And another good time was had by all! Thanks to everyone that came for making this a wonderful weekend of boxing! The Highlander and I had a ball Saturday and it seemed like everyone left happy with the amount of boxing and socializing available, which is all we ask for! We even had a great time Sunday with Jiggs (sorry we lost you after lunch, man!), Craftmouse and Dandelion. I just posted Mama Rose's pics to the AQ site and the photo folder at the Yahoo group (plus I'll add them to our wrap-up page on our website), but if anyone else has pics to share, please post them as well!
Thanks to all who donated boxes, food, raffle items and, of course, money...we actually broke even for a change on the supplies and pavillion! :-) And SUPER special thanks to my planting partners, without whom we could not have done this...the IAP, Celtic Quinn, Silver Dragon Quinn, Mama Rose, Judomon, Little Tiger and Dances With Music (hope we're not forgetting anyone!).
The majority of these boxes are out here forever, but ALL of them are here for the next month, so feel free to return to the area and box again. Keep in mind (now that you won't have a herd of folks behind you as you box waiting to stamp in!) to take the time to rehide all the boxes as well, if not better than you find them so we've have a series that people can enjoy for years to come.
Finally, we'll be sending the t-shirt money to the makers this week and will contact all of you via AQ and this group when they finally arrive. If you can still get money to us this week, we can still get you a shirt, but e-mail us ahead of time so you'll know if we've placed the order yet.
Well, that's it for now! We're gonna find a spot to night box in October, but until then, how about a camping weekend in Allegeny NEXT August? We'll check it out and hope to see you there for the 4th Annual WNY Gathering!
The (happy, but exhausted) Sprite & the (exhausted, but happy) Highlander
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Atlas Quest Ceremonial Candle Affirmation
(looks up briefly from lighting incense at her Atlas Quest shrine and dusts off her ceremonial AQ acolyte robes) Yeah, some people get really into Atlas Quest, but not me. I just...hang on a second (turns to yell at the Highlander) I said FIVE ceremonial AQ candles to be lit by NOON, not FOUR! Are you TRYING to anger the boxing gods???
Well, after this post on the Premium Boards at Atlas Quest, it was apparent that we needed to put our candles where our mouths were! So, after getting candles and our Springchick from AQ headquarters, we did Ryan one stupider and draped ourselves in the ceremonial robes to proceed with our Affirmation Ceremony.
We lit the appropriate number of candles (5), knelt at the AQ shrine (okay, sat at the picnic table with it) and spoke aloud the affirmation, thereby invoking the true spirit of letterboxing. We also read from the Book of Speedball, verses 2004-2005 and sacrificed a huge horsefly that landed on Moonlightgamer's back while we were stamping. At the end, most of us signed into the event book with the official AQ pencils, too. There was even a little bloodshed as both Celtic Quinn and Moonlightgamer were both stung by yellowjackets trying to get the "What A Boy Wants" LB out of the tree (which they successfully did, I might add!)...oh, and when I reached into my backpa...er, ceremonial bag of holding for the pencils and stabbed myself with 5 of them. I think we must have done it wrong, though, since we STILL don't have a clue! (we did kinda wait until AFTER noon to light the candles...darn it!) :-)
Even though this was a sacred gathering, it WAS an official event with its own event stamp and flash photography was allowed. Celtic Quinn should be posting the pics from this once they get home from boxing and upload them to the photo album on AQ and LBNY. We posted the Book of Speedball as well for folks to laugh at (in reverance, of course!). All in all, a hilarious day at Rotary Park, but a very weird one for the folks that lived nearby and saw us in our ceremonial robes and hats (which were NOT just sheets from the closet, the hat from an old Halloween costume and a pillow on my head, no matter WHAT the investigating officer says!).
The (sitll peeling wax off the green satin sheets) Sprite and the (reluctant to put away the ceremonial purple pimp hat from last Halloween) Highlander
Well, after this post on the Premium Boards at Atlas Quest, it was apparent that we needed to put our candles where our mouths were! So, after getting candles and our Springchick from AQ headquarters, we did Ryan one stupider and draped ourselves in the ceremonial robes to proceed with our Affirmation Ceremony.
