LPGA Q-school - Day 1 & 2

Well, day 1 on the Panther course didn't turn out as well as I wanted it to. I had a pretty slow start and was already 6 over after 9 holes! I did finish out even on the back, but 6-over was not the number I was looking at for Day 1. I knew I had to have a good day today. But unfortunately, I fell short by 1 shot by shooting 75 on the Bobcat course. This is probably the 5th time now this year where I have missed the cut by just 1 shot. :-(
So looks like my golf season is done for the year. It's bittersweet - would have been nice to go to Final Stage of LPGA Q-school but then again, it will be nice to just be home for a while.
Oh well... going to leave Venice, FL for home early, but thinking about perhaps taking a detour to Disney World or Sea World. I can't decide!! :-)

Snakes and gators!

All that's typical of FL of course! I forgot to post this pic of a sign that I saw on Tuesday, at a rest area during one of my stops in Florida. I wonder if anyone actually turned around and went back straight into their car when they saw this warning!














And then, yesterday, on the 17th holes, there was a gator just lazing under some palm trees. I was thinking about getting closer to get a better picture but figured, nah... maybe not :-)

Welcome to Venice, FL!

And oh, what's that...? Low on Coolant??? NO! Is that possible??!! I don't drive the station-wagon very much but since it is suppose to be the "better" car, I decided to take it on my trip to FL this time. And the first thing I saw when I turned on the car this morning was this bright red warning sign on the dashboard! Well, thankfully everything can be solved by going to Wal-mart!
I drove through 3 big rain cells yesterday. There were times when I couldn't even see the car in front of me! And why is it that people don't turn on their lights when it's raining so hard?!? There were also moments of lightning flashes and then a roar of thunder where I actually jumped in my seat! In any case, I'm glad the car didn't overheat yesterday and Bobby can't tell me that my little Honda is not reliable because knock on wood, it has been all these years!

Gravity taking over?

3 months and 4 days later... I think my hair is starting to actually flop over! It's so weird because I just wrote that other blog a few days ago about how my hair is still sticking straight up! But I woke up on Sunday and Bobby made the comment that it looks good flat. And I thought that maybe it's because I had the pillow over my head while I was sleeping. But then, today, when I woke up, it WAS actually FLAT! YAY!
On a side note, I'm on my way to Florida now for LPGA Q-school. Drove 12+ hours today, with about 20 minutes or so listening to Lola (my GPS) telling me to drive in circles, back into the bad traffic on I-24 E!! Grrr...!
Anyhow, 10 more hours to go and all of it on I-75 South!

Hair update - 3 months later...

I figured I'd post a pic of me with my bed head. Yes, this is what my hair would look like almost every morning now. You just never know what it's going to do! And I'm still waiting for the day when gravity takes over. All my hair does is stand straight up! So it's either throw a cap on (which I really dislike doing, except when I'm playing golf) or stick my head in the shower. So obviously I've chosen option #2 a lot lately.
Quick home update - I finally have my first cast iron pot! I've been wanting one for a long time now and last night, while roaming around Marshalls, we found this bright red one for a really good price! I finally convinced Bob that we needed one after watching the movie Julie & Julia. In short, it's about a girl - Julie Powell, who decides to cook 524 recipes from Julia Child's cookbook in 365 days. I thought it was a great movie! So anyhow, my task now (before I leave for q-school next week) is to make Boeuf Bourguignon a la Julia Child - Recipe #148007. Wish me luck!!! Just don't make me spell it again... :-)

New kitchen sink!

Bob and I bought a new kitchen sink over the weekend. I'm so excited! The new sink is a little bit deeper than the current one that we have, and so I'm not exactly how the install would work. It looks so easy on those internet videos! Anyhow, figured we'd call Home Depot to get an install estimate and it came back as $230!! Maybe I will have to visit Paul the Plumber at Lowe's instead to get some new tools and advice!
To be continued...

AHHH moments!

There were 3 AHHH moments today. The first one was when I opened the front door, looked up and "Ahhh!" there was a frog on the light fixture! Then, I turned to look at the other light fixture by the door, and "Ahhh!!!" it's a praying mantis! There are so many bugs around the lights these days so I guess the frog and praying mantis figured out that this was a good spot to hang!
And then, when I was looking at our garden out front, the final "AHHHH!" moment was when I saw all the mushrooms that have sprouted out! It was like a double AHHH!!! We've been getting so much rain lately, I guess it is now just ideal for mushrooms. Too bad we can't cook and eat them! I was going to the store today to get mushrooms and walked out with everything else except for mushrooms!
I suppose if there was another AHHH moment today was when I finally figured out what was wrong with my phone. I went out to lunch with Bobby and that was when he confessed that he had spilled salsa on my phone last night. No wonder I was having problems listening out of it! Aaahhhh.....

Home sweet home!

