Archive for the 'Family' Category

Fishing with Grandpa.

Fishing with Grandpa., originally uploaded by gotshoo.

Last week I took a half day to go fishing with my Grandpa. I’ve been fishing with him since I was a little kid (6-8 yrs old). We’ve shared quite a few memories and caught quite a few fish.

Some random facts: I started driving the boat solo when I was 10-12. I used to troll around the boat docks while he got the truck and trailer. We’ve fished together over a half dozen lakes. I’ve thrown a complete rod and reel into Lake Otter on accident. We’ve also seen a guy break an axle on a trailer trying to pull a boat out of the lake.

I can’t tell the number of ‘fish stories’ and jokes that have been shared.

He’s had 3 different boats since we started fishing.

The main rules of the boat: Live bait is for kids, no catfish, drums (an actual nasty slimy fish - they’re in Lake Springfield), or carp in the boat; must be a long range release.

Don’t tell Grandma how much he’s spent on lures.

And finally, a bad day of fishing is always better than a good day in the office.

Beer drinking buddies.

Beer drinking buddies

One thing that my dad and dog have in common: Stag beer.

My dad has a strange fascination for Stag (AKA: Steak Taters And Gravy) beer; so does Buddy, but he’ll drink anything. It’s definitely not for the taste, could have something to do with the nostalgia or even the price, but he’s got cases of it at his house. Like a Y2K stock supply.

I have it in our fridge but it’s only for him, or people I don’t want drinking my good beer. Yup, this apple definitely fell far from the barley and hops tree.

Brothers Shoo.

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While I was digging for Betsy’s birthday post material, I came across some really old photos. The little kid with chubby cheeks and blond hair happens to be my brother. Ya, he was cute at one time. Funny thing is that I don’t think we’ve ever had anyone come up to us and say, ‘you guys look like brothers.’ His dad has to be the postman.

Now, I have had someone come up to me and my Dad and say we look liked brothers. But it was in a bar, the light was dim and the lady had had a fair amount of alcohol. Still doesn’t stop him from getting the wild hair and calling me ‘bro.’ The kicker is that the lady also happened to be my former middle school English teacher.

Metropolis.

What else do you do in Metropolis? This was on the way to Nashville.

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Jake needs MORE COWBELL!

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Super GTG

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Super Shoo

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Obligatory fishy face.

Brotherhood 2.0, where have I been?

I stumbled across Brotherhood 2.0 through the YouTubes this evening. The background is two brothers for 365 days will only communicate through online video. I’ve gone through about 8 of them - they’re all hilarious. One brother is a writer, the other an eco-geek web designer. Each video seems as one is trying to out due the other on who is geekier. I heart the geekiness. Yes, I just said (or typed) I heart the geekiness. I’ve selected two non-consecutive videos below.

I have a brother but I don’t think there is anyway that I could get him to do something like Brotherhood 2.0. First of all, he’s super quiet and I communicate more with his girlfriend (Lil G) because she has a cell phone and he doesn’t. David, you’re 22, you’re old enough to take responsibility and own a cancer causing device. But I must say he did give on hell of a best man speech. Spoken by my uncle after the speech, “Wow, I didn’t know David could speak!”

Who knows? Maybe one day. As for now, I’ll keep publishing my mumbling of words.

Turkey again?

What a wonderful Thanksgiving extended weekend. Wow, what a lot of turkey! It’s almost 12 am Sunday night and it’s the first real time that I’ve sat down at my computer and looked at emails. I really should be in bed, but I ate way too much at family dinner tonight with my parents, brother and his gf (Lil g) and my stomach is upset. I just couldn’t help myself after playing a game of Taboo this weekend and coming across the word Bosnia. The thought alone of that country can make anyone starve for days. But again, I should be in bed because the wife and I, still don’t know what to call her in gotshoo land - I guess I could call her by her real name? - honey?), are getting up around 5 am to head over to Fitclub to work off some StoveTop. I am dreading every second to waking up at 5.

In DIY news, I finally ran wire and put two new boxes for outlets and then ran cable and ethernet to the living room this weekend. It was a two day project but ranked pretty high after I rearranged the living room and notified all occupants that entertainment would be on strike in respect to the writer’s union. That and there was no cable or functioning outlets on that side of the room. I’ve got some non-interesting pictures, they’ll probably be posted as filler some time this week.

One final thing, one week after the wedding we were eating a high priced dinner right off the Chicago River. Two weeks after the wedding we were eating chicken nuggets and a salad in the basement. We’re back to being normal again.

The guys.

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Okay, almost a week later I feel like I’ve recovered enough brain cells from the bachelor party to recall what happened. First of all, above the guys, from left and back around the table: K, The Ed, SternO, David (lil Shoo), Josh, Roommate Steve, barely functioning Shoo, and Philly G.

The day started out by going on a tour of the Anheuser Brewery in St. Louis.  The place is like the Disney Land of beer. Seriously. Two, very good looking, from what the guys tell me,  guides take a group of 50 or so camera toting tourists around from building to building. On the tour, we passed the Clydesdale’s, some massive tanks that hold beach wood and beer, some historical sites, the bottling area, and then a multimedia video about Anheuser the company, which isn’t anything more than brainwash material with pretty people. At the end though, they make it worth your while and serve you free beer and pretzels.

