Receiving End

No, I’m not in prison being abused by Bubba… Karma gave me a little payback for my hit on that jackass a couple weeks ago though. 2nd shift of the game last night, the puck is dumped into the right corner. It’s just me and the 240 lb defenseman going for it. Of course I beat him to the puck but not by much. As I spun to my left to try to center it towards the net he arrived… Next thing I remember I was off the ice pancaked flat against the glass and slowly sliding down to a lying position like maple syrup oozing down the side of the bottle after you finish pouring it on your pancakes…

I survived, obviously, but it set the tone for the whole night as we were out hit, out skated, out shot, out goalied, whatever... and lost 6-2.

I know I had not much in the tank to start with so I wasn’t very helpful. After getting up at 5:15am I met CB by the Interstate at 6 and we began our long day of slacking off. First up, 7:04 tee time at Naga-waukee Golf Course in Pewaukee. Weather was a little cloudy and moist but no rain and it actually felt pretty nice, in the low 70’s. The rain from the night before made everything a little damp though so the greens were a little slow but you sure didn’t have to worry about your approach shots running off the green. In fact, my 9 iron from 135 on the 3rd hole (par 3) was a good example. The green sloped down from back to front, pin was back. I drilled a really nice shot that landed about 10 feet right of the pin and I thought would stick right there but when I looked back after I picked up my tee the ball had spun all the way back to the front of the green leaving me a nice 50 foot putt instead.

That was just 1 of about 4 super long putts I had on the day. Just couldn’t hit the right part of the green. CB had a couple bad holes on 2-4 but recovered nicely and we pretty much played even from there on out. In fact, we tied on the back 9 after I got totally robbed on my par putt as the ball hit an old ball mark and deflected away from the hole. CB had 54/47 for 101 and I had 46/47 for 93.

We finished our round a little after 10:30 and headed for Miller Park. We arrived about 11:05 and parked in Preferred parking (a must do for those that live west of the park). We walked up to discover the gates don’t open till 11:30. Our plan was to eat at the TGI Friday’s in left field. There was already a huge line formed at that gate (maybe because it was water bottle giveaway day?). CB went to investigate as I got in line. He found that there was another line with about 10 or 15 people in it so we walked up to that one and voila, no problemo, we’re gold. At 11:30 they finally opened the gates and we high-tailed it for Fridays and got in quickly. I learned 2 things at Fridays: 1 – The don’t know how to spell Guinness (they had it with 1 "n" on the menu) and B – they have Guinness on tap for $5.50 for a pint. What the hell??? It’s $6 for a bottle of Miller Lite in your seat. (That reminds me, at Naga-waukee they had a sign by their bar saying “Featured Beer of the Month for August – Miller Lite, I had to laugh).

Anyway, now I gotta work all day today instead of my normal half day. Gonna be a busy weekend too. Tomorrow is the Great Midwest Beerfest in Madison. It’s awesome, 5 hours of drinking some great beer. Sunday I’m meeting a friend from Seattle at Devil’s Head for golf, should be fun, if I’m not too hung-over.