Awww...Isaac on his first date...Some drool..some cross eyes...Good times had by all=)

Isaac pictures

Ok I know I have been remiss but this will make up for it I promise... Check out some pics of Isaac here http://picasaweb.google.com/nussmier/Isaac

Soccer anyone?

So I was reading a little over at Tsjaz and it reminded me of something I wanted to write about. I know everyone wants to hear more about this so lets talk about US womens soccer. The back story is that there is a goalie named Solo who was the starting goalie for the entire world cup and many of the games leading up to the world cup. She gets benched for the semi final game and the US team goes on to loose. This wouldnt be a story if (1) the US didnt have one of its worst loses in team history and (2) she didnt bitch about being benched. Something doesnt make sense. Specially when it happened a bunch of X players came out and called for the coach to quit. I mean think of it in terms of football. Ok you team has won 17 games in a row and is in the confernce finals. And the coach benches Peyton Manning and puts in Travrius Jackson because he belives Jackson is quicker then Peyton. I'd be pissed if I was Peyton. So why shouldnt she be pissed? I had to write about this because it hits close to home. My buddy Ed was an amazing goalie. He played what amounts to semi-pro soccer and had some amazing goals against record. He was player of the year for like 2 years in a row. Though everytime this pro goalie came to play for the team who was the same nationality as most players on the team Ed would ride the pine. One would think thats fine the other goalie was a pro. The problem is that the team lost way more with the "pro" goalie then they ever did with Ed. To this date he is still one of the best if not the best outdoor soccer goalie I have ever seen play and he didnt even start our freshman year of college? Why you might ask? Politics I will answer. It was a joke. He was way way better then the other goalie. The problem is we were all good players and didnt bitch about it and tell the coach and everyone else who would listen that it was a joke. We didnt want to hurt the other players feelings and because of it we were a worse team. Political crap like this is why soccer will never ever be big in the US....Well that and the fact its boring as hell to watch. Play soccer = fun.. Watch soccer = full frontal lobotomy.

J B-day

Before the birthday celebration we went to Fujiya for some sushi. I was craving sushi like a supermodel craves heroine. It was really really yummy. Koogs then went home and me, Scott and Marg went to Gasthoff's J's bday. It was octoberfest and really busy outside. After a while we found everyone inside and to my suprise it wasnt that crazy inside. We had a couple boots of beer which was fun. A crazy german guy played happy birthyday song to J that went something like this....Jason, Jason he's so hot. He wants to be an Astronaut. Repeated again and again and again. I found it amusing every time.

Played some soccer on Saturday which was nice. The days of outdoor soccer for the year are coming to an end so I must enjoy every chance I get.

Isaac is doing good. He had a doctors appointment and he is up to 9 lbs 4 oz. 1 lb 10 oz in the last 2 weeks. He is a chow hound just like dad... He actually is starting to show signs of having baby fat. One of these days Ill post some more pics. Just haven't been properly motivated yet.

Isaac redux

So for those of you who don't know Isaac Arthur Poole was born on August 23rd at about 230 in the afternoon. He came a little early due to some complications. After some surgery all is good and we have been home with him since Labor day. While in the hospital Isaac had to pass many tests before we could leave. Including ultrasounds on every internal organ imaginable, along with a seroius of blood tests they were testing for who knows what. Below is a picture of Isaac breezing threw the car seat test. Yes he had to pass this test before he could leave. After all the others he thought it was so easy he'd sleep through it....

New Member

Isaac Arthur and Mom....

Theme?

In the vane of the last post...greatest comercial ever...

http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=24817

Princess Peach or Toadstool...you choose

I was going to write this long post about how we never see any TV footage of daily life in Iraq and how I saw so much more in other countries when I visited them but that just depressed me. So instead I am going to write about something more fun. I got the new(er) Deftones and Rush album from J. I have had a chance to listen to both of them a few times. I am a pretty big Rush fan and I can’t say it did much for me. I’ll give it a C. Maybe after 400 million albums I am Rushed out. The strange thing is I never really was a Deftones fan and I thought the album was a B+. Track 10 is really good and there also is some other acoustically pleasant sounds on it. I want to see the movie King of Kong that opens this weekend…which of all things is about Donkey Kong…Now tell me THAT isn’t going to be a great movie.

