Well, today was 'pack the truck' day. Crazy stuff - lots of sweat. We had a few extra people that showed up to help us pack, so it wasn't so bad at all. We grabbed a Budget moving truck today at 11:00 a.m. and then went over to Gene and Ronda's to snag a large whiteboard, then returned home and started packing. Kinda fun, actually, to see everything you own crammed into the back of a truck. And wow, look how clean the apartment is! Nice.

Last night we visited Dick Ham at a convalescent center. He seems to be in good spirits, and he really seems to love Xango juice. Yesterday we went over to my folks' for some BBQ dogs and burgers and a fun round of Mad Gab. We got to see Heather before we moved, which was good. They brought us back some tee-shirts from their recent trip to Maui. Very cool.   =)

Not much else to report today, I'm afraid. Brandy Demara, I know you're reading this, so leave me a shout! (Plus, I know you're dying to see your name on the web.)   =)

Well, yesterday was my last day of work at CSA. I'll sure miss a lot of people there. This past week has unintentionally, yet wonderfully, been a great week for food. With yesterday's scrumptious staff potluck lunch, some NCAA conference leftovers and Olive Garden earlier in the week, Betty's wonderful homemade blackberry pie, Laurryn's popcorn, and various candy jars and bowls as well as the freezer being filled with tasty morsels, I truly pigged out.   =)

Last night, we joined Brad, Emilie, and Mike for some pizza and cake & ice cream and for some hilarious rounds of "Apples to Apples" and "Mad Gab". I don't think I've ever seen Brad laugh that hard - ever. His face was completely red and I do believe he was actually crying. Real tears of hilarity. Oh, and I fought with their toilet for awhile, plunging and plunging, but sadly the toilet won the first round by impeding a satisfying flush. After a brief rest, however, I finally emerged victorious after several gallons of water successfully flowed through the septic system unencumbered.   =)

Brad also introduced us to a book entitled, "Good Families Don't" by Robert Munsch. It's the Canadian story of a large green fart that attacks people. Truly bizarre, yet oddly deserving of a smirk. A couple of nights ago, we visited Alice and Maite over at the Nord's place. It was great to see them again. We've also recently revisited the film "City Slickers" (1991; Billy Crystal, Jack Palance, Daniel Stern, Bruno Kirby, Helen Slater, Patricia Wettig) on VHS. Since I don't believe I've ever mentioned it here before, I thought it deserved at least a cursory mention. Good flick.

Our 'podcast' from a couple of night's ago is a rambling of several unrelated topics, in the car, on the way to the store (as usual). Listen here:

Show #: 18  
Length: 12 minutes, 23 seconds
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Size: 5.66 MB

Today we're packing up the apartment (well, actually Misti has mostly every already packed...), and thus fine-tuning our ceiling-high large box collection.   =)

Brad and Emilie came over to my folks' place for dinner and games on Sunday night. Brad indicated that he liked the BBQ ribs, so we're counting dinner as a success. As far as the games, though, I feel that Brad was letting us win at "Pit". Round after round, he kept letting someone else win. A true sportsman.   =)

In a further gesture of self-less generosity, Brad also provided Becky with a bag of unique bottlecaps procured from Ebay. Most of these were never used, with cork linings. Very cool.   =)

I tried a Dole Light Light Cranberry flavored juice beverage today. Not too bad for a "50% less sugar" juice product.

Well, we visited the Hidden Valley annual community garage sale today, and somehow only spent $9.70. We ended up with a trunk overflowing with stuff, including a bed for Becky. Crazy.

Becky finished the Washoe County Library System's Summer Reading Club 2005, (entitled "Dragons, Dreams and Daring Deeds") today. She read and/or was read to for a total of 12.5 hours over the summer. She crossed off a sword for every 15 minute segment, and after each 10 swords, she got to slay a dragon and collect a small prize from the library. After 4 dragons and another 10 swords, she got to storm the castle and collect the grand prize (a free book)! She selected "The Berenstain Bears: Big Bear, Small Bear", and read it all by herself in the car on the way back from the library.

