New Star Tribune Post

It has been a while since I last posted anything on the Star Tribune Club Outdoors blog.  So I thought I would write about one of my favorite fishing days.  It was March 2, 2002 and I have recorded that it was 11F with a wind chill of -10F.  I have copied the blog here for  you to enjoy with out having to click to go anywhere else.

Winter Trout

When cabin fever has set in and you are looking to do something outside that is not winter related, go hit the trout streams.

About this time of year everybody is beginning to wonder when and if spring will ever arrive. I really do love winter and everything you can do on frozen water or snow, but as a fly fisherman I really like moving water. A good thing about living where we do is that many of the spring fed streams and rivers are actually open in the winter for fishing.

Every year I try to get out at least once sometime in from January to March and fish with ice freezing to the guides and frozen fingers. For me it is a passage into spring knowing that things will get better. Although, that is not to say that fishing is bad in the winter it is really just a lot colder and more work.

I remember back to one trip on the opening weekend in March of the Wisconsin catch and release season a number of years ago. According to my fishing journal it was a very cold day the temp was close to zero with a wind chill well below zero. I headed to my favorite spot on the Rush and was surprised to see two other cars of fisherman in the area. I suited up in layers and headed out walking down the stream.

When I got to the spot I wanted to fish I had to figure out how I was actually going to fish the pool as there was quite a bit of shelf ice. After a few minutes I was able position myself where I could cast and make and drift through the pool. On about my fifth drift through I hooked a nice big brown. Now I had to land it. That meant I had to slide downstream across the ice to open water where I got it in the net, a good hookup, successful landing and release.

During this process I did break off some of the shelf ice, so I figured I would now have to move farther upstream. I also noticed my net was a big block of ice, so I laid it in the water near the bank. I proceeded to cast a few more times and got another good hook up. This one I again played down stream to where I left my net and I was able to land it.

After releasing the second fish I discovered that I had set my reel in the water and it was now frozen solid. At this point I decided that I should probably call it a successful day. I had hooked, landed and released two fish, the first ended up being the biggest brown I caught that year.

Pizza Night

Friday night I was hungry for pizza and after reading an article in Saveur I thought I would try making one from scratch. I checked the fridge and I had most of the ingredients for the toppings but I would need some items for the crust and sauce. So I made the grocery list and headed to Cub for the remaining items.

For the crust I followed the Saveur recipe but I just made a smaller amount I only wanted dough for two 12 inch pizzas.

1 Tbsp. Olive oil
1 tsp. Kosher salt
1 cup 115ºF water
3 cups Gold Medal flour
½ Tbsp. Sugar
½ Tbsp. Quick rise active dry yeast
First I combined the olive oil, yeast, sugar, salt, and water and let it sit for about 15 minutes until the mixture had a good foam on it. Then I stirred in the flour and kneaded it for a few minutes until smooth. I cut the dough ball in half and placed on a floured baking sheet, covered in plastic wrap and let it rise above the warmed oven. I let it rise for about 90 minutes until the dough had doubled in size.

Now for the sauce. I liked the idea of a homemade sauce and the one in March 2010 issue looked good.

1 14.5 ounce can peeled tomatoes
2 minced garlic cloves
½ grated onion
1 Tbsp. Olive oil
1 Tbsp. Chopped fresh basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
To make the sauce I placed the ingredients into a food processor and pureed to a nice smooth sauce. This made a nice bright red, flavorful sauce, but yet it was still light.

To make the pizza I shaped the dough on a floured counter top and tossed until it was thin. I placed the crust on parchment paper to make for ease of oven removal. I chose to top the first pizza with mozzarella and parmesan cheese, pepperoni, salami, onions, mushrooms and fresh basil. The second pizza I topped with mozzarella and parmesan cheese, anchovies, onions, mushrooms, black olives and fresh basil. I discovered that our oven went up to 550º F, so it only took about 7 minutes to cook to a nice golden brown crust.

Both pizzas ended up great. The crust was crispy on the outside and soft in the inside. One change for the next time would be a little less sugar as the crust was maybe just a hair too sweet. This actually was pretty easy and I will definitely make again.

1 out of 10

Yesterday my former employer decided to have me join the 10% of the work force that is looking for a job. I had worked for ARCADIS for 10 years and 1 month up to yesterday. Apparently company loyalty is not what it used to be.

A week ago a biologist in our office was let go. He was part of a different operations group (Permit and Planning I was in site investigation and remediation) and had been with the company for the past three years and had also been with the company in the 1990's. He had over 20 years total experience. Apparently his supervisor called him the day before to tell him that they were going to have a call on the next day. He said this didn't make him feel good. On Friday his supervisor called him, along with a person from HR and they told him he was done as of that day. His department had been light for work and he said that he had been up and down for work load, but currently was busy and had a bunch of work coming. Overall (form what I have been told) his department was reducer by about half of it employees.

So this past week the department operations manager was in the office on Thursday and Friday for a standard office meeting with everybody. On Friday when I got in around 10am after being at a job-site I noticed my supervisor was in the office. I didn't remember that she was going to be visiting on Friday. I checked my emails and no where was it mentioned that she was going to be in the office. So I went and asked her why she was in, she said it was only a short visit a adverted the question the best she could.

Around 11:15am I was siting at my cube and I saw my supervisor walking towards me, at the same time the operations manager walked out of the office he was siting in and came towards me. At this point I new already that I was done. He said they wanted to talk to me in the conference room. As we stepped into the conference room I thought they have already announced that three people in the department were promoted, so I was pretty sure that was not where this meeting was going to be heading.

They said that corporate had decided that staffing reductions were made my employment was terminated as of a result. So the years of loyalty to the company only meant more severance pay as apparently the new guy they hired one month ago was now more valuable to the company than I was. This was a nice kick in the gut.

So now it is on to looking for a new job. Maybe this will be a blessing in disguise. I need to keep a positive attitude, send out a lot of resumes and make a lot of phone calls.