This is a disc golf post, but I will put a few pix of Landen at the end, to give the non DG-ers something to gander at.

The tournament had a new TD and a very small turnout, which was good – I only had to beat 5 other guys to win my first ever pro tourney.  You might remember at last year’s Hula Bowl, there was a weak field and I snuck in last because someone else blew up and they paid deep.  I was trying to beat that.  Might be tough since I only played two rounds since July 13.

1st Round: All shorts – there were 18 birdie holes.  At least 9 would be considered “must deuces” in most courses.  Of course, I don’t like this type of golf, especially when I haven’t practiced.  Sure enough, I did not do well.  I missed a few easy putts, and a few others got lucky to go in.  In fact, I had a fair amount of luck countered by a little bad luck.  And I managed to come in with a -6.  Surprisingly, that only put me 4 off the lead (I swore we’d see a -12 or better, even with the diluted field.)  In short, I was all over the place and couldn’t really get anything going.  I missed hole 7, the “easiest” hole on the course, and one I’ve only gotten ONCE in tournament play.  I hate pitch and putt golf.

2nd Round: In 4th out of six to start. The layout was a bit harder, but there were still about 14 or 15 birdie holes.  And this was one of the oddest rounds of my life.  I shot a -4 (three off the hot score.)  I had a few clunkers, but in general my drives were good.  The problem was, and I spent a lot of time dissecting this, the round can be broken down like this:

3 drives were under the basket

2 drives were within 20′ but had major obstacles in the way and I missed both (including a 12′ on hole 7 with a pine right front of my face and a tiny window to try to hit – again, I missed the “easiest” hole on the course).

9 drives were LITERALLY between 30′-40′ away.  That’s half.  So the drives were certainly quite good, but that’s outside my comfort zone.  I made one of the nine.

The rest were poor drives or at least outside 40′.

So it felt like a pretty solid round, but I only had four birdies to show for it.  No bogeys.

Round 3: The hardest layout (still at least 10 birdies out there.)  I was 5 off the lead, 3 off third place (last cash and a trophy) and 7 away from 5th.  This was a solid, if unspectactular round.  I shot -4 again, with one OB stroke (got caught in a tree.)  Four of my four birdies were less than 10′ away.  I only had to save a couple of pars.  Of course, I missed hole 7 again – so in 7 tournament rounds at Truckee, I’ve only birdied it once: the “easiest” hole on the course.  I knew it wouldn’t be the hot round (-6 was) but I needed better than that to move up.

Or did I?  The dude who was beating me by three threw a -1, tying us for the tournament.  You know what that means.

PLAYOFF FOR THE TROPHY: I had put my discs in the car at the top of the course (we were celebrating at a pavilion at the bottom) and I didn’t feel like getting it, so I borrowed a Wizard from someone and looked through my opponent’s bag, seeing a disc or two I figured I could use.  Good enough, I was tired.

Hole 8: Easy birdie hole.  I used a roc and I threw it like a stingray.  Hyzered out, 50′ comebacker that I missed.  He had a 25′ that he missed.  Push.

Hole 9: 360′ open shot with OB left.  I take a Star Destroyer (thankfully, this is the only hole normally I would throw a non-champ disc, my pro destroyer.)  I heave it out and put it within 5′.  YEAH!  He puts it at around 20′ and makes the putt.  Push.

Hole 10: 300′ shot with trees right and OB left.  I was scared to throw a midrange that I didn’t know what it would do, so I asked if he had anything really overstable.  He gives me an ESP Force.  Never threw one before, but I was thumbing so it didn’t matter.  I put it within 5′ again, and he hyzered and was about 50′ away.  He missed.  I win my first playoff since 2004.

I would have bagged $135 if I were dishonest.  The TD (a first-timer) announced me as third.  I said “Don’t forget Ox, he tied me.”  She thought I just meant he needs recognition.  So she says it was a close match but gives me the envelope.  Ox, usually an advanced guy, had never cashed so he didn’t know the playoff was just for the trophy.  So I split the cash and basically paid for my entry.

Imagine how good I could be if I played more than a dozen rounds a year.

And now, pics of my son.

