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... :(

Survivor Twist and Job status

Well, it appears that the first positions I applied for are not gonna happen. They were looking for someone a level lower and $20-$25,000 a year cheaper. Oh well, their loss really. They'll have to keep me on at a much higher rate to train this cheaper person. The funny thing is that the spot in my group that is open was at the same level I am looking at. I'm not sure I understand the logic of "saving money" by hiring someone you're going to have to put through tons of training that will be able to do half the work I do, but that's probably why I'm not in management, eh?

There are many more positions available and the HR guy is setting me up for those. We are only looking at spots where I can come in at the top level. One of them is in a group run by a high school classmate. That might be kind of weird, any of you work for a friend or classmate before? Is it awkward?

What a great twist in Survivor last night. I totally love it when the one person no one is watching takes over the game and surprises the hell out of everyone. It was so cool. And stupid Terry, what is he thinking? He goes and wins the car (a 2007 GMC Yukon), now he has no chance of winning. Although, no one has ever won every single individual immunity challenge either and he's won all 4 so far and it doesn't appear that anyone left there can beat him at anything.

It's Friday, which means.... half day at work! I will be bugging out around noon and heading straight for the golf course since the weather is supposed to be crappy all weekend.

Have a great weekend.

Hockey Playoff Update

We won our 3rd straight playoff game last night, 4-1 over the purple team. We play them again Sunday night for the championship. We've won 9 of our last 10 games and are 15-5-1 on the season including playoffs. We've never been in the championship game before. Bad news is that 2 of our top forwards won't make the game Sunday.

It was a long night that started with our bowling banquet around 6pm. I drank a few beers until about 8:30 or so then went to hockey. I only drank miller lite so it was really like half water so I wasn't too drunk. Got to the rink in time to catch a fight in the game before us. 2 young guys, both new to the league, decided they'd had enough of the refs not calling anything so they squared off, dropped the gloves and helmets and started throwing punches. Pretty even fight and broken up pretty quickly. They're done in our league. There's a zero tolerance policy on fighting, they won't be allowed to play again. One of the guys was too good for our intermediate league anyway, dude played division 1 college hockey.

I didn't get home till 11:30 so I slept in this morning, didn't get to work till 8:00.

And of course, it's a beautiful day today, going to be about 67 and very sunny. This weekend will be mid 50's and raining so doesn't look good for golfing unless I can get out tomorrow afternoon. Probably have to go alone though, doesn't look like anyone can get the afternoon off. If anyone can and wants to play, let me know.

Job update

I had about an hour and a half interview with human resources for the permanent position yesterday. Turns out there are 3 positions available, one of which is for my current supervisor. I think it went very well. Being a consultant and constantly interviewing makes you a stronger interviewer even if it still is a pain in the ass.

I sold myself pretty well, answered all their canned questions thoroughly, and when it came down to money I didn't back down. I told him what my requirement was and told him I was worth every penny. He didn't choke or start crying or anything and I think he understood how much of a paycut I was willing to take. We'll see if I fit into their structure.

I guess there were 25 applicants and he's only interviewing 5 or 6 for 3 spots. One nice thing is that the position is tough to fill so they offer 3 weeks vacation to start instead of 2. Unfortunately that won't come till next April! I would get nothing for 90 days, which means my vacation to Disney in June would be unpaid. After that I would get 5 days to use in the first year. I can live with that. I get 0 days now, but of course I get paid a lot more to cover that...

So, I'm driving home afterwards and it's 75 and just beautiful out. We take the dogs for a walk. I wear shorts and a t-shirt all night, even with the house opened up. Then, around 10 I hear this wooshing sound from outside. Out of no where it gets really windy. Get up this morning and it's 36! High is only going to get to 50 or so. What the fuck, make up your mind already...

Ok, have a great Tuesday.

Hockey playoff update

We won our 2nd playoff game and with the purple team winning theirs the other 2 teams were eliminated setting us up to play purple on Wednesday in a meaningless game and then again Sunday in the championship.

I still can't believe we won last night. We outplayed them completely in the first period but couldn't push one across and then they scored on a rebound to take the lead. Then in the 2nd period, they scored a couple more times to take a 3-0 lead. It was not looking good.

Then with about 5 minutes left in the 2nd I got a pass at the point, took a slapshot which got blocked but the winger didn't know where the puck was so I picked it up and stepped around him. I caught site of a winger heading down the slot and fed him for a one timer which got us on the board finally. We ended the period down 3-1.

In the 3rd we reeled off 3 straight goals (I had 2 more assists) to take a 4-3 lead as we finally had the goalie rattled and our quick shift changes were finally wearing down the other team. Then we got a power play but we had a turnover which resulted in a guy getting loose and coming in on me. He got off a shot which our goalie stopped but I didn't get the rebound in time and he popped it in to tie it up at 4.

