TheKman.com

8675309

2012-01-16T14:51:00.003-05:00

8675309, originally uploaded by thekmancom.

Money to burn

2012-01-16T14:51:00.001-05:00

Money to burn, originally uploaded by thekmancom.

Eat Healthy

2012-01-16T14:50:00.003-05:00

Eat Healthy, originally uploaded by thekmancom.

A good idea

2012-01-16T14:50:00.001-05:00

A good idea, originally uploaded by thekmancom.

Hope

2012-01-16T14:49:00.001-05:00

Hope, originally uploaded by thekmancom.

Sadly I am very disappointed with Nikon

2011-10-04T00:35:00.002-04:00

Sadly I am very disappointed with Nikon. I think they have great camera’s and their lens I think are the best. I have several friends who have Nikons and they all love them as well. Not being a professional photographer but really wanting to start learning how to dive deeper into digital photography I made the leap from my Fugi point and shoot camera to a Nikon D3100. Everything was going great. I was learning how to take better, more creative pictures with my new camera. I took it everywhere with me and actually started getting a little recognition and a following with my pictures. I purchased a 70-300mm lens and nice Nikon flash so I could continue taking more Roller Derby photos which are all indoor arenas’ with low lighting.

A little less than a year has going by and I am on a business trip with several plans to take pictures in the evenings of various local landmarks when my camera just stops working. I start getting an error message to release the shutter button again. I tried all the various possible fixes I found online (except for the one where people said to take the camera apart, that is crazy!) but could not fix it. Bummed that I couldn’t take anymore pictures on the trip, I went onto the Nikon site and very quickly was able to submit my issue and create the shipping label and shipped my camera out as soon as I got home. I track the package through UPS and see that it is delivered. I wait a day for confirmation and do not get anything so I contact Nikon. After a couple calls they locate it and tell me it has arrived but has not yet been looked at. The next day I get a confirmation email that it is under warranty. I check the status and it says it is on Parts Hold. I think OK should take Nikon a day or two to get the part since they are Nikon. Seven days go by and it is still listed as Parts Hold. I find out that I was given photography credentials to shoot the North Central Roller Derby Tournament so I really need my camera by this upcoming I leave a message on Friday asking when the projected date is that I will be getting my camera back. I receive a standard reply that they have received my message and will get back with me in 24 hours. The weekend comes and goes and I hear nothing. Monday afternoon I write again asking to a response to my previous question. I then repeat my question as a direct message to Nikon on Twitter. Several hours later still no response so I call the 1-800 number. I speak to someone I can barely understand and she tells me my projected date for receiving the part is October 21^st. I tell her that will be over a month that my camera has been at Nikon for a warranty covered issue. She reads me all the standard lines for their how to deal with an unhappy customer playbook (I manage a customer support team so I know the drill). I tell her I am not happy with her answer and will figure out who to contact next. If it was my team I would expect them to provide me with that information from that statement or have someone else contact me. I then try the social media route. Leave a nice message on both Twitter and Facebook inquiring about a loaner camera. No response. I then post a couple more tweets expressing my negative experience expecting some kind of response from Nikon. Still nothing. In this day and age of digital communication, companies should be monitoring social media tools and reply to customers with legitimate complaints. Taking over a month to fix a warranty covered defect is entirely too long. I know I am not a professional photographer and I did not purchase their top of the line camera. But $700 on a camera is a lot for me and I believe Nikon should assist with either speeding up the process or providing a loaner camera while I wait for mine to be fixed. But apparently customer support is not what it use to be. I did tell my team this story and told them we have to go that extra mile, I don’t want our customers feeling this way about us. I am truly sad with being so disappointed in the service I have received from a company and product I liked and promoted. Not sure what I am going to do for this weekend I was suppose to spend taking pictures at the Roller Derby tournament. Still trying to find a loaner camera I guess.

Black-n-Bluegrass Rollergirls

2011-09-05T02:06:00.001-04:00

Black-n-Bluegrass Rollergirls, originally uploaded by thekmancom.

Today's Technology Tomorrow's Leaders

2011-08-29T00:47:00.000-04:00

Urban Nature

2011-08-29T00:07:00.001-04:00

Urban Nature, a set on Flickr.

This is why I love Geocaching. It isn't necessarily the cache. Actually I get annoyed by the puzzle caches, and the micro caches. Place them some where interesting to go and easy to find. The joy is in the journey.

All of these pictures where taken in a small area in the Fields Ertle area which is mostly a commercial area. Love finding nature in the city.

Moustache Mania

2010-10-30T14:07:00.003-04:00

I am not sure what is up with this fake moustache thing but I see it all over the place online and in person, especially with our Roller Derby friends. One day I will have to have one of them explain it to us. In the mean time we had Kyra join in the fun this morning after finding a fake moustache that almost matched her hair color exactly!

Testing BlogPress for the iPad

2010-10-18T13:50:00.001-04:00

Just downloaded the iPad app BlogPress. Checking out if this will be a good tool to help me do a little more blogging.

Random Picture:

This Tresha close to Kyra's age.

This looks like it will work pretty well.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR Zoom Lens

2010-10-17T09:11:00.003-04:00

Super excited I just go mine in the mail yesterday! Still not sure what the mailman was thinking as this is how he left the package:

Just glad I was home te get it before some one else grabbed it or the wind blew it into the street.

Haven't played with the settings much on my new Nikon d3100 yet, but wanted to take a few pictures to test out the zoom capabilities of the lens. As I love close up photography!

This one was taken with my 18-55mm Nikon lens at 18mm

This one was taken with my 18-55mm Nikon lens at 55mm

This one was taken with my 55-300mm Nikon lens at 300mm

This one was taken with my 55-300mm Nikon lens at 55mm

This one was taken with my 55-300mm Nikon lens at 300mm
I think the detail on the owl is awesome!

Below is just one more at 300mm to show how sharp and crisp the lens appears to be.

Overall I am very happy with my new camera and lens!

Been Awhile

2010-10-16T23:38:00.002-04:00

Blogging for me in 2010 just hasn't really happened for me this year. Biggest problem is I just don't have the time and can't decide what is blog worthy to actually post. But I think the biggest killer of my blog and maybe others is Facebook. I post the pictures I want to share with people there, and for the most part the information I want to share with people there as well, but with my reconnection with photography thanks to my new Nikon d3100 I am hoping to be a little more active on my blog as I learn how to use the damn camera I just got. I have a lot of good photo ops coming up over the next couple months.

First with a trip to Scottsdale AZ, and apparently Sedona if I can get past the bus ride in November. Then a trip to San Fran for DreamForce (Salesforce.com). Not to mention Halloween, Kyra's birthday coming up, Trei's concerts (which I am hoping I can finally get some good pictures from those for the first time, just hope I have enough light), Christmas ect. No shortage of picture moments over the next couple months. So hopefully I will start blogging a little more too. No promises, I have said that before but I am really liking many of the new features Blogger has going on so it has me thinking of blogging again.

Kyra Singing Silly Songs and Laughing

2010-07-17T01:30:00.000-04:00

Teen Age Boys are Gross

2010-06-27T17:56:00.000-04:00

With Trei in Colorado, I decided to start operation clean up and it has been a much bigger job than I had planned for already. After day 1 which included 4 hours of plowing through stuff, I have taken out two loads of laundry and two large bags of trash, and have another box of papers and stuff that is most likely garbage as well. The scary part is I haven't even tackled his large closet or looked under the bed yet. How can the boy live this way! I know my room was never this messy.

Later in the week I plan on getting boxes and just throwing the majority of the stuff in his closet into the boxes and moving them to the basement. If he doesn't miss anything in the next several months it will make its way to the trash or good will. Did that once last summer and I don't think he missed any of the stuff I took.

The picture of Garfield is a fairly accurate depiction of the mess I am dealing with. I sure hope this kid out grows this otherwise he will be kicked out of college by his roommates. And being this big of a slob he will never find a wife!

Roller Derby's surprising effect on our lives!

2010-05-31T23:16:00.011-04:00

Life has been crazy in the K household for a while now, the blog, and various websites have all but been ignored as of late. Between all the new responsibilities I have at work, with a growing Educational Technology company, working on my masters’ degree in Educational Leadership through the University of Cincinnati, raising a 14 year old teenage boy and a two and half year old baby girl, all while trying to stay in touch with my beautiful spouse whenever possible. It has been hard to stay sane with all that is going on, and you would think that adding something else to the mix would only make things worse, but we have found that Roller Derby had has had the opposite effect. My wife and I have both found an escape from the everyday life through roller derby. No neither of us skate, we are fans who have become part of the Cincinnati Rollergirls family through volunteering.

We first fell in love with the sport during the 2008 Season after being invited by a friend who volunteers. Our friends Derby name is Penal Eyes, that is the first thing you notice as part of roller derby you choose your own name and can create your own identity. When this season started Tresha decided to start volunteering and at least once a week sometimes more she transforms into Mother Fuchsia, the pink haired Mistress of the Penalty Box. She has had several different jobs this season, being a Jammer timer at an away bout, and a stats person for a neighboring roller derby league. But her home is in the box, she loves being in charge of the penalty box. She likes the interaction with the skaters as they come into the box, often times ticked of at the refs, but the stories she hears takes the game and the passion of the game to a whole new level!

I have been enjoying my escape from reality from the sidelines with front row seats to every game, until this last week. I was asked to be a bout caster along with Rabid Derby Fan (www.rabidderbyfan.com) but due to some miss communication we were not able to do so, he continued taking his awesome pictures, and I was asked to be the wrangler. I wasn’t really sure what I was doing at first, but I think I caught on after a bit. I need to take time to learn the various penalty signals from the refs, that would have helped tremendously. But it was exciting watching the game from inside the circle, a really different view of the game. It also helped me realize how much stress and chaos happens inside the circle and gave me a better understanding of the game. I really enjoyed it and think it will help me be a better bout caster if they need me doing that next game. Until then in my spare time (if I can find any) will be spent trying to get a better understanding of the penalty signals and the nuances of the game.

The big question will be what should my derby name be? Right now I am most likely sticking with my online persona of The Kman, but have also thought of making it Drunk Santa and wearing a Santa hat to each game. I already have the domain name DrunkSanta.com so maybe I could finally make some use of it. Also have the domain name UglyFatGuy.com I could use too.

So what do you think, when it comes to my life inside the derby world, should I stay The Kman, or create a new persona Drunk Santa or even Ugly Fat Guy? Or should I figure out a name that some how corresponds with Mother Fuchsia?

Time fore some changes...

2010-04-05T19:25:00.000-04:00

What kind of changes you ask? (I know you probably didn't care enough to ask but let's pretend you did). Below are 10 things in no particular order I plan on changing:

1. My weight. I am so mad at myself for gaining back all the weight I lost a few years ago.

2. Need to start reading more. Feel like my brain is going to mush.

3. Need to get off my lazy ass and start working out and running again. Once I get in the habit of that I can think about riding a bike to work.

4. My spending habits need to improve and get us on a budget. Just paid off one credit card and hope to be credit card free by the end of July! Would already be there if I didn't blow so much cash.

5. Start spending more time practicing things I want to be better at like golf, skating, and bowling.

6. Better attitude about the grad classes I am taking so I can finish them strong. I didn't even by books for the last two classes I finished and my grades reflect that.

7. Do a better job dating my wife. I love her more everyday we are together but with kids, work, and life in general it is easy to over look the joys of dating and there is no one I have enjoyed dating more than Tresha.

8. Get another tattoo. Not just any spur of the moment one. But one I design the concept for and had real meaning to me. Of course several other things on this list has to happen first.

9. Work on my online precence with a better vision of what it should be with better use of my blog, facebook, Twitter, ect.

10. Increase the circle of friends Tresha and I have to enjoy nights out with or just time at home with playing various types of games.

Ok that is the list and I am starting to work on them all right now! My hair would have been on that list but I just got a haircut.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

foursquare App

2010-01-22T18:05:00.004-05:00

Let me start out this review apologizing to my Facebook friends for the annoying posts of my various travels.

A friend of mine asked me to try this app and after using it for a week I can honestly say, I think it is a good app, but one that you really need a lot of friends using with you or being in a large city would also be a definite plus.

Basically the is a way of instantly posting where you are and what you are doing. It very nicely pushes to Facebook and Twitter. But if you are using the app a lot trying to get a higher score or earn badges it can become quite annoying to those following you. It does have the option to not send to Facebook or Twitter and I will be using those options going forward, but wanted to give it a true few day test to get a real feel for it.

I don't really get the points or badge aspect of the app. How I see using this app going forward it using it to post to Facebook or Twitter when I actually go somewhere cool. Which honestly isn't that often. LOL

But if I had a large group of friends using the it might be more fun. I will continue playing around with it, but am only going to be pushing things out to Facebook and Twitter when going somewhere different or nice. If you haven't tried the app give it a shot, just be careful how often you post to Facebook or Twitter if you are trying for those badges or high points.

