Should be packing for Talladega

Each year for several now, my friend Jerry Katz tells me that for my birthday he's going to get me into the Talladega race. Jerry lives literally minutes from the track. The race is on my actual birthday. What a guy. He brags a bit about being in radio and knowing a lot of people in the business. According to him he could probably get tickets from one of these associates free. Well as the race draws near I haven't heard from ole Jerry in quite some time. My guess is either he forgot, doesn't know anyone in radio or has decided I wasn't worth the trouble. So I won't be packing for Talladega....again.

2nd on Cedar

Arnie and I took 2nd on Cedar yesterday. It rained pretty hard about half the day. The temp was somewhere in the 50's. At one point I couldn't feel my fingers anymore. At noon we only had three fish in the boat. I had two in the box, Arnie one and I had lost two....one pretty big one. But then the rain stopped and we put the other five in the box, and even culled a couple. Then the last two hours we didn't catch a thing. Keith and Craig won with 18lbs 5 oz. We were quite a bit behind them with 15lbs 10 1/2 oz. The rest of the field was pretty close. As a matter of fact third place was only 1 1/2 ounces lighter than us.

Newest Addition

Meet Jayger, my newly aquired camper. He's 24 feet long and loaded. AC, furnace, fridge, freezer, microwave, stove, oven, cd stereo and full bath.

I still have to sell my other camper, Playboy. Playboy's a good ole camper too but Jayger is bigger and better. And isn't that what it's all about? Bigger and better?

Connecticut's Season Ends in Sacramento

The Sun led by six at halftime, but couldn't fight off Sacramento's second-half rally in Tuesday's 62-59 road loss in Game 4 of The Finals. Asjha Jones had the hot hand for Connecticut, dropping in a game-high 21 points and Katie Douglas scored 15. Nykesha Sales missed a game-tying 3-point attempt in the closing seconds for the Sun, which lost the series 3-1.

Until next season....bye bye Blaze.

Well????

Well there's no well. But not from a lack of trying. This past weekend Dave got the jackhammer out and look at us go. We jackhammered that thing to pieces, literally. Long story short: we jackhammered, broke the pipe, dug a big huge hole around the pipe to fix it, jackhammered some more, tried to pump water (no luck), jackhammered some more, broke the pipe again, buried the whole thing and cried the blues. Now she's nothing more than a dry abandoned well. Dave said they may try again next year. But for the time being they'll still be carrying water to Thor.

Friday night the boys from Benson came up to work on trails over the weekend. Brian and Scott Nissen brought their dogs, Katie and Jake. Makita brought his two dogs, Sadie and Baker and of course there was Maggie and Billy. There were almost more dogs (6) than people (8). Crazy.

Friday night Makita was presented his beautiful new hat that Ellie brought back from Connecticut. Dad Andy gave it up just so Makita could have it. As you can see it is very stylish and fits him very well.

Bad Day for my Sports Teams

Well lets just say it was a bad day in "Kimkay's World of Sports".

We'll start out with the Vikings. They marched on to the field in Cincinnati and crawled off with a lost. 37 to 8 Bengals.

Then the Twins lost in Chicago. 2 to 1 Soxs.

Then the Wild. Again Chicago. 3 to 0 Blackhawks.


Then the Connecticut Sun. In Sacramento. Game three of the WNBA Finals. 66 to 55 Monarchs.





And lets not even mention Nascar. Jeff finished 12th.

I'm starting to think "if you want to win, you'd better hope I'm not cheering for you".

What a game. It went into an overtime only because of this last second shot by Brooke Wyckoff. During that extra session the Sun defense held off the Monarchs from scoring any points at all.

Here's what was reported on the Connecticut Sun website this morning:

Sun Rally to Knot Finals
Connecticut’s Brooke Wyckoff hit a 3-pointer with two seconds remaining to force overtime and the Sun scored all seven points in the extra session for a 77-70 win over the visiting Monarchs on Thursday, evening the WNBA Finals at 1-1. Taj McWilliams-Franklin led the way with game-high totals of 24 points and 16 rebounds. Nykesha Sales chipped in with 19 points and Katie Douglas scored 16 for Connecticut, which played without injured guard Lindsay Whalen. Game 3 is Sunday in Sacramento at 4 p.m. ET on ABC.

More about the beaver

Here are two beavers that met their maker last fall at Thor.

