Gone Fishin Part I

Between the July 4th weekend and last night, Emily and I have made three trips. First, over the July 4th weekend, we went to Emily's family cabin near Hancock, Wisconsin.

Never heard of Hancock? I hope not. There's nothing to do there but farm. Or hang out at a cabin on some land near Hancock that your wife's family farmed over 100 years ago. I chose the latter.

We went with our friends Zander and Julie. We were also graced by the company of Emily's sister and husband and their two sons.

There was a perfect storm of photography mayhem the night of the 4th. My brother-in-law just happens to be Minnesota's best photographer and the light was perfect for taking pictures, at least according to the Mr. Minnesota of Photography.

So while we played with whiffle balls, Ben played with his camera.



Well, we humans played whiffle ball. Pancho chased a tennis ball.



Julie has also uploaded some more of Ben's photos on her blog. Click here to see them. Ben is such a good photographer that it is worth your time, even if you have no idea who Zander and Julie are.

Top Five Things I Learned During Trip #1
5. It is legal to shoot off pretty much any kind of firework in Wisconsin.
4. Pancho is terrified of most of these fireworks. Especially ones that look and sound like professional fireworks. And are fired off non-stop for 45 minutes. Less than 500 feet from our beachfront.
3. The one place Pancho feels safest when he's away from home is the backseat of my car. Actually I already knew this. But what I didn't know is he sheds like crazy when terrified.



2. Zander and Julie love s'mores as much as Ben loves building a bonfire as tall as he is. In fact Zander and Julie love s'mores so much, they will make them even while the fire is taller then Ben. Ben is taller than I am, meaning that was one tall, hot fire Zander and Julie broiled their s'mores in.
1. Leinenkugel's makes a summer shandy, which I liked a lot more than the self-proclaimed experts (snobs?) at Beer Advocate. Of course those guys have some sort of a grading rubric with its own language.

Here's my rubric for scoring a beer:
Does it go down singing hymns?
If the answer is YES, drink more.
If the answer is NO. Finish the beer anyway and do not order or buy it again.

I found Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy went down signing hymns. Some people less secure in their masculinity may slap the "girlie" label on this beer, but I don't care. I am comfortable enough to hold a bottle of it next to me. It's not like it's a Zima or something.

Coming Soon: Our trip to California.

Pancho Has A Question

Is it really supposed to snow tomorrow?

Because I speak for the both of us when I say we are both sick of having to run on days like this...


Especially when tomorrow is Opening Day for the Twins! Give it up for another year of indoor baseball in Minnesota!

And give it up for Emily, who was able to get some pretty good seats. We're going to the game with Nasty Nate. Should be fun. As per usual, the face of the Twins, Torii Hunter will be starting the season out in the Metrodome in centerfield.

What is unusual is the fact that he now plays for the other team, the Angels, who just happen to be opening their season against the Twins. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune ran a really nice story about how Hunter is fitting in with his new team. Click here to read the story.

The Twins will probably finish third in their division this year. Detroit and Cleveland are superior to them. Chicago is overrated, but Kansas City seems underrated. So I see the Twins battling it out with those two teams for third, significantly behind the Tigers and Indians.

But I have to admit, part of me is cheering for the Angels just because Torii Hunter is now on their team. When I was a kid I had one favorite team: whichever team Nolan Ryan was on. Torii Hunter is that kind of player.

One Big Happy Family

Or judging by the look of resigned tolerance on Pancho's face, perhaps I should change the title to just "One Big Family."



One of Pancho's dog beds (yes he has more beds than we do) is at the top of the stairs by our bedroom. He does little to keep the cats out of his bed, so they have come to think of it has their bed too.

I believe I have previoulsy posted a picture of one cat in the bed with Pancho. But I've never seen both cats with him. In fact, I took this picture this morning because it was the first time I had seen all three of them on the bed together.

