The Birdie Open

Happy Friday all!

I’m writing this from my phone so it will be brief.

I’m away this weekend down in Niagara Falls area at a girls golf weekend. We are playing two rounds – today at Royal Niagara and tomorrow at Peninsula Lakes. I can’t wait to hit the links.

There are 8 of us and we are all competing for “Birdie”. Isn’t she beautiful?

I’m guessing I won’t have much time to post this weekend, but know I’m out having a good time, eating food I shouldn’t, and drinking lots of cold Corona!

Happy Friday!
Happy weekend!

I’ve Been A Bad Blogger!

Looking back at my blog, I realize the last post I wrote was on May 30th..and it was actually more like midnight on the 29th that it was posted, so I am approaching a week without a post!  Boy, that’s not great…but I’ve been so busy, first with fun, and then with a work conference, that I just haven’t had a chance.

Even now, I am just between the final speaker session of my conference and our gala dinner and awards night, and don’t have much time, but wanted to get something down so I don’t have as much to catch up on when I finally get back to my normal (crazy) life tomorrow.

So, when last we met, I was about to head to Niagara Falls for The Birdie Open golf tournament with my girlfriends that I used to play slo-pitch with back in the day.  This is what we are all competing for:

Once again, the Birdie Open was a huge success.  Good friends, good fun, good golf, and lots and lots and lots of laughs!  I did not win Birdie this year, and I’m not sure I ever will, but I sure had fun and played some good (and some not so good) golf.

Here is my weekend, summarized in some pics:

Suzanne is our hostess with the mostest for this weekend of golf and fun.  As always, she made sure we all had a great time.

Part of how she insures we have a good time, is every year she has some sort of weird alcohol for us to drink.  This year was no exception, but it was more of an eating than drinking thing …check this out:

That is vanilla flavoured, vodka whipped cream…weird, but yummy!  She also had caramel flavour, and what we initially thought was strawberry, but turned out to be white chocolate mint.  As strawberry it wasn’t very good, but once we realized it was white chocolate mint, it wasn’t too bad.

Each year, Suzie has gifts for those of us that make the trip to Birdie.  This year, she got us lovely Birdie Open wine glasses with golf related charms.  These were a hit and we used them all weekend for all sorts of bevvies.  Here’s mine with a nice cold Corona in it and a pic of my awesome golf bag charm!

Friday we played Peninsula Lakes, our favourite course, that we play every year.  It was a perfect day, hot but with a nice breeze, and the golf course was in fantastic shape…and the beer was cold!

For Birdie, Suzie creates teams that compete for low score.  The team that does not get low score is assigned “Beer Bitch” duties for the night and must get the other team drinks all night and serve them dinner.  I was on the winning team of the day, so was saved from drink duty!  Normally we have Beer Bitch tank tops for the losing team to wear, but Suzie forgot them this year, so instead we went the Sharpie tattoo route – this is Rosanne modeling for us!

On Saturday we played Thundering Waters, the John Daly designed course.  This was a nice course and all of the staff wore crazy LoudMouth pants or shorts.  Once again the weather was great, sunny with a bit of a breeze, and we had a great day on the course.  I even managed to shoot my best 9 hole score ever, with a 50 on the front 9.  Unfortunately I was not able to keep it going and shot a 58 on the back…still 108 is pretty good score for me.  (I have mentioned many times that I am NOT a good golfer!).  Despite my 50, my team lost the beer bitch competition today, so I was on dinner and drink duty for the night.  We managed to consume a bit more alcohol on Saturday night than Friday, so I was busy serving the winners.  Luckily, they forgot about the Sharpie tattoos that night!

As I mentioned above, I did not win Birdie, but did manage to come 4th, which is pretty good for me!

Birdie was awarded to Debbie (for the second year in a row) with Janie coming in second, and Rosanne taking third.

And so ends another fantastic Birdie Open.  I am already looking forward to next year’s tourney.  Hopefully I will get a chance to play with the girls at some point over the summer.  There was talk of a fall Birdie, so we will see if that materializes!

From Birdie, I drove into Niagara Falls for my industry conference.  It was a coincidence that it was so close, and it made for a short 20 minute drive to my hotel.  I won’t bore you with the details of my conference, but I will share the view I have had for the last 3 days…it’s awesome and it never gets old.

Sunday night I even got to enjoy fireworks out my window.  They were very good and I was Skyping with hubs and the kids when they started, so I held my iPad out the window and they were able to enjoy the show as well.  I took a few pictures but they didn’t turn out that great.  Here is one of the better ones, but it’s still pretty bad.

