a golden tee moment.

sometimes dan and i play golden tee at buffalo wild wings. we played yesterday afternoon and this is my second shot on hole 5. it's a par 5. watch and be amazed...

a DOUBLE EAGLE?!? are you even kidding? man i love this game.

best thing about this round of golf: i finished the front nine holes at -9...then i shot a +8 on the back nine. pitiful, but still so great.


and yes, my player name is Wizard McGavin.

-ap.

baseball card fever.

i have baseball card fever.

in the last couple weeks i've acquired the 1982 and 1989 topps complete sets along with the trade updates and debuts from '89. i've also picked up a couple boxes of 2009 topps and upper decks, and a few other packs in hopes of some lucky jackpot acquisitions.

the fellas i've been going card shopping with - mostly tj and motown - are all into the new age cards: jerseys, autographs, spx upper decks, topps allen & ginter, etc. expensive boxes with a much greater payoff if you get lucky.

but i'm different. i'm into the classic sets - the rookie cards and team sets of the hall of famers and championship teams in the 80's and 90's. i'm old school probably, but i'm okay with that. i'm not in it for the money or the flashy collection, i'm in it for the players i love and the teams i respect.

also, from my personal perspective it seems like there's no real "collection" when you open up a pack and there's a stephen strasberg signed jersey rook card staring back at you. it's a sweet thrill and certainly an addition to a collection, but a collection - to me - is a group of cards that all go well together. so i've decided to make some short term goals for my card collection.

Goal #1: the topps rookie cards of the 1982 st. louis cardinals world series champ team.

not a crazy difficult conquest, but not an easy one by any means at all. i'll need to do my research - acquire a full team 1982 checklist roster (plus updates and debuts), determine the rookie year of every athlete on the team (for example, ozzie smith was a rookie in 1979), and then figure out how i am going to acquire each of these individuals.

i'm not sure when/if Goal #2 will surface, but for now i'm going to focus on the task at hand. wish me luck.

-ap.

ps. this is my 400th post.

my fantasy football team.

i've never played fantasy football before. i always get to about week 3 and think "ah crap, i forgot to talk to some guys and get a league together." but this year, those guys came to me. the graduated seniors from hillcrest asked me to join their league before they ditched next week for college.

the draft was tonight at buffalo wild wings (which, by the way, gives your draft group $100 free food and a draft packet with stickers of all the players' names to stick on a sweet draft board). here is the team i ended up with:

QB:
peyton manning - ind
joe flacco - bal
kerry collins - ten

RB:
brandon jacobs - nyg
joseph addai - ind
fred taylor - ne
dominic rhodes - buf

WR:
larry fitzgerald - ari
steve smith - car
lee evans - buf
santana moss - was
devon hester - chi
hakim nicks - nyg
laverneus coles - cin
robert meachem - no
antwaan randle el - was
jordy nelson - gb

TE:
kellen winslow - tb

K:
rob bironas - ten

DEF:
baltimore ravens
indianapolis colts

better hope kellen winslow stays healthy. but would you look at my tight receiver core? i even added randle el and jordy as my own feel-good picks. i can't wait til this season kicks off.

also you'll notice i have zero members from the AFC West. two reasons: 1. i can't root for the other teams that i hate and 2. my confidence in the chiefs is minimal.

i feel more than confident about my team however. i feel like rolling sixes all over these dudes. no mercy anymore fellas, you're out of high school now. you're in the real world. i'm all business and you best get out of the way.

-ap.

the exploding whale.

-ap.

hello U S and A.

so its been 1 month and 1 day since john buck turned 29. its no coincidence that is the date of my last blog post. call me lame, a slacker, uncommitted, whatever. i'll take it all, gladly accept it, and consider this my return to blogging.

in the last 6 weeks i've been to denver, buena vista, knoxville, eureka springs, cedar rapids, madrid nerja and granada...with layovers in paris, atlanta and detroit. also i've spent a bit of time in kansas city, not that anyone would know that. my own roommate hasn't seen me for half an hour in that time frame. in the next 4 months i have relatively no plans to leave my city. so you can also consider this my homecoming.

i've finished reading zero books and have digested zero albums in that span too. relatively pathetic. i've made some serious headway on the devil's cup though. it's a narrative about coffee, or a 'history of the world according to coffee'...where it came from, why it came from and what that means to the world. this guy goes on a pilgrimage following coffee's past - starting in ethiopia and yemen (where coffee originated). its amazing to me. probably wouldn't entice many of you. but for those of you who give a rip about the elaborate cup of dirty caffeinated water you drink each morning...you might find it interesting at least. he talks so much about the importance that each cup has to the area and how it was created. makes me sad that american coffee equals burnt corporate starbucks coffee when the rest of the world has such interesting regional cups. oh well.

oh and i almost got stuck with the gypsys in spain. you can read about that adventure here. and you can learn more about gypsys here.

also, if you're ever having a crummy day, or if you have a long drive through the middle of the night, put on some huey lewis and the news, it'll cheer you right up.

