Here little fishie

The panfish were biting on nymphs just like this.

In the two years we have lived in San Antonio, I have heard stories about how it was possible to fly fish on the Guadalupe River north of town. At some point, I found out there is a member of our ward who goes fly fishing every once in a while. After several months, Joe Zamarripa and I were finally able to make our schedules come together and we went fishing Saturday afternoon. Not only did we go fishing, we also got to kayak up the river for a ways to get to the fishing hole. Even Teressa was slightly jealous, and she has no patience for fishing.

The fishing here is a little different from what I had grown up with. The Gualalupe is a warm water fishery unless you are fishing right below the Canyon Lake dam. So we weren't fishing for trout. We were looking for bass and panfish. I had never fly fished for bass or panfish before. My other issue was that we were using wet flies. I had never had any success with wet flies in the past, but I was sure willing to try again. I tied on a fly and started to fish.

In the end, I hadn't caught so many fish in a long time. The panfish were biting on the bead head nymphs I had been holding onto for a long time. (I think I had gotten these flies from Dave Falkingham 10 years ago.) Later on, when I saw Brother Zamarripa catching bass I switched to a wooly bugger I had tied myself ... and caught more panfish. That's OK. I think the seven panfish I caught would almost add up to one of those bass.

Chain saws: Part 2

One week after heading down to Houston to do hurricane cleanup, I headed over to the Schertz animal shelter to help Cameron Alpers with his Eagle project. The project included cutting down brush and trees from behind the building and hauling it to some dumpsters. Once again the chain saws came out. This time I couldn't help it. The Schneiders had an extra chain saw sitting around and offered me a chance to use it. I just couldn't say no.

I've decided that chain saws are like crack. Only better. Way better. I could feel the testosterone surging through my body every time I felled a tree. I have to get one of these things. I even tried suggesting to Teressa that she could get me one for Christmas, but from her response, I would guess the odds are not good. I'll just have to be persistent. New contest: The person who comes up with the excuse that allows me to buy a chain saw will earn my undying affection and gratitude. What better reward could there be than that?

Cleaning up after Ike

These piles of brush on the side of the road are just part of the debris we gathered out of this yard.

The call went out last weekend for people to help clean up after Hurricane Ike, so a group of us from the Schertz Ward gathered up at 5 am Saturday morning to travel to Houston to help. The emails we received made it sound like we would be cleaning up after water damage, which would have meant smelly, nasty, moldy stuff. But fortunately, the places where we went had managed to stay above water, and we were able to stick with cleaning up after wind damage.


This is the group from the Schertz ward that went to help clean up after Hurricane Ike.

Our work consisted of using chain saws to cut up downed tree limbs and then hauling the logs to the edge of the road. (My work mostly consisted of hauling logs to the road since I promised Teressa I wouldn't handle the chain saws. Oh well, I'll have to find some other way to get my power tool fix.)

Be careful what you ask

Background information: Every Idaho state license plate is prefaced with a number and a letter. So it's easy for those of us familiar with the system to know where someone in Idaho lives just by looking at a license plate. The first councilor in our bishopric, Dan Taylor, is originally from Idaho. He has a car for sale, and I made a crack that he should be able to get an extra $500 just by switching his 1B license plates (Bannock county where he is from) for 8B plates (Bonneville county, where I grew up).

This led to a deeper philosophical discussion about how people from outside of the state would have no idea what the code stood for. To prove his point, Dan turned to some other members of the ward standing there and asked, "What does it mean if I tell you that I'm a 1B and he's (pointing to me) an 8B?"

The reply: "Well, if it were the other way around, I would figure it was your bra sizes."

BYU 59, UCLA 0

All eyes were on the tasty assortment of tailgating treats, including these candy eyeballs courtesy of the Schneiders.

After going the last two years with nothing but rabbit ears to provide television reception, we finally ponied up for cable TV. Perhaps the best part of finally getting cable, at least from my standpoint, is that we actually get to watch a few BYU football games. So as a special treat, Teressa decided to throw a tailgating party and invite a bunch of friends over to watch the game and eat lots of good food.


