October 30, 2009
An evening at the Aquarium

For Halloween we went to the aquarium for some fun and trick or treating. Terri said I would smile, have fun, and take pictures of my grandson and by gum golly she was right! We had a lot of fun playing with Cooper and hundreds of other little rugrats.

Here Cooper demands that the candy-holder "stick'm up!"

Cooper was dressed as Boots from Dora the Explorer.

Cute little fellow don't you think?

I asked if this young man was wearing a blouse....he said no, it's a shirt, Sherlock

Storm troopers were on the scene; here his father keeps him from pointing the death ray zapper directly at me. Go ahead Star Wars geeks, correct me and tell me what the proper weapon name is.........I can wait

Jay, Holly and Cooper..............and one in the oven too! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat ?

A friend of ours competed in the underwater jack-o-lantern carving contest

And Terri walked through the strobe light section and had a great time

Wonder how closely you read my comments? Jackson's Senior Night is tonight, and then we're off to Orlando for a few days. I'll post some pictures from Florida next week.

October 24, 2009
A good day of fishing spoiled........

This weekend was to be a fishing weekend with Davis Powers from Ohio and the FO from Durham. Weather forecasters plotted the estimated winds at 20+ so the FO went to the BBQ festival in Lexington and Davis stayed home. Can't say I blame them, it's supposed to be ugly.

So I got up early this morning and went trout fishing, got my limit before 8:00 and then caught a few big Spanish, some speckled trout, a 2 pound spot and a whole mess of crappies......something that I've been feeding you with this sentence. Bobby and Davis, sit down and let your blood pressure calm down, I didn't go; might go for a couple of hours tomorrow morning if the wind isn't too bad. I'll let you know

Ballgame last night: West lost to famous movie director West Craven 52-35. West Craven is pretty good, # 7 in the state (someone beside me, name not mentioned for obvious reasons asked if that was good, I said well # 7 in the state, she asked how many were in the state; not going to mention her name for fear of reprisal, let's call her She Who Must Be Obeyed; the guy next to me told her we are #7 ....in our conference; don't think it registered because where she's from you're either #1 or 2 in the state; nothing else is acceptable) Anyway we scored first on a good drive, they scored on the first play from scrimmage. Kind of like that all night; they had several big plays, long runs and passes for TD's. Jackson had 7 punts; 42,37,35,19,39,25,23.........31.4 average for the night. Had a shank at the end of the first half, but still put them inside the 15, where they scored from on the first play. That type of night.

Oh, what's this? Why thank you for asking.....this is the trophy I won at the Seafood Festival Golf Tournament. It's a Brant decoy hand carved by Joe Fulcher Jr. 18" from stem to stern; can't decide whether to put lead on the bottom and use it as a decoy, or drill a hole in it and wear it around my neck as bling.....you know, when I'm hanging with my posse........... What do you think?

I'm all out of trite metaphors; So that's it from the old eastern shore. Go Yanks

October 21, 2009
This just in..................
Jackson cleared to play Friday night, film at 11

October 18, 2009
A review of last week

First of all I forgot to mention that Da Boss Marty Hansell also won a golf tournament the week before last. Pigs are flying indeed!

Went to OH, IN, and WV last week making branch calls; lots of fun, been a long time since I did that without a rep; need to do that more often.

Below are some pictures coming down I-77 and in some little town in IN, no idea where. Poor guy in the tractor trailer had a bad day

Jackson was in the Homecoming Court! He was fortunate to escort the lovely Staci Hoell, neither won but they had a good time. You'll notice Jackson has a jersey on but no pads; he had a mild concussion earlier in the week and has to sit for a couple of games. So how exactly does a punter get a concussion? Although he only runs a few plays in games he does practice and hit during practice. He's upset to miss a couple of games but better safe than sorry. Sorry the film isn't very good and the volume is loud so you might want to turn it down......

West celebrates homecoming triumph over Conley, 30-14

Published: Sunday, October 18, 2009 2:05 AM EDT
EVANS KISTLERMOREHEAD CITY — There were a lot of heroes in West Carteret’s 30-14 homecoming victory over winless D.H. Conley on Friday night.But one such hero, starting Patriot junior quarterback Chris Dodge, came up big in a different capacity than the Patriot faithful are used to seeing him perform.Against Conley, West was without the services of starting punter Jackson Riley, who was out with a concussion that occurred in practice earlier in the week, and starting place kicker Dalton Knight, who was in limited capacity after an injury to his ankle sustained at a church function.
Dodge, whose older brother and West graduate, Matt, is one of the top punters in the nation for East Carolina University, took over both duties.

In town all week; Pop has a couple of appointments and so do I.