Ahh... it's so good to be home! It took me about 22 hours to get home from NJ. On the first day, the trip was going really well until I came to a 5-mile back-up. It took me almost 45 minutes just to get through it! It was a bad wreck that involved a cop car, where the entire trunk and backseat was completely crushed in! Scary!!
On day 2, there was fog, rain, sun, and everything in between! At one point, I thought I saw a dragon in the clouds. Now as I look at the picture closer, it almost looks like the dragon is blowing out smoke! Haha... no I'm not/wasn't smoking anything ;-)
Another 10 more days or so and I'll have to get myself out to Florida for the LPGA Q-school. I was planning on driving there but after the long drive coming home, I'm really thinking twice about that now! I still have a few more days to decide. In the meantime, it's really nice to just have some downtime in my own home!

Mileage

Ok... I just had to. It looked too cool not to take a picture of!
211,111 miles at 3:07pm today. And yes... guilty! Driving and taking pictures at the same time! The speedometer is a little off. I'm really only going at 67 mph, plus or minus :-)

No way!!!

Ok... I guess unfortunately "way". I missed the last event of the Futures tour by 1 shot today! And it's just so easy (and frustrating!) to think back on the two 3-putts that I had in a row, or the lip out on my 17th hole... or... possibly the tee shot yesterday that went into the smallest creek EVER that you can find on that golf course! Well, what's done is done. It's just unfortunate to end the season like this. I was also hoping to get within the Top 90 on the money list on the tour so I will be exempt for next season. I'll probably be bumped just a few more spots down after Sunday (currently at 93).
I did hit this AWESOME shot on #15 yesterday with my 5-wood from 182 yards, ball just slightly higher than my feet, wind into my face, and knocked it to about 4 feet and made the putt for my 3rd birdie of the day! It actually almost went it!
Anyhow, time to start looking ahead. The LPGA qualifying school is coming up at the end of September. Definitely more big things to work on before I leave for that. As my good friend Chris Dorris puts it: Don't wait for good play to feel like you're playing great. Create the great feelings first of expertise and success, then let the results follow that!
On a happier note, I had a really good dinner with a couple of great friends at my housing's restaurant - Franklin's Tower. Nothing like good food and great company after a tough day. I had the clam chowder, a salad, and the chicken marsala. It was YUMMY!
The restaurant was right across the street from an old train station, now an administration building for a university (I can't remember which one - must have been the Guinness). The guy taking the picture was suppose to include the tower, but as you can see that didn't work out so well. Haha!

COLD!!!

Yesterday, there was a 7am shot-gun practice and talk about cold! Brrr... there were girls in beanies and I even pulled out my golf mittens! We could all see our breath when we talked! Thankfully it warmed up pretty quickly. This morning, I was suppose to get up for the 7am practice again but decided to sleep in a little. I was at the course at about 8am and there was still fog! The weather has been really beautiful though. Can't complain!
A random stranger (possibly a player's caddy) walked up to me today and praised me about my hair donation. It made me feel very good :-)
By the way, saw this hawk today by the practice green. Pretty neat! He was just chillin'... watching the players come in.

New irons!

Finally... after waiting patiently for almost a whole year! Srixon finally sent me some new clubs, which thankfully will conform to the new groove rule as well for 2010. I've played with them a couple of times now and so far so good! I really like them! "Magic clubs"... as I would tell Bobby when I hit one close to the pin :-) Now, I'm just waiting for those new Cleveland wedges as well. Hopefully it won't take as long as the new irons!
I also decided to switch back to Titleist golf balls after today. Since Srixon started it's new Player Purchase program, I might as well start experimenting with all the different golf balls that are out there now.
Looking forward to playing in Albany, NY next week! I also have a new little Sun Mountain bag with my name on it. Looks really sharp!

Home sweet home!!!

Finally after a long 6 weeks... I'm finally home! Well, just for a week but it's soooooooo nice to be able to sleep in my own bed again (all day - according to Bob) :-P
Our house had a new look this time on my trip home. We had the house painted last week and it looks great! Well, I was hoping the house color would have more of a contrast to the window trims, but obviously we are not going to have it repainted (according to Bob)! Here are the before and after pictures. And obviously, it looks better in the summer than in the winter too!And here is the back of the house:I'm trying to convince Bobby that it's too white. Maybe paint some black on the window trims, but it's obvious that I may not win that battle (out of many that I do win)!
I also had a chance to change out some of the light fixtures.
Again, here are the before and after pictures. Eventually, we will need to buy a new door as well. It actually still has the name of the previous owners on the door knocker!



On this trip home, I was able to bring home some gifts that were given to me by my housing from Connecticut. They are so cute! I can't wait to use them: a hedgehog vegetable brush, a whale ice-cream scoop, and a mouse cheese grater! Thanks Ann and Rich! :-)

$3.33

That's what I paid for dinner tonight! Actually it would have cost less, but I ended up buying a small pack of coconut Mars chocolate and some Sour Patch kids. Yup, I went to Wal-mart and bought some microwave food - Swedish meatballs. I probably could have just gone with the one package but I just seemed so hungry at that time. I did finish up all the meatballs... does that count?
Only played 11 holes today. We tee-off at 4:45pm and I'm already at 6-over par. Maybe it's because I warmed up one too many times today!
Well, time to start packing. Going to hit the road right after the round tomorrow. Thankfully I have a later flight to catch on Monday. Several players had to change their travel plans because of play on Monday.

