Fishing with Miss Molly

I decided that I would spend Molly's last two Friday mornings before she started school with her fishing. She was very excited about the idea. So we got up nice and early and headed out to Springfield Lake.

Molly started out the trip by sitting on the bottom of the canoe but she soon gained enough confidence to over come her fear and sit on the seat. She was so happy to be sitting where grown-ups sit in the canoe. She is a brave little girl, that is for sure.

We enjoyed a very beautiful calm morning on the lake. Apparently the area was so relaxing that the fish were still asleep as we did not get even one bite.

But we did spot a deer walking on the shore line. We really thought the experience was fantastic to watch a deer casually walk along rooting around for food. The deer probably thought it was nice to watch a couple of humans out fishing on the lake.

No fish this trip......there is always next week. I must say I sure enjoyed fishing with my Molly.

Nathaniel Greene Park

One very cool aspect of living in student housing is the nearby Nathaniel Greene city park. We often walk over to the park, feed the ducks, and let the girls play on the playground. Although we may be living in an apartment you would never know it with all the activity we do within walking distance away.

Just behind my school is the Greeneways Pathway which winds through Springfield and links many of the parks together.

The pathway also includes tunnels that go under the major roads rather than having to cross them.


The park has a very wonderful pond full of ducks, turtles, and fish. All of these animals are totally protected as there is no fishing or hunting allowed. Needless to say they are all very over fed.

The park is very peaceful and a wonderful place to spend time with each other.

Cashew Chicken & Movies: lonely behavior

During my two weeks of waiting for Kristy to come back to Missouri I attempted to find activities to occupy me. I fished some, I exercised a lot, I played some disc golf, but mostly I just moped around.

I did take in a few movies at the local $2.50 theater. I saw "X-Men 3", "The Davinci Code", and "The Breakup". That last movie should serve as an indicator of how desperate I was for things to do. On the other hand however I did discover the $2.50 theater which is called "The Palace". It is way nicer than any cheap seat theater I have ever seen. The quality of this theater is better than that of the normal theaters in this town charging $8-$12. Of course the Palace only shows late run movies but that's cool, it's cheap and high quality.

So besides the movies I did check out one thing that Springfield is famous for. Apparently the Oriental dish known as "Cashew Chicken" was actually not invented in the Orient. Apparently one of the first Asian restaurants to open up in Springfield was not doing so well so the owner came up with a plan. He combined a local dish (fried chicken) with some Asian seasoning sauce and poof, he invented Cashew Chicken. The locals directed me to Canton Inn to take my first taste of this local legend. I must admit it was good, but it was a far stretch from Asian food. It was exactly what you would expect out of Asian food from the Midwest. But like I said it was very good. Check out Wiki's entry on Cashew Chicken

So to put it short, I was lost without my family.

p.s. I want to thank my best friend Ray for calling each day to check on my welfare while Kristy and the girls were in Ohio. I am sure at times (especially when I went and watched the chick flick) he was very worried about my continuing depression. But we got through it.