We found three caches today:

Rowley Grove Micro
Virginia Pine
Beware of Snipers! (since renamed to "Snipe Hunt" after we found it)

I recently tried Crest's Cinnamon Rush Whitening Expressions toothpaste. Luckily, it was a nice mild cinnamon, not a burning hot cinnamon. I also recently tried the new Diet Rite Pure Zero cola. It's their same great cola as before, simply repackaged. I saw a million people we knew tonight at Walmart. Very odd.

Well, it actually appears that Mac OS X has 40 new security holes that were just patched. I'm sure Mac users are now scrambling to patch their vulnerable systems. Actually, this has been a horrible week for Apple, as they had to patch a patch for Mac OS X. Embarrassing. Speaking of security problems, Adobe Reader 7.0.3 is now out. It fixes a buffer overflow problem found in earlier versions of Reader.

We recently viewed "Ghostbusters" (1984; Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, Annie Potts) on VHS, "Without a Paddle" (2004; Seth Green) on fullscreen DVD, and "Multiplicity" (1996; Michael Keaton, Andie MacDowell), also on fullscreen DVD. Multiplicity was frustratingly silly, Paddle was just dumb, and Ghostbusters was too scary for the kids. The hunt for better family movies continues.

I finally finished listening to "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by Joanne Rowling on unabridged audiobook two days ago. Very cool - best one of the series yet! I don't think Harry should quit school early, though - just my opinion. Senator Harry Reid, D-Nev., suffered a minor stroke a few days ago.

I've recently tried some Mott's Healthy Harvest country berry flavored applesauce. Too bland (it's sugar-free). A couple of nights ago we went over to Gene and Ronda's for game night. Ben and Deanne were also in attendance, and we played many a riotous round of Deluxe Pit (with bell) and Mad Gab, both of which Misti received for her birthday. Ask Misti about the flayling arms sometime. Fun times.   =)

Recent caches we've found:

LOOKING FOR PROPERTY
PAW PAW Pah Rah
SHM# 218 Geiger
and half of "M Cache".

We went to Sizzler to celebrate Misti' birthday, and they brought out the largest strawberry ice cream sundae float thingy we've ever seen. Coupled with the all-you-can-eat salad bar, it was a very tasty meal.

Marshmallow Mania Pebbles cereal - not as good as I thought it was going to be. Becky's bottle cap collection now has 90 unique caps. Notable recent additions include:

Carta Blanca
Abita!
Bacardi Silver RAZ
Jarritos
Coca-Cola Refresco (in Spanish)
Sangria Senorial
Festeja Con Conjunto Primavera
Jack Daniels Old No 7

Looks like the armpit festival is losing it's luster. A true shame. I purchased some Smart Dogs soy hotdogs and tried them. They're edible, but not quite as enjoyable as a regular dog. Apple Macintosh multiple security holes have appeared (yet again).

I think it's funny that eBay has a special 'consumer education' section on how to spot a fake eBay email message (spoof/phishing scam).

We watched "The Cutting Edge" (1992; D. B. Sweeney, Moira Kelly) over the past few nights on VHS - seen it before, but still good. Toe pick! We also watched "The Muse" (1999; Sharon Stone, Albert Brooks, Andie MacDowell, Jeff Bridges) last night on VHS. Amusing. (Pun intended.) You know, I honestly think David Schwimmer and Albert Brooks are the same person (just a few years apart, of course). Hmmmm.

DNS SPF (Sender Policy Framework) records are intriguing. R. Scott Perry has setup an online SPF tester, and there is also an SPF setup wizard, too. Furthermore, there is a list of hosts that support DNS TXT records.

The following are Susanville caches we did on Saturday while we were there visiting Grandma Faye:

Susanville Welcomes the N.U.T.S.
Have a Coke and a Smile
Do the Crime, Do the Time
Light My Way

We watched "Allosaurus: A Walking with Dinosaurs Special" (2000) on DVD a few days ago. Very cool. We also viewed "Shall We Dance?" (2004; Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Lisa Ann Walter) on fullscreen DVD. Comical.

