What a Fall.... Recap and New Long Post

Well, as I mentioned, it has been a while since I really posted anything to my blog. What is a blog if I never write anything. I know..... it is just empty space that is out-of-date. Perfect! That's what I have here.

Well, as you start looking around the site trying to find content, you will see that the forums no longer work either. I have not had the time, or motivation, to work to resolve that problem. I would like to have another forum on my site, but it is just not that important right now. So, anyone looking for the forums are getting a page with a error message. I did fix up the photo gallery a while back and I am happy with how it turned out. Everything else, well, has just been the same for the past

two something years. Great!

OK, no on to my update which I have been meaning to do for sometime now. The last time I posted anything meaningful to this blog was back in August. I recapped what had happened over the Summer. I spoke a lot regarding my golf game. Well, my golf game basically stopped in late July. My elbow was hurting so much that it forced me to go to the doctor. I had it checked out and then had to go to physical therapy (PT). After all of the PT, I have not played any golf. I missed it a lot, but hope to be able to get back out to play in the Spring. Granted, we have had a lot of good days recently that I should have been playing, but Carrie and I have had something to do every weekend in October.

The Fall semester started back in August. It was a fun start to the semester with a major upgrade at work. We upgraded MyWashburn and our email systems. This caused a few weeks of tense times at work, but it eventually was resolved. We are running on the new version of MyWashburn, but our email system is still running on old hardware. The good news is that with this new upgrade, my Blackberry syncs with email (read, deleted, and moved) as well as with the calendar system. It is very nice! I am hoping to be able to keep it for years to come as it does cost money to use the service.

September was a busy month... in fact, the next two months were extremely busy! Carrie and I were on the go both September and October. It was a fun kind of busy though, so we did not complain. September we had football games just about every weekend for Washburn. I think during the course of the season I only missed about one game which was the first one of the season. We made it to all the rest.

The other big news for September was that my friend, Javier, came back from Costa Rica. He came back on Wednesday, September 23. Brenda, Cheri, Eileen, Carrie, and I rented a limo to pick him up from the airport. It was great! He was completely surprised and we all had a great time! We drank the whole way there, the whole way back, and into the evening. The good news was that I took the next day off of work to run errands with Javier. (Carrie's idea and it was a good one!) We have had Javier living with us while he is renting out his house and trying to sell it since September 23. We are having fun and he is also helping us to eat healthier as well as motivation to work out. His mother is coming to live with us on November 13 for three weeks for Thanksgiving which will be fun. Carrie and I will be gone during some of that time though traveling to Law Vegas, but we are looking forward to having her with us. I know Javi will enjoy it too!

The first part of October brought the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival in Helena, Arkansas. It was a great time! Of course I drank a lot and ate too much, but it was fun! A lot of great music and it is always fun to see everyone each year. Chad and I went down this year while Corrie and Carrie had fun in Houston. Yes, Carrie bought purses (notice plural)! Oh well.... There were many great bands. We did have a nice day on Thursday. Friday was rainy and cold... Saturday was just cold! It was a great time though and I enjoyed it once again. I believe this was my 5th year to attend the festival and I am already looking forward to next year! I am hoping that next year, Carrie and Corrie are able to make it. I have only been to the festival once with Carrie. I know she has a great time in Houston with Corrie, but it would be good to go to the festival again with her.

November Carrie and I will be heading to Las Vegas. This is our forth time to Vegas. We are looking forward to it. We will be meeting Chad and Corrie there for the second time. We can hardly wait! We leave Thursday, November 19 and return Tuesday, November 24. We both work one day and then of course there is Thanksgiving on the 26 and 27. We planned it that way! We will be doing some gambling, but not a whole lot. We usually split up $100 or so between the two of us and gamble with it until it is done... Or until Carrie doubles her money and pockets the first part she started with. Me, I usually go through everything we start with and then I watch her play. Gulp! We will be going to a show, but we are not sure which one yet. We got our hotel rooms for really cheap, but not as cheap as what Chad and Corrie got theirs at. They stayed at the place before, so they get member benefits. Oh well!

The football season is starting to end. The Kansas Jayhawks were not anywhere close to what they were hyped at doing this year. We have lost four straight with the most recent last weekend against Kansas State. Reesing has not looked good at all for the past four games and we are on a bad slide. Doubtful we will win any of our last three remaining games with as bad as they are playing and it does not look like any bowl games are in the works for KU this season. I have heard rumors that Mangino might be on his way out. Funny how he does so good for so many years and then he has one bad year... they want to get rid of him. Geez!

The Washburn football team was alright this year. Not great, but not bad. They missed out on playing in a bowl game as well. Their season is done and now we start basketball. Javier and I need to get to some Washburn basketball games this season. I still want to go to a volleyball game, but we never seem to start looking at those until it is too late.

