Vegas Thursday Night

To read episode one of my December Vegas trip, click here.

So I nap for an hour or so, then shower up and head downstairs to meet Mark and Mike. Chilled at the sushi bar upstairs from the casino for a while as they eat and I drink my Pepsi (no place had Coke the whole weekend and I just couldn't grasp that, and ordered a Coke every time we went to eat. Sometimes multiple times at the same restaurant too.) which the bartender got into me a little about when I asked for it without ice. When I told him I was allergic to ice he didn't question it, didn't blink, didn't care....he was one of the coolest bartenders we'd see all weekend.

After the sushi we hung out in the casino for a couple minutes deciding whether or not to go to another restaurant or if I was just going to catch something quick on my own. We named places here and there and nothing sounded that good until Mark said, "How about that Italian place in Paris?"

I got up so quick that my chair started spinning and we were off to have some good food and GREAT bread. I am a carbaholic, always have been, and I really love bread. From now on I'm going to make sure I eat there at least once every time I go to Vegas....all because of the bread. I was pretty disappointed in myself for not thinking of the bread place as an option.

So we ate dinner at the little Italian place inside Paris. Wish I could remember the name of the place but I can't, and I don't feel like looking it up right now. After dinner we headed back to the room to freshen up and get ready for the bar. We left the room about 10ish or so and a few minutes and one semi-failed shortcut attempt later we rolled into the west wing entrance at MGM and walked right into the West Wing Bar/Lounge and immediately dug it....too bad we were the only ones in there as they were about to close.

We made our (roundabout) way over to Studio 54 to see if there was a line....I think I actually heard crickets when we got near the door. So we headed over to Centrifuge, the small bar in the middle of the casino area you first come into from NY-NY or Tropicana. The bar was pretty cool with a very attentive, attractive waitstaff and bartenders that know what a good pour is. Every so often the girls and guys that worked in the bar would get up on platforms or the bar and dance to a song for the enjoyment of the crowd. Thankfully we were sitting on the side of the bar where there were only girl bartenders.

After a few rounds at Centrifuge we staggered on over to Studio 54 to check out their "Dollhouse" night and see what that was all about. I had been to 54 a couple times before and always liked the layout of the place and the nice mix of people who go there on any given night. Some fabulous people watching to be had. The DJ was very good and gave everyone a chance to get out on the floor and shake their money maker. Too bad after a couple more drinks inside 54, I wouldn't really be able to shake someone's hand, much less get out and dance. The biggest draw for the "Dollhouse" nights are the girls and guys who change outfits every so often and get up on the platforms and dance in various stages of dress and undress, or in some cases just stand there and let someone paint their body.

All in all we had a good time at 54 and left as the crowd started to thin which is when we decided it was the right time to hit Fatburger. On the short walk there I found some "slippery when wet" cone/sign sitting outside and realized that it was actually put there just for me, so I picked it up and carried it with us. But when we got to Fatburger, the security guard stationed at Walgreens wouldn't let me take my cone in and forced me to leave it outside. Well, at least for a few minutes because I just went and got it when he wasn't looking anyway and put it in the seat next to Mike.

Things are kinda hazy for me inside Fatburger, but I do remember that Mike made quite a mess with his food and condiments, and earned the nickname Big Vagina from the guy sitting at the table next to us whom he ended up wrestling around with in the parking lot after we were all done eating. Sometime during all this the poor Walgreens guard came in and took the sign back outside. Why do I insist on making people's jobs (and lives) harder than they already are?

After dining on the burger that is so fat, we headed back to the room to let Mike pass out and Mark freshen up a bit. I also passed out sitting straight up in a chair waiting to see if Mark was up for more hi-jinks. When he woke me up I had no flipping idea where I was or what was going on. Love that Grey Goose and Red Bull.

After a short conversation where I told Mark I wasn't going to go to the Horse with him, I had a Monty Python moment and followed him out the door as he left. Again, details are hazy, but we left the Horse after a couple hours and lamented the fact that we didn't bring our sunglasses with us.

I Hate Being Sick.

Haaaate it. Thank God I don't get sick very often, but when I do it's bad. I'm sure being a baby and whining about it doesn't make it any better, but hey....

Went to dinner last night at Johnny Carino's, a new chain restaurant that recently opened up nearby and serves Italian food. Had some bread and Italian butter (olive oil and black pepper), couldn't really taste it. Had some bruchetta, couldn't really taste it. Had some ravioli, couldn't taste it and was full after a few bites. This is not how I want to lose weight....I haaaaaate being sick.

I don't have a full on sinus infection yet, and I am trying to keep it at bay with some Advil Sinus (since I can't find the Motrin Sinus anywhere now), orange juice, water, chicken noodle soup, and plenty of rest. So far I'm just dealing with some sniffles and a whole lot of sinus pressure. Last night seemed to be the worst of it with the nearly blinding headache at and after dinner, which thankfully went away as I slept (more or less tossed and turned and coughed actually) last night. Did I mention that I haaaaate being sick?

OK. I am done whining about being sick. To make up for it I will work on the rest of my Vegas posts and try and have them up before I get all types of comatose later today.

Christmas Recap

So how was your Christmas? Personally I had one of the most laid back, chilled out, stress free weekends I've had in years. On Christmas day none of us left the house, and that was nice. We had food and basketball and football and even watched a little poker. Our gift giving was short and sweet and I think my parents got more for the dogs than they did for anyone else.

Then my mom decides it's time for negotiations...."Hey, do you still think I should quit smoking?"

"Of course, it'd be great for your health."

"OK, then how about this?"

This is where I begin to panic. My mother has only agreed to quit smoking for one thing....ever....and that's a grandchild. And I would be all for that if my parents had only supplied me with a sibling or two, but being an only child makes that a little difficult for me to support. And I swear to God if this is another push at getting me to settle down and start a family before I....

"If you lose say 20-25 pounds in 2006, then I will quit smoking."

Did I hear this right? After so much fuss about the smoking issue and the grandbaby first mentality did she just say lose a few pounds and I'll quit? My response was short and came out almost immediately.

"Done."

So maybe this is the push I need to get back in shape after more than a year of sitting on my arse and plumping up at the 9-5. Every job I've ever had involved standing, walking, or running for a good portion of my shift. In my latest position at the 9-5 I've been sitting for about 8.5 hours and only standing/walking for about 30 minutes a day. That's a big change and my waistline has reflected it. Now I have a week to map out and implement a workout plan and diet that will help me drop my BMI rating from "I can't believe you haven't had a heart attack yet" to the coveted "Well, at least you aren't as fat as most other Americans".

I weighed in at about 235 last night and 25 pounds seems like nothing really. I could get that done by February if I really needed to, but boy would I be a grouchy em-effer for the month of January if that were the case.

I'll do my official weigh in at the gym on the 2nd, and track my progress until I reach my goal. It doesn't make for interesting reading, but I'm sure I'll end up posting that here on a semi-regular basis.

Merry Christmas!

Spending the weekend with my parents and and three dogs, each of them weighing about the same as my mom. Good times.

Have a great and safe weekend.

Paging Doctor Heimlich

Last night Jen and I went to Kiernan's Steak House in Dearborn for dinner. My filet was unremarkable, which really disappointed me because I was looking forward to it because I know they have bernaise sauce, which I really like with my steaks. But the food ended up playing second fiddle to the people watching action at the table right in front of us. The lineup at the table was a well-to-do retirement aged lady with a nose that was definitely not the one she was born with. 2 stereotypical "mother of an affluent man" types complete with the old lady clothing that is nothing but old lady clothing, but still not your run of the mill department store old lady clothing. We also had the affluent white male who is on the board of a local hospital group, and the last person was hard to peg, and we just assumed she was part of the help for someone in the group.

Toward the end of their dinner, and just as we were getting our entree, little old lady began to have trouble breathing because some of her food didn't quite make it all the way down. She was still getting air, but was in distress. Some of the staff tried to Heimlich her, but it didn't seem like the food was lodged high enough for that to work. I watched intently to gauge the woman's condition, deciding whether or not to step in and take over administration of first aid.

