New ThinkPad Laptop Computer

Recently IBM made an offer to employees to purchase a nice laptop computer at a nice employee price. An offer I failed to turn down.

Today my new laptop showed up. Now I'll never finish getting ready for the geocaching presentation this coming Saturday.
IBM ThinkPad R50p 1832-22U specifications:
Pentium M 1.7 GHz
Memory 1 GB
Video Memory 128 MB
Hard Drive 60 GB @ 7200 rpm
CD/DVD burner
Graphics UXGA 1600 x 1200 pixels ATI Mobility Fire GL T2
Battery Life 4.6 hours.
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built-in
Weight 6.61 lbs
Operating System Windows XP Pro

Very nice. I stayed up way too late playing with it. I got a few things installed and some of my data transfered from my old computer. It will take a few weeks before I'm comfortable with it.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
4568 Steps Today - 2.16 miles.
2734 Aerobic Steps.
200 Calories Burned.

Course Setting and Geocaching Presentation

Today was a lot of computer work. I spent a lot of time setting up the orienteering courses for the Prairie Center Meet to be held on April 2. I did not really realize how much work goes into setting up an orienteering event until I volunteered to be a course setter. It's hard work at home and in the field getting it all together.

I also spent an awlful lot of hours putting together my presentation for the Geocaching Techie Evevent scheduled for March 5th. I'm trying to prepare myself to talk about the technical asspects of using Street Atlas and GPXSonar to help make the Geocaching experience better. I hope I can remember what I'm talking about when I get in front of all those people.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
656 Steps Today - .31 miles. Oh my! Too much sitting today.
0 Aerobic Steps.
8 Calories Burned.

Orienteering at Fleming Park

Today was a beautiful day for orienteering. We did the registrar thing at the South Jacomo Marina in Fleming Park today. We had some 146 people register within 2 hours. Very busy today.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
4521 Steps Today - 2.14 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
207 Calories Burned.

Elephant Bar for Dinner

Seems like the only fun we're having lately is eating out. Tonight it was the Elephant Bar where I had a great steak and Mary had Lamb shank.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
2506 Steps Today - 1.18 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
89 Calories Burned.

Salty Iguana for Dinner

Mary and I didn't do much today, but we did enjoy a nice dinner together at the Salty Iguana this evening.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
4767 Steps Today - 2.25 miles.
2997 Aerobic Steps.
215 Calories Burned.

Caching at Smithville Lake

This evening when I got off work we went downtown and located the newest cache in Penn Valley Park. We enjoyed the statue of the Pioneer Woman nearby.

After leaving downtown we headed north to Smithville Lake. There was a new cache at an abandoned town called Mecca on the north shore of Smithville Lake. We really enjoyed the quite in the area. No planes, trains or cars. Much different than the corporate world we had just come from.

Today's Stats:
2 Geocaches.
5860 Steps Today - 2.77 miles.
3338 Aerobic Steps.
260 Calories Burned.

Caching at Sprint Campus

Today at lunch Chris, Andy and I went out and hid a couple caches for Lisa on the Sprint Campus. We're trying to get her to learn how to use her new GPS to find a coordinates. When we came back Joe and Chuck were inquiring about what we had done. They wanted to go out and see if they could find it. I gave them a couple minutes training on the GPS and off they went. In about an hour to my amazement they came back and said they had found both of them.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
5705 Steps Today - 2.70 miles.
1949 Aerobic Steps.
256 Calories Burned.

Caching In Topeka, Kansas

Today a new cache was released in Topeka near the Governor's Mansion. When we left work no one had logged it yet so we were hoping for a First To Find(FTF). No such luck. Guitar Nutz outwitted us again. We stopped to grab the new Surewood #3 cache on the way out of town and that slowed us down some. Didn't get a FTF on Surewood #3 either. What was really bad was that I didn't have my laptop and when we got home we discovered there was another cache released very near where we were at. It would have been a FTF.

Today's Stats:
2 Geocaches.
9772 Steps Today - 4.62 miles.
3946 Aerobic Steps.
464 Calories Burned.

Prairie Center Course Setting

We met Brian and Carlin Yonke at Ruby Tuesday's for lunch and then went out to Prairie Center Nature Reserve to hang flagging for the orienteering courses for the event in April. Brian and I walked about 5 miles covering the entire park. We were also marking some extra sites to be used for a new geocaching course that we plan to offer at this event.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
10585 Steps Today - 5.01 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
490 Calories Burned.