Well, that is a long recap of what has occurred the last few months. Again, I am going to try and update this more often. If nothing else, than with a short message to say where I am at. Have a great rest of the week and I will chat with you later....

SMS Update

Ok, this is a short update from my phone to let you know I am working on a blog update. I promise! It is crazy how long it is taking me to do updates....

Where Have I Been and What Have I Been Up To?

OK, so, this will start the process of me blogging again. I enjoyed it so much when I was doing it on a regular basis. I got into somewhat of a rut just posting about sports. While that will probably play into a lot of what I post about, I do plan on posting on a variety of other topics as well.



The last time I posted anything of content was Sunday, April 26. It was the weekend after the Spring Faculty/Staff golf tourney. What a great time! So much time and things have passed since the April day. I will try to recount some of those items in this long over do update.



The faculty/staff tournament back in April helped to kick off me playing golf. I had planned to play a lot of golf over the Summer and I feel good about the amount of golf I have played. July was the month I played the most golf. One week right before my birthday, I played 36 on one day, 27 on another, and 18 on one day. It as great!



I have also taken a lot of golf lessons. I received golf lessons from the Shirrons' last Christmas and I started to use those in June. I was having a problem with my right wrist hurting when I would play, but I took a lesson with Joey at the club and he helped me to the over swing I was doing and instead not take the club back as far. This helped my wrist a great deal. Now, I have having problems with my right elbow. I know, odd! So, I scheduled another lesson for September 1 with Joey for another lesson. He is going to watch my swing to see if he can figure out why my elbow would be hurting. It hurts to the point where after playing golf I cannot open doors, lift a glass of water, etc. This goes on for days and at this point is preventing me from playing much golf. Still, I love the game, the process, and the experience of playing a round of golf.



The Summer also brought the start of Men's League at Shawnee Country Club. I managed to put a team together for Men's League this year. It was a lot of fun and September 3 is the last day for the league. We did not win, but we had a lot of fun! It is so much fun playing each Wednesday with a different group of guys, drinking beer, talking, and then eating dinner afterwards. The experience is great and I encourage it for anyone. The women's group has been trying to get Carrie to play for two years, but Carrie still needs to get clubs and learn the game. I think she would enjoy it just as I do if given the chance.



This is our third year of belonging to Shawnee Country Club (SCC). For two years, my handicap has been above the mens maximum handicap, so I had a 37.7L handicap. Ouch! The "L" indicates that it is above the mens maximum handicap and it is a local handicap. Well, finally, after three years I am finally below the maximum and I am at 33.9. Ah, much better!



June was a fun month playing golf with my brother Tim. We had a great time playing in the SCC Member Guest Tournament. Tim and Jennifer stayed at our house for the weekend. We had a great time! While Tim and I did not win, we did have a good time! We smoked cigars just about every day (and night). We had a lot of beers! We also had a lot of good conversation! I plan to do it again next year. It was just good to have my big bro staying with me at my house. It was great to be able to get up and go to the golf course with my brother to play golf and know that all we would be doing for three days was play golf and be together. While Tim and I were playing golf, Carrie and Jennifer were able to spend time together too. They had fun shopping, going to lunch, and just lounging around the house doing nothing. We all had a fun time the last night, Saturday, with dancing and a full dinner. SCC did a great job with the event. It as my first of many and I was already planning at the end of the week to do it again next year. Good times!

July 4 weekend found us over at Robin and Scotts'. We had a great July 4 weekend. It was nice and long with the forth falling on a Friday. We actually saw someone light a firework in their hand and set it off. Later, Mike D, had to go to the emergency room to see if he fingers were broken. Nah, they were just badly bruised and still bleeding. The best part of the night was watching Scott and Carrie dance in the fireworks.

I am jumping around a bit, but after so much time what can you expect? We move into August and it gets extremely busy at work. Move in week for residential living, upgrade for MyWashburn, and working with new faculty, staff, and students as they start to use Washburn systems. It is now about to turn to September and things remain busy at work. The kind of busy where the day is ending and it feels like it just began. The types of days where you have to make it a point to get your lunch in or you will miss it completely. The only good thing is that the days pass by so fast you barely realize you have been slammed the whole day.

Turning to September also takes us into the start of college and NFL football. The Washburn Ichabods played their first game of the season yesterday. They played the Colorado School of Mines and kicked their butt 27 - 7. Good way to start the season. Carrie and I will miss the first home game next weekend as we will be down in Arkansas to visit family that we are meeting down there. We will make it to the September 12 game and it should be fun as it is a night game.

