1. I will be studying a lot (yes, I may be playing a little bit of catch-up on my lectures)

2. I will be blogging less (I know, I know, as if my posts weren’t already few and far between).

However, I have a homework assignment for you, ARB.  In case you haven’t noticed, the name of this blog is “My First Blog.”  If you haven’t noticed that, then you also haven’t noticed that the title of my blog is LAME, not to be confused with lame0ne42.  So here’s what I need from you, ARB.  I need you to come up with a clever name for my blog.  Think about the posts that you’ve read and what you believe I am trying to accomplish with this thing and then send me a 500-word essay on why you believe that your title is the best.  Or, your second option is to just leave me a comment telling me what I should call my blog.  Ready… Set… Go!

So here are some updates:

My crush that works at the gym used the leg curl machine after I did.  No, I didn’t time my workout so that I could use the machine in between her sets!  The machine is a lay down machine where you are on your stomach and curling your legs back towards your buttocks.  As I finished my last set, she came over and asked if she could use it.  Of course I would let her!  I asked if she needed me to whipe it down, because I had been sweating (it’s a good idea to find out the sweat toleration of the female before committing to a long-term relationship, just ask most relationship experts (the end of that clip doesn’t really apply, not that any of the clip is actually relevant).  Anyways, she said not to worry about it and hopped right on the machine and went to work.  I’m pretty sure we took our relationship to a whole new level. 

In softball, my current hitting streak has reached 15 games, NBD, no big deal.  More importantly though, I played against a new prototype of softball player.  The “kid” (he appeared to be younger than me, and if not than I feel sorry for him) was wearing a wife-beater with a hunters orange hat (but without the deer logo on it) with socks wrapped down over his cleats like spats and here is the kicker.  He had headphones in the ENTIRE game! While he was batting, while he was fielding, the whole game!  It’s really his loss as he missed out on all the funny jokes I made.

In other news, I was on the way back from my game this evening and stopped by Mike’s Express Car Wash to give the GT  the cleaning that she deserves.  I paid by debit card and it seemed like it wasn’t going through, so I asked him if it was giving him problems.  As I asked him that, I had two singles (or dollar bills for those who don’t speak jive) that I began to put in my wallet.  However, I still had them in my hand as he  gave me my receipt, which made it look like I was offering him a tip.  Ha… chump.  He said, “Oh. don’t worry about it.”  Yeah, I’m not worrying about it.  I’m not giving you $2 for you to tell me to put my car in neutral. 

This last weekend I went up to Monroe, IN during their Swiss Heritage Days.  Interesting.  I got to witness a professional Alphornist flex her golden pipes.  Anyways, at one point during the day on Saturday, Joel, Stuart and I were sitting along one of the stores just kind of hanging out when a group of older men (easily in their late 60′s and early 70′s) pulled up some chairs and popped squats.  Here’s the exact quote that I heard one of the men say to another.  “I love to people watch.  Look at that girl in the green!  Watch her trunk as she walks by!” 

One other note that will likely affect all of my readers out there (mom), Brett Favre will remain retired.  He will likely appear in more Wrangler jeans commercials than ever before.

Finally, on Sunday I played golf in a white tee.  I felt… underdressed… yeah, that’s the word I’m looking for. 

Time to study.  Taking my first part of the CPA Exam in less than a month!  Pray for me!

After an hour+ of a full-body workout, including blasting my pecs and crushing my core, I decided to call it an evening, go home and make myself a sandwich.  On the way out is when I saw her.  She was leaning on the counter at the front of the gym, doodling on a piece of paper, just waiting for me to swoop in and steal her heart!  In my moment of exhausted stupor, I managed to muster, “Hey.”  “Hey,” are you kidding me?  It may have actually been a, “See ya,” I’m not sure.  It all happened so fast.  Just as I was about to completely ruin the open invitation to sweep her off her feet, she offered me a second chance.  She responded with, “How are ya?”  Second life!  And how do I reward her?  “Good, how are you?”  As I continue towards the door.  Idiot!  She was doing well, so that’s good, but man!  Even as I was walking to my car, my mind started racing through all the things I could have said.  But, as the saying goes, hindsights 20-20.  I’ll keep you posted on my interactions withmy crush.

