Jeepthrills

It is the only reason I will be keeping HBO when my 6 months free runs out.

2007 Dodge Ram Big Horn with a 5.7 litre Hemi V8. I get about 14-15 city when I am not running the AC or blasting the heat and about 16-18 highway. One cool feature about this version of the Hemi is MDS. What it does is shuts off 4 cylinders when I don't need them like cruising and idling. It saves about 15% vs. the previous version. I spend about $75 every 3-4 days. 2007 Chrysler Aspen with the FlexFuel V8. My wife gets about 16 city and a little over 18 highway. She can use E85 in it, but the mileage is crap. Usually about 11-12 city and the cost difference is not worth the reduced mpg.

I had it done in November 2006. I planned it based on golf season winding down and basketball season still a month away. I had it done on Fridat afternoon in the doctor's office. Worst part was the initial needle to the twins. After that it was nothing. I walked out in less than 30 minutes. I was on the couch with a bag of frozen peas that evening when we decided to go out to dinner. Dinner lead to a trip to WalMart. I started to get a little sore but nothing too bad. The next day was going to be college football on TV all day culminating with Michigan vs. Ohio State. Shortly before the game we end up going to WalMart again. God only knows why but I was bored and needed to get off the couch. We ran into friends and ended up at thier house for Thai food. I missed most of a classic game where OSU held on to beat the evil Blues. I hate OSU too, but not as much as Michigan. Anyway, Sunday was spent on the couch most of the day with my frozen peas. I spent a little too much time vertical Friday and Saturday. I was back at work on Monday. I run 2 health clubs and do a lot of personal training so my job does require some lifting. I was sore for a few more days but nothing that a few Advil couldn't fix. More importantly I was back in "action" less than 72 hours after the procedure.

I have said for years that one of the biggest problems facing my generation (I'm 37) and those in their 20's now is that they companies made credit too easy to get and entice you to use it early and often with zero intrest specials. Unfortunately when my wife and I got married, I was just finishing an internship and working part time. My wife had a full time job but it didn't pay much and after insurance and taxes things were very tight. I started grad school 4 months after our wedding. My son was born right before our 1st aniversary. Many of our friends did not go to college and had jobs that paid well more than what we made at the time. We made the mistake of trying to keep up with the Jones' and put a lot of stuff on our credit cards. When we sold our first house we were able to pay off a lot of the debt but still ran up some cards again. The mortage companies made it easy to eliminate credit card debt with low intrest equity loans. For a while we would look at big purchases based on how much we were expecting to get on our tax return. This was great for a while. We got our appliances, computers, home theater, snow blower and some other stuff this way. We planned to do the same thing when we built our shed. I bought everything from Lowes and Home Depot for zero intrest. The total was over $2000. That combined with the new dishwasher and a few other smaller items would have been most of our tax return. Unfortunately right after we filed it, my wife's company went under. She was lucky and found a job quickly, but we still went a couple weeks without her check and had to pay for insurance for 90 days. That ate up most of what was put aside. Combine that with my pay dropping every year since 2004 due to the ecconomy and that a good portion of my income is commisions. The big problem then comes when the over $3000 at zero intrest comes due. They go back to the day of the purchase and start compounding. We watched our ballances jump by about 25%. Until that day we had never paid a penny of intrest on any of our store cards. We are finally starting to get our heads above water again, but it can still be tough to avoid that zero intrest special at Golfsmith, Best Buy or Home Depot.

I live in the suburbs about 30 minutes North of Detroit. I live in Waterford. We have a 3 BR/2.5 Bath with an attached 2 car garage and a full basement. We are about 1500 sq. ft. + the basement that I finished myself. It's a nice neighborhood and I bought the house as a new construction in 2000 for $165,500. Since then I have added a deck, custom built shed, ceramic tile in the kitchen, 2 bathrooms and entryway. I have also done Pergo in the living room and as I mentioned finished the basement. It appraised about 4 years ago at $220,000. However, due to the terrible market people are letting them go in my neighborhood for less than I paid 8 years ago. The amazing thing here is how big a difference a ZIP Code can make. If my house was in West Bloomfield (7 miles away) it would sell for twice what I paid. In Pontiac (4 miles) it would have been about $120,000. Taking that further, my parents live in Royal Oak (30 minutes). Their neighbor sold a house that was 1100 sq ft on a smaller lot with a detached garage for $175,000. If you put my house in Birmingham (borders Royal Oak) it would be well over $500,000.

Although diversity is generally safer than having everything riding on one investment, it is a far cry from a sure thing. In this economy there are very few, if any, sure things. I don't think he was trying to imply that you were wrong, only that even if you are smart the bottom can still fall out. I have personal training clients that have followed many paths to their financial success. Some have gone with the low risk long term growth and are doing very well. Others have made a pile of cash in a short time by selling a company at the right time or by making some riskier investments. There is no right way to do it.