The beaver animal is a very wild animal and rarely domesticated on farms. This species is the largest rodent in the USA and Canada. It is the symbol of Canada and for two US states: Oregon and New York. These creatures reach the weight of 60-70 pounds, but the average weight is 35-40 pounds. The body length of these creatures is 41-46 inches.


Castor Fiber (European Beaver); Castor Canadensis (American Beaver)
The beaver is an exciting animal to watch because it is a compact self-sufficient busy little
creature. Although a member of the rodent family, it is capable of many engineering feats which man acknowledges as being ingenious and a remarkable example of instinct. The beaver has a thick coat of brown wool and fur, the underneath being soft and cuddly while the fur on top is long, oily fur that throws off water, so keeping the beaver waterproof. The two front paws are similar to human hands and have five toes, while the hind feet have five toes but are webbed to help in swimming. The beaver has a wide, flat, scaly, tail, which it uses as a rudder when swimming, and long, sharp, orange-coloured incisor teeth with which it is capable of gnawing down trees. When the beaver swims under water it can close its mouth, nose, and ears to keep the water out and remain submerged for several minutes. Its lips can be closed behind its incisor teeth to enable it to gnaw under water and build up itshome. On land the beaver is capable of walking on its hind legs and carrying logs, mud or stones in its front paws. The beaver also has an excellent sense of hearing and smell. It is a very capable creature.

As a wild creature, the beaver works mostly at night. It cuts down logs in spring and early
summer, letting the logs lie until the autumn when it builds or repairs its home. The beaver lives in a lodge - a mound of sticks, moss and stones with a domed roof plastered with mud. A lodge looks like a giant hedgehog with wooden prickles. The beaver lodge can be found on the bank of a stream, at the end of a dam or on a pile of logs, which are placed at the bottom of the river.
A lodge has a dry upper chamber with a vertical air vent where the beaver lives and a store where supplies of food are kept, weighed down in the water with mud. The lodge has two entrances, both of which are under water. One entrance is narrow and steep and used as
the main entrance to the lodge, the other entrance, being wider and less steep, is used to
transport food into the lodge from the store. Because both entrances to the lodge need to be
submerged, the beaver will first construct a dam to raise the water level in the pond where his
home is to be built. The dam can be of any length, sometimes even 100 metres long. The
beaver gnaws down trees for its dam and drags or carries the logs to the water's edge. At times it builds channels to float the logs to the pond. In constructing the dam, the beaver weaves the logs together and then, using its front paws and flat tail, packs mud into the cracks to ensure that the dam becomes watertight. The dam is constructed to ensure that, although the water might freeze on the top of the pond, it never freezes at the depth of the entrances to the lodge. The beaver can therefore survive a harsh winter in his lodge, while the ice and snow lie thick on the surface of the land and water.

A beaver does not live alone in a lodge. At times a lodge might contain twelve beavers or more, all working and living together. Beavers are cheerful creatures and enjoy each other's company. To greet another beaver, a beaver will slap its tail on the water as a sign of welcome, although under different circumstances this signal indicates danger. The beaver is a naturally clean creature. It cleans its lodge and itself regularly. The beaver combs and cleans its fur using its claws and teeth and helps other beavers clean themselves too.

A beaver will find a mate at about two years of age and these two will stay together for life, which can be about twenty years. A beaver will have one litter of babies per year, usually during the summer months, one to eight babies per litter. Baby beavers are called kits. The kits born in the lodge have fur coats and open eyes when born. At four days the kits can swim, and within two months the kits are weaned from the mother's milk and have strong enough teeth to eat bark, roots, leaves, and berries like their parents. A beaver will remain with its parents for two years and then leaves its home to find a mate and build its own lodge and dam.