Football/Vick

Ok, I will admit it I am a Michael Vick fan. They guy has amazing athletic talent. One of the fastest people I have ever seen in my life. I am not sure he will/can every be an amazing QB but when he takes of running its fun to watch. By no means am I justifying what he did. I am just judging him on pure athleticism. Now with the news coming out today that he is coping a plea to his dog fighting escapades on his property a question should be asked. Do public figures like athletes, who the young look up to, be treated differently then everyone else? For example, should Vick be allowed to play after he pays his due (fines/jail time/etc etc)? His debt to society filled should he get a second chance? I can think of 2 other cases where a football player went to jail and played football again. One is Lewis (I think) who went to jail on some type of drug charge and is still playing in Baltimore. The other is Little (I think) who killed a person while drunk driving. I tend to think that football does a good job of trying to keep its image clean. Unlike baseball that will give Mr. Strawberry like 42 chances to come back from rehab football has the 3 strikes and you are out policy. Should this count as more then one strike against Vick? I tend to think it should. I tend to lean towards the fact that he shouldn't be allowed to play. Yes I would miss his amazing talent but I just think as such a franchise/league wide star he was that he should be held to a slightly different standard then others. Or at least make it very clear to him that this is strike 2.9999 and you so much as don’t throw your jock in the laundry basket you are gone gone gone from football forever and ever….

Triathlon

I finished my first triathlon on Saturday. It was actually pretty fun and not as hard as I thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong I was tired when I was done but not as thoroughly spent as I thought I would be. The day started out with my chip being accidentally given to someone else. So they were broadcasting over the PA system that everyone should check their chip. About 10 minutes before the race started they gave me a new number. It might have been nice to concentrate on not drowning rather then worrying about my chip. Ok who am I kidding it wouldn’t have made a difference. In any case I did the entire thing. I was happy with my swimming (even though it was slow) and biking but my running was a little slower then I would have liked. I finished pretty much in the middle of the pack. Which I was happy with considering I had never done it before and my training consisted of biking to work and playing soccer. Biking was the funniest because I flew by everyone. Only got passed by like 3 people the entire time. Was a great feeling. My bike time was about 12 mins off the best time. I wanted to be a little closer then that but it didn’t happen. I do think with Koogs swimming, me biking, and with a person to be named later running that we could really compete in the coed relay division. The winning coed team did it in 2 hrs 10 mins. They swam in 22, biked slower then I did, and then ran 5:45 miles. I think Koogs could come close to 25 if that is all she had to do. I could further increase my speed biking and make more time there then hopefully the person to be named later can run like the wind. Not that we would win but it be fun to see where we could finish….Bottom line is it was fun and I would do it again. There is a little empty feeling not having that looming in the future then I remember oh yea I am going to be a dad soon…

Cat or the DEVIL?

http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=24645

Father

I know I am not the most qualified to comment on this yet but I am going to anyway. As becoming a father quickly approaches it is very strange the weird societal pressures that are put on you. For example, you must buy the 1 million dollar stroller otherwise your child will DIE! Or questions people ask like “Are you going to let your child run around without pants on?” Or “Your not supposed to bring the child outside for the first 3 months because there are too many germs for them and they will DIE!” Its like every question/statement is judging. I don’t think I am hypersensitive but maybe I am. What is wrong with different means to the same end(a healthy child). Trust me, I need lots of help and ask lots of questions. Answers like we didn’t like cloth diapers because they were to much work or we didn’t like that stroller because it was just too heavy. or Baby A didn’t like that dress because it gave her a rash or Baby A2 really likes being held like this. Great information.. The bad ones are “Babies must eat xxx or they will grow up dumb” Maybe its just the fear thing or underlying fear that gets to me. The other strange thing is that having a baby IS the greatest thing ever. I mean it has to be otherwise you’re a horrible parent! It is obviously life changing but who says everything is for the better? I even have a hard time writing that for fear everyone will think I don’t want to have a child and will be a horrible parent. Isn’t everything that is worth anything a little give and take? Is it wrong to miss spontaneously going to the cardinal for a beer? Or spontaneously going to a Prince concert? Doesn’t mean you want to ditch your child but it doesn’t mean that having a child HAS to be the greatest thing ever all the time otherwise you’re a horrible parent….

