Smallest Micro-Cache

Today we found the smallest cache that we have ever found. There was barely room to write our names in the log book. Mary spotted it. I over looked it at least 3 different times.

Smallest ever Micro-Cache
We later talked to the cache owner CCDAWG at Ci-Ci's Pizza in Liberty, MO. He said he ordered the cache container on eBay. It came with the magnet in the bottom and the log book.

Geocaches Found 870.
11,173 Steps Today - 5.11 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps with 0 minutes of Aerobic walking.
410 Calories Burned - 23.0 grams of Fat Burned.

Daniel Boone

The highlight of our geocaching day was finding the grave of Daniel Morgan Boone, the son of Daniel Boone.

Daniel Morgan Boone
Geocaches Found 862.
13,129 Steps Today - 6.00 miles.
2,693 Aerobic Steps with 24 minutes of Aerobic walking.
538 Calories Burned - 30.2 grams of Fat Burned.

Sprint Outsourcing

We had a meeting this afternoon with the Sprint and IBM HR folks. It sure is sounding like my job will be outsourced. Since we've not be told yet there's still a chance that our group won't be in the list of folks outsourced.

We solved the puzzle for the Peggy Cache (GCK0GD) this evening after Mary spent 3 days trying.

Geocaches Found 852.
4,289 Steps Today - 1.96 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps with 0 minutes of Aerobic walking.
171 Calories Burned - 9.4 grams of Fat Burned.

Appalachian Trail - Tom Hanley

I received this picture today from our orienteering friend, Tom Hanley. Tom started hiking the Appalachian Trail last May and has made steady progress. He's now in Maine and took a few days off with his wife. This picture was made as he started back on the trail.

For Mary and I it's been a lazy evening at home. We're still working on some of the new Guitar Nutz geocache puzzles. He's really got us stumped on the "Peggy Cache" and the "One Ringie-Dingie ...Two".

Geocaches Found 852.
8,626 Steps Today - 3.94 miles.
3,079 Aerobic Steps with 30 minutes of Aerobic walking.
386 Calories Burned - 22.7 grams of Fat Burned.

Missouri's First Geocache Site

Back in June 2000 I put out Missouri's First Geocache Site. It has been trashed several times. This past week it was trashed again. I decided to move it to a better hidding place out of sight of the Indian Trail. I put the cache in a new Ammo Box.

Geocaches Found 852.
8,078 Steps Today - 3.69 miles.
3,041 Aerobic Steps with 29 minutes of Aerobic walking.
356 Calories Burned - 20.9 grams of Fat Burned.

OGG Road Cache

The temperture on my weather bug said 71 degrees when Chris and I went to lunch. We decided to walk the mile and a half loop around the Sprint Campus.

After all the walking this past weekend I guess I ought to be glad for a slow day. We stopped at Applebees on the way home for supper. We settled in for the evening and watched an old movie on TV.

Mary and I have been trying to figure out the answer to the "OGG Road" cache for a few days. Guitar Nutz, the cache owner, emailed us a hint this evening and we figured it out. It should be an easy find now.

Geocaches Found 852.
7,316 Steps Today - 3.34 miles.
3,150 Aerobic Steps with 30 minutes of Aerobic walking.
314 Calories Burned - 18.5 grams of Fat Burned.

The Beetle and The Butterfly

Today while out geocaching I caught this picture of a beetle and a butterfly.

The Beetle and The Butterfly
Geocaches Found 852.
15,399 Steps Today - 7.04 miles.
6019 Aerobic Steps with 56 minutes of Aerobic walking.
666 Calories Burned - 38.1 grams of Fat Burned.

Floods after the Rain

The rain finally stopped about 3:30 this afternoon. I walked out back and took a few pictures of a flooded Indian Creek.

Indian Creek Flooding at Watts Mill
We decided to go geocaching after the rain stopped. We had a good time finding two additional caches before dark.

Geocaches Found 842.
4,061 Steps Today - 1.85 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps with 0 minutes of Aerobic walking.
175 Calories Burned - 9.6 grams of Fat Burned.

A Cold Day in July

I thought a cold day in July would be the perfect day to go geocaching, but I didn't expect rain all day. I took the following picture at 12:30 p.m. and the temperture is 55 degrees on my Weatherbug and it's been pouring down with rain all day and my pedometer is still setting idle. I hope all this thinking at the computer is burning the fat calories because there is no exercise going on so far today.

