Friday, June 29, 2007

A new page for all WNY Gatherings

Now that summer's here (and summer SCHOOL hasn't started), I have a little more time to do some of the stuff I've been wanting to. One of those things was making a page where folks could link to all the Gatherings that we've had in WNY. I don't know that I have EVERY single event that's gone on between Buffalo and Rochester, but I gave it a shot. Let us know what you think!

http://thesprite.orgfree.com/letterboxing/gathering0.htm

The S & H

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Location, location, location!!! (More WNY Gathering Stuff)

Our WNY Gathering is now happening in two different locations. We'll be having our normal day event ((LB)WNY is ON THE AIR!!! 2007) at Chestnut Ridge Park on Saturday, August 25. The address is 6121 Chestnut Ridge Road, Orchard Park, NY 14127 You can either put that address into Yahoo Maps, Mapquest or Google Maps, that will let you do driving directions from where you live to the park OR (even easier) use the map search on the event page and it will already have the park's address in for you! It's right in the location box near the top.

For those who want to stay overnight with us and do some night boxing, we're also spending that weekend at Sprague Brook Park for Block Party W(NY)eekend 2007. The campsites are only $13 a night (much cheaper than the other campgrounds), plus having an actual PARK for the nightboxing means the night boxes can STAY instead of being picked up at the end of the night. The park's address is Foote Road, Glenwood, NY 14069, so use both addresses to find your way between here and Chestnut Ridge on a map search. Anyone planning to stay overnight should sign up for BOTH events, but if you're only coming for the day, just sign up for (LB)WNY is ON THE AIR!!! 2007. Once you've signed up, we'll tell you how to reserve your campsite.

Finally, the gathering webpage (not to be confused with the event page at Atlas Quest) is changing regularly now. If you've yet to see it, be sure to check it out. It gives you info on the parks, the boxes, the schedule and anything else you wanted to know about the gatherings. I'm also planning to add a link to the past gatherings on here so you can see the pictures and general aftermath for yourselves! :-)

Hope to see you soon!

The S & H

Saturday, June 23, 2007

WNY Gathering Site Updated!

Finally added the webpage for the 5th Annual WNY gathering site! You can either go to the Atlas Quest event page and click on the website, or just click here: http://thesprite.orgfree.com/letterboxing/gathering4.htm

Also, we're still looking for box donations that have anything to do with music, so contact the Highlander and I if you're interested in carving and sending something. We need to get it by August to have time to plant them all, but we need to know if you're sending something ASAP so we know what we've got. Oh, we're also still trying to find a place to camp out and night box....more info on that as it comes!

The S & H (& Chadams!)

Sunday, June 17, 2007

5ht Annual LBWNY Gathering coming in August

It's getting to be about that time to start promoting the Western New York gathering, which is coming as the last holler of summer (you know, the summer that starts...well, NOW???) We'll be in Orchard Park (Chestnut Ridge, to be exact) and our theme this year is "(LB)WNY is ON THE AIR!". We intend to do a standard day tripper's Saturday event from 10-5, but also plan to have night boxing again and hopefully camping from Friday night to Sunday at one of the closer campgrounds.

We'd REALLY like to seed this park with boxes enough to make this trip as worthwhile as our past gatherings have been (okay, and to try and meet or beat the Stone Mountain record!), so we'd love to get box donations. Any stamps you'd like to create that deal with music of any kind are great, so long as we can get them by the beginning of August (gives us enough time to plant them). Contact us here and we'll give the address to send them to.

Thanks in advance and hope to see you there!

The Sprite, the Highlander and this year's local host in OP, Chadams

The New Boxer Spiel!

Just in case some of you are reading this and don't know about anything else but Atlas Quest, here's a version of the spiel the Highlander and I like to send to new boxers that join the LBWNY Yahoo group.:

Welcome to letterboxing and I hope you're finding it just as much fun as we did (and still do)! Kevin and I (the Sprite and the Highlander) thought we'd give you some info to help you connect to a bunch more boxing info and some of the nicest folks you'll ever meet!

First, if you haven't already, sign up for Atlas Quest (http://www.atlasquest.com/) and Letterboxing North America (http://www.letterboxing.org/). Both are great places to find box clues and log your finds. The first also has other boxing info, like message boards and listings for events you can join other letterboxers in.

