Labor Day Weekend and an End Of An Era

Here is how the weekend went down.
Friday - Took Friday off and Juju and I did some long put-off errands after taking Cooter to daycare. We were going to move some stuff over to the new house, but decided not to as the guys work slow enough and they would all but stop working to bullcrap with us. Picked up Cooter in the afternoon and went to the house after supper to see what progress (or lack of) was made.
Saturday - Juju's cousin came into town from Chicago. "The Rat" is what we call her. It seems everyone in Juju's (and my) family has an animal nickname.... curious.
She stopped over with Juju's other cuz Jen and we went to see the house. Afterwards we stopped at the Goat's house and visited with her. Then the Turnbuckles stopped over and we went to their house for BLTs and salsa. You make good salsa Sissy. We were there a few hours and it was Cooter's bedtime.
Sunday - Sunday was a crazy fun day. I did laundry like a MOFO most of the day. and then at 4 we went to the Luce Labor Day Picnic. It is a picnic that our church friends put on every year. It was fun. My folks, my brothr Bear and his fam and all of the usual suspects from church. I can't help to think the picnic was a little different this year as there is a lot of crappy stuff happening at church lately and we have basically stopped going. There was an uncomfortable undertone at the picnic as all the usual church chit-chat was non-existent. It was great to see some people I only really see once a year. The Conleys, some out-of-town Luces and actually many of our church friends we really don't see much of since we stopped going. We stayed a few hours and then to the Turnbuckles for their Pig Roast. Of course there was a poker game going and a bunch of beers. I basically got hammered, which is unusual for me, but the beers were going down pretty smoothly. I didn't play any poker, but got into the family BS session. Juju drove home and I passed out in bed when we got home.
Monday - Finished up the laundry in the morning and then we went to Aunt Kate and Uncle Roo's house to go swimming and picnic.
Tuesday - Tuesday morning back to work, but my boss Willy and Main Street sprung the NFL Fantasy draft on me.It was happening Tuesday night. They decided to do it on Friday when I was off. Crap. Hello, I have a phone... It started at 6 and ended about 10. I have never done an NFL draft. I have been in my share of MLB drafts many years ago. I am pretty happy with my team. We will see how the season plays out.
Wednesday - This is where the end of an Era tale begins. This was the last week of poker, maybe for awhile, maybe forever. I don't need to go into the details of why, but it is done.
Here is how the final week went down.
17 Players - Not sure of the rebuys. I think 3 or 4.
4th Place - Sandy
3rd place - Heather
2nd Place - Spitter McGee
1st Place - Mark
Mark and his wife Sandy are so new to the game they never got nicknames. Crap. I think I said this last week, but it is a shame we had to quit as it was just starting to get fun again with all the chatting and BS-ing. We had 5 ladies playing on the final week. Captain Dave was to my right and he never stopped yapping (I loved it). I won a nice hand early. I limped in with poket 9s and after a near all-skate of limpers I caught a 9 on the flopped and bet just the right amount to keep a majority in the hand. I took down a pot over 500 chips. It was not the proper play, to limp-in first position, but it sure paid off.
To everyone who ever played in my game. I looked forward to every week and trying to out-wit you. Sometimes I came home with some extra money in my pockets and some weeks I came home shaking my head, but every week I had a story to tell someone, or a bad beat to complain about, or a win to gloat about. I will miss the game, but I will miss all my poker friends more.
Thanks again for a great run and some great fun.

Poker In The Front....and 50 Blog Entries

Here is how poker went down tonight.
17 players + 2 rebuys (by Captain Dave)
4th Place - Spitter McGee aka. River Farbo
3rd Place - Heather
2nd Place - Oz
1st Place - Coach
Tonight I won the frst hand of the night... I hate winning the first hand. I think I hit a straight. I can't remember. But I do remember how I went out. I had exactly 405 in chips. I have KJ of spades. The flop comes K-8-J. The faces are clubs. I check. Texty Steve bets 60. I go all-in out of turn. (coach is still in the hand)... Coach folds. Steve calls. He has 2 spades. The turn is a heart and the river is a spade. CRAP. I was the first person out. There was not much I could do. I had the semi-nuts. The ONLY hand that could possibly be ahead of me was a pocket pair of 8s. I got all my money in with the best hand and I got sucked out on. I went home to help Juju with Cooter. I'm sure we all have a bit of a bug now as my and Juju's arms are both achy and Coots is still coughing.
Another record tonight. Four ladies (I use that term loosely) played in the game tonight. Hatches, Heather, Sandy and Sandy's sister-in-law. If we get any more broads we will have to have a ladies night. lol. I am just joking. I am very happy someone enjoys my game enough to bring friends and relatives (that aren't drunks or assholes).
When we first started playing, probably 3 1/2 or 4 years ago, i was pretty friendly. Lots of checking and lots of chatting. About a 1 1/2 to 2 years ago the game really changed a lot. We got some more serious players. Less checking more raising and less chatting, at least about general topics, most of the talk was of poker. Don't get me wrong it is still a friendly game, but the betting is not. I think we are getting back to more of my kind of a game. We still don't check like a friendly game of "everyone check til someone hits the river", but our conversations are much more lively and varied. River told a story about how he thought someone at McDonald's spit on his hamburger. (no likely) And how he drove back and demanded to talk to the cook and they wouldn't let him and he said if he saw him he was going to spit in his face. It was a funny story and if you know River, you know he probably over reacted and probably would have got himself arrested if he had confronted the guy. He had the whole table stopped listening in disbelief. Those stories are the reason I like to play poker. Well, that and winning money. he, he, he.
P.S. I am 2 hits away from 100. So not only do I have 50 entries I have 100 blog hits, since I have been keeping track. (about a month) CRAZY!! I realize probably about 75 of those hits are Hatches, but it's still 100.
Oh, I realized another scenario for my "building a mystery" entry below. If you haven't read it yet do so now... I'll wait... the 4th scenario is the person is having such a pregnancy scare that they are no longer going to be having "relations" in baby producing orifices, hence the lubrication....it could happen.

