maybe

Google maps aerial photo of the Direct Energy Center. Tomorrow I'm aiming for the lot directly across Princes' Blvd from the building entrance. Had no problems getting nice spaces there on weekdays during the boat show this year & last. For Saturday, we'll likely get stuck in no-man's land again - the lot southwest of Nova Scotia Ave. I'll be the long-haired 30-something gal in a light green Bass Pro t-shirt. Small cartoon walleye on the front, and a big one on the back. I wear glasses, and will be carrying a black shoulder bag. Don't be shy about tapping me on the shoulder to say hi.

Years ago, I did some serious damage to my right shoulder. If I'm not careful, irritating it can knock out the fine motor control in my right hand - and I'm right handed. Let's just say my signature doesn't always look like what's on my cards. Never had a clerk so much as raise an eyebrow when I'm having a bad hand day. They do seem to perk up if I forget to sign a new card, though. At the end of the day, I just put my faith in the cardholder protection clauses, and get on with it.

I'll be there by myself on Wed, likely from 11am or noon til closing. Planning on catching 4 seminars at the Fish TV Zone. At 1pm it's walleye, then from 4-6pm it's trolling motors, general bait tricks, and largemouths. Will be back on Sat with Hubby, likely arriving 2-2:30pm and staying til closing. We'll split up to see the smallmouth and crankbait seminars at 4, and then both be at the muskie seminar at 5 and Italo's multi-species at 6. Would love to put some faces to the names here. If anything's going on for Wed/Sat, please keep me in the loop.

That was painful... ..but I gotta give points for effort!

Just as soon as our slip's ready at the marina. They're promising May 4th, but I'll believe it when I see it - they were a week late last year.

Oh man...should not have read this thread with a cold. Rofl, hack, cough, blow, repeat.... Bly...really, REALLY well done on the snickering transcription. GCD, we're just trying to be neighborly and share with our poor disadvantaged friends to the south. We have so much, and it wouldn't be fair to watch you go without. Pic taken ~1pm yesterday. 3" of snow last night, expecting another 12 today.

The exhibitor list says they'll be at booths 1739, 1839, and 7100 on this floorplan. 1739 = 1,500sf (25x60) 1839 = 3,500sf (50x70) 7100 = 2,000sf (40x50) May as well consider 1739 and 1839 to be one 5,000sf booth with a walkway up the middle. South edge of the main hall, just right/east of center. The smaller 7100 booth is at the bottom right of the floorplan. I've been checking the exhibitors list now and then, doing my standard "what we want to see" spreadsheet and color-coded floorplan. Between the site's Feb 11 and Feb 28 updates, 102 new entries popped up on the exhibitors list. I assume there'll be another update coming. As it sits now, I'm seeing 40-odd exhibitors assigned to booth numbers that do not appear on the posted floorplan. Just over 100 booths shown on the floorplan are still empty as of the Feb 28th exhibitors list. These include the 3 large booths (2539, 2527, 2501) up the right wall of the main hall. The other empties are pretty evenly spread out over the rest of the show area. None of the booths in the 9000 block (top left, near Rare Breeds Show Ring) are mentioned on the exhibitor list.

Flashbacks of the Mythbusters renaming boats "Mythtanic" and "Mythtanic II" before intentionally sinking them. First thing to cross my mind was a slightly reworked Four Winns logo, with "Whites" substituted for Winns. My vote goes to Blaque's "Pick...err...Walleye" though. Funny, approachable and unique.

Took me til 5pm Saturday to drag Hubby out to Bass Pro. Already big holes in the shelves then. We likely would've wasted a couple hundred $$ if they'd had stock, but walked out with a total bill well under $50. I'll likely be heading down by myself just for the seminars on the 14th. Did anybody else get slimed by closed buckets of Gulp! Alive! minnows? I was excited about trying them, until I realized how much time I'd spend scrubbing that stuff out of car and boat upholstry.

#%@$@!!!! And now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to find a defibrillator....

