Rollerblading and Cache Maintenance

I had gotten some recent emails saying that my caches need to be looked at.  I will not go check up on caches if the log book is wet.  That seems like an unnecessary trip when we live in Western Washington.  Besides, cachers should have extra paper with them when they go out to find caches.  I always do.

I had some extra time to go and fix one that had been archived by Ice and Wind.  I found a new container, grabbed our rollerblades and off to Rainier we went.  We parked behind Rainier Market...or what was left or Rainier Market after the fire we had a few months ago.  Not sure what's going to happen to the little iconic store.  We got our blades on, got the Go Pro ready to go and grabbed my new container for the 507 Series:  Rainier (GC3AMVX).  I guess the area was bulldozed and I hadn't had time to come fix it with all of the holidays, weird days off, mom with car problems and it getting dark at like 5:00.  Now that I had some time it could get fixed.

We got to the cache site and could not find the old container anywhere.  It has become one with the ground.  All of the scotch broom had been flattened.  The only thing that remained was a tree, rocks and some brush.  We gathered some of the rocks and was going to place it on the back side of the tree with the rocks hiding it from view.  I put my camouflaged duct tape around my container, Ben wrote on the logbook, stuck it into the container and called it good.

We checked on my other one nearby, Gopher Barbecue (GC3HZPZ).  I was not aware that anything was wrong with it until Ben pulled it out of its hiding spot.  It was just a bag.  No one mentioned in their logs that the container was missing.  Who would take the container?  I was no prepared to fix this one so it will have to wait until a later date when I have some containers ready to go.

We rollerbladed down toward the military memorial so Ben could find Rainier Honors our Troops (GC58ZW1), which I found in August before the Block Party.  It took him a while to think outside the box but when he did he was impressed with the find.  He put it back then he saluted the troops.

On our way back to the Escape we had some rollerblade races.  My blades desperately need new wheels so mine didn't glide as well as Ben's did.  We still had fun though.

We went grocery shopping in Yelm, went back to my house made waffles and sausage for dinner and then watched The Butterfly Effect while we hung out.  He went home and I went to bed.

Next Adventure:  Super Bowl XLIX

Wedding Rehearsal Puyallup Tribe Youth Center

Wendy told us about Chris's wedding a few months back and we told her we would do our best to request those days off so we could go.  We both worked weekends so it made it hard.  Ben was the best man so I immediately went to my boss and asked for that day off.  She said she will try and make it work.

Less than a week away and Wendy was starting to freak out.  She had sent the invitations out weeks ago and no one got them.  Some people received theirs...in Utah and Yakima but none of the locals got theirs.  The day of the wedding we still didn't receive ours.  We really weren't sure what we were suppose to do so we had a three-way call with her.  She told us in depth about the death that their family suffered, what they were going to try and do before Saturday.  We told her we would help as much as our jobs would allow.

Then I got a text message from Wendy Thursday morning, "We have some large changes to the wedding party.  Rosa would like to ask you to be her maid-of-honor.  Please.  Talk to you later.  Thanks."

I was like, what?  I have never been a maid of honor.  I thought the first time I would be was for one of my friends or even my sister.  The first time I was a maid of honor was for a person I had only met three times.  I felt kind of weird at first...mostly because I thought that honor should be for someone they really want to be that person.  I filled in because they needed me to.

After work on Friday I headed over to Wendy's house.  I called Ben to see if he was up.  He had mentioned that he was going to get up early and get some stuff done.  He didn't get up until 4.  I basically woke him up to get him motivated.  He got his stuff done and met us at the Puyallup Indian tribe youth center.  I got to Wendy's house and we immediately drove to the center.  I followed Wally.

For the next two hours we put together everything.  The tables, chairs, the area where the ceremony was going to be, the cake table, the sign in table, the gift table and the table where the food was going to be.  We rehearsed the ceremony and everything took longer than was originally thought.  Some of Wendy's Utah people got hungry so they bought pizza for everyone.  I got to drive them to the other side of Fife to the Pizza Hut.  We picked up three pizzas and some drinks and drove back.  I was starvin'.  The pizza hit the spot.

Then we goofed around for a bit and it was time to leave.  Everyone has had a long day.  The bride went to Wendy's house to hang out and Ben and Chris hung out at his apartment.  I went to to the store and then hung out with Trish and Amy.  I brought my stuff in, got settled and played a few games of dice with Trish.  I had some ice cream and beat the pants off of her.  Muhaha!  A few hours later Ben came home.  He and Chris and watched a movie and drank a few beers.  We relaxed a bit before we had to go to bed.

