Par. Tee.

So I have taken up golf. I brought back my step-father's clubs when I was in SD for the Fourth of July, and first went to the driving range on the 25th. After marked improvement my second time to the range, my sister/coach felt that after one more session at the range I'd be ready to hit the links.

We went to the Jim Ager Memorial Junior 9 hole par 27 course on Capitol Parkway on Friday the 1st. I shot in the high 50s, but I was generally pleased with my first time out, and most importantly (for this stage of my "career") I enjoyed myself. Marcy apparently felt the same, because she suggested we go again the following day, so on her birthday we went to the other 9 hole par 27 course in Lincoln, Pioneer Lake Golf and Tennis Club.

This time I had some fairly bad holes (hit a 63), but I redeemed myself by hitting each of my clubs well at least once.

With Marcy in Portland this weekend for a wedding, we golfed again at Pioneer Lake on Wednesday night, and by night I mean that we started golfing at 8:15. I guess it isn't the middle of the summer anymore, because it got dark fairly quickly, but with some encouragement from me, we soldiered on. This brought us to the 90ish yard Hole 7. We had to spot for each other and use our hearing to figure out where our drives went. So I heard my drive hit the tree, which was good news because it gives you a good starting point to scour for the ball. So after wandering around the base of the tree for a while, I looked up and there was my ball, magically on the green. From there it was just a two putt for my first par ever. To quote Ricky Bobby, "THAT JUST HAPPENED!"

We only golfed one more hole after that, bailing on hole nine due to the darkness. But compared to my first time at Pioneer Lake, I knocked 7 strokes off my 8 hole score.

Tied in Omaha

So I had a wonderful day in Omaha yesterday with Marcy.

(It is a Sunday. You're checking blogs. Please indulge me and my hyper linking.)

We started with breakfast at Dixie Quicks Magnolia Room (which a sign outside informed us was going to be part of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on the Food Network, and by entering we were letting them use our images captured therein in "perpetuity"* Of course we read this as we were leaving.)

Marcy had the red beans and rice omelet with fresh fruit and a biscuit, and I had the asparagus and prosciutto (I spelled that correctly the first time.) omelet with grits and a biscuit. OH, we ate outside on their patio at the back of the building which we got to walk through the adjoining art gallery to reach. So it was a super way to start the day.

Then we took a quick jaunt up to Beer Corner USA where Marcy napped in the car while I wandered up and down Beertopia's aisles choosing some bottles to expand my database:

Olfabrikken's Porter (I had this on my birthday last year. I do think the "baltisk porter" style is my favorite.), Great Divide's Yeti Imperial Stout and Oak-Aged Yeti Imperial Stout (Why does their 75 IBUs go from "hefty" in the normal Imperial to "respectable" in the oak-aged?)(tried the Oak-Aged Imperial Stout last month at Yia Yia's and wanted to compare to the non-aged), Ommegang's Rare Vos (sly fox), Hitachino Nest's (translators aren't quite top notch for some fun solecisms) Red Rice Ale and XH [matured in sake (not a wine since it's made from a grain and not a fruit) casks], Theakston's Old Peculier (an old favorite I first had at a Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band concert), Schloss Eggenberg's (I really enjoy their stereotypical website.) Mac Queen's Nessie (Never been to Austria in a bottle), Baron's Black Wattle Superior, Fuller's 1845 (Haven't had a Fuller's I didn't like.)

Tasting notes to come.

Then we went to the first of many College World Series baseball games. After hitting a three run homer to tie the game in the bottom of the 8th inning, Florida State gave up 11 runs in the top of the 9th to lose the game 16-5. It got so bad that they even had their star catcher Buster Posey pitch for them, to no avail. So with such an offensive outburst at the end of the game, it was the third-longest CWS game ever, at 4 hours and 11 minutes. This meant that Marcy and my's (never been comfortable with that construction) SPF 30 that we applied at 12:15 was of little effect at 5:15.

One of the great parts of being at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium was enjoying the tremendous "organizer" by the name of Lambert Bartak. He was such a good organizer that he could play a song from the "Great American Songbook" and I would immediately recognize it yet still take one or two verses to identify it.

Then we stopped at Sur la Table, where I very quickly looked at some chef knives before they closed. I did have the opportunity to hold them which was what I was looking for at this point. I'm leaning toward Wusthof and Shun. I also held the Global and a Henckels but wasn't compelled by either. Separate and related, I have moved the La Creuset piece down on my shopping list and up on my wish/dream list.

Our loverly day in Omaha ended with a super meal at Taste in Rockbrook Village. Marcy had the seared mahi mahi with asparagus risotto, and I had the mussels in wine butter sauce. She also got the chocolate lava cake for dessert.

Part of my reason for doing so much in Omaha on one trip was to justify driving the 120 miles when all was said and done.

*Perpetuity is a magnificent word to say aloud.

Watching The Soup last night, I noticed two names from a dance competition TV show: Kherington (girl), Thayne (boy)

A Nice Sunday Updated!

Grab the Ritalin 'cuz there's hyper-linking now.

Last Sunday was an excellent example of what can be done if you plan/schedule a little bit.

At 1 pm Marcy and I left for Brownville, NE (right on the border of Nebraska and Missouri, south of Nebraska City and East of Auburn) because a photographer friend of hers was having a gallery showing from 11 to 4. We arrived a bit after 2:30 and spent about an hour looking at Nathan's show and walking the historic main street of Brownville.

