November 14, 2008 Minnesota

Went to MN this week to work with Mr Curt Mondale; a second generation manufacturers representative with a new method of doing business. Here he walks into a conference room.....

............and sits down and takes over!

It was a lot of fun working with Curt, Bryan and Herb. They are one of our better agencies. It was a little icy and some sleet Tuesday morning, and lots of rock'm sock'm activity on the Interstate. I was glad to get into a hotel that night. I left my coat in Curt's car and wasn't up to sprinting to the Mall of America Wednesday night.
Speaking of cars, Curt drives a Prius. I was impressed by the roominess and efficiency. The video below gauges performance as the vehicle shifts between gasoline engine and electric motor. In the past reps were accustomed to the biggest and the best in vehicles; I believe Curt is our first "green" rep .

Off to San Diego in the morning; I'll try to take some good shots out there.

November 9, 2009

First of all, a dinner shot from Tuesday night; our guest of honor was the flounder we caught Sunday afternoon. I fixed Merry Old Sole, a Franc White dish from many many years ago. If you're asking yourself who Franc White is......well I feel sorry for you. This is four pieces of flounder with shrimp, crabmeat, and cheese sandwiched in between. Franc's recipe calls for Hollandaise but I didn't feel like making any so I used a mayo/dijon/wasabi combo. Didn't get any complaints from the eating crew.

We went to Martha Simpson's wedding Saturday night in Chapel Hill. The Fishin Optishin was our chauffeur and we really enjoyed ourselves, and being away by ourselves for a welcomed break. The wedding was held in a garden at the Carolina Inn, the reception was in the Old Well Room. I was glad the statutes of limitation had expired and I was able to come back into this fine old hotel. Martha was beautiful and we enjoyed the wedding, reception, and seeing a lot of old friends from Sanford.

Then it was down to Sanford on Sunday to see our family. First stop was the house they plan to buy. It's nice and will be a good home for the three of them.

We enjoyed spending some time with the best little grandson in the whole wide world. We haven't been able to see much of him the past few months; he's grown a lot and is talking a lot more these days. Hope to be able to see them more over the holidays.
And last of all, video of Cooper

Off to MN this week, CA Saturday; will post when I can

Washington NC 11/07/08

The last game of the year sneaked up on us; we travelled to Little Washington Friday night for Jackson's last game. We got behind 34-0 in the first half, played well in the second but lost 41-14

Jackson's first punt was a good one; from inside the 50, pinned the PamPack inside the 5. He had a shadow each time he punted, and I don't like seeing him slap a helmet, but the other guy followed him each time.

His second punt was blocked, the special teams coach said he thought Jackson was a little slow getting it off.

That's it for this year, no basketball so we don't know what we'll be doing all winter. We hope Jackson will work hard on his studies and finish out his Eagle project before Christmas.

Halloween 2008

West hosted New Bern Friday night. We left a bowl of candy on the front porch and a note saying we were not home, but "help yourself." When we returned the bowl was empty.....wonder how long that took?
The game was ugly from the beginning. The West defense obviously didn't realize it was a home game and went to New Bern. The offense did fairly well; Jackson only had 2 punts for a 16 yard average.....yes 16 yards. Here is the first one

This one was blocked; it was the first time this year that the receiving team has blocked a punt cleanly.

We're proud of Jackson, he made some good decisions this weekend, not the least of which was to not kick the guy who tackled the West player on the blocked kick. Watch closely and you'll see Jackson charging down the field wanting to hit somebody; fortunately he didn't, there were enough cheap shots taken during the game; even the Morehead City newspaper chided the West team for late hits and punches.
Bobby and I caught lots of fish this weekend; the weather was pretty and the fish cooperated, but we had to work for them both days. On Saturday we caught some VA mullet, blues, and grey trout. Sunday we went offshore and after a slow morning found a good trout bite at AR 315. We also kept some pretty hogfish, blues, and a nice flounder which I believe was my first or second keeper this year. Our marine diet continues through this week................

October 30, 2008
Phoenix, AZ

Terri and I went to Arizona last Friday for the annual HARDI meeting of North American heating, air conditioning and refrigeration wholesalers. Since joining Skuttle Terri has been invited each year and has developed many personal friendships among spouses in the HALO group. This was our first AZ sunset last Friday night.

On Saturday morning we were involved with the HALO Habitat for Humanity project. We hung drywall for most of the day. It was hard work but everyone felt good to have helped make a little bit of a difference for a day.
Terri is, or actually was the HARDI HALO president; her term ended with this meeting. Here she is addressing the group on Monday.

Well not really, it was a staged shot afterwards.
But this one is not staged. When she was asked to be a HALO officer five years ago she started worrying about speaking in front of the entire group by asking Grace for the opening luncheon. There were hundreds of thousands of people there.....OK, there were hundreds. During the prayer I sneaked in a picture, she did great.

Lunch with our old friends the Wheelocks from Birmingham, AL.
Terri with an old peddler she met at the meeting, I guess she felt sorry for him.....
HARDI sent some roses to our room; I tried to take credit for them but too late, she saw the card

We had a good time, saw lots of old friends, and hopefullly wrote some business
Bobby is coming tomorrow night; maybe we'll have some fish pictures for the next post.

October 20, 2008

OK, another post on top of one, sorry; but there are a few things to share:

First of all there is a new blogger in town: check out http://thealwayshighfishinoptishin.blogspot.com/ mark it as a favorite and check back frequently, as I hope there will be some trout videos on that site soon. There are some vids from Martinsville on there showing a budding debutante who sat in front of us and directed the Jeff Gordon efforts (she told him to drive towards her through the corner, and then pointed for him to drive down the back straight, I can't help but wonder how we do without her) ; they're very good.
I saw Pedro land at the Newport Chili Festival (actually I was gassing the car and saw it)

Monday night Jackson played in a makeup game at South Central (Winterville); they played well but lost 48-42. Jackson had a couple of good punts which put the South Central Hooligans inside the 20, on this one however he thought he was roughed, no call as both his feet were on the ground.

Later in the game he pooched one inside the 15, After the game he asked if I saw him step into a hole on the field, look closely and you can see him nearly fall as he punts.

Off to MD tomorrow, AZ Friday.>

Sunday October 19, 2008

I was in town all week, had some doctor's appointments and what not to catch up on; went fishing Wednesday evening, but sorry, no pictures as it was dark and the no-see-ums were eating me up. I caught my limit of blues very quickly, it was a good evening. Jackson's Friday night game in Winterville was postponed due to rain, they play tonight (Monday). Saturday I went to Durham to watch Duke play well in the first half, but lose in the second to Miami. On Sunday Bobby and I went to Martinsville, got in early this morning. It was a fun race, pretty day, and an entertaining crowd. The fans in front of us resembled this guy.

Sorry, no camera in Durham on Martinsville. Off to MD tomorrow, back Wednesday night, then off to AZ Friday through Wednesday.
I'll post some of Bobby's pics when I can