Holiday Weekend

Well, another Memorial Day weekend come and gone. It was a busy one for sure but I did manage to relax for a few hours.

Friday: I decided I needed one more round of golf before Whistling Straits so I went out to Door Creek and played a decent front nine, not hitting driver much and shooting a 41. Then came the back nine… Somehow I managed to start hitting my driver well again only to lose my iron accuracy. Isn’t that how it always goes? I figure there are 4 parts to golf (driving, irons, chipping and putting) and if you can get more than 2 working at any one time you’re lucky. So, driver starts working and of course I can no longer hit my irons worth a crap. I shoot 47 on the back. Not really ready for WS after all.

Saturday: We left home at about 6:45am for Whistling Straits. After a very quick breakfast at the Rolling Meadows Family Restaurant in Fond Du Lac, we were at the course by 9:35. We all paid then hit the range and practice green, anticipating the joy to come at 10:30 (and 10:40 for the 2nd group). What a great day it was, beautiful weather (except for a couple rain drops on the last hole). No one played great but it was still lots of fun. We each put in 5 bucks for a contest, which consisted of most fairways hit, most greens in regulation, most 1-putts and most chip ins. CB took home the lions share of the money with his consistent driving and the only chip in of the day. I, of course, hit good drive after good drive, only to consistently hork my second shot and shot 53, 51 for 104. Could have been a 46 or 47 on the back but I hit 2 in the water and took a 10 on the par 5 18th. We had a few Guinness in the WS pub and hit the road about 5:00 and were home by 7:30.

Sunday: Woke up Sunday morning with a horrible head and neck ache. The stand bag I bought for WS was heavier than I anticipated and put a wrench in my neck. I ended up taking it back in the afternoon. I got up about 6:15 to take some Advil and coffee. Went out around 7:45 and mowed the lawn yet again (still growing about an inch a day). It got super hot and was already 80 by 10:30 in the morning on its way to 91. Very humid too.. yuk. Did some shopping and relaxed the rest of the day.

Monday: I decided I better get back to the basement project after a couple weeks off. Plus I decided it was the place to be to beat the heat. I managed to remove and cap off a couple can lights I decided against then did the ceiling in the soffit area, finally quitting around 2:00. Watched a couple movies and generally relaxed the rest of the day.

Today we’re back to rain again; I’m hoping it clears up by tomorrow so we don’t get rained out of golf league for the 3rd week in a row.

TV Wrap up

Well, the tv season is wrapping up and I’m glad. Like bowling season, sometimes it just goes on too damn long. On Monday, 24 and Alias wrapped up with 2 hour finale’s. If you haven't seen either yet and are planning to, skip to the bottom.

On 24, Jack saved the day as usual but was then kidnapped by the Chinese and the last we saw he was bloody and beaten in the cargo hold of a ship headed for China. President Logan was arrested and will be impeached. My guess is the guys pulling the strings behind the scenes will have him assassinated long before he can rat them out. Next season starts in January.

On Alias, the series came to an end with everything wrapping up a nice, neat little package. Sloan found the end result he was looking for with the Rimbaldi artifacts and got immortality. Sydney caught him but Sloan shot Jack and Sydney shot Sloan. Syd and Vaughn had to leave to stop Sydney’s mom from launching missiles at Washington and London (she did and her mom ended up dying). Sloan came back from the dead down in the tomb where he had found the last artifact. Jack managed to find his way back down and since he was probably dying from his gunshot wounds anyway, loaded himself up with explosives. He knew what Sloan was up to and realized the only real way to stop him was to bury him. So, he detonated the explosives in the tomb some 200 feet underground burying them both. Sloan was last seen pinned but alive where he will spend eternity. We see Syd and Vaughn retired and living on a beach with they’re now two kids and a third on the way. Dixon is running some organization and comes to see them looking for help. That’s how it ends. I really doubt that two people with that type of personality can just retire and do nothing, but that’s how they left it.

Soprano’s only has 1 episode left (June 4th) for this season and then there will be a break and they’ll come back with the final 8 episode season later this summer I think.

Deadwood is set to start in June and this will be its final season unless something dramatic happens to change that. The actors have already been released so it doesn’t look good for a 4th season.

Now I can finally start to watch those dvd’s from Netflix that have been sitting on the shelf since January. They gotta love me, pay them $18/month and not watch any movies…. I just got Saw 2 though, really want to see that soon.

Today is golf league day so of course, just like last week, we have the threat of t-storms. Figures…. At least Saturday is looking great for our Whistling Straits trip. 73 and partly cloudy, no chance of rain. Gonna be great!

