All good things must come to an end

Weekends slide by much too fast, particularly when you share them with some of your favorite people.

Needlefingers and Pilot visited us over the past few days, beginning our visit on Friday. Gorgeous weather pulled us out of the house and all over the town. We spent the bulk of our time geocaching and dragging the poor couple to a few open houses. In between there was ice cream, gabbing, visiting, a trip to a Japanese restaurant, laughing and a little Halloween shopping. In big news, we hit our 100 cache on Saturday and celebrated with a photo session, snagging 21 in all over the weekend.

Glad to know that they made it safely home, but sad they ever had to leave.

As for the rest of our Sunday, I spent it on Ravelry, catching up on laundry and pondering why weekends couldn't be four-days long instead of two.

Unfortunately I didn't get any good shots during our geocache adventure, so here's a snap of the sock that will never end. It's the Uptown Boot Sock from Favorite Socks and for some reason this one is taking me forever.

Green, Yellow and Pink

I love weekends. I covet weekends. I crave weekends. Is there anything better than a weekend?

My answer is no and if you said "yes", well then you need to go out and get you a better weekend or two under your belt.

We've been busy campers at Chez Ragged, so this weekend, I opted for a little slower version. We stayed home last night, parked ourselves in front of the television and watched another installment of the first season of "Veronica Mars". (Seriously, is there a better way to spend a Friday night? Again, if you said "yes", maybe you haven't rented the first season of "Veronica Mars.")

And in an unlikely move, we woke early enough this morning to hit a few yard sales. We came home disappointed and without any great finds. I departed for my hair appointment and wasted away nearly two hours having my hair brushed, washed, dyed, dryed and brushed some more. Relaxed, looking years younger and wishing my stylist had forgone that last mist of finishing spray, I headed home where I met up with Cynical. We headed out for lunch at the park and a little geocaching, marking our 90th find, but having a few disappointing escapades.

And now we sit, working through our most recent Blockbuster deliveries.

A shot above of green, yellow and pink book bindings in honor of Project Spectrum.

Geocaching and why I don't remember The Alamo

The party was over for me today as I had to begin attending the actual conference that brought us to San Antonio. However, the fun kept on coming for Cynical.

While I listened to speakers wearing "personality" ties and telling jokes written for them, my beloved got a chance to sleep, surf and just "be".

We met up for a long lunch, some additional Riverwalk exploration and then it was all over: back to boring seminars for me.

Alas, the last speaker shared his or her last comment and I was released. Our afternoon and night included a little fruitless geocaching, an encounter with a very friendly cat, getting caught in the rain, a margarita that literally kicked my novice drinking butt, and a little romantic walk along the walkway.

Tomorrow promises my last chance at Tex-Mex food before we leave, more personality ties, belly-dancing during dinner and maybe, just maybe a trip to the Tower of the Americas.

What we swore we'd never share about last weekend. . .

Not only did Cynical and I recreate scenes from the Blair Witch Project during the ghosthunter presentation, we took photos and giggled to the point where I thought I may throw up all of the hotdogs and oyster crackers I had eaten earlier.

And. . . at one point on Sunday when we were tromping through a field in search of a cache, I took off running while Cynical hummed the theme to Little House in the Prairie. He wanted me to fall, just as poor little Carrie does in the opening sequence, but our hosts were in the car and we were afraid they might think we needed medical care. We did, just not that kinda medical care.

We ran through a field to approach this small cemetery sitting in the center.

Cache Slash Fever

When it comes to geocaching, Cynical and I are newcomers to the game. We rely on the guidance of more experienced and seasoned hunters. When we heard our gurus were hosting a cache finding event, we marked our calendars and made plans to attend. I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate fall. Leaves are in their full glory north of us and Saturday promised a beautiful day and delivered.

On Friday, with GPS unit and knitting in hand, we made the trek north and prepared for Saturday's Cache Slash Fest 2006.

Not only are the organizers knee deep into caching, but they are as equally enthralled with all that is Halloween. It makes for a great combination. They blended their love of both into a very creative and well-organized event. Saturday's schedule not only included finding eight unique caches, but a bonfire, hayride, ghosthunter presentation and lots and lots of food.

It didn't stop there, as the crew had constructed and displayed several incredible creations dotting the yards of the hosts including a corpse launching mausoleum; a poor soul beheaded by an authentic guilotine; a shaking, grinning electric chair victim; acid spitting alien and a gas chamber. (At Chez Ragged, we thought that our carved pumpkin was unique. Now we know better.)