I’d like to think that I made up for it when I got back to the apartment.  There was an unsuspecting brunette walking her dog past our apartment building as I was bringing in my clubs from my car.  Her dog, a pug mix, needed to stop at our light post and mark its territory, so I took the time to inquire as to how she was doing.  She responded positively and asked, if it was a good day for golf.  Not having the heart to tell her that I did not play gold today, I responded with, “Every day is a good day for golf.”  Yeah, I made up for my earlier verbal blunders.

Thursday after work I traveled up to Anderson, Indiana and played a little golf with a couple friends, Joel and Stuart, at Grandview Golf Club.  After the 18 holes, we grabbed some ribeyes from Payless Super Market and threw them on the grille at Joel’s house.  I singed the hair off my right hand and it stunk!  The steaks tasted AWESOME!  Joel and Stuart are a couple of guys that I haven’t really known for all that long, but they’re a lot of fun to be around and we always have a good time no matter what we end up doing. 

Friday after work I went to Lifestyle Family Fitness and completely blasted my pecs! Afterwards I came home and watched the Cincinnati Reds defeat the Milwaukee Brewers. I was pretty tired after that, so I threw in ‘Die Another Day‘ and fell asleep to that.  Kinda lame for a Friday night, but I ended up getting a TON (see the emphasis) of sleep and that’s something that I felt like was lacking in the previous couple weeks.  So it was good to catch up on that.

Saturday, my roommate, Summerlot, and I went down to my sis and bro-in-law’s down in Whiteland, IN. We went to Chili’s for lunch and then Justin (my bro-in-law), Summerlot and I headed to Bluff Creek Golf Coursein Greenwood for 18 holes.  The place was freakin’ sweet!  The first tee overlook the rest of the front 9 and the tenth tee overlooked the rest of the back 9.  Several of the greens were elevated above the fairways.  Basically, the course was just all-around challenging for novice golfers like us.  But we loved it.  Summerlot had the low score for the day.  After that we went to my parent’s house for some pizza, but the power went out for probably close to 2 hours.  I did a crossword puzzle and then we started playing Phase 10 until the power came on.  Once the power was back, mom put in the Papa Murphy’s pizzas in the oven and we had dinner.  We finished our game of Phase 10, I won, naturally.

Today (Sunday), my family came up to the north side and we went to 8 China Buffet.  I did a number on some sushi and crab legs. Mmmmmm!  After that I watch the Reds defeat the Milwaukee Brewers once again.  I think they are gonna start turning things around (Wishful thinking)!  During the middle of the game, I did a little reading.  I’m reading Oswald Chambers “My Utmost for His Highest.”  I’m a little behind, which is frustrating because the words are so great and are wonderful messages to be encouraged by.  Anyways, I’m not sure what it was, but after reading it and Billy Graham’s “Hope for Each Day” (thanks to my good friend Vikki Basinger), I just had this sense of peace and joy that can only come when you realize that God is watching over you.  Since then I’ve just had this feeling of absolute peace, that everything will be fine; that I never need to worry because God knows the plans he has for me; that even in trials I can rely on the strength of God to lift me up.

Well, Summerlot and I wrapped up the weekend by playing Sahm Golf Course, just down the road from our apartment.  We got the twilight discount by not starting until after 6 PM.  Even though we had only gotten thru 14 holes, we were both on target to shoot close to 100, which is a huge improvement from our play the day earlier.  After our round ended due to darkness, I stopped by Mcdonald’s for some dollar menu specials (gotta have something to burn off in my workouts next week.  That’s right, ladies, I work out.) and then came home to enjoy the ESPYS. 

So there you go.  That was my weekend.  Hanging out with my family and friends and eating some great food and playing a lot of golf.  Good times, good times! 