Mowed the lawn again last night. I swear it grew an inch yesterday. I need to buy some goats…

Long, hard weekend

I’m glad to be back at work after a very busy weekend. Started it off with over 3 hours of mowing Friday afternoon. I went after the 12” high grass in a two pronged attack. First I put the mower as high as possible and went over it with the side discharge open. Then, not wanting to rake I lowered the deck to the next setting down and went over it perpendicular to the first pass, this time mulching. While there was still grass clippings around it didn’t feel like it was enough to rake. I was pretty toast after that so I just drank beer and watched tv the rest of the night.

Saturday I thought I was going to be working on the basement but I was informed I needed to do other things like get flowers and a new shrub for the front. Ok, no problem, those are easy. Unfortunately the shrub being replaced did NOT want to be dug out. After an hour and a half, 2 shovels, an axe and a saw it finally came out. I’ve never seen a root system that strong in a shrub, especially one less than 2 years old. Needless to say by the time that was all over all I had the strength left to do was spray some dandelions. Then it was beer drinking time. I read on the deck while enjoying a couple cold ones.

Sunday was golfing day. While Saturday morning was quite warm and in the 60’s right off the bat, Saturday night brought another front through and Sunday at 8am it was only 43! Talk about a cold start to the day.

I decided to carry my bag instead of using my cart. 2 years ago I bought a cart because my shoulder couldn’t take the carrying any more (had surgery that fall). Since then I really have enjoyed the cart (Sun Mountain speed cart) but we’re going to Whistling Straits this Saturday and I’m going to carry there so I thought I better try it out first. Wish I hadn’t, my shoulders are quite sore though I didn’t really notice it at the time. I shot a wildly erratic 91 (45/46). Started the front nine by going double, triple, bogey, double and finished the front with par, par, bogey, par, par. Then started the back with a snowman on the 10th hole (par 4). Ended up losing 5 balls and having 8 pars. Crazy.

Afterwards we ran a couple errands and then sat around reading, catching up on all my golf magazines as well as the last Cargo (they cancelled it, booooooo) and Cigar Aficionado and again, partaking a few cold Capital Island Wheats. Speaking of that, I went to the Village Liquor on Saturday afternoon and it was customer appreciation day. With the purchase of a 12 pack of Island Wheat I got an extra bottle, a pint glass, coolie and key chain bottle opener. Yay… love those free beer items.

5 days till Whistling Straits, I can’t wait! Forecast is for 71 and partly cloudy, a 10 on Weather.com’s golf scale of 1-10!

League cancelled due to Squishiness

Huge t-storm rolled through about 90 minutes prior to league so the golf course cancelled all the leagues. We played anyway since it became sunny after that. The grounds were a touch squishy in several areas but it wasn't bad.

I shot a 41, continuing some decent play from Saturday. On the 2nd hole I nailed a 7 iron from 155 that stuck 3' short of the pin and missed the birdie putt. Then again on the 5th hole (par 3 island green) I stuck one pin high, 3' right and missed that birdie putt. Just a case of not being agressive enough and babying the ball up to the hole. Gotta remember to just drill them into the back of the cup and stop fucking around. I ended up with 1 double bogey (got behind some trees in jail), 4 bogies and 4 pars.

Looks like most of the rain has gone away now but still a chance for more on Saturday. Next week could be in the 80's! I'm hopeful for decent weather next Saturday as that's our group trip to Whistling Straits.

Riding the Short Bus

I had an interview this morning for a permanent position with my current client. It was for a specialist Java Architect position for which I am qualified. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure I came across as at least slightly retarded and there's no way I'm going to get that position, despite the manager being an old high school classmate and ex 8th grade foosball partner. There's only 3 people interviewing for it so perhaps they will be more retarded than I, but I doubt it.

The rain has stopped... for now... but it will be back and last until Friday. I'm hoping for a nice weekend finally. I have not mowed my lawn in 11 days now. It is a wee bit long now, in the 12-15" height and my dogs are actually getting lost in the backyard. I see some raking in my future and I'm not too excited about it. Maybe tonight.

Best 9 and Survivor

Our golf tournament was rained out Saturday (it's rained every day except Wednesday over the last week). Dr. Mike and I went and played anyway since the course was wide open and it wasn't even raining! We played 18 in about 3 hours walking and it never rained once. Actually, it was quite nice. I started off playing like crap, losing a ball 3 of the first 4 holes and shooting 50 on the front 9.
I made a slight change to my swing on my irons and it paid big dividends. Despite hitting only 2 fairways on the back 9 I shot a 38, 2 over par, my all time best 9 hole score. I wasn't driving well at all, constantly pull hooking or pushing my drives into the rough but I hit every iron dead nuts on and was all over the pin. In fact, if I had putted better I could have had a 35. I missed 2 birdie putts inside 5 feet and lipped out a par putt from 4 feet too. I ended up with 17 putts and 6 greens in regulation. I had 3 bogies, 5 pars and a birdie (2 foot putt).

