Keep the FAITH

Yesterday was D  -Day. D for delivery! And while I was out traipsing around, I received an e-mail from that UPS supervisor who is now my superhero. He was following up! You could have knocked me over when I saw that. He said he saw the package was marked as received, and could I verify that. And indeed it was received!! What a huge relief, and what a nice gesture from the UPS guy to follow up!!

Well, I'm a wee bit behind again this morning, but no fault other than my own. I had to prep the homework presentations for this morning's presentations. I'm almost done, and well, the girls will have to wait for their walk today as I was out yesterday, so I did not get done what I was supposed to. It's a bit of a challenge to have visitors and keep up with the workload. 

Never mind that partway through the morning, I zipped off to pick up my MIL. DH was going to go, but he's a bit busy with work of his own, and well, his work trumps mine (strictly monetarily, of course!), and I'm OK with that. So I picked up my SIL, M came for the ride, and we were all good. She seemed her same feisty self, given that we were having a discussion about getting married. The fact of getting married religiously rather than civilly to appease parents. Yep--- the world moves in strange ways. And why are appearances still so important to people? 

Anyway, it doesn't matter; she is home and seems fine, so that is one less thing to worry about. 

Then we bundled ourselves in the car - Bear, M, Mattie, and I and we were off for an adventure. 

Wait -- I saw this on my walk in the morning. Hmmm -- what kind of funny business is going on here? I hope they are married! Whatever it is, I don't want to know.

Sharing snail spit

So we went to Crawford Lake for a wee hike. There was a geocache there that I wanted to find - the end of the puzzle cache that Ronda and I started a while back. I set off by myself to find a couple of geocaches while the others collected the clues for the puzzle. 

It was a frustrating day. I looked for three caches on my own and found ONE. The other two eluded me. The person previous to me also couldn't find those two, so are they missing? Or we just couldn't find them? 

Then we met up by the fishy bench to compare notes. 

The fish bench

Those blasted "kids." They got all the answers right! Of course, they got it right the first time!! I swear that Ronda and I had counted the number of fish on this bench MANY times, and each time, we had a different answer. 

Then we were off to find the last part of the puzzle. We were in the right spot -- I double-checked the coordinates, and the description matched the location. But NO cache. That was a very frustrating day! 

Not to let the day become a total waste, I decided I would gather all the information to log the Earthcache. Those are caches that talk about geological phenomena in the area. This time, it was all about the lake, which is special as the water doesn't circulate, so whatever is on the bottom is likely still completely intact due to lack of oxygen! How cool is that? 

I had to figure out how many gallons of water would be in the bottom 9.4 meters of the lake. Yikes -- how do I do that? I calculated the lake's volume and then found out how many gallons of water exist in a cubic foot - I converted everything to Imperial and came up with a crazy high number. I halved it because of the slope of the lake and submitted my answer! 

That's what I love about geocaching -- it's a great walk, and it can be very informational if you choose to do some research. I'll go back another day on my own as there are lots more caches in the area. Right now, we are limited to 2 hours, and they send you an e-mail when your two hours are up, although it wasn't busy yesterday. 

That was a good thing because Mr. Bear wasn't on his leash for part of the walk. He seemed perfectly happy to just scout along the path, checking out things. 

Bear ambling along

I swear he gives me the EVIL eye when I try to take his picture. Look at that eye --- he's telling me to back off! The little monkey. 

The evil eye

However, when M takes his picture, he practically smiles. He is super cute -- spoiled beyond belief, but super cute. 

Super cute

Here's a picture of them as we left the park. 

M, Mattie, and Little Bear

Yes -- only my daughter would wear light-colored pants for a hike. I even mentioned it to her, but I was poopooed. It's a hike in the WOODS, not the catwalk. But I digress. 

So cute!!!

We thought we would stop at Chudleigh's to get some pie. Before leaving, I had checked the website and knew that we had to pay $15 EACH to enter. I thought we would just head there to try and wheedle our way into the store to just buy a pie. Nope --- NO ONE gets past without paying. 

Chudleigh's

Now I get that they have music and other activities inside, but seriously -- they should allow people to buy something from the store. However, we were directed to The Blossom Cafe nearby, where we bought a fresh crumble for $12, which I had for dessert last night!

The Blossom Cafe

And perhaps we'll have another adventure today. That depends on them. It's a challenge with all these people around to plan things. And I swear we had an entire closet of clothes in the car - just in case. Of what? Several years ago, M and I traveled around Europe, but I don't think we could travel together now. I'm a minimalist, and she is ...............well, I don't think she knows what that word means. But it's all in fun.

I'll take advantage of the time that she is here. The quilts and quilting can wait - nothing is more urgent than family. Sorry!  

On that note, I'm out of here and will attempt to get the last bit of homework done. 

Do you think the girls will even notice that we don't go for a walk? Probably not, as Murphy is hanging right by my side - waiting!

Several things to note  -- the Trendtex Challenge is now online and open for BIDDING. So have a look, there are some neat pieces and good prices. It's an auction, so be sure to check this out. 

Here are the Zoom links for the Virtual Retreat that starts tonight at 6 PM.  It's getting cool out there, so no need to be out gardening!!!! Check it out and say HI. 

Saturday, September 25  from 6 PM - 9 PM

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89254233911?pwd=VGQrTnFybW1HMWpleHA4M2Q2NGVwZz09 Meeting ID: 892 5423 3911 Passcode: 982797

Sunday, September 26 from 10 AM - 8 PM

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87246635892?pwd=VGY1cUUyLzRaRi9VUVV2ZWFINXc2dz09 Meeting ID: 872 4663 5892 Passcode: 440473

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!