We lit the appropriate number of candles (5), knelt at the AQ shrine (okay, sat at the picnic table with it) and spoke aloud the affirmation, thereby invoking the true spirit of letterboxing. We also read from the Book of Speedball, verses 2004-2005 and sacrificed a huge horsefly that landed on Moonlightgamer's back while we were stamping. At the end, most of us signed into the event book with the official AQ pencils, too. There was even a little bloodshed as both Celtic Quinn and Moonlightgamer were both stung by yellowjackets trying to get the "What A Boy Wants" LB out of the tree (which they successfully did, I might add!)...oh, and when I reached into my backpa...er, ceremonial bag of holding for the pencils and stabbed myself with 5 of them. I think we must have done it wrong, though, since we STILL don't have a clue! (we did kinda wait until AFTER noon to light the candles...darn it!) :-)
Even though this was a sacred gathering, it WAS an official event with its own event stamp and flash photography was allowed. Celtic Quinn should be posting the pics from this once they get home from boxing and upload them to the photo album on AQ and LBNY. We posted the Book of Speedball as well for folks to laugh at (in reverance, of course!). All in all, a hilarious day at Rotary Park, but a very weird one for the folks that lived nearby and saw us in our ceremonial robes and hats (which were NOT just sheets from the closet, the hat from an old Halloween costume and a pillow on my head, no matter WHAT the investigating officer says!).
The (sitll peeling wax off the green satin sheets) Sprite and the (reluctant to put away the ceremonial purple pimp hat from last Halloween) Highlander
LBCNY & LBWNY merge into LBNY!
Well, after asking whether or not folks wanted to change our Letterboxing Western New York shirt to say Letterboxing New York, the two New York State Yahoo groups have merged into one (and the shirt is changed, too!). The new site is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LbNY/ and we definitely encourage everyone to join. The LBWNY group will be closing down after the gathering to promote unity within the state. The t-shirt has already been changed to say LBNY, too, so all is well in NYS boxing!
In other changes, this has become our official site from now on. Having a place to post all these updates without having to update a webpage is a much nicer prospect, so expect more info to be posted on a more regular basis.
On that note, Trogdor (one of our boxes inspired by the Millenium is now selling Trogdor t-shirts and happens to also be right near where the box is currently located...fate works in mysterious ways!
Gathering proceedings continue! Currently, the Quinn clan and friends are joining us for a little irrevent fun at the expense of Atlas Quest...check out the link for the Atlas Quest Cermonial Candle Affirmation. The shrine has been made, the PZCut has been fattened, the ink has been huffed on and I'm still looking for decent robes to wear...they just don't make graduation gowns as sturdy as they used to!
Anyway, that's all that's new with us this week...check back in a few days for last minute updates. I'm going to attempt to get my sleep patterns back in order before school starts up again (good luck with THAT, seeing how it's already 2:17am and the Highlander has been out cold since10:30!)
The S & H
In other changes, this has become our official site from now on. Having a place to post all these updates without having to update a webpage is a much nicer prospect, so expect more info to be posted on a more regular basis.
On that note, Trogdor (one of our boxes inspired by the Millenium is now selling Trogdor t-shirts and happens to also be right near where the box is currently located...fate works in mysterious ways!
Gathering proceedings continue! Currently, the Quinn clan and friends are joining us for a little irrevent fun at the expense of Atlas Quest...check out the link for the Atlas Quest Cermonial Candle Affirmation. The shrine has been made, the PZCut has been fattened, the ink has been huffed on and I'm still looking for decent robes to wear...they just don't make graduation gowns as sturdy as they used to!
Anyway, that's all that's new with us this week...check back in a few days for last minute updates. I'm going to attempt to get my sleep patterns back in order before school starts up again (good luck with THAT, seeing how it's already 2:17am and the Highlander has been out cold since10:30!)
