Monday:  The flight from Edmonton (through San Francisco) arrived on time, with what seemed to be all our luggage, but the players who left on Sunday weren't as fortunate. Some who played in today's pro-am had to share clubs with their teammates.

• All in the family: Sycraper's brother Jack (should we call him High-rise?) played in the pro-am and came out on top with pro Moira Dunn and after driving the grueling trip from Edmonton without a job prospect, Scraper picked up Il-Mi Chung for the week.

Tuesday: Nine holes of practice consisted of a best ball match of Dina and Beth Bader vs. Kellie Kuehne and Sarah Lynn Sargent. Only one hole was lost along with $5 each to the Kuehne-Sargent team.

• Busy, busy, busy: The annual caddie putting contest was held along with a new event, a par three contest. Of course, plenty of good eats and liquid refreshment accompanied the festivities. Afterward, a party was hosted by Greg and Donna, celebrating their recent good fortune, at the Sextant Bar and Galley.

It was a tough course.

Wednesday: It was our turn to play the pro-am and we were done by 6:45. Dina went directly to the mandatory player meeting and myself to a Mexican dinner with "The Nerd".

• One of the best: This week is another stellar example of the fantastic treatment we receive by many events on tour. Stan Kawamoto and his crew do a superb job which makes Portland a must stop.

Teriyaki chicken was on the menu today with a side of Chad's favorite, steamed broccoli.

Motion, snoozin' or deep in thought? Whatever, he's always stylin'.

• Back again: Former tour pro Leslie Spalding has made an appearance but is on the other side of the bag this time. She's looping for Kristi Albers. Ellie Gibson is also in the house toting for Joanne Morley

• They just don't listen: Over and over the cadies were told to put their entire name on the scorecards for both contests but the admonition fell on deaf ears. Over $2,000 in prizes await claiming by likes of Larry, Curly and Moe.

• I may need ear plugs: Dina has a running money match with Kellie Kuehne each week and the digs will surely be flying here in Portland. They're paired together.

• She belongs: Stan runs a pretty tight ship when it comes to access to the caddie tent so when Lorena stopped in for a cup of java, the caderos gave her the business. Facetiously, she was rebuked with a chant of "Caddies only" but was ready with her own rejoinder. "I caddied The U. S. Open once and we tripled the first hole!" Looks as if she made her bones in "caddiedom".

• My replacement? I think not: During the pro-am, one of my guys had a SkyCaddie and, right from the get-go, checked my calculations for accuracy. Of course, with pin positions in hand, I was in the driver's seat and his numbers were merely "guestimates". Another just purchased a Leupold Rangefinder and tried to use it on the par three 8th with mixed results. It took forever to pick up the pin which was just 130 yards away. Don't know if it was set-up correctly but it would take quite a bit to surpass the Bushnell. By the way, the par threes were sponsored by that same device but had a glaring error on the 16th. It was seven yards short.

Friday: Our birdie drought continues. Only one on the seventh which Kuehne matched. Shot +5.

• More video: This time it's Dina playing the Road Hole at St. Andrews. Find it here.

Saturday: A decent start but we yielded to more of the same scoring. Shot three over.

• Adios: This week is Tina Barrett's  finale. After 18 years chasing that little white pellet all over the planet with the LPGA, she'll be moving on to new endeavors. A local pizza parlor was the local for her farewell party.

One heck of a lineup.

Chris Alexi (Hatchet) looped for Tina when she won the Mitsubishi.

• Don't let this happen to you: Whether you're a geek or dilettante when it comes to computers, sooner or later a collection of irreplaceable photos, music or data will accumulate in that amazing electronic gizmo and losing it will be a devastating experience. Hard drives crash, laptops get stolen and homes burn down. Backing up is essential but even if you use another hard drive, if it isn't stored in a different place than the original, it could succumb to the same fate. Carbonite is an online backup service offered with unlimited space and, for just under fifty bucks a year, your info will be encrypted and stored awaiting retrieval if need be. It also keeps track of new files and backs them up automatically in the background. I'm on the fifteen day free trial now and will probably keep the service. One caveat, the initial backup may take a few days due to a limit on per day upload size.

If you do decide to purchase Carbonite, the have a "refer a friend" program that adds free months to your subscription. Get the hint? I'll be more than happy to pass along your email address if you wish.

Mozy is another backup option offering 2GB of free space with an option to pay for more. I gave it a try but ran into too many upload problems.

Sunday: Nothing to do but await the red-eye back East.

• Finally! After ages of goading "Motorcycle Jim" to rid himself of his ancient laptop, he suddenly found some cash burning a hole in his pocket and off we went. The morning ads for Best Buy revealed an Acer equipped with all he'll ever need. Within minutes of arriving we were out the door and, given the fact Oregon doesn't charge sales tax, even left with a penny change from those six "Benjamin Franklins" he plopped down.