How to catch a Bass

When George was a little boy he used to fish at a pond in Grover Cleavland Park in New Jersey. He remembers catching sunnies and some pond gunk, but he never caught a bass or catfish. Jakob and his cousin Shayne love fishing. At the pond last weekend they caught, not just one bass, but 4 bass. The boys caught crawfish and used them as bait. Those poor crustaceans were poked with a hook, hurled into the water, pulled back up again with perhaps a really big fish trying to eat it and then hurled right back in. Anyway, when the first bass was caught it was true excitement for the boys. When the second was yanked from the pond it was amazement they had caught two. As they were releasing the second fish Shayne checked his catfish baited line (a hot dog laying on the bottom of the pond) and to his surprise there was a bass attached to his hook. Now from what I have learned bass eat things that are alive (or appear to be alive) and moving. As we all know a hot dog is definitely not alive. Hours later the boys were home and sharing tales of fishing and catching a "huge" bass with a hot dog. Miracles do happen.

Reunion

Last weekend we spent most of our time in New Jersey. George's 20 year high school reunion was on Saturday (he is soooo old) and Jakob spent the night with Grandma and Papa. This was Jakob's first sleepover without us and he was excited.

George and I left for our hotel in Morristown around 5 and checked in. We went down to the bar for drinks. An official date. It is a rarity for us. We had such a good time meeting all his old high school friends and acquaintances. There are some really great people he graduated with and I hope we can keep in touch with the two we talked to the most. After the event we headed to the bar again to chill out and let our eardrums have a break before we headed up to our room. George got his butt pinched by a bride-to-be at her bachelorette party. He wasn't sure how I was going to react and didn't make to much a scene. I laughed, I think his butt is pretty nice too and as long as it was just a pinch I was willing to let it go. Had she caught me on a bad night Jakob might have had another sleepover at Grandma's while Daddy was getting Mommy out of jail. Oh what a night!!!

Airshow @ Andrews

Last Friday we went to an airshow at Andrews AFB in Maryland. (This is where George will be working in August) We left our house around 8:30 and dropped BJ off at the Vet for boarding. We were going to New Jersey after the airshow. George has said we need to get a closer vet ours is a 30 minute drive south. He's probably right.

It took at least an hour to get on base and find a parking spot. Lots of reserved parking but hard to find the general parking we needed. I asked George if he was going to important enough next year when he is working at the base to get us a reserved parking sticker. He just looked at me and laughed. I guess that's a no. Once we found parking we had a small trek to the shuttle buses that would take us to the other side of the base and drop us off for the show. Of course there was a sign at the shuttle bus stop that said NO drinks and NO food allowed on the buses. Nice to know before you have packed everything neatly in the backpack and locked the car 1/2 a mile away. See you in a little bit honey:0) Once George made it back it was easy sailing(flying?).

We toured a few planes and paid $40 for a lunch we ate while sitting on the runway waiting for the Thunderbirds. Jakob wasn't real enthusiastic about the show until we were watching one plane come from the left and he realized there was another plane coming from the right and they almost crashed into each other. He thought this was the greatest show ever!! "Did you see that daddy? They were flying right at each other. Did you see what they did daddy?"

After the show we saw a few more planes, helicopters, tanks and really big machines. About 4 PM we were in the car and ready to drive to New Jersey for Jakob's first sleepover and George's 20 YR Reunion.