The S & H
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Ceremonial AQ Robes and Gathering Update
Well, after SERIOUS hiking yesterday with Silver Dragon, Celtic Quinn and our new boxing buddies, Dances With Music and Mama Rose and the Rosettes, all the boxes for the gathering have at LAST been planted (plus we found the last two Penefield parks boxes without a hitch!). We were able to get every single box (yes, EVERY box!) into Durand Eastman Park, so this promises to be a day of boxing euphoria beyond compare! In addition, most of these boxes are permanent plants, so anything you miss in the 60+ boxes should still be available for at least a month, if not longer.
We're still trying to come up with ways to work this t-shirt thing by August, too, but we don't see it happening unless we A) do iron on transfers or B) find another person willing to silk screen the shirts for us with our logo. If anyone knows someone who can silk screen shirts that we order for FREE, let us know! :-) Again, we'll still get shirts, just not as fast as we'd hoped.
Also, as part of a joke that was posted on the Premium Boards at Atlas Quest, Ryan (Green Tortuga) has, in fact, sent over the ceremonial AQ candles and Springchick! :-) We plan to send him a nice photo album of our AQ ceremony invoking the spirit of letterboxing this weekend. It's going to be campy and stupid (needless to say, the Quinn Clan is automatically involved), but we'll post the pics when we're done!
The (scrubbing her acolyte/graduation robes to a spotless...er, black) Sprite & the (sharpening the sacrificial Speedball cutter and fattening the PZCut) Highlander
We're still trying to come up with ways to work this t-shirt thing by August, too, but we don't see it happening unless we A) do iron on transfers or B) find another person willing to silk screen the shirts for us with our logo. If anyone knows someone who can silk screen shirts that we order for FREE, let us know! :-) Again, we'll still get shirts, just not as fast as we'd hoped.
Also, as part of a joke that was posted on the Premium Boards at Atlas Quest, Ryan (Green Tortuga) has, in fact, sent over the ceremonial AQ candles and Springchick! :-) We plan to send him a nice photo album of our AQ ceremony invoking the spirit of letterboxing this weekend. It's going to be campy and stupid (needless to say, the Quinn Clan is automatically involved), but we'll post the pics when we're done!
The (scrubbing her acolyte/graduation robes to a spotless...er, black) Sprite & the (sharpening the sacrificial Speedball cutter and fattening the PZCut) Highlander
Monday, August 08, 2005
Tips For Attending a Gathering
As promised, here's some info we've compiled on what to do if you're attending a gathering. Rather than post a big log here, we've stored it as a printable document here: http://www.geocities.com/dasprite222/gtips.doc Ryan also has it posted on Atlas Quest, so if you can't bring up our file, just go right to this link and print this instead: http://www.atlasquest.com/events/tips2.html
New/Old pics & Box Updates
Hey, we just added pics to the Atlas Quest event page for the November 2004 WNY gathering! Just click here to see them http://www.atlasquest.com/events/event.html?gEventId=37
I also went ahead and added all the boxes that were donated to Atlas Quest. The owners will be able to add the clues to LBNA after I post them, but since LBNA doesn't have a way to show an adoption, I decided to let them choose whether or not they want to list the boxes there.
Still time for those of you who haven't to sign up to come in August. Just click on the link to the right to go straight to the event page and sign up. It's going to be big...5 more boxes showed up this weekend that we have to add!
I also went ahead and added all the boxes that were donated to Atlas Quest. The owners will be able to add the clues to LBNA after I post them, but since LBNA doesn't have a way to show an adoption, I decided to let them choose whether or not they want to list the boxes there.
Still time for those of you who haven't to sign up to come in August. Just click on the link to the right to go straight to the event page and sign up. It's going to be big...5 more boxes showed up this weekend that we have to add!
T-Shirt Update
Good news and bad news...
The good news is you guys still have time to place an order for the LBWNY t-shirt (the one with the hiker on the front and our "If You Plant It, They Will Come" slogan cicled around the image of NYS with "LBWNY" on the back) for the $11 price (see the LBWNY Yahoo group or the event page's photo album for pics).
The bad news is only a few of the shirts will be ready for the gathering. The folks at Planet Love are swamped with orders and craft shows and our little shirt is really the last in line. They didn't realize we needed them so soon (and we were kind of leisurely taking orders and collecting money with the assumption that time is an infinite thing), so they haven't even had a chance to order the extra shirts for us yet, let alone put logos on them.
