Ice Fishing

The past two weeks I mustered up the courage to do one of the most mannifying (the act of making one a man) things a person can do - ice fishing. I guess muster is a bad word to use because I really dig it. It's by far my favorite type of fishing. Ever since Mantua froze over I've been dreaming of the time I would go, despite my unsuccessful attempts two years ago. But the most mannifiying part of it all is that I actually asked my 7 month pregnant wife to go and she said YES! Quite a surpise. We went that Saturday the 17th and it was fun but we didn't catch anything. Mostly we were bored and ended up doing the following:



Which as you might imagine did not result in us catching a fish. However, I got a bite and that was enough to motivate me to celebrate Dr. King's Birthday bash by trying it again. I got my good buddy Frank Smith to go with me and lo and behold I actually caught one! A puny 9 inch or so trout, but it was fun nonetheless.



I was just ecstatic the whole day that I had actually conquered Mantua. The next Saturday the ice fishing desire was burning quite hot in my soul. I specifically wanted to go dipnet cisco at bear lake but it turns out all the ice got blown off by a storm and had even affected the cisco's movements and slowed things down. So I decided I would go to Mantua again. It was supposed to snow really bad but I still wanted to go. I tried to get some friends to come with me but they all had other things going on. So Friday night I got up the guts to ask Sara. Initially she said no way jose so I got her to come to walmart with me while I bought some gear with my wal-mart gift card. Little did she know that she was also being baited... I tried offering to buy her some new snowpants because her current ones don't fit. No Go. Then I tried offering to buy her a big poncho so she could stay dry. Nope. Then I think I offered to buy hand and feet warmers for her. Not even a nibble. After that try I was pretty disappointed and accepted my fate to go fishing alone.... until I walked past the candy isle. I slowly gazed over the candy whilst watching sara's eyes until they rested on a 6 pack of peanut butter cups. I got them and as we were checking out I informed her that they would only be eaten by those who chose to go ice fishing the next morning. And then I got a bite. It seemed to have changed the whole ball game. Within an hour she decided she would in fact be going fishing with me. When we got to Mantua it was a blizzard. The snow was deep, we got the car stuck and had to be pushed out, and ended up not even going out on the ice at all. But I still feel I had a successful fishing trip. I never knew peanut butter cups could be such good bait.....



Also, there have been a lot more non-engineering classes being held in the engineering building on campus. I can usually tell if the class before me was engineering or not simply by the number of girls. For example, 2 of my 5 classes this semester are all guys. The others have maybe one or two in them. So if I see 5 girls leave a classroom as I'm about to go in, or if it has any hint of perfume (as opposed to the pleasant scent of BO) then I know it is not an engineering class. The other day I was given another clue which I'll share with you below:



That's right, they are pistachios. Not only did someone have time to eat pistachios, they also took the time to draw faces on them. Sounds like someone has a little too much time on their hands.

Quotes, road testing

We ordered the carseat online from wally mart and got it Saturday. It went together a lot easier than the dang crib. Disappointment has been expressed over the lack of pictures of the actual crib so we are attempting to make up for it with these honeys. It also seemed pretty robust too so I did some off road testing... on the stairs. During the test I discovered that the little stops on the front shopping cart type wheels (that force the wheels to go straight) don't hold very well under mountain use. They just came loose and so the wheels went everywhere and made it really hard to hold. Someday I need to test it in a river to see how it does as a boat (or possibly a very expensive floating donut apparatus).




