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

CHaPs
As members of the California Hamburger Patrol, Officer Frank "Munch" Muncherello and his straitlaced partner, Jon Beefcaker, are all too familiar with the recent rash of burger smuggling that has plagued the highways of southern California. Patrolling the beat in aviator shades and rump-hugging pants, Munch and Jon have busted everyone from common jerky-heads to international beef lords.

- First anniversary of Zoe's passing. Was a very, very rough day for me.

- I didn't sleep well the night before yet again so I passed on the morning activity - a tour of the local BMW manufacturing plant. I wasn't all that interested in it to begin with so it wasn't a huge crisis that I didn't go.

- After returning our rental car, the gang returned home just after 1100. Headed up to Caesar's Head State Park for the rest of the day. Hiked to Raven Cliff Falls first, which was absolutely beautiful. We made it to the overlook, but decided to pass on hiking to the top of the falls themselves since it was getting late and it would have added another 7 miles or so to our hike.

- Hit the visitor's center and overlook on the way out of the park. Gorgeous views from up there. I'll post some of our pictures soon.

- Did a few geocaches on the way out of the park.

- Had dinner at a local bbq place back in Greenville. My first pulled pork sammich! We went to Coldstone about a billion times over the course of the week so I'm sure dinner was followed by ice cream.

- Original plan for Saturday was to hike Pinnacle Mountain. My sister's legs were hurting, the weather forecast was not good and none of us were all that enthused about anything so we decided to skip it.

- My sister and I headed out just the two of us for a while in the afternoon while the boys stayed home and played on the computers. We stopped at Target and did some quick geocaches.

- I had brought a few Geocaching Travel Bugs with me from Oregon. One in particular, Tin Man, was with us the entire week. Since its head could spin completely around and every time I tried to leave it somewhere it wouldn't fit or the cache was gone, everyone started calling it evil. It got worse after my sister and I went out on our last day specifically to leave it at a park and came home with it again (we couldn't get to the cache because the park was full of people). There was talk of cutting it up into pieces, running it over with the car and lighting it on fire at that point.

- Went to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner. Had crab legs. Yummay!

- It became everyone's sole purpose in life after dinner to get rid of the Tin Man. Went back to park and, fortunately, there was no one around. Left him in the cache and had ice cream at Coldstone to celebrate.

- Up at 0400 to get to the airport for our 0600 flight. Thank goodness GSP is a tiny airport. We breezed right on through and made it to the gate with plenty of time.

- Decided to have breakfast during our three hour layover in Chicago. We each had a traditional breakfast (eggs, toast, bacon and potatoes) and an apple juice at one of Wolfgang Puck's airport restaurants. Grand total: $25! We knew it was going to be pricey, but that was insane. Thank goodness we don't have to eat at airports often.

- As we were waiting to board our second flight in Chicago, I saw the doctor who did my jaw surgery getting on board. He was in first class so I didn't get to talk to him on the flight, but I did say hello at baggage claim here in Portland. He was polite, but I don't think he had even the tiniest clue who I was.

- Arrived home to one grumpy kitty. She didn't shut up for hours. We took a nap in the afternoon and let her on the bed with us, but that wasn't good enough. We had left her all alone for nine days and she wasn't going to let us forget it. Finally got her to calm down later in the evening when we stayed here in the office with her and turned on the heating pad.

- Amazingly, managed to get everything unpacked and put away before bed. A first.

Just finished posting a bunch of backdated entries with highlights of our trip to South Carolina. Sorry for boring you to death with it all. I always neglect to document our trips once we get back and I quickly forget everything we did. I really need to start forcing myself to post daily while we're actually on vacation so it's not so overwhelming. I'm hoping to have some photos up soon, too.

We had a great time in South Carolina, but it's always good to be home again, especially for Josie's sake. It'll be another day or so before she can let me walk out of the room without panicking and thinking I've gone away again. She turned 17 years old on Friday. She's getting up there and being all alone is very hard on her. We're going to Seattle for the weekend on the 16th. I think we're going to try kenneling her for a few days then to see how it goes. We've got several more long trips coming up this year and we need to sort whether its a viable option for her. I'm not holding my breath.

There's a mountain of laundry in the other room calling my name. Guess it's time to stop ignoring it.

I've been wanting to get a new laptop for traveling for a while now, especially with all of the trips we're taking this year. I don't want anything fancy. I just want to be able to get online, do some word processing and maybe edit a few photos for posting. Most important of all - it has to be very small and very lightweight so it can fit in my carry-on bag without breaking my back. I mentioned this while we were visiting my sister and BIL last week. My BIL, who is also a computer nerd like Mr Moo, immediately had some suggestions. Mr Moo shushed him, however, because he doesn't want anymore technology here at home to support. Heh.

