Got it.

I finally got it to upload my picture of the 17th. This shot is from just behind the tee. Looks a lot farther (or is it further?) than 140 yards. It doesn't look quite as scary in person. It was exciting sitting around this hole during Sunday's final round. I sat right on the rope on the 16th fairway, pin-high with the 17th so I could see the action at both holes. I was there for about 2 hours and saw a few balls find the drink, most notably Ernie Els who took a five while his playing partner, Rick Beem, took a 6. I sat at 16 after seeing Tiger for a hole then following John Daly around for 4 holes. His swing is even more amazing in person. After my time at 16/17 I went over to one of my personal favorites, 11. I watched the last four groups come through there, including Ames birdie that put him 4 up. From that point I jumped back and forth between Sergio and Weir and the last group. I saw Ames almost hole out on 13 and heard him make another birdie on 15. I hit the road when the leaders were on the fairway on 16. The massive (drunken) crowd peaked on 16/17 when Tiger and Ernie came through about an hour before the leaders. It is something every golf fan should see in person. It was a great time, but a little chilly with a strong northeast wind. It may be worth a trip back here in the future to watch the tournament when it moves to May.

Work is going well. We now have about 13 homes either finished or under construction at McNair Park Villas. I don't recall if I explained McNair but it is a joint project with the city where we are building 94 new single family homes on the site of an old public housing project. It is great to be able to go out to the same location every day and not even have to think about any bad element on the site. The whole complex is fenced in with only three gates for workers to get in or out. I bring my lunch almost everyday now and just sit under a tree and eat my lunch then read a magazine. Very relaxing. There's been lots of sun this whole winter and I think I've reach maximum darkness for the tan on my arms and neck. However, most of the rest of my body is white as a ghost. When I look in the mirror before getting in the shower it looks like I still have my undershirt on.

T-Bag and Kart-hole are flying in on Friday night for a weekend of golf. The weather is suppose to be nice so it should be a great time. I hope that I can win some money off them because money can be tight for a lowly Americorps man. Maybe we can even sneak some poker in between rounds.

We got approval for our community developement project, which is to fix up the local Boys and Girls club. So, tomorrow we are going to check out the old putt-putt course and figure out what we are going to need to get it looking nice.

That's all for now. Happy Spring to all of you Northerners.

TPC

Just thougt I would share some pictures from the TPC practice round on Monday. Evidently most players don't bother to show up for a practice round on Monday. There were only about a dozen guys on the course when we got there and maybe 25 when we left. But we got pictures of the legendary course which is really what I was there for. Just as I remembered it from PGA Tour Golf on the old Sega Genesis. We did follow Jim Furyk around for a few holes on the front nine and watch a couple dudes knock it stiff on the famous 17th island hole. The low point of the day was getting bit on the toe by another fire ant, which I didn't notice until about 4 a.m. the next morning and I woke up with my foot itching like crazy and feeling like it was on fire. It's still a little swollen but not too bad. I'm back to Ponte Vedra for the final round on Sunday. Should be fun. Take it easy.

Sorry there is only one picture but something is wrong with the website and it won't allow me to uploand any more pictures. I'll try to put the island hole on here soon.

Back from vacation.

I'm back after a short vacation down to southern Florida on the Gulf coast. It was a good trip. Weather was perfect, 80 and sunny everyday. The folk's condo on Lemon Bay was nice with great views. They already booked two weeks for next year. We saw dolphins several times in the bay. I played golf a couple times down there. The Tigers lost the spring training game we went to. I even got to drive the boat for a couple hours up the intercoastal waterway. On the way home I stopped at the Kennedy Space Center to see the things I missed on the first trip. Then it was back to siding the last two days.

Kristen and I have been volunteering two days a week lately at the local Boys and Girls Club. There is a 5 year old named Anthony Jones there who is in love with me. He draws me pictures to take home and put on the fridge. He's pretty hyper. From the time I walk in the door 'til the time I leave he is by my side telling me all sorts of half-coherent stories. I don't think he gets a lot of attention at home. His brother and sister also go to the club. Kristen and I run the gameroom when we are there, which pretty much requires us to play pool and fuseball with the kids. We have up to 30 kids running around screaming at the same time. We try to organize tournaments but it doesn't usually work. We did get a kickball game going last time but we were down to about 5 kids on each side after a half hour. It's fun to go play with the kids but 2 hours twice a week is enough for me. Pretty soon we are going to start our community service program which will have us fixing things up around the club with the kids. Ryan, Brian, and I are going to rebuild their 9-hole mini-golf course. It's going to be a big project but it should be fun and rewarding. I'll take pictures to show everyone.

I'm getting my ass whipped in the NCAA tournament bracket. Only 19 wins in the first round. I remember winning 26 or 27 in the first round back in high school. I still have my final four all alive. I picked Florida to go all the way. Gotta go for the home team.

Just finished watching "The Bridge on the River Kwai." It was quite good and I would recommend it. It is long though so you might want to spread it over a couple nights.

The TPC is going on starting on Monday and I'll be there. I have tickets to the Monday practice round and Sunday final round. Should be great. However, FedEx left the tickets on my porch, and like my ink cartridges delivered by DHL, were promptly stolen. So somehow I need to get a hold of the ticket office between now and Monday morning to figure out how to get new tickets.

Hope everyone is doing well and looking forward to Spring's arrival. (Spring started here about a month ago.) Take care.

-JJ

Sunny Days.

I can't even remember when we had our last cloudy day here. It's been like early summer up north here for the past couple weeks. The folks just headed out of town yesterday after a nice weekend here. We visited Jax Beach and St. Augustine on Sunday. On Monday we road the Skyway around town, played some golf, and had dinner at the dog track. I shot a solid 87 at the course we played in Orange Park, but my driving is still erratic at best. We pooled our money at the dog track and bet 3 dog quinella boxes every race. We won two races and netted $10 on the night. My picking ability was particularly stellar that night. Through the first 7 races I had picked the winner 5 times. I thought that was pretty remarkable but the folks didn't seem too impressed. Or maybe they just didn't like me pointing it out every 5 minutes. That makes 3 trips to the track since I've been here and I'm yet to come away a loser. But give me time.

Work is good. I've been doing a lot of blue board, window and door installation, and siding. We are using hardy board siding now instead of vinyl which is much more labor intensive and less volunteer friendly. I used to be able to vinyl side a house in a day with a decent size group but it is taking us almost 3 days to side a house with hardy board. This week started the first of three weeks of "Collegiate Challenge." CC just means that a group of kids from one college will be here volunteering with us for a whole week. This week's group is from Penn State. I think all the girls got sunburned (or is it sunburnt?) the first day and now look pretty ridiculous. They are a good, hard working group. Today I worked with some back office operations people from Merrill Lynch. It was funny because it turns out that some of them work in variable annuities and have to deal with SEC exams sometimes. Also, last Saturday I met a regular volunteer who runs his own investment adviser out of his house with his wife. He said he has $71 million under management so he must be doing pretty well. I picked his brain for quite a while for some pointers on starting up my own adviser. I'll probably see him a few more times before I'm finished here. Speaking of investment advice, my last two stock picks (TLCV and OPMR) have been doing pretty well.

In other news, I received confirmation that two more friends will be making the trip down here at the end of March for a big golf weekend. I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully I'll bring my A-game. Time is running out for others to come for a visit. I'm happy to have you stay here as long as you remember to set the alarm when you leave the house in the morning.

I'm out of here on Sunday and won't be returning until next Thursday so there probably won't be another post for a while. Have a nice week.