Workin' on my game cuz life is taxing

The weather has finally warmed up enough for me to play some golf again. There were two solid weeks where it rained every single day (and even snowed once...in May...barf). It was depressing and grey and lame as all get out. But finally, Spring decided to spring for the second time, and I made it out to the course again.

Last night was the first night of Men's League here. It was a lot of fun, and a perfect night for golf. Unfortunately I shot a horrid game, mainly due to a very unfortunate tree-and-sand-trap related 11 on the last hole. (My partner shot a 16 on that hole, with two OB shots and 4 attempts to get out of the same sand trap) All in all, it was a good night for setting my handicap for the rest of the season.

Tomorrow I'm leaving work at 10:30 to go play golf in a scramble. It's the hard knock life for me.

Last weekend I went on a road trip with the boys to Fargo, ND, to see some awesome bands (and one crappy one). Mastodon was the headliner, and I had never seen them before. They were phenomenal. The first openers were the ever-awesome Valient Thorr, a band I've now seen three (or four?) times and who continue to kick all kinds of arse. The second band was Baroness, and they also completely blew me away. I had a copy of their Red album, which was ok but never really did it for me. Their Blue album is excellent, though, and seeing them live solidified in my mind what a great band they are. Then there was Between the Buried and Me, who looked like a bunch of frat boys playing Atreyu-ivium crap and sounding pretty much like garbage to my ears.

It was a lot of fun to go on the road trip, catch up with friends, and have a good ol' time with the boys. P-A-RTY, we don't need no alibi, we party!

Stuff and things

This weekend has actually been fun and fairly relaxing. I've been able to spend some time with my family and such, because I've got a brief respite in my studying before the big storm starts...tomorrow. Yes, I could be studying more today, but sheesh -- I need a couple of days with the family.

Yesterday we all went to the zoo. We had a blast. The weather was perfect, Gwen was super into seeing all of the animals, and it was so nice to just hang out with my girls and not think about the stupid bar exam. speaking of stupid, I saw these stupid ostriches while I was there:

Shortly after the picture was taken they started eating the fence. Look at them, with their evil little beady eyes and their vacant expressions. They're planning a global takeover, just as soon as they get through that fence. Oh, how I hate them.

Anyway, it was super fun to hang out with the fam.

Tonight I'm gonna do some golfing with T-Rav and Rhyno. It's gonna be some much needed awesomeness, and I'm gonna SUCK, because this will actually be my first time out this year. We were going to go to Centerbrook, but since the old codger that runs the place is such a jerk on the phone and wouldn't make any tee times past 5:00 (dude, it's Minnesota, it's summer, and you're open -- it stays light until 9:30. You're a par 3 golf course. Also, learn some customer service skills.) we opted for Brookview instead. It should be fun as long as it doesn't storm.

Back to the studying grind tomorrow. That sucks, but what can ya do. It'll all be over in less than a month now. Sheesh. More like 2 1/2 weeks.

Small World

The following story might seem a bit convoluted, but if you follow me to the very end, it will all come together. Kind of like the movie Memento, which is awesome and I highly recommend seeing. On with the show.I went golfing last night with Kristian and Ryan. More on that later.

Just after getting out of the car, I got a phone call from Kerry. She told me that she had just gotten a call from her boss, who relayed to her that he was vacationing with some friends on Madeline Island. Said friends have known Kerry for years, as they are residents of the town she works in and frequent the nature center that she works at.

Making a long story very short, it turns out that they own the building that was the one-time residence of none other than Creepyguy himself. Yep. They’re his landlords. Crazy small world. They also confirmed that he no longer lives there, which is reason in itself to cheer and whoop and celebrate.

So last night’s golfing was fun. The night started well for me, but soon some darkish clouds started inching their way across the sky. By the fourth hole we started to hear some thunder rumbling, but the three of us pressed on, trying to convince ourselves that the thunder was far away and that there was no lightning.

By the end of the fifth hole, the lightning was becoming a bit obvious, and the sky was looking a little grim. The horn blew as we were on the tee box from the sixth hole, which signified that the course was closing. The problem was that that tee box is literally the farthest point on the entire course from the clubhouse and parking lot. So, we three brave golf warriors set out across the wide open course, dodging lightning bolts all the way to the parking lot. OK, all except the part about the lightning bolts.