Just as I was resigning myself to the fact that I would need to step in for the safety of the old lady, a man at the table next to them calmly came over and did so himself. From the way he grasped the old lady and Heimliched her, you could tell he was a doctor. After a few attempts he decided to try using her gag reflex to help clear her airway, and stuck his finger down her throat. I didn't see her gag reflex kick in, but after a few moments she said she felt better and all was well.

The excitement seemed to thin the crowd drastically, especially after the paramedics arrived, and pretty soon we found ourselves almost completely alone in the restaurant to finish our meals. We made sure to chew everything very thoroughly after that....

Spaced

I have this spaced out, preoccupied feeling right now....and have felt that way all week, even though there isn't anything I am (consciously) preoccupied with. Maybe it's all because the 9-5 needed me in at 2am on Monday instead of the normal 6am, but didn't call me until almost 11 on Sunday night. Of course after I finally got to bed that night I was stressed about not getting enough sleep and tried very hard to fall asleep....nothing worked and the alarm went off before I ever got any rest.

So now my normal sleep schedule has gone out the window, and I think my brain may have followed....

I'll try and get my Vegas Thursday part II post up later today....hopefully I can get them all up before the details start to fade....

Vegas Thursday Part 1

Not much sleep on Wednesday because the day just ended up being a whole bunch of halla walla after I got off work. Capped off by the fact that I had to drive to Howell (2+ hours round-trip) to get my valid license so I would not have a problem in Vegas.

6:00am: Woke up early to finish laundry and packing for the trip.

6:35am: Grossly underestimated the amount of time it takes for my socks to dry.

6:55am: Tell (lie to) Mark and Mike that it's only going to be another couple of minutes til my stuff is dry and I am all packed up.

7:05am: Dump my still damp whites in my carry on and head out for the airport.

7:07am: Can't find my phone....need my phone.

7:12am: Drive home and find my phone sitting right outside the porn shower.

7:15am: Let Mark know the flight leaves for Vegas at 8:30, not 8:00 like I had originally told him. His response, "That's probably the only thing you could ever lie to me about and not make me mad...."

7:15-8:15am: Drive, park, shuttle, baggage, security.

8:15am: Mike gets stopped when the plate and screws in his ankle set off the metal detectors and confuse the TSA peeple.

8:17am: I run ahead to keep the plane at the gate just in case Mike's search gets a little too personal....

8:22am: Walk down ramp to plane, run into line. "Hmmm, hope they didn't over book...."

8:25am: Find out some rather rotund woman was holding up the plane because the overhead bins were full and she refused to check her carry-on. Low level yelling and near obscenities strew from our mouths. Flight attendant announces plane doors will close in 30 seconds, as I stand in the doorway and tell her that there's gonna be a problem between her and I if she tries that. Not finding the humor in my words, she begins to explain that it's all a grand psychological ploy to make Big Fun take her seat.

8:27am: Big Fun sits, Mark's carry on checked with regular baggage. I pass Big Fun and refrain from hitting her with my briefcase, but do point her out to everyone as peanut target practice later on....

8:35am: Rolling down the tarmac and I stop looking at my watch....

During the flight the three of us, all seated on the aisle near each other, begin talking about whether or not mathematics exists or if it's something that humans made up on our own. Surprisingly, we tend to agree on most points....ironically leading to a very short conversation which leads us to another, longer conversation about Absolute Truth(s). This conversation starts to tail off as I begin my third Malibu and Pepsi. Getting the drink alone was hard enough considering the attendant I ordered it from couldn't care less about my order.

The plane lands without me ever pulling out anything to read or write on....truly my quickest plane ride to Vegas ever.

Pick up our bags and hit the cabstand, which had no line at all, and run over to the Aladdin. We roll into the Aladdin lobby somewhere around 10am and I find a very lovely clerk who agrees to check us in early AND upgrade us to a strip view room for free as long as I meet her in said room after she gets off work....OK, it was actually a $50 bill that got us in early and upgraded, but hey....gotta make sure my readers are paying attention right?

Insert pic of room view here--->

$50 between 3 guys for 4 nights is well worth it for the view we got of the fountains across the street at Bellagio. Once we get our bags from the bell hop we are off to Bellagio like a rocket.

GELATO! MMmmmm....Dulche' de leche and Oreo gelato on a waffle cone....welcome home Mister M. After our delicious traditional indulgence we walk by the poker room and see Scotty Nguyen. Man is this trip going to be fun or what baby?

From the poker room we stroll over to Snacks and each get a sandwich. None of us are very impressed and Mark and Mike wander off to the slots as I finish off my huge club and nearly deck some ugly woman who won't get out of my way when I go toward the trash with my tray....had the sourdough not soaked up some of the rum from earlier I might have put an ugly lady's head shaped dent in my tray.

It's 11 am, I am in Vegas, and I have nearly hit a woman on two occasions....I need to chill the eff out. Let's hit the strip!

We walk out into the sun and make our way up the east side of the street to Wynn. We go in, check it out....it's nice, but it looks so familiar. Oh yeah, it's the Bellagio....but different color schemes, and a different layout....Impressive sure, but not so much.

I must say though, that we all noticed the high level of hotness in the cocktail service area....Hottest in town, with really nice outfits too.

From there we crossed the strip and hit the Fashion Show Mall because I needed to get some black pants for the weekend. The food court there is a pedophile's dream....I don't remember 16 and 17 year olds looking like that ten years ago....we quickly got uncomfortable and left the food court for the mall.

We actually saw a fashion show there too. As we were walking back to the strip from Dillard's there was a Christmasy one going on....it wasn't good enough to hold our attention, and we headed back. Walking along the cove at TI we noticed it was empty, but the audio for the show was still going strong. We walked inside of the Forum Shops for less than a minute to show Mike the curved escalators, and then back to the Aladdin.

It was about 4pm at this point and I decided there was no way I could make it through another 12+ hours without a nap....and I was the first of us to sleep in Vegas.

Read part two here.

Vegas Afterglow

It's not so much an afterglow as it's about three days of separation anxiety and heavy under-eye baggage....The more I go to Vegas, the less likely it is that I will end up back in Michigan. This time was extremely hard to cope with. Had I been lucky enough to take a fitness exam and face an oral board out there on this trip, I might be looking for housing in Henderson right now. The department has urged me to apply again because I was very near the cutoff date and might not have even been considered because they got the number of applicants they wanted before I even turned mine in....so not all hope is lost. Although I would love to do it, it's hard to imagine that it would be the best thing for me. How long before I seriously think I could make a good life playing poker? I don't have the constitution of a high stakes player. I like stability in my life, and that goes out the window the minute you let the cards determine whether or not your bills will get paid for a given month, or even year....I know that it's a game of skill more than luck, but luck is still in the equation.

I handle bad beats pretty well, unless I hit a rash of them in one night or, God forbid, a week. But I play low stakes with money I have already written off as gone. Had I to play for rent money or food money, would I be able to take those beats without beating the hell out of one of the donkeys who laid it on me? The answer is probably....knowing me, I'd end up picking the biggest donkey of the bunch and get my own ass beat on top of losing my money. At least I'd have a hard time getting the word "rebuy" out if my jaw was wired shut....

I am still piecing together last weekend's events, and hope to have the first of my five posts done later tonight or tomorrow, with the others following soon thereafter. Stay tuned for my somewhat coherent babbling about my somewhat unsober affairs....

I SHOOK DOYLE'S HAND!

Just getting back into the swing of things here after my long Vegas weekend. Had a great time as usual, saw tons of poker pros in town for the Bellagio Five Diamond Classic, and of course, got to shake Doyle Brunson's hand during one of the breaks on the first day of the tourney. More to come....

Sin City and All That it Stands For

Yay capitalism! You've just gotta love a town that is run on greed and love of the almighty dollar. It's like the Republican Party without the uptight religious facade. Although I am sure you'll find more people praying in Vegas than you will in the House or the Senate, but they just may rival Vegas for high stakes poker games and prostitutes....

