An Animated Event

Yesterday my sister hosted An Animated Event for letterboxers. (Don't know what letterboxing is? Check out http://www.atlasquest.com/ for more information.)

Here are a few pictures we snapped during the day!

Thursday Thirteen - 13 things I plan to do this weekend

1. Tomorrow I'm getting my tattoo!!!! Finally!!! I've been wanting one for about three years and about a year and a half ago I was able to have a friend design it for me. We just got a nice bonus at work so 5 of us (yes, 5) are going together tomorrow to get inked. Pictures to follow SOON after!

2. Clean up my apartment. Last weekend was a letterboxing retreat (pictures from that coming as well, as soon as I get them from my mom!) and I've had something or another going on every night this week. It's getting a bit ridiculous around here.

3. Cook some food! I had to buy lunch today because I ran out of leftovers and haven't been home or had the energy to cook this week.

4. Organize my new filing cabinet. I've always been really good about keeping my papers and documents organized but they've always been in one of those plastic, "portable" filing boxes. I filled two (because I don't throw stuff out) and a couple of weeks ago got a free filing cabinet! Then bought the wrong size hanging file folders and had to exchange them... But they were having a sale on the size that I originally wanted so I got extra for the price I was originally planning to pay!

5. Go to Madre's party!!! I'm super excited about this. I get to see people I love, play poker and generally just have a great time!

6. Wash my car! It's disgusting. Including the trunk where a can of Pringles popped open and then got crunched.

7. See Steve and Jordan. Jordan's all excited for me to help me with his homework. I tell ya, that kid has made huge progress just in the three weeks since school started.

8. Send in my next request to the book club I joined.

9. Put in a request for the repairs on my apartment. I've barely even had time to THINK about it this week!

10. Un-clog my shower drain. Lovely, I know.

11. Try to post lots and lots of pictures on this here blog.

12. Go to Michael's with Stephanie and see if we can buy a carving tool and some rubber because I got her into letterboxing!

13. Plan out a couple of rubberstamps and maybe start a carving. And also get a CD together of pictures I want to print so I can update my letterboxing journal. Fun stuff!

Friday!

A quick blurb on my morning break:

I am still going to try to post a couple of recipes tonight. I really want to get them up.

My parents and sister leave today for a Letterboxing camp for the weekend and I'm driving up in the morning to join them for the day. I'll try to take lots of pictures and post a little bit about it. (I also still need to post pictures from my trip to Idaho a MONTH ago!)

Tonight's agenda: Laundry, packing, blogging recipes and going to bed early!

I'm hoping to leave the house by 7 tomorrow (like a normal work day) but we'll see!

Down the trail...

Last weekend Jordan and I went on our first letterboxing trip together. He was all gung ho to go find boxes, so the first one we looked for was a pirate box, hidden in the same park where we had his pirate-themed birthday party. The clues were all about climbing aboard the ship (playground equipment) and looking out over the sea (field) to a raft (picnic table), etc. He LOVED following the clues and got very into it.


He also loved stamping in my journal and was excited to go find the second and third boxes (both down the same trail at a different park). Unfortunately, we didn't find either box. We walked and walked to the place where the first box was supposed to be...


The clue was a riddle, and a hard one at that. We never fully solved the riddle, but we looked and looked for the box where we THOUGHT it should have been. Then we set off to look for the second box. We met a couple down the trail who said part of the trail was washed out, so we might not be able to get to the end. We walked and walked and looked for the tree that "looked like a civil war canon who got lost", but eventually (after over a mile) his little legs got tired and we decided to head back (with me carrying him over a mile back to the car).


I had wanted to do some more boxing in Corvallis today (there are WAY more boxes there than the measley 3 hidden in Albany, several hidden by my parents) but he started playing with his cousin and wasn't interested in going. Now that we have the stroller I think we'll do a lot more of it because I won't have to worry so much about hike length.

My parents signed up for a letterboxing retreat today and I decided to go for just a day (it's not until September, darn it). I'm looking foward to it! Kendra is getting really good at carving stamps so that's been fun to watch. We did a lot of letterboxing on our trip to the coast for Kendra's birthday so I'll have to post some of those pictures soon.

A little of this, a little of that...

