It's Been a While...

Dear reader,

Hey there! It's been a while since I last got to talk with you

We got to go back up to the South Fork Lodge, and it was as awesome as before, and then some. The summer sky is something to be cherished - its truly a magnificent sight. If you haven't been able to get out of town far enough to REALLY see the stars, then I highly recomend doiing so. This trip up, we took "Uncle Mac" and our son Alex up, and good times where had by all. Mac bowled a perfect 300 game on Wii bowling, the first ever up there - and his first too. It was awesome. Beers where had all round, and all was good. It's the first real vacation he's had in WAY TOO LONG and it did wonders for him, I think. Couple beers never hurt anyone ;-)

And the FOOD! OMG, it was great. -=- The Monte Cristo's where awesome, the Itialian sandwich was great, and HOLY WOW the BBQ was... well, excelant doesn't really do it justice. The Rack of ribs covered the plate and then some, with a half a chicken under it. The beans and 3 salads where fresh and homemade, and just full of awesome. Noone left hungry, thats for sure. They definatly give you "Country Sized Portions" - as in it could feed a small family. Per plate.
It was the biggest plate of pure awesome I've had the pleasure of eating in quite some time. Really, really good. My son ate 8 ribs plus his chicken, and salads! The plates reminded me of The Flintstones when the waitress brings the huge rack to the car, and it tips over. Good thing we had 4, to balence it out LOL.

I managed to catch 4 - 5 fish, depending on if you count the one that slipped thru the net. I kept 2, and have them frozen. Since I can't eat fish, I'm saving them for my Dad, with whom I cought my only other fish in my life. <3

Alex loved it at the lodge so much he wants to go up there and work when he is 16! What a sweet job! Granted you work your butt off, but the perks are amazing! The view alone gets me. I'm preaty sure the waitresses had more of a swaying influence on him, however. LOL

Sascha really seemed to enjoy herself - I think she was genuinly happy for a time. I sincerely hope so.

Mojo (her service animal) loved all the other dogs (mostly) but hated being locked up in the cabin at night, but it was for her safty. better that she not become coyote munchies...

The fish where brook trout about 8" - 10" (the 2 that I kept) and it was great. I got one of the keepers just outside the lodge while sitting under the bridge on a log overhanging the water. Theres another spot I noticed from there I want to give a try - just over the little confluence. I'm SURE theres fish hanging out under there.

The other one was from up near Stanley. I was sittin on a rock, drinkin a Coors light and watching the guy accross the river catch a fish every time he tossed his fly int eh river. He couldnt have it out for more then 3 seconds before he was trying to get it back fro the fish that was eating it! Serisoly, I watched him catch liek 5 fish in 5 minutes.

I drank a beer.

i kept casting. They kept eating my worms, hit and run style, but not getting hooked. I was using 8 - 12" Nightcrawlers broke into thirds.

I drank more beer. I lost more worms. Then finally a good solid BITE! he fought and fought, and i let him have more line, and then brought him in, and tired him ut, and brought him in more... and what a beauty he was. As I brought him over to show the family, they decided it was time to leave - they too watched the dude pull 5 fish in 5 minutes.

So, into a bag, and into the cooler buried in ice came fishy. He was cleaned and frozen shortly upon arrival back at the lodge.

-=-

Meanwhile, back at the batcave.

Since we got back...

We got a Ab Coaster... I'll report on it after I get it set up... it SEEMS straightforward, but looks can be decieving...

I Seafoamed SH4D0W (The Honda)

For those of you who don't know, SeaFoam is God's Gift to engines. It cleans out ALOT of stuff in your engine, and is highly worth googling, youtubing, and buying at your local nampa or schucks for about 10$.

I didn't get as much smoke as I had hoped, but thats a goiod thing too, I suppose. It was still impressive. I ended up driving it to a nearby deserted parking lot away from hoses to rev it and get it all cleaned out. Didn't particularly want my neighbors choking to death on my smoke, or listening to me rev my engine up...