Poker. Poker, Poker

I have 2 weeks of poker to catch up on so here it goes.
August 13. Not sure of the payouts, (as i left early) but here is how they finished
4th Place - Captain Dave
3rd Place - Salvador Dolly
2nd Place - River Farbo
1st Place - Texty Steve

August 20th game went down like this.
15 players + 1 rebuy = 160 pot
3rd Place - Turnbuckle -20
2nd Place - Captain Dave - 50
1st Place - Kitsy - 90
I had a huge lead when the tables combined and honestly I really don't know what happened. I probably had 5 times what the next closest player in chips had and I won a huge pot the hand before we combined tables. The blinds were only like 15/30 then. everyone limps with 30. Flop comes. I flopped a K high flush and had 2 betters in front of me. Texty checks, Chad bets 60, I bet 160, Texty Steve goes all-in for 400. Chad calls and I go all in with like 1000 more. Chad folds and my Flush wins and i am 1510 chips richer. My cards really dried up after that and I lost a few big hands. I had decided not to bully and just play premium hands and let everyone else knock each other out. It didn't work out that way. I seemed before we combined i was winning with top pair and a good kicker, but I was chasing people out of pots. Once we were down to one table, I would hit top pair and someone would hit a straight or flush and slow roll me. Crap. I did a pretty good job of isolating players when i did have a decent hand. As I have said before I like to divide and conquer. I will enter a pot with nine players, but if I hit the flop I'm gonna bet enough to only get one or two callers (preferably none). Mostly I think I lost focus Captain Dave was to my left and Kitsy was to his left. Kitsy talks and talks and talks. I listen to his stories and forget where I am in the betting and toss my blind and and it gets raised. I fold without seeing the flop and the blinds get up there. You are talking 200 to call the big. I did catch Dave changing gears and told him i noticed it. He said he was flattered and i told him he shouldn't be... those aren't things other players are supposed to notice. lol.
We had some new faces this week and some old faces came back. Mark, his wife Sandy and a kid named Sal were the new people. Mark's first time was a few weeks ago. I guess he liked it enough to bring the old lady. That's cool. Kitsy brought Sal. He wasn't that good, and that was awesome because he was sitting to my right. He went out first just after the first bell. He went all-in and I called him with AA. Sorry about that Sal. Coach and "4-time John" were regulars I hadn't seen in a while. John was the only person at my table and Coach and Sandy were out before the tables combined, so I didn't get to talk to of them. John and I were in a lot of hands together so I didn't get to yap with him either. Mark sat to my right at the final table. He seems like a nice guy, but I really didn't get to talk to him as Kitsy monopolized the conversations.
Hatches and Heather were there also. I think 3 women playing is a record for our game. I hope the guys don't mind them playing. My feeling is that their money is just as green as the boys, so bring'em on. lol.
A little drama with the house today. nothing too catastrophic, I was going to blog about it, but it is 11:50 and I better get to bed.

Poker Night and Cooter

Here is how poker went down this week.
15 players and 3 rebuys = 180

4th Place - Snakehead - 10 bucks
3rd Place - Cutter - 20 bucks
2nd Place - Lex - 50 bucks
1st Place - Whitey - 100 bucks
Bubble Boy - Me - 0 bucks

That payout dosn't look right, but it adds up to 180.
I think I played pretty well, but ended up in 5th place on the bubble. Crap.
I don't remember winning a hand with anything more than trips. Got in a big hand with Whitey and lost about 850 chips. I flopped 2 pair, but Whitey flopped a straight. A few weeks ago I was getting straights left and right. this week I limped in with lots of suited and unsuited connectors, but I would get bet out of the hand on the flop. I flopped a gutshot more than once and someone would bet 400 with the blinds at like 20-40. I really needed a check. There weren't alot of calling stations playing today (at least at my table). I have to keep that in mind when playing connectors. I played position pretty well and got quite a few pocket pairs, but not many hit. I did bet Cutter off a big hand with pocket 4s when nothing hit on the flop. In another hand I hit trip 10s and won a nice sized pot.

