A geocacher from Oregon couldn't find "1st Hill, 1st Cache" today. Her reason was that there were too many "muggles" (non-geocachers) in the park to do a good search. What makes her log interesting is that she posted a suggestion that I turn the turn it into a virtual cache (meaning that instead of a physical object to find, a geocacher would have to send me a specific piece of information found at the site to verify them being there). She suggested I use the dedication plaque as the verification.

I admit that, for a few moments, her suggestion seemed to be an appealing one. But then a cooler mind prevailed, and I dismissed it. (I haven't replied to her yet.) The thing is, this cache of mine is extremely easy. The only time anyone is unable to find it is when muggles make a search difficult. I remembered how long I avoided that virtual cache on top of Queen Anne Hill because it was so easy. In a park as small as 1st Hill Park, a virtual cache would be ridiculously easy.

The first find that Phillip & I logged was a virtual cache, but it was in an area big enough that we actually had to use our GPSr to find it.

I'll keep Fafari Mama's suggestion in mind, but for now, I keep it as a regular cache.

It was a nice, easy hike today with Centralites At Play. Hiking isn't something Phillip especially enjoys, so I went solo. There were 18 of us, including children and a baby. That seems to be a comfortable number for a CAP event - Phillip and I have decided to place a limit of 20 people for our mini-golf CAP event in July.

It was a four mile hike up to Twin Falls, and back, in Olallie Sate Park, east of North Bend. The scenery was gorgeous and the weather was perfect. (I forgot to bring rain gear, and didn't need it.)

I left Phillip the car and walked to the church parking lot this morning. I rode with Wayne, Cindy, and Cathy to the trail. After the hike, the four of us partook in Wayne & Cindy's after-hike tradition of ice cream at a particular freeway convenience store. (This CAP event was hosted by Wayne & Cindy.) We had terrific conversations all the way there and all the way back.

There is a geocache in Olallie State Park. Not knowing the area, and not knowing where in the park we'd be hiking, I had no idea if I'd have either the time or the opportunity to log a find. I brought our GPS receiver, just in case. When we arrived in the parking lot, at the start of the trail, I eventually got a strong enough satellite signal which seemed to tell me the cache was 2.5 miles in the opposite direction of the falls. That was the last time I was able to get a lock on the satellites. I tried a few times at the falls, but the best I ever got was one strong satellite signal and one weak one. As Phillip says, I'd hate to be lost in the woods and have to rely on our GPSr to get us home.

Yoga class was only about half full yesterday. I had never seen it so empty. Lisa taught us the basics of chakras and nadis. The focus of class was "grounding" yourself. We didn't do any difficult asanas (no inversions) - I am, nevertheless, muscle-tired this morning. I'm also getting ready for a 3-mile hike with CAP in about an hour.

Phillip and I did some late-night geocaching last night. We looked for three and Phillip found all three. The last one was the evil penguin - the first cache I ever tried to find, April 23, the day we bought our GPS. It has 4 stars of difficulty (out of 5) (not the best choice for a first time) and has eluded a lot of people. Phillip and I have tried to find it at least twice before. Last night, the evil penguin became our 60th find.

The alarm woke me up from a vivid dream - which, of course, I can't remember anything about. Then I got up and remembered that this is going to be my last day at my present clinic. It was a numb feeling. I had a difficult time motivating myself to get moving and ready for work. I felt as if I didn't want to go to work. I didn't want to say goodbye.

As I ground my coffee, I remembered that this evening is the start of a new yoga session. I had a momentary, irrational, fear that with all the focus on leaving my job, I would forget to go to yoga.

I don't much like this coffee from Trader Joe's - Ultra Dark Yemen Mocha. It has a bitter taste.

Last night, when I tried to coax Gladden out of the cage for a little one-on-one playtime, he climbed back into the house, as he often does these days. I took the whole house out, as I often do, and set it on the futon. Gladden crabbed, as he usaully does at that point. Sometimes, it's an angry crabbing (LEAVE ME ALONE!), and sometimes it's a more tired type of crabbing (Just leave me alone, OK?). Last night, it was an angry crabbing. He kept burrowing under the stuffed dragon we put in there so his house wouldn't feel so empty. Typically, I'll just talk to him in quiet gentle tones for a while, let him fuss, but let him know he's not being ignored. Last night, though, I had a dose of medicine (painkiller) prepared. I gently pulled the dragon out of the house. He crabbed even more. I knew I wasn't going to get him out, so I tried a technique I'd tried before. I slowly pushed the tip of the syringe into the house. When Gladden snapped at it, I stopped pushing. I held the syringe still. Eventually, Gladden smelled the medicine. He started licking the tip of the syringe. (He loves the taste of that medicine.) I waited patiently until Gladden put his whole mouth on the syringe, then I pushed the plunger. I slowly withdrew the syringe. Gladden's anger disappeared. He sat there in the house and looked at me. We both sat there, staring at each other. Eventually, Gladden curled up again, as if he was going back to sleep. I replaced the dragon, and put the house back into the cage.