We left Brownville around 3:30 and drove the 70 miles north on I-29 to Council Bluffs. The reason I needed to go to Council Bluffs is that only in Iowa and parts of Illinois is Templeton Rye Whiskey available, and only recently was their second batch made available to the Iowa liquor board for distribution. So I made a stop at the Metro Wine and Spirits store for my bottle of "the good stuff."

After driving down Dodge Street to West Roads and Regency Court, we browsed and got some chocolate and coffee at Whole Foods Market. After negotiating the labyrinth of roads, we arrived on time to our reservation at 6pm for PF Chang's.

Three delicious courses (I had Chang's ribs, Chengdu spiced lamb, and banana Spring rolls. Marcy had spring rolls, chow fun chicken, and flourless chocolate dome.) later we were a little over an hour out from the main event at 9, Sondre Lerche's concert. So we stopped at Omaha's Jake's Cigar and Spirits Shop, and I got a pipe and some tobacco to put in it.

Then I had some excellent Trappist beer (Rochefort), and we played three games of pool. At the end of our third game, it was time for the show.

The show was excellent with Dan Wilson and Sondre both delighting myself and the crowd (each of them played Gibson acoustics and then Fender and a gold Gretsch Golden Anniversary respectively). Then at 11:45 we left Benson, and after an uneventful drive home, we arrived 12 hours after we left at 1 AM.

Brilliant!

That really sums up the Regina Spektor concert at Sokol Auditorium, opened by Only Son (if you'd like to see one of the songs they performed together during the encore, watch the "Hotel Song" video from an earlier show in Chicago).

My sister, Marcy, has a bunch of pictures of the concert up on Flickr. If you aren't too busy, I like her picture of our kitten Simon, the predator, on her third page of pictures (the sphinxy one is fun too).

But back to the concert, it really was everything I had hoped that it would be. The Steinway was grand, literally and figuratively, Regina was really magnificent, and was a trooper too, fighting off sickness (a fight she was beginning to lose by the time the encore came), and Jack/Only Son had a very fun open, what with his iPodologue and all (that would be when he had a conversation with his iPod).

The last song of the evening was Samson. This was one of her songs that I greatly anticipated. When I heard it at the show, I thought about the burden Delilah had lifted from her Hebrew hero. I know my own experience pales in comparison, but I think I felt similarly to him when I decided it was more important to graduate from Union than it was to graduate from the Honors Program at Union. It was a tremendous relief to eliminate the academic burden I'd probably carried with me since third grade.

"Owning a Barnyard Animal Isn't as Easy as It Looks"

I woke at 3:45 this morning, which worked out alright because my sister was also insomniacking. Fortunately, these mind-gloaming hours allow one to tap that subconscious, so to speak.

Apparently I spend a lot of time in my web log community because my subconscious was rocking the poetry type stuff (see Angela and Katie's recent posts). Katie's post particularly spoke to me. I was wanting to add a comment to say how much the ocean meant to me, but I've only been to each of America's oceans once, and only single digits in age at that. The other idea that was floating in my mind was my disdain
for a lyric in a praise song, something about God's love being closer than the ocean to the shore.

Here's what some amalgamating got me, one simile:

as close as the tide

The phrase "as close as the tide to the sand" (scroll to bottom of page for pertinence) was used to describe Blaine and Barbie's relationship over three years ago, but I'd like to think I wasn't influence by that in any form.

What I like about the phrase is its Janus-like qualities. It is always there but always changing too. I know I'm not a poet, but I had to fill the last two hours with something besides music video watching, so I blogged about it.

I'm going to have a post soon about a few of my favorite things, so start thinking about your favorite things too: colors, way to prepare eggs, type of meat/analog, car, actors, sports teams/athletes, films, directors, music artists, and other stuff too. I think the post might actually be a lot of my favorite things.

Just sharing that I discovered who was singing a cool song in the recent Puma commercials: Mazarin. I have the song on my Space if you want to check it out.

Now that it is 6:07 and day light, I'm gonna go running.

Caring Hearts and Killing Cars

This past week end, I drove up to SD then hitched a ride to DAA for my sisters graduation. I left at 6:12 am on Friday morning and 424 miles later at 12:07 pm I arrived in Rockham. Yes, I sped. On my way up, I hit a smaller bird. Then going up to DAA, we (my mother, Denny and I) hit a larger bird. The weekend's events went smoothly without any major hitches in the giddy-up. I'll share my notes that I took in the program later.

One fun piece of advice that Charles Reel, Dakota Conference Treasurer, gave in his commencement address: "If you lend someone $20 and you never see them again, it was probably worth it."

I stayed, after we packed my sister up on Sunday, to ride back from DAA to Rockham. Yes, we hit another bird. Monday was cleaning out the front porch and playing plenty of bean bags. I headed out for Lincoln later than I wanted, so I sped again. This time though, I was pulled over and given a ticket. Oh well. I felt no remorse or guilt or anger or anything really. It was a consequence of breaking the law like falling off a table is consequence of gravity. Then I stopped at the Wal-Mart to get a pint of ice cream and Arrested Development. Jennapher was the girl that checked me out, literally, not as figuratively. Why would a parent do that to their child? I was fortunate to purchase gasoline for 2.57 in Sioux City. Who knows when gas will be that cheap again. Then an hour later, I hit a deer. Don't worry; I was terribly precise with my hit. The deer only took out my headlight, nothing else.

So if you're keeping score, I had four legs to my journey, and each resulted in a dead animal. Four for Four.

The caring heart of the title is the scholarship my sister won from the NAD.