Quoting his 2nd line in that commercial, "I wanted to pull my hair out."

I've got one like yours. 77 with a bad back, and has been practically living at the local art gallery for years. We're happy he's "slowed down" to shovelling snow and building/hauling fixtures around, after his last volunteer career. When he was 70, it was time to get rid of a massive white pine in his front yard. The town was looking for big tree donations as material for the bandshell they were building. The light went on - donate the tree, they'll cut it down and haul it away for free. Normally, that'd be the end of it, but something happens when retired builders smell sawdust. Next thing we know, Dad's followed the tree to the construction site, and at 70 is volunteering more hours than the paid builder is putting in. Stumbled onto while I was doublechecking the year of construction. Dad pops up a couple of times, and most of the photographs are his. Dad wound up with a hernia from hauling cedar shingles up onto the roof, but it barely registered. Got it fixed after the project ended, and is back to running 100mph as usual. Last time I dropped into the gallery, I met several of the committee members. They all gushed at length about how they didn't know what the gallery would do without Dad. He just beamed. It was a wonderful thing to see. Sounds like your father's found himself the same kind of niche mine has. If you can keep yours from getting a hernia, you're golden.

Plastic bags. I always keep some ziplocks ("medium" and "large" size, freezer grade) and black garbage bags (Glad ForceFlex) handy, just in case. There will be times you'll want to keep some small things together (pieces to reassemble when something breaks?), or contain a mess. If you're going to grab drive-thru, and then eat on the boat like we do, add some plastic grocery bags to the list. No need to waste an entire black garbage bag just to keep some Timmies packaging from flying out on the lake. On the mess front, Home Depot has plastic dropsheets for about $3 that store in tiny little places (like inside those 2 rolls of duct tape). They can protect a lot of upholstry (or keep several people dry in a pinch). A package of handi-wipes can be nice for anyone who doesn't enjoy powerbait on their sandwich. One or 2 of those little plastic travel/purse packs of Kleenex. Pen, mechanical pencil (doesn't need shapening), and notepad.

One word: "AHHHWWWW!" Kia's beyond adorable. Congratulations on finding her, sounds like you had quite a search!

So sorry for your loss, Rich. Seems every dog person will lose at least one along the way that they'll miss terribly for years after. These are the dogs who go way beyond "normal critter" to bring something rare and amazing to your life. Missing them is a positive thing - it reminds us how lucky we've been. There are 2 on my "still miss list." One of them was a little poodle who was born without eyes, and came to us at 6 weeks old. She never knew what she was "missing," and figured out ways to do everything our sighted dog could do. Fetch, stairs, playing with beach balls, and even jumping on and off the furniture safely. Experiencing the world with her taught me countless invaluable lessons about being observant, thinking outside the box, and keeping a wag in your tail. Taff developed ways to really make the most of her other senses. New challenges were met with a prudent amount of caution, but always happily and with determination. For the (sighted) humans in the house, closing our eyes and trying to figure out everyday situations "from Taff's point of view" scared us silly. Without her extra interpretive skills, we were pretty lost. When your Airedale's vision went, nobody could explain to her what was happening. She didn't have time to develop coping mechanisms, and the tumor was heaping on other problems as well. Suddenly everything's scary and confusing. That had to be terrible to be on the "inside" of. There's really only one loving thing to do in that situation, and you did it - even though it hurt you. That deserves respect, if not applause. She had a wonderful life. Humans who loved her, took her fishing, and put her comfort first when the vet bills piled up. She was a very lucky girl. "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." --Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

Finally found the detailed seminar schedule. I'm assuming "Toyota Main Stage" means the store's big fish tank. Anyone know for sure?

I'm always grateful when moonbats & idiots put on big flashing signs to identify themselves. Saves me time and trouble. In case anyone hasn't heard Bill Engvall's "Here's Your Sign" yet, of his collaboration with Travis Tritt. "...Couple of months ago, I went fishin' with a buddy of mine. We pulled his boat into the dock, I lift up this big ol string of bass, and this idiot up on the dock says 'Hey, did y'all catch all them fish?' 'Nope! Talked them into givin' up. Heeeeeere's your sign.'..."