Noooo...!!!

12pm - and now I'm back down to tied for 73rd!!! This is killing me!!! Maybe it's not as promising as it seems now... :-s Gotta keep my fingers AND toes crossed!!

I made it!

As of 11:12am, I'm tied for 70th place! Yay!!! Although, these are unofficial scores, but it's looking rather promising :-)
Guess I better get something to eat and get dressed! I hope I won't be missing my flight tomorrow from Newark back to Tulsa! Who knows if and when I'll finish my round today. The sun is out so perhaps there will be more daylight today compared to yesterday.
Woohooo...!! I wonder what I can buy next for the house ;-) Speaking of house, our house just got painted with a new coat of color. Bobby said that it looks really nice. We based the color off a sample house that we saw at Lowe's. According to the painters, our house now looks exactly like the house on the sample card! Haha! Can't wait to see it on Monday!

Exhausted!

Wow... I just woke up a few minutes ago at 10:30am!!! I was probably in bed last night at about 11pm. I was trying to actually stay awake to watch some of the Solheim coverage on TV but started dozing off!
Guess it was an exhausting day yesterday. I was trying to stay hydrated with the humidity and it was quite tiring fighting with those gnats all day too! My housing in Iowa had told me about spraying Vanilla on the bottom rim of the cap to ward off those gnats... NOPE! It doesn't work! I'm going to have to do some research on this! At some point yesterday, I was missing my long hair because I could have used it like a horse's tail to shoo off those gnats from my face!
Ok... The Cutter brand with Deet is suppose to work as a gnat repellent. But hmm... we were just advised by the tour not to spray bug repellent near the grass because it's killing the grass! And we're putting that stuff on our body??? YIKES!
I'm tied for 74th right now at 11:03am. Tee-time for Round 3 is scheduled at 3:15pm, so there is still quite a bit of golf out there. I hope I make it!!!

Crazy weather!!!

Of course, how can we go without bad weather on the Futures Tour..? It's like the green/rain cells are constantly following us where ever we go!
Today, I got 12 holes in and when we all putted out, the rules official blew the horn for bad weather. I thought I could hear thunder in a distance. So we hopped on a cart and headed into the clubhouse. About 5 minutes later... the skies just opened up! You wouldn't believe the amount of rain that came down in that short period of time! And the wind was blowing like crazy and it almost looked like it was starting to swirl too! I'm just so glad we were all in before it all came down!
After a couple of hours of just hanging around, I decided to take a little drive. I found an old mansion at a park, which used to be a fort used by the British to fight off the Indians. Pretty cool! Then, when 2:15pm rolled around, I headed back towards the golf course and weirdly enough, there was a lot of traffic going the opposite way. When I arrived, sure enough, golf for the rest of the day was suspended.
I was going to head home, but a player/friend of mine texted me and asked if I wanted to go to Hershey Park. Who wouldn't for some CHOCOLATE!!! The tour was quite fun. We didn't do the chocolate tasting as it was a $10 admission fee. But instead, I did buy about $10 worth of chocolate and peanut butter syrup. YUM!!!
Well, looks like it will be another early morning tomorrow and a long one too. 80% chance of rain tomorrow!!!

Green card update

We did it! We had our greencard interview this past Tuesday in Oklahoma City and sounds like my greencard should be approved pretty soon here. Yay! The lady that was interviewing was so serious starting out, but she finally cracked a smile halfway through the interview. Probably because Bobby didn't get our wedding year correct! And he forgot to mention the date too. Maybe he was more nervous than I was! Although I was freaking out a little bit when she took away my I-94 card. It's basically my departure card when I travel outside the United States. Right before boarding the plane, the flight attendant will take it away and you will receive a new one when you return into the U.S.. When she took the card, it just felt like... "Oh no, I can't leave the country ever again!!!".
There was a little discrapency about my current P1 visa. She asked about when and where I had left the U.S. to receive my visa and silly me answered "I didn't leave the country". It was only after we had left the interview and was walking back to the car when Bobby said "Yes, you did leave the country. You went to South Africa!". So then, we had to head back into the building, back through the security scan, and requested to see the lady again. Thankfully she was able to see us and after explaining about S. Africa, she thanked us for saving her some investigative time and we waved our good-byes. PHEW!!!
It's back on the road for me now. I'm in Harrisburg, PA with only 1 day of practice. I walked the course yesterday, but only got in 8 holes before the horn blew for lightning. Hopefully I'll be able to see the rest of the course today! We're suppose to have more bad weather today :-(

210K miles!

My car now has 210,022 miles! I didn't even realize it until I was driving through a neighborhood in DC today, on my way to Baltimore/BWI airport.
Knock on wood... so far so good. I've already put in about 20,000 miles during my travels this golf season and thankfully there's only 2 more events left! Hmmm... maybe my little Honda might survive another golf season next year. But then again, we'll see if Bob is going to let me play another year! :-P