Disc Golf and Shiner

The Texas Trek 2008

2008-03-23T11:16:00.002-05:00

Put another one in the books, fellas. This was my 8th trip in 10 years time. Pics to follow

Day 0
Neifert, Bej and I meet in Kansas City to spend the night prior to an early morning departure to AUS. Dinner at the Jumpin Catfish. Catfish, quail, cole slaw, hush puppies... yum-o.

Day 1
Checking out airport talent at the MCI and boarding non-stop flight to AUS. Flight time: 1:50... solid.
Jay drives down from Rockwall to pick us up at the airport and spirit us away to the first course of the trip: Cat Hollow Park in Round Rock. A new course for us and a nice choice for a starting round. Searight-esque in length and a few fewer cedar trees to lose our frisbees.
Drive to Williamson County Park which is also new to us. Unfortunately, the course was closed due to recent rains. Maybe next year. Jay also develops car trouble and we have to detour to a shop in Round Rock where we drop it off and rent a car to continue. A couple of hours wasted there.
Drive rental car to Pease Park and partake in the "Pay Toll by Mail" lanes on the Route 1 tollway. Apparently, they take a photo of your license plate and send you a bill later. It will be interesting to see if we see a bill from having been in a rental. Pease was fairly busy to start, as the weather was purt-near perfect. Traffic let up as we went along and we didn't have to play through or have anyone play through us after the first 6 holes.

To be continued...

Restroom Etiquette

2008-01-11T00:00:00.000-06:00

or "Sorry Little Buddy".

We're all familiar with restroom urinal etiquette, right? Basically, if there is a row of urinals and there is a guy using one at the end, you go to the opposite end and like that. I think I might have breached protocol the other night when shopping at the mega-grocery. I had to go, so I ducked in to the men's room. This restroom is a two stall/two urinal arrangement and was vacant when I entered. No problem, I took the urinal closest to the door and proceeded with business. Then I heard the door slowly creak open, little footsteps pitter-pat closer, stop directly behind me and a little sigh. Out of the corner of my eye I could see it was a little kid with a pitiful look on his face. It was then I realized I had taken the "low" urinal and the other one was too high for him to reach.

Baby steps, man.

2008-01-03T11:49:00.000-06:00

I'm in a "Couch to 5k" unning program. It's designed to get the sedentary runner-wannabe off the couch and into running. I was a runner in high school but that was over 20 years ago. I scoffed at the plan and how seemingly easy it was going to be. I considered skipping a few weeks to really get a jump on things. I was scolded and told to do the program as written. It's not just that perhaps my cardio-vascular system could handle jumping ahead, it's that my long-intactive joints and muscles would pay a price for starting too fast. When I think back to previous attmepts at starting back running, I remember that that's what kept me from continuing. I was getting horrible shin splints and I'd stop running. I'm in Week 5 of the program and I've been injury-free so far. Maybe they had a point.

I've been running at the State Gym track (12 laps/mile) since it's winter where I am. I wouldn't mind running in the cold. It's the icy roads that are preventing me from getting out there. The problem with track running, especially on a short track, is that it's just so freaking tedious. Plus, since it's early January, we have every resolution maker in there trying to do the same thing I am. It's almost impossible to settle into a pace and just pound out the distance. I'm always getting passed by some octogenarian with a hairy back.

Why?

2007-12-20T12:30:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure what brought this on, but I've made the decision I'm going to run a marathon. There are a lot of impressive, more atainable goals out there so I'm not sure what made me decide on this. Mind you, I'm not planning on doing it this minute or even this year. I haven't run seriously since high school and that was 20+ years ago. So, I'm starting out slow. I've set forth a bunch of intermediate goals to ramp up to the big race. First off, I'll train to run a 5k sometime this Spring. After that, there's a cool night 10k in July. After that, there is no firm timetable but I'll likely gradually increase my weekly mileage and hit some other longer races as they become doable: 15k, 20k, Half Marathon, then the big one. My plan is to do it sometime in 2009. They say you have to train 18 weeks to be ready for your first marathon and that's if you have a solid base of running already, so I'll have to choose a good one and count back 4 months before I get a serious bug in my butt for it. Maybe I'll do the Honolulu Marathon...

Some kinda record

2007-12-07T23:53:00.000-06:00

It's been how long since my last blog post? I guess it's about time I got back to it. Not that anybody really cares one way or the other.

Oh, I started a running program. A while back, I started being really conscious about my food intake. Not that I don't eat the same food any more. I just don't eat quite as much. Well, I ended up losing about 15 lbs. between August and now. Actually, I lost it between August and about 1 month ago and I've leveled off. I could stand to lose about 20 more, so I figured I'd work in some physical exertion and drop the rest.

I hate running. Oh, I did plenty of it in high school when I was on the cross-country team. I just thought the long distance was tedious. Now it's 20-some years later and I'm coming back to it. I found a good program designed to ease people like me back into it and I think it's working. I actually look forward to doing it and I feel guilty if I miss. I'd like to run a couple of 5k's this coming year and maybe move up to 10k in the future. We'll see. For the immediate future, I just want the cardio-vascular endurance to ride a couple days of RAGBRAI in July. I did a single day last summer (70 miles) and it almost did me in. We'll see how it goes.

Food Hybridization

2007-05-02T12:27:00.000-05:00

Apparently, we have run out of ideas for food. Just today, I was at the grocery across the street from my office. I couldn't decide whether I wanted a turkey pot pie or soup for lunch. As I was perusing the soup section, I found a can of Campbell's Turkey Pot Pie soup. Oooo... problem solved.

"You know...", I thought to myself, "I could really go for the taste of berries and cream in a beverage, but I really should have that diet soda to cut back on calories.

Bingo!

Now, for dessert... should I have the strawberry-rhubarb pie or the yogurt?

This blogging is fun!

2007-04-23T22:01:00.001-05:00

I really should do it more often.

What stereotype?

2007-04-03T22:45:00.000-05:00

I was working the concession stand at Aaron's high school soccer game tonight. A kid of obvious Asian extraction approached the counter, scanned the offerings of food, screwed up his brows and said, "You don't have rice. I don't know what to do."

Dead sexy

2007-03-27T19:58:00.000-05:00

I've decided that there is nothing more unsettling, frightening or hilarious than a pissed-off Scotsman.

News from the junk food world

2007-03-07T12:36:00.000-06:00

I like a good candy bar every now and then. I try not to eat a lot of junk, but I will make an exception for special occasions. Like when a new one comes out. I have a motto: I'll try anything once. So, the second I catch wind of a new piece of candy out there, I have to try it.

The new thing in the candy industry (and by "industry", I mean the "business") is taking an old favorite, making it just a little different and marketing it as something new. Take, for example, the Kit Kat.

It's an old favorite. 4 crisp wafers covered in milk chocolate. Tasty. Well, now you can get the Kit Kat in several different configurations. The most common one I see is the "Big Kat". It's merely a single section of the normal Kit Kat, but it's twice as big.

