November 30, 2011

November 30, 2011

Brent woke me early so I could see the kids off to school.  I still had packing to do, but I was cold so I got back in bed to get warm.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!  The fact that I went back to sleep was secondary.

When I was awake and ready to go, Brent and I went to “Awful Waffle” for a late breakfast.  A biscuit and gravy was more than I could eat, but it tasted really good.

It is always hard to say goodbye.  I had a really good visit.  I will miss Brent, Coleson, and Sara a lot.  And even Willie, Brent’s huge Golden Retriever has a big place in my heart.  He’s a very talented dog.  He does a wonderful impersonation of a speed bump.  I told him to keep practicing!

Brent says that Willie is a Dent Maker.  Not only has he dented the trash can by wagging his tail, but he leaves a dent when in the bedspread when he takes a nap on Brent’s bed.  Now do you believe how really talented he is?

I saw something from the plane window that I had never seen before.  There was a winding river with sand bars all along.  It looked like a fancy ribbon, making its way across the land.  That was an interesting “gift wrapping” for this part of the earth.

Because of the strong winds it was a very rough landing coming into Oakland.  It was good to see “old what’s his name” waiting  to help me with my luggage. I’ve missed the old guy.

We went to In-N-Out for a late supper before driving back to Walnut Creek.  As much as I enjoyed being with Brent and his band of hooligans, it was really good to get home to the MH.

November 29, 2011

November 29, 2011

Warmer weather this morning and a “blue sky day” which was a special treat for me.  Its my last day in “Sippi.”  Tomorrow I sprout wings and fly home.

I hope Bill picks me up at the airport in Oakland.  You may have heard that some years ago, before the cell phone era, he left me at a fuel stop.  He was out on the Interstate before he discovered that I wasn’t in the back of the van sleeping.  Of course, it was several miles before he could turn around.  I was sitting on a curb waiting.  Its a great story and I don’t let him forget it!

Brent and I had a good day.  We talked about his time in the Air Force, especially when he was in Iceland.  There were things that I hadn’t ever told him and some that he had forgotten.  It was nice to have a time to chat.  Just like all of our children, he’s special!

After Sara and Coleson finished homework, we went to Amy and Mike’s to tell them goodbye.  Heather, who lives next door, was there, too.  It is great to know Brent’s friends!  They are nice, very caring people.

Coleson chose our dinner place, Logan’s Roadhouse.  Their food is good, especially the hot rolls.  When we got back home we watched a movie, Hoodwinked Too.  It was a good ending for our last evening together for awhile.  Sniff, sniff!

November 28, 2011

November 28, 2011

It was colder this morning (35°) than yesterday and some light rain fell intermittently.  What I really wanted to see were snowflakes.  No such luck!  The only flake I saw was when I looked in the mirror.  Yikes!

Brent and I went to lunch before doing a bit of shopping and a couple of errands.  The cold weather kept us from staying out very long.

We spent the rest of the day doing chores around the house.  I also checked, periodically, to see if there was any snow falling.  Not yet!  (Insert sigh here.)

November 27, 2011

November 27, 2011

We woke up to cold and damp.  Br-r-r-r!  It was 45° and spitting rain.   After a very good brunch, prepared by our resident chef, Brent, we decided we would do something a little unusual for November 27th.

We opened Christmas presents!!!!  I’m here now and won’t be here on December 25th.  So today was it!  Of course, the kids were all for it.  They love presents!  Who doesn’t?

This afternoon we went to visit Paul and Debbie Henderson.  Bill and I met them at a Brandon campground when Brent moved to the area.  We’ve remained friends and enjoy seeing them when we are here.  Besides that, they appreciate our “insanity.”

Brent and I decided this was a good evening to stay inside and watch football.  The Denver Broncos won in OT.  Yea!  That’s the only outcome that I know, and in pro football its the only one that matters to most of our family.  Brent is the “turncoat.”

November 26, 2011

November 26, 2011

I wasn’t feeling well this morning so when the “tribe” went to breakfast at the Waffle House (aka Awful Waffle) I stayed home.  I spent most of the day being very lazy.

Lori, JP, and Natalia went to the airport at 2:00.  We had a good time while they were here.  Short though it was, it was great to have them for those few days.

