Golf on Christmas Day

Yesterday I wanted to play golf and Steph was going to let me but we forgot to call ahead and find out if I was allowed to walk on a course that was closed for Christmas Day. I was pretty frustrated about that and finally just decided to go running on the beach and to drive by a course on the way there and check it out. I put on my running stuff, grabbed my golf stuff, and headed to Myrtle Beach National. I wanted to play the Kings North course. When I got there I saw about 10 cars in the parking lot but didn't see anybody. I finally saw a guy at the driving range and asked him. He said "grab a bag and go". So I did and yes that means I didn't pay anybody. But first I had to change out of my running clothes. So I drove to a secluded part of the parking lot (if there is such a thing as a secluded part of a parking lot). I changed my clothes there. I wonder how many people have been naked in the parking lot of Myrtle Beach National. I walked the back 9 first. I was worried about time. I shouldn't have been because I flew through the course. I played really well. It's a beautiful course. There is a lot of water and a lot of bunkers. There were a few other people around but for the most part it was very quiet. The greens were awesome. I was making putts all over the place. I forgot my camera on the back 9 so almost all of the pictures are from the front. This island green is on the back 9. My first shot went over the green and I was sure it was in the water so I hit a provisional. I decided to go down a club and it was short of course. When I crossed the bridge to the green I saw my ball sitting on the cart path. It must've hit the rail and come back because the path went all the way to the water.

I duffed my chip and ended up bogeying the hole. If you look closely you can see that the bunkers make an SC. So as I played the back 9 I ended up using 4 mulligans. Not on out of bounds shots just on duffs. I ended up shooting a 44 with those mulligans. On the front 9 there is a par 5 called the gambler. It has an autograph in the cement from Kenny Rogers and his golf cleats in cement. So it's a long par 5 with a short cut for the gamblers. The short cut is an island fairway. So I did what I imagine most golfers do. I started singing to myself and taking aim at the island fairway. I played a slice and ended up perfect. From there I had a shot over water to the green. I was about 165 yards out. I grabbed my 6 iron and hit it over the green and into the water. Took my penalty and drop and saved a bogey. I should've aimed farther safe instead of hitting towards the pin. The bunkers would've saved me farther right. Without any mulligans and counting my penalty stroke I scored a 43 on the front 9. I played great, for me, on a course that's listed among the top 100 in the U.S. I took one of my new sleeves of balls and came back with one of the balls. That's amazing.

Thank you Arnold Palmer for creating a great course and then not being there on Christmas Day.

We wish you a Merry...

These are some beach drawings Steph did.

And this is one Laura did all by herself.

Snow at the beach

This afternoon we took the girls to the beach to make a snowman.

The girls got a little cold so we did my favorite. Put them in pajama pants in public. I hate pajamas in public. But I like warm girls.

Here's some beautiful girls on a beautiful day at a beautiful beach.

The International

This morning my father-in-law and I headed over to the International down in Murrels Inlet. It was a good time. I beat him for the first time. If I could learn to putt I could score a little better. Maybe tomorrow I'll putt better. Everything was great until the 8th hole. Things backed up and the guys behind us got mad that we had not hit the ball yet. There was a guy on the green and he had had to wait for the foursome in front of him. I actually was able to blow those guys off and not let them ruin my hole. That's probably a first. I forgot my camera and my cell phone so here's a picture I stole from their website.

The picture is from the 9th hole where I just missed my par putt.

Hall of Fame

We stopped at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It was great until a school showed up. They were loud and threatened to carry us away. Wait. Whining like this should not be allowed when talking about a collection of tough guys. So this school showed up and we scowled and growled and were tempted to eat their fingers off. There, that's better. The Hall hasn't changed much since the first time I went in 1993. They changed the room with the busts because they had too. It was too full. They've changed some exhibits some as rules have been broken. In 1993 we went to see Walter Payton inducted. Here's a picture of the class from that year. That class included, from top to bottom, Dan Fouts, Walter Payton, Larry Little, Bill Walsh, and Chuck Noll. I took some pictures of the Lions too for my Michigan friends.