Pull ups

2009-12-30T17:10:00.001-05:00

Wish us luck we are going to try Pull Ups with Kyra starting tomorrow morning. Hoping all goes well with them over the long weekend!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Windows 7

2009-12-09T14:35:00.003-05:00

We updated Tresha's Sony Viao to Windows 7 from XP and it is running so much better. Microsoft might have finally gotten something right in the way of operating systems for a change! I hope to see if I can upgrade our other two Window machines in the house.

I still need to get my hands on Snow Leopard to upgrade my Macbook Pro. Can't believe I live so close to the Apple store and never seem to make it there. Everywhere else I have checked is either out, or do not carry it.

But the purpose of this post was to give a thumbs up to Microsoft for Windows 7.

10 pounds

2009-12-08T19:13:00.005-05:00

Thought it was time to finally blog about my diet. As many of you know three or so years ago, I lost 80 pounds. Then all the stress with work started, and then we found out Kyra was on her way and the stress got to me and I started eating again. It took several years but I finally gained back all that I lost. Not sure what finally hit me, maybe it was seeing myself in all my glory in this picture:
Or all the pain in my back, or the fact that I no longer have any clothes that fit. Well whatever it was I am finally ready to start working on my weight and my health once again. Starting with counting calories and man did I eat a hell of a lot! I am now keeping my calories under 2000 calories. Realized It would not have been out of the question for me to eat 10000 calories in one day. McDonalds for breakfast, Chipotle for lunch, and pizza for dinner. Not to mention the various calories from drinks and snacks. It is incredible how calories can stock pile up on you when you are not watching them.

Been at it for a week so far and lost my first 10 pounds. I am shooting for 90 more, trying to get down to 195 and making it an even 100 pounds to loose.

The picture above I was down to 220. Which is the thinnest I have been in the past two decades and I am hoping by Kyra's birthday on November 29th 2010 I plan on being at 195. After I loose another 20 pounds or so I plan to start running again.

Current motivations are the quick weight loss and most importantly my back pain has gone away! Not sure why I posted all this, guess to just keep me accountable.

Nice Saturday

2009-12-06T01:31:00.005-05:00

Sure is nice being able to enjoy the weekend and not worry about finishing a paper! Went shopping for a new winter coat for Kyra. While we were there, we had some fun drawing in a coloring bookBut Kyra found a football and she had a blast running around the store like a running back. Couple times she was even holding it like a good running back would.

Came home and did some dishes and then watched one heck of a football game with UC beating Pit 45-44. Kyra and I watched it from underneath our homemade tent, while Tresha and Trei enjoyed a good time at Pat and Annette's Annual Cookie party.

I then took Trei to Cincinnati Music Hall, where he got to perform as the the pre-concert entertainment as part of the Vision for the Arts Academy Quintet. Here are a couple pictures below from my iPhone. The first one I uploaded using Color Splash on my iPhone to make Trei stick out. I hope to export the audio from my iphone and upload it to Youtube or somewhere.

After Trei's performance we ran back to the cookie party. Trei had a good time playing whatever the kids play in the basement and I had a good time hanging with the guys, talking fantasy football and watching the Texas Nebraska game. I really don't think Texas deserved to win that game and they really don't deserve to play for the BSC championship.

Got home around 12:30 finished cleaning the kitchen and hope to get our Chritmas Tree up tomorrow. Hopefully will have more pictures of that tomorrow.

Oh also posted three more day worth of Kyra 365 pictures. Below is my favorite of the 3:

Kyra 365 Year Three

2009-12-02T21:45:00.002-05:00

Going to try and do the picture a day of Kyra thing again on Flickr. We missed way two many day the second half of our second year of attempting the 365 thing. We decided to start it on her birthday:

Then the second day we almost forgot already and had to snap a quick picture just before getting her ready for bed.

Third day she was having fun in her new toy bin:

Tonight she was reading a book with Tresha before going to sleep:

Hopefully we can keep up better with this project this time around!

Blog design fixed

2009-12-02T00:52:00.002-05:00

Cool, got my blog set back up. Now I can start blogging about the following again:

Start of new health plan (not calling in just a diet)
Starting Kyra 365 again starting on Kyra's birthday on Sunday
Google Wave
Pathtags (which I am very behind on trades)
Geocaching

And anything else that crosses my mind.

Image issues

2009-11-30T21:38:00.001-05:00

My site just switched servers and deleted all my template images so back to the drawing board on the layout of the blog...

What a Holiday Weekend!

2009-11-29T21:37:00.003-05:00

It was a short work week, but with all that was going on it sure seemed like a long week. One of the high points of the work week was getting our group hats! Below is a picture of Kyra modeling the new hat!

Then the holiday festivities in Hamilton:

Friday was a day of shopping and getting the dogs groomed.

Saturday was Connor and Tracie's birthday party at Dave n Busters. (Place of Tresha and I's first date).

Then late Saturday preparing for Kyra's Birthday Party

Then finally Kyra's 2nd birthday party!

Then I finished my last paper of the year. Think I have four more classes and I am done with that part of my grad classes. Going to try and see if I can substitute doing something else for the field experience centered around educational technology. More on that later.

2009-11-22T23:18:00.003-05:00

OK, I am trying to get better at posting to the blog more often, sadly I just am not that interesting. LOL

I haven't been Geocaching for months. Hope to rectify that soon! My Pathtags trades, haven't even logged in to that account in months, but I hope to get caught up in there in December and send out pathtags to all of you I owe pathtags too. So if you are one I owe, and are reading this hopefully they will be mailed out in December.

Work is going well but keeping me busy, same goes for Grad Classes, but with the new job my heart isn't into it is as much as it was. I really need to try and make special arrangements with them to write a paper or do something else to replace the field experience in an actual school. I just don't see how that one is going to happen.

As most of you know from Facebook, we have moved Kyra to a toddlers bed after I broke her crib. The move has been a great one though. Kyra is sleeping great in her new bed and I am getting my evenings back!

Still working on the layout of the new blog. I really like the iPhone look, just trying to add some tabs to the top. Also trying to decide if I want to create an actual thekman.com website again or continue to have it pointed directly here to the blog. Here is the url to the web pages I have been messing with in my free time:

http://web.me.com/thekmancom/Site/Home.html

Just can't decide if it is worth the trouble. I might just add tabs to the blog page and point to the stuff I do outside of here. Let me know what you think, should I keep it simple and just set things up through blogger or make a more expansive website?

I really do hope to start posting more, along with other changes I plan on making to my health and lifestyle. More to come on those in future posts....

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

2009-11-19T21:38:00.003-05:00

After finishing Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, I decided to start Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and many was I surprised in the difference between that original Hollywood movies of Frankenstein and the book. Those movies did not do justice to the book at all, and shouldn't even have been called Frankenstein. Just found out from a google search that in 1994 Robert DeNiro made a Frankenstein film based actually on the book. I hope to watch that on line sometime this weekend.

What surprised me more than Hollywoods original injustice to the book and the characters, was that in Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, his characters on the movie version of the characters rather than Mary Shelley's original work. As a fellow author I thought he would have been more true to the book characters than the movie characters.

I really enjoyed this book and I think this is going to help me broaden my range of authors and I am looking forward to reading more of the classics.

Ryan Singer

2009-11-18T23:03:00.001-05:00

Just got done enjoying a great comedy performance by Ryan Singer (www.ryansingercomedy.com). It was a great show haven't laughed that much at a comedian in years. Be sure to check out his History of America clip on his site.

He is a former teacher and uses his experiences as a teacher and knowledge of the English language combined with his wit to create some hilarious jokes and stories.

He was recording a live album so that will be fun to say some of those laughs are mine!

I would highly recomend checking him out if you get a chance.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tinkerbell Canopy Bed

2009-11-17T22:41:00.001-05:00

After breaking Kyra's crib we bought her a new toddler bed. She loved it! So far so good she is still sleeping in it.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

It's War!

2009-11-15T18:49:00.001-05:00

Kyra really enjoyed playing 3 person war. Think this was the first card game she played on her own. She has been a helper with us many times.

Tresha was out first, Trei ended up winning.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cowgirl Rides Again

2009-11-15T09:41:00.001-05:00

Time for the churches annual Pony Express fund pledge drive.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Migraine shortened day

2009-11-15T01:33:00.001-05:00

Planned on getting a lot done on Saturday but a migraine kept that from happening. Weird I haven't had one for months not sure what brought this one on. But we did get our morning shopping done.

Kyra pretended to talk on the phone to Babo and Papa,

Trei played video games with Ben while Tresha, Pat, and I played Racko.

We also baked some pizzas and brownies while also preparing some stuff for Kyra's birthday at the end of the month. Ended up being a good day just wish the migraine hadn't robbed me of a big chunk of it.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Hit Rock Bottom

2009-11-11T21:21:00.001-05:00

Originally planned on going to Cadillac Ranch with my friends from up north while in town, but they were hosting Bengals Nation and there was not a seat in the house. So we walked down the street to the Rock Bottom and Happy Hour there is a huge bargin! After sitting ourself at a table thought was a bar table to later find out wasn't and basically cut in front of 15 other groups waiting on a table (whoops) we ordered Nachos with beef, chicken wings, two pizzas, mac n cheese, and a couple beers and the whole bill came to only $45. But we left a great tip for our waitress for letting us nab the table! Really nice catching up with both Debbie and JRS.

I was really surprised with how booming downtown was. Not a place to park anywhere and people walking all around. Fountain Square was beautiful, wish I had gotten a better picture.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

New look and new focus

2009-11-11T15:35:00.001-05:00

Still have some work to do on the layout. Mainly get the images hosted on my own server, change the app icons and links, and figure out why I have that damn gap!

All posts from now on will be posted from my iPhone. Be it family fun, Geocaching, observations of stupid or rude people, or whatever else crosses my little mind or catches my eye. This means I could post multiple times a day or go days without posting. But I think this will get me posting much more than I have been.

For more updates check me out on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/thekmancom. Also more photos can be seen o Flickr http://www.flickr.com/thekmancom.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Updating Blog

2009-11-10T23:55:00.001-05:00

Looks like we are going to have a few days of broken image links as I work on updating the blog layout. Also working on a new landing page for www.thekman.com to point to all my corners of the Web.

Blogging from the iPhone

2009-11-09T21:54:00.000-05:00

Testing out the blogging app.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Apparently this is my DISC Profile

2009-09-20T23:05:00.000-04:00

This 'U'-shaped profile is not uncommon. It represents a highly formal and structured individual with a forceful and blunt style. This type of person believes in getting things right, and is rarely afraid to state their mind robustly and directly. Of all possible DISC profiles, this style probably represents the least forthcoming in personal or emotional matters; individuals of this type tend to be remote and somewhat isolated, preferring to keep their own counsel.

Relating to Others

As we suggested above, relating to others (at least on a personal level) is not a high priority for this type of person. When communication with others is essential, it tends to be brief and succinct, focusing on practical matters. This type of individual is quite distrustful of others, and will prefer to keep facts to themselves unless absolutely necessary.

Common Abilities

This is a behavioural style motivated by achievement and efficiency, as are all styles containing a high level of Dominance. In this case, however, this is modulated by the presence of a high Compliance factor, which also lends the character an interest in detail and precision. A noticeable element of this particular type, for example, is their tendency to correct other people when they make errors, even to the point of highlighting mistakes that others might regard as trivial or unimportant.

Nonetheless, this combination of efficiency and precision can be an effective one, and their bluntly assertive style helps them to achieve difficult tasks by sheer force of character.

Motivating Factors

This is a complex character in terms of motivation. In common with all High-D's, they have a desire for personal achievement and success, but they also like to feel that they are completing assignments or projects accurately and efficiently. The naturally inexpressive style of this type can make it difficult to detect whether or not they are motivated in any particular set of circumstances.

Sub-traits

The 'Sub-traits' of this type are 'Efficiency', 'Self-motivation', 'Accuracy' and 'Sensitivity'.

Style Card

In Style Card terms, this profile is intermediate between a 'Driver' and an 'Analyst', a combined style referred to in this guide as 'Controlled'. As this name suggests, this is a style strong in 'Control', but combining elements of both 'Assertiveness' and 'Passivity'.

Word a Day

2009-09-08T10:15:00.002-04:00

I have decided my vocabulary needs and upgrade. I have decided to do a word a day through www.wordsmith.org. I am going to try and use the word they have posted each workday in a sentence and try and remember to post how I used the previous days word in a sentence in the following days Word a day post.

Todays word:

odious

PRONUNCIATION:

(O-dee-uhs)

MEANING:

adjective: Highly offensive; inspiring and deserving hatred.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin odium (hatred), from odisse (to hate). Ultimately from the Indo-European root od- (to hate) that is also the source of the words annoy, noisome, and ennui.