WYSIWYG

Any good computer nerd can tell you that wysiwyg stands for what you see is what you get. Which in this case is supossed to be the type of blog posting tool that is used here. Problem is that it isn't. This blog editor will not allow me to put two spaces without using code. IE when I wrote this there were 5 spaces between the upcomming I and O. I O. So it isnt really wysiwyg. So I wish they would stop lying or someone could show me how to use nbsp code because I cant figure it out.

Film Anyone?

Another day closer to being a dad. Not sure why I mention this besides the fact that it is (evil Matrix voice) inevitable. Ok its not a bad thing its just that my mind seems to work in movie quotes a lot…specially with the amount of film I watched this weekend.

Friday night I had the idea that I would go to Block E and pay for a $9 movie at like 5pm and try to see as many movies as I could. Get my money’s worth. Ok so I didn’t go to the movies on Friday but that idea is still there and before all the blockbusters leave the theatre I will put the plan into action.

On Saturday I played some soccer and on my bike ride home thought I would go to the Powderhorn Art Fest. I called Tsjaz and he swung by to join me. It was nice to walk around Powderhorn. I must admit it’s the first time I have ever done it. The park is decent. The art displays were nice. As usual there is some stuff you wonder who on earth would purchase and how on earth they would fit it in a house. I did notice like a lot of them were not “local”. I saw a place from Iowa and Illinois. I guess they are not that far away but I am betting there was someone in Minnesota who could have been there. Maybe I am being too picky. I didn’t get anything besides lemonade. All in all it was fun.

Tsjaz gave me the mini-series to Battlestar Galactica and I proceeded to watch the entire thing on Saturday (3 plus hrs I think) and then go see Bourne Ultimatum. Maybe not the most productive Saturday on earth but if I could I would do it more often. So Battlestar Galactica is good. Though I am still reeling over the fact that Starbuck (I wanted to mention that spell check wanted to put Tarbush in for Starbuck) is a woman. Mind-boggling. So far I give it a B. They did do a good job of setting up the series though there were some pretty cheesy parts of it. Though the scenes with number 6 and the scientist are funny and dumb at the same time. I do like how they have the silent space battles.

Bourne Ultimatum did not disappoint. Of course there are some scenes where you have to suspend reality but isn’t that why you go to a movie? Also there could have been less shaky camera going on. Because of the Bourne movies and Good Will Hunting I will always think Matt Damon is really smart and can kick some major ass.

Bridge down

I couldnt help but think of this line from the B-Boys when thinking about the bridge "Two towers down but were still in the game"

Well Koogs and I were about 1/2 mile to a mile from the bridge when it went down. We were not on 35W but were on surface roads near by. We did notice that all the stoplights were out but had no idea why. One thing I found strange is that people have somehow forgotten that when lights are not working that they should be treated as a stop sign. I can't imagine what kind of chaos would ensue if something more serious occured. Anyway to this point its hard to believe that only 4 people are dead. It will probably go up but its amazing none the less. What I find wierd in situations like this is how does the death count go down? Don't get me wrong I am happy about. I mean earlier it was 9 now it is 4. Did some people miracously rise from the dead? It is just strange.

Now one other thing I hate about situations like this is people are always looking for someone to blame. Or people have all these crazy ideas of why it happened. One guy at work and I am quoting said "It is the bird poo. It is very acidic and probably corroded away the cement.". Other people saying how they new the bridge was in bad shape because they saw cracking cement on it. If that was true the old Phillies stadium I was at should have collapsed years ago. I actually heard someone say they shouldnt have built the light rail and should have spent that money on roads. I wanted to say hello..if we had train systems like anywhere else in the civilized world there would be a lot less cars on the road and maybe just maybe this bridge full of cars wouldnt have fallen. Or when it fell it would have a had a lot less people on it because they might have been on TRAINS!!!! Anyway I just hate the blame game. Saying that though I can't help but think about the highway bill the republicans in Minnesota blocked last year. It just seems that the first thing to get pinched in any budget is infrastructure. I can't tell you the shape of the St. Paul water treatment plant. Its old. It needs money to upgrade. If bridges don't get money to improve or replace they fall apart or worse fall down. If power infrastructure does not get improved or replaced they fail. It is just common sense. Maybe something positive about this will be budgets that actually spend the money a city needs on its infrastructure..Though more then likely there will be this huge knee jerk reaction to the entire things.

