buckyd

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:54:52 GMT

You Are a Comma

You are open minded and extremely optimistic.

You enjoy almost all facets of life. You can find the good in almost anything.

You keep yourself busy with tons of friends, activities, and interests.

You find it hard to turn down an opportunity, even if you are pressed for time.

Your friends find you fascinating, charming, and easy to talk to.

(But with so many competing interests, you friends do feel like you hardly have time for them.)

You excel in: Inspiring people

You get along best with: The Question Mark

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Politics, for the record.

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 06:24:14 GMT

I'm glad the Republicans chose a woman as a VP candidate; it shows that the Grand Old (Boys') Party is coming around. Just 10 years ago such a nomination would have been unthinkable and even then, in the back rooms where the old white rich males hang out in their suits deciding the fate of the economy, they would have really had a big guffaw at the joke of putting a woman forward for such a position. I like the fact that she's lived a real life, and she has speaking skillz that indicate a working brain (despite the beauty queen cr@p - my own prejudice creeping in there).

Most importantly for me as a voter: she has such different beliefs than I on core social issues, and no experience with the really serious economy and foreign/wartime issues facing this country right now, I couldn't support her even if I was heavily biased to vote female. I also find it unfortunate that this particular woman has so much family drama, since she would be a "role model" for females if put in power. Other candidates have been dropped from political contention for "personal/family issues" with a moral flavor to them (think Gary Hart, John Edwards), so I don't find bringing up "troublesome" situations that are directly a part of her life versus any other Veep/Presidential candidate's life as sexist in any way. Obama's not getting criticized about his kids because they (1) don't require a bunch of additional care that something like Down's Syndrome entails, and (2) they aren't getting pregnant or making some other publicly-noticeable bad choice at the moment. Raising kids to make good choices is hard for everyone, so I'm not going to judge her personally by what's happened in her house -- au contraire, I feel for her. However, I feel justified in holding an opinion about the gravity of a situation and where I might have differed in handling it and the choices that I would make.

Those differences in the handling of situations are exactly why I can't vote for her to lead the country. It has nothing to do with McCain's heartbeat, because a Veep holds enough sway in their activities to make a difference even without the promotion. It has everything to do with the agenda for the country that this Republican Team has decided to go with.

Car repairs, episode 2: The Minivan Strikes Back

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:43:03 GMT

Yeah, so we bought this 11 year old Minivan from a co-worker of Dave's in May to replace the not-resurrected-from-the-dead-yet Jeep. It only had about 85k on it, but it was 11 years old so I knew that we'd be sinking some money into it in the not-to-distant future.

So, this morning I dropped it off at the corner Goodyear place that I've used for the VW and Jeep before -- usually for small/normal stuff like tires, brakes, and oil changes. I wrestled with the decision of where to take it for the last month or so, and figured that I didn't want to try a new shop with the unknown maintenance record of a new-to-us car. The 90k servicing trip to the dealership for the Jeep resulted in the wrong spark plugs being put in (according to the two garages in SF that the Jeep subsequently visited), so I wasn't going to take the minivan to a dealership, either. Here's the list at dropoff:

-3k interval maintenance inspection including oil change and tire rotation
-fuel filter changed
-fuel injector system flushed or something
-check fuses for interior fans and electrical sockets
-engine coolant system recharged
-air filter
-belt
-spark plugs
total estimate: 420$

Now we add to that:
-flush radiator
-repack CV joints/drive axle servicing
(Didn't do alignment, but that was recommended. Maybe next month...)
final cost: 1050$

But, the brakes are fine.

Yeah, the car was a great deal at 1750$, running and all with 85k miles and reasonably new tires. But, yeah, a 90k servicing is usually from $500 to $1k, and we haven't even fixed the busted A/C yet (next Spring, really), so you're really looking at $3k for the car so close to its 90k servicing. That is a fine price, but not some outstandingly great deal for a 11 year old vehicle with tons of stains and scrapes and dents and stuff. Not that this family doesn't bash around stuff we have anyway...

