The “battle” was last weekend and I’ve waited a week for Ron or Steve F. to post this, but I guess they’re sore losers! Yes, Steve B. is the new “Fall Family Champ”! Can you believe that? Steve F. and Ron must have really had an off weekend!
I’m Trying to Get in Shape, too!
Over the past month or so, I’ve been trying to get back into shape by running on a regular basis. It was actually quite timely, because my first day of running was actually July 4th. It was the following day that Larry posted his entry about getting serious about doing something about his weight. BTW, Larry, let’s see some updated figures!
 I had decided I had to get serious too because a few weeks prior when I was packing for our Battle Creek golf trip I tried on some of my golf shorts, and most of them didn’t fit because I had gotten too fat. I didn’t start running at that time because back in mid-May, I was playing basketball in our driveway with Eric and was attempting to save a ball going out of bounds. I was right on the edge of the driveway and rolled my right ankle and went down like a pile of bricks. I was in maybe more pain then I’ve ever felt in my life. I didn’t see stars, but I did see one bright sun. Eric was to later say that that was probably the stupidest thing he’s ever seen me do. The kids are at the age where they show us no sympathy.
 It ends up that I not only sprained my ankle, but several days later I realized that I had strained my achilles. So due to that injury I wasn’t able to start running until it had healed significantly. It still is a little tender, but it actually gives me no problems when I’m running. It’s more bothersome in the morning when I wake up and everything has tightened up.
After a few weeks of running, I decided to start a log of my runs, so I’ve posted it here. Sorry, no time to make any graphs, but maybe on my next update.
| Date | Distance | Time | Min/Mile | Comment |
I usually run at Moraine Hills State Park a few miles from home. They’ve got 3 interconnected loops of cinder trails that are great for running. I usually do the 3.73 mile loop, but have occasionally added a second for a 6.2 mile run.
I haven’t lost much weight, maybe 4 pounds, but my clothes are fitting much better. My goal is to first run the 6.2 mile run in under an hour. I should be able to do that relatively soon. As soon as the weather cools down a bit, I’ll give it a go. My other goal is to see if I can do the 3.73 mile loop in under 30 minutes. That’s going to be the tough one, but hopefully with another couple of months of serious running and some 50 degree weather and low humidity (as opposed to the 80’s and high humidity I’ve been running in, I just may have a shot of doing it.
 I’ll work on getting my stats to publish a little better, but right now I’ve got to run. Not literally, I already ran today and it was tough. I hate running in the morning. My times are always slower because my body just isn’t ready to perform and I think it goes into shock.
Fall Family Champion
There is a new champion. Ron, Steve B, Nick (Ex champion), and I played Tuesday. We had three pretty nice days of weather here. Anyway, we played a points game. Six points for low man, 4 for 2nd, 2 for 3rd and zero for 4th per hole net.
Nick started slowly taking only 2 points in the first 4 holes, but made a charge on the last 4 holes of the front nine. I believe he picked up around 17 point for those holes. He was still trailing Ron and I, but was defending valiantly. Unfortunatly, he started the back nine about the same way. With five holes to play Steve B. and Nick were pretty much out of it. I was trailing by about 5 points and could have jumped to the top of the leaderboard if I was just able to knock down a couple of putts on the next 2 holes. Too bad for me, I wasn’t up to the task. On 16 I pretty much handed the championship to Ron by knocking 2 tee shots OB, but Ron let me back in the game by moving a 20 ft chip about 1 foot. He took 3rd on the hole for 2 points. I got zero.
Two holes to play and I was down 5 points. (By the way this is all by memeory so I may be a little off.) Ron bogeys the hole to lock up 2 points. I have a 6 foot parr putt to tie Nick to give me a much needed 5 points. MISS AGAIN, DAMN. I tie Ron and we both get 3 points. I need a miracle on 18. It doesn’t happen. Ron wins and is now the proud owner of 2 shirts and a hat. We still need the 2nd shirt embroidered Ron. Congratulations to Ron.
Get ready for your chance next year boys and girls. You know you can pretty much depend on an opportunity to win this coveted title at The Battle of Battle Creek. For those not aware I beleive The Battle will become a mandatory 4 day event next year.
Ronnie’s Riotous Raucous!
After a fabulous feast at Lou Malnatti’s (sorry Shannon) we continued to party at my house amidst the destruction/construction of our kitchen. Most of the evening was spent trying to take a picture of the six of us (guess I better learn how to use the delay). Who could ask for a better 48th birthday, right Ron?
