Well, after spending the entire night in agony and sleeping all of about 10 minutes I hobbled over to Urgent Care this morning. After a physical exam and clean x-rays the doctor determined that I had "classic Bursitus" in my right hip. The Bursae sac is a fluid filled sac that protects the joint. Bursitus occurs when the Bursae gets inflamed. It's a very painful injury, hence the excrutiating pain I've been in for the last 18 hours.
I was expecting some vicodin or something but instead was told to double up on Aleve and alternate ice and heat and the pain should subside within a week or so. A week or so?!?!?! I guess bowling, golf and hockey are out for at least a couple weeks. I have to allow all the swelling to go down before I can resume activities. I was given some exercises to do and I need to remember to stretch very well before any activity. I did stretch before golf yesterday but probably not good enough and with the 40 degree temps the joint probably never got really warm. I've had minor issues with the hip before but never to this level. I was thinking I'd need a new hip, sure the thing was shattered or something.
Oh well, at least I got a 4 day weekend and I was able to watch Beerfest this morning. A classic idiotic movie only an immature male could appreciate. And I did. :)
Now it's football time all weekend. Go Badgers on Monday!
Friday, December 29, 2006
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Why Microsoft Sucks
I get into work today and some virus had hit the network so they forced everyone into a full system scan. Well, I have some 2 million files on my computer... needless to say that after 3 1/2 hours I was about 1/3rd of the way done. So, I say to Jason, who is going through the same thing, "golf?" and he agrees, so we blow out of dodge and go play golf.
Which leads me to the subject of this post. If we all had Mac's to do our work would we be in that situation? Hell no. I hate to even think about how much money the company burned by having people sitting and waiting for the virus scan to finish. Not all are as nice as me and stop billing them for this stuff.
On the golf front, it was a pleasant day, considering it was December 28th and in Madison, Wisconsin. 40 degrees and the sun came out, felt awesome. If you dress for it, you don't even notice that it's cold out. I shot a 90 but I didn't care, it's almost January!
On the down side, my right hip started hurting me again with about 4 holes to go. It's given me trouble in the past but not for quite awhile. I finished up limping and then had enough time to have a Guinness and shower before I had to head to bowling. Well, that didn't help my hip at all. I bowled pretty poorly, missing many spares due to the hip really hurting. Didn't bowl quite as bad as I did Wednesday night (592 vs a 531 Wednesday). By the time I left I could barely stand let alone walk.
I'm now propped up in my chair with searing pain running through my hip, wondering when it will go away.
Which leads me to the subject of this post. If we all had Mac's to do our work would we be in that situation? Hell no. I hate to even think about how much money the company burned by having people sitting and waiting for the virus scan to finish. Not all are as nice as me and stop billing them for this stuff.
On the golf front, it was a pleasant day, considering it was December 28th and in Madison, Wisconsin. 40 degrees and the sun came out, felt awesome. If you dress for it, you don't even notice that it's cold out. I shot a 90 but I didn't care, it's almost January!
On the down side, my right hip started hurting me again with about 4 holes to go. It's given me trouble in the past but not for quite awhile. I finished up limping and then had enough time to have a Guinness and shower before I had to head to bowling. Well, that didn't help my hip at all. I bowled pretty poorly, missing many spares due to the hip really hurting. Didn't bowl quite as bad as I did Wednesday night (592 vs a 531 Wednesday). By the time I left I could barely stand let alone walk.
I'm now propped up in my chair with searing pain running through my hip, wondering when it will go away.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Post-Christmas Bla
Back at work with about 4 other people total... I think the only people working are contractors that don't have vacation time (like me).
Feeling pretty worn out after 2 straight days at my sister's house doing the family thing. Always good to remind myself why I don't have kids. :)
Speaking of kids, our next door neighbors (Corey and Ann) had their first baby, a girl, on Saturday. I'm now officially surrounded by kids. Gonna have to move.
Cdubya once again out-did me in the presents department. She thinks she's easy to shop for but I totally disagree. What do you get someone that has everything she wants? I have to think up things that she doesn't know she wants yet and my one "ooh, she'll love this" gift went up in flames. She didn't want it. Oh well, back to the drawing board.
She hit the mark with an iPod Shuffle (she didn't want me breaking the iPod video while out working on the yard, good thinking) and some Nike ear buds that clip over the ear so they'll stay in place better. The new Shuffle is so cool! Very tiny, hardly weighs anything and holds 1 GB of music. I loaded it up, just waiting for lawn mowing season to start again. :)
She also got me a new toolbox along with new wrenches and screwdrivers. It's pretty cool.
On the football front, somehow the Packers are still alive for an undeserved playoff spot. NBC has gotten into the act now and decided to move the Packers/Bears game next Sunday to the nationally televised Sunday night game. What are they thinking? Didn't we see enough bad football Thursday and yesterday?
Here's the skinny best I understand it for how they can make it.
Packers beat the Bears.
Giants lose to the Redskins.
Vikings beat the Rams OR
if the Rams win, they need Carolina to beat New Orleans OR Atlanta to beat Philly.
The Packers can't win a head to head tie-breaker with the Rams so if the Rams win, they need at least one more team to finish 8-8 so it goes to Conference record, which somehow the Packers would win (likely because they beat the Vikes and Lions twice each). They have a better conference record than the Rams, Carolina and Atlanta.
There is still a very slight possibility that they could still get in if the Giants win. It involves the "strength of victory" tie-breaker which is heavily in the Giants favor right now (again, the Packers beat the Lions and Vikings twice each). If the Giants do win, they would need all those teams that the Packers beat to win and all the teams the Giants beat to lose. Yeah, that's going to happen... let's just ignore this scenario.
Of course, is there really a possibility that the Packers can beat the Bears? I would normally say no way, but who knows? The Bears D is not what it was earlier in the season and they may be resting a lot of players knowing they have nothing to gain with a victory. Plus, who wouldn't want the Packers in the playoffs? I'd rather face them than the Giants in the 2nd round if I'm the Bears.
I guess we'll see come Sunday night.
Feeling pretty worn out after 2 straight days at my sister's house doing the family thing. Always good to remind myself why I don't have kids. :)
Speaking of kids, our next door neighbors (Corey and Ann) had their first baby, a girl, on Saturday. I'm now officially surrounded by kids. Gonna have to move.
Cdubya once again out-did me in the presents department. She thinks she's easy to shop for but I totally disagree. What do you get someone that has everything she wants? I have to think up things that she doesn't know she wants yet and my one "ooh, she'll love this" gift went up in flames. She didn't want it. Oh well, back to the drawing board.
She hit the mark with an iPod Shuffle (she didn't want me breaking the iPod video while out working on the yard, good thinking) and some Nike ear buds that clip over the ear so they'll stay in place better. The new Shuffle is so cool! Very tiny, hardly weighs anything and holds 1 GB of music. I loaded it up, just waiting for lawn mowing season to start again. :)
She also got me a new toolbox along with new wrenches and screwdrivers. It's pretty cool.
On the football front, somehow the Packers are still alive for an undeserved playoff spot. NBC has gotten into the act now and decided to move the Packers/Bears game next Sunday to the nationally televised Sunday night game. What are they thinking? Didn't we see enough bad football Thursday and yesterday?
Here's the skinny best I understand it for how they can make it.
Packers beat the Bears.
Giants lose to the Redskins.
Vikings beat the Rams OR
if the Rams win, they need Carolina to beat New Orleans OR Atlanta to beat Philly.
The Packers can't win a head to head tie-breaker with the Rams so if the Rams win, they need at least one more team to finish 8-8 so it goes to Conference record, which somehow the Packers would win (likely because they beat the Vikes and Lions twice each). They have a better conference record than the Rams, Carolina and Atlanta.
There is still a very slight possibility that they could still get in if the Giants win. It involves the "strength of victory" tie-breaker which is heavily in the Giants favor right now (again, the Packers beat the Lions and Vikings twice each). If the Giants do win, they would need all those teams that the Packers beat to win and all the teams the Giants beat to lose. Yeah, that's going to happen... let's just ignore this scenario.
Of course, is there really a possibility that the Packers can beat the Bears? I would normally say no way, but who knows? The Bears D is not what it was earlier in the season and they may be resting a lot of players knowing they have nothing to gain with a victory. Plus, who wouldn't want the Packers in the playoffs? I'd rather face them than the Giants in the 2nd round if I'm the Bears.
I guess we'll see come Sunday night.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Sloppy Thursday
It was a night for sloppiness, starting with bowling where I couldn't do a damn thing right, shooting 190, 192 and 217 for 599. We won 2 of 3 but lost total. At least we're 4-3 and over .500 to start the second half.
Then the Packer/Viking game was probably more sloppy. And it wasn't just the rain that caused the sloppiness, both teams were inept at moving the ball and always managed to find a way to screw up. The Packers gave up trying to run the ball and just went to the passing game. Wasn't horrible except for back to back plays where Favre read one thing and Jennings read something else, resulting in 2 ugly interceptions, one of which was run back for a touchdown. Hard to completely blame Favre for those as both players have to make a read on the D and adjust the pattern. Both times it appeared Jennings made the wrong decision. Luckily they were able to overcome their mistakes and get a late field goal to win 9-7.
That brings me to Bubba Franks. Can anyone give me one good reason that he should continue to be part of this team? He has been absolutely horrible all season and last night was a perfect example. Couple dropped passes and when he did catch them he fumbled twice, once by the goal line, turning the ball over at the 3. Then he gets called for holding on a big gain screen pass to Green. What a dumbass... someone please run him out of town, he's done.
Well, it's Friday now, 3 days to Christmas. I'm sure it will be very dead around here as most people have taken the day off. Should be pretty quiet. My favorite kind of day.
I'll be back to blog about the Christmas festivities on Tuesday.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Then the Packer/Viking game was probably more sloppy. And it wasn't just the rain that caused the sloppiness, both teams were inept at moving the ball and always managed to find a way to screw up. The Packers gave up trying to run the ball and just went to the passing game. Wasn't horrible except for back to back plays where Favre read one thing and Jennings read something else, resulting in 2 ugly interceptions, one of which was run back for a touchdown. Hard to completely blame Favre for those as both players have to make a read on the D and adjust the pattern. Both times it appeared Jennings made the wrong decision. Luckily they were able to overcome their mistakes and get a late field goal to win 9-7.
That brings me to Bubba Franks. Can anyone give me one good reason that he should continue to be part of this team? He has been absolutely horrible all season and last night was a perfect example. Couple dropped passes and when he did catch them he fumbled twice, once by the goal line, turning the ball over at the 3. Then he gets called for holding on a big gain screen pass to Green. What a dumbass... someone please run him out of town, he's done.
Well, it's Friday now, 3 days to Christmas. I'm sure it will be very dead around here as most people have taken the day off. Should be pretty quiet. My favorite kind of day.
I'll be back to blog about the Christmas festivities on Tuesday.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Blunder!
We have this thing on Wednesday night's bowling team where if you do something stupid you get a "Bonehead Blunder" and at the end of the season you have to buy a pitcher of beer for each blunder you've made. It's fun and we even let guys screw up on purpose just to give them the blunder.
Last year good old Korey made it through without a single one. This year, well, it's a different story. He's had 3 blunders, by far the high on the team, up until last night. For starters he shows up right at the last second and gets no practice. Then in the 1st frame he goes up to bowl when it's Chris's turn. Seeing as how it's Christmas we let him off and stop him before he bowls out of turn. He never bowls 2nd, not sure why he was even up there. But in the 3rd frame he does it again so we let him go. He gets a strike, we laugh, give him and blunder and erase the score (he got a 9 on his real turn).
Then in the 2nd game he looks at his cards and declares "I have 6 cards." Another blunder. He could have just snuck a discard in and no one would have known but since he admitted it we had to give him another one. Next frame he picks up his cards and yet again, he has 6 cards. WTF? Decided not to give him another blunder but easily could have. He's up to 5 now, next closest is 1.
Chris decided to get into the act in the 3rd. First, he decides that he's up to bowl after me. Only problem is I'm the last bowler and he's 2nd. Doesn't really add up. Fortunately for him the other team catches it and stops him (to our displeasure). He couldn't handle that though so a few frames later he catches his arm on the straw in his Jack & 7 and tips it over. Guess he was determined to get that blunder after all.
But the worst blunder of the night was not even recorded as a blunder. I cost us the 2nd game. After striking on my first ball in the 10th we were down 9. I needed 10 pins in 2 balls to win the game. My strike ball came in high and I left the easy 4-7 spare. Now, backing up a little, I decided at the beginning of the night that I would shoot all spares with my plastic spare ball, hard and straight (that's what she said). I'd been doing pretty well with it all night. I pick up the spare ball and rocket it down the left side and it makes it about 2/3rds of the way down before it dumps into the left gutter and we lose by 1 pin. Stupid me... there goes our chance of going undefeated in the 2nd half. We won the other 2 games easy.
I ended up shooting 180, 226, 223 for 629. Back at it again tonight where I've shot between 665 and 670 the last 3 weeks. We are starting the 2nd half in that league too, after tying for last in the first half (I joined the team 3 weeks ago, filling in for a guy that had ankle surgery).
Last year good old Korey made it through without a single one. This year, well, it's a different story. He's had 3 blunders, by far the high on the team, up until last night. For starters he shows up right at the last second and gets no practice. Then in the 1st frame he goes up to bowl when it's Chris's turn. Seeing as how it's Christmas we let him off and stop him before he bowls out of turn. He never bowls 2nd, not sure why he was even up there. But in the 3rd frame he does it again so we let him go. He gets a strike, we laugh, give him and blunder and erase the score (he got a 9 on his real turn).
Then in the 2nd game he looks at his cards and declares "I have 6 cards." Another blunder. He could have just snuck a discard in and no one would have known but since he admitted it we had to give him another one. Next frame he picks up his cards and yet again, he has 6 cards. WTF? Decided not to give him another blunder but easily could have. He's up to 5 now, next closest is 1.
Chris decided to get into the act in the 3rd. First, he decides that he's up to bowl after me. Only problem is I'm the last bowler and he's 2nd. Doesn't really add up. Fortunately for him the other team catches it and stops him (to our displeasure). He couldn't handle that though so a few frames later he catches his arm on the straw in his Jack & 7 and tips it over. Guess he was determined to get that blunder after all.
But the worst blunder of the night was not even recorded as a blunder. I cost us the 2nd game. After striking on my first ball in the 10th we were down 9. I needed 10 pins in 2 balls to win the game. My strike ball came in high and I left the easy 4-7 spare. Now, backing up a little, I decided at the beginning of the night that I would shoot all spares with my plastic spare ball, hard and straight (that's what she said). I'd been doing pretty well with it all night. I pick up the spare ball and rocket it down the left side and it makes it about 2/3rds of the way down before it dumps into the left gutter and we lose by 1 pin. Stupid me... there goes our chance of going undefeated in the 2nd half. We won the other 2 games easy.
I ended up shooting 180, 226, 223 for 629. Back at it again tonight where I've shot between 665 and 670 the last 3 weeks. We are starting the 2nd half in that league too, after tying for last in the first half (I joined the team 3 weeks ago, filling in for a guy that had ankle surgery).
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Survivor Finale
Due to hockey on Sunday I didn't get to watch the Survivor finale until last night. Quite difficult to make it all day without hearing the winner but I succeeded and watched it as soon as I got home. I was torn between Ozzy, the dominating physical prescence, and Yul, the dominating mental prescense. In the end, Adam's promise to vote for Yul if he got rid of Jonathan turned out to be the difference in a 5-4 vote for Yul. Ozzy won an SUV in online voting for "cleverest player", which seems odd since he didn't really do anything clever unless you count winning every single individual challenge as "clever".
Next season is in Fiji, where apparently the water is filled with poisonous sea snakes. Sweet...
In hockey, we were short a forward and I got my opportunity to move up from defense for a game. Holy crap, I forgot how much more skating you have to do as a forward. I was spent after my first shift and spent the rest of the night trying to catch my breath. I think I'll leave that shit to the kids. We ended up winning 3-1 to improve to 5-2-1 on the season, alone in 2nd place. We now have 3 weeks till our next game because of the holidays.
The company I subcontract through for my consulting gig had their annual Christmas party on Saturday night. The theme was Casino Night. Each person was given $1,500 in chips and at the end of the night, each $1,500 you had left could be used to buy raffle tickets for prizes. Cdubya and I just played Craps, our favorite game, for 2 hours. She was very consistent and conservative while I played fast and loose. She ended up with $2,000 and I had a wild ride. I went up early to about $2,500 then hit a rough skid and dropped back to about $700 before rallying big time in the last half hour and ended up with $4,500. I was playing like a nutjob. Max bet was $100 so I had $100 on the pass line and $100 odds bet behind it, plus I would be $100 on the Come and get odds on every point from there. Plus I would put $100 on each of the 4 hard way bets. Cdubya saved me by hitting hard 8 and hard 10 on back to back rolls, good for $800 and $1,000 for me! She's an awesome shooter and almost always makes at least a couple points. It's funny because when we started learning to play in Vegas she would always throw the dice off the table, often times hitting one of the dealers. I thought it was funny but the dealers never thought so... :)
Cdubya ended up winning one of the raffle prizes, a gift basket of chocolates and assorted other goodies.
Another benefit of Casino night was Cdubya got the bug to go back to Vegas. I'd been pestering her about it since we haven't been in about a year and a half (since her 40th bday). She said if I wanted to plan a trip around my bday (February) that I could go ahead and do that. We have some discounted airfares to use up anyway so that fits right in. Eggsellent... :)
Next season is in Fiji, where apparently the water is filled with poisonous sea snakes. Sweet...
In hockey, we were short a forward and I got my opportunity to move up from defense for a game. Holy crap, I forgot how much more skating you have to do as a forward. I was spent after my first shift and spent the rest of the night trying to catch my breath. I think I'll leave that shit to the kids. We ended up winning 3-1 to improve to 5-2-1 on the season, alone in 2nd place. We now have 3 weeks till our next game because of the holidays.
