Dumb Post

That last post was a total downer. Sorry about that. I will try and find time to write something substantial soon. Move along for now, but be sure to come back and hear about how I almost got taken out by a Canadian Goose. It was scary.

Grounded Out

Blogging has become a grind. This mindless rambling is worthless. Staring at this map, gazing at all the places I will never go to is depressing. I've got nothing, sorry.

Monday Ramble

This is more like it. I ramble good. Lola read my last two posts and wondered if I was giving up too much information about my personal life. I didn't agree and told her that it was good therapy to be talking this shit out here. I've been wanting to get a little more personal here from time to time so I hope my many many readers don't get bored with this crap. A part of me wishes that my dad would somehow find this space. Another part of me thinks he doesn't deserve to find it. I'd never send him the link but I think it would be fun to one day send him something and say "this is what you've missed lately." That would be sweet, or is that just mean? Regardless, he's a selfish fucker who really doens't give two shits so I am sure he would just open it and be like "maybe I'll get to that someday." I think he had a stroke or something like that last year. Which sucks. I think there was a chance he was gonna pass away too, but he g0t through it and is now back at home. It is weird because obviously my nana still talks to my aunt and she also talks to my dad. I am positive that she fills him in from time to time, but on what I have no idea. My nana was put in the toughest spot of them all as you can imagine. Her oldest daughter stole her grandchildren's father and up and moved to another country. That can't be easy and is often impossible to explain to the masses. We had another nice weekend here and I managed to hit the links and played 9 holes Saturday and 18 on Sunday. The final snowman took place and I didn't do that well. I had two deuces that netted me $10 a piece and shot -1 which really got me nothing. I am glad it is over now so I can play more at my home course. I'm thinking of quitting that place after 20 years of being a member as I could surely find something better to do with that money. However I would just play golf elsewhere and probably a lot less. Decisions, decisions. I will stick it out one more year and go from there. Fuck I was eating my bagel in my car this morning and I splatted some jam & peanut buttter right on to my pants. Now I'm walking around the rest of the day with this redish/brown spot on the front of my pants right in "the package area." As you can imagine, it looks ridiculous and if I didn't tell you what happened you would probably wonder what the fuck I was up to this morning. Not good. Needless to say I have spent the entire day in my office and will not leave unless absolutely necessary. I'm still making some changes to the site as you might have noticed. Very subtle. I also applied to have my page rank reviewed. I am not sure how that works but I thought I would give it a shot. I want to go to Belize. It is nice there and those foam parties look absolutely nuts. I would love to get lost in a sea of foam right about now.

Happy Monday.

Lord, I was born a rambling man

I've had that song stuck in my head all morning. I keep singing it because I've come to the conclusion that I'm not any sort of writer that strings together a proper post. I'll just continue this new rambling style of mine and see what comes out. Man it's sunny today. Makes me want to skip the afternoon and play golf. Or I could be watching March madness. At least I'll catch some of the games tonight. We were thinking of going to a movie though. It's been way too long since I've been in a theatre. I miss popcorn too. There's just something about hot buttery popcorn isn't there? So good for you too. Ok not really, but as if there is anything good for you at a movie house. They only sell junk. So I keep staring at this map of the world here trying to figure out where I should go on our next vacation. Realistically it won't be for a couple of years. A big trip that is. Like HoP said, the key is to have family take on the little one(s) and then find a place to go where the adults can play. I assume that when the kids are super young that it won't be that bad. Like if we went to Hawaii or something the kid would just sleep all the time anyway. Still someone has to be there. It's not like we can just leave the little baby in the room while we are down at the beach drinking fancy umbrella drinks. No chance. So I guess it is just planning phase type stuff right now. Chile would be a good place to go. Looks like a really skinny country on the map as it extends down the left side a good portion of South America. The majority of the countries in South Africa seem to be about the same size. Weird. Whereas you look at Brazil and it is huge. Why didn't they split that up into a bunch of countries. Wonder how that works. Fuck it, who cares. I still would like to make a trip to Australia again. I have a lot of cousin's there. A few from both sides of my family actually. My mom has two sisters and they both live there right now. Both for different reasons. I told you that my dad is Australian right? Well he has 6 brothers and they all have kids. Nuts. But hey, I have lots of places to stay all over both coastlines, which is cool. My mom's younger sister moved to Oz about 10ish years ago. Not sure. Anyway she is great and I miss her. My other aunt lives with my Dad. Yes, I just said that. My mom's sister married my dad. So my aunt is my stepmom. Sweet huh? Not really. It's quite fucked up actually. It's made me stronger though. So yeah, my dad took off with my aunt and he is now my uncle dad. I used to call him that on the phone to piss him off when I was a young teen rebelling against everything that was family. My mom kept us grounded though. If it wasn't for her I have no idea where I would be right now. Probably on the streets smokin' crack. Who knows.

