Life

Home Sweet Home

How well can you see your house on Maps.Live.com, birds eye view?

You can see my old tree in mine.  My house is the one with the yellow Escape parked in the front driveway.

 

A couple of nice Smallies

Alison and I went out fishing on the Mississippi River tonight with a co-worker of hers and her husband.  It was a nice night, caught a few Smallmouth.  I caught a nice pair in the 19" range.  Fun fun.

  

Timber!

Our big oak was blown down in the storm yesterday. :(   On the way down it took out another nice tree right in the middle of our backyard.  Looks like I'll be spending all weekend cleaning this mess up.

  

Ska music [3MH, RBF, LTJ]

Last night I went to the Shout It Out Loud Tour, couldn't find a link to the tour to give you here.  Anyways, it is a tour of 4 great Punk-Ska bands. 

First of all, I was amazed at how many people I talked to about going to the show that night, didn't even know what Ska music is.  No, I didn't say Scottish music with bag pipes.  I said "SKA" as in high energy, you can't keep from moving, horn blowing music.  I think Ska shows have more energy in the crowd over any other genre and I have been to a lot of shows.  You have country, where everyone is in a party good time mood (modern country that is), you've got Rock N Roll where that seems to be either just raw anger or more of a pump up mood, hip-hop is dancing, anyways, SKA = ENERGY I tell you.

A Ska band generally consists of your traditional band, a guitar player, bass player, drummer, keyboardist and lead singer.  But, take that and throw in a sax player, a trumpet player, and a trombone player and you've got yourself a ska band.

I guess I was first introduced into this genre back in college.  There was a band called 3 Minute Hero (3MH) that would come to the carpet once in a while.  Well my roommate at the time knew the drummer so we would always go to the shows.  If anyone was wondering what the shirt  I was wearing yesterday was, that is the band.  These guys always put on one heck of a show and because we know the drummer we got to know the rest of the band too.  Yeah, they would always play the after bar at our place.  The good old days.

Well 3MH broke up shortly after I finished college, but they did have a couple of reunion shows this summer.  They were fun, a little different since we were all older now, grown up and married, but fun.  Even the band members had settled down.  It was pretty comical how they would start telling stories then be like, what are we talking about, we're all old now, past our bed time and yeah.... 

3MH was my intro to the Ska world.  Btw you can check out pretty much all of the reunion show at The Fine Line on You Tube if you want. My favorite song, Spider Monkey is below which is what my Fantasy Football team is named after.  Ok, back to my intro to the Ska world.  Yeah, after that I wanted more, it's not really mainstream music so you're not going to hear it on the radio, but at the time there was a band, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, that I got into for a while, but then really didn't hear much else. Then Reel Big Fish (RBF) and Less Than Jake (LTJ) came along.  The rest is history for me.  I've been a fan of Reel Big Fish for quite some time now.  These are the guys I really went to the tour to see, though Less Than Jake is just as popular if not more than RBF.

The tour consisted of All Against Authority,  Streetlight Manifesto, RBF and LTJ.  The venue for the tour was the Myth Nightclub in Maplewood.  If you haven't seen a show here, go, it is a great place, smaller more intimate and great sound.

I missed the first band A-A-A, but caught Streetlight Manifesto.  I was very impressed, these guys were awesome and apparently everyone there know them since just about everyone was singing along with them. 

RBF took the stage next.  I guess they flip-flop with LTJ every night which is pretty cool.  For me, I wished they had closed that night, but I know others were happy the way it was.  These guys put on a great show, man they're fun.

Finally LTJ came on stage.  They made their show interactive with the audience.  It was a play on The Price I$ Right.  You could sign up earlier in the night to be a contestant on there.  In the end 3 people were chosen.  They would play games to see what album the band would play tunes from.  It was fun and a good way for them to decide what to play since they have so much.  Again, another great act.  The tour was a blast, so glad I went.  Aaron, sorry I missed you're going away party, but I had planned this for quite some time.

Vids:

3MH - Reunion show at The Fine Line

Streetlight Manifesto - Shout It Loud Tour

RBF - Shout It Loud Tour.

LTJ - Shout It Loud Tour

Fishing the Mighty Miss.

We had a great day fishing the Mississippi today.  We took a day trip canoeing down the river from St.Cloud to Clearwater.  About a 14 mile stretch.  We left at about noon and finished up at about 6:00.

 We caught a ton of smallmouth bass.  Not sure on the exact count but I am guessing around 40.  Most of them were smaller, but we did catch a few nice ones and a couple of good ones got away too.  Man it was fun.

