Bembe, Geocacher's Memorial, caching and cooking

[rowanf]

The Bembe Saturday was really good for me. I timed it to get there just as things were getting ready to start so there wasn't a lot of waiting around feeling useless. A lot of Orixa wanted me to go out for them and I spent about half the time horsing and half the time singing with Ember and the other "choir" members. I think having a dedicated group of singers and drummers will be really good. I can't remember the Xere order but I went out for Ogun, Oxossi, Pomba, Oxumare (who came through with Nana), Tyr (who came through with the Norse powers) and Oxun. Oya shadowed me a bit but I didn't go. Papa Ghede and Maman Brigitte came to me and helped me cry for Leigh Ann. That was a blessing. I can't remember who all I talked to except Exu off and on. I hadn't intended to go out for Oxun... she came by and asked me to dance her and I said, "If I do who will sing your songs" since I was one of the few people on the floor who *wasn't* her at the time. She looked around and said, "That's okay. I want you to be me." And off I went. Persuasive Lady, she is.

Since Russell was out, I stayed for the feast which was very good. *laugh* Okay, I admit "good" for me mostly means there is protein that isn't chicken. I had managed devotional food but not potluck food so I hadn't taken care of that for myself as I often do. Dang, I need to make sure I give a good donation. I didn't see the box out.

As I was leaving the Lubisha, I got a text message from mr_kurt saying that folks were going to soak in their hot tub and did I want to join the party. That sounded like the perfect end to a really good day. A glass of vanilla cognac and good friends in hot water was, indeed, a blessing.

Sunday I headed up to Berkeley intending to have breakfast with Don & Anna and Kathy Sandoval, a First Nations woman from SoCal who was coming up for the URI Global Council meeting. But as I was about at Oakland Don called and said Kathy had missed her plane. Don had taken Anna home but was going to basically have to turn around and go back to the airport to pick Kathy up at a later flight. I bailed on that plan and just headed to the Geocacher's event for Leigh Ann. I got there and realized that whilst I had loaded all the nearby caches I hadn't actually loaded the "event cache" itself and it was a big enough park that the particular picnic area in question wasn't obvious. I should know better and I had even thought I should download it when I was downloading the others. There is no excuse. So I headed for the nearest cache (carrying 30 lbs of geocoins and potluck food). I was searching for awhile when Mugglefinder aka Denise (whose name comes because she does search & rescue) showed up with her dog. She couldn't find it either but she had been the first to arrive and grab the picnic area so she guided me to the right place. I dropped off the coins and Denise and I headed back to the cache with Vaccine and British Invasion. BI had found it already and watched with some amusement as Denise and Vaccine & I hunted. Vaccine finally made the find. The cache had fallen from its original location and buried itself in a good bit of foliage. Then Denise and I went on and found the other cache and Fiddler's Green, the new cache for LAH. It is in a lovely spot, near a bench where one can watch the water of the Bay. And everything nearby was green and growing. I expect she's pleased.

Back at the picnic lots more people had arrived. Geowomyn put up her wonderful posterboard with pictures of Leigh Ann and excerpts from people's memorial posts to the Geocachers of the Bay Area forum. I put on an Annwn CD to play nearby. I visited, slackerstalker came by and it was so nice to see her. Elton and Caitlin both came and it was good to hold Elton and cry together. Caitlin had brought all of Leigh Ann's unused cache containers. I grabbed a few and so I *really* need to get cracking on the placements I have in mind.

I was the only person who had really brought a geocoin collection so it got a lot more attention than usual. *laugh* So lots of folks are logging having seen my coins. That is too cool. OTOH, it meant that I only made one trade since most folks didn't have coins there. Oh well. About 1:30pm it started raining and we broke up. I brought GeoWomyn's posterboard with me to take to the Memorial Filk on Friday. By the way, Elton has started a list for info about memorials, details at http://nitnorth.livejournal.com/14592.html

Today mr_kurt and I went caching at lunch. The sweet taste of 400 caches is teasing me (I'm at 397 as of this evening). I found two and he found four (we were passing by some I'd done months ago). I am so glad there was sun. This business of rainstorms in May is just wrong. We passed a 1939 record for rain in May yesterday.

This evening I tested the idea of meatloaf done in muffin tins in prep for inflicting it on folks at Tuesday dinner tomorrow. It works pretty well but I don't think it makes sense to put ketchup in the bottom of the tin; when you lift out the "loaf" none adheres because of the grease. Tomorrow I'll put some on top for the last 10 minutes or so. I do like the idea of little individual meatload servings and this saves my tomato allergic person whilst allowing ketchup for everyone else.

Yikes, its 10pm. I'm going to bed. Busy, busy!!

Comments

[shadopanther.livejournal.com]

Fiddler's Green, the new cache for LAH. It is in a lovely spot, near a bench where one can watch the water of the Bay. And everything nearby was green and growing.

*smile* Sounds like a nice view. The description reminds me of a large painting my great-grandfather painted that hangs in my mother's family room... the painting is of oaks and grass and a view of the San Francisco Bay, it is from Berkeley in the early 1900s.

[rowanf.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a cool picture. I am always in favor of caches near benches where one can sit to fill out the log. If folks are still caching when I shuffle off this mortal coil... I want my memorial by a bench. Or to be a bench actually. I love the idea of offering other people a place to sit in some favorite viewing spot. I love that that memorial benches have caught on both here and in the UK at least.

[rubibees.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a really lovely day, and the hot tub at the end was also a nice touch re Leigh Ann...Hahaha, Russel watching Nip Tuck...we are addicted to that over here.