What a fun weekend so far!

Today, Diana and I went over to my parents hours for lunch. Afterwards, we met up with Iwan and Sara, and hit up the ol' Del Mar Races. We had a lot of fun betting crazy bets. At one point, Iwan and I both bet the same thing, and it paid off, with each of us winning $56. So, that sponsered the rest of the afternoon, with some left over, so that was nice. Then they both came over for some dinner and a movie (Noises Off). I'm not sure how much they liked it, but I still thinks it's a hilariously funny movie. Maybe you have to be in the right mood.

Early night tonight, because me and Iwan and D are going to Viejas to play in our very first poker tournament! $12 buyin for some no-limit hold'em. Should be a whole lot of fun. I hope. We've never done this before, so it will be a total learning experience. But I think $12 is a deal for this kind of lesson. More news as it breaks.

How 'bout some Bloggin? O-tay!

Lessee... This week has just flown by!

Last night was another poker night. Iwan, M.Kyle, John, Gabe, me and Diana were players. It was a lot of fun. A lot better to have 6 people than 12. The only downside is that Kyle can get pretty grumpy for some reason, and it leaves the rest of us on eggshells. He had to leave early, and it was weird to see how the atmosphere of the room changed. Hopefully we can see some more smiles out of that kid the next time around. As promised, I'm keeping a running tally. I was up $20 on the night. Diana and I are keeping a combined running total, and we're at +$77. Not too shabby. We've agreed to use poker-winning money for something fun, which I think is a good idea. Gives a reward for good solid play (which, because it involves folding a lot of hands, isn't necessarily the most fun way to play). Anyways, I'm having a lot of fun with poker. It's definitely one of those activities (as I think I wrote before) that gets more interesting the more you learn about it. (I know my mom is probably freaking out right now that I'm going to turn into a gambler and lose lots of money. Please don't!)

I saw the aftermath of a motorcycle accident today. Not good stuff. On the way to work, a guy was riding between the 3 and 4 lanes. I saw him coming, and moved over to give him some room. He wasn't driving erratically or anything, and I barely noticed. However, 2 miles later, the traffic came to a big slowdown. As I got closer, I saw that 4 lanes were merging into the rightmost 2 because a lot of cars were stopped. I saw the motorcyclist on the ground with people gathered around him, and that was about it. He was in full leathers and a helmet, so hopefully it wasn't too bad. Still, I can't believe people actually ride those things. Yikes.

That's about it. Diana is getting in gear to head back to teaching, and is going to get busy. Tonight I played some Diablo II for old-time kicks while she was working. It's crazy how fast time flies playing that game. What a great game.

This weekend, we're going to see either "As You Like It" or "Much Ado about Nothing" (I don't remember which). That should be fun. Mom's birthday on the 1st, and Dsters on the 2nd, so I should probably, like, do some shopping or something! :)

Surfs up!

Today is a momentous occasion. For the first time in my 28 years of living not more than 5 miles from the ocean, I tried surfing for the first time.

My buddy Baditude took myself and D'ster out. Just easy stuff, no big deal. I have to say that the jury is still out on whether I had fun or not, and if I'm going to try it again. I'll tell you one thing, though: I am exhausted. The combination of being out in the sun and using muscles that I've never used before has left me pretty banged up. I also hit my hipbone on the board pretty good, and have a nice little half-inch cut that stings a bit.

Surfing is tough. It doesn't look tough, but I was only really able to stand up like once, and that was on a teeny little fake wave. I didn't have any expectations of being a superstar or anything, but I'm not sure I like being out in the water enough to give it any sort of serious effort. At least at this point in time, I get cold too easily, and don't feel strong enough to paddle around and catch waves. When I did catch a wave, I simply felt too exhausted to do the little push-up jump move to get to standing up. Diana didn't have that much luck either, being far more comfortable without the board in her way.

