This is a funny world we live in. You can be on top of the world one minute and be going toe to toe with some drunken buffoon the next. And that's where I found myself last night.
More on that in a sec, but let's go back to the beginning. As most of you know, Wednesday is golf league night. Last night was fun night where we were all divided into 4-somes for a 4-man scramble. After not doing much the first 2 holes I came alive on the 3rd, hitting a 300 yard drive and a sand wedge to 8 feet where a teammate made the birdie putt. Another bomb drive on the 4th led to a par. After parring the 5th we went to the par 5 6th (15th hole, we were playing the back nine). Another 300 yard drive led to a tap in birdie. And again on the next hole, yet another big drive and we par.
That takes us to the 8th hole (#17) at -2. Once again I murder a drive down the middle and we're sitting at about 185 yards out (486 yard hole) after my tee shot. I go first and just play my ball where it lies (side note: in a scramble, everyone hits the ball they determine to be in the best position and can drop anywhere within a club length of it, no nearer the hole). It was important that I played the ball where it was without lifting it or anything, and that's because I took a 5 iron and hit a beautiful shot, just right of the hole, drawing slightly in... I'm hoping it'll be within 10 feet so we have a good look at eagle.... the ball lands, bounces once and rolls slowly turning towards the cup and DISAPPEARS! My first double eagle (2 on a par 5)! I still cannot believe it happened. My friends playing in different groups said later they were wondering who was screaming like a girl... yeah, that was me.
So, my name is in the paper (it's more rare than a hole in one), last name spelled wrong of course...
We win the scramble at -5 by 1 shot. Plenty of congrats in the clubhouse, just a great night.
Then I decide to hustle home about 8:30.
That's where the story turns horribly wrong... As I leave the parking lot I am quickly behind some moron in a red pickup truck that keeps crossing the center line, then jerking it back over and then crossing again, etc. He makes it to the Cottage Grove road stop sign without killing anyone and I'm thinking "man, this dude is hammered".
He turns left on CG road, same direction I'm going. Speed limit is 55, but he seems to mis-read 35 for 55 and I'm behind him giving him the international "what the fuck" symbol. He's not going any faster and of course, keeps drifting over the center line. I get to a passing zone and decide to get away from this asshole as quick as I can, so I blow by him and as I pass I look over and yell "Get the fuck off the road!" and continue on. I only live a mile away but by the time I get to my turn I'm a half mile ahead of him. I turn into my garage and park and get out only to see him pulling up in front of the house.
He comes storming up my driveway and I walk out to meet him. He gets right in my face yelling something about me yelling at him. I said "Maybe you should go back and have another drink before you drive" which is pretty hypocritical of me considering I'd had several Island Wheats myself. He says, to my amusement, "I was on the phone" to which I sarcastically respond with "Maybe you shouldn't be on the phone while you're driving since you obviously can't do both". Now, it's also obvious he's been drinking as well.
He's right in my face and I'm noticing he's got about 6" and 40 lbs on me when he gives me the 2 handed shove to the chest. I step back and come right forward again and all of a sudden he slaps me! Slaps! Like a girl! I dodged around him laughing "Did you just slap me???".
And now he is pissed. He comes storming towards me again and I'm thinking "this dude is not going to just walk away" so as he's coming in I launch a right cross and catch him right on the jaw. He staggers back as I dance around him getting over to the grass where I have more traction (I still had my golf shoes on). Now he's in his Marvin Hagler stance and wants to box. This is where I'm grateful for Showtime Boxing on the Nintendo Wii where I've honed my boxing skills (lol). He comes forward again and I flick a jab and catch him right on the point of his chin. He steps back and takes a wild swing which I duck under.
At about this time, Cdubya has heard the commotion and come out where she begins screaming for us to stop. I'm poised and ready to beat the shit out of this drunken jackass but he stops and just stares at her. She says "You want to hit me, go ahead." He mumbles something about if he sees me again he'll hit me again to which I laugh and say "you haven't hit me yet" and throw in a "douchebag" just for good measure. It's then that I notice the golf glove in his back pocket. Great, he plays league on Wednesdays at Door Creek, I'll probably get matched up with him in the final round of the club championship this year. He gets in his truck and drives away as I stand in the driveway.
Of course, I know what's coming next so I'm a little afraid to go inside... I finally relent and I get the lecture I knew was coming. "How many times have I told you to not do things like that?" "You have to just mind your own business", "You should have just called the police".
And all I'm thinking is "I'd really like to tell you about my double eagle".
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Recovery
Well, after a turbulent month things are starting to get back to some semblance of normality. Drexel Interiors came out Thursday and Friday and put down my new basement flooring. We decided to go with an inexpensive vinyl flooring instead of doing the laminate hardwood again. We got something that can withstand a little water on it without ruining it, just in case. It has a wood pattern and looks fairly similar to the old flooring.
I took some pictures and posted them on my basement finishing blog. You can also compare to the old flooring over there.
I took some pictures and posted them on my basement finishing blog. You can also compare to the old flooring over there.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Beware of Mitsubishi DLP's
Late Saturday afternoon I sat down to watch some US Open and the Brewer game on my 57" Mitsubishi DLP tv, only to have it turn off right after it turned on. No matter what I did (unplug, reset, etc), it wouldn't turn on. Then I got a red light for the Lamp indicator. Looks like my lamp is dead. Funny, I've only had it for about 18 months, didn't think it would need to be replaced already.
I purchased the Advantage protection plan from Circuit City so I figured it would be simple to get a new lamp. I called CC, found that I have to call the 888 number for the plan, so I called that. Ugh, only open during normal business hours. Ok, no tv till at least Monday. I brought down my HD monitor from my office and set that up instead. Not quite the same watching the Open on a 28" instead of a 57" but for a day or two I can live with it.
I called the protection plan people this morning and with the help of a Mitsubishi tech they determined the lamp needed to be replaced. Wow, they sure are smart. (that's called sarcasm, kids).
The friendly guy with the plan says it'll be shipping UPS ground this afternoon and should be here in about a week. A WEEK!?!?!?!??! Are you fucking kidding me???? "Sir, I'm sorry but Mitsubishi does not allow us to ship their parts overnight." What the fuck, this has to be a joke. Sorry, sir, hopefully it will arrive in 3-5 days. Sonofadirtygoatfucker....
Then I started doing a little research. Turns out I'm definitely not the only one having problems with the Mits DLP's. There are A LOT of people having problems. And not just with the lamps, but that is a very common one. I'm not looking forward to having the same additional problems that these people are having (multiple bulb burnouts, ballast replacements, light engines, circuit boards, etc).
Consider this a warning if you're thinking about getting a new Mitsubishi DLP. I bought it mainly because I have a Mitsubishi 55" rear projection that I've had for about 6 years with only one minor issue. Now, I'm pretty sure I won't go this route again.
It probably wouldn't be that big of a deal if my basement hadn't flooded. That's where the other Mits is living and since the flooring is going to be installed later this week I've had to tear everything out and it's not hooked up so I don't really have another option.
I purchased the Advantage protection plan from Circuit City so I figured it would be simple to get a new lamp. I called CC, found that I have to call the 888 number for the plan, so I called that. Ugh, only open during normal business hours. Ok, no tv till at least Monday. I brought down my HD monitor from my office and set that up instead. Not quite the same watching the Open on a 28" instead of a 57" but for a day or two I can live with it.
I called the protection plan people this morning and with the help of a Mitsubishi tech they determined the lamp needed to be replaced. Wow, they sure are smart. (that's called sarcasm, kids).
