Stimulus Checks and Balances
So I am sure most of you received a letter in the mail from Uncle Sam this year informing you about the economic stimulus tax rebate. We were pretty happy about this because we had to sink our actual tax return into car repairs. I'd say we already stimulated the economy on our neck of the woods. We were hoping for a little breathing room in the budget with the stimulus check.

On the radio, they asked several people what they were planning to do with their stimulus checks. It seems like most callers were making the same plans we were - pay off those bills that have been waiting for a while. We had these minor bills we kept tabling and not paying because there wasn't any room for the budget for them, but it was becoming mission critical that they get paid.
I was balancing the budget one week, trying to figure out which checks I could afford to send out. It was making me a little anxious. Suddenly, I checked our balance, and there it was, the check had arrived. So I paid off some bills, but I also think there should be a balance between work and play. In this case, I wanted to buy myself something that was long overdue, a gift my husband and I kept saying we would buy ourselves - a digital camera.

Woo-wee! Let's see what becomes of this.

The Road to 1K

Two years ago, I was just getting into geocaching. I had less than ten finds under my belt, and I drove four hours to GeoWoodstock IV, held in Cedar Park State Park, right outside of Dallas. I was such a beginner. I look back now and see how much I didn't know. I was such a newbie!

Now, two years later, I am preparing to leave for GeoWoodstock VI, near Sacramento CA. I am getting on a plane Friday morning to fly to the west coast to participate in the annual mega-gathering of geocachers. So far there are 1050 teams who marked "will attend" on the event page, but they are expecting around 3500 to show up.

Two years ago, I had never heard of a travel bug. Now, my profile stats state I have moved 334 travel bugs and 643 total trackables, which includes 40 Jeep travel bugs and what, 269 geocoins. I am a trackable nut, I think they are way fun.

Two years ago, at the gathering, I bought my first travel bug and geocoin. Now, I have purchased 25 travel bug tags alone, and 30 geocoins. I am taking about a third of my geocoins to the event, and a couple bugs of my own, but I am taking 14 into the travel bug exchange. I can't wait to see what there is to bring back.

Two years ago, I didn't know how to"plan caches along a route", but now, I have been obsessively plotting a course through the California highways to maximize my cache finding. For the past two months, I have devoted my lunch break to researching my plan of attack. Ironically, after all that planning, a route that I was most excited about turns out to be inexplicately inaccessible (the Mormom Emigrant Trail), so I have to do some last minute shuffling around.

I had decided in honor of my first GeoWoodstock, where I learned so much, I would try to get to my 1000 milestone at or near the event.

I've been trying to push those numbers, and folks, it's close.

I am sitting at 987.

I have 150 caches bookmarked for my trip. I know I will hit 1K out there, but where?

I am going to try to make it special. No lightpole caches for me! Give me one that takes me to a beautiful place or opens my eyes to something I had never seen.

Wish me luck..........