Tuesday catch-up...

Big sister and I took part in a girl scout workshop on orienteering on Sunday. It was ccccc-cold out there! The workshop was great - they had some folks from the Washington Surveyors Association who brought different maps and gps equipment, including a couple of women working in the field who told the girls all about what surveyors do, and how they can become licensed. The ladies were fantastic with the girls. The first half of the day was spent working with compasses, using them with maps, setting pace, and then using the really high-tech gps units that the professionals use. They were accurate enough to find pennies hidden in the grass. Then we broke for lunch, and had some hands-on training on regular, run-of-the-mill gps units. When we were done, we split into group to go do some geo-caching, which was a lot of fun. It's like letterboxing, but with a gps. With gps in hand, Big Sister hiked more enthusiastically then I've seen in quite some time!

Today is our homeschool group's trick-or-treat parkday. Weather looks like it will be good. I need to find something to pass out before then. We'll see what I can come up with.

Oh, I forgot to mention - Big Sis was working on her requirements for the Juniors pet care badge yesterday. One of the activities I helped her with was to determine the cost of caring for a pet monthly and yearly. She chose to figure out the costs for her rat, and we were both surprised by the results. She included things like the cost of water for drinking and cleaning, and gas to drive to the store to buy supplies, and yearly vet checks. We also factored in the monthly cost for the cage that we purchased back when we brought the rats home. Grand total: over $400/year! Who knew? Ironically, the cost of monthly dog food ends up being the same as the cost of all the rat's various needs put together. I'd have thought it cost much more to have a larger pet vs. a small one, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Granted, once you add in licensing, yearly vet and shots, plus any boarding we have to do, the dog is definitely more costly.