Montezuma Muckrace

On September 8th and 9th, I will be participating in the Montezuma Muckrace. This is a 24 hr. birding competition where the team with the most recorded number of bird species identified inside the Montezuma Wildlife Preserve wins bragging rights. First question you may ask, why would you do this? Well, I want to do it because I want to see new birds. One way to do that is to set aside 24 hrs. of my life to do it. So, I have formed a team of great friends, my father-in-law Dick, good college friends Dom and Chris, and there girlfirends Mary and Amy. We are named the Mottled Mucks (a play on the name Mottled Duck), as we are a diverse group of people.

This will be the 10th year of the Montezuma Muckrace and they are trying to raise $10K to help fund the preserve, especially habitat for the Cerulean Warbler, a threatened bird species that nests in the wetland. Montezuma is also home to nesting Bald Eagles. It is a very important habitat, and a real gem of New York. I am collecting donations for the effort, so if you would like to donate, please contact me. There are many teams from various levels involved. We probably won't see more species than the teams from Cornell, but we could raise more money! So I hope you will help support the Muckrace, and the birds of Montezuma.

Palm Test

It seems I am able to blog from my Palm. It updates when I sync. This might come in handy.

The Kilted Pirate

So Todd asked for more kilt pictures... you got it. Here I am at the Sterling Ren Festival. I did a little photoshop work on this one... I'm in disguise. Anyway, my best friend in the whole world, Elayne made this for me. She did a great job. I think we both enjoyed coming up with how to make it work, borrowing elements from lots of different kilts on the market. I am hooked on it, and thinking about the next one. What do you all think.... camo for the next one?

Lost Cookoo Wyvern

Here's a picture from two weeks ago. I had a fun day of letterboxing with my three sisters...Lost Girl, Cocoa Cookoo, and Wyvern. We went on a morning trip to find some of Wyvern's boxes. We travelled south into the Adirondacks along the Raquette River. We visited lots a great spots at Rainbow Falls, Haystack Rock, the rebuilt "S" curve, and we even planted one of my new boxes. It was the first time I got to letterbox with all three, and can't wait to get back up to the NoCo and do some more. Thanks for the fun 3 Sisters!

Scum and villainy

Sunday we went to the Sterling Renaissance Festival. What a great time! It was Pirates weekend, so Laura and I dressed the part..well sort of. Laura wore her pirate flags t-shirt, and I wore a pirate t-shirt and my new kilt that Elayne made for me! There were a lot of folks dressed up, and some really elaborately. It was great people watching. I really enjoyed looking at all the merchants, and listening to the music. The joust was exciting, and the dunk show was funny. Taming of the Shrew was putting me to sleep, but it was the end of the day. My favorite part was getting sucked into the performance at the Pirate Sing-a-long and almost getting into a fight with the snivelly english dude. It was all in good fun! Of course what made it really fun was having Marylee and Angela there to share this time with. And, since it had been ten years since I had been there, a lot had changed. Laura and I were celebrating our 10th summer of "going out". Oh, we also got a letterbox there, I think we really made Angelina's day, the woman we had to ask for the box from. Can't wait to go back next year!

The Wrath of John

So last night was cheesy fun. The Dryden theatre shows old movies. This month, each Thursday night they are showing one of the Star Trek movies, preceded by an original Star Trek episode. So last night it was "The Space Seed" followed by "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan". Now, I have probably seen Wrath of Khan like a hundred times. We pretty much wore out a VHS tape of it. I probably know every line of dialog (nerd alert). Seeing it on the big scene was fun though. I hadn't seen Space Seed a hundred times, and it was really a treat to see it in this way. The best part was the overacting by Khan, and how he quickly converts the lady McGivers to his side. And of course the stunt doubles in the fight scenes are just too much...never did they think that we might some day be watching this on a 20 foot screen! Hellooooo, that doesn't even look remotely like Kirk! Too funny. I was waiting for a lot of audience participation in the movie, aka Rocky Horror Picture Show. People shouting out lines or the like. Nope, everyone was pretty quiet, but the laughter at the absurd parts reminded everyone how melodramatic it all is. Most of the audience was middle-aged balding males (oh, come on, they would say the same about me!), but I was surprised that there were several kids. The one in front of me had a phaser he made out of legos (must be dad wouldn't let him play with his real one he probably has in a collection under glass). Some other kids down the aisle I could hear saying to Dad that they were scared when the landing party goes into the abandoned space station. Never realized that there were SCARY parts in that movie! But the biggest laugh (and some applause) of course came when Kirk shouts out his famous "Khaaaaaaaaan". Anyway, it was all good fun, and reminded me when I was 8 and couldn't get enough of this movie. Next week is The Search for Spock, preceded by Amok Time. As the announcer said before the movie, "We see Spock go through puberty way too many times."

Lock to Lock

Jackbear's Den will be on a short break for a week. That's because Jackbear and friends will be on the Erie Canal for a week. You can check the daily reports on Lock to Lock.

Ithaca Gathering

This was our third big letterboxing gathering, and our first in Ithaca. I had been looking forward to this one for months, even got a campsite months in advance. Well, by shear coincidence, Lock Wench got a campsite right next to mine (she wanted mine, but I already had it reserved). Well, that meant one thing...organize a campfire after-party. So we planned for weeks. It was sneaky, it was Dartmoor themed, and it turned out really great. Lock Wench made an exact replica of the Cranmere Pool letterbox from Dartmoor, and called it CampNear Pool (see above). Sahalie pitched in her carving ablilities and made the Phantom Windmill and the Old Clapper Bridge. I carved for Duck's Pool and the Dewer and the Wisht Hounds (the legend that inspired the Hounds of the Baskervilles). We launched invites at the main gathering. The gathering in Stewart Park was great. I met a lot of "famous" letterboxers who have been boxing a long time. Mark and Sue Pepe were there, sooo nice, can't wait to get to know them more. Team Green Dragon...sneaky devils, and master carvers. Silent Doug slipped me a secret clue to an incredible box. Green Tortuga put in an appearance. I got so many cooties and personal travellers this time, I think I got more then of the letterboxes. So it was an action filled weekend of boxing. It was really hot though, so it did slow up down. Lostgirl and Wyvern did take us to some letterboxes in the morning, but it was getting hot already! Anyway, this one will be memorable for all the mystery and intrigue that surrounded it! Can't wait for the next one!

Lilac Festival

We have been wanting Sandy to come to Rochester for the Lilac Festival for some time. This year, we got our wish. Sandy took time out of her busy retirement schedule to come and visit us for the weekend. We set out to the Lilac Festival early to beat the crowds, but on a cold day, the crowds were small. We loved looking at all the flowers with Sandy, and had fun planning our own gardens. We had a bit of fun letterboxing too! We had to be real sneaky finding the boxes that spelled out LILAC, as they were hidden in crafty places along the paths. The lilacs were gorgeous, but the smell was magnificent! Thanks Sandy, for coming out and making this our most memorable Lilac Festival yet!

Wine and Herbs

Laura and I have made this an annual event, the Wine and Herb Fest on the shores of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes. This year, we had Eric and Julie along, and we had a blast! We got to all 16 wineries in a day! Yeah, I didn't drink very much, so I could drive, just a sip here and there. But not only to you get the wine, but you get an herb at every winery, and get to tastes foods made with the herbs. Oh yeah, and you get the recipe for the food. How can you beat this! You can't, that's why we have gone for the last four years! It was a little drizzly, but we had a lot of fun, and congrats to Eric and Julie, who are engaged to be married! Way to go guys!