Palm Springs

Since my work deadlines were on Monday the 22nd, I decided to surprise Karen with a trip to Palm Springs on the 27th and 28th. So after spending close to a week in the house due to the fires going on around here, we finally got out of town.

It was a smooth 2 hour drive into Palm Springs. The quick way is a little 2 lane road that takes you up over the hills.


We rolled into Palm Springs and it was a nice 87 degrees out... I had booked a room at the Westin Resort and Spa at Mission Hills.


Our room was large and was awesome. We threw on our bathing suits and hung out at the pool. It felt awesome to be laying out in the sun and the fresh air was a nice change after a week of smoke.

Later in the evening we headed down the road for dinner. We went to this awesome steak house! We had a plate of Fillet Mignon wrapped in Bacon, Seared Ahi Tuna, and freash Scallops. It was ssssoooooo gooooooood! The place was called Fleming's Steakhouse, it was a little bit expensive, but it was my style of place and the food was totally worth it.

On Sunday the sun came out a little bit more and it really started to heat up. We went to go get some coffee in the morning and it was already too warm to sit directly in the sun being in street clothes. So back to the pool...


After a couple hours there, we decide to pack up and head home. The drive was a little faster than the way here so that was nice. We did come back through a fire in Temecula though. As of right now, I don't think there are any fires left. Or at least I am not hearing about any.

It's pretty sweet that we can hop in the car and in less than two hours be relaxing in Palm Springs!

Nater

Wednesday Morning Fire Update

Well the sky is much more clear this morning. Here is the current Fire Map.

It was a grey sky with orange/red sun light all day yesterday. I did get out to go to the store and here are a couple of pics:

Ash on my car, it comes down like a lite dusting of snow.

And here is the Carlsbad Evacuation Center that has opened up across El Camino Real from us, in the mall parking lot.


A shot of the grey ashy sky.


And then as the sun set it went from a red/orange to a bright pink.

Anyways the fires have been dying down today. I should be back at work tomorrow. As of right now there is something like 500,000+ people evacuated, 300,000 acres that have been burnt, and 1300 building destroyed.

Nater

Tuesday Morning Fire Update

Okay, interesting night. We stayed in the Advisory Evacuation Zone all night. This morning at 6:30 though we fell out of it as the evac zone still stays to the south and north of us. Here is the updated Fire Map:

(Red is fire, purple is mandatory evacuation, pink is advisory evacuation)

The morning is fairly strange looking, the sky is orange and there is ash lightly falling from the sky. It looks like dusk buts its 10am.


The wind was suppose to pick back up again, but it is still really calm here in Carlsbad. The San Diego Tribune has started a great blog that is keeping people posted as soon as the news arrives. You can see it here: http://sosdfireblog.blogspot.com/

I will be going out today to pick up some groceries, so if I see anything interesting I will take some shots and post them here.

Nater

Monday Night Fire Update

Well as of right now we are ok, and should stay ok. The fires are to the north and south of us. Here are a couple pics from our balcony.

South:

North:

And right now we barely fall in the Advisory Evacuation Area, but we feel really safe since the fires are still miles from us. Here is the current map:


But if we do become a mandatory evacuation area, we will have to go. So if we do have to evac we will head for Emmy's, in LA, most likely... But unless the winds pick up and change direction, I just don't see that happening.

Nater

A Fire Pic From Home

Here is the view from my back balcony.

New Fire Evacuation Area:

The wind is blowing due West still, so as long as the wind keeps blowing that way we should be fine.

More Fire Pics

Fires

Here are some pics on my way into work. Its hard to see but that is smoke in the distance.



More to come later...

Cool Video of Blue Angel

This video is just awesome...

Nater

Satchel Loves San Diego Too

Nate Bynum the Newscaster

A fellow ex-coworker of mine has gone on to the big time and is now a newscaster for NBC5 in southern Oregon. His brother Elliot has posted a few clips on YouTube. Here you go:

His First News Cast:



Nate Interviews the Easter Bunny:



A story on Deer Creek:



Way to go Nate. Can't wait to see you on ESPN...

Nater

Industry Cup Champions

Well my Top-Flite team didn't win, but the Callaway Team won. And that is all that mattered! We won by 4 strokes over Taylor Made and a handful over Titleist.

We played 27 holes and it was a lot of fun. You never really get a chance to mix up the game of golf like this, and we made the most of it. I was hitting the ball beautifully, but putting terribly. Much like my P.A.T... I only missed 1 fairway in 27 holes, that is awesome for me with driver. And when I am putting driver in play like that I can usually go really low.

My parter on the other hand was struggling all day. He came through on a couple of holes for the team though. As for score... Let's just say we had the most fun...

I will definetly be back next year. And maybe during the qualifier I can play my own ball and get onto the Callaway team. We are having a celebration dinner next Tuesday, hope there is some free swag!