Well, I realized I forgot to mention anything that happened in May. I do not recall at this time what happened that month. If I happen to think of anything, I will be sure to post it. Other than that, rest assured that I am going to try and post a update at least once a week. I am going to set a reminder task so I get reminded of it each week.

Now, we begin the slow descent into the winter months. What a odd Summer it has been. We went to the lake on Friday and about froze in the water. Odd! We had a fun time and hope to be able to get out to the lake once more before winter hits.

Until I write again... Have a great week and I will be back on next week!

SMS Update

Hello... I know it has been a while. Well, I am going to try to start posting more. About anything and everything. Not just sports! :). Mobile posts are set.

Weekend Wrapup

What a great weekend! It started Friday with our faculty/staff golf tourney. Other than the high winds, it was a fun day. It did take our foursome a long time to get around the course. We teed off at 1 pm and we were still playing at 6:30. We skipped the last hole because we did not see anyone else around from Washburn. Plus, they had taken away the sign on hole eighteen that we had won the previous two years, so we knew everyone was gone. As it turned out, the coordinator was extremely unhappy with Western Hills where we had the tournament. This was my third time to play at Western Hills for the tournament, but this was definitely the longest. The club seemed to be unorganized and wanted everyone to start on hole one instead of a shot-gun start. Odd! We still had a fun time playing golf. Our team came in last. Great!

Friday night after golf, we went to Tailgators where the post ceremony was held. With us being so late, a lot of the golfers had already left. Apparently two groups quit after four hours of play and they had only finished nine holes. We had fun at Tailgators too talking to those that were still around. The food was great and the beer was cold! I did not stick around too late that night as Carrie was home sick. She did not go to work on Friday and is still feeling under the weather today. I left about 10 and picked up something to eat for Carrie on the way home.

Saturday night I had a lot of fun meeting up with Jason from twenty years ago. Jason and I went to grade school together and up through high school. It was great to think back to our childhood years and then what all has happened between grade school and now. We remembered funny stories and had a good time talking. Carrie was supposed to go with me, but with her being sick, she stayed home. I met Jason at Free State brewery in Lawrence and the tornado sirens went off. We had a good meal and drank a few Free State beers. It was a good night!

Sunday, well, it has been doing a lot of nothing. Carrie is still not feeling great, so we watched some movies and I listed to the Royals. Oh the Royals, they lost again and go to 9 and 9 (or something like that). Hopefully they do not go on a downward spiral to losing. They start another series tomorrow, so hopefully they can get things back in gear.

Well, the weekend is coming to a end. I am catching up with Javi this evening via Skype video and going over his bills. It will be good when he is back in the States.

Well, have a good week and I will talk to you again later.

Summertime and Golf

Well, it is hard to believe that Spring is here, or at least it feels like it now, and golf is right around the corner.  I am once again playing in a mens league at Shawnee Country Club (SCC).  This will be my second year to play in the league and I am excited.  It starts on Wednesday, April 29.  We have our team and I will be playing with a good group of guys.

 

I intend to get out to play a lot of golf this Summer, but other things always seem to take away from doing so.  I went out and played nine holes on April 8 and it was painful!  I did not start off well, but after the third hole I could finally start hitting the ball.  I had a few good shots and those that will bring me back to the course, but I also had a nagging problem of my right wrist hurting.  After playing nine holes, I could barely use my right hand with my wrist hurting so bad.  This happened last Spring too where I played in a tournament and afterwards my wrist was killing me.  It went away through the Summer where it did not hurt as bad, but it would come back at odd times while playing golf.  As soon as I hit the first drive off of tee one on April 8, my wrist immediately started hurting.  I am not sure why.  I did a Google search on it and found that I might be holding the club wrong which could be causing the problem.  I have six lessons that I got for Christmas and I hope to be able to use those next week and learn what I am doing to cause my wrist to hurt.

 

It seems so odd to be starting the Spring and not have Javier in town.  He had to go back home to Costa Rica back in February.  It just does not seem right to be going into Spring without Javier here.  I know it is difficult for him to be back home and worrying about his house, cars, etc., here in Topeka, but Carrie and I are taking good care of his things and I talk to him a few times a week.  We talk mostly on Skype, but we also chat back and forth with Yahoo and MSN Messenger.  So, we stay in touch.  He just started looking for a job back home, so he is hopeful to find something where he can earn money and still be able to tend to bills he has here.

 

As we move into full swing with Spring, and soon Summer, I will try to do a better job of posting.  With golf on my mind, I will hopefully be posting about the progress of my golf game through the Summer months.  Oh, I am very excited to be playing in the Tee-Par-Tee in June with my brother, Tim.  We will be teamed up to play in the member-guest tourney at SCC, so that will be a lot of fun!