Pool League

A few months ago I started playing in a pool league. It's been fun so far and I enjoy getting together with people and having a chance to compete. The first four weeks were fairly rough... I lost my matches all four weeks. On the bright side, I've won my last eight matches in a row. It's fun to play the game even if you lose. That being said, winning is far, far better.

Tuesday night's match was my first table run ever. I broke but didn't put anything in. My opponent took a shot then missed. I ran all seven of my balls and then sank the eight. It was a truly awesome feeling (though my opponent appeared to be enjoying it a fair bit less). It was, admittedly, a bit of a fluke. I don't normally run a table but I'm looking forward to doing it more often!

Disney

A few weeks ago I spent a week at Disney World with Dave and Susan. It was during the annual Food and Wine Festival at Epcot and all three of us had a great time wandering the parks, sampling the food, diving, and more. The photo album is now online for anyone that would like to see some of what transpired...

Among the many highlights we dove the Living Seas at Epcot. The dive was in an aquarium over 200 feet in diameter with a maximum depth of 25 feet. I had a huge sea turtle swim about three inches from my head and we saw some very large sharks cruising around. One of the best parts was swimming up to the glass and playing around with the kids that were watching from the other side. There was a lot of waving and kids having fun which was very cool. One little boy seemed a bit nervous and stayed awfully darn close to his father's leg when I got close to the glass... though he did seem to warm up after a bit.

We also ate some fantastic food. The best dinners we had, in my opinion, were at the Bistro de Paris and The Bluezoo. The Bistro had a five course degustacion menu which was, to that point, the best meal I've ever had. Surprisingly enough, my new best meal was only a night later at the Bluezoo... Todd English's restaurant at Disney. Chef English presented a couple hundred diners with an amazing meal paired with wines from the Gallo winery. Gina Gallo was onhand to present the wines and she definitely brought some winners with her. I won't go into all the details but suffice it to say, if you see "bacon" on an upscale menu, you should order it. It's pork belly... not the sliced, fried stuff you get at IHOP. It might just be one of the tastiest meats I've ever had.