The Jelecos Managed Services team held its first annual Managed Services golf outing this year at Indian Creek Golf Course in observance of System Administrator Appreciation Day.  Actually, it wasn't annual until I just made it so, publicly, on our blog.  There's no sense in having such a great event just once!  But, since driving company policy isn't in my job description, this will probably be my last blog post.  We kicked Friday off right by receiving the Professional Services team at our office for some breakfast that they diligently prepared in our honor.  We appreciate their efforts very much and look forward to breakfast again next year (yes, that just became annual too).

We rolled out of the office at approximately 11:30 AM and headed to the course.  Kathy Palmer, our recent addition to the team as a Help Desk Technician, graciously offered to stay behind for the remainder of the afternoon to ensure our customer's needs were met.  We divided the six of us into two tee times.  With most of us being engineers, we decided to over-engineer the golf process.  Since we all wanted to have a chance to play with each other, we decided to rotate a player at every par 3.  Greg Mooney, Angie Mahler, and I were grouped together on the first five holes.  Steve Mills, Eric Karmazin, and Trent Williams made up the other group.

Now, I mentioned this was a golf outing, but it was more of a landscaping convention.  We dug holes in the fairways, tested the density of the water in a few of the ponds, and modified the depth of the bunkers.  Mooney took it upon himself to climb a tree and inspect it for proper trimming.  Ok, that deserves some explaining.  Mooney shot the game of his life.  We'll just call him the Cinderella boy here on out.  After he rotated to the other group on the first par 3, any time I had a chance to see him drive off of the tee box, I let him know I was there and cheering him on with some well placed yells and screams during his down swing.  Let's just say he doesn't do well with pressure and noise.   Finally, on the tee box on the 6th hole of our second nine, the Cinderella boy was lining up for what was sure to be a beautiful 275 yard shot right down the middle.  Eric and I pulled up behind them and sat under a tree, politely waiting our turn.  I was very excited for him and decided to let him see how much I appreciated his stellar golf game by cheering him on, again during his down swing.  Unfortunately, my cheers didn't help his shot.  I couldn't tell you where his ball ended up because I was ducking at the impending doom headed for me in the form of a Callaway driver.  Fortunately for Eric and me, the Cinderella boy's discus-style golf club throwing abilities match his golf game under pressure and instead of wrapping it around my head, the club landed on some branches in the tree we were parked under.  POW!

It turned out to be a great day.  Weather was good, beer was cold, and phones were quiet.