 I did have one nice catfish hit my Mepps #1, which turned out to be the biggest fish of the day.  We had to go ashore to land her.  She made some good runs, it was a lot of fun.

Next time we're planning on camping one night.  There were a lot of islands we could just pitch a tent for a night.

 
 

Code Camp 07/20/07

For those of you who don't know what a code camp is, it is basically just a bunch of developers getting together outside of work to discuss no things in the programming world.

Well our programming team actually went camping this weekend.  There wasn't much talk of code, but we did have a lot of fun.  Friday night we headed to Fond Du Lac campground just outside of Duluth.  It was a decent site and we got to stay right on the St.Louis River.

Saturday morning we got up had breakfast and warmed up around the campfire after a cold night of sleep.  We then headed to the beach in Duluth.  Never thought I would be swimming in Lake Superior, but we dared it.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  We all took naps on the beach since it was warm enough for us finally to sleep.

After that we headed north to Lutsen hitting Goosberry Falls State Park and Teteguchie State Park.  We stayed at Lamb's Resort just south of Lutsen.  This site was pretty crowded but suited us well.  Did the campfire thing the rest of the night.  Sunday morning we went canoeing in a big canoe for all 6 of us on the Poppler River.  There was some nice scenery and no one got tossed overboard.

The trip was about over after that.  It was time to head back to the real world and get our fingers back on the keyboard.  I did make one final stop in the Superior National Forest, drove in few miles, had one last beer overlooking the forest and Lake Superior, it was nice.

I uploaded pics from the trip onto my Flickr account. [click here] 

First Dogfish, no camera!

Well I caught my first Bowfin the other day and what do you know?  NO CAMERA.  Man, these species really fight, I caught quite a dandy too, about 25".  I didn't bring the camera because I thought I would only be catching Largemouth. 

I was just going out on the lake for an evening fish with no real expectations of catching much.  I pulled something out of the bait box that I am not sure  if I have ever used, a bigger "Bass-O-Reno".  It is a frog colored top water bait.  I was fishing at about 8:00 at night.  Yeah, this is my new favorite lure.  I reeled in 5 nice bass about 16" and had a bigger one throw the hook when it jumped.  It was so much fun, but the highlight was when I had something hit it hard as soon as it hit the water on the cast.  I thought for sure it was a Pike, but this thing really fought!  Got it to the boat and there it was, my first Bowfin!  I am sold on these fish, I wanna catch more. 

 

Roughfish.com June Species Contest nearing an end

Well, it is June 29th today, only 1 day left in the fishing contest that I entered.

Man did I fish a lot this month.  I haven't fished this much since I was a kid going to the Coon Rapids Dam every day.

I feel I faired all right.  My goal was 15 different species, I currently am at 14 with a VERY good chance of hitting my number.  I need to catch a Largemouth Bass and I'll be there.  You think that wouldn't be too hard, but without a boat, not as simple as it seems I guess.  About 85% of the fish I caught in the contest I landed from shore, that should be worth something.  Tomorrow I'll be heading up north to the cabin, I'll be fishing the lake hard in search of the bucket mouth.

The contest was great though. It is amazing how you can catch fish all the time, but when you need  to catch one you just can't.  I had the hardest time with a Perch, Crappie and Northern, go figure.

Check out "My Photos" section if you haven't for a while, I have posted all the pics of the fish that I have caught for the contest. 

Oh yeah, there is no chance I will win, the leader has 33!  Yeah, he crushed everyone.  If you want to see all the fish entered, click here .

Hopefully I am running to the nearest hot spot tomorrow to upload my last fish. 

Roughfish.com June Species Contest begins!

I never thought I would be so excited for this fishing contest.  If you haven't read my earlier posts it is a contest to catch as many different fish as you can in the month of June.  Man, some of these guys are hardcore, after 2 days the leader has 13 different fish. Me, only 2 or 3.  Not sure if two of them are the same species or not.  Hopefully not, that would give me three.

 I went out on Island Lake to start where I only caught 1 sunfish.  I thought for sure I would be able to catch a Largemouth Bass and  Northern out there.  No luck, however Newman managed to catch both.  Oh well, it was a nice day out there and the west wind was perfect to push the canoe just fast enough so we didn't have to paddle much and could just fish the shoreline.  I got a cool picture of a pair of loons carrying their baby on their back across the lake. Check out my photos section.

