There's a nice couple on the geocaching mailing list that got bitten by the "nanny" bug yesterday. First, they chided someone who accidently mailed some answers to a virtual to the whole list instead of the individual who asked (and who hasn't done that occasionally?) until the person said "give it a rest!" I was thinking "hmmm. Dissention in the ranks." Then they dissed us. It started mildly enough, a person asked why the geocaching website was so slow, and it's because there are so many 'cachers and they really need people to subscribe. I thought "yeah, it's about time." We've been talking about it. Then the nanny guy made it personal: "there's a cacher with 1000 finds who hasn't joined yet and we thought we'd leave a subtle hint." Well, GRRRR! I went in and joined, which was harder than it needed to be because I'd forgotten my PayPal account, but I spent most of yesterday and today feeling awful. It doesn't do anything for us since we can't use Pocket Queries whatever those are anyway, and there are no nearby premium sites, so it's only to support the sport (which is more fun by getting travel bugs) but it's none of their business anyway. I'll probably have calmed down by the next party, but I doubt if I'll ever like these people quite the same way.

Then I spent a lot of money online and on the phone getting reservations. Who knew Ajo, Arizona of all places would be full? I still have the last week of our projected trip to organize, but I got tired.

I was transcribing the round robin (yes! There's hope!) and am missing some of the fonts I was using earlier. Then I couldn't get words to stay together, I couldn't defeat the wordwrap. SO annoying, but I finally found that was the font I was using.

After I wrote that lengthy list of spam names, I investigated my mail options and discovered I had "Spamguard" turned off! Oops. I'd marked some senders as "spam" but all that happened was I'd get it in my inbox with the [spam] header. That struck me as a waste of time. Well, I turned "Spamguard" on and marked a couple of pages of spammers, and suddenly things are a lot better. When we got back after three days in Monterey, my box was 110% full and I had 750+ messages, almost all spam, so we'll see if things don't improve here.

We're doing some serious cell-phone shopping. All we want is the ability to call for help if we again do anything stupid like get caught in the sand as we did in St. George, or get a snakebite, or break something while we're out in the boonies caching. Then I did think it would be nice to have an emergency contact for my inlaws (in case something happens to Rich's mom) and for our kids. But we don't intend to chat on the road... the main reason I haven't wanted a cell-phone is I don't WANT people to get hold of me! (It would be useful with Casey, too, though!)

We did a little caching today. We found one, then went down near Sutter's Fort where there's a labyrinth. I couldn't figure out the second part of that multi... we went to check in a couple of areas. At a parking garage we passed a guy who was studiously nonchalant. I thought he was a cacher, and sure enough, he was, though we didn't have time to stop and chat.

Then this afternoon I went to see Ella, Enchanted. It's a lot of fun! I liked all the little details, like "Frell Community Center" that were total anachronisms. This is one I have to get, to see with Princess Bride. The hero of that one grows up to be the villain of Ella/! Before the movie I went to my cache, found it this time, right away, and took the travel bug in it.

Great moments in oratory:

"[President Bush] thinks that empty slogans like the 'Clear Skies' initiative and the 'Healthy Forest' initiative--that somehow names that would make George Orwell rise up and cheer--that those names will make people forget what is really happening in our country. [Spots a dolphin.] There he is over there. He says, 'help, help, help.' "
--John Kerry

Air America. Hahaha!