Nothing left to sell but my used balls, aint worth a darn.

I went out for a ride today around the local golf course and picked up 56 balls. I found some good ones today, a bunch of Titleist Pro v1, Callaway HX tour and Nike One platinum. If you buy these balls at the store they are about $40-$50 per dozen, thats about 4 bucks a ball, I am always stoked when I find these babies. Hunting golf balls is kind of like treasure hunting, its a thrill when you strike gold (or a Pro v1). One day I will post a picture of my whole collection of balls, it's getting pretty big. After my ride I found Brittney and Ella at the pool. It was refreashing after riding in 95 degree high humidity weather. Ella loves the pool, she is like a little fish.

Ella brought her bodygaurd Evan along to take care of all the bullies. (they are almost the same age) Evans parents Trisha and Eric had us over for a memorial day steak dinner, yummy.

I rounded up some items to post on ebay today. I am saving up for tuition and insurance this fall. I have pretty much sold everything of any value that I have laying around including Brittney's bikes and a few of my bikes, I need to start digging deep to find some more stuff so I don't have to quit golf. If you have any ideas of things to sell let me know. (and no, selling my clubs and 2 bikes is not an option)

I start the summer session of school tommorrow. I will not be in the classroom this summer, I will be seeing patients which will be nice. I am also starting to studyfor national boards which are August 1st and 2nd. It cost $650 to take the boards, what a rack.

PGA tour, watch out

Brittney is encouraging me to drop out of school and pursue a new career as a pro golfer. She thinks golfers are sexy. She thinks bikers are sexy too. Good for me, I do both.

I played the best golf I have ever played today. I shot an even 80. My new TaylorMade irons are sweet.

Days don't get much better than today, Bike ride at noon, fajitas for lunch, golf from 3:30 to dark(27 holes). I even managed to clean the kitchen, sweep, mop, and vacume, get the oil changed in my car and do some grocery shopping at the dreaded wal-mart. Got to get all I can in before I am a slave to school again next week.

Here are some more photos of our Florida trip.

Adventures in gatorville, didn't see a gator

We are back from our Florida vacation.

This sign sums up Florida's land scape, nice and flat.

We had a lot of fun. As you can see from the photos we played at the beach, rode bikes, worked on our bunker game and relaxed.


Ella loved playing in the sand and especially like swimming at the pool at the condo. Once our pool is up and running next week I am sure she will be there everyday.

Ella woke up one morning screaming "My golf balls, My golf balls", being in the golf capital of the world must have rubbed off on her a little. It is too bad I did not make it out to the golf course while I was down there, every time I went past a golf course I drooled (those courses are sweet), but I just couldn't justify the $60-$125 green fees with summer tuition breathing down my neck. I did get in a lot of bunker action on the beach though.The bike riding was pretty good, there were bike paths everywhere. I tried riding my mountain bike on the beach and that was fun for about 30 seconds, then I figured the sand and salt was going to mess my bike up.Here are my bike tracks on the beach.

Heading to Gatorville

I am 26 now. A few people remembered my birthday:

Anne and Dug- 72 holes of golf and all you can eat catfish
Janie and Rog- round of Golf, cookies and stans no tubes sause
Karin and Matt- Dinner and an awesome alligator card
Jake and Karen- round of Golf and a funny golf card
Grandma Colleen- round of Golf and a nice card
Grandpa Jay- Answering machine message
Bryan- Good conversation
Bart- Day late email (said he tried to call me)
Kirk- Signed my b-day card
Todd and Gina- Dinner and a sweet cake
Self- Multiple iron sets (cant make up my mind)
Brittney- Condo on the beach, leaving tommorrow. spring tuition and a donation for my irons
Ella- swim trunks and 2 golf shirts and she blew out b-day cake candles

Heading for Seagove beach Florida tommorrow, hope we don't run into a gator. Taking our bikes to ride the 20 mile bike path along the beach, sand wedge to work on my bunker game and lots of sunscreen.

Guy gets arm bit while retrieving golf balls:
http://diver.net/bbs/posts001/63307.shtml
3 people killed by gators:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,195447,00.html
and for a whole list of alligator attacks, check this:
http://www.underwatertimes.com/crocsgators/crocsgators.php

My new TaylorMade irons came today, hit a bucket at the range and they are sweet.

Brittney is catching the bug (golf)

Brittney, Ella and I got in some evening dirt golf today after we had the missionaries and our friends the Pages over for dinner. Brittney had some sweet shots, I was really impressed and out of the blue she said she wanted to go to the driving range again, I was shocked. Dirt golfing is the new rage, get a beater club and go hit balls off the dirt where ever you can find open space.

I rode today for about and hour and it was hot and I was tired.

I hurt my back today running from a wasp hive. I was taking down Ella's play house when I felt a wasp nest with my finger and saw one out of the corner of my eye and I turned picked up Ella and ran as fast as I could. Some how I mannaged to hurt my lower back and now it is sore. I have only been stung twice in my life, once on the ankle and once on the lip and it was not a pretty site, the one on my lip I swole up like elephant man.