6 total. The funny thing is only one was on a par 5. The other 5 were short par 4's. The par 4's all came in a two year stretch about 10 years ago. The first was a pitch in when I missed the green to the left on a 295 yard hole. The other 4 were on putts at the same course, Heather Highlands. 2 on the 290 yard 4th and 2 on the 289 yard 8th. I have had 2 chances this year on the same course. One on 4 and one on 7. I had a handfull of chances on the reachable par 5 18th at White Lake Oaks last year and a couple more this year.

The best I have done is 3. It was in a 9 hole round and they were on consecutive holes. I have had 3 in an 18 hole round as well.

In November of 2006 I was looking to lease my truck. I was already approved and knew what I was looking for. It was a matter of figuring out a price and doing the paper work. I had been talking to one of the sales people at a dealership in Rochester Hills, MI. He had told me a price that seemed a little too low to be correct, but I decided to go in and talk to him. I have wasted my time before with talking to a guy on the phone, figuring out a deal then finding out when I got there that the truck I wanted is gone but they have similar ones for only a few hundred more per month. I leave the guy messages for a couple days with no reply. Finally I decide to ask for another salesperson. This next guy tells me that the other guy was out sick but he can help me. When we start talking price it has gone up $150 per month from the original quote. He tells me the other guy was new and had made a mistake. After some discussion I get that gap down to $75 and tell him I will talk to my wife and call him back. I give it an hour and call him back telling him I want to do the deal and he says he is too busy that night to do it and being the last day of the month he can't promise that the deal would be the same on December first. Apparently he was selling too many trucks and didn't need the commision. I made one call to Al Deeby Dodge in Clarkston, MI and told the guy on the phone what I was looking for. He went through what he had over the phone while I was on line looking at the trucks. We figured out what I wanted and a price. 30 minutes later I was in the showroom filling out paper work. He appologized that there were two deliveries before ous so my wife and I went out to dinner and came back. He stayed almost an hour after closing to finish our deal. I drove off the lot that night with a brand new 2007 Dodge Ram Big Horn with more features and a better monthly payment than the one I was talking to the first guy about. This guy was straight with me and willing to work for my business. I will gladly go to him again.

I have had this happen to me plenty of times. I run two gyms so my work atire is t-shirt and gym shorts or a pullover and a pair of nice sweats. Unfortunately I don't have time to change before I go out to run errands. Often times I am shopping in my work atire and get the turned up nose from a lot of people. I had this happen at a local golf shop. When they blew me off, I went to a different place and dropped over $700 on a new set of irons. Oops. In my line of work we get a lot of tire kickers. They want to pick your brain about exercise and diet then when it comes down to paying for personal training or a membership they will "have to get back to you." Unfortunately you still need to spend the time with each one of them. I have had more than my share that look like there is no chance in Hell they are spending money that turned out to be long time clients.

Our league (couples) is relatively slow, but the women's league in front of us is snail's pace. They play bumble bee golf where they all buzz to one ball then they all buzz to the next one. They also wait for the group ahead of them to reach the green on a 300 yard par 4 before teeing off. We have two golfers in our league that are very slow. Unfortunately they are teammates. We do our best to keep them moving. Last year we instituted a 10 shot max rule. That has gone a long way to speeding up the weaker players.

Well, I now have to officially change what I put on here. I just accepted a position as a High School Sports Medicine Teacher. I have spent the last 15 years running health clubs as an Exercise Physiologist/Personal Trainer. This will be a huge change for me. I will be going from being on call 7 days a week with crazy hours to an 8 hour day that is only M-F. I will also have 2 months off in the Summer. Can you say single digit?

True, but nothing beats a first hand meltdown.

I missed the show last week but had it in the DVR. I was busy Wednesday and Thursday and out of town all weekend. I went out of my way to not find out what happened. I deleted the notices to this thread as they came into my inbox. Unfortunately this morning I turned on TGC to catch Golf Central and as I am walking into the room with my cereal to watch, the preview of the final came on. I so wanted to watch Lori get her ass handed to her. I will still try to watch tonight but it won't be the same. I think it is dumb that the exemption is for 2009. I guess the timing is tough with tours all over the world and different schedules but why air something Spring of 2008 that will result in a spot on next years Futures Tour? Damn TV schedules.

