"All these things I should keep to myself
But I feel somehow strangely compelled...."

- Neil Finn, Sinner

Just before I went to Spokane, John went and bought a new powercord to the GPS, and I took it along with me up there. I haven't really done any geocaching since last September, partly because of that and that no one really wanted to come with me, which took a little of the fun out of it - I do do it on my own, but only if it's right on the way of somewhere I'm heading and I know it won't take too long. But I also started using Waymarking.com as well - a little easier because you're not actually looking for a cache, just a place. It can be an interesting sign, a historical place, neon art, your favorite restaurant, whatever (although I really don't see the point of marking Starbucks and McDonald's unless you have some sort of goal of visiting every franchise everywhere you go). One of the featured Waymarks today was a category called "art*o*mats" which actually sounds pretty fascinating.

http://www.artomat.org/

What they are, are retired cigarette machines - since those are now illegal - that are now stocked with original artworks, either in small boxes or on blocks of wood, about the size of a cigarette package. You can purchase art from the machine or if you're an artist, sign up to submit works to them. Many of them seem to be associated with art museum or schools, or there are a few that travel.

I will have to go search for one of these.

*******

The thing I find a bit confusing about Waymarking is not only can just about anything be entered, but if you have a paid account (which I don't yet, I already pay for too many internet sites as it is), you can start creating your own categories. And some objects can fit under several different categories. The Queen Mary in Long Beach, ferinstance, is listed under Maritime Museums, Ghosts and Hauntings,Wikipedia Entries, U.S. National Register of Historic Places, History Museums, Military Ships and Submarines (Decommissioned), and Official Local Tourist Attractions (official?). If I visit, do I only pick one? or all of them?

Flew up to Spokane WA for three days of meetings. Another sundog, this time from above.

Sundog
Location -? (somewhere between John Wayne Airport and SeaTac)
Canon EOS 1000D
11 June 2009

( ...And flung my eager craft through footless halls of air...  )

The flight up had no less than six small passegers under two, who all set each other off crying during takeoff. While I can tune a lot of that out, being a parent, six was rather a lot as once. Luckily, most of them settled pretty quickly, except for one little girl who wailed intermittently as her parents took turns handing her off. While jockeying for position with the other passenger for the second leg of the trip from Seattle to Spokane, I noticed the young man next to me had a Jack's Surfboards shopping bag (a store on Main St. near me), so I asked if he was coming or going from SoCA. Turned out he and his dad were going back home to their small town nearly on the Canada/Idaho border. They'd gone down to go to Dismalland (JWA flights always seem to have families with that as a destination), and we chatted a bit about beaches and traffic (he was shocked it was so bad), and whether I'd been to Idaho (twice; the meeting last September, and a number of years before, when Beth and I drove up there to visit and go camping with her father's family). He also related that the little girl who cried the most on the flight had been on their flight down as well, and never stopped that time. He told me he never wants to leave his town, and I don't blame him a bit. I think the entire state of Idaho has less of a population than my local area; from that trip with Beth, I remember seeing three- and four-digit license plates.

I was out of camera battery for the flight to Spokane (and if you ever peruse my Flickr photostream I'm sure you're grateful for that!), and the sun was setting anyway, but it looked like there was still quite a lot of snow in the Cascades. After I checked in I realized I must have left my DFG jacket on one of the planes, and my black go-to-meeting shoes no longer seemed to be in my suitcase - and I know I shoved them in there because I almost forgot them. We were about to leave for the airport and I had to run back inside and grab them.

I read about this the night before in a blog, and Gareth's current ambition is to be an astronaut, so off we went to South Coast Plaza.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/moon-astronauts-cernan-2491039-space-carpenter

Turned out I parked at the wrong mall - I had in mind the Crystal Court and it took place in the "Jewel Court" which is one small section of the original South Coast Plaza Mall. So we walked across the footbridge to the proper place which was already crowded and full. Luckily when the old guys came out, they asked all the kids to come up to front -you can see all three of the kids in many of the article's pictures, and Avalon is the one giving Thomas Stofffard a high five (she'd given Cernan one a moment previously). Gareth got to shake their hands and asked Cernan, was any part of being on the moon scary? He replied, None was really hairy, but thinking about it beforehand was. Avalon asked Stoffard if they saw any satellites while they were up there, He replied not until the Apollo-Soyuz mission. Gareth is quoted in the article, although the OC Register intern talked to all of us. Gareth also swore he was never going to wash his hand again after shaking Gene Cernan's, and he'll never forget it.

Cernan must have done a lot of public speaking, because he was quite good at it. Some quotes and stories:

"Neil Armstrong was a good commander but he was a lousy navigator - so we had to paint a white line in the sky for him to follow."

The story about the "Beat Army" sign that appeared in the window of one of the Gemini capsules.

