My sister and BIL both went to work on Thursday so Mr Moo and I took advantage and sat around the house most of the day. I think we watched a Red Sox game online. My sister came home early and we headed out to visit a state park and do some more caching. Yes, I know we did a lot of geocaching on this trip. That was the plan.

Google maps gave me some truly awful directions and we ended up spending a lot of time driving around lost at first. We got it together eventually. We went to the top of Paris Mountain for a lovely view of downtown Greenville. It came complete with a gaggle of teenagers drinking/smoking/whatever and a whole lot of graffiti and garbage strewn about, but I tried to ignore those parts. We went into Paris Mountain State Park (I don't know why the mountain itself isn't actually in the park) for a little while and took the scenic way back to Greenville. It was getting late by that point and we were all getting hungry. Somehow, I talked them into one more dinner at Cracker Barrel.

Post-dinner activities included a crazy game of Mario Party and lots of laughing.

Didn't do much on Wednesday except drive back to my sister and BIL's house in Greenville, do laundry and play games on the Wii. My BIL was home sick with what we ended up calling "swamp flu" - a hacking chest cold. While he and Mr Moo played games, I made dinner (lemon chicken). My sister got home late because, after work, she went to a gathering at the house of a friend whose wife passed away while we were in Columbia. Dinner was followed by ice cream at Coldstone (please, don't even ask me how much weight I gained while we were away) and more games.

Since my sister and BIL left the night before, Mr Moo and I were on our own this day. We got off to a bit of a late start since we slept in and I wasn't feeling so hot from the previous night's dinner.

Eventually, we decided to spend the day Geocaching. Drove back over to the Congaree side of Columbia and did several urban caches. Next, we headed north of the city to Harbison State Forest. We had grand illusions of doing some hiking in the park since it was only 1500 when we arrived. However, we learned that they close and lock the park gates at 1630. So much for the five hours of daylight we still had left. We found one cache, did a quick hike and left so we didn't get locked in. Last caching stop of the day was back at the Lake Murray dam. There were a couple caches we weren't able to get with my sister and BIL and we wanted to get them. We parked at the north end of the dam and set out on foot. Lots of people walk/jog over the dam, which made it very difficult to get the caches without being seen, but we did it.

Had dinner again at my new favorite restaurant, Cracker Barrel. Their chicken and dumplings dinner is fantabulous.

Headed back to Congaree NP first thing in the morning. Spent the day hiking the 7.5 mile Oakridge Trail. There is no elevation gain the entire length of the trail. It's perfectly flat. Normally, this would make for a very easy hike. However, with the heat and humidity we experienced, it was brutal. Throw in the enormous black clouds of mosquitoes that followed us almost everywhere, it was a thin slice of hell. Since we were sweating so much, we had to reapply the bug repellent what seemed like every 10 feet or so. Between the four of us, we used an entire can of deep-woods-kill-everything-we-come-into-contact-with-including-ourselves bug spray on this one hike. Hiking was rough, but we saw some really neat things.

Cleaned up back at the hotel then had dinner at Fuddruckers, which ended up not sitting well in my tummy as the night wore on. Ugh.

My sister and BIL had to work on Tuesday so they left and drove back to Greenville after dinner.

- I got virtually no sleep the previous night. Decided not to join the others on the canoe tour and slept a few more desperately needed hours instead. Mr Moo got paired up in his canoe with someone named Marco. Apparently, Marco was quite canoe ignorant and they struggled to make it more than a few feet without crashing into things the entire time. This would turn into quite the running joke for the entire remainder of our trip.

- Upon their return to the hotel, the others quickly cleaned up then we headed out to Geocache for the rest of the day.

- Drove through Lexington, over the dam at Lake Murray and onto Dreher Island State Park. Hiked and Geocached in the woods until we all were about to die from heatstroke and starvation.

- Had dinner at Texas Roadhouse. BBQ ribs - yummay!

- Drove to Columbia, SC. Checked into hotel.

- Headed over to Congaree National Park. Checked out the visitor's center. Walked the 2.4 mile boardwalk.