So, what WILL be available at the gathering is the chance to SEE these shirts and place an order, since they were able to crank out one or two for us to display. The rest will come after Labor Day and you can pick them up or contact us for mailing instructions. Needless to say, we would be MORE than happy to let you pick them up if you live nearby (we hadn't figured in the cost of mailing out all these individually until this moment...ouch!). If you've placed an order for a shirt already, you will HAVE to pay by August 27th to get it (except Dagonell, who gets his free). Bringing your money to the gathering is okay, but it must be given to us by day's end to get in this order. A
nyone NOT ordering and paying by August 27th has two options:1) Purchase your shirt from Planet Love at the individual shirt price without the discount at $252) Wait for us to get another order of at least 24 shirts at $11, which will take longer, but would get you a shirt cheaper
Anyway, sorry for all the promises of a t-shirt paradise! We'll still have a great shirt, but (as is the custom with reality checks) not exactly when we want it!
The good news is you guys still have time to place an order for the LBWNY t-shirt (the one with the hiker on the front and our "If You Plant It, They Will Come" slogan cicled around the image of NYS with "LBWNY" on the back) for the $11 price (see the LBWNY Yahoo group or the event page's photo album for pics).
The bad news is only a few of the shirts will be ready for the gathering. The folks at Planet Love are swamped with orders and craft shows and our little shirt is really the last in line. They didn't realize we needed them so soon (and we were kind of leisurely taking orders and collecting money with the assumption that time is an infinite thing), so they haven't even had a chance to order the extra shirts for us yet, let alone put logos on them.
So, what WILL be available at the gathering is the chance to SEE these shirts and place an order, since they were able to crank out one or two for us to display. The rest will come after Labor Day and you can pick them up or contact us for mailing instructions. Needless to say, we would be MORE than happy to let you pick them up if you live nearby (we hadn't figured in the cost of mailing out all these individually until this moment...ouch!). If you've placed an order for a shirt already, you will HAVE to pay by August 27th to get it (except Dagonell, who gets his free). Bringing your money to the gathering is okay, but it must be given to us by day's end to get in this order. A
nyone NOT ordering and paying by August 27th has two options:1) Purchase your shirt from Planet Love at the individual shirt price without the discount at $252) Wait for us to get another order of at least 24 shirts at $11, which will take longer, but would get you a shirt cheaper
Anyway, sorry for all the promises of a t-shirt paradise! We'll still have a great shirt, but (as is the custom with reality checks) not exactly when we want it!
Thursday, August 04, 2005
New Travelling Event Stamp
I know, I know, I told everyone we'd be in Canada all weekend, but after driving to and from Fear Faketor, we decided to just excommunicate ourselves from the outside world (well, the HIGHLANDER did...I just made a BLOG, f'r cryin' out loud...and I LIKE talking!)
Anyway, we have a new travelling event stamp to unveil at the gathering in August! It's called The Four Seasons and it's got one of the 4 major sports associations interlocking on 4 puzzle pieces (MLB, NFL, NHL, & NBA). It works well with the "Just Playin' Around WNY" theme, but it also works nice for events in general as an around-the-pavilion sort of set of boxes.
I also finished a Dungeons & Dragons stamp last night that turned out even better than I had hoped, so much so that I'm thinking of retrying our personal stamp once more, once I get more carving material. So now I'm in carving mode...trying to decide what ELSE I can make with my little erasers today while playing with my new colorwheel and markers...
I have NO idea how I'll survive until the 27th.... :-O
Anyway, we have a new travelling event stamp to unveil at the gathering in August! It's called The Four Seasons and it's got one of the 4 major sports associations interlocking on 4 puzzle pieces (MLB, NFL, NHL, & NBA). It works well with the "Just Playin' Around WNY" theme, but it also works nice for events in general as an around-the-pavilion sort of set of boxes.
I also finished a Dungeons & Dragons stamp last night that turned out even better than I had hoped, so much so that I'm thinking of retrying our personal stamp once more, once I get more carving material. So now I'm in carving mode...trying to decide what ELSE I can make with my little erasers today while playing with my new colorwheel and markers...