For a while in college I got into basketball cards again. That was 1991 and then they started to come out with too many brands and series to keep up with. I gave up in 1993 but still have a huge collection that my younger son is interested in. In 1986 I was playing high school basketball and we were at a road game where there also happened to be a collectibles show going on in their loby. During the JV game, one of my teammates and I decided to check it out. We ended up splitting the cost of an unopened box of 86-87 Fleer basketball cards. It was $16 total. The next day we split them up and each ended up with a full set plus doubles of most cards. I didn't think much about it for a few years until I got into collecting again. I was flipping through a Becketts Basketball guide when I discovered that since there were no mass produced cards from 83-86, the 1986-87 Fleer set is considered the rookie set for many of the great players including Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, Dominique Wilkins and Patrick Ewing to name a few. I ended up selling the doubles of most of them for about $500. I still have the full set, including the Jordan card that is valued between $1500-2000 for the set and between $800-1500 for the Jordan card. The price fluctuates and the market is down for that type of thing now. I will likely give the Jordan card to my older son when he graduates college. He is not a big sports fan, but his name is Jordan Michael. No coincidence.

Lately I have been drinking Magic Hat #9. It is better on tap than in the bottle, but the bottled variety is just fine. I also picked up an 18 of Mic Ultra recently. Not an outstanding beer, but fine for a cold one after mowing the lawn.

Played the back 9 at White Lake Oaks. I was going along pretty good yesterday. I missed a couple short putts through the first 7 holes, but was only +4 at that point. Unfortunately I hit a terrible drive on 17. I actually took a divot with my driver. Not a little scuff on the tee box. A true divot. I followed this with two dumb shots. This all resulted in a tripple. Par on the last and I had a 42. For the first 7 holes I felt more relaxed over the ball than any point this season. Overall my round was 5 pars, 2 bogeys, 1 double and one tripple. One of the bogeys and the double included missed 3 footers.

I hit the ball reasonably well Sunday, but my best shot was a putt. On the par 4 13th at White Lake Oaks I had to pitch from behind a tree and ended up about 6" off the front of the green. I had about 35' for par and rolled it in the left side of the cup.

I would just have Tiger buy the bar with his pocket change. Then have the other guy's ass whooped by his new bouncers for messing with me. If that didn't work, I'm going with Daly, Boo and Elk. Daly and Boo are straight neck and Elk has been in a scrap or two.

Great first post. Very well said. I think your assessment of Kim is right on. I don't know if she is a bitch or just afraid to have them turn on her. Christina was a threat and Lori used more than her own golf skill to beat her. Kim is the next threat on the horizon. She needs to watch her back.

There was a thread about golf commercials where this one came up and I noticed one more thing about it. If the "dorks" were being pounded so bad, why did they have the honor on the tee? When I first saw this I thought it was Jason Zuback, but at closer inspection it is not. I believe he is still under contract with Pinacle. Although she totally folded last night, I give Christina credit for trying to rise above the petty crap they were pulling. Up until recently I would have been OK with Sophie winning, but she has really shown her true colors in recent shows. She is a manipulative bitch. She saw the way things were going and took the opportunity to pile on Christina. Kim is not much better. At least Lori has been a bitch from day one. I thought it was total BS the way they just expected Christina to be over being treated like crap. They used the time at breakfast to get in her head again. I hope when they watch the show as it airs that they see how bad they looked. I also think they under estimate the popularity of the show. There are a lot of BB fans out there. Word of mouth can go a long way. Also, if you are Adams, are you going to want some total bitch using your equipment.

I said the same thing. Her ball was not even on the ground when she stepped down. All she did was push down rolled up grass. It was an event where you got to place your ball anyway. Her points should have counted.

There should be no pressure on them at all. With Tiger we were getting our asses handed to us. Maybe we can actually play the no respect card this year and use it for motivation. The problem now is that our best player on the team is softer than ice cream on a hot summer day.

I would tend to agree. Although Kenny has helped me in the Sand Trap Fantasy League this year, I question his choices in skipping the US Open and the British Open. If you want to play your way on the team, show what you can do in the brightest lights. He was great at the Memorial, but I want guys that are willing to go all out to win. Skipping the British to stay home and earn points at a lesser event does not sit well with me. That's like saying "Coach, can I play on the JV this week? I want to try and get some stats instead of playing against the best."

I pushed my tee shot into some nasty long stuff on the 9th last night. I got lucky to even find the ball. My round was already pretty bad so I thought why not try and hit it out. I had 115 to the green. Initially I was going to hit a GW and go out sideways, but decided to go with the PW instead. I actually had a better angle at the ball if I tried to advance it vs. playing out to the fairway. I opened the face a little and took a big rip at it. It came out solid and ended about 5 yards short of the green. The pin was in the back of the green on the edge of shelf. Anything short would end up back at my feet. I hit a pitch that stopped about 3' from the hole and saved par.