I know that muscles build, skills improve, and wetsuits can be worn, but I think I might be happier just watching from the warm beach. In other words, even if I was good at it, I'm not sure it would be something I'd enjoy doing. We'll see, I guess. Time can change opinions like this. In any case, I appreciate Baditude's teaching and expertise. He's a very good teacher, and good at offering constructive criticism without making you feel like an ass. All his tips started off with "I remember my biggest problem was with . Maybe you should try ...?" rather than "You suck, dumbass! You're supposed to do !" Good man.

I still feel like I have water in my ears. Bleah.

Well, Trendwest asked Diana when the last time we were there (apparently they're pretty good at keeping track of this sort of thing). When they learned it hadn't been a year yet, our invitation was revoked. Oh well.

Last night Diana and I saw "Step Into Liquid", which was awesome. I've never surfed before, but I love watching it. The footage was incredible and the whole narration of the surfer mentality was really touching. Good clean fun.

Today was the big fantasy football draft at Papa Rostons new pad. The place is nice. Plasma TVs as far as the eye can see. I'm pretty happy, I guess, at how my team worked out. I don't really know that much about football, but people didn't seem to be making fun of it afterwards, so it couldn't be all that bad. I come home afterwards, leaving what I thought was a pretty clear message that (Diana and) I wanted to hang out, and if something was going on to give us a call. Apparently that message didn't quite take, and people in fact did go out without us. Sweet. Not really that big a deal or anything, but I like hanging out with the group, and don't like feeling forgotten about. So that kind of sucked. Oh well. Luckily, my lovely wife and I had some good eats anyways, and watched "Spy Game". It was entertaining, in spite of the fact that I'm not really sure what happened.

I've been playing a lot of free money poker online. A few days ago, I started with $1000. Now I have about $150,000. I'm feeling quite proud of myself over this. Not enough to get me to invest real money, though. My friends are are getting pretty excited about playing real online poker. I'm still a little sketched out by it. Seems like it could be a slippery slope. Although you can play at ultra-low stakes (like $.01/$.02, and $.05/$.10 and so forth), so I guess it's all about self control. $20 could very well last a lot longer online than it does in our usual poker night. Anyways, we'll see what happens.

Poker-night itself is a little of a cluster, but I'll leave that for another time.

Unbelievable!

Diana's and my favorite company, TrendWest, has called us to invite us to another session. Faithful readers will recall my June 11th entry which recounts our most recent adventure with these high class and reputable salesmen of fine vacation homes around the world. Even more careful reader might remember that I asked if I could take information home with me, so I'd be prepared for the NEXT time I came back. The reply was a snotty "Well honestly, you probably won't be invited back." (At this point, I turned to Diana and said "Welp, looks like this well is tapped out!")

HA!

My girl Jessica called me and invited me back, offering lots of free gift certificates and so forth. I took their number and said I'd talk to my wife and give her a call back.

The last time we were there, the snotty lady told us how much it costs to have people come in, and how they probably wouldn't invite us back since we didn't show much interest. Suckers. Last time, they gave us $50 in gift certificates to Home Depot, and we went through those things like that. We also have some sort of trip which we STILL haven't used.

The edutainment would be in Mission Valley, which is a little out of the way. However, I think she said they had time on Friday (tomorrow?! Or next Friday?!) which wouldn't be bad; Diana and I could turn it into a happy-fun-date. Like go to the thing, read our books through the group talk, smile and nod through the one-on-one chat, get the freak out of Dodge, and go have a nice dinner and catch a movie or something.

Word.

This weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday, I left work a little early, and met up with D, Nuthin' Doin, Baditude, and H-Bomb, and we embarked up to Big Bear to stay with Norm and T-Bone (I like nicknames). We had a great weekend of BBQ'ing, game playing, and playing in and around the lake. There's really nothing like spending a really fun weekend with your besties and just bonding. Good times.

On Sunday, we drove home and crashed out for a while, and then went to D's parents house for dinner, which was nice.

