Flying High

Today was a good day. I can't make this post too long as I'm too busy surfing the web on my new high-speed internet. WildBlue came to the house today and left a nice little satellite dish outside. Things are much faster. Not blazing fast, but way faster than dial-up. The installer was very nice. Seemed to know his stuff, and got us up and running in about 2 hours. I'm so happy.

Well, time to sign off. The little guy is bugging me to let him have a turn.

Broadband Baby

Well, we finally did it. I was able to break down the bookkeeper in the house to give me the money to get a satellite dish for internet. This Thursday I will be surfing at much better speeds. WildBlue isn't as fast as other broadband options (DSL, Cable), but it's a heck of a lot better than dial-up. We are going to give the base plan a spin for a bit, but I'm thinking we might jump up to the premium plan once we get going.
So, maybe this will mean more blogging, more photo uploading, hopefully more recipe sharing. You never know. At least I won't cry every time I have to do something on-line from home now. Maybe I'll actually get some work done at work because I don't have to get as much out of the internet during the day. ;)
Happy surfing.

Hello World

So, someone got on my case the other day saying that I haven’t been blogging much. I didn’t argue with the basic facts, but I did mention I had intentions to blog on many occasions, but couldn’t find the time to do it. So, as I sit here watching the little processing bar cycle back and forth on my computer as something runs that shouldn’t take that long to run, I decided to use a bit of my “free” time to say hello.

Life, both at work and at home, have been busy as summer comes to a close and the shorter days creep up on us. We’ve been busy with Cub Scouts for the little guy, getting firewood to keep the little misses warm and happy during the long winter months, and have been able to squeak in a few weekends of fun with the family.

Last month the whole family participated in the Susan G. Komen race for the cure. It was nice to get out and support a good cause. A friend of ours is a cancer survivor so that made all the more personal. I'm amazed some times at the number of people that will get out and support a cause like that. It's very moving at times.

We’ve spent a day or two out on the lake doing some more fishing before it gets too cold to get out there. I still want to get out a couple of more times with Mike to see if we can catch the big ones before the snow comes.

The family did take a day a couple of weekends ago to head out and do some camping. No, we didn’t sleep in any tents as the temperature that night got well below freezing and I’m just not that kind of camper. Earlier this summer the misses and I went hiking to West Fork Lake to spend the night and passed a spectacular cabin on the way up to the top. West Fork Cabin is a very nice cabin tucked in a little meadow way out in the middle of no-where.

We thought it would be a great place to take the kids. It’s only just over a mile hike from the trail-head to the cabin and not very steep. We packed up our stuff and headed out on a Friday afternoon to make sure we beat any other potential campers. We didn’t see a single soul until late the next day as were doing some fishing at a nearby lake. The cabin is great, 2 beds, wood stove, front porch, table, chairs, pots and pans, and a nice ax to chop up the firewood. The kids had a blast. We had great meals and enjoyed watching the full moon rise over the trees and light the little valley that we were in. I’ve posted some pictures to my Flickr site for you to browse.

In other news, for Rachel’s birthday I made her a castle cake. Andrew’s den leader was over that afternoon and saw the finished product and said I should get into baking for a living. I told him that I don’t think that was my calling, but I always have had the dream to own a restaurant and maybe start out by doing some catering. I guess he got the idea that I really wanted to do this and asked if I would be willing to cater the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet this year instead of ordering in pizza. It sounded like fun so I said I would give it a shot. Well, one of the other parents overheard this whole conversation. She happens to be the head of the PTA at Andrew’s school and was busy organizing the winter fundraiser this year. Last year a local restaurant catered the event, but she thought it would be great to have one of the parents do it instead. So, I’ve been suckered into doing this one too. So, without me really taking this upon myself to start up a side job, I now have 2 gigs. I won’t be doing it for profit, but just to cover my costs. I do hope that if it goes well I might get some exposure to the parents at the fundraiser and may pick up some other events too. I do have grand ideas about how I would like to do this and I think it would be fun to see if I can. I gave the organizer for the school event an idea of the menu I was thinking about the other night and everyone seemed very excited. Cross your fingers that it all works out. Maybe someday I will get to cook for a living. Never know.

I see that this is probably already past the acceptable length for a blog post, so I better wrap it up. I will try to do a better job at keeping up on this going forward, but we all know how that goes for the average blogger. I will be out enjoying the beautiful fall weather, maybe taking a few day trips to see the sights and take some pics. I’ll post my happenings as they come up.

