Boom......outta here....

Wish me luck. Tomorrow morning I head up to set up camp to go sit in my spot on Saturday.
This spot.

Have a pretty good feeling about this year. The mountain looks good, my bow feels good. I like my chances.....I will report thoroughly. Best time of the year!!!

My Fantasy

Hottest Property Ever

Right now it is 10 pm on a Tuesday night and I just finished drafting my 2008-2009 fantasy football team 'The Hottest Property Ever'. I am mentally and physically exhausted, but very satisfied with my picks.
Like a lot of things in life, I never understood the appeal of fantasy football until I tried it. As a consequence, my life has changed and some would say has been ruined. My Sundays are inundated with ESPN news, stat tracker and an overwhelming feeling of either bliss or agony.
Overall, my team is dominant. All who face me will die in a fantasy type of way. I would like to personally thank the other members of my fantasy league (League Joyness) for drafting so poorly, and for the pending mis-management of their respective teams. And all of you who raped me of my planned picks just prior to my turn, you will pay dearly on upcoming Sundays, Mondays, and occasionally Thursdays and Saturdays. I think you all know who you are.

In the meantime please take a moment to bask in the glory of the latest and best version of the 'Hot Property Fantasy Football Club' the Hottest Property Ever!!!

QB's: Peyton Manning
Matty Leinart

RB's: Marshawn Lynch
Ryan Grant
Ronnie Brown
Thomas Jones
Deuce McCallister

WR's: Santonio Holmes
Torry Holt
Donte Stallworth
Jabar Gaffney

TE's; Tony Gonzales

DEF: Pittsburgh Steelers

K: Mike Nugent (because of his last name)

I will keep all informed of the beatings that will ensue....

God Bless Cujo

Glad you're ok bud. Don't go scaring us like that.


Cam has always been one of my best buds....He goes out of his way to please, and is definitely a kid after my heart (if you ignore that shirt he's wearing). I'll never forget living in Eagle Mountain and watching Cam come down the street with the same smile on his face that he always has...

Well, little Cam found some lumps on his body that needed to be checked out. All the tests came back negative and he should be ok. But, as these things always do, it caused me to think about Cam a lot and how much he means to me. You're a good kid. In fact I love all of my nieces and nephews and look forward to spending a lot more time with all of you.

CHALLENGE TO MARK J ROBBINS

"Mark, you should do stand up..."

Seriously though.....
I know we always make fun of Cathy for telling you that, and we always do it behind her back, cause that is just who we are and we care about her feelings, but there is a ton of merit in her promptings. So you have that, but you also have your critics. Some and most of which are in this family. I'm sorry, was that TOO MUCH INFORMATION?
I'm thinking I might be your biggest backer at this point, and maybe that is because I just get you. You are more than a movie quote machine, you are fresh, and I have seen what you do in front of an audience.
Are you wondering why this is being done on my blog? Literally millions of people in our family read this regularly. Many friends of mine check it out, not to mention the entire Utah Wildlife Network, in which this is linked. Some of these people know you are the funniest kid they have met. Others think you're a hack.
Here's the challenge. Come up with an act. Put together material. I don't think you have done this ever. You haven't needed to. Well, I am now putting you in a situation where this is required. I vote that we as a network of family and friends decide on a time and place where we gather to see the comic Mark Robbins perform. Mark is on the verge of greatness. This is no joke.
Mark, I think you got it in you. Maybe you don't. Only one way to find out.
Help me out everybody. Definitely comment on this one and add your input.
I think I am on to something here.




When and where everybody?

Catch of the Day

Before I was an idiot with a bow, I was a stud with a fishing rod. My big bro Greg got me interested at a young age by taking me trolling in his aluminum boat. Then the old man taught me that small streams and #4 gold bladed panther martins with the black bodies were made for each other. And the rest is history. For whatever reason, I have caught the fishing bug again. One problem is that it is coming back to me at a slow pace. Few fish have been yielded from the local waters so far this year, not because of a lack of effort. Doesn't matter. Just a great reason to be outside. Here are some highlights of '08 angling.

A nice cut pulled out of the berry on a rainy/snowy Memorial Day. Very fun trip consisting of Richard, Fara, Greg, Michael, John and myself. About a dozen cuts (all in the slot minus one)were caught. 33 by Dad's count.