The friendly guy with the plan says it'll be shipping UPS ground this afternoon and should be here in about a week. A WEEK!?!?!?!??! Are you fucking kidding me???? "Sir, I'm sorry but Mitsubishi does not allow us to ship their parts overnight." What the fuck, this has to be a joke. Sorry, sir, hopefully it will arrive in 3-5 days. Sonofadirtygoatfucker....
Then I started doing a little research. Turns out I'm definitely not the only one having problems with the Mits DLP's. There are A LOT of people having problems. And not just with the lamps, but that is a very common one. I'm not looking forward to having the same additional problems that these people are having (multiple bulb burnouts, ballast replacements, light engines, circuit boards, etc).
Consider this a warning if you're thinking about getting a new Mitsubishi DLP. I bought it mainly because I have a Mitsubishi 55" rear projection that I've had for about 6 years with only one minor issue. Now, I'm pretty sure I won't go this route again.
It probably wouldn't be that big of a deal if my basement hadn't flooded. That's where the other Mits is living and since the flooring is going to be installed later this week I've had to tear everything out and it's not hooked up so I don't really have another option.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
So called Professionals
You know what really irks me about some "professional" baseball players?
No, not the millions of dollars they make for playing a game.
No, not the "world owes me something" attitudes.
It's the inability of these people to do the most basic things that we learn how to do in little league. I'm talking about fundamentals like bunting or throwing a ball to a base.
Twice on Tuesday night Brewer pitchers could successfully throw a baseball to first base. These are guys that throw 90+ mph pitches to exact spots 60' away but you give them a bunt where they need to make a 40' throw to first base and they will bounce it half way there. How is this possible? I pitched for over 20 years in a variety of leagues and I cannot recall ever having an issue with throwing a ball to a base.
Do they forget how to throw off flat ground? Do they need to run back to the mound first? I mean I've seen them spin on the mound and throw hard to a base to pick off a runner and they're right on the money. But give them 15 minutes to get a nice easy throw to first on a sacrifice bunt and they one hop it into right field.
On Tuesday Julian Taveras did this in a 2-1 game and ended up giving up 4 runs to lose any chance at winning the game. I came unhinged, screaming at the television.
We need to send these so-called professionals back to little league so the 9 year olds can show them how to do it.
Well, I'm sure you've all heard about the heavy rains we've had which have caused massive flooding (and one lake being emptied). I thought for sure golf league would be water logged out last night but surprisingly Door Creek dried up enough for us to play and I was amazed at how well the course was considering the 8" of rain we had just a few days earlier.
Of course, today we've had another batch of big storms rolling through. It's supposed to end tonight. I have a tournament to play in on Saturday, I sure hope the water drains.
That's it for now, stay dry!
No, not the millions of dollars they make for playing a game.
No, not the "world owes me something" attitudes.
It's the inability of these people to do the most basic things that we learn how to do in little league. I'm talking about fundamentals like bunting or throwing a ball to a base.
Twice on Tuesday night Brewer pitchers could successfully throw a baseball to first base. These are guys that throw 90+ mph pitches to exact spots 60' away but you give them a bunt where they need to make a 40' throw to first base and they will bounce it half way there. How is this possible? I pitched for over 20 years in a variety of leagues and I cannot recall ever having an issue with throwing a ball to a base.
Do they forget how to throw off flat ground? Do they need to run back to the mound first? I mean I've seen them spin on the mound and throw hard to a base to pick off a runner and they're right on the money. But give them 15 minutes to get a nice easy throw to first on a sacrifice bunt and they one hop it into right field.
On Tuesday Julian Taveras did this in a 2-1 game and ended up giving up 4 runs to lose any chance at winning the game. I came unhinged, screaming at the television.
We need to send these so-called professionals back to little league so the 9 year olds can show them how to do it.
Well, I'm sure you've all heard about the heavy rains we've had which have caused massive flooding (and one lake being emptied). I thought for sure golf league would be water logged out last night but surprisingly Door Creek dried up enough for us to play and I was amazed at how well the course was considering the 8" of rain we had just a few days earlier.
Of course, today we've had another batch of big storms rolling through. It's supposed to end tonight. I have a tournament to play in on Saturday, I sure hope the water drains.
That's it for now, stay dry!
Monday, June 09, 2008
Glub Glub Glub
That's the sound of the southern half of Wisconsin going underwater as we deluged by rain over the weekend. Well, not just rain; very high winds, tornadoes, hail, etc. What a wonderful spring weekend.
In Madison we had over 4" of rain yesterday added to almost 2" on Saturday. And we got off easy. Just an hour north of us they had over 8" on Saturday and another 7" yesterday. Just crazy. Everything is underwater.
I went by Door Creek at about 1:00 yesterday afternoon and the little creek running through the back nine was about 50' onto the fairway. And that was BEFORE our torrential downpour last night. I'm sure most of the course is under water by now.
This just in: Bridges golf course closed through at least Wednesday.
I'm assuming Door Creek is closed too and that we won't have league Wednesday. I'm more concerned about the 27 hole Challenge tournament scheduled for Saturday. We're supposed to get more storms Thursday and Friday which would pretty much end any hope of playing Saturday.
In Madison we had over 4" of rain yesterday added to almost 2" on Saturday. And we got off easy. Just an hour north of us they had over 8" on Saturday and another 7" yesterday. Just crazy. Everything is underwater.
I went by Door Creek at about 1:00 yesterday afternoon and the little creek running through the back nine was about 50' onto the fairway. And that was BEFORE our torrential downpour last night. I'm sure most of the course is under water by now.
This just in: Bridges golf course closed through at least Wednesday.
I'm assuming Door Creek is closed too and that we won't have league Wednesday. I'm more concerned about the 27 hole Challenge tournament scheduled for Saturday. We're supposed to get more storms Thursday and Friday which would pretty much end any hope of playing Saturday.
Monday, June 02, 2008
The Yin and Yang of golf
Have you ever noticed that when you finally figure out the one thing that's been going wrong in your game that something else will fall apart? The golf gods appear to need you to maintain some sort of balance between good and not so good (evil?).
When I first got the new driver I struggled with it for a few rounds but was still chipping well enough to save myself some strokes. Well, I finally got the driver figured out and am hitting it pretty well (for the most part, never perfect obviously) and now I can't putt. Now, don't get me wrong, I've never been a stellar putter but I was getting better at it (got fitted for a new putter last fall).
Yesterday was a perfect example of how, even if you think you're putting the ball pretty well, it doesn't count unless it actually goes in the hole. I constantly burned the lip, just missed by millimeters, had good speed but misread the line or had the line and misread the speed. It's amazing how many little things have to go right to get that little white ball into the cup.
I actually played the entire round without a single 1-putt. I don't recall ever doing that before, at least over 18 holes. And to make matters worse, I 3-putted 5 times, including 3 in a row on 9-11. 2 of those were understandable. I was 70 feet away (wrong part of the green) on 9 and 11 is just a bitch of a green if you have to putt side hill. Ended up with 41 putts. Almost half my strokes were putts. That, is only good if I'm planning on shooting a 60. I'd been averaging about 34 putts. Just being average would have given me an 83 instead of a 90.
Just goes to show you, drive for show, putt for dough. Looks like I'll be spending some additional time on the putting green this week practicing.
My goal of breaking 80 this year can only be done by reducing my putts. If I don't get any better best I can expect is 83/84.
Of course, if I was to someone magically become better at putting, you know damn well something else would completely fall apart. Such is the yin and yang of this frustrating game.