Fire, EMS & Police Memorial Cache # 2

We got up a little late this morning and found that a new cache called "Fire, EMS & Police Memorial Cache # 2" had been released by FireFighter's Wife just minutes before we got up. There was nothing to do but solve the puzzle and race out the door to claim the First to Find prize. We make it and then invited FireFighter's Wifer to join us for breakfast at Bob Evans. We enjoyed a good time together with her over a great breakfast.

Today's Stats:
1 Geocaches.
913 Steps Today - .43 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
5 Calories Burned.

Caching in Savannah, Missouri

We decided to drive up to Savannah and try the Latham Family Cache again. We heard that it had been replaced and wanted to get it off our list of unfound caches. We were lucky. The new hint took us right to the cache. We caught 3 new caches in Kansas City on the way back into town.

Today's Stats:
4 Geocaches.
2064 Steps Today - .97 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
71 Calories Burned.

Geocaching Power Point Presentation

Just a quite evening at home. I spent the evening working on my presentation for the "Techie Event" coming up on March 5 here in Kansas City. This turns out to be a lot of work. I sure hope it turns out okay.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
4971 Steps Today - 2.35 miles.
2884 Aerobic Steps.
228 Calories Burned.

Airsafety's Cachin' Madness

It was exciting to read Airsafety's new Blog this evening. Airsafety is a geocacher friend Mary and I met in Little Rock, Arkansas a couple months ago. He travels all over the United States with his job and it should be interesting to follow his travels. I have added a link for his Blog Site to my blog. It's listed under "Other Blogs".

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
2109 Steps Today - .99 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
95 Calories Burned.

New Tables for Mary

Last week we received out new couch and recliner. Mary didn't care for the TV tray for her stuff and another one to hold her computer monitor so she when to the store and purchased a 30 inch tall entertainment center and a very nice printer stand. Guess who gets to assemble it all. My job tonight was assembling the two units. It took me until 10:30 p.m. to complete the task. It does look much nicer than the TV trays.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
4829 Steps Today - 2.28 miles.
3362 Aerobic Steps.
196 Calories Burned.

Valentines Day 2005

Since I did not have a chance otherwise, I took Mary to the Russell Stover Outlet and we picked out four boxes of sugar free candy and a Valentine card. We went to 54th Street Grill for dinner. The meal was outstanding and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
5028 Steps Today - 2.38 miles.
2896 Aerobic Steps.
212 Calories Burned.

Orienteering at Wyandotte County Lake Park

Today it rained nearly all day long. Thank goodness we had a shelter for the Wyandotte Orienteering Meet today. I was the registrar and Finish Manager for the event. It was a double Score-O. We had a lot better turn out today than I expected. Lots of fun in the rain.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
4837 Steps Today - 2.29 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
215 Calories Burned.

Geocaching in Columbia, Missouri

This morning we got up in Booneville, Missouri and headed north with Brian and Carlin Yonke. We were seeking the Hungry Mother Cache in the Hungry Mother Conservation Area. The hike was nice except for the part where Brian and I got our feet wet crossing the creek.

From there we went over to the Pinnacles. Very unusual rock cliffs. We must have hiked about a mile up in Pinnacles and got our feet wet again. The best part was when Brian slipped and fell in the creek. I looked up and he was rolling around in the creek. I'd give anything to have had a picture of this.

We then spent several hours in the Finger Lakes Conservation Area. We spent at least an hour fishing with a magnet on the end of a rope for an ammo box in the bottom of a lake. We never did find it.

Today's Stats:
5 Geocaches.
20786 Steps Today - 9.84 miles.
11309 Aerobic Steps.
960 Calories Burned.

Geocaching in Sedalia, Missouri

This afternoon we went over to Sedalia to get the only cache within a 100 miles of our house. From there we went over Booneville to meet our friends Brian and Carlin Yonke. We plan to go caching with them tomorrow over in Columbia.

I posted a geocaching event page for the Prairie Center Geocaching Event on geocaching.com. I also posted an overview and rules page for the envent on the ptoc.org website. The event is scheduled for April 2, 2005 as part of the Possum Trot Orienteering Event.

Today's Stats:
1 Geocaches.
4342 Steps Today - 2.05 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
185 Calories Burned.