USAGE:

"All over the US there are people whose lives are being destroyed for lack of proper health care provision, and there is no sight more odious than the rich, powerful, and arrogant trying to keep it that way."
Simon Hoggart; Why the American Right Make Me Sick; The Guardian (London, UK); Aug 15, 2009.

Explore "odious" in the Visual Thesaurus.

Living Large

2009-09-05T21:10:00.004-04:00

Well we are not exactly living large, still taking it week to week, but it sure looks like we are living large in the back yard.

We decided that to throw a little party at our house this holiday weekend as this will be the first time in 9 years that we have not been front and center for the WEBN fireworks. Going to be cranking the music loud and enjoying them via WLWT, Channel 5 on the big screen we set up in the back yard. Should be a good time. If all family, friends, and neighbors make it to the party we will have over 30 people rocking in the Lewis backyard during the fireworks.

If you didn't get your invite and you are actually reading my blog, drop me an email and we will get you the info to enjoy the night with us.

Happy 30th Birthday Tresha!

2009-07-25T00:17:00.002-04:00

Today is Tresha's 30th Birthday! I can't believe we have been together 12 years now, incredible and they have been the best 12 years of my life!

Since Kyra can't have dairy or gluten I made Tresha a Dairy Free, Gluten Free birthday cake.

I know it sounds bad not having all the good stuff in it, but it is really surprisingly very good! Made this a two layer cake with a chocolate bottom and a Vanilla top layer.

The cake came out much better than my last attempt to make a double layer cake.

Then between the two layers I have a thick layer of Milk Chocolate frosting that contains no milk. Seems like it should be called Milk free Chocolate frosting but it is pretty good.

In the morning Trei and I plan on making Tresha breakfast, opening presents, then going to my moms to celebrate her birthday by going to Texas Road House in Hamilton.

Happy Birthday Tresha!

A lot on my mind....

2009-07-17T23:27:00.003-04:00

Sorry I haven't posted much as of late, I just have had a lot on my mind lately and just haven't found the words or the ideas to post about anything as of late. I also haven't been caching for several weeks either so life has pretty much been work and home lately. I do try to stay current on Facebook, so if you haven't yet, be sure to friend me there. I have also been posting pictures on Flickr so be sure to check those out as well. Bellow are a few of my favorite since my last post:

Loads of Fun!

2009-07-04T20:06:00.005-04:00

Once again I find myself behind in posting to the blog. That normally happens when we have a lot going on. Been busy at work with several Trade Shows in June. But luckily we were able to go to Kalahari up in Sandusky Ohio again. Tresha, Kyra, and I had a really nice time. The highlight of the trip for us all was the new petting zoo they have. Kyra could have spent all day there! She loved feeding the animals, her favorites by far where the baby goats. We got smart before going to the petting zoo the second day and I stopped at Walmart and bought a large bag of organic baby carrots and Tresha smuggled them in so Kyra could use those to feed the animals. Below are a few pictures from the trip but be sure to check out all the pictures on Flickr.

While we were in Kalahari, Trei was also up near us with God Squad. He stayed at Lakeside and they visited Cedar Point and Put in Bay. He really had a nice time and made some new friends. First thing he asked me was what is our phone plan so he can call some of them. LOL I remember doing the same thing. I always meet people from all over the country on our youth trips we I was his age.

After our newly found favorite sport to watch, Roller Derby, (Go Cincinnati Roller Girls!) Tresha and I decided to take a little afternoon date and go roller skating since Trei was still up north and Kyra was at daycare. We both did it when we were younger. We both had forgotten how tough it is! It really wore us out. So much more respect for those Derby girls after just a couple hours of skating. Made me realize just how old I am! And even Tresha was complaining of feeling old. Our legs, thighs, feet, and backs were killing us but the time we were done. But we really had a good time and look forward to going back. We just need to get in a little more conditioning before we attempt to skate in front of people we know. What I find the funniest after watching Tresha skate, is that at our first roller derby bout, SK8 Crime told Tresha to come and try out if she was interested, she has a long way to go before she would be able to skate in a roller derby.

Friday night we went to the Clarkes to celebrate an early July 4th. Had a lot of fun just hanging out and watching everyone and getting caught up with them. The kids had a lot of fun Trei got the opportunity to set off his first bottle rockets and roman candles. He and Tresha both enjoyed their pyro tendencies. I was really glad I could get Kyra to sleep so they could enjoy themselves as much as they did.

Really glad we did the 4th celebrating last night. Today has turned into a nasty wet day. But we have Tresha's family here today and the high point of the evening so far is Wipe Out. We love that show!

Be sure to check out flickr for more photos.

Happy 4th everyone!

Jellyfish 2009

2009-07-01T11:05:00.000-04:00

Another tag I have traded for. This one comes from Michigan. This guy has a lot of active tags. Below is his profile info:

I've been caching since 2003 and really enjoy the sport. I've cached in 29 states and 11 countries, so you can tell I travel a lot!

Many of my local caching buddies have given me their pathtags and so I designed my own. I hope you like them!

If you would like your pathtag dropped somewhere different in the world, let me know. I'm happy for them to "tag" along.

OnD'Hunt

2009-06-26T01:47:00.000-04:00

One of the tags I have traded for. This tag comes from Toledo Ohio. The following is the description for the tag:

This is my first pathtag. I live in Toledo, Ohio and have been caching since January, 2007. I really enjoy being out on the trail and hunting for caches. I also really enjoy building my pathtag collection. I like trading for other personal pathtags, but I am always up for a trade.

Farewell to the Feather Haired Angel or my youth

2009-06-25T14:29:00.006-04:00

Like many men my age, Farrah Fawcett took my innocence at least my innocence of pure thoughts as I ogled over her, the first woman I truly noticed and lusted after. She wall papered my room with pictures from magazines with the above poster of course the center of my shrine which I would just lay and look at while my head rested on the matching Farrah Fawett pillow and my body laid on the little poster sized rug. And the December 1978 addition of Playboy was hidden under my dresser.

Many sex symbols have come and gone in my life since then, Vanity, Kristian Alzono, Kim Bassinger, Pam Anderson, and of course my current favorite Angilna Jolie, but Farrah will always hold a special place in the heart of my male fantasies helping to awaken me to the true beauty of women and enslaving me to to their powers of persuasion.

She had many ups and downs in her life, and even appeared to have lost her mind a time or two but through it all she stood her ground and fought the good fight. She is most remembered for that poster in the red swiming suit and the big haired ditzy blonde on Charle's Angels that many forget or do not realize she grew into an accomplished actress. Taking on roles that had nothing to do wiht her beauty and being very successful. I believe she could have been as big as Maryiln Monroe had she decided to go that route taking on only roles that centered around her good looks and blond bombshell image. I respect her for not doing so.

As a boy, she had my attention and lustful eye. As an adult she still did but she also had my respect. Farrah you will be missed, thanks again for helping me through that tough time of adolence.

The Bearcat Pathtag

2009-06-23T15:22:00.000-04:00

The first pathtag that I had traded for. Was actually given this one at a Flash Mob event with the promise I would send mine out to him once I received my tags. Once I finally got them I sent one out to him. This is a cool UC pathtag.

Celebration!

2009-06-22T23:16:00.003-04:00

Had a nice perk from the trade show I am working this week. They offered a riverboat cruise on the Riverboat Celebration and each vendor could have two free tickets so I was able to take Tresha out for the evening. And she looked GORGEOUS!

We had a nice dinner. Meet a nice teaching couple with our same last name from Wisconsin and another teacher from Illinois and had a lot of fun chatting it up with them. We then when up on the upper deck and played Black Jack. I just love watching Tresha play games she gets so excited over the littlest things it is cute and sexy at the same time! Overall we had a really nice time. The guy in the booth next to me at the show took our picture together just before we left the boat.

Start of an obsession

2009-06-22T15:30:00.000-04:00

I had already gotten addicted to Geocaching and was spending way too much time on it already. Then I found this pathtag:

and added a new obsession to go with my addiction to Geocaching.

It made me face my fear of heights as I climbed a tree a good 30 plus feet in the air to nab these two pathtags from a cache:

It was after finding these that I finally ordered my own.

Fabulous Fathers Day!

2009-06-21T21:42:00.006-04:00

I wasn't looking forward to this Fathers Day knowing that I had to go set up for a Trade Show I am doing tomorrow but it turned out to be a really nice day. The morning started out with Kyra reading me a story:

Then we had one of my favorite breakfasts; Fruity Pebbles cereal and the then opened gifts:

I received three games, Curious George Uno (From Kyra), Phase 10 Twist (From Trei), Rook (From Tresha) and a picture Kyra colored for me with her picture on it.

Then we all took a nap:

And since we all napped the entire family was able to go downtown with me to help me set up for my trade show. We walked a little downtown and headed home after making a few stops. To enjoy some Popcorn and a movie.

After I put Kyra to bed Tresha, Trei and I played Phase 10 Twist where Trei lived up to his online name of TMaster winning both games.

My diet for Fathers day consisted of real Daddy food the entire day. Fruity Pebbles cereal, Salsa and Chips, Pizza (twice), Pop Corn, Arctic Rush from Dairy Queen, and of course my favorite non alcoholic beverage Peach Ice Tea. A perfect day of dinning for me on Fathers Day.

Cincinnati Roller Girls 100 - Ohio Roller Girls 49

2009-06-21T07:54:00.002-04:00

We enjoyed our second Roller Derby bout last night. Watching the Cincinnati RollerGirls wipe the floor with the interstate rivals, the Ohio RollerGirls beating them 100-49. This bout was much more physical than the the first bout that we saw and much more entertaining! We really enjoy going to these. In the back of Tresha's mind she is considering trying out in the future, she just needs to find time practice skating first. Been trying to think of a good Roller Derby name for her. As you can see from the picture above we had a Happy Anniversary message on the big scoreboard.

Sadistic Sadie of the Cincinnati Rollergirls was taunting the Ohio Rollergirls Dirty Girl ad much as she could and getting the support of the crowd as she did.

There was lots of action in this bout.

Always enjoy watching the Rollergirls interact with the fans after the bout:

Even Penal Eyes (Dianne) had them lined up for her autograph.

We are looking forward to next season and wish them luck in the remaining bouts they have before the home season starts again in 2010.

A little experiement

2009-06-20T14:52:00.004-04:00

Got a notice from my grad class facilitator a several days before the next class actually starts (starts this Monday June 22nd) telling us we better set up an appointment with an interview with our district Treasurer since we have that as a task in an assignment due on July 5th. Not really sure what the instructor is thinking as this assignment is coming at a terrible time. The end of June is when they are tying up last years budget and getting started on spending for the next year. On top of that July is when many are gone on vacation. So I decided to drop six different Treasure notes asking for help for a grad students asking them a few basic questions to see if they would send me a quick reply. I am going to be interested to see which of them write me back. In an earlier class I did the same thing with three principles and they all got back with me, although two of them were basically after my deadline to write my paper but I made a few adjustments and put in quotes from them. The Treasurers I wrote to were from the following schools:

Indian Hill
Sycamore - Responded in detail on Monday 6/22
Fairfield City
Winton Woods - Responded in detail on Monday 6/22
Loveland
Maderia City - Responded in detail on Monday 6/22

I will let you know when or if any of them respond. Who do you think will be the first to respond?

Run of 15 cemetery caches (plus 1 imprompt hide)

2009-06-20T10:34:00.004-04:00

On my way home from a trade show in Columbus the other day I decided to go on a Cemetery run on the way home. Basically traveling home down 42 rather than 71 and stoping at the little cemeteries along the way. I was first surprised with how many there were. I had planned on finding 20 on the way home but only ended up wiht 15 as I was not feeling very well and moving slowly.

The second thing I was surprised about was how many little cemeteries I had based which did not have a cache. I finally couldn't take it anymore and quickly made an impromptu cache using a pill bottle I got from the Cache Depot Cache I was at a few days earlier. The picture above is a picture of the cemetery where I placed the cache.

Check out my flickr page for alot more pictures of my Cemetery run and other geocaching sites. http://www.flickr.com/thekmancom

TheKmancom 2009 Pathtag

2009-06-20T10:17:00.002-04:00

Received my pathtag the other day and my collection is growing quickly! I will be posting images and the backgrounds of the various pathtags. I have either found or traded for. As you can see my tag is my Kman in a straight jacket avitar along with the Geocaching colors. This is the 2009 family cache swag item so I included all of our names on it. I will design a new tag for 2010.

TheKman Mad Scientist

2009-06-17T22:46:00.005-04:00

Found something new to do while going Geocaching and something else to use my GPS for, this time in the name of Science.

So you want to participate in science? So you want to help researchers collect data so they can better understand our planet? Do you have a GPS and a desire for fun and adventure?