Beavers have to be very careful to avoid enemies. While the beaver is working outside the lodge it is prey to many animals. Its distinctive smell, from a pouch in its upper tail, which contains castor - a musky smelling substance - leaves scent marks as it works. If in danger while above the ground, the beaver can dig plunge-holes in the ground to hide in. Fortunately the kits do not have the distinctive castor for enemies to smell. The teeth of the beaver also provide formidable weapons if necessary. When a beaver senses danger, it slaps its tail on the water or ground to warn the others to return to the safety of their lodge. Their home is the beaver's best fortress, especially if it is frozen up with ice. The animals that hunt beavers include the fox, the wolf, the bear, the lynx, and the wolverine. These animals are not water creatures and so the beaver is safe in his lodge providing the pond does not freeze up and give these animals access to the lodge. owever, another enemy of the beaver is the otter, which is capable of swimming into the
lodge and attacking the beavers. Fortunately, the lodge has two entrances and the beavers can
swim out of the opposite entrance and escape. A further enemy of the beaver used to be man.
Man hunted the beaver for its fur and teeth and the beaver almost became extinct. The fur was
used to make hats and coats and the teeth to make sharp chisels or knives. The castor was
also collected and made into perfumes. Today the beaver is a protected species and its numbers
are increasing.

A paddle around the pond

Here's Ellie and I paddling around the pond at Thor last Saturday. I don't know if you can see Billy or not but he is swimming up to us trying to tip us over (or at least that's what I thought he was trying to do). We didn't make it all the way around the pond because the beavers have it dammed up. Damn beavers.

Here is Davey, Makita and Dave (aka: Dave, Dave, Dave) trying to remove the water pipe they pounded down the week before. There was no way it was coming out. So after Chuck, Dave's brother-in-law, looked at it, he said he wouldn't pull it he'd keep pounding. So there you have it, the new plan. They're going to re-thread it (again) and continue pounding with a jack hammer this weekend. May the water gods be with them.

Also pictured here is Billy with his chew bone and his seasonal Minnesota Vikings collar on. They need every fan they can get!

Connecticut Sun Head to the WNBA Finals

The Sun dominated overtime en route to completing a two-game sweep of the visiting Fever with a 77 to 67 win in the Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday. With the win, Connecticut advances to the WNBA Finals for the second straight year. Taj McWilliams-Franklin paced the Sun with 15 points and Lindsay Whalen added 14.

They go on to play the Sacramento Monarchs in a best of five series.

Wed. Sept. 14 Game 1 Wed 8 pm ET on ESPN2
Thu. Sept. 15 Game 2 Thur 8 pm ET on ESPN2
Sun. Sept. 18 Game 3 Sun 4 pm ET on ABC
Tue. Sept 20 Game 4* Tue TBD on ESPN2
Thu. Sept 22 Game 5* Thur 7:30 pm ET on ESPN2
*if necessary

Welcome Ethan Chaun Cox

On Tuesday August 30th Dr. Chaun and Kate Cox brought us little Ethan Chaun. Though I guess he wasn't that little. He weighed in at 8lbs 15 oz. If you're thinking about a gift, maybe a Cost Cutters certificate. Looks like he has a nice head of hair. Congratulations Chaun and Kate. He's a keeper.

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day Weekend at Thor was a blast. We went up to Dave and Ellie's 80 acres in Thor. It's about an hour Northeast of Brainerd. We had a fun filled time let me tell you. As you can see from the photo's we shot trap, started pounding a well and got into the whiskey (after shooting of course). We also rode the four wheelers around the property getting the full tour, smoked a turkey and laid some patio blocks . They have done a lot of work in the one short year they've owned the property. They have the lovely shack all done. They have lots of new trails through the woods and they have planted a nice food plot for the deer. Not to mention the kennel, turn around, firewood lean-to, crapper shack and much more. Now soon they'll have water.


















The well pounding is quite the deal. Here you can see it's a manual thing. Pictured above is Dave's brother Dick pounding his pea pick'n heart out. Then pictured is nephew Ryan, brother Dick, Davey Jr. and Makita. ( too many Dave's). Then there's the photo of Ellie soaping down the sand point and Dave supervising (he's very good at that).

We ran into problems though when we went from the pounder to a maul. We bent the pipe and now they have to pull it out and start over this weekend.






Here's what happens when you get into the whiskey. Aren't Davey and I an entertaining pair.

Connecticut Suns edge closer to WNBA Finals

Connecticut’s Katie Douglas hit a 3-pointer with 30 seconds to play to seal Thursday’s 73-68 win at Indiana in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Sun led by 12 early in the second half and saw their lead cut to one but never let go. Taj McWilliams-Franklin led the way with 24 points and Nykesha Sales scored 13. The best-of-three series shifts to Connecticut for Game 2 on Saturday.