Later.

Bankroll spewage, rambleage

I tried to work at my bonus two nights ago and spewed off most of my roll on rush fucking poker. I hate it. I am glad I am almost broke online though. It will allow me to concentrate on other things like family. The good stuff. I don't talk much about family here because really, who wants to hear about that mushy stuff. Lots of good stuff in the works though which will be revealed in due time. I feel like rambling on about nothing right now. So I am going to type whatever comes to mind and then when I run out of things to say I will just hit post. Waffles is the biggest cooler I've ever seen but I somehow have my own cooler powers if you haven't noticed. I made some changes to my blogroll. If you want to be added, let me know. That includes you lurkers out there too. I have a map of the world in my office. Cool huh. It makes me realize how big this planet is and how many places I want to see before I die. I want to start a family too. So how is that going to work? If I start one soon, then travel is out of the question for what like 20 years? Fun trips anyway. Do I really want to take my kids on vacations with me? Probably. Will it be fun? Yes. I assume it is all about the kids when you have them. I wonder how true that really is. Can I still play golf? I want to go to the Masters one day. Maybe see Tiger play before I go. He's still the man you know. He might even win his first tournament back just like Bobby Jones did back in the day. He was a stud. A family man. Fuck Russia is huge eh. I want to go there some day. Maybe for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. Who knows. Waffles is gay, did you know that? That is why he is splitting up with his wife. He is actually gay and likes men. Ok I lie, he is a good guy and needs to get some action soon or he will freakin' lose it. Go get laid dude. Seriously. I'd like to go to Turkey one day. Maybe I will make that happen in 2014 too. But if I have kids, then what. All those plans are fucked. Oh well, it will be worth it. I want to be a good dad. I want to prove that I can do it. Not be a deadbeat like my dad is/was. Ok he's not a deadbeat, but he is one selfish muthafucker that's for sure. He up and left when I was like 8 or 9 and never looked back. Tried to call me and I hung up on him. Stiffed my mom with all the bills. That shit ain't right. I told him so too. I think he is scared of me now. He won't come back to Canada that's for sure. So if I ever want to rectify things I have to go there. Fuck that, why would I waste my money? I've been to Australia already so what is the point in wasting money to see him before he goes. Come see me and fix it you loser. Man this is fun, I should do this more often. I think I will.

Peace.

Icanhazgolf

I know what you are thinking "Where has golfing Schaubs been!?"

Well thanks for asking, I've been asking myself that exact same question over the past few weeks and now that the Olympics are done, I'm back!

It all started last Sunday when I decided to play in the snowman. It's a weekly winter tournament put on by one of the public ranches we have just outside of the city. It's a par 65, so it's more of a long executive type of a course. But there is cash involved, and you know I love cash.

Lots of par 3's of all sizes with the shortest being only 90 yards and the longest at 215. There are also a bunch of reachable par 4's (8 of them between 250 and 300 yards) which makes the round a bit more exciting as we try to make those dueces on par 4's, which could also potentially count as a skin. Dueces pay cash and so do skins (best score on the hole outright).

There is one par 5 and it is my nemesis. I have talked about it here before. In fact this course is home to a pro-am I play in every year. I've finished 2nd twice and this past time I lost by one shot while shooting over par on this hole, the easiest hole on the course. FML I hate remembering that choke job.