Once we went to bed Ben would not leave me alone.  I was exhausted and I knew we had to get up early for the wedding.  He said he was wired thinking about the best man speech.  Eventually he settled down and we went to bed...around 3 a.m.!

Pics coming soon!

Next Adventure:  Chris and Rosa's Wedding

Sushi Night and Some Bowling

Ben has wanted to go out to sushi for some time now.  I was talking to Celeste and she agreed.  There needed to be a sushi night.  Personally, I am not a fan of sushi...last time I tried it, it just tasted way too much like ocean.  I was not a fan of how the ocean tasted when I accidentally got water in my mouth swimming or snorkeling. I went just because my friends were going and it was going to be a fun outing with Ben and the rest of them.

We made a date on our facebook group.  That Wednesday I slept in, did a few chores and waited for Ben to get up and head over.  Mom's car was still in the shop so I had to go get her after work.  I fed Ben a sandwich and off to Yelm we went.  I got mom and dropped her off at her car.  We went back home and Ben took a shower.  In the meantime I got ready to go.

We took his car to Lacey.  He wanted to get his suit dry cleaned but we didn't leave early enough to do it plus I didn't know that we would have to help mom with her car.  Oh well.  We will survive.  We got to Koibito around 6:30 and saw that Nicole was inside getting us our table.  We sat down and engaged in some small talk until everyone else arrived.  Of course Lindsay was late even though she was next door at the cupcake shop since 5:30.  We talked a little bit more and decided on what we wanted to eat.  I chose a cooked dish, one of my favorites...chicken teriyaki.  Everyone else ordered some sort of sushi.  Ben went nuts and ordered all you can eat and finished 5 giant rolls of sushi.  Nicole and Celeste shared a dish, Lance tried a few different rolls and Lindsay and Justin ate sushi as well.

We were there for a while but then everyone had to go because they had to go to work or had to go to bed so they could get up and go to work the next morning.  Ben and I were on our day off so he wanted to go do something else.  He suggested bowling, so we went bowling.  A few weeks ago he put his bowling ball and shoes into his car just in case we found some time to go.

We went in, I paid for my bowling shoes and we were on Lane 12.  The other lanes were being used for league night.  Mostly men in polo shirts drinking cheap beer.  We got our shoes on and Ben reached into his bag and discovered his $250.00 bowling ball was cracked.  He speculated on how that happened.  He asked the bowling alley clerk and he said it was a result of leaving it inside an area where it isn't room temperature.  Ben kept his ball inside the Explorer when it was really hot and really cold.  He will eventually need to replace the ball.

We got started.  Enforcer vs. Irish.  I had a rough first game because I couldn't find a ball that suited me.  It was either too heavy, the holes were too small or too big.  I did eventually find a ball that was alright.  My second game was awesome and even got to 130.  I got three strikes but not in a row.  Ben struggled with his ball but managed to get a few strikes here and there.  The third game went down hill again.  I did beat Ben by five pins after we finished our three games.  I thought I would lose.  Haha.

We went to the Fred Meyer afterwards to pick up some milk and drinks.  We used the bathroom and wandered the store for a while.  We went back to my house and we watched a movie until about two in the morning.  Then he had to go back to the fire station to get some sleep.

Next Adventure:  Chris and Rosa's Wedding

NFC Champions and the ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Improbable Game

Well we are back in the playoffs.  After a victory against the under .500 Carolina Panthers, who squeaked in by being better than the rest of their division,  we were matched up with the Green Bay Packers, who beat Dallas Cowboys after a controversial call, that sent them up against us in the NFC Championship in Seattle.

Honestly, I was cheering for the Packers against the Cowboys.  I knew we could beat them with a gimpy Aaron Rodgers and an up and down season...they lost to Buffalo a couple of weeks ago for crying out loud!  I really did not want to deal with the Cowboys.  I just wanted to see them gone.  And they were.  Bring it on Green Bay!

Of course I have a job that requires me to work weekends.  Not a big fan because I miss out on a lot of stuff, but hopefully it's temporary.  So I had to work during the game that started at noon.  I knew I wasn't going to be able to watch most of it.  I really wanted to wear my jersey too but I didn't want to ruin it.  I had mom tape the game so I could watch it in its entirety when I got home.

I was in building A and I started in on my rooms.  I got through 3 checkouts before I asked for my break.  I ate my food and went to finish my rooms.  I had such bad anxiety about the game before it even started.  I tried to not let it mess up my rooms.  By that I mean, forget something or miss wiping off a counter etc.  If I had the game on I would have only gotten to watch a little bit of it while I made beds and then I would be in the bathroom where the TV isn't.  So I opted to listen to my music while the game was on. 