We are seeking keen people to come and help science in your local area, your region or even around the entire globe! Being an EarthTrekker will enable you to participate in REAL science projects led by scientific researchers from around the planet. You will be actively taking part in their research project and the data you collect will be used to better understand important scientific questions. EarthTrek will allow you to collect data close to your home, or even when you are on holidays.

EarthTrek is open to everyone* who has access to a GPS unit. You can participate if you have a PhD in science, or the last science you did was in 8th grade! You can be very young or very old. You can live anywhere on the planet. EarthTrek will also provide you opportunities to meet new people and share a common interest.

* Only people 13 years and older can register as an EarthTrekker. Young people under the age of 13 are welcome to participate, but they will need to do so under the supervision of a participating adult who will have to register.

...and participating in EarthTrek is absolutely free!

As well as the fun of participating, you will get EarthTrek points every time you participate in a project and even when you invite new people to become EarthTrekkers. You can build up points ane win status as an EarthTrekker. You may even be acknowledged in scientific papers for your contribution!

While we build the program, you have an opportunity to be in the first 1000 who register to be EarthTrekkers. Each of the first 1000 EarthTrekkers will be sent a package of materials by mail, including a certificate, EarthTrekker ID card and a discount coupon for a set of EarthTrek calipers.

(I am one of the first 1000 EarthTrekkers!)

Visit EarthTrekker to join. If you do be sure to let them know you heard of this from thekmancom.

Currently they have three projects starting July 1st 2009.

You can check out each of the projects here.

The only one I am probably going to get involved in to start is the Gravestone Project.

Tresha in her wedding dress.

2009-06-17T00:53:00.003-04:00

Tresha in her wedding Dress, originally uploaded by thekmancom.

Nine years ago today! Incredible how quickly the time has gone by and I love Tresha more today than I did nine years ago when we got married. Looking forward to another 90 years with her! Still think she is a saint for putting up with me and all my quirks. Miss not being with her today. This will be the first anniversary we will be apart.

Next year is the big 10 year anniversary and I hope to make it back to Gatlinberg where we got married. We have not been back there since we got married.

Updated Caching Stats

2009-06-17T00:28:00.000-04:00

Stat Summary

Where I've Cached

Caching Milestones

Maps

Charts and Graphs

Morning Dew

2009-06-15T09:05:00.001-04:00

Morning Dew, originally uploaded by thekmancom.

Picture really has nothing to do with my post. Just one I liked from one of my geoching adventures.

I wanted to just drop a quick blog to say, yes I know I have been a complete internet slug of late. I am behind in Blog Posts, Flickr pictures, Facebook, Spark, and Twitter. I plan to get back on track starting today. Life has just been crazy lately, but I plan on starting to get caught up later today after taking the dogs to get groomed and all caught up on work.

But most importantly THEKMAN is back, so to tie in my picture. I am refreshed like the morning dew and will be a blogging fool or at least a fool in the days to come.

Roller Derby Fun

2009-05-31T21:54:00.001-04:00

Silent Lambs vs. G-Rap Attack, originally uploaded by thekmancom.

Haven't posted in awhile but Tresha and I actually went on a date the other night. We went to a Cincinnati Roller Girls Bout and surprisingly we had a really fun time and caught onto the ins and outs of the game pretty quickly. Of course it was nice having Earl there to explain things to us. We are hoping to go back to the final bout of the season on June 20th.

Sycamore JR High Spring Concert

2009-05-22T07:38:00.002-04:00

Sycamore JR High Spring Concert - 7th Grade
brought to you by Livescribe

These are the seven songs Trei played in the Sycamore JR High Spring Concert. The first three were with Jazz Band the and the final 4 are with the Orchestra.

You can click on the green asterisk type scribble to go directly to that song. If I am going to keep doing these, I need to work on my handwriting!

The Streak has ended

2009-05-22T07:36:00.002-04:00

Go figure, the nicest days of the year so far are the days I didn't make it out caching. Will have more details later, but no 100 day challenge cache for me.

Smoke on the Water

2009-05-17T22:06:00.001-04:00

This is from Trei's concert I missed the other night. Just downloaded it from mom's camera.

Musical Pen Casts

2009-05-15T18:12:00.003-04:00

Here are some links to several of Trei's more recent performances on his bass.

Bass and Violin Duet:

Violin and Bass Duet
brought to you by Livescribe

Mark Wood Work Shop:

Mark Wood Workshop - Sycamore JR High
brought to you by Livescribe

Jazz Band Concert (They are normally much better than this):

Sycamore Jr. High Jazz Band
brought to you by Livescribe

Cache catch up

2009-05-10T23:25:00.002-04:00

Haven't had a Geocaching post in a while but I am still at it and my consecutive day streak is still in tacked, think I am up to 19 straight days. Even made my first Kentucky find after a meeting with a school down near the river. Was hoping to make an Indiana find this weekend but it never happened it was so nice all weekend it killed me to not really get out but I did make one find yesterday and a few today. Below are some pictures from my most recent finds and unfortunately also from a DNF.

A find in Maderia

Geocaching can be a rough sport! And this happened on my DNF in Kentucky. Also saw this little guy looking for the cache I couldn't find:

A couple finds in West Chester on Mothers Day:

As I have said many times I really like cemetery finds and found a cache in a cemetery just down the street from Tresha's parents I never knew was there.

Hoping to get out and grab one or two early tomorrow before starting my long day of paperwork and emails I have planned.

Fun Mothers Day

2009-05-10T23:18:00.002-04:00

We had a nice time on Mothers Day once I finished my paper around noon. Headed over to Tresha's parents and had a nice lunch. Played a little outside:

Then I took a nap watching the Reds game, but caught most of the game, really thought they were going to pull off the sweep of St. Louis.

Then once we were home Tresha, Trei, and I played Train Dominoes. Both Trei and Tresha think they won.

Happy Mothers Day!

2009-05-10T12:02:00.001-04:00

Especially to my mom and beautiful wife, but also to all the other mothers out there!

100th Cache found on Cinco de Mayo!

2009-05-06T12:13:00.001-04:00

Had a couple meetings in Middletown this morning so I decided to try and do some caching on the way there and way home. Needed 6 caches to make it to 100 and ended up with 7 to put me at 101 total caches (make that 102 as I already found one this morning to keep my consecutive day streak alive at 15 straight days of caching).

This was #100 and somehow I had missed it a couple other times:

Number 99 was the complete opposite being a Micro borderline Nano somewhere in this picture:

During my run on Monday I got up close and personal with Touchdown Jesus:

Geocaching Stats

2009-05-06T02:04:00.002-04:00

Stat Summary

Where I've Cached

Caching Milestones

Maps

Charts and Graphs

A couple big caching moments today...

2009-05-04T19:49:00.005-04:00

What was I thinking? I found this cache a couple weeks ago after the cache had fallen to the ground and was not in its intended location up in the tree. Felt a little guilty taking credit for the find for such a highly rated terrain so decided to go back and try it again. But I didn't realize it was going to be up that high.

So I had second thoughts once I got there. Wondering what would happen if I fell and broke something. How long would it take for someone to get here? Would I be able to use my cell phone? Would I get impaled on a branch? Then I decided what the hell, I am going for it. It wasn't like I had to climb completely vertical up the tree it was a fallen tree angled against another tree. Besides the owner of the cache placed a couple pathtags up there and I wanted to grab them. I can't wait till I get my pathtags. Those are the only swag I really ever take anymore unless I see something Kyra might like. I was surprised with how quickly I was able to get up there and my fear of heights seemed completely gone while I was up there.

Getting down took me longer than getting up there. But I made it, unsaved, The ironic part of the day, is I climb this tree and hike several miles with no physical issues, then I come home and trip on my front porch looking at a package that was delivered and sprained my ankle.

I tried to find a couple other caches in this park but noticed a lot of poisonous plants. And decided not to look to hard. I am just hoping I noticed them before it was too late but I am nervous I didn't as I know I slipped once and put my hand on some on a tree at one point. Went home and showered and scrubbed myself down, then went and bought some Technu to see if that helps.

The other exciting news of the day is I found my first, First to Find cache! I was busy looking for this little macro tucked away in the bushes when a fellow cacher stubbled upon me, startling us both. We exchanged IDs and decided to go as a Co-FTF. We found it after a bit of searching and had a nice time chatting afterwards. He has over 4500 finds and gave me a lot of good tips for caching and my GPS. Thanks alot!

Took a picture of these mushrooms not far from the hide.

Everybody just keep their fingers crossed that I don't get any type of poison ivy, oak, or sumac. Or at least not that badly!

World Wide Flash Event

2009-05-03T23:16:00.003-04:00

Saturday Tresha, Kyra, and I were part of a World Wide Flash Mob in downtown Cincinnati.

The World Wide Flash Mob Caching Event. WWFM V. May 2, 2009

Are you ready to be a part of Geocaching history?!?

Summary: The Basic Idea:
A "Flash Mob" Gathering of Geocachers. Only 15 minutes long! You MUST be present and sign a log sheet DURING this time to claim the event.

You're heard of MEGA-EVENTS? This is quite the opposite in a variety of ways.

A flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, do something unusual for a brief period of time, then quickly disperse.

FLASH MOBS have gathered for other reasons (http://tinyurl.com/7qpml ). Come be part of this historic event!

WWFM (World Wide Flash Mob Event):

Dozens of events all around the world
Thousands of geocachers participating
Coordinated to happen at the same time
To bring together geocachers for a fun and unique even
To introduce others (muggles) to the fun of geocaching

Check out all the other scheduled WWFM events

These events will last EXACTLY 15 minutes, not one second longer.

If any muggles are curious about the event we will have a volunteer hand out fliers that explain geocaching.

Tell your friends and help promote the event!

There may be several muggles nearby who will wonder "What did I just see? What just happened?" (That's part of the fun!)

We had a nice time, just wish we would have gotten to chance to meet and mingle with a few others before we left.

Caching in the rain

2009-04-30T11:38:00.003-04:00

Decided to get out early and make at least one quick grab before the hard rains started today. Actually ended up with two, though I was hoping for 4 but just as I was heading to the third cache it started to down pore so I headed back to the car. Will head back tomorrow morning if it isn't too nasty.

The first cache I would not have found a month ago. I use to think a cache was always an ammo box or Tupperware container but have learned they can be much trickier that that. Both caches were out in the open and you had to be rather stealthy to grab them. The first one I had to be quicker than I wanted because I was parked illegally and I just got finished paying my no seat belt fine of $66 bucks from last week. I almost forgot about it and realized my court date was later this afternoon so I had to pay over the phone.

Can you see possible hiding places for the caches? If so click on the image and in Flickr leave a note of where you think the cache might be.

I just found out about PathTags

2009-04-29T23:05:00.004-04:00

I was looking for something to become my signature cache item for when I found a cache and was looking into creating a customized poker chip. Then I found a pathtag in a cache and think I am going to go this route. This is the pathtag I just designed, tell me what you think:

I am not sure if this meets any requirements in designing pathtags or not. I just downloaded the template and went to work. They send me a blueprint to review and that is when I will find out if I need to make any changes. Plan on making this my signature pathtag for the rest of 2009.

What Are Pathtags?

Welcome to the Pathtag overview! This page will give you an introduction to the physical product of the Pathtags system - the Pathtag. There are lots of detailed photos, please be patient if the graphics are slow to load. The other aspect of the Pathtags system is the online Community website, a growing and evolving social networking website. To learn about the Pathtags Community, visit the Pathtags Community Tour.

A PATHTAG is a single-sided custom metal tag about the size and weight of a U.S. Quarter or a one Euro coin. The precise dimension of Pathtags are 23mm in diameter and 2.0mm thick. Pathtags are made from a solid iron base and are plated in a protective silver plating.

Pathtags are not typically traveling items such as Geocoins or Travel Bugs. They are generally used as personal "signature items" for Geocaching or other trade item. If found, simply log it and the tag's profile will display for you to view. Unless the profile says otherwise, you are welcome to add it into your permanent collection.

There are Pathtags accessories, like the Pathtag Sherpa Geocoin, which turn the Pathtag into a traveling item. In these cases, they are intended to stay with the coin or travel bug to which they are affixed and should be moved along like another traveler.

Pathtags are produced from your own personal design. When you order your Starter Kit, you will be prompted to upload a design from your computer. Pathtags are really easy to design and many owners design their own product. If you don't feel up to the challenge, check out our Design Page for tips and links to our Design Partners. Design Partners are professionals skilled in the rendering of Pathtag designs. They will help you by producing your design for a nominal fee (typically $25 or $35).

The reverse side of the tag is home for your tag's unique serial number. This serial number allows you to enjoy the features of the accompanying online Community. The Pathtags Community is free to access by anyone who finds your tag. As an owner you will have access to all the unique features of the Pathtag Community. These features include a great trading management tool, an online collection tool, and the ability to see who has your tag and where they found it. Click here to visit our Pathtags Community Tour to learn more about its great features!

