I was going to fish Caleveras today but then I realized that Choke Canyon is only a 1hr drive from where I store the boat, so I headed down there at 4 this morning. The fishing was not as good as last weekend but I managed to catch a few fish, the only keeper is pictured below. All in all it was a great day on the water.
You know it’s fall when the pumpkin spice latte makes is yearly debut! Go get one now!
I am the first to admit that my garden was not a 100% success but it was also not a complete failure. My cherry tomatoes, carrots and peppers all came out good. I learned a lot this year and will do even better next year (probably planting half as much stuff next time around).
I would have paid $100 for this while camping this weekend. Target has it for only $25.49!
Lots of bugs here at choke canyon!
Great tacos at Orderup!
She is getting big =-)
This is the first time I have seen a wi on a store shelf since it’s release.
I have always wanted a fishing boat - now I have one 
Details:
-2004 Carolina Skiff 17 DLX
-2005 50hp Suzuki Four Stroke w/ 3 years left on extended warrnty
-Galvinized Sportsman Trailer
-Center console boat
-has large front deck and small rear deck w/live well
-has front and rear rails
-large cooler seat
-Stainless prop
-Two extra props
-Bimini Top
Now all I need to do is make time for the lake and coast!
Jason and I headed down to the coast last weekend to celebrate the 4th of July with my family. It had been a long time since I was able to make the trip down there so it was great to see the family again and test out the new boat! Yes, I have yet to blog about it but I finally broke down and bought a fishing boat – I will post the details later ;-).
All in all this was a great trip, gas prices really pushed up the cost of getting down there, especially towing a boat but it was well worth the cash. The weather was not so great but we fished anyway, typical Texas – no rain for months then it pours on the 4th of July! I guess you can’t fight mother nature.
We ended up with several small trout off the pier, 1 keeper redfish and 1 keeper flounder from the boat, not a great haul but at least we did not come back empty handed. I also got to test out the new camera, yes I have yet to blog about that either – all in due time! Click on the image if you want to see the rest of the pics from this trip over at flickr.
I decided to go with the 360 version of what could possibly be THE game of the year (ok ok we all know its going to be Wrath of the Lynch King!). From the get-go GTA IV has been nothing short of a masterpiece, the graphics are clean and sharp, the story is intriguing and the main character is a complicated person. With that said, lets get down to brass tacks - the best part of the game is its sandbox aspect(s).
Liberty City is larger than ever and there are more transportation options to take advantage of than any of the previous GTA titles, you can even hail a cab (but its way more fun to steal it). With only 30% of the game behind me I have done the following:
* Setup an online date with someone of the same sex in order to take him out for the folks he owes money to.
* Run down hordes of innocent bystanders while running from the po-po
* Shot (and killed with) a sniper rifle
* Flown a helicopter
* Pushed a guy off a building
* Spared the life of someone I was sent to snuff out
* Stolen more money than I care to mention
* Stolen a boat
* Countless other random acts of violence that would land someone in prison for many, many years in real life.
This game is not for the faint of heart, or those under the age of 17 but if you don’t fit either of these profiles then go buy it now!! Oh! One more thing that I forgot to mention – the game keeps STATS! You can see random bits of useless info such as: People Killed, Cars Stolen, Deaths, Sodas Drank, Hot Dogs eaten and MANY other various things. Definitely not a required feature but I love it!
Still to come: Online play (I hear its great).
Andrea has always wanted a Yorkie. Every time we see one she talks about it for hours. Well now that we bought the house her dog has finally arrived:
We don’t have a name yet, but attachment took exactly .00001 seconds after Andrea set first eyes on the pup. She is a full breed Yorkie that I purchased from http://www.sayorkies.com/ earlier today - the breeder was simply amazing with how much she knows about these little dogs, I was very impressed.
Andrea is going to be doing A LOT of studying over the next few months in preparation for the bar so I thought she would enjoy the company while hitting the books. Its always a risk surprising someone with a pet, but this is going to be a great fit
More pics:
I had planned to do some kayaking on the Medina river this weekend however that plan fell through and some buddies and I headed over to Braunig lake to see if anything was biting. I made it over there around 1:30pm and decided to skip going out on the Kayak and do some bow fishing since the carp were spawning.
Things worked out well, I ended the day with 4 pretty large carp and 3 tilapia – it felt great to use the bow again.
Click the picture below to see all of the fishing pics from this trip.
I really need to buy a boat…
A ton of people are going to see Cloverfield this weekend – with the hype surrounding the movie I can’t blame them, I was planning on watching it as well. That is until Andrea let me know that the new Daniel Day-Lewis movie “There Will Be Blood†came out on Friday.
I have been waiting for Daniel Day-Lewis to make a new movie since “Gangs of New York†was released in 2002 (he was in The Ballad of Jack and Rose however this move did not really appeal to me so I never saw it). After over 5 years of waiting, I have o admit that There Will Be Blood was well worth the delay I think this is evident by the Golden Globe and 11 other awards it has already won.
