Opening Day of duck Season

I think some people who don't normally see this side of me would find these pics rather funny.
On October 13th my dad and I went to Paulenskill WMA (Wildlife Management Area) in Lafayette NJ.
I got up at 3:20 AM to meet my dad at my parent's house in Plainfield. We left there at about 4:20. We got to the parking lot at about 5:45. We then got on our chest waders, jackets, packs full of decoys and shotguns and then hopped on our bikes. That's right! Bikes!
HAHA it must be pretty funny to see someone in boots up to their chest , plastic duck heads in their backpack and a shotgun across their back taking a bike ride!
Well we rode about 10 minutes down the dirt road to where we have to turn into the marsh/lake. We dragged the bikes in and locked them up. We then walked another 5-10 minutes to our spot. Once there we got our things together and put out the decoys and were ready by 6:25. Legal shooting time was 7:38 (half hour before sunrise) so we got to relax a little bit.
It was a very nice day. I got a Green Wing Teal and my dad got a Green Wing Teal and a Wood Duck. Boy the area is so pretty!

I see some of the prettiest places in New Jersey fishing and hunting.

When we have enough duck Nikki and I will probably go over my parents and have a duck dinner. My dad has a new recipe he wants to try.

You should be able to click the pictures, i fixed a coding issue that had been preventing that.

My dad in full camo scanning the sky. Ducks can see color so hence the "bandit" look.

See the fog? Earlier it was so thick I couldn't past that decoy in the background. Oh and those aren't ducks back there, they are decoys.

See the decoys? What a beautiful day!

Jack-O-Lanters!

On October 10th Nikki and I did our annual pumpkin carving. It's always fun to do! Hopefully they won't mold and rot too much before Halloween.

We're trying two different ways to preserve them. I'm spraying it with Pam inside to prevent moisture loss and also spray it with Lysol to kill mold. Nikki is using just lemon juice.

Looks like Nikki is winning so far, as of writting this my pumpkin has made more mold than hers.

Nikki's is the cat and mine is the monster face.

2007 Governor's Surf Fishing Tournament

****UPDATE 1****

Here are the results of the Tournament:

33 bluefish, 3 blackfish, 7 kingfish and 2 stripers out of 1000+ anglers.

****UPDATE 2****

Alright, it's official. Nikki would have won. 7 Kingfish were caught. Men accounted for 5 of them. So Nikki would have at least received third place! DOH!

On Sunday October 7th Nikki, Dad and I went to the annual Governor's Surf Fishing Tournament. We had a great time but holy smokes i think it was August not October!

This year was especially good because of Mom and Dad's new condo in Ortley Beach. It's about 15 minutes from the park. That is great because the Tournament starts at 6am and in past years we would get up at 3:30am. ugh!

This year we met my parents at the condo the night before, had a nice evening, got bait, and got to sleep until about 6am. Still early but certainly not too bad. We got on the beach around 7:30am and got our poles in the water as fast as possible.

The beach is so pretty in the morning.

About 45 minutes into things Nikki said she noticed a bite on my pole but when i looked it wasn't doing anything. I assumed she had just seen the wave action effecting the pole but I decided to check my bait anyway. Nothing seemed unusual as I reeled but when the bait emerged out of the water there was a tiny fish on my rig! Nikki was right! Turned out it was a Kingfish! This was incredibly weird because: 1. it had bitten on a mullet (little bait fish) but typically they feed on worms and little critters. 2. the mullet bait it bit on was half it's size! and 3. the hook was as big as it's head and bigger than it's mouth! I don't know what it was thinking but i guess it really wanted to get caught!

Anyway, this was great because the way the tournament works is there is a first, second and third place for each specie of fish eligible. There would not be many Kingfish caught at all because the time for them being around has pretty much passed. However, I REALLY wanted Nikki to catch something like this because the primary competition is among adult men. There are not only 1st 2nd and 3rd among species but according to child female\male, teen male\female and adult men and women. If Nikki would have caught this thing her chances of winning would have been huge. It was quite good for me but for her it would have been almost a foregone conclusion! I have yet to hear what the women's Kingfish catch was though.

The winner LOL!

