Day 2 ran into Day 3 because Mark got up four times in the night due to some silly stomach upset. At 6 a.m. we dragged our sleepy selves to the dining cabin in search of Imodium, which is something we always take with us on our travels . . . until this trip. We found Curt and Bobby in …
Peacock Bass Fishing on the Amazon River – the Real Story – Day 3 Read More »
Day 2 began with a 2 a.m. wake-up call in Portuguese which I responded to with something sort of like “Obrigado” which is Portuguese for thank you. We dressed in our fishing garb–lightweight shirts and zip-off pants pre-treated with insect repellent–and walked the quarter mile to the motel restaurant. There we were confronted with about six tables covered with food, including one …
Peacock Bass Fishing on the Amazon River – the Real Story Day 2 Read More »
My last blog posting was about a fishing trip to the jungle to catch peacock bass, and some people said that it appeared to be easy and go rather perfectly. Here’s the real story. We left Michigan on a Thursday at 5:35 a.m., arrived in Miami for a lovely afternoon there, then got up at 2 a.m. …
Peacock Bass Fishing on the Amazon – the Real Story – Day 1 Read More »
On January 31 Mark and I set out to catch peacock bass on the Amazon River because, well, someone has to catch peacock bass on the Amazon. We flew from Detroit to Miami, then from Miami to Manaus, Brazil. Manaus is in the bottom right of the map, below. Our destination is a river mislabeled the …
The fact is, I almost didn’t go on the trip I’d planned with my Snowy Hoot-ers pals a few months ago, because the day we were to leave was two days after my dad’s funeral. But Brenda and Sylvia encouraged me to drag my grieving self along and it turns out they–along with a few margaritas …
The Importance of Friends When the Chips are Down Read More »
Anyone who’s published an e-book lately knows that just about every waking hour that you’re not working your regular job, you’re marketing. My book From Zero to Four Kids in Thirty Seconds was published as an e-book in late December and all I’ve done is Tweeted, gotten LinkedIn, blogged, written articles for interviews or other …
My vacation for 2011 was a trip to Edwardsville, Illinois to see my sister, Aby, and her family. The vacation lasted three days, 16 hours of which involved driving. My passenger was my 75-year-old mother who hadn’t gone anywhere in a long time, either, and spent the drive pointing out the obvious, like, “Oh, look at that white barn.” …
When Mark wasn’t raising discus fish and hamsters this summer he spent some of his spare time watching fishing shows on TV. One show featured a fishing fanatic and guide named Doug Samsal who was filmed in a boat on a northern Michigan River catching salmon with spawn and bobbers which he flung overboard and watched float down the …
My sister, Aby, called me two weeks ago to say that when she and her daughter, Kailea came into town from Illinois there were a few things they wanted to do: 1) catch a fish; 2) see a giraffe; and 3) go to a beach on Lake Michigan. It had been averaging 90 degrees in Michigan and I told …
Catching a Fish and Seeing a Giraffe in Michigan Read More »
The problem with fishing is that when fishing goes well, fishermen are usually willing to share somewhat reliable information about their catch, but they often won’t give details about where they were fishing, exactly, and what they were using, exactly, and what color was working, exactly. Indeed, from the average fisherman you are more likely …