for those of you who've wondered

this is what it means when i say i take spines from my catfish. i remove the bone attached to the front of the pectoral fin. this one was larger than the average fish and required a little surgery (on smaller fish it can be done without using tools). i collect length and weight data on every fish i catch and then use a cross section of the spine to determine age (kind of like seasonal growth rings on a tree) all of this considered together is an indicator of the condition, or health, of the fish. with most fish, age can be determined by looking at growth patterns on the scales, which is much less invasive than the spine technique, but catfish don't have scales so spine removal is the only non-lethal way to age a catfish. and it really isn't lethal. i've surveyed some lakes twice this year and found plenty of fish who'd been under my knife earlier in the season alive and well and functioning just fine with only one pectoral spine.
why do i feel the need to clarify this? i don't know. i guess i don't want to be known as a catfish killa' !

this was going to be my catty girl contest entry

but i decided it was too mean to put in the paper. i submitted this instead and saved the mean one for my personal blog where hopefully its subject will never read and be offended by it.


top 5 things to avoid if you want to date me.

5) confirm a first date with a text message asking if I can drive because you don’t have a car.
4) during first date tell me what an enormous slob you are.
3) also, tell me you don’t have a bank account because you want to stay under the radar and then make a show of sliding a benjamin across the bar.
2) follow up first date by asking me to drive you to the mall.
1) and, when my lack of interest becomes apparent due to all of the above, try to impress me by offering to secure an evening at a local hipster hot spot for just the two of us.

sausage

that was all i could think of when we pulled this net up last friday. it was stuffed full of enormous flathead catfish. we had to drag the net to shore and then work the fish out one at a time because they were packed in so tight they couldn't move. i counted fifteen flatheads in this net, and all of them were at least the size of the one i brought on the boat for a photo! I'm guessing they were about thirty to forty pounds each. it was pretty incredible.

knocked up at branched oak

today was my first time ever waterskiing. if you could call it that. i was able to get up on the skis but couldn't stay there long enough to find my balance. it took me a few tries just to figure out how to get up without doing the splits or planting my face in the water. and by the time i got that down i was afraid everyone's patience was wearing a little thin, so i passed the skis on to janna who showed off her ability to move in and out of the wake and look like she was riding a bike the whole time. next time i swear i'll be even cooler than janna. katie, who makes skiing look graceful, did an impressive slalom and chad did a pretty fantastic cartwheel off the tube. i've got some lovely bruises from my stint on the skis and probably also from flying off the tube at thirty some miles an hour. thanks barb and mick for bringing out your boat, and thanks katie and stannon and janna for bringing me along!

runnin' around t-town

this is my new roommate's dog chai. he's adorable, one of those designer mixes she calls a teddy bear breed. he's still a puppy and not so obedient (but he does use a litter box!).

early yesterday morning could be spotted a dog (that looked an awful lot like chai) bounding through my neighbor's yards, playing a stop-and-go game of chase with a girl (who looked an awful lot like me) wearing nothing but her underwear. i'm sure the poor girl didn't want to parade herself around like that. she probably knew if she stopped the chase to put some clothes on, the dog would be long gone. so she just ran through the neighbor's back yards, baring nearly all, hollering and making mad leaps for the fluffy little monster. i'm glad that wasn't me entertaining all my neighbors at their breakfast tables.

27th & Capitol

i almost got run over again today at this intersection. this has happened probably a hundred times. i'd like to see those cameras installed that record the license plates of motorists who disregard the walk signals! they should all be fined heavily.

i don't know which is worse - the distracted driver who turns into the crosswalk without checking for pedestrians and cyclists, or the driver who does it willfully because he's the one behind the deadly wheel and no one should get in his way.

today it was a willful driver who almost ran me down.

holdrege is a good way to end a crappy day

today the brakes went out on the truck i was driving, which was awesome. and some anonymous rednecks stole my some of my nets from the bottom of the lake. which was also awesome.

the day got better once we made it to holdrege (after inching our way down the highway and stopping every few miles to throw water on the wheel that was burning up because the brakes were locked). i went downtown sans the crew (who must be getting sick of me) and had a really good latte at the weirdest place ever! i was excited to see an espresso sign until i realized i'd located a coffee shop/movie rental store/tanning salon. but, seriously, the latte was really good. i drank it at a bistro table in the tanning booth waiting area behind the shelves of dvds. my latte was prepared at a counter behind the tanning booths at the back of the shop. a robin williams movie about a vacation was playing on the television. yet somehow, i peacefully read my book, and truly enjoyed the place!

after that i went to a darling antique shop called the reddish barn. the owner, caroline, was so friendly and i had a great time there looking through her color coordinated shelves of old stuff. i bought jewelry, a planter, and some birthday presents. and now i'm going to run even though it's 90 degrees and humid. holdrege looks like a nice place to run.