Roll Over, Play Dead

Just got back from Baston (yes, I know it’s Boston, but you know what I mean) with Lori yesterday…updates are forthcoming. 

If Tessa reads this, I’m sure she’ll get a kick out of the title for this post, but I just don’t have the strength to go on tonight.  I still haven’t recovered from last weekend’s duck expedition:

1. work all day Friday
2. buy shit at Wal-Mart Friday night
3. don’t sleep, except for 30 minutes between 11:30 pm and 12:00 am
4. wake up behind schedule
5. depart for Merritt Island at 12:50 am after grabbing some coffee
6. arrive at 3:00 am after meeting Justin, grabbing more coffee
7. get everything ready, boat loaded, shells, guns yada yada
8. …Fire It Up and boat launch
9. end up stuck in the mud 15 minutes from where we’re headed
10. cross a lagoon and end up still a few hundred yards from where we need to be
11. Justin nearly falls completely in the water and gets all kinds of nastiness in his waders
12. push forever, drag all our equipment out, rest before dawn
13. Justin kills His First Offical Merrit Island Duck (congrats my man!)
14. promptly miss my first two birds with three shells
15. "Sorry Justin"
16. Unbelievable Cold
17. pack up, guns and all are put away
18. Biggest Flight Ever comes directly overhead
19. Fuck it, let’s go to Sonny’s

Justin had to take off.  As usual, I slept in the car at a Wal-Mart parking lot.  No, I don’t care if you think I’ve lost it.

I arrived a bit late on Sunday morning (3:50 am) but still made it out to my spot though I had to push even further than Justin and I did on Saturday morning.  I have to admin my navigation skills are not the best in the world, but I double dog dare you to come with me on a hunt, armed with this image, and get us across the lagoon and to where we’re going in 15 minutes with nothing but stars overhead.  In fact, I’ll give $50 cash to the first friend who comes out and can accomplish that feat without a GPS…guaranteed.

Anyway, I took a Northern Shoveler pretty early in the morning and waited till nearly 9:30 am without much action.  I decided to go ahead and pack everything up but left the shotgun ready to go.  Just as I’m gathering everything to leave there’s a "quack quack" and I can’t believe it’s coming my way.  A few minutes later I had my first mallard.  Though it was a female, she was rather beautiful (most people associate the mallard with the green-headed pictures they see all over the place.  Those happen to be males but the females are just as pretty).

Good weekend overall, though the total bird count was 3.  It’s more about the experience and adventure than coming home with something in hand.

That was rather long…didn’t actually plan on writing it all out.  More updates coming tomorrow, including some items for the Foil Helmet category as well as the Music category.  I am pretty sure you’ll want to tune in again for those updates…same Bat time, same Bat place.

This update brought to you courtesy of Shinedown’s kick ass song "I Dare You" from the album Us and Them (who happens to also be a highlight for tomorrow’s udpate).

Most unbelievable Christmas light setup I’ve ever seen.  You won’t find anything like this in your neighborhood.

My coordinates this weekend:  28.767, -80.696

My goal:  A mallard

I imagine a lot of you haven’t heard quite yet, but my man Morpheus has moved on to a better place.  It wasn’t without tears and it certainly wasn’t easy…after all, Morpheus outlasted every female relationship that I’ve had.  Sit back and think about that for a second:  Morph was there for me, even through the Big D.  Now that is some serious shit.

Every day, sure as clockwork, he’d be sitting in the kitchen under the table on his bed, just looking out the window and waiting for me to get home.  I didn’t even have to finish parking before he’d be out of his spot with his nose up to the glass and wagging his tail…just couldn’t wait until I opened the door and got his baby gate down.  Grabbing his bone, trying to knock me over to get me to play with him.

The relationships we build with animals are rather interesting but I have to say that I don’t fully understand it.  When speaking of a pet, personification is guaranteed, though to say Morpheus wasn’t loyal would be a crime.  He’d jump up on the couch and sit with me while I ate, or he’d crawl in bed with me at night…or when I went for a bike ride, he’d sit in the recliner near the sliding glass door and just wait…wait until I opened the screen door on the porch.  He stuck with me even though I was away for so much of the day; he seemed grateful for the little time we did get to spend together.

I’m happy to have had the chance to spend time with a pet as cool as Morpheus, and I hope his new owners realize how lucky they are, too.

I’ll miss ya, Morph…you and your outside-crossed eyes.

Should a country based on our principles be focused on "everyman"?

Is the enforcement of laws always for public safety, or does it often constitute a formality?

Comment on those questions.

More to follow, stay tuned.

Why drink alone?  Invite the Virtual Bartender.

This one speaks for itself:  Anheuser-Busch Pulls ‘Water’ Drinking Game

The USF club tennis team has been a blast, and this past weekend was no exception.  We went up to Gainesville for the annual Gatorbowl Tennis Tournament on Friday night, and with matches starting at 9 am on Saturday, it was a long but fun weekend.  We lost in the first round to FIU, I believe it was…but that wasn’t the end of the road.  Dropping down into the consolation bracket, we played Univ of Kentucky, Alabama, and another school I can’t remember, beating them all.  We finished up at 9 pm on Saturday and went to a party that one of the UF guys was hosting at his house. 

Without a doubt, craziness ensued but a good time was had by all.

Sunday morning it was a little tough to wake up, but we managed to beat one of UF’s teams to put us in the consolation finals, where we drew another UF team.  Three hours and a little racket tossing later we won the bracket.  Not too bad, considering there were 21 mens teams from around the southeast who showed up.  Needless to say I’m a little sore today, as we played the equivalent of 12 matches over 2 days, 8 of which were on Saturday.  The next tournament is in Daytona on clay, then I believe we head down to Miami for a tournament hosted by UM.

then today is surely one of them.

In all seriousness, it’s 1:47 am and I just finished formatting more than 1,482 pictures.  No, I’m not kidding.  I kept a fuckload of pictures from getting posted to this site that you’ll never know you were in but that you wish I permanently deleted.  Just because the pics don’t make it to the Intarweb, do not assume that they are gone entirely.  And please do not ask me to remove anything from the personal collection.  The answer is no. 

Morpheus has vetted and approved each picture that is posted, even though he does not have opposable thumbs.

Please visit all of the albums.  If you must, just check out the following new albums, regardless of the fact that they very well may be delayed nearly 4 months from the time of the event.  Each one may contain more than one night/event.  In fact, they probably do but I don’t feel like checking because I’ve had a few too many brewskies tonight.

• 05-28-05 Memorial Day Weekend, which includes a stay in a Cabin, Shawn’s house, and Frank’s house–all in one weekend
• 07-31-05 Tessa’s Police Academy Graduation–"Go Team Tits!"
• 08-05-05 Vacation Craziness with Shawn–"Shawn, do you need to go to the hospital?"
• 08-11-05 St John’s River, one of the best weekends evar.

Ok, I’m done for tonight.  At 2:30am, if you’re checking out this site I feel pretty damn sorry for you.  Please have a little patience and check back tomorrow as the 3 albums from "08-05-05 Vacation Craziness with Shawn" aren’t quite uploaded yet.  They’ll be done uploading in about 20 minutes, but I’m tired of drinking beer while waiting.

What a weight off my shoulders.  Crystal and Jess can lick ‘em!

Update:  All pics from major events are up.  I’ve still got ballpark 1,000 more that might get put up…mainly from Shawn’s house and a couple other places.  We’ll see how the response to these getting posted goes before going through that much trouble!