Dinner Dance, Fantasy Sports and Deer Season

Dinner Dance

Yes, I finally did it. I finally went to the dinner dance. Julie bought a new dress and I bought a new suit and on October 25th, 2008 I finally went to my first dinner dance.

This was also the first time I'd ever been to New Horizons Center and I was pretty impressed. Very nice place, big, ample bars and great food. I only wish I would have put a little more on my plate...and I would have been quicker to the dessert line. (I missed out on the chocolate cheese cake)

We got our pictures taken....twice, well...three times really. The first two (two pics each) were of just Julie and I. The photographer was a little strange...he REALLY like posing Julie. Then after dinner we came back and got a group photo. Hopefully they'll turn out good. Julie looked amazing so I'm sure they will ;)

Other memorable moments of the night:

• Julie and Tasha dancing on the stage, and turning Lon and I down when we came out to dance with them.
• Lon playing "Quarters"
• Jon's crutches being hidden in the womens bathroom
• Kirk drinking a "sex on the beach with a man"
• Crackers and bread at the Timbers

Fantasy Sports

First of all I have to say go Julie! Two weeks into the fantasy hockey season and she's holding on to the lead. I actually won this week so I'm closing in. Look out babe!

I'm now 8-0 in the PFL. Mike and I also managed to pull out a win in the F3L even without a kicker... Unfortunately I think we're out of the running in that league so we may go into our "Rebuilding for next year" phase soon. In the PFL I'm starting to get worried that I'm going to have a perfect regular season and then lose in the first week of the playoffs. That would be my luck.


Deer Season

Hopefully I'll be able to make my final preperations for deer season this weekend. I need to trim another shooting lane or two and do some more scouting. I'm going to basically be booked from now until opening day with going to Vegas for for a SQL conference so this is really my last opportunity. November 15 will be here soon, and I can't wait!

Labor Day Weekend at Traverse City

For Labor Day Weekend Julie and I decided to go to Traverse City to do some wine tasting and shopping. We stayed at the Grand Traverse Bay Resort and Spa, a 4 star resort with 3 golf courses designed by famous professional golfers...or at least that's what they said. I only recognized Jack Nicklaus' name. Sadly we didn't bring our clubs but I don't know when we would have had time to golf anyways.

Sunday we got to Traverse City around 12:30, and the sight coming into town was magnificent. The color of the waters in the bay made me think of the tropics with the many shades of blues outlined by green. It was beautiful. We stopped at the visitors bureau and picked up a bunch of fliers on where the many wineries were located in the area and took a short trip down to front street, the downtown of Traverse City. We checked out a few shops and got some ice cream from Coldstone creamery and then decided it was time to find some wine.



We headed up Old Mission Peninsula and stopped at 5 or 6 different wineries there. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a huge wine drinker but there were a few that I genuinely enjoyed. The general rule seemed to be 6 free samples per winery and that worked out pretty well. We ended up buying 3 different bottles total and tasted well over 25 different wines.



At this point we decided to go check into the hotel. When we were looking through some of the travel guides for the area they mentioned the Arie Restaurant and Lounge located in the 16th floor of the tower in the resort. The pictures made it look beautiful so we made reservations. Sadly 8:15 was the earliest we could get in but we thought we should still catch the end of the sunset.

Also included with the resort was access to their own private beach on the bay so Julie and I decided to head down there before dinner. The water was a bit chilly and we drew in the sand and got some pretty cool pictures of the bay with the sun starting to set. It was a very peaceful and relaxing atmosphere and it was great to share that with Julie.

The Arie Restaurant was very cool, but unfortunately we were too late to see the sun set. We did still get to see the sky with all sorts of color. The main dish (we both ordered the chicken) was very good however the salads weren't exactly what we had envisioned. For anyone who likes caeser salad be aware that their dressing is authentic. Yup...sardines. *yuck* I will say the beer prices up there were pretty reasonable though. All in all in was an enjoyable and private dinner with a beautiful view.

Monday we had lunch at the North Peak brewery and sampled some of their beers. It was a nice place to eat and I'd recommend it to anyone. We did a little more shopping and then headed home.

There's so much to do in Traverse City and the surrounding area I wish we would have spent the entire weekend up there. If nothing else it definitely leaves us with a reason to come back.

Drews Bachelor Party Weekend

This past weekend was Drews bachelor party. We headed up to the Leroy Hunt Club nestled on the east side of the fletcher flood waters in North Eastern Michigan. We golfed at the beautiful Elk Ridge golf course in Atlanta Michigan. I shot a 69 and a 73 which would be pretty darn good except those were for the front and back 9 respectively.

Here are some pictures of some of the mounts in the Leroy club. This club has nearly 1,900 beautiful acres with an amazing variety of wildlife. While we were there, aside from drinking a ridiculous amount of alcohol we saw some incredible sites. Just riding the trails we saw 4 different bucks in velvet. One of them looked to have an amazing rack. All in all it was a fun weekend with some beautiful sites.