And now I should go get ready for the gala dinner and awards ceremony.  I am exhausted and not sure how long I will last tonight, but I will do my schmooze duties and go make an appearance.  Who knows, it might be fun and the food should be good.

Tomorrow I am driving from Niagara straight to work and then back to reality of catching up with things at the office and then my crazy after work schedule as well.  Jacko has a ball hockey game at 7, I’ve got CrossFit tomorrow night at 8:30, and then my own ball hockey game at 10pm. I hope I survive!

Hope you have had a good last few days.
Have you ever been to Niagara Falls?
Have you ever tried Vodka Whipped Cream?

Working it Wednesday

Wow…what a Wednesday! Busy day at work, and then a busy night of workouts.

First, I have to say once again how absolutely delicious this dish is: the Clean Eating Turkey Zucchini Burgers with Cilantro Mint Salsa and Tahini Sauce. I had leftovers again for lunch today and I enjoyed every bite. So good! And a little tzitziki kicked it up even more. Yum!!!

It’s a good thing that I ate a good lunch, because I didn’t get a chance to eat a real dinner. I had a 7pm ball hockey game and just didn’t have time between when I got home from work and when I had to leave to head to the rink. I had an Isagenix protein bar on my drive to the rink just to get something into my stomach. It was quite tasty and got me through my ball hockey game (we won 3-2 and I got 2 goals!).

My bigger worry about not eating a real dinner was that I had CrossFit after ball hockey. I wasn’t sure if I would have enough energy after ball hockey to make it through CrossFit. I drove from the rink straight to the Box and changed out of my sweaty ball hockey uniform and into my workout gear. Tonight’s WOD was 3 different 6 minute AMRAPs.

Thank God for the 3 minute rest between each round…I definitely needed it to recover.

So, as you can see, the WOD had lots of hand stand push ups. If you’ve been following along, you know that I hadn’t done full HSPUs yet. Earlier this week (or last week, I can’t remember…all these WODs are blurring together!) HSPUs were part of a WOD and I did them off a box. Tonight, when the coach was going through the workout he went around the class and asked who could do HSPU…he came to me and said “you can do them, right”. I told him I haven’t really tried other than one class when we learned the elements of the HSPU. He said I should give it a try with a couple of ab mats. Guess what…I could do them!!! For the WOD he had me use 3 ab mats just to help and because there were a lot of them to do in the WOD. Man, I was super pumped to be able to do them. So exciting! Here’s a pic that my coach took of me after we finished the WOD. It’s not perfect and I have a lot of room for improvement, but I did it! Wohoo!!!!

I also did much better on the knees to elbows, actually getting pretty close to my elbows and stringing them together with a bit of a kip. That was a nice bit of progress for me too.

All in all, it was a great night at CrossFit. Success at 2 moves and a total sweat fest. I could not believe how sweaty I was today. You can notice my shirt if quite wet with sweat. I love it! I know I worked hard tonight, that’s for sure!

I will be aback at the Box tomorrow morning at 9:30 where there is a killer WOD scheduled:
WOD Tomorrow:
For Time Complete:
100 Wall Balls #20/14
100 Pull-ups (8 minute time cap on this part)
100 Alternating Pistol Squats
100 1 Arm Alternating Dumbbell Snatches
There was a bit of talk about tomorrow’s WOD tonight during our 3 minute rest periods. It sounds like this will be insanely tough and the coach and another guy in class tonight weren’t sure anyone would be able to get it done Rx, and we will likely scale it to 50s instead. I guess I will find out when I get there tomorrow. 🙂

After my workout tomorrow I am home for a quick shower and change and then off to meet my girlfriends to start our golf weekend and the 2013 Birdie Open. Good friends, good golf, and I’m sure there will be some good laughs. I can’t wait!

Now I really should get my exhausted body to bed and get some rest so I will have some energy for that killer WOD tomorrow.

How was your Wednesday?
Did you conquer any CrossFit moves today?

The 2012 Birdie Open: Weekend Re-cap

The 2012 Birdie Open was held this past weekend at Sherkston Shores.  As usual, the event was hosted by Suzanne, with golfers coming from as far away as North Bay to compete for this very prestigious trophy.

Doesn’t that make it sound like my girls golf weekend is a very big deal?  It should, because it is a fantastic weekend!!

After meeting at Golf Town and everyone buying a few things, we headed down to the Niagara area Thursday early in the afternoon.  On the drive down, there was much talk about how bad the weather was supposed to be this weekend.  After a month of the most amazing weather, Mother Nature picked this weekend to dump a bunch of rain on the province.  Our original plan was to golf Friday at Hunters Pointe (formerly Lockness Links) and the Saturday at Peninsula Lakes.  Given that Friday now seemed to be a 100% chance of rain, and lots of it predicted to fall, we made a few calls and changed plans and golfed Thursday afternoon at Pen Lakes.

We tee’d off at 4pm, in 2 groups, and had a wonderful round.  Here is a shot of my weapons.  Doesn’t my new Callaway Razr X Black look great in there!

The weather was warm and sunny, although it did get a bit cool towards the end of the back 9 as the sun was starting to set.  We were all so happy to get in at least one round, since we still weren’t too sure about the weather for the rest of the weekend.

Peninsula Lakes has three 9 hole courses.  We played Quarry and Orchard.  My first 9 was great!  I shot a 53, which is right up there with what I have been shooting  at my ladies league, so I was pleased with that.  My back 9 was not nearly as good.  I shot a 64!  Horrible!  I found every sand trap on that back 9, with two 11’s that did not help my score at all.  Oh well.  It was my first full round of 18 of the year.  I guess I have to work on maintaining my game for the full 18 holes.  It’s hard, since I really don’t have much opportunity to play 18 holes that often.  I’ll have to see what I can do about getting more full 18 hole rounds in before my Chapter Championships for my EWGA league in July.

The Birdie Open is a two-day tournament.  We are assigned to teams each day, and although we play for individual low score, the total for the teams determines who the “Beer Bitches” for the night will be.  Highest team score means you will be responsible for serving drinks and dinner to the daily winners.  My team for the day was me, Rosanne, and Carol Ann.  We all had a great time and enjoyed being out on the course together.  Unfortunately, we had highest team score, which meant we were the beer bitches.  Luckily for us though, because we got off the course so late, we headed to a local pizzeria for pizza and chicken wings, and got back to the trailer rather late, so there wasn’t much time left for us to fulfill our duties!

The pizza and wings were really good.  It has been quite a while since I’ve had pizza and wings.  Neither are part of my clean eating regime, and the beer that went along with them isn’t on the plan either.  But, I knew going into the weekend that it wouldn’t be clean, so I’m not going to worry too much about what I ate.  I did enter most of it into My Fitness Pal, so it was easy to see just how bad all of this really was.  It’s amazing how quickly calories can add up.  Oh well….I will get back on the plan Monday.

Here are a few pics from Day 1:  me at Pen Lakes, my teammates Rosanne and Carol Ann, and the three of us in our Beer Bitch uniforms.

It was a good thing that we squeezed in a golf game Thursday, because it rained all day Friday.  We got up, had a great Belgian waffle breakfast and then got dressed with the initial plan to go shopping across the border.  We were all ready to go when someone asked why don’t we just stay in and play cards.  That seemed to be a great idea, so we all poured ourself a drink and had a Euchre tournament.  This was so much fun, despite the fact that I didn’t win.  I donated $40 to the winners!

Saturday, we were originally supposed to play Peninsula Lakes, but we were able to get Thursday tee times there, so switched our Saturday game to Hunters Pointe/Lockness Links.  My team to this round was me, Sandy D, Debbie and Sandy M.  I don’t have a team shot of us, but do have a nice shot of the back of our golf cart…Sandy drove and I rode shotgun.

The weather on Saturday was okay, not great, but we didn’t get rained on, so that was great.  The wind overnight was incredible, and it was still very windy when we arrived at the course.  There were still a few clouds in the sky and the threat of rain, but it managed to hold off.  We were all treated to a Bailey’s and Hot Chocolate by Rosanne to take with us out onto the course.  We were all bundled up in our rain gear, not because it was raining, but because it was freezing, so the Bailey’s helped to warm us up in that crazy wind.  In the end the rain held off for the whole round, the sun came out and on the back 9 we were able to take off a few layers and just play in our golf shorts and a light sweater.

My round on Saturday once again started off really well.  I shot a 50 on the front 9!  My back 9 was also pretty good with the exception of 2 holes.  I had a 10 and a 9, but other than that played some fairly decent golf (for me, anyways).  In the end, I shot a 109.  Not fantastic, but much better than the 117 I shot on Thursday.

After golf on Saturday, we headed back to Sherkston.  We started off our evening with and Italian Spritz.  This is a drink that Rosanne learned about when she went on a trip to Italy on March Break.  She brought back the special Aperol alcohol needed for the drink all the way from Italy and saved it special for Birdie Weekend.  The drink was a mix of Aperol, champagne, club soda, served with a slice of orange.  It was quite tasty and very refreshing.  Here’s Rosanne serving us up our cocktails.

Each year, the girls from North Bay bring us down some fresh pickerel from Lake Nipissing.  This year Debbie brought the fish and was responsible for cooking up the feast.  She had lots of helpers making sure the fish was cooked to perfection.

Saturday’s winning team was the green team of Rosanne, Sue, Janie and Carol Ann.  They thought they were pretty hot stuff and made up a cheer that they taunted with all night.  Here they are “performing” while the fish was cooking.  I think they maybe needed a bit more practice!

Today was awards day.  To win Birdie, you must have the lowest 2 round score of the group.  This year’s winner was Janie.  This is her first Birdie win, and she was thrilled!  Here she is receiving her trophy from our tournament host Suzanne.

Janie, proudly accepting her Birdie trophy.

Awards are also given for 2nd and 3rd place.  This year, those awards went to Carol Ann and Debbie (both previous winners of the Birdie Cup!)

Carol Ann, Janie, and Debbie. The big 3 at Birdie.

Shortly after the awards, and acceptance speech from the big winner, it was time to head home.  Another Birdie Open is in the books and as always, it was loads of fun.  A big thank you to Suzanne for hosting.  The Birdie really is a highlight of our golf season.  I’m already looking forward to next year’s event!

The Friday Five

It’s time for The Friday Five

1. It rained all day today. It is a good thing we got in a round of golf yesterday, since it rained ALL DAY today. After a month of amazing weather I can’t believe this is the weekend that we get rain. Oh well…we still managed to have fun!

2. I was a Beer Bitch today. Since I was on the loosing team today, I was a beer bitch today. The funniest part of that is these crazy ladies have special shirts for the losers! I think I rocked the look! Rosanne and Carol Ann were also on the beer crew today too. Hopefully the picture loads!

3. I lost $40 playing cards today. Since we couldn’t play golf today, we stayed in and played Euchre today. We had 8 people so had two tables going and had a little tournament. Winners stayed at the tables and losers moved to the other table. I came close to getting third place in the second game, which would have got me third and my money back, but I lost by one point. Oh well. It was fun and we had lots of laughs!

4. It is crazy windy tonight. We are staying the weekend at Sherkston Shores in a nice trailer park. Every year so far there has been one crazy night of wind. This year tonight seems to be the night. Hopefully we make it through the night and don’t end up in Kansas with Dorothy and Toto.

5. I need to play some good golf tomorrow to have a chance at Birdie. After our first round I am well back in the hunt for Birdie. One of the girls has a 100 which puts me 17 strokes behind…which is quite a lot of strokes to make up. Its a long shot, but I’m going to give it my best shot. Wish me luck!

Birdie Open Day 1

The 2012 Birdie Open is underway. The original plan was to shop Thursday and golf Friday and Saturday with awards on Sunday morning. When the weather for Friday called for rain all day, we changed the plan and got in a round Thursday. We played Peninsula Lakes and it was a great day. We tee’d off at 4 and got in a great round.

My first 9 was a great 9 holes for me. I shot a 53, which I was very happy with. Unfortunately, I was not able to keep it going on the back 9. I shot an awful 64! Ugh. I had two 11’s. It was NOT pretty. I found every bunker on the back 9. It was unbelievable. Oh well, when I enter my score for my handicap I it will put those back down to 9’s so that will help a bit, not enough tho!

If it works (since I’m posting fron blackberry), here’s a picture of me at Pen Lakes. Like my snazzy golf outfit?

Today is Friday and it is pouring So its a good thing we got a round in yesterday. I think the plan today is to shop!! We will have fun no matter what we do. The laughs are flowing big time.

Happy Friday everyone!

Testing, testing…

Today was the end of my work week. Yay!!!

Tomorrow I am heading down to the Niagara Falls area to play some golf with friends who I played slo-pitch with back in North Bay back when I was in university. They have all traded their ball gloves for golf clubs and for years have been having a friendly tournament known as the ‘Birdie Open’.

A couple of years ago they invited me to take part in Birdie. It was so much fun. Good golf, lots of laughs, good food, and even a cocktail or two. This will be my third year. So far the Birdie Cup has not come home with me. Hopefully, with my new driver, this will be my year.

So, the purpose of this post is just to see if I can write and post from my BlackBerry. So far, the writing seems okay. Inserting pictures is proving to be a bit more challenging. This is my second attempt at this post. Somehow I lost the first one it tried when I attempted to insert a picture. I want to be sure I can do it, since I’m sure there will be a few post-worthy pictures this weekend!

Hopefully this works this time! Here we go…

Nope….I can get as far as telling it where I want the picture to come from (file or take a new picture) but I can’t seem to get it to actually load into the post. I will do some research and see if I can figure it out…if anyone knows how to do this, feel free to leave me a comment with the instructions.

I’m not sure how regular my posts will be over the next three days, but I will do my best.

Cheers! Or maybe I should say FORE!!!

Crosby watching some Coach’s Corner