R.I.P. Hoagie 5/26/2005
Not exactly what I wanted to deal with on my vacation to Hawai'i, but one of my best friends of 10+ years had a stroke today and had to be put to sleep.
I love and miss you Hoagie.
EDIT: And no, that's not a picture of him croaked on his back. He's rolling around scratching himself on the rug like he used to love to do.
Aloha from Maui!
From our balcony - 6:10am Thursday 5/26
Where did it all go wrong?
So, Monday night Michelle and I decided to head to our favorite bar across the street and see all our friends (ie the staff) before jetting ourselves off to Maui. Nate was behind the bar and asked me to come play golf with him in the morning. "I can't possibly play golf in the morning, sorry. I have a 2:00 pm flight!" I said hesitantly..
"We're teeing off at 8am man, you could just play 9 and have plenty of time to make to the airport." Hmmmm... Very true.
Ok, Tuesday 5/24 - Up at 7:00 am, to Tatum Ranch Golf Club by 7:45, tee off at 8:00. 9 holes with my good friends Nate and Kevin.
12:00 pm head to Sky Harbor International airport, security's a breeeeze! 12:45 we're eating burritos and drinking margaritas.
Board a plane about 1:45 and we're in the air westward by 2:30.
Touch down Kahului Airport on the island of Maui, Hawai'i at 6:30 pm local time (3 hour time difference).
Arrive at the Renaissance Wailea about 8:00pm. Unbelievably gorgeous resort on Maui's south-west shore.
Had a great evening with our friends that we met out here, drinks, checking out some of the local surf bars in Kihei just north of Wailea.
7:45 am tee time at Wailea Blue Course with views that no-doubt have been depicted in any golf magazine published.
Pretty medicore round of golf as far as my playing goes, but of course, there's nothing to complain about!
Off the course and back to the resort before noon. Rented some snorkel gear and met the girls out on the beach just behind the resort where there's a natural reef with all the ocean has to offer withing about a 20 minute swim. Spent about an hour in the water gazing at the beauty of the reef and ocean floor and its' inhabitants.
By 2:30 pm we're laying on the beach with hollowed out pinepples holding our Mai Tai's and the sun doing a number on our faces.
Michelle had a 4:00 pm spa appointment to have a massage oceanside so she took off for that while I headed into Kihei to Maui Golf to perma-rent clubs for Phil and Michelle. Set up another 9:20 am tee time for today at Waiehu Golf Club on the north central shore for tomorrow morning. If this course plays well, we'll probably play there every morning until we fly home.
Dinner at Lobster Cove included whole Kona lobster, filet, king crab legs, you know, the typical evening fare. ;-) Yum yum! We headed back to the resort from the restaurant and enjoyed a little time down by the beach, played a little shuffleboard, and headed back to the room where our pillows were waiting.
It's 6:33 am in Maui right now and I'm typing this from my laptop on our balcony overlooking the ocean (see photo above). We're getting ready to walk a 1.5 mile trail that heads south along the shore and after breakfast, of course, tee off at 9:20.
As my buddy Nate would say...
Where did it all go wrong? ;-)
Aloha from Maui!
Google does it again!
As you may have read in a past blog post, I'm a fan of Google and their web tools. The most recent beta release is their Google Homepage.
Read a story about it here.
I, for one, have already customized my Google homepage and have it set up in my browser as my home. Sounds like they want to add a lot more optional features, but do not intend it to be a web portal, but moreso a dashboard for an immediate snapshot of that which matters to you.
Pretty sweet.
The daily grind...
Haven't written in a while. Just a little update on some happenings I suppose.
Been playing a lot of golf. Getting a little more consistent, but still suck for the most part. Going to Hawaii in less than a week. Playing a couple courses out there. Michelle and I and our friends Phil and Krischina. Should be a blast.
Ummm... Going to Vegas the weekend of June 10th to play in the $2,000 buy-in World Series of Poker event. Phil and K are going with us again and Phil's also playing. We're sorta going to celebrate K's and my birthday, so that should be a great time as well.
Work's going great. Had another successful Command Center franchise conference last weekend. I'm really fortunate to have gotten on board with this company. I know it will be a great career. I've been with Command now for over a year and looking forward to a lot more years to come.
Michelle is doing great. We're having a blast everyday just like always.
Hope to get down to the Carolinas later in the year. We'll see how that works out.
OMG!
I've discovered The Awful Forums thanks to a post on Paul Phillips' blog. At $10 for a lifetime subscription, I would highly recommend it to anyone that likes to kill time online. Absolutely hysterical community somewhat akin to the likes of the Best Page in the Universe or Tucker Max.
Anyway, this story is unreal. I've copied and pasted it to a page on my site so you're not required to subscribe to the forums to read it.
It's located here.
