And The Streak Ends At 4....

Let me preface this post with a fact. The fact is that today is a slow day. I mean slow. I left the office once or twice so thats a step in the right direction, but not enough to keep this brilliant mind occupied for the afternoon. I also want to say that this decoy carving business is WAY more expensive than I thought it would be but I think its going to be totally worth it! On to the streak.

It ended at four. My brilliant, and a bit lucky, mastery of card skills has brought this man to a grand total of 4 solitaire wins in a row! I'm not even kidding! No cheating either! I played this afternoon on the computer and took care of business 4 times in a row... Thats unheard of! With this news, I'm going to stop by the gas station on the way home and lay down my dollar bill to play the game that only people who don't know how to add play but instead to pay everyone else's taxes! Wish me luck everyone!

Oh yeah... And Happy Halloween too!

Thought for the day?

I try to write about something every day, but today noting really strikes me as being worthy... I mean all I've really done today is get my drivers license renewed and I had some ramen for lunch. Boring I know but thats the kind of day its shaping up to be. On a side note, I think Charlize Theron is pretty hot and really reminds me of my wife. I'm a lucky man! Hope everyone out there is doing well and if I'm moved later this afternoon, I'll be sure to post something more worthwhile for you to read!

Home Sweet Home?

That was my thought as I pulled into Madison yesterday after a 4 day camping expedition in the middle of the Mississippi River... I've always enjoyed the thought of living in our state's capital city. I mean the city is relatively cool for being a city... "There's always something to do" sure hits it right on the nose. The restaurants, the entertainment, the 208,052 other residents of the city besides me and my wife... I mean, there has to be something said about a town where over half the population is renting instead of owning. Is this a suitcase destination for Wisconsinites? Are people drawn here for school and starter jobs and then move on to somewhere else? After this weekend I can't blame anyone for wanting a little piece of their own somewhere other than here.

I really don't have anything negative to say about the city other than its just not what I want in my life. I don't want neighbors that live only a wall away. I don't want neighbors that live 50 feet away. I just want a little spot out in rural land where I can have a house and a huge yard to ride my lawn mower on. I want a house to call my own and a barn for my wife's horses so they're not scattered all over the countryside. Heck, for the amount of boarding fees for a year, we can easily pay the taxes on a good chunk of land!

Rant, rant, rant. Its not going to get anyone anywhere... My trip this weekend was great. It was time well spent with friends I don't get to see nearly often enough. I even got to shoot a duck while I was doing it. I also got to crap in the woods several times because the main meat during the extent of the trip was greasy ass bacon. Who knew starting to eat right would ruin me on bacon? WTF?

3 am wake up calls, swamping 44 degree water over your waders, boat rides in the rain and sleet… I guess some wouldn’t call it a good time, but I think they’d be wrong. I think it gave me a little more perspective on life and where I want to be in a few years. Family and friends are becoming more and more important to me as time goes by… I think now is the time to act instead of letting time go by. Well, give me until June, then I’ll have acted for sure!

Worthless...

...Thats what I am going to be today. I'm sorry if that upsets anyone, but its just a fact.

How do you expect me to be productive when all I've got on the brain is camping my behind on a small island in the middle of the Mississippi River while the temps at night flirt with freezing and preparing myself though the frigidness (is that even a word?) to get up at a 3 am, maybe even a pre-3 am, wake up call so I can motor out into the middle of the river next to the wild celery so I can bust a duck in the face? Well, the short answer is you can't. I've joined the crew of the FDA Worthless today and I'm planning on make a good run at being the captain!

Ok. That is today. On to yesterday...

I'm really sick and tired of people who don't do their job and when confronted about it don't admit that they've done wrong. To err is to be human right? I've made mistakes and I'll fess up to them. If you stick me in the urology department next to a piece of equipment and make me swap out every friggen component only to then not return any phone calls for the next three hours, don't bother. Just delete the supposed work you've done and start over. Done. IN LESS THAN ONE MINUTE, YOU DELETED AND SET UP THE DEVICE IN THE SYSTEM AND THE PROBLEM WAS SOLVED! DON'T TELL ME THAT I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SET UP A PRINTER! ITS MY JOB TO DO WHAT I DO AND DO IT RELIABLY! YOUR JOB IS TO NOT BE A SCHMUCK ABOUT IT AND DO YOUR JOB! If this was the first time this had happened, I may understand... BUT ITS NOT! GET OFF YOUR DAMN HIGH HORSE AND COME LIVE WITH THE REST OF US PEONS FOR A WHILE!

