Fisher of Men

Oh, my wife knows where I'm at, she just calls anyway (and it always seems like it's right when I have a fish on or in the middle of teeing off). I used to get mad about it, but the fact that she might actually miss me is appealing to me. I have to agree with RW and others that you need to communicate with her. Subtle things, like the dishes, laundry, the fact that you may not have called her enough last week, etc. can make a woman feel blue. To us it's no big deal, but to them certain actions can be crushing. I wouldn't jump to conclusions about seeing someone else and all that. Just suck it up and sit down and talk to her. After almost 18 years of marriage, I can't offer any better advice to you. I hope things get better for you soon! -Fisher

Someone ought to turn about 5,000 mice loose in her house! Idiots! :

Hey, Eddie. Really, that's not necessary. The old remote wouldn't work on the new box anyway. I was just having some fun venting. Preach, That whole digital conversion thing has turned out to be alot more of a headache than first expected. First it was to just buy a $50 box with a $40 coupon, then people found out a new antenna was needed. Awhile back, there was a news story about a woman who needed to get a new "digital VCR/DVD recorder" to record her favorite programs. All said and done, she was out around $250 for this "simple" digital switch. Can you say "racket"? :

huh??? Maybe he's been drinking some lighter fluid again?

OK, Dan. Thanks for some consolation! It could be worse. . . I guess. :-/

RIP my remote control. The eight year old Direct TV box has been on the blink giving us sporadic TV in our bedroom lately. They agreed to send a tech out today to check it out. He goes through the all his tests and concludes that the box is faulty (duh). I'm catching the tail end of this on my lunch hour as he proceeds to walk in the front door with a box in his hand containing the new equipment. I guess not fully aware that he is going to take my old remote, I left for work leaving my wife to tend to the rest of the service call. When I get home and lay on the bed, I find this fat, slick, un-user-friendly device that is supposed to be my new remote control. It is not contoured to my hand, the numbers are at the bottom of the remote causing it to fall out of your hand when you manually punch in a channel. There's no way to search the menu without losing almost the whole TV picture. Eight years has passed and technology has regressed!! None of the same video/audio adjustments. . .nothing the same. OK, so I rant and raved for several minutes about the remote until I found that we had no local channels. You know what that leads to. The voice-operated computer menu on the customer service line. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!! After giving the customer service agent an earful (politely mind you) about how crappy the new remote was, I was told to give it time and I would get used to it. I did not receive any satisfaction from this, however I got my local channels turned on. I even asked if they could repair my old equipment and return it. Of course that was not an option. I politely told the man that if my other equipment went out, I would strongly weigh the option of going to Dish. I never knew I could get so attached to a remote control. The old Hughes model was ergonomically perfect for my hand. I could surf with the greatest of ease and find any station with my eyes closed, but now it's gone. Fortunately I still have one in the living room, but feel it is on its last leg. Please join me in a moment of silence for my long, lost remote. Sorry, I needed to vent a little.

The same one who made a cough suppressent/expectorant! Why would they want you to get over the dry skin? You might quit buying their product.

My daughter is in 4th grade and has played a couple of 8:00 games this season. As long as we get to the house by 10:00 and she's in bed by 10:30, I think it's OK. Now if she were playing 2-3 games a week at this time, I'd be concerned about it. Even on early games (6:00), she has a couple of hours to do homework. I'm with Daniel on Sunday games and practices. Fortunately we are a small community and don't have to deal with it. One thing to consider is in a couple of years (7th grade) they will be playing middle school games out of town and will have to get used to getting in late (sometimes closer to midnight) every now and then. I think if it's only occasional, there's nothing to worry about.

. . . and I thought we had ran all the women around here off. Welcome aboard, watch-me!!

You know, I like the new camaro, but I think they didn't go quite retro enough on it. I've always thought that if you changed up the grill, the new Dodge challenger looks more like an old camaro.

I talked to one of our student's parents last night. She works at the local ER and said families of 4-5 who didn't even have symptoms were coming in and asking to be tested because they were around someone who had it. Crazy. The school district that I teach has been closed for the next week because we had two students with Type A flu (waiting on Swine tests). Surreal stuff being out a week in May. Even crazier. -FOM

Before you tear the carb apart, look at your air cleaner. Mine appartently was so full of dust and dirt from last season that, after keeping the mower under a cover over the winter, moisture had turned the whole thing to a mass of dried mud and paper. It ran for a few minutes (the clogged filter acted like a choke) and after warming up died. I replaced the filter, waited a day for the flooded gas to evaporate and it started right up. Check the filter first. -Fisher Also, before going into the carb, use a spark tester or screw driver to check for spark from the ignition. I've had ignition modules just go out like that as well.