Cooter was bad again today. He is having temper tantrums. You just have to tell him NO and he starts to cry and fall to the ground. Initally we thought he was just tired, but he is doing it all times of the day. We are just going to ignore him when he spazes out. If he realizes he doesn't get attention when he is a cry baby, hopefully he will stop.

P.S. Please make a comment on how you like the new layout of the blog, either on this post or the one below. if you don't have a blogger account just leave me a comment as anomynous and sign or don't sign your name in the body of the text. type in the anti-spam crazy letters and post.

Poker and the new house

here is how poker went down. I am not sure of the payout as i left early. There were 12 players and , i think, 3 rebuys.
3rd - Captain Dave
2nd - Hanging Chad
1st - The Mullet
Hatches came in fourth on the bubble, but she took out 2 players on the first hand of the night. She had JJ, Oz had KK and Captain Dave had A9 suited. One J came on the flop and no help the rest of the way and Hatches had 1500 chips just like that. Oz and Dave quickly re-bought in.
I made it to the final table and picked the Ace to deal first. there were 2 limpers and I had K 10. I was deciding to go all in as i didn't think the 2 limpers were a threat and the big and small blinds were the only plaers left to act. as i was thinking, River Farbo (small blind to my left) says raise. I stopped him before he said an amount and told him I hadn't acted yet. I got a bit miffed that he bet out of turn and with my whooping 340 I went all in. River is famous for raising in the small blind to try to steal pots..... He calls with 55 and the limpers fold. A queen and nine came on the flop, but i caught nothing else and was out. I was probably a good a chance as any to go all-in, although I had 7 more hands until i was a blind. I was kinda pissed about the whole thing and decided to just go home.
Today I had to cut foam in the afternoon to get some signs going. It is stinking HOT in the shop. not that it is any hotter than outside. It is just hot everywhere.
My folks watched Cooter today. He was a bit crabby all day. I am not sure why. We are going to try to get him to bed earlier. I only watched Winnie the Pooh once today. FANTASTIC !!
Juju was supposed to go to Penn State to teach a class at a library conference, but has a nasty kidney infection that was diagnosed on Tuesday at the hospital. She is doing fine, but is on pain pills and antibiotics. Juju picked up Cooter, but when I called after work she hadn't left my folks house yet. since it on the way home i stopped. We thought the grout was going to go in today so we all drove to the new house (no grout) and then to dinner at the Pittsburgh Inn. It is close to the new house and is a good meal at a good price. Uppa and Gamma paid, yippee! The watched Cooter all day for free and paid for dinner. It doesn't get any better than that. lol. Thanks Uppa and Gama. P.S. Cooter picks up the phone and says, "hi Alyice" now as well as, "hi uppa". Dang he is cute!

The week in review

Monday -
Juju's uncle's funeral and wake. Juju worked the wake for her mom while i was at work and cooter was at daycare. She brought home a butt load of leftovers. Sweet!

Tuesday -
Juju and I were invited to a champagne reception for a Kiosk I designed at the Maritime Museum. It is a cool concept. The kiosk is for the "Erie Hall of Fame". Residents of Erie who have contributed to the betterment of world as we know it. Instead of having a building they are going to put kiosks around the city in high traffic public places. The kiosk is interactive with a touch screen and video monitor and a lot of cool stuff inside you don't really care to know about.
After the ceremony we went to dinner at "Joe Roots" with my boss and his wife and the owner of "Howards". it was nice. Talked some about work and some about pleasure. I have never talked to Bill's wife in a non-work capacity, so it was cool to see how she ticks.... i like her.

Wednesday-
Sunday School picnic at Waldameer. It poured rain in buckets and I missed Poker... crap! Hatches did tell me about a crazy hand thought. Hatches was dealing. she accidentally flipped up a K to Hanging Chad and he decided to keep it. Most everyone was in the hand. the flop is KKJ. everyone moans and checks to Chad...He goes all in....everyone folds...except the guy to his right, "River Farbo" who calls. River flips a KJ...he flopped the boat and Chad was done for the night...crazy.

Thursday-
A day to rest. I'll take this lull of a day to write about work. I has been really busy the last few weeks. there was a slow down for about a month and a half, but things seem to be picking up. we have a whole new workforce in the shop that start tomorrow. I had to fill in on the foam cutter Thursday and Friday to try to make a delivery on Monday. I don't mind filling in on the shop floor every once in a while, but snap, my legs and feet hurt from lifting them over the "bars" all day. (that is me in the very beginning of the video drawing the sign, the bars are in the next clip, you gotta walk in and out of the machine to load and unload foam).