Last night, we watched the latest Star Trek movie, which was somewhat laughable, but kind of fun at the same time. I've also rented "Ladyhawke" (I think that's it) from Norm. I've never heard of it, but look forward to watching it as I've heard good things.

This morning at 4am, I woke up a moment before D nudged me to wake me up. We heard a combination of very primal sounds right outside our window. The first sound was the kind of growl a dog would make while playing tug-o-war with it. The second was a piercing shriek from a small animal. They both didn't last very long, but were soon replaced by a new sound, which was a chewing and gnawing of bones. We peeked out the window, but didn't see anything. We turned on the lights, and I eventually went outside, but whatever it was was gone. No trace left this morning. Pretty neat.

I've had some recent Nethack luck, but no real progress made. I've had an insane amount of early game wishes, and some polymorhping fun (turning my little kitty into an ice troll on two seperate occasions), but always manage to screw it up. Oh well.

Poker on Wednesday night went well. We eventually had 12 people show up, and divided into two tables of 6. While most people seemed to have a good time, I think a smaller, more intimate game with friends is vastly better than a bigger game. I'm not sure how to "uninvite" people, though. I'll cross that one when I get there. I lost $16 that night, and my running winnings are reduced to $21. (I have to announce this publically so I don't selectively remember). Diana's winnings are right around mine, plus or minus a couple dollars.

This weekend we're off to Big Bear, yet again imposing on the gracious hospitality of Norm and Teri. They have access to some really nice hanging out spots, so as long as they keep inviting, we'll keep showing up! They're both such great people, though, that we'd go visit 'em even if they lived in a hovel. Happy joy yay. Baditude and H-bomb are going, as well as Nuthin' Doin (no Sara, though). So, that'll be lots of fun.

I told some work friends about engrish.com. A pretty funny site if you haven't been there before. Check it out again for the first time.

Aaaaand... I'm out.

My Popsy

So, my dad had surgery on his shoulder today. He's had some chronic shoulder pain for the last couple of years, and fell in Montana on a steep hillside and landed on it and hurt it more. So, under the knife he went.

Surgery was supposed to be around 1:30pm or so. Mom called at 4:30pm and said she hadn't heard anything, but they started a little late, and it was supposed to take 2.5 hours or so. She was a little stressed. I told her I'm sure there's nothing to worry about, and let me know when she hears something.

No word. I try her cell phone, but either I misdialed or something, but I can't get through and can't leave a message. I leave a couple messages at home. I figure no news is good news, but still. (Note to readers: I like to be more informed if a friend or loved one is going through surgery. Just for future reference.)

At 9:30pm, I get a call from a panicked Mom. Her voice is stressed and on the edge of tears. "There's some problems. Your dad has a corneal abrasion and is in quite a lot of pain. Can you come over and be here and help?"

My mind reels. "Corneal abrasion?! What the fuck is a corneal abrasion?!" I think to myself. Note that, while I'm no doctor, I'm pretty good at body parts and lingo and general scientific trivia. I know what a cornea is, and I know what an abrasion is. I've, in fact, abraded my own cornea at least twice. I just forgot at that moment.

I ask: "What's a corneal abrasion?" I'm hoping it doesn't have something to do with the brain or heart or something. Mom said that his eye was scratched, and he was pretty uncomfortable, and might need to go back to the hospital, and that she needed help, and could I come over.

Got dressed into clothes other than my comfs, and sped to the 'rents. All the while, I'm wondering how bad things could be.

By the time I get to my parents house, things are, I guess, calmer than they were when Mom called. Apparently Dad was in "10 out of 10" pain, but some anesthetic eye drops did the trick, and he was calm and relatively pain-free. A little loopy, but ok. He asked about what was going on, and I talked about surround sound and poker and whatever else I could think of to make some conversation. For all appearences, he was asleep, but he asked questions and seemed pretty with it. I said some friends were thinking about playing racquetball tomorrow, and did he want to join us? Ha.

