Silflay Hraka

Just spent a few minutes looking at archived fishing reports via Tradewinds. They have them back to 2002. Very interesting as it seems April is just as good if not better than October for the drum. Good times have ranged from 1st week to last week of April. It also looked like the drum bite happened during the day as well as night. The blue fish were also much bigger going up to 10+ lbs. Also checked on the houses. OI has a “off” season and “fall” season. Off season runs end of Oct to 4/29 (varies depending on house though). Off season rates are about 25 to 35% less than fall rates. Checked out Blue Heron prices (house we stayed @ in 2003 & 2004). Rate for a week in April, 2006 is $800. Fall rate for 2006 will be $1240. That’s a nice savings. Just something to think about. Hell, why don’t we get a Spring AND Fall trip! However, the availability of house in Spring is probably another story though!!

First the good news: Cathy and I are expecting our 3rd child sometime in September. Now the bad news: Definitely will not be making the fall FDS trip to Ocracoke this year. As we’ll have a newborn and 2 others, I’ll need to be around the house to help out. Not going to even put up a fight this time around. However, I think I can get away for a few days in April and try and get the drum as they come back into the inlets & sound. No dates set. If the numbers are there, might get a house if we need it. Hopefully, I can get a few of you to make it down for a long weekend or something. Anybody interested try and let me know asap and we can start working on some dates. We can still get a house for “off season” rates like we do in October. Actually, based on past history, the drum fishing is about the same in Spring as Fall. Have a good 2006!!

I’m not going to get to excited about this yet. Organized labor rarely gets what it deserves (fines, firings, and a dash of jail time).

I’ve ridden the New York subways. There’s not a damn soul working there who’s as valuable as the world’s worst air traffic controller. May they share the same fate.

Puppet teaches preschoolers importance of ?touching rule?

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Researchers Find Barbie Is Often Mutilated

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Canada called ‘retarded cousin’

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EBay backs off pet sales

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China to set up breeding base for rare dolphin

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A complete set of all the SH News Mashups may be seen in all their glory here.

Did Bush domestic spy program eavesdrop on American journalists?.

An interesting, but totally unproven theory about why Bush may have avoided the courts on domestic surveillance. I might propose that Bush was spying on bloggers as well as journalists.

Today, we see the word extreme used quite much. However, I think it’s certainly applicable to this man. He’s the fellow who takes his dog-Mystic Warrior and fishes out on the “Vera Cruz” sandbar over near Portsmouth Island. He has the black truck w/slide in camper and uses a Zodiak to launch from the beach. Here’s some reports from a 20 (yes, 20!!) day trip to Cape Lookout. Seapuppy 1 , Seapuppy 2, and Seapuppy 3 I hope our FDS trip will be at the same time that he’s @ Ocracoke next fall. I want to fish with him and his dog at least one time!! One can learn very much about fishing from this fellow!

City May Require Transvestite Bathrooms

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Nutcracker? lands in Rochester

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Sexy Gift Guide 2005

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Amish Man Lost Thousands in Sex Scam

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Powell Man Producing Gluten-free Oats

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Face Transplant Gives Hope to Disfigured

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The 169th edition of the Carnival of the Vanities is hosted by Multiple Mentality this week.

If you would like to be added to the Carnival announcement list, send an email to cotvanities-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

December 21st - Ravenwood’s Universe
December 28th - Chicken Soup For The Damned - The 171st and final edition of the CoTV co-ordinated by Silflay Hraka.

January 7th - The debut of the new keeper of the CoTV, Harshly Mellow

Be sure to check out the Carnival’s multitudinous offspring, most of which can be found via the Meta-Carnival.

Finally, if submitting to the myriad of carnivals spawned by CoTV has proven difficult, head over to the Conservative Cat and take a look at his tool.

For months, Democrats have been calling for a timetable by which American troops will be withdrawn from Iraq. The Bush administration, rightly, had been stating almost unequivocably that there would be no timetable as that would only give encouragement to the insurgents in Iraq.

A few weeks ago, I noticed a change in that rhetoric and the Bush administration began making noises about drawing down the number of troops in Iraq and turning over control of the situation in Iraq to the Iraqi government.

I was a little confused about the sudden change from “no withdrawal” to “fewer troops and faster withdrawal”. I thought maybe the Bush administration was just submitting to pressure from congress and public polls. That certainly doesn’t sound like the Bush presidency, however.

Well, a thought hit me while reading the headlines this morning. My thinking was something along these lines: “that guy in Iran is nuts and he’s pursuing nukes. The American government is not likely to stand for that. But what can we do since we’re already over-extended in Iraq?…”

Does anyone see where I’m going with this?

Pregnant Skydiver Survives Face-First Fall.

Holy crap. Not only did the woman survive, but so did her unborn child, apparently developing normally. Wow.

And she landed on in an asphalt parking lot.