Friday-
We celebrated our sister-in-law Dena's birthday at the imperial Chinese Buffet. I was o.k.. the food that is. there was a ton of people there, but not a ton of selection of food. there was only one food station for regular food. one Mongolian food station and a small station with deserts. My Tops Buffet has four regular food stations a Mongolian and a desert. The Imperial did have a soft serve ice cream machine. They get a point for that. Our appliances also came from the GE Store and the tile flooring was started. the living room wood laminate floor is in. It is starting to look like a house.

Saturday-
Juju and I went to the movies to see the X-Files with "Danielle" and "Dave". Danielle is a very old friend of mine and i used to hang out at her family's house and watch the X-Files every week with them. We met at 6:30 and ate at "Oscars". The last few times i have been to Oscars it has been packed and the service has been horrible. Yesterday was the exact opposite. Juju and I got there a bit early to wait for a table about 6:10 and the place was empty. there were like 3 tables with people at them. We had a great dinner, great service and great conversation.... and no crowd to talk over. awesome. It was great seeing both Danielle and Dave and catching up. Danielle and I are her sister's daughter's godparents and since getting Cooter I don't see them at all. I gotta get better at that. I don't really see anyone. We get in our little family cocoon and shut out the world. It seems we have lots to do but no time to visit with the people we care about.
The X-Files was..... awesome. I was NOTHING i expected, but everything i loved about the series. We really had a great time D&D. We need to get together more often.
Spoiler Alert: There was no alien or monster or inbred personage. Just a good story about some missing women and Mulder and Scully come out of "retirement/hiding" to prove or disprove that a psychic knows some details of the crime and they get sucked into the case. I was almost weird that nothing really weird happened. It could have been a Sherlock Holmes or a who-done-it. Don't get me wrong, there are a few twists and turns that drop your jaw and make you scratch your head, but for the most part it was just a hour and a half long episode. Juju said at the end of the movie, "it makes me wish the series was still on the air". I couldn't have said it better myself. Well done Chris Carter.

Sunday-
Juju volunteered on the penninsula this Sunday for "Discover Presque Isle" in the morning. Cooter and I played and watched Pooh Bear sing-a-long for about 1000 times. he loves to dance to all the songs... it is very cute. In the afternoon Cooter and I went for a walk and played in the yard to let mommy take a nap. we watched Pooh Sing-A-Long for about 1000 times in the evening and put Cooter to bed about 8:30. It' s about 10:30 now and i am heading to bed. L8R

Poker and Infusion Wednesday

Poker was tonight and this is how it played out.
10 players. No re-buys = $100
2^nd place – Lex - $20
1^st place – Me $80
It was an odd night for my play. Usually i am pretty steady hovering around 500 chips. Then at some point i will make a move and either bust or get the chip lead. This happens usually about halfway through the field. I don't think it is a conscious thing. It's just that when half the players are out you should have double what you started with to stay above water...and usually i don't. So whether i get a few decent hands and “push a bit” or try to bluff a pot or two, i make my stand and let the chips fall where they may. Tonight a hit a butt-load of straights. I must have won 7 hands with straights. Mostly with two face cards. I definitely got better cards later in the night, but when i got the lead i bought quite a few pots with nothing. I lost a huge pot, about 2000 chips, to Oz when he got runner-runner heart to get the flush. (we both flopped 2 pair, i can't remember the community pair) he went all in with pocket 6's and one heart... i had 10's....and no hearts...crap. Honest me, no one saw the flush and as Oz was leaving the table i said “hey, you won with a flush”. At least i can say it was an honest win. that hand crippled me, but i got 2 great hands after that got a triple-up and double-up and was back in the hunt. I think i had about 200. the triple-up gave me 600 and the double-up gave me 1200. I just kept winning hands after that.
I don't like playing the first hand of the tournament and toss almost anything as the chances of winning the first AND last hand of a tournament are slim. I tell the person who wins the first pot of the night, "you win the first one and i'll win the last...."
Juju got her infusion of Remicade today and is feeling and moving much better. The goat picked up Cooter around 4:30 at day-care as the infusion takes three hours and started at two. Got to the goats after work and juju showed up soon afterward with New York Lunch (greek burgers and fries and gyros). As we missed the local Greekfest this year due to our Juju's arthritis acting up, she got a substitute. It was tasty!

Turnbuckle had to go over to the new house and fix some ductwork that the inspector didn't like. TB said he has done tons of new construction jobs and never had to seal every joint like the inspector wanted. they had to cut some walls and ceiling drywall away where the ductwork ran, but hopefully everything is fine now and we can proceed. not much new to say about the house. the progress is pretty stagnant lately, other than drywall and mudding and a new lawn nothing much has changed. I realize i haven't posted any pics lately, so i will soon.

Poker and a Cooter

Well, tonight was a crappy night for cards, but a good night for laughs. There were only 7 people who showed and one was a newbie. Here is how it played out.