I'm not giving up quite so easily. I wanted to do a little looking around this morning to see what's out there so I sent Mr Moo an email and asked him what my BIL had suggested I look at/get. Mr Moo wrote back and said, "I think it was this one."

My husband. The comedian. Sigh. Luckily for him, he did add a legitimate link at the bottom of his email for several netbooks, "small portable laptop computers designed for wireless communication and access to the Internet". I wonder if I could get away with calling it a wicked early birthday pressie.

South Carolina - April 2009 - Congaree National Park

Working through our photos already. There will be lots more to come.



Can't take that shark anywhere. Sigh.

It's 0800 and I'm awake. Can you guess who is still on east coast time?

As you may know, if you read my backdated entries from last week, Friday was the one year anniversary of Zoe's death. I knew it was going to be a rough day for me even before we left on vacation. I did okay for most of the day and even managed to forget about the fact for a short while. However, while hiking to Raven Cliff Falls, I started getting tired and emotional. When a man and his two dogs passed us looking like they were having the time of their lives, I started losing it. I barreled through a steep part of the trail thinking I could keep it together if I could stay focused on something strenuous, but it didn't work. I broke down at the top and had a good cry. I think I scared the life out of my sister and BIL (Sorry, you two! Didn't mean to frighten you so!), but it was exactly what I needed. They carried on to the car and Mr Moo stayed with me. Fortunately, nobody else happened by during that time to see the crazy woman crying hysterically in the middle of the trail. In the end, it was very cathartic releasing in the woods with nothing but the sound of the birds and the wind. I could feel her around me without distraction and it was comforting. I've been in such a funk over her death for the past year, but I think I've finally accepted it's time to stop feeling so freaking guilty and move on. We really did do all we could for her. Had she been with any other family, she probably would have been put to sleep ages earlier. We gave her a good life, loved her more than I ever thought possible and got ten fold times that love back from her. We have 16 years of memories of her. I need to stop being so afraid of them and start cherishing them. It's time to stop dwelling. That's what she'd want.

South Carolina - April 2009 - Congaree National Park

While we were hiking in the park, we saw all sorts of interesting creatures, including my BIL eating lunch.

He's very funny and turns into the biggest goofball as soon as you point a camera at him. It made for some interesting photos at the very least. Anyhoo, the ranger told us there were wild boar and bobcats in the park, but, with the exception of one deer, we never saw anything nearly that large. Here's a sampling of what we did see.

click on an image to see a larger view

top row, from left to right:
- Lizard who was missing and trying to regrow his tail.
- Little guy whose tail was actually bright blue, although it's hard to see in this photo.
- Blue caterpillar.
- Green anole.

middle row, from left to right:
- Flaring green anole. My BIL took this photo.
- Mr Toad in the leaves.
- Very bright metallic green beetle.
- Flutterby. Wish we had caught this one in the sun so you could see the colors better.

bottom row, from left to right:
- I call this the opossum bug because it played dead the whole time I was holding it.
- Sharky being attacked by a large millipede.
- We're fairly sure this was a black rat snake with some millipede friends curled up nearby.
- Northern ringneck snake.

We also found several of these interesting mounds on the ground:

I wish I had stuck my foot in the photo for scale. I'd say the large one was a good 6" tall. Believe it or not, these were made by crayfish! They burrow into the ground to hide.

South Carolina - April 2009

We did quite a bit of Geocaching while we were on vacation. My sister and BIL got into it, too, recently and it kept the lot of us from sitting on the couch all week. A big part of Geocaching is developing your own happy dance for when you find caches. Here's what we've got:




As you can see, Mr Moo's still needs a lot of work.

I just spent the Gross National Product of a small nation on flower deliveries for Mother's Day. I think I need to be defibrillated.

South Carolina - April 2009 - Congaree National Park

On our first day at the park, we stopped by the visitor center for a quick overview then headed out to hike the 2.5 mile boardwalk.

They've done an amazing job with this thing considering parts of it get washed out when the park floods (average of 10 times per year) and trees fall on it all the time. It's an easy flat hike and takes you through several different sections of the old-growth forest.



We took the short spur off the boardwalk to the Weston Lake overlook, where we saw some turtles.



A woman we met on the boardwalk insisted there were giant gar in the lake, which we should be able to see everywhere. Either it was the wrong time of the year for gar or the lady was completely crazy because we didn't see a thing.

South Carolina - April 2009 - Congaree National Park

We went Geocaching for a little while yesterday. I managed to brush up against some stinging nettle while searching for a cache. Man, the burning was excruciating. It's 19 hours later and my hand and wrist are still killing me. Lovely.