Nater

Go Team Top-Flite

Well I qualified for the Industry Cup, which was my goal, but I really wanted to be on the A-Squad, the Callaway Team. And I screwed that all up with 1 swing...

All day long we were looking for my playing partners balls in the trees. We were even looking for their balls on par 3's! Then on the back side the marshall came by telling us we were holding up the course. Wasn't me. I could find my ball... Anyways, after looking for 2 balls on 16 for like 5 minutes, I just marched up to where my ball and another's were, and hit my shot up to 5 feet. Looks like another birdie.

I then walked up next to the green and waited another 5 minutes for the other guys to play up. While I was waiting, the guy whose ball was next to mine in the fairway called up to me and said I had hit his ball. SHIT!

So I walked back up the fairway took my drop and proceeded to make a bogey, plus the 2 shot penalty for hitting the wrong ball. That gives me a big fat 7 instead of the potential 3 I could have made... Oh well.

I ended up shooting 79. which put me right on the border between the Odyssey and Top-Flite teams. And since no one really knows me, I got placed on the Top-Flite team. Thats ok, I will just have to go really low in the event so that they will remember next year!

The format looks like fun. We play 27 holes: 9 holes of Scramble, 9 holes of Best Ball, and 9 holes of Chapman. I am paired up with Tim who is also on the R&D team so it should be fun. I hope we play well enough to bring home the cup. That would be really cool. But I am sure those Taylor Made guys are going to be tough!

Nater

Nate Update

We have finally got somewhat settled into our new place. It's real nice! Its quiet here, which is amazing, we can actually sleep with the windows open now. We have tons of storage now, at the last place we didn't even have a linen closet. The garage is nice, we have easy access to the bikes, and we have some room to keep some things down there.

Some of you know but we bought a new tv...! It's awesome! We have wanted one for a while and it was kind of a treat to ourselves. We don't do that very often, so it was nice to do. As usual I found one for a great deal. We ended up getting a Hitachi 42" 1080i Plasma. And now that we have an HDTV feed, watching television rocks. Golf, football, everything looks awesome. I can't wait to get a Playstation 3 to play on this bad boy...

As I have mentioned before, I have my Industry Cup qualifier on Sunday. I have played 1 round of golf in the last 2.5 months. So it should be interesting. We have the 45 best players in the company, and being a golf company there are a ton of good players, going at it for 25 spots. We have 3 teams, Callaway, Odyssey, and Top-Flite. I really want to be on the Callaway (the top tier) squad. We'll see what I can do. I have to tee it at 7am. And you all know how well I function at 7am...

Nater

Finally Got My Driver

So after waiting for 5 months for the Driver heads to become available, I finally got my new driver. It's an FT-5 Tour 10.5 Neutral, and it came straight from the Tour department just like the rest of them. Here is my new beauty:


And as always I have a trusty Fujikura Speeder 553 Tour Spec as an engine in it.


So my set is finally complete. And I have the Industry Cup qualifier in 2 weeks. The Industry Cup is a Ryder Cup type event between Callaway Golf and Taylor Made Golf. I hope to qualify because I really want to play in this event. It looks like a ton of fun!

Nater

San Diego's Sweet Cars

So in the last 2-3 weeks I have seen 3 sweet Ferrari's and a Lamborghini Murchialago. All of them looked really sweeeeeet!


And on another note, Philly Mick's ride is a really sweet Mercedes.

Nater

For Fantasy League Only (Sorry for the Descrimination, but this is important stuff...)

Here are the polls that you guys need to take. This will iron out the details of the league.

When would you like the Online Draft to be?
	Sunday Aug 26 (8:45pm)
	Monday Aug 27
	Sunday Sep 3 (7:45pm)
pollcode.com free polls

(times are first come first serve, so there is
a possibility that these times (9/3) might not be available come Wed night)

Do You Want to Make This a Money League, $5 per player?
	No thanks. I am a wuss.
	Sure. $25 for 1st, $15 for 2nd, $10 for 3rd.
	Ya. $30 for 1st, $15 for 2nd, $5 for 3rd.
	You Betchya. $35 for 1st, $15 for 2nd.
	Hell Ya. I am going to kick all your asses. Winner take all!

Nater

Barry Ties History

A few weeks ago my work offered a free Padres ticket and extras for $6. I thought it would be a fun night on the town so I got one for myself and Karen. Well as the game approached Barry Bonds got closer and closer to tying Hank Aaron's all-time home-run record. On Saturday night he was 1 shy of tying the record and he was playing the Padres...

I was excited that we had tickets, so did almost 43,000 people (sold-out). As we were heading to our seats we stopped just beyond right field, just in case, cause Barry was up next. He didn't get up in the first, so we headed to our seats. Next inning he lead-off, and everyone was booing! It was amazing to hear.


