Saturday at home

Finally! I didn't spend too much time at home today though. I left the house at 0620 for my marathon training run. We went to the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge which was the first time I had been there. Reminded me of a summer camp with the buildings, trails, smells, etc.

It's a famous place for birding and did not disappoint. I saw a vermillion flycatcher, an oriole, ducks, red wing blackbirds and even a bobcat.

We ran the 7 mile loop three times for a 21 mile run. So I'm ready for Austin in 2 weeks.

Afterwards, Daniel, Kristi, Wendy and I went to Le Peep for a late brunch. Lots of fun. Then I had to go get my tire fixed as I hit a pothole last night and it flattened my tire. Got it replaced under warranty so I made money on that one. Buy the Discount Tire certificates when you have expensive tires!

Chamber Membership Event

We just completed the McAllen Chamber of Commerce membership event. As a result, 474 new members in 2 days of work. WOW! Tonight we had the celebration event and we have a new "Godfather" my friend Brian and 2 "Godmothers" Wendy and Alma. The host is from NYC so he had lots of colorful expressions, Good Fellas, Goombadas, etc.

Skis

K2 Apache Recon

Gregory Turley

Après ski

At the Goldener Hirsch Inn. Sitting at the next table was Lyle Lovett.
He had the pretzel and so did I. I found this place by happenstance by striking up a converasation with Chris on the ski lift the other day.

He gave me a coupon card for this free appetizer here. I had looked around a bit for it but it didn't jump out. This last day Saturday, I decided to go find the inn. It was back behind the midmountain lodge at the end of a shopping strip. Turns out it is a real hotel, small, 20 rooms, designed to look like an Austrian chateau. Really nice.

Gregory Turley

Wed January 20

I am in Salt Lake City now after a day of travelling starting at 0630. Glad to be here. Toward the end of the day I was not myself and nearly got into a big argument with my friend John... over nothing. I quickly apologized. Glad to dodge that bullet.

I must have been tired from the day - that is what the guy said at Utah Ski & Golf after we got our ski equipment. Fortunately we went to dinner thereafter at Red Rock Brewery and now back at the hotel with wireless internet, so I'm happy now.

Southwest flight was good. I've got the gold package of ski equipment so it is much nicer than last time.

Heard a funny story at the brewery. This guy was carrying an orange flag and motioning around with it. Talking with him, he was court ordered to carry this pedestrian crossing flag (like a crossing guard) as punishment for his second jaywalking offense. Three days of carrrying this flag plus a $100 fine. "You think I'm kidding" he said.

He thought it was funny that I was a city prosecutor. I said I'd never heard of that, but that I would take the idea home.

2009 Houston Half 13.1 miles

BibNameCityStateCntryDivAgeM/FEvent

---

33760Turley, GregoryMcAllenTXUSAM40-4444MHalf

Checkpoints			10k	Mile 9	Half	30k
			1:00:30	1:28:23	-	-
Finish	Pace	Proj Time	Official Time	Overall	Gender	Div
	0:09:59		2:10:50	3267	1990	285

Back!

I'm back in the land of the living. After a tough week returning to work last week, I'm feeling much better and was quite productive today.

This evening we were at home and I watched The Secret Life of the American Teenager with my teenager. Lots of teenage sex! Hard to keep track of who's with whom. However, it seemed received as just TV and not reality so we enjoyed it for the entertainment it was.

Then more of the same with The Bachelor and rounded out a night of TV with Castle. Call it what you will, we did all enjoy watching these shows.

Sunday Jan 10

Today was the annual meeting at church so we had a combined service at 10 a.m. (instead of 9 and 11). I usually attend the 9 am. contemporary service and we have to get there early to practice with the band so it was nice to start a bit later.

I played the Ibanez electric today plugged in to the main speaker system for the first time. Arlyn our director said he could tell I'd been practicing and getting better.

The meeting went on until nearly 1 pm. so I was tired when I got home. I took a nap and then went to the driving range. My first official golf visit to the McAllen Country Club. I bought a new golf bag to commemorate the occasion.

Tonight we had dinner at home and then I worked around the house to get straightened up. After the holidays, it's been time for a little early spring cleaning.

Rough Start - Smoothing Out

We got back into McAllen from vacation on Monday. Sarah was off all the week so she was home most of the time. Tuesday and Wed. I spent in the office as much as possible. I did attend a funeral at our church on Tuesday. A young man only 18 years old died - suicide. I felt called to go as I did know his parents as members of the church. I did not know him particularly but I am sure I would recognize him.

Thursday and Friday I went to the municipal court. It was nice to get back into the routine. But I still couldn't seem to get much work done there or at the office. There was a lot stacked up and that stress made it hard to focus. On a bright note, Jordan and Marie worked well together as a team. It was good to be a part of that.

I watched the UT/Alabama game Thursday night and seeing the Horns lose in dramatic fashion with Colt McCoy going down early didn't make things better. Last night I planned to relax at home. I watched 2 movies on DVD, Observe & Report and Role Models. Two good comedies. Then I got up early today to run 14 miles in the cold 30F weather. It was great! I thought I'd be cold and tired afterwards but was neither. Susan and I went to the outlet mall in the afternoon and now I'm home watching the Cowboys/Eagles game.

