Pow-Wow

Last Saturday was our annual Cub Scout Pow-Wow. This year's theme was "Are You Smarter Than A Cub Scout?" A new location this year, Evergreen Elementary in Allendale. Thought about stopping by to say hi to Eric while I was in town, but I don't think he would have appreciated a visit that early. And by the time I was done, he was working in downtown GR. Oh well, I saw him the next day.

My first session, was (you guessed it) Geocaching. I had about a dozen scout leaders that wanted to learn about caching. I went through the Geocaching 101 presentation that I have on power point (the same one I used last weekend) and showed examples of cache containers, swag, and other caching related stuff. I had hidden my red ammo can out on the school grounds, and after the power point, we went outside to find it. There was a GPS receiver for every two scouters, thanks to the council's supply. Took them a few minutes but most had good luck with finding it!
Gave away one more geocoin at the end of the session. I have yet to win one myself. Most likely, I'll be allowed to keep one anyway in return for all the work I've done on Get in the Game; but I'd like to win one fair and square.

After a break for lunch (yep, brought my own. Down to 145 today (Wed. the 20th) as I enter this) I set up for my Cub Cooking session. Didn't have any cubs to cook, so just had to do some cooking demonstrations and fun stuff. Our first task was to make gingerbread in dixie cups. 3 T of gingerbread mix, 1 T of water, mix in a 5 oz dixie cup, and bake in a 400 degree electric skillet for 15 minutes. Really works (and smelled good too.) Have to admit I had a cup - not very much in the way of calories with such a small portion.

2nd up was butter. Surprising that more had never done this before. Baby food jars, half full of heavy whipping cream, shake until butter forms and the buttermilk separates from it. Add a little salt to taste, and eat on crackers. Ummm, good!

Next was ice cream in a can. In hindsight, wish I'd had them make individual ice cream in ziplocks - the cans were noisier and took longer, plus didn't freeze as well. We ended up drinking vanilla shakes....

And last but not least was armpit fudge. 1/2 c of powdered sugar, 1 T butter, 2 tsp cream cheese, 1 T cocoa, and a dash of vanilla. Put into a ziplock bag, squish it around (put it in your armpit to soften it) and you have fudge. Ok, true confession time. I did do this and ate it, too. Saved my extra calories for the day. Oh, it was good....but I don't miss chocolate as much as I thought I would.

After pow-wow, I decided to catch a few caches, of course, on the way home. Stopped in a nearby cemetery for one called "The Search." I had to gather some information from several grave sites, then project a waypoint from another grave to the final (not hidden by a grave.) Got all but one piece of info, drove around to where the missing piece was, got it, then sat in the car and tried to remember how to project a waypoint. Looked up and I was blocked in by two cars. Turned out that the first car were also there caching, so we teamed up, finally figured out the projecting a waypoint thing on about the third or fourth try, and found the cache.

I found two other quick caches on the way home, then spent a quiet evening at home with Steve. Nice day.

Caching Camporee

Last weekend, the first busy one of October, marked a lot of geocaching. What fun! And almost perfect fall weather.

Started Wednesday after my doctor's appointment. Went down to Bysterveld Park near Dorr, where I'd recently attended an event in the pouring rain. Wanted to get the new caches placed for the event, so headed there. Most were fun, walking in the park caches. One in particular was a matchstick container called "just hanging..." Well, it was hanging. 20 feet up in a tree. Held in place by a crafted wire spiral, with a hook at the top and a loop in the middle. Had to use a very long tree branch to maneuver it down. Not as hard, just get ahold of the loop and lift everything off the branch. Getting it back up was the trick. Every time I tried to lift the container the loop would slide down the branch and it was time to start over. Not until I added a shield to the top of the stick did the container stay on the stick long enough to put it back into place. A fun challenge!

Friday morning I set off at 7:30 a.m. My destination was Camp Tapico near Kalkaska. Normally about a three hour drive. I did it in a little over 7 hours, arriving at about 2:45 p.m. We were expecting units early in the evening and I needed to set up my camp, etc.

Caching my way up M-66, most of the caches were typical quick hides. I did make one find that was especially satisfying. It was called a Dam Good Cache. Located near a dam, it was a nice little walk in the woods, with coordinates that were right on target and a nice container at the end. The container had the original log book, dating back to 2005 when cachers still left detailed written logs instead of just signing their names like is the tendency today. It's what caching used to be all about and it was my best find of the day. Another was an easy find, but it led me to this tiny wayside chapel which had two pews deep, two pews across for total seating space for four. I also found a Cache to Eagle from another council.

The camporee was fun. Set up my tent near the lake, made for a beautiful view. First time out with the new tent from last Christmas, not sure why the opportunity hadn't come up sooner. So a few differences which made it a bit challenging but I got it figured out. Then just sat and had some quiet time before the boys came. Had brought my own food, had a chef's salad for dinner though later I did have a bit of pulled pork that the rest of the staff had brought.