I discovered a lot of quotes either by chance or as a result of my mouth saying things without my brain giving it permission. These are from Sara's scriptures which I discovered in church. They're funny but still pretty good. "Not forgiving is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies" "The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your arm" "The church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners" This next one deserves some background. We were playing rook with some friends - boys vs. girls and the boys were getting killed badly. Then we pulled some magic out of our hat and started winning. Then somebody said something about what should you do when you get bucked off a horse and then my mouth went into autopilot and I finished the sentence with " you just get back on until the quarter is through". Remember when you could go to wal mart and ride the horse for a quarter (and it was cool, not weird)? Yeah that's where that came from. Anyway, the full quote is thus: "When the horse bucks you off, you just get back on until the quarter is through" Now that I'm thinking about it, that may be one of those experiences where you just had to have been there. But I was there, and it was funny.

good times

We bought a crib and carseat the day after christmas but couldn't bring it home that day. Wouldn't quite fit in the car. We ended up coming back to get it later after Sara's parents picked it up with their truck from the store. Anyway, finally got it home and started putting it together. I didn't think I'd need instructions but wanted to have them anyway (in case the room got cold and I needed to start a fire of course). It didn't take long before I kinda woulda liked the instructions. If you've put one together you know there are these little threaded studs that go in a hole which you then have to stuff a long bolt into. Well that wasn't working very well. I ended up having to turn them over so they were totally upside down. A couple other things seemed a little goofy too but I just kept going. We were just going to put it together for the day and then take it apart til mid march or something. After about an hour I got the thing put together and was ready to put the spring in the bottom. I had just finished telling Sara how stupid it was that the directions weren't in the box. I even mentioned how stupider it would be if they were in the box with the spring - the last thing to go in the crib. Hopefully that will explain this picture. Stupid huh?

Sara has been making and fixing things with her new sewing machine. One is this apron. We were making spaghetti or something and she put her shiny new apron on so I threw one on too (not to be outdone).

On new years we went and saw sherlock holmes. Good movie. I have been thinking for weeks that school started back up again today but last week I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it doesn't start up til the 11th. I feel like a prisoner whose been given a week extension on his execution date! Yay.

Christmas time

Man it's been a long time since I posted. We got our Christmas cards out but ran out of color ink at about the 3rd card. So I think maybe two people got nice color ful cards, some got streaky ones, and some even got black and white on regular paper. So for those who have suffered this injustice of black and white cards we're posting it here for your viewing pleasure. For those who did not receive a card from us, consider this an e-card to you.

Also, Sara has wanted me to post this 3d picture from the last ultrasound.

I also recently had a disastrous run in with some delicious taco meat the other day. Sara made some tacos on Wednesday - ish and on Friday I took the leftover meat to work and had tacos for lunch. That was quite delicious but I didn't finish the taco meat so I took it home and put it behind our counter.... and left it there til Monday morning. Monday I found it and it was luke warmish because all the ice in the cooler had melted down which became justification # 1 for me because hey, they were probably coolish (not cold, though) all day on Saturday. That brought me to my next point of reason (#2) that on Sunday of all days the meat wouldn't go bad. So I figured the only time it could be bad was from midnight to 8am monday. My next reason (#3) was that I have eaten dirt covered fruit loops off the floor as a kid which I cleaned with adequate frust (the act of blowing really hard on something to disinfect it - those of you who have seen paul blart mall cop know what I'm talking about - when he eats the sucker off the floor). Either way I am still alive today and don't recall getting sick from the fruit loops. So in the end I decided to just blow really hard on the taco meat before I ate it for lunch.... and dinner. I ate dinner at 4 and then about 10 when we were driving home from kaysville I started to get dizzy and had a hard time staying on the road. We had to pull over and let my mind calm down. Finally made it home and I felt sick like a dog for the rest of the night. In fact I felt like I was gonna die. I learned a valuable lesson - blow harder on old taco meat. I only blew on it once - twice probably would have cleaned it better.

Funny week

We all know that Sara is getting more pregnant every day but last Sunday it reached a peak. Her belly is quite noticeable visibly but moreso with movement. As an example you know how in church you have the other person lean over a bit to give them a backscratchin? I told Sara to lean a bit and I'd give her a scratchin' and so she did.... but I couldn't tell. She probably tilted a half a degree outside of sitting straight up. I told her to lean and she said she was. Oh golly. A good laugh was had when that happened. I guess she really is pregnant! And the size of the belly is a strong confirmation that it is indeed a healthy Lillywhite.

