Lionsgate skins game......

The Links at Lionsgate is a Jack Nicklaus designed golf course about a half mile from where we live. Once a year, the Senior PGA tour comes to play here the week before the U.S Senior Open. This year, the U.S. Senior Open is in nearby Hutchinson, KS, so most of the golfers have come out to play at Lionsgate to get ready for the major tourney. One thing that the nearby course allows is that the players can get used to the wind that often blows throughout Kansas and reeks havoc on a golf course.

The skins game was a match for various charities. The teams were as follows:

-George Brett and Dana Quigley
-Tom Watson and Kansas head coach Bill Self
-Jim Colbert and Kansas State head coach Bob Huggins

Needless to say, the golf out of the two basketball coaches was not very good. Bob Huggins and Bill Self had a ton of bad shots with one or two good ones mixed in. But they are paid to be basketball coaches, so I suppose that's excusable. Both of them were also a bit overweight, which I'm sure didn't help all that much.

I was privy to an amusing exchange between Tom Watson and Bill Self. Bill, for one reason or another, was running late and only showed up at the golf course 25 minutes before the match was to begin. Bill apologized to Tom for showing up late. Tom gave the standard 'no big deal' response. After exchanging a couple of questions, Bill turned to Tom and asked who was playing in the skins game. Tom went ahead and told him, but I'm thinking to myself, if you are playing in a game like this, wouldn't you take the time to figure out who will be playing in the game with you? Just seemed a bit odd that Coach Self would be so unprepared to the point of showing up late and not know who was even participating in the match.

On the other hand, George Brett is a very good golfer. He was regularly hitting drives over 300 yards and was hitting some excellent pitch shots as well. His team won the match handily.

Here's some pictures of the golf course. It was unbelievable how good the course was conditioned......








Here's a picture of the luxury boxes around the 18th green. They actually air-condition the tents! No expense spared for the corporate sponsors I suppose.



Bob Huggins on the first green......



Tom Watson in the red shirt and Bill Self in the yellow shirt......



Jim Colbert sizing up a putt......




A couple of possible retirement homes for Mrs. Lime and I.......




This young lady asked her parents if she could put on some suntan lotion. They said yes and turned to watch the golfers, but I was still watching her. As you see, it appears that she has just enough lotion to cover her entire body 3 times over, but she applied all of it to just one arm........



George Brett in the white shirt and Dana Quigley in the dark shirt. It would appear that George Brett would still not have any problems stepping onto the field at Kauffman Stadium. He is still in very good shape.......



Tom Watson lining up a putt.....



George Brett doing the same thing.......



Bob Huggins.......



A fine car that was being show by Cadillac, the title sponsor of the PGA Senior Tour. It had a sticker cost of $100,000.......



Had a great time watching the golf and getting to see the Links at Lionsgate. Best of all, it was free to the public. Hope to do it again next year.

Additional information about "FANSMU"

An article from the local paper..........

Columbia Missourian Article on FANSMU

Death is a very surreal thing........

Sunday morning, there was a message board post just like any other post on one of my favorite online hangouts, Tigerboard. You can read it here.

Tigerboard post

The person who posted that post is know to Tigerboard as "FANSMU", but his actual name is Randy Tremble. Obviously, he's optimistic about the upcoming season for the Mizzou Tigers' basketball team. Today, there was a post on Tigerboard that made what was an otherwise normal post anything but normal. A couple of hours after Randy posted that post on Tigerboard, he died of a massive heart attack at the age of 45. His wife found him on the office floor unconscious in the exact same spot where he had most likely made that post on Tigerboard.

It's almost baffling to think of how quickly things like that happen. One minute, he's just surfing the internet, posting his optimistic views about how excited he is for the upcoming season. The next, he's dead. To some extent, as I have told my wife before, this is one of the main reasons that I never really worry about death too much. While I certainly go out of my way to avoid bad situations, I never waste time worrying about the simple thought of dying. I'm too damn busy living life to worry about dying. I feel like that when that time comes along, I'll be able to say to myself that I didn't waste my time in life. Seems awfully simplistic, but it works for me and that's all that matters.

For what it's worth, I hope the Tigers basketball team does well this year and that Randy has a much better seat than I do.

Really amusing application for a job.......

Recently, a coach at a English soccer club was fired. A man in England decided that he would submit his resume for consideration for the head coaching job. His qualifications? He was really good at a popular soccer simulation video game and had also coached an 11 year old soccer team to a championship.

The letter and CV are both very amusing. Better yet, the professional soccer club's chairman responded to his application. Very funny stuff. Here's the website.

Soccer application website

Auction time!

For those that don't know, I'm a huge sucker for video game auctions. We own a couple of video game machines, a pinball machine, and a video poker machine. It's a lot of fun to have them around when people come over and they're obviously fun to play. You can find video game auctions in almost any major city. You can get full size video games for as little as $75 if you just shop around.

I went by the auction just to look around. We don't have anywhere to put the games right now until we get a home. As always, a lot of fun stuff to look at and most importantly, play with as much as you liked without putting in any quarters!!!!!

