Random tidbits from the unsettled jar:

- Grassroots Books was robbed at gunpoint at 7:30 last night, and police think it’s tied to a string of armed robberies committed since January.  This sucks for two reasons.  1) Because not only is it hands down the best used bookstore ever, it is arguably the best store of any kind ever.  It’s sad to see them take a loss, though it might result in increased security measures, which is a nice lining.  And, more personally, 2) I was in the store less than an hour before it happened.  They were having a sale on CDs (I got 5 used CDs for a total of 27 cents), so I booked down as soon as dinner was finished so I could catch it and still make it back in time to give Landen his bath.  Had I not been in a hurry, it’s quite possible I would have been there when it happened, as I often take over an hour at that store.  Nobody was hurt, but I still don’t think I would have wanted to be there.

- One of my childhood heroes recently applied for money at my workplace.  I won’t name who it was, since lord knows the guy doesn’t need any more press about him (he hasn’t fared too well in the public eye in the last two years).  I was initially very excited because the broker said I’d be able to chat with him for a minute, which would have been a dream come true since I was a wee toddler.  However, I started to do research about him online, and man oh man has this guy fallen pretty hard.  It’s downright difficult to find positive things about him said anywhere.  Even the Daily Show blasted him.  We aren’t able to do it anyway for a legal technicality, but reading all those things has put a damper on 25+ years of idolization.  I wouldn’t even know what to say to him if I got the opportunity.

- Ashley and I have been actively planning our landscaping and gardening.  That, in itself, is unsettling.  How old AM I?

- I have an old Sony 5-CD changer, now in the living room.  It’s been a unique piece for a while, although the fact that it’s even still working (I got it as a high school graduation present) is an accomplishment.  Anyway, for years it’s done something peculiar.  While on, it will periodically open and close.  And nearly every time you actually turn it on, it will open, close, open, rotate the tray a little, rotate back, then close again, before you can open it to load CDs.  Okay, whatever, that’s weird, but it still worked fine other than that.  Since moving to NV, it’s started opening and closing WHEN IT’S TURNED OFF.  We’ll be sitting there and then randomly its gears will grrrrrr along and it will open up the tray, as if sticking it’s tongue out at us.  Very unsettling.

- We got snow yesterday and this morning.  While it isn’t the flooding the NE is getting, I still think someone needs to smack Mother Nature around a little and inform her that it’s a) spring and b) a desert.

Working on some new stuff – more DPOD pics and some fresh Smacky pics coming up soon, as well as a long-awaited Fats’ Bad Advice column.

For each day in 2010 (give or take) I’ll be showing a picture from somewhere in my life with a little explanation as to what it is.  Enjoy the trip down memory lane.  (CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ARCHIVES!)

On the Floor

Date: December, 2001

Location: London, England

Description: It isn’t a big surprise that I wasn’t a fan of London, the town or the experience.  I had some issues going on at the time, having left a girl just after we finally got together after three years, having a class full of people I wasn’t friends with, and being in a city that was cold, impersonal and perpetually overcast.  There were small nuggets of reprieve, such as my trips to Scotland and Wales, stage combat class, and working on some acapella harmonies in our singing class.  One other release for me was reading my journal to Stacey, one of the few people who seemed to care that I was miserable for months at a time.  Whether it was just listening to me or trying to convince the girl in the London gift shop that I was a fantastic poet (sorry, cousin), she was a great friend the whole time.  With only a few days left of our journey, I read her the remainder of my entries and we put a camera down on the floor and snapped this photo of us.  I have a number of beautiful photos from my 3 months abroad, but very few of people.  This is my favorite people shot.

For each day in 2010 (give or take) I’ll be showing a picture from somewhere in my life with a little explanation as to what it is.  Enjoy the trip down memory lane.  (CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ARCHIVES!)

Deer in Headlights

Date: ~1979

Location: Unknown

Description: Ah, twins, the joy of buying clothes that aren’t exactly identical, but can be bought in bulk nonetheless.  Much about Mitch and I was similar growing up, including our looks of bewilderment when someone thought standing directly over us to take a photo of us was a good angle.  This picture shows that these were simpler days indeed: dogs didn’t need pesky collars, a six pack of bottles made a suitable toy for kids, and feng shui was a totally foreign concept.  Also, based on this picture, one might be surprised that I never went on to be a high-ranking Republican official, since I clearly had the hairstyle and forehead for it.  Then again, I am holding something black close to me, so perhaps I wouldn’t have made a great Republican after all (ZING!)  This is likely at some relative’s house, but considering I didn’t know this picture existed before 2010, I’ll just have to say look at it and make your own best guesses.