The Apollo-Soyuz mission, where after they met, shook hands and shared some food, a picture of two astronauts holding tubes with Russion lettering. "If you can read Russian, one says 'High-Grade Vodka' and the other is labelled 'standard vodka' - but when they opened them, they both contained only borscht.

Some videos posted here.

Interview with Scott Carpenter - "Honor Your Curiosity"

Being, for all intents and puposes, deaf in one ear is really making me appreciate my (unimpeded) hearing. I find myself really getting overwhelmed by multiple conversations and sounds going on around me and just want to go hide in a silent place for awhile. I have little directionality to voices I hear coming from my deaf side; I just now thought someone talking was in the opposite direction they actually were. I didn't realize it until I finally recognized whose voice it was and where they had to be.

On the way home from my book group at Barnes & Marmoset, Avalon announced:

"Mom, when I get big, I'm gonna make a book. And it's going to be called:

Get Out of the Tub! You're Pruning!

...and it's going to have chapters."

Stimpson J. was being unusually sociable this afternoon, so I took a bunch of closeups; this was runsamuck's favorite (Stimp's always been his baby). I like this one.

Stimpy cat
Huntington Beach Ca
Canon EOS 1000D
10 June 2009

( ...and sundog... )

And my brother tells me I need to relearn how to knit because this pattern is free!

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer09/PATTcrab.php

Well, I'm glad I didn't buy tickets for Anime Expo ahead of time. I've been pretty much out of commision since Wednesday with an ear infection. Any Fourth activities were right out as well, although John did have some friends and his mom over to BBQ. Felt bad I couldn't take the kids over to the parade, but they at least got to walk over to school to watch the fireworks from the hill in front of Dwyer. They were supposed to have been extra special as Huntington Beach is 100 years old this year.

I went to the doctor Wednesday and the nurse practitioner who saw me prescribed some antibiotic ear drops, but nothing else-seemed odd, as when my kids have gotten them they get an oral antibiotic as well. They seem to be taking forever to work. I'm laying off on the ibuprofen today to see if anything has actually improved. It still hurts and the left side of my face is still swollen (making it difficult to chew), but I don't think I'm getting the stabbing pains quite as often. It's still all clogged up though; the only thing I can hear though it is the whooshing of my own pulse. I've already missed three days of work, and I have an assignment that's pretty urgent to do, dammit. I don't think I can take any more time off.

I will later in the month though - we got word last week we get to take another furlough day a month. Whee.

Kids are a little disappointed about Anime Expo; we could only afford to go for one day, but I'll have to see if there are any other local cons we can go to later in the year.

Most often lastfm.com or I have several stations on Pandora. I also love Radio Paradise. I don't get much opportunity to listen though - much competition for the PC here and not allowed to listen/watch streaming sites at work - slows the network down too much. So I depend on my 'pod for music - I have several Tune o' the day podcasts that I probably catch up on once a week or so.

Gareth, Angus and I did this today. Twas fun!

Avalon and runsamuck were also going to participate but he had to go over to his dad's to do some work at the last minute, and she was invited to go the beach with her friend two doors down as we were walking out the door to head over there.

It was based on this, although not nearly as many geocachers showed:



I wasn't near enough to hear any comments, but there were a few people freaking out from what I understand.

I saw a very sweet thing driving to work this morning. I made a right turn from Seal Beach Blvd. onto Lampson to head to my office, and ahead of me, saw a police car stopped in the right lane with its lights flashing. At first I thought someone was being pulled over, but then I noticed the cop walking around his car to the lawn. I was kind of trapped behind him for a few minutes as car behind me were all going around, and it was then I noticed the puddle in the gutter next to the police car contained about six ducklings. Mama duck was anxiously going back and forth on the grass above them, and the officer was trying to help the babies get up the curb to mom. Although every time he got on one side of them, they would run the other direction. The last I saw before I finally was able to move was that he had gotten some sort of flat object out of the car to either herd them a bit more effieciently, or to place against the curb so they could hop up. I don't know how it worked out, but it was nice to see him stopping traffic to help out the wildlife, at least.

In other encounters with local law enforcement, Saturday evening I turned in a intoxicated driver. Angus, Avalon and I were going to check out a nearby geocache, but when I turned onto Goldenwest, I noticed a black Silverado pickup in front of me that weaved in the lane, then drifted left and the tires bounced off the curb of the island in the middle of the street. Then he went the other direction. I decided to keep him in front of me so I could keep an eye on him. He contined weaving and was having serious problems staying in his lane. As it happened we both got into the same lane to turn left on Garfield. He sat for awhile after the light turned green - all the other cars had gone - and then turned so wide he almost hit the curb again, narrowly missing a pedstrian who holding his child and waiting to cross the street. That's when I decided he needed to be reported. I called 911, and I guess I must have sounded pretty excited, because they told me I was talking too fast and to calm down. The officer said not to do anything crazy to keep up with him, but to try and keep him in sight; someone was being sent after him. They kept me on the phone until a motorcycle caught up with us at the Warner/Edwards signal (where he did the same thing as in the left turn lane). Thereupon, they put their lights on and pulled him over on the other side of the signal. I was instructed to pull onto a residential street in the officer wanted to talk to me. After waiting for about 15 minutes, I called the number they'd told me to, and a female officer said they had my cell phone number and I was free to leave. Made it too dark to get to the geocache, but we had a nice walk nevertheless. The officer who'd pulled the guy over called me later in the evening and said the guy had been "heavily medicated" and shouldn't have been driving at all. Seriously, I hear about pedestrians and bicylists getting hit by people driving off the road quite often, and the thought has crossed my mind while I'm waiting at a bus stop with semis whooshing by at 50 mph not six feet from where I'm sitting. It's a scary thought. Keep your kids outta the street, Mama duck.

