JoeDag32

After watching the 2006 Winter Olympics the Shepherd and I declared that we wanted to play curling after watching much of it on TV that year. Well apparently we had forgotten our mission until 4 years later when the 2010 Winter Olympics came around.

After some brief research we found that the Philadelphia Curling Club was offering a $5 donation class today. So this had to be attended by us.

The Shepherd actually called me at 9:55 AM this morning ready to go. This may not seem early to most, but by his current standards this was an amazing feat and probably summed up just how excited both of us were to finally experience this grand sport.

The ride over took about an hour and a half. We didn’t take a signal wrong turn, which even with GPS we were both proud of.

Upon arriving, we soon discovered that we weren’t the only ones interested in trying out curling. I’d say there was probably 1500-2000 people waiting in a wrapping line outside in the cold with hopes of getting inside to curl.

We waited a good while, with the line barely moving at all. We later found out that there was no chance that we would have an opportunity to curl on this day. Truly tragic news indeed. With our dreams shattered we then decided to get a bite to eat and do something else nearby.

Apparently there isn’t much else to do nearby the curling place. We also somehow took about 4 hours to get back home due to a GPS device that decided to toy with us the remainder of he afternoon. While it was clearly a failed mission, I’m glad we at least followed through with our original plan 4 years ago and gave it a shot. Who knew curling would be this popular.

The Shepherd and I made a voyage to Carousel Park in Delaware today. They have a very highly rated disc golf course that we were determined to play. It was in the high 20’s and probably not the finest of days to be outdoors playing disc golf, but while not the finest of players we are probably the toughest (or most stupidest) disc golf players east of the Mississippi.

The park was huge! It’s a horse park, dog park, and a bunch of other things too. There were a ton of horses and little ponies there. They poop a lot, but luckily none was to be found on the course.

A lot of people had their dogs at the dog park, and I like dogs so that’s always a plus.

The disc golf course was very impressive. Some great distance and some insane hills really made it unique. It took a little bit to figure out the course the first time through, but that also gave me an excuse to sprint ahead to scout the course out.

I did manage to land a disc in the middle of a frozen pond, but was able to retrieve it by throwing out a life preserver with a rope attached and lassoed it in. I think I enjoy saving lost discs more than actually playing.

While a little bit of a trip, the course was so impressive that we will have to make some more trips out there. It’d also probably be wise to go when it’s a bit nicer out, it was so cold today.

We managed to get in a fine game of flag football in this morning. Thanks to Wes and Josh for rounding up enough able bodies to play as well as providing flags and cones for a respectable game.

A big surprise addition to this game for me were the Shepherd and a slimmed down Alex both playing. And they both played very well. Alex did burn me for a deep score, probably the longest play of the game. The Shepherd with a late QB switch almost lead his team to victory on this fine morning.

However on this day, I was fortunate enough to find myself on the winning side. Kyle gave us some very solid QB play. Wes played an extremely good 2 way day, with the most difficult task of guarding Josh for most of the game. The gunslinger Dave had some amazing catches, including the game winning TD. Very impressive.

Haha, I had a ton of drops. 2 or 3 of which were definite touchdowns. Oops, sorry guys.

Great game with a great bunch of guys. We’ll have to have a rematch next year if all of our bodies have recovered by then.

I ran with Mr. Mellons in the 51st Atlantic City Marathon’s 5k run. It was pretty cool, I beat Mr. Mellons with a time of 27:27. I don’t think that’s very fast, but considering I’m new to this running stuff I was pleased with the outcome.

The 5k race took place on the AC boardwalk from about The Pier to around where Mr. Mellons lives. So we considered this race to be on our home turf as we run that route pretty often (evidently not often enough based on my time

I woke up really early and put my brand new sneakers on, new sneakers of course are a must for such an event. Then met up and walked over to the starting point. There were a ton of people entering the marathon and half-marathon. I think they’re crazy for running that long.

While walking over some crazy guy yelled some stuff at us. Oh well, I just gave a glare and kept walking as he conveniently opened up his mouth as we were a good several hundred feet away. Plus he seemed kinda not all together, so I just dismissed it as he’s a crazy person and it’s not nice to hit crazy people regardless of what they say.

The actual race went well. I really passed a lot of people during the 2nd mile, but ran out of gas down the final half mile. That’s kinda my trademark move now. I guess I’m just used to more sprinting type stuff than anything of distance.

Afterwards they had a bunch of oranges, pretzels, water ice and doughnuts to eat. And I did eat a lot of each, perhaps too much. But after running you do get really hungry. Oh, also and a dum-dum lollipop. Don’t think I’ve had one since I last visited the pediatrician.

Today was a sad day for me today as I had to bid adieu to a fine frisbee today. She was an orange Innova Leopard fairway driver to be exact. She’s served me well over the past year or so, I only wish I could say I was as kind in return with my with throws that lead her into a direct course with too many a trees than she deserved to strike.

As I picked her up on my way to the 5th basket, I noticed it was split almost completely in half. This shocked and saddened me a great deal. By no means was this a the most violent of throws I’ve had with it, but I guess it was an accumulation of the numerous tosses we’ve had together (my wild arm has been known to strike many a tree).

We gave her a proper send off out to sea (a lake actually) where she can now rest with all the other fine frisbees that dwell upon the floor of the lake.

Yesterday the Sherpherd and I purchased some new discs to play disc golf with. The Shepherd found the perfect disc to compliment his side arm release. After playing 2 rounds with him, the pricey disc and he were clearly meant to be.

So today on the first hole, I figured I’d stand by the lake while the other guys teed off just in the rare case a disc would approach the water. The Shepherds drive (which was dead accurate yesterday) made an incredibly sharp turn towards the lake at the last moment.

I was able to position my self with heels to the lake where it looked as though the trajectory of the disc was break and with arms fully extended over my head holding my discs to gain an extra half foot or so timed my jump just perfectly to deflect his disc from going into the lake and at the speed and height it was traveling to surely be lost forever.

Those disc move a hell of a lot faster when they’re coming at you than when they’re leaving. Oh, and they also hurt like hell when they strike your bare hand. But it was worth it as a fine disc was saved today, a very fine disc indeed.