RecipeForDisaster

Hey, that's OUR anniversary! We hope it doesn't rain heavily like it did on 10/03/2009. The rain was good luck for us, just like they say, though! Congratulations; that's a neat mission and I hope the coin lives a long time. We are close enough that we might be able to stumble upon it for some photos...

Thank you so much for the fun contest! We look forward to the surprise...

We are definitely grateful for an excellent reviewer... we are spoiled We know it is not an easy job at times and we appreciate it! Same goes for moderators... can be an ugly job, but someone has to step up to the plate. Thank you!

steelers('cause I like their logo) 22 total.

Ravens with 42 total!

From Historyofwar.org: There are many factors that can be cited for the failure of Operation Market Garden, all deserving of consideration: The report by OB West blamed the decision to spread the airborne drop over more than one day as the main reason for the failure. The Luftwaffe agreed and added that the airborne landings had been spread too thinly and too far from the Allied frontline. General Student thought the airborne landings were a great success and blamed the failure on the slow progress of XXX Corps. In this respect, Generalfeldmarschall Model deserves credit for the skill with which he used the sparse resources available to him, particularly given the state Fifteenth Army was in at the time, and for recognising the importance of the Nijmegen bridges. Lt General Brereton reported to Washington that Market had been a brilliant success but had been let down by Garden, with which Bradley in part agreed, blaming Montgomery and the slow advance by the British between Nijmegen and Arnhem. Major General Urquhart blamed the fact that the drop zones for British 1st Airborne were too far from the bridge and rather unfairly, his own actions on the first day. Lt General Browning's report blamed XXX Corps' underestimation of the strength of the German forces in the area, the slowness with which it moved up the highway, the weather, his own communications staff and 2nd Tactical Air Force for failing to provide adequate air support. He also managed to get General Sosabowski dismissed from his command for his increasingly hostile attitude. Field Marshal Montgomery blamed the slowness of XXX Corps in general and O'Connor in particular. Later, he partially blamed himself, but laid a large proportion of the blame on Eisenhower. ". . . if the operation had been properly backed from its inception, and given the aircraft, ground forces, and administrative resources necessary for the job - it would have succeeded in spite of my mistakes, or the adverse weather, or the presence of 2nd SS Panzer Corps in the Arnhem area." There is also the matter of allowing the German Fifteenth Army to escape into northern Holland where it could defend the approaches to Arnhem by not clearing the Scheldt estuary, the nature of the highway along which XXX Corps had to advance (a two tank front), the failure to appreciate the unpredictability of the British weather in September, the critical requirement of good communications, which at that point in history was unlikely given the level of technology available and the blatant ignoring of intelligence (from both the Dutch resistance and reconnaissance flights) that armoured units had moved into the Arnhem area.

Another day, another fact: BOTH of the most-recognized US parachute infantry units (82nd Airborne "All-Americans" and the 101st Airborne "Screaming Eagles: (later the unit which pioneered airmobile helicopter warfate doctrine) had elements participating in Operation Market Garden.

Was devised by Lord Montgomery, British General and it happened after Normandy Invasion. It was a preemptive move by Lord Montgomery to secure multiple travel & supply routes into Germany, mostly through Holland. It hinged on the capture of multiple bridges. They pushed too far, making overextensive use of light infantry and paratroopers; their mobile support could not reach and secure all of the bridges in time. The operation and its subsequent mixed results was mostly factually recounted in the movie "A Bridge Too Far". Had Market Garden been successful, the war might have ended by Christmas 1944. The forces involved on the allied side involved British commando & paratroop forces, American infantry soliders, members of the free French Forces under Charles DeGaulle, and free Polish forces. Mr. RFD would LOVE this coin! All of the above facts came right from his brain!

Thank you so much! A nice envelope arrived today from Canada. To my surprise, it contained 3 metallic objects: the 5 Star Caching coin, a miniature pin version of it, and a cute little personal coin(?)with a 4 digit number on it. I thought it was a PT but no... It's just like this-extremely well done and beautiful. I can't show you any photos because my motherboard died and I can't connect my camera to the ancient computer I'm using temporarily. http://coord.info/TB4FH48 This is great because I recently started doing paddle caches in a borrowed kayak. And, to vent, it helped with the frustration of my realizing that ALL of the Thanks so much for your generosity!

Eh! I've never been over the border but want to take a caching trip up. I always bought truckloads of hay from Quebec, and the people who brought it were awesome. I also got a great coin in the mail from Canada today-what better connection than that?

I love this coin; it's lovely and meaningful. I have a lot to consider taking, after my husband, cats, & horses if it got to that. My hard drives full of pictures and other memories, for sure... but like others have said, a lot of that is already backed up elsewhere. That brings me to original art. I paint miniature horse castings and have about 25-30 that took 3-6 months each to paint in oils. Those are very important to me. There is also 'flat' art like this: (I hope this link works) http://images30.fotki.com/v43/photos/1/137254/504934/1st-vi.jpg http://public.fotki.com/Mbulance1/model_horses_and_art/supremegoddess.html#media Which I did at about age 17 of my beloved first horse and her baby. Both are gone now, sadly. That's probably why this is one of my prized possessions... it's not just the art, it's the subject.

