"Hey There Big Guy"

Just when I thought I'd seen it all, along comes the talking urinal cake. Wizmark?...seriously?

I was relieved to video this contraption first hand and fresh out of the wrapper (prior to its deployment) after the prototype fell into a friends hands. My initial attempt to shoot this video was stalled until we figured out how to get it to talk. Once this hurdle was overcome everything flowed smoothly.

While I though I was getting a peek at the new face of anti-drinking campaigns of the future, I soon found out I was late to the party. Turns out urinal cakes aren't just for drunk drivers any more. Apparently for the right price anyone can get their product placement spilled into this prime advertising receptacle. Who knew?

Before and After

The back deck has been deteriorating at an accelerating pace so this springs home improvement project was a complete redo. Despite using treated lumber the wood was split, cracked, and some boards were so rotten it was like walking on a sponge.

Seems like it went pretty fast mostly due to the dry, warm weather we've been having. Decided to go with the latest composite materials to make the new one as maintenance-free as possible. We got the two-tone wood grain Ipe from Fiberon. Came out pretty good...check it out.

Scholastic News Flash

This just in >>>Jaimie has been accepted to pharmacy school>>>> Woo-hoo!

Here she is (was) as she embarked on her scholarly journey of learning 2 years ago. And now as hard working grad student.

Looks like a lot has changed....including how much I have to pay per class hour....ouch!

Mark Zuckerburg Look Out

It's hard for me to believe that fairly simple ideas, like Facebook and Tweeter, could become so popular and be worth billions of dollars. It does occur to me that this phenomena is only appealing a small portion of the population (the 15-minute-of-famers, the sychofants, the narcissists, and the groupies) while the rest of us go largely un-served.

Well this seems hardly fair....but it does represent a business opportunity.

Therefore, today, for the first time, I'd like to announce the beginning of a new concept that is sure to please many and make me an instant bazillionaire.....The Anti-Social Network. Yes, it is a concept whose time has come. This could be for you if: you don't really care what your BFF is doing minute by minute, you're not particularly impressed by seeing drunken pictures of yourself and friends displayed for millions of strangers, you're not interested in having you're personal information mined by hackers and scam artists, or you're just plain normal.

But wait...I just read how Mark Zuckerburg is planning to take his brain-child public but doesn't want to provide his personal or business financial details? Doesn't this contradict his basic model of fully disclosuring all personal information no matter how great or small? Check this out. http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-january-6-2011/the-anti-social-network

Could Mark have beaten me to the punch? Oh well the idea may still have legs. Go online today and visit my Facebook page to find out how not to sign-up for this new service. Oh wait...... I don't have one?

The Usual Suspects

Well it's time for kids, adults, and dogs to gather for the annual Christmas tree cut. This year we were joined by the Lubienieckis, the McLaughlins, the Hieberts, and next door neighbor Becky Crozier. As mentioned in the past, Becky owns several old mining claims near Central City and allows us to thin the pine trees on her property for Christmas tree purposes. The weather was fantastic. Becky is on the far left.

We were there too. Merry Christmas!

Zebulon Pike

Looks like Jaimie has a new friend.

Just kidding. Our friend Steve Hiebert decided to get a new dog and, of course, Jaimie couldn't wait to cuddle with it. It's a Vizla, a Hungarian breed, imported from Omaha. It's a hound and kind of looks like Cody when he was a pup. Hopefully it won't get so big.

You'd think you could find something like this around here but after getting the run-around from the Vizla rescue society in Denver for the last 6 months he decided to give up and buy one from an independent breeder in Nebraska. You'd think these rescue folks would be happy to place the dogs right away but despite advertising that they had animals for adoption they can't seem to return a phone call.

Anyway, Jaimie says this is the "cuuuutest puppy she's ever seen" and got a chance to shower it with affection for about an hour today. Hannah wasn't too thrilled about it but she's getting old and cranky. After running around nonstop for quite a while it did finally run out of steam and had to take a nap in her lap.

Almost forgot. It's name is Zebulon Pike...Pike for short. If your wondering where this came from then Google the history of Pikes Peak in Colorado.

The Phoenix

Who can forget John Cameron Swayze and those old Timex commercials...."It takes a licking and keeps on ticking!". Well I guess you have to be old enough, but they were classics.

