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Have you ever heard of geocaching? I hadn't until a few months ago, but now I am hooked. Let me explain…

Geocahing is a highly addictive pastime that involves using a GPS unit to find little treasure boxes hidden..pretty much anywhere. Some of these treasure boxes, called geocahces or caches, are hidden out in the woods, and require long hikes to find. Others are hidden in town– you've probably walked right by dozens of them.

You can look up a cache and its GPS coordinates on geocaching.com, and use your GPS to get as close to it as possible. (Ours will get you withing a 20 foot radius.) Then you have to hunt. Some geocaches are as tiny as this one, which only contains a small paper for you to sign. Others are tupperware or ammo boxes, and are big enough to hold small toys and prizes. You can bring old toys and other gifts with you to trade when you find the cache.

Does that sound like fun? If you have a GPS, or know someone who'll let you borrow theirs, you should go out and try it. Just don't forget your bug dope, especially if you live here in Fairbanks. Not clear on all of this? Check out the geocaching faq for more information.

tags: geocaching, geocache

Happy Birthday/Celebration of Summer to my most beautiful baby girl! No purple cakes this year, but we will have bagels and a nice picnic instead. I hope you get everything you wanted. Except maybe for an ipod– I can't afford that.

I love you, lala.

Today is the last day of school, and it's dreary and gray out, and for me a little bittersweet. I feel unprepared for the onslaught of moving and traveling and being broke and changing jobs and just generally not knowing where I will end up. My principal interviewed in district candidates for the open first grade position on Wednesday. I haven't actually heard if someone has been chosen or not (I've been trying to mind my own business and not be too nosy), but I think things are over for me here. I boxed up all of my stuff yesterday and took it out to the car this morning. Now all that's on my desk is my computer, my coffee, and a few pencils. I took all of my extra office supplies down to the workroom and put them back. If I have to leave here it may as well be a clean break– physically and emotionally.

I don't like to see things end. But you know, they always do. [Insert cliched quote about life here.]

Monday morning I'm caught somewhere between "Wahoo, it's the last week of school," and "Yikes, I don't have a job for next fall!" After a long conversation with the principal it looks like the job vacancy at my school, which I've been working/schmoozing/hoping for since March, will not go to me. I have all of the qualifications, but the job is only available to teachers within the district who want to transfer. If they are all unacceptable for whatever reason then maybe I can apply as a non-current teacher, but it's highly unlikely. I'm a pretty disappointed, but I think the odds of getting a teaching job elsewhere are still pretty good. There's not a lot I can do at this point except wait for calls for interviews. Job vacancies for non-current teachers are not posted or advertised; they just call up some selection of applicants whose names they get from the district. So…well see.

In other news, R and I are moving next weekish into the house where we will be living for the summer. It is a pretty nice house, bigger than the one we live in now and out of town, but not too far. The owners have a dog and a cat and two hamsters and two mice and some fish, so we will be in charge of their menagerie as well as our own 2 cats. The dog will spend most of the time outside and the rodents will remain caged (hopefully!), so I think things will be OK. The only thing we're worried about is our cats not adjusting. Finn will probably be OK, Ollie is such a wuss that we may just never see him all summer.

I am working at the Catholic Schools summer day camp again this summer. That starts the first week in June, but I'll be going in before then to help out with the end of the school year and to get my room ready. I have a notebook with lots of camp ideas, so I hope that at least some of them will come to fruition. Last year I did a lot of fun stuff with them with a pretty minimal amount of planning, so I think if I work hard at it this summer we can really have a lot of fun. I like working at camp because it has all of the fun parts of school with none of the pressure to accomplish an entire curriculum. Like, school for fun and not for bureaucracy!

Have a lovely week, wherever you may be. It's in the 60's here and outdoors is a sea of baby leaf buds. I'll take that.

tags: summer camp, day camp, job hunting