You get the idea. There's the Kit Kat Dark with dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. Theres Strawberry Kit Kat. Double Chocolate Kit Kat. It's all good.

It seems that every candy maker is doing it. Right now, the big thing is adding caramel to the normal bar. I've seen caramel Reese's PB Cups, caramel Crunch, Snickers Extreme (sans nougat... more caramel and peanuts) and, you guessed it, caramel Kit Kat.

Mmmmmmmmmm.

Insolent little pukes

2007-02-27T12:33:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago, I was volunteering at the Iowa Indoor State Cup tournament that was being held at the ISU indoor football practice facility. This building is pretty sweet. It contains a full-sized football field with state-of-the-art artificial turf. The surface is made up of little bits of recycled rubber and individual "blades" of synthetic grass. It's completely porous with a drainage system underneath. As such, the ISU people don't allow any kind of drinks inside the bulding unless it's water. Anything else, if spilled, will get into the field and mold it all up.

Back to the tournament. I was a field marshal, which, simply put, means "take pop and gatorade away from people". First of all, you can't go anywhere in the building without seeing a sign that says "WATER ONLY" or "NO FOOD OR BEVERAGES", so my job should have been easy. Nope. We had a person reminding people of the rule as they came in, but we saw some kids sneek them in their bags. That's where I came in. I would make my rounds during a game and consistently find 2 or 3 bottles of contraband sitting out. I'd pick them up and toss them in a barrel. Not a problem until some high school kid started crying because I took his $1.50 bottle of gatorade. Then he starts *following* me as I head to the trash barrel. We had a nice argument about how I didn't care that he "didn't know" about the rules of the building and that I didn't care that he was "just leaving, anyway". He went back to his gear and I went to the trash barrel to dump it. A few minutes later, the same kid comes by to ask for his gatorade back. Uh, no. After the same argument gets him nowhere, he punctuates his disappointment by kicking his ball into the concession area.

I can't wait for the next indoor tournament... this weekend.

I'm back!

2007-02-27T12:28:00.000-06:00

I realized it had been a long time since I said anything when I discovered that people who had been referencing my blog site had taken it off their list. I hate to disappoint the 3 (including me) readers of my blog, so I'm back.

Winds of change

2007-01-12T15:58:00.000-06:00

I have a 32 oz. convenience store cup that I use to put my spare change in my office. After about 6 months, the thing is finally full. Any guesses how much money was in there?

$115.93

Does this stuff really happen in Des Moines?

2006-11-28T20:19:00.000-06:00

I was out Christmas shopping with my wife this past Friday when we were in the Apple store checking out the iPod accessories. Just to my right was a couple doing the same thing. The funny thing about this couple was that the woman was larger than the man. I don't mean fat "large". I mean "large" like a man. Turns out it was a man... in drag.

2006-11-17T11:42:00.000-06:00

So, there was this horrific airplane crash in Indiana that killed the pilot and 4 employees of Two Rivers Marketing, a firm in Des Moines. It was one of the co-founders of the company and 3 associates. I was reading the story of how this company had grown from 10 to about 90 employees and how, after a fire destroyed their old office, they renovated an old warehouse to hold their headquarters. This reminded me that I had read an article in Iowa Architect about this very project not even a month prior to this event.

I went back to the library today and confirmed that it was the project I was thinking of. Here's the really strange part. Among the photos of the interior of the building, there is one showing one of the crash victims decending some steps from the upper level of the building. The photographer set the exposure such that anything in motion would appear as a ghost in the photo. Just a little creepy.

The Morning After... Halloween

2006-11-01T15:34:00.000-06:00

Well, another All Hallows Eve has come and gone. Here's a brief synopsis of the Kenton household festivities.

-Time spent searching a pumpkin patch for just the right punkin(s): zero hours.
-Number of Halloween decorations set out: 1 (maybe 2)
-Pounds of candy purchased to give out: 4
-Average temperature during Ames' trick-or-treat time: 39 degrees
-Number of kids who visited the house, trick-or-treating: 12-15 tops
-Pounds of candy left over: 2
-Number of my kids trick-or-treating: 1
-Pounds of candy collected by said kid: 5
-Weirdest treat collected by said kid: Chinese Duck Egg
-Huh?: You read correctly... an egg from a duck - "Product of China" - hard-boiled and vacuum-sealed.
-Pieces pieces of candy surrendered for "Dad Tax": none... yet.
-

80's Pop Fans in Mourning synchronicity

2006-10-30T08:44:00.000-06:00

News over the weekend told us that one of the Taylors in the 80's pop group, Duran Duran has quit the band.
Two little bits of trivia:
1) There were three guys with the surname Taylor at Duran Duran's peak popularity in the early 80's and neither was related.
2) Duran Duran is still a band.

So here's the synchronicity part. After I read of (Andy?) Taylor's leaving the band, I decided to search wikipedia for DD to find out the name of that song they had in the early 90's that brought them back to the fore of pop music. I remembered it because I thought it was unusual for a pop band to drop off the radar and then come back roughly 10 years later with some really good stuff. The song is 'Ordinary World', by the way. As I am reading the wiki entry, my daughter peeks over my shoulder and asks, "Who's that?" I explained that it was a band that was popular in the 80's and for a short time in the 90's. She feigned interest and went back to her TV show.

Now, here's the eery part. The very next morning, I'm taking my daughter to Newton for a soccer game. As I round the corner and leave our neighborhood, I switched on the radio and 'Ordinary World' is playing.

Problem solving

2006-10-29T21:20:00.000-06:00

Tonight, on the way home from Aaron's cross-country awards banquet, we got stopped at an unusually slow light. When this happens, I usually curse under my breath and then announce in an elevated voice that "this is the longest... light... ever!" Hearing this, Aaron jumped out of the car, ran over to the signal post and pressed the crossing button. By the time he was back in the car and seat belted, the light was turning green.

You're not helping

2006-10-24T21:08:00.000-05:00

Is it me or is there just a lot of sensationalism in the media nowdays? Take for example this little blurb from the Associated Press. Emphasis is mine.

NEW ORLEANS -- The Associated Press has found a gaping disparity between white and black Hurricane Katrina victims over insurance payouts.

A review of 3,000 complaints filed to state regulators over homeowner insurance payouts shows whites are much more successful in the process and much more aggressive.
Whites were found three times more likely to appeal their settlements than lower-income blacks, who didn't know or doubted the government would help.

But once appeals were filed and pursued, whites and minorities both received an average of about $40,000 more than they'd first been offered.
A woman living in the devastated Lower Ninth Ward said she got fed up with numerous calls to her insurer and accepted the $34,000 for damages that totaled more than $120,000. She said she didn't know she could appeal and doubted it would be worthwhile.

When I first saw this story, I got the feeling that the evil insurance companies were out to cheat minorities out of their insurance money. Just check out the opening line. It insinuates that blacks are being shortchanged by their insurance companies to the benefit of whites.