Anyway....my procrastination is catching up with me again. 46 hours from takeoff and I am woefully behind on everything I need to get done before Vegas. Thankfully I already have a dog watcher in place, because this trip proved to be the toughest to cover yet. I still need to get a new phone. Mine is only good for about 8 minutes of talking anymore, and the connection problems persist. On top of that I need to get my finances in order, a haircut, and find some more clothes....but really, that's about it. Not much to get done, but a whole lot of running around today.

I am hella excited about this trip. Not only is it just me, Mark, and Mike unsupervised, but there is a WPT event starting on Monday, and a WPBT event on Saturday that I am going to camp out at the Imp for....with any luck I'll get one of the few open spots. I'll probably just donate my funds, but it should be a great experience to play in a tourney with all the bloggers I read about....

Next post should be after Vegas! Hopefully it'll be after I take down the Bellagio Five Diamond Classic....

A Long Time Coming....

Hi. My name is Max....and I'm an absentee blogger. For more than a month now I have been disappointing my faithful readers (OK, reader....who is probably no longer faithful anyway) who think that maybe, just maybe, today is the day that I will return with wondrous stories and thoughts on life....Well, today is that day....at least the returning part. Can't guarantee I'll share any stories or thoughts today, but I have returned just in time to make sure I have a November entry for my archive....

So what have I been doing with my time lately? Other than heading down to Mississippi for hurricane clean-up, pretty much just the normal daily grind at the 9-5 and some online poker here and there. My fantasy football teams are both pretty much garbage, so I don't have that to worry about anymore considering playoff time is coming and I won't be part of that in either league.

I'm going to Vegas soon. Next week as a matter of fact. I'll be in town for the WPBT event at the Imp on Dec 10th....but I booked too late to be part of the tourney....unless there are some no shows on the day of and I can slide in there on the first come, first served basis....I've been reading some of these player's blogs for quite a while now and would love to see them all in action....

Either way, I am going to have a hella good time because it's just me, Mark, and Mike this time around. Mike is in for a little more poker than he bargained for, but hopefully we'll have him hooked by the time we leave.

Well, that's all for right now. I am going to review my hand history from the last couple of SNGs I played (finished first in both) and see if that can help me keep the streak going. I've had three consecutive money finishes before, but never three consecutive wins. I'm sure I'll post some of the highlights from the most recent SNG, just to show how lucky I got getting the cards I needed, when I needed them. Long story short, I started off playing very tight (for me) and ended up short stacked at about 150ish when the blinds jumped to 50-100. Too bad for them they didn't realize what a great short stacker I am....

Official Victory

I'm not sure what happened that got Mike Carey's crew all Baltimore hating yesterday, but that's sure what it seemed like watching the Lions' game. I'm not going to complain about the bad officiating or the more than questionable call on the replay of Joey Harrington's fumble that was picked up by Kevin Jones and advanced to the Baltimore 2, leading to a TD. But game did seem a little slanted in terms of penalties. Mind you, the Ravens did nothing to help themselves when they were bumping referees, grabbing umpires, throwing the ball in disgust after chewing out a linesman, or making an obscene gesture to the Detroit crowd after a great goal line stand.


For at least part of that I give Kevin Jones credit. After his first TD, on a nice 14 yard run in which he beat Ray Lewis to the corner, he mockingly danced in the end zone like Deion used to. The Ravens D took notice and got a little chippy with the Lions players who did not back down. Then after punching in the score following the reviewed and upheld fumble call, Jones aimed his dance moves at another Ravens defender. This time it was Ray Lewis. Then the Ravens D started to play a little dirty, as a former linebacker I feel horrible for saying that, which I am sure the Lions pointed out to the refs who began flagging the visitors for anything outside the letter of the rulebook.

Any win is a win, but the offense seemed to be bogged down once again. Maybe it's the fact that we have played three of the top 5 defenses in the NFL in our last three games. Maybe it's injuries taking a toll on us again. Maybe our WRs need to learn how to bring in the ball down the field. Maybe our QB needs to make better throws....Maybe I am on to something here. How many games can you possibly expect to win when your QB has a 52.7 passer rating? Well, we are one replay review away from being 3-1 (admittedly Joey's rating would be a smidge higher with that TD in Tampa) having beaten two teams with a combined record of 2-7. One of our defeats came at the hand of the only team with a worse passer, rating-wise, than the Lions.

That's right, only Kyle Orton has a worse passer rating than Joey Harrington. Kyle Orton was not a top 3 pick in the draft. Kyle Orton has not had four years to learn his offense. Kyle Orton doesn't have three WRs taken 2nd, 7th, and 10th overall in their respective drafts, and one of the best pass catching TEs in the league. Kyle Orton is a rookie who was drafted in the 4th round (103 picks later than Joey was taken in 2002) this year and was pressed into action when Rex Grossman broke his ankle for like the 7th time, and the Bears cut Chad Hutchinson because he was ineffective. Welcome to the NFL Kyle. You get to be the starter after only a month of reporting to your first NFL training camp. I'm not sure how much your contract with the Bears is worth, but I do know that your numbers could get you about $5 mil/year in Detroit.

Tip of the Day

Altoids: Good
Bananas: Good

Tip: Keep them separate.

Weekend Recap

Friday night was pretty much a wash since I had a lot of house cleaning to do before people could come over on Saturday for Marktoberfest. Some of the usual crew headed out to Royal Oak to see the Killer Flamingos, the band that Paul is now actively stalking. Well, as active as Paul can be with anything anyway. Jen came over and offered to help with anything I needed as far as the cleaning was concerned, but I was just happy to have her to talk to as I went about the house wondering how certain things got in certain places. She crashed pretty early and I went out to Farmer Jack at about 1am and spent an hour there returning bottles and buying Red Bull while wearing my ultra fabulous 'With a shirt like this who needs pants?' T-shirt and some mesh shorts to match. About an hour after that I was in bed and ready for a long Saturday.

Saturday morning came very fast as Jen's alarm went off about 9:30. She set it just early enough to get up and get online/on the phone to make sure she got Bon Jovi tix when they went on sale at 10:00. I of course offered to help and volunteered to be on the computer as opposed to the phone. In the end she got tix to the show, but not nearly as good as she had hoped for. After that was the final tidy up duties inside the house and some yard work for the outside.

While I was putting the finishing touches on the party prep I watched Michigan beat Michigan State 34-31 in OT. It was a game that as a fan you just couldn't stop watching because either team could have come up with a big play at any time. After Michigan jumped out to a lead early the Spartans fought back to within a FG by halftime. Michigan received the ball to start the second half and gave it to MSU with a Chad Henne interception on the 3rd play from scrimmage, just 17 yards away fromt the end zone.

UM's defense hung tough and forced a FG after three plays. Those would be the only offensive points for Sparty in the second half. After that both teams played a field position game to start the 3rd quarter until MSU put together a nearly perfect drive that ate up a good portion of the 3rd and spilled over into the 4th. Precision passing, great play calling and execution took them from their own 5 to the UM 6 yard line where John Goss missed a FG that was barely longer than an extra point. To put it better, a kick that I would have had a good chance at making, and I haven't kicked a ball in more than 10 years.

On the very next play Mike Hart took off on a 64 yard run to the MSU 16. Four plays later he ran it in from the 1 on a great stretching dive. Michigan's defense held Sparty to a 3 and out, then continued to roll down the field churning out 40 yards on 8 plays. The ninth play of the drive Henne dropped back to pass and was hit as his arm was coming forward with the ball still in it. The play was ruled a fumble and some random slow DL from MSU picked it up and ran it back 75 yards for a TD with not much pursuit from the Michigan players, just that squirrel tail looking hair he had sticking out of the back of his helmet. So now instead of holding a 10 point lead with about 6:00 left in the game, Michigan was now looking at a tied ball game with the Sparty stands going wild.

Michigan put together another nice drive eating up about 5 minutes and moving the ball 50 yards down to the ten where Garrett Rivas missed a 26 yarder with less than a minute left in regulation. Into OT where MSU got the ball first and moved it 4 yards before Goss got to blow another FG attempt, this time at least from 38 yards away. Michigan's follow up possession covered 7 yards in two plays before Rivas kicked the game winner from 35 yards out, and the house went wild!