When I first got the new driver I struggled with it for a few rounds but was still chipping well enough to save myself some strokes. Well, I finally got the driver figured out and am hitting it pretty well (for the most part, never perfect obviously) and now I can't putt. Now, don't get me wrong, I've never been a stellar putter but I was getting better at it (got fitted for a new putter last fall).
Yesterday was a perfect example of how, even if you think you're putting the ball pretty well, it doesn't count unless it actually goes in the hole. I constantly burned the lip, just missed by millimeters, had good speed but misread the line or had the line and misread the speed. It's amazing how many little things have to go right to get that little white ball into the cup.
I actually played the entire round without a single 1-putt. I don't recall ever doing that before, at least over 18 holes. And to make matters worse, I 3-putted 5 times, including 3 in a row on 9-11. 2 of those were understandable. I was 70 feet away (wrong part of the green) on 9 and 11 is just a bitch of a green if you have to putt side hill. Ended up with 41 putts. Almost half my strokes were putts. That, is only good if I'm planning on shooting a 60. I'd been averaging about 34 putts. Just being average would have given me an 83 instead of a 90.
Just goes to show you, drive for show, putt for dough. Looks like I'll be spending some additional time on the putting green this week practicing.
My goal of breaking 80 this year can only be done by reducing my putts. If I don't get any better best I can expect is 83/84.
Of course, if I was to someone magically become better at putting, you know damn well something else would completely fall apart. Such is the yin and yang of this frustrating game.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Lawsonia Woodlands
Sunday was our group golf outing for the Memorial Day Weekend for this year. We chose to play Lawsonia this year and based on recommendations we chose to play the Woodlands course (they also have a Links course).
The course was very nice, though some of the greens were still showing signs of aeration, mostly around the edges. They were definitely fast and I really struggled getting the speed right. Nothing like blasting a putt 20 feet past the hole to make you leave everything else short. Once again my driver was psycho, not really doing what I wanted it to. Wish I had a little more time before we played to get it in synch.
As for the golf, pretty ugly. I got off to a horrible start and took forever to recover. I went double, triple, triple, triple to start. Pretty damn hard to have a good round when you're 11 over after 4! I recovered a little to finish the front at +16 for a 52. I played a little better on the back and shot 45 for 97, which was good for 3rd place out of our 2 4-somes. My putting and short game in general really let me down I thought. I had 38 putts, 22 on the front nine alone when I 3 putted 4 times. I did manage 3 1-putts on the back which helped a lot.
Comparing Lawsonia to Wild Rock which I recently played as well, I would have to give the edge to Wild Rock. It has more elevation changes, more ravines and canyons to hit over and crazy 3-tiered greens that make putting an adventure (but also exciting).
Both courses definitely attempt to make you hit something other than driver off the tee. They both had strategically placed fairway bunkers just where you might want to land a tee shot. I thought there were more opportunities to drive the ball at Wild Rock while I could have played the entire 18 without my driver at Lawsonia.
Of course, Wild Rock, at $95, is $30 more than Lawsonia. Oh, and you can have a beer at Wild Rock while Lawsonia is dry, in case that factors into your golf outings. We drove about 30 miles to Kelly's Bar in the middle of no where off Hwy 73 to tip back a few.
Anyway, it's over, I survived...
The course was very nice, though some of the greens were still showing signs of aeration, mostly around the edges. They were definitely fast and I really struggled getting the speed right. Nothing like blasting a putt 20 feet past the hole to make you leave everything else short. Once again my driver was psycho, not really doing what I wanted it to. Wish I had a little more time before we played to get it in synch.
As for the golf, pretty ugly. I got off to a horrible start and took forever to recover. I went double, triple, triple, triple to start. Pretty damn hard to have a good round when you're 11 over after 4! I recovered a little to finish the front at +16 for a 52. I played a little better on the back and shot 45 for 97, which was good for 3rd place out of our 2 4-somes. My putting and short game in general really let me down I thought. I had 38 putts, 22 on the front nine alone when I 3 putted 4 times. I did manage 3 1-putts on the back which helped a lot.
Comparing Lawsonia to Wild Rock which I recently played as well, I would have to give the edge to Wild Rock. It has more elevation changes, more ravines and canyons to hit over and crazy 3-tiered greens that make putting an adventure (but also exciting).
Both courses definitely attempt to make you hit something other than driver off the tee. They both had strategically placed fairway bunkers just where you might want to land a tee shot. I thought there were more opportunities to drive the ball at Wild Rock while I could have played the entire 18 without my driver at Lawsonia.
Of course, Wild Rock, at $95, is $30 more than Lawsonia. Oh, and you can have a beer at Wild Rock while Lawsonia is dry, in case that factors into your golf outings. We drove about 30 miles to Kelly's Bar in the middle of no where off Hwy 73 to tip back a few.
Anyway, it's over, I survived...
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Burner
Well, I finally did it. I broke down and replaced my trusty Taylormade R580 driver with a brand spankin' new Taylormade Burner. Went to a demo day after my round on Sunday and just crushed that thing like no other. With my discount card at Door Creek I was able to get it for $254 instead of $299. I went to the range with it Tuesday night and just killed it. Couldn't wait for league on Wednesday.
And of course, league comes and I basically hit it like crap, never felt like I hit one on the nuts. First drive goes right and luckily doesn't go OB. 2nd drive I try to cut the corner on a dogleg right and drill it into a huge pine tree 30 yards in front of me (a little low, eh?). 3rd hole I got it in the fairway but it was a low screamer. 4th hole I finally hit it with the right trajectory but pushed it right into the rough at about 260. 6th hole I hooked the living shit out of it clear over to the 4th fairway. 7th hole I hit it pretty good, cut the corner and went about 280. But it still didn't have the trajectory I wanted. 9th hole I swung a little harder but pulled it and ended up under a tree by the green.
I ended up shooting 43 and it wasn't really the driver so much as I 3 putted 3 times. I hit some nice iron shots so I had that going for me...
Anywho, backing up to last week... Last Thursday was our 20th anniversary and Cdubya wanted to go to a Brewer game and then go golfing! God bless her... so we did that. Then Saturday she asks if we can go golfing on Sunday too. She's really getting into it and I think we're getting close to being able to take golf vacations in the winter/spring. That would be awesome. Give us something else to do besides Disney and Vegas. I ended up shooting 85 Sunday and hit 7/14 fairways. Guess that wasn't good enough as I bought the Burner the next day. Hope I don't regret the decision. Guy in our league bought one too and has gone through some adjustments with it but he shot 38 last night and was hitting it well, so hopefully that will be how it works for me.
We're heading to Lawsonia to play the Woodlands course on Sunday, I sure hope I can keep it in play most of the day.
Well, that's it for now, got a pile of work to do. Have a great weekend.
And of course, league comes and I basically hit it like crap, never felt like I hit one on the nuts. First drive goes right and luckily doesn't go OB. 2nd drive I try to cut the corner on a dogleg right and drill it into a huge pine tree 30 yards in front of me (a little low, eh?). 3rd hole I got it in the fairway but it was a low screamer. 4th hole I finally hit it with the right trajectory but pushed it right into the rough at about 260. 6th hole I hooked the living shit out of it clear over to the 4th fairway. 7th hole I hit it pretty good, cut the corner and went about 280. But it still didn't have the trajectory I wanted. 9th hole I swung a little harder but pulled it and ended up under a tree by the green.
I ended up shooting 43 and it wasn't really the driver so much as I 3 putted 3 times. I hit some nice iron shots so I had that going for me...
