New bed

I got my new sleeping pad yesterday. This year I was using a section of a yoga mat that weighed in at about 10oz. This one is an astounding 1.5oz. I might go take a nap outside later on. I'd post up a picture of it but the camera has decided it os not going to work at all anymore and it would just be a 1/8" piece of foam anyways so......just imagine it.

Snow Day

Woke up yesterday to our first real snow storm. I thought for sure we'd be out of school early but no such luck. It continued to snow all day and through the night and we do have a snow day today. Heather just whipped up a batch of rice krispy treats and we're gonna watch bad tv and sit by the fire all day.

I drove the van to work yesterday and about 400 yards from the house, I was involved in a minor bump with an SUV. It was my fault. When I rolled down my window and asked if he was ok he said yes and made a comment about how bad the roads were. I asked if he wanted to exchange info and he said, "No I don't think that's necess.......", I said, "OK see ya bye." I threw it into gear and tried to make a quick getaway before he changed his mind but I ended spinning the tires for several minutes and going nowhere before I put it in reverse and backed away from the scene.

In other news...Bodhi ate his bed that we just bought for his kennel last night. Later on I woke up from napping on the couch and, with blurry eyes, I could make out some carnage in front of me. And a brown creature. He ate half of a North Face winter boot. Leather, furry lining and all. Once again....it was Heather's boot. All she said was, "I don't even give a shit anymore" as she walked away shaking her head.

Back in bidniz

I got the brass bushing back in with no issues and threw that new stahtah motuh in and got everything buttoned up and Herman came back to life. We'll see how he does tomorrow morning when I go out to wake him up in the cold. The high tomorrow is going to be 25. I guess we're under a weather alert and are supposed to get anywhere from 12-25" of snow.

HD Theater has a show about Vanagons on right now that I'm watching. Those UK folks sure like the Vans. They were working on properly sorting a cracker of a panel van into a rather tasty specimen. I wish they had taken off here like there.

Things

I'm really not looking forward to tomorrow. I'll be happy when it's over.

In other news...I have found that the DVR allows me to more than double the amount of tv I am able to watch. Tonight I watched 2 episodes of Man vs. Wild, the Abu Dhabi WRC rally race, and the Isle of Mann TT. Commercials are for suckers.

The best part of tomorrow will be when I get my new starter and come home to put that thing in. When the gear gets kicked out of this starter, it engages with the flywheel and the end of the shaft goes into a brass bushing that is in between the trans and the motor. I have to replace that bushing tomorrow and I'm worried about it. It looks like I get one shot at it. If the bushing falls down into the bellhousing...guess what? Time to drop the trans. To make things more interesting...the spot where the bushing goes is several inches inside the bellhousing. I'm pretty sure I have a good idea of how to go about it without shelling out 30 clams for the special tool. Special tools are for suckers.

A mountain martini

Fishing and drinking go pretty well together. I usually always have a flask in my vest. Now I don't want you to get the idea that I'm drinking more than I am fishing. Those that know me will attest to that. Rarely do I break out the flask at all but there are times where it is mandatory. If a trophy fish is landed (and this could be a fish of exceptional size or it could be a fish that just took an exceptional amount of time to fool and size doesn't matter much)

and someone is there to witness it, then we usually celebrate. Sometimes in the summer when lightning storms cause you to run for some sort of shelter (not always easy to do) there's just not much else to do but wait things out and enjoy some whiskey.

Several weeks ago the boys got together for a long weekend of high alpine fishing and, I gotta tell ya, the variety of drinks was impressive. I brought the standby....Jim Beam. Some opted for an interesting mix of Rum and cider mix (which was quite tasty). Of course there was a bottle of Jagermeister there. Scott lugged up a sixxer of Old Chub and we toasted with those the first night. Scott also lugged up a Nalgene bottle full of vodka and in the bottom of said bottle were about 6 olives stuffed with jalapeno's. I'll admit, it was pretty damn good. Until we started getting closer to the bottom. All we talked about for hours was how good those olives were gonna taste. Long story short...they were HORRIBLE. They tasted like olives and jalapeno's that that had been soaking in vodka for days. In the picture, I am not laughing but trying to figure out what to do next and still retain my man card. Way to keep it down Scotty.

We're coming up on a year old for Bodhi now and ever since he was 8 weeks old, he has been fascinated with fire and the fireplace. I've seen dogs be intrigued by flames before but I don't know that I've seen a dog that actually will get hot coals out of the fire place and then eat them. I keep thinking he's gonna get hurt one of these times when we aren't looking but he takes it in stride.