The movie takes place around the turn of the 20thcentury and from the outside looking in appears to be about a greedy oil prospector who swindles people out of oil rich land for his own gain. To be completely honest a large portion of the film is about just that however, there is also a much deeper story that revolves around Daniel Day-Lewis’s character Daniel Plainview and the struggles he faces as an oil man around the turn of the century.
If you are looking for a film that will keep your attention for 2.5 hours and offers excitement, suspense and drama this is the one for you.
These are not necessarily new however I never posted about them (I should have!). I watched a lot of good movies this year, more good ones than bad which I guess makes it a good year in terms of movie quality. There were 2 movies that really stood out as “Must See†to me – I will definitely be picking them up on DVD when available.
Eastern Promises
This film did not receive much advertisement so I would not be surprised if you have never heard of it however this is a damn good movie. It starts out as a your typical mob story and quickly escalates into a very unique look into the Russian underworld, there are also several great fight scenes and a few huge twists.
Trailer:
No Country for old men
This is the latest work of the Coen brothers. With huge hitters such as Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski, and Fargo under their belt, you can’t help but to expect a great movie from these two and believe me when I say, No Country for old men is some of their best work to date.
The movie follows a psychotic killer’s search for stolen drug money – but it’s much more than your standard shoot ‘em up thriller. The storyline is full of symbolism that in my opinion will require several viewings to completely grasp. The main character is well thought out and does not follow any of the typical stereotypes that are found in similar movies, the fact that he uses a device designed to kill cattle to do his dirty work is only a bonus!
Trailer:
A friend and co-worker of mine is always asking people “How many 5 year olds do you think you could take in a fight†well now there is a way to answer this question – and it’s web-based!
Click the image to take the test (I found this on DIGG so it could be slow for a while):
I got up early this morning to start training for the MS 150 (Bicycle ride from San Antonio to Corpus Christi), it felt great to get back on the bike and also put into perspective how much work I really need to do in order to complete the 150mile ride.
I did a quick 12 mile ride which I have outlined below in Google maps:
All in all this is a fun ride with a moderate amount of hills and traffic – you will need to know your traffic signals and safety before doing it.
The site I use to display my route is http://www.bikely.com/ VERY cool software.
I really don’t like just posting videos however this one was too good to keep all to myself:
Andrea and I caught an episode of “Good Eats†on the food network this week, the whole show was dedicated to making good espresso at home. Espresso, in my mind is like a “mixer†of the coffee world – you can make a variety of great drinks with it and on top of that – it tastes great all by it’s self as well.
We were planning on going to Starbuck later that night but after watching Good Eats we wanted to go look into getting our own espresso machine. I would guess that we spend anywhere from $15 - $20 a week at Starbucks on drinks that are primarily made using espresso, so our machine would pay for it’s self after only a few months! (I love this way of thinking – instant justification to buy most things that I want). After doing about 20 minutes of research on the internet and taking note of the advice given on Good Eats in regards to what makes a good espresso machine we setout to find our new appliance.
The search started at Best Buy and quickly realized that they only espresso machines they sell are the cheap plastic ones that will result in sub-par espresso, we had the same results at Target as well. The only place we were able to find a machine worth buying that night was Starbucks but I did not know enough about the model to justify spending $200.00 on it so we both ordered drinks and headed home.
Over the last few days I have been doing a fair amount of research on espresso machines online, as you can imagine there is still a ton of information to sort through however I found a great site that was right up my alley: CoffeeGeek.com awesome name huh? As luck would have it, the site published an article named “How to Buy an Espresso Machine†on July 5th of this year – fate you say? I like to think so (ahh more of that good ole’ justification). The article was incredibly well written and on top of that, the site has a great consumer reviews section that quickly gave me some ideas on what machines are in my price range and still worth buying, an awesome find!
The key tips to buying an espresso machined based on my research are as follows:
• You will need to buy a good grinder in order to make good espresso – your budget for the espresso machine should not be for just the machine it’s self it need to include a grinder, and the good ones will usually run close to the same price as the machine it’s self. I realize that this sounds crazy buy if you have time to read the article I mentioned above then it will all make sense.
• You are going to spend around $300 - $500 on this endeavor (factoring in the machine, grinder and other various accessories)
• Get a pump driven machine, not a steam driven one. Steam lacks the ability to pressurize the water high enough to make a good drink.
• Don’t buy the first thing you come across – take some time to research and you will be much happier with the results.
• If you want a good machine, you may end up having to buy it online – they are difficult to find locally (at least in San Antonio)
So far, the only places I have been able to find any of the machines worth buying are Williams Sonoma, Dillard’s, Macys, and Starbucks. Surprisingly enough, I am leaning towards getting the Starbucks “Barista†espresso machine. At $200.00 this machine is a great value according to the online reviews I have read and makes for the perfect “starter†espresso machine.
I will post when I finally make a decision, at the moment I am trying to determine which grinder to get
I went fishing with 3 friends last weekend at Goose Island state park on the Texas coast – we all ended up cathing at least one fish each.
Jason ended up with his first keeper trout:
And I ended up with the largest flounder I have ever caught
Almost 7lbs and 20 inches long – tasted great!
More pics to come (they need to get developed)