Oh, and before I get off of here I have to tell you about a couple things that annoy me.  The first being this song  (the content of this video is not rated and I do not condone or recommend it be watched. I have never watched it and every time it comes on the radio I switch stations ASAP).  The second being this commercial. Thanks, Night!

P.S. Some of my ‘filler’ time this weekend went to beating the Dallas Mavericks and the Minnesota Timberwolves with the Seattle Supersonics in ‘NBA Jam‘ for the SNES.  Be sure to watch that last link.  It’s awful.  It’s not nearly as entertaining as this link is.  Or as awesome as this.

Myself?  Not so much.  Now I definitely remember places that we’ve gone and reasons that we visited the places we visited and I’ve become better and better at cherishing those vacations, etc. as I’ve come to value time spent with people that I love, but the things from when I was itty, bitty I just can’t recall all the facts. 

The reason I bring it up is because I’ve realized that some of the things I can always seem to remember are the absolute dumbest and most irrelevant things to be able to recall.  This came to mind just a few days ago when my sister and brother-in-law gave me our old SNES.  First off, all I wanted to do when I got back to my apartment was play Super Mario Brothers 3, part of Mario All-Stars.  You guys remember, and if you don’t, your kids do (It wasn’t as great as N64, but they’ll still remember getting one for Christmas).  Anyways, the first totally irrelevant thing I remembered from my childhood was how to get the system to turn on.  There was always a trick to this sort of thing, whether it was blowing in the game to get the dust out or restarting it three times in a row then turning it off, taking the game out, doing a backflip, putting the game back in and then turning it on again.  It was ridiculous the lengths you had to go to get the thing to work.  At first when I turned the thing on it didn’t come on, but with a little bit of persuasion I was able to get it to work.  Maybe it was the hours upon hours that I’d spent when I was knee-high to a grasshopper that made it so easy to remember, which is frustrating in itself because my mom only gave me a half an hour every day to play video games (even though my sister got a whole hour to watch her favorite show, don’t worry, my mom saved a note that I wrote complaining about that fact; even as a child I knew that that wasn’t the way business should be run). 

When I got the system to work and finally started to play is when I really came to the realization that my recollections from my younger days were weak sauce.  As I began playing, I recalled ever secret and every hidden item in the first world.  It was like second nature, I didn’t even have to think about it.  When I look back at things like that or in the discussions back in the dorms up at TU, where I schooled all my friends in sports trivia (looking for somebody to call me out on that), I start to think to myself, what if I were to put all that memory to some really good use?  Not to say that I’m wasting memory (I’m not even really sure how many gigs or how much RAM my body can store), but it puts into some perspective how I can make it thru studying for the CPA exams.

In other news, I had another softball game tonight.  2 for 4 and got on base on an error once, giving me a .750 OBP.  I also drove in a run and scored a run as to go along with the jumping catch I made (my teammates will say it was more like a prancing catch than a jumping catch) in the outfield.   You’ll probably see it on the early morning editions of Sportscenter tomorrow, so you can decide for yourself.  I’d imagine it’ll be in the top ten plays for Tuesday, July 14, 2009.  The All-Star Game wasn’t the most exciting, so I’m sure I should get the top play.

Speaking of the All-Star Game, here are some commercials that made me chuckle during it (turns out I forgot what the other commercial was before I could link it here, now I’m tired). Good night!

I’ve been a part of several different types of teams and leagues, co-ed softball leagues, church league softball and, now, company softball teams, along with random other leagues.  This summer has been filled with softball games.  In fact, last week I played 5 games.  The prior two weeks I played on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. 

However, there are several distinct differences between myself and what many people dib as “Joe Softball.”  For instance, I do not show up to the diamonds at 5:30 just in case a team needs a sub to play for them.  Then I do not proceed to stay there until the diamonds close just in case the last teams to play need a sub.  Another distinct difference is that I do not show up to the my games wearing a complete uniform, including a baseball jersey, baseball pants and a cup.

What I do do: I usually show up about 5 minutes before the start of the game, I wear football cleats (which are not supposed to be worn in most leagues) and football receiving gloves because I don’t see a reason in buying new cleats or gloves, and I make fun of most of my teammates when they screw up. 