I've reshafted my driver. It's a Ping G10 and I got fitted for a new shaft about two months ago. I haven't hit on the range yet, but I'm pounding it on the course already. It's great and definitely fills in another missing piece of my game.

On the weekend I managed to get in 27 holes. Saturday was 9 holes at my home course and then again I opted to play in the snowman once more. I'm happy to report I was under par on both outtings. Which is always nice.

-1 at home and -3 at the snowman.

My 9 hole round at home was fun - par, par, birdie, double, birdie, bogey, birdie, bogey, birdie! LOL

Nothing special happened at the snowman, but I should make a bit of money and I might have also won a KP which is usually good for a bottle or a jug. There is a low gross prize too but I won't find out the results until I return for my third week in a row next Sunday. Usually it's around -4 so I am hoping to have squeaked into the money (I probably bubbled). This Sunday is the final day of the year for the snowman tournament. Everything is worth double, there is a KP on the first hole worth $500. Lots to play for.

I've got the bug, it's back baby!! Can't wait to hit the links hard this year and make up for a year filled with 2nds and 3rds last year. Bring it on!!

The Switch

Most people remember that episode of Seinfeld when Jerry confesses that he actually likes his girlfriends roommate more than the girlfriend. It is more common than one might think. After hours and hours of deliberation George finally says "I'VE GOT IT!" and concludes that the best way to make this happen is to tell the current girlfriend (GF) that Jerry is interested in a threesome.

A menage trois.

This will "theoretically" disgust the GF and she will have no choice to break up with Jerry. The GF will run to the roommate and look for support and lament how disgusting she thinks the whole idea is. Meanwhile the roommate will console the GF all the while intrigued by the fact that Jerry is interested in her, in that way.

Well it back fired on Jerry and as he stated "She's INTO it."

George was blown away. Jerry was worried that he would have to become an orgy guy. Which is ridiculous. Who doesn't want to be an orgy guy. Big deal if you have to walk around in a robe all the time and have an arsenal of various lubes and toys. It comes with the territory.

Anyway, I was reminded of all of this because of a story a coworker told me yesterday.

He was making out with his GF on the couch. They hadn't been together for more than a month and nothing serious was going on just yet. They continued to fool around when out of nowhere the GF piped up and said she had to ask him something.

She went on to say that she wondered if it would be ok if she went out on a date with a friend of his. She said that she liked him and wanted to see if there was any chemistry. She never said which friend.

Well, being the nice guy that he was he thought "well if she doesn't like me, at least my friend might get something out of it."

So he agreed.

And with that, she got up off the couch, walked down the hall, knocked on his roommates door and went inside his bedroom.

They didn't come out until morning.

Ouch.

The Final Count

Canada had a great showing in the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Our mantra was "own the podium." While we didn't finish at the top of the total medal standings we did own the podium when it comes to GOLD medals. As I have said before, GOLD is the only thing that matters. Funny enough, the IOC agrees as they rank the countries based on GOLD medals as well.

Here are some fun facts:

Total medals: 26

Gold: 14
Silver: 7
Bronze: 5

Top 5 finishes: 24
Top 8 finishes: 50 (tied for 1st with USA)

Members of 206 person Canadian Team who went home with at least one medal: 86

Gender of Medal Winners:
Male: 45
Women: 41

Source: Canadian Olympic Committee

Here are the final medal standings:

United States 37
Germany 30
Canada 26 (14 Gold)
Norway 23
Austria 16
Russia 15
South Korea 14
China 11
Sweden 11
France 11
Switzerland 9
Netherlands 8
Czech Republic 6
Poland 6
Italy 5
Japan 5
Finland 5 (no gold)
Australia 3
Belarus 3
Slovakia 3
Slovenia 3
Croatia 3
Latvia 2
Great Britain 1
Kazakhstan1
Estonia 1

Here are the results of my prop bets:

Dr. Pauly - Canada vs. USA - even up - $10 loss
Dr. Pauly - Canada vs. USA women's gold medal hockey final - I took Canada - $10 win
BWOP - Canada vs. CZR - (20) medals. $10. PUSH!!
PinkyStinky - Canada vs. China - (13) medals. $10 Win!
MHG - Canada Gold Only vs. Finland Gold Only - (7) medals. $5 Win!