I turned the TV on at halftime just to see what the score was.  That was a big mistake.  That just gave me more anxiety as the afternoon went on.  I worried all day long after that.  At about 3ish I heard someone cheer over the walkie talkie and say. finally!  We must have scored a TD.  A while later I heard Kathy say, "this will be the longest minute of our lives."  That must mean, we came back to tie it or we're ahead and we got to keep them from scoring to either win or send it into OT.  I really wanted to turn the TV on but I didn't at the same time.  So many scenarios were going off in my head on how we got to this point.  I kept the TV off for about another 15 minutes or so because I was finishing a room and was almost done.  I believed we pulled it off and won the game.

It was the moment of truth.  I had to turn the TV on.  I had to know what happened.  I turned the TV on and of course a commercial.  I waited patiently for the commercial to be over and sure enough, we were on the podium with the blue and green sea of confetti with the 12th man cheering as loud as they could.  We came back from a huge deficit with only 4 minutes to go in the 4th quarter.  This is the game of the century.  What an awesome comeback in OT.  At this point I didn't know the details on how we came back.  I would have to wait until I got home.

When I got home I immediately turned on our game.  Mom said that the first 3 quarters weren't all that great.  I told her we would watch them anyway.  It was ugly.  I have never seen the Seahawks play that bad in a while.

Then the 3rd quarter we showed some life.

And we pulled off a "Charlie Brown" field goal attempt.  Our field goal kicker, Hauschka had to really sell the fake kick, while our place holder, Ryan grabbed it, ran with it and threw it to a wide open OT Gilliam for our first TD.  And then the extra point afterwards.  The score was now 16-7.

 
In the 4th quarter, it went back and forth for a while and Green Bay scored another field goal to lead 19-7.  On our next drive, Wilson threw it to Lynch and put some yards behind him but was called out of bounds after a TD.    It came back and Wilson put it in for a real TD and a PAT made by Hauschka.  Score was now 19-14.

We stopped them again on defense and with a 1:25 left to go Wilson passes it off to Lynch and he snakes his way in and out of the defense and into the end zone for another TD for the Seahawks!  We now lead 20-19.  The crowd goes nuts!  And I can't believe it.  We need to go for a 2 point conversion to prevent the win with a field goal on the other end.

Wilson throws this ugly across his body float hail mary pass to Willson for the completion of the 2 point conversion.  I was in awe.  And our fans started a 3.0 earthquake in the stadium. Score was now 22-19   Now, like Kathy said earlier today, comes the longest minute of our lives.  Can we stop them?

They tied it 22-22 in the final seconds of the 4th quarter.  Poo.

In OT, we won the coin toss and in six plays, one long throw to Baldwin and the game winning throw to Kearse.

That was the most insane game I have ever watched.

We all will always remember where we were when this game was on.  It will be talked about for decades.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"  -Steve Raible

Next Adventure:  Sushi Night and Some Bowling

Victor Falls, Window Tinting and Pulled Pork Sandwiches

We got up around 11 and got cleaned up and started our day with breakfast.  I had an egg sandwich and he made some french toast for himself.  I told him that we needed to do something today.  I was tired of being in the house.  Around 2ish, we left.  I wanted to go find the Victor Falls cache, which was not too far from his house.

We got into the Sega Genesis and away we went.  A few months back, some local made a really nice parking spot and updated the trails to Victor Falls.  They even put up a barrier between the cliff and waterfall.  We rolled up and parked.

Ben said that he used to come down here as a kid with his friends.  He also mentioned that some guy had fallen down the falls and the fire department had to come rescue him.  Wherever there is a falls in a populated area...there is always the one kid who falls.  That's what happened to one of my cousins, he died falling off a cliff near a waterfall in my hometown.

We started down the trail to the falls.  It is fed by Fennel Creek...by mostly run off and swamp lands and drains into the Puyallup Watershed.  It is 70 feet high and is a vertical curtain falls.  It had one really great vantage point without some sort of tree or bush obstruction.  You can walk down to the top of the falls but be careful, it's really slippery and there are lots of warning signs all over the place.

We admired the area for a little while and stood not too far from the drop off.  If you're afraid of heights you should not even go down there.

After we got our fill on the waterfall, we looked at the GPS and wandered around looking for the cache, Victor Falls Revisited (GC17275).  Because of the trees, it made it a little difficult to pin point it.  Ben had his phone out trying as well.  I looked at the hint and we made our way further up the hill.  I found the only thing that looked like a fork and there it was in all its ammo box glory!  We signed our name, took the trackables out of it (because they were sitting for over a month) and put it back as fast as we could because there were people coming down the trail.