Thank you everyone and especially E&C+3 for the cointest. It was a lot of fun coming up with an excuse and reading the replies... I'm pretty excited because we only have a few coins. Everyone is asking what I won, so I'll definitely post when I receive it! I sent my address(from my regular email) and haven't gotten a reply-E&C+3, if you didn't get my email, please let me know. Thanks again!

My excuse? I have a ophthalmic - proctological problem... I can't see my a** coming in to work today. One from today: http://coord.info/GC34NV4

I tend to be accident prone, so a friend has referred to me as a a recipe for disaster. It works overall because I love to cook and we have done a lot of volunteering in disaster work...

There are other problems associated with false logs such as COs thinking their cache is okay after DNFs because someone 'found' it, cachers thinking a cache is accessible in the snow because it was 'found' recently after a storm, and just inaccurate information for future finders(recently seen: 'quick easy find' on something that was actually DNFd by many experienced cachers just because it was so difficult, another similar log on one that sounds like it's gone after a hurricane). I don't think it's benign when you take into account stuff like this...

Went caching on the beach today, at an abandoned amusement park that holds a lot of memories for both of us. Then, got a very special envelope in the mail... what an awesome surprise, a Valentine's Day card AND a gorgeous Geocoin AND another related item that I can't mention on this forum My husband is particularly interested in those(smaller similar item)so he is thrilled. I am wild about the glitter on both sides of the coin and the carrots on the cake! The cute lop ears are a plus, too. You are so generous to make a stranger's day like this-THANK YOU! I just need to come up with ideas for 'use' of the coin(goal, what caches it will visit, etc.)without letting it travel and get lost/stolen on its own. We only own a couple of nice coins that aren't released in the wild... one will probably be attached to our caching pack, one is on our keychain and visits every cache, but this one... ? Thanks again!

This is helpful, thank you, but I still get caches from Washington County, Maryland, cow travel bugs and all sorts of other flotsam and jetsam. Refine that Google search further to: site:geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx cow washington and you'll only get caches. You might still get caches in a Washington county somewhere, but most other flotsam and jetsam is gone. I've often wished I could search by any criteria(name, terrain, etc.) AND restrict either zip code or state. Type of cache and other restrictions together would be great, too. Also, wouldn't it be nice to restrict PQ hits by how many DNFs? If I want to take children out and don't want frustration, I'll want to avoid caches with 4 or more consecutive DNFs, for instance.

Thank you so much for your generosity and the fun opportunity to share. We had an Eclectus(a female), an African Grey, and a lesser Sulpur Crested Cockatoo growing up. Miss them!

I wish I had more time to write the whole story... but our plans for tomorrow: Breakfast out at a nice place, followed by caching which will include snagging 2 towns out of the 4 we need to complete our 'every town' challenge, 3 planned caches being puzzles we solved. Once we are done hiking, we'll return home for a homemade candlelit dinner(spinach-artichoke stuffed rigatoni with shallot cream sauce) and homemade cupcakes... and I'll give him the very special Clam geocoin I finally was able to find and purchase(it's a symbol for us). That's the important gift but there are a couple of others. We'll be sure to give each horse some candy and the cats some treats. Perfect!

Well, the long awaited Firmware upgrade has finally been released, so just load that sucker, and see if you ever have the problem again! I have a Mac and an eXploristGC and the same issue(can't imagine it's Mac related)-I do PQs(usually renewals-overwriting old PQs), put them in the device by drag and drop, eject... go caching and stand next to a cache to find it not in my device. Often, even though my local PQ is always there in the folder, my 'closest' cache is 120 miles away. I've had just 3 caches show up even though I have 3 PQs of 1000 caches each in there. I cached for over a year with the same device and this is new-if anything I've gotten rid of rarely used PQs in the device, so I am well below the limit. I always used to have all of the caches loaded show up. And yes, I did make sure that 'show all' was there and I wasn't in 'sort & search' mode. There seems to be another thread on the same issue. I haven't upgraded yet but plan to. I hope that fixes the issue-scary to get somewhere to find that the caches aren't in your device... I have no smartphone so am totally out of luck when in the field.

Yes-that's where I stumbled upon one that I hope I bought-thanks for your help! I'd still consider a goat one but I'm very happy with this quahog one(2006 GCC).

What a neat coin that is especially the Surefooted one! How awesome to have such a detailed personal coin. I think I'm aiming for a more 'regular, cute domestic goat' look(if I do go the goat route-the clam/quahog is my preference anyway Thanks for the help-it's nice just to see what's out there!

No dice yet. All the cachers I contacted either never got back to me or don't have anything I'm looking for... can't post on the trade topic since I don't have anything to trade(except a whopping trackable tag, I guess)-any more ideas? It doesn't *have* to be trackable, I guess... I really like the RI Quahog coins(am in RI even!)but those don't seem to be for sale often(probably out of my range if they did become available). Too bad I wasn't caching then!

Thank you as well. I should mention that I'm in the US so shipping from US would be preferred... I knew that people could point me in the right direction-I've seen so many coins I'd like to buy but they're in circulation...

There is a cacher named Clamm who might have something like what you are looking for. You might want to contact her directly. Awesome, thank you!