Pancho seems to prefer Nacho out of the two cats, just like Emily and I do. Only a true cat lover could fall for Toonces and her freakishly, chronically dialated eyes. She looks like a meth addict, for all I know. I've never seen a meth addict, but I picture them running around all jacked and spazzed out, with hyper-dialated pupils. And this is a perfect description of Toonces.

But Toonces can be calm at times, and Pancho seems to appreciate that as much as Emily and I do.

Dirty Dog

There are many subtle (and definitely not-so-subtle) differences between living in San Antonio and living in Minneapolis.

One subtle difference is, in Minnesota, you have to drain and turn off the water to your outside water faucet by the end of November. If you don't, you may have some frozen pipes to contend with.

No one loves this cold-weather-living tidbit than Pancho. Like most four year old males, he HATES baths. I give him occasional baths in the bathtub during the winter but it makes a huge mess. Such a mess that I prefer him to be a little stinky rather than subject him to water torture (or at least that's how it feels to him). He gets so scared in the bathtub when I rinse him off.

So Pancho may miss the trips to the lakes and swims in Minnehaha Creek that summer brings. But he also really enjoys winter, and the lack of baths that it brings. Next weekend will probably be Pancho's last bath for many months.

It's Like This, Cat

We lock our cats in the basement at night. That way Toonces can be as crazy as she wants without driving us crazy. Somehow she escaped this morning and decided at 5:30 am that she really missed us.

I wish cats were more into being pleasers. I swear, if I glare at Pancho for two seconds because of something he did, that dog does whatever it takes to get my affection back. He mows the lawn, takes the trash out, and offers to take the 88 Accord off our hands.

But not so much for the pinche gato. As if her TO DO list for this morning reads like a shampoo instruction bottle, here's how the first 20 minutes of Toonces' morning played out.

1. Jump up on bed.
2. Meow in search of affection.
3. Get knocked off of bed with pillow-to-the-face.
4. Repeat.

It took twenty freaking minutes for that cat to finally give up.

But I'm no better. This became a battle of wills. Mano a paw. I was fully awake and ready to get out of bed. But I refused to get up until the cat gave up and knew it was never going to be in the bed while I was.

It's no small accomplishment for me to win a battle with an animal that has the intellectual capacity of a one-year old. But I can say with confidence that so far, on June 22, 2007, on the scorecard for the daily battle of Mike and Pancho vs. Toonces the score is...

Mike and Pancho:1
Toonces: 0

Here's to an early end to today so our score may be preserved.



One night I came upstairs to find this. For a cat with no balls, Toonces is one ballsy cat. Pancho's body language suggests he is not at all comfortable with the idea of a cat in his bed. Toonces' body language would suggest she doesn't give a damn. I feel your frustration Pancho.

The Zoo Crew

As Emily posted earlier, we got cats. She describes "getting cats" the same way one might describe getting the mumps or termites. And in fairness to Emily, she is the one who cleans the litter box, so I can see why she is less than thrilled to have them.

Fortunately for me, I have the cushy, glamorous job regarding los pinche gatos: I feed them. So the cats appreciate me as the food source and I don't have to pick up their poop. This explains why I am more forgiving of these cats' friskiness than Emily is. Actually, Nacho is pretty mellow. Toonces, not so much.

So I have a lot of catching up to do on this blog. I'll begin by posting some pictures of our two cats, Toonces and Nacho (they are sister and brother).


I think Toonces is on the left in this picture, and Nacho is on the right. Toonces is the smaller of the two. I wanted to name her Flaco, but Emily had naming rights on her.




Toonces and Nacho spend a lot of time together, be it playing, eating, sleeping, or just looking out the bedroom window wishing they were outdoor cats.




And it's good that the cats have each other. Because Pancho still commands most of our attention and definitely has the most toys.

Back in White

Holy crap. That last post I did about the five weirdest things that happened to me was my 400th post. That's a lot of posting. However, the close follower of this blog will note that none of these 400 posts have occured over the past week or so.