This was almost as painful to watch as the epic Yankees collapse of ’04.  Actually, that was a treat to watch.  This was just as epic, though.  And it started with boots.  I forgot my boots – and I was already on the road for 20 minutes when I realized it.  I decided the shoes I had on were good enough (slip-on comfy shoes.)  After all, it was only an A-Tier.

[I will use the following series of #s to illustrate my drives for each round.  I have a good memory for shot recall, and I analyzed the hell out of these three rounds post facto.  Anyway it will look like this 2 | 5 | 9 | 6.  What that means is 2 of my drives were park jobs, 5 were good drives, 9 okay drives, and 6 bad drives.  Definitions:  PARK JOB is a drive that lands within 15' and should be an easy birdie.  GOOD DRIVE is one that gave me a very reasonable shot for birdie (15-40 feet.)  Or, on a really hard hole, a drive that gave me a long birdie look (within 60' unobstructed.)  An OKAY DRIVE is one of a few things.  It is a drive that may not have given me a good birdie attempt, but also didn't leave me scrambling for par.  Also, it could be a drive I released exactly how I wanted but the disc behaved in a way I didn't expect (mainly due to elevation changes or unexpected wind.)  A BAD DRIVE is one where I would have to do some major scrambling to get my par.]

Let’s begin.

Round 1:  22 holes.  My driving stats: 6 | 5 | 10 | 1.

I was playing with wonky shoes and a few pretty good players, including Cary Trotter (the only player in NV with a higher rating than me.)  As you can see, I played about as well as one could hope after having played maybe 8 rounds since October.  Truth be told this was the best round I’ve ever thrown (unofficially rated 1026 – my previous best had been 1010.)  I only missed two birdie putts, but made at least two outside my normal comfort zone.  I had 9 birdies and one bogey – the lone bogey coming on a bad up shot on one of my “okay” drives.

With 6 holes left, who do I see but MY AWESOME WIFE who drove TWO HOURS to DROP OFF MY BOOTS!  Seriously, I am the luckiest guy ever.  While I was deliberating changing any aspect of my game, my feet were starting to hurt because of the shoes.  I put on boots and, after lunch, went to see where I was for round 2.

Top card.

TOP CARD!?  In an A-Tier?  I beat 50 other players, including 13 1000 rated golfers and a world champion (Nate Doss.)  I would be playing my second round with Josh Anthon and Avery Jenkins (who both tied for world champion in 2009.)  Ho.  Ly.  Crap.  Drives, don’t let me down.

Round 2:  22 holes again.  2 | 7 | 8 | 3.

As you can see, my drives did not let me down, even though I didn’t park as many holes as before.  I was standing toe-to-toe with Avery and Josh on my drives.  While I rarely had the best drive of the group, I also very rarely had the worst.  The problem was that my putting game abandoned me completely.  I missed 9 putts that were all within 35′ (including a 12 footer) and didn’t make a single putt longer than 15′.  I also had a bit of bad luck, just sliding into OB water twice.  I had only ONE birdie (one of my two PARK JOBS), and tacked on four bogeys, although one was an OB bogey. The round was unofficially rated 939, 87 points lower than the first round.

I was extremely disappointed, even though I FELT like I played pretty well (sans putting.)  Avery had some good advice for me.  He said that I kept saying “I don’t care how I do this round, I’m just glad to be here.”  He noted that I had settled on having one good round in the tournament and that was it.  I have to always fight to do what I know I’m able to do.  I think I was using not practicing as a crutch – clearly I CAN play well – that was evident.

I had dropped from 5th place to 31st with that round.  The cash line was a scant 4 strokes ahead of me.  How would I respond in the final day?

Round 3: 18 holes.  1 | 2 | 6 | 9

I think that really says it all.  Part of the problem was that, with a trickle start (where you have tee-times, as opposed to the normal start where every group starts on a hole at the same time), you were not allowed to practice any holes before the tourney.  I did do some putting and some driving of putters into a net, but that hardly prepares you for a round like throwing some holes.  And it showed.  There was NO aspect of my game that was consistently good.  While I had flashes of genius (going birdie | par on holes 14 and 15, the hardest on the course), they were offset by so many poor shots.