A Cold Rainy Day in July

Lots of Walking

We spent the afternoon trying to find some of the geocache sites that we had failed to find during the past couple of months. The first cache we could not find back in May we finally found located in a knothole of a limb laying on the ground. We probablly spent a total of a couple hours searching for what was in plain sight. We had walked all over it.

Mushroom at the First Cache Site.

The rest of the caches required a lot of walking. I've still not broken my record of 19,522 steps in one day while geocaching in the hills above Old Faithful in Yellowstone.

Geocaches Found 840.
18,174 Steps Today - 8.31 miles.
3607 Aerobic Steps with 38 minutes of Aerobic walking.
811 Calories Burned - 45.9 grams of Fat Burned.

Walking for Better Health

Some of us at work seem to be kind of obsessed with walking lately. Chris, Andy and I have all now acquired pedometers. We're almost in a contest to see who can walk the most everyday. The weather is hot so we go to a different Sprint building on campus everyday for a noon walk around the perimeter of each floor in the building. To increase our step count we go the long way around to the coffee pot. Coffee is free so we drink way too much coffee. It's close to 400 steps everytime we get a cup of coffee. We've decided that we'll reserve conference rooms in other buildings on campus for our meetings in order to get in extra steps.

It's fun and we're having a good time walking to better health.

8842 Steps Today - 4.04 miles.
4580 Aerobic Steps with 48 minutes of Aerobic walking.
363 Calories Burned - 21.9 grams of Fat Burned.

New Omron HJ-105 Pedometer

I have been using a pedometer that Mary received with an Adult Happy Meal at McDonald's. It has been a great motivator to walk more steps everyday. It has worked so well as a motivator that we decided to step up to the next level. Mary took me to Wal-Mart and bought me a new Omron HJ-105 pedometer this evening for $13.83.

WOW! This new pedometer does everything except walk for me. It measures steps, distance, calories, fat burned, aerobic steps and aerobic walking/jogging time. It even has 7 days of memory for all these counts and stores these counts everynight at midnight and zeroes the counters all automatically. What more could I possibly want in a pedometer. I just love gadgets.

Omron HJ-105 Pedometer
6846 Steps today.

Inside Walk

Today it was so hot outside that we decided to do our noon walk inside one of the Sprint buildings. We picked the biggest building at the Sprint Campus (6100). We walked the perimeter of each of 4 floors which was almost 5000 steps. I was really tired when I returned to my office.

8290 Steps today.

The Enigma Machine

We were stumped by "The Enigma Machine" cache Sunday afternoon. Today after much ponndering we were able to break the coded coordinates using the "The Enigma Machine Simulator". It's hard to imagine that this was invented by the Germans back in 1918. I think of inventions like this being computerized. Anyhow it was another fun adventure in Geocaching. We found the cache after work this evening.

I finally got around to posting all the pictures from the "Ernie Miller Sprint Event" to the PTOC Photo Gallery tonight.

Congratulations to Andy & Jenifer Scott. They both got new pedometers from Wal-Mart yesterday. We all compared our step counts thoughout the day today. Andy was way ahead when I left work.

7148 Steps today.

A little more Geocaching

We did a little more geocaching today. Found this peaceful spot in Shawnee Mission Park.

View from a peaceful Park Bench

Mary took this picture of Bambi as we were leaving Shawnee Mission Park.

Bambi

I spotted this critter in a tree this evening while looking for a cache site.

Woodchuck, Groundhog, He's a Critter to me

We had 15 new caches to log before the evening was over. We now have 833 cache finds to our credit.

12379 Steps today.

Today was a Geocache Day

Today was a geocache day. We really enjoyed geocaching again today. We found six geocache sites today. Not our best day, but six more geocaches than we had before today. We've now found 818 cache sites.

Our second Cache for today

They sure grow Sunflowers big in Kansas

12708 Steps today.

Sprint Orienteering at Ernie Miller

My orienteering day started today at 6:15 a.m. It was pouring down in rain as I loaded up a few things I thought would be helpful at the Clinic – Atomic Clock, laptop computer to record Score-O results, PTOC Patches, PTOC Banner, Finish Banner, etc.  I was wondering if the weather was going to cooperate for the event.
 
I left work about 10:00 a.m. and headed to Ernie Miller Park.  I arrived and begin to set up the room for the Clinic.  I noticed Dick Neuburger’s van in the parking lot and figured he was out placing the controls for the Score-O event to follow the Clinic. My goal was to have the room set up when Dick arrived.
 