We hopped into the car and drove off, and not two minutes after we started driving it started POURING. It was an absolute deluge, to the point where other cars had pulled off the road because they couldn’t see the road. It was an adventure, to say the least. That would not have been fun to have been stuck in.

After that I went home and played a little Starcraft with Reuben, who fell asleep. I stayed awake way too long after that, playing poker online (for fake money). I discovered this fun little browser-based site, which unfortunately screws up every once in a while. I blame Safari, Apple’s browser, which has some nice features yet still gets all wonky from time to time.

Thursday thoughts

Holy flying-by week, Batman. Hmm, Batman…that’s a good place to start.

Kerry, Gwen and I went to the lake last weekend. It was awesome. We spent a lot of time with my parents and did a lot of hanging out. I went waterskiing, which is always a blast. Unfortunately for me it involves the use of muscles that I don’t normally use, so I pooped out rather quickly. Still tons of fun.

On Saturday night Kerry and I left the punk with the grandparents and headed to Alexandria to see The Dark Knight. Holy crap what an awesome movie. It was a perfect comic book movie. Eight-and-a-half out of five stars. We’ll call it an even nine for the disappearing pencil trick.

Of course, that led me to want to see more comic book movies that I haven’t seen, so last night Kerry and I watched Spider Man 3. Wow…that movie really sucked. There were some slightly cool parts, but basically it was the same plot as the previous two with a lot more unnecessary crap added. As a whole, it was just a bad movie. Negative six out of five stars.

Rewind a bit. Chronology is not my strong suit this morning. Ryan, Kristian and I went golfing on Tuesday, and we all shot really well compared to a couple years ago. Ryan sunk an astounding birdie put from about 30 feet. Kristian chipped and hit the pin twice. I had three birdie chances (all of which resulted in an unfortunate, choke-under-the-pressure three-putt). We all had fun. Afterward we went out for drinks at Ol’ Mexico. It was a very good night just hanging out with the guys.

Kerry and I have seen Creepyguy in his window a few times this week, but there’s a wonderful turn of events there. See, if he sees us in our yard or whatever, he bolts away from his window faster than you can say “sketchy stalker”. This is a victory for us. See, he’s afraid that we’ll call the cops on him. He’s scared in his own home. Turnabout is fair play. He’s not gone yet, but I’m hoping that this is his last day (as it’s July 31st today) and that we can go back to Defcon 5 after tonight.

My I.P.A. is ready for bottling, so I’ll be trying to motivate myself to get that done tonight.

Golf and Gatherings

Garglefargle. The most recent weekend was absolutely fantastic. I know it’s been a long while since I’ve posted anything, so I’ve got to do some catching up.

Friday night was spent at home, just me and Gwen. Kerry was out that evening, but Gwennerpants went to bed at 7:00, so it was a fairly relaxing evening. I decided to brew a batch of beer. I got everything ready and was all set to go. Then the storm hit.

I was watching TV and they switched to coverage of the weather. So, I decided to hold off on the brewing until the storm had passed, because I didn’t want to be stuck brewing in the dark. It would have been ok, because we have a gas stove and a lantern and stuff, but it would have sucked, because I wouldn’t have had a timer or anything. The storm was windy and stuff, but really wasn’t anything to get all that excited about, and was over in short order. I then proceeded to brew some “Hop Scare IPA”, which I look forward to drinking in all its hoppy glory.

Saturday morning, my cousin had a bridal shower, which my girls attended. I went golfing with my dad, uncle, and cousins. It was a blast. We golfed on this course that had been recently converted from pasture to golf course, and still has a way to go. It was really fun, though, although extremely long grass on a couple of greens caused some severe additions to my score.

Saturday evening my girls and I headed over to Ryan’s house for the first annual Jabbergathering. I’ve developed a new anxiety related to parties, apparently. I was extremely nervous about the party for a couple of days prior. I think that it’s something to do with my “Morris friends” and my “Cities friends” and my “Bemidji Friends” all gathering in the same place…I fear culture shock. Heck, it wasn’t even my party. I’m such a tool. My toolness was proven tenfold by how much of a freakishly good time was had by all. I’m quickly losing my ability to claim that I’m the only person on the Jabberboard who knows everyone in person, because now a whole bunch of people know a whole bunch more people. This is a very good thing. It’s amazing how well everyone gets along when this equation is followed:

Jabberboard – politics – anonymity + alcohol = awesome^1,000,000,000

Bottlecap Sand Wedge!