Sascha just turned 29 yesterday! 364 days of your 20's left... ;-)

We had her party day b4 yesterday, however, since both me and Mac had to work today :( But her sister threw her a party, and that's way cool. Good lookin out ;-)

I am back on Audit 4 nights a week. For those that dont know what that means, it means I get to stay up all night and do math... 10p - 8a -=- These days I count my blessings in being counted among hte employed, and as fortunate to work in such a cool place as I do, and am very thankful that my boss and my coworkers pwn as much as they do. Hampton Inn & Suites FTW!

I'm also doing Computer Repair on the side for local clients in Ada and Canyon County. I am not going to go into a big commercial here...

I've noticed that since I have been changing my perception on things around me, things have gotten better all around me. It pays to "live the dream".... what I mean by that is, I've just changed a few things I say. When asked how I'm doing, I either reply with "Another day in paradise" or "livin the dream" - and have been doing so for about 3-4 months. It catches peoples attention because its not just the standardized responce "fine, and you?" which is what most seem to be expecting. My regulars come to expect it, and often will reply in kind - ie if I say "another day in paradise" they say "Livin the dream...". Its Quite catching. I even had a random person in a local supermarket say it to me - cought me off guard, but was a very plesant surprise. I'm glad its catching. Creating our own reality happens in small ways - and changing our perceptions is what its all about.

Here's to livin the dream, Dear Reader. Today really is "Another day in Paradise".

Fishingggg

I got to go fishing, my friend, in fact I just got back. The fishing was great, the cabin was great, the bartender was great, the food was awesome. The fish where small, the good times HUGE, and it has become my regular vacationing spot. Its 125 for the cabin, and then food and drinks are on a tab. so's fishing worms, 6packs, cigs, hooks, poles, etc.

The 88" big screen projection production of Pink Floyd was in Digi dolby surround with 8 - 10 speakers - aimed at me <3

I drank 14 coors, had a few smokes, and a hell of a good time. I Highly reccomend this place. Its amazing scenery features the mountain and river in a great screenning - its fkin awesome.

Highly recomend, and will be going back in late august. Come up and join us!

Its called the South Fork Lodge in Lowman, ID.
It has 8 rooms in a small hotel style. It also features 2 cabins - a 1 bed and a 2 bed. We had the 1 Bed, it its awesome! Remote control fireplace at night, with a swamp cooler in the day - and a great comfy couch, which is a perfect place to pass out after stumbling in from the end of a long day.

As we where moving our stuff into the cabin for the first time, someone side-swiped us in a light colored vehicle. We had borrowed Mac's Van (named "Mini") because it has air conditioning. it was on the side of the road, as far as it could get, and somne clipped it right above the drivers side rear whhel and the gas cap. I Flipped. We'd been in "vacation mode" for liek 3.2 SECONDS and here it was all fubar already. So I went and called the insurance lady from the bar, and she totally chilled me out, told me unles I wanted to get it fixed in Lowman (ROFL) not to worry about it - its covered under the vandalism part of the policy, and chill, there's no deductible. So I did, I had a beer, got directions fromt he bartender / concierge about a fishing hole that was private, but accesable and available, and drank beers and such and fished and Sascha even caught one! It was the most awesome time. There where dragonflys and hummingbirds and falcons and eagles and such, and I waded accross the "river" a small stream area that let into a great pool. Of course I had to wade in the current part to get to my fishing rig lol but I got it back. Being capricorn (goatfish) I absolutly enjoyed being on the rocks in the river. It was fantastic from start to finish. I think we left about 2 hours to early, however. We need to be able to just "go out, and fish..." as opposed to rigging all the lines, and untangling all the tangles, and touching all the nature, and stabbing all the worms that accompanies fishing with your spouse. I love her. <3

But serious fishing time is different, you know what I mean.

Anyway, if you come up, we should go. If you dont come up, I'll have to go without you.

They can hook you up with outfitters to go floating/fishing (pwnage! doing this next time!) and horseback riding among other things.