Sunday was just a lazy football day and we went out to watch a bunch of games. The Lions lost, the Redskins won, and my fantasy team did poorly once again. Even with the loss the now 1-2 Lions still hold a share of first place in the NFC North. What a great division huh? Green Bay has a chance to grab their share of the division lead tonight if they can tally their first win. How sad is it that an 0-3 team can tie for the division lead with a win?

Our defense looked pretty good against Tampa with Teddy Lehman grabbing a nice INT in his first game back, but our offense looked bad again. How sad is it that I keep telling myself that this offense will soon show us all something with the 4 early first round draft picks that are out there, as well as the high 2nd round RB who gained all those yards in the second half of last season? It could be worse. I could still have season tickets.

Less Poker, More Madden

Lately it seems that my spare time has shifted from my poker addiction to a new Madden 06 addiction. I'm sure no one will be surprised by this as football has been a way of life for me since I was a wee Max, but it has caught me a little off guard. I played the game once in the first couple weeks I owned it, and maybe three times total in the first month. Now that we are getting into the NFL grind it seems that I have almost abandoned the poker, I hope my free rolls will be good for a while, to advance my football fixation to the CGI level as well.

Sooner or later I will take the time to write a Madden 06 review, but it'll have to wait until my Redskins are done with their first season under me. 1-0 so far. Dallas is next. Watch out Cowboys!

Within five minutes I am one click away from....

I need to limit the time I spend online. Companies today make it way too easy to buy things from their website. I had some extra time this morning and decided to check out the new iPod Nano. I already want one and plan to buy one very soon, so what harm could come from checking it out online? HA!

Within five minutes I am one click away from having it shipped to me in 1-2 weeks because of high demand. Then I check out the specs to see if it comes with the dock or not, and if I'll even need one. Along the way I see that you need at least Windows 2000 on your computer to load anything onto the Nano. My not-so-new computer still runs 98.

So I think, "It's high time I get that old piece of crap out of the house anyway....let's see what specials Dell has today. Find exactly what I want, and get a coupon code from TechBargains and within five minutes I am one click away from having a brand new system shipped to me, with $5000 of instant Dell credit at my disposal. Only have to hit the customize button and get rid of the monitor as I already have a top-notch Dell flat panel. Only problem with this is I can't do that with the package I want, and paying for the monitor that comes in the package puts me over my budget for a new desktop....but not for a new laptop.

Within five minutes I am one click away from having a brand new notebook shipped to me, after finding a great deal on TechBargains that will save me nearly 1/3 of the money I would have normally spent. This is too easy. Have I thought this through yet? What accessories will I need for the notebook? Will this be enough to completely replace my desktop? What do I do with the new monitor I have that's just waiting for the rest of my new desktop?

Many more questions fill my head as I am one click from tossing more than a grand, and probably up to about 2k, at these electronics that I don't NEED. Can I wait for these and make sure I have the best deals? Of course I can, I am a great at budgeting and finding deals. Will I wait? This still remains to be seen.

I am beginning to cool off now and imagine the potential buyer's remorse involved here. Because I like always finding the best bargain, buyer's remorse is one of the worst feelings I get and an excellent way to stop myself from buying things I don't need.

Every week the deals get better and better for new desktops. I'm sure I can wait at least a couple or few more and take the money I would have spent with me to Vegas in January and have a much better time out there while still enjoying the very things I nearly bought in haste.

Cancelled

So after being moved to Galveston from New Orleans, our cruise has actually been cancelled now. All the excitement for our warm Caribbean vacation has been cancelled as well. The company I booked the cruise through is currently "working on getting me a refund" and Northwest Airlines wants to charge me 1/3 of my original fare to cancel my reservation. No wonder they filed chapter 11. Union-busting, imperialists jack holes.

I tried my best not to get mad at the customer rep reading off of her script at whatever hour of the night it was in her part of India, but I was so frustrated that everyone else was so helpful and/or tried to help me to the best of their ability in the wake of this amazing disaster, and there was this smug woman telling me that flights are running to New Orleans and I could go there tomorrow if I wanted. She had no smug answer for me when I asked where I could stay if the hotel I booked was still partially submerged. And after I asked to be assured that my money would at least go to hurricane relief, she told me she could not guarantee that because it was a billing issue. The last straw for me was when I asked, "So the airline is just going to profit off of one of the worst natural disasters in this country's history?" and the woman flatly said I guess so. I had to hang up....lest I unleash my anger upon this woman who had no options to exercise herself where my airfare was concerned.

Well, I still have my reservations at the soon to be Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino but currently bankrupt and still hemorrhaging cash Aladdin for the first week in December. Maybe Vegas is trying to tell me something??? I've got to call the Aladdin one way or the other....maybe I can call to see about lengthening the stay. That way I can just switch my ticket to Vegas instead of New Orleans and not give Northwest my money for nothing....interesting. Let's look into that.

It's been almost three years since my first stay at the then fairly new Aladdin, and I can remember the bankruptcy talk even back then. It just goes to show that merely opening a large resort on the strip doesn't guarantee a windfall for the owners. Bad planning and poor management decisions put the resort in a hole from the very start, and with the interest on their debt accumulating faster than the profits from the small casino and surreptitiously configured shopping mall, there was really no rosy outlook for the young resort.

Planet Hollywood's plans portray a much better design, and a flashier facade that is more inviting, contemporary, and rather gaudy. This all sounds very Vegasy right away, but more and more it's beginning to sound more Times Square than Vegas Strip to me. It will be interesting to watch how the transformation of this resort plays out.

Drizzle Me This....

It's nice to see the rain again....even if it does block my view of the Fisher Building from the 23rd floor. I could probably count on one hand the number of days we've gotten any significant rainfall in the last two months. I love Vegas and all, but I'm not asking for their weather to be imported to Detroit....one of the appealing things of this part of the country is the change of seasons.

Fall (Autumn, if you prefer) will arrive next week and it seems that our weather is going to fall in line with that for once. Just this past Monday the temp topped out at 90 degrees, and today it's going to be a struggle to be above 70. How great would it be to have a job as a weatherman in Detroit? You go to work and spend some time preparing your forecasts, which of course are nothing more than an educated guess, then you tell everyone what to prepare for and at the end of the day if you are totally wrong you can just say, "Hey, it's Michigan..." and you are off the hook.

Sigh....

I can't figure out why this blogger won't let me space out the bottom of my last post the way I normally do....I know it looks bad and jumbled, but just grin and bare it....

Football and Poker Weekend

My big football weekend started this week with, of course, a baseball game. Friday night I came upon two tickets to the Tigers/Royals game. Having nothing of note planned for the night, Jen and I decided it would be fun to head out to the Copa and see the Tigers play a team who actually has a worse record than them. We figured it was a good bet that they'd end their double digit losing streak....HA!

By the time we left the game in the 4th or 6th or whatever inning it was before the 7th, the Royals had already peppered the Tigers for 10 runs while the home team could only muster one. Our seats were so close to the bullpen, 6 rows directly behind it, that I had to leave the game before I started to imply to the pitching staff that I would have given up less than ten runs in that short span, and risk getting ejected from the game or relocated like some fans earlier in the week when the umpire decided he was also head of security at Comerica Park for the day. I certainly wouldn't have given up the home run that one of the Royals pounded into the right field stands, but that's because I lack the power to throw a ball fast enough to have it travel that far after being struck by only a slight piece of lumber. That was all very bad, but the cherry on top had to be Pudge's baserunning error. Sliding into second to try and break up a double play Pudge is called safe when the shortstop drops the ball. Pudge then gets up and jogs toward the dugout thinking he was tagged out on the play. And this is our marquee player???

Anyway, the final score ended up being 12-2....well after we exited the park and headed over to the town pump for a bite and a drink. The end of the night came pretty early for us as Fridays all seem rather long now that I get up so early....

So after the horrible baseball game I sat through, I was looking forward to some good, hard hitting U of M football....yeah, that was a waste of three hours. Henne played poorly, Hart was injured and left the game early, when the Henne finally got the ball to our WRs, they acted like the ball was going to explode if they caught it....all this and we only lost by a TD. NIU showed us a bad team could stay with us if we didn't play our A game, and Notre Dame just took that one step further.