The company I subcontract through for my consulting gig had their annual Christmas party on Saturday night. The theme was Casino Night. Each person was given $1,500 in chips and at the end of the night, each $1,500 you had left could be used to buy raffle tickets for prizes. Cdubya and I just played Craps, our favorite game, for 2 hours. She was very consistent and conservative while I played fast and loose. She ended up with $2,000 and I had a wild ride. I went up early to about $2,500 then hit a rough skid and dropped back to about $700 before rallying big time in the last half hour and ended up with $4,500. I was playing like a nutjob. Max bet was $100 so I had $100 on the pass line and $100 odds bet behind it, plus I would be $100 on the Come and get odds on every point from there. Plus I would put $100 on each of the 4 hard way bets. Cdubya saved me by hitting hard 8 and hard 10 on back to back rolls, good for $800 and $1,000 for me! She's an awesome shooter and almost always makes at least a couple points. It's funny because when we started learning to play in Vegas she would always throw the dice off the table, often times hitting one of the dealers. I thought it was funny but the dealers never thought so... :)
Cdubya ended up winning one of the raffle prizes, a gift basket of chocolates and assorted other goodies.
Another benefit of Casino night was Cdubya got the bug to go back to Vegas. I'd been pestering her about it since we haven't been in about a year and a half (since her 40th bday). She said if I wanted to plan a trip around my bday (February) that I could go ahead and do that. We have some discounted airfares to use up anyway so that fits right in. Eggsellent... :)
Friday, December 15, 2006
Recovery
It's always amazing to me how one little thing can trigger a spiral downward. Your brain starts continually going over these negative thoughts that drive you down even farther. It happens to me all the time on the golf course. I usually can't get out of my own head and one bad shot there can lead to 3 horrible holes in a row where I can't do anything right. It's not until I can get myself to stop the bad thoughts that I can turn it around.
With bowling I'm not quite as big a head case but going into Thursday night league I still had horrible memories of Wednesday's debacle. During warmup I wasn't able to get anything going and those bad thoughts were haunting me. Fortunately for me I am better equipped at the lanes to shut down my brain through the strategic use of beer. For most people drinking while bowling helps to relax them so they're not stressed about doing well. For me, it's a way to shut off the constantly firing neurons that drive me batty.
Although I still struggled somewhat (missed 3 easy spares and couldn't really string more than 4 strikes together) I still managed to recover and shoot a 665 (214, 216, 235) once I got my brain to go to sleep. Hopefully Wednesday is just a bad dream that won't be repeated.
On the Survivor front, Ozzy continued to dominate and despite Pavarti's nude attempts to draw him over to her side, he stuck with his alliance and smartly they eliminated Pavarti, who was much more of a threat psychologically and physically than Adam could even begin to be.
Sunday is the season finale with 3 tribal councils and 3 people in the final voting. Should be interesting.
With bowling I'm not quite as big a head case but going into Thursday night league I still had horrible memories of Wednesday's debacle. During warmup I wasn't able to get anything going and those bad thoughts were haunting me. Fortunately for me I am better equipped at the lanes to shut down my brain through the strategic use of beer. For most people drinking while bowling helps to relax them so they're not stressed about doing well. For me, it's a way to shut off the constantly firing neurons that drive me batty.
Although I still struggled somewhat (missed 3 easy spares and couldn't really string more than 4 strikes together) I still managed to recover and shoot a 665 (214, 216, 235) once I got my brain to go to sleep. Hopefully Wednesday is just a bad dream that won't be repeated.
On the Survivor front, Ozzy continued to dominate and despite Pavarti's nude attempts to draw him over to her side, he stuck with his alliance and smartly they eliminated Pavarti, who was much more of a threat psychologically and physically than Adam could even begin to be.
Sunday is the season finale with 3 tribal councils and 3 people in the final voting. Should be interesting.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Bowling with Asses
I wonder if it’s possible to create a bowling league that does not allow whining…
Seems like every year there are one or two jackasses that seem to ruin the league for everyone else. They flip off the pins, they kick the ball return, they yell when others are bowling; it’s just plain annoying and it causes confrontations every time someone tries to get them to stop.
It happened in the league we used to be in. One drunk SOB would cause all sorts of grief every week till I asked him to stop. Then all hell breaks loose with him threatening to fight our entire team (classy) and it ends with ME being put on probation with the threat of our team getting kicked out of the league if we didn’t behave. What a joke. So, we left and went to a new bowling alley and joined an existing league and for a few years everything was fine. Until last year when we had many of these types of confrontations that included one guy threatening to beat up our league secretary, calling him a 4-eyed gimp and other assorted pleasantries. His team ended up quitting the league in mid-season, but then others started taking over the roll of ass-munch and things haven’t gotten any better this year.
Now I’m thinking we should quit this league and find a better one but is it that easy? Maybe we could start a new league and make everyone that wants to join go through a personality screening process before being allowed in and special rules in place that allow us to boot anyone that acts like a jerk-wad. Ah, that would be nice.
The other league I’m in is a company league where everyone is super friendly to each other and there is no poor sportsmanship on anyone’s part. Opposing teams congratulate each other on good shots, it’s very pleasant. Why can’t they all be like that?
As for the actual bowling last night… as much as I hate to blame my scores on the lanes, I really have no choice but to do just that for last night. The lanes were terrible and everyone on our pair struggled. I fought my way to my lowest series in many, many, many years with a 158, 150 and 195 for a 503. Pretty pathetic and a whopping 127 pins under my average. And that was high on our team and we still won 2 of 3 games. Turns out after we were done they were going to strip our lanes and redo them. Apparently they knew they were crap already but didn’t bother to do anything about it ahead of time. It got so bad that going into the 10th frame of the 2nd game I had only 2 strikes in 19 frames. Usually I’d have about 14…. I think I ended up with 7 or 8 for the night.
Seems like every year there are one or two jackasses that seem to ruin the league for everyone else. They flip off the pins, they kick the ball return, they yell when others are bowling; it’s just plain annoying and it causes confrontations every time someone tries to get them to stop.
It happened in the league we used to be in. One drunk SOB would cause all sorts of grief every week till I asked him to stop. Then all hell breaks loose with him threatening to fight our entire team (classy) and it ends with ME being put on probation with the threat of our team getting kicked out of the league if we didn’t behave. What a joke. So, we left and went to a new bowling alley and joined an existing league and for a few years everything was fine. Until last year when we had many of these types of confrontations that included one guy threatening to beat up our league secretary, calling him a 4-eyed gimp and other assorted pleasantries. His team ended up quitting the league in mid-season, but then others started taking over the roll of ass-munch and things haven’t gotten any better this year.
Now I’m thinking we should quit this league and find a better one but is it that easy? Maybe we could start a new league and make everyone that wants to join go through a personality screening process before being allowed in and special rules in place that allow us to boot anyone that acts like a jerk-wad. Ah, that would be nice.
The other league I’m in is a company league where everyone is super friendly to each other and there is no poor sportsmanship on anyone’s part. Opposing teams congratulate each other on good shots, it’s very pleasant. Why can’t they all be like that?
As for the actual bowling last night… as much as I hate to blame my scores on the lanes, I really have no choice but to do just that for last night. The lanes were terrible and everyone on our pair struggled. I fought my way to my lowest series in many, many, many years with a 158, 150 and 195 for a 503. Pretty pathetic and a whopping 127 pins under my average. And that was high on our team and we still won 2 of 3 games. Turns out after we were done they were going to strip our lanes and redo them. Apparently they knew they were crap already but didn’t bother to do anything about it ahead of time. It got so bad that going into the 10th frame of the 2nd game I had only 2 strikes in 19 frames. Usually I’d have about 14…. I think I ended up with 7 or 8 for the night.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
What is that smell???
So I'm driving to work yesterday and as the car heats up I start to smell something burning. Of course, my first thought is I'm overheating, but it's cold and it's a 10 minute drive so it can't be that. I park and get out and I can smell something burning under the hood. Knowing I can't do anything at work I ignore it and go inside.
After work I wonder if it's going to happen again and sure enough as I get close to home (and the car heats up) I start to smell it again. I park in the garage and take a whiff of the hood as I go by into the house. Quickly I change into jeans and a sweatshirt and head back out to figure it out.
I pop open the hood and grab a flashlight and start looking around and there it is, the source of the smell... a dead mouse lying belly up on the manifold. Good grief, I guess he crawled in there to commit suicide. I pried him off (he was a little stiff and stuck to the manifold) and tossed him, thinking that should do it.
This morning I'm driving in and as I get close to work again I start to smell that burning again! Now I'm thinking either I left some fur stuck to the manifold or an entire family of mice has crawled in there and committed a Jonestown group suicide in my engine compartment. Looks like I have some more looking to do tonight. :(
After work I wonder if it's going to happen again and sure enough as I get close to home (and the car heats up) I start to smell it again. I park in the garage and take a whiff of the hood as I go by into the house. Quickly I change into jeans and a sweatshirt and head back out to figure it out.
I pop open the hood and grab a flashlight and start looking around and there it is, the source of the smell... a dead mouse lying belly up on the manifold. Good grief, I guess he crawled in there to commit suicide. I pried him off (he was a little stiff and stuck to the manifold) and tossed him, thinking that should do it.
This morning I'm driving in and as I get close to work again I start to smell that burning again! Now I'm thinking either I left some fur stuck to the manifold or an entire family of mice has crawled in there and committed a Jonestown group suicide in my engine compartment. Looks like I have some more looking to do tonight. :(
Friday, December 08, 2006
Jonathan gets the axe
I was one vote off for Jonathan getting voted out. He finally wore out his welcome and was sent home but not before demanding someone return his hat. No idea what that was about. I knew it was coming and everyone seemed very happy to have him gone.
Once again Ozzie showed his swimming and balance superiority and crushed the rest of the field in the immunity challenge. This kid reminds me a lot of Rob from all-stars when he would dominate in the challenges the same way. Gonna be tough to knock him off, though it looks like his tribemates are starting to realize they may have to try to get rid of him as soon as they can (duh).
Bowling last night was more of the same. 245, 216, 208 for 669. Funny thing is I'm getting disappointed with these scores, starting to expect much more.
Once again Ozzie showed his swimming and balance superiority and crushed the rest of the field in the immunity challenge. This kid reminds me a lot of Rob from all-stars when he would dominate in the challenges the same way. Gonna be tough to knock him off, though it looks like his tribemates are starting to realize they may have to try to get rid of him as soon as they can (duh).
Bowling last night was more of the same. 245, 216, 208 for 669. Funny thing is I'm getting disappointed with these scores, starting to expect much more.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Damn 10 pin
Almost got 300 number 2 last night, except for that stupid 10 pin.
The first game I struggled the first 5 frames before getting locked in. I ended up getting the last 5 strikes for a 215 and the 2nd game continued from there. I had the first 6 strikes when the lanes attempted to ice me.
Bowler before me is going up to bowl when the lane breaks down. Just completely shuts off and it takes them a good 5 minutes to fix it. He bowls then it's my turn, only the 7 pin fell over when the rack set the pins. Someone resets and it does it again. I try it one more time and same thing. There's a pin stuck in the rack that is causing the 7 pin to sit down sideways... We have to call that in again and once more I wait, thinking, wow, they really are trying to ice me.
Finally, the guy climbs in there, wrenches the pin out of the rack and restarts the setter and we're good to go. I go up on the lane and 2 steps into my approach a very loud booming voice comes on the intercom saying "Hey everyone, this is Billy from JJO. Be sure to come into the bar after bowling to have a Bud and see the JJO girls!" I'm in the middle of my approach and am thinking "christ, what the fuck dude?" but I keep going and somehow I manage to get a strike, pretty much to everyone's amazement. One guy was waiting for me to miss and go bezerk. I was able to laugh it off and keep going.
Strikes in the 8th and 9th have me set up for the 10th. First ball is right there for number 10. I'm getting a little nervous but hey, I've been there before, no biggy. I take a deep breath and let the 11th one go. It's right there, kaboom! 10 pin. Not even a wiggle. 6 pin goes whipping around it like an ex-con going past a donut shop. I pick up the spare for 289.
Had to fight hard the 3rd game for a 202 and 706 (my 4th 700 this year) as the oil dried up dramatically.
Back to Dream Lanes tonight to see if I can keep up my 225 average there. My last 5 series overall have been 652, 662, 670, 667 and 706 for a 223 average, all with the new ball.
The first game I struggled the first 5 frames before getting locked in. I ended up getting the last 5 strikes for a 215 and the 2nd game continued from there. I had the first 6 strikes when the lanes attempted to ice me.
Bowler before me is going up to bowl when the lane breaks down. Just completely shuts off and it takes them a good 5 minutes to fix it. He bowls then it's my turn, only the 7 pin fell over when the rack set the pins. Someone resets and it does it again. I try it one more time and same thing. There's a pin stuck in the rack that is causing the 7 pin to sit down sideways... We have to call that in again and once more I wait, thinking, wow, they really are trying to ice me.
Finally, the guy climbs in there, wrenches the pin out of the rack and restarts the setter and we're good to go. I go up on the lane and 2 steps into my approach a very loud booming voice comes on the intercom saying "Hey everyone, this is Billy from JJO. Be sure to come into the bar after bowling to have a Bud and see the JJO girls!" I'm in the middle of my approach and am thinking "christ, what the fuck dude?" but I keep going and somehow I manage to get a strike, pretty much to everyone's amazement. One guy was waiting for me to miss and go bezerk. I was able to laugh it off and keep going.
Strikes in the 8th and 9th have me set up for the 10th. First ball is right there for number 10. I'm getting a little nervous but hey, I've been there before, no biggy. I take a deep breath and let the 11th one go. It's right there, kaboom! 10 pin. Not even a wiggle. 6 pin goes whipping around it like an ex-con going past a donut shop. I pick up the spare for 289.
Had to fight hard the 3rd game for a 202 and 706 (my 4th 700 this year) as the oil dried up dramatically.
Back to Dream Lanes tonight to see if I can keep up my 225 average there. My last 5 series overall have been 652, 662, 670, 667 and 706 for a 223 average, all with the new ball.
Monday, December 04, 2006
Writing 101
I finally had a nice relaxing weekend, laying around watching movies, football, etc. It was nice to finally unwind, especially entering the busy holiday season where you never seem to be able to catch your breath.
After watching a couple movies (Benchwarmers and Brick) and then a horrible Packer game I decided I would finally start writing a story that's been in my head for a long time.
Back in the summer of '85 I worked on my uncle's shrimp boat and there were enough interesting things that happened that I always meant to write it and see how it read. I whipped out 4 pages very quickly. Amazing how the words just flew out on their own. I'm sure it reads like shit, but that's what editing is for. We'll see if I can keep up the momentum I had yesterday.
I had to stop writing because it was time to go play hockey! We had a rematch of game 1 where we lost 6-1. They have 2 players that can dominate so it took a total team effort to win 4-2 this time.
Saturday night was bowling. Once again I gagged a fairly easy 700 by blowing the 10th frame of the 2nd and 3rd games, ending up with a 667. I really do like the way the new ball is working. It seems to handle the oil very well. We won all 7 points too and are now back in the mix, maybe as high as 3rd place now.
After watching a couple movies (Benchwarmers and Brick) and then a horrible Packer game I decided I would finally start writing a story that's been in my head for a long time.
Back in the summer of '85 I worked on my uncle's shrimp boat and there were enough interesting things that happened that I always meant to write it and see how it read. I whipped out 4 pages very quickly. Amazing how the words just flew out on their own. I'm sure it reads like shit, but that's what editing is for. We'll see if I can keep up the momentum I had yesterday.
I had to stop writing because it was time to go play hockey! We had a rematch of game 1 where we lost 6-1. They have 2 players that can dominate so it took a total team effort to win 4-2 this time.
Saturday night was bowling. Once again I gagged a fairly easy 700 by blowing the 10th frame of the 2nd and 3rd games, ending up with a 667. I really do like the way the new ball is working. It seems to handle the oil very well. We won all 7 points too and are now back in the mix, maybe as high as 3rd place now.
Friday, December 01, 2006
Ok, so I was wrong
Jonathan managed to survive another vote as his group decided it was time for Candace to go instead. I really thought, even down to the end, that they would get rid of him so Yul would be more popular with the jury. He's still not long for this game, but who knows now. They always do something I don't understand. Like in the reward challenge where they had $500 to bid on food, most of them just sat there waiting for the one thing they wanted and ended up with nothing. Have they never seen this show before? Jonathan was actually the only smart one in that whole thing as he had a hotdog, fries, beer and a whole peperoni pizza, along with mouthwash and toothpaste. Then they get mad at Jonathan because he got all that stuff. What a bunch of idiots.
In bowling last night I managed to blow a fairly easy 700 series by going 257, 221 and only a 192 the last game for 670. The oil started to move farther down the lane so I ended up having to move right to get the ball back to the pocket. Struggled the first 5 frames including missing a spare and leaving a big split on the next ball. Recovered slightly or it would have been worse. I'm going to be bowling regularly with a team in that league for the next couple months, filling in for a bowler that had ankle surgery. I lowered my average again, but only from 226 to 225.
I did manage to pocket $14 from the lanes. They have a contest where you can bet anywhere from $0.25 to $5.00 per game and you have to get strikes in certain frames to win. I bet $2 per game. With my average I had to get a mark in the first, then strikes in the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th. First game I went X X, then a split in the 3rd. Then strikes until the 10th when I left a 10 pin. 2nd game I went / / X X / X X / X X / only getting strikes in the frames I needed to and won $20. 3rd game wasn't even close. Guy on my team with a 130 average won $30 (bet $3 per game). He only had to have a spare in the 3rd and 6th and a strike in the 9th to win. He did it in the first game, said he's pretty much won every week. It's like they're paying you to bowl!
In Madison today we're on the edge of that huge snow storm that's crushing the midwest. We're expected to just get a couple inches, but the wind and very fine snow will make conditions trecherous for driving. It was pretty slow coming in, but luckily many people are just staying home. The snow is much worse to the south and east of us.
That's it for Friday, have a good weekend.
In bowling last night I managed to blow a fairly easy 700 series by going 257, 221 and only a 192 the last game for 670. The oil started to move farther down the lane so I ended up having to move right to get the ball back to the pocket. Struggled the first 5 frames including missing a spare and leaving a big split on the next ball. Recovered slightly or it would have been worse. I'm going to be bowling regularly with a team in that league for the next couple months, filling in for a bowler that had ankle surgery. I lowered my average again, but only from 226 to 225.
I did manage to pocket $14 from the lanes. They have a contest where you can bet anywhere from $0.25 to $5.00 per game and you have to get strikes in certain frames to win. I bet $2 per game. With my average I had to get a mark in the first, then strikes in the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th. First game I went X X, then a split in the 3rd. Then strikes until the 10th when I left a 10 pin. 2nd game I went / / X X / X X / X X / only getting strikes in the frames I needed to and won $20. 3rd game wasn't even close. Guy on my team with a 130 average won $30 (bet $3 per game). He only had to have a spare in the 3rd and 6th and a strike in the 9th to win. He did it in the first game, said he's pretty much won every week. It's like they're paying you to bowl!