- Did a few Geocaches near the park. Spent forever looking for the first and never did find it. Grabbed the rest quickly.

- Had dinner at Cracker Barrel near hotel.

- Flights were completely uneventful. Slept a good portion of the way.

- Rental car took forever. Someone ahead of us rented a car with a debit card and took forever. First car we were given was brand new and had no real plates. The one in the back just listed the name of the car rental company and didn't even have temporary numbers. Basically, it was a giant sign that said: "Rental car full of tourists. Please, rob us!" The "needs maintenance" light was lit in the second car we were given. We were going to ask for a third, but they convinced Mr Moo it was an automated light that came on every 30k miles so we stuck with it.

- Drove to my sister and BIL's house. Went grocery shopping. Had dinner at Panera Bread. Went to bed.

It's just about that time, folks. The bags are packed and, amazingly, both are well underweight. We're shooting to be out the door by 0400, but can leave as late as 0430 and still be okay. There won't be any traffic this early in the morning. As I predicted, I never went to bed. Josie knows something is going on and was getting weirded out so I held her while I sat in the chair in our bedroom and dozed for a few minutes. I shall sleep well on the plane. I'll probably be asleep before we even leave the ground.

Time to shut down and get going. South Carolina is a-calling. We'll be back on the 3rd. Hope everyone has a good week!

T minus 5 hours until departure.

Fish tank is finally clean. Dr Jones is very happy. The only things left that I have to do are: get out and throw my clothes in the suitcase, pack my carry-on bag and print our boarding passes. Then I can go to bed and get some sleep. Wheee! Although, I'm sure I'll find other stuff to do and will probably never make it to bed. I guess I can always sleep on the plane.

T minus 7 hours until departure.

Someone, please, come clean the fish tank!!!

T minus 13 hours until departure.

Just got back from running an errand. Last load of laundry is in the washing machine. For the most part, the house is picked up. And it's only 1500. Still got lots to do, but I'm not feeling totally overwhelmed like I did when I got up this morning. Small steps.

T minus 17 hours until departure and counting.

Letting Josie sleep on the bed last night = big mistake. She is the biggest wiggle worm ever. Between her walking around on the bed/me/my head all night, getting up and down every five minutes and throwing up a giant hairball at 0700, I don't think I managed to sleep more than 30 minutes at a time. She doesn't care because she gets to spend the rest of the day napping on the heating pad. I, on the other hand, have to finish laundry, cleaning and packing. I'm not expecting to get any sleep tonight, but miracles can happen.

We'll be leaving for the airport for our trip to South Carolina in approximately 27 hours. As much as I keep telling myself that I'm totally on top of things, I'm not. There's roughly ten poopillion things on my to do list and, every time I manage to cross one of them off, I think of three more. It's going to be a busy day tomorrow.

I picked up some preventative flea medicine while at the vet's office yesterday. I just noticed the kitty on the box looks just like Josie!

Well, maybe Josie about 16 years ago, but still.

Josie's doctor called this afternoon with her kidney test results. Both of the values they check have gotten worse since October. The good news is they only got a little bit and not a lot worse. He said it was possible these results are being influenced by her bladder infection. Since she's still in the very early stages of kidney failure and on the antibiotics, we're not going to do anything else at this time. We'll re-test her in a few months and go from there.

When we visit Congaree National Park next week, we'll be going on one of their Guided Canoe Tours. We'll be required to wear "shoes that attach to your feet", which I'm assuming will be getting wet at some point. Since I don't want to get my hiking boots soaked, I needed to get a pair of easy to pack shoes that I potentially may leave behind. Who wants to pack and bring home a pair of wet stinky shoes? Amazingly, I found something at the first store we visited - Target!

As an added bonus, they weren't very expensive, only $15. Will be interesting to see if they make my socks turn pink when they get wet.

Lately, when we take Josie places, we put her in a backpack, which I carry on my front instead of my back, instead of her regular carrier. It takes up a lot less space and she likes it a whole lot better. We leave a portion of the zipper undone so she can stick her head out if she wants.

