monday flashback from friday 02.12.10

So, I totally spaced on doing a flashback photo on friday. Spent a lot of the day getting ready to go to Pasadena and Studio City.

Dropped the kids off in Pasadena at Grandma and Grandpa's house, so Anna and I could go to a wedding reception in Studio City. We ended up staying the night in Pasadena. On Saturday we spent the day going to the zoo, eating lunch in Ernie Jr.'s Taco House, and visiting the compound in El Monte. Then we went home and to bed.

Aaaaanyhow, what about a picture?...

I spent the day preparing a presentation on the life of Baden-Powell, the founder of the scouting movement, to give to my scouts this weekend. Here's a picture of B-P blowing a Kudu horn. It's a horn made from the horn of a Kudu. It was the way the Matabele tribe would warn each other of danger in Africa in the late 1800s. B-P used it to open Scout Jamborees and Wood Badge Training courses.

I know, pretty boring stuff. But it's what's on my mind.

Presented With An Award

I was presented with an award on Saturday night.


The local BSA District we're in (Grayback), was holding it's annual awards dinner on Saturday. I wasn't planning to go. I looked at it as just another district scout activity that I didn't need to go to.


On Thursday (?), I got a call from the member of the bishopric that's over scouting saying I needed to go to the dinner to represent our unit. I said I wasn't that interested in going, I'm sure someone else could go. He said he would let "them" know. He called me back a short time later saying I needed to go so I could give a short report on scout camp. I'm thinking "scout camp? I didn't even go to our councils camp. Why would they want to know about another camp?" He said they really thought I should go. "Who's the 'they'?" The young Men's president and a member of our ward that's in the Stake young men's presidency. I said I would have to find babysitting, he said "they" would find someone in the ward to do it if we needed it.

At this point, I'm thinking some thing's fishy.


The member of the stake young men's presidency in our ward called for Anna (that never happens), and needed her email address. Anna said it was to create an email list of scoutmasters and scoutmaster's wife's for the stake or district or something, and that the Stake president wanted all the scoutmasters and their wives to go to the dinner to support the district, and be familiar with the awards being presented... blah, blah, blah.


In the mean time, I'm trying to make sense of it all.


I bought into the Stake President wanting the scouting leadership in the stake to go, for the reason's Anna gave. The stake over the past few years has really made an effort to boost our participation in the district and council. She said her mom could come and babysit, so we could go. Ok, fine, we'll go.


Saturday evening comes, and Anna's mom shows up, but Anna's dad came too... and in his scout uniform? "He wants to come and check out how your district does their awards." I'm told. Except I know he doesn't care what other districts do. Hmm... I almost hid the camera to see if Anna would ask where it was, but instead, I chose to put it where I could see her get it if she went for it. And guess what... she grabbed the camera before we headed out. Hmmm... Looks like there's another reason I need to be at this awards dinner.


We get to where the dinner is being held, we pay for our dinner, and sit. Anna excuses herself to go to the restroom. She's gone for quite a while. Hmm... When she does reappear, my parents are with her... now it's pretty much out of the bag. I'm there to receive something, but what? I'm figuring it's some unit (troop) level award of appreciation or something like that. But those came and went... Now I'm back to being a little confused, there's only "big" awards left.


Turns out, I was nominated and chosen as the Grayback District Varsity Scout Leader of the Year Award. Wow, really?! I was surprised. I was actually quite honored too. It was pretty cool.


I was glad that I went, and that my parents could be there as well as Anna's dad. It made up for the over-priced, not that good, dinner we had.

Anna was relieved to be done with having to lie and trick me into going.

Why are there two pictures of me with the award? Well, the first one had the green frog in the background looking like it's on my uniform, so we took the second one. But I think I like the first one better after all, because you can see my Tribe of Tahquitz patch. So I put them both here, so you can decide which one you like better, and look at that one.

Went fishin'

As I mentioned Friday, I went on a fishing trip with the scouts from our ward. I'm the scoutmaster. We went to Silverwood Lake.

We stayed at a campsite there at the lake. We got up at 5am to eat breakfast (instant oatmeal), so we could be ready to be at the lake by 6am.

Got to the dock we would be fishing from at about 6:25. Their were probably two groups on the dock before us. I'm sure things were pretty calm before we got there.

Lines were hitting the water about 5 minutes later, and the anticipation was high that we would be catching fish soon!

It didn't take long before we knew it was going to be a long morning.

Lots of casting and reeling, but no catching. The one group to our left caught a single fish. looked to be about 8 inches or so long. The group to our right said they caught about 4, but they were little, and not worth keeping.

After a few hours, one of our scouts caught about a foot long trout on catfish bait. Yep, you read that right. It renewed our spirits that there would be some catching along with our fishing. But nope, that wasn't the case.

Of our group of 15, the one trout was the only fish caught.

We packed up our stuff at 11am, and headed back to our campsite to break down camp and head out.


Oh yeah, the scout that caught the trout didn't even get to take it home. It was put on a stinger and the stringer was tied to the dock. The kids that were with us, and the scouts, kept pulling the fish up to look at it from the stringer. And each time they did, the knot became a little looser until someone pulled the fish up, then put it back, and the fish and the stringer both went in the water, never to be seen again.

I did get a picture though.

It was a good trip. We didn't do much catching, but the boys had a good experience using the rods, and I think the next fishing trip will be more productive.

Gone Fishing!

In a few hours I'll be leaving on a Scout overnighter. We're fishing at Silverwood Lake tomorrow. We're hoping to get the boys to pass off a bunch of requirements for the fishing merit badge. Primarily, they'll each need to catch 2 different types of fish. Of the fish they catch (if they catch any), they need to successfully release one, and they need to clean and cook another. The rest of the requirements don't need them to be at the lake to complete.

This will be my first overnighter as the scoutmaster (other than scout camp). So we'll see how that goes. I think we'll have 6 or 7 boys going, and there's about 4 adults going.

I don't think I'll be much of a help with the fishing part. I haven't fished since I was a kid. And even then, my dad took care of most everything, so I'm not even sure how to set up a good working "rig"?

Anyhow, if I get a chance to put a line in the water, I'll let you know how that goes. I have a feeling I'll be spending a lot of time helping boys with the little bit of knowledge I've pulled from the fishing merit badge pamphlet.