Our 'podcast' from Sunday night is a detailed account of Heather's recent high-altitude 'Plein Air' wilderness high adventure trek. Tune in here:

Show #: 17  
Length: 45 minutes, 22 seconds
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Size: 20.70 MB

On Saturday, we watched a documentary about the discovery of the real Mt. Sinai (the one in Saudi Arabia [Jabal al Lawz], not the fake one in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt [Jebel Musa]) and the likely location of Moses' Red Sea crossing. They also found the split rock of Horeb, the 70 palms and 12 wells of Elim, the bitter waters of Marah, Mt. Sinai warning markers, remnants of marble pillars, burnt offering pits, petroglyphs of cows, scorched mountain-top rocks, a grove of acacia wood trees, and caves of Moses and the cave of Elijah - some of which fit with local Saudi Bedouin legend of Moses' nation of Israelites passing through the area. Awesome!

SharpReader 0.9.6.0 now supports Atom 1.0 feeds, yeah! Last night we found the "DOT, DOT, DARK" multi-cache at Thomas Creek Park up Mt. Rose Highway. Very cool. We also recently enjoyed some Blue Bunny HealthSmart fat-free ice cream bars. Mmmm. I also tried some Black Raspberry flavor Sparkling Ice beverage. Weird at first, but it grows on ya.

Well, we did the Hot August Nights thing again this year, but I'm honestly not sure why. It wasn't as good as last year's HAN, plain and simple. We went to the Hilton's "show and shine" on Wednesday night, and there were way too many cars gone (empty parking spaces). (It wasn't like that in previous years.) Plus, the band(s) were lame (at least while we were there). Last night, we gave it a second try, this time visiting the Atlantis's parking lot, and it was a little better, but overall not too impressive. The dazzling cars of recent years past just weren't here this year. Bonny and Becky at least enjoyed the music, dancing and hula-hooping near the porta-potties. Here's a photo that Becky took, which is cute to see how the event looks from her perspective:



You know, I sure see a lot of attempted spam from "msa.hinet.net" (it never reaches me though because the spam filters always catch it). It's Chinese spam, which is hilarious because how effective can it be when no one can read it anyway? Stupid.

1,008 more Linux flaws have been found in the latest version of the Linux kernel (2.6.12). Hmmm. I tried some Spitz dill pickle flavor and salted sunflower seeds (both), but was definitely not impressed. Yucka.

Well, I had great hopes of producing an on-location Hot August Nights podcast with actually interesting information about the cars we were seeing, etc., but since I don't know anything about cars, that obviously didn't happen. I thought I might be able to pull it off, however, when we met up with my dad, but it turns out he didn't know that much about the cars we were seeing either, so... our 'podcast' last night is very uninformative, and only half of a podcast, at that. The unfinished podcast, as it were. Listen only if you're extremely bored:

Show #: 16  
Length: 7 minutes, 25 seconds
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Size: 3.40 MB

We watched "Days of Thunder" (1990; Tom Cruise, Robert Duvall, Nicole Kidman, Carey Elwes, Randy Quaid) last night on VHS. Very cool. Three new security flaws were found in Opera. Ho hum. I'm currently listening to "Border Girl" by Paulina Rubio on CD. Not bad.

I watched "My Life" (1993; Michael Keaton, Nicole Kidman) on VHS a couple of nights ago. Very sad. The three caches that we did recently (that Misti mentioned) were:

SHM #128 Train Robbery
SHM #191 Verdi
A No Stroke Motor

Today I tried the new peach and strawberry flavors of Stonyfield Farm O'Soy soy yogurt - not bad. We've also been enjoying the new Litehouse Vanilla Creme Dipping Sauce - very tasty with fruit! Mmmmm.

CD's I'm listening to this week:

"International Superhits!" by Green Day
"Push The Button" by The Chemical Brothers
RCA Victor's "Mozart Greatest Hits"
"How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" by U2
"Feels Like Home" by Norah Jones