Later that night we headed out to Michelle and Bill's for a little poker. Small game, small buy-in, small time play on my part....I played loose/aggressive and finished out of the money each of the three games....I was the big stack for most of the first game and played pretty well, but lost four consecutive "coin-flip" hands late in the game when I had others all-in. I guess I really can't complain about my play in the first game, just the results....

My only ray of sunshine for the weekend ended up being the Lions....go figure. Green Bay has had our number for a while now, basically since Barry retired, and we ended up pulling out a victory in a game that was a lot closer than the score indicates.

At least I have a lot of work to look forward to this week....

Still here....

Well, I haven't said much lately and I think that is a direct result of the damage and despair I see playing out in the south every day now on CNN, FOX News channels, NBC channels, ABC, even ESPN....I still have my voice and stand firm with it....but it has been overshadowed by this awful natural disaster.

Evacuate!

If there was a good chance that your house was going to be flooded to the roof in a mere matter of hours and you were told to evacuate ASAP, what would you take with you? Would you stay behind are take your chances?

Personally I can't see any benefit in staying in a house that sits below sea level as a hurricane is taking aim at your city. As I watch Katrina pummel the south, I try to think what matters most to me that I could pack into the Cherokee in an hour or less. The most obvious answer to me is Guinness, his food, and water. After those were situated I'd grab my insurance policy and any other important docs I have in the house and some clothes. After that I would probably do a quick room by room walk through and see if anything grabbed my attention....Poker chips and cards....Portable TV and all the AA batteries I could throw in a bag with it so I could watch the news as long as possible....My camera, my hard drive, maybe my brand new monitor if there was room....cell phone and car charger....jewelry....toiletries....Then it's time to lace up the boots and get out of Dodge!

All the while I would be on the phone with family and friends to see if anyone needed my help with anything before I got the Big Pimp and myself to higher ground. If not, I'd throw Pimpzilla in the Cherokee and take him to meet his Grandma and Grandpa at the cabin up north.

At first glance I was somewhat disturbed that my poker chips ended up being the third thing on my packing list....then I realized that I am very lucky to have everything important clearly prioritized and that I won't obsess over the lesser things. My possessions, it seems, have little meaning to me when the fit hits the shan. I know that as long as I have my family and friends and my Pimpzilla, I can make it through anything and still be a happy man. Possessions are just that....THINGS that you own. Now the government would only view Guinness as one of my possessions, but I can't think of him like that at all....how can you call a dog who saved your life a mere possession?

Family. Friends. Dog. Those are my big three....

Weekend in Review (the LONG version)

Friday:

Fridays are always long for me considering it's the 5th consecutive day of waking up at 4:30, usually after about only 5 hours of sleep. By the end of the my work day I am ready for a nap, but with errands to run and a dinner reservation at Como's for Kelley's birthday I didn't have the time for such a thing.

Como's is a nice little place right on the main corner in Ferndale. The seating area outside is where we reserved a table, and we enjoyed the open atmosphere throughout the night. Once we found some reasonable parking and got inside. I took the reasonable parking for granted. Once we got to Ferndale we didn't see any open spots in the public lots or on the streets near Como's, so I had Jen high-tail it over to a lot near The Post that I figured would be a good place to park. We pull up and see the sign for $5, not the best value but at least we're getting a close parking spot.

Jen feeds a five into the machine which then instructs her to add 5 more dollars....my level of aggravation is rivaling that of Clark W. Griswold when he sucker punched Marty Moose's statue at Wally World....So I get out and look over the parking machine, because I am an expert on these types of things ya know, and realize quickly there is no way to compromise with the machine just because the sign says $5. So I hit the refund button and CLANK CLANK CLANK here come the quarters, like I cashed out at a slot machine. So I take my new found wealth and jump back in the passenger seat and we end up getting a spot on the street a couple blocks away from Como's.

We had a lot of fun celebrating Kelley's birthday and people watching. The bar inside Como's is very nice and the price for my libation of choice was the lowest I've found anywhere. Now I had heard that Como's had good pizza, but that is an understatement. The pizza is excellent and I wanted more than we ordered.

We stayed a little later than I would have liked, I actually fell asleep briefly while we were still there, but all-in-all it was a fun night.

Saturday:

Saturday was supposed to be a nice long day of football followed by a nice little BBQ. The weather changed all that rather quickly. When my alarm went off I could already see the impending storm and just jumped back in bed for a couple more hours. When I finally rolled out of bed Jen and I watched Layer Cake, which I had just bought the day before. I dug the movie, but I'm going to have to watch it again to catch some of the dialog.

Toward the end of the movie Mark told me on his way out the door that there was a safety meeting in progress at the OPAC (Oakman Performing Arts Centre) and that one of our crew members was celebrating a birthday. After the movie Jen and I puttered about the house for a little bit and met decided to stop in on the meeting and sing happy birthday in our own special way.

After the safety meeting Jen and I headed over to Steve and Jill's to celebrate their engagement and Steve and Adam's birthday. With many people out of town for the weekend the BBQ was slightly underattended. Once Mr and Mrs Gentner left, the remaining ten of us were herded down to the basement by Jill, so we could listen to the CD of one of her friends who is in a band....

Sitting on the couch listening to Mormon Rock was not the highlight of my evening, but I did turn to Jen and say something to the effect of, "Wow this is such a blog entry...."

About halfway through the second song the ability of the evenings imbibers to feign interest in this God awful sound was completely gone, and most everyone jumped off the couch to hang at the little bar in the basement. Jen and I sat patiently and listened to a couple more songs until someone mentioned poker....I was upstairs so quick you would have thought someone shot me out of a cannon. I fetched my chips and cards as enough chairs were brought in for everyone who wanted to play.

We played two tourney style games with a $5 buy in for each. Second place got their $5 back and first place took the rest. I think we had 6 players for the first game, and 7 players for the second. The games were not seriously competitive and I played solid, but fun poker. I didn't mind blowing a few chips here and there calling people all-in with 4-8 off to see what would happen when I was big stack. I was getting pretty good cards, even hit quads once, and really capitalized on types of hands. Both games ended up with me and Mike D heads up, and I seemed to have a better read on him than he had on me so I took first both times.

On the very last hand of the night it was pretty obvious that I was behind in the hand when Mike moved all in. The flop was 8-J-K and I was holding only A-J. I read him for the king and said so as I called him, as he turned over Kx, and then I asked for a Jack on the turn. Ask and ye shall receive. The turn was a blank and I took home enough cash to pay for my round of golf the following day. Which brings me to....

Sunday:

Went golfing with Mark, Marc, and Jay at Taylor Meadows. It's a nice municipal course with some pretty challenging greens. Started out poor, got somewhat better in the middle of the first nine, then completely lost it for the rest of the day unless we were on a par three where I made the green in regulation 50% of the time, which was at least 100% better than all the other guys.

Not much more to say about it....had I played more this year, or gone to the range more than once, I would probably have more to say....but as it is, I now stink at golf.

Movie Review

Just in time for the weekend I decided to write up a review for The 40 Year Old Virgin, which I saw earlier this week. That is, until I read this week's Real Detroit Weekly and saw that Keith Dusenberry had already put most of my thoughts in print. Here's his review of the movie:

How much did you like Anchorman? Your answer to this question is directly proportional to your likelihood of enjoying Virgin. To be fully accurate, there needs to be a slight adjustment to this formula: Virgin has no Will Ferrell, though it certainly feels like a movie he could have been in. Instead, Virgin features a bunch of the supporting Anchorman cast members, including The Daily Show’s Steve Carell. His role as a 40-year-old who has never had sex does not drastically push his acting skills beyond those Carell regularly utilized to portray a fake news reporter … or for that matter, Produce Pete. He’s awkward, naïve, trying too hard to seem cool and generally pretty funny. There are lots of jokes in the 5-to-7 range (on a 10 scale), but they come steadily enough to make this movie seem funnier than it really is — and though the 8's and 9's are fewer, they are well-placed and laugh-out-loud funny. The pacing drags in the film’s final third — Virgin would benefit by having about 25 minutes shaved from its nearly two-hour runtime. Still, it’s funny, brainless and enjoyable.