Brent and I watched the Oregon/Oregon State football game (aka as the Civil War).  Oregon did a good job of beating OSU.  There was much cheering going on in this household.

After dinner we played Phase 10.  Brent won!  Guess who lost?  

November 25, 2011

November 25, 2011

BLACK FRIDAY!  The Dane girls didn’t hit the stores until about 7:30, so we weren’t typical Black Friday shoppers, but it was about all we could handle.  We shopped a variety of places, all of us making purchases.  

At 12:00, we met the boys at Cock-of-the-Walk, our favorite place for fried catfish, fried pickles, and hush puppies.  With very happy

tummies, we decided to go to Vicksburg to visit the Vicksburg National Military Park.

Our first stop in Vicksburg was downtown on the Mississippi River.  They have built a wall to keep back the water during flood season.  Murals depicting scenes of Vicksburg history are painted on the sections of the wall.

Brent’s carload of “tourists” wanted to go to the Coca Cola Museum before going to the military park.  Lori, Natalia, and I wanted to visit the Vicksburg National Cemetery in the park.  We went on ahead, but for some strange reason (lack of cash at the entrance booth?????) the Coca Cola Museum visit was not to happen today.  Brent’s group came on to the park, and after driving past many historical markers they made their way to the display of the USS Cairo Gunboat.  Lori’s carload drove through the cemetery, but didn’t find places to park and walk around.

The map showed a city cemetery south of the park.  It had a large section where Confederate soldiers were buried.  Natalia was able to navigate, via her iPhone, to the cemetery.  We drove around, taking a few pictures, before parking and walking among the markers.

I had my iPhone set on geocaching and noticed there was a cache 220 feet from where we parked the car.  Off I went in search of the container.  I located it in a hollow tree stump about 4 feet tall.  I had to use the flashlight app my iPhone to see down inside the stump.  As I was checking it out, I had visions of another stump that I looked in nearly three years ago.  This time I wasn’t covered by a swarm of killer bees, but I couldn’t reach far enough down to grab the container.  Lori came to the rescue.  On the second try she was able to reach the “prize,” all the time muttering about the things she had to do for me! After I signed the log book, I didn’t need help replacing the cache.  I just “hucked” it in the stump and left.

By the time we left the cemetery it was nearly dark.  We met Brent’s crew at a convenience store where we got water, etc. for the trip back to Brandon.

We were all really tired so after eating leftovers for supper, Lori took a couple of tired kids back to their hotel and those of us left behind didn’t accomplish a whole lot for the rest of the evening.

November 24, 2011

November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving! 

You know that my family and I have many, many things to be thankful for.  Actually, they are much too numerous to list here.  We count our blessings on a daily basis.  And when we see someone who is less fortunate than we have been, for whatever reason, we do a “blessings check.”

Today, however, when my personal guru, JP, was able to get my MAC on the Internet via Brent’s router, I added something new to my thankful list.  I have had to use a PC to send my blog for the last week.  I promise, a PC and I are not a good combo.  So, thanks, JP, and thanks, Coleson, for generously sharing your much maligned PC with me for the last week.

And speaking of Coleson, Happy Birthday!  Thirteen years ago you were born into our family, and already you are a teenager.  Yikes!  Oh, how the years have flown by!

We went to a pot luck Thanksgiving dinner at Amy and Mike’s. There were five families with three generations each.  It was quite a gathering with food for at least twice that many people.  It was truly a feast.

We ended the day singing “Happy Birthday” to Coleson.

November 23, 2011

At 9:30 we went to the hotel where Lori and her kids are staying.  It was so good to see them here in "Sippi."  Lori rented a car:  two reasons--we wouldn't all fit into Brent's car and the girls wanted to go different places than the guys.

Our first shopping place was Plato's Closet, an upscale thrift store.  That effort seemed to make all of us hungry so off to Cracker Barrel we went.  That's one eating place marked off the California clan's list.  (In this family, trips were often planned around places we wanted to eat.  Once we were going to fly to Boston  for dinner.........but that's another story.)

We went separate ways after lunch.  I can't vouch for Brent and crew's activities for the afternoon, but the rental car beat a hot trail to Hobby Lobby.  That's a great place to shop and to browse.

When we left there we must have all been tired because the other stores in the area didn't look enticing.  On the way back to Brent's we stopped at Walmart for a few groceries.