Here's one set of neon lights for sale......



More neon lights......



And still more neon lights.......



They had over 15 different CD jukeboxes.......



Some slot machines and video poker machines.......



A really nice Jurassic Park pinball machine.......



Some really neat riding horses and a riding car which would be great to have with kids......



They had about 8 different pool tables. If you can find one with relatively low use, these are excellent because they are built well to withstand a lot of play in a pool hall or bar.



A personal favorite of my mother-in-law, they had about 6 different prize cranes available.......



Some people trying out some of the games in advance of the auction. You have to do this because everything is sold as-is......



A couple of really nice dart board machines......



More slot machines. My guess is that they had around 20 of them in all.......



The golden idol of video game machines. Mrs. Pacman (yes, the Mrs. is actually more sought after than the original Pacman machines). A Mrs. Pacman machine can go for between $700 and $1800 depending on the quality of the machine.......



A couple of really fun gumball machines. When you put in your quarter, the gumball makes its way through the different 'coaster' mechanisms, adding more fun to your purchase. Kids love these things......



If I happen to run across any other cool things, I'll be sure to put them up. I'll just be going to look for awhile until I have a place to put some stuff.

Went house browsing today.........

I went out to a subdivision on the north end of Olathe called Woodlands Reserve to check out some houses today. I actually went in search of a house and ended up finding a couple of very nice houses. The builder of these two houses is called Arch Design Builders, LLC. The name is quite appropriate because their houses are filled with............ARCHES!!!! It seems like everything in their house uses curves and arches to give a softer appearance to the architecture. Also, Mrs. Lime is a big fan of arches in architecture, so this would appear to be a perfect match for her tastes. The following pictures are put up specifically for Mrs. Lime, but feel free to take a peek at the house pictures. They are very nice homes.

We start with house #1. The model name is the Phoenician III. List price on this home is $800,000. It's out of our price range, but a very nice home that has a lot of things going for it.

The front of the home...........



The kitchen area that has a island in it. There is a sitting room and breakfast nook in the kitchen area as well..........



The living room with 2 story windows looking out the back yard.........



Fireplace in the living room..........



Looking up in the foyer at the chandelier and ceiling woodwork........



Inside of the front door. It has stained glass windows on either side of the door.



Dining room..........



View from the 2nd floor balcony looking down on the living room. Note the large arch going across the ceiling.



Looking down the stairway at the foyer. Note that the windows visible on the front of the house really light up the foyer area.



My favorite part of this house. In one of the bedrooms that is meant to be a child's bedroom, they have a small area on the side where there is an elevated room that they can crawl into and have their own little area to play in. Thought this was a really neat idea.



While house #1 was a very nice house, I actually thought that house #2 was a much more livable home. Also, it had several features that I really liked that weren't available in house #1.

House #2 is a great reverse story and 1/2 home. Price of this home is much more affordable when compared to house #1. This home is priced at $549,000.

Here's the view from the front of the home. Note that this is a three car garage. The third garage is just off the left side of the picture........



I took this picture to show all of the arches used in this home. There are three arched doors and a larger arch in this picture alone. It really does make the home look much more open than conventional door openings.



A large sitting area with fireplace located just off the kitchen area.........



The kitchen area. Large island with bar chairs. Refrigerator door is disguised by using the same cabinet material to cover the refrigerator doors.......



The view off of the second floor deck area. You can literally see for miles from this deck. Big plus in my opinion.



Looking down on the lower level patio from the deck. Really nice stonework. More pictures of this patio area to come.......



View of the outdoor portion of the deck. It has enough room for a table and a sitting area. Also, you will note that the deck continues back on the far left.



You wonder what is on the back area of the deck under the roof? Wonder no more. It's a fabulous outdoor kitchen, complete with cooking area and bar area. Complete with stone countertops for easy cleanup. Big plus here.



Wonderful master bathroom area. Large tub in the foreground. That arched doorway is the entry to a large shower with double showerheads and a seating area. Really nice.



One end of the walk in closet complete with hanging racks, shelves on the wall and a shelf area in the center of the closet.



The other half of the walk in closet. Note the window which allows for a lot of nice natural lighting in that area.



Wonderful stairway going to the basement. The reason I like it so much is that the stairway is around 6 feet wide. Really nice feature after looking at houses with very narrow staircases. Note that the base of the stairs even has a curved wall. Even the walls are arched in this place!



Really nice entertainment area in the basement with plenty of room for a large couch.



Absolutely wonderful bar in the basement. Nice woodwork and room around the bar for at least 5-6 barstools.



Nice area to the side of the bar that they have set up as a billiards room. Really nice windows that allow for very good light in the basement.



A ground-level view of the patio. Note the room underneath the deck. That's where the next pictures will be taken.



This is just under the edge of the deck. Nice garden area with a fountain and sitting bench. Note that the area continues around on the far left. Another surprise in store?



Surprise time! Around the corner is a hot tub! Really nice place to have it because you are somewhat secluded under the deck in a more private area. Really nice.



I'm sure there will be many more house posts over the coming months as we start looking for a place to settle down.