My first Fly Fishing Experience

Some years ago before I met Z, Dave and Ronnie and I were fishing the the mouth at the north end of channel between the Lake of the Isles, and Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis.

We were using hook and bobber rigs with night crawler or minnow on the hooks. The channel was lined with people fishing. Many of the people that were fishing were taking every fish the caught. Even the ones we would consider too small for fillets.

At that time the center of Lake of Isles had weeds in the center. A young man walked up to the edge of the lake with a fly rod and a wicker creel. He started to haul his line and cast it further that we could into the weeds. I watched him as he twitched the fly on his first cast without success.

After his second cast landed further in a hole in the weeds and sat there a few seconds, a fish rippled the surface of the water and he set the hook. He stripped the sunfish in took the hook out of the sunfish's mouth and put it into his creel.

Nothing was happening with my bobber so I watched him make his next cast. As he dropped the fly into the same spot with what seemed like grace the fly attracted another sunfish. I knew at that moment there was something to this fly fishing that caught fish.

$30 for 30 Tans Coupon

Our experience with a Sol360 tanning salon located in Rosemount.

So far we haven't received any response from thie business about our concern. We think that they have pretty poor representation of the service in their ads.

Dear Manager,

We are writing you to express how very upset we were when we stopped in to your store this evening. We haven't tanned in a few years. What brought us in to patronize your store was the mail pack coupon which CLEARLY reads, "$30 For 30 TANS new customers only". That would apply to us; we haven't tanned with you before.

After the tour, and further discussion with your staff, we were firmly informed that the coupon AND TANS must be used within a 30-day period only. After some further discussion, when we stated that there is a blatant difference between the definitions of "$30 for 30 Tans" and "$30 for a Month (30 days)," we were even more discouraged. It was our intent to buy two "$30 for 30 Tans", use what we would prior to our vacation and continue to use the balance after the vacation.

Our vacation begins January 13th, so we knew we wouldn't get all 30 sessions in prior to our trip if tanning even every other day (to be safe) -- NOR, does the coupon say it is for "days". The coupon does state that it (the coupon) expires January 31, 2007 -- not that the tans must be used within a 30 day period.

This is quite clearly a Bait & Switch. The coupon is what brought us in your door for business. Then when we got there, the package changed to other options of $100+ -- not what we walked in the door for -- not what your coupon clearly states.

Once again, we are VERY upset about this and will likely never walk in your store again -- and will surely share our experience with our neighbors and others in the community. The only thing that would change this experience from distaste to one of satisfaction would be for you to professionally honor the coupon as it clearly states.

Should we receive no satisfaction, we will most surely report this to the Better Business Bureau as a clear "Bait & Switch" advertising campaign. To give you the benefit of the doubt, we're sure that wasn't your intent, but if you want new people to patronize your store, you must learn to honor your coupons.

We look forward to hearing promptly as time is running is of the essence. We'll hang on to your coupon and hope for a bright outcome.

No Dart Love 2, Wa Da Hell 8

Tonight we played Lonnie's team, Wa Da Hell. We had to pick someone from the bar for a sub or we would've forfeited or match.

Kevin didn't make it tonight and Nicole didn't do enough during the week to find a sub.

We found Pam to throw in Kevin's place. Pam wasn't a good thrower but we all encouraged her just the same. She even took a win. She was so happy. It was the first time she had won a cricket game in a league.

After Pam's win, Julie F mentioned to me that Pam had Cancer and was going to have some treatment tomorrow. Before that point, we all wanted to best she could and still have fun. We treated her well and why would we treat her any different knowing she had cancer. She was doing us a favor by shooting darts on our team as a sub. We would had to forfeit all twelve games without her.

She had shot no more than a 0.5 MPR. I knew going into the night that each of us was going to have to cover for her if we were to win any games.

I finished the night with a 1.99 MPR for the night and 4 five mark rounds an a 6 mark round.

People don't like that Julie F very much. After the league play was over Nicole and I played a game of 501 and a game of 701. There was an argument between Julie some other woman (who kept offering her left over food to us all night) and Missy C. I think it was some sort of disagreement about the bill for drinks and their food.