Rant over. Should have warned you ahead of time. Seriously though, being accused of doing everything wrong for 3 hours by someone and finding out that the problem was on their end the whole time and it was fixed in less than a minute... ITS F*CKING FRUSTRATING!

Wedding Photos

Some of my latest renditions of photos... What do you think? Which one(s) do you like? Drop me a line and let me know!

Color:

Black and White:

Sepia:

Decoy Carving - Part 3

Here is the quazi-finished product. I worked all weekend to get it to this point so it could be sealed and painted and could go on the hunting trip with me later this week, but I found the sealant needs 2 weeks to fully cure and be completely water tight. Bummer. Anyways, it's to the sealing and painting phase now, and it'll be ready to go by the end of the season!

Completed body...

Completed head...

Completed... Duck! A side view...

Front view...

Top view...

Lots of work and I think it really turned out great!

Cats...

I really don't care for them unless they're out in the barn keeping the mice at bay. With that being said, I do have to laugh at the goofy things though! Take a look at this blog and tell me you don't laugh a little... Its contagious!

http://anotherlolcatzblog.blogspot.com/

Decoy Carving - Part 2

Last night I started working on my decoy again, but I came to realize that I wasn't going to be able to make as good of a go of it unless I broke down and sanded the thing... How do you sand a decoy? A bow sander, thats how. Where do you get a bow sander from? Well, apparently not the wood working store in town... So I made a run to Menards last night and bought the supplies to make my own! The paper itself was the most expensive part of the whole thing! I don't have any photos of the sander, but I do have updated photos of my progress thus far.

Photo of me rasping out the side pockets. I must have been confused in my previous life because I thought they were called wings... Who knew?

What a poser! Seriously... All the work has been done at this point. I'm not really cutting anything! I must not look in the mirror too often either... I really need a haircut!

Top view of the decoy, complete with the "rain gutter". I guess I need to take a duck anatomy lesson!

Left side...

Right side...

Front view...

I guess that wraps it up for now! Tonight hopefully I'll be able to finish rounding the body in and start on the head this weekend!

Nothing New...

Its Thursday. I'm bored at work because no one has broken anything yet... I've done 3 crossword puzzles and checked my email about 52 times. My book is sitting on the desk top here and its just not pulling me in. I could always blog, but I really don't have anything to say today other than my carving started last night but I didn't take any photos yet. Maybe tomorrow. Well. Until tomorrow then...

#%$&*^@ Blogger Upload Tool!

Dear Blogger.com,

I love you. I enjoy my time spent with you and you comfort me in ways only you know how to. But when your photo upload tool constantly produces errors like bX-6tnmaz and bX-ltlqzv and doesn't let me put the photos in my blog, I become frustrated. I realize you are a free tool for free speech, but I'm not sure if this looks positively upon you. Do you not trust me? Do you not realize that I too have needs? If there is turmoil between us, please tell me. Talking in cryptic messages and codes really doesn't help anyone. Talk with ME! Don't ask me to contact your "support center" and tell them about our problems. There's really no need to drag anyone else into this! Please bring yourself around Blogger.com. I'm becoming worried about you and don't want you to slip even further away.

Yours truly,
BassetRancher

Decoy Carving - Part 1

So on Monday, I received my decoy carving kit from The Duck Blind. I'm stoked. I spent Monday night watching the first of 3 videos on how I'm supposed to take this big cork block and the smaller cedar block and turn them into a duck. I'll be the first to admit that sometimes I really lack in the "artsy" department so this could get interesting...