Brent was just getting the ribs in the smoker when we got home.  I can't verify what anyone else did with the afternoon because I took a long nap...a very long nap.  I felt much better after that.

The ribs were wonderful, as usual.  After our dinner settled, Brent lit the fireplace and we made s'mores.  There was a lot of hilarity mixed in with these activities.  That's the norm!

November 22, 2011

This morning we were hit by a terrible storm...heavy rain, lightning, and thunder.  The tornado siren went off in the middle of the storm.  Coleson and I were the only ones at home.  We reviewed tornado safety.  Thank goodness we didn't have to take action.  The storm lasted for an hour.

We had a reprieve for awhile, and then the second wave of rain came.  It wasn't  as fierce as the earlier storm.

When the storm ended most of the clouds went away, too.

After Brent came home with a new sofa and he and Coleson arranged the living room, wewent out for a late lunch.  It was a real treat for me to be out with two handsome fellows.  Usually I'm with just one...Bill.

We shopped at Best Buy and PetSmart before going back home.  We spent the rest of the day on household chores.  Lori, JP, and Natalia arrive late tonight.  We are very excited about their arrival.

November 21, 2011

Brent had his carpet cleaned today.  Sara and I decided it would be a good idea to clear out.  So where could we go?  Well, out to lunch and shopping.  What else?

We had a nice lunch at the Corner Bakery.  Their food is really good and they have Diet Dr. Pepper and Sonic-type ice...two of my favorite things.  Ah, life is good!

We spent quite a bit of time in JC Penney's.  They had some good prices on sweaters and things like that.  Sara is an expert shopper.  She's had lots of practice!

Our adventure ended at Michael's Crafts.  We spent most of the time just wandering around.

Today was a "must cache" day for us.  We are trying to find a cache on each day of the year.  Today was a date that we needed to log a "find."  Thanks to Coleson we were able to acomplish it.  The name of the cache was "Don't Count Your Chickens" hidden behind a fried chicken restaurant.  The cache was a large container of plastic eggs.  We had to open each egg until we found the log sheet.  Very clever, eh?

November 20, 2011

Brent cooked a really good breakfast late this morning...sausage, eggs, and fried potatoes.  I was in charge of the toast!  You know that several years ago I convinced Bill that toast is a hot meal.  I had no problem "cooking" my part of our brunch.  It was all very yummy!

Well fortified, we set about doing some housecleaning tasks.  We also watched the last NASCAR race of the season.  I was disappointed with the results of the championship, but the race to the chase (the last 10 races of the season) was the best since we've been watching the sport. No one ran away with the title.  It was a contest until the very last lap.

Tonight we watched the Philadelphia Eagles play against the NY Giants.  I've watched a whole lot of football this weekend!

November 19, 2011

Most of our day was taken up with college football.  We went to Mike and Amy's house.  They live not very far away, as the crow flies, but it was two or three times further driving through the neighborhood.

First we watched a game between Auburn and Sanford.  Most of the people at the gathering were Auburn fans, big time!  Auburn won, probably because of all our cheering.  It was an uproarious occasion.

For the second segment of the day, we jumped back and forth between games.  It really didn't matter who was playing unless you picked that team in the football pool.  I was the only one not involved in such, so I spent the time editing the pictures on my iPhone.

The final game of the night was between Oregon and USC.  It certainly didn't turn out the way we wanted.  Oregon lost by three points.  A field goal in the last few seconds would have tied the score.  The kick went wide!  Brent was traumatized. 

On the way home, Brent said "At least I have Willie to go home to."  Sure enough, playtime was good "medicine" for Brent.

November 18, 2011

Brent and I went to Verizon to try to get help for my ailing iPhone.  Thanks goodness it was a quick fix.  I'm afraid that I wouldn't deal too well with my phone on the fritz and no Internet.  Yikes!

We shopped at Dick's Sports and Walmart before going to collect Coleson from school to begin his Thanksgiving vacation a little early.  Sara rode the bus home.  She wanted to spend as much time as possible with her friends.  She's such a little social butterfly.

After spending a few hours with us, Sara and Coleson went with Keltie for the weekend.  Brent went to visit friends two houses away while I Willie "sat."  He's such a great dog and a very important member of this family.

