Geocaching & A Geo-Event
We attended a "Birthday Bash Geo-Event" and had a blast!
Since this is a Birthday Bash, of course there had to be a cake.
But, on our way to the geo-event, there was this head-on collision between a Monte Carlo and a pickup truck. Unfortunately, neither one came out very well in this 'chance meeting'.
When we arrived at the event, it was in full swing.
As this was an outdoor venue, Mother Nature stopped by in the form of a honey bee. Apparently, this bottle of barbeque sauce had something on it that was ver-ry interesting to bees...
Shortly after arriving, we met up with WW.Wilma and presented her with her personalized, embroidered hat and a geocoin award. This was for competing in our Zodiac Geocoin Contest that recently ended.
One of the contests that were going on at the geo-event was a version of pin the tail on the donkey, by sticking a GPS marker on a plastic plate with an ammo box painted on it. Whoever placed their little GPS marker in the center of it, where a little yellow box was painted is the winner. Luann was the second-to-last contestant and she was off to the left by a bit.
The last contestant was Parris, who came to the event with Karen. He put on the blind fold... Wow, look at that smile!
Then he proceeded to put his GPS marker smack-dab in the middle of the tiny, yellow square. Hey, we have a winner!
Here is Parris, lined up with the winners from the other other event contests, waiting for their prizes.
And he got a beginner's geocaching training book and a trackable name tag.
Cusmith got an ammo box, fully loaded and set to be placed in the field as a geocache.
It looks like Swamp Muck got a glow-in-the-dark, trackable geocoin.
After that was done, I noticed that Trader Rick & Rosie were out front, and I wanted to talk to them about their upcoming geo-event next weekend, and how it is located near one of our geocaches. They didn't even realize it.
Here is a group photo of all of the attendees. We had quite a few geocachers show up at Fitzgerald's. Well, now that the meet-n-greet is over, it's time to look for geocaches in the area.
We started off at this park ans were greeted by these ibis. Apparently, they are very accustomed to being fed by visitors to the area.
When we got to the spot where the geocache is hidden, it quickly turned into a geocacher's haven, because we were joined by other geocachers as we hunted for the hidden container. Karen and Parris are down by the trees.
Next, was this geocache-spot. It turns out we were glad to have Parris with us because he wasn't as 'vertically-challenged' as the rest of us are. We couldn't resist having Parris & Karen pose for this photo.
After we were done with geocaching, Luann remembered that we had seen an abandoned church nearbyand she wanted to photograph it. Th esun was setting, so we were about to get a couple of interesting images.
All of the windows in the church were of stained glass like this one, but as you can see, they are not in any pattern. I like this innovative way of getting the job done.
We said our goodbyes to Karen & Parris after the photo shoot, and then we made one more stop on the way home to get this image. Well, I guess you can say we had a full day...
Hamburger Mary's
For GNO (Girl's Night Out) this weekend, Luann and her friends decided to celebrate Karen's upcoming birthday by visiting Hamburger Mary's which features a female impersonator review. To say the girls had a great time would be an understatement. I think the pictures need to do the talking on this one... Shall we?
This is Joey, "The First Lady Of Ybor City" with Lyn and Karen. As you can see, the stage crew is quite willing to pose for a picture or two. Remember, 'Click-On-A-Pic' to see a larger version of it.
Meanwhile, Luann and Conni are just giggling like school-girls...
Ah, a product of the facility's namesake. This burger is called the Mac-Daddy (with bacon) and for an obvious reason. The burger was so big, Luann couldn't finish it.
Their table was right by the stage, so they could see everything and upon occasion, join in the activities.
Like this one. They called all of the birthday boys and girls up to the stage and got each and every one to 'shake their booty'. As a reward, they were given a shot for their efforts.
It looks like Karen 'done good!'
Happy birthday!
You never know what you will see next at a drag-queen show... I mean, geez, if you're going out for a night on the town, an effort to shave first might have been in the plan...
More going's-on from the stage crew.
They went through several costume changes and strutted their stuff...
Ah, dessert has been served...
Next was this Michael Jackson impersonator and according to Luann, he really had the look and the dance moves down.
Apparently, you can reward their efforts with a couple of bills if you wish...
It's amazing the lengths the stage crew went to to put on the show and the costumes were something to behold.
The girls said that this was some of the most fun they have had in a while.
Ah, time for the wrap-up.
And a quick pose with the stage crew. Nice job everybody!
Luann told me that we're going to have to go out on a double-date with Lyn & Pat sometime so I could get the full experience. I'll keep you posted...
Hydroponic Farm
We discovered an all-organic, hydroponic farm near our house so we stopped by to see what it was about.
Here is a picture of our 'first harvest'. I couldn't wait to start cooking up a batch of tamarind soup and stewed greens. We used the turnips, parsley, tatsoi, part of the bokchoy, scallions and turkey sausage to make the soup, then the collards and turnip greens were stewed with scallions and some fine-chopped ham for a couple of hours. The cabbage is destined to go into a 'heated bath' with a nice corned beef, then the 2 bags of assorted lettuce leaves and broccoli have been commandeered as salad-greens. The rest of what's left will be taken care of pretty quickly.
Here are a couple of pictures Luann took while we visited the Urban Oasis Hydroponic Farm.
Dave & Cathy Hume take quite a bit of pride in the fact that they don't use pesticides or manure fetilizers that might carry harmful bacteria as have been found in the commercial produce food supply not too long ago.
