Walk-a-Thon 2012

We survived!

Here we are, hot and sweaty, after this year's PTA fundraising Rockin' Walk-a-Thon. The kids did GREAT! (And this year's shirt was a lovely shade of teal, much more pleasing than last year's bright red.)

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Fan-freakin'-tastic Smoothies

I posted previously about "Smoothies, Mamie-style" -  well, here's an update:

I made a HUGE batch of these fan-freakin'-tastic smoothies on the last day of spring break.  Put into plastic cups and covered, they can be FROZEN. Then all you have to do is get one out the night before and put it in the fridge. The next morning, your delicious smoothie is waiting for you, ready to slurp down! I  know several bloggers have posted about making "smoothie packs" with the ingredients pre-measured in a Ziploc bag, ready to blend in the morning. However, I am generally up too early in the morning to reasonably run the blender and make the kind of racket that would wake GrandmaT up.  Besides, I try to keep my before-school routine as simple and speedy as possible so as to maximize sleeping time.  We are fine with the quality of the pre-made/frozen/defrosted smoothies; you'll have to try it yourself to see if it's workable for you.

Here's the combo I made over spring break, and it is GOOD!

Ingredients for fan-freakin'tastic smoothies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Northland  blueberry/pomegranate 100% juice blend
• 1/2 cup Pacific Naturals organic unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 cup Fage Total non-fat Greek yogurt
• 1 heaping tablespoon Bob's Red Mill ground flaxseed meal
• BIG handful of organic spinach leaves
• 1 medium banana
• 2/3 cup frozen organic blueberries
• 2 cups (approx.) whole frozen strawberries

Add everything to the blender in the order listed.  Blend until smooth and all frozen fruit is incorporated.  This will make approximately two 12-ounce smoothies.

YUM!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Menu Plan 3/18/12 - 3/24/12

Back to the routine this week - spring break is over!

Sunday 3/18/12: Lentil Tacos with leftover Baked Salsa Rice; lettuce/tomatoes/cheese/sour cream/green onions for toppings [meatless].

Monday 3/19/12: Fettuccine Alfredo using whole-wheat linguini, Classico Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo sauce that I got on a good sale, and cooked chicken from the freezer; green salad; Garlic Muffins.

Tuesday 3/20/12: Mr. Mamie has class; I get in my magazine reading time at Barnsie. We'll probably eat at Pollo Loco - inexpensive and mostly "real" foods.

Wednesday 3/21/12: Easy Potato Soup (I made the mix last weekend) with corn, shredded cheddar, and green onions added; green salad; French bread [meatless].

Thursday 3/22/12: Easy Bean Tostadas with lettuce/tomatoes/cheese/sour cream/green onions for toppings; possibly rice on the side [meatless].

Friday 3/23/12: Burgers on the grill (using Costco organic beef patties); Oven Fries.

Saturday 3/24/12: Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches; Baked Beans (bumped from last week because I had a craving for Sesame Chicken and Yellow Rice, so we had that on the day when these Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches were planned.

Three meatless meals this week - yay!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Spring Break Geocaching Fun

As I mentioned in this post, we started Geocaching this spring break.  It's as fun as I always thought it would be!

After our first success finding "The Wicked Witch of the West - The Journey to Ahhz" we had mixed results later in the week.  On Friday, after gorging ourselves at the delicious new Kneaders restaurant, we went to the Chcuckwalla Trailhead on the west side of the BigTown. After a very short little hike we found FoxHogs #13.

 Mr. Mamie and Copper on the hunt (Chuckwalla Trail).

 Found FoxHogs #13!

After that we went into the BigTown and located a virtual cache, "Sheer Beauty."

Mamie outside of "Sheer Beauty."

After that we headed back to TheVillage to do a couple of errands. While there we attempted to find "Dr. Dental and Mr. Hide," but to no avail. We were a little disappointed, because we should have been RIGHT on top of it. We consoled ourselves with dinner from the the wood-fired Pizza Wagon, which sets up in the parking lot of the local movie theater (barring heavy wind, rain, or snow - but they ARE there in 110+ degree heat in the summer!).

Saturday morning we were up EARLY in order to pick up our share from the Bountiful Basket produce co-op at 7:30 a.m.  The basket was great: really nice apples, oranges, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, bananas, carrots, potatoes, a crenshaw melon, cabbage, and kale. I can't wait for it to be spring/summer and time for berries, stone fruit, and corn!

We headed out after bringing the produce home and making/eating some waffles for breakfast.  We did some errands, had lunch out, and then tried to find "The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round," a micro cache right near our lunch restaurant. No luck. Two no-finds in a row! We're feeling a bit discouraged.

