Phishing with Poppy

We had to leave Dallas for the drive south at 6:00 AM. Our destination (Richland Chambers reservoir) was 85 miles from Booty's house. We met our guide and after a potty stop, we were off. We were fishing for white bass (in north Texas, sand bass). It was an exercise in vertical jigging, and Laurie was one of the first ones to hook a fish. It was a tough day, our guide told us, but we had a really good time.

It was a beautiful day on the water, and everyone enjoyed the boat ride. The sun was out, and we would locate fish with Captain Mark's electronics, then everyone would spring into action and start in to jigging.

Bubby caught plenty, too, but the only picture I have of her is smiling as the wind destroys the fro.

Here is one of Booty with a fish on. He caught his share, too.

At one point, Laurie caught a double. The rigs had a bucktail jig suspended about two feet above a jigging spoon (locally known as a "slab"). We would drop them to the bottom and then jig upwards a few feet. The white bass usually took it when the slab was falling back to the bottom.

This is Captain Mark working on our fish (we are having them for dinner tonight). It was fun to watch him work, in fact I shot a video so Jake could see how it is done.

Here is the group with the nine keepers we caught. We had hoped to catch white bass-striper hybrids, but we only got one and it was just under the size limit. If we had filled our day with catching those things it would have been memorable indeed.




Buboppy

Dinner In Dallas

We arrived in Dallas without a hitch. Booty ended up getting part of Exceptional Friday (for our politically correct readers) off, so both he and Laurie picked us up from the airport. Their apartment is nice and seems to be in a really nice neighborhood. Once we arrived, we called our fishing guide to make sure that we were on for tomorrow morning, and we called UPS because while Matt and Laurie were picking us up at the airport, UPS had tried to make a delivery of Matt's replacement modem. Our trip to the UPS operation to pick up the package was quite an experience. I have never seen anything quite like it. Before that, however, we went to dinner for Bubby's birthday. The restaurant was called Saltgrass Steakhouse. Of course the food was beautiful to look at, and doolicious to eat. Laurie splurged and had the fillet mignon. She really enjoyed it but wasn't too enthused about the medium rare.

Bubby had a marinated pork chop dinner with a baked sweet potato that she really liked. She ate one chop in the restaurant and has been working on the other one today.

Matt and I couldn't decide between a dish called El Paso chicken and the chicken-fried steak, so we struck a sharing arrangement. This is the chicken-fried steak, and it was ginormous. I got the chicken and we both agreed it would be a difficult decision again because they were both really good.

Finally, they brought Bubb a birthday piece of cheese cake swimming in strawberry coulée. It was just the right amount for the four of us. We decided we might do a progressive dinner later this week and go there for dessert. They had some brownie concoction that Laurie said was for her.

Buboppy

A Busy Time

We did make it to the Madsen wedding luncheon. This is a photo of the bride and groom at the head table. True to their Gen Y training, they spent most of the time texting friends and talking on their individual cell phones. We had a nice time visiting with the Ed Rogers side of the family. We saw Annie and Ned, Ed Jr., Leann, Margaret, Jeff, Ben, Nathanel, Adriana, and Elaine. We also got to visit with some of the extended family. The luncheon was fun, and the food (Dutch oven fare cooked by Robert Terry) delicious.

We made our excuses and headed south about 3:30 PM. We made several shopping stops, and I even found a tie to go with my green suit. We got to the Woodbury open house at about 6:30 PM. We visited with Mark, Becky, and Curtis and noticed that a good representation from the Key family was present, although Chris and Nancy were out of town. Both Heather (four kids) and Bonnie (four kids) were there. The dark colored hair belongs to Heather and Paul, the blonde kids to Bonnie. Joanne was also there. It was fun to see them all, and I am sure they thought we were weird for insisting on a photo.

Our host and hostess had provided a wonderful dinner (although we didn't eat much) and lots of homemade cookies for dessert. The recreation hall in the Morningside Park Chapel was full of family and friends. One of my current geology students was even there, and expressed his surprise (and delight?) at seeing me in St. George. Everyone seemed to be having a great time. Bubby took a minute to talk to Grumm Taylor, who broke her hip at Christmas time and has been convalescing in a care center ever since. This was her first outing since the problems. They looked pretty good, too, but we are all getting older.

Curtis is headed to Johannesburg, South Africa. He seems ready to go and was a very gracious host meeting and greeting all who had assembled. While I am pleased to see his poise, I am again reminded of when we knew him best (pre-school age). He was even courageous enough to sing a couple of Mormon pop numbers with his sisters. We only got to hear one of them, but I was impressed.

Bubby and I joined Uncle Roland and Auntie Nell at the Cox Auditorium for The Orchestra presentation. It was very nice and of course they sounded great. We got home around 10:30 PM.