Each tag has a hole punched in it, this hole serves two functional purposes. First, it allows you to easily display your tags on a peg board (shown below).

Also, the holes enable you to clip tags to your collector clips. Use your clips to keep your own tags handy or to temporarily store tags you find or trade. Because Pathtags are made from an iron base, they are also attracted to magnets. This lets you display your collection in a lot of unique ways. Some people buy small round magnets and display them on a fridge, filing cabinet, or white board. We like to feature clever pathtag displays on our front page - if you have one, email it to us at support@pathtags.com.

Once you place your order and upload your design, we manage the production for you, keeping you informed as your tag moves through each stage. To learn all about how Pathtags are created - visit our Pathtags Creation tour. The end product of our patent-pending process is a very durable, extremely attractive item.

Nemesis no More!

2009-04-29T21:56:00.003-04:00

I have a current goal of finding at least one cache a day for at least 30 days straight. When I make it to that first goal I am going to double it and try making it to 60 days. So far I have made it up to 8 days straight. Today I was busy working when I looked at the clock and realized it was already 3:00 so I looked for the closest cache I haven't found yet and saw it was my old nemesis that I had been to on multiple occasions but have had no luck. Debated for a few minutes then decided what the heck and went for it. Wandered around the area for awhile looking up more than down since those who hide this one are known for hiding them up in trees, but there really wasn't any tree in the vicinity that was climbable so I started scouring the ground once again. Then go figure I forgot my camera and I had several deer within 4 or 5 feet of me. I could have gotten some awesome pictures. One of the deer and I just stood in place staring at each other for quite awhile and even after I moved towards her she only went about 10 feet away and they stayed in the area the entire time I was looking.

It was weird just when I was about to give up and go home and email for a clue I had the cache in my hand. And what was really sad is I had looked under this log multiple times!

Yes that little nub in the middle of the log is the cache. I had my phone with its crappy camera in the car, so after I signed the log I went back to the car to get my camera so I could take a few pictures of my defeated nemesis.

I was surprised these were the best pictures I have gotten from the camera on my phone, but definitely not as nice of quality as my camera.

Here are a few of the other caches I have found during my little 8 day streak that I haven't blogged about.

This one was suppose to be a webcam cache, but the cam is down so the owner says to just take a picture in front of the fountain. So it is more like a virtual cache now. Trei was with me for this one, come to think of it I think we still need to log his last several finds.

Had another cemetery find. This tomb really wasn't anywhere near the cache but it was the most interesting tomb I saw in the area.

Then just yesterday I had found my first cache that I had to climb a tree to get. It wasn't that high but it was a drizzly rain and everything was slippery and if I fell I went straight into the water!

Wish me luck over the next 22 more days, so hopefully I can reach my goal! During that time I will also get to my first big milestone in my 100th cache.

Geocaching Stats

2009-04-27T19:05:00.006-04:00

I have been playing around with the different Geocaching stat tools out there and so far I like bits and pieces of several of them. Right now I have stats on my geocaching.com public profile (think you need to be logged in to see) generated from MyGeocachingProfile.com. I really wish that you could just automatically generate statistics in real time directly on geocaching.com without having to use a third party. I would also like the option to make my public profile with statistics available to non members of the geocaching.com website. Any of you veterans know if they are considering stats being generated completely on the Geocaching.com site or not? Doesn't think that would be that hard for them to do. What stat tools does anyone else like? If it matters I am mostly on a Mac.

The stats below are from itsnotaboutthenumbers.com. I really like the county map this site generates.

Stat Summary

Where I've Cached

Caching Milestones

Maps

Charts and Graphs

Roku Rocks

2009-04-26T01:27:00.004-04:00

Just received the Roku I purchased of Amazon, and I was skeptical. Wondering how the picture would be or how much of a hassle it would be to find movies and I was pleasantly surprised on both. Picture quality is great and even comes in in HD with the HMDI adaptor! Wireless set up was a snap. If you use Netflix this is almost a must. It is like instantly having free pay on demand or extended cable TV, absolutely a great purchase.

Wired or Wireless, The Choice is Yours

You can connect the Roku player to the Internet using most broadband providers (such as a cable modem or DSL connection). You need at least 1.2 Mbps to watch movies instantly on the Roku digital video player with decent quality. Click here to download the guide on how the Roku player works.

The faster your connection, the better the quality (although this rule-of-thumb peaks out at about 5mbps). Use the built-in Wi-Fi capabilities to connect to your wireless network, or use the Ethernet port for a wired connection. It's easy either way.

Connect to Virtually Any TV, Guaranteed

The player comes complete with everything you need to get connected right away. It even includes the standard yellow, white and red cables. Or use the HDMI or component connections with your new HDTV.

Control is at your Fingertips and Easy to Understand

The Roku player is easily controlled using the handy included remote. Choose the item you want to watch, play, fast-forward, rewind, pause and resume play later, just like watching a DVD.

Click here for the Roku Digital Video Player Quick Start Guide (PDF)

Specifications

Networking	Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) with WEP, WPA, and WPA2 support 10/100 Ethernet (RJ-45)
Video Outputs	Composite video S-Video Component video (Y/Pb/Pr) HDMI
Video Modes	16:9 HD (720p) 16:9 anamorphic (480p) 4:3 standard (480i)
Audio Output	Stereo (L/R RCA) Digital Optical (Toslink) Digital over HDMI
Remote Control	NEC protocol, supported by various universal remotes
Power Input	5V, 1.5A provided by included AC adapter
Power Consumption	5 watts peak, 3 watts in standby
Size	5 x 5 x 1.75 inches (130 x 130 x 41 mm)
Weight	11 oz (300 grams)

Winton Woods Jinx is over!

2009-04-26T00:24:00.003-04:00

Finished my paper in record time today and Trei's Yu-Gi-Oh tournament was running extra long so I had several hours to kill, so I hoped in my car and headed to Winton Woods hoping to find a couple DNFs. I stopped at the first one and searched and searched where my GPS was pointing and expanded my search out from that area but no luck, so I was ready to give up on it and headed to the next cache. Once again the same thing searched and searched but couldn't find it. Kept having muggles walk by while I was looking so I took several pictures of this mushroom:

That is what I do if I notice people coming and checking me out while I cache, I started taking Macro pictures of plants, bugs, moss, or even dirt so they don't start wondering what in the heck i am doing. Gave up on this one and headed back to the car. On the way I passed the area of the first cache I looked for and ignored my GPS and walked right up to where I thought the cache should be. I really need to learn to ignore the GPS sometimes and just trust my slowly developing cacher sense.

Next I moved up the road a bit to another cache and once again my GPS was several yards off, and I just went with my instincts again and found it pretty quickly. Met my first cacher at a hide here as well. A very nice guy TheChalkboard and his wife and daughter. We chatted a bit then I went to the cache he just found and he went to the one I just found.

After finding my third cache in Winton Woods the jinx of the place is officially over for me. So on my way back to pick up Trei I noticed a cache in a cool old cemetery I had to grab. Made quick work of it and took a little time to check out some of the old tombstones.

10 caches in 4 days

2009-04-25T00:09:00.003-04:00

Just realized earlier tonight that I hadn't had time to post lately about caches. I have been out nearly everyday for at least an hour or so and have found 10 caches during that time, so this is a long post with a lot of pictures.

The first three were in the Lockland area in between storms on Monday evening while Trei was at Orchestra practice. I originally planned on going to the library and doing some work but it was too loud in there and the sun came out so I hoped in my car and turned on my GPS. I had gone looking for these before but my old GPS would never let me find the entrance to the park. Much better luck today. Made a clean sweep hear finding all three of them. They were all fairly out in the open and I can't believe they haven't been muggled or CITO'd as the first one I found just looked like a zip lock baggie stuck in the bottom of a tree. The last one I found was actually 30 feet or more off of the coordinates but I think that was because the area was recently plowed. The picture bellow is taken standing at where the cache should be when it is actually behind all that piled up brush.

My next adventure was to a cache I had been eying for awhile because it sounding like it would be a great view and it was a nice view and a nice park!

But I made this one much harder than it needed to be. I hopped into the woods way earlier than I wanted or should have to avoid a bunch of muggles and paid the price. Thought it would be easy to cut over but it ended up turning this into the most difficult terrain I had to deal with. And the fist part of the journey was a little scary, it looked like some Hobos called this place home from time to time as you could see little sleeping type areas and fire areas set up. At least they practiced safe sex as I found a few opened condom wrappers along the way as well.

Once I got to the cache, which I nearly gave up on because I had to climb down then back up a couple steep hills because of my stupidity of choosing bushwhacking over the way I thought I should go, there was a nice view of 1 75:

Let my first travel bug, Hello Earthling, here.

Walk back was much easier and quicker once I saw the trail. You can tell this park use to be much bigger as there were concrete based picnic tables in what is now over grown woods.

The next day I had a few hours to kill in between appointments and decided to find what I could in French Park (which is another park which is really nice that I never knew existed).

Found my first find pretty quickly and left my Bad Tweety TB to start its journey to AZ. (The owner of the cache has already picked it up to move it on. Waiting to see where they moved it too.)

The next cache I found, I found it where it wasn't suppose to be. Your were suppose to scale up this fallen down tree to get it but it must have fallen out of the tree as I found it hanging about a foot off the ground as I walked around the tree trying to decide if I was going to attempt this on my own. This seemed like a buddy cache, in case I fell and broke something.

Owner of the cache went and placed it back to its original spot today.

The next one I found was farther down the path and was a fairly nice hike. Love seeing nature as art:

I made finding this one harder than it should have been as I walked around it multiple times before find it.

Then today after meeting with a colleague and sitting in on a web meeting, that I strategically parked at Caesar Creek park so i could participate. I found three more caches. The first was cemetery cache. Just a film canister but I love old cemetery's not sure why.

The next was my second earth cache. This place looks interesting will definitely have to return with the family some time and go get us a fossil collecting permit and act like archaeologists.

Finally I skipped several other possible caches to go to this this last one since I was running short on time and it supposedly had two travel bugs. It seems that travel bugs are not always were they are suppose to be. But one of the two was there.

This was another cemetery hide. Zion Baptist African American Cemetary (no i didn't miss spell it check out the sign.)

Took a picture of the booty in the cache:

Now it was off to find a restroom, and you can see how that turned out in the previous post!

$66 bucks down the crapper

2009-04-24T16:42:00.003-04:00

$66 bucks down the crapper after being pulled over for my license plates being expired (whoops I forgot about that) and getting a ticket for not wearing a seat belt. I will say it up front, I hate seat belts it is my choice to to wear one, it isn't going to stop me from getting into an accident so it is not going to hurt anyone but me. If they really want to gives tickets for things that are harmful to others along with yourself it should be illegal to smoke and you should receive a ticket or fine if you do!

With that all said, ironically I was wearing my seat belt most of the day today. When I was pulled over I was at Caesars Creek park driving from locked bathroom to locked bathroom because I had to pee! Then he made me wait in my car for nearly 20 minutes writing the ticket. I thought my bladder was going to explode! I later realized after I went to the restroom that the first thing he saw in the back of my care was an ammo box (for my next cache hide) and my caching bag filled with stuff. I kept wondering why he kept looking around my car and telling me I looked anxious. I told him I looked anxious because I have to pee!

Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year

2009-04-22T11:55:00.001-04:00

How you ask? I give you Blackle.com as an Earth Day save energy tip (Trei came home from school with this one today) I was just ahead of the curve when I went black with my template:

How is Blackle saving energy?

Blackle was created by Heap Media to remind us all of the need to take small steps in our everyday lives to save energy. Blackle searches are powered by Google Custom Search.

Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. "Image displayed is primarily a function of the user's color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen." Roberson et al, 2002

In January 2007 a blog post titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to the popularity of the search engine. Since then there has been skepticism about the significance of the energy savings that can be achieved and the cost in terms of readability of black web pages.

We believe that there is value in the concept because even if the energy savings are small, they all add up. Secondly we feel that seeing Blackle every time we load our web browser reminds us that we need to keep taking small steps to save energy.

How can you help?

We encourage you to set Blackle as your home page. This way every time you load your Internet browser you will save a little bit of energy. Remember every bit counts! You will also be reminded about the need to save energy each time you see the Blackle page load.

Help us spread the word about Blackle by telling your friends and family to set it as their home page. If you have a blog then give us a mention. Or put the following text in your email signature: "Blackle.com - Saving energy one search at a time".

Have a look at our energy saving tips page for ideas on steps you can take to save energy or you can follow Blackle on Twitter and we will keep you updated with simple energy saving tips.

There are a lot of great web sites about saving energy and being more environmentally friendly. They are full of great tips covering the little things that we can all do to make a difference today. Try Blackling "energy saving tips" or visit one of the many great blogs dedicated to environmental awareness.