Don't think I've ever seen a pic of the moon mooning before. Brilliant shot, michaelw! :worthy:

We've been running a Garmin eTrex Vista Cx for the last year and a bit. Wanted something compact and expandable, mainly for the boat, but also able to go hiking and navigate Toronto. Garmin appeared to be the most common/standard manufacturer for this type, so I never bothered looking at the others. As a newbie, it was important that there were people nearby I could go to with dumb questions. Garmin also seemed to be the most compatible with 3rd party sites/software...flexibility is good. It turned out to be a fantastic little all-purpose unit. Powerful when I need it (multi-stage geocaches with dual projections, anyone?), but dumbs down well for everyday life with my non-geek husband. At 2" shorter than the 60Cx and 76Cx, it fits anywhere - even my little purse. No more wondering where I parked at big convention centers. With $30 worth of Metroguide Canada software, it shows me gas stations (and restaurants, and godknowswhatelse), and every highway, street and tiny backroad in Ontario with tons of space left over. (I upgraded the memory card with a spare I had lying around.) There's a great little OEM non-marking dash mount for these things, which I use in my Saturn and anything else I happen to drive. In the boat, we have RAM Mount systems on both the floor and windshield, so the GPS and Humminbirds can migrate around easily. RAM makes nifty ATV mounts, too. I don't care that it won't float, long as it's waterproof. We transport anything small and valuable (cameras, keys, GPS, glasses, cell phones, MP3 player, etc etc) to/from the boat inside zipped boat bags. As soon as the GPS comes out of the bag, the lanyard is tied off to a windshield support. Whether or not it's in the RAM, it stays tied to the boat until I'm ready to zip it back in the bag for the drive home. The only thing I don't like about our Cx is the receiver strength. It's not that particular model having a problem, it's just that its generation simply hadn't evolved enough to get signal through massive skyscrapers. 99% of Toronto works just fine, but you're going to conk out for a very few blocks right down near the tower. You'll get some slight "wander" if you're standing still under heavy bush canopy, too. Garmin's fixed those problems with the new generation HCx. I got to play with one at the boat show last month....wow. These units can get a solid, wander-free lock on your location right through the roof of the Direct Energy Centre. No more conking out in skyscrapers, and no more wander under tree cover. Radioworld is selling them for $269. (Anyone got tips for getting spouses to ok a hardware upgrade after 1 year? haha) I'm not familiar enough with the GPSMAP series to know how the 60Cx and 76Cx fit in...but I suspect they're running the same weak old receiver as my Vista Cx. If that's the case, I wouldn't waste the $$ on them, now that I've seen what the new HCx can do. You might want to call Garmin 1-866-429-9296 and ask their input. Their customer service is excellent. When I compared the HCx with the 60Cx and 76Cx, I noticed that the 60Cx and 76Cx don't have compass or altimeter. I've never needed the altimeter, but being able to get a bearing while standing still can be a real advantage. Sometimes it's just not safe or practical to move 50' so your GPS can figure out which way's north. If you're going to try geocaching, the compass is a huge help. Good luck!

I've only ever seen that first one referred to as what the packaging says in the jpg....but I'm sure there are lots of other names for it. The VW one is named Type II. It's part of an online exhibition called CRANKbait! Lures of Distinction .

Talk about timing...after all that chasing the show organizers for info, I'm stuck at home sick for the next few days. Ugh. Hubby (aka JeffBornFishin) valiantly picked up my pile of "must-see" paperwork, and headed for the show early this morning. I'm getting little reports from him as he wanders around with his cell phone. Turns out the pdfs I got from the show organizers may not be terribly accurate. I'm really sorry about that, guys. Jeff was talking to Italo Labignan this morning, and says that Italo said he'd be on from 2:30 to 3:30pm today. The seminar pdfs say 3:30 to 4:30pm. I never did get an answer back from Vita Pollata regarding the scheduling conflict on the Pro Panel & Tips schedule. The pdf shows Paul Powis cleaning fish during the first half hour of a walleye panel. The exhibitor's list and floor plan also appear to have issues. I gave Jeff a photoshopped floor plan, hilighting the stuff we're interested in (a disappointing 25 out of 120-odd exhibitors). Of that 25, so far he's been unable to find Mercury, the CSFL booth, and Nitro boats. Whether they're in different locations, or they're really not there, I don't know yet. How accurate the other ~100 exhibitor listings are is a good question.