NEW Fall Family Champion
Sorry this has taken a while to get to all of you. As you are all aware Ron is not the Fall Family Champ and neither am I.
Nick and I played about 4 weeks ago. Since Nick had not played all year, and if you’ve ever seen his game, I figured match play a stroke a hole would be pretty easy for me to retain my title. Well, unfortunatly, I was wrong. I beleive the final was something like 6 and 5. He shot 103. I shot 94. His 103 wasn’t a real indication of how well he shot during the match play. Once he had it won he wasn’t quite as focused as he was on the first 12 holes. He should have broken 100 easy.
Anyway, he has both the shirts and the hat. I have tried unsuccesfully to get another match this year, but Nick is going to school full time and putting in about 25-30 hours a week at IKEA. By the way, his emploeyee discount is 15% if anyone was to take advantage.
Since the weather is changing rapidly I beleive Nick will have this title into 2007. Get your plans together now to challenge him before Battle Creek or we may not have our tournament in a tournament event next year.
Eagles
I know, where have I been? So I haven’t been on the blog in a while. Sorry, not my thing.
Anyway, to catch up. I have had many eagles, but only 2 full shots into the hole and neither of them did I see go in the hole. The first was #10 at Chalet Hills where the green is elevated and no way you can see the ball go in the hole. I believe it was 150 yards uphill with a 7 iron. The other was #1 at Old Orchard CC in my league. I stiffed an 8 iron just past the hole. It backed up slightly and stopped a couple inches from the hole, or so I thought. I turned and put my club in my bag, turned back around and the ball was gone. It had been sitting on the lip and dropped when I turned my back.
As you may or may not know I am back in possession of the shirt. I kicked Ron’s ass (low net for all 6 rounds at Battle Creek). Wally and Ron tied for 2nd after Saturdar’d 36 holes and Ron won the tiebreaker to play the 18 hole match play Sunday. I believe the final was 5 and 4.
Last night was our graduation party for Nick. Most of the local family attended. It was a good time. Nick will be going to Harper for at least a year. Will see after that what he wants to do.
Since it’s been so long since I’ve been on here I did want to send a picture of the course we played in Nevada. Unbelievable course. I haven’t added any pictures before so here goes nothing…
Forget the pictures. Don’t know what happened to my disc.
Larry, hope your knee doesn’t become too much of a problem. I did have my knee scoped once and played golf about 10 days later. No big deal. Good luck.
Well, goodbye everyone. I’ll be back soon. Maybe I can get some pictures of the graduation party together.
Me and the World Series Trophy
The White Sox World Series Trophy Tour was at work today. So I waited in line for about 10 – 15 minutes and they snapped a polaroid.
Here I am! Pretty cool except they move you out of there in about 5 seconds to get the next person in.
Birthdays
At the beginning of the month Ronnie made a comment on his birthday posting that he couldn’t remember the year of everyone’s birth. I think that’s a great challenge to post on our blog (we need to start getting some family history here). I’ll give it a shot (correct me if I’m wrong). I then challenge everyone to post their immediate family’s birth dates. Here goes:
Dad (Edwin) – 01/01/21, deceased 01/24/86
Mom (Eileen) – 12/16/24, deceased 12/09/84
Larry – 03/02/45
Marilyn – 02/23/49
Steve – 05/16/51
Kenny – 07/17/54
Gary – 10/04/57
Ronnie – 10/28/58
For history, we should add Susan: 12/24/45 (deceased shortly after birth). Am I correct? OK, let’s get our families on here! Then we can start going backwards and getting other relatives!
Do you dream?
I woke up this morning after one of my typical nights of dreaming. The “star” of this dream was Gary. He had just gotten a review at work and wasn’t too happy about it. So he came to the family for advice. We were living in Chalfont. Mommy, Kenny and Ronnie were in the dream. Mommy and I intervened…kind of like attending a “parent-teacher” conference with Gary’s boss. Kenny & Ronnie were “background” constants; Kenny complaining that he was having similar problems at work and Ronnie just standing there laughing (we were all current age except Ronnie who was a teenager)!
Weird. Do any of you dream? Steve says he doesn’t, or at least never remembers them. I dream nightly. Maybe it’s just a female thing??????
Penn State vs. Notre Dame?
UncleLar (BroLar),
So what are the odds and what has to take place for Penn State to end up playing Notre Dame in a bowl game? I’ve got a household full of “golden domers”, not to mention Mary Ann’s entire family. I’d like nothing better than to watch Penn State beat Notre Dame somewhere on New Year’s Day.