Thanks Burley. Our district bookkeeper alerted us to this a couple of weeks ago and suggested that we take an extra $70 out for withholding to offset it. Sneaky. Very sneaky. >

The people who died during the 1918 influenza outbreak literally drowned themselves with their respiratory secretions. That certainly doesn't sound like a fun way to die. :'(

We live about 40 miles northwest of Ft. Worth and our school district has not closed, but it looks as if our elementary school kids' field trips (to the metroplex) have been cancelled (at least next week's are;my 10 year old daughter's is on the chopping block, too). We have kids in the regional track meet and a girls softball team in the play-offs awaiting May 11 to see when they will be re-scheduled. The HS students are really bummed about it. Rumor has it that "pee wee" baseball has been cancelled for awhile (my daughter plays "under 12" softball. . . TBD). We still had our normal kids worship program last night (completely indoors as it rained last night) and have no intention of keeping our daughter out of school or activities. It looks like the community is going to do that for us. If they cancel school here, we have talked about going to stay with family for a few days. At least if we have to stay cooped up in the house, we might as well have a chance to visit. I guess the numbers of cases in TX will influence what our state does within the next few days. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if they called school statewide next week. As long as we don't have to make it up, I'm OK with that, but lots of parents will be in a bind finding places for their kids.

Why should I expect anything less from the man who posted the "lung transplant" joke? : You're bad, man! ;D And don't forget, the zoo will face a lawsuit because the man climbed over three fences and a mote before being killed. :

Demented, disturbed. . .?

Team Diapers asks, "What's an album cover?" ;D Two (or three) that come to mind are these: -Rubber band the sink sprayer open on the kitchen sink. I almost tried this on my wife awhile back, but decided against it. -Open a roll of surveyor's tape and tie it to the frame/undercarriage of someone's car/truck. Set the rest of the roll on the bumper ledge or on top of leaf spring/etc. When they hit a bump they'll drag several hundred feet behind them. -An old wedding trick is to put sardines on someone's exhaust manifold or jack their car up and set the wheels back down in a couple of watermelon rhines. ;D

FYI, penicillin was discovered before ww2, 1928 to be exact. Relenza and Tamiflu are both anti viral drugs used against swine flu, I have read they must be used with care. Never hurts to know the facts before posting. Pardon me. I didn't mean it as a fact, just thinking outloud. :-X UPDATE: Here in Texas, the University Interscholastic League (the state office handling school sports) has suspended all interschool competition (mainly baseball/softball play-offs, tennis, track, etc.) until May 11. Our own district has cancelled the elementary school's field trips (I guess within the next two weeks) as well. This is getting crazy!

Hey, I've had long brown coiled things in the toilet before. . . the day after a big mexican dinner. The only problem was putting them there.

Although ashamed to admit it, that makes me laugh and reminds me of a familiar raunchy movie from the 80's. "That old black magic. . ." :-[

You are fortunate it's taken this long. Glad to hear you are OK!

The answer is NO, with 1 exception dolphin if I catch one. My dad was in the fish and seafood business, we ate fish only once a week. Kind of like the mechanic driving a crappy car!! I get it.

My family had weaned ourselves down to skim for about 4-5 years and had gotten used to the taste, but recently I bought some 1% and seem to like it better. I grew up on a dairy farm and we drank it straight from the tank (two to three gallon jars a week). Good stuff back then, but I'm sure it would make me sick today.

Slightly off topic, but immediately after each fishing outing i wash my hands thoroughly, never know what's lurking on the vegetation these days. I never snack while fishing but if I were out for a prolonged period I'd carry anti bacterial. I guess it's pointless to ask if you eat any fish you catch? Back on topic, I thought of the fact that we didn't have anti-biotics until WWII, but then reminded myself that anti-biotics only treat bacterial illnesses. Just think how many times you've been to the Dr. and they've said, "It's viral. . . there's not anything we can do about it. . . let's just let it run its course. . . get plenty of fluids and rest." :-/