G-Rat posing majestically with a planter 'bow he power baited out of Strawberry on a less fruitful outing than the week prior. Still fun to spend time with the Gary Robbins family.

Little Dell.... Have never caught a fish in this confounded, cursed, gorgeous body of water. Since it's close to home (only 15 minutes away) and very picturesque, I keep trying.
Just for fun, here is a picture of a filthy moose frolicking in our water supply.

A beautiful Utah stream filled with visible lunkers.....on private property.

A beautiful brown I persuaded to hit my lucky craft pointer out of that same stream. Don't worry, I was fishing in the 100 yards of public stream when I landed this fish.

Huge!
My most recent trip to the Utah waters was today after work, and the inspiration for this post. Lorin and I were working near Heber, Utah. An early start and a stellar work ethic got us off the job early. We drove over to nearby Wallsberg where we met up with Michael and fished a special stretch of stream. Fishing started off slow. I wore out a dozen different holes resulting in little action, only a few hits. Soon I found myself heading back to the truck, trying a hole here and there until I was back where I started. Even though all three of us pulled everything we had in our tackle boxes through that first hole unsuccessfully, I decided to give it another try. This time from the opposite bank. First cast, a hard hit. Second cast, nothing. Third cast, another hard hit followed by the familiar tug of a well hooked trout, then a more aggressive tug that brought my rod tip to the water. At that point my eyes got a little bigger. My line was running all over the stream at mock speed. In between the runs were violent thrashes. This particular trout wasn't very acrobatic but I knew I had a toad on the line without even seeing it. I yelled for Lorin who was downstream about 100 yards, because I knew I would need some help getting this fish to hand. Lorin got to me just in time to see the fish at the end of the fight. All wore out (me and the fish) I landed a beautiful brown. Measuring in at a girthy 19.5 inches and weighing approximately 3 lbs this was my best brown to date. What a surprise.


And just for the record,this fish was caught using a lucky craft pointer fishing lure. Retail value $15.99... Who says money can't buy happiness?

Adios........ (It's the '08 playoffs baby!)

Ah yes, it is here. Arguably my favorite time of year as a sporting fan. Our Utah Jazz, the best team in all of professional sports are once again in the NBA playoffs. This is a time of year when priorities change in a big way. So much in fact, that on mother's day (a holy day)you will see 20,000 crazy mormon fans pile into "the dump" (Energy Solutions Arena) and shatter the sabbath day while chanting "beat LA" and other vicious rants. Salt Lake turns upside down for this thing. Personally, I turn into a different person. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

Thus far the Jazz have not let us down and neither has the experience. D Will and the gang just battled their way through a 6 game series with the hated Houston Rockets. Here are some of the highlights and maybe what some people who just don't quite understand us would consider low lights. Here we go.

Thanks to my good friend Brian Washington, Mark (my bro) and I have guaranteed tickets to every home playoff game this year. After the Jazz took care of the Rock"ettes" in Houston, we warmed up the ESA for them to come back to. We were thinking sweep but Houston in all their ugliness thought different. Didn't stop us from being any less ridiculous.

Earlier today I read on Mark's blog that him and I might come off as somewhat comparable to 12 year olds. Is this because we like to get to games 2 hours early? And wait for "arto grafs" after the game? Maybe, but before you make fun if us, just remember, we have more fun than you,and we are better people. And if I am so immature, how come i take such an interest in the world's issues, as well as support worthy causes?



Like many of the other protesters outside the game, I just think what is happening in Texas is deplorable. What exactly is going on in Texas? Are we protesting the Rockets? And why do the FLDS kids need our help canceling the game? Any ways.

Here is some evidence that we got to the game too early.



Game 3 didn't go as we planned, but the Jazz did what they needed to get us a game 6 at home. Including this little bucket by dKILL!



That's when things got interesting. Game 6 was as, Mark accurately stated, epic. The Robbins family had a strong showing. In attendance were of course Mark and I, Michael our nephew (his 1st playoff game) John John (his 1st game ever) and somewhere Justin was rooting for the home team.

Cute!


As you all well know, when we go to an elimination game, we bring out what is referred to as "the sign". Planets must have been aligned when Mark put pen to paper last year and created this sign prior to the Jazz eliminating the Warriors. It is brilliant! Since that game this has hung on my wall. Friday night it was brought out of retirement. Sorry Mom.