We went on the other side of the bridge just to see the other part of Fennel Creek.  It took a while to get down there mostly because of the brush.  It even ripped up Ben's hand.

We walked back to the car and went back into Bonney Lake.  I offered to buy him some coffee from Starbucks mostly because it was cold and I wanted some hot chocolate.  And we needed some more napkins for his car.  We drove down to the dealership because they had let him know his car was done being tinted.  We ate some popcorn and moved out stuff back to his car.  We chatted with his mom for a bit.  She said we were going to have pulled pork sandwiches and that we needed to get another one at the store.  We said sure.

We drove over to the nearby Fred Meyer and parked to get the cache first.  Fred & Barney on Tour (GC4KZKC) was a nano attached underneath a bench.  We found it quickly.

We got the pulled pork and decided to go waste an hour up the hill in Best Buy.  Ben had a gift card for Go Pro stuff.  We went in hoping to find some stuff to get with the card.  We both knew we needed to get a padded bag to put our stuff in.  I found a back pack camera bag for under $40 bucks.  Some of the other stuff we were interested in was way too expensive.  We'll probably get them online.  We ended up getting another battery and charger, the bag and Ben wanted some wireless headphone for when he works out.  He was tired of the wires getting in the way.  We paid and went home the back way through Orting.

We made dinner, relaxed a bit and had to come home that night because we both worked the next morning.  Of course we got a late start and ended up getting home around 1:30.  We had a fun day and now it's time for some sleep.

Next Adventure:  NFC Champions and the Improbable Game

Cache Maintenence at Millersylvania State Park, Farm Boy, Spire and Applebees

And it happened again.

My stamp was stolen from my state park cache again.  I was very annoyed.  I got the emails and I knew it was missing, just getting there was going to be difficult.  Between family car troubles, the rain, working bizarre days of the week, it getting dark when you got off work and trying to find time to go get a new stamp and ink pad, it was just really tough to get there to fix it promptly. Eventually, I got an email from Abby which was from Ranger Tina stating I needed to go fix it.

After work on Monday, I went and bought a new stamp and some ink pads.  I planned to go fix it when I got up on my day off, Tuesday.  This week Ben had Tuesday off so he was going to meet me there after he covered the morning for one of the guys.  I brought the Go Pro, the new stamp, ink pad and yes, some one stole the logbook as well, and I replaced that too.  I put a few trackables I've had for a while just to get them moving again.

I met him near the ranger station since he didn't have a Discovery Pass.  The ranger let him park his car near the lodge.  He got in with me and we drove to the day use parking lot.  He got out his phone and I let him find it.  His phone led him astray and I just stood there until he figured it out.  We took it to a nearby picnic table where we fixed it and he signed it.

We put it back, got in the car and stopped at the one at the sign for Ben to find.  I took him back to his car, we talked to the ranger for a few minutes and then went to the Farm Boy for breakfast/lunch.  I got a burger, fries and a Sierra Mist and Ben wanted French toast but they stopped serving that kind of food at 11.  He went with an omelet with some sides and some chocolate milk.  Then we headed to my house to pick up my bag and the other stuff we would need for the next two days.

We left my my car at home so mom would have a vehicle to drive to and from work since her car is in the shop for the time being.  Plus it just made it easier.  We left just after oneish and headed to Puyallup.  Ben was going to drop his car off at the dealership so they could tint his windows.  On the way through Spanaway, we stopped at the Spire for a short climbing session.  Ben forgot to tell me to bring my climbing shoes.  Oh well.  I watched his car from a distance (some punk kids showed up and we were weary) and took pictures.

He got his "climbies" out and we made it to the dealership and dropped his car off.  We talked to Trish for a bit and decided to forgo the popcorn this time.  I wanted to save room for dinner.  They gave us a rental car until tomorrow.  We drove around in a Genesis, which I called the Sega Genesis.  It was basically a really nice old person car. We got onto 167 and merged onto 410 up the hill to Bonney Lake.

We got to the house just as Trish did.  She had to park her car outside the garage.  We brought our stuff inside and wondered why Amy hadn't gotten ready for dinner yet.  She was just chillin and waiting to see what was going on I guess.  Trish said that we were going to give Applebee's another change.  Apparently last time she ate there the service was terrible.  Trish drove.  She explained to us about the hit and run earlier in the day.  Someone had hit the driver's side in the back near the rear wheel.  She was very upset but some witness grabbed the license plate number so she went to the police earlier to file a hit and run accident.