And, yes, I still have to figure out when I'm going to pour some more money into the Jeep. It is currently sitting in my brother's driveway. It looks like I need to cough up $500 for a clean computer and have my brother's friend set it up at the dealership to work in the car. The SF mechanic did this and it didn't fix the problem, but my brother's friend said that there was no way he could have done it correctly without taking the box to a dealership. I'm not sure what the SF mechanic did (he did have some tech at a dealership "download the codes for him"), but if a $500 computer can save a $5000 vehicle, I'm all for it.

So, today was the last full day...

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 05:28:28 GMT

...at my China Basin cubicle. I'm feeling a bit wistful, since that was a nice clean environment, reasonably uncluttered and a much easier public transit commute from my residence than other locations in the City.

On Monday I will start the process of juggling two mostly-separate research jobs, each at 50% time. There will be some continuity, since one is in the same department at the same institution working on a project headed by one of my peers from this last job who is recently promoted (although we're moving to a new physical location, assuming the computer resources get moved soon). The other 50% is on a project at the VA, way out in the non-public-transport nether regions of the city, with people that I've known as professional acquaintances through my last 6 years at the current full-time position (just never really worked for them, if you know what I mean). Then there's also the old boss, who has been essentially forced to leave the institution with the way things worked out. I like this person fairly well, and he is working hard to keep the career afloat with all sorts of "next big things" collaborating with "this person at that institution" and "that possibility with that person at that place". I'm kind of key to him getting set up, at least technically, if one of these opportunities should materialize, so that's another ball in the proverbial air to juggle. The tack he's taking could be very different and very interesting, as well (but also very risky). Outside of these two 50% projects, we'll need to get the research from the last two years published (doing so is directly in the interest of one of the 50% "bosses", so I've got some leeway there).

If I thought time and data management was tough in my just-previous environment, this may be even more of a challenge. I'm still thinking about all the options that one might pursue, transition-wise, over the next year, but in looking at what needs to be done to get current stuff to publication and the collected stuff there too, well, I think new math says that 50% + 50% is going to end up being equal to about 145%.

Just a hunch.

In the market for some Doc Martens?

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:02:44 GMT

For all you local Bay Area folks, I'm trying to sell mine here. First dibs to people I know, although I doubt any of you have use for 'em...

It's official...

Fri, 23 May 2008 06:01:09 GMT

Out of hundreds of bedtime books available for request (and suggested by Mom and Dad), Sammy the Seal can be asked for and read a whopping 5 nights in a row.

You heard it here first, folks.

I don't think we'll be packing Sammy the Seal for tomorrow's road trip to Sacramento over the weekend.

Addendum to yesterday's learning:

Thu, 22 May 2008 05:56:06 GMT

re: (1). The diaper doesn't have to be poopy if Daddy does the changing; Sammy the Seal gets read by the non-changer of any diaper (Mommy, in this case).

Just FYI and all that...

Things I've learned as a parent today.

Wed, 21 May 2008 03:47:01 GMT

(1) Changing a poopy diaper trumps having read Sammy the Seal for the last 3 bedtimes in a row.

(2) There is nothing wrong with wearing one's rainboots to bed, as long as a clean diaper and jammies are also involved.

At least it's Friday.

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:16:53 GMT

It has been sort of a good news-bad news day.

So, the good news: a grant with 25% of salary for me came in. We still have a couple multi-year grants out for review. My last friends-locked post explained what was going on at work, so if you're reading this and want the story you should check my previous posts or have me add you as a friend. The presence of money will make it easier for the lab to land someplace else, and me with it, hopefully with only minor hiccups in employment. I may try to keep M at her daycare full time through the summer, in the hopes that enough work will present itself and thus having her there won't eat my savings down to nothing in the process.

