Too Long!! (A totally random post)

I am sorry that it has been too long since I last posted anything. I have been sick and really tired with my fibromyalgia and haven't felt like doing much of anything. and that includes posting...I'm sorry for that.

I'm back now and I hope to be back to posting regularly again.

I got a new job!!! I am a certification administrator (a mouthful I know!)  I haven't started yet...start on Monday so I will let you know what all that entails over the next few weeks.

Hmmm....today being the leap day and with that came a special badge you could get if you found a cache today. Since I was going to the monthly pizza and beer event I would get the badge but Geodreamcacher said that he would give me a ride home (thanks!!) and we stopped and his daughter and I grabbed a cache on the way home!

I was able to drop two of the coins in my possession at the event so now Geodreamcacher has one and Kinderken has the other. I grabbed a couple to move along and might take pictures when I move them. I haven't quite decided yet.

Super exhausted, off to watch Survivor (guilty pleasure) and then off to bed. I must fix the coordinates for my micro cache tomorrow and perhaps I will go find a couple of caches along my journey...I feel the need to cache again. I need to cache!!

I built my very own cache!!

 Last time Heather and I went geocaching I forgot my camera in her van. Needless to say I was quite upset with myself. She sent it back to me with a mutual friend of ours and I got it back the following Monday when we met downtown before work started. Inside the bag was a bunch of goodies to make caches, on the left is one of the containers that Heather nicely supplied. This lock 'n' lock container is perfect for a cache because as long as fellow cachers close it properly it will stay free of water.

I had bought some camouflage duct tape from Bass Pro that turned out to be completely useless (like the store)...I went to return it today because the layer of the camo was stuck on the tape and rendered it completely faulty.  Bass Pro is completely useless because when I asked if they had another brand of camo tape they looked at my like I was on glue. It will be a very bad day indeed if I have to shop there again! 

I went to another store (that is thankfully across the street from my house) and I found some new camo duct tape and it works a lot better as you can see from the picture on the left. It took me awhile to completely cover it but I think I should be able to hide it fairly well.

 Look at all the fun goodies I have placed inside the cache!! There is a logbook, pencils, pencil sharpener, batteries (for those who forget their batteries for their GPS), a FTF (first to find) prize - starbucks gift card, and other little trinkets.






I can't wait to place it tomorrow!! My First Cache ever!!!

Travel Bugs and Geocoins

Besides writing a lot about Lady Emily Ashton I seem to also be writing a lot of about Geocaching. I have to say that I can't believe that I had let this hobby of mine lapse for so long!! What on Earth was I thinking??

Today after stopping at the library I went to the Starbucks in the bookstore with one goal in mind. To get a $5 gift card from SB to put as a prize in my cache I am 'releasing into the wild' this weekend. I ran into a guiding friend of mine and when she asked me what I was doing there I said that I was on my way to find a cache. She got all excited and asked me to move a geocoin for her to which I readily agreed. Leanne had it in her possession for awhile and I was glad to take it off her hands. :)

 Are some of you still thinking "what the heck is a geocoin?" The image to the left is the one that I took off Leanne's hands today. It has a special tracking code on it and it is tracked and logged on www.geocaching.com

These are a couple of the geocoins I own. I am going to try and get another one like it so that I can keep one and send one out. I really like the gnome one!! (Hence, the reason why I want to keep one and then send one out). Travel bugs and geocoins also occasionally go missing so it would be nice to have an extra...especially for my own collection.

Now...onto travel bugs. My mission today was to release one of the travel bugs today. A travel bug is basically the same as a geocoin only it can be anything...from a small stuffy with the TB dog tag to a figurine with the dog tag with the special tracking number.

This is the "My Little Pony" travel bug that I have created. I bought the little figure at Toys 'r' us and attached the dog tag. I registered the dog tag and she was ready to go. I will have two other 'my little pony' travel bugs as soon as I can find my other dog tags lol!!

