Just down the beach from the beach house we are staying in is the Quinault Casino. Getting there by road involves a 2 mile winding trek but it is much closer if you just walk down the beach. We went there for Sunday brunch which, if you ignore the oddly minty-flavored soda was really quite good and reasonably priced at under $17 for adults and $9 for kids.
It is when you walk out of the restaurant that you see the real draw to the resort. The casino is like a mini-Vegas sitting in the center of the building. Lots of binging slot machines and 2 rows of about 10 gaming tables. Certainly nothing on the Las Vegas scale but the rules are the same. When brunch was over, we dropped the kids off at the arcade and Leslie and I set ourselves a 30 minute limit and I went to the blackjack table and sat down. The dealer was one of the fastest dealers I've seen. So fast that Leslie couldn't keep up with what was going on and she headed off to the video poker. When I sit down and win my first hand and get a blackjack on your second one I figure this is going to be a good day. Zippy the dealer kept the cards coming and in general they were pretty good. A couple of good doubling opportunities came and I cashed in on them. After 30 minutes, I was up $75, Leslie was up $38 and we left with more than we came with even after paying for the brunch and video arcade. Fun!
I am really glad there isn't one of these just down the street from my house. :)
Sunday, May 30, 2004
Saturday, May 29, 2004
Normal People Golf @ Ocean Shores GC
When I play with the people I usually play with, I get a view of the game that may be a bit different from what most people see. While vacationing at Ocean Shores, WA for Memorial Day weekend, I got a good taste of what normal people play like.
When I say normal people, I mean people who don't regularly play on country club courses, people who don't go out and buy a $500 driver when it comes out just to see if it improves their scores, people who ACTUALLY DO drop their pants around their ankles and hit their second shot red-faced and bare-assed when their tee shot doesn't make it past the women's tees. These were my playing partners today.
I showed up at the course around 10:30, hit some range balls, and was eventually sent out to the first tee to wait for my group to show up. I watched a variety of players walk up to the tee box and use the most interesting swing techniques to get the ball in play. No two alike, nothing like the "correct" swings I am used to trying to emulate and nearly every one of them still effective at getting the ball into play. When my threesome shows up, they immediately apologize in advanced for what will be a slow day but I say that we're all there to have fun. One of them hasn't played before, another hasn't played more than a few times and the third plays at this course regularly, but hasn't played since last fall. Two of them have woods that are made from -- wait for it -- wood! It turns out that most people play with the clubs they have had for years and don't treat Saturday as "go try out new equipment day."
They each tee off with shots that skip along the ground to between 75 and 125 yards off the tee box. I take my 3 wood and hit a tail wind enhanced 280 yard drive right down the middle of the fairway. They are impressed, I am shocked but try to play it cool ;) I end up missing the GIR but sinking an improbable 15 foot putt for par and I am feeling like a golf god!
The feeling fades, though, as I lose one ball on each of the next two holes by pulling shots into the river and end up with double bogeys on each hole. The play is really slow and I am making the best of it helping the guy who hasn't played before figure out the difference between clubs, how to hit sand shots and where to find his ball. He has an interesting swing where he keeps his arms perfectly straight and pivots at the waist to hit the ball. He takes about 12 practice swings before each shot and then generally skitters the ball along the ground around 50 yards. After a while, I show him how to hit down on the ball instead of scooping it and then the ball starts flying. The next shot goes well over the green (it turns out that a 4 iron wasn't the best choice of club from 85 yards) but on the next hole, he ends up parring a par 5! At no point, though, did any of them get upset with their topped or chunked shots. They just walked up to it and hit again, counting each stroke they took and having fun just hitting the ball.
I shoot a pretty mediocre 47 on the front 9 in 2 hours and 35 minutes and when they stop at the turn to wait for some other friends behind them, I go ahead to the back 9 as a single. From that point, I don't see anyone else on the course for the rest of the day. The pace of play speeds up dramatically as does the quality of my golf shots. I par 3 of the first 4 holes and finish the back 9 with a 41 in 1 hour and 25 minutes. My 3-wood was generally very good today. No subsequent 280 yard drives, but on the par 5s, I would generally be on the green after 2 shots with it and a wedge. Wedge play was good. Irons were weak on the front 9, but good on the back. The high point there was that the longer distances seem to be starting to lock in. I was hitting 140 yard 8 irons and 185 yard 4 irons so that was encouraging. There was a stiff wind all day long which would grab a lot of shots so it was tough to say how much was me not hitting straight and how much was me not taking the wind into account enough. The fairways were pretty narrow, with houses on either side for most of the course so my driver never came out.
