A great weekend

Weekends like this make me want to move somewhere where it's always summer. Don't get me wrong, I love PA, but when it's freezing cold outside you don't get to do fun stuff unless you want to lose your patootsie to frost-bite.

First, I slept in on Saturday. This is not something I usually do, but I needed the sleep and it felt great.

Then, we went to Seven Springs to fiddle around in the woods, play some games, and grab a box.

Finally, it was time for the yearly "Greensburg Days" fair. This is a three day long extravaganza of fried food, mediocre rock bands, bingo, and carnival rides. My first stop every year at Greensburg Days is always Jim the Greek's Gyro shop. Jim is a deaf-mute greek man, but he's built like the dudes in "300." And he makes the best Gyros EVER. I always get mine with extra feta cheese, I love those little crumbly cheese bits.

My son ate halushki and fries. For those of you not from an area that was settled by people who descended from large stinky vegetables, halushki is buttered noodles and cabbage. It's delicious, and I finished what my son didn't eat.

For such a small fair, Greensburg has an awesome fireworks display. I tried to get really nice picture, but they came out sorta poopy, so you don't get the full experience. Here are a few of them anyway:

After the fireworks, it was time to ride the rides and play carnival games. I went on a few of the upside-downers and went on a few normal rides with my son who is not yet large enough for the big-boy rides. Again, I tried to get a nice picture of us on the Ferris wheel, but this is all that came out. blah:

Finally we went home, the Pirate went to bed, and I carved the stamp for the upcoming "Beers of Summer" Postal Tracker, actually tracing the image off of a six-pack from the fridge. I'm REALLY happy with the way the stamp came out, and I hope all the other lushes in the ring will be as well.

Sunday? Laundry, then some summer clothes shopping, and finally some more boxin. It was a good day, we found both boxes we set out to find, planted #6 of the "Pride of Pittsburgh" series (thanks Safari Man!) and replaced the logbook in #1. Then we did a little hiking and I found this tree:

How cool is THAT!?!?! I know this probably means that the tree is infected with something (it is in fact dead, but you can't see that part further up the tree) but I just love this thing. It will be a prominent feature in a clue sometime this summer.

While we were hiking, I was sending out find reports on my PDA and updating box status while actually on the TRAIL! It was pretty cool.

Finally some Frisbee (with the 130 gram model, the 180 gram is a little too heavy for tiny hands) and then some sleep. All in All a great weekend.

Remind me never to vote Republican.

I consider myself a pretty a-political dude. I definitely lean to the left, and at one point in my life derided America on a near daily basis for it's abuses of power. It only takes one trip to a third world country, though, to make one thankful of what we have here in the U.S.A. I have been to three, and have moved a lot closer to "center" than in my younger years.

I manage a telemarketing center. Telemarketers, I know, are not the most popular people in the world. But they are also not, in most cases, the shysters people make us out to be. We are so controlled by laws and regulations that it would be impossible to be anything but honest. We have stringent quality standards and heavy monitoring.

Additionally, the people that work in telemarketing centers have a HARD job. The make upwards of 600 calls in a day, and let me assure you that it is few and far between that the person on the other line is happy to hear from us. They put up with hours of abuse each day. I have single mothers, high school drop-outs, professors, former inmates, and people from just about all walks of life employed in this center. We are a true melting pot, with African-Americans, Chinese, Filipinos, Whites, Mexicans, and even a Brazilian. I have ladies in their 80's and guys in their teens.

Many of these people would be "living off the government" if we did not employ them. Some of our employees have been here 18 years.

One of my current clients has something to do with the Republican party. I'm not gonna go into any more detail than that.

In the industry, there is a thing called a "seed call." This is a phone number seeded into a calling list, usually one of the client's numbers. It is used to check the ability of the tele-marketers.

We had one of these today, and among the feedback that we received was that the caller sounded too "urban." Like we have Jay-Z on the payroll or something.

We record EVERY phone call that leaves this center, and I fire people if their quality sucks.

I sound more urban than this agent, even though he is black. I'm not saying that black people necessarily sound urban, I'm saying this because the client happened to make this comment about the only black person on this campaign. If this were the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air," this agent sounded more like Carlton than Will Smith.

The client also purposely baited and was blantantly rude to this agent throughout the call, but the agent remained professional throughout.

I've never been more disgusted in my life with feedback from a client. If I were a Republican I would be ashamed to have this guy on my side.

The next time one of us calls you, it's ok to hang up on us. We get it all day long. It's ok to say no, we get it all day long. If you feel we're being too pushy, it is usually the case that the rep is mandated to rebuttal a minimum number of times. Hang up on us if you don't want to hear it. If one of us is rude to you, complain to the supervisor. But by all means, don't be rude to someone who is just doing their job, and is going to work EVERY day to slug it out for 4 or 5 sales. Remember, you're talking to a person. Usually a person who is just trying to get by.

I'll step off my soapbox now.

Ghost Town Trail

On Sunday we went boxin. And by "we" I mean my gf Longstockings, my son The Pirate, and myself. The first two boxes were on this great trail called "Ghost Town Trail." It's a very well kept and scenic rails to trails area in Indiana, PA. It doesn't, however, live up to it's name. I was expecting burnt out and ramshackle buildings that reek of dispair and regret. Instead I got a nice walk in the woods.

"Kevin, if ya caught fish erry time ya went fishin, it'd be called catchin."

This is one of my mottos in life. I learned this from Stan. Stan was the Rancid Crabtree (for those of you that remember "Last Laugh" in Outdoor Life) in my life. This dude was absolutely insane, smelled of chewing tobacco and whiskey, and always good for some fun.