The next paragraph puts things into a bit more perpspective, yet in a way that still hints at a perceived bias against blacks. While it tells us that whites were more likely to receive a larger settlement, it fails to make the connection that it's for the use of the appeals process by whites as compared to blacks. It's not until the end of the story that we're told that of those whites and blacks who actually used the appeal process (comparing apples to apples) their settlements were quite similar.

Superfan

2006-10-22T17:31:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine has suggested a limit to the amount of team gear to be worn outside of live game attendance. For instance, if you are not attending a game in person you should not wear more than 1 (maybe 2) logoed item of the same team. That's a T-shirt or a cap. You can get away with more depending on the prominence of the logo, I suppose.

Today, I saw a guy at one of my daughter's soccer games who was quite obviously supporting the Iowa Hawkeyes. Every garment he had on (cap, sweat shirt, outer shirt, wind pants and shoes) was black, gold, or black-and-gold and had a hawk logo prominently displayed. I couldn't tell, but if he had a t-shirt underneath, it was likely more of the same. Hawk socks are a definite possibility. Do they make Hawk-a-roos?

Foley's Folly

2006-10-20T15:24:00.000-05:00

I'm watching in amazement this ordeal with that former congressman, Mark Foley. First, he's been caught pursuing at least one *male* congressional page. Next, a priest has admitted being intimate with Mr. Foley. All we need now is news that Foley was the one who murdered Chandra Levy and he'll have hit the political scandal trifecta.

A personal record

2006-10-18T13:18:00.000-05:00

I generally never play the course at Big Creek State Park. Not that it's a bad course. It just has a few things going against it for me...
- It's out of the way
- It's generally hell to play in the summertime (poison ivy, dense schule, ticks...)
- I never score well there

I will, however, find myself over there in the late fall to early spring when the ticks, ivy and leaves are gone. It's actually kind of a treat to play at that time as the abundant vegetation blocks most of the prevailing winds. Also, its carved-out-of-the-thicket nature means you rarely see any other players who happen to be on the course. Every hole is pretty isolated from the others. I found myself playing the course twice in the last 3 days. Last night was the absolute best round I've ever had out there.

#1 - Roc turned over slightly to last shrub on the right, kicked out to 20'. Made putt (-1)
#2 - Hyzer Aviar-x to 10' (-2)
#3 - Roc didn't turn. Upshot catches last evergreen. Doink. (-1)
#4 - Over the top Starfire catches top of tree, kicks left into fairway, two flips and a putt (0)
#5 - Over the top Starfire sails pin-high and 50' right. grenade to 15' (0)
#6 - Roc pancake to 15' (-1)
#7 - Wraith up middle, short upshot (-1)
#8 - Huge anny Starfire to 40' short and right (-1)
#9 - Roc up the gut (-2)
#10 - Starfire hits tree 80' short (-2)
#11 - Wraith down the right side, fades left past first clump of trees, sky anny fades left into ditch, tomahawk to 20' (-1)
#12 - Low Wraith doesn't hyzer enough, dainty forehand roll into fairway, Roc upshot, 30' straddle out of trees (0)
#13 - Ace run hits bushes long, miss 20' uphill putt (0)
#14 - Wraith up middle, Roc to 30' (0)
#15 - Failed Monster skip (0)
#16 - Wraith to 25' left (-1)
#17 - Horrible forehand attempt (-1)
#18 - Starfire catches trees on right, upshot too hot, doink 25' uphill putt (0)

That's a 54, boys and girls. I'll take that in a tournament any day.

2006-10-09T10:03:00.000-05:00

I work concessions at ISU home football games. Our stand is the BBQ stand on the west side, where the visitor section is located. I typically run the grill, which consists of two flat coal tables on wheels that we set up in the open area between the men's and women's restrooms. Here's something I've never seen before. From the time the gates opened to roughly 5 minutes after the game ended, at no time was there not a line for the men's room. Most of that time, the line extended about 50' outside the building. By contrast, the women's restroom rarely had a line and when it did, there were probably only 10 women waiting to use it. I thought I was in some sort of bizarro world.

Conclusion: Out of the estimated 55,000+ fans at the game, 50 of them were female.

It's October

2006-10-06T22:20:00.000-05:00

That's all I got. It's hard to keep up on a blog.

Reading is fun and mental

2006-09-20T15:52:00.000-05:00

I was at a Barnes and Noble bookstore over the weekend in between games during my son's soccer tournament (they got 2nd). I wasn't interested in mall walking, so I camped out at the bookstore with a book and a comfy chair. As I read, there was some movement in front of me that was a bit of a distraction. There was a guy in a chair facing me, also reading. I noticed as he read, that instead of following the lines of the book with his eyes, he moved his entire head. His head would swivel slowly to the right and snap back to the left as he finished one line and continued to the next. He would slowly nod his head as he made his way to the bottom of one page and then snap back up to the top of the next page. I'm fairly certain he was taking some sort of mood-altering prescription, because he felt the need to strike up a conversation with me after finishing his book (Actually, I don't think he was finished so much as he was tired). Of course, he probably thought I wasn't really reading, because my head wasn't moving.

Circle of Life

2006-09-14T11:32:00.000-05:00

I made my daily walk to the grocery across the street this morning. I have to cross a fairly busy 4-lane arterial street and a frontage road to get there. In between the street and frontage is a grassy median that was quite unkempt. The grass was so long that I didn't realize I stumbled through a rabbit nest until I heard the squeals of 3 baby rabbits scurrying away. Each of them ran as fast as they could across the frontage road to the opposite side but were so young and small that they couldn't make it up the 6-inch curb. It was quite pitiful to watch them struggling with the curb and for a split second I considered rounding them up and placing them back in their nest. Then I came to my senses. These aren't pets that will just nestle back to bed. They're going to freak out some more and run again. Plus, if I get my scent on them, the mother will throw them out. Then I looked around. It's a pretty exposed area and even if I hadn't scattered them, they would have been snatched by a hawk or otherwise done in by any number of things.

I continued on my journey to the grocery, got my snack and made my way back across the street where I saw that a city worker had just started mowing the median.

RIP Croc Hunter

2006-09-04T20:03:00.000-05:00

I heard that earlier today, Steve Irwin (aka The Crocodile Hunter) had passed away. And by "passed away", I mean "had the poisonous barb of a stingray puncture his freaking heart". I believe my immediate reaction to the news was, "crikey". My 2nd immediate reaction is that this is exactly how I figured this guy would go out. Hell, every other episode of his show featured some close-call situation where Steve narrowly escaped being bitten by the "therrrd most-venomous snake the werrrld". I'm only shocked that it took this long to happen.

Deep Thoughts

2006-08-29T23:08:00.000-05:00

Do you suppose that when a muslim controlled business lags in their productivity, that they would have a "Come to Jesus" meeting?

