC50F62).  We thought it would be easy but we didn't find that one either.  We would have to come back another time.

We ate dinner at Little Park Restaurant, off of Pacific Highway.  It's been there for more than fifty years.  She had a french dip and I had a burger and fries.  It really hit the spot after a hot walk around the park.

On the way home Bev stopped and let me grab Log That Log (GC4M83H), a puzzle off of Hart's Lake Road.  It was one of the coolest puzzles I've done.  Tysapper73, one of the cachers who attended the event with his kids, is going to be moving soon and possibly taking his cache with him so I thought why not get it?

You had to pop the tool out and use that to push in a spring that allowed the other knot in the log to pull out and the logbook was inside ready to be signed.  We assembled it back the way it was and headed home.

We worked on my car the next day. We suspected the alternator, battery or the starter. It was the starter and $120 later my car runs again.

Next Adventure:  Mariners Game and Feather Boas