The bad news: after 2 weeks and 2 days in various car repair shops, the Jeep is no closer to revival. Granted, it spent a week at a shop that didn't do anything to it but store it (and change some random part that I suggested), and the last week has been spent waiting for the PCM (car's brain) to show up. I spoke with the shop owner this morning, and he's talked with a few Chrysler techs in the last week about the problem. They indicated that they're seeing more of the 2002 Liberty Jeeps with this problem. If the PCM (800$) doesn't fix it, then things internal to the engine have to be checked -- the Intake Manifold ($900), some other airflow regulation part, then all the way up to "bad heads" (a few thousand dollars). At 102k miles, having this sort of problem just indicates faulty engineering. I have no idea what my recourse is, if any. I still owe $3.5k on the loan. I don't want to put another $3k into the car. The Kelley Blue Book on it's trade-in value (if it were running in fair condition) is $3.9k, private party fair condition is $5.7k. I'm so frustrated with this, and I really don't need added financial pressures right now (see paragraph above).

Orbitz problems anyone?

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:47:44 GMT

I was wondering if anyone else has had problems with Orbitz and the hotel billing a credit card for the same night's stay. If so, what did you do about it?

Something is seriously wrong...

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 07:48:02 GMT

...with our current anatomical reconstruction pathway.

Last I checked, my brain was inside my head, thankyouverymuch.

Phew!

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:15:21 GMT

I breathed a sigh of relief this morning when I received an email stating that the reviewers accept our revisions to that oh-so-stubborn paper, with only a few minor things to do. I think I can do those within the next two days and be done with this >5 year project. Yay!

This little bit of good news picked me up quite a bit today, and as a consequence I finished all my revisions to a grant we're working on, made it to the post office and gas station, straightened the house, wrote code for the first of the minor revisions to the paper, and installed a new screen door.

Productivity, or not?

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 21:53:49 GMT

Well, I'm making some progress on things -- at least mentally I am -- after my last two posts of listiness.

At work, funding is still crappy and good grants are getting bad scores, even after getting great (but just on this side of unfundable) scores in their last submission. Things are just that wacky with NIH and NSF grant peer review right now. That sort of wacky-ness is also spilling over into publication peer review, but not quite as bad. It is almost like basing one's career on playing the lottery at this point: to even enter the lottery you need to buy a ticket; to enter the review process you need to have great work. Winning at either prospect appears to be a crapshoot at this time. This can change if the succeeding US administration changes in a positive direction for funding Basic and Biomedical research. Well, I guess lottery players don't have that kind of hope, so maybe I am actually better off than if I were playing the lottery. I'm extraordinarily happy to have gotten that one paper revised and back out there last week. The next two weeks we'll be working on a revision of an NSF grant that was oh-so-close to funding last submission. Yay. Somewhere in there I need to conduct the first full arm of the "official analysis" for the next project in line. I also wanted to finish segmenting and tessellating my brain. Just as an exercise for the lab analysis-path instructions, but I may not get to that if the grantiness goes sour. I keep getting trumped up by silly freesurfer installation issues and/or having to guess at the correct way to deal with paths when calling commands and options. Irritating, on so many different levels, but I'm not going to start ranting about that right now...

After the next two weeks of granty-goodness, we're taking a week off and driving to Phoenix to see family. We'll be there for my Dad's birthday, and we'll also celebrate mine as well (which is actually a week later). The road trip should be interesting, and once again disneys_belle comes to the rescue by loaning us a portable car DVD player to hang on the back of a headrest. I tried it out yesterday in the Jeep (although we're taking the VW for gas economy reasons), and it worked out well. Geo Baby enjoyed watching Elmo's Potty Time from the comfort of her carseat without the normal chattery questions coming from the back seat. My Netflix queue is now set to ship entirely from Geo Baby's subqueue as we return the stuff we have out now. I've got the drive out planned such that we take our time and stop for two nights before arriving mid-day in Phoenix. Hotel rooms have been arranged in Mojave and Blythe, which gives us about 5-6 hours of driving per day (with cache stops, that's not going to really happen, but for some of them Geo Baby will get to exit the vehicle as a break).