In Madison today we're on the edge of that huge snow storm that's crushing the midwest. We're expected to just get a couple inches, but the wind and very fine snow will make conditions trecherous for driving. It was pretty slow coming in, but luckily many people are just staying home. The snow is much worse to the south and east of us.
That's it for Friday, have a good weekend.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Jonathan's Survivor Screw Up
I totally forgot to talk about TV from last week!
Survivor last week featured a 2nd completely bonehead move from Jonathan. This guy is a goner this week for sure. Here’s the scenario and how he fucked up in my opinion.
He’s already done the mutiny thing to piss off his original tribe, which was a huge mistake. Now they’ve merged and he’s not really accepted in his new tribe but they have a 5-4 advantage. He is approached by Ule about switching back to his original tribe. Ule suggests he has the individual immunity idol and would that make a difference.
In the end Jonathan is told by Ule that he has the idol and he is convinced he needs to align himself with the person that has the idol in order to advance. Technically, that’s decent thinking, so he switches and Nate is voted out.
But, what he failed to realize is that he has now betrayed every single person and has no chance of ever winning. Plus, he’s the 5th person on his new tribe. There is no way he’s not voted out tonight. They don’t need him for numbers now; it’ll still be 4-3 without him.
The one thing he should have done, but I guess it didn’t occur to him, was to tell his new tribemates that Ule has the idol and they should vote for someone else. This would have had the effect of ingratiating himself to his new tribe, plus keep their numbers up. He is already hated by his old tribe so it wouldn’t have made it any worse. As it stands now he’s pretty much screwed. I see a 7-1 vote tonight against him.
Survivor last week featured a 2nd completely bonehead move from Jonathan. This guy is a goner this week for sure. Here’s the scenario and how he fucked up in my opinion.
He’s already done the mutiny thing to piss off his original tribe, which was a huge mistake. Now they’ve merged and he’s not really accepted in his new tribe but they have a 5-4 advantage. He is approached by Ule about switching back to his original tribe. Ule suggests he has the individual immunity idol and would that make a difference.
In the end Jonathan is told by Ule that he has the idol and he is convinced he needs to align himself with the person that has the idol in order to advance. Technically, that’s decent thinking, so he switches and Nate is voted out.
But, what he failed to realize is that he has now betrayed every single person and has no chance of ever winning. Plus, he’s the 5th person on his new tribe. There is no way he’s not voted out tonight. They don’t need him for numbers now; it’ll still be 4-3 without him.
The one thing he should have done, but I guess it didn’t occur to him, was to tell his new tribemates that Ule has the idol and they should vote for someone else. This would have had the effect of ingratiating himself to his new tribe, plus keep their numbers up. He is already hated by his old tribe so it wouldn’t have made it any worse. As it stands now he’s pretty much screwed. I see a 7-1 vote tonight against him.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Fire! Fire!
Wow, what a wild last 5 days...
Let's just get this fire business out of the way first.
For Thanksgiving we cooked a 23 lb turkey in a flimsy aluminum roaster pan. When it came time to take it out I failed to notice that it was full to the top with turkey juices. And being a flimsy ass pan it buckled when I went to take it out spilling juice/grease all over the oven, floor, counter, cabinets, etc. What a freakin' mess. Took me forever to clean up the floor so it wasn't a skating rink.
Fast forward to Sunday. Having forgotten to clean out the bottom of the oven of all the turkey juice, Cdubya decided to cook up some jalepano poppers. After a bout of smoke in the house I thought we should run the self cleaner. Ok, for those playing at home, this is an EXTREMELY BAD IDEA. With the extreme temperatures created by the cleaning mode the turkey grease ignited! With smoke filling the house I grabbed the fire extinguisher and was about to open the door when I realized that would be a very bad idea. Cdubya was out the back door yelling for me to call the fire department.
I dialed 911 and, since it was a Sunday with nothing going on and no Packer game, we had 4 squad cars at the house within a minute. Followed closely by a fire truck, then another 10 minutes later.
I had shut off the breaker and the fire went out but the oven was still full of smoke. The firefighters smartly decided they would carry the oven outside and open it there so the house wouldn't be filled with even more smoke. Everything turned out fine but of course nosey neighbors everywhere wondering who was dying, etc.
I went out and bought a new stove yesterday, we were looking to upgrade at some point anyway, this just rushed it a little. Here's a picture of the oven afterwards.
Backing up a bit, Friday went golfing and played ok. Shot 89 (45/44) but should have been better. Parred 5 holes on the back including 4 in a row, going into the 17th hole (480 yard par 5) and I bombed my drive 300 yards and was just in the rough, about 180 out, downhill. I decided to hit 5 iron because of the rough but should have hit a 6. I one hopped over the green onto a mound where I proceeded to flub 2 chips before 3 putting for a 7. Oh well, it was November 24th after all.
Saturday was my 2nd poker party. 7 guys, played from 5pm till almost 1am. I ended up losing $20. Would have won if we hadn't played any lowball games. Those screwed me over and over. I did have a royal flush in Omaha, my new favorite game.
Sunday morning I had to get up early to bowl in a charity 9-pin tap tournament at 9am. Ended up only missing twice, getting an 8 in the 4th frame of game 1 and another 8 in the 5th frame of game 3. Had 24 strikes in a row up to that point. Ended up shooting 278, 300, 264 for 842. Didn't matter, it was all for charity, scores didn't matter. It was to raise money for a long time bowler who has 2 brain tumors and only was given a couple weeks to live.
After bowling I noticed I had quite a sore throat that wasn't going away. It seemed to get worse as the day went on, then we had the big fire thing and after that was done I had to go to hockey. It was a pretty good game as we played the number 1 team pretty evenly until the 3rd period when they got 2 lucky bounces off our skates into the goal and then scored on a 3 on 2 that was way offside and not called. Ended up losing 6-3.
I got up Monday morning and my sore throat was even worse and now coughing. I took the day off to rest but had to go buy a new stove too. Got one from the Brothers Main and took it home and hooked it up that afternoon with Dr. Mike's help getting it into the house.
I'm home sick again today, trying to do some work. Since I'm in a small closet with 7 other guys I didn't think it would be good to go in and make them all sick.
As for the Packers/Seahawks game last night... I'm still pissed about that roughing the passer call on Chris Jenkins. That was a horrible call and may have cost them the game as it was 3rd down and the Packers would have gotten the ball back but instead Seattle got a first down and eventually scored to give them a 10 point lead.
Oh well, they didn't really deserve to win anyway since they couldn't stop Shawn Alexander at all. Weird since they usually have a good run defense and a poor pass defense.
Ok, that's plenty for now.
Later
Let's just get this fire business out of the way first.
For Thanksgiving we cooked a 23 lb turkey in a flimsy aluminum roaster pan. When it came time to take it out I failed to notice that it was full to the top with turkey juices. And being a flimsy ass pan it buckled when I went to take it out spilling juice/grease all over the oven, floor, counter, cabinets, etc. What a freakin' mess. Took me forever to clean up the floor so it wasn't a skating rink.
Fast forward to Sunday. Having forgotten to clean out the bottom of the oven of all the turkey juice, Cdubya decided to cook up some jalepano poppers. After a bout of smoke in the house I thought we should run the self cleaner. Ok, for those playing at home, this is an EXTREMELY BAD IDEA. With the extreme temperatures created by the cleaning mode the turkey grease ignited! With smoke filling the house I grabbed the fire extinguisher and was about to open the door when I realized that would be a very bad idea. Cdubya was out the back door yelling for me to call the fire department.
I dialed 911 and, since it was a Sunday with nothing going on and no Packer game, we had 4 squad cars at the house within a minute. Followed closely by a fire truck, then another 10 minutes later.
I had shut off the breaker and the fire went out but the oven was still full of smoke. The firefighters smartly decided they would carry the oven outside and open it there so the house wouldn't be filled with even more smoke. Everything turned out fine but of course nosey neighbors everywhere wondering who was dying, etc.
I went out and bought a new stove yesterday, we were looking to upgrade at some point anyway, this just rushed it a little. Here's a picture of the oven afterwards.
Backing up a bit, Friday went golfing and played ok. Shot 89 (45/44) but should have been better. Parred 5 holes on the back including 4 in a row, going into the 17th hole (480 yard par 5) and I bombed my drive 300 yards and was just in the rough, about 180 out, downhill. I decided to hit 5 iron because of the rough but should have hit a 6. I one hopped over the green onto a mound where I proceeded to flub 2 chips before 3 putting for a 7. Oh well, it was November 24th after all.
Saturday was my 2nd poker party. 7 guys, played from 5pm till almost 1am. I ended up losing $20. Would have won if we hadn't played any lowball games. Those screwed me over and over. I did have a royal flush in Omaha, my new favorite game.
Sunday morning I had to get up early to bowl in a charity 9-pin tap tournament at 9am. Ended up only missing twice, getting an 8 in the 4th frame of game 1 and another 8 in the 5th frame of game 3. Had 24 strikes in a row up to that point. Ended up shooting 278, 300, 264 for 842. Didn't matter, it was all for charity, scores didn't matter. It was to raise money for a long time bowler who has 2 brain tumors and only was given a couple weeks to live.
After bowling I noticed I had quite a sore throat that wasn't going away. It seemed to get worse as the day went on, then we had the big fire thing and after that was done I had to go to hockey. It was a pretty good game as we played the number 1 team pretty evenly until the 3rd period when they got 2 lucky bounces off our skates into the goal and then scored on a 3 on 2 that was way offside and not called. Ended up losing 6-3.
I got up Monday morning and my sore throat was even worse and now coughing. I took the day off to rest but had to go buy a new stove too. Got one from the Brothers Main and took it home and hooked it up that afternoon with Dr. Mike's help getting it into the house.
I'm home sick again today, trying to do some work. Since I'm in a small closet with 7 other guys I didn't think it would be good to go in and make them all sick.
As for the Packers/Seahawks game last night... I'm still pissed about that roughing the passer call on Chris Jenkins. That was a horrible call and may have cost them the game as it was 3rd down and the Packers would have gotten the ball back but instead Seattle got a first down and eventually scored to give them a 10 point lead.
Oh well, they didn't really deserve to win anyway since they couldn't stop Shawn Alexander at all. Weird since they usually have a good run defense and a poor pass defense.
Ok, that's plenty for now.
Later
Monday, November 20, 2006
Short handed hockey and the Texas Roadshack
It's deer hunting time in Wisconsin and that left us with only 8 guys (of 14) for hockey last night, playing against a team equally short handed but loaded with their best players. It was basically run and shoot hockey with end to end rushes the entire game. I've never been that tired from playing defense before, it was wild. We ended up winning 8-5 with 4 3rd period goals, pretty fun.
Saturday night was couples league bowling. I did ok, missed a few spares though. Shot 662 (235, 192, 233). Funniest thing was Grinder and their team, the Pinguins (you know penguins but with "pin" in it instead). They made themselves bowling shirts with little penguins shaped like pins and I think they were wearing boxing gloves, not sure what that meant. Anyway, the whole team bowled terribly the first game but Grinder took the prize with a whopping 113 game. Here's a guy with a 185 or so average and he throws 6 splits and misses a couple spares and has just an awful, awful game. Of course, I took the opportunity to laugh at him as much as I could (that's how I roll).
Next thing you know he's got a string of strikes going but I can't really tell what he's doing since he's 6 lanes down. He comes over after the 2nd game and says "I have high game" and I was kind of like "huh, what?" He says 289, which somehow translates to 129 in my mind so he has to say it about 6 times before it dawns on me that he had a 289 game. Spared the first and struck 2-11 before leaving a 9 on the last ball. Pretty good! Not a 300 or anything but still.... :)
He finishes out with a 253 or something for 655. Good save, but sheesh, a 160 the first game and he has 700. I put down his scores for the paper but for some reason they didn't report them. Bummer.
After bowling we decided to try out the new Texas Roadhouse restaurant that's been open for about a month. I called ahead for a table and we got right in around 8:45. That was about the only thing that went right.
To start, they ran out of silverware so we didn't get any when we were seated. Apparently this will lead to a large amount of confusion for the waitresses since they are not trained to bring you any. Steerike one.
We order and 3 of us get a salad. Cdubya orders filet medallions. The waitress comes back a few minutes later and states that they are out of the medallions. So, she orders the filet instead. Steerike two.
Then they bring out my salad, but no one elses, and we still have no silverware. We remind the waitress for the 4th time about this as I just stare at my salad. 5 minutes later the other salads come out. The waitress can't remember who had which and screws that up. We still have no silverware. Steerike three.
Finally, someone else brings us silverware and then our waitress does too so we have double. Our food finally arrives, again she gives everyone the wrong food and they screw up Cdubya's mashed potatoes but putting a bunch of stuff on it after she said she didn't want it. Steerike four.
We start to eat, Cdubya realizes it is not the filet but a tough piece of sirloin with whip marks on it. At this point the waitress comes back and says "I think I messed up your order." We all agree. She takes it away and says the filet will be right out. It shows up about the time we're all finishing up. Steerike five.
I had the filet as well and it was about as bad a piece of steak as I've ever had. No taste, thin, bland, pathetic. Cdubya eats about 3 bites and gives up. They took it off the bill, thank god. Oh, then the kicker. It was $18.95. I gave her a $20. She gave me $1.06 back. $1.06? What the hell, is math that hard? I left it for her tip. Steerike six.
One more batter and I would have struck out the side.
We won't be back.
Saturday night was couples league bowling. I did ok, missed a few spares though. Shot 662 (235, 192, 233). Funniest thing was Grinder and their team, the Pinguins (you know penguins but with "pin" in it instead). They made themselves bowling shirts with little penguins shaped like pins and I think they were wearing boxing gloves, not sure what that meant. Anyway, the whole team bowled terribly the first game but Grinder took the prize with a whopping 113 game. Here's a guy with a 185 or so average and he throws 6 splits and misses a couple spares and has just an awful, awful game. Of course, I took the opportunity to laugh at him as much as I could (that's how I roll).
Next thing you know he's got a string of strikes going but I can't really tell what he's doing since he's 6 lanes down. He comes over after the 2nd game and says "I have high game" and I was kind of like "huh, what?" He says 289, which somehow translates to 129 in my mind so he has to say it about 6 times before it dawns on me that he had a 289 game. Spared the first and struck 2-11 before leaving a 9 on the last ball. Pretty good! Not a 300 or anything but still.... :)
He finishes out with a 253 or something for 655. Good save, but sheesh, a 160 the first game and he has 700. I put down his scores for the paper but for some reason they didn't report them. Bummer.
After bowling we decided to try out the new Texas Roadhouse restaurant that's been open for about a month. I called ahead for a table and we got right in around 8:45. That was about the only thing that went right.
To start, they ran out of silverware so we didn't get any when we were seated. Apparently this will lead to a large amount of confusion for the waitresses since they are not trained to bring you any. Steerike one.
We order and 3 of us get a salad. Cdubya orders filet medallions. The waitress comes back a few minutes later and states that they are out of the medallions. So, she orders the filet instead. Steerike two.
Then they bring out my salad, but no one elses, and we still have no silverware. We remind the waitress for the 4th time about this as I just stare at my salad. 5 minutes later the other salads come out. The waitress can't remember who had which and screws that up. We still have no silverware. Steerike three.
Finally, someone else brings us silverware and then our waitress does too so we have double. Our food finally arrives, again she gives everyone the wrong food and they screw up Cdubya's mashed potatoes but putting a bunch of stuff on it after she said she didn't want it. Steerike four.
We start to eat, Cdubya realizes it is not the filet but a tough piece of sirloin with whip marks on it. At this point the waitress comes back and says "I think I messed up your order." We all agree. She takes it away and says the filet will be right out. It shows up about the time we're all finishing up. Steerike five.
I had the filet as well and it was about as bad a piece of steak as I've ever had. No taste, thin, bland, pathetic. Cdubya eats about 3 bites and gives up. They took it off the bill, thank god. Oh, then the kicker. It was $18.95. I gave her a $20. She gave me $1.06 back. $1.06? What the hell, is math that hard? I left it for her tip. Steerike six.
One more batter and I would have struck out the side.
We won't be back.
Friday, November 17, 2006
PS3 day!
Is everyone out trying to get a PS3 today? Not me, I'm not the type that runs right out and buys the latest technological gadget... wait... bwahahahah, yes I am.
But not this one. I will buy it eventually, but I'm not willing to camp out for a week for a slim chance of getting one of the first buggy ones. I'll wait till they've been out for a while first, maybe next spring.
Bowled a little better last night. A couple shots cost me 700, instead having to settle for 652. It wasn't a horrible night but made enough mistakes. On the bright side, my 300 game ring arrived yesterday, pretty frickin' huge.
Survivor was pretty awesome again last night. If you haven't watched it, stop here.
Once again the "victims" of the mutiny last week dominated both the challenges as the bigger tribe just argued and self-destructed. So, instead of getting rid of one of the 2 newbies in the tribe (the mutineers) Rebecca was given the boot, which was probably smart since she did nothing to help them. Then in an odd twist they had to open a bottle after she left and read a note they were given at the immunity challenge. It said "you will now vote off a 2nd person." They were shocked (expecting something to do with a merge) and upset. They were given no time to discuss it and had to vote right and Jenny ended up getting booted, which made her about as mad as anyone I've ever seen after a vote. All makes for great tv!
Have a great weekend.
But not this one. I will buy it eventually, but I'm not willing to camp out for a week for a slim chance of getting one of the first buggy ones. I'll wait till they've been out for a while first, maybe next spring.
Bowled a little better last night. A couple shots cost me 700, instead having to settle for 652. It wasn't a horrible night but made enough mistakes. On the bright side, my 300 game ring arrived yesterday, pretty frickin' huge.
Survivor was pretty awesome again last night. If you haven't watched it, stop here.
Once again the "victims" of the mutiny last week dominated both the challenges as the bigger tribe just argued and self-destructed. So, instead of getting rid of one of the 2 newbies in the tribe (the mutineers) Rebecca was given the boot, which was probably smart since she did nothing to help them. Then in an odd twist they had to open a bottle after she left and read a note they were given at the immunity challenge. It said "you will now vote off a 2nd person." They were shocked (expecting something to do with a merge) and upset. They were given no time to discuss it and had to vote right and Jenny ended up getting booted, which made her about as mad as anyone I've ever seen after a vote. All makes for great tv!