-ap.

happy john buck day.

happy #29 to johnny b.

the royals are expected to get him back in the line up for his big day. probably a good decision seeing that he has a history of late inning heroics on his birthday.

so here's to you, mr. incredible. may your day be filled with much joy and playing time.

-ap.

EDIT: buck didn't play. consequently, the royals lost on his birthday for the first time in 4 years.

july 09: road trip.

i'm currently sitting alone at scooters on the plaza. times like this have been rare this summer. i'm typically splitting time between work and other loved ones. moments spent completely alone (besides going to sleep) are few and far between. so it feels good to be able to rejuvenate a bit before i ditch for the lake and begin my 5 week road trip. i say "road trip" in more of a sports team going away from home for an extended period of time...not literally on the road in a car.

this road trip will include:
4 days at the lake with the mann fam.
8 days in knoxville, tennessee, co-leading* a group of 113 individuals at a huge conference
5 days at youthfront camp west with the hillcrest middle school.
2 days in cedar rapids, iowa, to celebrate the Wedding of jon and my cousin, colleen.
11 days in Freaking, SPAIN, with kmannsizzler.

"freaking" isn't really a city in spain, but it adds a fun and maybe confusing effect to the statement. and i like it.

the road trip departs in 2 hours and will conclude august 8. hopefully i'll be able to share some of the experiences on here. i can guarantee at least one event will make it on this mug: HP6. oh goll. makes my lips numb and my pants wet just thinking about it.

-ap.

* - and by "co" i mean "weesh did all the work and i'm passing it off like i've worked half as hard as she has." don't be fooled. i haven't. she's the best.

ap still exists. phew.

i feel like i have so much to say, but i'm absolutely awful at saying it suddenly.

in the last few weeks i have done so much more than this blog shows. this thing used to be a terrific way to keep up to date with my life and what i'm doing and the things i'm passionate about. however, right now the two aren't very analogous. so much is happening in my life and so little is occurring on this mug. maybe it's because too much is happening and i'm certain that i won't be able to adequately express my thoughts on here.

also john buck is on the disabled list and the royals have been the worst team in baseball over the last month. this doesn't bode well for my writing.

however, i will say that my life is chugging along well. i keep pretty busy trying to juggle youth ministry, videography, softball, moving into a new apartment, disc golf and time with karlie. the good thing is that i absolutely love all of those things (especially the last one), so despite 'wearing so many hats' i absolutely love my life.

this weekend is the first weekend that i truly have "off". hopefully that will bring with it a fresh blogging spirit and tons of motivation to write. i'll probably have to chronicle my first ever meat smoking experience tomorrow. dave and i are firing up the smoker around 4 am tomorrow. i'll be more of a man by this time tomorrow.

speaking of being more of a man...perhaps the biggest development in the last few weeks: i've started parting my hair to the side. gasp.

karlie thinks it's cute. and i think she's cute. so i do what she says. can't really argue with the logic there. truth be told - it looks pretty much the same.

-ap.

henry nouwen.

"the great illusion of leadership is that someone can be led out of the desert by someone who's never been there."

i'm the logical one.

you can prepare yourself for a flood of blogging from apc - because i finally have the internet in my apartment. i didn't do anything at all to get it here. it was all nick. the proof that he did it all: the name of the wireless airport is literally called "It's this one, adam."

but i'm not a total bum roommate. i've purchased all kinds of assorted goodies for my new abode. bathroom goodies, kitchen goodies, foosball goodies...all logical purchases when moving into a new home. i don't like to spend a lot of money when i don't have to. it's usually pretty easy for me to think, "do i need this?" my rule of thumb: if i have to ask, i probably don't.

however. last wednesday, something miraculous happened. i was at target with a $50 gift card. i came with a few things in mind: a new dresser, a skillet, a new coffee table, some poster frames, etc. there were so many items to choose from! it's so hard to walk through target with a limited amount of money and think, "i could literally use all of this stuff in my new apartment." except a lint roller. i already have one of those.

so i paced around the store for about 15-20 minutes. i got frustrated. i needed so many things and i couldn't decide what i wanted to spend my fifty bones on. so i settled upon what any normal individual in such a situation would purchase...

...the complete star wars dvd collection.

that's right. i passed up all the other practical items on my list and went with something that i didn't truly need. but let's be totally honest with ourselves here - it's something that every home should have. i saw it from afar, walked straight to it, nodded emphatically, and headed for register 12.

and 4 days later, i have zero regrets.

-ap.

also, please watch the trailer for jedi gym.