Thursday, April 24, 2008

Fore!

I played my first round of golf for the year on Tuesday. Got my first sunburn too! Last year I found out that Jacob is about as bad at golf as I am so we decided that we'd hit a few every couple weeks. For our first round this year we attended a pervious concrete seminar at South Riding Golf Club in South Riding. The seminar was about an hour...then we got lunch, hamburger, hot dogs, noodle salad and potato salad. And then...the golf. I will start off by saying that this was the first golf I had played of any sort this year. When I teed off at 1, I hadn't so much as been to the driving range. The course was soaked due to the rains we had the 2 days prior, but all in all in pretty good shape. We got carts w/ GPS info which was nice, but the course still could not have been more vague. The scorecards had no yardage or picture of the hole (yes, it was on the GPS, but what if we were walking?) nor were any of the holes marked. Perhaps this is common at country clubs, I don't know as I'm usually on a public course, but I found it strange. I think I lost 4 of my own balls, including that first tee shot. I began snagging balls that I found to use because I didn't care and I didn't want to use up ALL of my golf balls that I had brought. Needless to say Jacob and I didn't play all that well and our partners were not all that good either. It was a best ball tournament and we finished 2nd to last (only b/c 1 group didn't check in) with a 77, or +5. We were 12 strokes off the pace. I had one good shot on the day and that was on the longest drive hole where I hit my whopper of the day at 225. I don't usually use a driver and don't have a decent one of my own, so I will consider this shot a great success. All in all, a pretty good day and way to spend a day of work.

Hopefully next time I play a bit better. I'm not good in general, but I'm not as bad as displayed on Tuesday, I couldn't stay down on the ball and kept topping it. I think that I was forgetting to keep my knees bent. Afterwards, we grabbed some z-pizza at which they insisted that they had given us the thai pizza, when upon inspection was obviously pepperoni, then they made one of the pizza's without cheese, which we got to keep, and then they finally got it right...free food, even without cheese, is worth the sitting around.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

A bit sleepy...

My friend Jacob came by last night and while we were supposed to be studying for our LEED accreditation, we instead drank beer and listened at the Democratic Presidential nominee debate. We are looking at hitting the books tonight, but the weather is soooooo nice, I'm sure it will be difficult. We must overcome this lethargy. On Tuesday of next week, we have a golf tournament/training seminar. This would be great except we haven't hit the course or range yet and it may get ugly. And by ugly, I mean ugly. The course looks pretty nice, and when they look nice, they tend to be a bit difficult. The contouring is nice and there is a bit of water around the course.

The NHL playoffs have started already and I am going to root for the Flyers. I don't really care about hockey all that much, I used to be into it quite a bit, but my teams are the Caps, Flyers and Blackhawks. Since the Caps are playing the Flyers, I have to pick one...and I'm going Philly this time. The NBA playoffs are firing up this weekend, I don't care at all. The Bulls are my team...and the Bulls stink...so I will watch at the playoffs as due to the TV writers strike, my TV shows will push on throughout the playoff season.

The Yanks picked up another win yesterday and they seem to picking up the play a bit. Perhaps they could share a bit of that with the Nationals...

We've got the wedding this weekend in B-more and the reception at the Visionary Art Museum, one of the cooler museums I've been to. Maybe photos will accompany the blog shortly from the wedding.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

We will always remember...

Today is the one year anniversary of the horrific massacre at my alma mater Virginia Tech. My thoughts are still with the families and friends of those who lost loved ones. We all lost a part of ourselves that day and will forever be scarred. One of the professors gunned down was my Hydraulics professor during my days at Tech, and while I did not know him personally, was still hit pretty hard. The building, Norris Hall, that most of the shootings occurred was a building I had many classes in. The dorm, West AJ, is not the exact dorm I lived in, but connected to it, as I lived in East AJ...but spent many days and nights next door with my friends. My wife is a first year Vet Student at Tech this year and she will be going to a couple of the events taking place today. I have a heavy heart today especially, but have felt different ever since that day, one year ago. We Hokies will continue to show the world how special a place Virginia Tech is, was, and will continue to be. While not religious, prayers to all. WE ARE THE HOKIES...WE WILL PREVAIL.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Nationals Stadium....First Visit

I was fortunate to attend my first game at the new Nationals Stadium last night, and I must say that they did a pretty good job! For having only 2 years to both construct and design the stadium, the result is marvelous. The concourses are very wide, food choices are abundant, if not pricey...

Now if we could get a team to match. Some stooge named Bergmann pitched last night and for some reason we were compelled to leave him in for an entire inning in witch he gave up 7 runs. I partially blame Acta as he should have had him out at 4 or 5 at the most...those sitting around me in the upper right field seats heard the boos.

We were there for a friends birthday and I therefore wasn't as interested in the game as I was to wander the park and see what they had around. I liked the centerfield bar as well as the PS3 station across the concourse in the outfield. The choice of food was good as mentioned above, but it would be nice if you could get a couple of the specialty foods in locations other than 1 (such as Red Hot and Blue, Boardwalk Fries, Ben's Chili Bowl (I know, you can get the half smokes at any regular stand), etc.).

The stadium is also LEED certified, which I am of course studying for my certification in. When I go back in June for my birthday, I will take some more photos. It is another stadium that Michelle and I can cross of the list, but we will need to get our pic in front of that GIANT HD screen.

Monday, April 7, 2008

It's been awhile....

I was reading earlier this month where the US government obtained waivers to continue building the border fence with out having to go through the normal review process. It states that they will still have to have the environmental impact reports prepared, but construction can begin before they are submitted and reviewed...excuse me? So what is the point of doing the report if they are going to just go ahead and do it anyway? And I love where Bushernity member Chertoff states that building the wall will actually help the environment because the number of people crossing leave large amounts of litter and they no longer will do so due to the wall. Yeah, whatever that means...as if the cutting off of Wildlife migration patterns and other concerns of the wall compare to the litter. Heres an idea idiots...beef up patrol, don't build a wall, and with that beefed up patrol, give them a trash bag and a pole and pick up the trash left behind. That way you can keep up the watch and clean up at the same time to stay busy.

March sadness...no money this year for the NCAA tourney...the Final 4 has not gone as planned with both selections for the championship losing...and badly. UNC vs. UCLA was not to be.

I also think I am going to the Nats new ballpark this Wednesday. I will report back after the visit.