This Friday is my last day at my current job. I am looking forward to it. My wife just got a job where she will be working full time. She is a nurse and she will be working at a group home with a couple elderly people. It pays more than my current job, which will be nice.

The plan was, since I was ready to leave my current job, she would find a job, I would put in my notice, then I would become Mr Mom + work at home doing freelancing and consulting with the web programming stuff. Since I haven’t really worked as a web programmer for a company (no degree, let’s save that for a different post) I thought my chances would be much better at later finding a job at a company if I worked freelance for a year or two and built up a large portfolio. Then I received a call from a staffing company that had a client that was looking for a contract-to-hire web programmer. I figured I’d give it a shot. I’m actually surprised they wanted to interview me.

What will we do if they decide to offer me the job? Well, we haven’t worked that out yet. Depending on the hours, we may be able to work something out. The biggest part is what do with the kids, but I guess the norm now days is for both parents to work, so maybe it wouldn’t be so bad for them to go to a daycare for an hour or two after school? I should find out if I get the job within a few days, so we can worry about that later.

The picture on the left is of Isaiah, my 9 year old son, holding the biggest fish he’s ever caught. It was a 17 inch, fat, almost 3 pound largemouth bass.

I took him and the neighbor boy, who is 10, out to Ham Lake on Saturday night. There was a storm out over western Minnesota on it’s way in, so I figured that the fish might be biting since they usually eat more before a big storm.

I was hoping to find some crappies, since they are the only panfish on Ham Lake worth catching. There are a lot of sunfish, but they are all very small. We tried a couple different locations, but all we caught were sunnies that were in the 5-6 inch range.

This is an interesting aside. While I was casting a spoon, trying to catch northerns, I happened to snag a crappie right through the back. It was one of the strangest things I think I’ve seen fishing. I hooked it completely through the back, right in front of the dorsal fin. It would have been good bait…

Isaiah asked me for a jig instead of the plain hook he had. I asked if he wanted help tying it, but he said he would try. I showed him how to tie a hook once a couple weeks ago. He was having a little trouble but eventually got it. I wasn’t sure how well it was tied and I didn’t really check it to make sure it was right.

With the kids kinda bored and eating the snacks we brought instead of fishing, I moved us to a shallow, weedy spot. I was casting spoons and buzzbaits hoping for a northern or bass. (I did have one fish strike at my lure, but it missed.)

Isaiah decided to fish again. So he casted his jig into the weeds. I thought, ‘this isn’t going to end well’ figuring it wouldn’t be long until he got his line caught in the weeds, then him pulling and breaking the line.

I think it was his second cast. He’s reeling in and says whoa I got something. I figured it was a weed and didn’t think too much of it, but then I looked at his pole and there was definitely a fish on it. He got really excited and I tried to calm him down, because he was reeling really jerky and I didn’t want him to loose his fish. Finally he got it up to the boat, I grabbed the line and pulled it over the side. His eyes lit up and so did the neighbor boys at the sight of the biggest fish either of them ever saw caught in a lake.

So, it was a great outing. We got home and got the boat put away before it started raining. Then the sirens went off, but that is another story…

Guess what! Those crazy talking vegetables are on TV!

I was thrilled to hear the news that VeggieTales, along with other Big Idea shows 3-2-1 Penguins and LarryBoy Adventures, would be showing on NBC, i Network and Telemundo (in Spanish.) The shows will be shown Saturday mornings on NBC and Telemundo and Friday afternoons on i Network. The complete press release with programming schedule can he found here.

If you don’t know, VeggieTales are computer animated cartoons that are faith and values-based. (Read Biblical/Christian-based.)  Don’t let that turn you off, the shows are very entertaining. Their witty, almost off the wall sense of humor nearly rivals the ability of The Simpson’s to entertain children as well as adults. But unlike The Simpson’s, VeggieTales conveys important life lessons, such as sharing, compassion and mercy.

The shows have been tailored to meet NBC’s programming guidelines as well as the national educational and information standards for children’s programming. From an interview I heard with the companies founder, he said that certain things will be left out of the shows shown on TV, mainly where the characters could be considered to be “preaching” to the kids watching it.