My in-laws are coming over for dinner this evening. I have a metric ton of work to get done this afternoon. And I probably should do some laundry and clean up the house a little in there. It's going to be a busy day.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 161

Click here for the entry form.

I fulfilled a Photo Request recently.

ErikSaturn requested: Your most prized possession.

To come up with an answer for this request, I asked myself, "If the house were on fire, what would you risk running back inside to get?" This is the only thing that would be worth it:

And I would do it without a moment's hesitation, too. We certainly don't consider her a possession though. If anything, she owns us! :-)

One of our Geocaching goals this past weekend was to visit the Original Stash Plaque. This tribute plaque was placed to commemorate the spot where the very first cache was hidden over nine years ago. It's amazing how the "sport" has grown since then. We placed all of the travel bugs we had and our GPSr on top of the plaque so they could collect the special super geocaching power.

Highlights of things I saw while Geocaching this past weekend...

Cupola on top of the old Viola Schoolhouse, which was built in 1894, near Estacada.

One of the caches led us into the Redland Pioneer Cemetery, where we saw markers for some very old graves. I wonder what sorts of things this person saw in their lifetime.

Someone cleverly hid a cache inside a bird house, which they hung in a tree. Sharky couldn't resist checking it out after we found it.

Mr Moo loves sharks, but not quite as much as I love cows. He even has one on his truck.

Some sort of flying ant insect I spotted in a dandelion covered in pollen.

Mr Moo brought home a couple new Wii games last week. We played these while we were in South Carolina visiting my sister and BIL so we knew we liked them. He bought a third, but has yet to open it. I don't consider it officially ours until the plastic wrap is off.

Heading to Seattle tomorrow morning for a quick weekend trip. My Red Sox are in town to play the Mariners. We try to get up there for at least one series every summer. Since they'll only be in town once this year, well, this is it. The first game was tonight (which the Red Sox lost in spectacular fashion, as always), but with Friday afternoon traffic and the fact that Mr Moo had to work today, we couldn't make it. We'll drive up in the morning and catch the second game tomorrow night and the third and final game of the series on Sunday afternoon before driving back Sunday evening. We won't even be gone 48 hours, but I bet you a nickel Her Royal Highness Josie has a fit about us leaving her alone again so soon.

The game plan for today is to be on the road by noon. We could leave as late as 1430 and still make the game tonight with plenty of time, but we don't want to push it. My brain is trying to go into its "We're going away so there's a million things I must do!" mode, but I have to keep reminding myself that we're only going for one night and will be back before dark tomorrow. All I really have to do is pack is a toothbrush and a clean pair of underwear. Cleaning the house can wait until tomorrow. I do want to research a few Geocaches in the Seattle area before we go because I have some travel bugs that need dumping. It takes a bit of homework to find caches in urban areas that aren't micros.

And, as per usual, we're running behind schedule. Sigh. The game doesn't start until 1900. We still have plenty of time to get to Seattle. We just may not get to do any Geocaching today like we wanted. No big deal. We'll do it in the morning. Just finished my lunch. Time to get stuff in the car and get out of here. Have a good weekend, fishies!

We're home. Got back from Seattle about two hours ago. The Red Sox lost today's game, but won last night's. It was a disappointing way to end the weekend, but at least they didn't lose both games. We had a good time.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 162

Click here for the entry form.

I've been battling a migraine all day today. Yuck. Woke up with more of an upset stomach than anything this morning. Took a couple Advil, which did nothing, and had to lay back down around noon. I slept for two hours and woke up feeling worse than ever. Since my headache was decidedly worse at that point, I took three more Advil, which again did nothing. I finally ceded and took one of my prescription migraine tablets around 1600. My doctor insists they don't cause drowsiness, but I'm living proof that she's wrong. I always fall asleep after I take them. Another two hour nap later and I'm finally feeling better. I'm happy that I'm feeling better, but I'm upset that I had to sleep so much today. I'm going to be up all night now. Since we got back from South Carolina, I've been doing really well with getting up early every morning. I'm really hoping this isn't going to be a permanent wrench in the works.

From Seattle this past weekend...

...and it was YUMMAY!

FYI for friends and family - Mr Moo will be going to Israel on business again in a few weeks. As of right this minute, he's scheduled to depart on June 12 and return on June 26. However, there's been a lot of discussion going on about the schedule so all of it can and probably will change several more times before he actually leaves. We discussed me flying out to meet him this trip, but, given how uncertain the dates are still and the fact that my passport is expiring soon, we decided to pass. Maybe next time.

Congaree National Park in South Carolina is so new, they don't have a lot of items for sale in their gift shop. I wasn't able to get a park overview book or a fridge magnet like I usually do when we visit a national park, but I did get a couple pins for my backpack.