Did I mention the full service bar / concierge?

Its good times.

Thank you Ceiling Cat for everything!

Good Morning!

Good Morning! Normally I am NOT] a morning person - the only way I am up at this time is if I am stillup, lol. As I worked last night 11p-8a I find myself deep into the "Still up" category this morning.

I'm wondering what everyone else is doing? There's 5 of you on right now, and more that I see logged in other times.

Whats up? whats good in boise? I've got sunday night and all day monday off, and the weather is "supposed" to be good, so I'm HOPING to go fishing.

I've not been fishing in 20 years at LEAST :(

I went with my Dad when I was 12. Once. Loved it. We never went back. :-s So...My stepson is 12, and we are GOING to go. All our gear is set, and we ARE going.

Hopefully..

I'm sitting in my fishing chair right now, with my newly purchased $20 fishing kit, casting a bobber into a kiddiepool at 30' practicing my cast in my back yard so i dont look like such a n00b when I go out lol. Anyway, hopefully I'll get to use this for REAL on monday. Not likely since I still have yet to buy the license, and have about $8 to last till Friday.

*sigh*

another day in paradice.

Well, here's to ya ;) Cheers!

Keep on Livin the dream..

Vent

What a Fukitol kinda day. You ever have those days where you wake up sore already, and you just know that today isnt going to be you best day? Well, here's my day.

Plan:


Wash the Car

Go to Chiropractor (havent been in 2 weeks, due to travel)

Go Fishing

Drink Beer



WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED


10am - Wash the Car (still the best thing I did all day)


11:55am - Drive to Chiropractor (Closed for lunch till 2pm)


11:59am - Get Phone Call from work about meeting that has suddenly appeared on schedual @ 2pm -- Must arrive early


1:45pm - At work for conference call with Owners of Company and Other Important Folk,
Have lunch (Pizza, Mtn Dew) with co-workers in celebration of "Co-worker winning prestigious Company Award"


3:30 pm - Drop dog off at Groomers

3:45pm - Arrive at local Mall

4:20 pm - Arrive at local Bar in Mall to await return of Wife from Shopping

5:30 pm - Depart said Bar with wife to retrive Dog from Groomers

5:40pm - Arrive at Groomers

7:12pm - $70 later, Depart Groomers with dog with HORRIBLE haircut. My puppy needs a fade badly. :|


8:15pm - Arrive home, decide to walk to store to get mixer for the vodka


8:17pm - Encounter Police Officer at Gas Station and get warned for being an "Intoxicated Pedestrian"



Intoxicated Pedestrian? Seriously? I walked to my local store not 3 blocks away. I had 3 - 4 beers 3-4 hours ago. And this "Billy-Bad-Ass" of a cop (reminded me of a guy with "Big-Dog Complex". You know, the little dog that thinks he's the $]-[17? The guy at the counter remarked to him how "Everyone wanted to know why the cop was here" and the Highly Esteemed Officer (read, full of himself, pompous and the basic poster child for the stereotyped douche bag cop who got picked on as a kid and joined The Force to get even) actually hooked his fingers in his gun belt, Old-West Style and replied, with a wink to me, "Well, that's good. That's how it should be"

Did I mention he was all of 5'2", and pushing 110 WITH his body-armor? Yea. Like I said, Big Dog Syndrome. He really brought to the forefront how much this state really Fails. I mean, with all the states I have lived in, the state services that my Wife has encountered, in all of our dealings with The Law... in its many shapes and sizes... this state just Fails Hard.

Meanwhile, back at the Batcave, I found out that even though I have lived in this state for 3 years, because I do not have a Drivers License from this state, I will be charged $98 for my Fishing License. I will be obtaining a Drivers License shortly, needless to say. In the mean-time I sit and wrote to you, dear reader.


Thanks for listening to my rant, and I hope you have a better day in Paradice.

Keep on Livin the Dream...

Another day in Paradice

I read a line in a book tonight, and I wanted to share it with you, Dear Reader...