So I came out on the positive side of things for Olympic prop bets. Which is nice. Hope to repeat these bets in 4 years! LOL

Have a good weekend and don't forget the donkament rebuy tonight if you are around (won't see me there sorry the Canucks are on!)

Preparing for Disasters

Disaster planning.

Are you ready for an earthquake? What about other natural disasters? I am not going to try and convince you to plan one way or the other but there is lots of good information out there and I think everything should at least have the minimum prepared - just in case.

My buddy Willy, whom some of you met at the most recent WPBT in December (he sat to the left of CK), has written a nice summary that I thought I would share with you. I especially worry about those of us that are located in high risk areas. Hopefully, you already know who you are.

Here is a series he wrote - I highly suggest you check it out:

Being prepared for the worst
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

I hope that none of us ever have to use these "kits" that Willy suggest we all have ready. I hope that none of us ever have to go through what they are going through in Haiti and Chile right now. Like I said, if we can all be a bit more prepared, then we will be better off and can recover that much quicker.

Once you are through those - go revisit his post about the 100 x 100 burger. He's a legend.

Brunt Video Essay

Enjoy:

Team Canada FTW!!

Sunday, Day 17.

The final event schedule for the 2010 Vancouver winter Olympics was none other than the Gold medal match. Set to go off at 12:15pm pst we were giddy with anticipation. The rematch against Team USA was set and this time - it meant something.

Up until this point Team USA had a pretty easy road to the final. Well deserved of course as they were the tops of Pool A going undefeated in the round robin portion of the tournament. As I've mentioned before the round robin only means so much. It doesn't guarantee you anything but bragging rights (as my American pals reminded me numerous times) and a bye in the first round when the tournament truly gets going.

I knew Sunday would be even more stressful than Friday. Before the puck even dropped I was somewhat nervous about the outcome and hoped that somehow we would find a way to put the puck past an extremely talented and redhot goaltendender in Ryan Miller.

You've all seen the game. Heck 80% of Canada saw some portion of the game on Sunday. Now if that stat doesn't explain how die hard us Canadians are for this sport then nothing will.

MHG emailed me and asked if he could crash at my place. I told him no problem, but it turned out that he didn't need it after all. Go check out his post as it gives you a different perspective from an American point of view.

I can't really recall how or what I was doing when I saw Crosby put that puck in the net. All I know is I had my hands clasped and accross my face as I looked up into the air and breathed a big sigh of relief. We did it. There was a lot of pent up emotion that I managed to hold in. I don't think it will ever come out the way it should, sort of like these posts I've put together. Words can not really describe the true experiences that I've had over these past 17 days. Ones that will live with me forever.

There was so much pressure on the likes of Steve Y. and the rest of the braintrust that hand picked this team one by one. Each player served a specific role and did one hell of a job showing why they were selected in the first place.

I never did win my Olympic Hockey pool. I wasn't expecting to if you recall, but I did finish in 3rd, which happened to be exactly my draft position to begin with. The all your eggs in one basket theory does not work for a short tournament such as this. Noted for 2014.

Sochi, Russia is the next stop and I've already started to toy with the idea of actually going to the games. I've already made it a mandate to go to at least one Olympic site outside of North America in my lifetime. Sochi would be fun.

This daily recap has been fun and a bit of a grind at the same time. I hope to get up some pictures, video and other general thoughts in the near future. I also need to recap my Olympic prop bets and collect a few bucks. You know who you are, no rush of course.

GoldCanadaGold!

Saturday, Day 16.

Wow, time sure has flown by just as I expected. Today was a memorable day with Canada taking down THREE gold medals in one day pushing the total Gold medals to 13.

Originally, Lola and I had big plans to head downtown and catch one last day and evening of crowded streets and screaming patriotic fans of all nations. The rain thwarted our agenda and we decided to stay in and watch all of the events unfold. Curling Gold, Boarder Slalom (men's) and long track team pursuit. It was such a rush to see us take down these medals and really put our stamp on the games.

Overall it was an extremly lazy Saturday as we mentally prepared for the BIG game on Sunday.