Pictured above is Minnesota's very own Lindsay Whalen. Lindsay contributed 12 points last night. The Suns are one game out of advancing to the WNBA Finals against the winner of the Western Conference Semi Finals. Currently Sacramento Monarch's are one game up on the Houston Commets.

Los Angles Aug 29 - Sept 1, 2005

Last week I was in LA working. When I arrived on Monday my luggage did not arrive with me. Northwest told me that it was on the next flight, about 3 hours later. But not to expect it delivered until after midnight. No problem. Just as long as I got it before I had to go to work in the morning. Well it wasn't there the next morning. I called the Northwest Luggage counter at LAX and got an answering machine. So I left a message. I went online and tracked my luggage down to a carrier called Elan Air. There were two phone numbers listed there for Elan Air. I called them both and neither of them where numbers for Elan. Great. Well I went downstairs and bought a pair of black slacks and a black top and put on my white tennis shoes and went to work. I looked like Ellen, so I felt like Ellen and spent most of the day dancing. Over the course of the day I left a total of seven messages for Northwest Luggage at LAX and never got a person on the phone. I always got an answering machine and always left a message asking them to call me and tell me what Elan Air did with my luggage. They never did call. I went shopping and bought another outfit for the next day. Well when I woke up Wednesday morning my luggage was there. I never did find out what happened to it.

While in LA, Sharon and I saw our co-worker Robert. He's down there working for three months. Here is picture of his car. He just bought it six months ago. He went out to drive to work Monday morning and this is how he found it. There were two other vehicles that were burnt up also. No one even came to his place to tell him. He didn't hear it either. He must have slept through it.

The rest of the trip was good. Besides seeing my friend Sharon and Robert I got to see an ex co-worker Cindy, Sharon's sister Terri, Sharon's son and daughter in-law Ryan and Renee. I went with Sharon to pick up her new pickup she was going to drive back home to Oregon.

August 27th, Fifth day in Stonington

On our final day in the Borough we did some sight seeing. Here's Ellie and I walking in the Atlantic. It was very cold. Then in the afternoon we went for a reading from a Medium at the New London Spiritualist Church. It was me and Ellie's first ever reading. Ellie broke her first medium and got kicked out. She breaks a lot of things.















That night dad Andy took us all out to a very nice meal in Mystic at the Fisherman Restaurant. http://www.fishermanrestaurant.com/

Pictured here is mom Eleanor, sister Barbara, sister Nancy, nephew Jason, dad Andy, nephew Kenny, Ellie and me. The photo didn't turn out to well but you can see how nice it is and how much fun it was.

I have to say that this trip was great! The Perry family are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. They are fun, generous and gracious. I can't thank them enough for having me as a guest in their home.

August 26th, Day Four in Stonington

On Friday, our fourth day in Stonington, we went over to the fire station where Andy (Ellie's dad), Jason and Kenny (Ellie's nephews) are all fire fighters. As you can see I got to drive the truck and Ellie was trying to catch a ride with me. We were very impressed with the new station and the new ladder truck. They gave us the tour and provided us with caps and patches to bring back to our fire fighters (David Jr on the Deerwood FD and Makita on the Brainerd FD).

The last real bad fire that Stonington fought was on July 3rd 2003. It was the infamous Monsanto Fire. Check out this link for photo's of this aweful fire just blocks from where the fire station now stands: http://www.stoningtonct.com/firephotos1.html

If you look real hard at the picture of the truck, you'll see me and Ellie up on top of it way in the back.

Ellie got a job with the FD when it was time to put the truck away. She was suppose to hook the exhaust hose up to the exhaust of the truck as Andy backed it in the station. She did pretty good, if you don't count the fact that she broke the whole thing.

That night we went to another Connecticut Suns game and they won. It was their last regular season home game. It was a lot of fun.

Stonington Winery

On Thursday we also visited the Stonington Winery. We learned a lot about the making of wine. We sampled six different kinds that are made there. As you can see I have my very festive wine shirt on. The lady pouring was very impressed. She wanted to know where I got it. I told her in Minnesota. I didn't tell her "at Kohls".

Thursday night we gathered at the Perry kitchen table for a game of "Crap on your Neighbor". Pictured here from left to right sitting is sister Nancy, friend Ellen, dad Andy, sister Barbara, mom Eleanor, nephew Kenny and standing behind is of course Ellie and I. Mom was out first and therefor made the official bartender. I was out second and made her official assistant. It was a lot of fun.