Geo Baby used her "big girl bed" last night after walruz and LeChuck put it together while she watched. She was excited to sleep in it last night, and we showed her how she could get in and out of it herself. She did well overnight. In the morning, she woke up and whined a little (as she usually does), but didn't get out of bed. I came to the door and asked if she was "wakers" and she sat up. I motioned to her to come to me, and she got all happy and crawled out of bed. She ran right to it and put herself to nap at midday today, under the promise of going to Chuck E. Cheese after nap. LeChuck is a rockstar, right up there with Elmo. She shrieks and runs around and tries to get his attention and stuff. It's really cute. They spent a half hour last night chasing each other through the hallway and living room, and made a fort out of all the Little People stuff we got from disneys_belle last weekend.

At beckerbuns' suggestion, I finally looked into jellyfish.com. I'm not a big shopper, and I have very little tolerance for generically-open chat rooms, but since I'm in the market to buy a couple of very specific things and like the whole "pointing" and "coin-betting" thing I've been spending a fair amount of time with it running in the background. I really found the straight link-to-shop part of it better than the reverse-auctions, as the prices that jellyfish finds decent prices and perhaps with the cash-back option it will even be economical (provided I don't buy things we don't need/want in the first place).

Anyhow, I usually put list stuff as F-O, but I'm not going to bother this time around.

Work:
-Examine the variables written in the results file of new version of bispectrum_tool. (yeah, yeah, this was on the list last week...)
-Write code to extract necessary variables for GLM analysis of Disc Data. (this one too...)
-Annoy IT about problem doing reconstruction of Freesurfer volume (missing file from installation?)

Home:
-Figure out whether we should break down crib or keep it there (using it as storage or something)
-Look for discount Britax booster seat on Jellyfish.
-Get Regalo toddler travel bed. (actively working on this via jellyfish or use target gift card online by Tuesday)
-Find a birthday present for my Dad. (I've no clue on this one)
-Sign up for extension class before Feb 14th. (see, this was on my last list and I've made progress by figuring the deadline out)

In this New Year...

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:41:07 GMT

I hope everyone gets their "pony"...

Mallory was much more in tune with the holidays this season than last. Not wildly surprising, I know, but she gravitated to some events more than others. I wanted to note these so that we may repeat them for her in the future.

#1 by far: Putting up the Tree with David.
#2: Having her parents take vacation for two weeks to spend with her doing playground-y things and visiting Kid-oriented hangouts (like Chuck E. Cheese's).
#3 (distant): Seeing Candycane Lane in Pacific Grove and getting a candy cane from Santa there.
#4 (distant): Opening the Santa present (the only toy that day) and seeing the stockings up in the morning.
#5 (even more distant): Hanging out with her cousins at the extended family present exchange.

Guess I should starting thinking about this soon...

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 07:01:24 GMT

As seen in beckerbuns journal:

96% Hillary Clinton
94% Barack Obama
93% John Edwards
93% Bill Richardson
91% Chris Dodd
78% Joe Biden
71% Mike Gravel
68% Dennis Kucinich
52% Rudy Giuliani
45% John McCain
39% Tom Tancredo
38% Mike Huckabee
35% Mitt Romney
24% Fred Thompson
17% Ron Paul

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

I was kind of surprised at these results, as I recently find myself "liking" parts of various candidates that appear in the red part of my list (all though I am by no means confusable with a Republican). Perhaps I'm starting to fall prey to the soundbite syndrome???

Maybe I'll go and take the quiz tomorrow morning and see what the reliabiilty of it really is...

I mostly answered the same stuff, but changed two or three answers that could have gone either way for me. I also was less "opinionated" on the amount that I cared for each question, mostly:

93% Bill Richardson
92% Chris Dodd
91% Hillary Clinton
89% Barack Obama
88% John Edwards
77% Joe Biden
65% Mike Gravel
61% Dennis Kucinich
56% Rudy Giuliani
51% John McCain
41% Tom Tancredo
38% Mike Huckabee
37% Mitt Romney
26% Fred Thompson
17% Ron Paul

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Apparently, I want it all (but no gifts, please)...