Anywho, backing up to last week... Last Thursday was our 20th anniversary and Cdubya wanted to go to a Brewer game and then go golfing! God bless her... so we did that. Then Saturday she asks if we can go golfing on Sunday too. She's really getting into it and I think we're getting close to being able to take golf vacations in the winter/spring. That would be awesome. Give us something else to do besides Disney and Vegas. I ended up shooting 85 Sunday and hit 7/14 fairways. Guess that wasn't good enough as I bought the Burner the next day. Hope I don't regret the decision. Guy in our league bought one too and has gone through some adjustments with it but he shot 38 last night and was hitting it well, so hopefully that will be how it works for me.
We're heading to Lawsonia to play the Woodlands course on Sunday, I sure hope I can keep it in play most of the day.
Well, that's it for now, got a pile of work to do. Have a great weekend.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Comic Wonder at Accelerate Madison
Accelerate Madison is a company that focuses on providing business support for IT organizations. They frequently have guest speakers and last night, Kelly Fitzsimmons, the CEO of ComicWonder, was one of the speakers. She got me in for free so I went and watched. It was pretty awesome.
The entire thing was also broadcast as a webcast and can be watched here. Kelly starts at about 35 minutes in.
The first presentation was by one of the founders of Sharendipity, Mark Gehring, and was quite interesting. Basically they are building a platform onto which anyone can do programming. Currently it's build onto Facebook's API and is mostly about games but it's got lots of potential. They'll be launching in July. They are a local Madison company.
After that Kelly took over. For those of you that want to know what Comic Wonder is really all about and who's working behind the scenes it really is quite interesting. One of the things she does mention is who her husband, Jeff's uncle is. I had no idea but it makes sense now. You'll have to watch to find out, but I'll give you a hint. He's a famous movie director.
The other thing that happened is that she pointed me out a few times towards the end, which was nice. If you really don't want to watch but want to hear my name mentioned, you can jump ahead to about 75 minutes during the Q/A (question about staffing).
Oh, and another thing I did not know that I found out before hand when Kelly was talking about a possible deal with Playboy for us to provide the audio component of their party jokes section, was that Kelly's mom was a Playboy Bunny! How funny is that? I had no clue...
Anyway, watch the webcast. I found it very interesting.
The entire thing was also broadcast as a webcast and can be watched here. Kelly starts at about 35 minutes in.
The first presentation was by one of the founders of Sharendipity, Mark Gehring, and was quite interesting. Basically they are building a platform onto which anyone can do programming. Currently it's build onto Facebook's API and is mostly about games but it's got lots of potential. They'll be launching in July. They are a local Madison company.
After that Kelly took over. For those of you that want to know what Comic Wonder is really all about and who's working behind the scenes it really is quite interesting. One of the things she does mention is who her husband, Jeff's uncle is. I had no idea but it makes sense now. You'll have to watch to find out, but I'll give you a hint. He's a famous movie director.
The other thing that happened is that she pointed me out a few times towards the end, which was nice. If you really don't want to watch but want to hear my name mentioned, you can jump ahead to about 75 minutes during the Q/A (question about staffing).
Oh, and another thing I did not know that I found out before hand when Kelly was talking about a possible deal with Playboy for us to provide the audio component of their party jokes section, was that Kelly's mom was a Playboy Bunny! How funny is that? I had no clue...
Anyway, watch the webcast. I found it very interesting.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Oops, sorry
Just realized it's been 2 weeks since I've posted something... and probably 2 years since I've posted something interesting. ba dum dum.
I can rectify the former, not promising anything on the latter.
Where to start... Our insurance covered the sump pump malfunction and I think we've determined what we're going to do for the basement floor. We found some vinyl flooring that "looks" like wood flooring only I won't have to rip it up next time we get water on it. This will allow us some piece of mind. We'll be getting it installed from Drexel Interiors, but haven't ordered it yet. Some time this week.
My new lawn mower works great. What a difference key start and being rear-propelled makes. Nice to just walk behind instead of pushing, especially on the hills.
In golf land, we started league last week. I shot a 43 but I gave away a stroke on each of the first 5 holes due to incredibly bad putting. I feel like I'm getting closer. I'm driving the ball in the fairway consistently (slowed down, lost a little distance but more under control). My irons are just not doing the job right now. I need to go to the range and work on them.
Saturday we played in a charity scramble at Wild Rock in the Dells. Wild Rock replaced the Wilderness golf course at Wilderness Resort. We finished at a whopping +5, good for 2nd to last. None of us could putt, not really good for a scramble. I did win a hole prize and a 50/50 prize for closest to the pin on the par 3 4th hole. I got really lucky. It was about 180 yards, water along the right the whole way and the pin tucked back in the corner over the water. I just happened to hit a 5 iron just left of the pin and it rolled right down to about 10 feet or so. Of course we all missed the birdie putt. I picked up a Wild Rock windshirt and $44 for my $3 entry into the 50/50.
As for the course, it still needs a little work but it's a really cool set up. Massive elevation changes and the greens... well, there's not a flat spot on them and every one has at least 3 tiers. You definitely need to hit to the right tier or you're looking at a near impossible 2 putt.
Thursday marks Cdubya and my 20th wedding anniversary. Hard to believe it was 20 years ago when two young kids travelled to Kauai and got married in a beautiful setting. It still makes me laugh to look at our wedding pictures. Thank god I cut the mullet off...
Well, I better get to working. Catch you all later.
I can rectify the former, not promising anything on the latter.
Where to start... Our insurance covered the sump pump malfunction and I think we've determined what we're going to do for the basement floor. We found some vinyl flooring that "looks" like wood flooring only I won't have to rip it up next time we get water on it. This will allow us some piece of mind. We'll be getting it installed from Drexel Interiors, but haven't ordered it yet. Some time this week.
My new lawn mower works great. What a difference key start and being rear-propelled makes. Nice to just walk behind instead of pushing, especially on the hills.
In golf land, we started league last week. I shot a 43 but I gave away a stroke on each of the first 5 holes due to incredibly bad putting. I feel like I'm getting closer. I'm driving the ball in the fairway consistently (slowed down, lost a little distance but more under control). My irons are just not doing the job right now. I need to go to the range and work on them.
Saturday we played in a charity scramble at Wild Rock in the Dells. Wild Rock replaced the Wilderness golf course at Wilderness Resort. We finished at a whopping +5, good for 2nd to last. None of us could putt, not really good for a scramble. I did win a hole prize and a 50/50 prize for closest to the pin on the par 3 4th hole. I got really lucky. It was about 180 yards, water along the right the whole way and the pin tucked back in the corner over the water. I just happened to hit a 5 iron just left of the pin and it rolled right down to about 10 feet or so. Of course we all missed the birdie putt. I picked up a Wild Rock windshirt and $44 for my $3 entry into the 50/50.
As for the course, it still needs a little work but it's a really cool set up. Massive elevation changes and the greens... well, there's not a flat spot on them and every one has at least 3 tiers. You definitely need to hit to the right tier or you're looking at a near impossible 2 putt.
Thursday marks Cdubya and my 20th wedding anniversary. Hard to believe it was 20 years ago when two young kids travelled to Kauai and got married in a beautiful setting. It still makes me laugh to look at our wedding pictures. Thank god I cut the mullet off...
Well, I better get to working. Catch you all later.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Water is not always your friend
The majority of today's post can be found on my Basement blog
That's pretty much my entire weekend except for 2 other things.