Very quickly though, we got the puck deep into their end. I took a pass at the left point and had a winger closing quickly so instead of shooting I gave him a head fake and stepped around him. To my amazement no one came out to stop me so I walked in closer and fired one just inside the left post to give us the lead back. A minute later my D partner launched a high lob pass from deep in our end that our center caught in stride at the other blue line and went in with a defenseman on his heels. He managed to pull away just enough to put a backhander under the goalie's arm for a 6-4 lead. We hung on at the end with their goalie pulled to take the win. We outscored them 5-1 in the 3rd period. We're really starting to wear teams down and take control at the end of games.

We play the other 2-0 team Wednesday night at 9:15pm then since the other two teams are 0-2 we're guaranteed to play them again Sunday for the championship.

Safety versus cash

I'm having an internal battle and while both sides are landing some clean shots there hasn't been a clear cut winner. As an independent consultant I make some pretty good money but there are some serious risks involved, like my client could let me go today and I'd have no income.

Now, I have very marketable skills as a Java architect/developer/mentor and I'm sure I would find another client the same day, there's still that risk.

In addition, there are some other things I don't have that a normal employee would have:

• No vacation time or sick leave to speak of so when I take a day off that's x hours times x dollars per that I don't get.
• I have to pay for my own life insurance and long term disability insurance. I don't bother with short term but many employers offer that too.
• Taxes on an LLC are ridiculous. I have to pay the 7.5% employers portion of FICA in addition to the 7.5% employee portion as well. Is that fair? I don't think so either.
• 401k? Yeah, right. I can put money into some IRA's or a SEP plan but company matching or anything like that? Nada.
• Luckily I get health insurance from Cdubya's employer or this wouldn't even be a question.

So, why am I thinking about all that. Well, my current client has several openings and I submitted my resume and have an interview with HR on Monday. Unfortunately in my research it appears they are not going to offer what I really would settle for. The big question is how do I put a number on all these benefits? I mean, can you monetize stability and security? What is that worth? $5k? $10k? I don't know and that's where I'm stuck.

I guess I will go through the process and see what the end result is. I was told by someone else that went down this path to state my salary requirements right up front because there is no negotiation. It could be that my requirements eliminate me right away but I do know that my number is in the range that they have.

All else fails, I continue doing what I'm doing. At 41 though, I'm thinking that if I ever want to be one of those "20 year" guys I better move quickly. Of course, if I had just stayed at Boeing in Seattle I'd be hitting my 20th year anniversary in October this year. Oh well.

Stupid Grass

Ok, now I love seeing a green golf course and leaves and flowers, etc... but man, mowing the lawn sucks. Especially in the early spring like this. It's wet and never quite gets completely dry and it grows about 3" a day once the sun comes out. I finally got around to it last night and it was so thick and wet my mower kept bogging down. So much for mulching.

Back to Whistling Straits again. Found on their website that on certain days you can play 8 people for the price of 5 so in 2 days I put together a group of 8 and made tee times for May 27th. It's Memorial Day weekend but we got lucky and everyone was available. Should be a great time. I'm looking forward to seeing the course a little more green and some leaves on the trees (like I said, I do like that).

Tonight is our golf league meeting too. Balderdash got me in to this league last year and I really enjoyed it. Lots of quirky guys and quirky games. Instead of longest drive they'll do something like closest drive to the 150 marker or most sand shots or something. That way everyone has a chance. They do 2 different ones each week. We also play cards. You get a card for every fairway you hit from the tee. I usually get about 2 cards. One of these nights I'm just going to hit wedge off every tee...
We start in 2 weeks, same night as bowling was (Wednesdays). Hockey ends next week too and it'll be a month or so before the summer season starts up again, so I can focus on golf for a little while.

Ok, that's it for now, I have work to do.

Kohler Cup

I'm pooped...

It all started last Wednesday night when Sazi, my epileptic border collie decided it would be a good idea to start having clustered seizures every 2 hours. That lasted on through Thursday afternoon when we took her to the vet where she got IV fluids and finally a shot of phenobarbital when it started again. We got very little sleep both nights. I stayed home Friday and made sure she was ok. She did seize in the morning at about 8:00 and then again at about 5pm. That was the end of it but she did more damage to her system and is struggling to walk even more than before. Her weight is part of the problem too as she's gone up to 65 lbs. She should be in the low 40's. The drugs she has to take make her lethargic and despite our long walks she continues to put on weight.