October 11, 2009

Yeah, I don't believe it either; this from the local CC news today

43rd Seafood Invitational Results

Morehead City Country Club Members make strong runs in several flights. Lead by two time Seafood Invitational winner and six time Club Champion Corey Lewis. Corey shot the low round of the tournament with a 67 to win the 43rd Annual Seafood Invitational. Edging defending champion Greg Lawhorn who fired a solid 71. Jeff Tomlin was catapulted to 71 and third place overall finish with a double eagle 2 on hole 16. In the Championship B club member Lance Waggener finished one shot ahead of club member Tim Boynton. Both finished with 71's. Notable club member winners included 4th Flight Ken Tetterton, 7th Flight Wic Southern & 8th Flight John Duke Riley. Narrowly missing out were club members Glenn Gulledge 2nd in the 3rd Flight, Bryan Carithers, Jeff Norris, Bobby Marrow tied for second in the 5th flight. David Barham & Chris Pearson also finished second in the 7th & 8th flights respectively.
Thank you to all participants!!!

Championship A Flight
Lewis, Corey 74-67 1411st $350.00
Lawhorn, Greg 73-71 1442nd $250.00
Tomlin, Jeff 75-71 1463rd $200.00
McIntyre, Matthew 77-71 148 T4th $125.00
Irby, Scott 72-76 148 T4th $125.00
Boles, Bill Jr. 74-76 150
Lewis, Glen 73-79 152
Lee, Christopher 73-79 152
Sheffield, Charles 74-81 155
Mitchum, Bill 74-81 155
Blankenship, Jacob 74-83 157
Lloyd, Chad 74-83 157

Championship B Flight
Waggener, Lance 79-71 150 1st $200.00
Boynton, Tim 80-71 1512nd $150.00
Bigham, Steve 79-73 1523rd $100.00
Foley, Mike 77-77 1544th $75.00
Horne, David 79-77 1565th $50.00
Howard, Sandy 79-78 157
Johnson, Zach 81-78 159
Matheny, Richard 78-83 161
Couch, Lea 79-82 161
Walton, John 85-78 163
Smith, Michael 77-89 166
Stover, Rob 85-90 175

3rd Flight
Bethune, Jason 80-76 156 1st $200.00
Gulledge, Glenn 82-74 156 2nd $150.00
Allison, Michael 77-79 1563rd $100.00
Davis, Dave 80-78 158 T4th $62.50
Jones, Cackie 82-76 158 T4th $62.50
Gorman, Thomas 82-77 159
Ball, Lee 78-82 160
Romero, Carlos 81-82 163
Andrews, Chris 81-82 163
Williams, Sam 82-83 165
Powell, Jim 83-WD
Lane, Kevin 82-WD

4th Flight
Tetterton, Ken 79-83 162 1st $200.00
Best, Donald 85-78 163 2nd $150.00
Tucker, Scott 84-80 164 T3rd $87.50
Perry, Ron 82-82 164 T3rd $87.50
Wilson, Ernie 79-87 166 5th $50.00
Gurtner, Ray 86-81 167
Ramsey, Drew 82-85 167
Gibbs, Buddy 84-84 168
Bruner, Grey 83-85 168
Strickland, Bubba 84-85 169
Tetterton, Jason 84-85 169
Barker, Mike 84-95 179

5th Flight
Lippard, Danny 85-80 165 1st $200.00
Carithers, Bryan 85-82 167 T2nd $93.75
Patterson, Sam 84-83 167 T2nd $93.75
Norris, Jeff 86-81 167 T2nd $93.75
Marrow, Bobby 85-82 167 T2nd $93.75
Sutton, Flythe 85-85 170
Cook, Steve 83-87 170
English, Michael 87-88 172
Evenson, Maynard 86-86 172
Boussias, George 86-89 175
Jackson, Bobby 89-86 175
East, James 93-84 177

6th Flight
Alexander, Cecil 87-75 162 1st $200.00
Young, Robert 86-78 164 2nd $150.00
Monk, Tommy 88-80 168 3rd $100.00
Gray, Charles 90-79 169 4th $75.00
Doody, Mike 82-88 170 5th $50.00
White, Alfred 90-81 171
Watkins, Matt 82-90 172
Budacz, Julius 87-85 172
Honeycutt, Rhett 86-87 173
Beddingfield, Cal 88-86 174
Lanford, GW 90-WD
McLawhorn, John 87-WD