Yesterday my day started with crappiness. I went to Burger King for some tasty breakfast. I ordered a cheesy bacon wrap, and as soon as I removed it from the wrapper, a huge blob of greasy cheese fell directly onto my shirt. Upon arriving at work, I went to the bathroom to try and wash off the grease. I had no luck, and was forced to spend half the day looking like a complete idiot with a big grease stain on his shirt. At lunch time, I went home and changed my shirt. I don’t think anyone noticed. Oh well.

It’s funny that I went home, because yesterday was the day of my big work potluck picnic. I’m generally a social kind of guy, but when it comes to work I just desperately crave a break. Rather than hang out with coworkers over lunch, I grabbed some picnic food to go and headed home.

Around 4:00 PM, Kristian and I decided to go golfing. The problem with this idea was that it was 4:00 PM and we had no tee time. I called the golf course that we normally play at, and they couldn’t get us on until 8:00 PM. I took it…after all, this week is like the longest nights of the year.

Kerry and Gwen rolled over with us and hung out with Megan while Kristian and I hit the links. The place was absolutely packed, and when we finally teed off on the first hole at about 8:10, the sprinklers were on. This made for an interesting tee shot by me, which was (of course) magnetically drawn directly to the sprinkler. I managed to time it perfectly and not get wet.

Due to the inclusion of smuggled 16 oz plastic bottles of beer, our game started to get really interesting rather quickly. By hole number 6, we had decided that for the rest of the game, we couldn’t use a tee. Instead, we had to hit the ball from a plastic bottle cap (from the aforementioned 16 oz plastic beer bottles). On my first drive from bottlecap, I landed on the green. It was awesome.

By hole number seven, it was starting to get really dark. The bottlecap rule still stood, but now I challenged Kristian further and told him that he had to drive with my sand wedge. He hit it perfectly…it went about a thousand feet straight up and landed about 25 feet in front of us. I had a wonderful bottlecap drive with my 9-iron.

On hole number 8 I decided to join in the sand wedge fun. Kristian repeated his previous drive, very high, straight, and about as far as a sand wedge is supposed to go. I whacked the ball with the blade of the wedge and ended up shooting over the green. I laughed heartily. If you can’t be good, be lucky.

By the ninth hole, it was completely dark. We could just barely make out where the pin was. We both took to the tee box at the same time and fired (from bottlecap). I did not do well, but was still on in two. I then capped the night wonderfully by sinking a 20 ft. putt for par. I didn’t keep score, but I know that I played a very good game (especially compared against the other times that I’ve gone out lately).

The celebration of my fatherhood!

As usual, summer is going way too fast. It always happens, though, and the best than can be done about it is to just enjoy every bit of it that you can. That’s my advice, anyway.

Before the weekend, I got to have a nice date with Kerry. We went to Thistles in Robbinsdale, which was quite good. It was amazing that in the five years we’ve lived in our house, we’ve never been to this restaurant. Kerry had some delicious tuna with wasabi, and I had chipotle pork, served with a wonderful sweet potato soufflé and topped with apricot chutney. It was, for lack of better description, hella good. After that we made our way to Coldstone for delicious ice cream. Nom nom nom.
This weekend was fantastic. It started on Friday evening, with a full-on geek out, with another wonderful Dungeons and Dragons session. The excellent surprise was that my good friend John was able to come from Madison to play with us. The bad thing is that a trip that should have taken him like 3 hours took 7, because there were a ton of roads closed in WI. So, he had a hairy drive, but it was good to see him and hang out. We ended up staying awake until 2:00 am, playing D&D and drinking way way too much beer.

My darling daughter decided to get up at 6:00 am on Saturday morning, which meant 4 hours of sleep for me. Needless to say, I was a bit of a zombie that day, but I actually took a nap in the afternoon. That’s usually unheard of for me, but I needed it. Saturday night was pretty uneventful. Kerry and I just chilled out at home.