1) We won our hockey championship Friday night, 5-0. I had the first and last goals and finished the season with 26 goals and 43 total points in 22 games, leading the team in both. Here's a team picture.
2) I bought a new lawn mower (mine died last fall). It's a kick ass rear propelled model with variable speed and a big engine. It also has a high vacuum bagging system. About as good as you can get in a walk behind without going to a pro model. Sears had a big sale Saturday that I couldn't pass up.
That's pretty much my entire weekend except for 2 other things.
1) We won our hockey championship Friday night, 5-0. I had the first and last goals and finished the season with 26 goals and 43 total points in 22 games, leading the team in both. Here's a team picture.
2) I bought a new lawn mower (mine died last fall). It's a kick ass rear propelled model with variable speed and a big engine. It also has a high vacuum bagging system. About as good as you can get in a walk behind without going to a pro model. Sears had a big sale Saturday that I couldn't pass up.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Kohler Cup 2008
Well, we didn't win again but that didn't stop Pat and I from having a good time golfing. While the weather in Madison was awesome all weekend it wasn't quite that great on Lake Michigan up north. Saturday was about 46, cloudy and windy at Whistling Straits. That seems to always be the temperature up there, I don't know what's going on with that.
We played Saturday at even par, which was pretty disappointing because we didn't play that poorly. It always seemed that Pat and I would get birdies on the same holes and bogeys on the same hole. If we'd just switched that up a little we could have been 4-6 under par. We went into Sunday in 53rd place out of 93 teams.
Sunday we didn't get off to the great start we needed and faded poorly at the end shooting a 3 over par. Once again there were 6 holes where neither of us did worth a crap and cost us.
All in all, a great weekend despite not winning. Can't wait till next year.
We played Saturday at even par, which was pretty disappointing because we didn't play that poorly. It always seemed that Pat and I would get birdies on the same holes and bogeys on the same hole. If we'd just switched that up a little we could have been 4-6 under par. We went into Sunday in 53rd place out of 93 teams.
Sunday we didn't get off to the great start we needed and faded poorly at the end shooting a 3 over par. Once again there were 6 holes where neither of us did worth a crap and cost us.
All in all, a great weekend despite not winning. Can't wait till next year.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Quick catch-up
I haven't been in the mood to blog lately. I think a lot of it stems from being busy but also I'm finding that I have nothing to say. Nothing really happens around here. Work, bowling, hockey and now golf are about it for me.
However, I guess there are a couple things. On Sunday we had our first Comic Wonder full team meeting in Milwaukee (of course, scheduled during the final round of the Masters so I didn't see any of it). It was really good and lots of great energy and ideas to make the site great and other ways we can make use of the technology. After that we went to see the new office space that we'll be getting May 1st. I still won't have to go in very often but it's cool we have a space to get together in. It's right by the Milwaukee river with a good view of downtown. It also has a basketball/tennis court next to it and one side has a big garage door so you can really open up the space. Kind of an industrial thing.
This weekend is the Kohler Cup. I think the 3rd one I've been in. Mike can't make it this year so Pat is taking his place. I went to play 18 on Wednesday afternoon to get in some more practice. I did ok, considering the wind was gusting to 35mph! Shot a 92 (46-46). The wind was amazing. On one par 5 dead into the wind I hit 2 straight 3-woods, each about 115 yards! They were rising shots that just went up and up and up and then back and back and back! I swear it was like a boomerang, thought I'd have to catch the ball as it came flying back past me. I ended up parring 3 of the last 4 holes so I feel ok about this weekend. I found the key was to relax and not try to swing hard. We'll see how it goes.
Weekend forecast calls for some showers tomorrow with possible t-storms in the afternoon. Of course they also said it was going to rain all day yesterday and it didn't rain at all until almost 10pm. Sunday is supposed to be great, mid-60's and sunny.
What else is new... oh, hockey playoffs. We won our first 2 games and are in the championship game next week already. Somehow I have no goals and 2 assists in 2 games though I did play better last week than I did the previous.
That's about it, lots of work to do today. Have a great weekend.
However, I guess there are a couple things. On Sunday we had our first Comic Wonder full team meeting in Milwaukee (of course, scheduled during the final round of the Masters so I didn't see any of it). It was really good and lots of great energy and ideas to make the site great and other ways we can make use of the technology. After that we went to see the new office space that we'll be getting May 1st. I still won't have to go in very often but it's cool we have a space to get together in. It's right by the Milwaukee river with a good view of downtown. It also has a basketball/tennis court next to it and one side has a big garage door so you can really open up the space. Kind of an industrial thing.
This weekend is the Kohler Cup. I think the 3rd one I've been in. Mike can't make it this year so Pat is taking his place. I went to play 18 on Wednesday afternoon to get in some more practice. I did ok, considering the wind was gusting to 35mph! Shot a 92 (46-46). The wind was amazing. On one par 5 dead into the wind I hit 2 straight 3-woods, each about 115 yards! They were rising shots that just went up and up and up and then back and back and back! I swear it was like a boomerang, thought I'd have to catch the ball as it came flying back past me. I ended up parring 3 of the last 4 holes so I feel ok about this weekend. I found the key was to relax and not try to swing hard. We'll see how it goes.
Weekend forecast calls for some showers tomorrow with possible t-storms in the afternoon. Of course they also said it was going to rain all day yesterday and it didn't rain at all until almost 10pm. Sunday is supposed to be great, mid-60's and sunny.
What else is new... oh, hockey playoffs. We won our first 2 games and are in the championship game next week already. Somehow I have no goals and 2 assists in 2 games though I did play better last week than I did the previous.
That's about it, lots of work to do today. Have a great weekend.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Is this the beginning of the end?
I meant to post this Monday but I was too depressed. I'm starting to wonder if, at the ripe old age of 43, my natural athletic ability has left me.
It all started Friday night with our first playoff hockey game. I arrived early and got plenty of warm up time (too much, maybe). No signs of what was to come a short time later.
The game starts and for some reason I keep tripping, stumbling, basically acting like I hadn't ever done this before. Then I started having good scoring chances and either losing the puck or shooting a weak ass shot into the goalie. No signs of the guy that lead the team with 23 goals during the regular season. I don't think I could have played any worse and while, personally, I was quite down on myself, at least the team picked me up and we won 7-1.
Then Saturday comes around and it's time for our first golf round of the year. We head out to the Oaks and I hit pretty well on the range so I'm feeling pretty optimistic. I keep forgetting the old "good on the range, shit on the course" adage. And that's pretty much what happened. I hit a few decent drives but my iron shots were, for the most part, horrendous. I kept chunking so many shots.
I probably can blame some of that on 1st time out. Stuff like flying a lob wedge 15 yards over the green is mostly just a lack of playing time and re-learning my distances again. But I was taking 20 yard chip shots and hitting them 10 yards into a bunker, taking divots big enough to start my own lawn sod business, etc. I also managed to hook a hybrid on the par 5 15th over a fence and land it in the middle of the road, luckily between 2 sets of cars or I might have caused a major pile-up.
And to make matters worse, Retro beat me for the first time, 104-106 (yes, I had a freakin' 106).
There were a couple bright spots, mostly long drives, but I did birdie the par 3 7th hole with a nice 6 iron from 175 to 12 feet. Of course, that was sandwiched by triple bogey 7's on 6 and 8. Oh well, tough day, but at least it was sunny and warm in the mid 60's (tapered by a good 15-20 mph wind however).