7th Flight
Southern, Wic 84-78 162 1st $200.00
Barham, David 83-84 167 2nd $150.00
Small, Mike 86-84 170 T3rd $87.50
Walls, Jimmy 82-88 170 T3rd $87.50
Patrick, McCleary 95-83 178 5th $50.00
Sauter, Bruce 94-85 179
Ellingsworth ,Jason 90-94 184
Atkins, Jody 89-94 183
Smith, Eric 88-90 178
Lane, Larry 93-WD
Boyd, Tom 94-WD
Elvers, John 97-110 207

8th Flight
Riley, John Duke 82-86 168 1st $200.00
Pearson, Chris 90-80 170 2nd $150.00
Perry, Berry 89-82171 T3rd $87.50
Lewis, Thomas 92-79171 T3rd $87.50
Murphy, Terry 96-81177 5th $50.00
Willington, Brian 91-88179
Collins, Charlie 85-97182
Whitfield, Buddy 90-95185
Green, Brian 90-96186
Stagner, Jubal 91-96187
Phillips, Gerald 101-89190
Garrett, Herbert 92-WD

9th Flight
Stephenson, Steve 94-86180 1st $200.00
Creech, Ritchie 92-90182 2nd $150.00
Harwood, William 92-92184 3rd $100.00
Harrison, Curtis 95-92 187 T4th $41.66
Howe, Norton 94-93187 T4th $41.66
Congleton, Mort 93-94187 T4th $41.66
Leonard, W. Phillip 90-98188
Morris, Larry 100-89189
Ramadanovic, Imer 91-103194
Sprague, James 98-98 196
Harkins, Rea 97-99196
Barker, Bryan 92-105197

10th Flight
Moore, Elisha 98-91 189 1st $200.00
Crabtree, Tom 99-91 190 2nd $150.00
Kirkman, Ken 98-95 193 3rd $100.00
Orr, Kevin 99-95 194 4th $75.00
Thompson, Harry 101-94 195 5th $50.00
Harris, Raymond 101-97 198
Reaves, Paul 101-97 198
Kearney, Lewis 99-102 201
Cotton, Arthur 102-104 206
Fraser, Randy 110-97 207
Blewett, Bob 111-98 209
Harris, Michael 116-110 226

Since it was the Seafood Festival tournament, all weekend had all you can eat scallops, shrimp, clams, flounder, oyster, crabmeat; etc., Riley entertained the gallery with such witty remarks as "somebody step on a duck?" "that baby needs changing" "we're driving by a landfill over there in the woods" and the ever popular "better check your shoe"

After winning Riley was seen rushing to the mens locker room where he was quoted saying "excuse me, somebody is IN here, and I need some matches ....................."

In other news hog farmer William Ward reported seeing a sty-full of his prize pigs take off in V-formation and perform loops and upside down flying in a 30 minute aerial show above his fields. Ward said he knew this would happen one day, just didn't know when.

In weather news, Lucifer called in to report a 31 degree day in Hades........................

Duke beat the mess out of NCSU

Yes, a Riley on the leader board on day one, and a winner on day two; it is hard to believe isn't it?
I also won a beautiful Core Sound hand carved decoy; great weekend, pictures to follow

October 2, 2009
OK, the greatest video ever (on my blog anyway); turn up the volume. This was filmed in June (I think) on a good day for blues. After filling the cooler with blues and Spanish by trolling we cast into some bait balls and found this toothy critter among many others on light tackle. You can see I had a lot of fun, and you can also see me getting behind the cooler after he bit the bimini top and held on............. Lots of fun and serenaded by Saturday Night Rendezvous from Franc White's show. So relax, sit back and enjoy because it's time to re-visit the wonderful world of the great outdoors with the Southern (born) Sportsman, John Riley. Brought to you today by River Ox Boats, House Autry Mills, and Happy Jack dog products....ask for it by name (woof woof)....your dog would

I will endorse House Autry, tried others and I still prefer HA; used to use Happy Jack with that old pointer Sheeethade (figure it out, Jay thought he was French), don't think River Ox is still around anymore; they did made one heckuva a good river boat in the 70's.

And a neat old picture of Jackson at the end. West lost tonight 31-7; Jackson had 4 punts including a 24 yarder that pinned White Oak on their own 5; averaged 32.2 for the night

Thanks to the FO for the film

October 1, 2009

A bueno Spanishimo day!

Had my best Spanish day of all time; or at least on my own boat anyway, kept 12 quality Spanish and 12 nice blues also. Most of the fishing was completed by 930-1000 Thursday morning. Plenty of fish for dinner and the freezer.

The newspaper shot was to prove that it was indeed October 1 and not a previous trip.

Seafood Festival Weekend; Jackson plays at White Oak, FO might come down for a Sunday morning trip, and yes.....stayed tuned for the best video of all time!