Sunday morning was Father’s day, and it was fantastic. My girls let me sleep in, and Kerry had baked muffins for me upon my waking. After spending a little time with them and sippin’ some coffee, I was off to play golf with the boys. I played fairly wretchedly, but it was a fantastic morning for golfing. I wound up with a peaceful feeling in my brain and a slight sunburn on my skin. I went out to lunch with the guys afterward at JJ’s Clubhouse, near the golf course. We conversed, drank beer, and had good food. It was funny, because all three of my golfing partners had been over on Friday night for D&D. Us nerds roam in packs.

After I went home, my parents and sister’s family came over for a delicious backyard barbecue. I cooked burgers and brats, and Kerry had prepared the rest of an awesome feast (including a cherry pie from scratch – she actually stemmed and pitted a bowl of cherries for this delectable bit of deliciousness). It was awesome to see my family. All in all, it was pretty much the best weekend ever.

No really...I just want to golf.

My golfing misadventures continued today, but the ending was happy (I got to golf).  It was a beautiful day, and nothing was going to stop me.  Getting there was a tad difficult, though.

I was talking with my friend Kristian over email yesterday, and we decided that it would be a fantastic idea to go golfing this evening.  Not much more was said about it, other than that we were gonna hit Cedarholm.

I got to work this morning, but didn't hear anything from Kristian.  I called Cedarholm and made a tee time for tonight.  (That was golf course phone call #1).  Then, with golf on the brain, I called Theodore Wirth G.C. to make a tee time for Sunday.  (G.C. phone call #2.)  They informed me that they and every other full-sized golf course in the Minneapolis area mandates 18 holes on weekends before 2:00 pm.  I quickly sent an email to my friends, which resulted in dreaded email blueballs.  Once my work email caught up and my friends started replying, the decision was made to hit the par 3 course.

I called Theo Wirth Par 3 course and asked if they had tee times available on Sunday.  (#3.)  They told me that it was first come/first served.  I didn't want to deal with that.  So, I called Brookview and got a tee time on their par 3 (call #4).  Huzzah.  Sunday morning is now taken care of (hopefully.)

I then got an email from Kristian, telling me that he was bailing on me tonight because he's sick.  I sent an email to Kerry, which said something like "ARRRGH ARRGH ARRRRGH!!!" and started checking if anyone else was interested in some short-notice golf.

Ryan was unavailable.

Reuben was, too.

Brian was also unavailable.

T-Rav couldn't swing it this evening, either.

"@#$% it," I said to myself.  "I'm going myself."  I really just wanted to golf.  But I didn't really feel like heading all the way to Roseville all by me onesie.  So I called Cedarholm and cancelled.  (call #5)  I then called to get a tee time at Centerbrook.  (Call #6)  An ancient, gravelly sounding man told me that they didn't do tee times for one person, just come on down.  So, I did.

Ancient and gravelly he was.  He rivaled the freaking knight from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  I was sent out to finally play my round of golf.  The kicker?  I had to play it with two cocky fresh-outta-college dudes.

Ugh.

Actually, they were nice once the beer cart came around.  (They didn't drink, I did.  It made them nice.)  Furthermore, I was heartened in that I played as well as them.  Either way, it was a nice night for golfing, and I finally got to play a round.  Now, hopefully, no one will get sick on Sunday.

I just want to golf...

I haven’t exactly been impressed with the weather this summer. There have been occasions where it’s been beautiful (this past weekend, for example) but by and large it’s been full of suck. All I want to do is find some time to play some golf, and for whatever reason it’s just not happening. Here we are, another week, and rain in the forecast every single day. What is this, April? No, I’m afraid it’s June.

Aww crap, it’s already June! I’d forgotten how ridiculously quickly summer goes by. I know that I’m probably jumping the gun on comments like this – it is only the beginning of June, after all – but I know that the feeling is only going to grow as the summer continues, so I figure I’ll get my complaining started early. The upshot is that there’s only one year of school left for me, and then I’m free from school and free from the shackles of a dead-end job.

A good friend of mine, Amy Lundebrek, had her first book published. It’s all done and available for order, and I must say it’s fantastic. It’s a really cute story that points out that beautiful things can be found everywhere. It’s called “Under the Night Sky”, and it’s about going outside in the middle of the night to view the Northern Lights. You should pick up a copy, especially if you have kids. I’m not a book reviewer or a blurbist, so I’ll leave it at that. Ever since I’ve known Amy we’ve chatted about writing, and I’m proud of her for taking her passion and making something really beautiful out of it.