None of that is why I felt depressed come Monday. It was the fact that I was winded walking a golf course (pushing a cart no less) after 8 holes. I'm so out of shape I think it's finally starting to catch up with me. Outside of hockey once a week I really wasn't doing much (I did play basketball 3 times in 3 months too). So, this week began my quest to get back into shape and not be that beer belly toting inactive putz that can barely waddle his way to the kitchen for another bucket of ice cream.
I'm not a fat guy mind you, but at 5'8" tall I should be in the 155ish range and I'm over 20 lbs beyond that. 20 lbs, amazing what that little difference can do to you. Of course, it's all in the gut region and no, I'm not going to quit drinking beer so it's going to take some actual body movement to do this. My goal is 156 (20 lb loss) by my 20th anniversary (May 15th). That gives me 6 weeks to lose it, a little over 3 lbs per week. I did it once before about 4 years ago but put it right back on. However, until recently I never went much over 170. I think working at home and having access to a continuous flow of snacks is not helping as I'm heavier than I've ever been in my life after only 2 1/2 months of doing it.
So now my weekdays begin with a vigorous 30 minute workout on the elliptical machine and some upper body weight work. Now, staying disciplined and doing it every day is where I've always failed so I'm going to have to be stronger and fight through on those days when I just don't feel like it.
Wish me luck...
It all started Friday night with our first playoff hockey game. I arrived early and got plenty of warm up time (too much, maybe). No signs of what was to come a short time later.
The game starts and for some reason I keep tripping, stumbling, basically acting like I hadn't ever done this before. Then I started having good scoring chances and either losing the puck or shooting a weak ass shot into the goalie. No signs of the guy that lead the team with 23 goals during the regular season. I don't think I could have played any worse and while, personally, I was quite down on myself, at least the team picked me up and we won 7-1.
Then Saturday comes around and it's time for our first golf round of the year. We head out to the Oaks and I hit pretty well on the range so I'm feeling pretty optimistic. I keep forgetting the old "good on the range, shit on the course" adage. And that's pretty much what happened. I hit a few decent drives but my iron shots were, for the most part, horrendous. I kept chunking so many shots.
I probably can blame some of that on 1st time out. Stuff like flying a lob wedge 15 yards over the green is mostly just a lack of playing time and re-learning my distances again. But I was taking 20 yard chip shots and hitting them 10 yards into a bunker, taking divots big enough to start my own lawn sod business, etc. I also managed to hook a hybrid on the par 5 15th over a fence and land it in the middle of the road, luckily between 2 sets of cars or I might have caused a major pile-up.
And to make matters worse, Retro beat me for the first time, 104-106 (yes, I had a freakin' 106).
There were a couple bright spots, mostly long drives, but I did birdie the par 3 7th hole with a nice 6 iron from 175 to 12 feet. Of course, that was sandwiched by triple bogey 7's on 6 and 8. Oh well, tough day, but at least it was sunny and warm in the mid 60's (tapered by a good 15-20 mph wind however).
None of that is why I felt depressed come Monday. It was the fact that I was winded walking a golf course (pushing a cart no less) after 8 holes. I'm so out of shape I think it's finally starting to catch up with me. Outside of hockey once a week I really wasn't doing much (I did play basketball 3 times in 3 months too). So, this week began my quest to get back into shape and not be that beer belly toting inactive putz that can barely waddle his way to the kitchen for another bucket of ice cream.
I'm not a fat guy mind you, but at 5'8" tall I should be in the 155ish range and I'm over 20 lbs beyond that. 20 lbs, amazing what that little difference can do to you. Of course, it's all in the gut region and no, I'm not going to quit drinking beer so it's going to take some actual body movement to do this. My goal is 156 (20 lb loss) by my 20th anniversary (May 15th). That gives me 6 weeks to lose it, a little over 3 lbs per week. I did it once before about 4 years ago but put it right back on. However, until recently I never went much over 170. I think working at home and having access to a continuous flow of snacks is not helping as I'm heavier than I've ever been in my life after only 2 1/2 months of doing it.
So now my weekdays begin with a vigorous 30 minute workout on the elliptical machine and some upper body weight work. Now, staying disciplined and doing it every day is where I've always failed so I'm going to have to be stronger and fight through on those days when I just don't feel like it.
Wish me luck...
Monday, March 31, 2008
Let the games begin!
Brewers are scheduled to open the season at Wrigley against the scuzzball Cubs today at 1:30. However, there are some pretty strong storms headed this way and I have a feeling it's going to get washed out.
On the hockey front, we won again Friday night 9-5 to win the regular season. I had 2 more goals, ending up with 23 goals and 14 assists in 18 games. We start the playoffs this Friday.
On Saturday we went out looking for a 2nd club chair for the pub room and somehow ended up buying a new sofa sectional for the living room. I'm never sure how these things happen but I always wanted more seating for the living room and we found a really good deal on one that we both liked. It will be delivered Wednesday.
And of course, as I was looking at the current configuration of the living room I realized it really would give us more space if I flipped where the tv was. Sounds simple, right? Yeah... sure.
I ended up having to run 2 new coax lines (50'), splice a new phone line, rewire my surround speakers and put in a new outlet box on the wall. And of course, since I finished the basement, I had to pull ceiling tiles out and work around the insulation in the ceiling. Hardest part was getting the cable lines run through the ceiling about 25'. Ended up being able to push them about half way and then had to pull another ceiling tile so I could reach up and feed them the rest of the way.
Then I drilled holes in the ceiling up into the wall cavity where the other cable outlet was and feeding the new lines up there. I used a remodel box to put a new outlet in the wall near the original one. Once I got it all set I had to move the giant table with the tv on it over to the other side of the room. I ended up putting pieces of cardboard under the legs and sliding it across the floor so I wouldn't scratch the flooring. I was shocked when I fired everything back up and it all worked on the first try! That only took about 6 hours to do...
It looks pretty good but I still have several things to finish. The wall behind the tv had a big picture on it which now has to go somewhere else. Also, that wall is really dirty and needs repainting. I also need to lower a painting that was above the tv, it's too high now.
I'll take some pictures once the new sectional is here. We're giving our current sofa and big chair to my brother (he gets most of my old stuff).
On the hockey front, we won again Friday night 9-5 to win the regular season. I had 2 more goals, ending up with 23 goals and 14 assists in 18 games. We start the playoffs this Friday.
On Saturday we went out looking for a 2nd club chair for the pub room and somehow ended up buying a new sofa sectional for the living room. I'm never sure how these things happen but I always wanted more seating for the living room and we found a really good deal on one that we both liked. It will be delivered Wednesday.
And of course, as I was looking at the current configuration of the living room I realized it really would give us more space if I flipped where the tv was. Sounds simple, right? Yeah... sure.
I ended up having to run 2 new coax lines (50'), splice a new phone line, rewire my surround speakers and put in a new outlet box on the wall. And of course, since I finished the basement, I had to pull ceiling tiles out and work around the insulation in the ceiling. Hardest part was getting the cable lines run through the ceiling about 25'. Ended up being able to push them about half way and then had to pull another ceiling tile so I could reach up and feed them the rest of the way.
Then I drilled holes in the ceiling up into the wall cavity where the other cable outlet was and feeding the new lines up there. I used a remodel box to put a new outlet in the wall near the original one. Once I got it all set I had to move the giant table with the tv on it over to the other side of the room. I ended up putting pieces of cardboard under the legs and sliding it across the floor so I wouldn't scratch the flooring. I was shocked when I fired everything back up and it all worked on the first try! That only took about 6 hours to do...