Sara also made some oatmeal cookies this week using a recipe in the Laketown Cookbook. She made it up and the mixture looked closer to soup than dough. So to remedy the situation she added another cup of flour (being as the mix already called for 2, another won't hurt right?). She put the stuff in the oven and it came out as this sugary bready cake!

It's not too bad with some butter but I have yet to dare adding jam. We're wishing we would have added some bananas so it could be banana bread. It was fun anyway. Lesson learned: not all recipes (even in the Laketown cookbook) are trustworthy.

Weirdness

We've had some weird stuff happen lately. First off, my windshield exploded the other day. Okay so it didn't exactly "explode" - but it didn't get hit or anything either. And to my credit, it actually did bubble out. Check it out. At first glance it looks like ice but the sun is shining. If you click on the picture you can see it better. At the same time my car stereo started working because the antenna is in the window like the line heaters. It just happened all in one day when the temperature dropped really fast. It ws in the 50s the day before then it snowed and froze that night. Not sure if that's the root cause or not, but it makes me feel a little better. If you poked it with your finger you could poke all the way through.

Sara signed up for part-time substitute teaching here in Logan. Her first assignment was this week and she subbed for home ec at Logan HS. That was her major when she was in school so its cool that she can try it out. She had quite a day and said it was funny to see how little things get blown up so they are so important. Which when I reflect back on my high school life I can totally relate. My #2 .7mm techniclick pencil (with removeable eraser) was the coolest thing ever. Wait a minute, that might not be in the past. I'm still jealous about (and have) that pencil. It's the bom-diggity.

In other news, we have been playing a lot of street fighter and mario kart. One of my study buddies is becoming an expert at it too so we have lots of fun. Oh and speaking of studying, I am finally reaching the end of my art symposium class. So boring! This week I ( and sara too I couldn't stand to suffer alone) went to an undergraduate art exhibit of pictures. Oh the pictures were so pretty, especially the 5 pictures of corrugated pipe. I don't know if the people taking the pictures were from africa where corrugate pipe is rare or if they really had no imagination. The pictures were even blown up to 24 by 36. What a waste of ink and a waste of my time. Last night we went to a string chamber recital and that was a nice nap except for when the performers kept waking me up. I decided that the only type of classical music I like is oldies.

Girls!

The doctor says we are having a girl! I think everyone probably knows that by now except for the people we just forgot about or the people who secretly stalk our blog. I was really really hoping for a boy so I could have a little golfing and huntin buddy. That still might happen with her anyway. Sara thought it would be a boy for the whole time and then last week she had a dream it was a girl and changed her vote ever since. From talking to other women it sounds like that is a pretty common thing. That's a bit interesting. I wonder if the spirit comes into the body when gender forms. any thoughts? Sara is getting pregnanter every day and she can't hide it anymore. She has become good at acquiring more maternity clothes either by convincing me to let her buy something at the store or getting things at the DI or there is a place in logan that gives away maternity clothes. We also bought the first set of clothes for our girl. We bought them at Macy's from a gift card we got for our wedding (Yes that's right - our wedding - the one back in May 2008). We just got the card, though - things like gift cards have a very short life expectancy around here. We took the clothes to Sara's parents and had them open the bag it was in and that's how we told them it was a girl.

My work has been busy we just got a new batch of speed controllers in and have been working to get them ready to ship out. They look dang good. School is slowly coming to an end. We have 4 weeks left til the semester ends and most of one of those weeks is thanksgiving break.

At home we borrowed street fighter 2 (not the turbo edition, though for you snes buffs) from Sara's brother. We are also borrowing mario kart. Awesome awesome games that provide a needed distraction from homework.

We got our first real snow of the season. It has actually snowed twice but it didn't stick. We have about an inch of standing snow. So sad. We haven't even had time to rake the leaves and our garden is still a mess.