"We need to be reminded sometimes that a sunrise lasts but a few minutes.
- But its beauty can burn in our hearts eternally. "

Drizzt Do'Urden

It just got me to thinking about my own life, and how even though I KNOW we get what we focus on, I find myself focusing on more negativity then I should. Today was a pleasant change, however.

We got word that our 2 lost I-pods where found! So that's a plus. The involvement of my son in thier disapearence was less then fortunate, but insted of focusing on the bad, I focused on the good, in that his teacher has reported that he is doing very very well in class, aside from when he randomly yells obscenities or calls people extreemly offencive things... so yea.

The teacher said hes good - when hes not cussing soomone out.

Mmmhmm..

Well, we decided insted of whatever, we went out and ran a few errands, picked up some burgers and headed for the park. We packed along the football, and my RC truck, and headed for the Bike Jumps. Unfortunatly, the battery didnt get fully charged for quite some time, and I wasn't able to catch any air off the bike jump because the stearing was too lose. It would'nt stay straight. I'll have to look into that soon - like tomarrow.
It went really well as a family outing though, and overal was a positve thing. I'm glad I focused on the positive. Our lives are so short, and we spend so much time wishing they where better, yet focused on the negitive things in life. If we simply are more positve-minded, ie look at what is good in your life; we are more apt to create the more positive reality we used to only wish for, before.

Look at it this way. If what you're doing currently is making you how you will be, doesn't it make sence to be as positive as you can be? I'll be the first to admit theres times I'm just NOT a positve person... and that has taken me to where I am. Perhaps I need to try an alternate method to get somewhere else...

If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten.

Today I took the path less traveled, and it went well. I will continue, and report back on this omnipresent manifestation of our own device. You know it as "Life".

Just another day in paradise.




-=-

Get down & get FuNkY

Well dear reader, its been a while. Here I sit after another day in paradise [/sarcasm] and I wanted to share a picture with you.







I was thinking a lot about this picture for some strange reason... and I started to wonder. I wondered "Why won't I ever party this hard?" In the sence that I haven't partied anywhere near that hard since my time in another land called Colorado is another story completely. For now, let us look closer at this picture.

The smoke is hiding something, there is more to the picture that we cannot easily see. This correlates to life because even though our lives are so Full of every little thing, every little minute of the day, we still cannot see the whole picture of life.

The bars on the windows. They represent our fear. Our fear of the unknown and the dangerous. They show our lack of ability to trust what we do not fully understand.

The Helmet. This says to me that in the face of the unknown we look out for our own protection first. Our methods may be flawed, but when the $]-[|7 hits the fan, at least we gave it our best shot.

The fat dude in the banana hammock. OK, so I just don't know what to say about this. Perhaps he represents our distorted self perception. Perhaps not... perhaps he is the reason we are not supposed to eat the brown acid, and defiantly not the yellow snow...

The fire. All around us is chaos. Our lives are an infinitesimally minute particle in the world around us; but we have so much control over the chaos that directly affects us. Each and every one of us creates our own reality by the choices we make, a million times each day. Consciously or subconsciously we all create our own reality. If we can make the conscious effort to focus on the positive, we will have more positive things to focus on. Like attracts like. What you put in, you get out. What goes around comes around. Say it anyway you like, just make the effort to put the good out, and then enjoy what you get back. Because the other way isn't nearly as much fun - as I'm sure you either:


A: Already know
B: Think you already know
C: Will find out
D: Both "B" and "C"

Anyway, back to our crazy analysis.

The dude's socks. Deep down theres a bit of dork in all of us. Hide it, deny it, whatever - you know its there. As much of a facade (or extreme lack thereof, sometimes) as we put on, deep down, theres the dorky part. Some run from it, some embrace it. Some roll with it. Some deny it. Some dance their dorky asses off, and some get CrUnK and try to sing karaoke. Do whatever it is you do to the fullest. Live each day as if it's your last, because one day....you will be right.