In all, it was a fun day on the course with some very friendly local folks who showed me a different part of the game that was fun to see.
When I say normal people, I mean people who don't regularly play on country club courses, people who don't go out and buy a $500 driver when it comes out just to see if it improves their scores, people who ACTUALLY DO drop their pants around their ankles and hit their second shot red-faced and bare-assed when their tee shot doesn't make it past the women's tees. These were my playing partners today.
I showed up at the course around 10:30, hit some range balls, and was eventually sent out to the first tee to wait for my group to show up. I watched a variety of players walk up to the tee box and use the most interesting swing techniques to get the ball in play. No two alike, nothing like the "correct" swings I am used to trying to emulate and nearly every one of them still effective at getting the ball into play. When my threesome shows up, they immediately apologize in advanced for what will be a slow day but I say that we're all there to have fun. One of them hasn't played before, another hasn't played more than a few times and the third plays at this course regularly, but hasn't played since last fall. Two of them have woods that are made from -- wait for it -- wood! It turns out that most people play with the clubs they have had for years and don't treat Saturday as "go try out new equipment day."
They each tee off with shots that skip along the ground to between 75 and 125 yards off the tee box. I take my 3 wood and hit a tail wind enhanced 280 yard drive right down the middle of the fairway. They are impressed, I am shocked but try to play it cool ;) I end up missing the GIR but sinking an improbable 15 foot putt for par and I am feeling like a golf god!
The feeling fades, though, as I lose one ball on each of the next two holes by pulling shots into the river and end up with double bogeys on each hole. The play is really slow and I am making the best of it helping the guy who hasn't played before figure out the difference between clubs, how to hit sand shots and where to find his ball. He has an interesting swing where he keeps his arms perfectly straight and pivots at the waist to hit the ball. He takes about 12 practice swings before each shot and then generally skitters the ball along the ground around 50 yards. After a while, I show him how to hit down on the ball instead of scooping it and then the ball starts flying. The next shot goes well over the green (it turns out that a 4 iron wasn't the best choice of club from 85 yards) but on the next hole, he ends up parring a par 5! At no point, though, did any of them get upset with their topped or chunked shots. They just walked up to it and hit again, counting each stroke they took and having fun just hitting the ball.
I shoot a pretty mediocre 47 on the front 9 in 2 hours and 35 minutes and when they stop at the turn to wait for some other friends behind them, I go ahead to the back 9 as a single. From that point, I don't see anyone else on the course for the rest of the day. The pace of play speeds up dramatically as does the quality of my golf shots. I par 3 of the first 4 holes and finish the back 9 with a 41 in 1 hour and 25 minutes. My 3-wood was generally very good today. No subsequent 280 yard drives, but on the par 5s, I would generally be on the green after 2 shots with it and a wedge. Wedge play was good. Irons were weak on the front 9, but good on the back. The high point there was that the longer distances seem to be starting to lock in. I was hitting 140 yard 8 irons and 185 yard 4 irons so that was encouraging. There was a stiff wind all day long which would grab a lot of shots so it was tough to say how much was me not hitting straight and how much was me not taking the wind into account enough. The fairways were pretty narrow, with houses on either side for most of the course so my driver never came out.
In all, it was a fun day on the course with some very friendly local folks who showed me a different part of the game that was fun to see.
Thursday, May 27, 2004
Day One: Splorg, Salami and Tears
The best layed plans.... Leslie and I were going to play golf this morning, but the weather did not cooperate. It was pouring rain all morning so instead we went to check out the Splorg. It is actually a really nice library with a lot of cool features between the building and the way everything is layed out. I particularly like how the non-fiction section is built as a spiral which allows them to add many more books over the years to sections and keep them in the Dewey decimal system ordering without ever having to rearrange the whole library (which I guess happens a lot at traditional "flat" libraries). The meeting room floor is all red with lots of strange curvy walls. I'll definitely need to go back with my camera soon. It is a very interesting building.
Next, we went to Salumi for lunch. A little place in Pioneer Square that we had heard about from Hillel. It was fantastic! We got a meat and cheese plate with a little bit of bread and some garlic, salami and potato soup that was also really good. The gorgonzola cheese just stole the show, it was great. This place reminds me of some of the places we would visit in NYC. A small family place with just fantastic food.