Have a great weekend.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Bowling with new balls
Heheh, I think the title is funny...
Anyway, bowled with the newly acquired bowling balls last night. Grinder named my new spare ball "Wildfire" because it's so weird looking. I don't have a name for the other one yet, will have to come up with something. I like my balls having names besides "right" and "left". :)
I struggled a bit with playing a new, deeper inside line for awhile. Never really got a good consistent shot going and only shot 611. We managed to win 5 of 7 against the first place team though. Grinder has a funny story about "Jerk-boy" in our league in his post today, be sure to read that, or not, I don't care...
I'm bowling again tonight, we'll see if I can't do a little better.
On the iPod front, I'm in the process of ripping my Band of Brothers dvd's to mpeg4 for my iPod, taking a little time. Video quality on the iPod is excellent.
I took the iPod to bowling last night and let Korey play the mini-golf game I downloaded from iTunes. I've played it 3 times and best I did was -2. He plays it once without practice and no idea what he's doing and shoots -11. Jackass...
Anyway, bowled with the newly acquired bowling balls last night. Grinder named my new spare ball "Wildfire" because it's so weird looking. I don't have a name for the other one yet, will have to come up with something. I like my balls having names besides "right" and "left". :)
I struggled a bit with playing a new, deeper inside line for awhile. Never really got a good consistent shot going and only shot 611. We managed to win 5 of 7 against the first place team though. Grinder has a funny story about "Jerk-boy" in our league in his post today, be sure to read that, or not, I don't care...
I'm bowling again tonight, we'll see if I can't do a little better.
On the iPod front, I'm in the process of ripping my Band of Brothers dvd's to mpeg4 for my iPod, taking a little time. Video quality on the iPod is excellent.
I took the iPod to bowling last night and let Korey play the mini-golf game I downloaded from iTunes. I've played it 3 times and best I did was -2. He plays it once without practice and no idea what he's doing and shoots -11. Jackass...
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Upper Cut from Bobby
Bobby Knight has done it again. This time a short upper cut to a Texas Tech player who was not looking him in the eye. It was effective too. Is this it for him or is this just another on a long line of things that draws uproar but nothing happens to him? Personally, I don't think it was that big of a deal. The kid isn't hurt but Bobby probably overstepped his bounds in striking the kid. How would I feel if it was my son getting hit? I'm not sure since I don't have any kids. I'm all for discipline so I probably would be on Bobby's side if I thought my kid was not doing what he was told. How would you feel?
I forgot to mention I bought a new toy (yes, another one) on Saturday. Got an 80 gb iPod video. It's awesome. I put all our music (4,428 songs), 400 photos, a dozen tv shows and a movie on it and I still have 55 gb free! I also found some software called HandBrake for the Mac that allows me to copy dvd's to mpeg4 format in a size for the iPod (320x240). I did a Seinfeld episode in about 20 minutes and the movie Cars in about 2 hours. Not exactly fast but about as long as it takes to play the movie. Quality is excellent. The software is free.
Took my new bowling ball to Rob Bailey last night to get drilled. First we spent about 90 minutes going over what I was looking for it to do and discussing alternate balls but in the end it came back to just going with that ball. He polished it first to make it slide farther down before hooking. The other thing he did was to change the pitch of the hole for my middle finger that I have arthritis in to alieve the pain. I'll be damned, it didn't hurt at all. The guy is a wizard. The ball worked just how I wanted it. I could go way deep inside, standing at the far left and throwing it over 4th arrow and it would slide way down then snap into the pocket and destroy the pins. Can't wait till tomorrow. I also bought a spare ball, a 14 lb Columbia White Dot that won't hook much to use shooting 10 pins. Since I needed something to carry all these I also bought a 3-ball wheeled bag. Unfortunately I didn't get out of there till 8:30, a full hour after I told Cdubya I'd be home and 2 1/2 hours after I'd arrived there, so my dinner was a touch cold....
Fox cancelled another show on me. Justice was on Monday nights until yesterday, now it's gone. I enjoyed it, so it figures it is gone. In fact, I brought up the guide to check around 5:00 last night and it showed Justice briefly then changed to House right before my eyes. Oh well, I was watching too many shows anyway.
Later!
I forgot to mention I bought a new toy (yes, another one) on Saturday. Got an 80 gb iPod video. It's awesome. I put all our music (4,428 songs), 400 photos, a dozen tv shows and a movie on it and I still have 55 gb free! I also found some software called HandBrake for the Mac that allows me to copy dvd's to mpeg4 format in a size for the iPod (320x240). I did a Seinfeld episode in about 20 minutes and the movie Cars in about 2 hours. Not exactly fast but about as long as it takes to play the movie. Quality is excellent. The software is free.
Took my new bowling ball to Rob Bailey last night to get drilled. First we spent about 90 minutes going over what I was looking for it to do and discussing alternate balls but in the end it came back to just going with that ball. He polished it first to make it slide farther down before hooking. The other thing he did was to change the pitch of the hole for my middle finger that I have arthritis in to alieve the pain. I'll be damned, it didn't hurt at all. The guy is a wizard. The ball worked just how I wanted it. I could go way deep inside, standing at the far left and throwing it over 4th arrow and it would slide way down then snap into the pocket and destroy the pins. Can't wait till tomorrow. I also bought a spare ball, a 14 lb Columbia White Dot that won't hook much to use shooting 10 pins. Since I needed something to carry all these I also bought a 3-ball wheeled bag. Unfortunately I didn't get out of there till 8:30, a full hour after I told Cdubya I'd be home and 2 1/2 hours after I'd arrived there, so my dinner was a touch cold....
Fox cancelled another show on me. Justice was on Monday nights until yesterday, now it's gone. I enjoyed it, so it figures it is gone. In fact, I brought up the guide to check around 5:00 last night and it showed Justice briefly then changed to House right before my eyes. Oh well, I was watching too many shows anyway.
Later!
Monday, November 13, 2006
Tournament Bowling
I bowled in my first singles tournament in about 15 years on Saturday. It was a $60 buy in with 42 bowlers. 4 games of qualifying, top 12 make the cut for head to head. I was too nervous early, missing easy spares my first two frames en route to a horrible 179 game. I then had a beer... and it helped. I shot 248 and 247 my next game. 4th game I struggled to carry and ended up only having a 204. I ended up with 878 and missed the cut by 31 pins, finishing 19th. If only I'd gotten my average in the first game I would have made it.
Oh well, I did win a new bowling ball in a raffle. It's a Track Solution Power Plus. Not sure about the ball, have to head over to Rob Bailey and get it drilled. I'm looking for something that will carry down a long ways and snap hard on the back. Hopefully he can drill this one to help with that.
Here's the recap of the tourney: http://mast.bowlweb.com/archives/0607/prairie.html
Next one I'll probably bowl in is on December 2nd in McFarland.
In hockey last night we gave up goals on our first 2 shifts but rebounded to dominate the game, winning 5-2. I played D again and did fairly well, nothing spectacular. Had a few good shots and some nice passes.
Oh well, I did win a new bowling ball in a raffle. It's a Track Solution Power Plus. Not sure about the ball, have to head over to Rob Bailey and get it drilled. I'm looking for something that will carry down a long ways and snap hard on the back. Hopefully he can drill this one to help with that.
Here's the recap of the tourney: http://mast.bowlweb.com/archives/0607/prairie.html
Next one I'll probably bowl in is on December 2nd in McFarland.
In hockey last night we gave up goals on our first 2 shifts but rebounded to dominate the game, winning 5-2. I played D again and did fairly well, nothing spectacular. Had a few good shots and some nice passes.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Mutiny!
In a new twist in Survivor last night, they introduced the Mutiny clause. You have 10 seconds to decide. Quit your tribe and join the other or stay put. I assumed no one would do it, but to my amazement, 2 idiots decided to throw the game away and jump ship. Candace first (because she's in love with Adam and wanted to be on his team) followed shortly there-after by perhaps the most idiotic, Jonathan. He seemed to think he needed to stay with Candace, not knowing she really didn't trust him and wanted to get away from him. He basically screwed the pooch on that one. He went from a position of relative safety to being hated by his old tribe and on the bottom rung of the ladder in his new tribe. Nate said it best, that he was a total idiot if he thought they would ever trust him.
Now the tribes sit at 8 to 4. But the 4 left were bonded tightly by the betrayal and they came out smoking winning both the award and immunity challenges and Ozzie has a new life. He will be incredibly difficult to beat in individual immunity and might have gotten voted off had the mutiny not occured. He and Ule played with a vengence and Ozzie even told the others that "Mutineers die first." I loved it.
Luckily for Jonathan the old tribe was still pissed at Brad and wanted him gone first so he gets to play 3 more days but he's definitely next to go on that tribe. For a guy that planned everything well in advance and never made a snap decision, his downfall will be for doing the opposite, a fitting end.
Now the tribes sit at 8 to 4. But the 4 left were bonded tightly by the betrayal and they came out smoking winning both the award and immunity challenges and Ozzie has a new life. He will be incredibly difficult to beat in individual immunity and might have gotten voted off had the mutiny not occured. He and Ule played with a vengence and Ozzie even told the others that "Mutineers die first." I loved it.
Luckily for Jonathan the old tribe was still pissed at Brad and wanted him gone first so he gets to play 3 more days but he's definitely next to go on that tribe. For a guy that planned everything well in advance and never made a snap decision, his downfall will be for doing the opposite, a fitting end.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Hookey
Beautiful day yesterday, so of course I didn’t go to work. I had my new LG front loading washer and dryer delivered in the morning, they are awe… wait for it… some.
After that Retro and I went out to play golf. Kind of windy but 65 on November 8th is not too damn bad. I struggled early, having not played in a few weeks but once I decided to quit trying to swing easy and just hit the fucker hard things came together. I shot 42 on the back with birdies on 16 and 18. I think I’ll quit now, birdie the last hole (had an eagle putt of about 20 feet that just missed), I’ll have that all winter to remember.
Of course, we had several beers as well, which might be why Retro shot 114… but that’s not highly unusual for him anyway.
Went to bowling after that and did ok early, shooting 233 and 226 but fell apart in the 3rd as the oil dried up and I couldn’t get the ball over to the right side, shooting a paltry 139, possibly my worst game in several years, ending up with a 598 series. Just sick… and to make matters worst we only lost that game by about 15 pins.
I’m still planning to try out a tournament Saturday, maybe sober will be the ticket. :)
Later
After that Retro and I went out to play golf. Kind of windy but 65 on November 8th is not too damn bad. I struggled early, having not played in a few weeks but once I decided to quit trying to swing easy and just hit the fucker hard things came together. I shot 42 on the back with birdies on 16 and 18. I think I’ll quit now, birdie the last hole (had an eagle putt of about 20 feet that just missed), I’ll have that all winter to remember.
Of course, we had several beers as well, which might be why Retro shot 114… but that’s not highly unusual for him anyway.
Went to bowling after that and did ok early, shooting 233 and 226 but fell apart in the 3rd as the oil dried up and I couldn’t get the ball over to the right side, shooting a paltry 139, possibly my worst game in several years, ending up with a 598 series. Just sick… and to make matters worst we only lost that game by about 15 pins.
I’m still planning to try out a tournament Saturday, maybe sober will be the ticket. :)
Later
Monday, November 06, 2006
More High Tech Toys for me
We purchased a new washer and dryer Friday night at the Home Depot. We got a top end LG front loader washer and dryer. They are expensive but an incredible upgrade in technology. No more agitator wringing my clothes into knots. The model we have also washes with steam, which is supposed to clean better. It also has a quick steam fresh cycle for quickly removing wrinkles. In addition it uses far less water and soap. Plus it’s way bigger than our current top loader model and can even handle a king sized comforter, which we usually had to take to a laundromat. They will be delivered on Wednesday and they will haul away our old ones.
On Saturday, the Badgers beat Penn State pretty easily, despite the low score. They only inched up to 15 in the BCS standings though. They play hated Iowa this weekend and haven’t beaten them since 2002. They look like a lock for the Capital One bowl on New Years day in Orlando, as the 3rd place finisher in the Big 10.
Couple interesting things in the game. First, at the end of the first half they had 23 seconds left and were kicking off. They sent the entire team 10 yards offsides and smothered the return at the 8 yard line. Of course, Penn State accepted the penalty and forced the Badgers to kick again. They did the exact same thing and this time Penn State had a holding penalty so they had to re-kick. This time they stayed onside and actually forced a fumble which they recovered but the clock had expired. Why did they do this? Turns out a rule change this year starts the clock when the kicker kicks the ball, instead of when the return team touches it. Taking advantage of this rule they were able to run out the clock instead of giving Penn State a chance to drive for a score. Man, Paterno was pissed! Of course, he was more upset when he got taken out on the sideline in the 3rd quarter, breaking his tibia and having ligament damage to his knee. He left on a cart with his leg in a brace. He’s still one tough mofo at almost 80 years old.
As for the Packers…. I’m not even sure what to say. I haven’t been that pissed off watching a game in a long time. Just sickening. And the worst part is that I can’t even give my friends that are Bears fans any crap…
Bowling Saturday night we actually won 2 games, maybe we’ve turned the corner, going 12-2 the last 2 times. I struggled quite a bit the first 2 games, not able to convert easy spares and wasn’t able to carry many strikes, shooting a 175 and 193. Fortunately I recovered in the 3rd game for a 260 (strike, spare, strike, spare, 8 strikes to end it) and a 628 series. I’m maintaining a 207 average in that league.
Hockey last night we came from down 3-1 to tie it in the 3rd period and won it in the shootout. I played defense and had an assist and had one goal against when I blocked a shot with my skate only to have it deflect right onto the stick of an opposing player who subsequently scored.
On Saturday, the Badgers beat Penn State pretty easily, despite the low score. They only inched up to 15 in the BCS standings though. They play hated Iowa this weekend and haven’t beaten them since 2002. They look like a lock for the Capital One bowl on New Years day in Orlando, as the 3rd place finisher in the Big 10.
Couple interesting things in the game. First, at the end of the first half they had 23 seconds left and were kicking off. They sent the entire team 10 yards offsides and smothered the return at the 8 yard line. Of course, Penn State accepted the penalty and forced the Badgers to kick again. They did the exact same thing and this time Penn State had a holding penalty so they had to re-kick. This time they stayed onside and actually forced a fumble which they recovered but the clock had expired. Why did they do this? Turns out a rule change this year starts the clock when the kicker kicks the ball, instead of when the return team touches it. Taking advantage of this rule they were able to run out the clock instead of giving Penn State a chance to drive for a score. Man, Paterno was pissed! Of course, he was more upset when he got taken out on the sideline in the 3rd quarter, breaking his tibia and having ligament damage to his knee. He left on a cart with his leg in a brace. He’s still one tough mofo at almost 80 years old.
As for the Packers…. I’m not even sure what to say. I haven’t been that pissed off watching a game in a long time. Just sickening. And the worst part is that I can’t even give my friends that are Bears fans any crap…
Bowling Saturday night we actually won 2 games, maybe we’ve turned the corner, going 12-2 the last 2 times. I struggled quite a bit the first 2 games, not able to convert easy spares and wasn’t able to carry many strikes, shooting a 175 and 193. Fortunately I recovered in the 3rd game for a 260 (strike, spare, strike, spare, 8 strikes to end it) and a 628 series. I’m maintaining a 207 average in that league.
Hockey last night we came from down 3-1 to tie it in the 3rd period and won it in the shootout. I played defense and had an assist and had one goal against when I blocked a shot with my skate only to have it deflect right onto the stick of an opposing player who subsequently scored.
Friday, November 03, 2006
The Streak is Dead
My hot bowling run has come to a screeching halt.
After dealing with incredibly tough lanes on Wednesday and struggling to a 585 (178, 194, 212) I was looking forward to the easier lanes on Thursday night. And I got them, nothing really hard about the shot. I figured another 700 was coming for sure, but I lacked consistency in speed, angle and carry. Just lost that feeling that I could hit the shot every time. I never got on track and shot 585 again (202, 213, 170). Ended up having about 4 splits and a few washouts. I guess it's over.
I bowl again Saturday in couples league, this will be the first time I have bowled 3 times in a week in many years. We'll see how my arthritis knuckle holds up. It's getting pretty sore.
After dealing with incredibly tough lanes on Wednesday and struggling to a 585 (178, 194, 212) I was looking forward to the easier lanes on Thursday night. And I got them, nothing really hard about the shot. I figured another 700 was coming for sure, but I lacked consistency in speed, angle and carry. Just lost that feeling that I could hit the shot every time. I never got on track and shot 585 again (202, 213, 170). Ended up having about 4 splits and a few washouts. I guess it's over.
I bowl again Saturday in couples league, this will be the first time I have bowled 3 times in a week in many years. We'll see how my arthritis knuckle holds up. It's getting pretty sore.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Poker Night #1
Stupid blogger, lost my post so I have to type it all over again. Grrrr
I hosted my first poker party in my new basement pub room and learned a couple of valuable lessons.
First, despite the basement being normally cool, if you put 7 guys in a closed in room with no air circulation it will get quite warm and muggy. I'll break out the fan next time, not sure why I didn't think of that, other than it might have been the beer...
Second, no more stupid "non-poker" games that take three hours to play and have dumb start-over rules. No more, not again, not in my house. We will play poker, which shall be limited to hold 'em, stud, draw, maybe even a badugi, but no more 4-toed pete and up your giggy. I had already banned in-between the sheets but I should have gone farther and I apologize to the rest of you that suffered through those idiotic games.
Saturday we went down to IKEA in Shaumburg, IL to pick up some more shelving for the basement and we also hit Nordstroms since we don't have one here. I picked up a new robe from there (how exciting) and some cool shoes from the Clarks store.
What a pain driving in Illinois is. Everyone is in some sort of emergency on the freeway where they must drive 80+ mph despite the construction signs stating 45 mph and minimum $375 fine. I swear they're asses must be on fire. The other horrible thing is the tolls. They have a new system where if you have an IPass you can drive right on through without stopping, but if you have to pay cash, you sit in a line for 15 minutes waiting to pay your 80 cents, dollar or $1.60. And of course, no sign telling you how much this next one will be, you don't know till you get to the booth, then start digging for the change. I'm getting a pass next time.
