It's not often that Jodi and I stay up until almost 3 a.m., but we've done it twice since the beginning of 2010 already. First was New Year's of course, and the other was last night to break-in the brand new poker table. It was one of our best turnouts ever, and my only regret was that we couldn't fit everyone at the new table at once.

I purchased the new table from the guys at Rochester Custom Poker Tables a couple weeks ago, and was anxious to try it out. If you're looking for a new table that is nicely put-together, I'd recommend them. You can check out some pictures from the action here.

And no, I didn't win in the first game on my new table. The big winners of the inaugaral game were Andy, DJ, Chris, and Sean. Congrats to each of them. Also, thanks to Chris for taking the pictures with his iPhone.

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It was a good 2009 golf season. I broke my previous all-time best of 83 with rounds of 78 (Silver Creek), 80 (Greystone - Blues), and 82 (Centerpointe). I also recorded my first eagle ever, and about 3/4 of the way into the season I carried the lowest handicap I've ever carried (10). My goal for next season is to break into the single-digits. My first hole-in-one would be nice as well ;-)

Anyways, with the season officially over, here's how I ended up:

	2008	2009
# Rounds	39	51
Avg Score	90.89	88.89
Handicap	14	11
Low 18	84 (+12) Ravenwood	78 (+7) Silver Creek
Low 9	39 (+3) Greystone	39 (+3) Greystone
Eagles	0	1
Birdies	21	24
Pars	145	200
Bogeys	245	373
D. Bogeys	133	160
T. Bogeys+	41	34
GIR	162	238
GIR%	28%	30%
FW Hit%	37%	38%
% Left	31%	32%
% Right	32%	30%
Avg Putts/Rd	35.23	35.00
One Putts	103	152
Two Putts	395	522
Three Putts+	83	114

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My contract with Sprint runs out in May of next year, and I'm semi-anxiously looking to ditch them. They've screwed up one too many times, and after being with them for about 9 years I think it's time for something new.

On top of that, I've had two smart phones that each have Windows Mobile 6.1 on them. The prognosis on that O.S. isn't great. It was awful on my Samsung Ace, and it's been ok on the HTC Mogul I'm currently using. I loved the hardware on the Samsung Ace, but it's rather pointless if the stupid O.S decides to put the phone in airplane mode 6 times a day without warning or prompting.

So I've been pondering what's next. Jodi has expressed a desire to upgrade to a smart phone, and is willing to go in on a family plan with me. We've both had our eye on the iPhone of course, considering its popularity. But then Verizon started blasting the airwaves with adverts for their new Motorola Droid phone. Now everyone's pegging that as a serious contender to Apple's domination. And many people I talk to seem to like their Blackberrys. I think no matter which way we go, we'll end up paying the same monthly fees. Based on readings and little or no actual physical holding of any of the mentioned devices, it seems I can conclude the following:

• The iPhone GUI is better suited for the average user than the Droid
• Verizon service and coverage is superior to that of AT&T (advantage Droid & Blackberry)
• The Droid doubles as a GPS navigation device
• The Apple App-Store is supposedly awesome, and full of every app you could ever want or need

From what I can tell, the hardware is pretty comparable. I've got a few months to decide. So I ask all three of you semi-loyal readers of my blog: what's good and what's bad about each phone/carrier? What say you?

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So a couple days ago my package of 36 "recycled" Bridgestone e6 golf balls arrived from Amazon.com. It's really the first time that I've purchased used golf balls in the 14 years I've been playing golf.

Naturally, I was expecting a few blemishes, but was pleasantly surprised to find not one. I mean, maybe 3 or 4 of them had visible wearing to the ink in the logo, but I honestly have to say that if you hadn't told me these were recycled golf balls I probably would think they're new. And considering the price ($28 for 36 recycled balls versus $25 for 12 new), it's a steal. Even better is I used a gift certificate given to me by my credit card company for rewards points. So technically they were free!

I don't know why I'm so pleased with this "discovery", but I am. I guess I shied away from used golf balls before because I assumed they'd be in crappier shape. I'm hoping this purchase experience is par for the course. If so, I may never buy new again.

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I recently celebrated ten years of marriage to the love of my life, and my best friend. She also happens to be my wife too. And we decided to celebrate by taking a trip to the place where we spent our honeymoon 10 years ago: Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

Day one of our trip started a little rough, at least for me. I was still getting over a head cold that made the cabin pressure of the flight less than tolerable, and the 90 degree mugginess of Orlando even more enjoyable. But I persevered, and we were able to find a good time. We hit the Magic Kingdom in the afternoon, and in the evening took in the La Nouba Cirque du Soleil show. Cirque was excellent. Jodi and I both enjoyed it very much, and would highly recommend it.

Amidst making stops at all of Disney's Theme Parks, we also got in some great dining this time. We had some delicious crab and lobster at Fulton's Crab House at Downtown Disney. The waiter was as excellent as the food, and even looked a lot like my favorite NFL quarterback Eli Manning to boot. The next evening we each had the surf n' turf at Narcoossee's in the Grand Floridian. I have to admit it was one of the most delicious meals I've had in a very long time. The next night we had another fancy dinner at Artist Point in the Wilderness Lodge, which was also excellent.