I need to learn to apply this motto to Letterboxing. I hate it when I can't find the box. It's not even so much that I can't find the box, it's that it may be RIGHT UNDER MY FEET and I'm looking in the wrong place. I get crazy. Usually when I calm down and think about it, I can puzzle out the clues and look through the planter's eye and glean where the box is. But these clues were STRAIGHTFORWARD and the box simply was not there. So you start to question yourself: "It's probably been muggled, but what if it's behind THAT crooked tree instead of this one." I usually stalk around the woods in this mode for about a half-hour, annoying my gf and boring my son. (who is five years old, and once he defeats all the ninjas in a particluar portion of the woods with his sword (a stick) needs to move on to find other, more worthy opponents...)

So, eventually I see a baggie sticking out from under some leaves, 4 feet away from where the box should have been. I do a little recon and find another baggie. Both ripped, no box, nothing else. Was I upset? NO! I was relieved that I found the spot and figured out the clues. This is a sick mindset. I was unhappy that the box was gone, but happy knowing I wasn't just MISSING it.

All in All, it was a great day. 3 of 4 boxes, First Finders on two of them, and hiking in two places I had never visited before. I just need to wake up and see the trees behind the box sometimes. A day spent outdoors with the family is better than any dumb box.

One little side note. Beside one of the boxes was this little guy:

A tiny little baby groundhog that was nice enough to pose and let us take pictures of him from inches away. This was advantageous as I was able to explain to my son that even though an animal will LET us get close and looks so cuddly, we must never touch it. I got to explain to him about the oils on our skin and possible maladies that can come from the animal.

He is a darling little thing though, huh?

Yukky Gardening

This year I decided to plant a garden.

There's this "dad" in me that sorta wants me to be domestic. I'm not the typical sorta dad, my son likes the Ramones and Dillinger Escape Plan and is 5 years old. I have these CD's that I have burnt with kid friendly punk rock and metal on them, and that is what I play when he is awake. I don't want him to learn to cuss, but I also want him to know more than the crap that is on the radio. However, I always have this nagging fear that there should be a sense of normalcy in his upbringing. Thus the garden.

Last year, I planted Kentucky Colonel Mint and forgot to buy any other plants. This resulted in my entire garden becoming a mint patch, which I learned is an "intrusive" plant. This is no joke. If you don't put up a good enough border, mint will creep into your house and steal your beer. This year, I dug up the mint in all the places I didn't want it, all the while being "hollered at" by Colonels from Kentucky. (state motto: "If it's brown and ain't whiskey, you should be flushin' it.) I then placed a brick border around the mint patch to curb it's larceny. The result:

If you look, the mint is already trying to creep over my border. I may have to send it to the brig. Now, because this year I was planting a proper "garden," I wanted to have other plants. But the problem is I don't like most vegetables. I did some thinking and decided I wanted to plant baby spinach, as I like this for salads. Iceberg lettuce sucks:

I planted squash, but I realized I hate squash. So I ripped that bastard out and planted lemon-balm instead. (If anyone knows what to do with this, I'm all ears.) I planted it cuz it smells nice:

I planted onions to chop up and put in to my burgers and meatloaf. These are just lil' guys right now, so that's my finger pointing at the the infant onions:

I just love pesto, and I knew it had some green shit in it, so I figured out what it was and planted some of it. (It's BASIL!):
These are peas or beans, I forget which I bought. I hope they're beans:

These are chives. I have no idea what to do with these things. But they did get some flowers that fell over:

And finally, these are cherry tomatoes. I personally think tomatoes look like afterbirth, but my son would rather eat them than candy. So these are for him. I know I don't need that big ass stick in there yet, but I put it in anyway to give them some encouragement to grow huge:

Well that's it. I also have some flowers strewn about the house, but I got tired of taking pictures and went on a hike instead. If anyone knows what the hell I can do with lemon balm or chives, it would be great if you could clue me in.

Farmer Yuk

Camouflaging Boxes

SO, I recently started camouflaging my letterboxes. I thought I'd show you all some pictures of the process. So first of all, why would I camo the boxes?

1. They will be harder to see by noxers (duh)
2. If found by a noxer, they will look less like litter and more like something that is SUPPOSED to be there.
3. They look really cool.
   

I use Krylon Spray Paint. You will get more use out of the spray paint than camo-tape and it will last longer and not get all "gummy." (Technical term #1):

This is what I started with. A bunch of L'n'L's and a drink bottle:

And this is how they ended up. The additional boxes in the photo are decon wipe containers. They are already OD Green, I just added some blobs (Technical Term #2) of black:

Here is my son (The Pirate) giving The Rock Hand of Approval (Technical Term #3):

Oatmeal

This may have nothing to do with boxing, but...

I would like to take a second to extole the virtues of Quaker Instant Oatmeal.

1. It's delicious (I like the Fruit and Cream Variety)
2. It's really easy to prepare, which is great for mornings.
3. It's vegetarian friendly.
4. It makes me beleive in sayings like: "it'll put hair on your chest."
5. It's good for you (I think)
6. They put FOUR packets of peaches and cream, and only TWO of the other three varieties in the "Fruit and Cream Variety Pack" This is because they know that peaches and cream is the motherfucker of all oatmeals.

Someone will probably post a comment to this blog containing a link to a website about:

"Wilford Brimley making love with a Rhinocerous"

or

"Quaker Oatmeal: Illegal Slave Traders or Harmless Breakfast Company (both?)"

or

"Peaches and Herb: the last true representation of Rock'n'Roll"

I don't care. I'm gonna keep on eating my oatmeal.

For those of you that have never experienced Peaches and Herb, I suggest checking out the song "Love is Strange," which has the following incredible lyrics...

"Sylvia
Yes, Mickey
How do you call your lover boy
Come here, lover boy"