Golf. I will label each topic so my mom can skip over the boring ones. Okay, so we know that I have been struggling with golf all year. I have tried so many new things in the past two to four years I don't even know where to begin. You might simply say take a lesson! The club pros should be able to help him. Well, my main issue has always bean hitting a wood whether it be the driver or three wood. I have taken lessons and I wasn't able to get the kind of help I wanted. I was told to change my grip, I thought that worked and it did help a bit, I am kind of using that old grip and the new one (new being 2 years). When taking lessons the club pros that I worked with all said that I had a good swing and would try to get me to think of things that would enable me to keep my own swing yet score better. I knew that something wasn't right with my back swing and nobody would address that issue even if I told them that was what I thought was my main concern. They said, no it is fine you don't have to worry about that.
A couple of weeks ago I was mega pissed again and was thinking of taking yet another lesson from someone else this time. I had to skip one of the biggest tournaments of the year because I had no confidence. I am always in the yard swinging a club and hitting plastic or foam golf balls while Triton is hitting real golf balls. He is getting way good by the way, you would not want to stand in front of him while he is hitting even if you were 20 yards ahead of him. If he hit you it would hurt for sure. So, we are out in the yard and I am trying anything and everything to get my club head to remain square at impact. I would think I would have something and try it on the course and it wouldn't work. This has happened what seems like a million times in the past 4 years. Before Sheri went back to work from being on maternity leave I was able to golf early in the mornings on my days off. 3 weeks ago I had a new thought process. It is to make sure that not only is the club head lined up and address but that my shoulders are as well. Of course the pros have told me this, but with my swing I wasn't able to stay lined up with either because of my swing plane. I threw on another thought process and that was to hit down on the ball. I thought that I had always been doing this but I actually wasn't because the pros tell you to swing through the ball. Swinging through the ball is what was causing me to duck hook the ball. A duck hook is horrible, it is when the ball takes off and just does almost a U turn in the air and flies left. The most distance I have had when duck hooking the ball is maybe 200 yards. My normal drives were anywhere from 100 to 200 yards and of course always left. So, I was lining up the driver, lining up my shoulders and now hitting down on the ball. This was starting to work a bit, but once I added in another thought it seemed to all come together. That was to take the club up and to the outside in the back swing. I had always been told to keep the club head low and to extend in the back swing. This caused me to come over the top with the club. I have three thoughts that I tell myself while setting up to the ball now. They are line, back, down. Line is for line up, back is for bringing the club back instead of under, and down is simply hitting down on the ball.
This is only about a week and a half in mind you, but in my last three rounds of golf I have only had one drive that was a bit of a duck hook. I am calling it my new swing now, but since these last three rounds with the new swing I probably haven't had a drive under 250 yards, unless it was into the wind. 250 yards isn't special by any means, but it is when your usual shot is 50 - 100 yards behind that. These drives are in the middle or just off into the rough as well. Whereas before they would be way left and in the woods or deep deep rough. So of course I figure out something a week after a big tournament. I was upset that I missed it, but thinking on it now I might not have won my division because I was still tinkering. My last round of golf was on a cold windy day and I was only 8 over par. I was still tinkering with it on the front 9 but it all seemed to come together on the last 8 holes. I was 7 over par after triple bogeying ten. Then from hole 11 to 18 I was only one over and that last bogey was a three putt from 20 feet, pretty dumb. So, there is a tournament this weekend at a course that I hate, but I am expecting to win. If I can play half of the holes the way that I finished this last weekend then I will win first place easily. I am expecting to win my division with no problems. This is a 2 day tournament so if I can have 18 really good holes then it is mine for the taking. My confidence it at an all time high. So, I will hopefully start fulfilling some of them golf goals that I had made for myself at the beginning of the year. These goals were if you didn't read them in a previous blog to
Drop to a 6.5 handicap.
Score 10 or more eagles.
Shoot par at least 5 times.
Never allow Henry to win.
Now Henry has beaten me a few times this year, but I didn't have the swing that I wanted. He shouldn't beat me ever again this year and I will keep posted about that. I will still be happy if he doesn't beat me again because this new swing is great. 6.5 handicap, wow I was really optimistic huh? Right now it is at a 14.9 and if I drop to an 8 by the end of this year I will be happy so maybe that goal of 6.5 can be raised to an 8? Shoot par 5 times this year is a lofty one too, but if I can start making long putts and keep the same swing I had this last weekend then that one could happen no problem. 10 or more eagles? That one is probably not going to happen, but I will sure try. I have had more eagle opportunities this year than ever, I just can't make a long putt like I said. I am loving the new putter and trying out a new swing for the putter as well. It has helped me too, so everything is coming together and I am hoping to post a new blog Sunday night telling everyone that I did win the tournament like I knew I was going to.
Poker.