Anyways, I haven't started carving yet. I put the guide lines on the blocks and they're ready to go as soon as I get all my ducks in a row (pun intended). Be prepared to be subjected to photos of my project... right... NOW!

Here are the pieces in their entirety.

Here is a closer shot of the body. Well, its going to be a body someday... Hopefully...


Here is a side shot of the head.

Front view of the head.

So one of the reasons I didn't start carving yet is the fact that I have no way to effectively hold this thing down while I go to town on it with all the knives and rasps and other assorted tools needed to turn this hunk of cork into something resembling a duck.

I searched the internet and posted questions to carving forums about what do people use to hold their carvings while they work on them. Now the answers were as varied as the flavors of Jelly Belly Jelly Beans, but I think I found something that'll work.

This apparatus is called the Poor Man's Vice. Instead of spending upwards of $200 on fancy professional ones, this thing was devised and submitted to the Poor Man's Tools contest and won some money... Anyways, whoever thought of it was a genius in my opinion. I assembled it as shown for $14.75. Huh? What did you say? $14.75? Not $200+? Nice job!


I also bought a small set of vise grip pliers to use to tighten and loosen the arm as well, but they're not in the photo. This thing is pure genius. You can tilt and rotate to your heart's content. I'm amazed.



So thats that for now I guess. I'll keep everyone updated with photos as my progress continues and I'd love to hear your comments if you have them!

Post #34: Smile

"I believe that words have power. Sticks and stones may hurt our bones, but bones heal in a relatively short time, while one critical parent can cripple you forever. With that in mind, let's try a little experiment.

As you read the following words notice whether you feel the impulse to smile. Did it work? Did you smile immediately upon reading that? If not, that's okay. Don't get down on yourself.

Remember, this is just an experiment. We can try it again. This time feel your lips curl up gently at the corners. You try to fight it, but your mouth seems to have taken on a life of its own. As you continue reading you can't help but notice that you are now smiling like the execs at Paramount after they realized they got a piece of Titanic for chump change. See?

The power of words. In this case used for good. If you would like an example of words used for evil, call your mother and tell her you're really starting to make progress in therapy."

--Chuck Lorre Productions' Vanity Card #8

Inspiring Insights

Inspired. Thats the way I came out of this weekend. I'm not sure what I'm inspired to do quite yet, but I'm looking at each opportunity before me as a chance to really shine.

Saturday was Ashland, Wisconsin's 10th annual Whistlestop Maraton and FMD's dad, PD, ran it. After waking up at 4 am to drive up and register and prepare for the race, I still didn't quite understand what made this event so special... I'm not a runner by any means. I'm a biker (well, I used to be) and I'd do an easy 40 before lunch when I worked for the DNR, and at least that after... How far is 26.2 miles? On foot, its a hell of a long ways!

After dropping PD off, we raced (no pun intended) to the first observation point. Less than 20 seconds after arriving trail side, we saw him run by and I snapped the first of my photos. Not the sharpest photo I've ever taken, but still one of my favorites of the day.



After seeing him go by, we joined the hoards of other people and raced down to the next observation point. Parking was tough to come by and people were lined up in droves! This is when it all hit me... People testing their bodies and striving to do something most of us will never do in a lifetime. The hours spent running, strict diets, 4 am wake up calls... I finally got it. I actually was on the verge of tears. Some who are just "too cool" may call that lame, but I call it inspiring. To see all of those friends and families lined up to cheer their loved ones on... To be one of those friends and families that lined up to cheer our loved one on... Wow.



10 miles down the line we met up with PD again...



I lost my hat out the window when I tried some high speed photography. The photo didn't turn out great but the thought of all the cars behind us swerving to miss hitting my hat is priceless... Maybe you had to be there...



Photo of PD's family while we were waiting...



PD leading the pack...



Inspiring PD on...





Hats off to you PD!



Mile 20.5...



Down the stretch...



Across the finish!



Everyone is a winner!



So thats that. Wow. 26.2 miles. Thats impressive. PD certainly gave it his all and can say something that most of us will never say in our lifetime. "I ran a marathon." He also has been quoted since saying, "Why would anyone do that?" Thats a question I asked before the race, but I'll probably never ask it again...

