First Weekend in May

I played at Virginia Oaks last Friday morning.  Went off early so that I could be finished in time to leave for Apple Blossom in Winchester.  I was paired with a guy who claims the most rounds ever at Virginia Oaks with more than 1700.  He said he plays five days a week.  I told him that he was in for a long day playing with me.  It turned out that we weren’t that far apart in ability.  The course is getting in pretty decent shape but the rough is long.  In fact it was the longest I’ve seen there.  That really put a premium on keeping the ball in the fairway, which I didn’t do consistently.

Friday night we went to Apple Blossom’s Beach House on the Bloom.  It’s a pretty fun event but I think next year we’ll just tailgate and forget the band.  Inside the tent it’s exactly the same every year.  Saturday we went to the parade.  I’m not a fan of crowds or parades so I was in for a real treat.  It didn’t turn out so bad since we arranged to have rum.  Unfortunately the rum got the better of me.  No sense going into the details about this on the internet.

I played in a tournament Monday afternoon down at The Osprey in Woodbridge with a good friend.  This one was the usual captain’s choice four person teams.  Our team only had two people so they let us have a ghost putt.  That put us at a distinct disadvantage over the other teams that had four shots each time.  Even so we shot a 2-over 72.  Under those circumstances I thought we did well.  We weren’t in last place but we weren’t anywhere near the three leading teams who each shot a 61.  I did walk away with the closest to the pin on one hole (9′ 0″).  I really didn’t think it would hold up and almost left early.  Glad I didn’t.

It’s been a long time and a lot has happened.

I haven’t posted an entry since November.  Since then the Caps went from the bottom of the league to the top of their division, gaining entry to the playoffs in the process.  They did fire Glen Hanlon and hired Bruce Boudreau to replace him.  This guy is a great coach and he knew just how to get the most from his team.  Though they lost in the first round to Philly, the future is bright.

My golf game is improving.  In the last month or two I’ve recorded four rounds in the eighties, including an 83 last Saturday.  My last score over 100 was in October at Stonewall Golf Club.  I feel like I’m comfortable out there and, while every shot isn’t great, I’m in more control.  I also decided to join Virginia Oaks as a full member.  This will allow me to play more on weekends, which is something I hesitated to do previously.

The had a pretty active winter.  We hosted the Parrothead’s Mardi Gras and St. Patrick’s Day parties.  We held our own parties for a couple of other sporting events, like the Super Bowl and Daytona 500.  We’ll try to keep things going in there over the summer, although we usually end up outside during the warm weather months.

I’m going to try to keep up on this more than I have been.  At the very least I’ll post the weekly email I send to my golf playing friends.  If you’d like to be on this list, please let me know.  One can’t have too many people with whom to play golf.

Heading to Blacksburg

Well, we’re going to Blacksburg on Thursday for the matchup between Virginia Tech ( and Boston College (2). This should be a good game but doubly so on a Thursday night on ESPN. These games are electric. We should be good and lubed up after starting our tailgating around 2 pm. Don’t worry, we’ll be sure to have lots of bread.

We’ll also be spending Friday in Roanoke. The ladies will go to the mall while the guys play golf. I honestly think we’ve got the better end of that deal. I’d hoped we’d be in one car so that the ladies wouldn’t have a place to out their packages, thereby limiting the purchases. Unfortunately we’ll have two cars. I’ll be sure to leave them mine so trunk space will be almost nonexistent.

Friday night we’ll hit Fiji Island, a Polynesian restaurant that makes very special drinks. My personal favorite is the Zombie. I’m going to try to get the recipe to transfer to O’Raleigh’s. We shall see if I can arrange that.

This should be a fun, adult beginning to the weekend. We’ll be back Saturday for a Parrot Head party and still have a weekend with Alyssa.