Last Visit To Dogwood



This is usually the reaction we receive when we utter the two most important words in my dog's life (other than "hungry" and "supper"): Dog Park. While living in Jacksonville, we had the opportunity to enjoy many parts of the community and great local events that took place downtown. One place that literally involved the whole family was Dogwood Park and our "kids" loved it. Looking back we should have gone much more than we did but every time we did make it out it was such a treat. The facilities and fenced in park are top notch and have been voted one of the biggest and best private dog parks in the country - it is truly awesome and definitely one of the many things we will miss about Jacksonville.

Before we were completely moved out we made sure that we would take at least one last visit to the dog park and as always it did not disappoint. I always bring my camera to capture some unique photo opportunities as well as to just document the fun and I always end up with some fun shots. Here are a few of their last visit:





and as it turns out it seems that Otis & Ko's favorite Uncle Spunky was there too! :-)






The rest of the set can be viewed here.

We'll miss you Dogwood!

New life



in more ways than one! A lot has been going on in my life over the past few months and I really haven't devoted much time to blogging about it. I'll do my best here.

The most important and probably most exciting news (as well as the most obvious thanks to the first picture) in our lives right now is that my wife and I are expecting our first child! More ultrasound photos here! After I found out that I passed the bar in April, we were both ready to begin our family and our lives after the law school experience. Then on June 25 my wife came into the office and handed me a card and told me she had an early birthday gift for me and that she couldn't wait. I didn't know they even made "we are expecting" greeting cards, but they do and I can't tell you how happy I was to be getting one. Getting this news has been some of the best news I have ever received in my life - even compared to bar results. It is really hard to explain and all I can say about it is it is just amazing. Of course it creates some worry and anxiety about the months to come but this stress is "good stress" and if dealt with properly will always lead to great things.

We had the chance to tell both of our parents over the July 4 weekend and decided to give my mom an "early birthday" gift as well. We found a grandma rubber chicken to go into the existing chicken family (see earlier posts for an explanation). We wrapped it up and underneath put a card that said "You're going to be a Grandma!" She almost didn't find it and probably wondered why in the hell we were giving her a rubber chicken as an early birthday gift. Once the card was found and the news was revealed tears, excitement, happiness and celebration soon followed. Giving the news was almost as fun and exciting as getting it!

As of this posting we are more than 13 weeks along and have had a few appointments. The first sonogram was another one of those life changing events. Seeing that new little life and hearing the heartbeat for the first time literally changes everything about your life. In one instant everything goes from being about yourself your family and your wife to everything being about your child. Goosebumps, tears, excitement, and fear are usually soon to follow after seeing and experiencing this and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life (and I have had some pretty great ones). So far all of the appointments and genetic testing have gone smoothly and we will be going in again in around a month for our next appointment. One great memory from our last ultrasound was when the technician was trying to get Baby Darby in position to make some measurements and was having to push pretty hard and it was great to watch as our baby was already learning how to fight back - looks like we've got a competitor on the way :-) We do not know the sex yet but during both appointments the Doctor has told us that "it sounds like a girl." Apparently the different sexes have different heart rates so although we don't know for sure, the Dr. has made a guess. Honestly I couldn't care less whether it is a boy or girl, all I care about and worry about is to get him/her here healthy and happy!

The next bit of exciting news is I have found a job! Not just any job, but the perfect job. I really didn't want to go crazy looking for a job until I was 100% sure I would have a license and that I wouldn't have to re-take the bar exam. Of course I was somewhat confident that I had at least done my best and prepared the best I knew how, but it's nice to finally know for sure before looking for a great job. After some searching and applying for a job my dad and I both decided that it could greatly help both of us if I joined his practice. I was honored to find out that I would have this opportunity to work for and learn from one of two people who had such a strong hand in shaping my life that make me who I am. I will be able to help him with his existing practice while also gaining some experience and learning about some other areas that I am interested in like intellectual property and sports/entertainment law. I couldn't think of a better person to begin my legal career with and I can't wait!