Now to tell you the truth I really didn't like Anchorman, but I did enjoy 40 Year Old Virgin. Anchorman seemed to go overboard to force the punchlines, where most of the jokes in this movie flowed very well. I'm a little disappointed that most of my friends haven't seen it yet because there are many lines from the movie I'd love to quote, but no one would get except for Jen. All in all I give this movie a thumbs up and would be open to seeing it again with a group of friends.

Totally Random....

Why is it that every person in Michigan over the age of 50 will always prescribe Vernors and (blank) when someone isn't feeling well? I overheard someone "diagnose" someone's "stomach virus" over the phone yesterday, with what she said was very limited information. Her advice? "Vernors and water....and some popsicles for your stomach. You don't need to waste money on a doctor."

It was only after she hung up that she admitted she had limited information and really didn't know what malady had stricken the unfortunate caller.

Top Five List

Yesterday's post made me think of a new top five list....

Top Five Ways to Eat Bacon:

5. Bacon Cheeseburger
4. Bacon Egg and Cheese Biscuit
3. Club Sandwich
2. At breakfast along with eggs, toast, and pancakes
1. A bacon sandwich on white toast

94 Days

Dec 2nd is the weigh in date. 200 lbs is the target. I have 94 days to lose the 35 or so pounds that I have put on in the last year. My reward will be a freeroll into one of the NLHE tournaments on the ship during our cruise....and a sandwich....with bacon. If I lose I will have to stake Jen in said poker tournament. This may just be the motivation I need to get my butt back into the gym on a regular basis, much less stop eating like a farm animal.

Speaking of farm animals....
I had a good time at the Michigan State Fair last week. For only $9 you can get in on some of the best people watching around. People watching at casinos is grand, but when you have fair patrons, carnies, and farmers all in the same place it becomes hard to remember that staring is rude.

This was my first time back to the fair in a few years and I of course wanted to win Jen a stuffed animal, so I went to my old stand by and tried to break some beer bottles with some baseballs. Being that I am about 30 lbs overweight and haven't thrown a baseball in forever, I decided to warm up a little and ease into the throws. First two had some speed but missed the bottles, and I put a little more on the 3rd and final ball I got for $5 and struck a bottle. Unfortunately the balls seemed to be a little on the soft side and the ball ricocheted off without busting it. I put my head down and walked away.

We made it around the midway watching people try to toss a softball here or knock something down there, only to be mocked by the carnies who would undoubtedly say, "look, it's easy...." and "win" the game on their first try. This "demonstration" may be the most brilliant idea to ever come from a carnie, in the history of the world....maybe not, but I'd say it's a good bet.

On our way out of the midway, somewhere around the time we were commenting on all the chubby 8-10 year old girls who looked like boys because of their short hair and broad bodies, I find another carnie asking me to try his bottle breaking game. Being that I was thinking about hitting the bottle and not getting a prize on my last try most of our time in the midway, I wasn't what you would call a hard sell.

I give him the $5 and take three balls out of the bucket....three hard plastic balls that I suspected would be harder to break a bottle with than the soft-hard balls I used at the last carnie stand. Meaning, of course, that I need to put all of my weight into my throws so I take a few steps back, tug up slightly on what little sleeve I have on my right shoulder and pull out my old pitching form. It was a beautiful throw with good speed and right in the strike zone....which was about half a foot underneath everything.

Jen hands me the second ball and I notice that people behind me have stopped to watch me throw the next one. I tend to do much better with everything I do when I have an audience, so go figure I line up my next shot and fire it right through the bottle I was aiming for, the sound of the bottle blasted into a thousand pieces and the gong-like sound of the ball hitting the metal backstop drowning out the carnie's cry of, "We have a winner!".

Next throw was pretty much the same as I obliterated another empty beer bottle and won my girl the "Large" prize. She ended up choosing a white dog with the tongue hanging out and posable legs. She now has it proudly displayed in the cargo area of her Envoy for all....er....none to see.

Working for the Weekend

After a long busy week at my 9-5 it's finally Friday! Ironically, I have never in my life worked a job with those hours....just a few 9-5 shifts when I worked at MGM, but that was 9PM-5AM.

ANYway, so it's Friday and when I get out of here I can just relax for the weekend....well, after I get out of here and pick up my suit from the cleaners. And after I head out to Clawson during rush hour traffic and the Woodward Dream Cruise to attend a 6 pm, Friday night reception for a wedding that took place more than 8 months ago. Not exactly how I would have planned it, but hey....

So that leaves tomorrow. I guess I can relax sometime after Grandma's outdoor birthday party at Chilson Pond on a day with rain and storms in the forecast. But then I have to come home and get ready and go check out an Irish band called Death by Accordion playing a gig in, of all places, Greektown. Which, as anyone who knows anything about anything in the city of Detroit can tell you, is the place around here to find the best Irish pubs.

So Sunday is the day....I will relax as long as I bust out early from the NLHE home tournament(s) we are playing all day....but will I really relax if I bust out early? I doubt it. I will be going over my bad play or bad beat while the other players finish the first game. Eh, maybe I'll just chalk it up to poker being poker and take a nap....

No matter how I slice it, I should have a pretty busy weekend. I should also have a pretty fun weekend. Those combined will lead to one looong Monday when I get back to business. Maybe I can use some of my spare time on Monday to do a little bit of research for my FFL draft which is right around the corner, and at the moment I have no idea who I'm looking to draft with the 10th pick in both leagues.

Hopefully I'll have a few pics from this weekend in my next post....I just hope the lighting at the wedding is decent, the weather holds up for Grandma's party, and either I win the tourney on Sunday or go out early enough to get some cool "action" shots of everyone who actually knows how to play poker.

Townie Poker!

It only took one tournament, and one trophy, to get me hooked on Townie Poker. For the uninitiated, there are a few places near my cottage up north that host charity poker tournaments. These tournaments attract many locals looking to get lucky and take home the $500 first prize. Unfortunately for them, these tourneys often attract people like myself who are visiting for the weekend and have a greater grasp of game theory and the ability to adjust their playing style to fit the game. Sit someone with those attributes at a table like the ones in these tournaments and it's Darwinism at it's best. You can sit back and watch as the weakest bust out first, then up to the next level of the food chain until you see, barring many miracle suckouts, the player who was able to adapt the best standing there holding everyone else's money.

This is unfortunate for the locals because they are all genuinely nice people just hoping they can make a little extra money by playing some cards. And true to the well known quote from Rounders, "The nicer the guy, the poorer the player." It's kind of like the lottery to them, but instead of 1000:1 to make any money, they are getting approximately 10:1.

This being said, I changed my play to suit the game and did pretty well until an error in judgment put me out of the game. I could easily blame the old guy who called a 4.5 x BB raise with 93 offsuit for my demise, but I should have known better than to push all in on the turn without the very best hand after he had checked it to me. 1 mistake. 5th place. 0 dollars.

Jen adapted her game even better and stuck with it to finish 2nd and in the money again. Had the blinds not doubled every half hour and gotten ridiculously high at the end, she very easily could have outplayed the guy who took 1st. We were only at the same table for a few hands before I busted out, but it seemed that she played her draws less aggressively than I did and that worked in her favor because no matter what the best was, someone was going to call each time with an overvalued middle or even bottom pair. She also seemed to read the townie players better than I did and wasn't afraid to muck it when she had to.

There's another townie tourney during Labor Day weekend. Hopefully this time I can stay in the right mindset and we can both get a few hands here and there so we can finish first and second again. Hopefully there will be another trophy up for grabs so I can stay a little more focused on the task at hand. Maybe I just need to play more hands on Party Poker to get used to the townie style. Practice makes perfect right? Well in poker, practice makes money.

Homecoming and More....

Every year the city of Dearborn holds our summer festival, dubbed "Homecoming" over the first weekend of August. When I was younger I never missed it, but I hadn't been in a few years so I was excited to see how it is now. I was not impressed. Maybe it was just that Friday evening isn't the best time to visit the festival, but there weren't many people at the park and there really wasn't that much to do. After an hour or so we headed over to Cheli's Chili Bar to check out the tent party there which included a set by the Killer Flamingos.

