Chairman's Cup

Over the weekend, I was unexpectedly invited to fill in for a late dropout in a charity golf event for APD's school that was held at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary. It was probably the most prestigious course I've ever played (they hold a Senior PGA event there) and the event itself was a few notches classier than the usual Dolberry golf outing (i.e., Pirates' Cove mini-golf).

I played w/ a really great group of guys. Two of the four (not me, obviously) were good golfers which always makes the superball format fun. Golf is infinitely more enjoyable when you can hit your tee shot into someone's backyard pool and then ride your cart 250 yards down the center of the fairway where a teammate hit one. My best shot of the day came on the one hole where our "best" tee shot was in the rough of an adjacent hole in a swampy area (we had to jump a 3-foot creek to get there). I cranked a 4-iron over some trees for a good 180-190 yards to about 15 feet from the pin. I told my teammates I was much more accustomed to these scenarios than the whole middle of the fairway thing.

My other good shot was on a par-3 where if you hit the green you were eligible to participate in a putting contest for some fancy TaylorMade driver. I hit the green and actually didn't embarass myself in the putting thing (4th out of 14 or so). Unfortunately, on the $25,000 hole-in-one shot, I missed the green by about 20 yards to the right.

Besides being a super nice guy, the person who invited me was a former chairman of the board at APD's school. Unbeknownst to me, there was a competition among the teams that had former board chairman & we won that. Here's a picture of the team and our trophy. (Dolberry is the short one in the purple (?!?) hat.


Anyway, after Sunday's debacle this was the perfect remedy. A day away from work ... under one of God's bluest-ever North Carolina skies ... inhaling the sunshine ... whacking a golf ball around w/o any accountability ... followed by free barbeque ... pretty nice.

In at least one way ... I am still an 11-year old

So ... as you might imagine I did not enjoy yesterday's UL-MSU game at all. It reminded me of an incident when I was probably somewhere between 9 and 12. We were watching Louisville play and they lost and I made a big grumpy fuss about it and El Cueto sent me to my room for the rest of the night.

I had to send myself to my room yesterday at halftime.

I was close to out of control (yelling at TV) ... had to sort of step out of myself and say ... "Is this who you want to be? Is this really how you are?"

It was just tough, because (like many) I was sure they were going to win. The hardest time to maintain composure for me, is when you are suppose to prevail and you don't. Anyway, after halftime I made some adjustments ... resigned myself that they were going to lose ... really you could tell about 5 minutes into the game ... and it was much easier to take ... like when that guy banked in his 3 pointer I barely even grunted in disgust.

Anyway, I had a great day today to cleanse the mental palette from yesterday & I'll blog about that tomorrow (or 4 weeks from now ... whenever ... you know how it works)

Spring training trip recap

Sorry that the blog has stagnated here. Life has kind of gotten away from me. There are so many things I'd like to spend my time doing & in worrying about doing them all ... not sure I've done many of them very well. Hey, there's always tomorrow ...

Anyway, earlier this month we had a great trip down to FL for Spring Training w/ Los Cuetos. We left on Tuesday evening drove to somewhere in South Carolina. Wednesday, we met up w/ Gma and Gpa at the Orlando airport. That night we ate the world's best pizza, then headed over to Pirate's Cove where Gma and APD dominated at putt-putt.

Thursday, tbKMD & I went running around parts of the Disney neighborhood in Orlando covering around 4-5 mi in all for probably my longest run in a year or so. T'was fun. That afternoon we watched the Nationals-Braves game at Wide World of Sports. Nice enough stadium ... very clean. While watching the game, we listened to U0fL beat Providence on the satellite radio.Swam in the pool w/ APD in the morning on Friday, then we drove over to Clearwater to watch the Phillies play the Pirates. After the game we headed down to Sarasota for the evening. Watched UofL beat Villanova in the hotel room.


Saturday morning was another run w/ tbKMD, then a trip to Siesta Key. Found lots of good conch shells. Soft sand and warm sunshine. Too nice. Saw our last game ever at Ed Smith Stadium that afternoon. (Reds lost ... which was fitting.) That night we ate some awesome seafood then watched the CARDS win the Big East tournament title at the Baker-Fitzgeralds. What a great team. Need three more wins for the whole enchilada.


Sunday was another early morning swim, a big breakfast, and then to the Field of Cheesesteaks (Clearwater). Oh, they were so good. Words cannot describe. We watched the St. Louis Cardinals take BP and Albert Pujols put on a show ... at one point hitting one entirely out of the facility. Breaking news ... he's really good. Then the sad goodbyes and the long drive home where we listened to the NCAA tournament draw.

Simply a perfect vacation. Thanks to all who were a part of it.

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