Then we came back over to the east side for me to be fitted for my contact lenses. I figured I would try them out and I ordered RGP lenses since I heard they were much easier to get in and out of my eyes. I am a real wuss when it comes to my eyes so I didn't want to have to deal with "peeling a sticker off of a marble" as Leslie describes it. It turns out that RGP lenses are...uncomfortable. The doctor described it as having an eyelash in your eye all the time. My eyes were tearing up like I was in an Onion chopping contest. And since they are smaller than soft lenses and hey jump around in your eye when you blink, you can easily see the edges of them drop down each time you blink. I did get them in pretty easily (4th try for my right eye, 2nd try for my left)and they popped right out when I wanted to get them out. I did some eye chart tests while I had them in and then repeated when I took them out. The doctor admitted that these lenses would not be as sharp as my glasses and that was true. Interestingly, when I took them off and tried the same test, it was actually as easy to see without them as it was with them in. So... let's see.... discomfort from having pieces of plastic in my eye, odd blurring effects when I blink, and I see just as well as when they are not in. Sounds great! She did say that it would get better after a week or so, so I will stick with it for now.
Next, we went to Salumi for lunch. A little place in Pioneer Square that we had heard about from Hillel. It was fantastic! We got a meat and cheese plate with a little bit of bread and some garlic, salami and potato soup that was also really good. The gorgonzola cheese just stole the show, it was great. This place reminds me of some of the places we would visit in NYC. A small family place with just fantastic food.
Then we came back over to the east side for me to be fitted for my contact lenses. I figured I would try them out and I ordered RGP lenses since I heard they were much easier to get in and out of my eyes. I am a real wuss when it comes to my eyes so I didn't want to have to deal with "peeling a sticker off of a marble" as Leslie describes it. It turns out that RGP lenses are...uncomfortable. The doctor described it as having an eyelash in your eye all the time. My eyes were tearing up like I was in an Onion chopping contest. And since they are smaller than soft lenses and hey jump around in your eye when you blink, you can easily see the edges of them drop down each time you blink. I did get them in pretty easily (4th try for my right eye, 2nd try for my left)and they popped right out when I wanted to get them out. I did some eye chart tests while I had them in and then repeated when I took them out. The doctor admitted that these lenses would not be as sharp as my glasses and that was true. Interestingly, when I took them off and tried the same test, it was actually as easy to see without them as it was with them in. So... let's see.... discomfort from having pieces of plastic in my eye, odd blurring effects when I blink, and I see just as well as when they are not in. Sounds great! She did say that it would get better after a week or so, so I will stick with it for now.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
School's out for the summer!
My 67 day weekend has begun. It still doesn't feel like it yet. I'm guessing it will take a few days to sink in. I just keep thinking that Alice Cooper song today. I wonder why :) I did the math, and this is my first summer vacation without school or a full time job since 1982.
This is a great oppportunity to re-connect with the rest of the world. Very cool!
This is a great oppportunity to re-connect with the rest of the world. Very cool!
Monday, May 24, 2004
Mail Filters
Only two days left before my 67 day weekend starts. I am figuring out my mail filters for my work email. I want to still be reachable by some folks and there are some messages that I'll want to get while I'm out, but 95% of the mail I get I'll just want to delete. I think the current plan is to accept mail from certain people if it is sent to me directly and mail from anyone if it is sent directly to me with the word SAVE in the subject. Otherwise, it's going in the dumper.
Seems simple enough, but now I need to wade through Outlook's UI for this which is different for Out Of Office filters than it is for regular filters.
Work is hard ;)
Seems simple enough, but now I need to wade through Outlook's UI for this which is different for Out Of Office filters than it is for regular filters.
Work is hard ;)
Sunday, May 23, 2004
Making a gradient is harder than it should be
So I wanted to make the banner on the top of this page a little more interesting than the rounded red rectangle. A nice gradient should do. Much easier said than done. I ended up having to create 3 DIVs, one in the dark color with the rounded edges on top, one with the lighter color and rounded edges on bottom, then a third one in between that actually does that gradient using a DX Image Transform to actually get the gradient. I bet that if I view this on a non-IE machine, it will look icky.
But it does look better than before.
But it does look better than before.
Saturday, May 22, 2004
Wet! -- Golf @ Willows Run Coyote Creek
Paul, Doug and I made it out to Willows Run this morning for an early 18. It was kind of cold and there was a wind blowing so it didn't look like we were going to get away with a nice weather day. The wind was nice at the driving range though. I was playing around with delofting my irons and playing them a bit more back in my stance. Between that and the tail wind at the range, I was getting really nice distance from just about everything. My pitching wedge was out to about 125 yards, 7 iron to 155, 5 iron was making it to the green at 180 and my 3 wood was consistantly past 210 yards. Cool! My driver was still slicing though, so I benched it for the round. It suited up, but never got in the game.