Saturday morning, I taught back to back sessions of Geocaching 101 to the boys and leaders, while the other half of the boys/leaders had actual work with the GPS receivers outside. I had hidden some micro containers in the room and the boys had trouble finding them, especially the bolt and screw with a log inside. If my sister Debbie ever reads this she'll know which one I mean! Anyway, had hidden that one on a fire extinguisher bracket and had to finally help them find it. Later, I was hiding the caches again and could not find that one. Someone had put it back somewhere nearby (on a screw that had been used to attach a sign) and I COULDN'T SEE IT MYSELF... Everyone got a kick out of how they'd fooled me in return! Also had a lot of examples of containers, swag, and travelers for the boys to look over. Used my new power point presentation which I think works a lot better.

After lunch (I had brought my sandwich, but must admit to breaking down and eating one small cookie...) we all met and I helped upload coordinates into GPS receivers for the boys. They could choose either a moderate course or two more challenging ones. After that (and receiving a hershey bar from our District Executive) I went back to camp and packed up since I needed to teach Sunday School the next morning and couldn't stay overnight again and still do that.

Needed to find at least one cache since it was a yet unfilled day on my caching calendar, but ended up finding 12 more. I had found 20 on Friday. Had decided to take 131 back down, it's two lane down to north of Cadillac but then freeway the rest of the way home. Faster. Got down to Cadillac and figured I'd better eat some dinner. I'd already eating half the chocolate bar, rationalizing it as my extra 150 calories for the day. So stopped at Big Boy and had a grilled chicken caesar salad while using their wifi. Good girl. Then got back on the highway. Discovered that there was another Cache to Eagle close by and, even though it was almost dark, stopped for it anyway. Then headed for home, arriving about 9 p.m.

Happy Day for Steve

So much of what I blog about Steve doesn't paint him in a great light. One way that I use my blog is to vent some of my frustrations with him, and while that's good for me, not always good for him. Though he doesn't read my blog, probably doesn't even remember that I have one.

But I did want to share about Steve's great day last Thursday. Earlier that week, he'd forwarded me an email about the Aptera prototype coming to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, one day only, Thursday, October 7. The Aptera is this hybrid vehicle that is supposed to get 200 mpg, Steve as a designer has been very interested in them since he first heard about them and wants to get one when they are available here.

Anyway, his comment on the forwarded email was, "wish I could see this..."

I replied with, "Why not? Go for it. You still have some vacation days left."

So he did. He drove to Chicago that morning, leaving about 7 a.m. He wore a black Aptera tshirt that he'd bought and pulled into the museum area right behind the semi tractor containing the prototype. He parked in a nearby lot and shortly thereafter learned it was an employee lot. The attendant didn't say anything because of Steve's shirt - he thought Steve worked for Aptera! Steve went inside the museum, paid the fee, and saw the prototype as well as an earlier model that had been on display for a while. He also went through much of the rest of the museum since he was there.

I'm not clear about the details here, but somehow he got to talking to a museum employee who took him through some back passages and out to the staging area where there was a third Aptera that had been taking local media out for rides. Somehow Steve was able to get a ride in that car, and ended up getting another tshirt and water bottle. Turns out the employee was the chief curator of the museum....

Anyway, Steve was the happiest I've seen him in a long while by the time he came home about 9 p.m. that night. So glad for him. Really do love him in spite of the struggles we've been having as of late.

A healthy progress!

Last Wednesday was my checkup, the "deadline" so to speak as to my showing some improvement or my doctor was going to consider adding insulin to my treatment plan for my diabetes. Since I've been doing so well, I was looking forward to this visit!

As of last Wednesday, I was at 149.5 lbs., which gave me a loss of 19 pounds. I didn't expect my A1C (an average measurement of blood sugar levels for the previous 3 months) to show dramatic improvement since it was a 3 month average, not a 6 week average. But, nonetheless, I went from a 7.5 on August 4 to a 6.3 on October 6! Excellent. My doctor was very pleased and I should keep up the good work, which of course I plan to do.

And an update a week later (it's been so busy I haven't had a chance to blog lately...)

My weight this morning was at 147.5. Only two pounds for the week, but it's coming off slowly which is better for permanent loss. And I had some challenging eating situations during the week, too.

Fasting blood sugar continues to be in a healthy range.

Art Prize wrap up

Well, Art Prize 2010 is over and done. I estimate that I saw about half of the exhibits. The trip I blogged previously about turned out to be my last venture downtown - life has remained pretty busy and I felt I did cover most if not all of the major venues.

The winner of the competition was Cavalry by Chris Laporte (I think I got the name and title correct!) which was exhibited at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. I had ended up seeing eight of the top ten entries, and voted for Vision. I did like Cavalry but liked Vision better. Above, the top image is Vision, and the bottom is a partial view of Cavalry.

It was a wonderful experience and I'm really looking forward to next year!