MW Mobile Blog

For friends, family and the random search engine visitor. This blog started as an experiment in mobile blogging from my Palm TREO 600, 700, Prē, HTC Evo, Samsung 5, Pixel 3, Pixel 6 Pro. Now it serves as a simple repository of favorite activities. Expect bad golf, good fishing, great sailing, eating, drinking, adventure travel, occasional politics and anything else I find interesting along the way including, but not limited to, any of the labels listed here...

Thursday, December 31, 2015

New Year's Eve at Clint's Place


We spent New Years Eve with Jim, Joni, and Allex at Tehama in Monterey. Never played here. This is Clint Eastwood's home and vision for a sustainable golf course and development. He didn't join us for the round.


Stunningly beautiful setting. Great course. My usual bad game. But I got in one last round on my 2015 golfing resolution.


Jim fared better...


... here he retreives ball after holing out from 50 yards on 11...


...but then it's his course. On other holes he did not do as well.

This one went into the lake
This one didn't go into the lake
A great way to ring out 2015 followed by...


... a fine dinner. We made it all the to midnight to greet the new year. After some good luck black-eyed peas on New Years Day, we'll be ready for 2016.

Saturday, December 26, 2015

A Very 2015 Christmas - With Dogs


We had a quiet Christmas eve with presents...


...beef bourguignon, brandy alexanders...


... a fake dog, and a big screen HD yule long.


Then, on a crisp, cool, Christmas day,  it was "Over The Bridge And Through The Vineyards" to visit our dog friends in Sonoma and their valets.


 

More Christmas cheer, more food and drink, real dogs, and a real fire in a real fireplace. We were pleased to meet Chris and his dog.


This is the only dog we've ever met who is a riddle, named after a riddle, and the answer to a riddle. Here is the riddle:

"A man and his dog approach a bridge. The man goes over the bridge yet goes under it. How is that possible?" 
While you are working on that - more pictures from a fine night and couple of days of great food, drink, and friendship,

An exquisite setting - almost too pretty to sully with food... Almost. 

Production underway - Sigrid, Lee, Chris, me, Joanne is back there somewhere...

Gravy and creamed spinach
Chris, Mary, Sigrid...
Mary, Rod, Joan, Lee, Joanne, Chris with toasts underway
Wild Rice & Mushroom Soup
All the classics, turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy,
creamed spinach, corn, pecan and pumpkin pie. 
Mary and Rod
Some guy...
After diiner, fireplace, drinks and dogs...

Next morning - Hair of the Dog


Friday, December 18, 2015

Handel's Messiah at Grace Cathedral


Put this in the category of "Great Things in EssEff That We Ignore For Decades and Finally Get Around to Doing".


Grace Cathedral is an iconic San Francisco treasure just a few blocks from where we live. Despite being in San Francisco for 33 years and in the neighborhood for 23 years, we've never been inside.


Not unlike our experience with Alcatraz, it took an art event to correct this oversight. The event was the 17 year Christmas tradition of the American Bach Soloist's annual performance of Handel's Messiah at Grace Cathedral:



It was a great way to experience the Cathedral and we got two birds with one stone. While we've heard the Hallelujah Chorus many times, of course, we've never actually experienced the entire Messiah.  One lesson learned - it is a long piece, and the "Reserve Seat" folding chairs on the side are not the way to go.


This is an Episcopal Cathedral, there are cushions in "Orchestra Seat" pews which would make for a more comfortable experience. Lesson learned.


After the performance we walked across the street for cocktails at the Big Four, then strolled through Huntington Park to enjoy the Christmas lights.


We'll need to come back and tour Grace Cathedral during the day in order to really appreciate the stained glass and perhaps walk the labyrinth. Hopefully, in less than a decade.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Adjusting To A New Driver


I told myself I would never buy one of these adjustable drivers. Why? It makes no sense to screw around with driver adjustments when you don't have a repeatable swing. Which I don't. But this is the  Callaway® Big Bertha® Alpha driver with a Hyper Speed Face™  with a  high strength, forged composite crown, deeper Center of Gravity, Mitsubishi Rayon Fubuki Zeta Graphite Shaft and New Decade 55g Grip.

And Dick's Sporting Goods had this original $400 driver on a Cyber Monday sale for 130 bucks.

And given this is a Callaway Big Bertha, the most powerful driver in the world and would blow my golf ball clean away, I had to ask myself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do I, punk?

There are a lot of adjustments for this driver.


There is a lot to learn about this driver. I really don't have time for this.  Anyway, I was wondering whether I should practice swinging it before trying it out at the course. The decision was made for me when Brad called to include me in a tee-time at Harding with Larry and Tony.


Fun day, great course, good group, my usual bad golf.  Still working on producing decent animated gifs from the Samsung utilizing burst mode. It's getting there. A selection of shots from the day in no particular order...

Putting on 18 (9th hole today)
This was a very good chip

Larry on the tee
Larry liked it
Tony on the tee
Brad out of the trap
You might notice this is the trap directly forward of the image above.
Tony in the back of the trap
Tony out of the front of the trap
I can't say I played any worse with the new club. In my last three outings, I've played the SF Muni Triple Crown - Lincoln, Sharp and now Harding. Different courses, lengths, conditions, and difficulty. Yet I shot an identical 108 at all three courses. I am not sure of the meaning of this, but clearly the new driver did not matter. Perhaps a minor adjustment or two is in order...