Another Night at the BFZ House

In talking with a coworker while I was in Utah(check out my vid and info of Alyse and I skiing!), we discussed ways of getting more hits on the blog. I told him that days that I post news, I get great hits. The proceeding days, the hits decrease logrythmically until they bottom out around 100 hits a day. Now, don't get me wrong. When I started out posting, getting 100 hits a day was A-May-Zing. He said: "post something every day." Of course, since this blog focuses on fishing, hunting and all things out doors, I didn't want to go against the grain. I didn't want to change the blog too much. But.....I look at all these other blogs that are so successful. Why are they so successful? Because they have great content? No. Emphatically, no. Ok...some of them are pretty good. But not many. No. They are successful because they post every day, even if it isn't much. Fact is, to those bloggers, something happens every day that they think is worth sharing (even if I don't care to read Momma Laughlin's foul language or Hubby Jack's idea of a quirky life) so they do. And, people look forward to reading it enough to visit the blog every day. Well, that's what I want! This household is no different, maybe even more active. So, I said that I was going to make more posts about things that happen that *don't* necessarily have to do with typical Best5Zach topics.

Here we go. Bear with me. Or is it bare? I don't know. Who cares. If I hadn't said anything, none of yall would have noticed.

I will sum up the last few days, but I will start with fishing to break me in.

Fishing tournament season is upon us. Err...me. 'Cause I know all yall are already fishing tournaments. That's ok, you are better than me. I can't catch anything. But, I did go to the Classic the other day and learned (maybe?) some spots. Go read my review of the Classic. Anyway, The Eagle's Wings Benefit Tournament, Fishin' for a Mission, is this weekend on Tuscaloosa Lake. If you haven't kept up, you can read about the tournament and my past success in it. But, this year, we have TWO kids in teeball and Alyse has decided to stay home with the kids. Sure, I get it, although we could get a babysitter for her to go, she REALLY things one of the following two things:

A) My luck will run out and it isn't worth being there to see
B) I have cashed a check in all 3 of the events I have fished and it isn't worth being there to see

Who am I kidding? She's never come to a weigh in. She just collects the check.

Tough life, I know.


Anyway, Tuscaloosa is a lake that features a ton of finesse fishing. And, Uncle Tony has taught me some GREAT tournament fishing techniques such as: limiting rods to 3 or 4. Putting up a rod per hour in the last few hours based upon success. Not to mention how to have confidence in jigs and shakey heads. So, when it was a week away (last week?) I started preparing. I had 4 rods out. I respooled them with my new Buying in Bulk philosophy.  Ah, the feel of new line. So squeaky clean....err...I need to sit down (giggity).I tied on the normal things I expected to be fishing: shake heads/jigs/deep diving cranks/swimbait. Knowing I would be throwing these items, I put in a big order to PowerTeam Lures and quickly received all the baits (again, in bulk) that I would be using. Uncle Tony gave me a ran last night and ran down what we would *not* be throwing this weekends: shake heads/jigs/deep diving cranks/swimbaits. What will be throwing: swim jigs.

Well, back to the drawing board. Guess who owns ZERO swim jigs?

I did post two different blogs in the last few days covering the upcoming spring training season for football which culminates in the A-Day. I will be going. Will you? Best $5 you will ever spend. You are guaranteed your team will win!  Also, it will afford you the chance to get on the field, see your favorite players, and maybe even snuggle up to Aubie!

So, I wrote:

The Auburn Realist: What Will A-Day Tell Us About the Offense

and

The Auburn Realist: What A-Day Will Tell Us About the Defense

Don't like Auburn? That's ok. No one is perfect. And, since you aren't reading those posts, allow me to at least entertain you with some football nonsense:

What do Auburn and Alabama fans have in common? Neither attended the University of Alabama. 

Sorry. Had to. I will make it up to you. Here is a pic of me dressed as Nick Saban.

