cheezyridr

i used to vacation in montreal alot. there was a place there where a violinist would come out and serenade your table like in the movies. i remarked to the waiter that the alfredo sauce was the best i ever had. the chef came out and said thank you, and sat down with us and talked for a few minutes. he told me that it made him happy, i understood the difference in his sauce. i can't remember the name of the place anymore, it was many years ago, but i went back to that place every year and tried a new dish.

no, i had liplocked her in my left hand, pole in my right hand. i was standing on a rock that was about 10' off the bank. to get there, you had to hop out to it from other rocks. it was mossy, and i slipped when i turned around, and went backwards into the crick. kinda like "the nestea plunge" if you remember that commercial. hahaha the plan was to go back to my car and get a 5 gallon bucket, put some water in it, take the fish to a scale, and try to get her back to the river alive. it didn't work out that way though. by my estimate, it was well over 6 lbs. maybe even 7. she had toyed with me for a few days. i was fishing a white spinnerbait in a little pool on the other side of the crick. when it would come out of the pool, the harder current would swing it up and over a big rock. as it rose to the surface i would reel it back in quickly to make another cast. a few times, just as it swung over the rock, a huge black shape would come up behind it. i caught one about 2 ½ lbs, and as soon as i hooked it, the big girl was right behind it. i kept fishing that spot, and she would rise but not take it. eventually she committed, and fought back like mike tyson. that section of the river, to my back were some condos. no one fished there but me. but i suppose people were watching, because the next day, there were 3 people there trying their best. i'm pretty happy i got to have that experience, and (now) i'm glad that fish escaped. who knows? maybe one of her offspring will rise and say hello someday?

when i was a kid, there were many italian immigrants in my neighborhood. the catholic school i went to assigned me to buddy up with the kids my age and help them learn english and meet friends, etc. this was such a blessing to me, straight from Jesus. my mom was not a great cook. she used to tell me "you don't eat enough to keep a bird alive". if she ever knew how the italian moms in our neighborhood kept me fed. the food they made! it's one of the things from those days that i miss soo much. that and one of my buddy's sister who was a true beauty, inside and out. i never dated her because i'm not italian, and her father would never allow it. i knew even at 13 that she would make a perfect wife. ? ex#2 had one of her cook books, and the recipes in it were fantastic. i still cook some of them. thanks for posting that link, there are a ton of good recipes there for me to try out. i love cooking, and even more, i love eating. hahaha

i would pick the smallmouth, for the fight, and the beauty of them. i actually held the record smallie for my state in my hands, back in 88 or 89. i slipped on a rock, and fell into the river. i lost the fish AND the rod. such is life. i fish that spot regularly since then, and i've never caught another big fish there since. i think if i did catch a world record smallie here at my fishin hole, i would take a pic of her on my scale, and 2 more pics with the tape showing length and girth. then i'd let her go and hope she survived to breed again. i don't need/want the attention it would bring, both to me and the fishin hole. but it would be nice to put a picture like that on the wall of my living room. just to have a record that i did something noteworthy would be nice, but the memory of that day, and the fight, would be all the reward necessary for me.

whether i carry mine or not, i'm always going to try and back off in a bad situation. i have nothing to prove to anyone. you can call me coward of the county all you want to, i'm gonna sleep just fine. legal defense is expensive, and getting shot is probably going to ruin a favorite fishing shirt. a couple of them are at least 20 years old... one thing i will say is this: if i was paying a guide, and he pulled a gun on someone for what i thought was an arbitrary reason, we're immediately going back to the dock, and he's probably not getting paid for that day or any others that may have been scheduled after that. i'm not paying someone to endanger me. i'm all for self defense. but i'm not about to start some b.s. over something stupid.

i used to sell guitars to buy other guitars. now i have too many guitars, because i bought ones i didn't want to sell. when i'm working steady, i have to really struggle not to do that with motorcycles. guns and ammo are the same. i have to try really hard to resist when i see a great deal. i used to do that with fishing gear, but at some point, i learned a valuable lesson. some things are meant to catch fish, some things are meant to catch fisherman.

holy crap none of mine were anywhere near that size, and the pain was more than i want to re visit. God bless you man, i hope you never have another

when i moved into this house 4 years ago, i was so psyched to get another grill. i had charcoal in the past, and they are good, no question. i waited till last summer, (insert various excuses here) before i bought the gas grill i have now. i like it because it's easy, and tastes sooo much better than the frying pan on my 'lectric stove. one of these days i want a smoker.

i have a hyundai elantra. i regularly get a letter telling me to bring in the car for a relay. they say the brakes like to catch fire. i haven't done it yet, but i should. the car is an '08, it's got 180,000 on the odo, and it's mostly held together with duct tape and bailing wire. it runs like a sewing machine, and so far, has never left me stranded. if that car died tomorrow, i couldn't complain. i got my money's worth out of it, i've shamefully abused it, yet it's been the most reliable car i ever had.

i recently found a short chambara that i think deserves to be made into a series or even a full length movie. please watch it, and enjoy. share the link on your social media so that others can too. if it can gain enough traction, it can draw the attention of people who can make this short become much more. if you liked that concept, she also does a really cool ganster film with a similar theme

if i buy jdm stuff, i usually look here first https://www.digitaka.com for me, i usually go for features first. if the only way i can get the features i want, with the appropriate level of quality - is to buy jdm, then i will. but if i can get it here, like tackle warehouse or something, it's usually quicker. not always, but usually. digitaka has prices in usd available, so if a comparable item is listed somewhere else, it makes it easy to check who's cheaper, just don't forget to allow for shipping. the last jdm reel i bought was a daiwa bfs reel a few years ago. i have to say though, it's a great reel, and serves me well

it's pretty common for even those places to serve the cheap stuff, because most folks over here don't know what good sake is. i wouldn't know myself, if i wasn't taught. it's also why it's almost always served warm. it hides some of the unpleasant aspects of the cheaper stuff. at the end of the day, it's still wine. it's just made from rice instead of grapes.

