Is there a Joe in the house...?

This year for Halloween George was Joe the Plumber and I was Joe Six-Pack. I wore a nasty long mullet wig and George wore a creepy bald cap. At the party we went to, a few good friends didn't recognize me and George got several questions about whether he really shaved his head. Yikes - it was fun for the night, but I'm not sure that either of us will be rushing to use those accessories anytime soon!

Still, we were among good company including a couple who was wind-blown, girl scouts, a gumball and gumball machine, Juno and Bleeker, McCain and Palin, Meredith and McDreamy, and several other creative and in depth costumes. Here's a group shot of the boys and then the girls.

Happy Birthday George

Hey Everyone,
This past Wednesday was my 27th birthday and as always, it fell right in the middle of midterms week. I had a midterm on Tuesday afternoon and one on Thursday morning. However, not to be dissuaded, I accepted a last minute invitation to go fly fishing with some buddies up near Mount Shasta (near the Oregon-California border). So we left Tuesday evening around 7pm and drove five hours north. It reminded me of my younger undergrad days where Tim, Brian, Brad, et al would leave on a whim to drive to Shreveport for a night at the casinos. Luckily, the long car ride was with good company so it went by fairly quickly and the next day we were out on the Klamath river.

It was a beautiful fall day and in the afternoon, the breeze picked up and started blowing the leaves from the trees into the river. It was fantastic. Below is a picture of all the guys on the trip: Peter, Mike H, Mike D, Eric, Me, Grant, Logan, and Coley.

You'll notice I didn't post any pictures of me with all the gargantuan fish I caught. Well, that's because I didn't catch any. I caught one little rainbow trout about six inches long. One trout. 12 hours of driving in less than 2 days for one six-inch trout. The kicker is that several of the other guys caught 6-10 fish each. Unbelievable. I'm still bitter. I've yet to experience a really great fly fishing trip. Nothing yet like that incredible fishing trip in 2005 for J Kuper's bachelor party in Port Aransas when we caught so many Red fish that I thought we might sink the boat. That was incredible. (See pic below).

So after fishing we drove the 6 hour drive back (6 hours because we had to drive an extra hour north to the river that morning) and I tried hopelessly to study for my midterm the following day. I ended up ditching the studying and just getting up really early the next morning to cram. I don't have the test back yet but I'm guessing it's in solid P territory (that's Stanford lingo for "Good enough to pass, but not good enough to warrant excitement").

And after all that, my wonderful wife made me a birthday cake! She's so great.

Thank you to everyone who called, sent cards, emailed, and sent gifts for my birthday!! I appreciate you all thinking of me! (Especially you Les, with your "Legend" t-shirt).