Tough Love

2006-08-22T22:07:00.000-05:00

Some friends of ours recently had their older of two sons graduate from high school and their other one is currently a Junior. At that point in my life, I'd be celebrating my new freedom, but these people have decided to adopt a couple of kids from Russia. They're sisters of around 8-10 years old. Somehow, they got roped into also adopting *another* *teenaged* girl also from Russia. I can't imagine this turns out well.

"Tantyana, please clean up your room."
"Are you going to turn me out and force me to prostitute myself on the street if I don't?"
"Honey, don't be silly. Of course, we'd never do that."
"Oh... then fuck off."

The single most addictive substance in the universe

2006-08-14T22:49:00.000-05:00

The Banana Cream Pie Blizzard from Dairy Queen.

I don't know if you have the Dairy Queen franchise in your area of the world. If you don't, you should probably move. For those who are unfamiliar, this is an ice cream treat that consists of soft-serve ice cream, bananas, whipped cream, bits of pie crust and presumably a sizable dose of crack cocaine. It's that good. If I could, I'd have four meals a day: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Banana Cream Pie Blizzard.

The only thing that keeps me under 300 lbs. is the fact that this flavor of Blizzard is only offered for a few weeks out of the year. Still, every time I visit DQ, I order the BCPB hoping against hope that they've made it available, only to cry an exasperated wail when I hear they don't have it. I'm seriously considering an email jihad on DQ to make the BCPB a permanent offering.

Ooooooooooooohhhh how I love it so!

Cell Phones

2006-07-25T22:34:00.000-05:00

A little informal survey taken during the last few days I've driven to work shows that at any given time, roughly 50% of all drivers on the road will be using a cell phone. Furthermore, 90% of all my road rage stems from other people merging into my space on the highway while talking on the phone.

Get off the phone. Idiot.

On a related note, I was pulling into my neighborhood when an unfamiliar sight greeted me as I made the turn onto the main street into my subdivision. It was a guy on a horse. There is a farm that abuts our development, but they haven't had horses in years. As I got closer, I could see that the rider was talking on his cell phone.

Class reunion epilogue

2006-07-25T22:23:00.000-05:00

Quite simply the best time I've had for a long time. It was just like those old high school parties except without the curfews and fake ID's. Can't wait for the 25th.

Class reunion

2006-07-19T22:07:00.000-05:00

My 20th high school class reunion is in 3 days. Does that make me old? (yes.)

I attended my 10th reunion and it was interesting, the dynamics of the people who were there. People who were a bit wallflower-ish in school and went on to become highly successful in their chosen fields reverted back to their shyness when put back into that pool of peers. It was also interesting how most of those who showed up are the ones who left town soon after graduation and never came back. Most of the ones who stayed in town didn't show up. The third thing that struck me was the number of really thin classmates there were at the 10th. You just know they crash-dieted and worked out to get into reunion shape. I, for one, promptly gained 15 lbs. my froshman year of college and never looked back. We'll see how they look now after they've been married for a while and have a few kids. Not that I'll take any pleasure from that, but it'll be nice to be on somewhat equal physical footing with everybody else. (ha.)

Mr. Language* Pet Peeve of the Day

2006-07-13T10:54:00.000-05:00

"Safety Deposit Box"

I'll admit the english language is not always the most intuitive. In this case, it's a simple use of words to describe the object's function.

It's a box. People deposit things into it. It is kept in the bank's safe.

It's a Safe Deposit Box.

*apologies to Dave Barry

Sweet tooth

2006-07-11T07:56:00.000-05:00

I'm not much of a candy bar guy, but I've found one that's pretty near the legal equivalent of crack cocaine:

I'm partial to the crispity, crunchity, peanut-buttery Butterfinger. The only problem is that the stratified, hard peanut butter layer tends to stick in my teeth and I'm spending the next 20 minutes trying to clean it out of the pits of my molars. Well, the good people at Nestle have somehow found a way to improve a great thing with the introduction of the Butterfinger Crisp. It's the same chocolate and peanut butter, but it has 4 or 5 layers of wafer between the hard peanut butter layers. This simple addition not only prevents the PB from sticking, but it also gives the candy a crispness that is a joy to consume. It's my new vice.

Too many chiefs

2006-06-29T11:59:00.000-05:00

I lost my cell phone charger, so I headed to the nearest US Cellular store to buy a new one. So important was my purchase that I was assisted by none other than the "Director of First Impressions". I wonder how many employees he directs and what their positions are called.

"Executive Accessories Consultant"?

"Vice President of Ringing up Purchases"?

Synchro-dinks

2006-06-28T15:50:00.000-05:00

Rodney calls them "synchronicities". I call them "cowinky-dinks". The 2 latest ones are disc golf related:

#1 - Last week's league night in Ames, we're sitting around waiting for the rest of the groups to come in. A group of casual players is just leaving the course. A girl in the group is freaking out that someone would leave a disc in the middle of the fairway; she had just found one on the last hole. As the group leaves, the girl decides she doesn't want to deal with trying to find its owner, so she just hands it to league player, Ryan Maher, who looks at the name written on the back, which reads, "Ryan Maher".

#2 - This week's league, I had thrown a pretty close run at the basket on the second hole, when the topic of conversation shifted to aces and whether I considered starting an ace pool for league. Two holes later, a casual group playing behind us hits #4 for an ace. After the round, we discover that a league player also hit an ace on #12.

2006-06-26T15:03:00.000-05:00

I have no idea what goes on at this business.

Amen, brother...

2006-06-13T08:48:00.000-05:00

Old Farts and Young Punks: Compare and Contrast

2006-06-09T13:57:00.000-05:00

I had to pop into the supermarket the other day and followed a car into the parking aisle. When the car saw a spot open it *slowly* turned into the space. This was my first indication of the age of the driver. I wasn't in any hurry, so I patiently waited for the guy to caaaaaarefuly inch his big car into the space without hitting the car in the next spot, which was also exiting. Once he realized he didn't have enough room to clear the next car, he abruptly slammed the brakes. Then I watched the ensuing 20 second comedy of errors where the first guy and the second guy couldn't decide who should move first.

Meanwhile, I hear a very audible, "FUCK!", coming from the car that screeched to a halt behind me. This being a college town, it was two college-aged guys trying to exit the lot and not having the time to wait. A few long blasts of their sport compact car punctuated their displeasure at the pace of life at that point in time. A few more seconds was all they could take and they jammed it in reverse to try an alternate route. I guess there was beer to be drunk and they were late for passing out and getting written on with permanent markers.

As it happens in cases like these, the minute the frat boys beat their hasty retreat, the 2 other guys came to an agreement and were able to continue on their way. I took my spot and got out of the car in time to see the hot-heads get stopped in the next aisle in much the same situation.

I'm sure there is a lesson to be learned there.