Introduction to Geocaching Video

2009-04-22T10:00:00.002-04:00

Steve, an REI Outdoor School instructor, demonstrates some of the rules and basic etiquette that go with finding a geocache in this video. It is important to hide geocaches in places off trail that do not disturb the environment or people who are not involved in the game. It is also important that if you take something out of the cache you put something back in of equal or greater value and then replace the cache exactly as you found it.
http://www.rei.com

Great American Ball Park and Matthew 25 Ministries

2009-04-19T21:57:00.003-04:00

Today Tresha, Trei, and I all went to Great American Ball Park, to help Matthew 25 Ministries by replacing stickers on the cup holders within the stadium.

In exchange, each volunteer received a voucher for two free tickets to a Reds game this season. Matthew 25: Ministries will also receive $15,000 of free airtime on 700 WLW during Reds games. This radio time will be extremely valuable in spreading the word about Matthew 25: Ministries throughout the city and nation. The more people hear about the work of Matthew 25, the better we can reach the poorest of the poor.

It was a rainy day but quite a few volunteers showed up. It was kind of neat being in the stadium with such a small group of people. I was hoping to get the chance to see more of it than I did but, that opportunity didn't really present itself.

Tresha and Trei applying stickers

Me doing my best Vanna White showing off the stickers

View from the Club Seats which I think are my favorite in the park.

View from the Diamond Seats

The Big Red Machine, greatest team of all time!

Winton Woods walk...

2009-04-19T18:52:00.003-04:00

A few pictures from our trip to Winton Woods on Saturday. Had a nice time walking around the park, but had no luck caching. Only really tried to find one cache as the rest where not on our walking route and we were not that prepared in our trip. But that makes me 0-4 at Winton Woods. One of these days I am going to have to take a day and just dedicate it to caching at Winton Woods.

We found the image above quite ironic.

Enjoying Dinner.

Funky Colored Ducks

Earth Day, April 22nd

2009-04-19T17:56:00.000-04:00

Earth Day, April 22, is the annual U.S. celebration of the environment and a time for Americans to assess the work still needed to protect the natural gifts of our planet. Earth Day has no central organizing force behind it, though several nongovernmental organizations work to keep track of the thousands of local events in schools and parks that mark the day. It affirms that environmental awareness is part of the country's consciousness and that the idea of protecting the environment -- once the province of a few conservationists -- has moved from the extreme to the mainstream of American thought.

This was not always the case. In the 19th century, Americans, blessed with a vast land rich in natural resources, lived with the notion that fresh fields were always just over the horizon. When one exhausted the soil or forests or coal of a given place, it was possible to move on to another. As industry boomed in the early 20th century people accepted without question skies blackened from smokestack emissions and rivers fouled with industrial waste. As early as the mid-1930s -- and again in the 1950s -- Ohio's Cuyahoga River, running through America's industrial heartland, was set ablaze by burning chemical waste from factories built upon its banks. There was no public outcry. Few people even noticed.

During the 1960s public attitudes began to change. In 1962 a marine biologist named Rachel Carson published Silent Spring. The title referred to a future without birds and described in plain language devastating long-term effects of highly toxic pesticides and other chemical agents then commonly used in American agriculture, industry and daily life. The book was a surprise best-seller. (See “Rachel Carson: Pen Against Poison.”)

In 1968 Apollo astronauts, returning from their pioneering orbital flight around the moon, photographed the planet Earth as a whole for the first time. This image of the Earth -- small, fragile, beautiful, and unique -- quickly was imprinted on the psyches of millions. In 1969 industrial runoff in the Cuyahoga River again caught fire. This time the public reaction was immediate and intense. Cleveland, where the fire occurred, became a national laughing-stock, and the satirical song "Burn On, Big River, Burn On" was heard on radios across the country. In that same year the U.S. Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), establishing a "national policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment."

Concurrent with this slow building of environmental awareness was the increasingly vocal opposition to U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam. Public demonstrations against the war -- particularly on college campuses -- gave impetus to the idea that organized challenges to the "status quo" could in fact change public policy and behavior.

ORIGIN OF EARTH DAY

Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. senator from Wisconsin and a longtime conservationist, was one who understood that the methods developed for use in the anti-war protest could succeed in other areas as well. "At the time," Nelson later wrote, "there was a great deal of turmoil on the college campuses over the Vietnam War. Protests, called anti-war teach-ins, were being widely held on campuses across the nation … It suddenly occurred to me, why not have a nationwide teach-in on the environment? That was the origin of Earth Day."

Nelson returned to Washington and began promoting Earth Day to state governors, mayors of big cities, editors of college newspapers and, importantly, to Scholastic Magazine, which is circulated in U.S. elementary and secondary schools. In September 1969, Nelson formally announced that there would be a "national environmental teach-in" sometime in spring 1970. "The wire services carried the story nationwide," recalled Nelson. "The response was dramatic .... Telegrams, letters, and telephone inquiries poured in from all over the nation. Using my Senate staff, I ran Earth Day activities out of my office. By December, the movement had expanded so rapidly that it became necessary to open an office in Washington to serve as a national clearinghouse for Earth Day inquiries and activities ....

"Earth Day achieved what I had hoped for. The objective was to get a nationwide demonstration of concern for the environment so large that it would shake the political arena. It was a gamble, but it worked. An estimated 20 million people participated in peaceful demonstrations all across the country. Ten thousand grade schools and high schools, two thousand colleges, and one thousand communities were involved .... That was the remarkable thing that became Earth Day."

Groundbreaking federal legislation followed the success of the first Earth Day. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was established in 1970, followed by the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act of 1972, and the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Among the many far-reaching provisions of these bills was the requirement that automobiles use unleaded gasoline, achieve a minimum number of miles-per-gallon of gasoline and be equipped with catalytic converters to reduce the amount of toxic fumes released by automobile exhaust.

Then, in the wake of this legislative success, Earth Day seemed to disappear. Though annual celebrations continued, they failed to match the size and enthusiasm of the first year. Earth Day seemed to have become a relic of the protest days of the early 1970s.

Yet the spirit of Earth Day continued. Environmental organizations grew in size and power. Groups such as Greenpeace, formed in Canada in 1971, adopted principles of nonviolent civil disobedience to raise public consciousness about dwindling whale populations and the risks of nuclear power. The Nature Conservancy, formed in 1951, rededicated itself in the early 1970s to the "preservation of natural diversity" and began to buy undeveloped land for use as nature preserves. Venerable institutions such as the Sierra Club and the National Audubon Society vigorously brought suits against logging companies to slow the destruction of old-growth forests. Funded by public contributions and staffed with lawyers and educators as well as scientists and naturalists, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) became aggressive watchdogs for the environment.

At home, Americans, often prompted by their children, began to separate their household trash for recycling. By the late 1980s recycling programs were established in many communities. By the mid-1990s these municipal recycling programs were paying for themselves, the amount of trash dumped into landfills was in noticeable decline, and more than 20 percent of America's municipal trash was being converted into useful products. Corporations, ever conscious of the desires of the consumer -- and the bottom line of profits -- began to promote themselves as being environmentally friendly. Many firms adopted sensible business practices that increased efficiency and reduced the amounts of industrial waste.

RESURGENCE IN 1990S

Earth Day came back in a big way in 1990. Led by Dennis Hayes, a primary organizer of the first Earth Day, Earth Day 1990 was international in scope. More than 200 million people around the world -- 10 times the number in 1970 -- participated in events that recognized that the environment had finally become a universal public concern. The global momentum continued in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), held in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, where an unprecedented number of governments and NGOs agreed on a far-ranging program to promote sustainable development.

The 25th anniversary of the first Earth Day in 1995 was a time to assess environmental progress. In Western countries the news seemed good -- air and water were cleaner, forests were expanding and many other environmental indicators were up as well. The sometimes volatile combination of legislation, lawsuits brought by NGOs, public education and more efficient business practices had made a noticeable and positive effect on the condition of the environment.

But there were conflicting views on just how good this news was. Environmental reporter Gregg Easterbrook wrote in The New Yorker magazine that environmental laws "along with a vast array of private efforts spurred by environmental consciousness ... have been a stunning success .... Environmental regulations, far from being burdensome and expensive, have proved to be strikingly effective, have cost less than anticipated, and have made the economies of the countries that have put them into effect stronger, not weaker."

Environment magazine, a leading NGO journal, offered a gloomier assessment: "Earth Day ... has neither spawned a permanently active citizenry nor transformed the general malaise that undermines faith in democratic accountability. Although environmentalism has made great strides since 1970, institutionally as well as in public consciousness, environmental security... today remains even more elusive than 25 years ago."

Earth Day celebrates its 37th anniversary in 2007. What began in 1970 as a protest movement has evolved into a global celebration of the environment and commitment to its protection. The history of Earth Day mirrors the growth of environmental awareness over the last three decades, and the legacy of Earth Day is the certain knowledge that the environment is a universal concern.

By Timothy Brown
Staff Writer

http://www.america.gov/st/env-english/2008/April/20070420114325jtnworb0.9966699.html

Bad Tweety

2009-04-18T22:18:00.003-04:00

Just set up my latest Travel Bug, and it is another Looney Toon themed one, like my first.

My first travel bug, Hello Earthling, had a pretty vague mission but Bad Tweety's first mission is pretty specific.

Bad Tweetys mission:

Tweety is on its way to the following cache: Hint of Pink cache located at N 32° 22.xxx W 111° 08.xxx This Cache is owned by Erika Jean, a friend I have meet online, and since we have not been able to meet in person thought I would send a travel bug her way. Once it makes it to her cache, and she has it in hand, Erika can choose Bad Tweetys next mission.

I found this Tweety at a cache in Keehner Park in West Chester Ohio. (On rather important side note, this was the park that I proposed to my wife on Sweetest Day October 17th, 1998.) As soon as I saw this little Tweety I thought it would make a great travel bug and had been thinking of seeing how long it would take to get a travel bug to a specific cache across the country and decided right way that wold be Bad Tweetys mission.

A little History on Tweety:

Tweety (also known as Tweety Bird and Tweety Pie) is a fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated cartoons. Tweety's popularity, like that of The Tasmanian Devil, actually grew in the years following the dissolution of the Looney Tunes cartoons. The name "Tweety" is a play on words, as it originally meant "Sweetie", along with "tweet" being a typical English onomatopoeia for the sounds of birds. Tweety has appeared in 48 cartoons.

Despite the widespread speculation that Tweety was female, he is and has always been a male character, something that he often has confirmed in The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries. On the other hand, his species is ambiguous; although originally and often portrayed as a young canary, he is also frequently called a rare and valuable "Tweetybird" as a plot device, and once called "The only living specimen". Moreover, the title song suggests that it is a Canary. His shape more closely suggests that of a baby bird, which in fact is what he was during his early appearances. The yellow feathers were added but otherwise he retained the baby-bird shape.

Tweety is, for the most part, a good-natured character happily spending life in his cage or a nest. However, when a cat or other adversary threatens him, he can become downright malicious and devious, even kicking his enemy when he's down. In many of Tweety's appearances the bird is shown accompanying his owner, Granny.

In many ways I am a lot like Tweety, normally laid back, and happy go lucky but if you cross me or someone I care about I become malicious, devious, and will even kick them when they are down, just like Tweety.

Hope to drop off both of my travel bugs on Monday.

Fond Memories of Keehner Park

2009-04-18T09:10:00.003-04:00

Was on my way home the other day from an appointment and it was a beautiful day and decided to work outside and realized I was near Keehner Park. When Tresha and I were dating this park was just down the street from her house and we often took Trei here to play on the playground. Then on October 17th of 1998, Sweetest Day, I proposed to Tresha while having a picnic in the park.

This is where I proposed, with the ring hidden in a McDonalds kids meal toy. At the time Tresha was addicted to McDonalds and that is all she ever wanted to eat!

I was excited they park had an electric outlet if my battery on my laptop got low and it had Wifi, but unfortunately it was Cincinnati Bell Wifi Hotspot which i don't have access to without purchasing a day or month pass. But since Tresha needs a new cell phone I am going to look at the options from UC, I think you gain access to all these WIFI hotspots if you have your phone through UC. But after playing with that for awhile I decided it was two cold to be siting in the shade and packed up my computer and checked my GPS for caches in the park and yes there were several! I didn't remember the park being that big so I thought these would be quick finds. I was wrong on both counts! The park was much bigger than I remembered and I spent about 2 hours hiking through the woods finding 4 out of 5 caches.

The hike was great! I keep saying this it the real reason to get into Geocaching, all the beautiful places it takes you! Saw a couple small waterfalls and had to pass over a couple creeks to find the various caches. The only bad part was it was still pretty muddy from all the rain we have had the past week or so.

Of course the first cache I try to locate is one of those uber tricky ones (Portmanteau, a Kehner Park Cache) I looked around for awhile circling the area my GPS said the Cache should be, even looked the cache up on my phone looking for hints. Once I saw the posting and the entries by other cachers I decided to just ad this one to my DNF but will find later bookmark, and move on.

