Championship darts, baby! Blue Bulls versus Guzzlers at Gecko’s.
I did about an hour of practice yesterday, mostly working on my ’01 double outs. We will soon see if it pays off.
Win or lose, look for the full report here.
Wish us luck!
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This one’s for you mom. Hope you have a great day.
I’ll call you later today…
Commenter Frank passed along this video. Enjoy!
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Here it is already Sunday afternoon. Damn, I hate when that happens.
I guess it’s the good weekend that always goes the quickest. Had some nice darts Friday night at Dolce Vita. In a warmup game against Dave New I pulled off a 15 dart ’01 game: Ton/Ton/95/60 and a Ton-46 out. That’s not likely to happen again for me in this lifetime, and it would only have been sweeter had it occurred during competition. Ah well. Had a good night in the tourney as well, taking a second and a first. I’m hoping to carry those darts forward for tomorrow’s championship match.
Last night was also a good time. Out with friends for some drinks, Korean dinner, and norebang. Topped it all off with a visit to Grand Ole Opry for some country music and a little dancing. Arrived in time for the Opry midnight traditional trifecta of Proud to be an American, The Star Spangled Banner, and Sweet Home Alabama. This always gets the mostly American crowd up on their feet and singing. They followed up with Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue by Toby Keith. Hey, I’m not ashamed to admit I eat that shit up. Check out the link–if that don’t make you feel good I don’t know what to say to ya except get that boot out of your ass.
The only bummer was hearing that Dolce owner YJ is in the hospital. I’m going to try and get by for a visit later today.
That’s the story from here folks where life is always a thrill a minute.
Two fine films last night.
Next, starring Nicolas Cage and Julianne Moore. Cage’s character can see two minutes into the future and he makes a living as a second tier magician and blackjack player in Las Vegas. He gets noticed by the FBI who “enlist” his help in preventing a smuggled nuclear weapon from being detonated in Los Angeles harbor. Admittedly the whole time travel/seeing into the future genre appeals to me and this film (very loosely based on a Philip Dick short story) was pretty well done. Nice little cameo appearence by Cage’s Korean bride as well. It holds the attention well, but for me the ending was a big disappointment. Still, for entertainment value I’m giving it a 4/5 rating. You can read what Wiki has to say here.
Stardust is a nice little fantasy/fairy tale/romance/action film with a great overall job from an ensemble cast, including a hilarious Robert DeNiro as a gay pirate and Michelle Pfeiffer as a wicked witch. Again, entertaining and fun to watch, with some laughs along the way. A solid 4 in my book.
As I’ve mentioned before, since moving to Korea in 2005 I’m pretty much out of touch with popular culture in America. Both of these movies came out in 2007 and I had heard nothing about either. The nice thing about my Netflix subscription is I can read a little blurb and at least gain a little idea about what I’m renting.
Next up in my Netflix queue is The Civilization of Maxwell Bright, an independent film highly recommended by Dennis, a frequent commenter here at LTG.
And yes, I know my reviews suck, that’s why I provide the Wiki links. But at least it gives me something to post, right?
Tonight’s movie was a 2005 film called, you guessed it, Rumor Has It.
This was a pretty good watch and if I had to describe it, I’d say it was like watching a sequel to The Graduate. 30 years after. Some pretty funny moments to be sure, like when Anniston’s character believes she has slept with her father. No worries, it wasn’t really sick or twisted, just some bizarre circumstances. I can’t really say more without giving away spoilers (er, can you spoil a film that’s four years old?).
Jennifer Anniston stars with strong support from Shirley MacLaine and Kevin Costner. 4 out of 5 for me.
May 5th is a national holiday in Korea in honor of children. It also happens to be the birthday of my sweet granddaughter Gracyn.
My little angel is 4 years old today. Smart and beautiful and a pure joy to be around. Also quite the dynamo. She will have a new baby brother any day now and I’m sure that will be a treat as well.
Happy Birthday to you Gracyn!
Well, I was a little blitzed last night from the after victory celebrations so I was in no condition to go much into the play by play. In fact, in the 3 lines I did post I corrected 3 typos this morning.
Anyway, Eberhardt is an outstanding team with a strong lineup top to bottom, including the top ranked player in “A” division, Dennis Galiza. We only had the minimum four players available, but we stacked up well and we were feeling confident. As I mentioned, Eberhardt finished first in the league, although there was some controversy surrounding that. We had to postpone our week two match against them and despite our best efforts we could not get Eberhardt to agree to a suitable time for a make-up match. Now, I’m not ascribing any bad intent on their part (I know at least one of their guys reads this blog, so I want to be clear on that), but still we were pretty frustrated that we had to take a forfeit. The forfeit gave Eberhardt 28 legs (and us a -9) which put them in first. Guzzlers, the second place team and our opponent in next weeks championship match, was understandably unhappy with this turn of events. Now, Eberhardt spanked us pretty good in our only regular season face-off, whether they would have taken enough legs had we made up our match to take first anyway will never be known.
So that was the backdrop going into last night’s meeting. We got off to a good start in singles ’01 with Scott and Seung Youb both going 2-1. I drew Dennis in singles cricket and I knew I had my work cut out for me as he has had an amazing season. Frankly, my goal was to get at least one leg from their best player. I actually threw some of my best darts of the season against Dennis. But it seemed like for every six mark I threw (and I threw several) Dennis would answer with a 7 mark. It was a frustrating experience to be sure and I went down 0-3. Fortunately, my teammate Ali picked me up by going 3-0 against his opponent.
Youb and Dennis had another amazing match in singles mix (both throwing ton 80s, something I had never seen in the same leg), and Youb prevailed 2-1. I took Lucky down 2-1 in our singles mix, and Scott and Ali both did well too. Which brought us to a 15-9 lead going into the last round of doubles (19 being the magic number for victory).