I have NO idea how I'll survive until the 27th.... :-O
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
WNY Gathering and General Summer Update
We’re P85 F405 X188 H52 V44 as of 8/3/2005, but will hit over 100 plants VERY soon! Here’s what else is new with the Winged and the Kilted One!
Our summer of gatherings continues! We attended the Fear Faketor Gathering in Standfordville, NY from July29-30 and hung out overnight with the Quinn kids (Celtic Quinn, Green Star and Silver Dragon) along with our hostesses, Talking Turtle & Kreepy Kelli! We also had a terrific time visiting with Team Dakota, and those who came to say hi to them at the Spriland Fling Mini-Meet on July 24th. The 3rd Annual WNY Gathering (which has an updated webpage as of 8/3/2005 linked to the Atlas Quest site) is coming at the end of August, so now all our energy is devoted to making this last party a success! Click the links for details and to sign up!
The LBWNY (Letterboxing Western New York) Yahoo group continues and one of its most recent tasks was to create our new slogan “If You Plant It, They Will Come”, which we’ve placed on the back of our new t-shirt, Pics of the front hiker design and the back logo/slogan are posted in the photo section of the group. The shirts will be on sale for $11 at the WNY gathering, but you can contact us to preorder a shirt so that we’ll have your size when we get there. Mark & Sue Pepe have also been cool enough to send us some of their “Just Get Out There and Box” wristbands, which will also be on sale at the gathering for $5 each. One shirt and a few wristbands will also be raffled off at the gathering.
We’re still making the Life Lessons from The Jukebox series and now have our boxes in about 10 different states. We’re going for all 50, so if you’d like to offer your adoption services, contact us and let us know! If you find it ANY of our boxes, please be sure to register your find on Atlas Quest for us. We love seeing who’s who!
That's it for now...hope to see you all at the gathering!
The S & H
Our summer of gatherings continues! We attended the Fear Faketor Gathering in Standfordville, NY from July29-30 and hung out overnight with the Quinn kids (Celtic Quinn, Green Star and Silver Dragon) along with our hostesses, Talking Turtle & Kreepy Kelli! We also had a terrific time visiting with Team Dakota, and those who came to say hi to them at the Spriland Fling Mini-Meet on July 24th. The 3rd Annual WNY Gathering (which has an updated webpage as of 8/3/2005 linked to the Atlas Quest site) is coming at the end of August, so now all our energy is devoted to making this last party a success! Click the links for details and to sign up!
The LBWNY (Letterboxing Western New York) Yahoo group continues and one of its most recent tasks was to create our new slogan “If You Plant It, They Will Come”, which we’ve placed on the back of our new t-shirt, Pics of the front hiker design and the back logo/slogan are posted in the photo section of the group. The shirts will be on sale for $11 at the WNY gathering, but you can contact us to preorder a shirt so that we’ll have your size when we get there. Mark & Sue Pepe have also been cool enough to send us some of their “Just Get Out There and Box” wristbands, which will also be on sale at the gathering for $5 each. One shirt and a few wristbands will also be raffled off at the gathering.
We’re still making the Life Lessons from The Jukebox series and now have our boxes in about 10 different states. We’re going for all 50, so if you’d like to offer your adoption services, contact us and let us know! If you find it ANY of our boxes, please be sure to register your find on Atlas Quest for us. We love seeing who’s who!
That's it for now...hope to see you all at the gathering!
The S & H
What IS Letterboxing?
Our new favorite hobby is letterboxing (which, we can do in tandem with our national park passport cancellation search). The premise is pretty simple. People all over the world leave little boxes to be found by others who use clues from various internet websites (like www.letterboxing.org or www.atlasquest.com) to locate them. You go in search of these with your own little stamp and inkpad (something you like that you can get from any craft store), a writing utensil of some sort and your own little notebook for logging where you've been.
