Adventures in Topeka

The weather was beautiful today, and I’m happy that we got to go out and take advantage of it. Jon hurt his back yesterday and it still wasn’t feeling great this morning, so we were going to hold off on any adventures until tomorrow. Unfortunately, the forecasted temperature for tomorrow is about forty degrees colder than today. Just getting to the car to get to MHK is going to be a challenge.

After taking some ibuprofen, Jon decided he was up to trying to get out and about, even with a sore back. After stopping for a quick breakfast, we rolled along to Topeka.

Our first couple destinations were shopping stops for clothes, first for Jon and then for me. I was in need of a new pair of pants, and I managed to find a pair at Lane Bryant that were the right size and the right length. I probably could have ordered another pair, but I figure one is good for now. I also picked up some frilly, girly items because apparently, I have a girly side sometimes.

We thought about seeing a movie at the second run theater, but there was nothing we wanted to wait around for, so we headed to the zoo. Our original plan was to walk both the zoo and Gage Park, but we ended up just getting through the zoo before Jon’s back needed a rest and some more ibuprofen. The animals were pretty lazy today, but the walk was nice. The highlight was probably the baby orangutan. He was so cute, though his mama didn’t seem too thrilled to be on display.

Our original plan for lunch was to go to Jersey Mike’s for a sub, but when we got to the one downtown, we found that it was closed. After walking down the street, we found a restaurant and pub that was open…and we were the first patrons of the day.

Jon’s lunch: “Bangers and Mashed”

Brisket sandwich and potato soup

Jon’s food was delicious and my soup was really good. I took a chance with the brisket, since I know not everyone makes brisket perfectly. I was a little disappointed. The flavor was good, but the meat was tough. I really need to remember to stick to burgers when I go to a pub. Still, for a serendipitous find, it was a pretty okay meal.

For dessert, we walked over to Hazel Hill chocolates and picked up a few small treats. Not sure if we can do that more than once very so often. It was pricey. Then we made a quick stop at Walgreens and headed back home.

Our adventures didn’t end there, though. We came home and chilled for a bit. I still have some mystery caches that need solving, so I watched a couple Christmas movies while Jon took a nap. We were going to walk to Subway for dinner, but by the time we got around to it, it was dark and I was worried about hidden ice, so we drove instead. Even though we’d walked the zoo, I hadn’t met my step goal for the day, so I talked Jon into walking a lap with me at the rec center. It wasn’t overly cold, but by the end of the walk, parts of the parking lot had started getting slippery again, so we had to proceed with caution.

The walk and the drive home gave us the chance to finally get some pictures of the pretty Christmas lights that Wamego put up for the holidays. Though I didn’t celebrate Christmas in a huge way this year, I love the park decorations the city rolls out for the season.

The extra walk helped me hit my step goal, and I got to enjoy a few more hours of the outdoors before tomorrow’s cold hits again.

All in all, it was a good day. I still didn’t get my whole to-do list done, but I’m okay with that. Tomorrow will be organizing and getting ready for the coming week and the new year. Grocery shopping, laundry, and gym are all on the horizon for tomorrow.

Happy Saturday!

A.

Training and Office Shenanigans

It doesn’t feel like Wednesday. In fact, most of the day I’ve been stuck on the fact that it’s Tuesday, when it’s not. This week is flying by. Even today went fast and it wasn’t a good day for me. This morning, I let the stress of things get to me, and I didn’t seem to have the mental capacity to get as much done as I like to. I have one of these days at least once a week, sometimes twice. Maybe it’s a brain defrag, but it’s kind of uncomfortable and makes me feel bad. By the end of the day I was rolling with it, but up to that point, things were kind of rough.

I lost track of time last night, and by the time I realized I hadn’t blogged, I was too tired to think. It was another busy day with nothing major to note. Jon’s ankles were hurting, so he was going to take a rest night and I was going to walk the track.  But when I got out there, the parking lot was a sheet of ice, and I wasn’t brave enough to trek across it, especially since I was out there by myself. My balance still isn’t great, and I have a fear of falling on the ice. So it ended up being a mellow night at home. I made up for it today, though.

My day started with some office shenanigans. Even being in a low mood, this cracked me up, as do the daily events in the lives of our resident elf and nutcracker.

Our team really enjoys their breaks.

Later in the day I did some training as part of my job transition. Some of it involved working with html code, a subject that makes me think of Jon and his infinite love of all things web design. My work won’t be that detailed, but what I learned was pretty interesting.

Besides the elf and training, another highlight of the day was that the new app from Six to Start came out today. I’ve been waiting for The Walk to come out since I first heard about it a couple months ago, and I bought it right away, considering it my Christmas present (one of them at least).  Since Zombies, Run! has done wonders in keeping me motivated to move more, I’m hoping The Walk gets me up more at work and gives me incentive to utilize my breaks and lunches for some extra step time. It did the trick today. I finished the first chapter/mission at work, walking on first break and half of my lunch.