Yesterday was the start of hockey season again. We started slow as we normally do and despite dominating play the first 2 periods we could only manage one goal. We gave up 5 in the 3rd to lose 6-1, but beer was good afterwards regardless.
I hosted my first poker party in my new basement pub room and learned a couple of valuable lessons.
First, despite the basement being normally cool, if you put 7 guys in a closed in room with no air circulation it will get quite warm and muggy. I'll break out the fan next time, not sure why I didn't think of that, other than it might have been the beer...
Second, no more stupid "non-poker" games that take three hours to play and have dumb start-over rules. No more, not again, not in my house. We will play poker, which shall be limited to hold 'em, stud, draw, maybe even a badugi, but no more 4-toed pete and up your giggy. I had already banned in-between the sheets but I should have gone farther and I apologize to the rest of you that suffered through those idiotic games.
Saturday we went down to IKEA in Shaumburg, IL to pick up some more shelving for the basement and we also hit Nordstroms since we don't have one here. I picked up a new robe from there (how exciting) and some cool shoes from the Clarks store.
What a pain driving in Illinois is. Everyone is in some sort of emergency on the freeway where they must drive 80+ mph despite the construction signs stating 45 mph and minimum $375 fine. I swear they're asses must be on fire. The other horrible thing is the tolls. They have a new system where if you have an IPass you can drive right on through without stopping, but if you have to pay cash, you sit in a line for 15 minutes waiting to pay your 80 cents, dollar or $1.60. And of course, no sign telling you how much this next one will be, you don't know till you get to the booth, then start digging for the change. I'm getting a pass next time.
Yesterday was the start of hockey season again. We started slow as we normally do and despite dominating play the first 2 periods we could only manage one goal. We gave up 5 in the 3rd to lose 6-1, but beer was good afterwards regardless.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Round 2, no 300 this time
I found out that many teams in the company bowling league don't bother to send out a request for subs so I just showed up at the lanes and found a team looking for a sub right away.
The lanes weren't quite as forgiving as last time at the place where I had the 300 and I struggled in the first game, not quite able to get in a groove. The 2 lanes were completely different and I couldn't get it quite worked out.
I managed to throw a 202 the first game. I seemed to get it going better in the 2nd game, starting with the first 7 strikes before succombing to a solid 10 pin in the 8th. I finished with a 258 and continued more of the same in game 3 for a 246 and a 706 series, lowering my average 10 pins from 256 to 246, hahahaha.
With the effect my average had on the team handicap we were lucky to win the 2nd game. My new teamates chided me that we won the one game I bowled my average. I like the league, some nice guys and since it starts at 4:30 and is only 3 man teams, I'm done by 6, so less likely to get much grief from Cdubya.
The lanes weren't quite as forgiving as last time at the place where I had the 300 and I struggled in the first game, not quite able to get in a groove. The 2 lanes were completely different and I couldn't get it quite worked out.
I managed to throw a 202 the first game. I seemed to get it going better in the 2nd game, starting with the first 7 strikes before succombing to a solid 10 pin in the 8th. I finished with a 258 and continued more of the same in game 3 for a 246 and a 706 series, lowering my average 10 pins from 256 to 246, hahahaha.
With the effect my average had on the team handicap we were lucky to win the 2nd game. My new teamates chided me that we won the one game I bowled my average. I like the league, some nice guys and since it starts at 4:30 and is only 3 man teams, I'm done by 6, so less likely to get much grief from Cdubya.
Finally, a winning night
After what was probably 6 weeks in a row of losing, we finally won at bowling last night. We won all 3 games, including a good come back in the 10th of the first game.
The Dude and Soup carried us with 616 and 592, respectively. I struggled a bit and shot 630 (226, 194, 210).
Friday night I will be hosting my first poker night in the new basement pub room. All seven guys from the bowling team will be there. Should be fun, I loaded up the mini-fridge with about 40 beers of 6 different varieties. Hope that's enough. The Badger hockey team is playing Boston College and it's on Fox Sports North so I'll have that on the big screen while we're playing.
On Saturday we'll be heading down to Shaumberg, IL to visit IKEA. I have some wood shelving from there in the non-finished part of the basement and want to add a couple sections to it so I can finally start putting all my crap away. Their prices are good and everything is super easy to put together. It's always a fun store to wander through.
I was planning to skip golfing this week, after last weekend's painful episode. But now I'm thinking I might play 9 holes tomorrow afternoon. Looks like the sun might be coming out and it should be near 50. Haven't decided yet.
Watched Lost after bowling last night. We learned a couple more things. 1) The others are not on the same island! and 2) Ben (leader of the others) has a serious tumor on his spine and Jack is most likely there to operate on him (since, of course, he is a spine surgeon).
The Dude and Soup carried us with 616 and 592, respectively. I struggled a bit and shot 630 (226, 194, 210).
Friday night I will be hosting my first poker night in the new basement pub room. All seven guys from the bowling team will be there. Should be fun, I loaded up the mini-fridge with about 40 beers of 6 different varieties. Hope that's enough. The Badger hockey team is playing Boston College and it's on Fox Sports North so I'll have that on the big screen while we're playing.
On Saturday we'll be heading down to Shaumberg, IL to visit IKEA. I have some wood shelving from there in the non-finished part of the basement and want to add a couple sections to it so I can finally start putting all my crap away. Their prices are good and everything is super easy to put together. It's always a fun store to wander through.
I was planning to skip golfing this week, after last weekend's painful episode. But now I'm thinking I might play 9 holes tomorrow afternoon. Looks like the sun might be coming out and it should be near 50. Haven't decided yet.
Watched Lost after bowling last night. We learned a couple more things. 1) The others are not on the same island! and 2) Ben (leader of the others) has a serious tumor on his spine and Jack is most likely there to operate on him (since, of course, he is a spine surgeon).
Monday, October 23, 2006
That's enough golf for me
Saturday was the Ice Cube open at Door Creek golf course and it lived up to the name. Starting at 9:45, it was raining and about 43 degrees, but it wasn't horrible. No wind and the rain wasn't hard so no big deal. I still wasn't playing that well though. Unfortunately on the back nine the temp dropped and the wind picked up and the rain started coming down harder. By the end the wind chill was about freezing and I was a soaked puppy. In fact, the last 2 holes I couldn't even hang onto the club. On my drive on 17, my driver flew out of my hands about 40 feet while my ball went about 100 yards to the left. After that I was so worried about losing the club I could barely swing. Ended up shooting 103, but I did win a free foresome to Foxboro in the drawing afterwards. I think golf season is over.
Saturday night was bowling. Didn't do too badly, shooting 703 (218, 249, 236). Then we left to go to dinner and it was snowing! After dinner, it was snowing so hard I could barely see the road, kept staring at the flakes flying at me... we ended up getting almost 2.5" of snow, most of it melted though. Yesterday was just plain cold but warmed up enough to melt the rest of the snow. I guess we skipped fall and went right into winter already. Gonna be a long, cold, miserable winter. I'm going to need to take a trip south soon.
Tigers and Cards split the first 2 games of the world series with the Cards roughing up Justin Verlander in the first game and Kenny Rogers continuing his post-season magic with 8 shutout innings last night. But... the big controversy is, what did Rogers have on his hand in the first inning? To me, it looked like pine tar. He said it was a "clump of dirt" and he washed it off when he noticed it. The umpires and his own manager said that the umpires told him to wash it off. Rogers said no one said anything to him. Why lie about that? Is it really an issue if you're not cheating? And why didn't the Cardinals players insist that the umpires check him? They should have checked his hat, glove, sleeves, etc after they saw the substance. And if they found anything he should have been ejected. Of course, with a clean hand he pitched 7 more shutout innings so it's probably not a big deal.
Here's a picture, courtesy of ESPN, that shows his hand from last night and from game 3 of the ALCS. I see a brown spot both times. How come no one noticed this before?
Here's the picture (game 3 alcs on left, last night on right):
Saturday night was bowling. Didn't do too badly, shooting 703 (218, 249, 236). Then we left to go to dinner and it was snowing! After dinner, it was snowing so hard I could barely see the road, kept staring at the flakes flying at me... we ended up getting almost 2.5" of snow, most of it melted though. Yesterday was just plain cold but warmed up enough to melt the rest of the snow. I guess we skipped fall and went right into winter already. Gonna be a long, cold, miserable winter. I'm going to need to take a trip south soon.
Tigers and Cards split the first 2 games of the world series with the Cards roughing up Justin Verlander in the first game and Kenny Rogers continuing his post-season magic with 8 shutout innings last night. But... the big controversy is, what did Rogers have on his hand in the first inning? To me, it looked like pine tar. He said it was a "clump of dirt" and he washed it off when he noticed it. The umpires and his own manager said that the umpires told him to wash it off. Rogers said no one said anything to him. Why lie about that? Is it really an issue if you're not cheating? And why didn't the Cardinals players insist that the umpires check him? They should have checked his hat, glove, sleeves, etc after they saw the substance. And if they found anything he should have been ejected. Of course, with a clean hand he pitched 7 more shutout innings so it's probably not a big deal.
Here's a picture, courtesy of ESPN, that shows his hand from last night and from game 3 of the ALCS. I see a brown spot both times. How come no one noticed this before?
Here's the picture (game 3 alcs on left, last night on right):
Thursday, October 19, 2006
No Repeat
It's become fairly apparent that not all bowling alleys treat you the same way. After bowling one week at a different house and shooting my first 300 ever, coming back to our normal lanes was a nice slap in the face. No consistency in the shots, oil evaporates at an incredible rate and the shot just disappears if you ever found it to begin with.
I thought I threw the ball fairly well but just couldn't get anything going. Never had more than 4 strikes in a row and added a couple huge splits in the 3rd game. Ended up shooting 644 (213, 222, 209) which doesn't seem bad but I really wanted a lot more. The 3rd game was ridiculous. I started out with the first 4 after moving a board left from where I ended the 2nd game. By the 5th frame I had to move another board, then another and another. By the end I was shooting what I normally would shoot to cover a 6-pin. It's a joke. No wonder hardly anyone shoots a 300 there.
On the other hand, the other house is too easy. Another 300 there last night and they have more 300's than any other in the area. Isn't there a compromise somewhere in between?
Ok, enough of my bitching. The Mets beat the Cards to force a game 7 tonight. I think the Cards should have the edge with their pitching... wait, did I just say the Cards have a pitching advantage???? That hasn't been true all year but Suppan was awesome in his last outing and the Mets go with Oliver Perez who has been horrible all year and is going on 3 days rest. What is Willie Randolph thinking? It's ok, I want them to lose anyway, so, way to go Willie!
Cards/Tigers start on Saturday night.
I watched Lost when I got home last night. Still not telling us anything other than there's still a polar bear out there. Of course, they show highlights for next week that make it look like it will be really exciting. I'm sure it will turn out to be more of the same and I'll be disappointed again. Seriously, I'm about to drop this show from my rotation. There are so many excellent shows now, why do I have to put up with this?
Ok, back to work. I'm still waiting for an email from someone needing a sub for bowling tonight. Hopefully someone is sick. Well, not that I want people to be sick... it's just that... uh, I'd like to bowl again.
Later!
I thought I threw the ball fairly well but just couldn't get anything going. Never had more than 4 strikes in a row and added a couple huge splits in the 3rd game. Ended up shooting 644 (213, 222, 209) which doesn't seem bad but I really wanted a lot more. The 3rd game was ridiculous. I started out with the first 4 after moving a board left from where I ended the 2nd game. By the 5th frame I had to move another board, then another and another. By the end I was shooting what I normally would shoot to cover a 6-pin. It's a joke. No wonder hardly anyone shoots a 300 there.
On the other hand, the other house is too easy. Another 300 there last night and they have more 300's than any other in the area. Isn't there a compromise somewhere in between?
Ok, enough of my bitching. The Mets beat the Cards to force a game 7 tonight. I think the Cards should have the edge with their pitching... wait, did I just say the Cards have a pitching advantage???? That hasn't been true all year but Suppan was awesome in his last outing and the Mets go with Oliver Perez who has been horrible all year and is going on 3 days rest. What is Willie Randolph thinking? It's ok, I want them to lose anyway, so, way to go Willie!
Cards/Tigers start on Saturday night.
I watched Lost when I got home last night. Still not telling us anything other than there's still a polar bear out there. Of course, they show highlights for next week that make it look like it will be really exciting. I'm sure it will turn out to be more of the same and I'll be disappointed again. Seriously, I'm about to drop this show from my rotation. There are so many excellent shows now, why do I have to put up with this?
Ok, back to work. I'm still waiting for an email from someone needing a sub for bowling tonight. Hopefully someone is sick. Well, not that I want people to be sick... it's just that... uh, I'd like to bowl again.
Later!
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Going for 2 in a row
Back bowling tonight for the first time since the 300... I'm assuming now that I have one I should be able to do that at least once a week now. :)
And I'm going back to Arby's tonight as I finally will have time for dinner before league. I haven't been this excited to bowl in a long time. Probably going to be way too jacked up to bowl.
On the hockey front, I got drafted by my friend Bill again. Season starts a week from Sunday (and goes through the end of April!). Should be a pretty decent team though there's a few new guys I don't know, hope they're good! At least we'll always have good beer after the games, since Bill only drafts people that will bring good beer.
Really busy at work, better get back to it.
Later
And I'm going back to Arby's tonight as I finally will have time for dinner before league. I haven't been this excited to bowl in a long time. Probably going to be way too jacked up to bowl.
On the hockey front, I got drafted by my friend Bill again. Season starts a week from Sunday (and goes through the end of April!). Should be a pretty decent team though there's a few new guys I don't know, hope they're good! At least we'll always have good beer after the games, since Bill only drafts people that will bring good beer.
Really busy at work, better get back to it.
Later
Friday, October 13, 2006
No Arby's = 300?
Ok, so maybe Arby's has nothing to do with bowling... I subbed in a company league last night and shot my first ever 300 game.
Bowling at lanes I haven't bowled at since I was 18 in juniors, I struggled to find the shot during warmups. I kind of muddled through the first 6 frames but found it late and had the last 6 strikes for a 248. It just kept going in the 2nd game until I found myself in the 10th with it going. First 2 balls I wasn't nervous and they were perfect shots. I started shaking on the last one though. The hit was light in the pocket and everything mixed well but the 8 pin was still standing for about 4 hours it seemed, but the other pins ganged up on it and knocked it backwards. What a relief, only took 33 years to do it! :)
I ended up blowing a chance at 800 with an open in the 7th frame of the 3rd game and shot 222 for 770.
Phew!
Bowling at lanes I haven't bowled at since I was 18 in juniors, I struggled to find the shot during warmups. I kind of muddled through the first 6 frames but found it late and had the last 6 strikes for a 248. It just kept going in the 2nd game until I found myself in the 10th with it going. First 2 balls I wasn't nervous and they were perfect shots. I started shaking on the last one though. The hit was light in the pocket and everything mixed well but the 8 pin was still standing for about 4 hours it seemed, but the other pins ganged up on it and knocked it backwards. What a relief, only took 33 years to do it! :)
I ended up blowing a chance at 800 with an open in the 7th frame of the 3rd game and shot 222 for 770.
Phew!
Thursday, October 12, 2006
No Arby's = Bad bowling
Well, I did it. Skipped Arby's in favor of drinking a few Guinness at the local sports bar for a co-worker's 40th bday. I knew it all along, I was gonna bowl bad. Maybe I talked myself into it, maybe not, but I had my worst series of the season with a 589. The lanes were great but I couldn't do a damn thing.
Maybe it was mixing Guinness and Smithwick's. I gotta quit doing that, I get the worst headaches the next day. Tonight is a retirement party at an irish pub after work, I think I'll just stick to Guinness.
The weather has changed for the worse. High of only 38 today after mid 20's over night and a light dusting of snow. But, I still have a tee time for Saturday morning. Looking like a high of 50 so it will be bundle up time. I like fall golf, fewer people out usually (unless it rockets into the 70's at which point the courses are packed) and it's not hot. Not a big fan of 95 degree golf, saps your energy.
Until tomorrow...
Maybe it was mixing Guinness and Smithwick's. I gotta quit doing that, I get the worst headaches the next day. Tonight is a retirement party at an irish pub after work, I think I'll just stick to Guinness.
The weather has changed for the worse. High of only 38 today after mid 20's over night and a light dusting of snow. But, I still have a tee time for Saturday morning. Looking like a high of 50 so it will be bundle up time. I like fall golf, fewer people out usually (unless it rockets into the 70's at which point the courses are packed) and it's not hot. Not a big fan of 95 degree golf, saps your energy.
Until tomorrow...
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Mental Health Day
Monday I complained about needing longer weekends and Tuesday I decided to do something about it. I called in sick and slept till 8am, which for me, is like others sleeping till noon.
I relaxed, watched tv, played video games and just recovered. I knew Monday night heading home that I couldn't go through another day like Monday. My brain completely shut down. The guy I was mentoring was suffering because I couldn't do anything right. Better that he didn't have me around if my brain was going to misfire that badly.
Caught up on some tv last night too. Watched The Nine which was awesome. Also caught Friday Night Lights and Boston Legal. I didn't bother watching the tivo'd Smith I had as it's been cancelled already. I did watch Kidnapped, though it's been moved to Saturday's so it's probably on it's way out too.
So today I'm back at work and the brain seems to be firing on all cylinders again and it's bowling night... I'm a little nervous about bowling tonight. Cdubya made lasagna last night (awesome) but stated we'll be having it again tonight. I informed her that it's Arby's night but she insisted. I told her it will be her fault if I bowl poorly (it's never my fault, duh).
Later...
I relaxed, watched tv, played video games and just recovered. I knew Monday night heading home that I couldn't go through another day like Monday. My brain completely shut down. The guy I was mentoring was suffering because I couldn't do anything right. Better that he didn't have me around if my brain was going to misfire that badly.
Caught up on some tv last night too. Watched The Nine which was awesome. Also caught Friday Night Lights and Boston Legal. I didn't bother watching the tivo'd Smith I had as it's been cancelled already. I did watch Kidnapped, though it's been moved to Saturday's so it's probably on it's way out too.
So today I'm back at work and the brain seems to be firing on all cylinders again and it's bowling night... I'm a little nervous about bowling tonight. Cdubya made lasagna last night (awesome) but stated we'll be having it again tonight. I informed her that it's Arby's night but she insisted. I told her it will be her fault if I bowl poorly (it's never my fault, duh).
Later...
