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The Quit and My Health

The Quit

I’m now working on Day 29 of not smoking. Almost one month complete! Woot! I did e-cigs for a couple of weeks. When those ran out, I switched to the patch and wore that for about 1.5 weeks. I’ve been nicotine-free for the last 5(?) days. Feeling pretty good, too!

I’ve also been eating Atomic Fireballs when I have bad cravings. Over the last week or so, I’ve noticed that I’m not really having any cravings, but I’m still eating the Fireballs. These things are great for fighting the craves and they have saved my life a number of times. But now that I’m eating them because I like them, well, that means it’s time to get rid of them. I have about 15 left. When I’m down to 5, I will save those in case I need them, but I won’t be buying any more. I need to purge myself of sugar now!

My Health

Along with taking the plunge on The Quit, I’ve decided that I need to start exercising again. I’ve been getting lazy these last few months since I haven’t been going to the CrossFit gym. As much as I like CF, my gym was far away and expensive. Since I’m no longer going, it’s time to step things up. I’ve decided to follow a more laid back approach and follow the Primal Blueprint Fitness plan. The quick and dirty of it is to move slowly, lift heavy, and occasionally sprint. So, for me, it breaks down thusly: 4 days of walking, 2 days of body weight exercises, and 1 day of sprints. That’s my week.

I started the walking aspect last week. One thing I love about living in the country, my walks are through some really nice areas with wonderful scenery. I’ve seen ducks, peacocks, cows, chickens, roosters, etc. I’ve also been taking some pics while I’m out and about. At any rate, I walked 3 days last week. The totals for each day were 2.7 miles, 3.1 miles, and 4.8 miles. I went out again today for 3 miles. Tomorrow I start the heavy lifting.

Combine that with eating a clean paleo diet, the weight should melt off of me. I hope. But, I’m not going to make any expectations. I’m just going to continue to do what I need to do and let the rest take care of itself. JERF! Just Eat Real Food!

Patapsco: Snakes ho!

Hey, I remember this blog!

I played Patapsco today. First time out there in a couple of weeks. Just been too busy during the week and playing elsewhere on the weekends. Nomads and tournaments abound!

Today, though, I shot a 68 from the Reds. One of my best rounds there. Got 2 deuces (5 and 12). But also got a few 5s, so that kind of messed things up. What I really need to do is work on my putting as missing easy putts kind of screws up the score.

After finishing 3, I was walking along the path to 4 and heard a rustle in the leaves. I turned around and saw this guy sitting there looking a little miffed that I interrupted what ever he was doing. I whipped out the cell phone and snapped a pic, him hissing and snapping at me all the while.

Didn’t find Mr. Turtle, but haven’t really been looking for him. Playing solo, I tend to stay in the game and not sight-see. The only reason I saw the snake is because he drew my attention by lunging at me as I went by and made a noise.

I also think my drive might be coming back as I threw some real nice ones. Now I must work on putting (natch) and shake off the stress of competition as I seem to lose it in tourneys. Last weekend at the Seneca Screamer, I played poorly. Two weekends previous to that I played rather well at the course, so you can see my dilemma. Hopefully, I can get my act together for the Rockville Rumble on the 17th.

Until next time…

The Adrian Belew Power Trio

Years ago, a friend and I were discussing the concept of Power Trios. At the time, Rush was the only band which we felt embodied this concept. This was long before I listened to Primus or any other trios that I would consider in this light. Friday night, the wife and I went to see the Adrian Belew Power Trio. Let me tell you, the name fits! Even though I have listened to Side Four many times over (mine’s autographed :P ) and heard a couple of bootlegs of last year’s tour, hearing it all again live with almost the exact same set-list (the only change being the addition of a new song: “E”) was a joy to behold. I highly recommend one pick up the CD at Adrian’s website. For that matter, you should pick up all the Sides: Side One, Side Two, Side Three, and Side Four. One and Three feature Les Claypool on bass and Danny Carey on drums, Two is all Belew (and my favorite of the Sides), and Four is a Live show with the Power Trio. You can’t go wrong with any of them.