November 17, 2011

I slept very late this morning.  After the tiring day I had yesterday I really needed a good rest, and I got it.

Brent's Internet setup on his PC will not let my MAC get on line.  How rude is that?  If my journal looks different, or if I have mistakes or incorrect spelling it is because I am using a different computer, and a PC at that.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it! 

We made a trip to the grocery store before Coleson and Sara came home on the bus.  Later, Brent, Sara and I went to Hobby Lobby.  Those were our only two outings of the day.

After dinner, Sara and I baked cookies.  Before you become too impressed by that bit of news or send me positive compliments on my culinary efforts, let me add...refrigerated cookie dough is just about the best thing to come down the pike since sliced bread.

November 16, 2011

Bill and I left for the airport at 4:30, as in a.m.  Ugh!

While waiting for my flight in Oakland, a family with four kids came in and sat in my area  The children were probably between six and eight years old.  They sat down, opened their computer cases, plugged into power on a console, and got busy.  After a while one of the boys said, "Oh, I forgot my cell phone."  Are those four modern age kids or what? 

The first part of my journey took me to Chicago.  That was a four hour jaunt.  After an hour at the airport I flew on to Brandon.  My arms were really tired from all that flying.  I wonder how birds can flap their wings for most of the day and part of the night.

It was great seeing Brent, Coleson, and Sara waiting for me when I got off the plane.  After loading my luggage into Brent's car, we went to eat Mexican food.

Willie, Brent's Golden Retriever, was very glad to see me, and vice versa.  He just couldn't stop wiggling.  And his tail was in high gear.

We went to see Mike and Amy, neighbors of Brent's.  Also there were Wesley and Robyn Banks.  We watched Survivor until Keltie called to say she was on her way to get Sara and Coleson.

I was very glad when bedtime arrived.  It has been a lo-o-o-ong day.

November 15, 2011

November 15, 2011

Back to the chiropractor and then out on the caching trail this morning.  It seems as if most of our days start like that.  It may be boring for you to read, but it isn’t boring for us.  Hang in there!

The next two weeks will be different.  I fly to Mississippi tomorrow.  Brent hasn’t told Sara and Coleson that I’m coming.  They would drive him crazy waiting for me to get there.  I told Brent he could tell Willie, his Golden Retriever.  I’m sure he can keep a secret.

After I have been there for several days, Lori, JP, and Natalia are flying in.  That’s a secret, too.  We should be rocking the house for about five days they are there.  I’ll leave a few days later.

Can you tell that I am really excited about going?  

November 14, 2011

November 14, 2011

After getting my hip adjusted, Bill and I drove to Pittsburg.  We found four cashes before hunger overtook us.  Thank goodness, we were very close to In-N-Out.  In case you were wondering, it was just as good as ever!

There was a cache in the Costco parking lot.  We had hunted and hunted for it two weeks ago, but didn’t find it.  Today we went back to search some more.  Well, guess what?  Bill found it in a tall metal pipe.  It was about eight feet off the ground.  He had to stand on a railing to get to it.  At some point (he said his fingers were cold) the cache slipped out of his grasp as he was trying to hook its wire around a bolt.  Oops!  We both heard it as it hit the side of the pipe an its journey to the ground.  There was no way to get to it.  Ugh!  I wrote a note of apology to the cache owner.

That was the down side of today’s caching.  The up side was that we used my iPhone to get the coordinates and information on a cache that I hadn’t loaded into the GPSs.  Although many people now use their iPhones exclusively to guide them to “ground zero,” it was a first for us.

We shopped at Winco for a few groceries before returning home.  I spent the rest of the day working on geo maps for Mississippi and for the Escapee rally that Bill will attend while I am at Brent’s for turkey.  Or is that with a turkey?  No, Bill’s staying in California. Anyway, it isn’t long until I leave.  Yippy, Skippy!

November 13, 2011

November 13, 2011

We stayed home today until mid afternoon.  Our main entertainment  was watching the NASCAR race from Phoenix.  It wasn’t the most exciting race we’ve seen, but after next week’s race from Homestead, Florida, we’ll have a long, dry spell until the Daytona race next February.  Sigh!