And here's the jersey from one of the games that was the most fun to watch.

Peyton was 20 for 25 for 314 yards and 6 touchdowns. He threw more tds than ints. That was a fun game.
It was fun. I'd heard that they changed the gameday video thing to include the Super Bowl from the previous year so I was excited. But it was still the Steeler and Super Bowl XL. The Hall of Fame is worth visiting but it's probably going to need some renovations soon.

Christmas at the Beach

It's been almost two weeks since I've made a post. I know I know. I'll make it up to you by keeping you up to date on vacation. I'll have pictures of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I'll give you pictures of the golf course and beach. You think those will help while you suffer through the snow? It'll help me. I'm hoping to golf twice. I'm hoping to see the ocean a couple of times. I really like the ocean for some reason. I even like it when it's way too cold to get in. Well I'll try to keep you updated while we're there.

O Christmas Tree

I finally went out to buy a Christmas tree. I'm a little cheap and was dreading paying $30-50 for a tree. I saw a place where I could buy an already cut one for $25. I still don't like paying $25 for something I'm going to throw away in a month anyways but I went in hopes of having my family still love me. When I got there the old man was helping someone else so I walked through looking at his trees. When he got to me I told him I needed something this high and I raised my hand as far as I could. He led me over to those size trees and said something like "I've had this one here cut for a week and a half and nobody wants it. I'll sell it to you for $10." I didn't need to even look at the tree. He'd said the magic words. He showed it to me and it was pretty ugly. But I didn't care it was $10. I loaded it in the truck and headed home. We decorated that night and it really isn't that ugly anymore. So here's our tree. Merry Christmas.

National Debt

When it comes to voting some things are very important to me. The spiritual beliefs of a candidate are important to me. Abortion is an important issue to me. So this year I find myself with 2 candidates that really fit my criteria. Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul. I could find myself voting for each of them. I find one big difference though. Paul wants to seriously cut spending and Huckabee talks a good game but spends. I believe that this will keep Paul from ever being a serious candidate. Cutting spending isn't a popular idea among politicians. But who cares if it's popular, it needs to be done. I went over to the Treasury Department home page. They have some cool features that no doubt cost tons of money to put together. But anyways you can look up the national debt and search by day to find out what it was. I looked at the month of November for 2007. November 1st the national debt, according to the Treasury Department, was $9,080,228,573,291.65. It's great they have it to the penny. November 30th the debt was $9,149,341,364,936.71. It's funny how the number doesn't look that different. But it's a growth of 69 billion 112 million 791 thousand 6 hundred 45 and 6 cents. In one month! Not how much we spent but how much farther we went in debt. If you break it down it's only 2 billion 303 million and some change a day. It's only $1,599,883 a minute. Now I'll admit I have no idea how much it costs to run a government. But anytime you are going that far in debt you have a problem. The best way to cut debt is to stop spending more than you are taking in. So our government has four choices. 1. Raise taxes (doesn't sound too appealing to me.) 2. Cut spending (I hate the waste.) 3. A mixture of both (this is probably the most logical but is definitely unelectable.) 4. Keep ignoring it and hoping it will go away. I'll quickly admit I know very little about this stuff. However, a guy who has a plan to fix it sounds appealing to me.

Geology

My favorite class at Cedarville was Geology taught by John Whitmore. This article in the New York Times talks about him and other young earth creation geologists. I enjoyed learning in the classroom but really enjoyed hunting for fossils and glacial erratics. He had a contest to see who could find the largest glacial erratic in the Cedarville area. I loved driving around with friends and running into peoples yards to measure and take pictures of big rocks. Big fun.

Check out this Spice store

I'm doing one of my first advertisements ever. My mom's new store is up and running. Check it out. If you buy spices maybe you'll be interested. Please check out the site even if you don't buy spices because it will get her hit count up and help her out. I took some of the pictures of spices. I'm no Burrill Strong that's for sure. The site looks pretty good. The Hawaiin Black Lava Salt is really good. I'm going to use some of the white peppercorn today to grind up fresh for Thanksgiving dinner. So check out Cherry Valley Spice Company.

