January 1999 [February]

Thursday 1/28
Annie had lunch with the ladies while waiting for their men to come in. Dan caught 10 lbs. 13 oz. today, and since he was "in the money" yesterday with only 10 lb., we thought this was easily enough to get a check. As it turned out, the cutoff for a check went up today (more fish caught today than yesterday, which is unusual,) and we barely squeaked in. He ended up in 69th place and received a check for $1800.00. Dan had to go to the top 10 meeting right after the weigh in because he drives one of the camera boats that follow the 10 finalists. Well, we didn't get out of there until about 6:30. We got home and ordered a pizza. Annie's parents called to see how the tournament went, and we received an email query from Dan's brother Ted. Annie's niece and nephew also called to talk to their Auntie. When we finished talking on the phone and replying to email (Dan is advertising his boat for sale over the Internet) we were exhausted, and were in bed by 9:00 again.

Friday 1/29:
Dan, camera boat driver for today, let the house (camper) at 6:15. Annie sleeping soundly. Annie met the fishermen after their day on the water and helped tow the boats to WalMart for the weigh-in. We went home after the weigh in. (Actually we stopped at a tattoo parlor first, so Dan could see what Annie had been up while he was away. We have been looking for months for a specific tattoo design, which we can tell you about later, but can't find it. Today Annie went to the library, photo-copied some things, and brought them to the tattoo artist for him to draw out on paper. Tonight's visit was to review his rendering, and decide if it is something we want to live with for the rest of our lives. We both liked the design, but now is not the time to do it.) We arrived home around 7:30, cooked dinner and went to bed.

Saturday 1/30:
Today is the final day of the WalMart FLW tournament and Dan is driving a camera boat. We had to be at Walmart at 5:30 AM ready to go, so the alarm went off at 4:30. We went from Walmart to the launch ramp with a police escort, and ESPN was taping the take-off this morning. There was a 9 year old girl who sang the national anthem, which was very moving (Annie cried, but that was no surprise). Annie went back to the motorhome and did paperwork all morning, then had to be at WalMart for 1:45 to help pull the boats out of the water and back to the weigh-in. Dan's parents called to find out about the tournament and congratulate him. We got home around 5:30 and Dan fixed our truck, which needed some relays replaced. We ate dinner, and Dan went to bed at 6:58 after a long week. I am trying to stay up until 8:00 to watch a movie, but I am not sure if I will make it. Tomorrow we have a day off. Can't wait!

Sunday 1/31:
Dan is up again at 4:30am. His body is tuned-in to the early morning, early evening thing now, and there is no reason to change just because today is a day off. With 2 more tournaments in the next 2 weeks, we will be fishing hard 12 out of the next 13 days. Annie slept in until 8:15 and enjoyed every minute of it. We had a very exciting day. We did something that neither one of us has ever done in our life. We went out and got a tattoo. We each got a lobster put on our lower back. It is very symbolic to both of us. (To much to explain). It was more painful than we thought it would be, but we both went start to finish without complaining or taking a break. Annie went first and kept insisting it didn't hurt. It wasn't until Dan was being worked on that she admitted the truth. She claims that this is one of the times when it's "okay" to lie, since it saved Dan the anxiety. We go back to fishing tomorrow, so tonight we are just watching the Superbowl, talking to the kids back home, catching up on email, and going to bed.

Link to: February 1999