Daytona Beach... Here I come!

The week off in Houston was good. With the help of my new video cam and some practice time on the range, I made a new discovery with my swing :-) So, with a better shoulder turn and a new driver in hand, seems like I've gained a few yards off the tee! Although, I am packing the old driver just in case...
I also switched back to the conventional putting grip instead of the "left-hand low", which I have been using for about the last 4 years now. Guess we will only find out soon enough how I will putt under pressure!

A Day Off

I decided to take the day off today from golf. But then, I started out the day with 6 bags of mulch in the front yard... sweeping up pine needles on the driveway, 2 loads of laundry... and some cleaning and dusting. Phew! And oh, I also made a pillow today! The golf motif was provided courtesy of my housing host in Lakeland, FL. Thanks, Marilyn! :-) I'll have to convince Bob to buy me a mini sewing machine. Needle and thread just takes too long sometimes for a simple job like this!
While checking out the new mint plant in my garden this afternoon, I noticed a bird's nest in the tree in the backyard. Doing some research, my guess is the nest belongs to a pair of Summer Tanager. Reading it's description, it is definitely true that their calls are persistent throughout the day. Also, I believe one of their favorite insects - the wasp (or what was left of it!) ended up being high-tea for a huge ant!

Amateur mulchers....

So I ended up buying 6 bags of mulch yesterday... thinking that we were going to at least get the front yard done up. But we barely got half of the front yard finished! And there's still the backyard to go! Guess we may leave the backyard out for now... unless I make a check soon :-) The weeds are starting to grow wild. Yikes!

Phew... No more turkey soup!

Just got back home into Houston yesterday and since I didn't drive my car back from FL, I'm stuck at home for the day, while Bob has the car at work. Rummaging through the freezer for lunch, I'm finally going through the last bag of frozen turkey soup that I had cooked during Thanksgiving. Yes,... Thanksgiving this past November. Phew! With all that turkey, I'll probably have to take a nap after lunch :-)

Frustrating game...!

It was a windy day today... but the momentum did continue to build from yesterday. I made a couple of birdies and 3 bogey on the front-nine.... made the turn, but then on #13... I chunked my tee-shot! (Ya... still trying to figure that one out.) Anyhow, by the time the ball got in the hole, it was a triple bogey :-( And then, par on #14 followed by 4 consecutive bogeys. OUCH! Guess it's too late to cry over spilled milk now. Need to move on and keep chugging for the next event!

Lesson learnt

Just got done with Day 1 at the first FUTURES Tour event. Ended up shooting 75 today and that was with a 2-stroke penalty. My caddie (not naming names here! :-) took a quick ride on the cart between the third green and fourth hole. Guess I was confused with qualifying school, since players and caddies are allowed to do that between holes. Even though he didn't get very far on the cart, I took the penalty on the next hole and by the 8th hole, I was 6-0ver par! And then... (drum-roll)... I went BIRDIE, par, par, par, par, BIRDIE, par, BIRDIE, par, and par. Phew! I'm mentally exhausted now. But what a comeback! Will definitely try to bring that momentum back for tomorrow's round... and the next round... and the round after that... and after that... :-)

Back on tour!

558 miles today... and 446 miles more to go before I get to Lakeland, FL. That's where the Duramed FUTURES Tour will begin its season. My little civic is now over 180,000 miles old and still chugging. Thankfully..! :-)
I'm really looking forward to a better season this year. No more excuses!!!

Day of Mourning

Grandma passed away yesterday - March 3, 2008. She was admitted to the hospital the day before and was put on a respirator. But her lungs collapsed and she then fell into a coma. She slipped away quietly soon after. She lived to a great age of 87. I'm glad I was able to spend Chinese New Year with her in Malaysia this past February. Grandma was a great person. I can still remember vividly when I was growing up... watching her make her yummy pork buns, dumplings, and crispy chinese onion pancakes. Grandma will be laid to rest this Thursday. May she rest in peace.

Garden Update

When you thought there was no hope in "Britney" the tomato plant, it comes back to life! It was literally dead before our trip to Dubai but as you can see now, there are new leaves sprouting out. Maybe we'll finally see a tomato! And oh, that green container is a self-watering container. Guess I couldn't depend on Bobby to water all my plants while I'm away on tour! :-)
And what's that blue thing under the tree you say? Well, I decided to make a little birdhouse! Ya,... too much time on my hands. Haha! We'll see if any birds will live in it. Maybe that hole is too small. Hmm... It's not very attractive. Hmm... may need some extra work on it. Will keep y'all posted :-)

It's official...!

1 year, 1 month, and 20 days later... I finally decided to officially change my name to Cindy Lee-Pridgen! I did keep my chinese name as my middle name so my full name is even longer now! I made the trip to the Social Security Administration office yesterday and thankfully, it only took 1 1/2 hours... compared to wasting a whole day when I had to get my car registration and driver's license!
Well, I don't feel any different. I do already have some forms of ID in that name. But I guess now I'll have to change the rest of them. Arrgggh..!

Halfway around the world...