2006-06-01T23:02:00.000-05:00

So, I'm reading the Letters to the Editor section of the Ames Tribune and this one catches my eye. Seems that some lady has it in for, of all things, circumcision. I'm faintly aware of the controversy surrounding this subject. To my knowledge, the practice was invented as a matter of hygiene although now some think it's unnecessary in that regard. Up until now, I thought that was the basic argument against it. It wasn't until reading this LTTE that I learned of a jihadic wing of the anti-circumcision movement. The author of the letter is the state coordinator for this organization. This is a small passage of her letter, but it give you an idea of the tone:

...One new mother, Anne Pyterek, commented, "It wasn't until I became the mother of a son that I thought of circumcision as the root of misogyny." Echoing this sentiment, Marilyn Milos, founder and national director of NOCIRC, states plainly, "Circumcision is where sex and violence meet for the first time."

Yyyyyyyyikes.

Getting smaller

2006-05-27T21:34:00.000-05:00

Well, it's official. My son is now taller than I am. At 15 years of age, Aaron is 6'-1" Of course, I have him by a couple (or a hundred) pounds. *Sigh* Our little boy is growing up.

Oh. And he cut off that mop of hair of his:

Mr. 69

2006-05-25T11:48:00.000-05:00

I read in the paper yesterday about a guy who is 69 years old and is running the length of US Highway 69 this year. As of the article's writing, he had run 979 miles of the highway that runs from Port Arthur, TX to Albert Lea, MN. I saw the guy as I drove home after work between Slater highway and Huxley. He was riding a bike southbound. A little later I saw his VW vanagon parked at the side of the road. That answered a question I had about his logistics. The guy is doing this solo and runs in 6.9 mile increments. Apparently, he drives the van to a point 6.9 miles ahead, rides his bike to the starting point, locks up the bike, runs back to the van, then drives the van to pick up the bike again. Then he starts the whole process over again.

I had my digital camera with me in the car but I was running late so I couldn't get a photo of the guy. But here's one from the Des Moines Register, taken as he crossed I-235 downtown:

The PETA theme song

2006-05-16T23:02:00.000-05:00

Eat steak, eat steak eat a big ol' steer
Eat steak, eat steak do we have one dear?
Eat beef, eat beef it's a mighty good food
It's a grade A meal when I'm in the mooood.

Cowpokes'll come from a near and far
When you throw a few rib-eyes on the fire
Roberto Duran ate two before a fight
'Cause it gave a lot of mighty men an awful lot of mighty might

Eat steak, eat steak eat a big ol' steer
Eat steak, eat steak do we have one dear?
Eat beef, eat beef it's a mighty good food
It's a grade A meal when I'm in the mooood.

Eat meat, eat meat, filet mignon
Eat meat, eat meat, eat it all day long
Eat a few T-bones till you get your fill
Eat a new york cut, hot off the grill

Eat steak, eat steak eat a big ol' steer
Eat steak, eat steak do we have one dear?
Eat beef, eat beef it's a mighty good food
It's a grade A meal when I'm in the mooood.

Eat a cow, eat a cow 'cuase it's good for you
Eat a cow, eat a cow it's the thing that goes "Mooooo"

Look at all the cows in the slaughterhouse yard
Gotta hit'em in the head, gotta hit'em real hard
First you gotta clean'em then the butcher cuts'em up
Throws it on a scale throws an eyeball in a cup

Saw a big Brangus Steer standing right over there
So I rustled up a fire cooked him medium rare
Bar-B-Q'ed his brisket, and roasted his rump
Fed my dog that ol' Brangus Steer's hump

Eat steak, eat steak eat a big ol' steer
Eat steak, eat steak do we have one dear?
Eat beef, eat beef it's a mighty good food
It's a grade A meal when I'm in the mooood.

Father/Son Bonding

2006-05-14T20:15:00.000-05:00

I was taking my son home from Nevada where he was working some youth soccer games as a referee. The subject of the the battle of the bands that he missed the previous night came up. We were unable to get him to the thing because we were late getting back from my daughter's soccer tournament in Des Moines. "Besides", I told him, "there will be plenty of battles to go to. The war for rock supremacy still rages".

Aaron looked at me and said, "You're an idiot."

Intuitive driving

2006-05-13T14:16:00.000-05:00

I was in the the zone yesterday. It started off right after I dropped Aaron at school. As I left the parking lot, I was driving down the street and noticed a high school-aged girl coming the opposite way. I just *knew* she was going to turn right in front of me into the parking lot and she delivered.

Then to close out the day, I was leaving the office, about to leave the office complex we're in when the van in front of me started to inch out into the street, had second thoughts about going right then and backed up. As she sat there, I could tell she forgot to shift back into Drive because her reverse lights were still on. I had a bad feeling about it, so I started backing up myself. Sure enough, she gunned it to get across traffic and ended up lurching back about 10 feet, which would have creamed me had I stayed where I was. Sometimes you just know.

Whiskey Tango

2006-05-10T12:16:00.000-05:00

There's a somewhat new accessory for your vehicle that you've probably seen hanging from the rear bumper of those big 4x4 pickups. It's those plastic ornaments that are shaped like big testicles. I suppose it's to let the rest of us know that their truck has "balls". Fine, redneck.

I thought I had seen it all until I saw this on the way to work the other day:

(Click to enlarge)

Clouds

2006-05-04T22:55:00.000-05:00

My friend at the rodneygardner.com blog mentions his disdain for other people's "vapor trail" of odor as they pass by you in the hall. Actually, there is a yin to that yang with especially attractive women that I happen to pass. You just know they are going to smell *nice*. I find myself slowing down to prolong the experience. It's another one of those little things that give me the will to live another day.

However, there is a thing I refer to as the "cloud". This is the volume of air that contains the odor from my son's soccer shoes after he's had a 2 hour practice. It's ridiculous. I'd stick them outside, but I like my neighbors too much. Plus, we'd like the lawn to stay green.

Roadkill

2006-05-04T22:33:00.000-05:00

I saw a dead bird on the shoulder of the highway on the way to work this morning. It wasn't a wildbird. It was one of those bleached white birds you see on a farm, like a turkey or a chicken. I think this was a turkey as it was pretty huge to be a chicken. That got me thinking about how this bird came to his final resting place on the side of the road. It couldn't have escaped from a farm as there isn't a poultry farm for miles.

I suppose a likely scenario is he was on a truck on its way to the Butterball factory. Old Tom had a little jailbreak situation while the truck was barrelling down the highway at 70 mph. I imagine he enjoyed about 3 seconds of his freedom before he hit the pavement. His head probably made the sound of a flat tire, whap-whap-whapping the concrete as he rolled to a stop.

Poor, tasty bird.

Immigrants

2006-05-02T13:21:00.000-05:00

They're in the news a lot lately. Remember when there was a stigma attached to being an illegal immigrant? Now there are parades held in their honor. I haven't looked at the proposal for tighter immigration laws, so I can't comment on that. However, I am in favor of, you know, actually having a border with our neighboring countries. While I understand people wanting to come here, I don't think it's in our best interest to let just anybody in. The statue says, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses", not "your drug smugglers, your infirm, your criminally insane."

