Viva La Espana!

Congratulations to Spain on a brilliantly played World Cup Final Championship game. Iniesta scored on an overtime strike giving Spain their first ever golden trophy. Sadly, soccer now slips back into obscurity on the North American continent for another three and a half years. One of the nice things about soccer is that a regulation game fits neatly into a two hour commercial free time slot. Add in a a half hour pre-game show and your still shorter than your average baseball. Soccer is supposed to be the sport of global appeal but a quick scan of the results shows that 13 of 32 finalists, 6 of 16 to make the knockout stage and both of the teams in the finals call Europe home. South America runs a respectable second but the rest of the world is "futbal" wasteland.

Segueing to other popular European sports which I enjoy but know nothing about, the Tour de France is also underway. I can DVR this daily and condense a somewhat tedious three and a half telecast into an hour or so highlight show. I watch a good chunk of the pre-game so the stage is nicely set, then I fast forward to the mountainous parts (slower cycling but higher drama and better scenery), then I fast forward to the last 10k or so to see who wins the stage and what that does to the overall standings. No one could accuse me of not being much of a purist but I do have a day job you know.

In completely unrelated news, I still eagerly await the mythical pile of government money. Conveniently, I work at the bank so if it was a scam I would literally be the first to know, or at least the second...my wife is very sharp. At this point it has been more than a week and most crooks aren't that patient, and you will recall I did independently verify the existence of the program. We will probably spend the bulk of the funds sprucing up the bathroom, but Renee did agree to let me buy a small one-person kayak and related accessories...which brings me to fishing.

Today I caught my first honest-to-goodness respectable fish. Not just a fish which I can be proud of, at this point I am still pleased with any fish, but a fish with which anyone could be pleased. Today I caught a modest 14" lake trout and was going to have to be content with that, but as my time was winding down a saw a mammoth smallmouth hanging in the reeds about forty yards from the trestle I was fishing (near the Messer Street bridge for locals). So I figured what the hell he was either going to bite or not and I casted my new neon yellow worms past his head and reeled them into the strike zone. He was interested and followed it a little but I could tell after three or four casts that he wouldn't bite. So I quickly switched to my other new lure a 4" Wild Eyed Minnow and I continued casting about ten to twenty feet past the bass so I wouldn't spook him. Each time I let it settle for just a few seconds and then I would reel frantically hoping for a reaction strike and also that the large exposed hook wouldn't get caught in the reeds. He was definitely interested in who was swimming through his water and on about the third cast he bit hard and plunged a little. This was the first serious test of the new 20 lb test line that I have been using as the smallie dragged my line deep and through the reeds and then he lashed back and forth a bit. after a minute or so the bass conceded defeat and I had to reel him the 20 or so feet up to the train trestle (again another good test of the line). Easily the biggest fish I have ever caught, he was a solid 17" and using a weight estimator on the Bass Resource website and my own instinct I would say he was very close to 3 lbs (2.8 says the estimator). All in all a very good day, for me and the bass which I unhooked and let go.

School

So I have finally come to a decision of sorts regarding advanced schooling. After finishing my bachelor's degree in September I will be taking at least a year off. I may not need or pursue an MBA degree at all, but I am definitely taking a break. After two and a half years of basically uninterrupted schooling, coupled with chasing a toddler, and a consistent effort to advance in my career has left me pretty tired.

As the boy gets older keeping up with him gets a little easier, and finishing school will free up a lot of time as well. I am glad I went back to school, and I enjoy my work so it's hard to articulate except to say that I am a bit tired and need a break. I am envisioning that after a year I will have a better idea of how content I am in my work and whether an MBA is necessary at all I will also have a pretty good perspective of how much I am enjoying and will miss my free time. For the moment I have nine weeks left of school and a paper to finish on the roles of human resources in the public and private sector.

Birthday Week

We have had a busy few days for the Mitchell family. On the fourth we had a nice BBQ at my parents with a lot of the nieces, nephews, and siblings. Later we went to the Muskrats game, left in the seventh inning and caught two different sets of fireworks going off simultaneously that were visible from Opeechee park.

On the fifth we had the the boy's third birthday party. This was the first year in which we had a big birthday party. We had easily fifty guests, one Muskrat mascot, and my first cake that involved actual construction. I made the scene from toy story where the toys are climbing up the bed to greet Buzz Lightyear. Unfortunately, to much sun and sugar left the boy throwing up and miserable for the rest of the fifth and sixth.