Well the day progressed and all we caught were some skates and sea robins that are ineligible for prizes. I guess you could say Nikki won among us though because she caught the biggest fish. A skate that was 4-5 pounds. They look so nasty.

Nikki's winner, nasty right!

Well the Tournament ended at 1pm and all we had in the running was my 10 inch Kingfish but funny as it seemed, I could easily place with it so we went to the ceremony.

Well... I lost by 1 inch! DOH!

My dad kept a couple large sea robins and with my kingfish we almost had a dinner. So we picked up two flounder fillets from the store and made a nice fish fry. Oh well, we didn't get a fishing pole and reel but we had a great dinner! :) There's always next year to get my 4th win hehe.

Nikki eagle eyeing the poles with a judge in the background.

awwww

Look what I caught!! hehe nope it's bait!

Nikki showing my dad and I how it's done.

Plants Don't Like Us

Alright. I don't know what the problem is but Nikki and I are convinced that plants just don't like us or something!. We first bought a plant from Walmart. It looked great but within a few days started losing it's leaves. We didn't do anything drastic, just placed it so it would get some sun but certainly not too much. I watered it once because the soil was dry. Why did it die!

But the kicker was the next poor plant to find itself in our grasp. After seeing that the Walmart plant was pretty much gone we picked up a really nice plant at Ikea. Everything looked good for a few days. A few leaves fell off but nothing seem abnormal. So off we go to Princeton to have dinner with a friend. Little did we know what awaited us at home!

When we walked into the house i saw our plant and it was like a crime scene. It was so shocking we briefly wondered if some mischievous kid walked in and did it! Every single leaf had fallen off the plant!! It was like it got frightened to death or something!

What is up with these plants!! The picture is of the crime scene we walk in on.

Ever wonder what marriage is like?

Here is a perfect example of what marriage is like!! LOL :)

Obama Rally in Washington Square Park

On Thursday September 27th Nikki and I went to an Obama rally in Washington Square Park. It was a pretty exciting experience.

First off we both took a half day from work. That's always fun! We then hopped onto the train from Edison and finally ended up at Washington Square Park around 3pm. However, they weren't letting people in yet so we had to find something to do. We found a small cute cafe to stop at. While there we got a couple sodas and a fruit plate. The fruit plate was so so but it certainly wasn't worth 8 bucks!

We stayed there until about 4:30 and decided to head to the park again. By that point there were only a few.....ZILLION people trying to get in. We bought a couple buttons and crammed into line. There were 4 massive lines that surged towards 4 metal detectors. 4 metal detectors and 12 security guides working them scanning 24,000 people...this was going to take awhile. and i SURE did! yeeeesh. Here is what it was like for most of the rally. Imagine being in a tiny closet with a heater pumping out hot humid air that smelled like perfume and BO. That's about what it was like, Nikki and I would both say "AHhhhh" every time we felt a breeze and take a deep breath.

Well we finally managed to get through the checkpoint and probably got about 25 yards from the stage. When we first got in crowding was moderate but not as bad as the security line but shortly after we got in they closed the checkpoint and the rest of the crowd surged in. I think they did this because people started leave as they chanted "LET US IN!"
Obama arrived maybe 10 minutes after we got through security. What a great speaker! He really had the crowd going. One minute they would be yelling and screaming and then the next completely quiet hanging on every word. There were news helicopters hovering above and tons of press. We both find it exciting to be at events like this! In fact i found myself in a published NYTimes photo. Not that anyone but myself would notice that but i still think it's cool! I circled myself.

Well he finished his speech in about an hour and then it was time to shake hands and all that so while tons of people were leaving we did our best to get as close to the rope line. We managed to get about 3 feet from the rope. Obama moved through our section and Nikki actually got a handshake from him! She was so excited!

After the rally we took a brief tour of Greenwich Village and found a cute Indian place to have dinner. It was pretty good and was reasonably priced. Although the Chicken tiki masala sauce tasted like it was made with Campbell's tomato soup rather than tomatoes.

After dinner we took the subway to the WTC site. We had never been there since the attack. It was very strange being there knowing all the drama that happened there.

After we were done taking in the site we headed to Penn station and then home. It was a long but memorable day!

Vote Obama

Listen to McDonalds!