"Big hitter the Lama"

I went golfing today with my parents. I got a score of 82. Not bad for my fourth outing in golf, until you find out that was only 9 holes. Maybe I am not quite on par with the Dalai Lama yet but I am getting there. Other than a couple of holes where everything fell apart -- or I hit every tree between me and the hole -- I had a pretty solid outing. I was able to hit pretty consistently with my dad's 3 wood. I did better hitting it out of the rough which is good for me since I slice just about every tee shot in between fairways. Occasionally I get lucky and land it on the fairway, just the fairway to the right of the hole I am aiming at. All-in-all, I had a net loss of two balls, did not hit anyone and did not damage any property.

(This is me golfing... notice the facial hair and the stylish hat)

After golfing, we went to Red Robin. You should wish me Happy Birthday because they all did. We used my brother's birthday card to get a free burger and sundae. Now before you feel like my brother was cheated, you have to realize that in April he got my burger, so in reality all we did was trade birthdays. The waitress forgot to bring out my sundae at first and then asked if I wanted to be embarrassed. I left the decision up to her. She told me that was cold, but after all, it is my birthday. She decided to bring everyone out and sing to me. I even got two balloons.

"So I got that goin' for me, which is nice."

Shop til you drop

This does not take long for me.

But...

Who would have thought that I would spend over four hours shopping. I got gift certificates to a dive shop in St. Charles for graduation. I went to the dive shop to figure out what I should get. Originally I thought this would be quick trip to one dive shop. I wanted to get a dry bag for the dive boat or for any other time that I wanted to keep things dry while in Honduras. We get to the dive shop where I have gift certificates and start looking around the store. The guy asked if he could help us and I wanted to look around the store first so I had some idea of what I wanted. By the time I was ready to talk to the guy working the store, other people had shown up and started signing up for the Open Water class. We waited for close to half an hour to talk to this guy when he asks, "Do you need help? Let me go get Chris from the back room." Why he did not tell us that someone was there earlier I am not sure.

So the new guy comes over and shows me the prices on all the buoyancy compensator (BCs). I never knew how expensive BCs could be. The low end range is around $500, the high end up to $720. Beyond buying a BC, I still need regulator, gauges and dive computer. Altogether, this shop had a set up of around $1500 with Scubapro gear.

Then we went to another dive shop. This is the dive shop that my parents have the strongest connection with. Why? I am not sure. They just always say that they leave the shop thinking that the people really know what they are talking about. We went in and started piecing together a set up. This dive shop pushed Oceanic gear. The prices and equipment were similar however, this company was willing to throw in a $235 course if I bought all my gear from them. Not a bad deal.

The whole process took 4 and a half hours. The end result of the whole process was that I have to make a lot of choices and making decisions is not my strong suit. The internship that I am attending does provide a full set of gear but from what the two dive shops told me about Mares, I think I would rather get a different brand. I am just waiting to find out how much the internship price will drop to see if it is worth bringing my own gear or if I should just use the gear supplied and then use that as a base to help me make decisions on what gear I want in the future or if I am happy with the gear that I already have.

The dropping, not me, but my mom and sister. What are the odds of me out lasting them in a shop-a-thon. Inconceivable.

Wii Fitness?

As was mentioned in my last post, my family is the proud owner of a Wii and the Wii Fitness game. They have enjoyed using the system to supplement their other daily activities. But how effective is the Wii at providing a complete workout? According to Brittany and the Dallas news, it seems to lack in any real benefit. However, in my experience it makes people more excited to work out and how can that be a bad thing. Obviously there are harder workouts, but if people are willing to do Wii fitness and not other workouts than this is a good workout for them and it is better than playing any other video game.

Cars, Birthdays, and Wii Fitness

So the name of this blog is To win a bet. The name comes from a competition between myself and Brittany. It is a way to encourage us to stay in contact during our time apart. She is working as an actuary and I am living at home until I go to Honduras to train to become a SCUBA instructor. I spent two weeks helping pack her up and move her from her house to her sister's house and now we will not see each other that often. To keep up with what is happening we each have a blog to maintain. Whoever has the better blog wins the bet. If she wins, we take swing dance lessons together. I still need to create my wager. The rules are: two posts per week are scored. If it is a really good post it can earn a bonus point making four points possible per week. Now that everyone is on the same page lets start the blogging.

On my way back to Memphis with Brittany's parent's, I had the opportunity to snuggle with her two pugs while her dad drove. I did wake up long enough to witness the rear tires of an 18 wheeler rolling down the opposite lane of traffic. The interesting part of this story is that it was no longer connected to the trailer like you would expect. Fortunately, no other cars where around so no one was at risk.

The next day I got in my car and drove home. I got home on my mom's birthday and was at home on her birthday for the first time in over 10 years. Normally I spend all summer at camp as a counselor. We went to Hacienda and had cake a little after her birthday after my sister got in from visiting a friend in California.

By far the highlight of being home so far is the Wii that my dad won in a raffle at work. My parent's love the Wii Fitness game and they have some pretty funny games designed to help people work out. I preferred playing Wii sports. I played Tennis, Golf, and Baseball. But then my shoulder got tired from swinging the Wiimote. That is the excitement of my first days. Please come back, visit Brittany's Blog, and provide feedback. Thank you for reading.