We had 21 Sprint Employees show up for the Clinic.  Dick Neuburger did an exceptional job of condensing a 3 hour course into 1 hour.  The Sprint folks seemed to enjoy the course.
 
After the classroom work we started them on a Score-O with 20 controls at 14:03.  Most of them returned wet and muddy because the creeks were up after the rain storm this morning.  Some of them returned wet, bloody and muddy.  They all seemed to enjoy the event and a lot of them liked it so much they wanted to know when we were hosting more events so they could try some more orienteering. You can see the results at Sprint Clinic Results 
 
Of course when it was all over somebody has to retrieve the control flags.  I volunteered to help Dick pickup the controls.  After it was over I checked my pedometer and it showed 13,612 steps today.  That’s the most steps I’ve walked since I was in Yellowstone National Park a couple weeks ago doing some serious geocaching on the mountain above Old Faithful.
 
I now know better why we don’t orienteer during the summer.  It was partly cloudy and 87 degrees this afternoon.  The humidity was high after the rain this morning and the sweat was just pouring while I was out picking up control flags.
 
Somehow I could not help but remember some of the areas I walked with Kevin Shipley a couple years ago after an ice storm.  We were putting out control flags for an event and the ice was falling on our heads while we were on these same trails.  Wow!  What a contrast.  There certainly was no ice today.
 
It was a great experience and I’m glad I volunteered to help.
 
13,612 Steps today.

Steve's Believe It or Not

I decided to create a brand new Blog Site for "Steve's Believe It or Not". Hopefully that will keep me out of trouble with "Ripley's Believe It or Not". I did this mainly for the ease with which Blogger.com allows me to publish my web pages. I also added a couple things.  Look under "Photographs" on this page and check it out.
 
I spent a lot of time installing PERL and MySQL on my laptop computer tonight.  I'm getting ready for the big "Sprint Orienteering Clinic" tomorrow afternoon at Ernie Miller Park.  I plan to use my laptop for the Start/Finish.  We're expecting 22 folks from Sprint.  Dick Neuburger (Instructor) and I hope to train them in the art of Orienteering with a Map and Compass.  After the classroom clinic we will host a Score-O event to see how they do in the woods. 

6995 Steps today.

Believe It or Not

Over the course of the past few months I seem to have gotten a reputation for not liking snakes. The folks at work have been thinking about me when they discover something about snakes. I decided tonight to open up a new section under Photographs on my Blog Site to share some of the things that have been sent to me. You can check it out at Believe It or Not. Be aware that some are photographs, some are mpeg video, and some are Microsoft Power Point Presentation.

5658 Steps today.

40 Things I Did with My Pocket PC in a Week

An article in "Pocket PC Magazine" that I just didn't want to forget about. It reminds me of additional things I could be doing with my Pocket PC.

40 Things I Did with My Pocket PC in a Week

A Skunk on Town Square at Sprint Campus

I have just completed my round to fill my coffee cup in the 6480 building on the 2nd floor here at Sprint Campus. As I rounded the corner on the south end of the building, what to my wondering eye should appear, a skunk parading around town square. Looks like things here at Sprint are really beginning to stink. I sure wish I had one of those camera phones this morning.

Hottest Day So Far This Year

Today the skies were clear and the temperature was 100° in the shade. The heat index was up to 105° and it felt very hot.

There was lots of unrest at Sprint today. We're all wondering about our jobs. It seems that we have actually been in a state of unrest for several years. We just go from one situation to another. We were lead to believe last year that our jobs were going to be outsourced. At the last minute they decided that our application would not be outsourced. Now here we are again. There is still a slim chance that we won't be outsourced. We sure would like to have a little stability in our life again.

6744 Steps today.

Ashley's Cucumber Plant

Ashley's cucumber plant is now about 5 feet tall and loaded with blooms. I have to go out every day and tie up some of the vines. It sure is a fast growing cucumber.

I called my Dad this afternoon and it's the first time that he didn't recognize my voice and say, "Well hello Stephen". Today I could tell he was wondering who I was, so I said, "Hi Daddy, this is Stephen". He then said, "Well hello Stephen, where are you"? For the last few years he always says, "Where are you"? I've been in Kansas City for about 11 years now and he can never remember where I am. Anyway, other than that he sounded pretty much like himself and said he was doing fine. He told me that Delton comes over everyday and fixes him breakfast. Thank you Delton for doing that for Daddy.

We are on pins and needles about my job. We still have not heard if my application is going to be outsourced to IBM.

