Tuesday, February 14, 2006

2006 Golf Trip

Every year, a group of NCSU college buddies (and one adopted UNC guy) go golfing at Myrtle Beach. I think we are up around year 18 or 19. This year we headed south of Myrtle Beach and played TPC and True Blue. Both were awesome courses, although we had to play True Blue in a drizzle, which became a rain. We have had worse, but normally we quit long before 18 and go drinking. Besides the weather, the only downside was losing our eighth player right before leaving. That made it impossible to do our normal "steak dinner bet".
The gang out for dinner. From the left, Dave Allred, Lewis Petree, Keith Woedy, Darrell Baber, Gary Price, and Jason Shive. I am taking the picture.
Jason, Lewis and Keith watching the Olympics in our house. We got a seven bedroom place in Garden City. While it was cheap for us to rent in the winter, we discovered it was for sale for only $2.7M. Trust me, it wasn't THAT nice. Posted by Picasa
I'm not sure Gary has the exact form we are looking for, but he got a lot better under the watchful eye of coach Dave. Posted by Picasa
Do these guys look professional or what? Posted by Picasa
Darrell, ready to rip the cover off it. Posted by Picasa
Me, getting ready to hit. Posted by Picasa
This cool looking squirrel climbed into Darrell's golf cart while we were off hitting. Gary noticed that not only was he in the cart looking for food, he actually started drinking Darrell's beer. Not knowing what diseases a squirrel packs, Darrell dumped the rest of his drink. Posted by Picasa

Monday, February 06, 2006

Dog Sled races

This weekend, Jasper the dog and I went to the final stage of a week long dog sled race. It started in Jackson Hole and ended in Park City. By the time they got this far, there were still 20 of 24 teams competing. This was a short sprint leg, only eight miles.

We started by trying to get from where we parked to where the races would start. Little did we know, we were using the race course as our walking path. A snowmobiler who was driving the course right before the race started stopped us and offered us a ride on his snowbobile to get out of the way. I was not sure Jasper was quite up to this yet, so we ran back instead.

The race was fun to watch. The dogs seemed to be having a great time, but man do they work hard. I happened to be standing on an uphill section and they were clearly giving it their all.

Jasper was remarkably good. He desparately wanted to go out and join a sled team and give them a hand (paw). However, he didn't bark but one little woof the whole time, much to my relief.

The pictures are pretty mediocre. It was a grey day, so the lighting was poor. I had a dog leash (and dog) attached to my waist and to get to the best picture spots, I would have had to wade through waist deep snow. The lesson is to bring snowshoes, leave the dog, and hope it is a sunny day.
This is what I would expect a dog sledding team to look like. The dogs are huskies or some huskie-mix. The driver is a white bearded man with a slight resemblance to Santa Clause. Posted by Picasa
This hodge-podge of dogs looks like a good team for Jasper to join. He would fit right in. Posted by Picasa
Running hard with a little bit of downhill. If you click to expand the picture, you can see other teams on the course in the background. Posted by Picasa
The people in these houses had a nice view of the race or perhaps the racers had a nice view of some Park City real estate. Posted by Picasa
When leaving the dog sled races, I came across a red rose on a bridge. Not sure why it was there, but it made an interesting picture. Posted by Picasa

A few more pictures of Cosette

She has discovered the value of a towel fresh out of the drier. Posted by Picasa
Cosette refuses to drink out of her own water dish so she shares with the dog. Posted by Picasa
Leave me alone. I'm sleeping. Actually she is just storing up energy to go on her nocturnal romps and to grow even faster. Posted by Picasa