Zooooooooom!!

You know what I just did? I just put an out-of-office notice on Outlook starting today at 5 PM. For the second time in a week! I'm such a grownup, seriously. Last week, my brothers came out and I took two days off, and then tonight, we're flying across just about the whole continent (better than flying across the country) to go hang out in VA for just about two weeks. Of course, we're pretty excited. There's excitement, then contagious excitement, then excitement where it's "Oh, that's cute." And then, "OK, too much." And then this. Sorry.

The initial idea was to go out and catch my friends in My Epic while they're in the studio. I've managed to get in the way at some point nearly every time they've reorded anything, and you have to keep a good thing alive. I haven't told Aaron I'm coming because I think highly enough of myself that I think it should be a surprise (you know, like a gift!). If you talk to him, don't mention it, OK? Then I realized that this little trip could be turned into a real live vacation just by flying back later. So we made plans to go to Lynchburg to see our friends and to Virginia Beach to see my family. We have a list of places to eat, things to see... places to eat... It will be good times. Also, if you're in Lynchburg and you have my number, give me a call! I'm sure I'd love to see you. Additionally, if you're in Lynchburg and I don't see you while I'm there, please please don't be offended! I really do love you. We have a short amount of time and a TON of people and places and things to see/eat.* We'll do our best, I just want to know that no one will take it personally if we don't catch you this time around. Don't worry. We'll be back at some point.

Some things of recent interest:
When Scott and Christopher were here, one of the things we did, in addition to showing them around Seattle, was to go out for some Geocaching. You, tech-savvy reader, may be all over this, but I had never actually done it before. Scott's mentioned it a few times, and I knew the overall concept, but having a chance to go and do it a little was awesome. Basically, the way it works is this: someone hides an object, usually some kind of elements-proof container somewhere on the planet, and uses a GPS unit to get the coordinates. Then they post those coordinates and some clues on a web site. Anyone can register, get the clues and the coordinates, and go hunting. The idea is that even with the coordinates, the treasure object is small enough and hidden well enough to be little puzzle, and that's where the clues come in. Some of them are pretty ingenious. We printed off four caches and set off to conquer. Short story: we were one for four. If you're reading this and have some hints on "Singularity" or "Sixth Sense," those two drove us nuts! The one we did find was in two stages. The first was a tiny magnet on the underside of a bench outside the library. The second was the cache itself, and it was located at the coordinates found on the tiny magnet at part A. The cache was a hide-a-key box magneted to another bench. There was a pencil and log sheet inside, which is how it usually is, so we recorded it and then moved on the get shut out everywhere else we tried to find anything.

So now I want to get a GPS unit. Really bad.

This is such an awesome thing to do! Being outside? Check. Hiking? Yeah, pretty much, check. Like hiking, except with a goal and at least nine more awesome? Check. Feels sort of like being Indiana Jones? Check. I'm going to start stacking my pennies up.

Also, I got a new game. (Speaking of stacking pennies.) It's called Power Grid, and it's A) a ton of fun, and B) much less off-puttingly complicated than the first read through the rules makes it sound. You really should check it out if you're at all board game inclined like me.


One more thing: Internet Explorer is stupid. If it would work like every other browser in the world and stop being so stupid, you'd be ignoring reading this on kentwalter.com like I planned on a while ago. Grrr... In any case, watch out for that, because it's designed and ready to go as soon as I get the IE thing figured out. Keep your eyes peeled.

* EDIT: Thank you, Urn. Yes, we will be eating TONS of people. Wish us luck.