I started this one on Sunday when I went out to try and find a couple of caches but didn't place her anywhere. I think she will be happy in the cache I placed her in and I can't wait to see where she travels. Perhaps I will post how many KMs she travels once a month depending on how much and how far she travels.

Off to plan my next geocaching adventure. I think I am going to grab some caches after my interview and my dentist appointment tomorrow. Wish me luck!!

More Musings to follow!

~Manda

My Friend, Lady Ashton

I seem to be writing a lot about Lady Ashton lately but I can't seem to be able to put down Tasha Alexander's books. I finished "A Fatal Waltz" last night and I loved it. It was full of adventure and intrigue like the other books.

There was one critic that said something along the lines of  'if Jane Austen had written the Da Vinci Code, it would of been this." When they were asked what they thought of "Only to Deceive"...the first book. I tend to agree with that critic.

In "A Fatal Waltz" Emily has been asked by her best friend, Ivy, to join a party. Lord Fortescue and Countess Kristiana von Lange are making her life hell. Lord Fortescue is murdered and Ivy's husband is accused of the crime because of Lord Fortescue threatening to end Robert's (Ivy's husband) political career.

Emily is sent to clear Robert's name before he is hanged for a crime that he has not committed.

I thought I had the murder solved after I was about halfway through but there are twists and turns that I really didn't see coming to be honest...or I was so focused on Emily that I wasn't paying attention to the clues. I would make a poor detective!!

I just started reading "Dangerous to Know" and I have placed "A Poisoned Season" on hold at the library.  I'm kind of sad that there are only two other books after the one I have started reading of Lady Ashton. I will have to find another series or another author to read. It does seem a bit tedious though doesn't it?

Nano Caches *Spoilers*

The smallest of all geocaches are called 'Nano Caches'. They seem to be the bane of my existence! The hardest one that I found was in Airdrie in a metal picnic basket. Heather (my caching buddy) was looking everywhere and I was determined to discover it in the basket. I eventually found it after looking in the same dang spot numerous times!!

Over this past weekend Heather and I found two nano's. This one is our favourite one:

Here is Heather and Miss V (our geocacher in training) at our nano geocache site. Miss V likes the bigger caches that have little toys in them so she can trade something. Even in ones this small she asks if there is something that she can trade!
Very cute.

 There is a little magnet on the bottom of it and it was hidden where the chain would connect to the anchor to the ship.

This cache was no bigger than the top joint of my index finger. If I had dropped the bottom in the rocks I would of been in some serious trouble since the ground was covered by rocks. It is these kind of caches that make me wish I had magnetic hands lol!!...or at least my ring was magnetic!

Geocaching

After my car accident and after I found out that I couldn't do a lot of the things that I used to love to do I discovered geocaching. It is a high tech treasure hunt with a GPS. After you get your GPS (I recommend a Garmin Dakota 20...it is made for geocaching), visit www.geocaching.com to find a cache near you. Once you enter the coordinates into your GPS go out into the world to find the cache.

Now I am sure that you are asking me what the heck is a cache. A cache is a container that is hidden by fellow geocachers. Depending on the size of the container it will hold just a log book, or it will hold a log book and some tradeable items (pins, little toys, etc).

The whole world is our game board! It has been said that we (geocachers) are using million dollar satellites to find tubberware containers. LOL!! It is true though!

Over the weekend I went out with my bestie (Heather) and her daughter Miss V to go find some caches. It had been well over a year since I had done any geocaching whatsoever, and I was itching to get out and find some.

Yesterday we found eight caches!! It wasn't close to our record but finding caches on a gorgeous February day is still very awesome!!!

This is one of the micro caches we found. I stood in front of the tree (where the GPS had lead me) and looked at description of the cache on my GPS and it said green metal capsule. "WHAT?? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" I said looking at Heather. She pointed and said "It's right there." We both laughed.
 
Can you see how small the log is rolled up to fit inside the bison tube?



With a cache this small (and if Heather and I are together) one of us holds the pieces and the other one signs the log sheet.

I usually am the one that rolls up the sheet again and puts it back in the tube. Although with this one Heather did the rolling and putting it back together as I decided to take pictures for the blog.

