Thanksgiving weekend

Well, I'm back from the weekend. I had internet access sometimes but I was very low energy and writing a journal seemed too much trouble. Now I will try to remember what I actually did.

Thursday morning I got up and did a couple of caches. Then I went to see Rent and Russell went to see Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic. Going to a tear jerker like Rent is a trial for someone with a stuffed head! I went through my entire pocketful of tissues. Then I took a nap before going with Russell off to Thanksgiving dinner at TC & Denise's house. Denise is a marvelous cook and she proved it again this year. Our friend Tina who joined us make an amazing blueberry pie. Or so I'm told. I actually couldn't taste anything except the cranberry sauce. *sigh* I want to be well!

Friday Russell and I went by Brigid & Fiona's on our way to the City. Russell helped them with various computer problems and we all took a walk and found the two closest geocaches to their home. There doesn't seem to be one inside Mitchell Park... I may just have to rememdy that!

Russell and I stayed at the Vintage Court Hotel again this year. We had a very nice room and I like that one can take an elevator in the Sutter-Stockton garage to get up to Bush St. instead of having to walk up the hill. *grin* We checked in, had a glass of wine in the lobby (well, I took a few sips but couldn't taste it *pout*). We went down to see the Union Square holiday tree get lit. They were about half an hour late in the lighting. We hung out around 6pm and then wandered over to Neiman Marcus to look at their tree and decided to have a bite to eat in their restaurant. I had lobster bisque which was warm and had a cream mouth feel. I am getting into textures since tastes aren't available. When we came out the Union Square tree was all lit up and we walked around looking at the holiday windows of the department stores. Russell proposed going out for a drink at one of the rooftop bars, but I pled exhaustion and we went back to the hotel and went to sleep.

Saturday we wandered down to Union Square again and tried to find the cache there. No luck, I think it has been muggled. Bah. After a bit of shopping, we went back and had a lie down before going to get the cache at Poet's Peak. This is a really cool cache, the view is amazing and I learned about the first Poet Poet Laureate of California, Ina Donna Coolbrith (1841-1928). She was a poet and a librarian and a friend to many authors like Mark Twain and a mentor to others like Jack London. How cool is that!?

Then we went on to Dicken's Fair where we wandered and shopped and ate lunch. I had a "turkey dinner" with turkey, dressing and yams. It was a pleasing combination of textures and I could almost taste the yams. We had decided not to try to go out to a fancy dinner this trip because it seems silly to pay a lot of money for food one can't taste. I can't imagine losing my sense of smell/taste for the long term. Eating is so much less interesting!

Saturday night we went to Beach Blanket Babylon, a San Francisco Landmark that neither of us had seen. The performers were very good. The material never really grabbed me though. Partly I am just not up with pop culture and partly I am not particularly into celebrity parody. The big hair and big hats were an interesting conceit and I am certainly not sorry that we went. Judging by the laughter and other reactions in the theatre, my experience is a minority report. It may also be that being sick, I am feeling at a certain remove from what is going on around me.

Sunday we went to breakfast at Mel's Diner and then over to the Metreon where I got Kurt to photograph me on the webcam there for a webcam cache. New icon in my profile. :-) Then Russell went to SF Center for more shopping. I sat in the car and napped. I was just wiped out. We got home and had a quiet evening watching the movie reviews and doing laundry and such.

It wasn't exactly the fabulous weekend in the City that we might have wished for, but I did enjoy spending time with Russsell and just doing what we felt like doing. It would have been nicer if I'd had a lot more energy and the ability to breathe. But it was what it was... and that was fun too.

She is out of her mind

Okay. I am officially out of my mind. I thought I had mentioned the Coin Quest going on at the moment amongst some cachers. I am playing. One of the hardest requirements is being First to Find at a new cache. There are people around here whose main goal is to be FTF at and least one of them is retired and can take off at whatever hour a new cache is published. So I know this will probably be my last Coin Quest requirement met, if I manage it at all. So what in the world possessed me to look just before lunch today to see if there were any new caches in the area? And there was one up in the hills to the west of me. So instead of going for the "cache near a statue" I had intended for my CQ caching at lunch (headed for the big Junipero Serra statue on 280), I found myself getting lost in the hills looking for a cache in an open space park. Wearing sandals and a blazer since, after all, I was at work. After being lost for some time (my car GPS was sure a road went through which, in fact, did not), I arrived at the parking area about 40 minutes into my lunch hour. At that point if I had headed right back down the hill I'd've had an hour lunch.

But I had come too far (and was too carsick) to contemplate that option. Despite the icy wind, the bright sunlight beckoned me up the hill trail. So I stuffed my pockets with GPSr, camera and tissues and headed off. I noticed another cache on the way and stopped to grab it. When I got to the hoped-for FTF, there was already another cacher there. And she was second-to-find. So I was third. We chatted a moment and then I headed back across the hill to my car. It started to sprinkle just as I reached it. And then back down the carsick-making road to work. Altogether a 2-1/2 hour lunch. Not exactly what I had planned! Luckily I have a Solo Librarians meeting tomorrow and can stay late and make up some time before heading off to that. I still can't believe I took this cold and went tramping over hillsides. I rest my case... I'm crazy!

( edited to add images )