1^st tournament
2^nd – Captain Dave - 10$
1^st - Dead Money – 60$

2^nd tournament
2^nd – Lex – 10$
1^st – Captain Dave – 60$

I was out of both tournaments first. I just couldn't get anything to play. And in the few instances i did, the flop was low and someone would bet it up. (like they had a pocket pair) Crap! In the 2^nd tournament i flopped a K high straight and went all in. The way i was going i was not trapping anyone. Well, Turnbuckle called me with a A 10 and the K hit on the river to give him the A high straight. A 3 outer........That is how my night went. At least we had quite a few laughs with 6 regulars. The conversation was excellent and i don't remember laughing that much in a long time.

Tomorrow I have to take Cooter to my folks house. Cooter's daycare lady is on vacation this week and Juju has had him from sun-up to sun-down. i haven't really been home at night. Monday we met with our insurance guy at the house and Cooter ran around like a wild man. Tuesday night was investment club (Juju stayed home and i represented the family) and tonight was poker (she watched JJ and Cooter while Sissy was out and Turnbuckle played cards). She deserves a break from crazy coot.

A few words about investment club....it is really hard to buy stocks when the market is nose-diving every day. We bought 50 shares of CVS last month and have already lost 3 bucks a share. It would have been better to leave it in cash. At least we would have the same amount and not $150 in the hole. Crap. But that is why it is called investment club and not money club. Lol.

Tomorrow night we need to order tile for the kitchen. Most of the drywall is up (except the bathrooms and laundry) and being mudded. I am forced to have the perimeter of the upstairs drywalled per the inspector. More money. Crap. But the house is shaping up and i can't wait to get it finished.

Poker, Cooter and the Po Po

Here is how poker went down this week.
11 guys and 3 rebuys (including me) = 140 bucks
3rd place – 20 bucks – me
1st place chop – 60 each – Calypso Jim and Lex.
I stayed at my steady 500 until about 6 guys. I won a few big pots and was the chip leader for awhile. Lost a big pot to Hanging Chad and then most my stack to Calypso AJ vs me QQ. An A comes on the flop and i lost 1200 as i called jim's all in. I was left with about 300. i doubled up a few times and waited for Chad to drop, as he had about 150. the blinds were like 80/160 at that point so Chad had one move and thankfully he missed. I think Jim busted him. Lex was real quiet and patient. He was only playing premium hands. At one point he had not played any hands in 3 or 4 rounds. his blinds were raised enough that he folded. All of a sudden he comes in with a raise and Chad says, “Lex, welcome to the game, when did you get here?”. Chadly has some good ones.
Cutter was on fire at the beginning of the game he took “Mitch the Bitch” out the first hand with 10 10. Mitch had Q Q. the flop was 6 8 6, the turn was a K and the river was a 10 Cutter caught the boat and Mitch was steaming as he misplayed the hand very badly by not re-raising Cutter. Anyway, we had an all-in the first and second hand as Texty Steve went all in and Cutter called. Steve had AJ and Cutter had AA. No help came and Cutter had 1500 chips after 2 hands! I got busted on a suck-out. i flopped 2 top pair and Jim went all in and he didn't have anything. Jim caught runner, runner heart to make his flush and i am on the rails. (but with my 20 bucks back.)
Juju and Cooter went to the beach for a Monday night concert with the Goat, Sissy and JJ. I guess he “worked the crowd” as she put it. Mooching food and drink from every stranger he saw. The goat said he would get in the middle of a crowd of people and start dancing. The crowd would start clapping and he would eat it up......he's 1 ½..... CRAP! My kids is an exhibitionist...but a good one. Lol. If you are gonna be and exhibitionist at least be good at it.
Last night the police scanner woke me up out of a dead sleep. I woke up to, “Don't shoot, don't shoot”. Talk about a rude awakening. Apparently there was a double shooting on the east side and the cop had his mic open and gun draw as he came up to the victims car. I think one is dead and one is in critical. I was up for about an hour listening... calling the ambulances, securing the crime scenes, (there were 2. one were the shooting took place and one where the car ended up.) the cops kept telling the ambulances to hurry. when they got them to the hospital, i listened to the security channel and ER calls there. I have always wanted to broadcast my police scanner over the internet. Maybe someday i will have the time to set it up. I like listening to big city police scanners on the internet. Chicago is crazy. I think i will put a link to the site with the list of internet police scanners.