Okay, Lani, here I am for real. =)

I didn't even realize how "behind" I was from not having internet! Everything needed updating. And hey, notice all of the songs on my music player actually work now!

This week has been NUTS at work! I've been fairly frustrated at times because they (being my supervisor and manager) took two employees who were really strong in what they did and switched their jobs, which has made them weak. In the long run it might be a good switch (at least one side of it) but it's taking some serious adjustment on everybody's part. Although, Monday I was having a REALLY bad day and one of my coworkers brought me back flowers on her lunch break! Totally made my week doable. =)

Yesterday this lady called about getting some records and her side of the conversation went like this (with a few words thrown in by me):

"Well, good MORNING to ya! (I can tell she's a black woman from the south.) Mikaila, wow, that's one of my favorite names, so pretty." (Thank you.) Shut up. Oh, not you! I was talking to my partner here who's drunk. Oh, excuse me, this is Oregon, not my partner, my FRIEND. Anyway, my FRIEND here decided to get in a horrible accident and we walked in there to get checked out, seeing as we were a bloody mess, and we were wondering how to go about getting medical records." Etc, etc.

Today I called Security to come and get a chart and take it to Mental Health and when the guy answered the phone I said, "Hi Roger, it's Mikaila in Mental Health... Medical Records... yeah, it's time to go home." He laughed at me.

I'm excited for tomorrow because Steve works all day and Jordan and I have big plans. First on our list is letterboxing (probably in our boots because I'm sure it will be raining!) and then we'll come home and get all toasty and put together his Valentine's for school and make Valentine cookies. I found one of those little icing bag things you use for decorating cakes/cookies for 4 bucks today so I bought that for him to have fun with. He is totally not into sweets so I love making cookies with him because I don't have to keep him from eating them all!

I suppose I should TRY to get to bed at a halfway decent hour tonight... especially if I'm going to try to make it to Stacy's last coffee morning tomorrow (sad day!). I'm hoping to post pictures soon because I'm WAY backed up and I have some really good ones.

Autumn days

I found my first letterbox on Saturday! Diana, Kendra, Onyx and I went for a long walk and this is the box I found. I felt really stupid when I got there because I've been keeping my stamp in my purse to show people and forgot to take it with me! I put my trail name and the date in the journal and will go back later and stamp it.

We went for a walk by the creek where I used to spend HOURS when I was younger. I've never been there with all the fall colors and it was gorgeous.

Onyx decided she didn't mind the cold water and spent a good amount of time splashing around (and then coming out and splashing us).

A dog and her bone

Kendra told me to climb up on this log and she'd take my picture. I stepped back, took a running leap, Diana tried to help me up, almost fell in the creek, and I ended up with this lovely bruise on my arm.

Today it's even more green and painful.

However, we did get some good pictures, once I climbed onto the log. (Why I thought I could jump up on a log that was as high as my chest, I have no idea.)

Not all who wander are lost...

... Some of us are letterboxing.

Letterboxing is a hobby that my family has taken up and recently I also took it up.

Here is the basic idea:

Someone hides a letterbox somewhere. A letterbox is usually some sort of waterproof container and it holds a hand carved stamp and a journal (sometimes an inkpad, etc). The hider of the box then writes directions for finding the box (called clues) and posts them (letterboxing.org, atlasquest.com). These clues can be straightforward and easy or confusing and hard. They can be riddles, poems, etc. Sometimes the clues involve map coordinates or compass bearings, but not always.

Once the clues are posted, finders can look them up online and set out to find the letterbox. A finder (letterboxer) has a "trail name", their own hand carved stamp (called a signature stamp) and a journal. Once the letterboxer finds the box, they stamp their signature stamp in the box's journal (to show they've been there) and they stamp the stamp from the box in their own journal (to show where they've been).

This is a hobby most people have not heard of and the letterboxing community can be very eccentric. My parents have started hiding their own boxes recently.

Since I only just started, I'm not completely familiar with every term or aspect of the hobby. I did carve myself a signature stamp and make myself a journal.

I have printed out some clues and am anxious to start finding boxes! They are hidden all over the place. I found out recently that there are three hidden at Enchanted Forest and we were there twice this summer! I'm anxious to tell Jordan about it because to him it will be like a treasure hunt (and it kind of is!). I'll try to post more pictures of actual letterboxing when I start finding boxes.