Since we will be relocating we have to have a house right? Well, we've been working on it. After deciding to join my dad's practice we spent a couple of days in Lakeland and did some house shopping. We were pretty sure after the first day that we were going to be building in a newer development and even had a beautiful lot picked out. We decided to devote the second day of our search to looking at some existing homes. The fourth house that we visited we almost skipped since it was an older house and Britt had made it pretty clear that she would prefer a newer home if at all possible. I mentioned to her that we might as well look at it since we had already gotten permission so we went and it's a good thing we did!

As soon as we walked in we began to fall in love. The inside had been completely redone and was beautiful. The more we saw the more we liked and the more we could see ourselves living there. Once we were done it was time for lunch and it was tough for us to keep our excitement to ourselves and we decided that we wanted to go see the house again this time with my mom.

Again, as soon as we walked in she was seeing and saying many of the same things we had said and we knew this was "the one." After finishing up a few more visits we began to discuss making an offer and after calling the seller's realtor we learned that two more families were planning to see the house in the next day or so and both were walking through for the 2nd time - this said to us that if we were going to make an offer on this house we should probably do it sooner than later. We finally figured out what we felt was a fair offer and sent it in before one of the other families was to see it that afternoon. Then the waiting game began and we had a long drive back to Jacksonville talking about the house and hoping we would be able to buy it. The next morning I got the call from our realtor that they had accepted our offer and the contract was made!

Oh if only things in life were that easy! Saying that trying to purchase our first home has been a challenge would probably be a huge understatement. After making the contract we went through the process of hiring movers, getting home insurance, Britt set a date to leave her job up here and when she was going to transfer and other necessary things to finish the Jacksonville chapter of our lives and begin the transition to Lakeland. All seemed to be going well and it seemed that the final step in the process was to have the bank appraise the house and then we would be ready to set the closing. I will not say what bank we went with but I will say it is a large American bank - you can figure it out.

One day I get a frantic call from Brittany while she was at work telling me that "something has gone wrong with the house." This really isn't the news you want to hear when you have a closing in a little under a month. I asked her what the problem was and learned that the bank's appraisal had come in $40,000 lower than our offer. I did not mis-type, FORTY THOUSAND dollars lower. This meant that for us to purchase the house we want we would have to come up with the difference. I seem to remember it being the bank's job to find funding for our home purchase, and not us so it was time to find another lender.

After some investigation apparently there is a major problem with home appraisals of late especially ones requested by larger banks. The banks are using non local companies and non local appraisers and quite a few recent appraisals from this bank have come back low and killed the deal. Unfortunately the banks are over conservative now while still dealing with the mess they already have themselves into. Honestly it was kind of embarrassing to get an appraisal for so much less than what we offered and we felt for the sellers as well because we all knew that this house is worth way more than that. Back to square one.

We didn't want to give up on this house and just walk at this point for two reasons - we loved the house and we honestly knew that the appraisal was off base. Our realtor who we really relied on and trusted during this whole process gave us a suggestion on a local mortgage broker to go with and hopefully salvage the deal with a new appraisal and lender. Unfortunately the new "mortgage broker" wasn't very competent and forced us to jump through even more hoops than the actual lender required all the while strong arming us and threatening us. Again I will refrain from using names (though for the safety of all consumers I shouldn't bite my tongue) but if you are in the market for a new home in central Florida and are choosing a mortgage broker, please contact me before doing so and I will fill you in on this person's name. We were very fortunate to have my dad assisting with all of the work that had to be done in order to make this deal happen. Honestly without his help and hard work over the past few months we would not have made it.

Finally after being mislead to thinking we could spend some of our available cash on appliances and necessities on the house, only to be told that we would need to put down 10% instead of the already agreed upon 6.5%, and one last threat from the broker that we "would be back with our original lender if we didn't close when he wanted us to (told you this guy was horrible), we had a set closing date and the house was ours! It really feels like we have gone through so much in order to get this house but I know that it will be more than worth it once we move in!

Like I said, there's a lot of new life right now on my end and plenty more exciting things to come!