This morning Eric Schmutz was sustained as the new president of the Cedar West Stake with Scott Sorensen and Joe Burgess serving as his councilors. Congratulations to them. That means there will be a new bishop in the 13th ward in a few weeks.

Buboppy

Saturday Morning

We just read Booty's comment about the Wells Family Watch and decided we needed a post, even if we haven't got much to report. We are glad to see the end of the week, and the beginning of spring break. I will have a few days to get caught up on some things at work.

We went to see "Penelope" yesterday. Not too bad. Bubby seemed to enjoy it. I thought the girl looked better as a pig.

This morning we showered and did some serious grocery shopping, something we haven't done in months. Lin's was having a case lot sale, and we stocked up Smith's (in the basement).



We have spent some time this morning trying to find Postum. It turns out that Kraft isn't making it any more, and what used to be $6 now sells on EBay for $30 plus shipping!

We are headed to St. George this afternoon, after we make an appearance at Curtis Madsen's wedding luncheon. We have a lot of shopping to do. We have been invited to an open house for Curtis Woodbury (he is headed to South Africa) and then it is the Orchestra at Temple Square concert. We will be home pretty late, I think. We may even have some photos to post afterwards.

Buboppy

Home Again

On Saturday morning, we decided to concentrate on some of the more obvious and touristy locations on the valley floor. We visited Bad Water, over 280 feet below Sea Level. The students had a great time walking out on the salt flats. Bubby and I posed for a photo and were generally enjoying the sunshine.

After Bad Water, we drove to the Devil's Golf Course where we actually witnessed someone trying to play golf. I think the metaphor escaped this guy, but he is not alone. One of the participants found a golf ball out in the salt domes and we did remove it. I wish I had known that hitting a ball out into that mess is the thing to do. We filled the day and returned to our camp Saturday night to find that the wind had arrived. We had gusts to 30 mph, which made dinner preparations interesting. We survived it though, and the participants even got there cobbler for dessert. We went to bed in the wind but it was gone in the morning. We gathered ourselves and drove home via a volcanic crater and Scotty's Castle. Bubby and I were finished field trippin' by about 7:00 PM. All in all, a good trip.

While I realize that these images are a little graphic, Bubby thought you might like to see what it looks like. It really looks much worse than it feels.

If I take things slowly and don't roll it again, all will be well. I have an appointment today at 2:30 to have a podiatrist look it over, just in case.

Buboppy

Death Valley-The Ankle Day

After a cool, but quiet evening, we headed for Darwin Falls canyon, just west of Panamint Springs (where we saw our first over $5 per gallon gasoline). The group posed for a photo on our way up this beautiful desert canyon.

Just before I took this photo of the Bubb and the falls, I rolled my ankle for the second time during our hike. We were scrambling over rocks and they were wet and slippery. Before this morning was over, I had rolled my left ankle a total of three times. By the time I was able to get back to the vans, it was swollen the size of a large orange. With field trip activities to carry out, however, we didn't let that deter us. One of the participants had expertise in sports medicine, and with the help of a "rocket sock" we went on for fun. Unfortunately the rocket sock caused some severe blisters but you'll hear more about them later.

Bubby and I agreed to shuttle vans while the students hiked Golden Canyon from Zabriske Point to the valley floor. We had to gas up the vans, and stopped for a rest in the shade and had a cool drink while we waited for our hikers. The daytime temperatures were in the mid- to high-70's and the nights were in the high-40's low-50's, so conditions were ideal.

On our way back to camp we stopped at the Harmony Borax works to look at the strike-slip faults crossing the valley, and Bubby took lots of flower photos. These yellow composites were all over the place, and it was hard to resist taking their pictures.

Bubby also caught a candid photo of me with the long lens, and since I seldom post myself, I thought some of our faithful readers might enjoy the image, although I can't imagine why.

Buboppy

Death Valley The Beginning

We had an uneventful departure on Thursday morning. We arrived in Pahrump NV to discover that spring had arrived. We have a traditional lunch stop we do in Pahrump and this year was not different. In the center of this park-like area is a duck pond, complete with ducks and geese. To our amazement, the gentleman in the photo above put on quite a display of goose love that was being reciprocated by the waterfowl. They moved along the bank and while the gentleman petted the gooses head and slipped it treats, the goose weaved in and out of his legs rubbing them like a cat. It was something to see.

Of course Bubby wanted her photo taken in the middle of spring blossoms, and I was happy to oblige. We had hoped that things would be nice for our trip, and the first day certainly lived up to our expectation.

We made a stop at a customary road cut so the students could look at a faulted vitrophere (a geologic feature) and I spent most of my time taking photographs of the wildflowers (more on that later).
We arrived in Death Valley without incident, and raced directly to our first-come-first-served campsite. There were lots of people in the park and I could see the competition was going to be real.

Buboppy