Second, there's a few Yahoo groups that folks from our neck of the woods frequent (great for asking questions and connecting in general):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lboswego/ (a more central NY area board)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LBNY/ (full New York State board)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/letterbox_ON/ (our Canadian buddies)

Finally, be sure to set your settings on Atlas Quest so you can find out when any local boxes or gatherings are posted. Just go the "Letterboxes" heading on AQ, click on "Advanced Search", then type in the name of your and expand the distance out to 100 (or less, if you can't go too far). You can also click on the right to hide all the boxes you've planted or found so you just see the ones you need to do. Once you do this, click "Search", then when it comes up, click on "Save Search" in the upper right of the screen. Name your search and be SURE to click "Yes, tell me about new boxes!" That way, anything that happens in the mile radius you chose (including letterboxing events) will be sent directly to your Atlas Quest e-mail. Then just be sure your preferences are set to alert you when you have Atlas Quest e-mail and you're all set!)

Feel free to contact us here or there if you have questions...hope to see you on the trails soon!

The Sprite & the Highlander
(aka Daina & Kevin)
check us out at http://spriteandhighlander.blogspot.com

The Highlander and I send a version of this out to each new person that logs a find on one of our boxes so they can meet more people and join us at the gatherings. We used to only use it as a way to post gatherings by getting folks' e-mail addresses and adding them to a e-mailing list, but once we started the LBWNY Yahoo group, we just started directing folks to there instead for info. Now, with AQ having event listings, it's even simpler to just teach everyone how to set their preferences to find info on AQ on their own. It's a REALLY easy way to expand boxing in your area, so feel free to modify this and use it yourself!

Next week...how to make a pepperoni pizza! First, you'll need about $20, a phone and the number to your favorite pizza place...! :-)

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Panning for (Mo)Wiz(liz) mini-meet a success!

It began with a simple note from Mowizliz:

Hi CQ, Kitten, Sprite and Highlander, River Otter, and Craftymouse,

Teepsman and I will be flying out of Buffalo early morning, Saturday June 9th, which means, that we'd love to meet any of you over coffee or dinner Friday night somewhere in the vicinity.

Normally, when we travel together some place new, letterboxing isn't high on the list, but ever since River Otter put up that Mel Gibson's Drunken Tirade box, I've laughed so much over that that we absolutely have to have that one. Now it is compounded that I've seen some of the bunnies of Morbid Affair with ...301...302 calling strongly.

This is short notice, so its understandable meeting up isn't a possibility. Without a doubt, I'm leaving someone out of this message that I'm going to kick myself for having missed when we get back, so
any suggestions are welcome. :-)

Thanks for the consideration! I'm hoping to meet all of you!

Pats

And suddenly, we were all sucked into a wonderful evening of mini-meeting in the classic WNY style; laid back and relaxed with lots of chatting and general silliness! And don't ask about the Panning for Wiz thing...for some reason, the title just wouldn't leave my mind, so I HAD to use it!

If you haven't had the chance to meet Pats (Mowizliz) and her significant otter Teepsman (whose real name eludes me all the sudden!), they are a TON of fun! We weren't five seconds into the Panera's Bakery where we were all to meet when this woman in front of us in line says "You think they serve Sprite here?" Trying to be as helpful as possible, I start to tell this laughing lady about the variety of beverages the place DOES have before realizing that THIS is, in fact, Pats giving me a hard time! :-)

It all just went uphill from there! Most of the regulars were there, such as the Phoenix, Celtic Quinn and the rest of the Quinn clan (including his fiancee Kitten Without Mittens and her mother, Falling Leaves), Chadams and his fiancee Lady Lilac, and dee123 with her family. A few of my students came as well, since the meet was in Lockport where I teach, but we also got Team Dakota to make an appearance, as well as carve an event stamp while we waited!

I don't know who's got pictures, but I DO know that we all hung out there for about 2 hours just stamping and talking about everything, then most folks went back to the hotel room with our guests while the Highlander and I had to call it a night because he'd braved the entire evening without his pain medication and we had to get him back. Still, a good time was had by all and we can't wait to have MWL and Teepsman back around here again (we hear she's a D & D player from way back, so we're thinking we MIGHT have to kidnap her and get her geek on during the NEXT visit!)

The (bouncing in anticipation of the next gathering) Sprite & the (packing the proper medication just in case) Highlander