2010 Eufaula Me to Fall Fest!

The Yogi’s found this friendly little critter at the Tulsa Area Geocacher’s (“TAG”) annual Fall Fest at Lake Eufaula State Park here in Oklahoma. The critter was actually a cache.

About 160 or so geocachers from all over descended on the park for a weekend of socializing and finding caches. The main event is “hide and seek” where the cachers hide temporary caches and find other cacher’s temporary caches. It makes for a lot of finding caches. I think there were well over a 100 placed during the event. We didn’t hide one this year but we spent some time finding them.

The top right hand cache is actually a camo duct tape wallet. No, you weren’t supposed to keep it.

Here is one where having a walking stick came in handy

Yes, its a fake snake but I never stick my hand underneath a board anyway.

SuperPizzaBoy found a swing.

But just like lots of other things in life. Its not considered officially done until you have the tee shirt.

There were tons and tons of people who helped put this event on. I don’t know all of them but I appreciate their hard work. The event went very smoothly and everybody had a great time.

Have you ever tried geocaching?

Don’t know what it is? Here is Geocaching 101

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

My favorite Oklahoma Ladies, the lovely, talented, smart, and very hot RHOKing RHOKette’s of the Real Housewives of Oklahoma have as the subject of this week’s McLinky Monday:

What is your favorite John Hughes movie and why?

I have to tell you “16 Candles, isn’t it.” Sweetie likes it, when its on, I grab my Sports Illustrated. Nothing wrong with it, its just not me.

The Breakfast Club isn’t it either. I like it and, even though I was never a Generation X slacker nor did I ever spend a minute in detention or ever get in trouble because I was such a perfect guy. Funny enough though, I can see a couple of the RHOK’ers and their spouses in the movie. No need to explain myself. Nope, I’ll just leave it at that.

My favorite John Hughes movie is Ferris Bueller’s Day off. The first time I saw I laughed till my sides hurt. I have seen it dozens of times and it still makes me laugh.

I never get tired of watching it and it seems like I have the whole thing memorized. I recently got a DVD of the movie at an Energy Industry function. Actually my door prize was “Flash Dance” which I was going to throw in the trash but I ran into somebody who loves that movie and her door prize was Ferris. So we both ended up happy.

I put it in contention for the fourth best movie ever. (“Chinatown”, “Cars”, and “Down With Love” are ahead of it.)

Anyways, go check out the RHOK and tell them what your favorite John Hughes movie is and buy a tee shirt.

My World – Oklahoma’s Lake Eufaula State Park

The Yogi’s attended a geocaching event at eastern Oklahoma’s Lake Eufaula State Park this past weekend.

From their website: “Lake Eufaula State Park is surrounded on three sides by the largest manmade lake in Oklahoma, Lake Eufaula. Visitors can enjoy RV and tent camping, an 18-hole golf course with putting green and pro shop, indoor and outdoor fishing dock, picnic areas, group facilities, swimming beaches, playgrounds, kid’s fishing pond, hiking trails, nature trails, nature center, watersports, naturalist activities, and naturalist programs. They also offer special events at Halloween, Christmas, and Labor Day.”

They have a full range of campgrounds from full RV tie-ins to nice spots to pitch a tent. The campsites are spread out so the campers are not on top of each other. We even had a nice view of the lake.

We took full advantage of the park’s many trails.

They have at least one fully accessible paved trail, the Crazy Snake Trail, with handicapped parking nearby.

I guess, just to make it fun, there are feral hogs out and about according to this sign.

And of course, if its Oklahoma and the weather is warm, count on ticks.

The Park had a “Haunted Stables” and “Trail of Terror” set up where for a small fee you could get yourself spooked. That was a lot of fun.

That prepped us for the best part of camping is the campfire at night, right?

Hot dogs and Smores, right? And a high tech twist to an ancient tradition. Sweetie reading scary stories that she found on the internet on her Blackberry.

We had a great time at the park for our event. I’ll be posting about the event later this week.

Please check out “That’s My World Tuesday” for views and commentary from all over.

Pet Pride – Chrissy

Chrissy is our big, fat, cranky, Maine Coon. She is the Queen of the house. The other critters have learned to steer clear of her. She may be big but she can do the three foot dash quicker than any of the others.

