It was awesome...

Me and Toby...damn that was cool!

Toby played for two hours. He was great! He sang all the songs I wanted to hear and then some. I'm trying to remember some of the songs....let's see....."How Do You Like Me Now", "Country Comes to Town", "I'm Just Talkin' About Tonight", "I Wanna Talk About Me", "Beer for My Horses" (with Willy singing on the video), "Stays in Mexico", "You Ain't Much Fun" (since I quit drink'n), "Should've Been a Cowboy" (he made it into a Raggae song...Weird), "Honkytonk U", "As Good as I Once Was", "Who's Your Daddy", "I Love This Bar", "Whiskey Girl" and "Weed With Willy" (and I didn't even have to ask). And he also sang two songs from his up coming album to be released April 11th (Get Drunk and Be Somebody).
And as you can well imagine (if you're at all familiar with Toby's music) he did some of his patriotic songs including "American Soldier", "The Taliban Song" and he finished the night with "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue".


Me and Joe...that was very cool also. Joe rocked the house. As I walked up to him backstage he started singing. I thought that was neat. He has a great voice. It's very deep. He sang all his hits.

Going to meet the stars.....

Tomorrow I'm going to get to meet Toby Keith and Joe Nichols when they preform at the Xcel Center in St Paul. My radio connection (aka: Makita) has gotten us backstage passes with access to both artists. Now let me tell you, I've met a lot of country artists but to meet Toby is going to be the ultimate for me. I hope I don't do or say anything really stupid, like "I'll be your whiskey girl" or "Please sing the song Smok'n Weed with Willy"!

And Joe Nichols...guess what? Tequilla makes my clothes fall off too.

Chainsaw Sisters Saloon

Well a trip to Ely should also include a trip to the Chainsaw Sisters Saloon. Here's a great shot of me by the sign outside the bar and one of Dave, Ellie and myself enjoying a afternoon toddy in the wood heated saloon (thanks for taking over the photo duties Makita).

This place is something. We traveled 18 miles north of Ely on the Echo Trail to end up driving down a snowmobile trail in the truck to the most remote bar I've ever been to. There is no electricity there. The place was absolutely packed. We happened to luck out and get this booth after a group of snowmobilers offered it to us as they left. We were the only people there via vehicle. Everyone else had arrived on snowmobile.

The saloon overlooks Picket Lake and is the only privately owned entry point in to the Boundary Waters. Michele Richards, originally from Richfield Minnesota, and her twin sister Marlene eventually moved to Ely after spending several of their summers working and living up north. They bought the forty acres of land from the Potlach Corportation in 1986. The buildings on the lot include the saloon, the family cabin, a shed and an outhouse (yep .... that's the only place to "go"). The only power comes from a generator. Most appliances are run off propane.

The twins acquired the Chainsaw Sisters name while working for the U.S. Forest Service planting trees and clearing trails of dead falls. They didn't particularly like the name at first but it stuck.

And here's the best part. You can actually buy the saloon. Yes it's for sale! Check it out at http://bearislandland.com/data1151.html

Hey Lorrie....what do you think?

Snow Sculpting

Here are a couple examples of some awesome snow sculpting we saw in Ely this past Saturday. It was some kind of winter festival up there. Although, other than the the snow sculptures, we didn't see anything else that even remotely resembled a festival.

Crazy Water-mobiling

A trip to Ely this past saturday enlightened me in several areas. One was these crazy guys on snowmobiles that where skipping open water. It was the wildest thing. They've taken their sleds and rigged them up to go on open water. The tracks have large paddles built in to help them. They've removed the seat and off they go. After reading about this strange activity, I learned that you must be at speeds of around 90 mph to stay above the water. The state of Minnesota says that this sport is illegal unless it's done at an authorized event. I question that this was an authorized event. There where quite a few fellas there to try their sleds on this body of water. They would go along way and we didn't see anyone sink. I'd say "that was cool"!

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow

Six more weeks of winter? We haven't had much of any winter. It's been so warm here in Minnesota that we didn't bat an eye when old Phil saw his shadow. Bring it on. Then this morning we did wake to cooler temps (currently it's 14 degrees) and a skiff of snow. 

Groundhogs Day

Groundhogs Day is a big day for me. Eight years ago today I quit smoking ciggarettes. Gosh I miss them. Every once in awhile (usually when I'm around bad influences) I'll have a puff off a Backwoods cigar. Gosh I like them too. As someone I once knew said, "I'll gladly pay you on Tuesday for a cigar today"....the dude never paid me.

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???

