Grilling and Other Adventures

Time marches along... The semester comes to an end. Wow! I cannot believe that spring is already here and we are gearing up for everything that is going to take place this summer.

Although, I have grilled a few times, nothing too exciting until a few weeks ago over Mother's Day weekend. I finally had the chance to grill some interesting items on the grill. We grilled swordfish, tuna, and pineapple. Everything turned out great!

A picture of the feast is to the right. We were very pleased with how everything turned out. Oh, I forgot about the scallops that we did on the grill too. Everything was great if I do not say so myself.

I still have not grilled as much as I would like leading into the Spring, but we are starting to pick up the pace. Last Friday Carrie had something going on with her girlfriends, so I decided I was going to cook steak and watch movies. I had a great night! No pictures, but it was so good! A Omaha Steak wrapped in bacon on the grill along with grilled asparagus which turned out great! I promise to try and take more pictures of future dinners done on the grill.

My golf game has not been anything at all. I have only played once this year and that was for the faculty/staff golf tourney. We came in last and I played like crap! We had a good time, but I have not been out to play at Shawnee Golf Club at all this year. Tonight would actually have been a good night to go out, but no going for me. It is not that I do not want to get out and play, but it seems we have something going on every weekend and then when I would be able to play we are having bad weather.

Well, I will start making it a point to get out to play golf soon. If not, then there is not really any good reason for me to keep my membership to Shawnee Golf Club. I enjoy it out there and I want to start playing more. If nothing else, possibly twice a week nine holes each night. I enjoy those short games and playing right after work. The nine holes help to clear the mind and prepare for the next day of work.

Well, until I grill again, I will talk to you later. I will hopefully also post some golf updates before the end of June.

November Update...

It is hard to believe that yet another year is about to come to a end.
Here is already November 1. Thanksgiving is only weeks away and the end
of the year is right on the coat tails. Wow!

I managed to play a lot of golf this past Summer. I got in about
seventeen rounds and that does not include the other golf played in
scrambles. My elbow (or wrist) did not hurt as bad this year when
playing, but I still did have problems with my right wrist. It did not
cause me to not play this year, but it did hurt enough where it caused
soreness between holes. Oh well, I still had fun and hopefully improved
my game some from the year before.

Kansas football has not been fun to watch at all this year! Bad loses
on a number of instances, but probably the worst one so far was at home
against K-State. Ouch! That was painful to watch and we watched the
whole thing from the comfort of a friends house... I wish we would have
turned away and watched something else, but I just could not look away
from the message. It will be interesting to see if Turner Gil is around
next season or if he will be forced off of the campus. People are
already calling for his head and granted it is his first season and it
has been bad, but can you really force him out after only his first
season? Hmmmm....

Kansas basketball starts up tomorrow night in exhibition against
Washburn. It will be fun to be watching Kansas basketball again and
they are pre-season number seven. Kansas State basketball is pre-season
3. It is going to be a fun battle against all the Big 12 schools.

Other than those few things, there is not a lot happening. I am looking
forward to eating turkey and spending time with family.

Have a great November until next time!

Faculty/Staff Golf Tourney Followup...

Well, the faculty/staff golf tourney finished up some two weeks ago or so. We had a great time! This time, however, we did not have any pictures or video. We had a lot of fun and I am already looking forward to next year (Fall). Of course, we drank a lot and then went to Henry T's afterwards to meet up. None of us won anything. I think we might have come in last (or close to it). We had a great time though.

I played really well for this tournament. Probably the best I have played ever in any of the faculty/staff tournaments. I hit one of my best shots on hole number four (par 3). However, horrible putting kept us out of any chance to win anything. We constantly two putted the entire day.

I am now in the midst of playing as much golf as I can get in each week. Currently, that is not a lot, but I do get out at least twice a week. I play Wednesday nights, for men's league, and then either Tuesday or Thursdays. I am also going to start playing either Saturday or Sundays trying to get in at least 18 holes on the weekends. I love the game and I am having a blast at it! I can see improvement in my game from just last years play. I consistently get to the green with a chance of a birdie or a par. However, putting needs to improve as it keeps me at bogey or double bogey. I recall hole three at Shawnee Country Club where it is a par 5. I made it to the green in three and had a chance for birdie. Instead, I ended up with bogey after a two putt. Crazy!

Well, it had been a while since my last post, so I figured I better throw something out here. Sorry there are not any pictures from the faculty/staff tournament. Maybe next time!

Faculty/Staff Golf Tourney

Today is the day for the faculty/staff golf tourney. The weather will hopefully hold up and I can hardly wait to get on the course! It rained most of the night, but now it appears it might clear off. We will have to wait and see what happens. We are to play rain or shine, so as long as the lightening stays away, it will be a good time.

I have only managed to play a few times so far this season. I am hoping to pick that up by a lot in the upcoming weeks. Get in some full rounds instead of just nine holes here and there. Hey, I take what I can get.

Anyway, everyone have a great weekend and I will post a update about the faculty/staff golf tourney hopefully next week... maybe some pictures and video too!

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....

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!