Monday, October 09, 2006
Weekends should be 4 days
I could really use 2 more days to recover from weekends. Seems like I get to work on Monday morning totally beat in need of some serious sleep.
This weekend started out with golf from hell on Friday afternoon. Half hour delay then 5 hours and 15 minutes to play 18, waiting on every hole. That took a toll on me.
I get home expecting to veg and watch tv to find out that Cdubya has been thinking about painting the kitchen and dining room and we should go get paint right now. Great, that's all I wanted to do... so that done, we grab some dinner, then I get to veg...
Saturday morning comes and it's game time. I wake up at 3:30am so I won't miss my ride at 8:30... makes total sense... 9:00 rolls around and I've put down a big bloody mary and we're over to the tailgate party and drinking till game time. Badgers have a blowout by the 3rd quarter so we head back to the tailgate and drink for another couple hours.
I roll in around 3:00 to find Cdubya has painted half the kitchen/dining room. Now, I'd like nothing better than to throw myself onto the couch and take a little nap but we all know that's not going to happen while she's working so I head to the basement where I half work, half zone out for 90 minutes and then we have to go bowling. Around 8:00 I realize I haven't eaten anything since 8am... we go out for dinner at the outback where it takes us about 45 minutes to get a table. Finally, I eat and feel half normal again. Time to go to bed...
Sunday rolls around and it's now time for me to finish the painting she started. Oh joy... that takes forever then I come to find out that our rug under the table doesn't match any more and we must have another one right now.
Needless to say I fell asleep at 9:30 and woke up this morning dead to the world... why must we go to work on Mondays?
On the bright side, it's supposed to snow later this week...
This weekend started out with golf from hell on Friday afternoon. Half hour delay then 5 hours and 15 minutes to play 18, waiting on every hole. That took a toll on me.
I get home expecting to veg and watch tv to find out that Cdubya has been thinking about painting the kitchen and dining room and we should go get paint right now. Great, that's all I wanted to do... so that done, we grab some dinner, then I get to veg...
Saturday morning comes and it's game time. I wake up at 3:30am so I won't miss my ride at 8:30... makes total sense... 9:00 rolls around and I've put down a big bloody mary and we're over to the tailgate party and drinking till game time. Badgers have a blowout by the 3rd quarter so we head back to the tailgate and drink for another couple hours.
I roll in around 3:00 to find Cdubya has painted half the kitchen/dining room. Now, I'd like nothing better than to throw myself onto the couch and take a little nap but we all know that's not going to happen while she's working so I head to the basement where I half work, half zone out for 90 minutes and then we have to go bowling. Around 8:00 I realize I haven't eaten anything since 8am... we go out for dinner at the outback where it takes us about 45 minutes to get a table. Finally, I eat and feel half normal again. Time to go to bed...
Sunday rolls around and it's now time for me to finish the painting she started. Oh joy... that takes forever then I come to find out that our rug under the table doesn't match any more and we must have another one right now.
Needless to say I fell asleep at 9:30 and woke up this morning dead to the world... why must we go to work on Mondays?
On the bright side, it's supposed to snow later this week...
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Hanging the House
Bowling night last night. Always a good time but we finally hung the house* for the first time last night, meaning free drinks for the team! It was the first time our first 4 bowlers have all struck in the same frame this year (5 weeks). They were all brooklyn strikes (wrong side) too, which made it pretty funny. Of course my strike was perfect as usual. :) Only downside was we did it in the 10th frame of the last game so we were FORCED to stick around later to drink up.
Unfortunately, we only won 1 game but it was a blowout game so we were able to hang on to win total pins and went 3-4. We're sitting in the middle of the standings, not peaking too early.
I had a 640 to keep my average at 214. Lowest of the season so far is 610. I'm hoping to try to stay over 600 all year but I think it's probably impossible. Unfortunately for Cdubya that means eating at Arby's every Wednesday. It's not that I'm a superstitious person or anything, but I was a baseball player for 25 years and that means you don't mess with what's working. So, until I have a bad night we're eating there every Wednesday.
*hanging the house means all 5 bowlers get a strike in one frame.
Watched Lost when I got home. It was interesting, showing more new and puzzling things. Continues to make me ask more questions. I'm starting to think the writers are just making shit up as they go and there's no end result in their heads. I don't think they know the answers so they just keep introducing more questions as a way to try to keep viewers hooked. Every answer they do provide just leaves you with more questions and an empty feeling. At some point they need to answer a couple key questions or I'm going to give up on it.
That's it for now. I'm golfing tomorrow at noon and going to the Badger football game on Saturday so I probably won't post anything till Monday. The national champion Badger hockey team starts play this weekend too. Have a great weekend and Go Bucky!
Unfortunately, we only won 1 game but it was a blowout game so we were able to hang on to win total pins and went 3-4. We're sitting in the middle of the standings, not peaking too early.
I had a 640 to keep my average at 214. Lowest of the season so far is 610. I'm hoping to try to stay over 600 all year but I think it's probably impossible. Unfortunately for Cdubya that means eating at Arby's every Wednesday. It's not that I'm a superstitious person or anything, but I was a baseball player for 25 years and that means you don't mess with what's working. So, until I have a bad night we're eating there every Wednesday.
*hanging the house means all 5 bowlers get a strike in one frame.
Watched Lost when I got home. It was interesting, showing more new and puzzling things. Continues to make me ask more questions. I'm starting to think the writers are just making shit up as they go and there's no end result in their heads. I don't think they know the answers so they just keep introducing more questions as a way to try to keep viewers hooked. Every answer they do provide just leaves you with more questions and an empty feeling. At some point they need to answer a couple key questions or I'm going to give up on it.
That's it for now. I'm golfing tomorrow at noon and going to the Badger football game on Saturday so I probably won't post anything till Monday. The national champion Badger hockey team starts play this weekend too. Have a great weekend and Go Bucky!
Friday, September 29, 2006
Hockey Finale
A fitting end to our summer hockey season last night. We tied 2-2 to tie for 3rd place. Oh well, at least we didn't lose.
When I got there everyone was scrambling around like crazy people. First, they were doing sign ups for winter so there were too many people around. Second, it was 15 minutes to game time and we had no goalie and only 1 defenseman.
Luckily 1 more defenseman showed up but our goalie never did. Fortunately for us the center on my line also plays goalie (in fact, he was the winning goalie in the championship game after ours), so he suited up at goal. We had to shift our lines around which always causes us problems.
After a scoreless period and a half, a give away on our D led to a breakaway for their first goal. Soon after they got a rebound off a scramble and stuffed it past for a 2-0 lead.
Half way through the 3rd period I took a pass at center ice and saw a defenseman jumping me to break it up and caught a winger to my right just as I got hit. I was able to tip a pass to him avoiding the defenseman and he went in alone and scored through the five hole.
A few minutes later I was breaking in on left wing with my buddy Bill trailing me. The defenseman was all over me so I dropped it to Bill and cut to the front of the net. The D stayed with me and Bill walked in and rifled one low on the glove side to tie the game. He had just moved to wing from D and it was his first shift there. Maybe he should do it more often! Of course, he was our best D too.
We had a couple more chances but nothing really high quality. Last chance I got a pass up the left side and had 3 people on me so I had to stop and cut back to the middle and was able to get off a slapper from just inside the blue line that had some mustard on it but got blocked by a defenseman to the side boards as the clock ticked down to 00:00. No shootout or anything, just game over...
Winter season starts in a month so I have time to give my body some much needed rest.
Goal for this weekend, finish the basement! I really want to golf and Sunday is going to be 70 so it's gonna be tough to not sneak out for 18...
Have a great weekend, later.
When I got there everyone was scrambling around like crazy people. First, they were doing sign ups for winter so there were too many people around. Second, it was 15 minutes to game time and we had no goalie and only 1 defenseman.
Luckily 1 more defenseman showed up but our goalie never did. Fortunately for us the center on my line also plays goalie (in fact, he was the winning goalie in the championship game after ours), so he suited up at goal. We had to shift our lines around which always causes us problems.
After a scoreless period and a half, a give away on our D led to a breakaway for their first goal. Soon after they got a rebound off a scramble and stuffed it past for a 2-0 lead.
Half way through the 3rd period I took a pass at center ice and saw a defenseman jumping me to break it up and caught a winger to my right just as I got hit. I was able to tip a pass to him avoiding the defenseman and he went in alone and scored through the five hole.
A few minutes later I was breaking in on left wing with my buddy Bill trailing me. The defenseman was all over me so I dropped it to Bill and cut to the front of the net. The D stayed with me and Bill walked in and rifled one low on the glove side to tie the game. He had just moved to wing from D and it was his first shift there. Maybe he should do it more often! Of course, he was our best D too.
We had a couple more chances but nothing really high quality. Last chance I got a pass up the left side and had 3 people on me so I had to stop and cut back to the middle and was able to get off a slapper from just inside the blue line that had some mustard on it but got blocked by a defenseman to the side boards as the clock ticked down to 00:00. No shootout or anything, just game over...
Winter season starts in a month so I have time to give my body some much needed rest.
Goal for this weekend, finish the basement! I really want to golf and Sunday is going to be 70 so it's gonna be tough to not sneak out for 18...
Have a great weekend, later.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Sandbaggers
So, bowling last night, we're bowling the defending champs. They're leadoff bowler had high average in the league last year, something about 215. But, we changed the handicap system slightly to put the high average at 210 instead of 200. So, for me, as a 202 average last year I was getting 0 handicap and this year I get 7 pins. But, this totally makes this guy into a big baby. I don't get it, it wasn't fair that I got 0 with a 202 and he got 0 with a 215 but all of a sudden him getting 0 still wasn't fair to him. Fucking whiner if you ask me.
What does he do about it? Proceeds to average 170 for the first 3 weeks so last night when we use our new averages for the first time he gets 36 pins handicap and goes out and averages 211 for the night and we get smoked. He proudly proclaimed how much he sandbagged. To me, that makes him a massive ass munch.
We struggled as a team to make up this gap and of course, couldn't, losing all 7 points. I did ok but only had a 623, lowering my 217 average to 214. The lanes were super dry and each lane was completely different requiring 2 different shots with 2 different speeds. I got a split in the 10th of the first game for a 212. Blew the 9th and 10th of the 2nd game with splits for a 177 and came back with a 234 the 3rd game.
Interestingly enough (or maybe not), last year my 3rd game was my worst by far (CB blames it on the beer, I think he's full of poop) and this year I'm averaging 234 the 3rd game. Go figure, it's early yet I may still go back to normal.
I watched sportscenter in HD this morning on the new tv, just beautiful. I still haven't even gone through the adjustment process to get the contrast, brightness, colors, etc just right.
Our last hockey game of the summer season is tonight. We're playing for 3rd place in a 4 team league (no, we're not playing for last place). Winter season starts at the end of October.
What does he do about it? Proceeds to average 170 for the first 3 weeks so last night when we use our new averages for the first time he gets 36 pins handicap and goes out and averages 211 for the night and we get smoked. He proudly proclaimed how much he sandbagged. To me, that makes him a massive ass munch.
We struggled as a team to make up this gap and of course, couldn't, losing all 7 points. I did ok but only had a 623, lowering my 217 average to 214. The lanes were super dry and each lane was completely different requiring 2 different shots with 2 different speeds. I got a split in the 10th of the first game for a 212. Blew the 9th and 10th of the 2nd game with splits for a 177 and came back with a 234 the 3rd game.
Interestingly enough (or maybe not), last year my 3rd game was my worst by far (CB blames it on the beer, I think he's full of poop) and this year I'm averaging 234 the 3rd game. Go figure, it's early yet I may still go back to normal.
I watched sportscenter in HD this morning on the new tv, just beautiful. I still haven't even gone through the adjustment process to get the contrast, brightness, colors, etc just right.
Our last hockey game of the summer season is tonight. We're playing for 3rd place in a 4 team league (no, we're not playing for last place). Winter season starts at the end of October.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Frosted Mini-Wheats, not just for breakfast
Last night we got the new tv, which meant I had a lot of work to do before I could watch it.
First, I rented an appliance dolly from UHaul. We dismantled the upstairs components and stuff. Used the dolly to take the 2 massive tower units to the garage. Then brought in the new tv stand. Phew, that about killed me there. Then Dr. Mike came over and we somehow managed to get the big screen downstairs but not before I had images of death running through my head.
Mike was at the top with the dolly and I was on the stairs. The thing is so big my first thought was it would get wedged into the ceiling and I would have to live in the basement forever. My second thought, as I'm standing under the tv, looking like Hercules, attempting to hold this tv up, is that if Mike loses control of the dolly I'm am dead, squashed by a 500 lb tv as we both tumble down the stairs. Very nervous going over that first step but we took it slow and managed to get all the way down without incident. It will live in the basement forever now, there's no way to get it back up again without a crane.
After we got that out of the way, we brought in the new tv. If you're looking for a new tv and someone is selling a big rear projection set for $1,000 cheaper than a new DLP or LCD or whatever, spend the money. That thing weighed 80 lbs and we had it in and set up in a minute.
I hooked everything back up and after a couple glitches (directv receiver reset to output 480p instead of 1080i, had me confused for a bit, and somehow I had turned off my subwoofer so the sound was screwed up initially), we were up and watching tv. Of course, by this time it was 9:30 and I hadn't eaten dinner... so a nice big bowl of frosted mini-wheats was just what the doctor ordered.
I took a picture this morning of the new tv and stand. Here it is.
First, I rented an appliance dolly from UHaul. We dismantled the upstairs components and stuff. Used the dolly to take the 2 massive tower units to the garage. Then brought in the new tv stand. Phew, that about killed me there. Then Dr. Mike came over and we somehow managed to get the big screen downstairs but not before I had images of death running through my head.
Mike was at the top with the dolly and I was on the stairs. The thing is so big my first thought was it would get wedged into the ceiling and I would have to live in the basement forever. My second thought, as I'm standing under the tv, looking like Hercules, attempting to hold this tv up, is that if Mike loses control of the dolly I'm am dead, squashed by a 500 lb tv as we both tumble down the stairs. Very nervous going over that first step but we took it slow and managed to get all the way down without incident. It will live in the basement forever now, there's no way to get it back up again without a crane.
After we got that out of the way, we brought in the new tv. If you're looking for a new tv and someone is selling a big rear projection set for $1,000 cheaper than a new DLP or LCD or whatever, spend the money. That thing weighed 80 lbs and we had it in and set up in a minute.
I hooked everything back up and after a couple glitches (directv receiver reset to output 480p instead of 1080i, had me confused for a bit, and somehow I had turned off my subwoofer so the sound was screwed up initially), we were up and watching tv. Of course, by this time it was 9:30 and I hadn't eaten dinner... so a nice big bowl of frosted mini-wheats was just what the doctor ordered.
I took a picture this morning of the new tv and stand. Here it is.
Monday, September 25, 2006
DLP's and the Amazing Ace
What an incredibly chaotic weekend!
So, as you know, I've been finishing the basement and set up my old entertainment center with an old 27" tv in the pub room with a new DVR from DirecTV. Cdubya had to watch a show down there that she had recorded there instead of upstairs because we already had a couple being recorded at the same time. She tells me "it's so small, I had to sit right in front of it." A light bulb goes on above my head and I toss out "well, there are newer technologies available in tv's and we could, at some point, replace the upstairs big screen with a new one and bring that downstairs." She doesn't hate the idea so I'm jazzed.
I do a little research on tv's and toss some more ideas out there to keep it in her mind… then comes Saturday. She's now got the bug and can't get rid of it. I keep doing research and find a couple tv's that are what I'm looking for (1080p, DLP). She suggests going to look at them. Long story short, we end up picking up a 57" Mitsubishi DLP from Circuit City! I'll pick it up today or tomorrow.
Saturday night was bowling and I couldn't buy a strike, just super unlucky the whole night and shot 563, my lowest of the season. We also got crushed as a team...
Sunday morning it was off to play golf. Fortunately, all the rain from Saturday had cleared up but it was still very windy and quite cold. Wind chill in the 40's as we teed off. The clouds cleared and it became a very nice day but the wind stayed in the 20-30mph range the whole morning. I played fairly well (played the Bergamont in Oregon, WI, an Andy North designed course). I opened with 10 straight bogies, just couldn't make any par saving putts, though all the bogies were tap ins. Ended up shooting 45/47 after taking 2 doubles and a triple on the back and finishing with 2 pars for a 92. That wasn't the interesting part though. Dr. Mike made his first hole in one! On the 17th hole, a 134 yard par 3 with water on the right. He hit 9 iron that landed just short and right of the hole, took one hop past and spun back right into the cup. It was awesome, first time I've seen someone do it. Pretty cool, we made him buy us a couple pitchers of beer.
Now the real work kicks in. Carpet installers come tomorrow to finish the basement. Then I have to finish the trim work. In the mean time I have to move the big screen to the basement, disassemble a 10,000 piece entertainment center down there and disconnect everything in the living room and get rid of the 2 towers and bridge that are currently there. Then I have to move the new tv stand (solid wood, weighs about 300 lbs) into the living room along with the new tv and hook everything up again. Yikes...
So, as you know, I've been finishing the basement and set up my old entertainment center with an old 27" tv in the pub room with a new DVR from DirecTV. Cdubya had to watch a show down there that she had recorded there instead of upstairs because we already had a couple being recorded at the same time. She tells me "it's so small, I had to sit right in front of it." A light bulb goes on above my head and I toss out "well, there are newer technologies available in tv's and we could, at some point, replace the upstairs big screen with a new one and bring that downstairs." She doesn't hate the idea so I'm jazzed.
I do a little research on tv's and toss some more ideas out there to keep it in her mind… then comes Saturday. She's now got the bug and can't get rid of it. I keep doing research and find a couple tv's that are what I'm looking for (1080p, DLP). She suggests going to look at them. Long story short, we end up picking up a 57" Mitsubishi DLP from Circuit City! I'll pick it up today or tomorrow.
Saturday night was bowling and I couldn't buy a strike, just super unlucky the whole night and shot 563, my lowest of the season. We also got crushed as a team...
