TPI Re-evaluation

Almost 3 months after my first TPI (Titleist Performance Institute) evaluation, I went back to Sean, my TPI instructor for a re-evaluation last week. I told him how well I've been feeling and how the golf game is really coming along. After a few measurements here and there, he posted the findings and sure enough, my fitness handicap has been reduced from a 14 to an 8! That's really good news. That's an improvement of 40% in just under 3 months of working-out!

Things are definitely going in the right track. And only after 3 lessons with Tracy, things are feeling good too. And I'm finally able to redeem myself after losing 3 matches in a row to Bob. Last Friday, I won the match 4 and 3 and on Sunday after that, I won the match 5 to 4! :-)
The drama continues this weekend... although I won't be surprised if he suggests playing from the blue tees again instead of the yellow tees.

Boxing Day

The day after Christmas... Bob and I decided to go out and play golf. It was a record setting day yesterday... a high temperature of 76F! And everyone else had the same idea about going out to play. The Golf Club was busy! We took the new digital camera out and took some pics. There was a 5-some playing in front of us, so there was plenty of time to be click-happy :-)
Here are some of my favorites:Birdhouse - taken with color accent option
Bobby - lining up his eagle putt
I love this picture... taken with the sunset setting
And the view of the club house, from the 16th fairway. Just beautiful!
By the way, I won the match 4 to 3! :-)

It's Christmas Day!!!

Wow... Christmas day is finally here! And "Santa" was really good to me this year. Perhaps because I WAS really good this year :-)
I did "accidentally" open half of my first Christmas present last week, so I managed to persuade Bob to let me open the other half of the present a couple days before Christmas. I felt like such a little kid, asking for permission.
And as for my other pressie...I now finally own my first acoustic guitar! I've always wanted one as a kid, but Mom would never let me have one. She said that the strings would ruin my fingers and I would then also ruin my golf with all those calluses on my finger tips. Mom - I know you can hear me... I promise to be veeeery careful!
After a few quick lessons from the booklet, here's my first audition...



Sounds like I DO have a loooooong way to go! :-p

Seemed like Bob was really good this year too. There were a lot of presents for him under the tree. I wasn't sure what he wanted, so he suggested that I get him a book... some Booker prize winner book (which I originally thought was Pulitzer). I didn't really do much research and obviously was looking for the wrong thing anyway,... so instead, I got him this. It's called Dewey - named after a resident cat at Spencer Public Library in Iowa. I'm still hoping that maybe one day, he will learn to LOVE cats :-)

Where, oh where... is my fluffy hat...?

Went into a ski store yesterday just to check some things out. I ended up getting a wool hat with a brim on it. It's perfect for a cold and sunny golf day. But while I was waiting in line to pay for it, I realized that I had lost my hat that I had in my pocket... an angora one, beret style. I had purchased in Beijing when I went to visit Bobby for the first time there in 2006. So not only did I lose my hat, I also spent money paying for the new one! :-(
It was not a very good day. I also lost my golf match to Bobby... that's 3 in a row now! Grrr... I was in a pretty crappy mood yesterday.

Getting closer...

Yesterday, while on the road, my car hit the 196,000 mile mark! Only a few more and it will be 200K miles old! We really should think about getting another Volvo :-)

What?... now FOG??!?!

So after all that sleet and ice the last 3 days, we're now experiencing fog. If anything else, the ice is finally melting and I will finally get to get out of the house to run some errands. Hopefully those Christmas cards aren't going to be late!

Day 3 of Hibernation

Looks like the ice is slowly but surely melting away. The driveway is still somewhat frozen so I'm still not going to attempt to drive, even though I do need to get my Christmas cards to the post office!
Looking out the window, I see that the neighbor's mailbox is on the ground. Bob said there was a car on their driveway last night with a flat tire. Probably still best to stay in. I need to organize my golf room anyway and catch up on some HGTV time :-)

Day 2 of Hibernation

It's day #2 since the sleet Sunday night. Schools are closed today as well. The roads in Broken Arrow are still icy, according to Bob. I'm not even tempted to drive as I don't think my car tires will perform well at all on the frozen sleet. I can only imagine how it will just slide down the driveway, go up the curb across the street, and crash into that fire hydrant!!
And there's nothing wrong with the lighting of the camera. It's 11:14am and it IS that dark and gloomy outside right now. It's so depressing...
Thankfully, there's lots for me to do at home. I've yet to get all my Christmas cards written out and perhaps more cookies to bake! :-)

Green Card update

Received a Rejection Notice yesterday in the mail... but all because I used an outdated version of a form. I read the instructions and it said that previous versions were accepted! So anyhow, while I'm filling in the newer version of this form, all the information provided is EXACTLY the same as the old one! I don't get it. Well, ok, if anything, the bar code at the bottom of the new form is slightly longer than the old one. Grr.... technology!!!
Thankfully, they accepted the rest of the paperwork and of course, happily cashed my checks. I suppose this is the least of my worries.