Six of us ended up hanging out at Cheli's until about 1:30 when we all piled into my new Grand Cherokee and headed to Jen's for a sleep over. We sat around and BSed for a while and I, being the only completely sober one, was even more amused by everyone's drunken hijinks.

Saturday

Saturday morning came too soon and I got going later than I had hoped. I had planned to be up early and take my suit coat into the tailor and have a couple repairs made since the coat didn't quite hold up to the rigors of my last Vegas trip. Well, I got up with enough time to eat breakfast and get ready for the wedding, but I was going to have to go without the coat. In hindsight it wasn't so bad since my vest made it look like I brought the coat, just never wore it....

Got to the church just in time for the ceremony, although the sculpture depicting two Native Americans handing their child over to a catholic priest nearly made me mad enough to not even go into the church. After briefly expressing my disbelief at the scene welcoming "one and all" to the church, we went in to be seated. The ceremony was pretty standard, but the priest found just enough time toward the end to bash Muslims and Jews.

After all that I needed a little comic relief and we had almost three hours to kill until the reception. I figured the proper way to spend that time was in the movie theater watching, obviously, Wedding Crashers.

The reception was nice, even though the food left a little to be desired. Hey, I'm gonna complain about something right? This time it just happens to be the food. I was happy to take many pictures throughout the night, but the lighting was really hard to adjust to and I didn't get nearly as many good shots as I had hoped. Maybe I just need to buy a better camera....

Sunday:

Sunday was another poker day. Our first game started a little later than expected due to some traffic problems caused by weekend construction. Ah, the joys of driving in Michigan. Using a new blind structure and increasing levels every 15 minutes instead of 20 seemed to work pretty well, but I think I am going to tweak it once more so the blinds aren't 20-40 halfway through the first orbit.

After a couple hours we pared it down to Rob and Hope. Truthfully I didn't watch too much at that point because I was eating pizza and setting up the chips for the next game, but I am sure Hope played textbook poker en route to knocking off Rob for the win. This made her the 7th person to sign my table and earn an invitation into the upcoming tournament of champions.

The second game was only a 7 person affair as Jeremy and Rob both had to leave, and Katie decided not to play. It wasn't too long before Matt and Stephanie were heads up, and Matt prevailed shortly thereafter earning him a signature spot on the table and the final invitation into the tournament of champions. Now that the field is set, I just have to figure out a date and send out the invites....

My showing in the games was less than spectacular. I ended up dumping a pretty fair amount on one hand early on when I bet my straight and flush draw but didn't hit either. Not too long after that I found a couple of queens in the hole and pushed all in after Matt made it 3xBB to go. He called rather quickly and I knew before he turned over his cards, "Tell me you got the kings, right?" Of course he did, and they held up to send me to the rail. The second game I never really made a hand and played pretty passively, no surprise that I didn't do well. Guess I will have to build my momentum for the townie poker tournament by playing online this week.

PokerJen

I got Jen onto Party Poker last night....she finished 4th in her first SNG....man was she PO'd. She got OK cards through the first part of the tourney but bet well enough to build up a nice little chip lead....then the bad cards came. It kept getting down to, "OK you have to make a move soon....but not with those cards." Then she lost a coin flip as the short stack and bubbled out. She did very well adjusting to the SNG donkeys, but couldn't keep it going without some cards. All in all I am very proud of the way she played, but her competitive streak wouldn't let her feel the same....After her SNG I played 30 minutes at the NL25 game and made 30 cents....transform that into an hourly rate and I think it's a little more than the GNP of Madagascar, but still not very impressive....

At Last....

My cards have come along....

Wednesday afternoon started off like a typical bad day, and I of course made it worse with a bad play on a short handed no limit table. After the table filled up a little more I reloaded and had another go at it and did OK even though the cards were still chilly. Getting bored with the one NLHE game I decided to fire up a $20 SNG where I am usually very confident, but was a little apprehensive to say the least after all of my consecutive losing sessions. My apprehension was gone after the first hand when I got KK in the big blind and pulled in a profit of 170 even after an ace flopped. That one hand seemed to cure everything for me. In the next 30 minutes I played rather well in both the NL ring game and the SNG where I was the chip leader for most of that time. Cards ran a little cold and I closed the ring game to focus on the other 4 players still in the SNG. This short stretch of cold cards was of the "great starting hand, terrible flop" variety and took me out of the chip lead. I remember saying something to Jen, who recently arrived at my house and was patiently watching while she waited for me to finish and take her to dinner, about how I would rather have rags and fold than these hands you are pretty much forced to play yet never hit....the poker gods were listening for once and that's exactly what happened.

From there out it was a little bumpy with a couple suckouts against me and one suckout in my favor, but then I got it back and was able to get inside everyone's mind and play puppet master until the end. All except for one hand that might have cost me 1st place had it not been for Jen. As I have said before she is a very good player and has a great grasp of the game. I haven't completely gone over the hand history yet but as I remember I had either AJ or KT suited, raised preflop and got one caller. I hit middle pair with a backdoor straight and flush draw. Caller pushes all in and I look at Jen who is shaking her head....I have him covered, but am not too sure I should call. For once I did the smart thing and listened to Jen, maybe I am finally getting wise even though I can't seem to grow up. Anyway, I went on to win and boost my confidence once more heading into our live game on Sunday.

Cold Cards

So I am told that every poker player goes through this....it just takes a little time, play the way you normally would and it will all be fine soon. I'm still waiting.

Poker for me is not a job, it's not something I count on making money from at all. As a matter of fact, I have set aside a small bankroll to play with and when that is gone so is the online poker. I haven't lost that bankroll yet, but I sure am trying. Nevermind the fact that I have had six consecutive losing sessions online. Nevermind the fact that I can't win any of our home games anymore. The thing that bothers me most is that Jen currently holds a five game heads-up win streak against me. Don't get me wrong, Jen is a very good player and I don't mind losing to her. But this streak illustrates exactly how bad the cards have run for me lately. In a heads up game I'll give myself at least a 50-50 chance at winning against really good players. Against a pro, I'd say 3-1 or 4-1 against at the worst. Heads up is the best part of my game. With no other distractions or untimely bets by other players I have all the time in the world to get inside someone's head and think like they do, and I thank my great chess background for this. With any bit of luck, my B game will win against most players....but losing 5 in a row to one of the players I know the best is just uncanny.

Maybe this is the next big step I need to take on my way to being a top notch player....the only problem is, I don't know how to take the step. I've read a couple articles including a really good one from Daniel Negreanu, he is a much better writer than I had expected, but I am still stumped. I play low stakes, so I can't really lower the stakes and play it out. I like the game way to much to completely unplug, I just can't get over this frustration. Whatever the case may be, I just want to have fun playing on Sunday so I can build up a little more confidence before heading back up north for another townie poker tournament.

I am now the proud owner (lessee) of a new Grand Cherokee. With all the hassle out of the way during the big 3's employee pricing promotions, I may have spent more time test driving the truck than I actually spent inside the salesman's office....unless you count the time I spent in there waiting for him on Friday when I went in to pick up my truck and he had gone for the day. Wouldn't have been so bad if any of his co-workers knew he was gone. After a few minutes of waiting in his office, the young receptionist with the cool hair, hideous cackle, and grossly oversized curtains decides that they should try and track him down before the dealership closes on us. Blah blah blah, they get him on his cell phone and due to our "miscommunication" there's no way to sign the paperwork, but I can still take the truck for the weekend. Not a bad deal, but I still have to come back on Monday to sign everything, and the truck will do me no good over the weekend as I will be up north....which leads me to another car dealership problem.

Poor Jen got to the dealership on time (even though she's late for everything else) to meet her salesman (who was actually there) but he couldn't get ahold of the dealership that had the Envoy that she was supposed to pick up that day. She took care of trading in her Audi, and thankfully the salesman is nice enough to give her a free loaner Envoy for the weekend. The loaner didn't have all the bells and whistles that hers is equipped with, but it was good to see how the truck would do on a weekend trip up north.

