Bass Fishin' After a Liquid Afternoon

Despite a rather stormy afternoon and being more than a bit tender from what can only be described as an epic feat that combined capoiera, bike racing, hap ki do, and gymnastics, I was still able to catch 3 bass at Orange Lake on Friday. My boyfriend's brother-in-law invited us to go fishing in his airboat and of course, we accepted. One thing I realized about some of the bait (rubber worms) we used was that it reminded me a lot of the following foods: Shiritaki noodles (the ultimate in low carb, low calorie pasta), gummi critters, and jellyfish tentacles. I think I still prefer to shoot at fish with a bow, but there's something inherently amusing about casting and watching the bait skim at the top of the water and seeing fish attack the bait.

Whatsit... Or Not?

It all started when my stomach began to talk to me after experimenting with minimal carb noodles in an attempt to satisfy that craving for Asian noodles and not add anymore un-needed pudge on top of what academia likes to add. One thing I like about shooting Gator Bowmen is that it has a nice little brick bathroom, not a porto-potty or an outhouse, but a real bathroom with a (mostly) functioning toilet. Sure, flushing the toilet might take anywhere from 2-10 tries, depending on what went in, but at least it's clean and provides somewhere to go besides amidst saw palmettoes and various Rhus species. Anyway, I walk in and notice something brown in the toilet. Great. There's whats-it in the toilet, either because someone was too lazy to flush or because they gave up. Given the low water level normal for this toilet, I was a bit surprised that it didn't reek and that there were some slight rustling sounds. I investigate and realize that the pile of "whats-it" was a cute little snake that somehow fell in and can't get out. I don't want to get bitten given the high infection rate of even a non-toxic bite and I know most snakes will emit some really pungent musk when scared and this one was pretty darn scared. So I get the plunger and try to "fish" it out with little success and finally get it out, only to have it wrap around the flushy part of the toilet. I don't want to leave it there because it'll probably fall back into the toilet, plus I don't see any obvious ways out for it, so I pause and think. I also take a nice little picture of it. Then I see the trash can's empty and with a bit of fumbling around, I finally get the snake into the trash can and (gently) dump it outside and make sure that it doesn't need any medical attention. It stares at me for a moment and looks confused, but it slithers off and minds its own business after reorienting itself.


Can you find the deer below?

First Ever Bowstring

I made my first ever bowstring today even though the string wasn't for my own bow. It was for a friend's bow-fishing setup. It wasn't as hard as I thought and it was actually oddly soothing aside from a few moments here and there where my friend had to coach me through.

Howard Hill Classic Shoot

As always, click on the title for the bulk of the pictures. Here are some of the "highlights" below. I shot pretty poorly at this shoot -- apparently things are as close as they appear to be or even closer than they look! Nonetheless, it was a real fun shoot, embarrassing performance and intense heat aside. I would've liked to have shot a full second round to see if I could've gotten a more respectable score than what I had, at least break 300 points over 40 targets, but oh well, at least I finally got to go to the Howard Hill Classic shoot. It also felt good walking somewhere with more variation in the topography than a pancake.