Happy Birthday, HannahC

HannahC turned 7 today, so we had a fun-filled day that went fairly well, all things considered.

HannahC had just a couple requests for her birthday. She wanted to go fishing, eat lunch at Red Robin, have Alaskan king crab legs for dinner, and not have me work on the inground trampoline project at all. We managed to satisfy all these requirements. Even though with just one more day of work, the trampoline will be done.

After a leisurely morning of opening presents and having chocolate birthday cake for breakfast (The Mrs. is very obviously compensating for something on most holidays), we managed to slag our butts out to the usual fishing hole by about 10:15. HannahC insisted on the usual place, as she had caught a couple fish there before and wanted to repeat the adventure.

We got our usual spot and had our usual conflicts - where The Childrens start fighting with one another before I've even managed to get all the rods assembled. MaxieC was in a bit of a mood, and The Mrs. volunteered to play with him instead of fishing. What a trooper. Plus, this way, I couldn't make fun of her for not catching anything ever despite all her talk of fishing prowess and how fishing with something other than a string tied on a stick is almost cheating it's sooo easy and all those fictions from her childhood fishing on Grand Island with her grandfather.

So HannahC and I fished. We fished and fished and fished. Well, mostly I helped HannahC untangle her line from the end of her pole. But we got some good fishing time in there. Catching was in short supply. We could see the bluegills swimming around in the water, but for the first time, we also saw little minnow-like fish swimming around. Now, perhaps the fish have spawned, and these are baby fish. Or perhaps someone has lost all their bait fish. Dunno. We had a few worms nibbled off the hooks, but no catches.

Then, near the end of our time, on a lark I decided to fish one of the ponds I had not fished before, Turtle Pond. It's right next to the two we normally fish, but it's a bit smaller. It also has remarkably clear water such that you can see that there aren't any fish in there at all. But I gave it a mighty heave and cast way out from shore into the murky depths. Almost immediately, I got a bite, but it got away. However, now I was on to something. I kept casting out there, and nearly every single time I got a bite. I managed to hook four bluegills in about 10 minutes, but only landed three of them as one wriggled away just as I was pulling it from the water. HannahC joined me, and she managed to feed a bunch of bluegills her worm (we saw them pursuing it), but didn't hook any.

She did catch a tree about 15 feet up. I got it free, though. Didn't even lose the worm. It was a miracle.

I might add that I used the same worm for all 4 of the fish I hooked, plus a couple that got away. It was a mini-nightcrawler. It just kept getting smaller and smaller and smaller. HannahC had a great time, as I let her release all the fish I caught back into the pond. She would hold them carefully as I removed the hook, then place them gently into the pond, and they'd dart off. And she'd talk to them and say soothing things like, "You might die, idiot," and, "Maybe if you weren't such a stupid fish you wouldn't have a hook in your mouth."

One of those bluegills actually looked big enough to eat. Like, maybe, you'd eat a single fish stick. The bag limit is 20, and you'd need all 20.

We also saw Ratatouille today. It was quite good. I dunno if it had quite the Wow! factor of some other Pixar films, but the whole fambly certainly enjoyed it.

This is now the third weekend in a row that I have not mowed my whole lawn. I mowed nothing this week. Last week, I got the front and 3/4 of the back. I have sections that have gone to seed already. The HOA would probably get on my back if I didn't have all these de/construction projects going on that make the back yard look so much worse than the lawn looks.