Good-bye

Kokanee

No, not the beer, the fish. I’ve spent quite of bit of time this year getting to know this little fish. It all started when we started doing a bunch of fishing around home early this summer. We spent many hours out on the boats looking for the best fishing spots. I’ve spent many hours at the kitchen sink cleaning the fish as we did find the good fishing spots. Lately I’ve spent a few lunch hours driving up the road from work to a known kokanee spawning ground to try and get some pictures of the little guys as they’ve turned red and head up stream. Until this year I had no idea that kokanee changed color when they went to spawn. I knew they went up stream, did their thing, then died, but I had no idea they went through such a physical change. Well, today I went out to spot some kokanee heading up stream and was able to get a few good pics. I thought I would share so anyone that doesn’t know much about these tasty little guys can learn something new. Enjoy.

More here.

How I Remember 9/11 Five Years Later

Many people today are remembering the events of 5 years ago. It is something that I do think about quite often, and it’s hard not to with the talk about it in the news these days, and I wasn’t directly affected by the events of 9/11. I don’t know anyone that died or families that were anywhere close to the events on that day, but I believe that, myself included, most people in America were somehow affected by these events. Many have taken to anger, many to remorse, many to confusion and concern. There are so many views about what happened that day and the years to follow. It’s the number one political issue in this fall’s congressional campaigns even 5 years later. But with that I’ve become somewhat disturbed at how people use the memories of this day as a way to point fault, blame, and disgust at others. I don’t really care about everyone’s personal view on how we should be handling things after 9/11 as everyone is perfectly entitled to their own opinion and others should respect that. I think that anyone that was old enough to really be affected by these events will carry the memory of where they were and what they were doing that morning with them for the rest of their lives. It’s not something you can forget.

I remember having to do a paper in school many years ago where we had to interview someone about a historically significant event. At the time we were coming close to the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and I remember asking my Grandma what she remembered about that day. It happened to be her sixteenth birthday and she described where she was and what she felt with such great detail. You could tell that it had stuck with her for her whole life and in some way changed her. I’m sure all of us today will carry these memories in much the same way.

Days like that should not be forgotten, nor should they be used for other gains. These days belong to the people that were affected by them, no matter how small or how great. I have my beliefs on what we should be doing to protect America and the events that followed 9/11 and I know everyone else has their own view on these same topics. All I ask is that we don’t forget, but we stop using these events to attack and lay blame as we have been since that day. Everyone in America deserves to participate in this, the most grand of all societies, in an equal and fair way. We can not include some while excluding others as the country that we cherish so much will become something no one will want to be a part of. This country and what it stands for is too important to all of us to forget that the stranger standing next to you is just as important in making America what it is as the person with the same beliefs as you.

I know this sounds preachy, but I truly believe that most people that live in America have the same basic pride in this country as everyone else and we spend more time trying to alienate a larger group of people for the problems caused by a minority of their group. I don’t personally know many people that are minorities or from backgrounds not similar to main-stream America because of the place that I live. This is a very sad fact and I worry that my children will grow up not knowing how diverse this country really is as I grew up knowing. I wish there were opportunities for this diverseness everywhere in the country as we could all learn to appreciate how special the histories and traditions of others really are.

So, on this day, I ask you to stop and think about where you were five years ago and think about what you can do to ensure that you spread your history and traditions with others from different backgrounds while at the same time learning something from them. With that we can all still hold our individual beliefs while expanding our understanding of what makes this country so great.

Thank you to everyone, past and present, that has served our nation in the name of freedom, thank you to all of the courageous people that have come here looking for a better life and bringing something new to this country, and thank you to all of those that have come to terms with the fact that only a small group of people truly do hate what we stand for and have done something to show others that they are not to blame.

I will remember those that have fallen and what this day means to all Americans. I hope you do as well

On Notice

I'm putting the following people On Notice for not blogging near often enough.



Create your own (link).

The Tube Kicked My Butt and Left Me To Drown

Yesterday was another day out on the lake. This time it wasn’t fishing, but being drug around on a tube behind a boat doing 20-25 miles an hour. I don’t own a boat, but the rest of the family does, so finding a ride wasn’t difficult. Mike’s new boat is running nicely now, Mom and Dad’s had plenty of room for my whole fam, while the Grandparent’s boat ventured out of the garage after a very long hiatus.

It was very cool to have all 3 boats going all out across this really big lake and knowing that we’re all family. The day was perfect, the water, well… refreshing, but not frigid, and the laughing was plentiful.

It was my first time on a tube. Mike and Cassie got one for their anniversary so it was a great day to break it in. No injuries, but I know I’m still a bit sore from all the G’s that you get when you are being whipped around those corners.

Fun times had by all. Pictures for the my Flickr Friends and Family. Hopefully next weekend will be just as nice so we can ride again.