So I may have glossed over my near death experience in British Columbia on the Kispiox River in the previous post but it now becomes the center piece of an additional story of interest. While fishing the river in chest waders, I ended up in a section of particularly fast water. It started out innocently but each time I lifted my foot the water pushed me further into a dangerous situation. Eventually I lost my footing and went down on all fours desperately trying to grab bottom with my hands and kicking for a foothold with my feet. Worse still the water was pouring into the top of my waders and filling me up, not a good situation, and the cause of more than one river death each year among fisherman. So as my life flashed before my eyes I briefly realized that the camera in my shirt pocket was getting completely immersed under water. (Sounds trivial but it is the point of the story). Long story short I was finally pushed into slower water by the current and managed to stand up and walk out of the river a nearly drowned rat.

After getting to shore, dried off, and into warmer clothes I turned attention to the camera...it was the only thing on me that wasn't really intended to get wet. I striped the battery and memory cards out and we put it on the defroster vent in the truck with the heat on full for the next several hours. Despite what I felt was a through drying it never revived on the trip.

Flash forward to the end of the trip and upon returning home I charged the battery, and completely disassembled the camera to look for problems. Again, despite not finding anything wrong with the camera it refused to work.

Two months later I'm thinking of trying to sell the camera for parts when for some reason I decide to check the battery. Huh... the battery is completely discharged. After several hours on the charger it's still completely discharged. I wonder what would happen if I hook up a power supply to the camera. Huh...it works now!! What a surprise...with actual electrical power it's fully functional.

So the moral of the story is the camera's not dead until it's dead with a fully functional power source. I've got to say I'm impressed and I don't impress easily. Don't mistake this for a Sony endorsement, but it did take a licking and despite being left for dead it's now still ticking.

A Fish Tail

I teamed up with my buddy Steve Hiebert for a salmon fishing adventure in Alaska this summer. He was on his way to visit relatives in Spokane, Washington so I flew up and met him there. Alaska is about 2300 miles further north so we had one hell of a road trip ahead of us but aside from some 12-18 hour days of driving it was pretty fun. Everyone should do it once.

The first obstacle was getting thru customs into Canada. Not sure what you've heard but depending on where you cross the border guards are decked out in flake jackets, fully automatic weapons, and an attitude. Steve had made a jog into B.C. earlier that week and spent and hour getting scuffed up in the border crossing. Although he didn't have all his gear at that time, we were planning to carry bear spray with us and that was one of the main things they repeatedly questioned him about. Since we weren't too keen on loosing $80 worth of spray we picked another entry point to cross at. Ironically as we pulled up to the check station the border patrolman exited his booth, walked over to the bushes, and proceeded to empty what appeared to be a can of bear spray into the weeds. At that point we figured we were just going to have to fork it over but when the guy came back to the window he pretty much waved us through without ever asking the dreaded question. The whole thing is doubly ironic since as we proceeded through B. C. you can buy this exact same brand of spray everywhere. Must be a government conspiracy, eh!

Did I mention bears? Yeah they were everywhere in British Columbia. After fishing one afternoon we drove down a dirt road in the back country and saw bear scat every 50 yards....for miles. Also saw quite a few live ones along the road, and one night had a big guy right in camp. Good thing we were sleeping in the back of the truck.

I didn't think the lower half of BC was very scenic but it gets better the further north you go. Also the further north you get the worse the road becomes. They still haven't figured out how to build a road over the perma-frost so the asphalt heaves and you're left with a roller-coaster highway that's pretty hard to drive. I think we caught some air a few times.

After several days we finally rolled into Alaska. This was my second time there and I'm very impressed. Hard to beat the sea and mountain combo. Our first trip we lucked out and had rain-free weather the whole time. Not so lucky on this trip. It rained everyday and was overcast the whole time. The moose don't mind.

One quick stop in Anchorage to pickup another friend and we made our way down the Kenai Peninsula to the town of Soldotna and our hotel, the Kenai River Inn. The hotel was right on the river and there was some fishing there, but it was pretty hard to get a good spot with all the other guests there too. We traveled around to a few other spots on the river and found a gravel bar that worked out pretty nicely. We weren't the only ones there, of course, but that's fishing in Alaska. The salmon only run for about 2 months so everyone and their dog is out there.

It was a bit hard to get into the swing of catching the fish. Spawning salmon aren't really feeding as they come up stream. Consequently you have to present the line so that it floats into their mouth where they hook themselves. Sounds easy right? Well not so much but I listened to a lot of advice from the locals (and believe me everyone has a ton of conflicting advice) so after sifting through all the noise, and with a little luck you can get hot. Well maybe not YOU but I did. After about 3 days of not catching anything I suddenly got going and limited out for a few days. Came home with 50 pounds of salmon fillets. We've been eating so much fish I'm starting to grow scales.

Well all good trips have to come to an end. I caught a flight home from Anchorage, and Steve went on to visit more kin up around Wasila...that Sarah Palin country. PS- You can see Russia from there:)