Stephanie's first Notre Dame game

We got to go to Stephanie's first Notre Dame game last Saturday. Justin came through and picked up tickets for me again. We didn't do any James Bond stuff like last year but we met and he gave me a tour of the Law School. Watching his kids run through the courtroom was big fun. After that we went and got lunch. If you go to Notre Dame make sure you eat before you go in the stadium. Student groups have many booths set up selling food on campus and they have very good food. I went with the traditional brat but Steph got a steak sandwich that made me very jealous. She said it was great.After lunch we became a part of the human tunnel that greets the players as they go from mass to the stadium. Last year when I did this I got a high five from Brady Quinn. This year we just watched them go by. Steph was amazed by how many people were there to watch them walk by.

When you finish watching the players walk by you should head over to watch the band play. It's fun to watch and there's a good crowd for it. This week they were playing songs from the original Mario Bros. I made a little video of the band playing a portion of the 1812 overture.

Our seats were pretty good. We were in the 19th row on the north side of the stadium. The student section started on the other side of the aisle. Getting to see all of the traditions was cool. It even was cold and rainy just like the old days when we had season tickets.

I even took a picture of the big guy. I'm hoping he can turn it around next year. Maybe recruit someone who knows how to pick up a blitzer or something.

Notre Dame won. They were ahead by enough at the end that they put Zibby in at QB. This didn't make the Duke defenders happy. Putting a safety in at QB is seen by some as rubbing it in. I think Charlie learned that move from Bill.
I don't know if I've ever seen a team that excited to get their second win. We had a good time. Steph's first ND game was a success.

Happy Thanksgiving

We're celebrating with family at my parents. They have High Speed Internet so I'll do a couple of posts. I hope you have a good time watching football, eating, playing games, and spending time with your family.

Rank Claire Markwardt up there with Derek Redmond

Derek Redmond has been a favorite sports hero of mine for some time. I even have preached sermons and youth group lessons using him as an example. I came across this article and video on ESPN's site. Claire broke her leg and still finished the race. I won't ruin it for you with details but please read the article. It's a very good story. Oh and the video isn't as scary as they make it sound. It's worth watching.

Oh boy here we go...

I'm the last to know this I guess. Some of you are already putting odds on which way I will go on this one and I'm just finding out. Laura wants to get her ears pierced. Stink it all. I've decided that I'm really not a fan of my girls growing up. I tried to convince her that it will hurt. She doesn't care. Heh. Now I'm becoming my dad and trying to convince them that they don't really want the things they want. I'll keep thinking about and probably post the pictures when I finally give in.

Roethlisberger burger

On Monday nights we've been trying to eat something from the city that is hosting Monday Night Football. We've had buffalo wings, Coke floats, and stuff like that. Last week we had Roethliburgers. Pretty stinking good. We changed the recipe some and here's what we came up with. First a big burger patty. Melt provolone and sharp chedder on it. Put barbeque sauce under it. Put bacon and ranch over it. All of that inside of the bun. It was much better than I thought it would be. Try it.