The choice of footwear. This is representitive of our "base", our stability, our roots and our core. Without strong roots, we will topple easily.



Wow.

K, didn't expect that leval of introspection from a freaky picture. But hey, you play the hand you're delt, and sometimes that means making lemonade out of the lemons.






Meanwhile, back at the batcave...

Dear Reader,

Tonight I invite you to join me on this quest called life. Where this will take us, only time shall tell. I don't use propper spelling or grammer sometimes, but this is life, unedited.

So, there I am, behind the desk at the Hotel. In walks...er hobbles this obviously hurting, hunched over in pain lady. She just wants to get in and get to bed, but shes pulled a muscle in her leg, and it hurts to sit, stand, lay, breathe... you know the kind. Anyway, shes requested a suite that isn't too close to any entrance, on the ground floor. So, I check her in, offer to help her in with her luggage, and take her to her room. I got her some ice, suggested a trip to the hot tub, and wished her the best. Thanked her for the $5, and went about my night. I took the visiting Irish lasses out on the town, dropping them at the Bardenay. They make thier own liquor there - Vodka, gin, and rum, I believe. I know the vodka is top-shelf quality ;-)

So after i get myself unlost (having left the GPS back at the hotel... ) I'm headed back to the hotel. Mind you this is the first time Amber has worked "by herself". So, I call there, and she says the lady I checked in before had called and wanted to know if anyone delivered crutches. I said I would find her some. Off to the nearest pharmacy - 8:10ish. Hospital pharmacy - closed. Head to Walmart - they have to have crutches, right? Wrong. So, wheres the nearest walgreens? back down the street the way I just came, only farther. So, get there - its now about 915. Find 3 sizes of crutches. Grab the ones that I figure to be her height.

Guess what - I guessed wrong by about 3" or better. Whatever, I grabbed the tall ones, ask the guy if I could return them if they where not the right size - he says sure. So i head back to the hotel - its now 950ish. She tries to manage it on the lowest setting, and its obvious she needs smaller ones. So - back to Walgreens. Guess what. I found the only non-24-hour Walgreens I've ever seen.

WTF

So i head to the Other Walgreens - where theres one, theres bound to be more, right? This story is so full of fail its sad, but it gets better.

They are indeed a 24 hour Walgreens .. Win!
They will exchange Crutches from anohter walgreens - Win!
They do not have the right size right now, but should on Wenesday - Fail

So - its now about 10:20ish, and New Amber was supposed to go HOME 20 minutes ago... so, Back to the hotel. She's done well - handled a few checkins by herself, and the hotel didn't burn down, so all is well. She leaves, I call the Walgreens out by my house - 20 minutes away.

They are indeed a 24 hour Walgreens - the manager also thought the Walgreens where 24 hours as well...

He will accept the exchange from another store <3
He has the right size <3
He will be there when I come in <3
So, since my hours have been extended to Midnight, I only have an hour and a half to wait before I can go get them. So, midnight gets there, my coworker brings me some KICKASS homeade pizza, and we go about the process of changing shifts. I get out of there at about 12:10 or so, and head to the Walgreens thats 25 minutes away.

Get there, get the crutches exchanged, and headed back to work. 25 minutes back - its now 1am.

Call the lady, per her request, and then go give her the crutches. Shes so relieved and thankful, and gives me $100 to cover the cost of the crutches, and won't take any change :) <3
So, back ot the house for the end of another adventure, and the begining of another.

Hunnybunny (my wife) is watching her sister's kids, agian.. so thier mom can go out and party since its friday.... Mind you, she still owes me money, yet shes out partying, AND having Hunnybunny watch her kids :|

WTF

So, Its now 2:30ish in the morning. Her and her friend that have been out bar-hopping all night Drive UP.

Drinking and driving = fail

So, they stay a few minutes, eat their taco bell, and leave without waking anyone else up, thankfully.

Then they drive off to get the drunk friend home, since shes gotta be up in like 5 hours...

Then I finally get to sit down, put my feet up, and write to you, dear reader.