Hmm Cabin

Off to Micigan tomorrow morning. I am looking forward to the cooler temperatures by the lake. It has been pretty warm here lately. On Tuesday between biking to and from work, swimming at lunch, and playing soccer for a few hours I lost 10 lbs. Yea it was all water weight. After some re-hydrating I am back to normal. When completely dehydrated I weight just barely more then Koogs. Maybe before it is over I will weight less. I also plan to lay on the beech and read lots of Harry Potter. Should be a nice weekend.

Public Opinion

From the latest Washington Post poll:


78% think George Bush is too unwilling to change policies in Iraq.
55% support legislation to withdraw from Iraq by next spring.
55% trust congressional Democrats on the war (only 32% trust Bush).
62% think Congress should have the final say about when to withdraw troops.
49% think Democrats have done too little to get Bush to change his Iraq policy (only 17% think they've done too much).

Now I didn't go into how the poll was conducted etc..etc to see if the data was correct but it seems from other polls I have seen that this is pretty much the norm. If you watch TV or read the editorials it sure doesn't seem like the data above is what public opinion really is...

Latigous society?

Ok so we refinanced our house today. We actually had to sign a form that proved that the signatures we were giving were actually our signatures. I am completely dumbfounded by this. I guess maybe I need a lawyer to explain to me what purpose this could really serve. At $250/hr that seems worth it. In any case shouldn't I sign another paper that says the signature I gave on the paper that proves the signature is mine is really mine...and then another paper on and on and on and on. Ok first if I am stealing someones identity what good is this document? I mean this is just a crook signing one more sheet of paper along with the other 20 that are not him. Ok now if it is someone actually signing there own name then the paper is useless because its someone signing there own name on all the real documents. So as far as I can tell there is no reason for this document.

My crazy idea...

has been quashed. Ok so remember my crazy idea to keep a fish log? Well..I read B.A.S.S. which is some fishing organization. Ok to be fair it is THE fishing organization. It states that tagging fish for curiosity is not a reason to tag fish. Also they say that tagging fish can actually mess up real scientific studies going on. Ok so I understand where they are coming from. They don't want people willy nilly tagging fish. If done wrong it could harm the fish. The problem is the curiosity statement. I mean isn't science all about curiosity. Wondering what would happen if you but chemical a and chemical b together under certain conditions. Wondering how a grizzly bear can hibernate for the ENTIRE winter. Wondering how a much fish actually move in a small lake. I mean it ultimately is someones curiosity along with hard work etc etc that leads to some great discoveries. Ok so I don't have any predefined reasons for wanting to tag fish but maybe if I kept a fish log I could learn something new. Being that Lake Kugler is fished very very little and is a small lake I could see some trend that hasn't been seen before. Or doesn't show up in big lakes or heavily fished lakes. Anyway I will probably put the idea on hold. Maybe I will call the Minnesota Department of Conservation and have a talk with someone there to see if maybe I could join some state program or get some training in the proper way to tag fish.

Ok now to something completely different. The fun topic of politics...weeee... I saw some chart that has the last 30 or so years on the amount of filibusters per year. It seemed over the last 25ish years that the average number of filibusters were around 40...give or take a few..I'm to lazy to do the math. Now the Republican minority congress has already filibustered 42 times this year as of July 18th. There is still a half a year to go and at this rate we are going to far outpace the maximum number of filibusters in any given year every. Ok so now let me take you back a few years when the Democrats where filibustering. Remember the Nuclear option? Remember how it was all over the news that the Dems were obstructing congress. blah blah blah. Where is the so called "liberal biased" news media now? I mean basically the Republican minority senate is filibustering EVERYTHING. Do we ever see it on the news? What I do like is that the Dems are not going on about changing the laws to help them out. Anyway I find it pretty interesting.