Fun night with an old friend



Nice and relaxing Saturday which ended with my old roommate from UF coming over for dinner. Plenty of video games played and beers consumed just like the good old days.

FORE! (ninety "fore" to be exact...)

(photos courtesy of Lori H)

Wow what a fun and tiring day! There are very few times I will be OK with shooting in the 90s and there are even fewer times I would devote a blog post to shooting in the 90s but this will be one of them since I was playing such an amazing course with a friend to celebrate his birthday.

I got to the course a little late because I didn't really anticipate some of the traffic that I was going to run into on the way. Once I was there I went through a quick warm up and before I knew it, it was time to get started. After a "random" tee throw I was elected to tee off first. As if pressure wasn't enough on the first tee, add that pressure to teeing off on #1 at the stadium course. Unlike the last time we played the stadium course this time we used a caddie (one for the group) which was a really cool experience. On some holes he would walk ahead and see where our shots were landing, find them etc. Once we were in play he would give us (very) accurate yardages to the hole, and once we managed to limp to the green he would read putts for us. This is a great service offered and helps pace of play while making the whole experience a lot more fun. On to the golf!

On hole #1 I managed to keep it together and hit a really solid drive and then hit the green with my approach and made a two putt par. That was definitely the start I had in mind but knew that there were 17 very challenging holes ahead. I had three goals for the day: 1. have fun 2. break 90 and 3. make par on 16, 17, and 18. The course was in pretty good shape but they had recently verticut the fairways so there were some lines and sand in the fairways and on the greens but it really wasn't that much of a factor. The course is still beautiful and even with a little bit of sand it's still the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course.

After my par on the first hole I kind of settled in and the course definitely began to take it's toll when I started getting bogeys on almost every hole. This really isn't that bad of a thing out there for someone like me who doesn't play that regularly and definitely not on such a hard course. We did have a few interactions with wildlife while on the front 9 with 2 different families of (hopefully non rabid) raccoons who would come out and kind of slowly walk up to you or your cart and look for food or other things. Of course they got in my cart and my new iphone was in there so I became pretty concerned. The caddie eased the tension by telling me they only eat blackberries - lol - awful.





Made a really good 2 putt par on the 9th hole after hitting a decent approach shot to a REALLY narrow green and survived the front 9 with a 44 - still on track to possibly break 90.



The back 9 didn't start off as well as the front and I hit a terrible drive into the water just off the tee and all of a sudden I was tapping in for a triple bogey. Ugh - this definitely put one of my goals in jeopardy but I managed to get it back together and make a few pars. Unfortunately the heat and fatigue became a factor for the whole group and the difficulty of the course paired with the heat started to catch up with us and our scores definitely reflected this.

Once we got to the home stretch I was definitely feeling the heat, literally since it was 90+ degrees and figuratively since I had 3 of the tougher holes on the course staring me in the face. Of course I previously set out a goal to finish even on the last 3 holes. Although it seemed pretty lofty I knew it wasn't outside of my ability even as tired as I was. Hole 16 went just as I had planned it - drive down the fairway, short iron to lay up, wedge to the green and a solid two putt. Definitely a welcome change from the last time I played 16 (hit 2 great shots then ended up in the water and limped away with a triple). It's funny, on the stadium course, if you don't play it often, all you notice once you get to the middle of the fairway on 16 is the 17th hole. It's all you can look at. It's a bunch of elements wrapped into one, a beautiful scene and visually intimidating. I may have been going about my business on 16 and managing that hole well but all I could think about and look at was 17. It's that powerful. In a sense it's kind of unfortunate because when you play this course and talk to others about it, the most prevalent question that comes up in conversation is "what did you get on 17?" I think that 17, in all of it's power takes away from the overall challenging design and beauty of the rest of the stadium course. The high scores and horror stories from tour events each year don't only come from 17, they come from the overall challenging design of an amazing course. 17 is just the cherry on top that has the potential to make or break your round.