Although the round was exactly the same as the second round in score (+3) and unofficial rating (939), it felt much worse.  I was struggling to make pars, and I was hitting 25′ putts just to save my pars.  I had two more OB strokes this round, both on bad shots, and only avoided a third by an inch or so.  It was the ultimate collapse.  From 5th to 31st to 38th.

What did I learn from this tourney?  Well, first what Avery said.  And second, don’t change anything after a super hot round, even at the risk of blisters.  Seriously, though, it felt good to put together an amazing round.  It did teach me that I need to practice more, and play courses I am used to under conditions I am used to (higher altitude, for instance.)  It might make me alter my schedule for the rest of the year.

Onto bigger and better things.

For each day in 2010 (give or take) I’ll be showing a picture from somewhere in my life with a little explanation as to what it is.  Enjoy the trip down memory lane.  (CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ARCHIVES!)

Worlds Putt

Date: August 2005

Location: Flagstaff, AZ

Description: The PDGA hosts two Worlds events every year, one for professionals and one for amateurs.  While I’ve still yet to play the professional version, I did haul it out to Arizona in 2005 to take part in my first (and, so far, only) Worlds competition.  That year, a field of 160 or so converged on four courses in Flagstaff during monsoon season.  As you could imagine, there were a number of stories to be told, including very nearly getting struck by lightning (it hit a ski tower less than 100’ from me) to living almost entirely on peanut butter in jelly to Cromwell writing an impromptu song about trucks to us driving through golf-ball sized hail to practically living in the jacuzzi.  Somewhere during these shenanigans, we played some golf too.  I came in tied for 37^th out of the 160, a much better showing than I’d hoped for.  I remember having trouble with my putting that week.  However, when ratings guru (and inventor of the term ‘Mitch Sonderfan ratings curve’) Chuck Kennedy came by with his camera to grab some mid-tournament photographs, I stepped my game up and canned this 30 footer.  Maybe I need a camera on me more often, because those distance putts have been killing me lately.

For each day in 2010 (give or take) I’ll be showing a picture from somewhere in my life with a little explanation as to what it is.  Enjoy the trip down memory lane.  (CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ARCHIVES!)

Sunset at 65

Date: ~2000

Location: New Jersey

Description: For a short period of time, I carried a [non-digital] camera with me wherever I went so that I could capture cool moments.  This was back in the day when you developed your photos and each photo counted and you couldn’t take dozen of pictures of cat poop because, well, you have a huge flash drive to store them on.  Photos mattered.  Often times, I would see such moments while in my car.  Years before, I had developed my own style of photography because I hated how candid photos seemed awkward and staged photos seemed fake.  This hybrid photography involved holding the camera away from my body but aimed at somebody – I would often keep it like that for minutes at a time.  This way, people were consciously aware I could take their photo at any second, but didn’t feel obligated to pose for it because they had consciously forgotten about the camera.  As an accidental consequence of this, I became quite good at aiming my camera while not actually looking through the viewfinder.  This came in handy while snapping pictures of objects located outside of a car moving 60+ mph – I could snap a decent photo while never taking my eyes off the road.  This was one such photo of a cool sunset.  I believe it was taken on a trip to or from Rutgers, though my memory is starting to fail me now.

Truth be told, I undersold – that putt was 15-20′.

For each day in 2010 (give or take) I’ll be showing a picture from somewhere in my life with a little explanation as to what it is.  Enjoy the trip down memory lane.  (CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ARCHIVES!)

Straw-Whackin’

Date: January 1999

Location: Palisades Mall, NY

Description: Few pictures can truly capture the essence of an emotion.  How many times have you had to explain, “Well, it much [adjective]r when you were there in person?”  Well, on Susan’s 21^st birthday, we headed out to the Rainforest Café to allow her to order big girl drinks.  Because of the large number of people invited, me, Scott and Chris (pictured) were at the other end, hardly able to see the birthday girl.  So we had to do something to entertain ourselves.  One of us, I forget who, found if you put a straw in a cup and ‘flicked’ a knife at it (by holding it above the straw, pending it upwards, and letting it snap down), the straw would fly out of the cup.  And this was the greatest thing we’ve ever discovered.  Similarly, we found that adding more straws simply added more smiles.  I laughed and smiled so hard that the back of my head hurt until we left.  Adding even more comedy was Mark (not pictured), who was getting so upset at our enjoyment of our new game, who started hoarding all our straws.  Chris managed to wrangle more for this picture, an action shot of the straw-whackin’ experience.  Notice the near euphoria he is experiencing.  That is what it’s like.