Our first Christmas tree!

Well,... if you don't count the live one that Bob's mom sent to us last Christmas, then yes...! Our first Christmas tree that Bob and I bought together yesterday. We were going to pick one up at a Christmas tree farm but made the turn too quickly and ended up in a nursery instead. Nonetheless, we LOVE it! And it smells so good too. Although, after sneezing a few times, I wonder if I'm allergic to it!
Thankfully, there were no injuries when Bob was trying to trim the tree trunk yesterday. It was his first time using the circular saw. Once that was done, setup was quite painless - other than the fact that you had to deal with the sap coming out of the tree and those tight screws on the tree trunk holder!
And now, in lieu of having to deal with gnats (thanks to the recently discovered 1-month old rotten banana in my golf bag), I'm constantly trying to clean up all the pine needles on the carpet!

We also had our first sleet in Tulsa last night. Thankfully, we got home just in time before the heavy stuff hit! As of right now, the driveway and roads are still frozen and school was canceled for the day. Too bad it wasn't a snow day... I would be building my snowman right now :-)

Cirque du Soleil

Bob and I got tickets to watch the Cirque du Soleil - Saltimbanco last night in downtown Tulsa, at the BOK center. It was really good! The clowns were not as freaky as the last two other shows that I've seen. One of the clowns got an audience to come up on stage and he made him do all these funny things while he created all the sound effects. The guy was a great sport, which was really good to see. Although it then makes you wonder if he was part of the act...
I was looking forward to an orchestra, but instead it was a 5-piece electronic band. Nonetheless, the voices of the singers were fantastic. And of course, the performers were amazing! All the girls were ooh-ing and ahh-ing when the two muscle guys took off their shirts :-)
It's too bad the Cirque could not sell out their seats. There were several sections including some of the seats next to us that were empty. We managed to get great seats through Craig's List for a good price. There was a $40 convenience fee when purchasing tickets through the BOK center website. Convenience fee??? What's THAT!

Christmas lights

After going to multiples stores and returning several different types of lights, I was finally able to get some that worked properly and were of the correct length! So, here it is! My first attempt at lighting up our house :-) I also tied some red ribbons on the plant that's to the far left and put garland in those tiny shrubs. Not too shabby during the daytime.
I put up some lights out back as well. At first, I wanted to hang the icicle lights along the roof, but since it wasn't long enough, I decided to just put it around one window. The budget was strictly $20 (as per Bobby) so don't think we're adding any more touches!

Mysterious smell

There's been this funny smell in the golf room... almost like bad stinky-feet smell. So I thought - maybe it's me, since I have been working out in that room. After a few sprinkles of carpet deodorizer, the room doesn't smell so bad anymore. But since our return from NJ, we are now having a severe case of gnats in the house and a lot of them are in the golf room too. So after some research on the internet, I figured, ok... maybe I should check my golf bag for food. And sure enough... the worst site and smell ever... there's an old rotten banana in my tour bag. Phew! I wonder how long it's been there. At least a month, I would think!
Hopefully the smell (and GNATS!) will go away now!!!

Green Card Application

I finally submitted the paperwork for my residency/green card. The office in Chicago received it last week so let's see how long this entire process will take. Hopefully my travel permit won't take too long. I'm basically stuck in the U.S. until that comes through! :-s

Early Christmas in NJ

Bob and I were up in New Jersey this past weekend to spend some time with his family. On Saturday, we went to visit his brother Kenny at the new club house at Liberty National Golf Course. It was an amazing club house - with sleek lines and modern decor. You can check out pictures of the golf course and have a virtual tour of the clubhouse on their website.On Sunday, all of us gathered at Doug's place (his oldest brother) for dinner. Kenny cooked up a great piece of pork and his sister-in-law Myla made a dessert called "Death by Chocolate" that was just YUMMY!Other than that, there wasn't too much going on, which was nice. Oh, we did catch Matthew and Parker's basketball games. And we did go to the Short Hills Mall on Monday. The parking lot was really busy! You wouldn't think there was an economy crisis going on at this time if you were shopping in this mall!

Thumb report - Week 24

I was finally able to trim my thumb nail today. 24 weeks later... that's 6 months later! And yet I'm still not able to fully trim all of the free edge like I do my other nails. And if you were to run your finger through from the cuticle to the free edge, just before you reach the edge, there's a 2mm step-down difference on its surface. Haha... it's like a built-in speed bump!