VeggieTales is a great show for children. It’s definetely a show that you can count on to provide good quality programming and not have to worry about what your kids will be exposed to. Even some other Saturday morning cartoons cannot claim the same. VeggieTales has been around for 13 years, sold over 50 million videos and 7 million audio CD’s. They have had 1 movie (on DVD) and are working on a new movie which will be released into theaters in the spring of 2008. It’s great to see them receiving the exposure and recognition they deserve.

This is the best picture I could get of myself. My left arm is outstreched holding the camera phone.

The last time I was out, I went to a local small river (not the mighty Miss.) and caught a 2 1/2 pound smallmouth. That was fun! I failed to get a picture though.

This weekend we are planning on getting out on a lake somewhere and hopefully catching a basket full of sunnies and crappies.

The situation is fairly bad here in Minneapolis. I see it at least once a week. Just the other day, while I just pulled up to a stop sign and came to a stop, a bicyclist came up beside my car on the right and darted right out in front of my car to cross to the left. Now, I do make complete stops at stop signs (usually) but I don’t sit there and wait for long. That guy was very lucky I saw him coming and didn’t start driving away just as fast as I came to a stop. I don’t even think he realizes how close he came to disaster.

Have you ever seen a bicyslist stop at a stop sign? It’s a rare sight. Even if there are cars lined up all directions, they think they can just zip right through. Now, I’m not saying they should line up behind all the cars and go when there turn comes up, but they need to at least stop at the stop sign and wait for the cars going in the same directions turn and cross when they do.

Now, before everyone jumps on my case, I know there are many people who are model bicyclists. Groups like the Twin Cities Bicycliing Club and the Share the Road program run by the Minnesota DOT do try to educate bikers on the rules of the road and safe bike riding, but from what I’ve seen, the number of people with poor bicycle riding skills greatly outnumber the number of people that follow the proper rules of the road and bicycle safety.

I, for one, fully support police to stop and ticket these offending bicyclists. I do not want to hit someone on a bike. I have never seen a police officer ever stop a bicyclist to tell him that he is driving dangerously, even though I have seen these reckless drivers pass right in front of police cars. For some reason, they don’t feel the need to prevent possibly tragic accidents.

What we need is police officers to start stopping and tickets the most reckless bicyclists and start educating the public that the streets they ride are are not their free playground.

All Lexus vehicles are generally sophisticated, but this new Lexus really shows some automotive ingeniousness with what may be a nearly perfect mesh of electronics, luxury and the latest in automotive technology (at least in 2007 – can’t wait to see what’s in store for the next 10 years.)

Now, when I first saw the commercial, I thought “hmm, so Lexus has a new hybrid, big deal.” But… then the real news came. This hybrid is not a pomegranate-juice-sipping, touchy-feely, 21st-century-hippy-wannabe car (ehem, Prius or Insight anyone? um, no.) When the announcer said that it goes from 0-60 in 5.2 seconds and has 339 horsepower, I knew this new Lexus is a true enthuisiasts car.

Combined with the hybrid engine is an array of other technological features that really make this car stand out. The transmission is an electronically controlled continously variable transmission (CVT.) If you don’t know, a CVT does not have traditional gears which would be shifted, but instead the gear ratios are continuously altered to maximize engine efficiency. Lexus also includes a bunch of new technologies to increase safety or performance, such as Variable Gear-Ratio Steering (VGRS), Active Stabilizer Suspension System, Electronic Brakeforce Distribution (EBD), traction control, Vehicle Dynamics Integrated management (VDIM – stability control), tire pressure monitor system, 10 airbags, backup camara, rain-sensing wipers, auto-dimming outside mirrors, voice activated DVD navigation system, power trunk closer and a 14 speaker 330 watt Lexus premium sound system. This car has is all.

The only complaint I would have about this car is that you are allowed to simulate a 6-speed manual. I don’t really see the point to this, since the simulated manual mode would be less efficient than the standard CVT mode. I guess it’s pointless to complain about a feature that you don’t have to use if you don’t want to, but it just seems excessively unnecessary to include this.

Oh yeah, the other thing would be the price. Not because the price is out of range compared to other Lexus vehicles or automobiles of a similar class (Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar), but because I can’t afford any vehicle with a $55,000 price tag. But it sure would be nice.