Next was cache quality not quantity # 1. Found this one pretty quickly once I finally hiked down to it. I parked the farthest away that I could to finding this cache.

I often do not take swag when I find a cache but did at three of them today. At this one I couldn't pass up the bobble head since I have a collection of bobble heads at home.

Nearby this cache was an abandoned snow mobile or something that has been here for quite awhile. When I first saw it I thought there had to be a cache there somewhere, but I was wrong.

Next on the list was Cubey's Roots. For some reason I didn't get any good pictures of this one.

The next one I found, The Smiling Dwarf, is probably my favorite container so far. You will see why in the pictures below:

It even had a cool Santa Ornament inside. I decided to take that and plan on putting the cache name on it and hanging it at Christmas next year.

The last of the day was Pardon Me... (Found three park and grabs earlier in the day so I ended up with 7 for the day)

Took a Devil Tweety key chain which I am getting ready to set up as my next travel bug. Be sure to watch for the post about that coming soon. Erika will especially be interested in that one once I get it set up.

Overall a great afternoon of hiking and caching! Only problem is I had to stay up late to get caught up on the work I should have been doing while I was caching.

Think we are going to Winton Woods later today, wish I could have made the CITO event there this morning but getting ready to take Trei to an Orchestra competition.

Knocking on God's Backdoor

2009-04-15T23:03:00.003-04:00

Was planning on hitting 6 caches today after a morning appointment but that appointment turned into an afternoon appointment as well so I did not get the chance to go do any caching. But after I got home I found out Trei had to go to church for some kind of play practice so I took the opportunity to go check on the first cache I had hidden in the park behind the church and to hide a second cache in the same park.

On my way back to my first Cache: Friends and Family Split, I saw a couple deer hanging out in the woods.

They let me get pretty close and never ran away. Trei said he was surprised to turn around and see a deer within just a couple feet of him as he went into the park looking for me.

Remembered to take a picture of the bird house outside the path by my first cache this time and loaded it to geocaching.com. While at the cache I ended up moving the cache 6-12 inches from its original hiding spot to try and make it a little better hidden. The original spot was a pretty tight fit and with all the rain the wood had swelled and made it even harder to but the cache back.

I took a picture of the first page of the log book while I was there, which at this point is the only page of the log book which has been signed.

On the way back to my car I started looking for a second place to hide a cache. I had an idea of hiding it in a hollowed out tree which was basically right on the path, but I was afraid it would fall down too far into the tree and would be too hard to retrieve if it did since the only way to get to it was from the top of what is left of the tree. But I did see what I thought was a good spot and went a head and hid my second cache:

Decided to name it Knocking on God's backdoor, because you can actually see the backdoor of my church.

I think this one will be much tougher to get to once everything comes into bloom, but still think it is pretty well hidden. We will see.

As I have said many times for me Geocaching is more about the locations the caches take you too and the great things you see on the way. The deer were a perfect example of that! Which takes me to Waymarking.com. This is geocaching locations or things. Geocaching.com use to call these virtual caches but are no longer supporting them. I will be looking up as many cool Waymarking locations as geocaches I have a feeling.

Erika Jean is holding a blog Contest!

2009-04-13T22:23:00.004-04:00

Erika is the one who got me started on this whole Geocaching addiction I have by me reading about all the cool places she has visited and seeing the pictures she has taken of her caching adventures.

She is much more into the swag than I am, and she is giving away a bag containing those items to swap as the prize in the contest. I keep a few items in my Geocaching bag but I often do not take anything even when I leave items. I am more about the hike in the woods and the places the caches take me. If I won the the contest I would use the items to fill another cache to hide. If you want to put your name into the drawing just go to Erika's site and follow her rules for submitting your name:

Erika Jean's Blog Contest

CONTEST ENDS APRIL 23rd, 2009 MIDNIGHT MST

Stearns Farm Cache

2009-04-13T21:05:00.003-04:00

Had time to take a short hike and make a quick grab. Parking was very limited after driving around the area once I decided to just park at the chained off gate and walk back. The storms of the past several months have definitely taken a toll on this area as there are trees down everywhere.

I saw the location of the cache from several yards away, but it was still pretty well hidden even if you got right on top of the location.

From reading previous log entries it appears the original cache went missing and only the log remained but the last person to find the cache had a spare container in his car and got it set back up. The sad part it is looks like there were several Travel Bugs in the cache before it went missing which are now MIA. That made me weary of leaving my travel bug there so I am waiting for later in the week.

Hello Earthling - Travel Bug

2009-04-13T16:06:00.003-04:00

Just activated my first Travel Bug: Hello Earthling TB2HQ50, I hope to get him out to a cache very soon!

Current GOAL: My mission is to travel your world one cache at a time. Please photograph me in front of fun and interesting places your take me too and post those images here. That way I can best pick the best place to aim my Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator to best blow up Earth. Those of you who help me will be spared and moved to another planet prior to Earths Destruction!
About this item:

History - When did Marvin the Martian appear? Marvin the Martian was created by Chuck Jones on 7/24/48 Marvin first met Bugs Bunny in 1948 in "Haredevil Hare". When Marvin first appeared, he was known only as commander-X-23. His original suit was an goldish- brown color then it was changed to the revered color that it is known as today. His voice was also quite different! Marvin turned 60 July 24, 2008!

Marvin hails from the planet Mars, but is often found elsewhere. He is often accompanied by his dog "K-9," and sometimes by other creatures (one gag, first used in Hare-Way to the Stars (1957), being candy-sized "Instant Martians" that become full-size on addition of drops of water).

Marvin wears a Roman soldier's uniform (a reference to Mars being the Roman god of war) with old-fashioned basketball shoes. His head is a black sphere with only eyes for features. The crest of his helmet appears, with the "push broom" like upper section, to "comically" resemble an ancient Greek Hoplite's helmet. The appearance of the combination of Marvin's head and helmet allegedly led to Bugs Bunny thinking he was a "bowling ball wearing a spittoon" in one Looney Tunes animated short. Marvin is given a timid, nasal voice. The helmet and skirt that surround him are green and his suit is red to represent his Martian race or heritage. He is also known for his trademark quotes "Where is the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!", "Isn't that lovely?", and "This makes me very angry, very angry indeed."

On numerous occasions Marvin has tried to destroy the Earth (it obstructs his view of Venus) with his "Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator" (sometimes spelled as "Eludium Pu-36"), which resembles a mere stick of dynamite (The original reference to "Uranium Pu-36" changed to "Illudium Q-36" in subsequent cartoons [1]. Marvin is consistently foiled by Bugs Bunny. He has battled for space territory with Daffy Duck, a.k.a. Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century.

He appeared in two animated shows on Cartoon Network — as a toddler in Baby Looney Tunes, and as a primary villain in the Duck Dodgers television series. In the latter, he works for the Martian Queen, Queen Tyr'ahnee, on whom he has a crush. The latter reuses his original name from The Hasty Hare (although the opening credits list him as Marvin playing Commander X-2, in the same way as Daffy is playing Duck Dodgers). Over a decade prior to that, he guest-starred in a Tiny Toon Adventures segment titled "Duck Dodgers Jr.", where he was accompanied by an apprentice named Marcia the Martian. He was also in a Taz-Mania episode and did a cameo in The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries ("What's the Frequency, Kitty?"). Marvin has also appeared in a number of video games. He served as the main antagonist in both the Mega Drive/Genesis game Taz-Mania 2: Escape From Mars and the Super Nintendo game Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions. He also appeared in Bugs Bunny Lost in Time for Sony Playstation where he was the boss of Dimension X, and in Road Runner's Death Valley Rally for Super Nintendo, where he was a common enemy in the Quantum Beep stages. He also made a brief cameo in the 2003-2007 CN Fridays intro.

Marvin was also cast as the referee in Space Jam (though he did not stay to referee the whole game due to Bupkus beating him up), and then later had a major villainous role in Looney Tunes: Back in Action where he was hired by the ACME chairman, Mr. Chairman (Steve Martin), to finish DJ (Brendan Fraser) and the gang at Area 52. In the film's climax, he reappears to bring the Blue Monkey diamond to the ACME satellite, but is foiled by Bugs (who he duels in a parody of Obi Wan Kenobi and Jango Fett in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones) and Daffy (who arrives as Duck Dodgers to save Bugs after he is exhausted from the battle), resulting in Marvin trapped in a bubble floating through space.

Marvin appeared in the Looney Tunes version of A Christmas Carol, Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas. He played as an employee at Daffy Duck's "Lucky Duck Super Store". Marvin was homesick for his planet, Mars, and wanted to go back for Christmas. However, Daffy would not let him take Christmas off, and demanded he and the other Lucky Duck employees work on Christmas Day. After being visited by the Christmas ghosts, Daffy changes his ways, and gives Marvin a rocket that will go faster than the speed of light, allowing him to make it to Mars by yesterday.

In nearly all of his appearances, Marvin is shown using a small pistol that fires either bubbles of pliable plastic or energy beams. He is also apparently immortal, since he mentions doing over a thousand years of research to create the Illudium Q-36 Space Modulator, and he is seen in Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century.

BASIC MARVIN THE MARTIAN FACTS * Home: MARS * Spaceship: THE MARTIAN MAGGOT * Pet: Commander K-9 the space dog. * Plan: To blow up the earth with his Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator, since the Earth blocks his view of Venus.

Great Birthday spent with family!

2009-04-13T07:01:00.000-04:00

Yesterday turned out to be a great day to celebrate my 42nd birthday! First off my two beautiful girls came home bright and early from their trip to Iowa, it was Easter, and we did some family caching!

Tresha and Kyra went to Iowa Wednesday night, with her parents to visit with friends and to celebrate Tresha's Great Great Grandmothers 100th Birthday on Saturday. Trei and I decided to stay home and have some guy time. I think we had a great weekend of eating junk food, watching movies, and caching. Tresha's dad drove all night on Saturday to have my girls home to me on my birthday! Thanks Joe.

We started the morning with opening presents the Easter Bunny had left.

Then went out back and had an Easter Egg Hunt. Tresha said Kyra really enjoyed the two she went to in Iowa.

Then later in the afternoon we went to Sharon Woods for some caching. We ended up 5 for 5!

The first Cache we found was our first Virtual Cache. I think it could have been an Earth cache.

The second one we found (Trei and I went and got this on our own as it was a little farther off trail from our parking spot) was pretty out in the open so we rehide it. It also contained a Travel Bug which originated in Florida in 2007 and just recently returned from Rome! I plan on locating in the next couple weeks along with releasing my first two Travel Bugs once I look at my schedule and see where I will be traveling. Will post a picture of the little guy in a later post covering some of his travels. I put the log into a zip lock baggie so it wouldn't get wet as I noticed a hole in the lid of the container. (I have extra baggies just for this purpose in my new caching bag.)

The third we found was in the Cummins Historical Cemetery located in the park.

The last two we found were on the Gorge Trail (which I kept calling the George Trail until we saw the sign for the trail. LOL).

The first we found was our first official Earth Cache.

And the last one was a Letterbox cache. Tresha actually pointed out the location using the clues supplied by the hider while I was wondering the woods trying to find it using the GPS coordinates located in the hint. On the plus side I did find several golf balls while looking in the woods. Took a pin and left one of the golf balls I had found. The contents of the container were all very damp, including the log. Just realized i did not get a good picture for this one.

We then let Kyra play on one of the playgrounds in the park. The girl has no fear and will climb anything!

I enjoyed a great birthday with my family!

Free Reds Tickets

2009-04-13T00:16:00.002-04:00

Free Reds Tickets

REGISTRATION RE-OPENED

The Reds have extended the window of opportunity for you to earn two free Reds tickets.

Join Matthew 25: Ministries at the Great American Ball Park on April 3, 4, 17, 18, & 19. We will spend a few hours each day placing sponsor stickers on the park's cup holders. Bring family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers!

In exchange, each volunteer will receive a voucher for two free tickets to a Reds game this season. Matthew 25: Ministries will also receive $15,000 of free airtime on 700 WLW during Reds games. This radio time will be extremely valuable in spreading the word about Matthew 25: Ministries throughout the city and nation. The more people hear about the work of Matthew 25, the better we can reach the poorest of the poor.

Come join us for one of the following shifts:

Friday, April 3, 3:00pm - 6:00pm
Saturday, April 4, 10:00am - 1:00pm
Friday, April 17, 3:00pm - 6:00pm
Saturday, April 18, 10:00am - 1:00pm
Sunday, April 19, 1:00pm - 4:00pm

While Matthew 25: Minstries values family volunteer experiences, this particular task may not be the best for young children. Each sticker must be applied in a neat, professional manner. The overall task requires a moderate level of physical activity. Please consider the age and maturity of your child before signing him/her up to participate. Find out more about family-friendly volunteer opportunities at our Blue Ash facilities.