She likes me because I’m the only one in the family fatter than she is and it makes for good naps.

Excerpt from a pet blessing:

“Give us the grace
to see all animals as gifts from You
and to treat them with respect
for they are Your creation”

from “Prayers and Blessings for Pets and Animals“

Check out my friend Baloney for other pairings.

Who is your favorite critter?

The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson

I just got through reading “The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest” by the late Stieg Larsson. The “Girl” is Lisbeth Salander, a dynamo who suffered severely as a young teenager in a psychiatric hostpital the hands of the Swedish Government and was then brutally raped by her legal guardian when she was in her 20’s.

This book wraps the whole story up. It involves nuclear secrets, Russian Spies, rogue intelligence agents. If you like thrillers you have to read the Millenium Series. If you haven’t read the series this book won’t make too much sense by itself. Start with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

I give this book four stars out of five. I got mine on Kindle. I think its coming out on paperback soon.

Weekend Reflections – Moon Over Lake Yahola

You have to look hard for the moon. When I was taking the pic I could see the moon’s reflection on the water. It is very faint at the bottom of the image.

Check out Weekend Reflections.

Skywatch – Carlsbad California State Park #2

Pacific Ocean, Carlsbad, CA

Interstitial Geocaching

What?

From Merriam-Webster.com

in·ter·stice noun in-ˈtər-stəs

plural in·ter·stic·es-stə-ˌsēz, -stə-səz

Definition of INTERSTICE

1a : a space that intervenes between things; especially : one between closely spaced things b : a gap or break in something generally continuous 2: a short space of time between events

Most of my Geocaching these days is interstitial. What I mean is that instead of spending an afternoon caching I work it into my routine. I try to fit my hobby into other stuff that I’m doing. Running, running errands, going to the park with the family. Sweetie knows what I’m doing and is actually pretty tolerant of it. As long as it doesn’t take too long.

Soccer Mom Stare Wall

Monday night I encountered a Soccer Mom Stare Wall. I was in a suburb north of Tulsa to find a few geocaches in a city park. Now usually parks are pretty deserted at 6 pm on a weekday. Not this one, every kid in town was there for soccer practice with their moms. You remember soccer moms? Yep, they are the ones who put Bill Clinton in office. Don’t blame me, blame the soccer moms. Oops, lost a few followers there! Oh well. Sorry, time to move on.

As luck would have it one of the caches was located within about 50 yards of a field where the smallest soccer players I’ve ever seen were practicing. They were all girls, little girls. The dad coach was calling them “ladies.” Like, “Ladies, we need to get going here.” So, I walked way around the field, the ladies, the lady’s coach, and the lady’s Moms, sitting on their collapsible chairs. I then climbed up the berm surrounding the field and down the other side to the zero point on my GPSr so I could start looking for the cache.

So it took me a while to find it. While I was looking for it I could hear voices getting closer. But I didn’t look until I had found the cache and signed the log. What I saw, out of the corner of my eye, was about three of the Mom’s who walked across the field to stand a good distance away and stare at me. I knew they were staring at me before I saw them. I could feel the protective Soccer Mom Stare Wall.

Didn’t bother me though for two reasons. One, I wasn’t doing anything wrong or bothering anybody. Two, those Moms were doing what Mom’s do. They were making sure their kids were safe. I’m ok with Mom’s looking out for their kids.

So without ever looking at them directly I walked back the way I came way around the ladies, the lady’s coach, and the lady’s Moms.

What would the world be like without Soccer Moms? Not so nice I’m afraid.

Ruby Tuesday – Window

Window at Legoland in Carlsbad, CA

Check out Ruby Tuesday

Wild Wild Weekend

Whew, what a weekend.

Started Saturday morning when I ran in a 10K race. The Tulsa Zoo Run.

Sorry, I didn’t take any photos during the race. I decided to run this one.

No, I didn’t win it. In fact this is the scene I came upon within seconds of going through the finish line.

You know what this is? I’ll tell you. The results of the race I was running in had already been determined, printed, and posted by the time I finished. That was a clue that I didn’t win it.

However, I did get a picture of tiger defecating.