Steps today 3301. This is bad. It's harder, and harder to walk in this heat. Maybe I ought to go for one of my 5K walks tonight while it's cool.

Lee's last day to visit with us

We enjoyed a very nice meal together at home with Lee, Robby, and Alison before leaving to take Lee to the airport.

Waiting with Lee at the KCI Starbuck's
As I was trying to get Lee on his airplane we were told that his flight had been delayed a couple hours. After some fast finagaling and a very nice girl at the Southwest ticket counter, we were able to get him on another flight that was leaving immediately.

Airplane leaving with Lee bound for St. Louis
We ended the evening sharing supper with Robby and Alison at MiMi's Cafe on 95th Street.

4411 Steps today.

A Quite Saturday at Home

Today we've all been catering to Mary. She still finds it hard to get around. She's pretty sore all over but otherwise she is doing fine.

Robby and Alison came over again today. I grilled steaks while Lee fixed shrimp in the wok. Alison fixed a nice salad, brussle sprouts and some mushrooms. We all forgot to cook the baked potatoes, but we had too much to eat anyway.

After supper we all sat around and watched "Open Range" on the TV. Robby and I continued to work on Lee's webpage.

Mary's Angiogram

Audio report from the hospital via cellphone just after the doctor came out and talked to me about the results of Mary's Angiogram.

Mary Waiting for the Doctor

Here we are with Mary at St. Joseph Hospital waiting for the doctor to perform her angiogram. They took her back about 9:00 a.m.

Mary Waiting for the Doctor

Mary's Birthday

Lee, Robby, Alison and I took Mary to the Texas Road House tonight for her birthday. She reached the big 57 today. The steaks were awesome.

We watched a movie that Mary picked out when we got home. It was a Romantic Comedy. Very funny. Mary seemed to really enjoy it.

Lee was feeling very bad tonight and went to bed early.

Sprint anounced today that applications involving about 1000 employees are going to be outsourced to IBM. We don't know yet if my application is one of the ones outsourced. We should find out if I'm involved or not in the next couple of weeks.

7842 Steps today.

I'm about to pop

I went to lunch with Mary, Lee, Robby, and Alison today. We went to the Olive Garden over on 95th Street. I ate way too much salad and now I'm about the pop and just want to take a nap. The worst part is that I did not do my mile and half walk with the guys after lunch. I am glad I went to lunch with the gang. It was fun. It's great having Lee around.

A Sit Down Meal with the Kids

We spent a pleasant evening at home with Lee, Robby, and Alison. Mary fixed a wonderful meal and we all sit down at the table and enjoyed it. No TV, just pleasant conversation.

After supper Robby and I worked with Lee on a web page he is building for a friend in Little Rock while Mary and Alison watched what they called a girl kind of movie (Mooseport).

2979 Steps today.

Sick - Stomach Ache

We didn't get home until after 3:00 a.m. this morning from the airport. Mary and Lee's flight was delayed for over 4 hours because of bad weather. Nobody in the group had eaten anything so we stopped at International House of Pancakes. This was a mistake for me. When I was suppose to get up at 5:30 this morning I was hurting. I spent a very miserable day and called in sick.

Trip to Weston Bend and KCI

I have received several complaints about our Cache Site at Weston Bend State Park. They said an animal had chewed the rubbermaid container and it was leaking. I decided this morning was the time to go change out the container. I drove an hour to the park and decided to try a closer approach from the Missouri River side of the park. BIG MISTAKE. My GPS said I was about 500 feet from the cache. The other approach from the other side of the park would have been a 2 mile hike. Jungle, vertical 100 foot cliff, and very loose footing made this nearly impossible. I wish I had studied a topo map before trying this little adventure. I finally found a gully that allowed me to go around the cliff. It took me over an hour to go that 500 feet.

Ft. Leavenworth viewed from Cache Site(click for larger view)
Tonight I went with Robby and Alison to pick up Mary and Lee at the airport. They were scheduled to arrive at 7:55 p.m., but because of bad weather did not show up until about 1:30 a.m. The worst part was Lee having to sit in an uncomfortable wheel chair at the St. Louis Airport. He was really hurting by the time he got to bed about 3:00 a.m.

5K Walk to Leawood

I thought sure I'd go to bed early tonight after staying up late last night and getting up at 7:30 yesterday morning. It's after 1:00 in the morning and I'm still up. Since I've sit all day at the computer I decided to do another midnight 5K walk. This time I went west on the Indian Trail to Leawood Park. I've measured the 5K distance months ago with the GPS.