On 31 Jan 2008, Bob and I flew out to Dubai and spent a couple of days there. Day 1 was blasted with a sand storm so we spent some time wondering around Dubai. It's amazing how much construction is going on in Dubai. There are at least 50-60 skyscrapers being built at the same time along with new roads and new light rail system! We heard that you had to pay a cover charge to get into the famous hotel Burj Al Arab, so we decided to just see it from the beach nearby. :-)
On day 2, we were able to watch Tiger play a little at the Desert Dubai Classic. He truly is unbelievable. We were watching him warm-up on the range and it was funny to see how other players and caddies were watching him too! We then spent the next two days in Abu Dhabi. My sister's friend from high school - Hanim and her husband, Andrew picked us up and off we went. Abu Dhabi is about 1 1/2 hours away from Dubai... and it is definitely a more organized city.
We went on a 4x4 safari trip about an hour away from Abu Dhabi. That was fun! Started out by stopping at a camel farm... no one was spat on, so that was good :-) And then, the guide took us out on the sand dunes. The first couple turns took us off guard, but after a few more twist and turns, it felt like a roller coaster ride. Whhhheeeeee....!!!
Before I move on to our next destination, I wanted to make a note of the cultural differences in UAE. For example, when we exited the airport, there was a "Ladies Only" greeting area. And at the banks, there are "Ladies Only" branches. At the Mall of Emirates, the mall guide indicated that there was no PDA allowed - no kissing or hugging in public!
From Dubai, we headed out to Bangalore, India where Bob had to work for a week. Geez... talk about chaos! Drivers are constantly honking at each other and swerving in and out of traffic. Doesn't help when there are so many motorcyclist on the road as well as these little tuk-tuks! Nonetheless, the honking never stopped. We could hear it from our hotel room ALL DAY LONG! Unbelievable. Needless to say, I was glad to leave after only spending one night there. And oh, thankfully I survived the one day in India... I was dodging traffic when I was trying to cross an intersection!
Thankfully, KK (Kota Kinabalu) is still quite peaceful. Although Chinese New Year was a lot more rowdy this year with the loud sounds of fire crackers,... despite it being illegal. Nothing an "ang pow" or little red packet filled with money can't do around here :-)

Locks of love

During my recent visit in MN, I decided to look for a hair salon for a long needed hair cut. I was happy to know that the salon would accept my hair for donation. I've been wanting to donate my hair to Locks of Love for a long time now but was not able to since some salons do not accept colored hair. But I guess they are being more lenient about it now. So... SNIP! All 8" of it...!

New baby Michael

I should probably start out by clarifying that baby Michael is not mine! My sister, Corina and proud dad Scott are happy to announce the arrival of new baby Michael Lee Bradford on January 1, 2008 at 2:08pm. He's a healthy boy at 8lbs 10oz!

First Year Annivesary!

Jan 6, 2008... wow, we made it! It's our one year wedding anniversary today :-) As for pressies, I embroidered the word "Love" in Chinese (since we met in Beijing) on a set of pillow cases. I guess the tradition now would be embroidering the word "Love" in a different language for each additional year. I also created a custom frame for one of our favorite wedding pictures. It's a combination of dead tree limbs from the backyard, tied with hemp strings and then hung on our towel handle in the bathroom. Pretty creative I would say! Or... too much HGTV! Other than that, we didn't go too crazy. The usual golf on Saturday and Sunday. We had Mexican tonight at a local restaurant and last night, we had homemade lasagna. After dinner last night, we did spend a couple hours in the backyard recycling our Christmas tree in our chimenea.

That was quite fun - smelling the pine as it burnt and listening to it crackle and also watching the pine needles engulf into flames!!! Video footage provided by Bobby Pridgen :-)

Happy New Year!

Well... another new year's eve where both Bob and I were not able to stay up until midnight. We must be getting old! We decided to stay in,.. had Shepard's pie for dinner and lit up the new Chimenea we had recently bought in Giddings, TX (on our way to Austin last weekend).
And good news today!! I'm now officially an aunt. My sister, Corina gave birth to a healthy 8 lbs 10oz baby boy today at 2:08pm - Michael Lee Bradford. I will be visiting them next week in MN. Will post some pictures then.

Our Christmas cul-de-sac

Our neighbor started decorating their house right after Thanksgiving and as you can tell, they did a really good job! Starting from the left under the star and green string lights, a nativity scene, then four rudolf reindeers - one for each of their family member,... then Santa next to a blue-lit Christmas tree... and then a big blow-up ornament and lots and lots of lights!As for us, just lights around the border of our driveway and on the tree, courtesy of our neighbor! :-) Merry Christmas everyone!

These are a few of my NOT so favorite things...

Leaves, leaves, leaves... EVERYWHERE! I had about 5 garbage bags full of dead leaves today and threw them over the fence. Sssshhhhhh.... :-) And while I was doing that, I noticed a trail of ants and yikes...! They were lifting leaves at least 2 to even 4 times their size. My neighbor was just talking about these ants the other day - on how they chomped off an entire tree in her backyard! Well, seems like they are just using the fence as a byway. Hopefully that will be it for now. But what an incredible sight! And oh, while mowing the backyard, there were also a few spiders that jumped out of my way. I've never had to deal with so many spiders in and around the house before. As long as they are not the infamous Brown Recluse spider. A friend of mine ended up in the hospital for a few days on IV after being bitten by one. Gulp!

First Christmas Tree...!

Our first Christmas tree arrived in the mail today... a gift from Bob's mom. How cool is that! It's a Balsam fir tree from Maine. I'm surprised it survived the trip in a box because the packaging did look like it went through a lot during its journey!
And oh, it smells sooooo good... :-)

"I don't remember it being so heavy..."

Famous last words... ahhh... a self-propelling one would have been so much nicer! But guess I'll have my share of the workout when I have to mow the backyard! By the way, the house in the background is our neighbor's house with all their Christmas decoration. Will post a night pic of the cul-de-sac soon :-)

First hair cut...

Dec 2, 2007 - I cut Bobby's hair for the first time today. It was my first attempt using the clippers and it was a success! Let's just say no one had to be tied down, no screaming and kicking... and best of all, no bleeding,... and no one had to go to work bald :-)