All I want for summer vacation is a dead cell phone

Seriously, what the Hell is the deal with these damn things? We leave for the coast in, oh, about 46 hours or so. That means in 49 hours, I will have no signal, no Internet access, no Skype, no connection to the outside world but good old fashioned person to person communication. Not that I really want to talk to anyone when we're out there (except Michelle, of course), but it's nice to unplug from time to time.
The weather next week is supposed to be really nice - should be in the sixties to low seventies. Maybe we'll get some sun! I'm really looking forward to some hiking in the redwoods and on the beach, some golf, sitting in the hot tub, blah blah... Oh, and GOLF! How could I forget! I love that course! I proposed three rounds to Michelle and she didn't flinch. Will might even come up for a day to play.
Now, I just need to wrap up all the loose ends at work and home so I can actually go away on Sunday....

Okay, so...

Okay, so, golf's getting better. And worse. And better. Here's the perfect example: 18th hole at Wente - 412 yard par 4. I crushed my drive, high, soft draw, 325 yards - right down to the cart sign. The second shot was a 75 yarder (my nemesis range lately) and I airmailed the green. This keeps happening over and over.... I take a half swing with my lob wedge and hit it 100 yards. What the hell? It's frustrating too because my bestest golf buddy moved away and I'm having a hard time finding people to play with who are fun to be around, play at my level or better, don't flake, don't just drink their way through the golf course, and who are interested in helping each other get better at the game. I signed up on a site called mygolfbuddy.com - maybe that'll yield some results. I'm going to throw a posting up on craigslist also - who knows, maybe that'll pay off? Seems pretty desperate, but I guess I am at this point. Sigh...

Golf game... improving... sucking less...

Well, good news from the world of my golf game. I'm sucking a whole lot less than before and golf has become so much fun. Amazing what hitting the ball straight and the right distance can do for you!! I've been working really hard on tempo and smoothing my swing out. I played a lot during my recent So Cal trip and I was just killing it off the tee and my approach shots were like guided missiles. So, while I'm on this golfing high, I'm taking full advantage. Michelle' out of town this weekend, so I'm playing Roddy Ranch in Antioch on Saturday (finally starting to use the 12 free rounds I got with my Mare Island membership) and Mare Island on Sunday afternoon. Yaay!!

Musings from the Road

I'm traveling again, this time to Southern California for some face time (did I just say that?) with one of the company's primary vendors and to check out all the cool new stuff HP is releasing for this year. I came down to Long Beach on Sunday and am staying at the Queen Mary. It's been a good time thus far - some laughs, some tears, some cheers... Here's a brief glimpse into what's been happening.

Okay, I'm a cynic and a skeptic. The ship is haunted. Period. The first night, I couldn't sleep and I had the feeling that someone was in the room with me. When I did fall asleep, I had the scariest nightmare of my life. What really made it scary was that it was so real - I didn't really realize I was dreaming until after it was over, and even then, it took hours and repeated mental reinvestigation to convince myself it wasn't real. I love the song "Mad World" (especially the version from the Donnie Darko soundtrack), but I can now honestly debate the validity of the lyric, "the dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had."

Yesterday was all about relationship building (vendor golf). I was on fire, nailing drives, lasering irons at the pins, just killing it. I had several drives over 280 yards and hit most of my irons within 10-12 feet - three of which were within 3 feet and I nearly holed out from the fairway twice. Our group shot 64 (scramble format) but we left three or four birdies out on the course. After lunch, some of us decided to go back out and play another 18 (I think it was my idea - I am a glutton, after all). The second 18 was more challenging - the wind was up, we were all sunburned and tired, and we played straight up. I played like crap the first couple holes and blew my chances at scoring well - ended up with 47 on the front and two balls in the water on #9. Turned it around on the back and shot 42 with three 3 putts. We made it in right at sunset.

Made it back to the hotel around 9 and really needed some food and sunburn treatment. I put some lotion on - there was no aloe to be found. I figured the next best thing was juniper, so I had some G&Ts with the HP guys in the bar after dinner. Hanging with geeks is really odd. We're sitting around, cackling our asses off, making jokes with punchlines like "oh, you must be a Novell Administrator!!" and "yeah, that's what you get for not properly configuring traverse permissions under NTFS!!" Completely surreal...

Off to the HP show now. I'm sure I'll have more tidbits of errata later.