Soup Is Not A Finger Food

Hide and Seek

LAST WEEKEND, I dragged took my neighbor Stephanie up to my old stompin' grounds. My aunt and uncle built a sweet cabin on the ridge above what used to be my grandmother's (her mother's) farm, and they kindly allowed us to invade for a girls' weekend. Steph's sister Dory and Dory's friend Diane met us there. Our mission: A whole bunch of geocaching, a ride on the Millersburg Ferry and a visit to the Ned Smith Nature and Art festival.

I provided nonstop running commentary and shared interesting facts spouted minutiae about my hometown. I pointed out where my relatives live. (Which was, like, every third house.) I told stories from back in the day.  I wouldn't shut up was probably pretty unbearable, but I was their chauffer, so they were my captive audience.

For the uninitiated, geocaching is a worldwide game of hide and seek. You can find lists of "caches" on the website, enter the coordinates into your handheld GPS, then use that to guide you to the exact location of the cache. Along the way you can get sunburned hike, learn local history, and you get to see things that are miles from all civilization off the beaten path. My companions are all quite experienced geocachers, but they were patient and willing to train their chauffer.

But enough of my prattling on and on and on. I'll let the photos do (most of) the talking.

Dory fishes a microcache out of its hiding place while Steph logs our find.

One of the caches we found was hidden in state gamelands, high above the Susquehanna River... 

 
...and Routes 11/15. This was just north of Liverpool, PA. 
 
We found caches at two covered bridges - 
 
 
...the Aline Bridge, just up Route 104 on the way to Middleburg, and...

 
...Red Bridge, outside of Liverpool. Please don't tell anyone that I grew up maybe 4 miles from this bridge but never knew it was there.  Adjacent to this site were an old outhouse--

 
---and a long-abandoned house:

 

There were also cemeteries (which, I just learned, is from the Greek word that means "sleeping place"). There was the one out by Barners Church -

 
...where there are, in fact, many tombstones bearing the name "Barner."

 
(...even though this photo features a "Meiser" grave marker. You'll have to take my word for it.) 

Then there was the cemetery at the site of the former St. Michael's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Pfoutz Valley. It's an equally peaceful "sleeping place":

 

 This cemetery used to be adjacent to a church, which has long since been razed:

 
St. Michael's is next to the farm that was my aunt & uncle's, and the next farm after that one was was my grandmother's - where my dad grew up. So you see, I can't even count how many times I've driven by this place. And yet, I can remember only stopping and visiting it a few times. It's so peaceful and quiet there, and as I surveyed the plot's location amid corn and soybean fields, I got to thinking how this would be such a nice place to spend my eternal rest, because the chances are next to zero that they would pave over this particular slice of paradise... but then I remembered the other cemetery we visited earlier in the day -

 
The cache was nestled next to Sarah Catharine Shuman's grave. She died when she was only ten. And that was next to these --

 
--which were sequestered way up on top of a slab of earth that was flanked by a highway on-ramp and an off-ramp - the Millerstown exit of Routes 22/322. The highway was built in the '60s, and my cousin Julie tells me that her dad protested the original plan to relocate those graves. The highway was redesigned to leave this small family plot intact. And I am sure that when Catharine's grieving parents buried their precious daughter there, they couldn't have imagined that her resting place would end up overgrown and inaccessible to all but the hardiest, most adventurous hikers. I mean, you really have to wanna get up there.

Now, this cache -

 
...was called Nekoda. The cache was hidden in an overgrown area across the road from an old structure that once housed a general store and a post office. Until recently, it still showed up on maps of Pennsylvania, even though the post office has been defunct for decades. The building sat abandoned for many years. I could see it from my bedroom window. I spent 16 years looking across the corn fields at it, wondering if it really was haunted, as was the rumor.  A family has since bought it and fixed it up and I'd love to see what it looks like inside - I bet it's great fun to ramble around in there. We, however, were focused on navigating 'round needle-sharp bramble bushes to locate the cache that was tucked into the overgrowth near an old stone wall that may have once been the foundation for a barn or other outbuilding.

 
My fellow seekers - Steph, Dory and Diane. And yes, that's a Busch Pounder in Dory's hand. This was our 15th and final cache of the day, and we decided to linger 'neath the evergreens and enjoy a refreshing cold beverage to celebrate our finds. What a fun day - I enjoyed showing my friends around my hometown and surrounding area, and really liked learning some new things, too.

I have more to share, including the Millersburg Ferry photos - but those will have to wait for another day. Until next time -

It's Field Day Again!

PEEZER WORE HIS EXTRA-FAST SNEAKERS to school today, because it's Field Day. Well, actually, it's more like Field Two Hours, because it isn't a day, it's a couple of hours in the afternoon. But the kid is super-excited for a day of fun and frolic and feats of derring-do.

Back when I was a kid, Field Day was the WHOLE. ENTIRE. DAY. And I hated it. Haaaaaated. I was not athletically gifted. I found no joy in being outside in the searing June sun with a swarm of gnats methodically invading each of my facial orifices (orifi?).

 
That's not me; it came from Thisfails.com. But that's sure how it FELT.

Pay a visit to my older blog and read about my tragic run-in with some hurdles on one fateful field day. Suffice it to say, mortification ensued. But, as Soup Husband Curt always says, Comedy = Tragedy + Time, and now that we're three-plus decades removed from that scarring day, I can giggle about it. A little.

My search for the Holy Grail

WEDNESDAY, 11:58 a.m. Lunchtime. My client's office is within a short walk of the Washington Convention Center, the Metro Center station, and the Verizon Center, which tonight will be the site of the first round playoff series Game 7 between the Washington Capitals and the Montreal Canadiens. Which is a big deal, I think - and I would expect anyone within a reasonable proximity to the arena to be all caught up in a Rock the Red fervor as gametime draws near.
 