After all the frustration at our respective dealerships, we packed up the Big Pimp and hit the road. Guinness had mixed reviews of the Envoy right off the bat. There was more room for him in the back of this SUV than there was in the back of my truck, but there was also an extra row of seats between him and his daddy. It took him a little longer than usual to calm down back there, but eventually he seemed rather fond of all the room to stretch and lay as he pleased.

Saturday and Sunday we had nearly perfect weather, and spent a good part of each day on the boat just soaking up the sun and frolicking in the water. The time we spent up there doing a whole bunch of nothing was some of the best time I have spent this summer.

Whacko Dream Update

Bowling Alley Wedding Reception

Last night I had this weird dream that I was at a double wedding reception where I didn't know 3 of the 4 people who got married, and the fourth was Jen! I distinctly remember having a hard time navigating the bowling alley bar when I tried to use the restroom during the reception and the bathrooms were assigned to guests by last name....So what does this bowling alley bar wedding reception say about me???

Freud Says: "You are subconsciously worrying that your girlfriend will leave you for a man who has a unique level of class that you could never hope to equal....So how is your relationship with your mother?"

It's already Friday?

Must have been a busy week....I take a minute to look a few things over and all of a sudden it's Friday. I'm not complaining or anything, but I have noticed lately that time seems to be ticking a little faster than it did just a few years ago. Before I know it I'll be turning 30....and isn't that when life really ends unless you're famous?

Recap of my week:

Only got to the gym twice this week, falling short of my goal by one day. Only ate three healthy meals, falling short by two for the week....I still have a couple days to accomplish this, though it will be tough to do since I am heading up north after work.


Test drove a few vehicles this week and spent way too much time crunching numbers with car salesmen who all quoted me approximately the same price after being pretty confident they could get me a better deal. After all was said and done Jen and I both went the SUV route and will be picking them up this afternoon. Jen decided on the Envoy and I really liked the Grand Cherokee when I drove it. How could I say no?

The weekend couldn't have come at a better time for my poker sanity. The last couple days have been brutal online. Getting hit for huge losses on hands you generally should win on can really mess with your head....like when you make queens full of jacks and get beat by quads for all your chips.

Top 5 Things About Being 'Up North':
1. No phone in the cottage.
2. The boat.
3. Doing things at my own pace, or no pace at all.
4. Reading. Seems like the only time I read anymore.
5. Townie Poker.

Weekend Update

Most Monday mornings I get angry at my alarm as it calls to me at 4:40, but today I wasn't so much angry as I was surprised. Was it really time to get up for work already? Is the weekend really over? Mondays like this have been rare for me of late, but I love them because I know I had an awesome weekend.

Friday:

Friday started off the weekend right with a great date with Jen, the wonderful girl in my life. We started out with dinner at Ristorante Ciao in Dearborn. The place itself was OK and looked like a smaller version of other Italian restaurants. I guess the P.C. term would be intimate instead of small....still the place itself wasn't anything special. We were seated promptly even though we arrived a little early for our reservations, but I ran into my first problem right away when I pulled out my chair and noticed that the arms were so long that they were still under the table when the back of the chair hit the wall. I rotated the chair about 45 degrees toward myself, sat down, and shuffled it back toward the table locking myself in for dinner.

The server was attentive and courteous and easily rattled the night's specials off the top of her head. The food came out very quickly after we ordered, which made me wonder how they had enough time to overcook my filet. Mind you, I am very picky with how my steak is cooked, but I was very disappointed when I cut into it, and even more so when I tasted it and realized that it was a very good cut of meat. Jen's mushroom and cheese ravioli looked really good and she said it was very tasty. The presentation of both meals was fantastic, and the plates were very stylish.

Overall I enjoyed the dinner at Ciao and would definitely try it again in the future as the few drawbacks I encountered can be easily remedied and the food and service were both very good.

From there we went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Jen was completely unamused with the flick, but surprisingly enough I enjoyed it. Tim Burton's adaptations aren't always my favorites, but I liked the deviations from the norm this time. By the time the movie was over I was so tired I was just about useless, so I headed home and jumped in bed to get a little bit of rest before getting up early(ish) for golf on Saturday.

Saturday:

So my room mate Mark and I are notoriously late for everything....and we've got a golf outing to be at....I am told I need to be there about 10:45....we have several foursomes in the outing, so I figure that we can be a little bit late because everyone knows we always show up late. So we show up at 11:05 figuring that we'd have about an hour before tee time....we had five minutes. I am already annoyed when we got there because on our way someone called us to give us directions, but they were the wrong directions. Luckily I knew the area and was able to guide us to the course without incident. Then I get even angrier because they kept as as the second tee time even after we called them and told them we would be late. So I am pretty wound up when we get to the tee box and have to start without so much as a short stretch....just grip it and rip it and hope you don't pull something. Golfing angry equals bad golf, bad golf equals anger....by the turn I was ready to call it a day but we pressed on and finished very near last place....behind the girls team. Hooray Golf!

After such a showing on the course you definitely need something to raise your spirits, or some spirits to raise....either way we needed a couple drinks. So we headed to a friend's house for a non-bachelor party bachelor party. Our friend is getting married in a couple weeks and already had his bachelor party, but needed something to do while his fiancee' had her bachelorette party so we all headed to Jeremy's house in Oxford (only about a light year away from town) to have a little get together. Now I assumed that the party was going to be guys only, so when two attractive, well dressed young ladies started walking up the driveway toward us I said something to the effect of, "I thought you guys said there wasn't going to be any 'entertainment' tonight...." only to hear that it was someone's girlfriend and her younger sister coming to hang out with all of us. Situations like this are just one of the benefits of having Foot in Mouth Disease.

The party was a lot of fun. Had some deep fried food, had a few sprites, played some poker....I guess the poker was fun because I won....and we did a lot of talking and joking around. The only drawback was the ungodly drive home at 4:30 in the morning. Ugh.

Sunday:

Before I know it my alarm is going off and it's time to get up for poker. I am moving very slowly and my mind seems mired in a dense fog. I shower up, Jen comes over, and we head out to Big Rob's house for event number three of the Basement Poker Tour. By the time we get there my brain is still swimming in a thick gelatanous substance, and it becomes very apparent that my the money I won last night will just be a donation to today's prize money as I have no chance at winning since I can't concentrate at all.

First game I played some up and down poker. I busted out Big Rob fairly early and hung out with my big stack for a little while. Played poorly and ended up giving away a healthy portion of said stack to Paul by misplaying a little boat. My last hand was pocket 7s. I of course go all in, but Paul is the only one to call me....not what I want to see. He flips over his tens....not what I want to see. His hand holds up and he is still the only person to break my 7s in a live game this year, and he's done it twice now. The sevens often signify the end of the tournament for someone, but it very rarely ever me....oh well. Mark beat Jen heads-up to win the first game.

Second game I was awful. Called when I should have raised or folded. Raised when I should have merely called or folded. It wasn't pretty. Last hand is little slick(2-3) offsuit I raise preflop and catch bottom pair with my 3. I push all in and Mark announces that I have him beat, but he is still calling....He made top pair on the flop, which holds up and knocks me out. Mark beat Paul heads-up to win the second game as well.

Home (away from home) Sick

I miss Vegas....what more can I say? Such an amazing town with so much to do and see and so many people to watch....Ahhh, Vegas. I guess the heat here is just getting to me. If it's going to feel like 100 degrees outside can I at least get a free drink or two while playing video poker? Of course not....this is Detroit. Our casinos are required to charge for any alcoholic beverages.

What's buggin me right now is not the fact that I can't get a free drink in the casino, I mean I barely even drink anyway. My worries stem from my realization that I have no Vegas trip planned any time soon. My December trip fell through and I'm going on a cruise now instead. I am very excited for the cruise, don't get me wrong....but It's just not Vegas, and by the time I recover from the cruise (financially speaking) it'll be late January and I'll have been away from Vegas for an entire year. It's tragic really....

Maybe I can get away between now and then....I'm going to go check and come back later....