Spillway Fishing

Here are some pictures of my recent fishing trips... the place I caught these fish is 8 minutes away.
We have been catching a lot of Wipers, which is a hybrid fish of a white bass and a striper. This is what they look like:


2 days ago I went down to the spillway expecting to catch more Wipers, which we did, but not as much. Instead, these Walleye were biting on our jig and plastic minnow setups. I had never caught a Walleye so I had my buddy take this picture

Then, 10 minutes later, I hooked into this 23 inch, 5 lb monster Walleye! It was quite the fight. I told the Asian guy next to me that I would give him my next fish I caught. He was more excited than I was to see this thing come out of the water! This is a big size for Walleye. We had a good time if you can't tell by the smile on my face.

I Caught You a Delicious Bass

I finally got out fishing today... it was a good time. We went to a pond hidden away in Des Moines. We caught 4 fish total. I caught a large 3.5 lb/ 18.5 inch largemouth bass on a Rapella Shad Rap. When I opened it's mouth up, there was a large tail of another fish poking out. You can see it in the picture.


Here is a picture of Matt's first bass of the season.

Life In Technicolor

I really like Coldplay. I did a search on a song "Life in Technicolor" from their new album and found this music video. The original song has no lyrics, but this video does. It's about time Coldplay does a music video where they don'y just show Chris (the lead singer) just walking around singing the song.
Brandon and Erik... this is especially for you.

Ouray Ice Climbing

Over the Christmas break our Brandon & Danina Thatcher came and visited us in Montrose Colorado. So because they are so awesome, we all decided to go to Ouray for a day and watch the ice climbers. Just watching these guys was intense! Here is a slide show of our adventures, Brandon took half of these pictures and I took half... enjoy!


Here is a video of the climbers

STI practice

My buddy Matt sent me this. This is one sweet STI. My corrola drools when it watches this video...
How would you like him to drive you to school?

I Voted, and this is my story

Sam and I went and voted a day early on the Monday before elections. We were in a huge line of people, most so enthusiastic about Obama that any republican would have to wear camouflage to get through it all.
As we were waiting in the line, a obvious Obama supporter was standing behind us. Being by herself, she decided that she needed to have a conversation with her friend via cellphone. Because nobody in the line had anything better to do, we were all entitled to hear her very loud conversation which displayed her unique IQ. This is her conversation:
Hi, what you doin?.... fun... me? oh, I had a job interview downtown, but I couldn't find it, so I decided to come vote... no I didn't go, do you know where it is?... oh well, I will find another job. Yeah, I'm voting... I just turned twenty so it is my first time... I know, I was going to like take pictures and stuff... but I'm not.
TIMEOUT: We now know this, she is a 20 year old African American, who is a first time voter. She obviously doesn't pay attention to details because she doesn't give a care that she just stood up her interviewer, and didn't call to let them know... I know, Sam and I are thinking the same thing...
TIME IN:(we are now up to the sample ballot, showing all the candidates) So, here is the ballot, this is so great! Ok, I want to read you the candidates... Obama... yeah! and Joe Bid-en (the Bi is pronounced like bid)... who is Joe Bid-en...? What? Where is Hillary... I thought Hillary was his vice president?... What, Bi-den?
TIMEOUT: Now I am the public display, I am laughing too hard not to be noticeable, but at this point, I don't think many of the people around us were short of a smile either. Sam is even smiling, but keeping it in...
TIME IN: (I don't know what happened after that, I was laughing too hard)

This has been our joke for the longest time... Bi-den, who's Joe Bi-den? While it is funny, it brought me to thinking... I am worried that too many people were looking at a person and their popularity and not the platform and what they stand for...

This is my opportunity to congratulate Obama on the presidency. My prayers are with him and our government that they will make good choices to represent our country.

What Matters this Election?

I have always taken interest in the presidential elections, but never like this year. I have been asked about my political views frequently and has therefore led to this post.

My motto for this years election is "It is not who you vote for this year, but who you vote against that really matters". Keep that in mind as you read on.

I am traditionally republican in values and principle, but quite often, I consider myself an independent. This year, my core values and beliefs will be the leading factor in who I vote and place my trust. So here is my take on the two candidates and their running mates.

Senator Obama and Joe Biden.

Has there ever been a duo that is so smooth and crafty with words? Obama is making history by just being in this election and is a smooth talker reaching into the hopeful hearts of a depressed nation. Biden has a pearly smile, with strong foreign policy. He is good at smoothing over mistakes by the democratic campaign, and was strong in his debate against Sarah Palin. However, I think that quite often, he speaks over the heads of many Americans. I believe that this parties intents are good and they are a great team, but I do not agree with their health care policies (a huge can of worms I don't want to open right now, just put it this way, the government doesn't need to run this also), pro choice rights for abortion, and same-sex marriage viewpoints. When it comes to the economy, I think that they are strong, but I don't think that either candidate has a strong answer for the trouble. Quite frankly, I don't know that anybody has a good answer yet. This will take bipartisan cooperation to put America back on its feet. The big plus with this campaign... Colin Powell endorsed Obama this weekend. This should turn the heads of many independent voters... quite frankly, he turned mine.

Senator McCain and Governor Palin

I don't believe that his health care policy is the way to go either. The only real part I agree with is that people should be allowed to cross state lines to purchase health care. When it comes to foreign policy, McCain knows his stuff. The party is pro-life, and protects the traditional views of marriage (though I must state that Biden in the vice presidential debate stated that we should not change the traditional definition of marriage... good job Joe). Palin, she seems to be a great person, works hard and I would be okay with her being in the white house, but would she be a good President? Maybe not yet... you would just hope that McCain would live long enough to give her some experience. Here is the major down side of this campaign... I am so tired of the negative attack adds on Obama. McCain, show us what is good about you, no what's bad about your opponent. It would be approriate to do this some of the time, but over and over and over... it gets old. This has been a major turnoff... Obama has ran his campaign better when it comes to advertising himself.

So what does it come down to? This: what matters most in life and eternity. Pro-Life and the protection of the family. The wars and economy are important topics, but not as important as the values I hold dear... pro life and marriage between a man and one woman.