Enjoying flying with he new monkey decal in the background

At Lake Tahoe with Mom

One of my favorite pics of all time

If I ever have to do that Chocobo Race in under 0:0:0 again to get Tidus’ Sun Sigil, it will be to soon.  And is it massochistic of me that I’m *glad* it took ONLY 3 hours?

I had many stories to type up, but many of them are going to go into the abyss.  For starters, I was going to talk about my most recent plane flight, which started with an hour delay, included a message from the cabin of “is there a doctor or medical professional on board” and ended with a woman being escorted out by police.  Not enough time for that, but you get the gist.

I was also going to talk about the disc golf tournament, which I won, but not really about the tournament.  I was going to discuss the crazy lady who, when we saw her, was picking up rocks, and who yelled at me for calling her ‘ma’am.’  I was even going to include her last line to us which was, and I quote: “I won’t be rude any more, but this is a sheep-herding park and not a basket catching park, fags” before flipping us off and driving away.

Instead, I’m home with Landen who is sick – he’s not direly so, but the daycare has pretty rigid rules with the swine flu scare hitting the Reno area: they won’t take any baby who has any flu-like symptoms.

So while playing with him, he did something entirely uncharacteristic of a baby his age.  I would lay with my head on the ground and he would crawl up to me and tug at my ear.  When I would look up, he’d pull his arm back as if to say “It wasn’t me!” and would laugh.  Now, if this were once, I’d just say I’m imagining it.  But he did it more than a dozen times.  Each ear.  IN my opinion, he seemed to know exactly what he was doing.  (His granny might have taught him this game yesterday when she’d have him poke me in the back and when I turned around, she’d spin around and laugh with him.)

He’s getting better and Ash and I seem to have caught what he had.  It’s going to be a long week.

I saw 70 some odd pics on the camera.  Will try to put them up soon.  Some beach shots and various others.  The kid’s almost 9 months old.  Yeesh.

(Also – house news coming soon – if we can ever get a clear answer as to what’s going on.)

Getting a sick baby to nap when there’s an air show across the street (and, consequently overhead) and planes are breaking the sound barrier?  Not easy.

- Things are definitely weird when I walk into New York City and realize that there are more trees here than where I live.  It made me a bit sad, that’s for sure.

- Landen has popped two teeth and started holding the bottle to feed himself while I was gone.  Admittedly, he’s making MANY leaps and bounds, even when I’m there, but it seems like he always does the biggies when I’m gone.  I plan on not coming back out east until he’s graduated college.  We’ll see if that flies with my boss.

- Free tickets to Toxic Avenger: the Musical tonight.  If it’s as good as Evil Dead: The Musical was, then I’ll be a happy man.  Might even get to meet the keyboardist for Bon Jovi and ask him what’s up with the hair.

I went out yesterday with a friend from OkCupid, and we went to this very posh wine bar in Brooklyn that tossed around phrases like “traces of raspberry flavor”, “on the nose” and often the word “palatte.”  In addition to wines (including a delightful Malbec), they also served specialty cocktails for a reasoable price.  One of them included bacon-infused bourbon and syrup.  It’s been said (mostly by me) that bacon makes everything better.  It’s like cheese in that respect.   So I had to give it a try.

And, as I’m sure those astute readers who bothered to read the topic of this blog have already figured out, it wasn’t what I’d hoped it would be.  The first sip certainly had that promised smokey taste, and it wasn’t all bad.  By maybe the fifth sip, however, it sorta tasted like somebody had put out their cigar in my drink.  It was too much for me.  Perhaps I was thinking it would be like an appletini with a piece of cooked bacon sticking out like a stirrer.  Which actually sounds like a brilliant idea.  But, as for this drink, I’m not sure what I expected. 

All I know is I was disappointed.  I took a picture of it too.  I’m disappointed because I can’t appear to post it, but also disappointed because, even if I did post it, it would be a very dark cup with a dark liquid in it sitting on a dark counter in a dark bar. 

Ointment.

From my StatTracker in my fantasy baseball league:

Four outs?  Or: I wonder if someone should tell Castro that when he flies out, he can’t stay on the bases.