After dinner, we got to listen to Griffin recount his Bible Story of the Day. Why is he only wearing his pants? Do we go around half nude at our house? Well, yeah. But that's beside the point. We don't do anything just to do it. If you are going to tell a Bible Story, be The Incredible Hulk telling the story. See, Griffin is OBSESSED with the Avengers. In particular, he loves the Hulk. Which means that as soon as he walks in his house, shoes and socks and shirt come off. Cause that's what the Hulk does! He makes me be "Mr Fantastic", who isn't an Avenger. And I have nothing in common with Mr. Fantastic. But, hey, if he thinks I am, I will roll with it. That makes 1 person who thinks so.  Anyway, check out his recounting of the great story of Jonah.

Aubree's softball is really ramping up. Now, since I haven't been sharing the daily activities of our lives, you don't know that she tried out for a travel team....and didn't make it. She didn't have a strong enough arm. She is too slow. And, she didn't realize that there was a thumb hole in her glove....which is important to catching the ball. That's really my bad, really. And important bit that I should have taught her. But, just another in a long string of things I suck at. Take a number and get in line.

Anyways, she was already super competitive. So, after she cried...and we cried....she is out to SSHHOOCCCKK THE WWWOOORRLLDDDD! Now, included in those tryouts was a month of going to a real trainer 2 nights a week. The progress she has made is nothing short of amazing. She is even hitting left handed now! She is still slow though....Amazing, really, that my child could be sooo sllloowwww. As one of my favorite rap songs say: "she got it from her mah -mah"

I know. I probably just dated myself a little bit. But at least it's in the ball park with my true age. Cause, my wife says I will never get my music out of anything later than 1993. Of course, I don't quite have the hair for grunge anymore.....Doesn't matter, I say. Cause these guys don't have long hair anymore, either.

Some of you don't get it. Some of you do and are mad. And some of you just looked up "Pauly Want a Cracker" and bought it on iTunes, then immediately became mad at me. I digress.

Wow, we kinda got away from what we were talking about. Oh yeah. Aubree is going to be FANTASTIC in softball. Griffin, on the other hand, well....if he makes it out without catching one to the face in left field...well, the season will be a success. If you didn't read it, I wrote about his first few days of TeeBall earlier this week. He really is doing great. He loves being out there and making new friends. If a game of ball breaks out and he happens to get involved, well, it was worth it. I got to hand it to him though. We had practice the other day that was in 40.000001 degrees and he ran around and played, paid attention, and had a good time.

So, what's going on today? Well, aside from being a NASA engineer, you ask? And writing this blog on my lunch break? Well, I have a raging headache from the PowerTeam Lure's Hog Tonic that is sitting next to me. Sure, the fish love it. It does the job of making sure they hold on to the bait or, in some cases, come back to bite it again and again. I think it's secretly Fish Meth. It has all the right qualities. It's probably made in a bathtub, it smells terrible. It's banned for transportation (in my family)Once it's on something, it never comes off, and it gives you nasty headaches.

Just kidding. I obviously know nothing of meth. But it's an interesting parallel (and shameless attempt to get a nervous laugh from you all).

Meanwhile, my wife is trying to win a pair of Oaklies on Facebook. Yeah, so this is a shameless plug to go to this link, share and like it. Maybe I will like you. Just kidding. I will like you. Especially if she wins.

On another front, Palmetto State Armory still hasn't shipped me parts for my latest AR-15 Build V2.0
Yeah yeah, they say expect assembly time of up to 14 days. Well, guess what, 14 days was up 7 days ago and it still hasn't shipped. I WANT MY STUFF! Not that I could go shooting....mind you. We's po 'round here. But, the Inevitable Cold War V2.0 is on our doorstep. I want my gun now.

Oh, and lastly, we booked our trip to Jamaica next year for our 10th anniversary. Yes, I know, you are wondering why we are already talking about it. Well, mostly because I am fat and this is ammunition to start getting in shape. This ain't water weight. But mostly because we are poor suckers that need to make payments on things. We broke. But at least we aren't putting it on a credit card. Super excited about it, though. We did get to go to Utah last week to ski, but other than that, we haven't had a vacation to ourselves since 2008. It's been a minute. I still had hair back then. No, seriously. I did.

I also used to have a wedding ring....but that's another discussion. That's enough for now. My head hurts.