Party like it's 1999...or 2006

It was quite the party at with Kurt and Robin last night. We ate like piggies.... pepper burgers as promised. They were as good as promised too. We drank like fish ... we put down some wine and as you can see by the following picture...an ice cold keg of Coors Light (my favorite). I receive some great gifts too. A Loon clock (it does a freak'n sound of a loon at the top of each hour). It's going to be lovely in the new camper. And a Jeff Gordon car phone and travel mug. The mug is very cool because it actually plugs in to a cigarette lighter and keeps the contents warm. The phone is super awesome because instead of a ring it says "Gentlemen, start your engines". We tested it out with Robin's cell phone. So if you call my house and I answer the phone laughing it's probably because I'm quite entertained by the new phone.

New years resolutions

Has everyone made their new years resolutions? Maybe to quit smoking or start eating healthier? How about dropping some pounds and toning up? Well that would be mine. Except it was mine last year. Oh well better late than never. I should probably add more resolutions to the list...like quit talking bad about people...or how about stop swearing....smoking cigars....or drinking beer? Hey lets not push it. Okay I'll give up one more thing....shaving my arm pits. Okay maybe not all together. Just during the winter.

New years eve eve (yes, eve eve...friday night) will be spent at the Hopps. I can't wait. We'll be celebrating xmas, new years and my friend Robins birthday (January 2nd). Last I heard Kurt was going to be cooking pepper burgers. I heard they're great. Can't wait. Maybe we'll play some Uno...I'm pretty darn good at that.

New years eve willl be spent at the Boeckermann's. We will be celebrating xmas and new years. It's become a tradition over the years. I have the party hats all ready to go. 

Happy Holidays

Well here it is, the first day of winter. Hard to imagine what winter will bring. It's currently 15 degrees. Earlier this week it dipped down below zero. Folks are driving on the ice with their trucks. There's snow everywhere. But they tell me one good piece of news, the days will now start getting longer. A couple minutes a day. That is good news.

I want to extend a "Happy Holiday" wish to all that read this. I hope you're stockings are filled with all the goodies you desire. And golly...here's to 2006 while we're at it. Cheers.

For 2006 I joined a new health club. I'll let you know how it goes. I meet with a trainer tomorrow to figure out what I need to do to get in shape. Well at least a different shape than what I'm in. 

Holiday Gifts

This past Sunday we celebrated Christmas with my son Mike, daughter in-law Jessica and grandson Kyle. We had a great time. Knowing how much I needed one, they made me a super great rod holder. It holds 22 rods with reels. It's pictured with a couple antique rods just for display but I'm going to put it to work actually holding all my fishing rods.

Winter Wonder Land

Winter has come to Minnesota once and for all. Brainerd only got about three inches of the white stuff but Duluth is reporting 21 inches. Minneapolis is saying they're shoveling around 8 or 9 inches. And it's still snowing. But the good news is the temps. Today it's 28. But the cold will hit us next. The high forcasted for this Saturday is 10 degrees. But hey...that's above zero.

I went to the UPS store on Tuesday the 13th to mail a box to Casper Wyoming. They told me they couldn't guarentee it to arrive there by Christmas. I looked at them with a stupid ass stare. They proceeded to tell me that it "probably will get there, but we have to tell you that. The guarentee cut off was yesterday". Unbelievable. I could walk it there in time for Christmas. Well I checked the box's tracking this morning and it's on it's way to Commerce Colorado today. At least it's heading west. It sat in Eagan for the past two days. I was going to send it through the post office but I didn't want to hassle the people. What people you ask? The people. The mail carrier will try to deliver it. So that person would have to drag it around all day. And if the folks aren't home to recieve it, then the mail carrier has to drag it back to post office after leaving the yellow slip. And then the people receiving the yellow slip would have to take the slip to the post office and redeem it for the freak'n box that's now sitting in Commerce Colorado, wherever the hell that is. Where as UPS just drops the box at your door and hopes that the neighbors don't steal it. 

Gophers Sweep

The Sioux dropped their fifth straight home game Saturday night, the longest home losing streak in 12 years.
Former Grand Forks Red River teammates Danny Irmen and Ryan Potulny - now Minnesota players - burned UND for the second straight night in leading the Gophers to a 4-3 win against the Sioux.
Potulny scored two goals and added an assist, while Irmen had a goal and an assist to lead the Gophers to a sweep of the Sioux. The former Roughriders combined for nine points on the weekend.

Gophers Win 1st of Series

Last night the Minnesota Gopher hockey team won 4 to 3 over North Dakota's Fighting Sioux in an exciting game at the Ralph. That game was the 2,500th in Golden Gopher hockey history. Minnesota owns a 1,507-851-142 all-time record. The Maroon and Gold is on a five-game road unbeaten streak (3-0-2), while North Dakota saw its three-game winning streak come to an end. Minnesota is 133-116-11 all-time vs. UND, including a 52-63-7 mark in Grand Forks. UM has faced North Dakota more times (260) than any other opponent. The Golden Gophers have not swept the Green and White in the regular season since Feb. 8-9, 2002, in Grand Forks. So lets cheer loud tonight for a sweep! Go Go Go Gophers.