Cabin Fun

So a weekend at hacienda Kugler. A&J and Tsjaz joined on us. A small group but fun. The weather was almost perfect. It did thunder and lightening on friday night but there was no rain pay off. Saturday Koogs and myself went fishing before the others showed up. Koogs was trying to set a record for the number of bass and northern caught under 8 inches. As normal she goes for quantity but I got quality. Saturday night the lake was glass and it continued almost all day Sunday. Pretty unusual to have such glass like conditions during the day. I'd give the fishing a B+. Suprisingly good for middle of summer. Fish to remember from the weekend. Koogs setting an under 8" record, Tsjaz catching a ~25 inch northern...I didnt measure it, J and Koogs catching 14ish inch crappie, me catching a 19ish delicous bass. Like I said all and all a good weekend.

The dock is complete. Looks great. Its nice to have a big dock to hang out on. There are a few odds and ends missing still that will have to be gotten from Stubs. All and all happy.

Now to my crazy idea. I have been tossing around the idea of making a fish log. This would entail catching fish and tagging them. You would take vital stats when you tagged them. Ie type of fish, size of fish, when and where in lake you caught them, what you caught them on etc.. Then if you ever recaught a fish with a tag you could re log it in the books. In some weird sort of way you would be able to track fish. Maybe this is the Biologist I never was coming out in me. No idea but it sounds fun to me.

Ground zero

I didn't think going to ground zero would move me all that much. I must admit it was very sombering. What was also sombering is that there is still basically a huge hole in the ground.

Another one bites the dust....

Shea bites the dust to be exact. Ok well it bites the dust by a technicality. We did get in the stadium but after like 15 minutes of rain they cancelled the game. I come to find out that the Mets were pissed that they were playing a night game when the next day they had a day night double header at Philly. They were mad because they had to travel. I mean god forbid you travel from New York to Philly. I mean thats like cross country. So I learned that before a game starts the home team has the option to play or postpone a game. Once the game starts the umpires have authority to call or delay a game. So the Mets decided after a few sprinkles that they could call the game and travel "all night" to Philly. In a nutshell this is what is wrong with baseball. I mean what a bunch of old ladies. Get some nuts for god sakes. Is that the reason they are scratching all the time? Still trying to get thier nads to drop? Secondly why the hell don't the umpires have the call before the game starts. Why only after the game starts? Really one of the dumbest things ever. So I always hated the Mets and here is one more reason to hate them more. I know you think hate is a strong word but really I do hate them. Can you tell I am a little irrate about traveling to New York to watch a bunch of "tough" baseball players complain enough to cancel a game after 10 minutes of sprinkles. LAME!

Where is king kong?

Ok i know its a little late but I just figured out how to go from cell phone to here. This was from our hotel window. NICE!

New York, New York

Well its been a hot week. Last weekend was a nice weekend at the cabin. My bro and the rugrats were there. Fishing wasnt awesome but it was decent. Best fish of the weekend were a 18 inch delicious bass by me and a 14 inch crappy by my bro. Smatterings of decent northerns thrown in. I think everyone had fun. The cabin is now sporting a new spiffy dock. It will be nice to arrive at spring and not have a dock under water. Of course it means getting the dock in and out in spring/fall.

Busted a spoke on my wheel last night on the ride home. It led to a series of unfortunate events. First having to ride into Hopkins, to catch a bus, with my tire rubbing severy(a problem with having such few spokes on my wheel). Waiting at the bus stop to have the bus drive right by me. Leading me to believe that busses don't think people with bikes need rides. Getting on the bus, which was packed, to ride to the hennipin bus station. I felt like I was in a scene of a movie when a drunk patron got on the bus and started staring at a 20 something woman. Who with all her sister power starting yelling at the drunk asking why he was in her space. Now I understand the womens perspective but on a crowded bus no one really has space. Also I think she went a little over the top in her response so everyone in a small city could hear her. She then yelled at the bus driver to get the guy off the bus because he was a problem. I didn't know staring at someone could get you thrown off a bus but apparently it can. He did say something about her reminding him of a stripper as he left. I couldnt decide if that was funny or a good reason to throw him off the bus. Maybe Im being lame but I felt kind of bad for him. I then decided to walk a few block to where koogs was coming to pick me up. During this time my bike wheel was not turning from the broken spoke. It rubbed so much that it blew my back tire causing a load gun shot like noise, causing several people around me to, I kid you not, duck for cover. Then we went to Pizza Luce for some slices of 'za and all was good.

Soccer game at 6 and a softball game at 610. Cant really decide which one if either I want to go to. Anyway off to New York to take in some baseball. Gonna try and run while I am there. Starting to get nervouse about this triathalon I have in a monthish time.

