Tampa Trip III; John Daly...

Well, let's see...I'll speed through the rest of this, since I've been told that my account of this trip has been somewhat boring. Thursday (April 14) morning, I had to get up for more class time. Again, the technical classes were OK. They tried to convince me to join their "band" for the night's Rock'n'Roll party thing...Hrm, no thanks. Our classes let out awfully early, so I went back to my room to try to take a nap. Well, I was distracted by the TV and the high-speed Internet until I decided to head out for dinner and to take a few last pictures. Mostly boring pictures, though. Outback for dinner (again). I think my waiter was gay because he was way, way too umm...helpful not too be. I mean, he only charged me for my burger...not the drink, not the cheese fries, not the bacon...just the burger. Maybe he just wanted a big tip, but I'll just leave it at that. Back to the hotel, I had to get everything straightened up for my flight home and whatnot.

I got up the next morning pretty early, filled up the tank in the rental car, and headed off to the airport. When I checked the car in, I noticed that they didn't charge me for the "Under 25 Fee" so I was pleasantly surprised, even though I am getting reimbursed for the rental. Security and the flight back weren't much different. On the plane (another Delta MD-88) I sat right behind the flight attendant's station and had quite a bit of leg room, so it was actually pretty comfortable. I read Orson Scott Card's Shadow of the Giant on the flight. It's kind of amazing how quickly you become accustomed to routine airline flights.

Back at CVG, I shuttled out to the long-term parking lot and found the company car, a white Impala. Since I was already in Cincy, I planned to go to that night's Reds game. First, though, I went to Gameworks at Newport on the Levee and got one of their pizzas. I didn't really think about how chilly it was back here, so I wore shorts to the game. I got my customary $5 ticket for sections 536/537, and a magnet schedule. I also bought the first issue of the program, and of course, a scorecard. Call me a relic or a dork for keeping score. I don't care. That's just how I like to enjoy a baseball game.

It was cold up in the nosebleeds, because the wind blows right across the sides of the upper deck. Of course, I moved down to a less windy section around the 2nd inning and got some nachos and cheese. The game was a crushing defeat by the dreaded Houston Astros, 11-2. Houston RF Jason Lane, only 4 years into his MLB career put two homers over the fence against Paul Wilson. Roy Oswalt is something like 13-0 in his career against the Reds, getting another win that night. Oh well...I walked back over to Newport and started on my way back home. On the drive back, I grabbed a milkshake at UDF. Why don't we have UDFs around here? While I'm at it, why don't we have any Penn Stations around here, either? Bleh.

I guess that's all there is to tell about my trip.

Now, I'd like to ask you a question...Isn't John Daly awesome? I like Tiger and Lefty, but don't you just love to see Daly bust out the driver every once in a while? I mean, he's not a guy that I would ever look up to, nor would I ever want to hang out with him. He smokes like a coal plant and drinks like a fish, but it's funny to see him puffing on a cigarette while he's practicing for the first playoff hole against Vijay Singh. Of course he sunk the first shot into the water on the hole, but ain't America grand? What's even funnier is that when I went to Google Image Search for a picture of him smoking while playing golf, "john daly" cigarette turned up only one picture. However, I simply searched for "john daly" and the top two results show him on the golf course with a cancer stick. Then there's this excerpt directly from the news section of his site:

"I'm thrilled to formalize my relationship with the Hooters folks. We have been working together at the local store level for a number of years and it is really a perfect fit for me," stated Mr. Daly.

In other words..."I've been coming down to Hooters every week for the past 20 years, getting wasted, eating, smoking, and ogling these women, AND NOW THEY'RE PAYING ME FOR IT!!!" Anyway, that's all I have to talk about for today, but I leave you with two great Daly pictures:


Seriously, I play better when I'm wasted.



The "Grip it and Rip it" philosophy has never seen a better spokesperson.