Our cache search took us to Pachaco.  We found three well hidden containers before going to the bowling alley to watch Lori and Natalia bowl.  I only remember one score of the three games each of them bowled.  Natalia’s score for her last game was 228.  Not too shabby, eh?  She has a really smooth delivery of the ball.  Its a pleasure to watch her in action.

Out of 500 channels that DISH network provides for us, not out of the goodness of their corporate heart, but for “more than a nominal fee,” there wasn’t anything we wanted to watch.  We chose to watch a tape of Tom Selleck in Quigley Down Under, one of our favorites.

November 12, 2011

November 12, 2011

In spite of getting off to a late start this morning, we got in gear and found six caches rather quickly.  They were in the hills west of Pleasant Hill.  The weather was great for caching.  Lots of trees had their fall colors.  It was a really pretty backdrop for our hunt today.

Our Nuvi took us on a back road getting out of the hills.  We didn’t have a clue where we were with all the twisting, winding roads.  Neither of us could remember crossing a state line, so we figured that we were still in California.  Eventually we came upon a main road, and, lo and behold, there was a Burger King.  Needless to say, we went in for lunch.

When we got back home I had a lot of “fun” things to do.  The most notable task was balancing the check book.  I’m so glad I’m  on Prozac!  

The Oregon Ducks had a very important football game tonight against Stanford, who hadn’t lost a game in a couple of years, I think.  All of us in this family are Oregon fans.  Lori felt sure she could hear Brent cheering all the way from Mississippi.  We all kept the texting “wires” hot with written cheers and offers of ear plugs for Michelle and Meredith.  When those guys watch a game it gets rowdy, to put it mildly.  Lori was on the way home from Chico and a bowling tournament.  There were five people in her van and it became my job to keep them advised of the score.  53-30!  Wow!  That was really a “quack attack.”

November 11, 2011

November 11, 2011

Today is 11-11-11.  All over the world there were special geocaching events, most of which start or ended at 11:11.  There were several in this area.  We chose to go to American Canyon, north of Vallejo, where an event was being held at a Veterans’ Memorial.  

At 11:08, we walked around the Memorial waving American flags, with music from a boom box.  At 11:11, the cacher in charge of this peaceful “flash mob” said a few words of appreciation of all who have served this country.  

By then the batteries on the boom box had given up the ghost!  Two people and I thought we needed some group music so I started singing “God Bless America.”  Everyone around the circle sang with me.  It was really impromptu and a good way to finish the tribute.

While in the area, Bill and I logged three other caches.  It was cold and damp, with rain falling off and on throughout the morning, but that didn’t deter us.  We braved the storm, as any captain and crew would of done.

Before driving back to Walnut Creek, we shopped at Walmart and lunched at Sonic.  Yum, yum!

It was cold when we got home so we lit the “fireplace” and stayed in our cozy domicile for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

November 10, 2011

November 10, 2011

Today was an very busy day for us.  Bill worked on the motorhome while I went for an adjustment on my left hip.  It is much better since I started going to Dr. Caponio.  The bursitis in my left thigh is much better, too.  

Dr. Caponio is an interesting young man.  Since he was a little boy he has loved Superman.  There is memorabilia all over his office.  To top it all off, by the time he had reached his teenage years he looked like Dean Cain who played Superman in the original TV series.  Of course, his high school nickname was Superman.  He was also on the US bobsled team and has medals and pictures in his office.  I commented on them and he said most of his trophies and other awards are in a trophy room at his dad’s house.  There are certainly a lot of interesting people in this big world.  And to top it all off, he is a good chiropractor.  I feel fortunate that Lori found him, not only for her aches and pains, but mine as well. 

After leaving there I had several errands to do.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t very successful so I went home.  Bill drove me around to a few more places before taking me to a doctor appointment.

With that out of the way, we sat about to find a cache for today.  After a DNF and a couple of hides that we couldn’t even get close to, we found one in the Fuddrucker’s parking lot.  Also in the lot were seven or eight police cars with K-9 Unit on the side.  Just as we were replacing the cache container, the policemen started back to their cars.  I talked to one of them about his dog, where it was trained, what the dog’s specialty was, and things like that.  I was extremely interesting.