On to the show! As I said, my wife went with me. This was more from guilt than anything else, I think, as she said she felt bad for not joining me for RF and the LOCG. I had no problem with that as I knew that music wasn’t her cup of tea and while hoping she would enjoy the ABPT show, I was still a bit weary that she might not. My fears were unfounded and she had a great time. So much so, that she asked when they would be returning to our area while on the way home. Yay! Score one for Ade and the Slick kids.

We were third row center for this awesome event. Notice in this first pic (sorry for the crappy cell phone pic) that there are only 2 heads between me and the stage. My ass didn’t like it (we were in temporary chairs as opposed to the cushy theater seats) and it let me know, but the rest of me was very happy with our location.

The show opened with the California Guitar Trio. I was excited to hear them and didn’t even know they were going to be there until the day before the show. They were awesome and their cover of Echoes by Pink Floyd was spot on. As soon as I heard the first “ping” I thought “Are they going to play Echoes?” Seconds later I knew for sure and enjoyed every second of it for PF was my first love in music. While not 22 minutes long like the original, they still nailed the seagulls in the middle and just sounded awesome. They also did a nice cover of Tubular Bells and towards the end of the song, their soundman jumped onstage to accompany on a melodica. Very cool. The wife wasn’t as impressed with these guys as she was with ADPT, but as I said, that’s not really her cup of tea.

Soon after the CGT left the stage, the ABPT came on. No introduction, no pomp and circumstance, just the three of them walking on with Adrian bouncing into his “guitar center” taking a quick bow and then jumping right into “Writing on the Wall.” This was followed by “Dinosaur” which had a wee comedic moment during the dinosaur sounds: Adrian looks over at Eric (Slick on drums) and says “a baby dinosaur” and then proceeds to make a wee dinosaur sound. They laughed, we laughed, and then they were back in the groove. At one point during the show, I looked over at my wife and said “She’s phenomenal!” in reference to Julie (Slick on bass). My wife agreed whole-heartedly. This made me feel good as it was then that I knew she really was enjoying herself and could appreciate the level of musicianship that was involved here.

The other thing I’d like to point out was the level of happiness on stage. It was so refreshing to see a band on stage having the time of their lives doing what they loved to do. All three smiled at one time or another, Adrian being guilty of this on multiple accounts. At one point during a few of his jams, he would be sitting on his stool doing incredible things on his Parker Fly, and he would suddenly look up at the audience and smile a smile that would belie the fact that he was “at work.” Simple grins that said “I’m having a blast doing this, I hope you are, too, and by the way, listen to these funny sounds.” It was almost a 4 piece when you consider how much a role Humor played. I can’t wait to see them again and hope I’m able to.

My only complaint: the ass who sat in the row behind us and was constantly yelling “Woooo” at full volume. During Beat Box Guitar, he must of yelled at least 15 times. It got annoying very fast and at one point it looked as though Adrian was getting tired of it. About halfway through the show I looked over at the ass and he was telling his friend something to the effect of “I don’t care if people don’t like it, I’m having fun so fuck ‘em.” One other offense: speaking loudly during the CGT set. Obviously not one who was familiar with the KC style of listening. When you’re at a show where everyone is acting like that, I can understand people doing it. However, at this event, everyone stayed in their seats and gave their full attention to the people on stage. Except for this guy. The only sour note on an otherwise wonderful night.

Well played, Ade, et al.

Patapsco and Burke: The Glutton is Back!

Hello to everyone who doesn’t read this blog and I think that covers EVERYONE. :)

I’m back! I haven’t posted much as this was mainly a blog about my adventures playing disc golf and I haven’t played in a few months. Well, I played 2, yes 2!, rounds this last weekend. Not only that, but I also played in my first 2 tourneys evar!

The first one was on Saturday at Patapsco. It was their annual Ice-Bowl (winter DG to raise money for the Food Bank) and I had to play. I just had to. I’d been itching to play and to enjoy being Patapsco’s bitch once again. I finished Dead Last. Woot! And for the record, Patapsco was in Full Punishment Mode: all pins in “C” position.

