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!