It looks pretty good but I still have several things to finish. The wall behind the tv had a big picture on it which now has to go somewhere else. Also, that wall is really dirty and needs repainting. I also need to lower a painting that was above the tv, it's too high now.
I'll take some pictures once the new sectional is here. We're giving our current sofa and big chair to my brother (he gets most of my old stuff).
Friday, March 28, 2008
Yeah, my bracket sucks too
Well, I'm tied for 55th place out of 128 in the ncaa pool I'm in. Needless to say I'm toast. I guess that simplifies my life as I can just focus all my rooting energy on the Badgers instead (6:10pm CDT tonight). I'll also be rooting for Michigan State over Memphis. Would be great to get 2 Big 10 schools in the final 4 to prove all those nay-sayers wrong.
Badger hockey team also managed to snag themselves one of the 16 ncaa tourney spots and will be playing Saturday at 5:30 (locally on channel 14, MyMadison). If they win they'll play Sunday at 6.
That's all I got for now, but I'll leave you with this joke that almost made diet coke shoot out of my nose yesterday.
Badger hockey team also managed to snag themselves one of the 16 ncaa tourney spots and will be playing Saturday at 5:30 (locally on channel 14, MyMadison). If they win they'll play Sunday at 6.
That's all I got for now, but I'll leave you with this joke that almost made diet coke shoot out of my nose yesterday.
Monday, March 24, 2008
100 inches? That's what she said...
Yep, we finally passed the 100" mark in snow fall this year yesterday. We needed 0.3" and got about an inch I guess. That coupled with the 7" from Friday put us over the top. Remember, the all time record was about 76.5" so this is likely to stand for ever or at least until next winter.
40's this week so hopefully it will all melt soon.
And on to the Sweet 16 for the Badgers as they completely dominated Fullerton on Thursday and Kansas State on Saturday. I hope they just keep on kicking ass to prove the freakin' idiot national media and all those bloggers who last saw the Badgers play in 2000 under Dick Bennett wrong.
This is not Bennett's team and while yes, they do play incredible defense leading to holding teams to the lowest average point total in the nation, they also have a well balanced offense and have scored in the 70's both games.
How come when UCLA scores in the 50's it's because they played a tough game but the Badgers score 72 and it's still boring? Honestly, it's a total joke. And for as much bashing as the big 10 has taken this year, how does a 5-2 record for the tourney look now? Only team that lost in the first round was an Indiana team that gave up when their coach got shit canned. I really hope Michigan State keeps winning and the Badgers meet them again in the final 4.
Oh, and for those of you who think Stephen Curry and Davidson will be able to hang with Bucky, I have 2 words for you... Michael Flowers. Have Curry ask Drew Neitzel and Eric Gordon how they liked trying to get shots off with Flowers up in their grill or how Kansas State did shooting 3 pointers (uh, can you say 0fer?).
Wow, that went on a little longer than I meant. I'm not really that angry, just frustrated at the lack of respect for one of the premier college hoops programs in the country.
On the hockey front, we won 10-3 in possibly the most boring game of the season. We had to shut it down half way through the 2nd period as it became apparent we were on our way to 20 goals. I don't think I even broke a sweat. I had one goal and just stopped shooting in the 2nd period.
We have 1 regular season game left and have a 2 point lead over the 2nd place team, plus we hold the tie breaker with them as we're 2-0-2 against them this year so we have first place sewn up. All that means is we get first choice of goalies for the playoffs.
40's this week so hopefully it will all melt soon.
And on to the Sweet 16 for the Badgers as they completely dominated Fullerton on Thursday and Kansas State on Saturday. I hope they just keep on kicking ass to prove the freakin' idiot national media and all those bloggers who last saw the Badgers play in 2000 under Dick Bennett wrong.
This is not Bennett's team and while yes, they do play incredible defense leading to holding teams to the lowest average point total in the nation, they also have a well balanced offense and have scored in the 70's both games.
How come when UCLA scores in the 50's it's because they played a tough game but the Badgers score 72 and it's still boring? Honestly, it's a total joke. And for as much bashing as the big 10 has taken this year, how does a 5-2 record for the tourney look now? Only team that lost in the first round was an Indiana team that gave up when their coach got shit canned. I really hope Michigan State keeps winning and the Badgers meet them again in the final 4.
Oh, and for those of you who think Stephen Curry and Davidson will be able to hang with Bucky, I have 2 words for you... Michael Flowers. Have Curry ask Drew Neitzel and Eric Gordon how they liked trying to get shots off with Flowers up in their grill or how Kansas State did shooting 3 pointers (uh, can you say 0fer?).
Wow, that went on a little longer than I meant. I'm not really that angry, just frustrated at the lack of respect for one of the premier college hoops programs in the country.
On the hockey front, we won 10-3 in possibly the most boring game of the season. We had to shut it down half way through the 2nd period as it became apparent we were on our way to 20 goals. I don't think I even broke a sweat. I had one goal and just stopped shooting in the 2nd period.
We have 1 regular season game left and have a 2 point lead over the 2nd place team, plus we hold the tie breaker with them as we're 2-0-2 against them this year so we have first place sewn up. All that means is we get first choice of goalies for the playoffs.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Yay, Spring! Wait, WTF?
First off, sorry for the lack of posts! It's actually been 9 days. I don't think I've ever gone that long without at least 1 post before. As I explained in my last post, I'm quite happy in my work which means I'm actually working more and blogging less. I know, I sound like a broken record and you probably all hate me by now. All I can say to that is "don't be a hater."
Anyway, what's new? Great question. First off, yesterday was the first official day of Spring and it was glorious. Upper 40's, brilliant sunshine, a perfect spring day. I let the dogs out in the backyard for over an hour and I sat in my office with the window open!
Ok, that was fun while it lasted. Guess what... yeah, for those that aren't around Wisconsin, that's right, huge fucking snow storm, that's what. They're predicting 6-8" in most areas with some approaching 10-12" (that's what she said).
What a nightmare. Just when you thought it was safe to go outside, wham, a land shark chomps down on your head and it's all over. *knock knock knock* "Unicef, ma'am."
Did I just date myself there? For those of you who don't know what the hell I just said, go rent the first couple seasons of Saturday Night Live.
Ok, so we've established that it's snowing (couple inches by now and it's not quite 10am yet) and that I'm not exactly excited about it. Let's move on...
Bowling. Ok, we're on fire now. 2 straight weeks of 7-0 and we might be back in the hunt, though I haven't seen the standings for a couple weeks so who knows. I'm not sure what happened but I'm starting to bowl better again. Guess I got through the February blah's and got my second wind. After a 680 and 644 the last week I had a 694 Wednesday (236, 232, 226). Should have had a 700. Needed 2 strikes in the 10th and after getting the first buried a 10 pin on the 2nd which cost me the 700 and also a house hanger which also means I got hung. Bummer....
Hockey. We're still in first place and continuing to roll towards the playoffs. We have 2 more regular season games. I'm not sure what's come over me but I keep scoring goals and I don't know why. Some of it is right place at the right time. Some of it is getting great passes from teammates and finding the spot. Whatever it is I now have 20 goals in 16 games and 18 in the last 10 after scoring only 2 in our first 6.
Golf. Yeah, I went to the driving range one time so far. Pat and I are playing in the Kohler cup on April 19th and 20th this year. Mike can't make it this year. I sure hope the snow has melted by then. Things were looking pretty good right up until this morning... :(
I hope you've all been reading Grinder's blog on the movie Public Enemies which is filming in nearby Columbus, WI. He was on site all week long for filming.