Once you get to the tee on 17, the visual intimidation definitely increases since all you can see at that point is the green and water everywhere. We decided to tee off from all the way back since that is where they play it in the golf tournament and we wanted to get the full experience. We let Dave tee off first to add a little more pressure and he deserved to have the honors on #17 since this was his party. The caddie gave us the yardage to the pin: 145 and the wind was slightly helping right to left. The pin was in the very back corner probably no more than 10 steps from the back of the green. Dave stepped up and hit an amazing pressure filled shot and his ball hit and stayed on the back left portion of the green - once we got to the green we realized he was on the back fringe, but it was dry and set him up pretty well to make a run at par. Now it was my turn.



I was actually way more relaxed than I was the last time I took on this hole and made a really good swing. The ball looked great in the air and was tracking and for a few split seconds gave me a flashback to my one and only hole in one during a tournament as a junior golfer - the shot looked that good. Then it happened, what every golfer, pro & amateur alike dreads when playing 17, the ball disappeared behind the green and I knew it was in the water. UGH! Last time I played the hole I did not hit a good shot on 17 so it wasn't a disappointment when I saw the splash. This time I felt like and it looked like I had hit a really great shot and when it disappeared behind the green it was heartbreaking. I was definitely getting the full experience this time around. Looking back on it I did make a yardage mistake. Our caddie gave us a yardage to the pin instead of to the center of the green and I imagine I was getting caught up in the experience and just didn't pay attention but I clubbed thinking that yardage was to the center and not to the pin. So the club I hit was going to ideally hit the ball 5 yards farther than the yardage given. If I would have heard the yardage correctly or paid attention, I would have taken one less club and I imagine the result would have been different. Oh well. After the rest of the group teed off and a few pictures were taken it was off to the drop area to take another shot at the 17th hole.



Once we got to the drop area I was given the yardage and honestly the shot from the drop area is almost as intimidating as the initial shot, just shorter, but this takes even more touch to hit the right shot. Unfortunately I was still a little amped up and flew the green again - that makes 2 balls in the water. After dropping another ball I hit a decent shot to the left of the pin and was walking across the bridge with a 15 footer for triple. Ugh. Dave made 2 putts and left with his par! I couldn't have been happier for him during his birthday celebration, even during my own golfing agony on the hole. I hit a great putt and really thought I was going to at least leave happy with a made putt but it just wasn't meant to be and it lipped out leaving me a tap in for 7. Looks like 2 of my 3 goals went out the window on one hole. Crazy thing is, I was still having a great time on a beautiful course so goal #1 was still intact.

I had to forget about everything that happened on 17 and move on to 18 so I could enjoy the last hole of the day. 18 is a pretty visually intimidating hole as well with water running along the entire left side of the hole with the clubhouse in the background behind the green. I was still pretty fired up and hit a huge drive that started over the middle of the fairway and was drawing toward the left side of the fairway and was LONG - probably 300+ yards. I'm loving my new driver! I hit a pretty decent approach shot, just over the pin again and was about 20 feet past the hole on a pretty large ridge. I had my work cut out for me for a two putt with at least a 3 foot left to right break. Hit a great putt and left myself no more than 2 feet for par - made it and that was the end of my day. I was tired but had a great time and was oh so close to achieving one of my goals of parring the last 3 holes but hey, 2 out of 3 isn't all that bad. All in all I had a great day and the course was beautiful. I am already looking forward to my next shot at playing the stadium course

Returning to Sawgrass



It's been quite a long layoff and there's really no excuse for this since I'm not working and have plenty of spare time. Anyway, my goal is to make all of this change starting right now. My new goal is to make at least a one sentence post each day. Lots going on in my life and most is just great stuff and I can't wait to post about it all soon.

Tomorrow I get to release a little stress by playing one of the best kept and most difficult courses in the state of Florida and probably the US - the TPC Sawgrass Stadium course. I had the amazing opportunity to play with my dad, a former professor, and his son in December after graduating from law school and it was an amazing experience. I knew then I wanted to make it back before leaving Jacksonville and tomorrow will be my chance. Hopefully I will have fun and play better than last time - less stress in my life and new clubs - no excuses! I will post an update on the results tomorrow.