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.
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