Geo Caught What? (geocaching)

There I was hugging the side of the cliff, hundreds of feet of steep drop-off behind me, with the cold wind biting at my skin. I edged my way along, carefully side-stepping over an icy patch of rock, with only one thing on my mind...okay two things: "Dang! This is awesome!" and "Where is it?" I was in the process of finding the hidden cache supposedly hidden somewhere in the side of this Rocky Mountain cliffside. See, I was on vacation and my cousin, CJ, wanted to take me out "geocaching" and informed me that I was only a "geo-muggle" waiting to be instructed in the art. So we got up early, ate a scrumptious breakfast at the Bear Breakfast, or something like that, and headed out to go off-roading.

The first cache was rather un-extroardinary, we pulled up, mobile global positioning system in hand, and hiked to the top of a hill where we found a conspicuous mound of sticks. We dug through them and, "Voila!" there was a peanut butter jar wrapped in camo-colored duct tape. We opened it up and found a bunch of junk in there, but we were more interested in signing the 5-inch wide notebook claiming that we had found the hidden "treasure."

The second cache's location was even easier to locate, but the container itself remained elusive for almost half-an hour of our combined searching. The location was on the sloped side of a steep hill, upon which was a wrecked pick-up truck that was perforated with bullet holes. We had to ask ourselves,"How the heck did this get here?" which also happened to be the title of this geocache. I'll be posting a video next week showing where we found it exactly so that you can share in the fun (if you live in or near Colorado Springs, the video will be a spoiler for you).

That brings us back to the third cache, where I'm clinging on to the side of the cliff for dear life, while madly searching for the last cache. My eye was drawn several holes in the wall and I just randomly stuck my hand in one and pulled a rock out the size of my fist. There hidden behind that small rock was a canister wrapped in camo-cloth. I shouted to my cousin as I hastily snatched up my prize. Inside the container was some cool stuff, I guess not many people had found this cache because usually you just find junk. I took out the notebook, signed it, at returned it to the canister, but not until after removing a nifty keychain. My cousin then put in some playing cards and somebody's fake ear, and we returned the can into the hole and put the rock back in.

I am the newest member of the online geocaching community and I can't wait to go back to San Antonio to search for some near home.

Ice Cream Scandal

Lol! I wrote this for school...


TO: Mrs. Slack
FROM: Erik Slack
DATE: 02/12/09
SUBJECT: Letter of Apology (Ice Cream Scandal)



Dear Mother of Six Children Including Me,

I am writing this letter to make things right again between us. You probably haven't noticed yet, but I ate most of the chocolate mint ice cream that Nana had set aside for you, and to make things worse, I had it for breakfast. I figured you might just forget about the ice cream or when you found that it was missing, you would have assumed that you had already eaten it, I intended to keep the fact that I ate it hidden from you. Since then I've realized that my actions were dishonest and shameful, and I apologize. I have broken your trust, and in that lies the grievous sin. I seek to fully repay you for my misdeed, therefore I will buy you a whole new container of chocolate mint ice cream just for you next time I am able to get to the store. Please let me know if there is anything else that I can do for you. Thank you for always being there for me when I'm in a tough spot and for taking care of me for these past 17 years. I love you dearly.

Forever Your Son,




Erik S.

A Testament to Keeping Healthy

You know how tons of commercials and schoolteachers tell us that eating right and regular exercise will make you healthy? It's absolutely, undeniably true! I've moped around the house all day sneezing and coughing hard enough to shred tissues. Well I sat here talking to my mom for a while about something and in the middle of it I complained to her, "You know Mom, I havn't been sick in forever, so how come I'm sick all of a sudden?" As you can imagine, she didn't really have an answer for that, but then I started really thinking about it. I havn't been around any sick people, so how come I'm sick? Then I thought about my lack of exercise and poor eating habits that I've had of late, and I had my answer. For me, eating right and avoiding junk food means clearer skin, more energy, and longer stamina during exercise. If I regularly exercise then I feel more lively, opitmistic, and my day is just a lot more fun. I would suggest to you all, to commit as I have, to maintaining better health, a more appealing appearance, and a happier life. If I'd followed that advice earlier, I probably wouldn't have gotten this snotty cold.