The Great Turtle Race

No I'm not talking about myself. Sometimes I feel as slow as a turtle though. The name of the race on Mackinac Island is The Great Turtle Race. Apparently the island resembles a turtle. I've been training for this race for a while now and I just didn't feel myself getting faster so I was worried. My original goal was to finish in less than 50 minutes. As I trained I found myself thinking I could not come close to that. We went and met Dan and had a good time with the girls playing in the water park and eating at Mama Mia's. We got upgraded to a room with a private balcony overlooking the lake. But really what is there to look at? Ferries and a big hotel on an island. But it was nice anyways. The next morning we woke up and I had a light breakfast including a waffle and a piece of cinnamon toast. Then Dan and I went to catch a ferry. It was raining and chilly but the rain slowed down while we were on the ride over. It really turned out to be a good day for running. We met up with James over on the island and stretched a little. I get nervous before a race like this and end up going to the bathroom about 10 times before the race starts. When the race started we took off up the hill and I was going an ok pace. After the first mile I looked down at my ipod and noticed that I was on a 8:40 pace. That's kind of fast for me. It scared me and I slowed down. My second mile was 9:09 and I started thinking that I felt pretty ok. Maybe I should go faster. The third mile was 8:35. That was flying for me. So it scared me again. I slowed down. At that time a girl passed me. She was going the pace I wanted to go and since I'm not good at pacing myself I just followed her. She had a blondish pony tail so I told myself over and over to follow the blond ponytail. The fourth mile was 8:58. We came out of the woods there and ran along side the lake. Thankfully the wind was behind us. It would've been awful to finish into the wind. The fifth mile was 8:53. Blond ponytail started slowing just a tad after the completion of the fifth mile. I found out later that she had slipped in the mud earlier and fallen. I passed her when she slowed down. The last .7 mile was at a 8:34 pace. I finished 5th in my age group with a total of 50:03. 4 seconds off of my original goal. I'm happy since I didn't think I had a chance of being close. There were 16 guys in my age group and about 400 overall entered that race. I finished 106th overall. Here are the results. Stephanie and the girls made it about 5 minutes after I finished. Afterwards we showered, lunched, shopped, ate fudge and then left.

I'll post some pictures later.

Running update

Yesterday was 10 miles. I'm feeling good about the race next Saturday. I'm not sure if I'll get the time I want but I think I'll have fun. Since I got the Nike + thingy I've run most of my runs with it. I have a few runs that I didn't have it so those don't count towards my totals. I got the Nike + in January but only got to use it once. January and February were a combined 14 miles. My total for the year so far is 327 miles. That sure sounds like a long ways. That's like running from my house to Cleveland.

Bleacher butt!

For a few years now I've wanted to try and accomplish a college football double header. I've heard of guys attending two div. 1 games the same day before. But they always leave the one game early and arrive at the other game late. I wanted to be the first I know that attended all of 2 div. 1 games the same day. Dan was pumped about it as well and so we found a day that had Michigan playing at noon and Michigan State playing at 7. Interesting to probably only me was that Michigan was playing Purdue and State was playing Indiana. Friday night we had a Capture the Flag event at church and after that I headed down to meet Dan in Dexter. I got there about 1 in the morning and slept hard. We woke up and ran 3 miles and then headed to the stadium. The following pictures are proof that we were there before kickoff and stayed until the game was over. By the way, staying for the end of that game may have been the hardest part of the day. Michigan had the game well in hand but Purdue kept playing. Scoring a touchdown and even recovering an onside kick. I thought it would never end.

After the game we ran to the car and headed back to Dan's house to change into warmer clothes and get my car. We then headed up to Lansing thinking we had plenty of time. Steph and I have friends that live in Lansing so we met up with Lindy at a coffee shop. We didn't get to spend much time with her but it was neat to see her and to see her doing well. We headed towards the stadium after that. I inherited the lead and couldn't find a place to park. I was starting to get worried about time when we finally found a lot forever away that had shuttle buses. We got to our seats with 16 minutes to spare. Below is the proof.

I got home around 1 again so a nap Sunday was very important. It was very fun. As you can see from the pictures the onions and peppers were a great addition in Ann Arbor. East Lansing didn't have those but their buns were superior.

A Win!

Notre Dame won! The offense didn't do anything but it's still a win. I had to go old school for the game because it wasn't on t.v. here. When I was in high school I'd listen to some of the games on the radio with my headphones on in bed. Saturday I listened to the game on the radio with the headphones on in bed. It was great. The only bad thing was that the play by play guy kept interrupting the game to let me know that the greatest upset ever occurred when 44 point underdog Stanford beat USC. He even missed plays to tell me this. I seriously lost count of how many times he reminded me. I wonder if he's either a Stanford grad or if he had money on the game.

Migraine

My headache was so bad yesterday that I vomited twice and had to put my hands over my eyes because the light coming from around the blinds and through my eyelids was too bright. Excedrin migraine helped some and I'm feeling some better today but not 100% yet.