Dinner at the Grand Street Cafe

This evening we went to the Grand Street Cafe for dinner. Bankers Life offered us a free meal if we would listen to their presentation for 1 hour. We took them up on it and enjoyed a great meal. So far we didn't sign up for anything and it hasn't cost us anything.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
2538 Steps Today - 1.20 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
112 Calories Burned.

Snow Day

Last night we had about 4 inches of snow. I435 here by the house was all blocked up with wrecks this morning. I worked from home this morning and went in to the office after lunch.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
1097 Steps Today - .51 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
38 Calories Burned.

Loose's Revenge Geocache Found

Today at lunch Mary and I met some geocaching friends at Loose Park to conquer the "Loose's Revenge" cache. DustyJacket brought his inflatable boat. He went out and retrieved the cache and brought it back to shore so we could all sign the log book. These pictures are me returning the cache to it's hiding place on Duck Island.

Today's Stats:
1 Geocaches.
2684 Steps Today - 1.27 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
106 Calories Burned.

Loose's Revenge Geocache Not Found

Tonight Mary and I met our friend Larry over at Loose Park tonight in search of Kansas City's newest cache. The cache is located on Duck Island in the middle of Loose Pond. Larry brought his chest waders in hopes of walking to the island. I measured the water at the shore line and it was over the top of his waders. We ended up posting a "Did Not Find" for our attempt tonight.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
3262 Steps Today - 1.54 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
138 Calories Burned.

Caching in Ft. Scott, Kansas

We started our day in Topeka, Kansas. We located a new cache here just before dark yesterday. We stopped off in Blue Mound, Kansas to find a cache that eluded us a couple months ago. It was easy today. We found the cache in Ft. Scott without any problems. We ended the day finding the newest cache in downtown Kansas City. We made it home well in advance of the start of the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl was a different kind of entertainment.

Today's Stats:
4 Geocaches.
1176 Steps Today - .55 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
41 Calories Burned.

Caching In Our 100 Mile Circle

Today we finished finding all the caches in a 100 mile circle from our house. We've been working at this for several months. We started the day in Nevada, Missouri and ended the day in Topeka, Kansas. We now get a message "Sorry, no results were found for this search" when we click the "Filter out finds" link on geocaching.com. One of the best adventures today was the 2 mile walk out in Prairie State Park. I saw many buffalo hoof prints out here. There are actually big herds of buffalo that roam the prairie out here. Thank goodness I did not encounter any of them.

Today's Stats:
11 Geocaches.
11764 Steps Today - 5.57 miles.
4588 Aerobic Steps.
537 Calories Burned.

Cleaning Up Our 100 Circle

This evening we grabbed the 2 newest caches in Kansas City and a couple more down at the Lake of the Ozarks that fell within our 100 mile circle. We spent the night in Nevada, MO. We hope to clean up the reminder of the caches in our 100 mile circle tomorrow.

Today's Stats:
4 Geocaches.
8102 Steps Today - 3.83 miles.
1482 Aerobic Steps.
396 Calories Burned.

New Couch and Recliner

This evening we received a new couch and recliner from Nebraska Furniture Mart. We got them from the scratch and dent section of the store. It appears that we made a good selection. Very comfortable.

We decided to take back our new TiVo unit to Circuit City.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
2552 Steps Today - 1.20 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
89 Calories Burned.

We Gave Our Old Couch to Goodwill

Today we can't remember anthing that amounted to anything that we did. This day just kind of passed by.

We did pay a guy $20 to pick up our old green couch and Love seat and take them to Goodwill. We have a new couch and recliner coming tomorrow from Nebraska Furniture Mart.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
1848 Steps Today - .87 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
65 Calories Burned.

DirecTV DVR Installer Visit

This afternoon the installer came to install our new TiVo Satellite Receiver. I failed at installing it Sunday evening. The installer did not bring a new dish so he hooked up a multi-switch just like I did Sunday. It worked long enough for him to drive out the driveway and it started pixelating just like it did when I installed it. Circuit City gave me a new dish this evening so now we have to have the installer out again.

Mary fixed a great pot roast this evening with all the triming and we invited Robby and Alison over for dinner. It was a fantastic meal. Mary really out did herself on this one. We really enjoyed it.

Today's Stats:
0 Geocaches.
2539 Steps Today - 1.20 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps.
98 Calories Burned.