We headed to the first tee and I hit a nice 3 wood right down the middle about 210. The rain started at this point, but not too hard. I hit a 7 iron to the green (GIR!) and 2 putted for a par. After a sloppy double bogey on the 2nd hole, I shot par on the next 2 holes and was sitting at +2 after 4 holes. Very nice. My only 3 putt of the day was on the ninth hole and my front 9 score was 42. At the turn, it got a bit worse. I struggled a bit with my tee shots and had 2 holes where I played my second shot from an adjoining fairway. Then I made the mistake of thinking that it was cool I didn't lose the ball. On each of 14, 15 and 16 I lose a ball and double bogey each hole though I par'd each of the par 3's on the back 9 and came up to 18th hole +14 for the day. My irons were a bit left, but rarely out of control and I expected that with some of the swing changes I was making and at least on the front 9 I was compensating for it.
Coming up to the tee on the 18th, the sky opened up. It was simply pouring all the way up that long par 5 fairway. I had a great tee shot to the middle, flubbed a 5 iron about 50 yards, then layed up nicely short of the water hazard. 53 degree wedge over the water to the green 2 putt for bogey. By the time we got into the club house, we were drenched. It was a fun round though.
The best shot, though, was Doug's approach shot on 18 over the water which was a bit right of the green. It hit the rocks on the edge of the water, bounced further right, off of the bridge across the lake and landed next to the practice green. Amazing luck to stay out of the water. None of us could ever do that if we tried :)
We headed to the first tee and I hit a nice 3 wood right down the middle about 210. The rain started at this point, but not too hard. I hit a 7 iron to the green (GIR!) and 2 putted for a par. After a sloppy double bogey on the 2nd hole, I shot par on the next 2 holes and was sitting at +2 after 4 holes. Very nice. My only 3 putt of the day was on the ninth hole and my front 9 score was 42. At the turn, it got a bit worse. I struggled a bit with my tee shots and had 2 holes where I played my second shot from an adjoining fairway. Then I made the mistake of thinking that it was cool I didn't lose the ball. On each of 14, 15 and 16 I lose a ball and double bogey each hole though I par'd each of the par 3's on the back 9 and came up to 18th hole +14 for the day. My irons were a bit left, but rarely out of control and I expected that with some of the swing changes I was making and at least on the front 9 I was compensating for it.
Coming up to the tee on the 18th, the sky opened up. It was simply pouring all the way up that long par 5 fairway. I had a great tee shot to the middle, flubbed a 5 iron about 50 yards, then layed up nicely short of the water hazard. 53 degree wedge over the water to the green 2 putt for bogey. By the time we got into the club house, we were drenched. It was a fun round though.
The best shot, though, was Doug's approach shot on 18 over the water which was a bit right of the green. It hit the rocks on the edge of the water, bounced further right, off of the bridge across the lake and landed next to the practice green. Amazing luck to stay out of the water. None of us could ever do that if we tried :)
Friday, May 21, 2004
5 days left...
My Sabbatical begins in only 5 days (and 2 of them are the weekend). I'm really thinking of it as more of a 65 day weekend. Lots of fun things planned including Golf school, 2 big tournaments, a couple of trips to Vegas, lots of time with my family and some fun projects around the house. OK, I need to start working on that project list because it isn't nearly as fleshed out as my golf schedule.
I still don't think that it has registered yet that I will be out for that long. There is so much cool stuff going on that I am really going to miss it though I know there will be plenty of fun left when I get back ;) It is going to be nice to see what the world is like when I don't head in to the office each day. Eric (let's call him... Jeric) mentioned today that some people who have done this said that two months was long enough to just begin to get a sense of a bigger world out there, but short enough that it doesn't really give you that satisfaction of living in it. I am betting he is right.
I still don't think that it has registered yet that I will be out for that long. There is so much cool stuff going on that I am really going to miss it though I know there will be plenty of fun left when I get back ;) It is going to be nice to see what the world is like when I don't head in to the office each day. Eric (let's call him... Jeric) mentioned today that some people who have done this said that two months was long enough to just begin to get a sense of a bigger world out there, but short enough that it doesn't really give you that satisfaction of living in it. I am betting he is right.
The Splorg
I think we're going to visit the new Splorg on Sunday when it opens. OK, technically it is the Seattle Public Library, but since it the url for their website is http://www.spl.org, I will henceforth refer to it as the Splorg :)
Very cool building!
Monday, May 17, 2004
Cool Photo Retouching Site
Photo image retouching. Man, it is impressive what they can do with digital images and Photoshop! It also make you realize that in advertising, nothing is real.
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