As for the app/game itself, so far I like it. There are still a few things I have to figure out, but it looks like I can run it at the same time as Zombies and I can use it with a radio app if I’m tired of my playlists. At the moment, I can’t use it on the treadmill because it acts as a pedometer and tracks the walking you do. I’m still nervous on the treadmill, so I still hold on to the rails while walking. At some point though, maybe I’ll be comfortable to let my arms swing and I’ll wear my armband.

I was able to test this out after work when we went to the gym and on top of my work walking, I got another thirty minutes in: twenty on the treadmill and then several laps around the track. We cut it short to make it to a geocache event in one of the local parks. It was a quick flash mob, so we weren’t there long, just long enough to sign the book, do a quick geocache toast, and visit with some fellow cachers. It was cold, but fun. We each got another cache container, so at some point in the near future we’re going to have to hide something. Before we left, we were visited by a cop who’d seen the cars and the people and wondered what was going on.

I wasn’t feeling up to working on any knitting projects tonight, so I took the evening off in favor of working on some writing. I’ve been using my UfYH timer to do twenty minute stretches of revising my novel between ten minute breaks on Pinterest and Twitter. This last twenty minute stretch is devoted to finishing this post. Then it’s off to shower and read before getting some sleep.

Word on the street is that we’re going to get some nasty weather this weekend, possibly in the form of freezing rain on Friday. Do not want! I’m looking forward to our work holiday party, and I don’t want the weather to jack up our plans. I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.

A.

 

Caches and Kids

Our geocaching adventures were awesome today, and we got halfway to our weekend goal, which means as long as we keep that pace tomorrow, we’ll have completed a successful mission.

I’m not giving details in this post, though, because I’m giving the day its own write-up, complete with pictures. The plan had been to publish that tonight, but I didn’t bring my laptop, and I’m fairly sure I won’t be up for blogging when I get home.

The evening with the kids has been fun. They seriously crack me up. I let Jon take the lead tonight, and they all played some Munchkin while I crocheted a ruffle scarf for one of the girls (I finished one last night for the other one).  I went and picked up dinner, and now everyone is full and relaxing with various computer games and Cars 2.

We’re planning for another late night and early morning, so I anticipate crashing hard tomorrow night. We need to go to the gym tomorrow to get our three days in for the week, so that should help in getting a pretty good sleep before the work week begins again.

Now to chill for the evening.

A.

Under Cover of Night

That may be a cliche, but it’s a good title for this post, which will be another phone quickie that is happening way late.

This evening, I chilled with some friends, one of whom is only visiting town for a couple nights (official work type business).   It was a good night of chatting and eating too much Pizza Shuttle.

After I picked Jon up from gaming (where he split the win with another player and was pretty upbeat about his evening as well), we snuck over for a quick geocache. It was a stealth one, so what better time than night to grab it?

The spot was a public place, and we weren’t defacing property, but I felt very sneaky…living on the edge when the fuzz could show up at any time…cue dramatic music.  It wasn’t that intense, but it was fun.

However, it is now late and I need to crash if I’m going to be functional tomorrow.

Secret agent, signing off.

A.

Who’s Goin’ Treasure Huntin’?

I’ve been wanting to try geocaching for awhile. I love the thought of going on a techie treasure hunt, but up until recently, I was too afraid to try it since it usually involves walking or hiking. We were going to go to the gym today, but a laundry malfunction threw us off, so we had to bring some wet clothes home to hang up to dry. We decided to go ahead and take a walk, and that just escalated into “Hey, let’s try this geocache thing out.”

WARNING: Apparently, geocache spoilers are a thing, so if you don’t want one, please don’t continue reading this post. Watch this video instead that has nothing to do with geocaching (if you don’t care about spoilers, you can skip the video or continue after you’ve watched it):

 

 

The cache we found was fairly easy to get to. It was a virtual one, so no physical log book, and I had to answer a question via email to the local caching crew so I could sign the logbook online.  But answer the question and sign the book I did, thus logging my first cache.

 

The place where this was located is a place we’ve walked by many times, usually deciding against going up the stairs. The stairs aren’t bad really. They’re a bit uneven and stony, but we only avoided them before because they seemed so daunting.  I was still tired by the time I got to the top, but that could also have something to do with the fact that the tier is right there in the sun, and things have started to heat up again after our three days of cool and rain.

We were going to try another one but decided to wait. In finding the cache, we walked across a lot of grassy terrain. Most of my walking as been on level surfaces. Man, they are not lying when they tell you changing up the terrain will pose a challenge.  We wandered around the park a little longer, passing by the museum there. It was closed, but we got the info on when it’s open and it might be something we do this weekend since we altered our original plans a bit.

Other than that, it was a fairly uneventful day. I put away all the laundry when we got home, which is a pretty big achievement since I usually procrastinate a day or two on that.  I fluffed around online, watched some of the Crossfit Games replays, talked to my nephew, then finished this blog.

And with that…I’m off to shower and sleep.

A.