November 9, 2011

November 9, 2011

After going back to the chiropractor for another adjustment, we went to Concord to cache.  Before long we will have cached most of the ones in that area, so we will probably start on ones hidden in Pleasant Hill.  Let me reassure you that there isn’t the slightest possibility that we will run out of caches to do.  

By the way, we logged five finds and ate lunch at Sam’s Club before going back home.

I spent most of the afternoon on posting our geocaching finds.  I also worked on more maps of caches in the area.  This sport of ours takes quite a bit of computer work, but I don’t mind.  It is something that we both really enjoy.

November 8, 2011

November 8, 2011

This day was a very busy one.  I had an 8:00 appointment with a chiropractor.  My left hip has been giving me a lot of trouble so I decided that now was the time to get it taken care of.  I have too much to do to be slowed down by a pain in the butt.  And I’m not talking about Bill.  Hm-m-m!  Come to think of it, maybe I am!

Concord was our destination for caching today.  We found two fairly quickly and decided that we needed to stop at that many because of such a busy day ahead.  I took Bill back to the MH and went to downtown Walnut Creek.  That adventure is always a challenge for me because of traffic and narrow streets.

Today I had a twofold reason for “throwing my self into the lion’s den.”  The first was to go to a bead store for white beads.  I didn’t know that was such a tall order, but it was.  After making my purchase I walked several blocks to California Pizza Kitchen to meet a friend.  Karen Trestrail and I have been friends for quite a few years and we usually get together at least once when our motorhome makes its way to Walnut Creek.  The food was OK, but the best part was spending an hour with Karen.

After parting company, I had to walk back to the parking garage in hopes of finding the Honda.  I did!  It took me longer to make my way out of the parking building, but finally I made it and was headed for home. 

By the time I got back to the MH I was really tired, so I wrapped my weary body in a soft blanket and lay down to read.  I promptly fell asleep, dropping my book and thus losing my place.  But the nap was worth it.

Bill woke me at 3:15 to return to the doctor for x-ray results and a plan of attack (aka treatment).  

Lori and her family had all gone their separate ways for the evening.  Bill ask if I would like to go out for dinner, but I chose to stay home and eat a PNB and jelly sandwich.  That proves how really tired I was!

November 7, 2011

November 7, 2011

My task for this morning was to clean out my part of the closet and get winter clothes out and summer clothes in the storage bin above our bed.  I have quite a box of things to take to the thrift store.

After lunch, we drove toward the Walmart on Hwy. 4 in Martinez.  On the way to Wally World we snagged a couple of caches.  Our first “hunt” took us to an office building.  While we were still in the parking lot we met a local cacher.  We always enjoy talking to other caches, but our visit with Bernadette was extra special.  We love to hear about children of cachers, and the fun times they have as a family.

We stopped at Watmart just to get my prescription.  Of course, Bill left the store with two bottles of diet Dr. Thunder, Wally’s imitation of diet Dr. Pepper.  That guy is really a Dr. Pepper junkie!

One more geocache was logged before we headed back to Walnut Creek.  It was cold today with clear skies.  Lori had a crackpot of chili cooking all day.  She baked corn bread muffins to go with the chili.  That’s a perfect menu for this kind of weather, eh?

November 6, 2011

November 6, 2011

Lori fixed a big Sunday morning breakfast...bacon, sausage, eggs, hash browns,  and biscuits.  That’s a treat for us and yummy, yummy, yummy!  JP and Rosie were here, as well as Mario, Natalia’s boyfriend.  There was a lot of talking going on.

Everyone in the household left by 10:30.  Our household left, also, to go geocaching.  We found five in Concord, including one that hadn’t be found in three months.  That was a major one for us.  We seldom go after one’s that haven’t been found recently.  There are so many caches to do in this general area and we usually don’t spend time on “dead end” ones.

Bill and I were watching the NASCAR race from Texas when Lori came out and said she and Natalia were going to bowling league and did I want to go.  Of course, I wanted to go.

While at the bowling alley the Broncos/Raiders game was showing on one of the TVs.  I was able to check on the score off and on throughout the afternoon.  BRONCOS WON!  Yea!

November 5, 2011

November 5, 2011

It was colder today and not much sun.  We had gotten spoiled by the great weather of the past few weeks.

Our geocaching adventures today took us to the Pachaco area, west of Concord.  We found two and were searching for a third one when I decided I couldn’t take the cold for much longer.  I know I’m a pansy, but it is what it is.