Survivor finale was last night. Here's one thing I don't understand. Every immunity challenge the entire time was very challenging physicially. But, once again they get to the final challenge and it's a contest to see who can stand still the longest. How is that a challenge??? So, Danielle wins the challenge over the only 2 guys that had won one. She had no chance to win, no one liked her and she flip-flopped more times than a politician. She struggles with who to take and picks Aras, which was for sure not going to work. Her only chance was to pick Terry and hope that the old tribal alliance was in tact. Aras wins the million easily. Rest was pretty boring but Cirie did win a new Yukon, voted on by the fans, so that was cool.

That's it from the rainy midwest for today...

Wicked Weather

We got lucky and had decent weather for golfing last night. I screwed up a few putts and shot 47. Could have easily been in the lower 40's if I'd made a few more putts. I had one total screw up hole as usual, taking an 8 on a par 4 after a perfect drive down the middle to about 130 yards. Followed that by sculling a 9-iron and then a sand wedge into a tree, followed by a punch out and a chip over the green. Just wonderful.

I did win $10 for getting closest to the pin in 3 on a par 5. Even that was difficult as I mis-hit my 3-wood on my 2nd shot and ended up being 165 out for my 3rd. Stuck a 6 iron about 15 feet from the hole and somehow no one got closer.

We have a tee time for tomorrow afternoon and a tournament Saturday morning but the weather looks really nasty. Today it's 30-40 mph winds and very rainy and it's going to get colder as the day goes on. Tomorrow looks like upper 40's, still windy and rainy and Saturday looks a little less windy and maybe 50 but still periods of rain. Weatherman said we won't see the sun for the next 7 days at least. Yeeha...

Our Whistling Straits trip is 2 weeks from Saturday, I'm just praying it will be decent weather.

On the positive side, team MoJo finally met their doom last night and we don't have to listen to her constant whining and crying any more. The Hippies took the fast forward (eating a huge bowl of fried grasshoppers and crickets) and ended up first.

Luck o' the Scottish?

Yesterday, rains hard all day long.
Tomorrow, high of 47 with 30-45 mph winds.
Today, partly cloudy and 70. Today is golf league so how lucky is that?

My new Winn Grips should be on all my clubs by now, except my driver. Apparently TaylorMade R580's have a tapered shaft that's thicker at the end (that's what she said) and the new grip won't fit so they're putting another TM grip on it. Oh well, the other 13 will all be the same. Funny that my TM R580xd 3-wood doesn't have that problem. I hope to get to the course a tad early so I can at least get a couple swings with the new grips before heading out to the course.

Last night I watched a couple dvd's I had received as a member of the PGA Tour Partners Club. One was on the rules of golf and frequently asked questions. I learned a little about nearest point of relief and where to drop.

The other one was on driving for distance and accuracy. Ok, this is the most consistent part of my game so I was apprehensive about watching it but I learned some new mechanical things dealing with posture and grip. That won't hurt me... haha, famous last words. I learned much of what I already knew about relaxing it and swinging with a good tempo. I know when I really try to kill one I tense up and squeeze the shit out of the club and always push it right. Just have to think about having a good tempo and relaxing. Seems simple enough.

Anyone have Showtime? I started tivoing Penn and Teller's show called "Bullshit!". It's pretty good. They basically rip into idiots, like Cryptozoologists who hunt for big foot and the loch ness monster. Actually, just Penn does the talking since Teller doesn't talk. He just makes hand gestures... There is no magic in the show.

Speaking of magic, anyone watch the David Blaine aquarium thing Monday? I missed it, but I have one question. Did he pee in the water?

Later, lunch is over.

Overworked

I've been finding it increasingly hard to find time to post lately. We have a project that has to be ready for user testing in less than 2 weeks so I'm a little buried. I'll just go for quick sound bites instead.
24... awesome, too bad that bastard didn't kill himself.
Golf.... I suck, getting new grips on my clubs today, maybe that will be the magical elixer.
Weekend... Golfed (see above) and watched my friend and his 6 year old son race go karts. Pretty fun. Also went to the finish line for Dr. Mike's team's finish in the Mad City Dash adventure race. They made it in about 11 hours and finished in the top half. Pretty good for an out of shape, cigar smoking, beer drinking 32 year old.

Later!

Lost Survivor

I wasn't going to post today, work is super hectic as we have 2 weeks left till we begin user testing on our app and I'm a little behind.

But, just wanted to say something about Lost and Survivor. *SPOILER ALERT*
We watched Survivor first last night, Shane is such a dumbass he couldn't see it coming, not that there was anything he could do about it. But to keep saying "I'm safe" when he obviously wasn't just show how stupid he really is. I love the way Cerie is playing the game. Totally hidden, the puppet master pulling the strings and no one can tell. Unfortunately for everyone else, this game is Terry's. He is completely dominating everything. He has not lost a challenge since individual stuff started and he may become the first person to break the curse of the car and take home a million and his new Yukon.
Now, he only has one more tribal council where he can use the immunity idol found. Does he tank the next challenge, hoping they will try to vote him out in a 3-1 vote? I think he should. What that would do is make his 1 vote the only vote that mattered which means he picks the final 3 and Aras goes bye bye. Now you may see one of the others figure that out and try to position themselves with Terry so that they make sure he is not voting for them. Should be very interesting next week.

