Master’s Practice Round Tickets

It is really tough to get tickets to the actual tournament unless you know somebody with an in or want to spend big bucks on scalped tickets. When Donna and I moved down here practice rounds were sold on the day of in unlimited amounts. We are not golfers, but not going to Augusta National when you have a chance would be like living in Indianapolis and not attend the 500. We went for the first 3 years on Monday because it was always the least attended day. After the third year the crowds were getting so big that they decided to limit the practice round tickets to a certain number (they’ve kept that a secret) by having a ticket lottery. For the next 3 years we got tickets, but for the last 7 we have been shut out. A lot of other locals that used to go regularly have also not gotten tickets in a while. There is a lot of speculation that out-of-town applications get special treatment because that way more money is pumped into the local economy. There have even urban legend type talk of people putting their out-of-town relatives addresses on the applications and they have gotten selected for tickets.

The reason I’m ranting about this April event now, is that in today’s mail, I got my application to get in the practice round ticket lottery. I am seriously considering putting my Mom’s Connecticut address on there to test the theory. It is not that I’m really desperate to get in and see the golfers or the course again, but I need a new hat. My hat from 7 years ago is getting disgusting looking. I’ve checked eBay and can’t find the right one – just the word Masters in script with no flag or year.

Missed Me

Went I came up back up front to my office this afternoon I was met by a friend who said, “You better go put your top up. Russ already did.” (Russ is the other Miata owner where I work) I went to my desk and fired up the Weather Channel’s radar and after watching the radar loop for a bit almost decided not to go out. But something told me to go ahead and do it, just in case. Good thing I did, about 5 minutes after I did, it rained big time. Too much for the cockpit cover to have held back.

While rummaging around in a draw looking for something, I stumbled onto some Miata logos in blue reflective tape I had hand cut out a few years back. I already have some on my car, so if you would like these (two 7″ and one 4-1/2″ long) let me know and I’ll mail them to you.

Purchased Today: diddly
Money spent since 03/03/03: $609.22
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 112

Tires Arrive Alive

My new tires are HERE! They will probably get mounted on Friday. That is the day we have a half-day off because of working 9-hour days Monday through Thursday.

Purchased Today: nothing
Money spent since 03/03/03: $609.22
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 110

Movies, Movies, Movies

Last night we made it 45 minutes into Welcome to Collinwood before turning it off. This morning we only got to the 30 minute mark of All or Nothing. This got me to thinking just how many of the movies I’ve picked from Netflix have we not finished watching. Because I’m that sort of anal retentive person I have a spreadsheet that keeps track of every movie I’ve rented and how long I kept it before watching it and how many movies we average watching in a month. I went back and ran through the list and added another column for the DNF (Did Not Finish) marking. I had to look up some of them so I could remember them, but I think I got a pretty accurate count. Turns out it is pretty damn close to 20% of the movies rented were not watched all the way through.

Here is the data:
1081 Total Days Member
236 Total Movies Watched
47 Movies Not Finished
19.9% Percentage Of Movies Not Finished
6.5 Average Movies Watched Per Month
$3.23 Cost per Rental
18 Average Days Out

Blue Sky

Had a real nice turnout for our Meet and Greet with the writers from the German Miata Magazine, Blue Sky, with dozen cars and about 18 people. We hung out and chatted while Eberhard took photos of the cars. Afterwards most all drove into Augusta to eat pizza at the Pizza Joint. On our way back to our cars Rudy said too bad we didn’t take them to the Blue Sky Kitchen a few blocks back. The only thing that salvaged us from this major missed opportunity is that after checking the web page Blue Sky Kitchen isn’t open on Sundays.

Purchased Today: nada
Money spent since 03/03/03: $609.22
Started up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 110

One Man’s Trash Is Still Trash

This morning was Adopt-A-Highway trash pick-up day with the Aiken Bicycle Club. we got about half of 3 block area picked up when the rain started.. No problem as we brought an umbrella because of the weather. I held the umbrella and bag and Donna picked up the bits of stuff on the median. There were 4 others helping us out and 6 people is just fine for our little stretch. Best piece of trash today was a tie, 2 different plastic hub cap/wheel covers from 2 different cars.

Purchased Today: $zero
Money spent since 03/03/03: $609.22
Started up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 109

Hail To The Chief

Nobody else wanted it, so I’m going to do it again, President of the Master’s Miata Club. Elections were tonight and I won the election unanimously, of course, the fact that I was unopposed may have had something to do with it too.

Track my new tires – expected delivery is next Tuesday.

Purchased Today: $13.75 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $609.22
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 108