Wait, I can explain! Started on 13 (shotgun start) and got a 7. Not good, but it was the first hole and the first time I’d thrown a disc in 4 months or more. I figured things would get better as I warmed up. Things did not go that way initially. On 15, I got an 11. Yes, an 11! The pin was sitting at the top of a steep hill (I swear it was like a 45 angle) and my 4th or 5th shot (my putt) missed. Upon hitting the ground, the disc flipped on edge and took off down the hill. All the way to the bottom and almost in the river! 4 strokes later, I was back near the top. I think the worst part of this mini-adventure was that I could still see the pin from where the disc stopped but there was no way I’d be able to get it up there without eating some strokes.

Finally, on 7, whose C position is like 3 miles past the A position, I got an 8. If I had gotten 4’s on those 3 holes, I would have ended up with an 80 instead of my 94. But on the plus side, I made a noob happy as I kept him from being last. ;) That won’t happen again, E! I can promise that.

At the end of the day, I realized a couple things:

  1. Being out of shape and practice does not help my game (d’uh!)
  2. Holes 1 and 2 do not have it in for me. (More below on this one)
  3. I was so sore it felt like I had been hit by a car. (Need to remedy this)

For holes 1 and 2 (I got a 4 and 3 respectively), I came to realize that they are indeed easier than I thought. The major factor in me sucking on those holes is that I’M NOT WARMED UP when I usually play them. Hence my horrible scores on the holes normally. I mean, I PARRED 2 in it’s C position. That really told me something. So, I apologize to 1 and 2 for hating them when it was my fault all along.

The next day…
I drove down to Burke Lake and played in their Ice-Bowl with my buddy Alex. It was a “bring your own partner, best disc” match. We were to play 2 rounds: one from the longs and the second from the shorts.

The first round went OK. I think we played more of my throws than Alex’s, but that’s not the point. We (Team Boozer) had fun and we didn’t come in last. :) Although I can’t find the results online yet, I know this because we were 1 stroke ahead of one of the two teams we played with. I had a couple awesome drives, but still came to realize I need to get out more and practice a few things.

After lunch, we came back to the park and there were trees down and really bad winds. Due to this, the second round was canceled for safety concerns. No problem. The last place I want to be in high winds is in the woods with dead shit waiting to fall.

It was a good day, non the less, as we had a good time, and lots of money and food was raised for the food bank.

I also got 2 new discs (one from each IB).

So, that was the extent of my weekend and it’s nice to know that playing in 40 degree weather ain’t that bad. Just need to keep moving and stay warm.

Off topic, my brother was in the Letterman audience last Friday. Here he is:

Movie sighting…


I saw a movie being filmed. It’s called He’s Just Not That Into You. There’s big names in it. I didn’t see any this morning on the way to work, at lunch, or on the way home. While I am a movie geek, I just wasn’t interested in acting like one. In fact, if it weren’t for what I saw on the way home, I wouldn’t even mention it here.

I walk past this place twice a day (on the days that I work) and I couldn’t tell you the name of it nor the exact location by name. However, I can tell you that it isn’t named “City Supper Club.” (I think that’s what it said. The pic turned out a bit blurry and I last thought about it 2 hours ago.) Upon seeing this signage and noticing that it had cables running down the wall to a temporary (huge) power outlet, I knew it to be a prop. Therefor I snapped a pic of it. Just for me. (and you)

BTW, if you hit that imdb link up there, it says this movie is in “post-production.” I was under the assumption that that meant they were done filming. Apparently, they’re not.

Patapsco: 8th hole

This is the short tee for 8 at Patapsco. The basket is there, one just need look hard and follow these clues: Find the road going across the image towards the top. It’s just before the green stuff in the far background. Follow the path from the tee straight out and one can see a fuzzy gray thing just before the road. That’s the tee. I birdied this once from the blues. The pin is also 50′ below the tees. A great hole and one of the reasons I love this course.

This shot was with a cell phone. I hope to bring the digi-cam out one day, maybe even with a tripod, and get some nice shots.