The, for lack of a better title, "pro-immigrant" side seems to be making it more about immigrants in general, rather than the illegal aspect. I don't have a problem with immigrants. My ancestors were immigrants, after all. Hell, every single human being in this country descends from people who migrated from somewhere else. So-called "Native" Americans descend from people who migrated from Asia.

Of course, I don't swing so far as to say people can't be proud of their heritage and speak their native tongue. I've celebrated St. Patrick's Day and Oktoberfest myself. I don't have a problem with the singing of the National Anthem in Spanish or Swahili or Nyuk-nyuk. The point of the song is that they pledge their allegience to America. Fine with me any way they choose to express that. I do, however, support having English as an "official" language in the sense that any government dealings should be done in one single language and English is the most commonly used in the country. It's not unreasonable to expect people coming to live in this country to learn the language. It's what I'd be expected to do if I chose to live in Germany, France, Japan or Australia.

Kill the ref!

2006-04-24T12:40:00.000-05:00

A few years ago, I obtained my level 8 youth soccer referee license with my son, who was interested in refereeing as a part-time job. I did it mostly to learn the rules and actually know what I was talking about when I was yelling at the ref. I'd much rather sit and watch the games than work them, so I let my license lapse.

My daughter plays as well. Invariably, the referee crew will be short, so they'll have a parent work as an AR (Assistant Referee). ARs are the ones that work the sidelines of the field calling the balls out of play and offside. Since no one else in our corps of parents has had any experience or know much about the rules to begin with, I'm usually the guy who volunteers. My daughter's U12 team was playing a U11 team from Ankeny yesterday and I got the call to sub for the missing AR. The center ref just wanted me to call the out of bounds and I assured him that I was certified and was comfortable calling anything that needed to be called.

Our team was up 2-0 on a much smaller group of girls, when toward the end of the 1st half, one of their forwards received a pass and broke to the goal. I had a suspicion that she was offside as she had been called several times before that point, but I honestly lost track of where she was at the time the ball was kicked. Having not seen it, I didn't make the call. I wasn't too worried about it until she scored. Then I saw our coaches argue the non-call, which they rarely do except in obvious cases. Then I knew I blew the call. Of course, that swung the momentum their way and they beat our girls 4-3.

Note to self: The opposing team is *always* offside.

The weekend and getting older

2006-04-22T09:20:00.000-05:00

My son has a job refereeing youth soccer and has spent most every weekend working 3-4 games each. Last weekend, he made $60 for 3 regular season games. Today, he has 4 games at a tournament in Des Moines, which usually pay more. Righteous bucks for a Froshman in high school. Not a bad job for about 5 hours of work a week.

I got roped into taking my daughter and one of her friends to VEISHEA today. You may know that this is an annual (sometimes) event put on entirely by students at Iowa State University, where I went to school. It's quite fun with a parade, exhibits, food, entertainment, etc... What I'm looking forward to is the free Robert Earl Keen show that's taking place on the lawn of my old dorm building. I'm a big fan and this will be my first opportunity to see him live. I asked my wife if she wanted to go. It's 10:30-12:00 midnight. She refused citing the late hour. Huh? When did you get to be such a fuddy-duddy? Oh, right. She turns 40 this year.

New toys

2006-04-21T13:03:00.000-05:00

My son and I got new cell phones the other night. We're on a minutes-sharing plan together and each had issues with our respective phones. My phone's battery wouldn't hold a charge for more than 3 days, or 4 1-minute calls, whichever came first. Aaron shut his in the car door and smashed it. That made me glad that my exact words when asked whether to add insurance to Aaron's phone were, "Oh, God, yes!". The thing I didn't pay attention to at the time was that there is a $50 deductible on top of the monthly premium we've been paying. That phone is over 2 years old.

Luckily, we had a 24-month contract and we were well past that. I figured we'd be better off renewing our contract and getting new phones, which is what we did. I would have paid $20 + tax for my new battery and ended up paying $27 for the new phone. We chipped in the $50 for Aaron's phone and he paid the difference on one of those camera jobs.

What is it with new stuff that guys just go ape-shit crazy? Aaron's about filled up his phone w/ pics of the dog and whatnot and I've been playing with the new gadgetry on mine. 2 days of dinking around on it and it hasn't even lost a bar on the battery meter. Gotta love that.

It's all relative

2006-04-19T22:14:00.000-05:00

Bill Gates is giving away $100 for passing this email to 5 of your friends...

AOL is going to start charging for its instant message service...

George W. Bush has the lowest IQ of any President in the last 50 years...

Parents can obtain $500 throught a class-action settlement with the Gerber Company....

A study has found that fellatio can significantly decrease the risk of breast cancer in women...

You've seen these clogging your inbox. I don't know what gets into normally clear-thinking people that makes them forward this crap (although I think more research should be done on that last one. It can't hurt).

The latest one that's making the rounds is that oil company boycott deal where you're supposed to boycott the two biggest oil companies for a full year, thus they'll be forced to lower their prices, thereby forcing the other oil companies to follow suit. Before you know it, gas will be down to a svelte $1.50/gallon. It's all crap, of course: www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/gasout.asp

I don't get many of these types of emails since I tend to associate with more level-headed people than average. However, I was treated to this gas boycott email by my... mother.

MOOOooooooOOOM!!

More Stupider

2006-04-17T11:50:00.000-05:00

You know, English and grammar was never my thing in school, but for some reason, I'm Mr. Language Nazi in my later years. I have an unnatural desire to biotch-slap anyone I hear using incorrect grammar or stupid misspellings. You suppos"ably" graduated high school. Did you get nothing out of it?

My biggest pet peeve is hearing these blunders in the media. These people make a living communicating and they can't even figure it out. If I wrote the editor of the Ames Tribune every time I found a grammatical mistake, they'd rename that section "Letters from K".

Here's one from a radio ad I hear every day: "...the spray-in bed liner is far more superior to the competition..." Doofus. If you are comparing two things, one is superior to the other. I suppose adding "more" drives the message home, but it actually just makes you sound stupid.

My favorite is "... available in a myriad of colors...". Myriad means "many". The sentence should read "available in myriad colors". If you can't handle it, use "many" and quit trying to make yourself sound smart.

Really, people. This isn't rocket surgery.

Computers and support

2006-04-14T11:51:00.000-05:00

I'm fairly tech savvy, although I'm rarely exposed to tech stuff. My wife purchased a laptop to be able to do work at home and also for school work that she'll have when she goes back to school. I just installed a wireless network in my house, which is nice to have if you want to work, say, in bed, like my wife is prone to do (pun not intended).

When we purchased said laptop, we got it without a wireless card, since we had one for her old laptop and we figured we'd just use that one. Of course, the new one did not have a port for this card. We would have to purchase an internal card. This made my wife nervous. She just got this machine and already I'm going to have to open it up.