Thanks for pasting in the list of exhibitors, Craig. I've received a pdf copy of the exhibitors list and floor plan. It's too big for the attachment file size limit. I've crunched it down to a jpg that's good enough to give a rough idea on the fly. If anyone wants the full-sized pdf (2.5mb), shoot me your email address in a PM, and I'll send it over. To the best of my knowledge, the only class not included in the standard $12 ticket is the salmon masters seminar (8am to 11am Saturday, Aviation Hall A or Conference Room 1, depending what pdf you read - 2 names for 1 room). I have a habit of charting schedules out in a spreadsheet. Makes it easy to choose the seminars I'm interested in, and see how they fit together - which ones overlap, which ones don't have enough time to travel between, yadda yadda. It turned up one situation I think might be an error. The 12:30pm to 1pm Saturday slot is doublebooked on the CSFL Pro Panel and Tips schedule. It shows Paul Powis cleaning fish during the first half of the Walleye Panel presentation. I assume that everything on the CSFL Pro Panel and Tips pdf takes place on the CSFL stage in the bottom left corner of the floor plan. This is the only time I found seminars in the same venue overlapping like this. The walleye presentation is also mistakenly written as beginning at 12:30 AM. Looks like we'll be going on Saturday. I'll be checking into the walleye/cleaning conflict - I've already seen Paul's cleaning demo, but the walleye presentation is interesting.

Vita called me about an hour ago. I took a few notes... The salmon masters seminar is a separate entity, not part of the show itself per se. The gang from Scotty are doing it on their own, and just happen to be having it at the same center at the same time as the show. Letting the students into the show free when they're primed to spend money with the exhibitors seems sensible. The salmon seminar is at 8am Saturday, and tickets are limited. Tickets are available through these show supporters: --JB's Fishing Depot (Toronto) --Tightlines (Pickering) --Natural Sports (Kitchener) --Grimsby Tackle (Grimsby) --Hook Line & Sinker (Guelph) --Fishing World (Hamilton) If you want salmon tickets and can't get to one of these stores, you may also be able to reserve tickets by emailing Vita. If there are tickets left, she'll put them aside for you, and you can pick them up at the main door of Hall 5. I suggest including your phone # in your email, just in case. General admission tickets to the show are not available online. There will be a ticket booth at the main entrance to Hall 5. The ticket booth accepts CASH ONLY. An ATM will be available in the lobby. Information for the official show guides just went out to the printer's this morning. I'm the first person to get copies of the seminar schedules. If I've managed to figure out the attachment system, they should appear below: Seminars___CSFL_Pro_Panel_and_Tips___Fishing_and_Boat_Show_2008.pdf Seminars___Master_Angler___Fishing_and_Boat_Show_2008.pdf Seminars___Megatank___Product_Reviews___Fishing_and_Boat_Show_2008.pdf I've asked for copies of the exhibitor's list, and the show floor plan. They should arrive sometime later today. For anyone unfamilliar with the International Centre, here's the main Centre floor plan and a pdf of just Hall 5. That's about all I know at the moment.

The gangs at pricenetwork.ca or redflagdeals.com are usually really helpful for shopping-related stuff. Maybe a post to the forums over there would turn one up?

Just a quick update - the seminar schedule has not yet arrived. Tried calling Vita back about 20 minutes ago, per her req in Sat's voice mail. Got the CSFL answering machine after 6 or 7 rings, so I left a quick message with my cell #. That's all I know for now.