The third pin, on the far right, is from Caesars Head State Park, which we visited later in the week.

We got a new toy from ThinkGeek.com the other day. They have all kinds of fun stuff for nerds like us. It's one of the few places I've found that has stuff Mr Moo is actually interested in. He gets pretty much all of his presents from there now. We bought the Solar Climbing Orangutan.

Behold my orangutan!

He was very easy to assemble even though there were a couple mislabeled parts in the instructions. I put him by the window, but he wouldn't work. I finally figured out the UV coating on our house windows prevents the solar panel from charging enough. Once I opened the window and put him in direct sunlight, he was off. Here's a shot of the little solar panel on his back and an action video.



He comes with a string to climb, but I haven't found a good place to mount it where he'll get direct sunlight, which is why he's just flailing on the windowsill for now.

Welcome to the long holiday weekend. What are your plans for the next few days? Anyone doing anything fun and exciting? Today, Mr Moo and I will be attempting to clean the house and get some work done. If we're successful, we're thinking about going on a long hike and doing some Geocaching tomorrow. Monday is still open, but I hope we can get outside again. The weather is supposed to be fantastic. All in all, it'll be a pretty quiet weekend for us, but we're okay with that.

Life is tough when you're a kitty.

We're going to see Star Trek. Woot!

EDIT: Woweee! Wow! WOW! We luuuuuurved it. I never, in a million years, ever thought I would ever say this, but... I have the hots for Spock! HA! Zachary Quinto was to die for, even with the pointy ears and the stupid haircut. ((fans self)) Seriously, it was a fantastic adventure and a great story. Even if you don't follow Star Trek ((eyes my sister)), if you like action/adventure movies, you will enjoy this film. Mr Moo and I still aren't quite sure what to make of the ending - is this really going to be a whole new Star Trek universe? I guess we'll have to wait for the next installment to see what happens. I do have to admit there was one thing about the movie that really bummed me out - the computer had no voice. Still hard to believe Majel Barrett is gone. She would have loved this.

Apparently, Darby Conley, who writes Get Fuzzy, has spent time living with my Josie.

Yeah, I have no idea what that's like.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 163

Click here for the entry form.

By request, my solar-powered orangutan in action on his string.

I'm curious. How old do you think I am? If you know, please don't comment. This is for the people who don't. I'm curious what the general consensus will be.

Because the world needs more Josie belly.

Mr and Mrs Duck have taken refuge in the shade under the hosta plant we have on our patio. They've been out there for a couple hours now and I have a feeling they will be for a few more until the heat of the day passes.

Click on the image to visit the MooCam and see the live stream.

EDIT: Guess nap time is over. They just left.

Ooooo. I won a prize!

It's a $5 debit card I discovered in a box of Fruity Cheerios. Now I just have to find someplace that will take a Discover card.

Our duck friends came back this afternoon and stayed several more hours chilling in the shade.

I've never seen them stay for so long before. Our yard isn't fenced in and, aside from that potted plant, there really isn't any cover. Maybe it's because they can see for quite a ways in all directions that they felt safe resting there. Since the male is still with her, it is possible they're still scouting nesting sites. It's getting awfully late in the season though. She should have laid her eggs by now. However, everything I've read about them says the male takes off as soon as she does so who knows what they're up to. It's all very odd.

Remember this sad state of affairs?

We're about to go through it all again. ((cue complaining and dirty looks from kitty here)) Looking back at the last dosage schedule, it appears we started reducing too soon. While we did see a drastic reduction in the size of the yuck (squamous carcinoma in situ) on her head, we didn't eradicate it completely and it has started growing again. After a few long discussions with our vet, we've decided to treat it again and be much more aggressive this time. Instead of switching to alternate days after the first week, we're going to apply it every single day for a solid three weeks. The hope is we'll be able to completely eliminate it this time and do it in the shortest amount of time. We briefly discussed surgery, but given the proximity to her eye and how large the area is, it's just too risky. Surgery would be very hard on her given her age and she could lose some or all of the vision in that eye. Not worth it in my book. We've ordered the meds from Canada again and they should be here in a few weeks.

Seattle, Washington - May 2009

I've been sorting through the photos from our weekend trip a couple weeks ago. Here's one of Mt. Rainier I took from one of the wonderful urban parks we visited.

Seattle, Washington - May 2009

The first of the two baseball games we took in while we were in Seattle.

We went Geocaching for a few hours after dinner tonight. We threw a dart at the map and ended up in the Gaston area. We found our 100th cache tonight. Woot!

We caught a peek of Mt Hood on the drive home last night.

I've lived in Portland for almost 15 years now and I still can't get over seeing a snow capped mountain when we drive around.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 164

Click here for the entry form.