Then I got up this morning and went down to the SCSU dam to try and nab a carp and a catfish, only got the carp.

Plenty more fish to come.
 

Memorial Weekend - Unplugged

Well I went the entire Memorial Weekend without internet access.
It went entirely all right.  
I tried to keep myself pre-occupied fishing for the majority of the time.  I caught a lot of fish.  All out of the Mississippi River in Grand Rapids.
I was trying to find as many species as I could in preperation for a fishing contest that I am entered in that begins in June.  It is put on by www.roughfish.com.  The goal is to catch as many different kinds of fish as you can in the month of June.  These guys are advocates for fishing all types of species and not just your walleye or bass.  So I am going to give it a go, not sure how well I'll fare, but I am sure I will have fun trying.  I managed to land 7 different species this past weekend.  At least that would be a good start.  I'll keep it posted on how I am doing.
This actually leads me to another topic.  I thought I learned my lesson the last time I was fishing.  ALWAYS bring a camera just in case.  Well this weekend I brought my camera along, but that doesn't do much good when the batteries are dead!  So new lesson learned: Always bring your camera WITH a freshly charged battery.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3

Alison and I went and saw Pirates 3 tonight, Aye, that's right.

I thought the movie was good, maybe a little long, but good.  I think I like the first the best, then this one.  I am not going to say much about it other than if you liked the first two, you like this one and you should go see it.

 One note after the credits roll there is a little clip at the end to be seen.  Was it worth the 8 minutes of credits?  Well, I'll let you be the judge :).

Release Day

It was another release day for our team today.  I recently moved to a different team at work which has been pretty good.  I like working with all the people and learning a new system.  One draw back the Release time every other week at Six in the Friggin' morning.  Oh man, these are killer.  Especially after you stay up the night before till 2:00 am working on a side project.  I like working on this side project, it's a site for an organization that my wife belongs to, St. Cloud Area Volunteer Coordinators.  And yes I am volunteering my time for this :).  Man I must be tired, I am starting to ramble here.  Time for a nap......

Fishing Opener

Well, Newman and I managed to get out for a couple of hours in the canoe down in Fair Haven.

I caught one bass and Newman caught a big ol' bullhead, HA.

Newman had a nice Northern on his ultra light but somehow the pike managed to break through the 4lb test line.  We'll be back for him.

* It was breezy to start then calmed down once the sun went down.  Partly cloudy.
 

Hawaii - Day 9 [Surfing]

Very cool.  I got my lessons today.  Sufring was so fun, I got up on my first try.  I am sure it helped that I had this big foam board, but it was still a lot of fun.  I went for 2 hours.  I don’t think I could have made it another minute more.  Talk about tiring.  Paddeling out really takes a toll on you.  I would be so tired when I got out there and then a wave would be coming and the instructor would be like, “get ready here comes another wave”.  Oh man, here we go again.  It was a lot of fun though.

Later in the day we went back to The Place of Refuge.  Probably the coolest time we’ve been here.  We were snorkeling with a school of 15 - 20 dolphins.  It was crazy!  They would be swimming right by us then dive down probbaly a 100 feet or so.  You could see them all swimming around down there and then when they would come up for air it would look like they were coming right at you.  Kind of scary, but amazing.
What an awesome day.

February 17th, 2007

Hawaii - Day 8 [Snuba]

I have been running a few times out here, trying to keep what I have for the half marathon.  After last night I didn’t get my run in though.  Slept in till about 9:00, that is sleeping in for this vacation.  Seems like we’re all usually up by 8:00 wich is fine with me.  I would rather get up and do stuff then sleep my vacation away.
Actually Hawaii has been pretty active, it’s like a workout every day.  I love it.  I’ve managed to get a few runs in, and then you’ve got hiking and swimming all day.

We went to another famaous beach today, Captain Cook.  Well, I don’t think we were exactly there, but very close.  We brought the snuba out today.  This thing is pretty sweet, it allows 4 people to breath underwater through a tube attached to a motor that floats on top of the water.  You can get to about 30 feet deep.  I was surprised at how hard it was to stay underwater, I guess I have never really done something like this in salt water before.
It really is a different world underwater, all the fish and coral, there are so many bright colors, it truly is a sight to see.  I was beginning to think that we weren’t going to be able to take the snuba out because the water has been a bit rough so I was pretty pumped when we were able to get it out.
Some people took pics with underwater cameras, hopefully some of them turned out.
Time for bed, I have another early morning tomorrow.  Gonna try surfing.  Hang Loose….

February 17th, 2007