But as the pitch was delivered everyone was taking photos, flashes were going off everywhere. And when he made contact and everyone saw it go for the fence, they all stood up, and cheered in excitement. We were jumping up-and-down. It was awesome! People went from booing him to cheering.


We had seen Barry make history. He was tied for 1st on the all-time home-run list.

Heres some video of him trying for the record later that night. People were booing, taking pictures, and cheering him on at the same time.



And the idiot threw the ball back on the field... And me with only a cell-phone camera...

NATER

Our New Home

Well we don't feel like we are in the right place to buy a home just yet. Plus we feel that the market will only get better in the next year. So, we finally decided to go put a deposit down on our new apartment.

They are really nice! And we are really excited to be moving there. They are a little expensive though... Oh well. And they are about half the distance to work as we are now, which will totally rock. Since the second half of our drive right now is what takes so long.

Anyways they are called Marbella Apartments. And they are located here.

Nater

My Callaway Sticks

I have been waiting to get my Driver before I posted these pics. But I want to show everyone what I am playing, so here they are...

Driver (not mine, it is a loaner): FT-5 Tour 9.5 Graphite Design YS-7



3+ Wood: X-Tour 13deg w/Fujikura Speeder 652

4 Wood: X-Fairway 17deg w/Fujikura Speeder 652



Hybrid: FT 3h 20deg w/Fujikura Speeder 904HB



My boss Paul and the guys over at Fujikura hooked me up with my favorite shafts for all of my woods, Fujikura Speeder Tours. At $300 a pop it was a very nice gift... Thank You!



Irons: X-Tour 3-5, X-Forged 6-PW w/Rifle Project-X



Wedges: X-Tour Black 54 and 58deg w/Mack Daddy grooves
(they rip the covers off the balls, its awesome)



Putter: A buddy in Odyssey hooked me up with a Tour Prototype of the current Black Series. Never thought I would go away from my Ping, but it was easy going to this!


So here is my complete bag, look at me rock the old-school Pom-Pom headcovers...

NATER

Interesting Morning....

On my way to work this morning there was a plane crash at Palomar Airport.

It knocked out the power to the local area, including our buildings. So we had to stand out in the parking lot for 2.5 hours this morning, because of safety issues. I guess no one survived the crash...


NATER

You Know You're Getting Old When...

When you like Paul McCartney...

I kind of like his new song, where he is playing the mandolin and whistling. Kind of catchy.

NATER

1 Year Ago

So I was sitting there today and I realized that 1 year ago today I graduated from college. It doesn't seem like long ago but a ton has happened since then. I spent a summer traveling around to different golf courses, I spent some time in Europe, I accepted an engineering job at the largest golf company in the world, and I moved to the San Diego area.

What a crazy year. I never thought I would finish school, and now I have a dream job and live in a place that is 4 miles from the beach and could possibly have the best climate in the world.

(insert cheezy line)

What will the next year bring...

NATER

Karen Got a Job!

So Karen finally got an offer for a job. She Had an interview on last Thursday, then was offered the job on Friday. She works for Orval Kent, a food processing company. She is the Assistant HR Rep for them. The HR Director doesn't speak any Spanish, but almost all their employees do. So her Spanish will come in really handy.

They are they only 2 people that work in HR in a company of almost 300, and the HR Director is really unorganized. Thus she will be really hands on and will learn tons, plus she will have her hands in totally organizing that place.

Nater

Long Update

Sorry its been a while since my last post. I have been really busy at work and at home. We finally got almost all of our tools up and running at work, so we are able to produce balls and get them tested. So its like a big wave of work just came at us. I recorded a bit on the Callaway Golf Balls from the History Channels Modern Marvels that shows some of the things I do at work. I will try to post it.

On the home front, Megan and Chad were down last weekend and we had a ton of fun. We went wine tasting out in the Temecula Valley and we hung out at the beach. On Friday Karen took them to the San Diego Zoo and on Monday to DISNEYLAND! Totally wanted to go there, but I have to save my time off to come up to P-Town...

I got my contacts in, they make me look really creepy. But they are the coolest thing ever! Not only can I see super clear, they enhance everything cause they are tinted. The red ones make it look like I am wearing amber sunglasses, and the green ones just make the color green POP. Its like seeing things in high-def, I can make out blades of grass at a distance. It rocks. Can't wait to go golfing in these...

NATER

My New Eyes

So I went to the Eye Doctor this weekend. I wanted to get some new glasses, since my old ones didn't work very well. And I have been interested in these Nike Golf Contact Lenses. I have never worn contacts before, hell I never wore glasses until 3 years ago (man I am getting old), so learning how to put them in and take them out was tough. It took me about 45 minutes and 30 tries to successfully take them out and put them back in...