Unfortunately, mini PCI cards are not nearly as plentiful as the regular, plug-in kind. I had to do some advanced searching before I finally just got one from Dell, which made the laptop. The card arrived 2 days after we ordered (solid) and I went to work installing it last night. The actual installation of the card was butter, but I ran into a wall when I tried installing the drivers. The machine wouldn't recognize the drivers. So, then I had to do something I absolutely hate doing: contacting tech support.

Luckily, we had another computer that is connected to the net, so I decided I'd have a shorter wait if I tried the online chat version of Dell's tech support. I waited a total of 17 minutes, which is way better than I expected. I drew a guy named Jashandeep and was immediately glad I chose on-line support rather than calling. To his credit, his written english was impeccable. Anyway, long story short. 'Deep was able to provide me with the correct drivers, which I downloaded to my desktop computer, copied to disc and transferred to the laptop with no catches.

So, for now, life in the K household is the Sea of Tranquility.

Kornheiser

2006-04-13T16:05:00.000-05:00

I've been a fan of Tony Kornheiser for about 5 years.

Who?

Tony Kornheiser is half of the cast of Pardon The Interruption (PTI) on ESPN. The other guy is Michael Wilbon. They are columnists for the Washington Post and their PTI show evolved from what they did every day at the office water cooler: bicker back and forth about sports. However, I'm more of a fan of the radio show he does. A few years ago, predating PTI, Tony had a national show on ESPN Radio until his abrasiveness toward the network suits, coupled with a rather raw "internet show", earned him a "vacation" from the radio waves.

Prior to the ESPN Radio gig, Tony had a local radio show on WTEM Sports Talk radio in Washington DC. After the ESPN gig flamed out, he took a few months then went back to the local show. WTEM's signal carries about 30 miles. Luckily, they have an internet feed so people around the world can listen. The great thing about Tony's show is the "mailbag" segment. This is the final 5 minutes of the show when Tony reads "emails, faxes and your notes" from listeners responding to topics from the day's show. It's quite an honor among the peeps to be read during the show. I've had the opportunity a few times to be read during the mailbag and even once leading off the show. The highlight of my fandom came when I had the opportunity to visit the studio while on a trip to DC. Since then, I'm "one of the great emailers". Sweet.

If you follow the NFL, you probably know that ESPN has taken over the broadcast of Monday Night Football from ABC which had a stranglehold on it for a hundred years. The new team in the booth consists of Joe Theismann, Mike Tirico and none other than Tony Kornheiser. Unfortunately, with TK on the road so much, that means the radio show will be retired once again. The last air date will be April 28, 2006.

The latest joke in the show is just how long Tony will remain in the booth for MNF, with the over/under at 4 games. Tony says he's taking the under.

The Perfect Pump

2006-04-12T15:44:00.000-05:00

.
.
What, are you in the 4th grade?

Anyway. You know when you're at the gas pump and the nozzle automatically clicks off when the tank is full? I invariably will coax a little more into the tank to get the total to an even dollar so that I don't have to deal with Cletus, the attendant, trying to make change.

Every once in a while, I get the auto shut-off at the magical even dollar. It's commonly known as a "Perfect Pump" and it gives me so much joy. It's those little pleasures that give me a will to live. It'd been several months since I had one, but I got one the other day. Of course the most recent one was for $28 and the last one was $25.

I'll save a "price of gas" rant for another day.

The new 'do

2006-04-11T09:37:00.000-05:00

I have weird hair. It's kind of thin and straight. And it's gradually leaving my head. It's funny how I'm losing it, though. When I was younger, I had a widow's peak. In the span of about 2 years in my late 20's, the widow's peak just receded and thinned until I had sort of a straight hairline midway from my forehead to the crown of my head. Then it just stopped.

For about 10 years now my hairline has not moved one millimeter and I still have just a light tufting of turf where the widow's peak was. It looks horrible when it's long so I try to keep it short. After a while, I just got sick of spending $12 to have a professional spend 2 minutes to shear it off. I have clippers at home and figured I could do it just as easily myself. As it turns out, it's not that easy to do, particularly in the back. Still, it's something so simple a child could do it, so I had my daughter give it a try. She did a good job with it the first couple of times and I gave her a couple of bucks for the effort. After the novelty wore off, it got tougher to get her to drop whatever she was doing to cut her dad's hair.

I got an electric shaver for Christmas last year. It works great and makes short work of my daily face maintenance. One day, after trimming my sideburns, I had an epiphany. I took my shaver and ran it down the center of my head clear to the back. There was no going back now. I ran it all over my head until I couldn't hear any more cutting. I looked at myself in the 3-way mirror and saw that I missed nothing. Elapsed time: about 1 minute.

So now I'm sporting Mr. Clean.

Class reunions

2006-04-10T15:51:00.000-05:00

Well, at the risk of showing my advanced age, I'd like to report that the Mitchell (SD) High School class of 1986, of which I was a part, is having their class reunion this summer. Those who finished high school will know that this means it's my 20-year reunion.

I don't know if my experience is typical of yours, but I think of my high school years as generally some of the best of my life. I was fairly active in athletics, made decent grades without really trying, had a fair number of friends, had a few girlfriends and generally got through without a lot of drama. Despite this, I have had contact with exactly 1 classmate since the last reunion (10 years). I suppose it might have something to do with living in a different state now, and not having visited my hometown more than 3 times in 20 years. While I'd like to make it back for this, I have a lot going on this summer that I might not get there. And I don't feel that I'll have missed anything if I don't. We'll see what happens.

Stupider

2006-04-06T08:25:00.000-05:00

For my job, I often will have to write a legal description of the property on which we are doing work. The first part of the description is a general location of the parcel which is followed by a more detailed "metes and bounds" retracement of the boundary. The wording goes something like, "A parcel of land in Section blah, blah, blah... in the City of blah, blah, blah... that is more particularly described as follows..." I was writing this in Word for Windows and accidentally dropped the second 'l' in "particularly". Of course, that brought up the little green squiggle line under the word alerting me to the misspelling. I right-clicked it to bring up Word's suggested spelling and it came up with "PARTICULARIER".

Planning

2006-04-05T22:16:00.000-05:00

You remember that Texas trip me and some buddies of mine take every year? (See IBTT2k6 story) Planning for the IBTT2k7 started roughly 2 weeks after the end of the IBTT2k6, a new record. My inbox is going to have 50 emails every freaking day until mid-March.

Eligibility

2006-04-04T14:40:00.000-05:00

I heard on the news that one of the 9/11 conspirators, Zacharias Moussouhi (or something), was deemed "eligible" for the death penalty. That just struck me as a funny use of that word. I always connected "eligible" with something that was desirable.

"You are now eligible to recieve a free gift".

"He still has two years of NCAA eligibility".

"Eligible Bachelor".