Sunday morning it was off to play golf. Fortunately, all the rain from Saturday had cleared up but it was still very windy and quite cold. Wind chill in the 40's as we teed off. The clouds cleared and it became a very nice day but the wind stayed in the 20-30mph range the whole morning. I played fairly well (played the Bergamont in Oregon, WI, an Andy North designed course). I opened with 10 straight bogies, just couldn't make any par saving putts, though all the bogies were tap ins. Ended up shooting 45/47 after taking 2 doubles and a triple on the back and finishing with 2 pars for a 92. That wasn't the interesting part though. Dr. Mike made his first hole in one! On the 17th hole, a 134 yard par 3 with water on the right. He hit 9 iron that landed just short and right of the hole, took one hop past and spun back right into the cup. It was awesome, first time I've seen someone do it. Pretty cool, we made him buy us a couple pitchers of beer.
Now the real work kicks in. Carpet installers come tomorrow to finish the basement. Then I have to finish the trim work. In the mean time I have to move the big screen to the basement, disassemble a 10,000 piece entertainment center down there and disconnect everything in the living room and get rid of the 2 towers and bridge that are currently there. Then I have to move the new tv stand (solid wood, weighs about 300 lbs) into the living room along with the new tv and hook everything up again. Yikes...
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
And TV week rolls on
Last night we started out with War at Home, which aired on Fox Sunday night. Awesome show, basically shows how I'd raise kids if I had 'em. Everyone should be grateful I don't.
We followed that up with Deal or No Deal where a record $701,000 was taken home.
After that was the season premiere of The Unit. It started kind of slow but ended with a bang. Dennis Haysbert is awesome.
Last show of the night was the series premiere of Smith starring Ray Liotta. He portrays a high end criminal hidden in suburbia, pretending to be a cup salesman (that reminds me, I have a "cup salesman" that lives 2 doors down... hmmmm).
He's likeable enough and you can see he's torn between being with his family leading a normal life and the excitement and money that comes with the other side. His crew on the other hand, is not really likeable. In fact, they're pretty despicable criminals. I can see that this show is going to be mostly about Ray's inner struggles to get out of that lifestyle and his dealings with his wife and kids.
I tivo'd Boston Legal and will probably watch that tonight after bowling. I'm sure it will be very funny as usual.
We followed that up with Deal or No Deal where a record $701,000 was taken home.
After that was the season premiere of The Unit. It started kind of slow but ended with a bang. Dennis Haysbert is awesome.
Last show of the night was the series premiere of Smith starring Ray Liotta. He portrays a high end criminal hidden in suburbia, pretending to be a cup salesman (that reminds me, I have a "cup salesman" that lives 2 doors down... hmmmm).
He's likeable enough and you can see he's torn between being with his family leading a normal life and the excitement and money that comes with the other side. His crew on the other hand, is not really likeable. In fact, they're pretty despicable criminals. I can see that this show is going to be mostly about Ray's inner struggles to get out of that lifestyle and his dealings with his wife and kids.
I tivo'd Boston Legal and will probably watch that tonight after bowling. I'm sure it will be very funny as usual.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Basement Update
I've posted more pictures on the Basement Project site.
I pulled a pre-emptive strike on the lawn last night, just 3 days after the mowing from hell. I cut it down even lower and with the overnight lows we're getting now (upper 30's tonight), maybe it'll start to go dormant. I sure hope so.
Anyone catch Studio 60 on Sunset Strip last night? Intriguing show, interesting characters, I think it'll do alright. Now, the question is... where does NBC move it to, since it's in Medium's slot. Or do they move Medium. I hate these games they play.
3 shows to watch tonight: The Unit followed by Smith on CBS. And over on ABC, Boston Legal starts up again.
I pulled a pre-emptive strike on the lawn last night, just 3 days after the mowing from hell. I cut it down even lower and with the overnight lows we're getting now (upper 30's tonight), maybe it'll start to go dormant. I sure hope so.
Anyone catch Studio 60 on Sunset Strip last night? Intriguing show, interesting characters, I think it'll do alright. Now, the question is... where does NBC move it to, since it's in Medium's slot. Or do they move Medium. I hate these games they play.
3 shows to watch tonight: The Unit followed by Smith on CBS. And over on ABC, Boston Legal starts up again.
Monday, September 18, 2006
Long Grass Sucks...
Well, I finally got around to mowing Friday after a couple weeks of on and off rain had caused me to delay it. In hindsight, I should have found the time when I could. It was horrible, taking me almost 5 hours to mow and rake. I’ll probably mow again tonight to stay on top of it. If my back yard was rough at a golf course, you would have lost every ball in your bag in it.
I got up early Saturday morning and played 9 holes since I hadn’t played in a week. Didn’t do too badly, shooting a 44. Had 3 double bogies in a row in the middle that hurt me.
I was able to hang all my Guinness pictures, signs, etc along with the dartboard and got the tv and entertainment center all hooked up as well. Looks pretty good. I’ll take some more pictures soon. Still waiting on Home Depot for the carpet for the rest of downstairs.
Amazing Race started last night. I laughed pretty hard at the start. They started out in Seattle this time and sure enough, cold, rainy and most of them got lost trying to find the airport. Many tried taking I5 and got stuck in a traffic jam due to a jackknifed semi. That’s totally Seattle traffic, again I laughed.
As for the race, Phil added a new twist this time, doing a middle of the leg elimination as a surprise. I was kind of let down. They were going to the Forbidden City in China and I was hoping the surprise would be ninja’s jumping out and the last team having to fight them to the death. It was pretty anticlimactic to just have an elimination when I was yelling "Ninja’s! Ninja’s!"
I got up early Saturday morning and played 9 holes since I hadn’t played in a week. Didn’t do too badly, shooting a 44. Had 3 double bogies in a row in the middle that hurt me.
I was able to hang all my Guinness pictures, signs, etc along with the dartboard and got the tv and entertainment center all hooked up as well. Looks pretty good. I’ll take some more pictures soon. Still waiting on Home Depot for the carpet for the rest of downstairs.
Amazing Race started last night. I laughed pretty hard at the start. They started out in Seattle this time and sure enough, cold, rainy and most of them got lost trying to find the airport. Many tried taking I5 and got stuck in a traffic jam due to a jackknifed semi. That’s totally Seattle traffic, again I laughed.
As for the race, Phil added a new twist this time, doing a middle of the leg elimination as a surprise. I was kind of let down. They were going to the Forbidden City in China and I was hoping the surprise would be ninja’s jumping out and the last team having to fight them to the death. It was pretty anticlimactic to just have an elimination when I was yelling "Ninja’s! Ninja’s!"
Friday, September 15, 2006
Survivor Race War
Survivor started last night and as is the case every season, there's a new twist. The contestants were divided into 4 teams based on race. Asian Americans, Latinos, African Americans and Caucasians.
Kind of makes it interesting but not enough to make a big thing out of it. I think it'll be a topic for a few more days but it'll get old quickly and they'll move into 2 tribes before too long.
In the first challenge, the Asian Americans proved to be tops at puzzle building and boat rowing as they were the first to finish, followed by the Latinos and Caucasians. That left the African Americans to go to tribal council were Seikou was voted out due to his poor leadership (rule number 2: never take leadership position on day 1).
Last night was our final regular season hockey game of the summer. We lost 4-3 in a frustrating game. My line was buzzing all night and all we could show for it was one goal that I scored off a turnover. I had at least 5 or 6 shots as did the other 2 on my line but couldn't get one in. Oh well, playoffs start next week and since we finished 4th out of 4 teams we get last pick for goalies so that's not going to help, going against the first place team with the best goalie. Yikes.
Since today is Friday and it's my half day I have to figure out what to do with my afternoon... usually... and usually golf is part of that calculation, especially when it's supposed to be sunny and 78 today. Unfortunately, my negligence in the lawn mowing arena means I will be plowing my mower through 18" of very thick grass all afternoon. And no, I don't want your fucking pity.
Kind of makes it interesting but not enough to make a big thing out of it. I think it'll be a topic for a few more days but it'll get old quickly and they'll move into 2 tribes before too long.
In the first challenge, the Asian Americans proved to be tops at puzzle building and boat rowing as they were the first to finish, followed by the Latinos and Caucasians. That left the African Americans to go to tribal council were Seikou was voted out due to his poor leadership (rule number 2: never take leadership position on day 1).
Last night was our final regular season hockey game of the summer. We lost 4-3 in a frustrating game. My line was buzzing all night and all we could show for it was one goal that I scored off a turnover. I had at least 5 or 6 shots as did the other 2 on my line but couldn't get one in. Oh well, playoffs start next week and since we finished 4th out of 4 teams we get last pick for goalies so that's not going to help, going against the first place team with the best goalie. Yikes.
Since today is Friday and it's my half day I have to figure out what to do with my afternoon... usually... and usually golf is part of that calculation, especially when it's supposed to be sunny and 78 today. Unfortunately, my negligence in the lawn mowing arena means I will be plowing my mower through 18" of very thick grass all afternoon. And no, I don't want your fucking pity.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
What a load of crap...
Before I get into my Rockstar rant, quick bowling update.
We laid a major ass kicking on our opponents last night, going 7-0 and winning total pins by over 300. I had a pretty good night, shooting 236, 215 and 236 for 687. After 2 weeks I'm averaging 224. Doubt I can keep that up but I feel pretty good about it so far.
Ok, here's my Rockstar rant. If you haven't watched it yet, quit reading here and come back after you've watched.
I'm pretty sure the SuperNova guys have proven themselves to be just as idiotic as the stupid voters. First, Magni and Toby somehow end up in the bottom 2 of the voting and they have to perform first. Magni does Fire again from Hendrix and he is actually let go because he played guitar as well as sang "too much like one of the band instead of fronting the band" was what Gilby Clark had to say. That's just ridiculous as Gilby needs that guitar help, he can't do it alone, he's not good enough.
So, it's down to Toby, Dilana and that freak Lucas. They all perform one more time and Toby is let go next. Hello? Lucas sucks, what are you doing?
Then they have to huddle up again and everyone is chanting Dilana, Dilana, Dilana. So, what do they do? They pick Lucas to be their singer! What the fuck people? He had the most votes too... who are these idiots voting for him? He just cannot sing to save his life. They liked his "look" and his "moves". Holy shit, he looks like he's having seizures on the stage.
Then they performed 2 songs with Lucas joining them as a full band. God awful. Do not waste your money on concert tickets (which are about $95 by the way) or buying their cd. You will be disappointed.
On the bright side, Dilana will be fronting the house band on their tour. Now, I would pay money to see that. The house band is about 100x better than Crappernova. Gilby also offered to help write and produce a cd for her as well, and Dave Navaro chipped in that he would play on it and then Tommy Lee said he would too. Why didn't they just pick her if they all want to play with her anyway????
Stupid, just plain stupid...
We laid a major ass kicking on our opponents last night, going 7-0 and winning total pins by over 300. I had a pretty good night, shooting 236, 215 and 236 for 687. After 2 weeks I'm averaging 224. Doubt I can keep that up but I feel pretty good about it so far.
Ok, here's my Rockstar rant. If you haven't watched it yet, quit reading here and come back after you've watched.
I'm pretty sure the SuperNova guys have proven themselves to be just as idiotic as the stupid voters. First, Magni and Toby somehow end up in the bottom 2 of the voting and they have to perform first. Magni does Fire again from Hendrix and he is actually let go because he played guitar as well as sang "too much like one of the band instead of fronting the band" was what Gilby Clark had to say. That's just ridiculous as Gilby needs that guitar help, he can't do it alone, he's not good enough.
So, it's down to Toby, Dilana and that freak Lucas. They all perform one more time and Toby is let go next. Hello? Lucas sucks, what are you doing?
Then they have to huddle up again and everyone is chanting Dilana, Dilana, Dilana. So, what do they do? They pick Lucas to be their singer! What the fuck people? He had the most votes too... who are these idiots voting for him? He just cannot sing to save his life. They liked his "look" and his "moves". Holy shit, he looks like he's having seizures on the stage.
Then they performed 2 songs with Lucas joining them as a full band. God awful. Do not waste your money on concert tickets (which are about $95 by the way) or buying their cd. You will be disappointed.
On the bright side, Dilana will be fronting the house band on their tour. Now, I would pay money to see that. The house band is about 100x better than Crappernova. Gilby also offered to help write and produce a cd for her as well, and Dave Navaro chipped in that he would play on it and then Tommy Lee said he would too. Why didn't they just pick her if they all want to play with her anyway????
Stupid, just plain stupid...
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Sigh... Vacation is Over
Back to work Monday morning... I'm totally exhausted, some vacation.
But, the basement is in great shape. Take a look at the pictures I uploaded on the Basement blog.
That's pretty much all I did all week. I did bowl in couples league Saturday night (then went home and put together a 2,000 piece armoir for the basement till midnight). We have 4 returning teams and 5 new teams, so as league secretary I spent a good deal of time running around explaining things. I managed to bowl a 636 (225, 211, 200) but couldn't carry anything, constantly either a 10 pin or a 4 pin. I only had 1 open the whole night, a 4 pin in the 3rd game.
Sunday was golf league banquet and golf outing. Of course it rained the entire time, but some of us still toughed it out. Shot 92 on aerated greens that were horseshit, in constant showers.
Got home in time to see the Packers... next subject, moving on.
So anyway, looking forward to getting back to work where I can get some rest and relaxation. :)
Later
But, the basement is in great shape. Take a look at the pictures I uploaded on the Basement blog.
That's pretty much all I did all week. I did bowl in couples league Saturday night (then went home and put together a 2,000 piece armoir for the basement till midnight). We have 4 returning teams and 5 new teams, so as league secretary I spent a good deal of time running around explaining things. I managed to bowl a 636 (225, 211, 200) but couldn't carry anything, constantly either a 10 pin or a 4 pin. I only had 1 open the whole night, a 4 pin in the 3rd game.
Sunday was golf league banquet and golf outing. Of course it rained the entire time, but some of us still toughed it out. Shot 92 on aerated greens that were horseshit, in constant showers.
Got home in time to see the Packers... next subject, moving on.
So anyway, looking forward to getting back to work where I can get some rest and relaxation. :)
Later
Friday, September 08, 2006
Quick Hitters
I'm in the middle of finishing the basement, so just a couple quick items.
Rockstar: Lucas still sucks but Stormy sent home. Boo. Magni or Toby, but I'm thinking Magni will win.
Bowling: We won 5-2. I paid the price for no practice with a 156 first game. However, I did manage to wake up and reel off 14 straight strikes to shoot 257, 245 the last 2 games for a 658. Guess which game we lost...
Hockey: A lackluster effort in a 5-0 loss. I'm so freakin' beat from working on the basement.
I will have lots of pictures of the basement and a story on this whole week soon on the basement blog.
Later
Rockstar: Lucas still sucks but Stormy sent home. Boo. Magni or Toby, but I'm thinking Magni will win.
Bowling: We won 5-2. I paid the price for no practice with a 156 first game. However, I did manage to wake up and reel off 14 straight strikes to shoot 257, 245 the last 2 games for a 658. Guess which game we lost...
Hockey: A lackluster effort in a 5-0 loss. I'm so freakin' beat from working on the basement.
I will have lots of pictures of the basement and a story on this whole week soon on the basement blog.
Later
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Vacation?
Vacation: a period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually used for rest, recreation, or travel.
Yeah, right.
I may be off from "work" but I've been going non-stop since Saturday. We finally got around to picking up flooring, trim, chair rail, etc for the basement project. I spent all day Sunday working on it. Got the chair rail and about 70% of the flooring done.
Then Monday was another trip up to Whistling Straits. I was so sore from Sunday that I didn't think I'd be able to swing a club. It was tough at first and walking that course will kick your ass every time. I ended up doing pretty well on the front nine, parring 7, 8 and 9 for a 44. I drove the ball very well, hitting 6 of 7 fairways, but couldn't hit an iron off the fairway to save my life. I pretty much ran out of gas on the back nine and for the 3rd straight time, the 18th hole kicked me right in the jimmies.
I hit a good drive down the middle. I was sitting about 260 out and decided to hit 3-wood and get over the ravine that was about 195 from me. I did, but hooked it a little and ended up in the giant bunker next to the green, which is also about 30 feet below the green. I knew I'd have to hit a hard sand wedge to get it up there and boy, did I ever. I picked it clean and sailed it way over the green, over the girl in the cart waiting to take us to the parking lot, over another tee box... and into very, very deep grass. I couldn't find the ball at first and almost took a drop but then I found it, buried deep. I tried to hit it out and yep, I got it out, but right into a grove of trees. I crawled in there and punched it out, then chipped on and 3-putted for a 9. Oh well, 1 shot better than last time!
I ended up shooting 54 on the back for 98. At least I broke 100 this time but I'm still pretty disappointed with that back 9.
I finished the flooring yesterday, I will have pictures on my other blog soon. It looks pretty good. Today will be trim work and staining.
Bowling league starts tonight and I haven't picked up a ball yet, should be interesting, considering I can barely walk this morning.
I'll probably be staining the fence tomorrow too.
I can't wait to go back to work...
Yeah, right.
I may be off from "work" but I've been going non-stop since Saturday. We finally got around to picking up flooring, trim, chair rail, etc for the basement project. I spent all day Sunday working on it. Got the chair rail and about 70% of the flooring done.
Then Monday was another trip up to Whistling Straits. I was so sore from Sunday that I didn't think I'd be able to swing a club. It was tough at first and walking that course will kick your ass every time. I ended up doing pretty well on the front nine, parring 7, 8 and 9 for a 44. I drove the ball very well, hitting 6 of 7 fairways, but couldn't hit an iron off the fairway to save my life. I pretty much ran out of gas on the back nine and for the 3rd straight time, the 18th hole kicked me right in the jimmies.
I hit a good drive down the middle. I was sitting about 260 out and decided to hit 3-wood and get over the ravine that was about 195 from me. I did, but hooked it a little and ended up in the giant bunker next to the green, which is also about 30 feet below the green. I knew I'd have to hit a hard sand wedge to get it up there and boy, did I ever. I picked it clean and sailed it way over the green, over the girl in the cart waiting to take us to the parking lot, over another tee box... and into very, very deep grass. I couldn't find the ball at first and almost took a drop but then I found it, buried deep. I tried to hit it out and yep, I got it out, but right into a grove of trees. I crawled in there and punched it out, then chipped on and 3-putted for a 9. Oh well, 1 shot better than last time!
I ended up shooting 54 on the back for 98. At least I broke 100 this time but I'm still pretty disappointed with that back 9.
I finished the flooring yesterday, I will have pictures on my other blog soon. It looks pretty good. Today will be trim work and staining.
Bowling league starts tonight and I haven't picked up a ball yet, should be interesting, considering I can barely walk this morning.
I'll probably be staining the fence tomorrow too.