The seventh is my birthday and I caught two little rock bass in the morning before I went to work for nine am. After work I bought some new fishing line and a couple of new lures and we had a very nice dinner (thanks Renee) and ice cream cake with my parents.

Today is no one's birthday but the Muskrats have an exhibition game against team Canada and we may see some friends there.

Catfish

So I have a nice three day weekend for the fourth, unfortunately do to a scheduling glitch I was unable to use a vacation day on the sixth when Renee and the boy will be going to Story Land. Not a big deal as we will all go again later in the summer.

This morning at about five I went to the bridge by the Belknap Mill to try my hand at trout and salmon fishing. Naturally I caught two little rock bass. Nothing exciting but two fish for me in one day is still a pretty big deal. I caught one with my Berkley Gulp Minnow (far and away my champion lure) and the other with my biggest dud lure, the Rage Tail baby craw. The Rage Tail is such a slick looking lure but with plenty of opportunity today was the first time I caught a fish of any size using it, meanwhile 11 of the 18 fish that I have caught have been chasing the Gulp Minnow. It was almost 60 degrees by five am with clear skies and little wind, so it was a pleasant morning for fishing.

By seven am I had tired of the limited action under and on the bridge so I figured while I had a couple of hours I would head back to the Laconia Citizen parking lot. It had started to get warm so I took off my sweatshirt and spent the better part of two hours watching little bass float feet away from me mocking lure after lure. Then as I was starting to think about leaving I caught a flash of black out of the corner of my eye. At this point all I have caught is basically lake trout which is kind of a silvery color and bass which is mostly greenish so black struck me as odd. After watching the spot for a few minutes a beautiful little catfish swam into view. Catfish favor amateurs like myself because basically they are scavengers who will eat just about anything. So I pulled my lure and switched to a leftover chicken finger that I had brought with me. I dropped it where I had seen the cat and got nothing. Then I saw the cat on the other side of the little pier and when I cast to the other side I almost hit him in the head spooking him a bit. With a little bit of frustration setting in I took a break to see if I could spot the cat again. Looking back where I had seen him originally sure enough he was there and he was rooting around where I had dropped the chicken originally. Now I'm no brain surgeon but even I could tell he was sensed the chicken with his barbels and was looking for it. I slowly dropped the chicken back in the water and after settling for not more than a minute the cat swallowed it whole. The fight was brief but the best that I have had at this point having to let him back out a little a couple of times so I didn't snap my line (at this point I am using the 8 lb test that came with the reel).

When I pulled him into my hands I was impressed with his size and beauty (for me anyway). At 14" and a pound and a quarter the all black cat is the largest fish which I have caught and it made for three in one day. I wanted to snap a picture of my catfish but I struggled a bit with the hook and I needed to get him back in the water. The only thing that was odd was that I couldn't find the exact species in the NH Freshwater Fishing Digest. The digest lists one catfish species, the brown bullhead, which is brownish with a white belly, this fish was definitely all black and definitely in the catfish family. He actually looked like this fella' who apparently lives in Brazil, go figure? Anyway, I am excited for this Army stop-loss pay, Renee and I discussed, and if it isn't a scam I will probably get a little one-man kayak and a roof rack.

Irony?

Merriam Webster defines irony as, an incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result. So yesterday, more than five years after my final date of discharge, I was watching Kathryn Bigelow's powerful film Hurt Locker. The film portrays snapshots into the life of a explosive ordinance disposal team serving in Iraq. Well-crafted characters and vividly realistic sets really brought me back to my year in the desert. The movie earned six well-deserved Oscars (including Bigelow for Best Director).

So strangely enough buried in my usually nondescript mail today is a letter from guess who? My crazy old Uncle Sam was just writing to let me know that he felt bad about all that time I had to spend in the desert as well. Your uncle appreciates how challenging it was to readjust and the perseverance necessary to fit back in with normal folk (after working 70 hours a week staring at three computers in a room with no windows). Your Uncle Sam feels particularly badly for all of those months he made you serve after your contract ended...and he wants to pay me $500 for each of those months.

Now your crazy old uncle has been known for questionable integrity from time to time but I am optimistic. Not enough to buy a kayak mind you, just you know, window shop a little. ; )