Big Winnings and Project Completed!

Missed posting yesterday and need to catch everyone up to speed on a few things.

First and foremost, you need to know FMD's car is without a driver side rear view mirror. She managed to back into the garage door Tuesday night and pull the mirror off along with the garage door's track. Luckily the door wasn't busted and she took her frustrations out on the door and pounded it back into place with a "BFH" while I was away at Sears getting the tools I though I'd need to get it straightened out. Now we face the question of whether to replace the mirror (also known as the $145 question) or if we should just put a bunch of duct tape over the hole in the side of the door and scour the junk yards for a replacement... I'll tell you one thing though, you never really know how much you use that mirror 'til you lose it!


On to Wednesday night... It started just like any other Wednesday night but it wasn't meant to stay that way... I put on my camo pants and took my wife, brother, dad, dad's neighbor, and another friend to a Ducks Unlimited event. Well after all was said and done, the decoy fleet has increased by 26. I've included a photo of them (well I will once Blogger fixes their upload tool) so when you can admire them just as I do every day...

You'll find:
-6 Shovelers
-2 Pintails
-2 Black Ducks
-14 pieces of mallards (2 butts, 2 headless feeders, 2 sleepers, 2 over sized, 2 resting, 4 alert)
-and yes, 2 Coot!

I'm pretty stoked about the new fleet. I could have gone out and bought all of these decoys for the same amount of money I spent on the raffles, but its way funner if you win them!

Thursday night brought more excitement to the garage. First busted mirrors and janked up garage door tracks, next 26 new decoys, finally a new workbench! Yup. FMD and I scavenged a piece of counter top during clean up days (reminds me of dumpster diving at the end of the school year) and we mounted it to the wall last night. Now I'll have a place to rig up all my new decoys as well as carve the ones I'm getting in my new kit! Yup! Happy early birthday to me! I broke down and ordered the decoy carving kit with all the tools and instructional videos I'll ever need (hopefully). I'm pretty stoked!

Now on to the weekend where we're heading up to Ashland, WI to watch FMD's dad run in his first marathon! I want to wish him good luck ahead of time! And I'll make sure to do it in person because he'll never read my well wishes here!

October 10th

Definitely my favorite day of the week. If you wonder why, you can ask me, but it goes way back to the summer I spent in Point... Ahhh... Those were the days...

Anyways, this Wednesday sticks out because its the night of the Ducks Unlimited Waterfowl Hunters Party. What is a DU WHP you ask? Well, I really don't know, but if you ask me tomorrow, I'll fill you in on the details.

Crossword conundrum of the day?

Across:
1. Family Emblem (5) _ _ _ E M
14. St. Theresa's town (5) _ _ _ L A
17. Mysterious Triangle (7) B E R M U D A
20. "Le Monde" article (3)

Down:
1. Off-Limits (4) _ _ B _
2. Ceramist's need (4) _ _ E _
3. Lose zip (4) _ _ R _
4. Street shader (3) E L M
5. Author Sendak (7) M A U R I C E

Here's how it looks:

_ _ _ E M * *
_ _ _ L A * *
B E R M U D A
_ _ _ * R * *
* * * * I * *
* * * * C * *
* * * * E * *

PS: HTML hates me... I had to add the asterisks as place holders so everything lined up right.

Guess what?! I got a fever...

...and the only prescription... is more crosswords! I'm addicted!

WTF? I mean, its only a friggen crossword puzzle. I must be retired or something. Whats so fun about doing a crossword you ask? Well, it helps me waste time while I'm at work and according to researchers in Britain, adults who do 3 to 4 crosswords a week are less susceptible to dementia than those who don't. So there!

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/crossword/index.html

Crossword Solved!

Ok. I kept working and found the answers to my crossword for all you who were wondering...