I was suprised to find the reminds of the fireworks that I had photographed earlier this evening at Leawood Park. I wish I had taken my camera. It was interesting to study the fireworks setup that I had witnessed earlier in the evening.

Fireworks from Patio

I heard and saw a lot of fireworks going off around me, but this is the only image I was able to capture from our patio. It's great to remember that America is still the "Home of the Brave" and "Land of the Free". It's still the best country in the world.

Fireworks from Patio
The shutter was open for the max on my Olympus C-750 using the Manual mode and of course on a tripod. 16 Seconds at F3.2.

Mary's Flowers

Click for original image

Click for original image

Corn on the Cob

I have just finished eating an ear of corn given to me by my buddy Chris Wilson at Sprint. WOW! How delightful! Thanks Chris.

Raw Corn on the Cob - Nothing Better
This put me to thinking. Have I ever had "Corn on the Cob" for breakfast before? I don't think so. I guess I never thought about having "Corn on the Cob" for breakfast before. I have eaten Corn Flakes for breakfast all my life. Why not eat unprocessed corn for breakfast? Much healthier!

Then I wondered how many people have eaten RAW "Corn on the Cob". I have brought up the subject several times in recent years, but I have never run into anyone who actually eats it raw. I read a book a few years ago about eating raw vegetables and I've been eating corn and many other vegetables raw ever since and really enjoy them. Everybody just looks at me like I'm some kind of NUT-CASE. Maybe I am, but "Corn on the Cob" eaten RAW is delicious.

I have heard all my life that the best "Corn on the Cob" is eaten with the shortest time interval between the field and the table. Something about the sugar starts turning to starch as soon as you pick the corn. With this in mine, then the best "Corn on the Cob" would be standing in the field, pick it, shuck it, and eat it. Don't bother with the worms. Just eat around them.

I guess I grew up like most people. Thinking you have to cook everything to death or it will harm you some how. I now think there is nothing healthier to eat than raw vegetables.

5K Walk

2:00 a.m. - I got to feeling bad about not walking yesterday so I went for a 5km walk to the East on the Indian Trail. It was cool and an easy walk. They still lack a couple small sections completing the trail. I got into a little mud. I didn't take my pedometer so I don't know how many steps I took. At Least I got some exercise before bed.

Vacation SlideShow

Today Rob came over and we finally have my Blog Site back online. Thanks Robby.

I have a new Windows 2003 Server with a WebServer, FTP Server, AD Domain and I'm happy. I've learned a lot about Windows Server and Domain Servers from Robby. I hope I've learned enought to keep this thing running.

I spent the evening finishing the reload of my laptop and putting together a slide show of our recent vacation out west.

See The Slide Show at: Vacation June 2004

I used Digital Photo Slide Show to build the slide show. I got the idea from my brother David last year when I viewed his website at Davids Clocks and he was using a JavaScript slide show. Thanks David.

1137 Steps today. I better get with it tomorrow. Computing too much.

Bradley and Ashley left for Arkansas

Mary left this morning to return Bradley and Ashley to their parents in Arkansas. We sure are going to miss them around here. It will be much harder to get my exercise in the pool now that they are gone.

I picked up a new cable modem from Time Warner and it still doesn't work. After much discussion with their tech support person I found a bad connection at the splitter in the basement. What a releif!

I spent the afternoon trying to get my Windows 2003 Server working. I finally gave up.
Guess I'll have to wait on Robert. This is my first time to ever work with Windows Server.

I decided to reload my laptop with Windows XP Professional. It won't work with the new server running XP Home. At 11:30 I'm still not done. I'm too tired to continue. I've worked about 12 hours on my computers today. Aren't computers a great time saver? This is the third day in a row that my Blog site is still down. Maybe tomorrow.

4321 Steps today.

Another abnormally cool summer day

The weather is still abnormally cool and cloudy today. It sprinkled on us for our noon walk.

We heard a rumor today that 90% of all Sprint IT people will be outsourced. The contract has already been signed and the announcement will be made next Friday. NOT GOOD NEWS.

I went swimming again with Bradley and Ashley. I guess this is the last time for a while. Mary is taking them back home to Arkansas in the morning.

Rob came over again tonight and worked on my new Windows 2003 Server. After much work he called Time Warner and they diagnosed my cable modem as bad. I guess I’ll go exchange it tomorrow. My blog site is still down.

Steps today 6108.