Tomorrow is a big day! My beloved husband and our own Double Eagle Tour Manager, Mr. Eamon Smithers is off bright and early in the morning to join Mike Richards, on the Mike in the Morning show on the Fan 960. Tomorrow, after all, is St. Patricks day, and my husband is as Irish as they come. Gobsmackingly so, I'd say.

And how did we get such a prestigious honour? Perhaps something akin to blackmail, but I prefer to think of it as 'good friendship" with the man himself, Mike Richards. What can I say? The guy is witty, funny, completely UN-politically correct and has kept me howling since the day I met him, more than 3 years ago now, when we were asked in mid-2006 to host Mike's 2nd Anniversary Party with the Fan 960. I remember the day like it was yesterday.

Mostly because I was 8 months pregnant back in July of 2006, and wasn't doing any drinking. *heehee*

We started out that rainy morning at Schanks south, where Mike and his entourage were airing live-on-location. We bundled up all the winners of his contest. Yes, the groans were on. Rain? Oh, COME ON! But we loaded everyone up on a big ole coach, and took the group to Forest Heights golf courses, one of my personal favorites up in the Sundre area. And. as is typical to Calgary, we drove outside the city limits and discovered the most unbelievably dew-kissed sunny morning I'd ever seen.

I chose not to golf that day, instead opting to do the photos and videography, and went scooting around the course on my golf cart just waiting. Waiting for what? Well - those miracle shots, of course! If I recall correctly, I managed to catch more than a few that day. Sadly, the one that really counted, the one where I picked up my wedge on the Par 3 first hole on a challange from the foursome on deck that "pregnant women can't golf" and dropped that ball less than 3 feet from the hole... where WHERE IN THE $&#*-*@^$!!! was my camera THEN???

But, having proven my point I toddled off, loaded my whale-like form into the cart, (I remember vividly wondering if my enormous bulk wasn't going to bend the frame or something) and was off to start my day.

Everywhere I looked people were smiling (drinking), laughing (drinking), eating (drinking) and drinking! On about the 8th hole I set up the "Happy Gilmore challenge" which is a very popular little game to play about mid-round, and yes, ended up diagnosing some serious grass-stains on someone's hindquarters. Shortly thereafter I redirected a group that had somehow gotten lost between holes or were perhaps just subliminally following the beer-cart girl around. (Men? Can you EXPLAIN this for me please?) and finally caught up to our number one group, which naturally included Mike and his co-host of the day, Jenna. Not sure Mike was having the best 'round' of golf that day, but I know he sure as heck made up for it by entertaining everyone during the barbeque after the event, handing out prizes. Funny, I seem to remember him sobering up a little bit when he realized he'd lost his keys somewhere... Hm. I think I'm going to have to sort through my piles of photo-discs and find the one of Mike, looking like his puppy just died. Somehow or other though, even he, keyless and sunburned, ended up happy as... well... a St. Patricks Day lephrechaun. Maybe he'll talk about that day on the show tomorrow, I can't wait to hear it.

I'm going to see if I can get him to send me an mp3 of the show, and I'll upload it here! Stay tuned!

Welcome to Golf Season in Calgary 2010! Usually we reserve website updates, etc for deep into March or early April, but this year, I'm just so darn excited about it all I can barely contain myself!

Firstly, this is the first year Double Eagle has an official blog. Please excuse the rudimentary look of my blog at the moment, it's a work in progress, and I have lots of plans to get this thing looking dynamic and fun in no time! This blog had to happen! I've had tremendous support and requests from many of my nearly 17,000 followers on Twitter (can you BELIEVE it? How did that happen? If you want to follow me on I'm @ahhhgolf and I give golf tips!) and had to acquiesce to my loving audience exactly what they deserve. PLUS, on this blog I'm going to start putting to paper all the meandering yet strangely provocative trains of thought which occasionally lead to some pretty astounding ideas.

One of the things I've noticed about twitter is that once I hit about 10,000 followers or so, I had a few individuals approach me, asking me to endorse their services or products to my followers. Many of them are even willing to offer me commission payments to do so. That being said, I like to think that I'm a highly ethical person, so I don't simply push any old thing on my followers for the benefit of the almighty dollar, as tempting as it may be. I pick and choose things that I feel really do warrant some attention. I have some "marketing clout" as one individual said to me, and it's certainly opened up doors. Suddenly, I find that I have the power to offer discounts on third-party services and merchandise to my customers, and can brainstorm with affiliates over how we can help each other help our client base. I love the win-win of when like-businesses get together. Let's face it, in the small business world, we rather have to in order to compete with Mr. Big Biz.

Double Eagle is one of those businesses. Look at us! I have not run across many small businesses with their fingers in so many pies. We are tourism, we are sport, we are retail, we are service, we are photography, we are education, and not the least... we are DEFINITELY entertainment. Isn't that what it's all about? Who the heck out there works all day to bring home the bacon, and then doesn't even taste the bacon as its going down? You have to enjoy your life. Humans are social beings, and it makes a lot more sense to spend time with your friends and family than simply surviving to work, right?

Maybe this is why I'm so excited to get going this year. To say I am obsessive over golf - well, is just blatantly incorrect. What I'm really obsessed over is having the time of my life, and sharing it with as many others as I can. Life is too darn short, and in Calgary, the winter is just too darn long. This summer is going to be the best of my life. I'm going to meet some amazing people, share incredible adventures with them. Some of them are going to become life-long friends. That's just the way it works.