Everything is carefully laid out so that the growing conditions are maximized for the produce that is grown.
The growing systems they use are available for purchase so you can do this at home, and they have training sessions to help homeowners decide if this is for them. They even take school field trips and such to show the kids what hydroponics growing is all about.
We were so impressed with how their farm is put together, that we bought a 'Farm Share' to see how this works out. As you can see from our first picture above, we got quite a bit that we will need to take care of before next weekend. It looks like I'm gonna have to start searching for recipes to accomodate our healthier eating... We'll keep you posted.
Family Day At The Dade City Range
We spent the day at the Dade City Range with the Nemeths, Mark & Brenda and Willis.
As you can see, Katrina is very happy to finally shoot her Marlin Model 21DL rifle that I had rebuilt and we had given to her for Christmas last year (2009). It turned out to be a little tack-driver at 50 yards.
Here I am, finishing up with sighting in the new scope on the Marlin. Time to hand it over to the girls for some fun.
As I mentioned, our great friend Mark (and Katrina's godfather) also met us at the range with Brenda. They make for a great shooting team.
Brenda preferred to shoot with 'iron sights' instead of the scope and after seeing her handiwork, we could tell why. At 50 yards, she was doing as well as we were (and often, better) and we had scopes on our guns.
The main reason this day at the range came to be is that 'Papi' Nemeth got a Henry .22 rifle for Christmas and he wanted to try it out. Katrina asked us if we wanted to go, and it was a good thing we did, because this was so much fun!
'Papi' as he works out at 100 yards.
Next was Mrs. Nemeth as she put the Henry through its paces.
Last but not least, Bradley took a turn with the Henry rifle and did pretty well.
Yep, 'Papi' has been helping him out with his positioning and he 'stayed on black' for this cycle of shooting.
As the rest of the group was working with the long-guns, I set up our handguns and worked on my proficiency.
Willis showed some talent with the single-action revolvers.
Then I helped Bradley to understand the kinetics of hand placement and targeting with the sights on my 9mm.
Even Mrs. Nemeth came by and worked out with Luann's collection. She tried out the revolver...
But found she liked the High Standard with the custom grips I made for Luann. She said it felt more natural to shoot this one, compared to the grips on the western-style revolver.
Luann, getting serious with Katrina's Marlin. 50 yards isn't all that close when you're trying to put a .22 caliber hole in a 1-inch circle.
Katrina was watching the high-power rifles going through their paces and she picked up a .223 shell casing and .308. She is showing Luann the difference in the sizes of the brass...
Well, it's time to pack things up and head out. It really is neat to see Mark and Brenda having fun together. She told Katrina that she can call her Aunt 'B'. Too cool...
Well, that was fun as usual, but we need to do this more often than every couple of years.
Since this is a Birthday Bash, of course there had to be a cake.
But, on our way to the geo-event, there was this head-on collision between a Monte Carlo and a pickup truck. Unfortunately, neither one came out very well in this 'chance meeting'.
When we arrived at the event, it was in full swing.
As this was an outdoor venue, Mother Nature stopped by in the form of a honey bee. Apparently, this bottle of barbeque sauce had something on it that was ver-ry interesting to bees...
Shortly after arriving, we met up with WW.Wilma and presented her with her personalized, embroidered hat and a geocoin award. This was for competing in our Zodiac Geocoin Contest that recently ended.
One of the contests that were going on at the geo-event was a version of pin the tail on the donkey, by sticking a GPS marker on a plastic plate with an ammo box painted on it. Whoever placed their little GPS marker in the center of it, where a little yellow box was painted is the winner. Luann was the second-to-last contestant and she was off to the left by a bit.
The last contestant was Parris, who came to the event with Karen. He put on the blind fold... Wow, look at that smile!
Then he proceeded to put his GPS marker smack-dab in the middle of the tiny, yellow square. Hey, we have a winner!
Here is Parris, lined up with the winners from the other other event contests, waiting for their prizes.
And he got a beginner's geocaching training book and a trackable name tag.
Cusmith got an ammo box, fully loaded and set to be placed in the field as a geocache.
It looks like Swamp Muck got a glow-in-the-dark, trackable geocoin.
After that was done, I noticed that Trader Rick & Rosie were out front, and I wanted to talk to them about their upcoming geo-event next weekend, and how it is located near one of our geocaches. They didn't even realize it.
Here is a group photo of all of the attendees. We had quite a few geocachers show up at Fitzgerald's. Well, now that the meet-n-greet is over, it's time to look for geocaches in the area.
We started off at this park ans were greeted by these ibis. Apparently, they are very accustomed to being fed by visitors to the area.
When we got to the spot where the geocache is hidden, it quickly turned into a geocacher's haven, because we were joined by other geocachers as we hunted for the hidden container. Karen and Parris are down by the trees.
Next, was this geocache-spot. It turns out we were glad to have Parris with us because he wasn't as 'vertically-challenged' as the rest of us are. We couldn't resist having Parris & Karen pose for this photo.
After we were done with geocaching, Luann remembered that we had seen an abandoned church nearbyand she wanted to photograph it. Th esun was setting, so we were about to get a couple of interesting images.
All of the windows in the church were of stained glass like this one, but as you can see, they are not in any pattern. I like this innovative way of getting the job done.
We said our goodbyes to Karen & Parris after the photo shoot, and then we made one more stop on the way home to get this image. Well, I guess you can say we had a full day...