because of health reasons, i can't drink very much at all, and haven't for 20 years. but when i do drink something with alcohol in it, it's always warm sake. i like the flavor, and i have a nice sake set that came from osaka, a gift from ex #2's parents. there isn't alot of variety available here, so i usually buy black & gold. everything else i've tried in my local store is...less than good

sorry for your loss, i know it's hard. i have to say though, i love that first pic.

delaware being a tiny state, you have basically 3 choices 1)public access lakes in the lower part of the state 2) a handful of creeks and a couple public access ponds in the upper county. 3) saltwater i like bass. that kills $ 3 for me. i don't have a boat, that kills #1. the public access ponds above the canal suck, so i avoid them. that leaves small creeks, and the brandywine river/creek, mostly. in the valley, where all the money lives, there are tons of little ponds all over the place. they're all privately owned, and no one wants outsiders there. i don't trespass. there is another place, a place of legend... it has always been off-limits. but some people still sneak in there. hoopes resevoir. it is suspected by many, that most (if not all) of the big bass people claim to have caught in the brandywine or the christiana, actually come from hoopes. the fines, criminal record, and possible civil asset forfeiture that comes from getting caught there doesn't seem to be prohibitive to some people - until they get caught, i suppose.

funny thing that you mention that. i remember when i bought my first motorcycle. by now you guys have already seen i ain't the sharpest knife in the drawer. when i bought my first bike, it was the first time i'd been on 2 wheels since i was a kid with a dirtbike. when i took possession of the bike, it was raining that day, it was february, and cold as heck. i stayed in the right lane, and rode fairly slow all the way home. i was about a half mile from the freeway, when a cop pulled me over and asked if i was ok. he wanted to know why i was riding so slow. i explained that it was a brand new bike, and with the rain i was being very cautious. he decided i wasn't impaired, just being extremely cautious, and wished me a safe journey. but there you go, someone who was pulled over for going too slow. ?

hahahaha ? i wasn't always this ugly! i got old, and the whole ball of yarn unraveled one night in my sleep. but i will tell you the trick i used to get permission to fish the private places. i used to offer free labor. if they needed help doing something here and there, i'd work the whole day, or however much of a day they needed. i also always carried a trash bag in my belt loop, and would pick up any trash i found, on my way out. these days i'm too old and broken to be useful, so i can't use that method anymore. but a day or two per season, per fishin hole, was all it took for people to understand i wasn't a psycho, and would respect their property. lots of times i went home after, with free produce they gave me at the end of the day, sometimes they fed me lunch, and i got to know honest, hard working people. some of them turned me on to other good fishin holes, and vouched for me to those owners

i'm talking specifically about those people who believe it's their mission in life to play pace car on the highway. heavy traffic where both lanes are full, is a given that passing is mostly pointless. however, no one can deny they have seen, while driving down the hiway, another car in the left lane pacing one on the right, deliberately. i have even been passing and have had people pull out in front of me for the sole purpose of blocking what was a previously an empty lane.

yes, all day long, this ^^^ i have a cabinet full of spices, and for most things i mix my own. when i don't, it's montreal steak spice, 80% of the time. i am also a pepper fanatic. i have my course grind black pepper, the medium grind pepper medley, and the fine grind black pepper from the pugeot. anything with a red sauce or alot of tomatoes gets a healthy dose of red pepper, cayanne, and chilli powder. if i eat pizza, it has to have a ridiculous amount of oregano on it, or i'm not happy. i am not a fan of lots of garlic. i know too many people who think cooking something tasty is when you over use garlic. when i use garlic, i like fresh garlic, and i use it in a subtle way

i guess it depends on the area. ex#2 used to make bento boxes for her kids. one day the other students discovered what they brought for lunch. they saw how everything was neatly packaged in the little box, and things like hot dog squids, pandas made from rice and seaweed, little sushi rolls and stuff. next thing you know, they came home with a list, and the wife ended up making dozens of them for the other kids. they instantly went from being "those asian kids", to everyone's buddy. during their senior year, it was common to wake up on a saturday morning and cook breakfast for a dozen+ kids who had been sprawled out in my living room all night. all because one time, the wife made a few dozen bento boxes for some jr high kids who previously couldn't be bothered to even talk to her kids

i don't make lures, but everything else in the original post, i can TOTALLY relate

i'm pretty laid back, and i can ignore most stuff that used to make me angry. there are 3 things that make me fail, with regularity: 1) if you're doing the speed limit in the left hand lane, you need to get the hell outta my way 2) if "we" are working on a project, "you" need to carry your weight. for example, some guys recently approached me to start a band. one guy was so nervous he couldn't play at all, the other guy, all his equipment was held together with duct tape and bailing wire. all of it only partially worked. 3) if i see someone deliberately giving someone a hard time for no apparent reason, they're going to see my unfriendly side with a quickness.

brandywine river in delaware. i have other spots, but these are the only pics i have

i used to have a few private places where i was the only one with permission to fish them. i moved away for a decade, and now the land is owned by people i don't know, or the children of the people i did know. those kids don't know me, so all of that is gone now.