Anyways here are the glasses that I am getting:

And here are what the contacts look like:


I am so EXCITED to be able to play golf and see the ball fly again. Its been a few years since I have been able to do that. Should improve my game a little...

NATER

"Found" Pictures

So I have a few pics that I found that I hadn't scanned into the computer yet. So here they are.


This one is when my brothers and I spent a week up in Estecada and just camped and water skied.


And this is from my road trip with my brother Dave down to Northern Arizona University. We stopped at the Grand Canyon on the way back for an awesome bike ride that rand 15 miles right along the rim. Now that I am only 7 hours from there, I might have to go do this ride again!

Nater

My Dumb Luck

I went out this afternoon to change the license plates on Karen's and My cars. Mine went fairly simple. And the rear plate on Karen's car went really well too. It's no big deal. It's just 2 screws...

Well the screws on Karen's front license plate were just spinning and not unscrewing. Now a lot of plates are just screwed into the bumper, this was not the case with her car. It had a rubber grommet in the bumper to hold it on.

Well the only way to get to the grommet is to take the bumper completely off the car...




And here is the beast itself. Looks like the screws were rusted to the inside of the grommet. I WON!


Anyways it took me 2 hours to do a ten minute job. Gotta love that.

NATER

Cell Shot Sunday

Here are some random pictures that I have taken from my phone in the past couple weeks.

At the airport waiting in the security line that stretched all the way into the parking garage.

Saw this truck driving down to San Diego, think he needs more stickers...


And finally a shot of a truck that was twice as tall as our car. I looked out the window at this guys bumper.


NATER

We're Landlords!

Well if you don't read Karen's Blog we finally got someone to lease our townhome in Hillsboro! The signed a 1 year lease. This is great since Karen is having some troubles finding a job, and my pay was just barely paying all of the bills. But now that we are landlords, this should free us up quite a bit, and make us much less stressed out.

Oh and sorry for the total lack of pictures lately on my blog. Cause I know I am not the best of writers, so i can't be that interesting to read. But I know I am a much better photographer... (Or at least I think so)

Nater

More Tax Fun

I finally got my taxes done on Tuesday, thats right, the day they were due. I have always been done early but this year sucked.

Little note to everyone, NEVER go into HR Block. They are utterly useless! It cost me $300 to get my taxes "done". Which basically consisted of someone typing in numbers. Which I wouldn't mind if they knew what was going on... There were many times where they would ask me a question that was on their screen and I would say, "Not sure, what should I look for?" And I got a response back like, "Not sure what do you think?"

I could have received the same help from their software that is $25, instead I decided to pay someone to type numbers in for me...

I am angry about this! You would think that going in would provide more help than just using the software, so I am going to write a long email to them with a serious complaint. Because I am scared I will get audited now... I caught them 3 times in mistakes, had to mention it to them, then they would fix it. So since I was doing their work do I get a discount?

Nater

Tax Fun

Since I was an Independent Contractor last year, there was no way I was going to be able to do my own taxes. So I went to HR Block. I spent 1.5 hours there with this nice old lady, we went through all my receipts, all my school info, all my FlexCar info...

And when we get done she looks at me and says I am going to owe about $2300 in Federal Taxes! Heard that and threw up a little. I found out that when you are self employed there is a flat 15.3% Self Employment Tax, no matter how much you make. This is added onto your general tax. So even though I only made like $18k and my taxable income is only $11k, my Federal and State taxes come out to almost 30%!

OUCH

And then last night I got a phone call from HR Block Customer Service. They called saying they wanted to ask me about my experience. Their only question was, "Do I have any concerns?"

I thought to myself, "Should I? That's why I went to you...."

So now I am a little scared.

NATER

Zoom Zoom Zoom

So I found a great deal on a car. It's a 2004 Mazda3 Hatchback, only has 9400 miles, and the guy only wants $14k for it. I ran a CarFax on it, and it was clean, so I went to the bank to get the loan. I do all my banking at Wells Fargo since that is where my school loans, checking accounts, and credit card are. So naturally I got my Auto Loan through them. Well I finished up my paperwork on Saturday and they deposited it into my account that day so I could take out a Cashier's Check if I wanted to.

We drove up to Riverside (about an hour). Looked at and test drove the car. And after driving and seeing it, we decided that we would buy it. So I told the guy I needed to go to the bank to get a Cashier's Check. We went to a branch that was open on Sunday's, and tried to take out the money. I was denied! I was told that since the deposit was a check, they would have to wait 1 business day to clear.... Now think about this, it's a check from Wells Fargo, deposited in Wells Fargo... Why is there a wait period to clear???

Anyways, we weren't able to get the money, so we will have to go buy the car on Tuesday evening. I was so pissed off, cause now we have to drive up again... Here is a pick of the car, click on it to go to the AutoTrader website to see it.

NATER