the dog with manners

we rented a boat slip for 2 days from Terry's harbour during our Mille Lacs trip. inside Terry's shop, were a couple of dogs. One of them was thi black lab who was extremely well behaved and liked to perch herself, legs "all properly crossed", at the window sill, looking out for customers.

she was a real sweetie that I couldn't resist taking a shot with my camera.. 

Mille Lacs Lake- walleye capital of the world!

as our time in rochester is drawing to a close, even though its still a few more months, we are looking that many things from a different perspective....i.e. better try it out cuz we won't get the chance in Spore when we head back.

thus our mad attempts to squeeze as much fishing as possible into the weekends, trying to maximise our time with the boat and taking in as much of the outdoor splendour...

so we spent the past 2 weekends dirving up to Mille Lacs. Mille Lacs is Minnesota's 2nd largest lake after the Red Lakes way up north. Its located smack in the middle of MN. To the fishing literate, this lake is world famous forMinnesota's favorite fish: the walleye. to some, that is prized above salmon. Lake spans just about 200 miles! and in the winter, it ices over so good, about 2-4 feet, that big trucks can drive onto it!

anyway, this last weekend was our best by far... we totally outdid ourselves catching walleye. in our first 2 weekends at Mille Lacs, we averaged 1-2 fish only for the whole 2 days of fishing. then last weekend, we finally struck gold! all the conditions were perfect... the wind was not horrible, waves were very bearable at 1 ft or less. at night, it was usually calm.

so...this time around, we caught more than 20 fish in just 1 night and had to stop fishing cause' it was 2.30 am, no actually... it was technically 3.30 am cuz they set the time back to reflect daylight savings.... we fished non stop from 4pm till about 8pm (we had 2 fish in the cooler then), stopped for dinner for an hour, then fished until 2.30am! that was hardcore. temps were 25 deg F, or just minus 2 or 3 deg celcius....our friends will think we r nuts to fish in this weather... however, vince bought a little heater, so that made things a little more bearable in the boat.

fishing got real hot just after midnight, and we were catching fish at every pass in about 5 ft of water. usually, we had just gotten our lines in before one of us would yell: FISH ON! then for the next 2 and a half hours, it was nonstop action. I even caught a huge Northern Pike. weighing in at 11 pounds! it tired me out reeling it in... however, in reeling in my fish, vince lost control of his rod and it fell into the murky depths.. that was the only shity thing the whole night.

in short, we had a whale of a time, and hopefully this coming weekend, we will be heading back again for one last trip... man! that was a fantastic weekend. I will be posting pics next, so watch this space.. ;O)

French and Saunders - Sex Skit

omigod!!!!!... hilarious shit about todgers and men's dangly bits!

Harry Enfield - The Old Ladies

horny old ladies....har har har

Harry Enfield - Women know your limits

I loved harry enfield & chums during undergrad days. here's a classic!

Funny stupid japanese guys

spastic video just for shits and giggles

just discovered Picasa...

well, thanks to Nat, found a better way to blog photos. that one's of vin n his ice cream! 

Fixing gene's cruise control

Picture taken outside my window. apologies for the screened view! the boys trying to fix gene's cruise control, taken 2 weeks back. vincent's ass sticking out proudly! weather was about 8 deg that day. crazy!!

Our last hurrah in Sheboygan, Wi

its been a while since I blogged. had wayyyy to much to do. still kinda busy but figured I'd better keep some notes for the memories when we leave.

Sept/Oct, after I got back from the UK, was a mad scramble. Had to complete manuscripts, book accomodations for fishing in wisonsin, finish off experiments in the lab and getting some nitty gritty things sorted. which reminds me, I have to complete Fly's documents for quarantine for Jan next year, else she won;t get a space at the station. Spore's quarantine is rather archaic.. poor dog has to spend 1 month in the shack, get multiple shots, just to prove she's ok to live in Spore. Rabies is still a concern in the US, hence the laws... poor Fly..

anyways, this was our last salmon season for the year and perhaps for the rest of our stay in the US. So we totally "pia" and weekends and headed to wisconsin as often as we could. weather willing of course.

last weekend of sept o6 was crazy... the salmon run had started and we got ourselves into some pretty good fishing. brought home more than 10 big ones, which is really a good haul. stayed at a nice resort after I spotted a deal online. the place is called blue harbour. see pic.

its a new conference centre/hotel in the sheboygan, wisconsin area. the rooms always went for at least 200 USD a nite, so vince and I never bothered to book. well, their water park was closed for maintenence, so they chopped rates for 1 week. I chanced upon a 79USD a nite offer for a Jacuzzi Fireplace room normally at 379 a nite. wow! I just love good bargains. the room had a lake view, the fishing was good, weather cooperated and we totally had a blast.

we went back to sheboygan again 2 weeks later to make the most of the salmon run. didn't catch so much this time around. caught 2 coho salmon as opposed to the king salmon the trip previously. waves were high at 6-8 ft. in our little boat... we got pretty sick quick. took some last photos of good ol' sheboygan... BYE.... we won;t be seeing you again next year but thanks for the solid fishing experiences and wendy's burger dinner memories.. :o)

so we cut short that trip and headed to Lake Wisconsin, which is a big lake smack in the centre of "duh" Wisconsin. its big enough to have a ferry crossing through it. we queued for 1/2 hour at the crossing (we could not find a boat launch nearby to launch our boat and drive across), where I got really sian... silly thing is, the boat launch was just 10 min drive away... sheesh.. but here's a pict of the ferry crossing anyway, only 15 cars max can get on at any point in time. so in the weekends, it can get kinda crowded. but its a tradition that apparently goes way back to 1890s.

spent a while pottering on that lake before having a really good fish fry at Fitz's on the lake. raced home and got to bed by 1am!

still shacked.