What a BuzzKill

With some help from my best friend, I achieved the 500 geocaches found mark a couple of days ago. We were out night caching (as we often tend to do) and nabbed the last 9 I needed. It feels pretty good to have gotten this far, especially since I’m not one to really care about the numbers when it comes to geocaching. It’s mostly just a way for me to get out of my apartment, meet folks with similar interests, and enjoy spending time with some great people.

I also got around to hiding another cache, this one being a more out of the way/wilderness hide – like, as in you actually have to hike to it. It’s in the foothills above Orange/Anaheim Hills, along some hiking/mountain biking trails. The location was found while I was out hiking with some friends from work last month. It just seemed so odd that there was a trail to this particular place, that I thought I’d hide a geocache there. I decided to call this one “Well-Defined Trail to Nowhere“.

The Smithsonian Magazine website has a fascinating story about some South Pacific Islanders and how they worship what seems to be an American. It’s interesting to read about how Americans had an effect on the spiritual beliefs within the culture when they suddenly appeared during World War II.

Their website seems to have a lot of interesting articles that I look forward to reading, as time permits. Hopefully you get something out of it, too.

File this under “obviously somebody had too much time on their hands” (wait – that wouldn’t fit on a file tab)…

My buddy Quinn posted a link on his blog today to a rather entertaining spoof of a trailer for a non-existent movie called Brokeback to the Future. It’s pieces of movie footage from the various Back to the Future movies put together to make it look as though Doc and Marty had some sort of “relationship” other than that of Delorean-time-machine-inventor and accidental-teenage-time-traveller. Funny stuff!

As promised, here are some of the pictures taken while hiking through Riley Park this past weekend. Click an image to view a larger version.

An Old Studebaker Wagon

Entrance to Butterfly Garden

Staci Ann & a Live Oak Tree

A Coyote in the Nature Center

Trails Climbing Up Rolling Hills

Looking Back Down at the Trail Up

Rana, Barbara, & Staci Ann

Rana, Barbara, & Gabe

The View From Horned Toad Vista Point

This is the second Valentine’s Day in a row that I haven’t felt any pressure to do or give something to somebody that I didn’t want to do or give on my own. It feels great!

My ex, Sherise, is the type of person that expresses her love through gifts – or “tokens of love” as she used to put it. So by her reasoning she felt loved when she was given stuff, especially when accompanied by some sort of mushy sentiment along with it. Now I’m not saying that she’s wrong for being like this, not at all – it just isn’t the way that I feel driven to show my affection for others. This fact didn’t help in our relationship at all, as one might imagine.

Having gone through the stereotypical Valentine’s Day routine with Sherise for over 14 years, I can say that I’m officially done with all of the “traditional” V-Day stuff. I’ll express my feelings for the gal I care about in the manner that I feel I show it best. If that isn’t enough for her, then she isn’t the one for me!

When I care for somebody (friend or more), I do things for them. Be it tuning up their computer, helping them move, watching their pets, listening to them talk about their life, etc. – I’m there for them. This is something I enjoy doing for them. Sure, I might give gifts when appropriate (birthdays & Christmas), but it’s usually something that the person can use – preferably something they actually need. I’m reluctant to buy something for somebody when they already have pretty much all they need. There are some exceptions to this line of thinking, but it isn’t the norm.

A card is what I tend to give during special days (like today). If I were romantically involved with a gal, I’d definitely take her out to dinner (or cook something special myself) and try to find something that we could do together that was fun and best suited to our relationship and personalities. It’s possible that a gift might be involved, but that would depend on many different factors.

So before I come off sounding like an uncaring oaf, I hope it’s clear that I’m not saying that I won’t express how I feel to the people that I care for. Quite the contrary! It’s just that I won’t waste my time trying to express it to them in a way that feels false or completely foreign to my core personality (sensibilities?) anymore. WYSIWYG!

Just got home after attending a Geocaching event (gathering) named “Love Cache” (yep, it’s a spin-off of the B-52’s song “Love Shack” – go ahead and sing it, I won’t try to stop you). Not much love for BuzzKill (my geocaching alias) to find, as the single gals in their 30’s that I was told would be there by the event organizer were nowhere to be found.

That didn’t stop me from getting too much unwanted attention from a 14 y/o girl, though. EESH! This is the second time that I’ve been at one of these geocaching events where a minor (the first one was 15) ends up giving me ga-ga eyes and hangs around trying to talk with me for a good portion of the event, while I’m doing my best to talk with the adults. It’s a very uncomfortable thing, I tell ya! At least this one didn’t come straight out and proposition me. (shudder)

Speaking of strange minors; a boy – I’d have to guess around 9 or 10, walked up to the table where me and 5 other (adult) geocachers were seated and announced, “I just violated a cherry!” We stared at him sorta stunned for a moment before he grinned and held up a maraschino cherry skewered by a half a dozen plastic sword toothpicks. Uhm… yeah.

The event began to thin out after the raffle was over, so I decided to say my goodbyes and go home. On my way out to my car, I passed by the flirty 14 y/o who waited until I was 10-15 feet away before telling me to “shake it”. What on Earth are parents teaching their kids these days!?

This morning was spent hiking with some of the gals from work that I’m friends with. We (well, I) decided that we should give Thomas F. Riley Wilderness Park a try, since none of us had ever been there before. Like the rest of Orange County’s parks, this was a pleasant place to visit. The weather was clear and not too warm, and the UV factor was low, so I didn’t even need sunscreen. It doesn’t get much better than this for a hike with some friends.

It was the shortest hike that our group has done so far (just barely over 2.5 miles), but we spent the entire time talking and laughing. Either because of our noise level or that it was just a slow day for critters, we didn’t encounter much wildlife on the trail, which was a shame.

After the hike we enjoyed a potluck picnic and more laughter. For the most part the items we brought were pretty healthy, but one of the gals had brought some sinful marshmallow/cookie treats along. Out of curiosity, we looked at the ingredients on the box and were astounded not only by what was in it (3 types of sugars, partially hydrogenated oils, etc) but also by the sheer length of the ingredients list! Not surprisingly, the nutritional value of these sweet morsels was practically none, but the gal that brought them was quick to point out that at least they provided 1 gram of protein. I’m just going to leave that part of the story at that…

After the picnic a couple of us went to check out the park office and nature center. I wanted to talk to one of the rangers to see if they were open to allowing the placement of a geocache or two within the park. The ranger was very nice and told me that I could, as long as I worked with them when I go about hiding the caches.

We took some pictures, so hopefully the 2 gals with cameras will send me the pictures soon and I’ll post them here.

My boss just sent me the following email:

Well, all the question marks were actually those little boxes you sometimes see when an invalid character can’t be displayed. Anywho, I thought it was hella funny.

Went to lunch with a couple of the gals from work. We went to a Salvadorian pupuseria (Pupusería San Sivar) just off of Harbor and 19th Street in Costa Mesa. Very tasty food!

While we were there we noticed this door that had been covered 1/2 way up by linoleum: