While back in Cincinnati two weekends ago, I also got the chance to ride in a glider plane.   A friend of Kim’s family has asked me multiple times to take a ride with him, and I finally found the time to do so.   I also brought along my dad for a ride, and he actually got to go up twice!   We met up with a big crowd of members from the Caesar Creek Soaring Club  in the early afternoon, and waited our turns.   It can take a little time as they only have a handful of gliders and only two tow planes, but we eventually got to take our rides.   I must say that it was really cool!   Once you are up in the air, it’s amazing how the glider can still gain altitude using ascending air currents.   My ride was just about an hour-long, with perfect weather, and lots to see from three of four thousand feet up.   The most amazing part is how quiet gliding can be without an engine making all sorts of noise.   Here is a video of my dad taking off in the yellow glider.

Also a couple of photos I took during the day.

I received a message from a friend on Twitter  last night letting me know that I need to stop attending Reds games.   He couldn’t have been more correct, as the Reds went on to lose their third straight game to the Colorado Rockies.   I attended last nights game and the previous night as well, not to mention the loss I saw in Cincinnati just over a month ago.   I thought that maybe the Reds hat I wore on Tuesday night was bad luck, so last night  I switched up it to another Reds hat that my friend Ken gave to me as a gift.   Unfortunately  my superstitions didn’t help.   I won’t be  attending the day game today that will wrap up the four game series, so I hope the Reds can get back to winning.   Actually the rest of the season should be  filled with wins as I won’t make it to another game this year.   Go Redlegs!

Besides going out to eat, I spent the majority of  the weekend playing in a hockey tournament.   It started off on Friday afternoon, but I had to skip that game since I was still at work.   I later found out that we had lost that game with a score around 14-0!   Needless to say, the team was not very good, or at least not playing in the right level.   This team was assembled  quickly to fill an open spot in the top division of the tournament.   I didn’t have high hopes for our second game on Friday night, and those expectations were met with a 12-1 loss.   We were making improvements, but not quickly enough.

We had two more games on Saturday, one around five in the evening and the next at around nine.   The game at five was even better than the other two the day before, and we actually had the early lead!   We managed to skate pretty closely with this team, but ended up losing 8-3.   Keep in mind that it was much closer than the score indicated, at least through the end of the second period.   And for the big finale, well it sort of ended the same way we started.   We were easily beaten once again, making our tournament record 0-4.   Needless to say, we missed the championship game on Sunday.   Besides the results, I had a good time and enjoyed some weekend exercise.   Our next season should start-up in a few weeks, and I’m ready to get back on the ice weekly.

If you recall, we recently  spent some time in New England.   The first activity we took in was a baseball game at the legendary  Fenway  Park.   My friend Jay secured some tickets for us from StubHub, and though they were located  in the second to last row, we were all excited to see the stadium.   I was prepared  to see lots of history inside the stadium, but I wasn’t ready for just how small it really is.   Despite being in the top rows of the outfield, we still felt close enough to the action.   We spent about half the game in our assigned seats, and the other half of the game walking around the park and taking it all in.   Here are some pictures from our experience.

Before leaving on our trip last Thursday, I had a hockey game on Wednesday night.   I also had another game last night, ending the regular season.   We should have won both games but came away with only one win, which was from  last week.   In that game we faced off  with the fifth place team in the league, while we sat in fourth place.   We had beat this team before with a final score of 7-4 and this game would be very similar to that one.   In fact the game ended with the same exact  7-4 score.   I managed to get one assist in the game while playing back on defense.

Last nights game was against the second place team, who we lost to earlier in the season 6-2.   Last night we took it to our opponents early on and had a nice 3-1 lead at the end of the second.   Unfortunately our scoring ended there and we allowed the other team to score three unanswered goals, resulting in a 4-3 loss for our team.   We actually played pretty well against them, but in the end we couldn’t escape with a win.   The loss secured our position  in fourth place to finish the league, while a win could have bumped  us up to third.   We will play our first round playoff game against the team that we beat the last week.   I will miss the game, but hopefully the team gets another win so I can play next Sunday in round two.

Over the weekend I played my first round of golf in a long while, likely since last summer.   My good friend Ken turned 30 on Saturday and a group of us decided to play a round of eighteen on Sunday to celebrate.   I woke up on the west side of town, at Kim’s parents’, just before six that morning.   That’s my normal wakeup time for a work day, but it wasn’t a work day and the time difference made it four in the morning Denver time.   Fortunately I had planned ahead, and already had a borrowed set of clubs and shoes from my dad in the trunk, so I just had to drive to the other side of town to the Hickory Woods Golf Course.

I arrived ten or fifteen minute before the supposed tee  time.   It turns out that Ken and his brother-in-law Bryan had told everyone a time twenty minutes ahead of the real tee  time.   Well guess who the only late ones were?   That’s right, the birthday boy and the event planner.   I quickly found another good friend, Jon, and then met up with others who would be playing in the group.   Soon enough we were on the tenth tee  and were on our way.   I quickly realized that this course was going to be  a little tough for me, and I was glad I brought along plenty of extra balls.   The fairways were all pretty narrow and the holes were filled with rolling terrain.   I had some decent shots, and managed to escape the back nine feeling alright.