In the end the Jazz did us right, beating the Rockets by many many points. The world seemed like a wonderful place. Everything went crazy from there. Some of you have read about this on Mark's blog, but here is how I saw it.

Shortly after midnight we headed home in the Tacoma. I felt prompted to try a different route to the freeway via West Temple. No sooner than we turned down West Temple we saw two men heading south bound, a tall black and a Caucasian. Guess who the tall guy was. Shane Battier of the Houston Rockets. In a string of events that still confuses me, Battier ended up in the back seat of my truck, while his companion rode in the bed. Turns out the whitey was the president of the Rockets. I had their Kevin O'Connor rolling around on my rhino liner! I took a couple of hard turns. But, before you think I am cool, I should mention here that I totally wussed out. For the duration of this series I singled out Battier as my least favorite rocket and verbally berated him multiple times while watching the games. You would like to think that if you ever ran into someone you hated, you would tell them as much, and not give them a ride back to their 5 star hotel after a beer run. What else is horrible is he was the nicest person I ever met and is probably my favorite non Jazz player in the NBA now. Dammit!



Confused?



Battier and all of his little "loyal" fans. What a bunch of sellouts.


Go Jazz!

What? There was an April this year?

For whatever reason, April was not a very motivating month, as far as the blog goes. Well, here is a half assed effort to catch you all (3 people who might care) up on what happened in April...

April gives us a tormenting sneak peak of fun spring time/summer time activities. Weather wasn't too allowing but I felt it necessary to do what I do when mother nature would give us a window of warmth:

i.e. barbecue (in the snow)



With Britt



not bad.......



A culinary wonder....



I love me the charcoal bbq. Will have to grillify me plenty a meat and veggies this year.

Had to do a little bit of work last month. Nothing new, other than several weekend trips down to Huntington, Utah to do some masonry work at a power plant. This proved to be an interesting endeavor for at least seventeen reasons. One being that we are a tile company and in no way a group of masons. But we told them we were, and I think we pulled it off. Does this look right?



Here is another funny thing, I was told to not take pictures while on the premises of the power plant. Some kind of "guvment" security measure. Specifically, I was told to not post these pictures that I was not to take on a blog, as it would almost assuredly draw attention from the feds. We'll see.

While in Huntington, I discovered a part of the planet that is pretty incredible. We vowed to return to some of these places when the snow is gone. Had to have a little taste to hold me over until then. Picked up the worst fishing pole ever at K-mart and tried a few casts......to no avail. We'll get it later.



Picturesque



A lot of elks. I wonder where these Betties migrate to?



It wasn't all work. Did some shed hunting and hiking. Didn't find any sheds, but I saw many much deer like creatures.





Later, I took Brittny to a nice little sitting spot I found. You just head west of the winter kill fawn to get there.



A little overcast, but still a nice view.



Nuge even tagged along for a run up to Bell Canyon Res. As he was sucking air on the way up, I told him what Greg always told me on long hikes. Free training! Looking good Jazz honk! On a side note, everyone knows that Bell Canyon is a watershed. Well, some clown came up the trail with his way too attractive girlfriend and his young black lab. Personally, I think the watershed no dog rule is ridiculous, but not this time. It is important to note how arrogant this kid was, in his polo shirt (with a freaking collar!) and cargo shorts. With only a bottle of Gatorade that was already almost gone, this kid starts going on to some other hikers about how he's going to get to the top and swim in the upper lake. Should work out nice for his dog, ask Greg. From that declaration he starts JOGGING! up the trail with his dog in tow. Normally I wouldn't care, but on this particular day, I was a hateful enough of a person to perform my civic duties and report this criminal activity to the authorities. I look forward to the horrible karma that awaits me.



This month was way too fast paced. The one fishing trip I got in, was an hour and a half affair up to Tibble Fork with Mark and Dad. Boys, we need to set aside some more time at a later date and get it done right. By the way guys, how many fish did you catch?



The old man, getting his "bait" ready.



Well, if you have made it this far you are probably regretting a couple of things right now. I however am excited to have my conscious clear. Sleep will come easier to me tonight knowing that I have properly updated Suzy and Cathy on the major issues that occur in my life. I can see them now, "Wow, Brian went hiking". I am such a lame. Good news is that I already have the next three posts lined up, and it is safe to say they will be quality... Stay tuned.