Monday, August 17, 2009

Picture!

I've added an approximation of "me" to the left side. There's a web app on the "Mad Men" website that allows you to create a "Mad Men" version of yourself. I do sort of look like that. Here are the other pics I made:




Clark

Friday, August 14, 2009

Final Beach Blog

Well, we're back.

Actually, we got back pretty late last night, so there was no opportunity to blog about anything (not that I'm that consistent or anything).

The truck managed to hold on long enough to get us home. We still need to figure out what's going on with the rear end (torque steer from a rear wheel drive truck?).

The rain came again in the morning while we ate a delicious breakfast at Mammy's Kitchen (Rt. 17 near the big parking garage and Rt. 501). We decided to do some souvenir shopping on the way out. I got a few T-shirts and other trinkets for the kids. Spent a hundred bucks. It was pretty easy to do that.

I think the highlights overall were the weather and the accommodations. We had a comfortable room at a reasonable price. Location was ideal as it was close enough to good places to eat, but not too far away from the hubbub. Best meal was a tie between Preston's and Mammy's with a "Surprise!" Vote to the Villa Romana. Villa Romana serves up traditional Italian cooking (4 course meal: appetizer, soup, salad, and entree'). It's pricey (14.00 for Spaghetti and Meatballs), but you get a lot of food for what you pay for.

There were a few lowlights. Some of the behavior of 9-12 year olds is trying at times. The Landmark didn't employ lifeguards, but there was a lot of staff around and some of them did their best to keep the rif raff down. Probably the worst was "Creepy Video Guy". I noticed this guy (a balding paunchy white guy with Aviator sunglasses) standing on his oceanfront balcony with his video camera scanning the beachfront. He'd record something for a few moments, pull the camera down, scan the sand again, raise the camera and record something else, etc. repeating the process several times over the course of my observations. When someone came out of an adjoining room to stand on their balcony, he slid back into the safety of his room, leaving the balcony door open to finish recording and then closing it slowly, while standing and seemingly admiring his handiwork. Creepy. My dearest saw him do it too. I'm hoping that impressionable young ladies in revealing swimwear have not been captured for any untoward website or DVD sales.

Clark

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Beach Blog #4

It had to happen eventually...

Rain.

It's been pouring here for the past hour or so. They chased us out of the pool at around 2pm. It's been pretty hot (around 97 degrees F), so it was bound to happen at some point, even if it was just the excess humidity kicking off.

The kids are trying to be good. We're heading out to see an IMAX 3D movie and perhaps shop for souvenirs.

Clark

Beach Blog #3


I'm sitting here on our last full day at the beach having a little room service breakfast.

We had a good day yesterday, although I'm a little sunburned. We spent the day at the many pools and the beach. Then we had a nice dinner at a place called Preston's in North Myrtle Beach. Th buffet was really nice: full salad bar and dinner bar with seafood and country cookin'. The kids have been pretty good (only a small minor 4 year old meltdown today).

Update to Beach Blog #2. I mentioned that Ladies needed to keep their tattoos on their backs on the small side (no Constitutions or Dead Sea Scrolls, Ladies). I saw a replica of the South Carolina flag (palmetto and crescent moon) on the lower back of one woman (nice but unusual). I also saw another one that was a complete no-no: horseshoes. I can't imagine what someone would want horseshoes on their lower back. What kind of message does that send?

Clark

Monday, August 10, 2009

Beach Blog #2

Tattoos...

I've been here in Myrtle Beach, SC for about 48 hours now and have seen a boatload of tattoos. I've seen cheap tattoos, expensive tattoos, small tattoos, large tattoos...the whole gamut. I have no tattoos on my body (not that I haven't thought about it though). Nor does my dearest Ellen. I've come to a couple of conclusions taking in the skin art here at MB:

1. Small is better, especially on women. Ladies, a large, amorphously shaped tattoo on your shoulder doesn't seem too sexy. However, a small butterfly, heart, or star on the front or back of your hip is really hot. Guys, a dessert plate sized full color picture of a Rottweiler on your left chest is nothing short of weird. Tribal designs are OK, so long as they don't end up looking like Ivy vines crawling up your pants leg.

2. Location, Location, Location: Ladies, make sure you don't put your tattoo in the wrong place. Unless you plan on covering a whole body part or parts, make sure the spot can be covered up or accents your body part. Large dessert plate sized animal art on your entire calf just doesn't do it for me. Back of the next, ankle, small of the back (again, small is better), or front of the hip are sexy spots. Guys, covering the whole leg with just one tattoo is fine, but it needs to look finished. Multiple tattoos need to be limited to the arms unless you plan a sleeve.

3. Where not to put a tattoo: ladies, never put a large dessert plate sized tattoo in between your breasts. It's just weird.

Clark

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Back to tournament ball

In the past, I have been a fastpitch softball coach for tournament level teams. Theses teams are together year round and play tournament on the weekends usually once or twice per month.

I've been out of that for a little while since my oldest was only playing in high school and my middle daughter had only just started to achieve that level.

An opportunity appeared one day in the form of a bridge between the 12U and the 14U level...13U!

This gave me an opportunity to get my daughter on a tournament team and then to bring her along as she grows, helping her to get the right skills to play high school.

This particular organization is pretty prestigious compared to the organization in which I used to coach. The caliber of player is higher and there is a lot of support.

I hope I'm able to fill the open spots with good players.

Clark

Softball Updates!!

It's been a long spring and summer season:

My house league team was runner up in their 12U division. The team entered the playoffs having lost more games than they one, but the average loss was only by a couple of runs. They played very well throughout the playoffs, winning an emotional game against one of our rival teams in the last inning on a deadly change up pitch by my dearest 12 year old daughter.

I was asked to coach a summer league all star team. Despite being loaded with good pitchers, we only had a .500 record. My dearest 12 year old lead the team in RBIs and triples. Rain dogged us in our early tournaments, where we only got to play two games out of a four game tournament. Our second tournament was much better as we seeded #1 on Saturday only to lose Sunday to the eventual tournament winner. Our last tournament was rained out on Sunday. We played very well on Saturday despite losing one of two games. We were seeded #4 going into the Sunday bracket, so we had a good seeding, although if we had won we would have needed to most likely play the #1 seed.

Clark

blogging from the beach

Hey!

As you all have probably already figured out...I'm not the world's most consistent blogger.

Nonetheless, when I get time to blog, I blog. (Sounds Shakespearean, doesn't it? To blog, or not to blog...that is the question).

I'm sitting here in my hotel room at the Landmark Resort here in Myrtle Beach, SC (http://www.landmarkresort.com/). It's the first time I've been here, but my dearest Ellen and the kids have been here a couple of times. I haven't been on vacation with the family in about 4 years because of lack of available vacation time. It's a nice place, about 4 out of 5 stars, and has lots of cool stuff for the kids to do, outside of just being in the sand and the ocean.

I'll catch you up on all the happenings in subsequent posts!!

Clark