Last time I travelled, I came across an article in one of those backseat magazines that had some nifty places to stay; I wrote down all the websites to check out later and I just came across that piece of paper on my desk (putting them here so I can throw it in the recycling). I'd love to try them out sometime. Maybe after the kids have moved out.

Sweden - a 747 that's been turned into a hostel.



Switzerland - The Anti-Luxury Hotel - 0 Starsl

• military-style bunks in place of beds
• hot water bottles to make up for no central heating
• earplugs in case you can’t sleep because of the noise from the fans
• complimentary slippers if floors are icy
• no windows, just four white walls everywhere you look
• hot water to shower in is limited, hence wheel of fortune will determine who will have to shower in cold water

Idaho - For the Ultimate Beagle Lover

Austria - Sleep in a drainpipe.

Netherlands - stay in a lighthouse, a lifeboat, or a crane in the harbor...

And finally, not a hotel, but you can buy one to live in...Tree Pod Houses.

Well, yay, I now have a working cell phone again. Not that it was actually broken, but in my ineptness I misplaced the wall plug charger for it, and for a little was relying on the car charger I bought at a truck stop in Monterey when we were up there for a staff meeting in January. Now this thing was nifty because it had interchangeable tips you could get for different phones and other devices (there was a whole rotating carousel of them), and I had the smart idea of hey, we can get for for runsamuck's phone, the iPods, and various other gadgets. Maybe the GPS too, since I seem to have lost track of that charger as well (how can you lose that stoopid - it's a CAR charger and it should stay in the CAR!). Well, not only does the car socket seem to be going wonky, the tip for my phone completely disintegrated a few weeks ago. I have searched in vain for another source for the interchangeable tips, but haven't been able to find them, so the last time it died, it stayed dead. I was considering going to get a cheap phone to replace it as I have to travel for work this weekend and I will need one.

A couple of days ago, runsamuck was looking for something else and found my charger plugged into the power strip on my side of the bed. Duh. Ah well, not like it's been ringing off the hook anyway. Charged it up, checked it and am pleased to see there's a new browser for it that I can actually download (Opera Mini). I can actually check LJ with it and see pictures! It's like I'm in the 21st Century or something! Whoopee snort!

Hmm, L.A. County Sheriff and Coroner's Office trucks, and an otherwise unmarked Suburban with federal plates and a light bar on top out in the parking lot as I walked in today. Not to worry though, nothing exciting; they're just attending a meeting here, probably with the wardens...

Buses at my kid's school
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
9 June 2009

Anyone else not able to access Gmail? Other google sites connect, but I've been getting "page not found" since this morning. Never mind.

Well, I don't know why I allowed myself to get sucked into Code Geass: Lalouche of the Rebellion,as I try to avoid series based on political intrigue and masked antiheroes. Not to mention mecha, although I don't mind them. It finally finished last night. I think you could tell how it had to end, as it was leading inevitably in that direction. God, how depressing. ( Spoiler )

I also finished Watchmen earlier this week; someone in my book group had warned me it was not a fast read despite being a graphic novel, and he was certainly right. Most of the chapters have several pages of regular text in the form of news articles, describing character backgrounds. It's a pretty intense story, and it didn't really have a happy ending either.

And the first disk of Six Feet Under. I had caught a few episodes of this when cable let us have the channel for free a while ago and had been intrigued. Not quite happy either, plenty dark, but a lot of black humor too. And I'm slightly amused that I'm familiar with a lot of the outdoor locations - the intersection where Dad gets hit by the bus is on the street where we often went out to lunch at our old office in downtown Long Beach. I'm having difficulty finding the time to watch it, as it's definitely not for the kids, but John doesn't want to watch it either. I have to wait until he's out in the garage for a few hours. Anyway...

Something cheery, now, please?

I had a pair of khaki jeans I couldn't wear to work because I'd gotten a large permanent stain on them. They were otherwise good pants, so I decided to dye them.

Brown muck in the washing machine
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
7 June 2009

Neighbor's front walk
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
6 June 2009

( ...And the kids wanted to visit the birdhouse place again... )

Roof gone, innards going
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
5 June 2009