I don't think it's actually anger. I think it's discomfort.

I've never seen an animal that enjoys the taste of Metacam as much as Gladden T Hart.

"The Road To Boston" was not approved. I archived it. That's too bad - it's such an interesting location, right at the west end of I-90 and next to Safeco Field. The camera is sharp, with a fixed direction (unlike some freeway camera that rotate), and active 24 hours per day. The reviewer is right, though - it is difficult to distinguish people posing for the camera from people just passing by. I realized last night, however, that the real problem is that it's difficult for a person at the location to know where to stand.

At Phillip's suggestion, we made another go at "The Road To Boston" this evening. He saved a couple of web cam shots. He's right, however. This cache is just not going to work. People are just too small in the views. But I edited the listing and re-submitted it. We'll see what happens.

After discussing the various options, Phillip came up with an option not on my list: I should drive to Safeco Field right after the game started and try to park in one of the 30 minute loading zones. It seemed like a foolhardy plan, but, as Phillip pointed out, if it didn't work, I just come home and try it right after work the next day.

The plan worked like clockwork. Traffic wasn't too bad. It took me twenty minutes to get to Safeco Field, exactly what we estimated, and there were a few loading zones open.

I parked, gave a friendly nod to the traffic cop who was directing traffic - as if to let him know I was going to be right back. I phoned Phillip as I crossed the street. He had just logged off.

I got to the spot and waved our GPSr at the camera. A few people passing by gave me curious looks, but it wasn't too bad. The cell phone rang.

"It isn't going to work," said Phillip, his voice sounding apologetic, almost tearful, "You're only about a half-inch tall, not much bigger than the fire hydrant."

As I drove home, I thought: Well, we gave it a try. All we can do now is re-submit it and see what the moderators say. Who knows, they might ever approve it. All we can do is try.

As I walked through the door, I asked, "Well, let's see how bad it is."

"Oh, I didn't save it."

What?

I was devastated. I sat down on the edge of the futon and almost cried. I wasn't ready to give up, but my choice had been taken away. It was just a web cam cache, but it was my project, it was only one small step away from completion, and now it was stuck in limbo.

I keep thinking about giving it another try, somehow. I think about disabling the cache. I think about just leaving it unfinished.

"The Road To Boston" has hit a minor snag. When I logged in this morning, there was an email from the Geocaching reviewer. Our cache is temporarily disabled until I post a photo of me in the web cam shot. The reviewers want to see how well people show up in the photo. That sounds fair to me.

The problem is, The Mariners are playing in Safeco Field every evening this week. So far, I've thought of three options: a) take my own advice and take the bus, b) go there in the middle of the night, or c) leave it disabled until the weekend.

Option (a) seems like the best. It's more time than I want to put into it this evening, but I'm anxious to get it activated. Option (c) is the worst, since there's the CAP hiking trip on Saturday and Michael & Scott's party on Sunday.

Phillip and I had a successful and enjoyable afternoon of geocaching on Queen Anne Hill. We sought five and found five. One was so easy (all we had to do was visit a very famous park and find the name of the famous sculpture there) that I'd been avoiding it, but since we were in the area, I figured we might as well log the find.

This was almost the opposite of yesterday's geocaching adventure. We sought three far apart caches, and found two. All three were in unfamiliar territory and introduced us to some very deep wilderness areas. (They do exist in the city limits.) One presented us with a climb up a steep and slippery slope. Another presented us was a mile-and-a-half hike through knee-high grasslands and into a blackberry field. It was a bit much for two city boys in tennis shoes and sandals.

Anyway, it was a nostalgic feeling to be back on Queen Anne Hill today - my neighborhood for a little over two years. Our Prius, with its short wheelbase, huge windshield, and a hood that's invisible from the driver's seat, felt perfect for those ultra-narrow, extra-winding streets of Queen Anne. Driving to caches was almost as fun as finding them.

Phillip wanted to stop into the Queen Anne Trader Joe's, since we were there, to buy some shampoo. We bought the shampoo - and some cheese, and some dark chocolate-covered pretzels, and some carrot juice, and some coffee. (It is Trader Joe's, after all.)

That coffee was the first I bought in a long time. I'd been trying to cut down on coffee lately, and I thought that by not buying it, I'd stop drinking it. But, of course, I buy my lattes at Extac on my way to work, and my lattes at the Harborview Bistro (where the manager knows my order before I ask for it), and my lattes at Top Pot on weekends. Those are in addition to the occasional BibiCafe and Frappacino. So, it was time to face reality and start buying coffee again.

I just noticed something mildly interesting in the gallery of photographs we've posted on geocaching.com. Of the six photographs I've posted of my hand holding our GPS navigator in front of a locationless cache (to verify that I was actually there), exactly half of the time I held the GPSr in my left hand and took the photo with the camera in my right. (And, of course, half the photographs were of the GPSr in my right hand.)

I am left-handed.