Shadow Creek Golf Club

Just got back from a trip to Las Vegas and played at Shadow Creek. Outstanding course and experience. Well worth the $500 fee which included: Limo ride to/from course Forecaddy - Bernie -ex club pro Cart Range Balls Snacks Water/Gatorade No sales tax I saw 2 other groups on the course and that was only due to a shotgun start on #3 due to frost delay. Latest rank I saw on this was #36 in the US which I would say is about right, having played at Cypress Point, San Francisco GC, Pinehurst #2, Champions, Colonial, Shoal Creek. But none of those can you simply call and arrange a game. Plan to stay at an MGM Mirage-Mandalay Bay Group hotel (there are 8-10 of them). Usually the paying customer (not comped by casino) is to play on Mon-Thurs but I called 30 days ahead and arranged a Sunday a.m. game as a single. No one to argue about the wisdom of the green fee. Weather was terrific for January. 60 F. Everything was well put together. For being created out of desert, it was a very green, naturalistic course. Clubhouse looks like pictures from Augusta National. But instead of country club, think 5 star hotel. Food and other charges can be paid for or charged back to your room. The signature holes lived up to billing. Especially the last ones, #15, 17 & 18. Beautiful water hazards and creeks. Mountains in the background. Greens were firm and fairly but not super fast. The sub system is in place to keep the temperatures ideal for bent grass greens. Ideal fairways and tee boxes. Even the range had green sand under the grass. One feature is the slopes of greens will hold a longer shot - banked toward the middle of the green to cause balls to roll back some - a welcome touch. Played from the regular tees at 6700 yards. Go back to 7100 or even 7600 yards for the super long hitters. Highest recommendation to you

Bevo's Road to the BCS Championship

Even Bevo the UT mascot is getting into blogging. Here's his trip from Austin TX to Pasadena CA.

He even made a stop in Las Vegas!

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/longhorns/entries/2010/01/04/road_trip_bevos.html

Texas Hold Em

I played two days of Texas Hold Em when in Vegas. This is a game that I'd played for fun at home. I didn't expect to join up but there is a tournament where you pay $40 to enter and get to play until you win or the chips are gone. It seems like a good approach for me - protection on the down side being of utmost importance.

I played Friday Jan. 1 New Years Day at 10:00 am. You go to the stand and pay $40 and show ID. Then they give you a card to take. When you look at it, there is your position: Table 4 seat 7. This keeps you from sitting next to someone. Everything done to minimize cheating (more later).

So I sat down. The player to my left had come in from LA and had no hotel room for the night. He had stayed up all night!

The game was a mixed group of men, women, young, old, white, brown, yellow. You get 2 cards down and then a round of bets, then 3 cards up (the river), round of bets, 1 card up (the turn)and round of bets and 1 card up (the flop) and final bets. Bets get progressively higher. If you have a strong hand or just want to bluff you can go "All In".

I played for about an hour, winning 2 or 3 hands. You can also fold and minimize losses (seeing a pattern here?) It was like learning to ride a bike, both exciting and out of control (what am I doing?) I liked it though.

So I went back Saturday Jan. 2. This time it was $50 to play (weekend rate). After 15 minutes, I was done. So you can buy back in for another $50 which I did. That lasted another 45 minutes. I tried to "raise" but didn't put in enough. When they said I need to bet more I tried to fold. Bad move! That raised all sorts of negative attention. They must have thought I was trying to cheat! I bet the other chips and went All In. Gave it a shot - Lost!

I did have fun at it. It was a good game for me. I'll play again. But I'm not planning to put in the 10,000 hours to get good. Its Just for fun

Like a Knife Through the Heart

I attended a funeral today of a member of our church family. This person was only 18 years old and had just graduated from high school last May. He had completed 1 semester at UT Austin. He seemed to have everything going for him.

What a tragic loss for his parents and the world. Such great sorrow that any parent could sympathize with.

There were many people in church and the parish hall, standing room only. In the last year, I've now been to 5 funerals. I can't imagine that 2010 will have much fewer. Getting to that point when life is not certain.

The Strip

Our hotel, Mandalay Bay is by the airport. Driving by, you see private planes lined up for show valet parked like fancy cars. All types from around the world. Big ones. You can imagine that people like the Sheik or Fergie travel to Vegas in style. No Southwest peanuts for them!

Mandalay Bay at one end of strip. Gold windows and three winged
design. We are at THEhotel. The suite has two rooms and 1 1/2 baths with a tub and shower. The suite works out well for us.

The hotels are all huge. 2000 rooms, large casino, 6 different **** restaurants. 1000 seat arena. Convention Center, amusements, sports book, shopping malls. You'd spend a whole day just seeing what is in one hotel

Hoover Dam

Today Saturday, Jan. 2 we visited Hoover Dam.

It is not a simple to get there as it looks. We got a late start after having to get the rental car and then me playing Texas Hold Em for an hour. Then lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.

By the time we got to Boulder City traffic started to crawl. We followed PinkJeep.com to get there through the town which was quaint. But from there it was 10 miles of bumper to bumper traffic. We arrived about 4:00 p.m.

Like an iceberg, most of the dam is below the road. It was done in art deco style as common in 1930s. The towers were a unique feature. The dam looks relatively small next to Lake Mead (which is a huge lake in the middle of the desert). Intetesting to think of how

it affects LA many miles away.

After walking around we headed back to town. We had a late dinner and I was happy to return the rental car and get back. Susan had gone to bed - Sarah and I watched the movie The Invention of Lying with Ricky Gervais.

Gregory Turley