Across:
1. Geological Formation (4) - Pass
14. Singing Voice (4) - Alto
17. Stupefy (4) - Stun
20. Decimal Base (3) - Ten
23. Newspaper Piece (7) - Article

Down:
1. You need dough to make it (5) - Pasta
2. Change (5) - Alter
3. Unusual or Dangerous Feat (5) - Stunt
4. Male Offspring (3) - Son

Here's how it looks:

P A S S
A L T O
S T U N
T E N
A R T I C L E

SWEET!!!! I'm a dork I know but finishing a crossword like that really gives me a sense of accomplishment!

Weekend Thoughts and Crosswords

The past weekend was wonderful. Aside from arriving in Brillion on Saturday morning to find out they all shot their limits of geese while I was driving up, I couldn't have asked for more. FMD and I attended a wedding and things were just like they were supposed to be. Beautiful church, beautiful weather, beautiful bride, beautiful bridesmaids... The dinner and dance that followed was great as well, even though I took me a little while to work up into my old dancing form. I guess there isn't much else to report... You've all been there, done that. You know how it goes. The only thing I wish that was different was the Packers game on Sunday S and A were in attendance and I would have like for them to be there for their honeymoon and for a win, but it wasn't meant to be I guess.

On to crosswords. I'm most of the way through one but its got me stumped something fierce! Here are the clues. See if you can't help me out:

Across:
1. Geological Formation (4)
14. Singing Voice (4) - Alto
17. Stupefy (4)
20. Decimal Base (3) - Ten
23. Newspaper Piece (7) - Article

Down:
1. You need dough to make it (5)
2. Change (5) - Alter
3. Unusual or Dangerous Feat (5) - Stunt
4. Male Offspring (3) - Boy?

Here's how it looks:

_ A S B
A L T O
_ T U Y
T E N
A R T I C L E

Any ideas??? Anyone???

Wacked Out Dreams...

Ok. I'm not going to even begin to explain it, but I'm going to write it down just in case something comes up in my life that this makes sense... Here goes nothing.

It starts out with my on a football field behind what is presumably a school. I'm out there watching kids at practice but I get bored and I walk over to the garden and start tending to it. I go to put some sort of fertilizer/chemical on it and I spill it on my hands. No biggie (I think at the time) and I keep on going. I go inside to to chaperon the dance that is going on and I notice I start to get some sores on my hands where I spilled the chemicals earlier.

I'm in the dance, which is actually a club complete with a bar, and am chaperoning inner city kids and I can't understand a word they're saying other than they want to pull the fire alarm as a prank. I'm running around grooving with all sorts of people and trying to thwart the hoodlums' attempts at pulling the alarm. Eventually the place closes and I head downstairs to head to my friend's apartment that is located in the bottom hallway of my elementary high school right were my 3rd grade class was held. Weird I know but whatever.

As I'm walking down the dark empty hallway, I look at my hands and I notice that there are leaves and plants growing out of the sores from the fertilizer that I spilled on them earlier. I freak and run into the Ag area of the high school and turn on every light I can find and proceed to start pulling the plants out of my hands. Now I know this all sounds crazy to this point but I can't even begin to describe how vivid the scene is/was in my mind while I was dreaming all of this up... Its kinda giving me the heebie-geebies thinking about it now!

As I'm pulling these plants and leaves out of my hands, I finally finish and I realized I've picked holes in my hands down to the bone! Yuck! I'm in shock by this point and stumble out of the room and back out into the hallway. I'm walking down the hall when I heard a brushing/scraping noise on the floor behind me. I look and it is a bunch of small flat magnets that are moving along the floor like a bunch of ants or something looking to devour everything in their path. I start running and my friends open the gate that looks like a prison cell door thats about 12 feet wide and let me it. I'm frantic and tell them that they need to watch out because all these magnets are coming. They say there's nothing to worry about because they have an electro-field around the front door that he magnets can't get by otherwise they'll be demagnetized. I'm relieved to hear that but I then come back to the hole's I've picked in my hands and notice that the plants are still growing out of them. I keep digging at these plants and everyone just sits down on the couches with their coffee mugs around the fireplace and begin chatting. I rush to them (I don't know any of them in real life) and they start screaming because of the bones that are now exposed in my hands because all the plants are gone (like having plants growing out of your hands is normal in the first place)!