Now, Lost. I had golf Wednesday so we watched it after Survivor last night. WOW! What a twist. I kept telling Cdubya that Michael didn't look right, something about the crazy look in his eyes. I thought that they must have done something to him. Plus, he tells this story about how he found them right away and they were all weak and then he came back. But, he was gone for a very long time and they found him unconcious in the forest. Made no sense. Well, I guess I was right as he popped Anna Lucia and then Libby before wounding himself and letting the captive go to make it look like he was just part of the attack by the captive after Anna untied him so she could kill him. I'm pretty sure they'll all buy that story for now and Michael will continue to infiltrate the group. What is his main objective? Ask Hurley, it's all in his head anyway.

Golf league off to a rocky start

We started golf league last night and I got off to a horrible start. Drove my first shot into a tree and it was downhill from there. I straighted out the driver and really bombed away but couldn't do anything else right. I'm such a retard... oh, sorry, I mean I'm mentally challenged.

Even when I did something good it turned out bad. 9th hole I hit my drive so well that it went past the fairway and down into a gully just short of the green. Luckily I hit a good chip to about 3 feet and made the birdie putt so the day ended well. That saved a 50 for me... not good. I'm sure we got pummeled as Dr. Mike also shot a 50. Balderdash had a quiet 43, never got in trouble and kept the ball in the fairway. He also had a birdie putt on 9 but it was much more difficult than mine and he left it short.

I did enjoy a cigar and the course is selling Capital Island Wheat from the carts so we had a couple of those.

Got home around 9 and watched The Amazing Race. It was pretty tense the whole time and the frat boys pulled a bad prank on 2 other teams by cancelling cabs that they had arranged, saying they were dumb for not using fake names. I thought it was completely innappropriate. Karma came back to bite them in the ass though as the cab they had called failed to show as well and they were the last ones to get a cab.

Then came the Yield with MoJo in the lead but the hippies beat them to the mat and yielded them right in their faces. Man, talk about some teams hating each other. I guess the hippies don't really hate anyone but everyone else hates them.

At the detour the hippies and the frat boys decided on swimming a mile down a river past some pretty nasty spiders while the other 2 teams went for a drive through the woods to find aboriginies and play an instrument. That turned out to be pretty quick and at the end it was a 3 team sprint to avoid elimination. For some reason BJ of the hippies decided to skip the bridge and jump across the rocks barefoot. That cost them as they ended up last.

But once again they were saved as it was a non-elimination round and they just had to give up all their money and everything they weren't wearing. Poor BJ, now he has the do the race with no shoes! How's he going to get on an airplane? They sure as hell won't let him on.

Hacking and Slashing

I decided to go golfing Friday afternoon since the weekend looked lousy (and it turned out to be the right choice as it rained all weekend long). I got paired up with 2 older IT guys that were terrible and a nice old gentleman with a powered cart. I didn't get a chance to warm up so I was a little tight. I ended up bombing my drive down the middle about 290, leaving myself about 50 yards to the hole. I then pulled out my sand wedge, hit it off the toe, into the weeds way right. Blasted it out of there into the bunker. Barely got out of the bunker, chipped short, 2 putted, double bogey. And that's how the entire day went. I had about 2 good wedge shots the entire round as I continued to crush every drive. I did manage to birdie the 4th and 5th holes but the rest of the day was a waste. Ended up shooting 97 (46-51). I was +9 after 3 holes before the back to back birdies.

Saturday was a lazy day, went to Barnes and Noble and bought a few books. Watched a couple movies (Dukes of Hazzard and King Kong).

Sunday I finally got around to working on the basement again. Got most of the hallway ceiling done. Still lots of work to do.

Then it was time for our hockey championship game. Going in I knew we wouldn't have the firepower we normally would. Our two best forwards were both out of town so I figured we would have to out work our opponent and have stellar goaltending. In warm ups I knew we weren't going to get the latter as our goalie was obviously struggling to find the puck.

The other team came out smoking and we were on our heals from the get go. We quickly fell behind and without those 2 guys we didn't really have a chance. We were down 4-0 by the 3rd period before we finally got on the board. Even that goal was lucky as I broke down the right side and took a slapshot that the goalie blocked and the rebound bounced off one of their defenseman into the goal. That ended up being the final score so no back to back championships for me. I'm looking forward to a break before summer league starts.

Golf league starts Wednesday, looks like rain... :(