Wednesday, June 22, 2011 Lethbridge
5:00 am
The temperature is +12 C, with a high predicted of +26 C.
From the Environment Canada website:
Today Sunny with cloudy periods. High 26. UV index 8 or very high. Tonight Clear. Increasing cloudiness overnight. Low 12. Normals Max: 23°C Min: 10°C.
5:10 am Morning Musings
The last few days have been very busy, but not with pre-defined activities. Rather regular chores such as yard work, grocery shopping, and cooking (large batches of bean soup, chili) have been the main culprits. Having said that it is also true that I have been spending an inordinate amount of time struggling with Technology issues (e.g. Dreamweaver, Garmin). Nonetheless it seems that my goals are mildly unrealistic, at least at the moment.
Now for today.
Cooking will be at the top of the list. I want to try cooking some pork back ribs in the slow cooker. This is the result of a chat I had a few days ago with a friend. The same conversation led to a recipe for a strawberry/rhubarb pie.
The big unknown will continue to be the Technology problem I am having with Dreamweaver. This is a non-critical problem but an annoying one as I have to keep re-entering the login data every time I want to upload web pages to the remote server. Hopefully I will hear from Adobe soon.
6:30 am Cooking
The kitchen has been a busy place this morning. The baby back ribs are in the slow cooker and should be ready in about 8 hours. I received a lot of help with a strawberry/rhubarb pie and it is now in the oven. I have packaged the chili I made yesterday into small containers and they have been placed in the freezer.
Here are a few pictures:
[Addendum] The back ribs were fantastic. The cooking was even easier than barbequing. Just place the ribs the slow cooker, turn on, wait about 6 hours, and eat. The meat just fell off the bones. We have lots left over for "pulled pork" sandwiches. The pie was also delicious. I did the filling although even there it made a big difference to have someone who knew to peel the rhubarb. The crust was modified from a frozen pie shell to fit a slightly larger pie plate (I would not have known that this was necessary) so there is much Learning here.
7:00 am Technology
I have an email from Adobe and have indicated that they can phone me any morning this week to see if they can resolve the problem. I am impressed with the service that they are providing.
7:40 am Geocaching
Geocaching is beginning to take some time as I review various features of the numerous models that are on the market. I have been pleased with my Garmin nuvi and the service they have provided when I have run into problems. Let me try to summarize where I am at the moment.
My iPhone with the Geocaching App works well when I have good 3G connectivity but unfortunately this usually excludes remote areas away from major highways as well as in the mountains and coulees. Thus I need a GPS unit. I am focusing on Garmin devices.
The phrase "paperless caching" means that one can download complete cache descriptions into the unit. Clearly I want that. I am pretty sure I want to be able to load the microSD card containing the Backcountry Maps for Alberta and BC. I also want a compass as one of the displays. I do not have this with the nuvi and there have been a number of occasions when I had difficulty determining what direction to go to get closer to the cache. I do not need a camera as I have one in my iPhone (plus I usually take my Canon Rebel with me).
That would seem to leave:
- Montana 600
- eTrex 30
- GPSMAP 62s
- GPSMAP 78s
- GPSMAP 76CSx
- Oregon 450
I have had a brief look at the specs for the Montana 600. It looks great. I think it can handle both the Backcountry maps as well as the City Navigator series for North America. It does have a camera and makes it possible to record "Adventures" which allow one to combine track logs of trip as well as photos and geocache information. I like the large screen.
I am not sure what I will decide. TeamDJM suggested talking to the people in the store about my interests and see what they recommend. Makes perfect sense to me.
9:00 PM Geocaching
This was a beautiful evening so I decided to head out and look for a few caches on the west side of Lethbridge.
I abandoned my first search before I was within a hundred meters of the site due to a ball game being played at that location. But the next 4 searches were all successfull.
As the cache names indicate, all caches were part of the CARL3 event.
The countdown continues: my life-total is now 988, only 12 more finds to reach 1000.
Here are a few pictures:
The views of the river valley were a delight, but the mosquitoes made for a quick park and grab.