As everyone is running around panicking, the electrician shows up to work on the cable (figure that one out). Anyways, someone shows him to where the box is and he gets to work over there while others are checking out my hands. All of a sudden the magnets start flooding the room because the electrician accidentally turned off the electro-magnetic gate that keeps them out. They start rolling in like waves on the ocean and....

I wake up.

Wow.

Weird.

I'm pretty sure I was partially awake for a good portion of this dream and like in a sleeping/awake state of being because I had to go to the bathroom real bad because I drank a ton of water before going to bed because I had to give blood this morning. Needless to say, I feel like crap because I didn't sleep well and I've been tired all day because of that and I'm a pint low.

Now, I know I don't have many readers, but if anyone wants to take a crack at interpreting that one, let me know!

Ho Dee Ho Hum...

Its Thursday at work and I haven't done a thing yet today. Will someone's printer up and break so I can get off my lazy ass and do something?

On a brighter note, tonight is grilled chicken and linguine alfredo night at the F household. Maybe a few steamed carrots to go with it too!

Where Does It All End???

December 12, 2012 according to the Mayans. Yup 12/12/12.

Ok. I don't mean that end.

I mean the hunting craziness that ensues every year come September/October/November. I guess you could say it ends when the other months that aren't listed roll around and you'd only be partly correct. I can't seem to get enough of the feeling of being outdoors with my friends, family, and even my dog. The problem with hunting is that if you want to do so in the city, you have to be able to travel a lot and have the right equipment to do things proper. Guns, ammo, clothing, decoys, they all cost money. When it comes right down to it, thats what really gets us all isn't it? Money. Bleh.

That being said, and in follow up to my previous posts, I think I may have found a hobby for myself. While I can't get out and hit the water as much as I'd like, I think I'd like to bring some of the experience of the outdoors, well, indoors. Decoy carving. Yup. I'm a dork. Sound exciting to you? While it may not, I sure does to me.

I'd love to hunt over my own set of decoys that I've made by hand. That'd be the cat's ass in my opinion. Seeing as how decoys cost so much anyways, I can make them for the same price (maybe a little more) but have the satisfaction of having done it all by hand like the old timers did. I've thought about this extensively and think it'd be something great to keep my mind and hands busy during the off season, as well as the on season I guess...

Anyways. Enough is enough. I'm to the point that I either do it or don't. If I get started and really enjoy doing this, I could see great things in the future. If I try and really don't think its for me, well I'm out a chunk of change but at least I tried right?

October

October means:

• The leaves are changing colors and before you know it, will begin to fall.
• Hunting season is up and running and you really can't beat that.
• The weekly farmers market is coming to an end here in Madison.
• Warm pots of chili will accompany the Packers and my naps on Sunday afternoons
• Flannel is once again stylish.
• Rotation of the long sleeve shirts to the front of the closet and the jeans from the bottom of the dresser is a necessary task.
• Temps will continue to fall but when we hit 65 one day everyone will be talking about the "Indian Summer".
• Post-Season baseball, once again, without the Brewers. Don't worry though, we'll get 'em next year!
• Halloween is coming to State Street though only 50,000 people are allowed in.
• Along with Halloween coming, candy is on mega sale and I need willpower not to eat every single piece of candy corn I lay eyes on.
• Flannel is once again stylish (I know I already said that but I'm excited).
• The smell of chainsaw exhaust and fresh cut wood is in the air.
• My birthday is just a month away.
• The holiday season is coming and they already have the Christmas shit out in the stores before the month started. PUKE!
• The holiday season is coming and we start gathering together as a families more often. NOT PUKE!

I'm sure I could go on and on and for you things on this list may be completely different. Though many people dread the season because they know snow is just around the corner, I look forward to it every year. This is my favorite time of year and also probably one of my busiest. I'm sure things with stress me out and I'll feel like I'm pulled in 15 directions at once, but I like the feeling to be honest with you. The feeling of being needed by those around you is a very comforting one.

Welcome October! Come on in, kick off your shoes, and make yourself at home!