I am back to being super husband 3000 now that finals are over. I went on a date with my two gals yesterday we saw Over the Hedge. Ok movie, Ella liked it and the main character a racoon carries golf clubs everywhere he goes, sounds kind of like me.

124 questions between me and freedom, golf, and the beach

I spent most at school studying for a final, I took a photo from the third floor of my school, looking toward downtown Birmingham. Don't mind the nuclear plant next door, I've only grown another eye and got cancer.

After my final I went for a mountain bike ride through the trails around my house, that is if you call power line roads trails. There are a couple of cool trails branching off the power lines but the problem is I can ride them in 10 minutes and I have to deal with a lot of puddles covering the whole trail as well as huge spiders and webs traversing the trail. I guess that is why I have only ridden my mtb once since the Alabama state cyclocross championship last fall. Not to mention the trash everywhere, some stupid people are ruining this beautiful state with their trash.

My last final tommorrow is ocular pharmocolgy, 124 questions and then I am free.

Finals stink

Aced another final today (well I hope so) then hit the driving range for a jumbo bucket. My new callaway fusion irons are sweet but their shafts are too stiff so I put them up on ebay tonight. I have been studying most of the day, but I did find a chance to buy a new set of Taylor Made LT-2 irons on ebay. These have a little lighter flex shaft, hope I like them.

Ella is a crazy gal, she has not been wanting to go to bed lately and I think it caught up to her today, she fell asleep at 6:00pm and she was down for the count.

2 finals down 4 to go

I've got one final each day for the next 4 days, and then we are heading for the beach for some fun and golf.

After my finals, I went out for a ride, athough I should have been studying. I rode by the golf course and filled my jersey pockets full of golf balls. I found so many golf balls I had to stuff about six in my shorts leg. I can hold about 35-40 balls in my jersey pockets before they spill out.

Here are some cute photos of Ella and her friend Lana having a good time.

My attempt at motherhood

Happy mothers day to all those wonderful mothers out there. As you can see from the photo, this was my attempt to be a mother today. Ella jumped up and down on my head as I was trying to take a nap. Brittney thought it was poetic justice after I watched two hours of golf on mothers day.

I would like to give a shout out to my mothers, Janie and Anne. I love you guys, thanks for being great moms and grandmas. Brittney I love you too. (we will celebrate mothers day next week?)


Finals are this week and I am just going to wing it, I am so burnt out I can't bring myself to study any more. Wish me luck.

They say that a dog is a reflection of its owner, I am glad this is not my dog.

Friday Golf, 5 hours of fun

I made it out golfing today with Todd before the onslaught of studing for finals next week. We had a great time and even had a few great shots. We played from 3:30 till dark (8:00). Starting today is not going to be any fun, study, study, study for the next week. Brittney is starting to think she is a single mother because I have been gone so much lately (the golfing does not help). She actually hired a substitute husband named Natalie.



Here are some photos one on Todd seting up for a drive and one of the turtles hanging out on the shore of the pond that I have recovered over 500 balls from. I caught a turtle in my golf ball dredger once.

A patient I saw today was shot in the head 20 years ago and the left side of her body was mostly paralized. I found that her left optic nerve had some serious atrophy attributed to either the gun shot wound or glaucoma, we are not sure yet. We are having her back in a month to do some more test and more than likely getting her started on some glaucoma therapy to decrease her intraocular pressure so she does not loose her sight.

So if you ask me what I been doing for the past few years I will tell you, restoring sight to the blind, eradicating disease, saving lives, and perfecting my swing.

My computer is back up and running so I've got some photos posted. There was a big storm today and blew Ella's play house into the neighbors fence, this has happened three times and it is dead now.

Here is a photo of Ella tearing up the hallway on her skates also Ella and I with our scripture specs on.

My Callaway fusion clubs came today, they are sweet, but still do not know if I am going to keep them, probably will.

Yesterday I mentioned we will be moving back to Utah before Christmas of 2007, well I did some mis-calculating, it will actually be before Thanksgiving 2007. All I have to do now is set up two externships.

This is what Ella said in her prayer today, "Thank you for chocolate, curious george, Matt and Karin, and noodles". Crazy kid.


Check this out, if you google "Callaway fusions" guess who comes up 5th?, yours truely.

Won the lottery (kind of)

I was at school from 7am to 8:30pm today, I'm tired. After class we had a dinner for graduating our CEVS (clinical evaluation of the visual system) class. CEVS is a year long class that is one of our more important classes that lays the foundation for our clinical skills. Our instructor gave out some awards and I recieved the "keep me on my toes" award. I guess I kept her on her toes by asking a lot of questions and ensuring she was doing things correctly. We had one battle during the year about a test question that she admitted my answer was correct but still did not give me credit for it. She won that battle and I learned from then on that I will probably never win those battles so just lay low, fly under the radar.