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 05:54:16 GMT

I saw this on the journals of both deedeebythebay and cyan_blue and thought I'd be pretty difficult to categorize.

The Five Love Languages

My primary love languages are probably
Acts of Service and Quality Time.

Complete set of results

Acts of Service:		8
Quality Time:		8
Words of Affirmation:		7
Physical Touch:		6
Receiving Gifts:		1

Information

Unhappiness in relationships, according to Dr. Gary Chapman, is often due to the fact that we speak different love languages. Sometimes we don't understand our partner's requirements, or even our own. We all have a "love tank" that needs to be filled in order for us to express love to others, but there are different means by which our tank can be filled, and there are different ways that we can express love to others.

Take the quiz

So, I've been back...

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 06:34:13 GMT

Yeah, I was gone. Off to San Diego for a 5 day conference. Saturday the 3rd to Wednesday the 7th.

What? You didn't miss me?!?

Got a lot of caching done. It was great. Unfortunately, the time changed when I got there, and I didn't have much daylight to do the caching. Bummer. Came back Wednesday night, then completed a final for my class on Thursday, some clean-up at work on Friday, and a busy caching-event weekend with the whole family (including LeChuck). Yesterday was cleaning house and today saw a couple work deadlines met.

Been saving up the list of reading that I've done lately. Got three under the belt now: A Stephen King Hard Case edition, and two Christopher Moore Books -- Practical Demonkeeping and Lamb. What? You think I should have more fun-reading done after being in a hotel room for 4 nights?!? Yeah, probably, but I was busy night-caching.

That's about it. Really having issues with career progression, and trying to decide if the academic path is actually worth all the trouble. 'Scuze me while I get another glass of wine and ponder the situation...

Ahhh, roast turkey...

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:09:34 GMT

I found this while I was doing some other research, and really enjoyed the commentary. While I know this isn't a reputable source, it still makes me want to revisit what I teach my daughter about why we eat turkey on Thanksgiving (when she's a little older), rather than stay the party line: A celebration of the welfare the Native Americans provided to Europeans.

http://www.subgenius.com/scoop/X0011_THE_SCOOP-_The_Stuff.html

The 2 year well-baby visit.

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 05:22:15 GMT

Today I took Mallory in for her 2-year doctor probing. It took for-ev-er to actually get in to be seen, and then for the various ins-and-outs of the components of the visit. Mallory had lost patience with sitting nicely in the waiting room by the time we were called, and was bored with the exam room well before the doctor entered. This wasn't because she has so little patience for her age, but rather because it was long enough that I was bored too.

We were on time at 8:30. It seemed like a full 20 minutes or so before we were taken to an exam room. Then another 10 minutes between the nurse intake and the doctor's exam. Then another 5 minutes (which was probably speeded up by Mallory's loud jabbering) between doctor leaving and nurse entering for shots. We left the clinic at 10 am. This wouldn't have been so bad (a half hour later than I'd anticipated), except now we'd missed snack time and hadn't had breakfast before we left home (in order to be on time for the appt).

Anyhow, she measured in at 28 lbs and 34 inches. She looked like she might have been another half-inch taller if she hadn't been wiggling around and arching her back to look up when they were measuring her, though. It was recommended that we switch to lowfat milk and consider having her see a dentist, as she has all of her baby teeth now and is working on mastering the art of toothbrushing. Then, 2 shots: HepA and the first flu installment. Afterwards, we were off to get some food in the poor moppet at Panera, and then drop off at daycare.

Mallory starts the 2s room!

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:46:33 GMT

Off to school with the (sorta) big kids!

Aw, heck...

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 05:02:11 GMT

If ya wanna, well, let me hear it... Post answers in a comment here, or however these things work.