Attempts to use voodoo to stop the BYU onslaught proved to be futile, but the fact that Cassie Schneider is using a gummy heart might have made the spell a little less effective.

We had to invite the Alpers and the Hills since they are BYU fans. Then we decided to add a little spice to the mix by adding the Schneiders, since they aren't fans of BYU, but we enjoy their company anyway. Last of all we invited the Zamarripas to top it off.

Before the game started, the manfolk were discussing the possibility that this could be a close game. At that point I remember saying that I would be OK with a BYU win by a nice comfortable margin. Little did I suspect the shock and awe that was about to follow. The game was so one-sided that even poor Randy Schneider had to agree that it was a magnificent performance by BYU.


A BYU point for every year of Steve Alpers' life—plus a few extra.

At the finale of the game, we celebrated Steve Alpers' birthday. For my birthday can I pre-order a big-time BYU win at a BCS bowl?

Time for school

Spencer is pictured here with his preschool teacher Emily Ramos and with Marcus, her son.

It's that time of year again, when the kids go back to school and the house gets nice and quiet, at least for portions of the day. Mason is in second grade now, and Spencer is going to a friend's preschool. They were both very excited to start school, and I think Teressa was ready for summer to be over, too.

Taking the cake

Teressa knew she must have the cake mould for this cake for her Beehives.

A few weeks ago, Teressa was out shopping with her friends when she came across a cake pan in the shape of a beehive. Since Teressa is the leader of the Beehives at church, she took this as a sign that she must have the pan. To put the pan to the test, Teressa baked the cake pictured above. She even used the exact recipe that came on the pan. I would be the first to admit that Teressa did a fantastic job, though Teressa might be the first to admit that baking isn't usually her thing. Alas, Teressa gave the whole cake to a new Beehive who had just turned 12, and we didn't get to sample the final product. And since we don't have any girls in our family (unless you count Teressa, who turned 12 a long time ago), we may not get to taste this recipe for a long time.

Where shall we go?

The initial list of Army anesthesiology postings for next year was just released. The list won't be finalized until December, but the list does give us some idea where we may end up. Of course, there's some behind the scenes involved. What we can get will partly depend on what other people want. For instance, it would probably be very hard to get the slot in San Antonio because we know that someone else wants it. Anyway, the poll I've included is just for my own curiosity. We already have some ideas where we would like to go.

Girls will be girls

This Labor Day weekend, Teressa's best friends from high school, Julie Kern and Lynndy Hurdle, came to visit her from Mississippi. So Teressa decided to have a girls night out and left me with the three boys while she and her friends spent the night at the Riverwalk. (Of course, I was post-call, so I was perfectly happy to stay home and go to bed early. It was a win-win situation.) Teressa had a great time having her friends here, and so did the boys. I think Mason talked non-stop about Pokemon the whole time they were here. (I wouldn't be surprised if he was even talking about it in his sleep, but I didn't stay up to find out.)


Jenga was a big hit at Family Home Evening

On Sunday night we had Family Home Evening with the whole nine yards—lesson, treat, game and everything. To finish the evening, we played Jenga, the game a blind man can play with his whole family. (More on that in our upcoming Thanksgiving post.) As you can see from the photo above, Jenga was a smash. The next morning I got up bright and early and drove Julie and Lynndy to the airport on the way to work. Teressa is already missing them and looking forward to the next time they visit.

Arranging the furniture

It's not quite the same, but I think the room still looks nice.

Teressa loved what she had done with the boys' room. And she loved the symmetry of the room. I wasn't sure she would ever want to change it, but after spending the last two years with a collection of toys in the loft, Teressa decided that she had had enough. She was ready to move all of the toys into the boys' bedroom in the hopes that the mess would stay there rather than being dragged out to the common areas of the house. So Teressa finally broke down, destroyed the symmetry of the room and had me put the bunk beds on top of each other. The room still looks nice, even if the symmetry is gone. And so far, the mess in the loft has been better.