I also managed to squeeze in a couple rounds of golf. I re-visited the Magnolia course, which I hadn't played since back in 1996. Using unfamiliar clubs, I was able to shoot 15 strokes better than I did 13 years before (and this time without the use of mulligans, so it was likely at least 20 strokes better). Then Jodi and I played Osprey Ridge together, and we were randomly paired up with another couple from Rochester, NY. I mean, what are the chances of that happening?

6 days, and 5 nights of what amounted to a great time. But we were pretty tired out by the end, and glad to be home. Check out the photos we took from the trip here.

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Yesterday, Jodi and I took a short trip to the scenic Letchworth State Park. Also known as the "Grand Canyon of The East", its described as one of the "most scenically magificent areas in the Eastern U.S.".

We had camped there once about 7 or 8 years ago, but we never got to experience much of what is an enormous park because it rained the entire time we were there. This time the rain held off though, and we were able to take a bunch of pictures. We both had a very good time.

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I was a little bored tonight, and as I sat here watching the Yankees beat the Blue Jays I got curious about my golf stats. So I fired up the IntelliGolf software. I took a look at the first 34 rounds of 2009, and pitted them against the first 34 rounds of 2008 to see where I stand. Of the 34 rounds, 24 of them are 18 hole rounds, and the remaining 10 are 9 hole rounds. All said, 522 holes of golf for each year. 

	2008	2009	+/-
Avg Score	91.09	90.14	-0.95
Handicap	14	12	-2
Birdies	21	14	-7
Pars	122	116	-6
Bogeys	223	257	+34
D. Bogeys	116	108	-8
T. Bogeys+	40	27	-13
GIR	147	140	-7
GIR%	28%	27%	-1%
FW Hit%	38%	36%	-2%
% Left	30%	29%	-1%
% Right	32%	35%	+3%
Avg Putts/Rd	35.45	35.17	-0.28
One Putts	88	100	+12
Two Putts	353	344	-9
Three Putts+	77	77	n/c

My handicap has gone down two strokes (mostly due to some recent rounds where I shot out of my mind)., but a lot of the stats are largely similar. The only statistics that have had a large shift in my favor are one putts, and the number of double and triple bogeys. It wreaks of more consistency, which is a good thing.

Here's hoping I can finish out the season strong.

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Another year, another great Wegmans LPGA pro-am. This year I had the pleasure of playing with Australian Katherine Hull. Our group shot a scramble format 10-under on a very warm summer day. Katherine and the rest of the gang were fun to play with, and I'm sure that even though we didn't shoot as well as in past pro-ams, we still had a good time. The putts just weren't dropping for us to contend for the prizes.

On a personal level, I felt like I hit the ball pretty well. I had some moments of crap, but I also had some nice shots. As Matt will attest, he didn't have to go off into the woods looking for my errant golf balls much at all this year. I put a few nice drives out there, but every time I did Katherine would hit just a slightly better drive. I'm pleased with how I hit em overall though.

Check out the pics from the day here.

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Where can you go that they'll give you a knife and let you cut things? Why a cooking class of course. This past weekend we went with the Snydermans to the NY Wine & Culinary Center for a cooking class. And while we were there we took a few pictures. Check those out here.

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In the past few days I've managed to accomplish some minor personal victories. On Thursday, I ran my first ever Chase Corporate Challenge. It's a 3 and a half mile run around the R.I.T. campus. And I picked a great </sarcasm> year to make it my first run - it down poured the entire race.

I had trained a bit in the 2-3 months leading up to the event. Mostly running on the treadmill. And I quickly discovered that running outdoors, in the elements, and on pavement is a bit tougher than running on a treadmill in a nice, wind-free, climate-controlled gym. I mostly ran my standard 2 miles on the treadmill as a warm-up for lifting weights. Though a week or so ago I decided to run a full 3.5 miles on it just to see how I'd do. I couldn't even hold a 10-minute/mile pace, finishing it in about 36 minutes.

So when I showed up for the real event, I figured I'd be happy enough just to come in under 40 minutes. I was actually kind've shocked when I saw that my final time in the event was 33:18! I had managed to run 3.5 miles and maintain a 9 and a half minute pace. It's not real-runner numbers, but I was pretty happy with it. It was an experience running in a down pour, and to beat my goal by almost 2 full minutes was a great feeling.

Following on the heels of that mini victory, I played some weekend golf yesterday and ended up shooting a personal-best 82 (+11). I was still pretty sore from the run on Thursday, so I went into the round thinking I would probably not play well. However, I quickly discovered that the sore muscles actually improved my game for the most part. It forced me to swing easier, which kept most of my drives in the fairways.

I ended up with four 3-putts on the day, so I'm figuring if I could have putted a little better (maybe convert two or three of those 3-putts into two-putts) that I could have broken 80 for the first time in my life. I'd love to do it someday, but instead of setting that as a lofty goal, I think I'm going to instead set the goal of shooting in the low 80's more often.

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