All dressed up with nowhere to go.

Thanks to my friend Dave Boeckermann Jr., who just returned from Spokane, I have this super duper great shirt to wear this Sunday. Problem is, I have nowhere to wear it to. The past several years Dan Goshey has been hosting a real nice Super Bowl party but he's decided not to this year. So I'll be wearing my nice new shirt, eating my smoked salmon, sulking and cheering loud for Seattle on the confines of my own sofa.

BWCA Trip Planning

Now you may ask "Why would you be planning a BWCA trip already"? I would answer "because there's nothing else to do now" or "A person needs to get your permits early....they go fast" or "I dig it (planning)". Whatever the answer, the first trip is planned. It will be the biggie of the year. It's going to be a 9 or 10 day'r (depending on when we come back out). We'll be going in on June 15th and coming out somewhere around the 25th. This year we will not be bringing any teenagers that have attitude and ambition issues.

We (Dave and Ellie B., myself and Makita) must have been drinking (we were) when we planned this trip this past Friday. I say that because after deciding our route and obtaining the permit, I started looking hard at our decision. Well it's a goodie. Here's a brief description of the first days portages: Launch in Round Lake and paddle to the SW corner and do a 85 rod portage to West Lake, then a 50 rod portage to Edith Lake, then a 36 rod portage to Brant Lake, then 100 rod portage to Gotter Lake, a 10 rod portage to Flying Lake, a 90 rod portage to Fay Lake, 45 rods to War Club Lake, 15 rods to Seahorse Lake, 25 rods to French Lake and finally a 132 rods to Peter Lake. Wow. That's 10 portages at somewhere around 600 rods. Good golly Molly. I can't wait!

23 Days until the Daytona 500

Get ready to hear the most famous words in racing, "Gentlemen, start your engines". It's only 23 days until the Daytona 500, which kicks off the 2006 Nextel Cup racing season.

Currently I have put myself on the waiting list for camping at the Kansas Speedway. They said they'd let me know if I made the cut by the end of February/beginning of March. So I'm hoping to get into the campground for the weekend of my birthday, October 1 and 2. You know what they say... "football has a three hour tailgating party. Nascar has a three day tailgating party".

Maggie Moonshine gets another Chance

Maggie (Ellie and Dave's dog) got another "date" with Chance, my brothers black lab, last week and we're hoping this time they'll have a litter of little Kimmy Kay's. A year ago Maggie confused us with a false pregnancy. So hopefully this time it's the real deal. We'll know soon enough. A dog is usually pregnant for 63 days. So that leaves around 56 days until the big event.

Community Education

Expand your horizons and your pea brains. That should be the slogan for Community Education. As you can see here, my friend Ellie has super sized her pea brain. It's a lima bean! This is a picture of my xmas gift she made me right after she expanded her horizons in the art of stained glass. It's amazing. She's really working hard on several projects right now. She has a nice large working area set up in the basement and she's really going to town creating pieces of all kinds.

The Brainerd School District Community Education Guide to Classes and Activities just arrived yesterday and it's packed full of ideas for folks to get out and expand their horizons. Some good examples (besides "Journey into Stained Glass"...page 11) are: "Find Yourself in the Night Sky", Ten Quick and Easy Scrapbook Pages", "Thai Cooking", "Doggie Treats - For the Dog in Your Life", "Healing Through Divorce", "Feng Shui - Prosperity and Partnerships" (what the hell), "Introduction to Fly Tying for Women", "Get Your Bass on the Lake - Beginning to Advanced Fishing Seminar" by my own friend Scott Roesner and many more ideas.

So browse the book, choose a course and expand your pea brain to a another, larger legume.

Ice Fishing Extravaganza

Here's a few photo's from this past weekends Ice Fishing Extravaganza.


I managed to get a lovely shot of Dan Goshey and his big ole' cigar out in front of the B93 broadcasting center. Dan does the morning show on B93 Monday through Saturday each week.











And Big Mike in his Big Hat handing out swell prizes to some anglers. Big Mike is the General Manager of B93 as well as several other area stations.










And you may recognize this guy as one Mr. Kent Hrbek star 1st baseman for the Minnesota Twins. Kent was drafted in 1978 and played until 1994.

Super Bowl XL

Congratulations Seattle! I'm loving that. I was a little disappointed with Denver's performance yesterday, to say the least. Oh well. I'm still going to stick with the Seahawks for my pick to go all the way. Pittsburgh looks good and ready though. It's going to be a good game!

So I assume you all are getting your tailgating parties in order. There's only 13 days until the game. How about some hotwings and chips? Maybe accompanied by a Bloody Mary, a Captain Coke or an ice cold Coors? In honor of Seattle I'm going to have some smoked salmon as well. 

Brainerd Jaycee's $150,000 Ice Fishing Extravaganza

The tournament is on! Originally, due to the thin ice on Gull Lake, the Sheriff's department wouldn't issue a permit for the expected 10,000 participants. But earlier this week they did issue one for Round Lake (across the street). So you can expect the lakes area to explode with anxious anglers.

Tune into B93.3 to hear yours truely reporting live from the ice. I'll be out there with three others, Dan Goshey, Brian Moon and Dan Michaels. Dan Michaels and myself will be cruising the ice, handing out prizes and reporting what's going on. While Moon and Goshey will be at the weigh-in site. So tune in from noon to 3pm tomorrow (Saturday). I'll take the camera and bring back some shots for next weeks blogs.

Mike makes the Presidents List

I just read in the Brainerd Dispatch that Mike made the Presidents List for Fall semester at Central Lakes College. Good job! Congratulations and keep up the good work. It's almost over (one more semester to go).

NFL Playoff's

Holy cow, what a weekend for NFL upsets. I must confess I didn't think Denver could pull it off but they did. I may have secretly (or very openly) been cheering for Tom Brady and the boys. And what about the Colts? That was painful. The only thing I knew for sure was Seattle. And I don't think Carolina can even come close to winning next Sunday.

So all that said, I'm going to stick with Seattle all the way! After 40 years I think they're going to finally pull it off. Thanks Mr. Holmgren. 

Abby at work

This is my sister Lorrie's SAR (Search and Rescue) dog Abby. Together they work with the Wyoming Search & Rescue Association. You can see a picture of Lorrie and Abby together by logging into http://wyohomelandsecurity.state.wy.us/sar/sar.htm

I think they're on the lookout for a couple "lost" cowboys on Brokeback Mountain.

Happy Birthday Mike

Today is my son Mike's 23rd birthday. Holy cow. Time flys. Have a good one kid!

Happy New Year!

At the stroke of midnight this morning we rang in the new year with a little champagne! We had a lot of fun bringing in the new year. Good drinks and great food. Ellie had a huge spread. She must have worked on it for the entire day before we got there.

One note of interest: their furnace decided not to work last night. But with Dave's stockload of electric heaters the house stayed very warm. It actually went from 66 degrees to up over 70. Since the price of electricity is less than gas now, I think (in Ellie's words) they're weaned off the gas and are prepared to heat with electricity from now on. Okay maybe not but it worked for the night, until this morning when the furnace guy came over and told them there was nothing wrong with the furnace, but instead it was the batteries were dead in their fancy dancy thermostat.

Hey does it look like Dave B. Sr. is staring at my butt???