Although I don’t claim to be an all-star softball player, and I refuse to believe I am ‘Joe Softball,’ there are some things that I am educated enough on to talk about. 

There are three types of “handshakes” used when the two teams come together after the game to congratulate each other for not pulling their hamstrings.  The first one, and the most common one, is the standard high five.   The high five is executed by lifting ones hand (either right or left) above ones shoulder with an open palm while facing another being (whether human, animal or an inanimate object).  Once the targeted fivee does the same, the two open palmed hands move towards one another swiftly until the hit each other, making a “smack” sound.  The second option is the abbreviated hand shake.  This move is performed by utilizing the same action an individual would use if he/she was initiating a standard handshake.  The only difference is the amount of time the two hands are in contact with one another.  In the abbreviated handshake, there is no shake.  It’s a quick squeeze and let go.  This is a common occurence in church league softball.  I think that’s because it seems to be more personal. 

Finally, for those individuals naive enough to believe that the high five is past its prime, there is the pound.  This has been a new fab that has swept the country, nay, the universe, by storm over the past decade.  Much like “Saved by the Bell,” Elvis and black & white television dominated the decades preceding, the pound will go down as the greatest phenomenon that should never be referred to as a phenomenon.  I don’t even have to show you how that one is executed.  Eventually it will get to this point and then the ending handshakes will take longer than the actual games themselves.  I’ll quit at that point.

My stats so far this spring/summer: walk-off hits- 2, outfield assists- 4, current hit streak- 9 games.

• This one has a great message, but I crack up about it because the announcers act like they are showing professional sports highlights.
• Another great commercial comes from our friends at snickers.  Most commercials don’t make me want to go out and purchase their product, but this one almost gets me, just because I can’t help but laugh every time i see it.
• Those are the only commercials that came to mind at this time of the evening, but this is also funny.

What are some of your favorite commercials?  Hope to have more in-depth posts here in the near future.  ‘Til then, I’ll see you later neighbor!

I was that child that was convinced that there was a place in professional sports for me.  Of course, the first sport I ever played was America’s pasttime, baseball, and my next love was basketball, which I was the absolute worst at, when I first started (some would say that I still am, but not these guys).  Even then though, I was certain that if those two didn’t work out for me there was always football, which I’d never even tried playing (mom didn’t want me to play because she was scared I’d get hurt).  Anyways, I couldn’t hit well enough to make it in baseball, so I started running track in high school.  Had a history of pulled hamstrings, so outta luck there.  Had no jump shot in basketball and football…

Well, there are other dreams that I once had to do other things… but those will have to wait for another day… It’s time for us to go our seperate ways…

So yesterday began the second half of the 2009.  As an accountant, I realize that not all years have to end after December 31st.  A lot of business end their fiscal years at the close of business on June 30th. So as some businesses are flipping over their calendars, I’ve decided to take on some ”new year’s” resolutions starting July 1st.  Here’s a breif list of my resolutions:

• lift at least 3 times a week
• get into the habit of working out in the morning, before work (that one may be the most difficult)
• set a schedule of studying for the CPA exams
• read more books (this one will be difficult for me as well)
• go to the dentist (hopefully i don’t feel like this kid afterwards)
• save money (starting with going out to eat less)

So far, in the first 2 days, I have accomplished absolutely none of that! Ha! I’ll ease my way into it.  I have been making progress. For instance, I only went out to eat once the last two days and I’ve set my alarm clock to wake up with enough time to work out before work the last two days (both days I hit the snooze a few times).  What are some of your 1/2 new year’s resolutions? 

On a lighter note it’s Independence Day weekend! Yay! I know, right? So what are my plans? Absolutely nothing! I’ll probably work on the list above.  Also, there are a few movies that I’d like to see, one of which is about a gangster from my hometown.  Yeah, I know.  Even our website looks exciting.  Speaking of exciting, this!  What are you gonna be up to over the fourth?  Do something crazy and then tell me about it…