That's it for now, lots of work to do.
Oh crap, NCAA tourney, totally spaced that one. Badgers won, I went 13-3 the first day. Missed Kansas State (Wisconsin's next opponent), Texas A&M, and UNLV>
Later, gotta run!
Anyway, what's new? Great question. First off, yesterday was the first official day of Spring and it was glorious. Upper 40's, brilliant sunshine, a perfect spring day. I let the dogs out in the backyard for over an hour and I sat in my office with the window open!
Ok, that was fun while it lasted. Guess what... yeah, for those that aren't around Wisconsin, that's right, huge fucking snow storm, that's what. They're predicting 6-8" in most areas with some approaching 10-12" (that's what she said).
What a nightmare. Just when you thought it was safe to go outside, wham, a land shark chomps down on your head and it's all over. *knock knock knock* "Unicef, ma'am."
Did I just date myself there? For those of you who don't know what the hell I just said, go rent the first couple seasons of Saturday Night Live.
Ok, so we've established that it's snowing (couple inches by now and it's not quite 10am yet) and that I'm not exactly excited about it. Let's move on...
Bowling. Ok, we're on fire now. 2 straight weeks of 7-0 and we might be back in the hunt, though I haven't seen the standings for a couple weeks so who knows. I'm not sure what happened but I'm starting to bowl better again. Guess I got through the February blah's and got my second wind. After a 680 and 644 the last week I had a 694 Wednesday (236, 232, 226). Should have had a 700. Needed 2 strikes in the 10th and after getting the first buried a 10 pin on the 2nd which cost me the 700 and also a house hanger which also means I got hung. Bummer....
Hockey. We're still in first place and continuing to roll towards the playoffs. We have 2 more regular season games. I'm not sure what's come over me but I keep scoring goals and I don't know why. Some of it is right place at the right time. Some of it is getting great passes from teammates and finding the spot. Whatever it is I now have 20 goals in 16 games and 18 in the last 10 after scoring only 2 in our first 6.
Golf. Yeah, I went to the driving range one time so far. Pat and I are playing in the Kohler cup on April 19th and 20th this year. Mike can't make it this year. I sure hope the snow has melted by then. Things were looking pretty good right up until this morning... :(
I hope you've all been reading Grinder's blog on the movie Public Enemies which is filming in nearby Columbus, WI. He was on site all week long for filming.
That's it for now, lots of work to do.
Oh crap, NCAA tourney, totally spaced that one. Badgers won, I went 13-3 the first day. Missed Kansas State (Wisconsin's next opponent), Texas A&M, and UNLV>
Later, gotta run!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
A busy programmer is a happy programmer
For programmers, there's nothing worse than not having much to do. We tend to start surfing the web, reading other blogs, going over your fantasy baseball draft strategy, etc. We can't stay focused on the minor trivial tasks we do have so we tend to drift away not doing much of anything.
On the other hand, when we have a ton to do we are at our best. Cranking out code in long stretches, forgetting to eat, drink, pee, etc. We don't talk to our loved ones, we don't talk to our friends and of course, we forget about our blog.
I've definitely fallen into the latter category. As the only Java developer at Comic Wonder I certainly have my hands full, but instead of complaining, I relish the challenge. I have more work than I can possibly do but I never have to be worried about being bored. I have freedom to code in my own style, I don't have to worry about reviewing someone else's work, I can deploy on my schedule, I can make database changes as I see fit, when I see fit.
So, this blog has suffered obviously. My work days are now running from about 7:30am to 6:00pm with a very short break to get some lunch to take back to my desk. And I love every minute of it.
And what's new at Comic Wonder you ask?
For starters, we're gearing up to be able to provide radio stations around the country with their own joke of the day player to put on their site, which will link in to custom station sites within Comic Wonder where they can hold their own contests, etc. Sort of a community within a community. Much of my work over the last 3 weeks has been focused on getting that part up and running.
In addition to that, we're also talking to a fairly famous company (run by a man in pajamas) about providing joke content on their website, customized to fit their theme. This gives me an excuse to peruse a web site I would normally not visit (at least during work hours). :)
Another thing I put into test yesterday was a preference setting for users that wish to filter out our spicier jokes. You will be able to set your account to only show mild, mild and medium or mild, medium and spicy jokes. That will go into production Sunday night.
And today I'll be working on what we call Joke Limbo. It's a place to look for text jokes to save from limbo, since we believe a joke isn't a joke until it's told. This should help in those times when you really want to tell a joke but can't come up with a good one. This should also go in Sunday night (assuming I finish it today or tomorrow).
Our traffic has picked up nicely. One of our jokes got put out on stumble upon (another digg like site) and we got a lot of traffic from that and it's been progressing from there. All our performance problems seem to be a thing of the past now. We've added more hardware and memory and this weekend we'll also be putting in a second web server with a load balancer, coupled with the use of a separate file server.
Speaking of performance issues, I'd like to think Retro and Dale for their suggestions (almost simultaneously) to implement memcached on the site to handle caching of frequently run queries. I believe that's helped out our performance issues greatly. When I took over you could say things were less than efficient. Kind of like an 8 cylinder car running on 3 cylinders. We're humming along smoothly now.
And now, you're joke of the day...
On the other hand, when we have a ton to do we are at our best. Cranking out code in long stretches, forgetting to eat, drink, pee, etc. We don't talk to our loved ones, we don't talk to our friends and of course, we forget about our blog.
I've definitely fallen into the latter category. As the only Java developer at Comic Wonder I certainly have my hands full, but instead of complaining, I relish the challenge. I have more work than I can possibly do but I never have to be worried about being bored. I have freedom to code in my own style, I don't have to worry about reviewing someone else's work, I can deploy on my schedule, I can make database changes as I see fit, when I see fit.
So, this blog has suffered obviously. My work days are now running from about 7:30am to 6:00pm with a very short break to get some lunch to take back to my desk. And I love every minute of it.
And what's new at Comic Wonder you ask?
For starters, we're gearing up to be able to provide radio stations around the country with their own joke of the day player to put on their site, which will link in to custom station sites within Comic Wonder where they can hold their own contests, etc. Sort of a community within a community. Much of my work over the last 3 weeks has been focused on getting that part up and running.
In addition to that, we're also talking to a fairly famous company (run by a man in pajamas) about providing joke content on their website, customized to fit their theme. This gives me an excuse to peruse a web site I would normally not visit (at least during work hours). :)
Another thing I put into test yesterday was a preference setting for users that wish to filter out our spicier jokes. You will be able to set your account to only show mild, mild and medium or mild, medium and spicy jokes. That will go into production Sunday night.
And today I'll be working on what we call Joke Limbo. It's a place to look for text jokes to save from limbo, since we believe a joke isn't a joke until it's told. This should help in those times when you really want to tell a joke but can't come up with a good one. This should also go in Sunday night (assuming I finish it today or tomorrow).
Our traffic has picked up nicely. One of our jokes got put out on stumble upon (another digg like site) and we got a lot of traffic from that and it's been progressing from there. All our performance problems seem to be a thing of the past now. We've added more hardware and memory and this weekend we'll also be putting in a second web server with a load balancer, coupled with the use of a separate file server.
Speaking of performance issues, I'd like to think Retro and Dale for their suggestions (almost simultaneously) to implement memcached on the site to handle caching of frequently run queries. I believe that's helped out our performance issues greatly. When I took over you could say things were less than efficient. Kind of like an 8 cylinder car running on 3 cylinders. We're humming along smoothly now.
And now, you're joke of the day...
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