We got to Applebee's and our hostess sat us.  She told us about the Seahawk cocktails.  Trish and I ordered the Legion of Blue, Ben got a beer and Amy stuck to lemonade.  We ordered our food, Trish got a steak, Ben some fancy mac and cheese, me cheese penne pasta and Amy chicken Caesar salad.  The service was still slow but not as bad as the previous visit according to Trish.

We went home and hung out for a while.  We talked about the upcoming game, Ben went through his mail, we attempted to get the WiFi to work and finally did, watched a few movies on TV.  I got really tired really fast and decided to go get ready for bed.  I was fading fast on the couch.  It was a good but busy day.

Next Adventure:  Victor Falls, Window Tinting and Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Welcome to Renton, Home of the Seahawks and the WSGA Holiday Party

A few months ago I saw they were having another holiday party up in Renton.  I needed to go!  I talked to my boss about working half a day and then leaving after noon to head on up.  She said it was okay.  Now the preparation begins.

I found out which caches we didn't have, which were newer and which ones were near the Renton Seahawks sign.  I wasn't sure what time we would get there or how much time we had to find caches before the event.  I found two caches that had to do with the Seahawks and we were very excited to find them.

I didn't really run a query because I figured we wouldn't have time for much.  That night, I got everything ready.  My jersey, jeans, different shoes, my Seahawk beanie and my caching backpack.  I even made sure I had my WSGA name tag.

I got up for work the next day and made it to the hotel around 9.  Kathy made me do the offices and Building E and then a lot of stays.  I had time for the stays and one of my four checkouts.  Mom and Bev got there around noon, I grabbed my stuff, told Kathy thank you for letting me go and I went and signed out.  We got into my Escape and off to Renton we went via Hwy 7 to Hwy 167 to the 405.

I set my GPS to the first Seahawk cache.  We got off of 405, turned around the corner and there it was...the Seahawk sign.  They practice in the VMAC facility just down the road.  I was stoked!  We found a place to park.  I changed into my Seahawk clothes and up the road we walked.  I got my camera attached to the tripod so we all could be in the picture together.  As I was setting it up, a huge truck with a man and woman pulled up.  I swear they had at least 14 Seahawk/12th Man flags flapping around in the back.  They honked and we waved.

After our pictures, we found the cache placed down below the sign, 12th Man Whimsey (GC28T10).  The hint basically gave it away.  We walked right up to it.  I signed all of our names, put it back and headed back to the car.

We got in the Escape and drove the half mile to the next one, A Cacher's Salute to the Seahawks (GC4Y0JK).  It was at another entrance of May Creek, yes...the same May Creek Bob and I did about two years ago, except it was on the other side of I-5 up the hill a bit.  We parked the car in the pull out and ran across the street.  We walked along the manicured saw dust trail following Bev, who had the GPS.  We followed another small trail off to the side which led us to a tree and a small stump.  There it was in all of its Seahawk glory!

It was only 1:30 so we went to the next one, Lake Washington Beach (GCFAMW) down the road to a park settled near Lake Washington.  The parking was going to be tricky.  We found a wide spot in the road to park but we had to walk the quarter of a mile to the park.  No big deal.  When we got there, we looked inside the rock wall and then read the hint.  Oh, it's not in the rock wall.  We expanded our search area and spotted it.  Unfortunately, Bev and I were too short to reach it so we had mom grab it from its hiding spot.  Haha.  Putting it back was entertaining.

We walked back to the car and headed back to 405 and got off at Kennydale.  We went up the hill and found the hall on our left.  We were one of the first ones at the event (GC5G0ZJ).  We picked a table...the same one we've been sitting at for the past three years, the one by the kitchen, bathrooms and the heater.  We talked to a few people, signed in, dumped off trackables and grabbed the paperwork to renew our WSGA membership.  This year I had enough to purchase mine and Ben's.  He was a first-time member and this is my 3rd year as a member.

As it reached 3:30 it was food time!  I brought blue rice krispy treats, for Seahawks of course, Bev brought brownies and other people brought various chips, dips, chicken, casseroles, soups, sandwiches, fruit and veggies.  It was a delicious potluck of food.  We ate, listened to awards, stories, upcoming events for the year and our board was looking for some new members to join.  If I didn't work weekends I would take on a role.  However, not at this time unfortunately.

We did the gift exchange and I got a bunch of Tupperware containers.  At least it's different every year.  The first year I got an ammo can, second year a container of various sizes of logbook bags, last year three pairs of scissors and this year, containers.  Mom and Bev had just about all they could handle.  They wanted to go home.  We packed up our stuff and headed back home the way we came.  We dropped off Bev at her house and then went home.  Another WSGA event in the books!

Next Adventure:  Cache Maintenence at Millersylvania State Park, Farm Boy, Spire and Applebees