i suck, here is a new post

Again, I haven't blogged in awhile. I suck. We moved poker to Wednesdays. Beginning a few weeks ago. I haven't been doing all that well, but last night i chopped first place with Cutter. Here is the lowdown. 12 players x 10 + 2 re buys x 10 = 140
3rd – Heather – 20
1st – Chop Me and Cutter – 60 each
I sucked out quite a bit. So i can't say i really did anything different. I really am not concentrating lately. I can usually figure out the reasons and the hands i misplayed to lose, but lately i am a chatterbox and am not paying the least bit of attention to my position or who i am in the hand against. I guess it is turning a bit more to the social side than poker side and that is ok, but damn it i want to play to get better. In addition the new poker night has thrown my weekly schedule off. I usually do laundry on wednesday and it seem thursday is always busy. So it accumulates til the weekend. Juju is on summer break and hopefully can pick up my slack.
Not a lot on the house front. It seems all they have done in the past month is put up the siding and roof. On a positive note the outside is buttoned up. The house inspector is making me put the deck on the back now. (i was going to do it myself after we moved in). I paid the extra money for the contractor to do it....so it gets done. Insulation is supposed to happen this week, but i haven't seen any yet. Then insulation inspection and then drywall. We are having a bit of trouble with the kitchen. Lowes gave us a layout and price. We shopped it around and are having trouble getting people to call us back. We got a cheaper price from a local kitchen place, but after our second meeting they haven't shown up to the house to take measurements.WTF
Well, a week from today Cooter will be officially ours. his adoption hearing is next Thursday. I took the day off. We are working the food at the annual Crohns and Colitus walk thurs. night so we will have a cake to celebrate.

sunday chill

it is a bit chilly today. we went to the mother & child luncheon at church (i helped serve the ladies). we took juju's grandma "buscha". my mom, aunt AJ and Rusty were all in attendance. we came home and took a nap and kept going on the housework. it seems lately i can't keep up with the laundry. i will have to try and do more loads per week. as cooter's clothes get bigger the bigger percentage he takes. it didn't help that we had no pampers, (his night-time brand) and he peed the bed every night. Pampers are the shizzzizle.
the house is boarded up as all the contractor's stuff is in the house as he had to empty his trailer to move his brother this weekend. CRAP! i stopped on Friday night and saw they had begun rebuilding the sun porch. i am very excited about it, it is gonna be sweet.

poker on Thursday played out like this.
13 guys + 1 re buy = 140 bucks.
1st place - 80 bucks - "4 time john"
2nd place - 40 bucks - "hanging chad"
3rd place - 20 bucks - "Rambo Phil"
after next week we are going to have to change the day to Wednesday, i am contemplating having the game only once a month through the summer as i have tons of stuff to going on and really can't "host" the game. (or at least shouldn't)
Friday was to bed early as angelfood ministries was sat morning. got up at 3:30 am and my dad picked me up. went to the goat's and got the truck. we has 140 some "units" and 60 some "specials". we have not had that many orders in quite awhile. the truck was pretty full. we picked up a bunch of orders from a church who no longer does the program. i came home and got a call from my friend "D.C. Steve" in from...guess where. we had the grand opening of a new roller coaster in our town and Steve and his girlfriend were one of the high bidders for the "inaugural run" the proceeds went to juvenile diabetes. you can take a "virtual ride" here http://www.waldameer.com/RavineFlyer2.html

it was great to see him and meet his old lady. i met them at his parent's house with cooter. the little one was abnormally bad. he wanted to run, but i couldn't let him as steve's parent's house on in no way "baby proof". there is breakable stuff everywhere. i watched pics of their trip to Italy between chasing cooter. i wish i could have hung out and chatted over a few beers, but was only there about an hour as cooter was CRAZY! if you are reading this steve, i apologize for cutting it short. i would have met up with you later if i wasn't up at 3:30 am and Juju was feeling better. we came home took a nap and got up about 7 pm. watched the backyardigans for the 1000th time and then went to bed about 11.

Update, Update, Update.

Wow, it's been a few days since i posted and i have a lot to write. i may break this up into a few posts so it isn't so long... here we go.

Thursday's poker results.

12 players + 1 re buy = 13 buy-ins x 500 chips = 6500 chips

1st place - Hanging Chad - 80

2nd place - Hatches - 30

3rd place - River Farbo - 20

Hatches strikes again. another second. She was way out-chipped 1500 to 5000. i whispered in her ear to play strong, she had nothing to loose....she did. She went all-in every other hand and got Chad to fold a bunch of times. She doubled up once and just as she was getting some steam behind her, chad went all-in she called and lost. CRAP! I stayed around 500 all night, got a pocket pair of 10's and lost to a AJ when a J hit the river. they don't call him "River Farbo" for nuthin'. It was a coin toss as to who would win, but i still got rivered.

Friday was an early night for me. I do Angelfood Ministries for my church once a month. Here is how it works. You pay for groceries ahead of time for $30 and in the middle of the month, you come to our church and pick it up. It is usually around $70 worth of food. Since it is a ministry and not a government program there are no "qualifying". if you eat and have $30 you "qualify". I go to bed early on Friday night, Up at 4 am on sat morning and drive over to the Goat's to get the box truck. Meet my bother-in-law and drive to another city (not far away) to meet a semi-truck full of food. there are usually 6 to 7 churches that split the food. We load up the box truck with 3 others from church and drive back to our church to distribute the food. We usually arrive at our church between 7 and 7:30 with another crew to offload the food into our gym to distribute. we distribute between 9 and 11 and then have lunch. Juju and Cooter came down and we left for home around 12:30. juju dropped us off and ran some errands. I wasn't feeling tired but fell asleep on the couch after i put cooter down for a nap.

