Friday, April 25, 2008

not as bad as it looked

I realized after looking at yesterday's posts that Tiz's injury looked a lot worse in the photos, so here are a few updated shots now that we've been able to clean it up a bit. The surgeon did a great job with the stitches and with any luck, the scar will be really minimal.


Well, I guess these photos don't look that much better. You just have to see it in person. It's funny when she reaches up and touches the ends of her stitches and says, "Hair?" in her little voice. She must think we got her eyebrow extensions.

more from mom & dad's

Tiz has been having fun discovering all Dad's plants around the yard. Today she helped me water everything and we enjoyed the sunshine and 82 degree temperatures.


She and I both were particularly impressed with this orchid blooming in the greenhouse.

But even with all the work to be done, Tiz still took time to smell the... uh... plants with red flowers on them (guess I didn't inherit Dad's green thumb, eh?)

Thursday, April 24, 2008

bruiser

When you're a new parent you get barraged by all the parenting cliches. "It goes so fast" they all say... and wow, we've learned, it really does. "You never knew you could love anything that much", they said and no, we didn't. But now we do. Well, today we learned that the old adage, "It only takes a second" applies just as well. Tiz and I are down visiting my folks and helping out while dad recovers from heart surgery. Perhaps out of sympathy for Grandpa, Tiz decided to launch herself off the back of a rocking chair face-first into a hardwood door. I saw the whole thing (if you're a parent, you know the drill)... the chair tipping and my stomach twisting as over she went in slow motion, just not slow enough for me to get there in time to do anything but pick her up off the floor. She howled as blood gushed into her little batting eye and down the front of my shirt as I carried her to the kitchen sink for triage. Dad rushed to help out and kept me calm as we assessed the wound and decided to drive her to the hospital ourselves. Once there, Tiz took 6 stitches like a champ and within minutes she was waving 'bye' and blowing kisses to all the nurses. What a brave little girl.


A kiss from Grandma makes everything better...

And in this corner, weighing in at 33 pounds...

fish on


Last weekend I snuck away for a quick fishing trip to Michigan with my friend Joel, Aaron Spears (an old friend from high school) and my brother-in-law JB. It turned out to be one of the best fishing experiences of my life. We spent two days on the Muskegon River near Grand Rapids, Michigan float-fishing the gin-clear waters with our guides from Bett's Guide Service. If you're ever thinking about fishing the Muskegon, I definately recommend you give them a call. We hooked fish after fish (over fifty in two days!) while every other angler on the river was casting in vain and shooting searing looks as we floated past while fighting another big lunker. We had travelled to the river for the Steelhead spawn... the photo above shows me with a small-ish female and she's showing off the reason they're known as 'chrome bullets'. In addition to steelies, I managed to hook a bunch of other species as well. Here are the highlights...


This is a walleye who, to our disappointment, was still out of season. A week later and he would have been our shore lunch!


And here's an elusive brown trout. It was sheer luck to hook up with this beautiful fish. I've been trout fishing for 15 years and have never caught a brown this big. What a gorgeous creature!


Here I am with Chad, our guide, holding the trophy of the weekend. I battled this 14+ lb. monster for what seemed like an eternity before finally bringing him to net with legs quivering and heart thumping. While we released most of the fish we caught, this big boy came home and ended up on the smoker at Moveable Feast. Delicious!


Here's Joel with the biggest chromie of the trip. She's a beauty, and that s#it-eating grin suggests that Joel might be having a good time!


Finally exausted, we headed upstream to meet up with the boys. Our timing was perfect and we got to watch JB jockeying around the boat while this big buck stripped line off his reel. He landed the fish and posed for photos in his finest Orvis waders and Pata-gucci fleece. You've got to look good to fish good, baby! On a sidenote, JB got the 'one-liner-of-the-weekend' award when he asked the manager of the hotel where we could purchase lingerie and whipped cream as we were all checking into rooms together. Priceless, JB... Priceless.


I'm bummed I didn't get a picture of Aaron with a fish, but here he is with JB. I know he caught his share and from what I saw, he was probably the best angler in the group. Maybe he'll send me a photo to post (send me a photo, Aaron!)