Recovering Baptist

We figured that avoiding amateur night on the roads was probably a good idea, and a cabin near Ellijay turned out to be perfect. My family and two others spent four days playing pool, shooting off fireworks, and sitting by the fire. The kids played well together and actually behaved except for bedtime. As dull as it may sound, the adults pretty much did, too. We played pool, sat by the fire, and ate. And drank. And ate. And drank. And ate some more.

Our menu for the weekend pretty much consisted of every cholesterol filled, sodium saturated, carbohydrate heavy foodstuff possible. And to drink we had a wide selection of great beer and limoncello. And while I love to eat and drink, at some point even I realize that even the Romans put an end to their feasts at some point.

And so now it’s back to the real world. One nice green leaf is about all I can stand to eat today. I even tried to head to the gym for the first time in many, many months, but someone pulled the fire alarm. So much for a healthy 2008, but if how you ring in the new year is a representation of how you’ll spend it, this is looking to be a fun one.

Saturday was a stunningly beautiful day. It was a perfect day to head out to the farm for a little bit of fishing with my parents and boys. My mom and the younger one didn’t have the patience to wait for the fish, so they spent most of the afternoon climbing on tractors. That left three of us at the pond.

The day started out on a slow note. I pulled in one nice catfish, but I spent a lot of time fixing tangled reels. By noon the fish had stopped biting altogether except for the 8″ bass the boy pulled in. We were starting to think the day would be a total bust when my dad started losing his bait. After a while he pulled in a catfish and a nice bream.

The large bream is a sign of health in our pond. Before we stocked it with bass last year the full grown bream were less than 6 inches. This one was much closer to 8, but it was also thicker and taller. After a few more nibbles dad had a big one on the line - when it jumped out of the water we knew we had our first big bass out of this pond. I measured him at 18″. Just before we left I pulled in a 19″ catfish - a satisfying way to end the day.

I think all the fresh air and excitement wore out my older boy completely. He’s been complaining of a stomach ache since yesterday morning. He’s going to have to miss school today. I wish he didn’t feel so bad. But it was all worth it. The joy of looking up to see the him holding that fish and sharing his excitement as he ran to see if his granddaddy caught anything more than make up for a couple of days of illness. Besides, whoever told me that Bass isn’t worth eating was very, very wrong!

“Apparently deep fried pancakes are awesome!.” That’s the quote from my friend who, along with his daughters, crashed at my place for the weekend while the women were away.

How could pancake batter cooked in bacon grease not be? The shame is that I only cooked two that way. Now I know for next time.