Ali and I faced off against Dennis and Ron while Scott and Youb drew Greg and Lucky. We were standing at 1-1 when Scott and Youb finished their 3-0 sweep, which gave us the requisite 19 legs and the right to meet Guzzlers on Monday night.
Guzzlers whipped us in both our matches during the regular season, so we have our work cut out for us. They also have home bar advantage, and Gecko’s is a venue I don’t much care for. As this is our last year as a team (I’m moving to Rubbies and Scott and Craig are returning to Canada) we want the championship bad. Of course, wanting it the most is not enough, we’ve got to get the job done at oche.
Despite the odds, I like our chances.
We took down Eberhardt (the first place team) in the playoffs tonight. So, we are in the finals. Next week it’s the Blue Bulls versus Guzzlers from Gekcos. The league championship is on the line.
It should be a great match, Read all about it here.
Well, he’s not exactly a kid seeing as how he is even older than me!
I picked up my new employee Dennis from the airport yesterday without a hitch. Traffic was relatively light given that this is a holiday weekend and all. Made it there and back in less than an hour each way. And didn’t get lost this time. Owing mostly to my refusal to listen to my navigator (and Deputy) Corine.
There was a slight problem at the gate getting on post however. See, it is supposed to be with two IDs and a copy of your PCS (permanent change of station) orders you can access the base without being signed on/escorted. It was a no go last night however and that’s something I will address with the Provost Marshall tomorrow. Seems one of the IDs has to be DoD issued. The problem is, you can’t get a DoD ID until you have been in-processed. Which you can’t do until you get on post and the CPAC opens Monday morning. A classic military Catch-22. The work around was signing Dennis on as a guest, but that is a pain in the rear because that’s only good for 24 hours. Which means a Sunday trip to the base. Of course, I delegated that responsibility to my Deputy, but still. The other problem is you are technically required to escort the individual with the guest pass at all times. That’s not really possible in this circumstance unless I spent the night with him at Dragon Hill Lodge. I was pretty pissed about the situation last night as it was quite an embarrassment and not a good first impression of life as an Army civilian for Dennis. Ah well.
Anyway, as is my tradition I took my new arrival out on the town (read: Itaewon). I’ve found that the best way to adjust to the new zone is to stay up late that first night. This tends to get you back in the right sleeping pattern quicker. So, we started with some drinks at Dolce Vita, then headed over to Don Valley for Dennis’ introduction to Korean food. It’s kinda fun to watch and relive the experience of discovering all that Korean goodness. We did samgyapsal and bulgogi and of course Dennis loved it all.
Afterwards we hit the norebang and shared some songs. I do believe Dennis enjoyed himself. I know I did.
And so ends one more mindless post that cannot possibly hold anyone’s interest but my own. But then, that’s what this blog is all about, right?
Back home, safe and sound. No problems on the return flight, although there was an interesting twist as we deboarded. The Korean authorities took each passenger’s temperature. Which is kinda funny when you think about it. I mean, we all spent the past 14 hours breathing each others recirculated air, so I suppose if one of us had the flu, we all do now. Anyway, I’m not one to let a little pandemic get me down. Hopefully, those aren’t my famous last words.
I’ve got a few pictures to share of my darting adventures with Duke and Ji Young. I really had a good time visiting them and I sure do miss having them around here in Korea. Perhaps one day we will be reunited. They were great hosts, and even treated me and my co-worker Mr. Kim, Yong-tae do a nice Korean dinner on Sunday in Annandale, which is Northern Virginia’s Korea town. It was kinda funny because the name of the restaurant was Han Gang. So, I traveled 7000 miles to eat at the Han river. Nice place for traditional Korean barbeque by the way.
Saturday night Duke and Ji Young took me out to the Hard Times Cafe for some darts, beer, and wings. It was all good.
We had some fun chuckin’ the darts at the cork. Duke as my darts mentor must have been especially pleased that he taught me well, although, perhaps he was thinking that he taught me too well. Or as he put it, he was just takin’ it easy on the old man.
Tuesday night we played a tourney at Duke’s home bar in Manassas, Addy’s. Jim and YJ should be pleased that we dressed up in our Dolce Vita livery for the occasion.
As mentioned in an earlier post, my partner Howard and I walked away with the victory. It wasn’t a cake walk by any means (we even had to overcome a 9-mark on 15s at one point), but we did go through the winners bracket undefeated. A little bit different format than I’m used to–one leg of cricket only. Doesn’t leave much margin for error. It’s also a requirement that you chalk your darts before pulling them. A good rule to be sure, but one I’m not accustomed to following. Also, you don’t diddle in NOVA, you cork. Otherwise, it was not too different.
Everybody loves a winner!
On Saturday night, Duke’s team, aka “Mom’s Brats” won the DC area “C” division championship. They were all pretty jazzed about that.
Speaking of which, back in Itaewon during my absence the Blue Bulls took out XOX in the first round of the playoffs. I was very pleased to hear that as I felt bad about missing a key match. So, our championship dream is still alive. Next up is Eberhardt, the first place team from Scrooge Pub. Looking forward to that one as we are bearing a small grudge about their refusal to reschedule a match, resulting in a forfeit for us. Come Monday, the best team will be decided at the oche, as it should be. It will be tough as they have some great players, but I think the Bulls enjoy playing as the underdog.
That’s about it from here. I’m fixin’ to drive out to the airport in Incheon to pick up a new employee. This will be his first time in Korea, but I’m thinking if he likes it half as much as me he will be one happy camper. Even if he doesn’t like it, I’ve filled my last critical vacancy so I’m feelin’ good about it.
Peace out.