I don't know who Richard thinks he is. I was minding my own business - sitting there fat and dumb - when suddenly he comes up with this idea that we could compete at geocaching. Perhaps he was inpired by the fact that geocaching is constantly being called a sport, when in fact there is no clear competition. It is only implied. There is no finish line - no way to "win". This could be why Richard posed the challenge.

According to Merriam-Webster Online a sport could mean several things. One of the definitions is "to amuse oneself". Another is to "to mock or ridicule something". Yet another is "a source of diversion". The question is this: by challenging me is Richard trying to "amuse himself"? Is he "mocking or ridiculing me"? Or is this just "a diversion" to distract me from what's really going on? I'm not quite certain.

Nevertheless, I reached 100 caches on Monday night and Richard sat there with 91. Emilie actually spent quite a bit of time helping me find the caches and taking pictures for me. She went with me to find 12 in one day! That's a pretty good number of caches and to think Emilie went with me to find each one is unheard of. (Thanks Em!) The good news is that Emilie and I had some fun and we made it to 100. The bad news is that I still don't understand where this challenge came from or where this leaves the friendship between Richard and I. If it was just "friendly competition", then so be it. But what if he's mocking me?

We're going to my parents house for Christmas Eve and we'll probably spend the night there and stay for Christmas Day. We'll go spend some time with Emilie's parents on Christmas day. Emilie and I have Christmas through New Years off, so we'll be doing some geocaching, maybe some home improvements and whatever else. This will be the longest I've been away from work in the four years I've worked there. Woo hoo!