As I mentioned, we are novices, so we were at first a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of expertise around us as we listened to the pros tell stories of their most unique hunts and hides.

I think what impressed me the most was the camaraderie amongst the cachers. I am always fascinated by the fact that a common interest can bring together people from all backgrounds, all lifestyles and all areas.

The evening was wrapped up with a visit to a local cemetery where a presentation was made by a ghosthunter. I must admit that I have never put much stock in that sort of thing, but he certainly made me wonder.

After his presentation, we were invited to shoot some photos and test the equipment. Cynical and I chose instead to reinact scenes from the Blair Witch Project. (There is photographic proof, complete with a nose shot, but I fear we can never share it here.)

It made for a full and fun day. And we slept like babies, babies on Benadryl.

Unable to find two of the eight caches (I am certain it isn't because I had to trek three times back to the same cache because we didn't follow instructions or that we at one point simply drove in circles), we vowed to find them on Sunday and that we did, thanks to Needlefingers and Pilot. During our hunt we came across the most picturesque cemetery. A beautiful rod iron gate greeted us as we made our way down a tree-lined path. It was breathtaking. I know that often cemeteries are creepy, but I found this serene and beautiful. Geocaching brings us to places we'd never stumble across. That's the greatest reward for me.

We headed home, tired, rejuvenated in our geocaching and looking forward to next year.

I attempted to sleep on the way home, but found myself trying to wrap up my second set of socks in honor of Socktoberfest.

Just a few shots from the weekend: some of the Halloween decorations. I just couldn't do them justice. A shot of a fallen tombstone shot during the ghosthunter presentation.

Duck. . . Duck. . . Goose

The photo above was shot during our geocaching/hiking expedition recently. We fed what remained of our bread from our picnic and I must say that they were very, very polite about the whole thing. Not exactly waiting their turn, but still, they were well behaved birds. I'd invite them to break bread with me any time.

Walk this way

While hiking and geocaching over the weekend, we visited a park several miles away. What makes this park unique is that elevated walkways or bridges are constructed over the flood plain areas and the creek that runs through the park.

In addition, the entire system is based upon a railroad theme, hence the trailhead markers above.

And what's a park without a fire tower? Cynical and Pilot climbed to the tip top of the tower, while we waited below listening to them pant and stomp their way up. (Even though I did pass the height requirements.)

Signs, signs, everywhere signs

Just a little homage to the Project Spectrum colors for April and a photo reminiscent of our weekend. Taken while geocaching with Needlefingers and Pilot.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

The weekend in review can be summed up simply: Friday night was all about cleaning. Saturday was all about errand running. Sunday was all about play. However, I feel the need to elaborate and bore you further.

I have gotten in the habit of doing our complete housecleaning regimen on Friday nights. It's my way of clearing everything off my to-do list before the weekend officially begins. Nothing starts the weekend off like a clutter-free, sweet smelling home. Who doesn't love neatly folded laundry and a clean tub? No one, that's who.

I had originally planned on trekking to a book fair on Saturday, but our plans were foiled, so my alternative was grocery shopping, errand running and a leisurely lunch with my beloved. The rest of the day was eaten up with menial tasks. I take solace in these types of days: peaceful and productive.

Cool temperatures greeted us on Sunday. However, as the temperatures increased, so did our drive to get outside. Cynical mowed while I prepared our Geocaching gear. Then we were off and running, finding five caches in all, which was grand. However, I must say that I most enjoyed being outside, watching everything come alive as the sun shone brightly. We opted to nab lunch and eat at a local park instead of sitting inside.

We capped a beautiful day by sunning in the backyard and grilling out. Soon we will watch "The Bee Season" and wrap up our weekend wondering where all the time went.

Above is a photograph of a tulip that I shot at the park where we ate lunch today. There were several beds of multi-colored tulips framing a walkway and leading up to a small waterfall and gazebo. I wanted to model our backyard after this peaceful and beautiful place. From here on out, that is my "happy place." Throughout our day we were treated to music courtesy of Craftymodster, who served up a CD of yellow and orange themed songs. It was the perfect soundtrack for our day. (I won the CD in a drawing she hosted on our site. It was an awesome treat to find my reward in the mailbox on Friday. Thanks Craftymodster!)