.01 Seconds to Greatness

The HB made it back yesterday. He had a great time and he claims that he got some sleep (but was vague about when his slumber started). It was fun hanging with him yesterday and we talked a bit about what we wanted to do tonight.

If you're interested, you know by now that Michael Phelps tied Mark Spitz's record of 7 gold medals at a single Olympics by winning the 100 meter butterfly by .01 seconds. How he completed a stroke while the Milorad Cavic was reaching for the wall is beyond me.

Before the race Cavic, who's apparently a slow learner despite being a Berkeley grad, said that it would be good for swimming if Phelps didn't win the 8 golds. Why on earth would he piss Phelps off? Didn't he learn anything from the French? You can also throw Cavic into the sore loser category with this quote (from the NY Times), “If we got to do this again, I would win it.” Uh-huh.

Phelps has one more race, the team 4x100 medley relay (he'll swim the 100 butterfly). It's a race the US has never lost in the Olympics.

Bachelor Monday Night

The wife's up in SF for a couple of days, so me and the HB are doing the bachelor thing. So, as is our tradition, we stopped at the store to get some seafood (shrimp) for dinner. Strangely, he asked if we could watch baseball (sorry, Rockies fans) or football. Not sure if he really has an interest in either or just wanted to watch TV while we ate. Either way, even though I'm watching the game now on DVR, it's nice to actually watch MNF for a change. I just haven't been that dialed into the NFL this year...just too busy (and my fantasy team is suffering for it). Speaking of MNF, what's with the parade of celebs in the booth. Yuck...this is why I watch the games with the sound off.

Back to baseball, I am SO sick of the Red Sox now. They were the best team in the playoffs and probably in the league (after watching the Rockies, Cleveland fans must be sick to their stomachs for blowing that 3-1 lead). But, and as much as Sox fans don't want to admit it, they are the Yankees with a less publicly obnoxious owner. They'll cement that reputation if they sign A-Rod who didn't resign with the Yankees.

Christ, how long is this game going to last...there have been 20 penalties and there is still 9 minutes left to go.

While we're in football mode, I can't get over the Tennessee-South Carolina game. One one hand, had they lost, after blowing a 21-0 lead at home, the drumbeats for the head coaches head would have gotten louder (and Fulmer seems to have overstayed his welcome). But, thanks to some clutch field goals, not only do they pull the game out, but now they control their own destiny for the SEC championship game (no matter that they would get eviscerated by either LSU or Auburn). It's just been a weird season.

Hanging at the LA Open

The HB had the day off on Thursday (and Friday, and Monday...). He goes to a private school (yes, one of these days I'll rant about the LA public schools) and when there's a "regular" 3-day weekend they tend to extend it. For those with tons of money, I'm sure it allows them a great skiing jaunt (although there's hardly shit to ski on in CA right now). For us working folks it requires a bit of a balancing act. Fortunately, both my wife and I have flexible enough schedules to make it work.

Earlier this week, tickets to the LA Open golf tournament magically appeared in my mailbox. I'm thinking that this occurred for one or more of 3 reasons:

1) I've bought tickets in the past (but not the last couple of years).
2) When Northwest Airlines sponsored the tourney I was a frequent flyer with them and they gave me tix.
3) Tiger Woods isn't playing and they don't want the place to look empty.

Whatever the case, my wife watched the HB in the am and I asked him if he wanted to go (rather than asking a client) in the afternoon.

Now, there something you really need to know about the HB. He's a great kid, does well in school and I love him to death. He's also the kind of kid who has NO interest in sports--he tends to live between his ears. The great irony here is that I LOVE sports. We expose him to everything (art, sports, outdoor stuff, etc.). I can tell you that he has the reading/writing gene, but not the sports one. So, he decided to humor me and come along.

Strange as it sounds, professional golf can be a very cool spectator sport. The tickets for this kind of event are reasonable ($25) and you can watch from sun up to sundown. You can get much closer to the players than you can at any other sporting event, particularly if you go during the early rounds. Plus, you can manage your own schedule--follow a group, check out on hole, whatever works for you.

He doesn't know any of the players, so we didn't really need to follow anybody. This meant I could show him some cool stuff on the course. I made sure that I took him to two holes in particular: the first and the sixth. I figure he'd dig the first because almost all the players hit driver so he would really see some guys kill the ball. I picked the sixth because he talked about wanting to see players in the sand (how sick is that) and this hole is unique in that it has a sand trap in the middle of the green. He was marginally impressed with both.

We hung out for a few hours then headed on back. As I suspected, there's still no need for me to buy him clubs and lessons. But, we had a great sunny afternoon walking around and chatting. Not bad for a pair of free tickets.