I mean, it is a big deal, right?

I don't have any Caps logo apparel and decided I wanted something to wear while we watch the game tonight. This being the heart DC during the height of tourist season, I figured there would be street vendors on every corner hawking knock-offs. I set out in search of some.

I figured wrong.

My first stop was a place called Souvenir City. Inside were rows and rows of 3 for $10 T-shirts, most of which simply said "Washington DC" or the I "heart" DC logo (remember I Love NY? Like that). There were string bags and fanny packs and keychains and magnets... but absolutely nothing bearing the logo of any of our home teams.

Across the street was a large hotel. I thought, gift shop! So in I went. I asked the lady at the register if she had a Washington Capitals T-shirt. She said, "Yes, but it's brown, is that OK?" The guy who had been chatting with her frowned and said, "I think she'd want it to be red..." She helpfully approached her shelves of T-shirts and pulled out a lovely brown T that said Washington DC and had a picture of the Capitol dome. "Oh, no," I said, "I mean the CAPITALS! The hockey team?" 

And crickets chirped in the background as she tried to understand exactly what I was looking for.

Closer to the Metro, I found two adjacent souvenir shops. People, if you are in the market for a DC snow globe, spoon rest, refrigerator magnet, bell, collectible spoon or miniature replica of the White House, I would recommend you go to one of these shops. If you're looking for logo apparel for any of DC's major league sports teams? Don't bother. I would simply caution you to watch out for the buses of tourists unloading to snatch up some of this fine merchandise, so they can take a piece of DC back to Japan. 

I tried one more hotel - a much larger one - the lady had one style of Washington Nationals (baseball!) shirt. I asked, "How about the Caps?" She gestured to the "Curly W" baseball caps sitting next to the Nats shirt. "No - the Washington Capitals? You know, the hockey team? They're in the playoffs? Game 7 is tonight in DC??" Again with the crickets chirping.

Street vendors seemed to be well-stocked with knock-off designer handbags, scarves, and still have some Obama memorabilia, but nothing sports-related.

As a last hope, I ventured into Macy's and went straight to the men's department. Way back in the far corner, in "active wear", was - Hallelujah! - a rack of Capitals shirts. As I was trying to decide, another woman, probably about my age, wandered over.

"Oh, do you have to buy a men's shirt, too?" she asked.

"Yeah, but it's for ME!" I said.

"Right, me too," she said. "I already checked in the women's department. They had NONE."

She asked if I was going to the game. "No," I said, "I just wanted something to wear while we watch it tonight at home." She said she was going out to watch it with friends.

Kindred spirits, resigned to buying the only Caps logowear they could find in the heart of Washington - in the men's section of Macy's, just a few blocks from the arena.

I made my purchase, stuffed it into my giant purse to avoid the $0.05 bag fee, and off I went.

I have two theories. One is that the Licensing Police (or whoever it is that monitors these things) has scared the, um, entrepreneurs with threats of large fines if they produce knock-off logowear. I was recalling the walk into Camden Yards to watch the Baltimore Orioles - you can buy all kinds of Orioles gear as you approach the ballpark.  I figured there'd be lots of that on the streets in DC.

My other theory is that as much as we wish it were so, Washington just isn't a hockey town. None of the shop owners had any idea that there was a Big Game in town tonight. They're missing a big opportunity to make a few bucks off of rabid fans, prone to impulse purchases.

I Heart NY DC!

Sickness sucks. Except when it doesn't.

Today was supposed to go like this:  I was up and getting ready to drive to my office an hour from here, where I was going to work today safely away from the distractions of first round NCAA men's tournament action.  While I was checking Facebook and Twitter my work email, The Boss shuffled into the office kitchen. "My stomach hurts," he said. "Wow, sorry to hear that," The Mother Of The Year replied.  "Now hurry up and get ready - you don't wanna miss the bus."

He hung his head and walked away. Two minutes later, he returned.

"I just threw up," he said.  "Sorry."

So, now he's laying in my bed, watching mindless cartoons, and I can't believe my good fortune am formulating Plan B. The thing is, I really wanted to watch NCAA hoops go to work today.  I spend most of my time at client sites, so every once in a while, I figure It's good to be seen in my office, by the people who keep sending me paychecks. 

But at home? I can easily turn on my large-screen HDTV to CBS get plenty of work done. There are conference calls I can join, and four brackets to monitor employee handbooks to write.  I am wired. Connected. I can do everything I need to do from the comfort of my living room sofa home office.  Yes, it's a lucky break an unfortunate turn of events that The Boss is sick, but I'll just have to figure out how the picture-in-picture works do what's best for my kid.  I'll have to pick up a six pack and some chicken wings for me some chicken noodle soup to make his tummy feel better.

Hey, by the way? Isn't the March Madness tournament starting soon? I thought I heard something about it...

Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta get back to work.

# # #

UPDATE, 11AM. My work server is down and is going to be for the next hour or so. Can't get email on my computer or Blackberry. Can't remote-in to the network drives to access the documents I need.  Gametime's in less than an hour, and shortly thereafter I have to leave to go to a work function. Wanna know what it is? We'll be at a sports bar, watching the games, and "networking" with invited clients and prospects. Oh happy day!

Make a kid smile.

My five year old nephew has entered a contest where you design your very own Toyota racecar. The car with the most votes will be turned into a real live car! Can you imagine how AWESOME that would be for a five year old kid who's a racecar NUT??

So, can you do me a quick favor? Take 45 seconds and GO HERE TO VOTE. You can vote once a day until April 1.

His mom's not holding out hope that he'll actually win - there are cars with over 60,000 votes already - BUT, if he can see that the vote number is increasing because people like his design, that will make him happy. Very, very happy.

Thanks!