1. Do you have a tattoo?
2. How old are you?
3. Are you single or taken?
4. Eat with your hands or utensils?
5. Do you dream at night?
6. Ever seen a corpse?
7. George Strait or Jay Z?
8. How did we meet?
9. What's your philosophy on life and death?
10. If you could do anything with me, and have no one know, what would it be?
11. Do you trust the police?
12. Do you like Country music?
13. What is your fondest memory of me?
14. If you could change anything about yourself what would it be?
15. Would you cheat?
16. What do you wear to sleep?
17. Have you ever peed in a pool?
18. Would you hide evidence for me if I asked you to?
19. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together?
20. Which do you prefer - short or long hair?
21. Do you sing in the shower?
22. What's your favorite color?
23. If you could bring back anyone that has passed, who would it be?
24. Tell me one interesting/odd fact about you?
25. What was your first impression of me?
26. Have you ever done drugs?
27. Will you post this so I can fill it out for you?

Time to cross fingers...

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 02:41:56 GMT

After a very intense day of final revisions, I have resubmitted the revision of the paper I was going on and on about here in my LJ back in July. Hopefully I've addressed the referee's concerns adequately, and with as little snark as possible in the Response to Decision. Fingers crossed!

Back to work...

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:51:42 GMT

Alright, so I got a little taste of SAHM-ness last week.

It wasn't bad, but I really did keep us moving around so that little-miss-find-trouble wouldn't get bored and find some trouble. I think she enjoyed having Mommy to herself, and (mostly) paying 100% attention to her. I didn't finish any of my personal reading, nor did I actually do all the personal errands that I thought I'd get around to, but it didn't really matter in the end. We found a @#*%%$^-load of geocaches, and that seemed to work for us. Outings keep the boredom at bay for the little girl and satisfy a craving to find geocaches and visit new places for me. We visited both the Palo Alto and San Lorenzo duck ponds. We strolled and played in Los Gatos parks, Mountain View parks, and Alameda parks. We visited Grandma at the end of the week with Daddy.

So, I finished my two books this week while going to/from work (yes, I was trying to read two at a time, choosing based on my mood):

The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King (liked this one, what's not to like about quick Stephen King reads that feature Flagg?).

The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank (equivocal on this one). It was well-written and interesting enough to finish, but I guess I just get impatient reading books about people who are living a very upper middle class East Coast existence whine about it. I met a lot of people just like this while I was in Grad School at Columbia. The kind that went to "The Cape" or "The Shore" or "The Vineyard" every summer for about two months. Even upper middle class people in the SF Bay area live in their homes during the summer, and just go somewhere else for a week's vacation or something. They don't have to move to take a vacation. People in New York would do all sorts of strange "telecommuting" from their vacation homes. [sarcasm] I'm sure lots of work gets done out by the beach/pond/shore... [/sarcasm] If I had wanted to "telecommute" from my Mom's place in Monterey, it wouldn't have been allowed. I tried that tack once. They thought I was joking. Go figure. I suppose this is why I moved back to California, eh?

Ahhh, vacation...

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 05:26:14 GMT

Of course we're spending the week taking adventures (a.k.a. local geocaching) together. This photo was from this morning, as we hung out at some picnic tables near a cache that has eluded me for the last two years.

I finally found it, and I was one happy camper. I think this emotion resonated with Mallory as well.

Anyhow, we're trying to hit kid-friendly caches in parks and playgrounds and places with lots of duckies and geese. We also sit awhile for snack and lunch, and get home before walruz, so our days aren't the juggarnaut of caching that other cachers on vacation might do in a day. If we just stayed home, Mallory would get bored and start testing the boundaries we've set at home (which is what she tends to do when she's bored or not engaged with somebody or project). I think we'll go visit Grandma this weekend, so more toy-centered playing can be done.

