Gold Medal Sunday

We began the day with watching the Olympics. This evening, we are still watching them. Cora worked on her blanket. I cleaned up the back yard a little. And Cora did some other house work. We went shopping. We also went on a most interesting geocache/scavenger hunt.

My dear dad left it for me. Well, my mother worked hard on it, too. We started not far from our house and ended up 11 miles away just outside Cora's office. She rolled her eyes when she realized we were on the way to her plant. I liked one of the legs of the hunt, in that it ended up right next to my favorite winery. Piety Flats. Not one to pass up an opportunity to taste wine, Cora and I went inside. I tried their Pinot Grigio, not normally a fan of white, I actually think it was drinkable...and might, on hot evening try it out. I went ahead and bought a bottle of their Mercantile Red before heading off to finish the scavenger hunt (the blend is Cab Sauv, Syrah, and Merlot. Last year's had some Cab Franc in it...I liked it, too). Cora helped me with the entire thing, and actually found the clue on first stop, which was buried.

I had apparently stepped on it and dislodged the noise maker that was inside. We kept hearing a siren going off and I walked off thinking it was somewhere else...she pointed out that the noise was centralized. I came back with the spade and out popped the clue. We mistakenly attributed this feat of magic to my dad's genius. We later found out it was more a freak of gravity and my foot placement than my dad's strangely prescient planning. When we got to the end, just outside Cora's office window..., we found something well worth the trip...a few dog treats and some chocolates...and something trully important to us both: a Starbucks gift certificate!!! My parents rock!

I took the dogs over to the school to let them get some energy out and I have some video of them with their tongues hanging out. Unfortunately, I still have some work to do on learning how to edit video on Cora's Computer. She generously offered me the chance to practice with it whilst she worked on her blanket. I need to use another program, because the one I tried today sucked.

We bought several things today. I got a head light...not for the car, for my head. There is a cave on the south side of Mt. St. Helens that was created by the volcano. It is what is called a lava tube. It is the world's longest, I think, about 2 miles...forgive any mistakes, my info is from memory which is close to 20 years old. What happened was lava was flowing out of the volcano and it cooled and hardened on the sides and top of the flow, while the flow continued, then the eruption stopped and the lava ran out, leaving a hollow tube, which was later buried. My family and I went inside it many years ago. It was an awesome experience, which I want to share with Cora. Hence the head light...

We also bought baby clothes and a couple DVDs. One of the DVDs was a Chris Farley flick, may he rest in peace. It is Tommy Boy...a classic. Chris Farley, nevermind his drug problems, was a comic genius. My favorite part is the deer...oh, and the Bees...if you know the movie, you know what I am talking about. We also bought Stardust...I read the book because Cora said it was good...it was. The movie was good, too.

We also bought a couple camera cases...we couldn't decide! Nah, we got one for the video camera and one for the Elph...we have one for it, but it is a bit bulky, so Cora decided we needed one that was more...thin.

without a reason or introduction, here is a picture of the deck of the USS Hornet...

And while you are still here, I mentioned my dad's devious spirit earier, it isn't just him. I have done things to him, too. For instance, take these pictures below. My parents visited us in California and I took my dad to the USS Hornet and Mare Island Naval Base.

Here, we see my father in one of the drydocks at Mare Island. See how tiny he looks? He decided, in his brilliance, to see how long the dock was. He decided to pace off the distance. I walked along behind him, listening to him count. Up on the walls of the dock were numbers. I, rightly, comprehended these to be the distance from the mouth of the dock. I did not mention my assumption to my counting and somewhat silly-looking goose-stepping father. We got to end and he pronounced it to be 770 feet long, I tried to whistle softly and nonchalantly (didn't work), and said, "how about 785? He looked at me and asked how do you figure? I pointed to the numbers on the side. Fortunately, my father is NOT a violent man.