After we visited the kennel this past weekend, we did a few Geocaches. Most of them were quick grabs, but one was in a wooded area. I didn't feel like leaving her in the car since we'd be out of sight so we brought her along. I forgot the regular camera. These were taken with Mr Moo's phone. Here we are at the beginning of the trail:

Thanks to the backpack and great camera angle, I look all of two feet tall. Sigh. If you look closely, you can see Josie sticking out of the side of the pack checking things out. She was very curious and looked out the whole time we were hiking. We had to search around a bit for this cache, but we did find it eventually.

I had set the pack on the ground and opened it up to see if she would walk around a little, but she didn't want to get dirty and just stayed right there. Josie is now officially a geo-kitty!

We're back from the vee-eee-tee. Her Royal Highness Josie has been drinking a lot more than normal lately and I wanted to get her checked out before we left on vacation. For a change, I wasn't panicking over nothing. She has a bladder infection and is now on antibiotics. This is a common occurrence in cats with kidney issues like she has. It's nothing dire, but it's good we're taking care of it sooner rather than later. The vet also did blood and urine draws to run a full panel for her kidneys. She's down to about 25% of normal kidney function so we have to keep an eye on it.

Since we were already there, we got her up to date on her vaccinations in case we decide to kennel her in the future, had the doctor look at the bald spot on her belly again and picked up some flea medicine. He doesn't seem too concerned about the bald spot. It's just naked skin. There's no bleeding, scabbing or even redness. For now, we're chalking it up to old age random baldness and letting it be. Kidney test results should be back tomorrow.

I forgot to post my weight loss statistics on Saturday. You didn't miss anything. From two weeks ago when I last posted, I have lost exactly...(drum roll, please)...zero pounds. I'm not even a month in and I'm already plateauing. Sigh.

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We checked out the kitty kennel today. It's a very nice place. It was clean. The pens are spacious. It didn't smell. And the owners are very nice. Unfortunately, Josie didn't like it one bit. She took one look out of the backpack we had her in, hissed at one of the other cats and buried herself back in the bag. It wasn't a surprise. We weren't expecting her to like it. We're certain, if we board her there, she'll settle down within a day and be just fine. We haven't made a definite decision yet, but I think we're going to leave her at home while we're in South Carolina then board her at the kennel when we go to Seattle. That way, she'll only spend a long weekend for her first time. We'll be able to see how she does without totally traumatizing her for life.

After visiting the kennel, we did a few quick Geocaches to stock up on travel bugs. We picked up several that haven't been out of the Oregon/Washington area so we can take them to South Carolina and put some serious miles on them. Josie mostly stayed in the car, but we did take her to one in the woods with us. She had her head sticking out of the pack to look around, which was very cute. I set down and opened the pack at one point so she could walk around if she wanted, but she never left the bag. Remember the scene in Madagascar when Melvin comes running out of the jungle screaming, "I've got nature all over me!"? Yeah, that's our cat. The only cat on Earth who refuses to walk on the bare ground because her feet would get dirty. Sigh.

Not long after we got home from our morning/early afternoon adventures, we headed out again (sans Josie this time) to Mr Moo's cousins' house for a BBQ. As per usual at their house, the food and the company were excellent.

And now we're home. The plan was to get some stuff done tonight in preparation for our trip, but Mr Moo has a wicked headache and is in bed already. Not sure if he'll get up again. Hope he feels better soon.

In exactly seven days, we will be on a jet plane heading to South Carolina to visit my sister and BIL. We've got lots to do still to get ready to leave, but, fortunately, for once, I'm not completely slogged with work.

Since we're going to be traveling so much this year, we're toying with the idea of putting Josie in a kitty-only kennel. My inlaws usually come over to feed her while we're gone, but they're not able to spend lots of time here and Josie ends up alone for the other 23.75 hours of the day, which she hates. At the kennel, there would be people around to pay attention to her for most of the day. On the other hand, it's a kennel. She'll be in a strange place with strangers, which, in itself, could be super stressful for her. There's also the risk of her getting sick from other kitties. I'm really torn over what to do. We're going to visit the kennel tomorrow to check it out and meet the owners. We'll be bringing Josie along, too.