On Saturday, the three of us took a hike down Alpine Road from the Page Mill trailhead to where they shut it off to traffic. Mallory did a fair amount of walking, until walruz got tired of going really slowly and negotiating directions with an almost 2 year old... Here she is at the second cache stop, hydrating (because we all -- including her -- know how important that is).

Yesterday we visited "Duckies on the Pond" at San Lorenzo park. At this point, she actually says "find the cache", "look for cache", and other variations thereof when we say that's what were doing there. She knows what a cache is, that's for sure. I doubt many 2 year olds have that in their repertoire... I got a few photos of Mallory that I really liked:

Having snack.

Looking for the cache.

Seeing the cache (that Mommy just put back).

And, of course, reading:
Last week's commute reading was The Long Walk by Bachman/Stephen King. I really liked it, although it was quite maudlin. Kind of Lord of the Flies-like, in a way...

Camping at Big Basin

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 23:21:02 GMT

When I was little, I used to like going on camping trips. My dad would take my brother and I out to some park somewhere in his little yellow 1975 Honda Civic and we'd pitch a couple tents and enjoy eating out alfresca... The first memory I have of camping was at Big Basin State Park.

walruz has the pics of our tent and campsite, I have some photos I took during the hike the next day. Maybe he'll post one or two as well... (ETA: he's sent me a couple to post here with my story instead).

We were staying at a tent campsite in the Blooms Creek campground, just southwest of HQ. I took the day off on Friday to get everything together and loaded into the car, and then picked up Mallory from daycare just after their afternoon snack time, around 3:30. Then it was off to pick up Dave at work around 4:30, since it was basically on the way to the Santa Cruz Mtns. We arrived at HQ around 6, taking the Winchester --> 85N --> Saratoga --> Hwy9 route. We weren't going to do any caching on the way there, so as to check in and set up camp/dinner before it got dark, but I couldn't resist stopping at one cache that I had DNF'd about 3 years ago during a backpacking trip. It was right on Hwy236 into the state park, so I figured we could stop for 5 and get it.

This is what the caching scene looked like for us at the park, with #3 being the HQ cache:

We arrived at HQ and checked in. We were assigned at that point to the Blooms Creek campground, number 152, after a query about the size of our tent (which is on the small side for car camping). The site was fine, with a few detractions. The satillite bathroom was right next to the site (with flushing toilet, but not the main campground bathrooms, which was a building with a few stalls, sinks, and showers). The picnic table was on a slight slope, which was only an issue for using my backpacking stove to boil water. We scoped out an adequate area to set up the tent, but did have to position it so that our heads were at the top of the slight incline. In retrospect, we should have just moved over to the neighboring campsite (#151), since it looked flatter and no one ended up using it that night (although some people did come by, pull in, and check it out before leaving again).

Setting up and making dinner ended up being a stages thing. The food all got ready at different times. We had chicken and apple sausages on the backpacking grill over the fire ring, corn in the husk on the fire ring grill. I had a surprisingly difficult time making Minute rice with my backpacking stove and after spilling a third of it due to the slope of the table (I had to keep holding the pot on the stove, or it might slide down), I also made some miso-soup-in-a-cup, thinking that we didn't have enough to eat. Turned out Dave didn't want rice anyway and the soup went uneaten after all. I actually was so busy trying to get Mallory to eat things, and cook things, that I really didn't eat all my food or all that I wanted. We ended up throwing the soup away, as well as my ear of corn. Oh well, next time I'll try to plan better.

Mallory was getting tired, so Dave tried to put her down to bed in the tent. Then we had some visitors (some other geocachers were staying in the backpacker's camp, and we used our FRS radios to invite them over to our fire for smores when we got to HQ). Mallory popped back out of the tent, so she got to sit around the campfire, too. We put the smores on the grill, and had people toast their own marshmellows. Mallory had a graham cracker and walked around singing Twinkle Twinkle for everyone's entertainment. She really wore herself out.