As much as I tease Heather about always loading the micro caches into the GPS I still like finding them!

Lushies

About three years ago my best friend H. introduced me to LUSH. I didn't really get into it though until our trip to Banff two years ago during the start of the holiday season. I then was introduced to my favourite product of all time! Snow Fairy shower gel, which can also be used as a shampoo. I use it with my Veganese conditioner and my hair then smells like cherry cotton candy and lemonade.

I didn't buy any Snow Fairy these past Christmas season since I still had some from last year. I wanted to change things up a little bit too after using Snow Fairy all last year. This year though I am going to buy it!!

I do have the Snow Fairy Bubble Bar wand and the Godmother soap that smell exactly like the shower gel...so the rest of me will still of cherry cotton candy...just not my hair LOL!!

I think I am going to post some of my favourite items from LUSH (and occasionally my not so favourite) as a sort of review.

Happy Lush Times!!

Disappointment

 It came to an end for me on Sunday.

Brad, someone who I had considered a friend for a long time, and someone who had seen me through this past year had changed into someone that I no longer recognized. We used to talk every morning, him being 9 hours ahead of me, I would talk to him on BBM while I made my way to work. We used to write on RPGs together too and had a great time.

After my husband and I broke up he was still there for me listening...but when I said that I didn't want to be with him things slowly started to change. When I went to Quebec things really began to change.

I don't think he liked the fact that I was doing things for myself, I wasn't relying on my ex or on anyone else. I was doing things for ME, I was keeping myself busy, enjoying my five weeks in Quebec.

Suddenly I didn't have time for him and he took it very personally. He would make fun of my french background when I am proud of it. There was a rule between us, if there was a topic that we didn't want to talk about or that we weren't allowed to tease each other about it was off limits. I followed this rule but he didn't seem to understand it. He would continue to push my buttons.

He didn't like any of my other friends and would fight with them on my Facebook page, he would tell me that I needed better looking friends, that I needed skinnier friends.

Brad would tell me that he missed the old Manda. I replied with the meek, quiet one that never stood up for herself? He would tell me to be less dramatic but I knew that he wanted the meek and quiet Manda back. We would argue about this...I missed the nice Brad who didn't belittle me or made me cry on the bus.

Every time he would contact me over BBM I would tense, wondering what we would argue about this time.

He is nine hours ahead of me...so when he is ending his day I am beginning mine. When I was busy running errands, at work, doing chores, he took it as I was blowing him off. I tried explaining to him that that wasn't the case...he never believed me. 

Saturday this past week I was out on my own, eating lunch and reading my book while I was downtown. I was really into my book and when I said that I would talk to him later because I wanted to read he didn't listen. I said that I met up with a friend. I hadn't lied to him before.

Sunday morning he asked me if I had really met up a friend. I got defensive with him. I technically had met up with a friend...but it was earlier in the day. He said that he hadn't trusted me for a long time. I told him that I had to go finish cleaning the kitchen so I could go out. He didn't believe me, I didn't want to get into a fight with him. I sarcastically asked if he wanted a pic of me cleaning the kitchen to prove that I was doing the dishes. He said yes.

With that I decided that this was no longer worth my time and energy. I told my mom what had happened and showed her the texts. I told her that I had already gone through this with my ex and I didn't want to do it anymore. My friend Angel said "Finally!" He had been trying to tell me that Brad was treating me like my ex but I wouldn't listen.

Brad sent me a message today that read "You removed me on BBM and Facebook?? Just like that?? WOW. I guess I was right all along. One big Fuck you Brad. So thanks, whatever. So much for my friendship huh."

He doesn't get it at all!! He doesn't understand why I did it when I explained it to him almost every time we spoke.

There is part of me that feels bad, my friend Andy says it's because I have a big heart. Another part of me wants to scream and throw a fit but what would that solve but giving Brad more power?

Time for a cup of tea, some Lady Ashton and bed.  I feel better now that I have gotten this off my chest. It is still a sad post. :(