Afterwards, we headed over to the Schlafly Bottle Works brewpub. We feasted on venison, bison, goat cheese, and beer bread; all foods of the manly food group. Oh, and drank more beer. After the feast, we took a tour of the brewery which was more like a pony ride at the state fair compared to AB. Our guide, not hot because he was a dude- or at least that’s what the guys tell me, was super knowledgeable. The one tidbit that I learned, and will remind myself each time I order a Bud, is that the rice, considered a cheap filler, in cheap beer (Natty Light, The Beast) is what causes splitting headaches after a long night of drinking. That’s not to say that you won’t feel like crap with a hangover if you just drink good beer. It just means no splitting headaches.

With that knowledge in hand, we headed to the liquor store for cheap booze to take back to the hotel. At the hotel we bonded over old drinking stories, watched the World Series, and ate the best TWO Papa John pizzas, eve-r.

Now this is the part of the story that gets fuzzy, but I will do my best to recall censor what happened.  We hoped a shuttle headed to a casino that we fully intended not to go to. Our decision as a group to which bar we would go to was decided by the hottest officer, as the guys tell me, on the street as she passed us by. “Officer, no.” I won’t even try to recall the name of the bar as to protect those that might have witnessed the dancing Shoo. But this unnamed bar contained a waitress doctor named Dr. Anita Hardon, which leads me to the next day, as I am totally not blogging about the rest of the night, when we’re recuperating at Steak N’ Shake in Collinsville and Josh is trying to recall the name of the good doctor in front of the, not so hot- I can verify this one, waitress.  Josh who is notorious for his projecting voice questions the rest of the group, “Dr. Ani… Dr. ANITA HARDON!”

Yes, the whole restaurant gave us the evil eye.

Guys, it was awesome weekend. I hope you had as much fun as I did.

Shoo (hearts) GTG

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The save-the-date magnets were finally finished. Now only 999 things left to do. SternO did the design. Thanks to him and his talents - who knew he could do more than just photoshopping heads on to bodies.

GTG’s side of the family is going to be totally clueless about “Shoo hearts GTG” when they get theirs. There not as nerdy as the Shoo family, so they have no idea about the blog or what GTG means.

If you’re not a frequent gotshoo reader, it means “Good Time Girl.” It’s just an alias, and the only reason we don’t use her real name is because we’re worried that her students will stumble upon the blog; they would be devastated if they found out that their teacher has a real life. That and she’s gone by GTG on here for so long.

As for the reception when we get asked about this ‘GTG’, my explanation for everyone is going to be “we couldn’t pass up a deal in the bargain bin.”

Colorado.

By GTG

My family took a vacation to Colorado when I was a thirteen or so. I was going through that whole teen-angst phase where I couldn’t like anything and had to frown and brush my hair into my face whenever my parents were around. I had no problem pouting and complaining all through Missouri and Kansas, but even I couldn’t feign indifference once we finally reached the mountains. I fell in love immediately.
We had a typical family vacation…camping and hot dogs. My parents and brother embarrassing the heck out of me. But even I had a good time.

At 21 I took a job out in Colorado for the summer. I wanted to get away, and it was the perfect place to go. It was an amazing summer because not only did I get to spend my time in a breath-taking place, but I also made some wonderful friends (one of whom will be a bridesmaid in my wedding).

I worked five days a week, meaning I had two full days a week in Colorado to do whatever I wanted. I hiked nearly every chance I got. I also visited Boulder often. One of my favorite places was the New Belgium Brewery (home of Fat Tire). A friend and I followed the Continental Divide to a group of lakes that very few people have been to. (I also got a second degree sunburn on both my shoulders and face that my brother called my “skin disease”).

I’ve been talking to Shoo about Colorado since we first met. I’ve shown him pictures, and I’ve finally convinced him to take a vacation…to Colorado. I’ve planned out our trip (only because he made me). We will spend several days in Estes and Boulder hiking and biking, then make our way to Colorado Springs. From there we’ll head down to Durango (my favorite Colorado town). We will end up back near Colorado Springs in Crested Butte where New Belgium is hosting a bike festival complete with a chainless bike race.

I love Colorado, and I’ve always wanted to live out there permanently. Shoo has never been. I know he’ll be drawn to everything there is to do (especially the brokeback biking) and the beer.

Maybe we just won’t come back…

–GTG

New lens.

If you couldn’t tell by the overwhelming amount of dog pictures, I’ve been getting into photography or at least trying. I’ve got the trade mags, the how-to tutorials, and ample amount of time invested in Flickr but mostly I’ve just been exploring with the camera to see what works best.

I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to a prosumer lens: Zoom Wide Angle-Telephoto EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM Autofocus Lens. UPS dropped it off today, I had taken a few shots not even five minutes of opening the box. I’m like a kid in a toy store when the UPS shows up; can’t even wait to get home to open the package. So far, my impression of the lens has been great. It has a little more weight to it and the auto focus is faster / quieter. Below my first shots from the camera.

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This is my brother, David. He’s really not posing. I think I asked him his middle name or something. Perplexes him every time.

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Of course this is Bud. Bud has been the subject of my photos so many times that he naturally poses.

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Notice the conniving puppy in the background.

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The ball hasn’t even been thrown and these two are ready to go.

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Down the hall at work. My stash of diet Mountain Dew is as the end of the hall. Too far away.

To our mothers.

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Mom,

Thanks for washing all my dirty laundry all those years.

Thanks.

3 for lunch.

Out to lunch.

I was treated to lunch this past week at Incredibly Delicious by my grandparents. And WOW, was it incredibly delicious. Lunch was great, but the desert was just awesome. French cheese cake over lady fingers topped with coffee beans.

Grandpa brought his camera to lunch, hence the photo, to show off his new lens. Of course I was impressed and a little envious.  (GTG, I’ve found a new toy)

Lunch was great, but getting some QT with the GP’s was even better.