A girl called today looking for information about having her prom dress altered. I asked when her prom is. Her response: Saturday.

Today's breakfast:

One container of Yoplait Light vanilla yogurt, 53g of Kashi GoLean Crunch cereal, 70g of cut up fresh strawberries. Total calories: 322

It's official. We're going to Saguaro National Park in Tucson, Arizona for my birthday in October. Yay!

Situation: You're taking a trip to a national park and plan to do a moderately strenuous 16 mile all-day hike.

Question: Do you do said hike right away on day one while you're still bright eyed and bushy tailed, or wait until the end of the trip in case you end up with a thousand blisters and are incapable of walking another step afterward?

South Dakota - September 2007 - Badlands National Park

South Dakota - September 2007 - Badlands National Park

Oh, hello.

Gotta run. Cyas!

Hawaii - September 2005 - Volcanoes National Park

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Hawaii - September 2005 - Volcanoes National Park

Offerings to Pele at the Kilauea Caldera.

South Dakota - September 2007 - Badlands National Park

For O. Prairie dogs at Roberts Prairie Dog Town.

Bar Harbor, Maine - September 2008

We did a neat thing while we were in Maine last year. We got up early one morning during low tide and hiked across a sand bar to Bar Island.


It was very easy going and plenty dry. There were even a couple vehicles driving out there. After hiking around on the island a bit, we headed back to the mainland and went about our day hiking in Acadia. At the end of the day, we went back to the sand bar jumping off point. The tide was in and the sand bar was completely submerged.


Hard to believe we walked over there just that morning. It's a fun thing to do, especially with kids, and there are some nice views of Bar Harbor from the island. Just make sure you check the tide tables carefully and get yourself back to town before the tide changes. It's accessible 1 1/2 hours either side of low tide. Otherwise, you'll be stuck on the island for another 9-10 hours until the next low tide comes.

Bar Harbor, Maine - September 2008

When in Rome...

There are two things you must do when visiting Maine. Have a lobster for dinner...

...and dress up like one.

I'm blaming dehydration and exhaustion for that last photo.

Bar Harbor, Maine - September 2008

When we were in Maine last fall, the leaves were just starting to turn. You can imagine how beautiful this view would have been in another two weeks or so when all of the leaves would have been in prime colors.

That's me (did you see me at first?) on the east face of Dorr Mountain.

South Dakota - September 2007

We didn't see any buffalo for the first few days we were in the Badlands in SD. We were beginning to wonder if we were going to see any at all. We shouldn't have worried. Once we spotted our first, they were everywhere we went.



Later in the trip, we spent some time in Custer State Park. We went to the Buffalo Roundup and visited the corrals later in the week.



If you visit the area and don't see any right away, don't worry and be patient. They're there.

It's dead, Jim.

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Saturday is accountability day for me on my weight loss journey. I started back on my food plan in earnest on March 26. So far so good.

South Dakota - September 2007 - Badlands National Park

We saw many versions of this sign while we were in the park:

Fortunately, this was the most vicious critter we encountered on our trip:

One afternoon, we stopped to have lunch at the White River Valley Overlook.

The view from my lunch spot.

My photos don't even begin to do justice to the beauty of the Badlands. We loved it there and hope to go back again some day.

Wyoming - September 2007 - Devils Tower National Monument

While hiking the Tower Trail, we had some incredible views of the tower.

That particular trail cut fairly close to the tower at several points. Upon closer inspection, we discovered the color specks we kept seeing on the face were actually people climbing it.

From this year's Chick-fil-A calendar, The Bovines in Blue:

Angus, PI
Expensive cars and gorgeous heifers are just some of the benefits of working for eccentric millionaire Chuck Porterhouse III. Sporting shades and a stockpile of floral shirts, studly private investigator Ross Angus leads a life of seemingly endless car chases and hoof-fights. Anything to keep the island of Mooui safe for chicken lovers.