After the dinner our class met to determine each of our fates for our fourth year externship sites. This is were I won the lottery. Only by divine intervention was I able to get my last 2 quarters anywhere I want. Which means we can move back to paradise before Christmas of 2007. The grandmas will be stoked.

Brittney's addition to the blog in early celebration of our departure:

Some more reasons Alabama rules:
There are a lot of awesome people here
The winters are mild and pleasant
It storms here with the wrath of heaven
There's a lot of cool research happening at UAB
Our house is sweet

Things we won't miss:
The lack of mexican food
The DMV
The trash on the side of the road
Feuding neighbors
Walmart

Birthday Wish List

My computer is still giving me problems, so I have not been able to post for a few days. I have some photos I want to post but have been unable to. Ella got her roller skates and she rips up and down the hallway.

Friday I played golf and shot my best game yet, 85. If I keep playing the way I am, I will shot under 80 in no time. Well that is my goal anyway. I have been improving little by little and it is a lot of fun.

I rode Saturday and got chased by too many dogs to count.

My birthday is the 21st of this month, and here are a couple of items on my wish list:

Stans no tubes sause
Egg beaters road cleats
White lightning chain lube
Fairway woods (not sure what brand yet, just something good)
A new golf bag ( maybe an Ogio)

I will be happy if I only get the Stans sause but I thought I would throw in the other stuff just in case Brit wanted to get me something.

Top States you do not want to live in

Another 8 to 8 day at school today. I had my last clinical evaluation of the visual system lab practical tonight. I had to do BIO (binocular indirect ophthalmoscopy) with scleral indentation on a patient. I was really nervous about it all day but ended up doing great.

I won $25 tonight at a presentation put on by Varilux and Transitions lenses. Varilux makes awesome progressive lenses (bifocals without a line) and Transitions makes the lenses that get dark when you go out in the sun and clear when you are inside. They told us about their sweet products and wined and dined us. I won the $25 for answering, "what year did the first progressive lens come out?" 1959.

Now for the Top States you do not want to live in: (based on vision requirements to get a drivers license) this is especially useful for the cycling community cause were out there riding.

1. Iowa (20/70 in one eye)
t2. Alabama (20/60 in one eye)
t2. Georgia (20/60 in one eye)
t2. Pennsylvania (20/60 in one eye)
t3. Indiana (20/50 in one eye)
t3. Oklahoma (20/50 in one eye)
t3. Texas (20/50 in one eye)
*in one eye means they only have to have one eye! you know blind or enucleated!

States you do want to live in:
(no one eye drivers must be at 20/40 both eyes)
mississippi (they have to be first in something)
Hawaii
Nebraska

(20/30 in one eye)
Utah
Kansas
Conneticut
New Hampshire
North Carolina
Ohio

All the other states are 20/40 in one eye.

So what does 20/70 mean? Ok so 20/20 vision is what the average person can see, it indicates a certain size letter that the normal person can see from 20 feet away. 20/70 indicates a certain size letter that the normal person can see from 70 feet away, but if you have 20/70 vision you can see the letter only if you are 20 feet away. That is 50 foot difference!

How does this effect us cylcist out on the road? If you can only see 20/70 in one eye it will take you 50 more feet before you can see me biking on the side of the road and if you are blind in the right eye, I am really in trouble because you may miss me all together because of your restricted field of view on the right side (where I will be riding).

Bottom line, be especially careful if you live in one of those "top states not to live in" (that's me) and be careful if you live anywhere else. I know what it is like to be hit by a car, it is not fun I have scars to prove it. Brit knows what it is like also, she suffers because of it every day (messed up neck).

Computer down, Golf game on the rise

My computer has been down for a couple of days, I am having to reinstall the operating system because it wigged out on me. I am posting tonight from Brit's sweet IBM (nice work Jon). sorry no photos.

Is it a sign that I am a bad parent when Ella gets out the toe nail polish and paints my toes without me even knowing it? I was laying on the ground fixing my computer and my toe nails got painted pink. Brit about freaked when she saw Ella with the nail polish and I didn't have a clue.

I bought another set of Callaway big bertha fusions on ebay today. They have upgraded Royal Precision Rifle shafts and are only a few months old. I may keep this set or I might sell them and make some $. I have ten minute breaks between classes at school and that is when all the ebay deals go down.

Brittney and I went to the driving range tonight and shared a jumbo bucket of balls. I think Brittney is our next Annika Sorenstam or michelle wie, she did pretty good for her first golf adventure. I asked her if she wanted to caddie for a round of 18, she gave me a funny look and asked for the car keys, I guess she has better things to do than watch grass grow. To bad, I even said I would carry the bag, cause I'm just that kind of guy.

My Volvo has been acting up lately, where is your family mechanics when you need them? We miss you Doug's Auto.