Catching Up

I have just spent the last hour re-reading my blog and realized that even though I didn't letterbox for a few days, I could just catch up on some of the topics that I had mentioned throughout my writings. First, my health issues - I did have my angiogram on December 19 and the decision was made to wait another six months before we talk about any surgery. The carotid dissection (which I found out is the more scientific name for a pseudoaneurysm) at the base of my brain appears to finally be showing some signs of healing from the inside. Prior to the angiogram all of the tests were looking at it from the outside and no changes had been noted. But now the view from the inside gave the doctors some hope that it could be healing itself. I will be retested in June. By that time, this thing will be a fifteen months old and who knows if I will even want to consider surgery.

In good news, I had the pure pleasure of keeping Lil Milkmonster for the entire past weekend. He is growing up so fast, I wish I could post pictures of him here but his Mommy and Daddy have asked me not to. He is now pulling himself up into a standing position and enjoys using me as his Mimser gym. He never, ever slows down. Laura had sent a whole bag of toys along for him this weekend but he spent most of his time playing with two aluminum pie tins, two measuring cups, an empty computer paper box that I brought home from work and Barney's tennis ball. Bill spent so much time showing him how to roll the tenis ball back and forth between them and on Sunday was also showing him how to spread his little legs into a V so that the ball rolls between them. Bill also taught him how to bang the two pie tins together for maximum noise. At one point they had a concert going with Bill on the pie tins and Nicholas shaking a little musical rattle to accompany him.

Today I was showing a coworker some of the pictures from this weekend and she asked me why I was babysitting Nicholas. She was totally astounded when I told her it was because I wanted to spend time with him. She assumed grandparents only kept their grandchildren for a reason. I guess she could be right, my reason is because he totally fascinates me and I can't seem to get enough time with him. Thank heavens his parents also enjoy the fact that I want to be with him and allow me so much time with him.

I have picked up a new little sideline hobby to accompany my letterboxing. I had read about Markeroni on one of the Atlas Quest message boards and after investigating the website, decided it would be a fun thing to add to a day of letterboxing. It is simply a matter of photographing or even just visiting the historic markers in an area. Since letterboxes are so often in historic sites, what could be easier to do and in addition, I have a lot of photos of sites that I have visited already. Pennsylvania is full of historic sites, we are so rich in participating in the development of our country so this is going to be fun for me. I contacted the creator, Linda, and offered to enter the sites onto her website for the state of Pennsylvania and spent most of the last two weeks finishing up the Pennsylvania state markers. She requested that I begin with Berks County, which is my own county, and Centre County since another person had requested that Centre County sites be added. I got about half way through all of the state markers before I thought to look to see who the Centre County person was and had to laugh when I discovered that it was my own good friend, Terri aka True Indigo! As they say, it's a small world! You can read about Markeroni yourself at www.markeroni.com.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Bill had given me a Legend Etrex GPS unit for Christmas and I can now also play around with geocaches. It will take me a while to master this beast but I will! Now when I visit any area to letterbox, I can also get the historic markers and any local geocaches and will have so much to keep me busy in one site that I won't have to waste time to drive from spot to spot. Till I leave an area, there should not be too many nooks or crannies that I won't have visited.

Enough news for today, I hope to be out letterboxing this upcoming weekend and need to decide where to head. I could stay right here in Berks County and find the new letterbox in Nolde - yes, one more has been planted, and also look again for the mystery box which has been eluding me. And then I could go down to my least favorite park in the state, French Creek, and find the two Lightnin' Bug Zodiac boxes and the other mystery box that is there. Or I could travel a bit and explore a whole new area. Who knows where I will end up?