Worn to a Frazzle...

After a week of fishing and camping with Oliver, with all the back 'fun' I have been having, and now another week of entertaining Mike, Onesook and the 4 Foot Longs, I am pretty much worn out...

The second back shot I received when Oliver was here worked well for a few days but the pain is back strong over the past few days. I don't know if its just from being very tired and worn or stressed out or what at this point. Spending a few days staring at a blank wall sound pretty good right now.

We have been having fun, seeing a lot of the local points of interest and all that sorta stuff, so I am not gripping about it, I am just exhausted, I guess.

Tuesday night I went out and played in the weekly 9-ball tournament. All of the really good players were there warming up for the upcoming winter leagues that are starting in a few weeks. When I got there to practice, I was playing horrible since I hadn't even thought about pool for almost two weeks. I was playing Rob, a local player and friend, and I think he beat me like 19 of 20 games we played. It was ugly. Then, Steve and other players showed up and my play just got worse. My back was really bugging me besides just not being able to concentrate on the game.

Anyway, the tournament started and my first match was against Rob. I beat him like the proverbial rented mule, getting a lot of lucky help from somewhere. Then, I played a couple of more matches and won them pretty easily. Then, I had to play Steve, who beat me like 5-0. He was playing well and when he is playing well, well, he wins - and that is pretty much the name of that tune. I played a couple of more matches in the losers bracket and won. Then, I had to play Rob again and beat him again putting him out of the tournament. He was not real happy about loosing, but who is - Rob is a good guy. Anyway, next, I had to play Tony, who has been an old arch rival in the tournament all year, and after a close match, we won, putting me out and in 4th place. It was a needed escape from the rigors of my Ho hosting duties.

Then, Wednesday night, we all went to Jackpot after Pam got off of work. We had diner at the Cactus Pete's buffet, which was pretty underwhelming, and then gambled for a few hours. We mostly played blackjack and after 4-5 hours of gambling, Pam and I ended up wining a few bucks, even after paying for the buffet dinner and all expenses - So, it was a highly successful 'gambling' trip in my book...

The past two days we have been fishing. The first day we went down to the Hagerman State Fish Hatchery and everybody ended up catching a 4' sturgeon on the lighter tackle, which was fun for all, but we couldn't get any good trout action. So yesterday, Mike wanted to do some trout fishing. We ended up going down to Cristal Lake first and didn't have much luck there. One of the Foot Longs fell into the water, but that was the only real excitement to be had there...

We then went to the hatchery just up the road, but all they were catching there was little trout, so we took off and after some sightseeing and a stop to get a box of Trout Bites, a locally produced delicacy, we ended up back at the Hagerman State Fish Hatchery. This time we fished the upper end of the holding pond, where the output water from the fish pens dumps out and there were a lot of trout of all sizes lurking there. We caught a number of trout, with the largest one getting away when trying to land it without the net I had forgotten in the Jeep. Anyway, we fished there for a while and came home to a meal of Trout Bites, salad and fresh bread.

After dinner, we watched a new movie that Pam picked up at Costco. It was the 'Blades of Glory', which I would have never bought from watching all the hype and PR stuff on it for months. But, I must say it was a great movie. I would recommend it to anyone. The outtakes and extra stuff on the DVD was also pretty good.

Today, they are having the 2nd annual Bridge base jumping festival, which should be worth checking out. Also, Roberta and family are coming down from the fire ravaged Sun Valley to visit and we are cooking up a big Prime Rib dinner for all. Knowing them all, karaoke could break out at anytime and it should be an 'interesting' day here in DaHo...