If you would like to sign up, or for more information, please contact karen@m25m.org

For more information about Matthew 25 visit their website: www.m25m.org.

Let me know if you decide to volunteer.

Winton Woods CITO

2009-04-12T23:53:00.002-04:00

Join us in a "Cache In - Trash Out" (CITO) Clean Up event on April 18, 2009.
We will be assisting the Winton Woods Park and the Forest Park Environmental Awareness Program.

Time:
8:45 Be at the Kestral Point picnic shelter for our assignments and to log the geocaching log. (Near the Winton Centre / Administration Building)
9:00 to 12:00 Clean Up
12:00 to 1:30 Lunch and raffles offered by the Park Board

Dress for the weather. Bags and maybe some gloves will be provided.

What is CITO?

Cache In Trash Out is an ongoing environmental initiative supported by the worldwide geocaching community. Since 2002, geocachers have been dedicated to cleaning up parks and other cache-friendly places around the world. Through these volunteer efforts, we help preserve the natural beauty of our outdoor resources!

Annually, we celebrate International Cache In Trash Out events where geocachers have an opportunity to participate in coordinated worldwide clean-up efforts. Geocachers host clean-up events in their local area on the same day or weekend as other geocachers around the world. Together, we make an enormous positive impact. Did we mention that we also have a bit of fun while we are at it?

The 7th Annual Cache In Trash Out Events are scheduled for May 2nd & 3rd, 2009.

2009 Cache In Trash Out Sponsor

DeLorme is our 2009 Cache In Trash Out sponsor. We thank them for their ongoing support of geocaching and the worldwide Cache In Trash Out effort.

Find out more about DeLorme and the new DeLorme PN-40 GPS. Please visit: http://delorme.com/geocaching.

Participating in CITO

CITO on every hunt

Cache In Trash Out doesn't just happen once a year. It can easily happen on every geocache adventure. Bring a trash bag along with you on your walks in the woods and pick up the occasional piece of trash you see on the trail. Even this small act can make a huge difference.

CITO as a large one-day or weekend event

You can organize a larger undertaking and accomplish much more with the help of other people. Contact a land manager or local organization and work with them to determine the needs of the community. These can be scheduled any time of the year that works for your location. Always be sure to seek permission before cleaning up any areas that may be on private property.

Struck out at Winton Woods

2009-04-12T09:06:00.003-04:00

Did some caching or should I say tried to do some catching at Winton Woods yesterday while Trei was at his Yu-Gi-Oh card tournament. I had hoped to find 10 caches but I had so much problems not finding the first three that I looked for that I didn't have time to go any farther down the trail. But as always I enjoyed my walk in the woods!

I did find one cache on the way home, but earlier that day the owner of the catch relocated it and all that was in this cache was a note with the new coordinates. Since I was short on time, and wasn't sure how far the new coordinates where I just went home and looked it up on geocaching.com and the new coordinates where only 234 feet from the original! If I had know that I would have stayed and looked for it.

So I was only 1-4 for the day. Hoping to go to Sharon Woods later today and find some more caches, since it is my Birthday I am hoping is will bring me more luck!

Glenwood Gardens

2009-04-10T00:53:00.004-04:00

Trei and I did some some geocaching after school today. Planned on doing it tomorrow but it is suppose to be rainy all day. We went to Gleenwood Gardens, which is a Hamilton County Park. I had never been to this park before and all I can say is WOW! This was the nicest park I have ever visited. It was huge, and had great wide gravel paths. Definately need to take Tresha and Kyra to this park sometime in the future.

We decided to do the Glenwood Gardens tour cache which took you all around the park, where you had to collect three clues to figure out the combination of the lock on the cache. Along the way there where 4 other caches in the park. Trei and I went 5 for 5!

Our first find of the day.

Beautiful area overlooking the majority of the park.

Swimming anyone? Really this park had several water areas and various nature settings.

View of the park, and yes there is a cache somewhere in this picture.

The prize at the end search. We didn't take any swags on any of the caches we found today bue we did leave Yu-Gi-Oh cards in each find.

Trei signing the log of our toughest cache of the day.

This last picture posted here was our toughest one to get. Mainly because it has slipped farther into it hiding place that I think it was suppose to have been. But we finally got it!

Overall this was a great evening of caching. Wonderful park, great time with Trei, and going 5 for 5 in finds!

Template Problems

2009-04-10T00:47:00.001-04:00

Having template problems. Looks like the template I was using got a little too popular and exceeded the bandwidth available on the images. Switched to a plain blogger template. Will keep it this way for awhile, until I have time to create my own template.

Arch Nemisis

2009-04-06T11:06:00.004-04:00

Can a cache become your Arch Nemesis? I have a cache, Don't Forget to Log it, just a mile or so from my house I just can not find! I have been there at least 4 times. Today I went with my new Etrex Legend hcx think it would be a piece of cake to find it today. I searched and searched, but no find. I was standing right where I thought it was suppose to be (which is a completely different place than my TomTom had taken me), but I just couldn't find it. Went back to the logs and see 5 or 6 people have found it since my first try, so it is there. I also noticed in the logs that several people called it a creative hide. And the emphasis on the PEN in the description, clue, and logs makes me think I wasn't looking with the right frame of mind. I was thinking film canister or pill bottle like so many of the other small hides I have found. But am starting ot think this one is much more sinister. I am even starting to think I am looking for an actual log to sign and just couldn't see the other peoples signatures one any of the logs I looked at because I was once again out caching in the rain and sleet. Gotta love the weather on opening day in Cincinnati. Below is the listing on geocaching.com:

Ever go caching and leave your pen in the car?
Ever climb all the way up a tree, or down into a culvert, only to realize the second part of your team has your lucky writing utensil?
Well that has been my luck way too often. Now everyone has pens attached to them when caching, but still they get lost.
The idea behind placing this cache is to not forget your pen so you CAN log it!
Please use the parking coords provided to make for an easier search.
Happy hunting and don't forget the pen!!
Additional Hints There's only a log, not a pen!

And I just noticed the size of the cache has a question mark. So I need to go back on a dry day with an open mind. I am not looking for a film canister or pill bottle. But something much more creative. Something that I must have a pen for. Either to sign something directly or to pry something out of a small hole.

I will get you Don't Forget to Log It, you can be assured of that, good always triumphs over evil! (At least in movies and comic books.) It just is taking me much longer than it should and for that reason, finding you will be the best find yet! I might wait and go looking for you again at my 100th find.

Geocaching in Oberlin OH

2009-04-05T18:47:00.003-04:00

Work took me to Oberlin Ohio, Thursday night and Friday, I didn't have an appointment until noon so I have planned on going after 15 caches. Well I woke up Friday morning to a wet sloppy mess outside but decided to go anyway. The rain and the mud did put a stop to many of the finds I had hoped to go after and it should have stopped me on a few that I did get. I got quite messy and I am sure the hotel wasn't very happy with the mud I tracked in or about the towels I used to clean my new hiking boots. I found 8 caches total in Oberlin. I could have found more if I had a better GPS. My TomTom is great for road use but once I go off road it sucks! Often times it has me walking in circles and changes dramatically just with taking a few steps. More on GPS news in a later post. Bellow are a few pictures from the days adventure. More can be found on my flickr account.

On the way home I found 4 caches on the way home one in Pittsfield at a war memorial. One in Ashland at Grandpa's Cheese Barn, a place I have always wanted to stop. I did a lot of sampling of goodies! I had to check out Fin Feather Fur Outfitters while I was there, hadn't been here since they were in a small white warehouse type building over 10 years ago, when I was working for a friend and his sporting goods shop Northeast Outdoors. Then two at rest areas across from each other on Route 30.

All in all, I found 12 caches on Friday. My single day high even though it was a nasty muddy rainy day. Next Friday is Good Friday and Trei and I are bachelors, as Tresha and Kyra are going to Iowa with her parents, and I hope to double my high with at least 24 finds!

Kcache 1: Friends and Family Split

2009-04-04T19:32:00.005-04:00

I am know a hider! Trei and I just hid our first geocache. It was just a camo taped Tupperware type container:

Nothing too fancy, the original contents of the cache are:

2 small frisbees
1 Cat In the Hat Plush Toy
6 Chinese Yo Yo's
1 Pen
Log book

We hide the cache in the Blue Ash Nature Park. Really surprised there isn't one here already. We plan on hiding a few here in the park. We are here often and is just a mile or so from the house.

Plan on hiding several over time and numbering them with Kcache and then a name. We chose Kcache 1: Friends and Family Split. Named after the bird house on the trail (which I should have taken a picture of, and I might go back and ad a picture later) and the split in the tree where the cache is actually hidden. Below are pictures of where the cache is hidden:

Looking forward to seeing who is the FTF! Hope to hide a few more later this week.

Getting down and dirty in Dublin

2009-03-28T18:24:00.005-04:00

The best part of geocaching is not finding the cache but the locations the caches take you too! I was in Dublin working a conference and on the way home I was able to do some caching even though it was muddy and I wasn't quite dressed for it, still in my khakis and work shirt. I was truly surprised at the wonderful locations I found in Dublin. The first stop was at Coffman Park.

It was a nice little park and had a very active skateboard park. I think that was actually the first skateboard park I have ever been too. I found this cache pretty quickly but there was a lot of muggle traffic so I had to be stealthy and didn't take any pictures and the log was full. But the tree nearby had its own surprise.

At first I thought the cache was up in the tree with the hanging man sculpture, but after looking at the climb I decided there was no way.

The next stop was Indian Run. This place was absolutely beautiful. Several waterfalls and just beautiful scenery. I would love to spend more time here at some time. But sadly I couldn't find the cache. It said it was in a unique cache container that you didn't even have to leave the trail to find, but I sure couldn't find it.

Next on the list was a cemetery find, which are one of my favorite types. This cemetery had several cool old grave sites. The one show above was listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. The most interesting thing about this tomb to me was the vent on the top.

I found this cache after a little bit of looking, the time involved was mostly because I couldn't believe it would be hidden where my GPS was pointing, way too many muggles about with all the other places to hide it, but it ended up being there right next to muggle central.

Last one of the day was at Big Run Park in Columbus. This was by far the most bushwhacking I have had to do to find a cache. This area you can tell is covered by deer. I saw a few and there were tons of tracks and droppings.

It took me much longer than find this cache because my Tom Tom 130 just is not very good at pinpointing items. It had me walking in circles and I ended up finding it through good old fashioned searching. The description and clue on geocaching.com gave me enough info I needed to find it. I hope get a new GPS for my birthday or at least enough cash towards one that I can purchase one. Looking at the Garmin eTrex Vista or Legend HCx, would love to hear from those of you who use either of these and how well they work.

Be smart in where and what you hide caches in...

2009-03-25T01:11:00.004-04:00

These are reasons why you must be smart about what type of cache container you use, depending upon where you are going to hide it:

A bomb in Allouez? Nope, just a geocache stash

ALLOUEZ, Wis. - Deputies in east-central Wisconsin say a suspicious device that looked like a bomb turned out to be part of a high-tech scavenger hunt.

Members of the Brown/Outagamie County Bomb Squad investigated the object Sunday at an Allouez (AL’-uh-way) park.

Deputies say the object was a PVC tube wrapped in camouflaged tape. The bomb squad determined it was harmless.

Authorities say it was apparently part of a geocaching hunt. Geocaching is a hobby where people hide containers for others to find using GPS devices.

Brown County sheriff’s Lt. Keith Deneys says geocaching is a legitimate activity. But he says this particular cache looked like an improvised explosive device, and in this climate authorities had to treat it as such.

——
Information from: Green Bay Press-Gazette, http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com

Geocaching shuts down City Hall

JOURNAL STAFF AND WIRE REPORT

Published: March 19, 2009

A geocaching game gone awry shut down City Hall and Main Street for a while yesterday.

Shortly after 3 p.m., someone reported seeing a suspicious-looking package on the sidewalk at the southwest corner of First and Main streets and called Winston-Salem police.

Police evacuated City Hall, and a one-block area around the building was closed to traffic for about an hour while the bomb squad investigated the box and used a water cannon to destroy it.

Police eventually identified it as a geocache, City Manager Lee Garrity said. He said that the box contained a watch, some wires and other objects.

Geocaching is a high-tech version of a treasure-hunt game, using handheld GPS units. Geocachers post the GPS coordinates on a Web site and offer clues about where the parcels can be found. Caches are usually well hidden.

"It was a good training exercise," Garrity said.

Information from: http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/mar/19/firepolice-briefs-geocaching-shuts-down-city-hall/news-regional/

I see these bits of news just as Trei and I are getting ready to hide our first cache on Thursday of this week. We hope to get out and find a few caches and hide our first here in the Blue Ash area. Excited to see who will be the first to find and if it is a local or not.