Lori’s bowling group hosted a reunion of area bowlers from the 60s, 70s, and 80s.  It was well attended...about 70 bowlers.  It was fun seeing old friendships reconnect.  Some of those people can still bowl really well.  Strike after strike after strike!  Wow!

Just as we got back to the MH rain started to fall.  It continued most of the evening.  And of course, I was really cold.  We have a catalytic heater that Natalia dubbed our fireplace years ago.   Well, I spent much of this evening sitting in front of the “fireplace.”

November 4, 2011

November 4, 2011

It was another cold one this morning, but the clear, blue sky cheered us considerably.  While I finished a couple of chores inside, Bill worked on the outside of the coach.  It was in desperate need of some TLC.

After “forcing” ourselves to go to Burger King for lunch and going to the bank, we went to Concord to hunt for a couple of caches.  One was very hard to find.  As we were thinking about calling it a DNF, I spotted it.  Yippy, Skippy!

On the way back home, I coerced Bill into taking me to JoAnn Fabric and Crafts for some beading supplies that I needed for my current project.  While I was in the store Bill sat in the car and watched California drivers trying to annihilate each other by running red lights and failing to stop at stop signs.  

It gets dark fairly early now so I stayed inside and worked on my project...a red, white, and blue necklace.  It was a relatively quick one to make.  I was able to finish before bedtime.  It has been a while since I’ve done any beading and it was a relaxing way to end the day.

November 3, 2011

November 3, 2011

The weather took a turn for the worse today, if you can call 10° cooler worse.  I guess that depends on the part of the world you are in.  The morning was sunny, but by mid afternoon a few sprinkles had fallen.  As Bill would say, “It was a six inch rain...six inches between drops, that is!”

I had an early morning doctor appointment.  As soon as I escaped from that and we went to Walmart for medicine, we got on the caching trail.  We found a couple before deciding to go home.  Our “house” may be little, but it still takes a lot of time and effort to keep in shape.

On Saturday Lori and I are helping with a bowling tournament.  There will be a table selling bowling items, some handmade and some not.  Tonight we worked on decorating some small bowling pins..snowmen, penguins, and Christmas trees.  It was fun.  There was as much chatting as decorating.  Maybe more! 

November 2, 2011

November 2, 2011

My main job for today was to order a Nuvi from Garmin.  We hadn’t been able to find the model we wanted in any of the stores.  Hopefully it will arrive early next week.

This part of California, as well as other areas of the state, has large open space regions that have been designated for public recreation.  There are geocaches in each one.  Today our goal was to cache in the Shell Ridge Open Space.  

We walked several miles of trails and were only able to find two caches.  Two more alluded (DNFs) us.  We went up one particularly steep trail and searched for the cache for about 20 minutes.  No luck!  I couldn’t go any further so we “made a u-turn” and headed for the car.  It felt good to be out walking the trails, although we were disappointed with finding so few caches.

After a late lunch, I went to the Apple Store to get information on the iPad.  There were so many people in the stores that you could hardly “stir ‘em with a stick.”  After asking some questions, and becoming more confused than when I went in, I left.  My next stop was at the Post Office to mail Oregon Duck things to Connor and Brent.  

One last errand was to Michaels Crafts for beading wire before going back home to rest after such a busy day.

November 1, 2011

November 1, 2011

It was 11:30 before we finished our household chores.  Ugh! to household chores.

We went to Pittsburg (California, not Pennsylvania), arriving at lunchtime.  As luck would have it, the exit off the freeway was the exit to In-N-Out.  Imagine that!  One of our favorite places to eat.  Yee Haw!

With “fuel in our tanks” we headed for some caches.  There were some tough ones to find, but that just makes it that much more interesting.  When caching in a town that is not too familiar it is sometimes hard to find the correct street that gets to the cache area.  I didn’t count our u-turns today, but if going around in circles can make a person dizzy, we certainly turned blonde.  By the end of the hunt, we had logged four caches.

Before going back to Walnut Creek we stopped to do some shopping at Winco.  Their prices are good, especially on fruits and vegetables.

This new month is shaping up to be a busy one with doctor appointments, Thanksgiving, geocaching, etc., etc., etc.