I had given up poker for a couple of months and didn't really miss it at all. I would still watch new poker programs on the television, but that was about it. I didn't play didn't really want to. There wasn't the normal live game either or I probably would have played even though I hated the game because the people are nice and it is fun most of the time. 4 weeks ago the game started back up and I had a chance to go on my day off. I took home the most money that night and was able to go the next two weeks after that and I haven't lost yet. I haven't won much have you, but not losing for me is great because I hate to say have bad luck. I would like to blame it all on luck, but I can see that taking a break from the game a lot of it was my attitude and the way I was playing. I decided to have my uncle transfer my money back to me on the websites that I had told him I was just giving to him. I had transferred somewhere around $75 on two websites. He had kept track of what I gave him and he transferred $27.70 back to me on pokerstars and $46.00 back to me on Fulltilt. That $46 was actually on Doylesroom, but he wasn't allowed to transfer on that site for some reason. I didn't mind because Fulltilt has this new style of poker that is fun and fast. So, since deciding to start playing poker again I haven't lost one session. I have made over $87 in 10 sessions. Over $50 of that is from playing a live game not online. My goal online is to win $1.00 per session for my first 30 times. It should be easy since after only 7 times I am up over $33.00. I think I am playing better and having a little better luck. I am not having the urge to play as much after taking that long break, but that is a good thing.
QT Quinn is doing good, I guess these last 4 days Quinn has slept pretty good. Maybe it was just after her worst night with me that she decided to start sleeping better. Last weekend I had the luxury of staying up with her while Sheri slept. I had been talking to my mom on the phone for about an hour and she knew that I was tired from sleep deprivation, but she wouldn't believe that Quinn would keep me up for at least another 2 or 3 hours. I got off the phone with my mom at about 9:30 and figured Quinn might let me sleep at 11:30 or midnight. This little darling angel of mine decided to have her most pissy night ever. She wouldn't sleep for more than 15 minutes even though I was doing everything I could think of to assist her. I also had a tee time to get of for at 5:30. She finally fell asleep at 2:00am I got up at 5:00 when she made a noise and I made Sheri take over and I still went golfing. I was not happy with baby girl that night I tell you what because she was basically awake from 6:30 pm to 2:00am with only them little 15 minute power naps. She wasn't even happy after these little naps either, she would wake up so fussy and angry! I think that she had bad gas. I guess one day this last week she allowed Sheri to sleep from 10:00pm to almost 4:00am or just after? I think that she has been sleeping good for Sheri but Sheri herself can't catch a break because Triton has been a sick boy for the past 3 nights. Maybe Quinn just knows that Triton is keeping mom up so she doesn't have to? Poor Triton he is the saddest boy when he is sick.
About 5 days ago Sheri said that Triton decided to get up for the day at about 7:00 or 7:30. He usually sleeps at least until 8:30 and sometimes 9:30. I was watching Triton that day and I saw him laying over by his TV watching cartoons. I asked him a question and he didn't move. I decided to walk over and see if he was alive. He was sleeping in the middle of the day? We haven't made him take a nap since Quinn's birth and since he got up early that day I thought he was just tired. It must have been more than that because Sheri said that he wanted to go to bed before 8:00 that night. She took him up to bed and he slept the whole night. He got up even earlier that next day and was a big sluggish here and there, but I guess that following night he threw up in his bed and has been sick ever since. We might give it another day or two before we take him to the doctor. Poor boy!
I entered last weeks tournament because I wanted to win and get enough money to get myself a new bag for my clubs. I accomplished that goal, somewhat! The tournament was a two day event and after day one I was three behind the leader. I had a very good day of golf and shot an 80 at a par 72 course. It is good for me and pretty good for my flight. There was another gentleman that shot a 77? I was paired up with him and three other guys on the second day. Some guy shot an 82 and another an 84. I figured that I would only have to beat the one guy that shot a 77. I have no idea how he shot a 77 because he wasn't that good. I ended up beating him by one stroke on the second day (even though I did horrible on day 2) and the guy that shot an 82 the first day shot a 75 on the second day! He must have been sandbagging before the tournament because he said that the 82 he shot on day one was the first time this year that he had shot under 90 all year! Right....... And then you conveniently shoot a 75 to break 80 the very next day! Okay if you feel good about sand bagging then so be it. So, he won first place Gross which means before handicap is added in. I tied for first in the Net portion which is obviously after handicap is added in. I won the above trophy and $195 credit for the pro shop. The bag that I wanted was $199 so I wasn't too mad about paying the extra and the tax on top because the tournament was only $35.00. That is if I had to pay extra, when I went in to get the bag, the nice gentleman behind the desk said that we would just call it even. So I didn't have to pay the extra, what a nice guy right? I was very happy with my prize and with the results, but I wasn't happy with my golf on day two. I shot an 84 on day two. I guess I can't complain since I got what I wanted that being the new golf bag.
Triton's birthday was on the 22nd and we had a little party for him at Sheri's mom's. Pretty much everyone else had plans already or were out of town so his party was little this year. This is him getting ready to blow out the candles.
Big boy eating his cake, he must have liked it because he ate most of that piece you see here. What a cute boy he is.
Here is the little chubby cheeked boy opening presents. He is still cute even with cake crumbs all over his face. 
Baby girl oblivious to what is going on around takes a little nap. 