Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving

We had a fun Thanksgiving today - did a ton of stuff and hung out with friends all day and are just starting to crash.

Jen started the day by working from 7am-2pm. Avi and I got out of bed around 8, she went over to our neighbors to play with the kids at 10am. A bunch of the neighborhood guys played some football at the park this morning for an hour or so - our first annual Deer Creek Court TDay game. We all had a blast - I wish I had taken pics.

I fried up a turkey after the game at my neighbors house - he actually fried up 4 of them in his driveway. That was a pretty interesting process. I peeled and cut our sweet potatos as well. Jen got home at 2.

About 4pm we headed over to Suzie's house for our feast. It was the normal crew and great food - good company as well - and good to see everyone. We just got home 30 minutes ago and put Avi in bed. Time to hit the hay myself.

I hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

$1.71/gallon

I paid $1.71/gallon for gas the other day - UN-BEL-IEVABLE!

Friday, November 21, 2008

Best of 2008 Fly Swap

I just finished up hosting a fly swap and posted the images in my Picasa Album.

Here are some sample pics:

From 112008 - Fly Swap

From 112008 - Fly Swap

From 112008 - Fly Swap

From 112008 - Fly Swap


Thanks to all the guys who participated!

Hockey 11/20 - Thursday League

1 goal, 1 assist
played with John the goalie and the kids
played D
won 14-0

the other team was yelling at us for running up the score - when in actuality our captain told us no more goals after 10 unless they are tip ins or long shots from the point.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Gas at $1.91/gallon? Amazing

I filled up yesterday and paid $1.91/gallon - it cost me $18 and I was more than 3/4 empty.  That is amazing.

That said, it was not all that unpredictable.  I mean, looking at the basic economic principals answered this question - supply vs demand - what had changed since last year? I mean, why would oil prices spike - and could they continue to stay as high as they were?

Demand

Since our entire country has put searching for alternative renewable as their top priority, I do not think demand (or future demand) for crude oil increased.  Any future demand increase would be offset by the increase in usage of alternative energy sources.  So it is safe to say that demand didn't change

Obviously there was some change in the supply of crude oil that sent prices skyrocketing - but was this actual supply or perceived supply? I mean, did any country significantly threaten to decrease they oil supply to the US or other parts of the world? When I think of the major suppliers of oil I think UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and then Iraq.  The first three countries have very good relations with the US - and they all are highly dependent on exports to fuel their economy - so no way would they threaten the largest importer of oil (the US) with reduced supply - especially when the US could easily impose their will with boycotts or sanctions. So that leaves Iraq - which certainly has had issues with producing oil and exporting it since the US has taken up the war. But their exporting capabilities were very very low to begin with - they actually have little infrastructure to export the oil - most of their oil stays within their country and the middle east.

So I guess what I am saying is, I don't understand how the ACTUAL supply of oil could have been changed all that much.  I think there was a perceived supply issue, but somehow that was blown way out of proportion and the end user consumer paid the price for over a year

Whatever this was all about - I'm glad the economy has straightened it out and I'm paying less than $2 a gallon!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

MVPedroia!

Although this would seem relatively impossible for a tiny 2B to win the MVP - unless it was a down year for the entire league, Dustin Pedroia did it. The kid is 5'7" on a tall day and can't weigh more than 160 lbs - but every bit of it is heart. I love this kid - and I'm glad he has made his mark on MLB and the Red Sox. He is easy to root for and will be a Sox for many many years.

Also, I bought my nephew a Pedroia jersey for his birthday - I think it was a good choice!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Saturday, November 15, 2008 - FryingPan River

A last minute trip had Chad, myself and Matt headed out to the Pan late on Friday night. We arrived at a cheap motel around 9:15 in Glenwood Springs - grabbed the room key and then hit Village Inn for a quick bite. We were basck in the room at around 10:15 - had a beer or two, watched some Soup and then passed out. I was lucky enough to draw the floor - but hey, I controlled the heat in the room and kept the place at a nice 75 degrees!

We got up around 6am, hit the free breakfast at 6:30 and were on the river (after a nice 30 minte drive) around 7:15. The morning was, how do you say this nicely? Frickin freezing! Literally. It was 19 degrees when we left Glenwood Springs, and the Ruedi Canyon had to be about 5 degrees colder. We went straight for the dam - stopping at the bend pool. I fished the gage station to no avail - but honestly I wasn't all that upset since had I caught a fish I would have had to touch it and get my hands wet. The water was not the problem, as it was at least 34 degrees, it was the pain of having wet hands in the cold for even a few seconds. The water was emitting a nice little steam. I took this photo immediately when we arrived - it is the sun hitting the upper stretches of the canyon - this is probably about 800 feet above us.