We headed out south of town for Mr. Mamie to see a local landmark he hadn't been to before, and to also consider a hunt in a more rural area.  However, this is the weekend that the Blue Angels are in our area doing shows, and traffic was nutso out in the boondocks! People who wanted to avoid the crowds and traffic of the actual show area were driving all over the country roads pulling over and parking to watch the jets. We bailed on that scene and headed home.

This morning I woke up with a craving for bacon, but sadly, we had none.  Happily, IHOP DOES have bacon so we indulged in eating out AGAIN (I think we've set a new record in the last few days!) and plotted some hunts.  We started with another in-town micro-cache, "Sportsman's Paradise," but again despite feeling like we should be RIGHT AT IT, couldn't locate the cache. I don't think we're cut out for the micro-caches, because we tried one more unsuccessfully before heading for the hills.

Here's the view we hiked toward in search of "Not Too far Out Of Town."

Dark clouds over red rocks.

I was really glad to have on a warm fleece jacket and hat, and was even wishing for some gloves - the wind was bitingly cold as my bare hand gripped my hiking pole! We hiked for only a half-mile or so and were able to locate the cache - I'm standing over it in this photo.

The cache is concealed in a rock cairn at the base of that scrubby "tree."

We felt empowered by our success, so after a short but cold hike back to the car, headed to TheVillage for another go at "Dr. Dental and Mr. Hide."  On the way there it rained a bit, so we were glad to be out of the weather for a short while.  When we arrived back at the location it was windy AND now snowing, so we were super happy to locate the cache about 3 seconds after arriving - just needed a little more experience (and reading the logs helped, too!).  As a bonus, there was a travel bug in the cache, so we logged our first trackable discovery with " Best Friends (Woody)." I seriously cannot believe that we didn't find this cache in our first attempt!

On the way back home we detoured slightly and found "Stamped@Rlington 'Park'way" in Travellin'Dad's old neighborhood.  It was a quick, fun, and easy find - a nice way to end the day. I'm not posting pictures of these last two finds because it would reveal the location of the hides too much.

Here's what we came home too - a whole lotta hail!

 Hail on the street in front of the house.

 Hail in the back yard. We sent Copper out to check it out - he was unimpressed.

 

And finally, the neighbor chicken "Specky," visiting our front porch and getting rained/snowed on.

I am SO not ready to be back in school tomorrow - this spring break has been too much fun!

 

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Spring Day

Copper and Icarus, enjoying the sunshine and fresh air.

First Geocache Adventure

We went on our first Geocaching adventure today! This is something we have both wanted to check out for quite some time (years, in fact) and I can't imagine why we didn't do something about it sooner. After all, it combines two of our most very favoritist things: hiking and technology!

Our first hunt was a simple one. We had intended to go to Red Cliffs (a BLM park close by, one of our faves) for some hiking and/or rock scrambling. However, we got diverted and ended up going on past Red Cliffs to Silver Reef, a nearby "ghost town." Using Geocaching.com's iPhone app, we chose the "Wicked Witch of the West - Journey to Ahhz" cache to seek. The cache was only a few tenths of a mile from our starting location, over desert terrain that was easy hiking for people and doggies (Copper was with us). Using the app, we found the cache after a little hunting and felt EVER SO accomplished! On the walk back we made plans for how WE would design a cache... but that's getting ahead of things a bit! We better have a few more seeking successes before we think about hiding anything.

We then backtracked to Red Cliffs with the thought of doing a short hike and maybe seeking another cache. However, once there, it just felt too crowded with spring break campers so we decided to leave.  On the way home we stopped a couple of times to use the Geocaching app and see what the possibilities were - and they were MANY! We're really excited for more Geocaching fun!

On related notes:

Mr. Mamie got the bike tires all aired up and we took a spin around the block when we got home this afternoon. Looks like the bikes are ready to go for some rides, once a small adjustment is made on Mr. Mamie's.  We went to the grand opening of a new Dick's Sporting Goods store that was just built in the BigTown, and found the bike rack we want - a Yakima Bighorn.  It's not fancy or super expensive, but will suit our needs. I had a Yakima roof rack that I used for years on two different vehicles, and I'm excited to have a rack again so that we can do some bike adventures.

 

A couple of weeks ago we bought new hydration reservoirs for our hiking packs.  We got the Geigerrig "hydration engines" that pressurize and thus spray the water from the bite valve - no more sucking! With a spray valve, you can share your water with other people/dogs easily and hygienically, rinse your hands off, cool your face down... it's great! We're really happy with these new reservoirs and I'm sure they're going to get plenty of use in the coming weeks.

Hmmmm, I wonder if we'll be out seeking our second cache tomorrow... spring break is so great!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)