at 6 pm we went to meet a friend of ours who adopted a baby from China. It is a sad story with a happy ending...kinda. Our friend Lori went to China last month to meet her baby she is adopting. to make a very long story short, a few days after getting her little girl "Kat", the poor little thing came down with meningitis and had some brain swelling. she lost her sight and hearing and her muscles stiffened-up. Since her adoption was only for a healthy baby and not a "special needs" baby, she had to "un-adopt her". My some miracle they found another adoptable baby "Mei Mei" and after a 1 1/2 month stay in china that was supposed to be 2 weeks. she and her new baby Mei Mei came home. Lori is making sure the Kat is going to and Institution where she will be taken care of. She met some really nice people in china that are making sure it will happen.

there were tons of people at the airport to welcome her. she was one of the last people to get off the plane. we were all so excited we were welcoming everyone off the plane. i heard someone say they thought there was a serviceman on the plane because of all the people at the gate, but got confused when they saw the "it's a girl" sign. lol. they just had a puzzled look on their face and shrugged their shoulders. Here are a few picks.

Here is cooter meeting Mei Mei for the first time. they are about the same age 1 1/2 years. the size difference is crazy.

Poker Night & The House

Poker night and here are the results.

13 players + 5 rebuys = 18 x 500 = 9,000 chips

1st - Calypso Jim - 90

2nd - Hanging Chad - 50

3rd - Cutter - 30

4th - Snakehead - 10

I got to the final table by sucking out on McScotty's AA vs. my 10-10. spiked an 10 on the river. A two-outer. Later, I came in 6th, but had a pretty cool comeback.

I lost a huge hand on a nut flush draw with 2 guys going all-in ahead of me. I had to call about $700 (with $760 in my stack) as the pot was huge (about $3500) and i.....had the nut flush draw........$700 to win $3500, a no brainer. of course, i missed it and was left with $60. Well, i double and tripled up a few times, bought some blinds and i was up to $1500. Still lower stack but more than capable to cover $100 - $200 blinds. went back to about $700 and went all in hitting middle pair (8's). My caller unfortunately hit top pair (J's) and put me out in 6th place. I played pretty tight again tonight, but really never got much to play with. i never got any painted pairs all night, just 10's a few times and some low pairs. bought some nice hands betting in last position with multiple players in the pot. my only real boo-boo was maybe calling the nut flush hand, but the pot was too big to fold. I am very good at hanging around with a small stack. i do it on a regular basis. the only problem with that is you can't push the big stacks off any hands. you always have to pay attention who you are in the hand against. Monster stacks will call anything hoping to hit, as they can afford it.

today's lesson..."pot odds". no matter what your hand is, never call a super large bet unless you are getting 3, 4 or 5-to-1 odds on the money you need to call. ie. if the pot is $200 and someone bets $1000, you need to pay $1000 to win $1200. you are risking $1000 to win $1200. you may think wow, you double you money, but unless you know you have the best hand the risk doesn't match the reward. if 4 players bet $1000 the pot is $4200. it is worth the risk, even with a lesser hand, as you can win 4x what you are about to bet. there is my lesson on "pot odds" today, kids. the bigger the pot, the more risk you take. smaller pot....smaller risk.

Here are the house pics for today. not alot to write home about. I think there were only 2 guys working all day today. 75% of the floor down, but still no 2nd floor above the back (as seen in the pics). not sure of the weather for tomorrow. a few drops on the windshield as i was coming home from cards tonight. I was supposed to rain for the past 2 days and we have only see about 20 min. of precipitation in that time. we are pushing our luck.......

The 2nd Floor Begins

Here are some shots of the house today. i just got home from poker and it has started raining. CRAP! Stuff is gonna get wet. oh, well. the date stamp is messed up on the camera. grrrr.....

The Front 04/03/08

This is the view from the kitchen. it isn't super wide, but it is the whole length of the house. this will be one big "great room" on the right and bedrooms and bathrooms and utility room on the left. An outside shot of the "great room". them is some big winders.

Here are the poker results for tonight:

13 players - 6 rebuys = pot was 190
4th - McScotty - 20
3rd - Whitey - 30
2nd - Me- 50
1st - Hatches - 90