"Congratulations. You are now eligible to be exposed to toxic gasses until you are dead... If you play your cards right". See? It doesn't quite sound right.

At any rate, I hope the dude doesn't squander his eligibility.

Synchronicity

2006-04-03T16:09:00.000-05:00

Miller: A lot o' people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch o' unconnected incidents 'n things. They don't realize that there's this, like, lattice o' coincidence that lays on top o' everything. Give you an example; show you what I mean: suppose you're thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconciousness.
Otto: You eat a lot of acid, Miller, back in the hippie days?

You might recognize this dialogue from the 80's cult classic, "Repo Man". The funny thing is later on in the movie, another character is at a pay phone outside a restaurant and you can see the sign in the window advertising a "Plate of Shrimp" special. Completely intentional, of course.

I have a friend who is fascinated by this stuff, which he calls "synchronicities". Seems he's constantly experiencing this strange cosmic unconsciousness. I had one last night while messing with my blog settings. My son was watching "Family Guy" - the episode where "Death" sprains his ankle and Peter has to perform his duties for him, namely, kill the cast of "Dawson's Creek". The time setting function lists cities that are within your desired time zone. One of the cities listed is Dawson Creek. Oooooweeeeoooooooooooo.

IBTT2k6: The Iowa Boy Texas Trek 2006

2006-04-02T20:15:00.000-05:00

A little history: A group of guys from Iowa have been taking an annual spring break trip to Austin, TX for more than 10 years. I've been on the trip 6 times in the last 8 years. The itinerary always includes but two solid activities: disc golf and drinking Shiner Bock. Austin is home to some of the best golf you will find in the country. We have some over-planning, organized m-f'ers in the group and it showed this year. We used to make the trip by car, but 15 hours of straight driving no longer holds the appeal it once did.

The planning for this year's trip began in October 2005 (that's 6 months prior to the actual event). It's kind of like how Christmas season starts earlier and earlier every year. But, as I said, the planning paid off. We usually don't have a "theme" for our trips, but this year it was suggested that we try to hit some really good BBQ joints since we would be within the confluence of about 3 different approaches to preparing BBQ.

The Trip-

Wednesday, March 22: Clue, Neif and K (that's me) packed up the car and headed to KC around 3:00pm. We originally planned on hitting KC a bit early to play a round or two at WaterWorks Park. However, we were treated to about a 6-inch snowfall the week prior and were still dealing with cold temps, so we decided to forego the golf in KC. Once in KC, the plan was to find the Chartroose Caboose restaurant to partake in some cheesesteak goodness. Unfortunately, the CC that I had looked up on the internet was not where I thought it was. Neif had mentioned another place by the interstate that he always wanted to hit. So, we hit the All-you-can-eat shrimp special at the Jumpin' Catfish. After a 12-er of Fat Tire was obtained, we hit the Best Western by the airport where we were joined by Bej, who drove down from Nebraska.

Thursday, March 23: The 4 of us awoke early to make the 1 mile drive to the satellite parking lot at KCI airport. The first Shiner was cracked at roughly 6:30am and we partook of our traditional "First Shiner" ceremony in the shelter as we waited for the shuttle to the terminal. Check-in was uneventful and we began our aerial journey to DFW to meet up with G, who was flying in from Charlotte, NC. Through some sweet wrangling, we were able to get all 5 of us in the same row on the same plane from DFW to AUS. Unfortunately, the worst trainwreck of the trip ocurred as G's plane was delayed on the tarmac waiting for a plane to clear out from their gate. About 20-30 minutes were burned until they finally found a gate for them. The rest of us were waiting in the Cowtown Bar right across from our gate as this unfolded. We waited as long as we could while G sprinted from his gate to ours, but he missed us by minutes. Turns out, he could have made it if we had known to talk to the flight attendants on the plane instead of the gate wench. As it turned out, G got a flight about an hour later and the rest of us acquired the rental van and found cheap Shiner at the C-store at the airport exit. Once we had all that, we only had 15-20 minutes to wait until G arrived and we picked him up at the terminal. Then Clue dropped his cell phone loading up G's gear. Luckily, we discovered it was gone as we pulled out of the airport. A quick call to the cell got us hooked up with the guy who had just found it and we mad arrangements to pick it up at the terminal. Elapsed time was about 5 mintes from loss to retrieval. Solid.

First stop was lunch at Sam's BBQ in a suspect part of east Austin. This is an African American joint which serves up "wet" BBQ, meaning meat with sauce. We all went with combo plates that featured your choice of sausage, brisket, pork ribs and mutton. I went for the sausage and mutton. Good stuff, but probably not the most cleanliness in food prep.

Next stop, Pease Park and 2 rounds of golf. Special Guest: John Houck, who was gracious enough to play some holes with us.

Dinner was to be eaten at the House Park BBQ south of Pease. Unfortunately, it's only open for lunch, so we headed to Barton Springs Rd. and the Green Mesquite. It's not really strictly a BBQ joint, the 'Q was passable. The jambalaya was awesome, however.

Friday, March 24: Circle R Disc Golf Ranch - 2 rounds on Rolling Meadow course and 1 round on Circ Hill course. Abundant sunshine and light wind. Unbelievably great time.

Saturday, March 25: Searight- a longtime favorite course with lots of ace-runs and some improvements to the course. Nice. Lunch was at Kreuz (pronounced- 'krites') Market in Lockhart. Probably the best german-style BBQ in the world. This is a dry-style of BBQ. There is no sauce to be found in this place. Just awesome meat that is available in pork ribs, beef brisket, beef shoulder clod (lean), sausage (regular or jalapeno). The jalapeno sausage is damn good. Kyle, TX has a new course that we decided to try on our way back to Austin. The locals are pretty excited about it, but we were a bit disappointed. Granted, it's new and not really broken in yet, but the flow of the course could be better and holes not quite so close to one another. I'll reserve final judgement intil it's better established. But, we probably won't be back. The annual visit to Chuy's did not disappoint. The Elvis Presley Memorial Combo was kickin'.

Sunday, March 26: Circle C- This course used to be a trainwreck until a new bike path forced its redesign. I love it now. Lots of real golf shots in the cedars. Punishment for being off-line. We played it in doubles, but I'd love to play it in singles. Another couple rounds at Circle R Meadow finished out the trip. No trip would be complete without a visit to the Taco Cabana for cheap mexican food.

Monday, March 27: Depart Austin. Tom Kite was on the plane. Grabbed another 12-er of Fat Tire for home. Tired, but not like 15-hours-on-the-road tired.

First up: a little about me and the blog

2006-04-01T20:51:00.000-06:00

I play disc golf. I drink Shiner. That doesn't define my existence, but they are both heavily weighted on my priority list. Thoughout this little blogging experiment, I'll show those who are interested a little insight into my life. It's not wild and raunchy stuff. I'm pretty boring as far as that goes, but I have my moments.

Anyhoo. Look for my report of our annual trip to Austin to play disc golf and drink, well, you know.