From there we moved onto  the front nine holes, and immediately I was struck  with how different the two were.   The front nine was very wide open and relatively flat.   This suits my playing much more, as I was able to lose very few balls, and I even managed a couple of legit pars.   I even had putting attempts for birdies a couple of times.   My worst hole was number one, which I had a quadruple bogey on, but the rest were all triple bogeys and lower.   Compare that to the back nine, where I had numerous  quadruples, and nothing close to a par the whole time.   Regardless of the score, I had a great time, and I was excellent catching up with all of my old friends over a nice morning and afternoon.

I attended my first baseball game  of the season on Friday evening as the first place (central) Cincinnati Reds took on the first place (east) Atlanta Braves.   My mom bought a group of tickets earlier in the week, which was fortunate since the game did sell out.   It turns out that it was many of the group’s first game of the season, and the first for my mom in years.   I think she has only been to Great American Ballpark once before, and it’s been open now for over seven years.   I’ve been to more games than that, and I haven’t really lived near Cincinnati since shortly after the ballpark opened.   Either way, we all had a blast rooting for the home team.

We arrived at the stadium in the second inning, and after watching the scoreless second, the scoring started in the third.   Atlanta went on the scoreboard first, but the Reds quickly countered with three runs of their own in the bottom of the third.   The Braves added a couple more runs in the fifth and followed it with another in the sixth.   Down 4-3, Joey Votto  came to the plate in the eight inning to deliver a solo home run to tie the game.   Things were looking up for the Reds, including a great catch by Chris Heisey that robbed Brooks Conrad of a home run of his own to end the top of the ninth.   After a scoreless bottom of the ninth, we were off to extra innings.   The tenth started off great for the Reds, and they quickly had two outs on the Braves.   But that’s where it all went south, as the Braves eventually scored a couple of runs before getting their third out.   The Reds managed to get a couple of guys on base in the bottom of the ninth, but eventually two strikeouts and a pop fly were enough for the Braves to claim victory.

The Reds went on to win the other two games of the series.   Unfortunately, St. Louis just won three in a row, and the Reds are now half a game out of first place behind the Cardinals.   I’m hoping to catch another Reds game next month when they come to Denver to take on the Rockies.

Over the weekend I participated in a hockey tournament as a fill-in for the Dawgs.   I used to play against one of the Dawgs teams when I played in another league at the different rink, but I think this team was down a level from my normal level of play, thus I didn’t recognize many of my teammates.   There were a couple of other players from my current team also on the roster, and one guy I had played with in an earlier tournament.   Our first game was after 10pm on Friday night against Blueline.   I ended up playing on a line with another guy from my normal team, so at least I had someone on the ice with me who I connected with.   Our team came out strong and there was no looking back.    Then final score was 9-2 and I talied a couple of goals and probably some assists as well.

Our second game was on Saturday at just past noon.   Our opponent for this game was the Knights, a team that I knew nothing about.   During warmups I quickly realized that this team was much better than the team from the night before.   It was a good game through the first period, but by the second my team was really struggling to keep up and our opponents quickly built a sizeable lead.   Some of the players on our team thought that the team had dropped down a league from where they should have played, but I felt that our team was nearly as good as they were and that it could have been a differnent game.   The end result was a 5-1 loss.   My team also had another game at three that afternoon, which I had to miss due to prior obligations.   I’m told it was a nailbiter, and it went all the way to a shootout, which my team won finally after around a dozen shooters from each side.

The two wins (and presummably some tie breaking) sent our team into the championship game on Sunday morning.   I didn’t know who we were playing, but I sort of guessed it would be the Knights again.   And I was right.   This time the game started a little better for us.   We actually built a 2-0 lead by the end of the first period.   But after that it was another brutal second period.   Our team allowed five goals in the second and once that started happening, we ended up in the pentalty box rather frequently, just like the first time we played them.   We had a better third period, but couldn’t find the back of the net.   The final score was 5-2, as  we finished in second place.   After losing to them twice, I guess the Knights were just a better team.

We had a one week hiatus from playing hockey, and the break badly hurt my team.   Prior to last night’s game we had won two in a row, and only had two loses over seven games.   Unfortunately  we added another loss to our record last night, and ended our streak.   We had previously beaten last night’s opponents earlier in the season, but last night was different.   We couldn’t generate very much offense, some of our guys couldn’t stay out of the penalty box, and overall it was a pretty weak performance.   Personally I played pretty well, and our line had some chances, but we didn’t add any points to our stats.   Only four games are left in the short summer season, so hopefully we can finish strong before heading for the playoffs.

Another week is nearly over and I’m happy to report another win in last night’s hockey game.   My team faced off with the Subluxators  last night, who we already beat once earlier in the season.   This team has a few guys on the roster that I used to play with, so it’s always nice to beat up on old friends.   We started off with a nice lead of a couple of goals.   Suddenly one player on the other team dropped his gloves and headed for our goalie.   He was quickly dropped to the ice by goalie, and we all quickly commented that it was the dumbed thing we’ve ever seen.   Why would you go after the most armored player on the ice?   Well apparently this guy said our goalie hit him in the groin with his stick.   I guess he forgot his jockstrap?

Anyway, back to the game.   After the player mentioned above was thrown  out of the game for trying to fight, our opponents were left with only seven skaters.   Miraculously they managed to stay in the game, and probably could have won if we didn’t have three full forward lines and four  defensemen.   At one point in the second period the game was actually tied, but we never  completely lost control of our lead, and eventually we were up by a few goals again.   That’s where the game ended, 8-5 was the final score I believe.   The league has been a little slow in posting results recently so I’m forced to guess.   I do know that our record is now 7-2 and we only have five more games left to play in the short summer session.   Things are looking good as we are solidly in third place overall.