August Squiggly location

Squiggly is on campus. This is an easy one, so no excuses. Go out and find it!

I started out at the SSB building (aka, the Consortium Library) and walked towards the Science Building. I took this picture, looking to the right, just before crossing the street at the crosswalk to the Engineering building. See that guardrail? Head toward it and you'll see a road and a pathway that lead behind the Engineering building.

Follow the path and you'll soon cross a bridge with a little gazebo/bench next to the creek on your right.

With your back to the creek and looking through the gazebo thingy, you'll see a bush with a large fern to its left. Walk around the right of the bush and Squiggly is hidden under one of the fern fronds laying next to the ground.

You can just see the white bottle under the frond in the lower right corner of the photo. The frond, by the way, was already laying against the ground. No ferns were harmed in hiding Squiggly. The path does continue on behind the Student Union building and ends in the parking lot behind the Wells Fargo Sports Complex so if you are coming from the west end of campus you can just come at it from that direction.

Foiled!

Ok, so I was going to hide Squiggly in the Cuddy midtown park but once I pulled onto the street that leads to the parking lot there was a big orange sign telling me the park was closed for my safety until Summer 2008. Sure enough, on closer inspection, they had the lot and some of the path torn up. It was all fenced off as well. Nothing to see here folks, move along.

So I did, to the Potter's Marsh boardwalk. It was pouring rain but I was determined. I even obeyed the No Pets Allowed sign and left the dog in the car. It rapidly went down hill when I realized the batteries in my camera were dead. No problem, I'd hide and come back later for photos. I walked all the way to the end of the boardwalk and found no place to securly hide Squiggly without it potentially falling into the marsh. I stopped and watched the salmon swimming in through the culvert and thought maybe I'd just hide it in the trees back at the parking lot. Alas, that too was a foolish idea. The whole perimeter of the lot had been hydrosprayed with grass seed recently. There was no way to get to a hiding place without destroying the new landscaping. I got back in the car totally defeated, not to mention, totally wet.

I will attempt another hiding place tomorrow.

Squiggly to be placed in August location soon

I've picked up Squiggly from the dorm location today. I'll place it in its August location Saturday morning (8/4) and get the directions posted by Saturday night. In the mean time, it'll be sitting on my desk in SSB 346 if you want to drop by and pick up a chip!

Squiggly's location for July

Or at least what is left of July. Squiggly is by the dorms. It should be easy enough to find on your lunch break. Take the path to the dorms at the corner of Alumni Loop and Providence Dr. Follow the path to the end and go to the left of MAC 2 (in picture below) and follow the path that goes around to the front of the dorm building so that MAC 2 ends up on your right.

Walk past MAC 3 and 4 (these will be on your right as well) and take a right when you get to this sign which is just past MAC 4:

Walk across the bridge toward the little island of mini-trees in the grass to the right of the emergency phone.

Squiggly is in the tall grass at the base of these little trees. You can just see the blue cap in the clump of grass below.

Squiggly update

My ambition was to get Squiggly to a new spot by July 1st but that just isn't going to happen. I, like almost every other Alaskan, will be out enjoying the camping and fishing scene over the next few days. So, if you still haven't found Squiggly by Campbell Creek you have until July 6th to get it done. Squiggly will be placed in his (its? does a poker chip have gender?) new location on the 7th. I do hope this doesn't throw anyone's universe off kilter. I'd hate for that to happen. Have a Happy 4th!

Moving Squiggly soon

Yes, I will be moving Squiggly this week so that it is ready and waiting in a new spot for July. I think it will be on or near campus so that people can search for it on their breaks or at lunch time.

Well my steps have been a roller coaster for the past few weeks. The bathrooms in my building are under remodel so instead of a mere 50 steps down the hall and back I actually log in 600 steps round trip to make it to the nearest available facilities. A second hand elliptical machine recently came into my possession. That bad boy really kicks your butt and it racks up 203 steps per minute on the conversion chart. So, the steps have been really high most days due to these two factors. Alas, Syd and I took a trip to Homer this past weekend and due to the crummy weather I got in a lot more fish and chips eating than beach combing so I averaged about 5000 steps for the past three days. Pathetic. And yes, Walking Wendy is leaving me in the dust on the standings page.

Check back by this weekend for the instructions to Squiggly's new hiding place.

Finally!

What a morning it is. I took my cup of coffee out to my back deck and just sat for an hour sipping and enjoying the sun and blue sky. It was so quiet I could hear the birds' wings as they flew from the trees to the bird feeder on my deck. Syd and I have been enjoying the pair that have taken up residence in a barn shaped bird house we hung up last summer for decoration. Apparently it is good enough to live in. Don't ask me what kind of bird it is because I have no idea. It has wings and goes chirp, chirp. That is the extent of my birding skills.

Yesterday morning Syd and I hunted down the other Squiggly that Wendy has stashed by University Lake. We found the beavers' hut on the lake edge by taking the lower slanted path. It was a balmy 49 degrees when we set out at 9:30AM. We both had wool hats on and Syd even wore gloves. It was a lovely walk in spite of the cold and we saw many different types of waterfowl on the lake. It appeared that some had even made nests right on the water. I'm not sure how that works. I recommend taking your binoculars, I wish I had.

Get out and enjoy the day!