Yes, the student beats the teacher and I had a ton of chips on her. Heads-up is any ones game. I don't think i played aggressive enough against her. Caught a bunch of med. pairs on the flop and couldn't pull the trigger when she made a big bet. Nice game Hatches.
I didn't really bluff much tonight. i didn't get a really big chip lead til the end. I have noticed that a lot of the guys who don't cash on a regular basis are not "position players". which means they only play their cards and don't take into consideration what order they are in the betting. I will toss a Q-10 in first position, but raise with it when i am the dealer. The reason being i have "position". I can see everyone make their moves before i decide on mine. Even if i don't hit the flop (and everyone checks) i can bet double the blind. about 1/ 2 the time i take the hand as no one hit and everyone folds. even if only one guy calls my odds to win the pot just got a whole lot better. now i am against 1 player instead of 3 or 4. i threw away a bunch of med. to low pocket pairs tonight. i would always get them in first or second position. Med.-low pockets are a strange animal. the pot need to be worth it to see a flop, if i was last , or even near the end, in the betting and there are already 2 or 3 guys in the pot i probably would have called. it is worth playing to see if you can spike a set with 2 or 3 other players. 3 to 1 odds is good enough risk to take a stab at trips. they will never see the set coming and you can rake a nice pot. there is nothing better then someone betting into you when you have trips. I played pretty tight for the most part and won some big pots (which i hate being in). Did some bullying at the end of the game to keep some low stacks from winning the blinds. I read somewhere that being in the blinds is overrated. dealer and right of the dealer are the prime positions. the blinds only bet last pre-flop and first to act the rest of the way. the dealer acts last the rest of the way, so the closer you are to the dealer when he is on your left, the stronger your position in the betting. betting last is always an advantage.

that is about all for today. i attribute the low turnout at poker to the nice mid 50° weather.

No Roof Over My Head

well, today the roof came almost completely off. here are the picks.
the second story decking will start tomorrow and hopefully the roof in the days to follow.

The Front.

A pic for the northeast corner.

Northwest Corner.

Southeast Corner.

Southwest Corner. that little piece is the only roof left. (the dumpster is full)

We picked up juju's new car today and the ginormous fridge. My mother-in-law owns a catering business and has a box truck with a lift gate. We don't really use it for catering much, but it sure comes in handy to have a relative with one of those. the move was a piece of cake after moving a ton of crap from the guys garage to make a path for the fridge. We made a stop at my brother Moose's garage to store the thing. the stupid handle for the freezer fell off as we where moving it. I hope that isn't a sign of things to come. It didn't break. it was just loose and the "brain surgeon/fridge owner" grabbed it by the handle to lift it and it "popped off". crap. Overall, it looked in pretty good shape. On a positive note, there were some free taco bell sauce packets and papa john's garlic butter tubs in the meat tray. unfortunately juju made me throw them away. Any of you who know me, know a have a "butter problem". check the November 23rd log. Thanks for helping move the fridge "Turnbuckle". you are a fantastic brother-in-law.

Cooter did a pretty cool thing today. i asked him if he was ready to go to gramma & papa's house. i went into his room to get the travel bag and he walked in with his coat in hand saying "uppa, uppa" (or papa in cooter speak). it was VERY cute. His first word was "light"..."light", he is fascinated with them. loves to flip the light switches up and down. a close second was "up", hence "uppa" for "papa". He seems to understand a little more of what you say every day....except for the word "no". lol. Back to daycare tomorrow, now that i know he is not contagious.

work was steady again today. nothing exciting to report except i finished my extrusion drawings for the owner, then back to drawing "DeSign Stones".

Tomorrow poker. don't wish me luck. i'm defending champ. BTW the new playboy came yesterday with a professional poker player "spread". i honestly have never heard of the girl, but i wouldn't mind "going all-in" on her, if you know what i mean. lol

L8R

me and the boy

today it is me and the "boy". "wife" went to an all day scrapbook session at church. boy is napping from a long morning of playing, drinking, eating, dancing and singing (though "words" are more like a chant) to saturday morning cartoons.

i am cleaning, doing laundry and dishes. thought i would take a break and write something.
i won at my weekly poker game on thursday. my friend hatches came in second. she wasn't even gonna come. i am sure she is glad she did now. I taught her a lot about poker so it was kinda neet to have us going head to head at the end. of course, i crushed her like a grape (not really, she held her own). She even had me crippled for a few hands. In heads-up you gotta get cards to win...period.
i run a game every thursday for 10 bucks....i know it is illegal, but if the cops want to bust up a game with a 10 buck buy-in and a pot usually around 150 bucks, more power to them. It is almost all my friends and family, it's not like i am running a casino. just a way to relax and stretch my brains with something other than work. i am a much better tournament player than a cash game player. I am VERY patient and TIGHT, i'm good at faking i have a bad hand (slow playing) and very bad and faking i have a good hand (bluffing). i am not quitting my job to play professionaly in Vegas anytime soon, so i don't worry about it. the more hands i see. the better i get. that is my goal. to get better.
i will try to post every friday and say how i did and what i won or lost. here are the stats from thurs.

14 players - 3 re-buys (including me) - 170 buck pot -
4th -10 bucks - Texty Steve
3rd - 20 bucks - Snakehead
2nd - 50 bucks - Hatches
1st - 90 bucks - Me

this week i won 90 i gave 10 to the host and paid "boy's" babysitter 75 for the week on friday morning. that left me 5. two soft tacos for lunch and i am down to 3 in less than eighteen hours. I have delusions of grandure to save my winnings to buy some really nice poker chips or poker tables, but life always gets in the way. crap