Out with Bill for a bite, drink and Golden Tee. The waitress served us the best Sparksbombs I have ever had. Even in stemware. Amazed they even had Sparks. What a treat in the middle of greater Minnesota.

Setting up camp. $11 a night, full hiptop service and electricty. Is this camping? Very nice way out here though.

Geocache in a mall parking lot in central Minnesota near Brainerd. Bill and I never got out of our cars. We needed each other on both sides to get it. We owned it with teamwork!

Off to Brainerd, MN. It's 42F/5.5C here now in Minneapolis and we're going quite a bit north. Should be good camping.

Late last week the radio in my hiptop died. Sad. Right after my warrantee expired too. So while I figure out what to do about replacing or repairing it, I've been using a Nokia 6610 and my friend Dave Lee's old Color Sidekick with a broken backlight. Last night, Bill and Kim let me borrow their old silver cam so I can at least post something!

This is what I would have posted photos of if I had a hiptop with a camera at the time:

Last Friday: Had dinner with my grandparents, extended family and Masako Memezawa, a friend of my grandparents from Japan who stopped in town on her way from São Paulo where she was at a conference. Although the language barrier was sometimes difficult, it was very good to see her again and talk about some of the music she listens to, what her family is up to and how her trip was. She repeated an invitation to me: "You are welcome to Japan." I must take her up on this when I am able to.

Last Saturday: Future cousin-in-law Walter's bachelor party. Long story short I had too much to drink, my cousin Nick got kicked out of Drink in Uptown and I barely remember my bus ride home. Photos would have been good.

Last Sunday: Dixie's Calhoun

to play Scrabble with Barry, Karyn and Bryan. I won the first two games, and Barry and I tied the third.

Tuesday Morning: A new IHOP opened right

near my work at 6am. Co-worker Nick and I were one of the first customers. Quite exciting, except it was as if the entire staff was on their first day at the job. Overly friendly, though. Fantastic chocolate chip pancakes.

Tuesday Evening: Meeting at my mother's house with my stepfather Randy and my sister Amy. Still trying to figure out how to get my mother's assets and estate handled. It's been extremely rough. I think we've just turned a corner and we're beginning to head in the right direction now.

Wednesday Evening: Bill lends me his silver camera and I take the photo of him and Kim, and in the late evening Amy Berg comes over and she smoked me in

Cribbage 2-4. I'm glad I didn't quit when it was 0-4.

Today, I'm heading up to Brainerd, MN for a geocaching event that the Minnesota Geocaching Association is hosting. My last day as a Board member is Saturday.

We'll see how the old silver cam works out.

Always a treat.

12C/53F, Minneapolis, MN. Quite nice really.

Out with some geocachers on a boat after breakfast to find a cache near a dam. Once we got out it started storming. At the cache site itself we left the boat to climb up to the top of a small bluff while there was lightning. Found the cache and snapped a quick photo. Ran out of oil, ran out of gas, but our captian Ray had backup of everything. Even though we all got pretty wet it was well worth the trip. Great cache. Thanks RayRoad!