 


I didn't catch a thing - I had switched from nyphing to streamers to even dry flies as the fish were hitting the surface on something other than a size 20 BWO. Matt had some luck, but spent most of his time down in the shadows - he said it took him 10 minutes to tie a single knot - so that wasn't much fun. The sun him the gage station first, so I was lucky enough to enjoy some warmth. Chad of course was catching everything, he had tons of luck on an 18 mysis pattern. This was a brown he fished out of hole just below the waterfall.

 


Around 11 am we moved down about 1/4 mile to one of our favorite holes. I started getting into a couple fish, but I did have a very large fish get off on me. I fished up and down this section with minimal luck. Chad and Matt headed down river and we met back at the car around 1pm. We moved down river again to one of Chad's favorite spots - a place where he had some great luck the last time we were here. He and Matt headed the opposite way again. I fished a deep channel with no luck. The water was way down this year - flows were about 70 cfs and that is very very low for this river. Avg flows are around 100+ cfs, and many of my familiar spots were very very shallow. Also, because the sun doesn't really get "overhead" in the winter the light was messed up, so you couldn't tell if the hole you were fishing to was 4 inches or 4 feet deep. That throws off a nymph fisherman pretty badly. I suffered through some slow times until I finally got the weight and indicator depth correct and then I picked up a couple of hits.

We moved down to our last stretch - it was getting "late" about 4pm. I could actually see CHad and Matt within eye shot. I was fishing this strange run that had a huge rock you could stand 10 feet above the water on, but the hole was practically unfishable due to a tree being down at the top of the pool, all the water pushed against the rock, and there were two or three large trees that were under water with branches make a deep nymphing style of fishing impossible. I floated my nymph rig through this section a few times, then said the heck with it - I put the rig right into the danger zone - and hook a pretty brown trout! The pic below is of the brown - he wasn't long (about 15 inches) but he was thick and fiesty, and his coloration was magnificent. He was almost an orange on his belly with deep blues and dark red spots. He had a small blue patch on his cheek - he was a really good looking fish.

 


I fished a few yards more down to the guys - who were picking up fish left an right on egg patterns. They were standing near each other standing on the huge red rocks that lined both sides of the river, casting streamers to hungry fish - I think they both caught 6 fish each in a half hour or so. It was about 5:30 and we called it a day. We stopped in Glenwood for Wendy's and then I made it home by 9:05pm. A long day, but it was gorgeous. Although the temperature may have hit 40 degrees in the canyon we were all chilled to the bone - I slept in front of an electric heater last night hoping to get the chill out.

Friday, November 14, 2008

It snowed last night!


And Avi had a blast!

Hockey 11/13 - Thursday League

2 games

first game
no points
Chris was our goalie
first game ended in a fight with 3:30 left
won 6-3

second game
no points
John was our goalie
won 8-6

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Hockey 11/6 - Thursday League

2 goals, 1 assist (maybe 2 assists)
played with the kids and John the goalie
played D
won 10-2
+7, no goals against

Monday, November 03, 2008

Catch Magazine

I hadn't seen this before - but a new issue of Catch Magazine (Fly Fishing photos) is online - check it out HERE!

Sunday, October 2, 2008 - Chatfield Reservior

I'd say I fished today, but that would be stretching it. Really it was more of a kayaking expedition and shoulder therapy. I brought Cabo to Chatfield Reservior and made a few laps around the usual spots - however I didn't catch anything. It was a little windy out there, and that made dragging streamers tough - the yak would get all turned around in the wind when I stopped paddling and tended to the rod. The weather was beautiful - I was in a t-shirt the whole day.

I did some paddling and my shoulder throbbed - but it was the first real workout that I have had on the shoulder since the pinched nerve. When I finally anchored up to fish, the wind completely stopped and the water was like glass (kind of eery actually). On the way in I saw Tom Shyrock and his son fishing the inlet, but not having much luck either. The water level was down slightly. The west inlet was only 8 inches deep ro so - I was lucky not to drag bottom a few times - although if I had it would have just stirred up about 4 inches of muck.