Other than that, it’s a pretty uneventful week so far. My coworker got a new job, so I’m stuck doing the work of two people (while, of course, only being paid for one person). It’s a hectic, frustrating, panic-attack-inducing situation that I would very much like to end. If anyone wants to work with me* (and by that I don’t mean for the same company or the same building, I mean literally in the very same office as me, in a chair that sits about ten feet away) feel free to apply for the job. It’s posted somewhere in the Star Trib, I think…

Since the forecast proves that the weather does not want me to golf, I’ll be spending the week with activities such as beer-bottling and D&D. (yes. I’m such a freaking dork). Should be awesome.

For those who like WoW, I wrote a song last night that’s full of win. Bask in the smooth harmonies of “Stranglethorn”.

*You don't. Trust me

Ramblers, let's get rambling.

I’m really freaking excited to go out and get some golfing done. It’s that time of year again. Spring is in the air, the snow has finally melted, and I’m more than ready for the wonderfully frustrating sport that I adore so much. I’m fixing to hit the links with Rhyno if he’s available sometime next week. Next week is the golden week, because I’ll finally be freaking done with finals!!! My other golf partner won’t be done until May 15th. Sucks for him.

I seriously can’t believe how fast this year has gone. It’s rocketed by. My baby girl is suddenly this little kid that walks up and says things to me. It will seriously be way too soon that she’s walking up and saying, “Hey dad, can I borrow the car?” Sheesh. Anyway, the year has gone by at turbo speed, and next year at this time I’ll be just about done with law school. Like, completely. Wow, that’s just a crazy thought. Nothing left after than but a bar exam. No problem, right Lars? ;)

I’ve been watching a bunch of Metalocalypse lately. T-Rav "lent" me season 1 some time ago, and I’ve only just now gotten around to watching it. The 15-minute episodes make excellent study breaks. If you’ve never watched it before, I highly recommend it. It’s hilarious. What made it even more hilarious for me was watching it with the subtitles on. I did this for a couple reasons. First off, there’s a lot of loud music in it, and Gwenner was sleeping at the time. Second, some of the members of the band have horrid accents that are almost unintelligible. Anyway, by watching it with the subtitles on, I was able to read the lyrics to the opening song. If you have never done so, watch the opening song with subtitles. Pickles the drummer, doodily-doo.

Also, when Jamming out to the Sword’s new album, I noticed that they totally ganked Ghola’s “Rawk Into Mordor” for the main riff for Under the Boughs. What’s up with that, Sword? That’s it. We’re suing. Unless you can somehow prove that there’s no reason for you to have ever heard Rawk Into Mordor, and also prove that we most likely heard your song before writing ours and oh crap whatever we give up.

A matter of weeks

OK, school is done within a matter of weeks. Not a lot of weeks, either. Like two of them. In fact, one of my classes will be done a week from today. That fills me with happiness about the summer, and stress about finals.

For those that don't know, the stress of school sometimes manifests itself physically. This is most noticeable around finals time. (See way old blog post about my MRI) I get dizzy spells and a general "oh good sweet jeebus I'm going to die" feeling. Not cool. But see, now I've pinpointed what causes it. Still, like clockwork, the dizzy spells have come back just in time for finals.

The really nice (hah) thing about it is that as the stress ramps up, the dizzy spells go away. This means that during finals themselves, I don't have any such unpleasantness going on. So that's cool. I also think that it's a bit milder since I now know what causes it. It used to be that just thinking about being dizzy made me dizzier. OK, enough about that.

I'm looking forward to doing some golfing in a couple weeks. As terrible at the sport as I am, I still enjoy it immensely. Along with the golf season comes the meat-grilling-and-drinking-beer-on-the-patio season, which is equally awesome for different reasons. The thing I'm honestly looking forward to most, though, is the chance to spend some time with my little family again. I miss my girls in the evening, and I get the feeling that they miss me, too. I can't wait for some time off.

After that I start my last year of law school. Holy crap, that went fast. I imagine next year will go even faster.