When our visitors left, we packed up our equipment and food and put it in the car (racoons, ya know) and then retired for the evening. Just before we all got settled in, I popped out of the tent to use the nearby facilities. On the way back, I startled two little racoons, that looked back at me with the flashlight with their little eyes expressing something like "Oh, we're early. Sorry 'bout that, don't mind us, we'll just hide in this hollow tree 'till you're done." (not 10 feet from the tent, mind you). Mallory thought it was great fun to sleep in the tent with Daddy and Mommy. She stayed put with us in there, and eventually we drifted off to sleep to the sound of racoons scratching around for the extra minute rice...

It was loud in the campground, though, and I don't think that Dave or I slept particularly well. Then it got cold, and Dave really didn't like using my backpacking sleeping bag opened out as a sorta blanket, so I went out to get my emergency car blankets out and I used the sleeping bag, which helped immensely and we were all back to sleep. Then some kid down the hill started screaming bloody murder, and it seemed to go on for-ev-er! I couldn't believe that the parents couldn't soothe the kid in any sort of way. In fact, it didn't sound like the kid was being interacted with at all -- perhaps they were ferberizing or something? If Mallory had screamed that long without being consolable, we would have all been packed up and driving out of there -- we had even discussed it. Anyhow, Dave said he heard some adults get in on the situation and eventually the kid stopped. The next thing I remember is waking up to Mallory's morning groan around 6:30, and the next day began.

Mallory and I in the tent:

We had tea, chocolate milk, milk, and oatmeal for breakfast, all courtesy of the backpacking stove. Then we started getting ready, brushing teeth, and packing up camp. Mallory had a lot of fun wandering around, talking to some other young girls staying at the campsite across the way, and examining leaves. She also liked going in and out of the tent if someone else was in it.

We headed over to HQ and did the Old Growth Cache, while meeting up with some of the other geocachers. Kneeling - 50-sumtin, WalruZ, ProtecCC, CTomcat. Standing, in careful order - JasmerB, TripleP220, BuckyD, Geo Baby, Hotshoe, AirSax, ChangesInLatitudes, Calipider, Vaudesir, WorkerOfWood, British Invasion, Size14Shoe.

We then hiked up the north-eastern section of the Skyline-to-the-Sea trail in Big Basin over to the Sunset trail. This was actually a detour, as there was a slide closure on the S2S trail for the portion we would have normally taken. The sunset trail was mostly uphill, until we hit Big Hihney Cache. Then we reconnected with S2S to get to Big Basin Cache. After this cache is where we left the group, or rather, let them go ahead of us. We weren't doing the full hike they had planned, but went partway before venturing off on our own.

Our path out is roughly drawn in black, and our return trip is in purple:

Our turnaround stop was Kelly Timms Creeks Cache (marked on the map with a crudely-drawn black circle), and a nice place for a long snack and drink before heading back uphill.

Yes, that's one of the creeks behind Mallory. Not sure whether that was Kelly or Timms, but it was a fun spot to throw leaves and twigs into! We saw two banana slugs here as well, and Mallory got up the nerve to touch them. Later, just as we were leaving here and starting the uphill climb, Mallory would hike a little (her own idea) and touch a fern leaf as well as watch a millipede saunter across our path on the trail.

We found a really nice spot on the way back uphill, between the Kelly Timms Creeks and Big Basin caches. We stopped at this spot, enjoyed a nature-made couch and coffee tables, placed a cache, and let Mallory just run around and explore. Here are some photos from this stop on the hike:

Playing with Mom's new nature tripod, and 10 second delay on the camera.

"Hello? Hello?"

Mallory decides that trail mix with M&Ms is really really really good.

Yummy yummy!

Mallory showing some toddler 'tude.

Another shot of the family.

It was a really nice trip. I'm glad to see Mallory do well with camping and the hike was a lot of fun with the long stops to play. There is very little poison oak in Big Basin, and no ticks to speak of in the general park area, and while there are little garter snakes, there are no rattlesnakes in the basin area, so most of what you normally worry about on a hike isn't there.