To make things a little harder on Cdubya this was my weekend to play in the Kohler Cup with Dr. Mike. It's a golf tournament up in Kohler, WI where we played Blackwolf Run - Meadow Valleys on Saturday and Whistling Straits - Irish Course. The 2004 PGA Championship was held on the Straits course there. We left early Saturday morning and got back around 6:30 last night. We spent Saturday night at the Horse and Plow, which is a pub at the American Club, having many different beers and a couple steaks. After that we grabbed a shuttle over to the Olive & Ash, a cigar bar not too far away. We relaxed on the leather sofa's smoking our stogies with a couple of Guinness watching the Paintball team championships on ESPN2.

Now, the golf... We started on Blackwolf Run. Not a bad course, but nothing that exciting. The last 5 holes are decent. I started out pretty good, parring the first 2 holes but then got in some thick crap on the par 3 and took a 6 then lost a ball on the next hole and it was pretty much over as we started drinking. Then I had my first cigar of the year at the turn and got pretty woozy. We staggered in in 57th place out of 67 with a net 77 (+5). Mike did have a birdie on the number 1 handicap hole and got 2 strokes so he had a net 1 on a par 4. We gave it right back with triple bogies on the next 2 holes of course. The weather was beautiful (70), couldn't have been any nicer. I got a nice sun burn on my arms and neck. I could have shot 200 and wouldn't have cared less.

Then Sunday morning arrived and with it a slight change in the weather as it was in the mid 40's, very overcast and 15 mph winds. By the time we teed off there was a threat of rain in the air and it was about 48 with the wind up to about 20. Later on it rained just a little bit for one hole and the sun actually came out later but the wind also increased to a steady 25 mph. It was nasty.

The Irish course at Whistling Straits must be played to be appreciated. It totally kicked our asses and we both had our worst rounds ever but I never lost the smile off my face. It is worth every penny to play this course. Don't even keep score, just enjoy the magic. I was giggling like a little school girl most of the time, it was just awesome. I don't know or care what position we finished in, it was a blast.

Here are some pictures.
First, this is the approach to number 18 at Blackwolf Run with the clubhouse in the background. You can tell it's nice weather, look at the guys wearing shorts on April 15th. Crazy...

This next shot is the 14th hole at Blackwolf Run. It is the "signature" hole. Couple things to note. The bridge on the river is actually a train car, pretty cool. The green is just past it. The other thing is the 2 fly fishermen in the river... Mike almost hit them with his tee shot. I had to laugh. Are you supposed to yell FORE to fishermen?

This is the from the 10th tee at the Irish Course. Isn't it just amazing? We started on the 9th hole in a shotgun start so this was our 2nd hole. I took about an eleventy thousand on 9 and was facing this tee shot on the next hole. I hooked it over the pond on the left and ran through the sand trap stopping in the shit about 3" past the sand. I chunked it about 20 yards into more shit then whacked one sideways about 4' before finally extracating myself from there and getting back to the fairway. Whew, nice 9.

This part of Wisconsin is completely flat. They actually had to import all this sand and dirt to build this. Pete Dye is a mean mother....

This is looking out over the Straits course towards Lake Michigan.


This par 3 is called Blindman's Bluff because you can't see the green. It's staight ahead but about 100' down in a hole surrounded by 1 bazillion sand traps. Here's Mike and another guy trying to see the green as the rain starts to fall. None of us were even close. I thought I hit a perfect shot and was 10 yards short in the sand.

Oh, there's the green...

My 2nd shot ended up in one of the bunkers past the green. You can see it to the right and above the guy on the green. Took me 2 more shots to get on the green.

Back on the front nine, this is number 1. Not enough to have 1,000 bunkers, they're also now adding sand castles to hit over...


Our last hole, number 8, a wicked par 5 dogleg right, having to carry 200 yards to carry a river on your 2nd shot. Mike and I both hit great drives. He then dunked 2 in the river while I missed the fairway left on the side of a hill just above a bunker. The wind at this point was so strong your ball would move on the green. I hit a full pitching wedge (my 115 club) into the wind 62 yards onto the green. Yes, it knocked off 50 yards from my shot. My only birdie putt of the day. Of course I three putted for bogey after Mike bet me a Guinness I'd still double bogey the hole. In his face!

I'd play this course again in a heartbeat. What a day. It was a hell of a walk too. We took our push carts and getting up those hills was pretty hard. I wish I had gotten another picture. Mike some how hit a shot that stopped at the very top of a dome shaped hill, he was way above everything looking like a billy goat. Pretty funny.

Here's the clubhouse.

Here's the pub upstairs.

Last one is looking out the pub window towards the Straits course.

Pitfalls of dating the Taller-Than-You Chick

I once dated a taller than me girl in high school. It's not easy and not all it's supposed to be.

I think Barney provides a keen insight into this particular dilemma.