Way to funny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7CCga0nbG8

Testing

Testing.....testing

Coach I gotta groin....

Well after saying how I thought stretching was over rated and that it is mostly genetic. My very well laid out experiment in this entails me and Koogs. Lots of subjects..good control..Id say all in all the best put together research I have ever seen. My case is that Koogs stretches more then a cat and isnt all the flexible. Where I never stretch and am strangley enough very flexible. So Murphy's law caught up with me and I tweaked my groin last night playing soccer. It was right at the end. Some might say it occured because it was 90+ degrees out and I had been playing soccer for over 2 hours. Other's may say it was because the ground is as hard and dry as cement. Me I am sticking with Murphy's Law. It is nothing really serious as I was able to ride the bike to work today but it isnt the most comfortable thing.

Looking forward to a weekend at home with not nothing really planned to do.

Tired!

So Chicago was fun. Not as fun as I thought it would be. Maybe that started because Koogs was delayed 4 hours or so on her flight from Detriot to Chicago. We then missed our pizza night on friday and settled for some last minute burritos at 1 am before arriving at the rents house. Then on Saturday when we ordered deep dish pizza we got stuffed pizza. Was still good but not what was expected. The wedding reception was kinda of just like a little house party. Which is nice but was expecting a little more.

Went fishing last weekend at koogs place with some friends from abroad. Was really fun. Weather was great and the fishing on Saturday night was out of this world. I was catching a fish once every 3 casts and were not talking blue gills here either. Was great. I used Chad's fly road to set the record for the smalles fish...3 1/4 inches. Sweet.

Havent been sleeping well. I thought maybe it was the heat but we put the window unit in our bedroom and that didnt work either.

Chicago or bust

Off to Chicago this weekend to Celebrate Mark P's wedding. Hard to believe he finally did it but he did. Really looking forward to some deep dish pizza....Oh yea.....

Korea?

Sometimes I just wonder if GW II thinks at all before he speaks. I know most people will say the answer to that question is obvious. It just doesn't make sense how he talks about how our troops are going to stand down while the Iraqi police stand up and then say we will probably follow the model of Korea for the future in Iraq. Which would be soliders there for years to come. Needless to say that the situation in Iraq is nothing like the situation was in Korea. Just another in the long line of things this administration says that makes you go huh?

On a ccompletely different subject. The soon to be parent thing is kind of strange. At times it seems completely unreal. Like it is never going to happen. On other occasions it really exciting and a I can't wait moment. And even another moment it's a holy crap Im going to be a parent moment. Then there is the entire will the relationship with the significant other change for the worse when the wee one comes alone. Maybe everything revolves around change and the uncertaintity that goes with it. I know these are all probably normal feelings but its still strange. What is even stranger is Koogs stomach looking fake. She isn't showing very much but what she is showing doesnt seem real. It's hard not flabby and soft like you would expect a large stomach to be like...Im sure she surgically put something under there because you know all women like to have a larger stomach right???

Twins 3 Sox 0 for this series....We will see how it ends. Lots and lots of games to go........

Long Time

Been away a while. Not sure why but just decided to post today. Maybe it is because Chaz linked here reminding me that yes I do have this blog.

So was at the cabin over memorial day weekend. Fishing was good on Saturday. The rest of the weekend the fishing was good but not normal Kugler cabin good. I mean I cant complain I probably caught 10 bass around 18 inches and J-man pulled a 15 inch crappie out of the water. Not bad it was no bowfin though....Looking forward to going back and looking forward to Dan moving here...Just means more fishing and thats a good thing.

I've been noticing lately that it seems to be exceedingly windy out. Maybe this has something to do with riding my bike to work almost every day but I don't think it does. After I thought this I saw someone ask the a weatherman(or is it weatherperson?) the same question and it was a non answer. The weatherman said well we have been in an unsettled weather pattern and that is why there has been wind. Like no crap. How about is that normal or not normal? I imagine you could do an average wind speed calculation with standard deviation for the month of May and then compare it to what it is now and say wether it is close or not to normal. It just reminds me that most weatherman on tv is not a metorologis but a communications major.

Ok enough for now perhaps I will post again in the next 6 months..