Our computer was at the Apple store getting a new disc drive. This was something we planned to do in like November. Anyway, the good news is now I can play this game again. And I can get back to blogging.

The biggest news over the week that I was without computer is it snowed an absurd amount. Yesterday I went for a run with some friends, and one of the guys I was running with mentioned how snow is like cocaine for dogs.

Hmmmm, with insight like that, you figured he'd be blogging more, instead of relying on me to quote him.

Anyway, the picture below is one I snapped today of Pancho. As you can see, snow does indeed seem to make dogs go loco.




And this picture is one of the icicles hanging off our roof. Clearly we have an ice dam. I am so glad we got a new roof last year. Newer roofs have a liner underneath them keep the water from ice dams at bay.



As an aside, is roof the only noun that ends in an "f" that does not assume the "ves" ending (like "hooves" and "lives")? I can't think of any other word like it.

But, as per usual, I digress. Clearly too much heat is escaping from our upstairs. Do you think our dormers, and upstairs in general, could use some more insulation?

Seeing as how it took us over three months to get the disc drive in the computer repaired, I reckon we'll get the ice dam situation under control sometime around when we, as a nation, elect a non-white woman as President.

Winter Magic

Minnesotans, I have found, believe the ways to stay warm in the winter are more fun than the ways to stay cool in the summer. Of course, I have a clan of Texas relatives who will tell you otherwise. Floating down the river, cold beer, swimming at the lake... Sure all of these things are fun. But I am learning to enjoy the winters here in Minnesota (ten years later) and have found that there are a lot of fun ways to stay warm. Best of all, most require you to be physically active. Consider...


Squirrel hunting.




Running.




Hiking.




Bird watching.




Biking.




Hockey/Skating/Broomball/Boot Hockey/Any Other Ice Sport That Requires Balance Skills That My Cerebellum Is Obviously Incapable of Providing




Ice Fishing On A Frozen Lake (notice, I said most, not ALL activities to stay warm require physical activity). I blew this photo up, hence the poor focus. For those of you not from Minnesota, that big blue auger is how you punch a hole in the ice so you can fish. Seems like heavy machinery to operate, considering how much beer drinking you do while ice fishing.




Snowmobiles. Okay, I know these are cars on a bridge, but it's the closest picture I had of snowmobiles. And really, aren't cars and snowmobiles really one and the same? They are to me.




Cross Country Skiing and Snowshoeing




Playing with Your Toys. Be it a football, snow softball (those crazy kids and their false sense of invinvibility), snowballs, or in Pancho's case, a shitload of stuffed animals. He has this habit of taking one toy outside each time I let him out to chase squirrels (real or imagined). Then he dumps the toy on the deck, and leaves it there. As a result, by the end of the week, all of his toys have piled up in the same spot outside. He then wanders around inside all week, wondering where the heck all his favorite toys went. Dogs are kind of stupid.





And last but not least, staying at home...




...and drinking beer. Did I mention that not ALL warm activities require PHYSICAL activity. One man's winter den is an ice fishing shanty, while another man's is a room with a TV, a wife, and a DVD player.

So, what is your favorite way to stay warm in the cold?

Does this Dog Make My Neck Look Fat?

Last Sunday Pancho and I went for a light jog around Lake Nokomis. I took my camera along because it was snowing and wanted to get some pictures of my favorite part of the Twin Cities running trails. And for you locals, that would be the stretch of Minnehaha Parkway between Minnehaha Falls and Lake Nokomis.

In addition, Lake Nokomis was hosting the national pond hockey championships and I was hoping to get some good pictures. But I have learned I don't do to well taking pictures of things that move. Especially when they're on skates and zipping around like ten Tasmanian Devils.

So at the end of the run, I decided to take a picture of Pancho and me. With all respects to Charles Schultz, happiness can also be a cold puppy.