For each day in 2010 (give or take) I’ll be showing a picture from somewhere in my life with a little explanation as to what it is.  Enjoy the trip down memory lane.  (CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ARCHIVES!)

Style/Anti-Style

Date: December 31, 1997

Location: Wyckoff, NJ

Description: 1997 saw the height of my ‘I will be different and I don’t care what anybody thinks’ attitude that lasted, with its ebbs and flows, from 1994-2005.  It was epitomized most evidently in my attire, which was once described as ‘the color and pattern of Derek.’  It was all about color volume and pattern clash.  I had often been found putting a shirt back if it matched too well with my pants.  My eggs that had eggs and bacon on them (I miss those pants.)  It was on this New Year’s Eve when the stark contrast of my clothing and normal people-clothing gained immediate perspective.  Doug, never a slouch when it came to clothes, decked himself out in his finest duds and I had duds on too, but using a totally different definition of the word.  Someone (who was apparently 3′ 7″ tall) managed to snap this awkward juxtaposition.  One of the saddest results of that era being dead and gone is that I would kill to have those sunglasses again for poker.

So as many of you know, Landen got hit with a stomach bug over the weekend that kinda knocked him on his kiester.  Wait, that’s a terrible start to the blog.  How about a cute picture first?

The cheesy smile

Right, now Landen was kinda down for the count over the weekend, and even though his fever has gone down, I think a weekend of constant coddling and babying (as any good parent would) has left him attention-spoiled.  He’s becoming more and more a connoisseur of crying.  During the weekend, he’d have moments where it sounded like his thought process was “MOMMMMM, pay attention to me!  Stop looking at me!  I want to be picked up!  Don’t touch me!”  I think we found the best was to be sitting right near him but ignoring him completely.  And even that only partially worked.  He’s still been very tired lately, but that’s to be expected after getting his intestines all worked up.

Clashing racing stripes is the new black

He’s an adventure baby, no doubt.  According to Ash, the only time he’s really gotten angry at school was one day he went over to his coat and started bawling.  We think he just wanted to go outside.  He has no fear outside – snow, mud, water… he just dives straight in.  I mean, sure, he’s a kid.  That’s sorta what they do.  But he loves being outside.  A few more pics to prove it.

Since coming back from NY, I’ve been astounded at the skills at which he is adept.  When I left, he was probably 60% crawl, 40% walk.  By the time I came home, he was almost exclusively walking, saving crawling for when he was in a really bad mood.  He can follow directions pretty well (“Are you ready to eat?  Let’s go over to your chair” and he’ll walk there.)  Also, if we just get his coat out, he’ll walk over to it and put his arms through the sleeves.

He’s also becoming quite proficient at tickling the ivories.

Notice the inverted major third he plays at the end – he’s got an ear

While he still doesn’t say too many words (mama, dada, uh-oh, more), he can sign ‘more’, ‘food’ and ‘please’.  I don’t have video of that, but I’m not sure why.  However, the amount of SOUNDS he can make is astounded.  Just the other day, Ash tried something out, doing her famed elephant call.  ON HIS FIRST TRY, he repeated it.  (This video was taken less than a minute after the first try.)

A career in impressions?

He’s also looking bigger, starting to develop some muscles.  Oh, and actually, we finally got a picture of his very strange tooth progression.  Normally, it’s bottom two first, then top two (or four), then the teeth on both top and bottom start to branch out.  Landen got his first 6 normally, then all his back teeth.  He is still missing the middles.  Observe:

With wrinkles, this is what he’ll look like at 80.

His hair is also getting very long (even with Auntie Jen giving him a trim up front.)  It’s only curly in the back, but we’ll give that time, I’m sure it’ll get worse.  Plus, it’s fun to style.

The Yahoo Serious 2010 look

I’ll leave you with some random pix and videos.  More videos up on ashsparks’ Youtube account, and hopefully even more will go up soon.  Still haven’t found our camera.  Grrrrr….