Once you've found a box, you'll always find a note explaining what you've found, a little stamp pertaining to the box and a logbook to leave your mark in. You use the stamp and inkpad you've brought to mark your presence in the letterbox's logbook, then use THEIR stamp to mark your own notebook as proof you've been there (essentially, exchanging stamp images). You can also write little notes to say more if you'd like. (ex--"Found it! From the Sprite & the Highlander"). Once you're done, put everything back and you're all set!
Sometimes you'll find a little box or pack inside a letterbox that comes complete with its own stamp and logbook. These are called hitchhikers and they're meant to travel. When you find one, take it with you and place it in the next letterbox you find. When you get there, pretend like the hitchhiker (or HH) is another person. Both you and the HH stamp into the box’s logbook (so people will know you were both there) and stamp both your log book and the HH’s with the box’s own stamp (so everyone will know where it’s been). Alternately, you can mail them to another letterboxing friend for them to place, which really helps move a hitchhiker around! No matter what, make sure you stamp in just like you would on a normal box.
The key in all this is making sure people DON'T see you. If you attract a lot of attention to a box, vandals might bother with it for fun, and then the box is gone for the next finders (as it stands, we're told that some people think it's funny to check for these boxes just to destroy them). We actually enjoy the cloak and dagger kind of stuff...one person plays look out while the other acquires the package, sliding along walls to make sure you don't get caught, doing the dive roll as the enemy opens FIRE...well, you get the idea, here!You also want to make sure you put things back the way you found them. We’ve been to lots of boxes now and really try to do what we can to rehide the box as well as possible. Nothing is worse than finding out your box was stolen or vandalized because someone was in a rush to take off to the next box and left it out to be found by passerbys.
Next time...gatherings!
Once you've found a box, you'll always find a note explaining what you've found, a little stamp pertaining to the box and a logbook to leave your mark in. You use the stamp and inkpad you've brought to mark your presence in the letterbox's logbook, then use THEIR stamp to mark your own notebook as proof you've been there (essentially, exchanging stamp images). You can also write little notes to say more if you'd like. (ex--"Found it! From the Sprite & the Highlander"). Once you're done, put everything back and you're all set!
Sometimes you'll find a little box or pack inside a letterbox that comes complete with its own stamp and logbook. These are called hitchhikers and they're meant to travel. When you find one, take it with you and place it in the next letterbox you find. When you get there, pretend like the hitchhiker (or HH) is another person. Both you and the HH stamp into the box’s logbook (so people will know you were both there) and stamp both your log book and the HH’s with the box’s own stamp (so everyone will know where it’s been). Alternately, you can mail them to another letterboxing friend for them to place, which really helps move a hitchhiker around! No matter what, make sure you stamp in just like you would on a normal box.
The key in all this is making sure people DON'T see you. If you attract a lot of attention to a box, vandals might bother with it for fun, and then the box is gone for the next finders (as it stands, we're told that some people think it's funny to check for these boxes just to destroy them). We actually enjoy the cloak and dagger kind of stuff...one person plays look out while the other acquires the package, sliding along walls to make sure you don't get caught, doing the dive roll as the enemy opens FIRE...well, you get the idea, here!You also want to make sure you put things back the way you found them. We’ve been to lots of boxes now and really try to do what we can to rehide the box as well as possible. Nothing is worse than finding out your box was stolen or vandalized because someone was in a rush to take off to the next box and left it out to be found by passerbys.
Next time...gatherings!
Our First Blog!
Well, it was bound to happen sometime! We got sick of posting and erasing all the stuff we had added to show you guys new info that we finally decide to blog it all (sounds so sordid!).
From now on, we'll be posting our updates and travel stuff on here, but we'll also keep our clues at our same address (www.geocities.com/dasprite222/boxclues.htm) and keep the main page available for a little while longer (just to redirect folks to this one). If this works the way I want, all the stuff on our main page will be here and we'll just use this space for our clues. Enjoy!
From now on, we'll be posting our updates and travel stuff on here, but we'll also keep our clues at our same address (www.geocities.com/dasprite222/boxclues.htm) and keep the main page available for a little while longer (just to redirect folks to this one). If this works the way I want, all the stuff on our main page will be here and we'll just use this space for our clues. Enjoy!
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