I can't wait to go back to work...
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Rockstar voters have woken up!
One more person went home on Rockstar last night. After what I considered to be a butchering of Baba O’Reilly by Ryan, he was the first of the final 6 to be sent home. He made a lot of progress but I never thought he was right for Supernova. His departure was no shock for sure but there were 2 big surprises last night.
First, Magni was the only rocker that was never in the bottom 3 of the voting and was the leading vote getter. Now, that’s more like it, maybe my prior post asking the voters to wake up had an effect. I’d like to think so… :)
Secondly, Dilana was in the bottom 3 for the first time and had to perform. She was never in any danger of going home going up against Storm and Ryan and she performed like she knew that, staggering through an uninspired Talking Heads track that barely kept me from pushing the fast forward button on my tivo.
Supernova performed a 3rd crappy tune, this time with the Lucas freak singing. These songs suck and I think they need to hire 2 additional people: 1) a song writer and b) a better guitar player. Gilby is ok as second fiddle on guitar but he can’t lead the show. The riffs are boring and he can’t fill at all. I can’t see myself paying money for their album.
Golf league concluded last night in a dramatic fashion. While the top 2 teams were battling for the team championship, I was making a play for the individual honors. I came in 1 shot behind co-leaders at -2. 1 of them fell apart early so it became a 2 man race. Unfortunately I came up a shot short. I started out well going par, bogey, par but after that I just had bogies the rest of the way for a 7 over 43 and a net 35. The other guy had a net 35 as well which left me one shot behind. To make matters worse, I missed a 4 foot par putt on the last hole which sat on the lip dangling over the cup and wouldn’t fall. AND, the other guy had a hole-in-one! Of all the rotten luck. If mine goes a half inch left and his goes a half inch left I win. Golf is definitely a game of inches (or half inches in this case).
We have another Whistling Straits trip planned for Monday (Labor Day) and the weather is not looking very good. Currently it looks like rain from Sunday through Tuesday which doesn’t bode well for going up there.
First, Magni was the only rocker that was never in the bottom 3 of the voting and was the leading vote getter. Now, that’s more like it, maybe my prior post asking the voters to wake up had an effect. I’d like to think so… :)
Secondly, Dilana was in the bottom 3 for the first time and had to perform. She was never in any danger of going home going up against Storm and Ryan and she performed like she knew that, staggering through an uninspired Talking Heads track that barely kept me from pushing the fast forward button on my tivo.
Supernova performed a 3rd crappy tune, this time with the Lucas freak singing. These songs suck and I think they need to hire 2 additional people: 1) a song writer and b) a better guitar player. Gilby is ok as second fiddle on guitar but he can’t lead the show. The riffs are boring and he can’t fill at all. I can’t see myself paying money for their album.
Golf league concluded last night in a dramatic fashion. While the top 2 teams were battling for the team championship, I was making a play for the individual honors. I came in 1 shot behind co-leaders at -2. 1 of them fell apart early so it became a 2 man race. Unfortunately I came up a shot short. I started out well going par, bogey, par but after that I just had bogies the rest of the way for a 7 over 43 and a net 35. The other guy had a net 35 as well which left me one shot behind. To make matters worse, I missed a 4 foot par putt on the last hole which sat on the lip dangling over the cup and wouldn’t fall. AND, the other guy had a hole-in-one! Of all the rotten luck. If mine goes a half inch left and his goes a half inch left I win. Golf is definitely a game of inches (or half inches in this case).
We have another Whistling Straits trip planned for Monday (Labor Day) and the weather is not looking very good. Currently it looks like rain from Sunday through Tuesday which doesn’t bode well for going up there.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Father/Son Match Champs!
Dad and I won our 1st annual father/son match by 3 holes on Sunday. Good for $3 each! And the bonus is we didn’t even argue once! He played very well, I played like poop. I couldn’t get much of a rhythm going and the other son acted like a teenager throwing a temper tantrum. And he’s older than me too.
On the back 9 we ended up having a group of members behind us that were pretty good. They hit close to us a couple times (not bad but looked like a message to me). That turned this guy into a raving lunatic, yelling and throwing his clubs. He even called the clubhouse and threatened to shove his putter up their asses (he would have gotten his ass kicked by these guys easily). It really threw me off and was a total downer. Finally on 12 I said “hey, why don’t we just stop and let them play through”. So, we did, which cost us about 15 minutes of waiting around. At that point I went for beer…
We were pretty fortunate that Sunday was a very nice day. We had severe rain and t-storms from Wednesday through Saturday and then it rained again yesterday and could today as well. Tomorrow is supposed to get nice finally. I’m hoping that we get some great weather for Labor Day, as we’re making our 3rd trip to Whistling Straits this year. This time we got 2-1 pricing (only $70 each). 5 of the original 8 are going again so we’ve added 3 newbies to the mix.
Packers… sheesh. Could they have looked any worse last night? Or is Cinci just that good? I can’t imagine the Pack doing better than 6-10 this year. Cinci could be in line for a shot at the Super Bowl. I have the Giants at 15-1 in our pool this year. Shooting for my 3rd win in 4 years (I had TB 3 years ago and Pitt last year). I’m pretty happy I got the team I wanted with the 2nd to last pick.
Prior to the Packer game I installed new LED lights in our entertainment center. We had older, bigger lights under there and a few of them broke. These new ones are smaller and don’t give off as much light, giving a nice, soft appearance. They will also last 10 times longer.
All this rain allowed me to work on the basement some more and I finally finished the ceiling. That only took about 4 months! I’ll post some pictures on my other blog when I have time. Next up is getting all the trim and staining it while the weather is nice. Speaking of stain, I am also planning to stain our fence next week (we’re taking the week off to do stuff around the house, what a fun vacation!). I also need to decide on the flooring too. I’m going to do laminate wood flooring throughout most of the basement but am not sure on the workout room. I am leaning towards doing interlocking rubber tiles in there instead. They’re pretty expensive though. I checked out the floor pretty thoroughly last night and it’s flat with the exception of one area in the hallway where the center dips down about a quarter inch. I’ll need to spread some leveling compound in there to even it out. I’m pretty lucky as we’ve never had any water issues in the basement at all. Knock on wood!
Well, better get back to it. Tomorrow is our last week of golf league and I’m in the hunt for the individual championship that we do the last 3 weeks. Check back Thursday for the results!
On the back 9 we ended up having a group of members behind us that were pretty good. They hit close to us a couple times (not bad but looked like a message to me). That turned this guy into a raving lunatic, yelling and throwing his clubs. He even called the clubhouse and threatened to shove his putter up their asses (he would have gotten his ass kicked by these guys easily). It really threw me off and was a total downer. Finally on 12 I said “hey, why don’t we just stop and let them play through”. So, we did, which cost us about 15 minutes of waiting around. At that point I went for beer…
We were pretty fortunate that Sunday was a very nice day. We had severe rain and t-storms from Wednesday through Saturday and then it rained again yesterday and could today as well. Tomorrow is supposed to get nice finally. I’m hoping that we get some great weather for Labor Day, as we’re making our 3rd trip to Whistling Straits this year. This time we got 2-1 pricing (only $70 each). 5 of the original 8 are going again so we’ve added 3 newbies to the mix.
Packers… sheesh. Could they have looked any worse last night? Or is Cinci just that good? I can’t imagine the Pack doing better than 6-10 this year. Cinci could be in line for a shot at the Super Bowl. I have the Giants at 15-1 in our pool this year. Shooting for my 3rd win in 4 years (I had TB 3 years ago and Pitt last year). I’m pretty happy I got the team I wanted with the 2nd to last pick.
Prior to the Packer game I installed new LED lights in our entertainment center. We had older, bigger lights under there and a few of them broke. These new ones are smaller and don’t give off as much light, giving a nice, soft appearance. They will also last 10 times longer.
All this rain allowed me to work on the basement some more and I finally finished the ceiling. That only took about 4 months! I’ll post some pictures on my other blog when I have time. Next up is getting all the trim and staining it while the weather is nice. Speaking of stain, I am also planning to stain our fence next week (we’re taking the week off to do stuff around the house, what a fun vacation!). I also need to decide on the flooring too. I’m going to do laminate wood flooring throughout most of the basement but am not sure on the workout room. I am leaning towards doing interlocking rubber tiles in there instead. They’re pretty expensive though. I checked out the floor pretty thoroughly last night and it’s flat with the exception of one area in the hallway where the center dips down about a quarter inch. I’ll need to spread some leveling compound in there to even it out. I’m pretty lucky as we’ve never had any water issues in the basement at all. Knock on wood!
Well, better get back to it. Tomorrow is our last week of golf league and I’m in the hunt for the individual championship that we do the last 3 weeks. Check back Thursday for the results!
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Wake Up Rockstar Voters!
Who are you people that continually put Magni in the bottom 3? It makes no sense to me at all. He's cranking out great performance after great performance and yet, twice in the bottom 3? Makes no sense, you people are idiots.
And to top things off, I think he might be numero uno now that Dilana has decided to slit her own throat with her new found joy of being a bitch to everyone else. Where did that come from? Man, she did not impress the band with that crap. I had said that she would have to fall on her face to lose this gig and that just might have done it. Personally, I think Magni would be the best fit for that band.
Ok, on to golf. I began my recovery from the crap I called golf last weekend. In week 2 of a 3 week (27 holes) "league club championship" we played the front 9 from the red tees, which I just hate. It makes the par 3's into totally strange little shots where you can't hit them full. I mean the 115 yard one was short to begin with but from the reds it's 83 yards. The other was 159 and the reds turn it into 66 yards! 66! What a joke. Anyway, I shot a 38 with a lost ball and an unplayable lie. I really was relaxed and I think I realistically could have shot under par if not for a couple unlucky breaks. On the first hole I took my tee shot down the right side and it caught the side slope and rolled into the crap. I dropped and still saved bogey. Parred 2 and 3.
Then came 4, the par 5, I drove through the end of the fairway at about 145 yards out. I then missed the green right, then chunked my chip short. My 2nd chip ended up about 6" from the cup and I got my par but I wasn't happy about it.
Parred 5 with another nice chip from just off the green to within 3". Missed the fairway left on 6 but hit a gap wedge to within 7 feet and just missed the birdie putt but got par. On 7 I hit through the fairway again and got lucky that it went past a huge oak tree and left me a shot, which I hit to within 2 feet from about 110 yards. Got the birdie there to put me back to even par after 7.
Then came 8, the 66 yard par 3... I took a nice easy half sand wedge and... flew it over the green. This green runs severely back to front and the last place you want to be is long. But, I made the chip I wanted, hitting a soft lob to the fringe but it still ran about 12 feet past the hole. I then compounded things by 3-putting for a double bogey and my dreams of breaking par were shattered.
So, on to 9 I went, looking for redemption and here it was. This par 4 dropped to 260 at the red tees and I'm looking to drive the green and make eagle and get back to even, my only chance. So, we wait and wait for the group in front of us to finish. The other 3 have already hit and I can feel they'd like to move along. Finally, my chance comes, but I am concerned about hitting it over the green and into the pond behind it. I decide to choke down on my driver a little. That probably wasn't the right idea because it took me out of my normal swing and I blasted it WAY right, across a cart path and under a pine tree. I had to take a drop from there and then proceeded to hit a sand wedge from about 90 yards out of the rough to within 2 feet. Unfortunately, I got nervous about the side hill/downhill lie and didn't get the putt on line and ended with bogey for 3 over. At least it wasn't a 50 like my final 9 Sunday!
I will be making another attempt to play golf with my dad Sunday. We're actually teammates in a father/son challenge match. Pray for his safe return... ;)
And to top things off, I think he might be numero uno now that Dilana has decided to slit her own throat with her new found joy of being a bitch to everyone else. Where did that come from? Man, she did not impress the band with that crap. I had said that she would have to fall on her face to lose this gig and that just might have done it. Personally, I think Magni would be the best fit for that band.
Ok, on to golf. I began my recovery from the crap I called golf last weekend. In week 2 of a 3 week (27 holes) "league club championship" we played the front 9 from the red tees, which I just hate. It makes the par 3's into totally strange little shots where you can't hit them full. I mean the 115 yard one was short to begin with but from the reds it's 83 yards. The other was 159 and the reds turn it into 66 yards! 66! What a joke. Anyway, I shot a 38 with a lost ball and an unplayable lie. I really was relaxed and I think I realistically could have shot under par if not for a couple unlucky breaks. On the first hole I took my tee shot down the right side and it caught the side slope and rolled into the crap. I dropped and still saved bogey. Parred 2 and 3.
Then came 4, the par 5, I drove through the end of the fairway at about 145 yards out. I then missed the green right, then chunked my chip short. My 2nd chip ended up about 6" from the cup and I got my par but I wasn't happy about it.
Parred 5 with another nice chip from just off the green to within 3". Missed the fairway left on 6 but hit a gap wedge to within 7 feet and just missed the birdie putt but got par. On 7 I hit through the fairway again and got lucky that it went past a huge oak tree and left me a shot, which I hit to within 2 feet from about 110 yards. Got the birdie there to put me back to even par after 7.
Then came 8, the 66 yard par 3... I took a nice easy half sand wedge and... flew it over the green. This green runs severely back to front and the last place you want to be is long. But, I made the chip I wanted, hitting a soft lob to the fringe but it still ran about 12 feet past the hole. I then compounded things by 3-putting for a double bogey and my dreams of breaking par were shattered.
So, on to 9 I went, looking for redemption and here it was. This par 4 dropped to 260 at the red tees and I'm looking to drive the green and make eagle and get back to even, my only chance. So, we wait and wait for the group in front of us to finish. The other 3 have already hit and I can feel they'd like to move along. Finally, my chance comes, but I am concerned about hitting it over the green and into the pond behind it. I decide to choke down on my driver a little. That probably wasn't the right idea because it took me out of my normal swing and I blasted it WAY right, across a cart path and under a pine tree. I had to take a drop from there and then proceeded to hit a sand wedge from about 90 yards out of the rough to within 2 feet. Unfortunately, I got nervous about the side hill/downhill lie and didn't get the putt on line and ended with bogey for 3 over. At least it wasn't a 50 like my final 9 Sunday!
I will be making another attempt to play golf with my dad Sunday. We're actually teammates in a father/son challenge match. Pray for his safe return... ;)
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
You Shall Bow Before Me
My posting on the Beer Fest was quoted in the Isthmus Daily Page in Madison!
Thanks to CB for finding it for me, since I never read that rag... :)
Thanks to CB for finding it for me, since I never read that rag... :)
Monday, August 21, 2006
Staggering to the finish
What a beautiful day for golfing yesterday, couldn't have been nicer... didn't help my game however.
I walked up to the 10th tee (we started on the back) with all good intentions, wanting to redeem myself for my poor showing Saturday. I was ready, feeling pretty good since I didn't drink Saturday night and got a decent night's sleep. The 10th hole is a dogleg left and I usually go over the corner or attempt to anyway, and usually hit a draw. This time I aimed just over the corner and that's where it went, straight as a grizzly's dick, and of course, completely flew over the fairway, over the rough and directly into the pond. Nice start.
I ended up shooting 45/51 for 96 and managed to beat 5 people with my 2 day total of 49 OVER PAR, hahahaha. I also managed to get completely blotto by the end... I could barely see straight as I took a 7 on the last hole.
Highlights:
Long Drive contest - I sucked so bad it was pathetic. 1 low scooter down the middle for 229 was the only one that hit the grid. 1 wide right and 1 wide left. Guy before me hit 291 which held up. Of course, when I played that hole yesterday I crushed it 292. Figures.
I birdied #1 yesterday after that big drive and was the only one in my flight to do that so I should be getting money for the skins game.
I just missed eagle on #15 after hitting a 3-wood out of the left rough to the middle of the green from 238. Tapped in for birdie.
I parred #18 both days, the only hole I played well both times.
Dr. Mike shot 90 yesterday and ended up in a 4-way tie for 3rd place for his flight. He plays better when I'm not around I think. Maybe there's too much pressure playing against me. Who knows?
I walked up to the 10th tee (we started on the back) with all good intentions, wanting to redeem myself for my poor showing Saturday. I was ready, feeling pretty good since I didn't drink Saturday night and got a decent night's sleep. The 10th hole is a dogleg left and I usually go over the corner or attempt to anyway, and usually hit a draw. This time I aimed just over the corner and that's where it went, straight as a grizzly's dick, and of course, completely flew over the fairway, over the rough and directly into the pond. Nice start.
I ended up shooting 45/51 for 96 and managed to beat 5 people with my 2 day total of 49 OVER PAR, hahahaha. I also managed to get completely blotto by the end... I could barely see straight as I took a 7 on the last hole.
Highlights:
Long Drive contest - I sucked so bad it was pathetic. 1 low scooter down the middle for 229 was the only one that hit the grid. 1 wide right and 1 wide left. Guy before me hit 291 which held up. Of course, when I played that hole yesterday I crushed it 292. Figures.
I birdied #1 yesterday after that big drive and was the only one in my flight to do that so I should be getting money for the skins game.
I just missed eagle on #15 after hitting a 3-wood out of the left rough to the middle of the green from 238. Tapped in for birdie.
I parred #18 both days, the only hole I played well both times.
Dr. Mike shot 90 yesterday and ended up in a 4-way tie for 3rd place for his flight. He plays better when I'm not around I think. Maybe there's too much pressure playing against me. Who knows?
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Day 1 blowup
Well, so much for the excitement of the club championship... I played pretty well on the front nine only to have my putter go haywire and shot 45 with a ton of putts. I fell apart on the back nine for a 50. Pretty much out of contention now. The lack of sleep the last 2 nights really caught up to me on the back nine as I ran out of gas completely.
My only hope now is the long drive contest which starts in an hour. I decided to come home and take a quick nap and watch a little of the PGA championship for inspiration. I just need to suck it up for 3 shots.
Dr. Mike got off to a terrible start, going quad, double, triple. He finally settled down and shot 50 and then got a 46 on the back. With his handicap he's sitting at 73, not too far behind the leaders. Maybe he'll have something to play for tomorrow.
My only hope now is the long drive contest which starts in an hour. I decided to come home and take a quick nap and watch a little of the PGA championship for inspiration. I just need to suck it up for 3 shots.
Dr. Mike got off to a terrible start, going quad, double, triple. He finally settled down and shot 50 and then got a 46 on the back. With his handicap he's sitting at 73, not too far behind the leaders. Maybe he'll have something to play for tomorrow.
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