Anyways, the drops started to wear off, so Mom put some more in, and after a brief bit of pain, he seemed ok again. I don't know well they'll make it through the night, but we'll see. I think things were pretty under control when I left.

Poor guy. :(

In any case, it sounded like the shoulder sugery went well. They were able to do it arthroscopically, and fix things up the way they wanted, so hopefully that's all good news.

Now, a little "iced cream", and to bed.

Big poker night tomorrow! Bring on the <'()()>< (That's supposed to be a fish)

I've got T.A.T.U. on the brain.

Yeah, you heard me. ("All the things she said, things she said, running through my head, running through my head, all the things she said...")

This has been a pretty productive weekend! Diana had her day-long health class yesterday. It's funny to hear about the other brainiacs who want to be teachers. I think the state of the country would be a lot better if they actually required teachers to, like, be smart and stuff. Or at least prove that they can think for themselves. Anyways, while she was gone, I didn't some chores around the house, and bought some speaker mounts for the rear surround speakers. I promised to do no drilling or wiring while Diana was gone (I tend to get... over-enthusiastic :). And when she did come home, we did some serious drilling and screwing! *cough*

The surround sound is nice. I like it. I can't wait to play with it more with more movies! Anyways, we finished watching Aliens, which Diana had rented, and watched "Real Women Have Curves", which was ok. Could have been better, I think.

Today, we made our annual trek down to the beach! It's so sad that we live in actual sight of the ocean (well, if you go to the top of the hill), but go so rarely. We should go more often. It was packed down there, though. We played some b_____n (smashball), and cavorted in the ocean, which was fun. My sinuses hurt a little right now, and I think I'm putting two and two together. Anyways, the some shopping, and home for dinner and hanging out. I discovered that at PokerStars.com, (where I play free poker), they do tournaments, both for money and for free. So, I entered the only tournament going on, which was a 7 stud tournament. I don't know jack about 7 stud, but I was doing pretty well for a while. At best, I was in 36th place out of 1500 entrants. The min bets went up, and I wasn't really playing that seriously, and ended up out taking 537th place or something. So, I'm going to keep my eyes open for a free Hold'em tournament!

That's about it for now. Not ready for work... :P

Long time no blog!

Diana and I have been either totally beat after work (Monday and Tuesday) or totally busy (yesterday and today). Diana's spearheading a curtain movement for the front room with me in an assisting role, while I spent most of the rest of my Christmas party money on a Sony home theater surround sound system! While our house looks like it's already pre-wired for surround sound, the back left channel didn't seem to work. We isolated the problem to the existing wiring. I didn't try the back right channel. yet. However, the front 3 channels and the subwoofer sound awesome. I'm totally stoked. Just need to do some more creative wiring, and it will be gravy.

We watched poker last night. I'm already waiting for Wednesday!

Not much other news to report, so I'm off to bed. G'night!

Anniversary!

So... exactly a year ago, Diana and I were nervous wrecks. I don't know why I was so nervous. It certainly wasn't because I was getting married, because I was very much looking forward to marrying Diana. But obviously, it *was* because we were getting married... I mean, if it were any random old day, I wouldn't be nervous like I was.

But, somehow, it all worked out. I didn't faint. We got our vows out. Everyone clapped and said nice things. It was nice.

This last year has been really, really great. I think our relationship, while never really that trying in the first place, is smoother and better than it ever has been. We continue to grow closer and closer, and understand each other more and more as the days pass. And we still make each other laugh just as much as we used to.

It's been a great year, and I look forward to many more.

Diana finished her class on Saturday, so we've been doing some serious hanging out. Yesterday, we got our new big sectional couch for the front room. It's HUGE, and it rocks the hizzy (literally!). After that came, both Diana's and my parents came over for a visit. In the afternoon, we went to see Pirates, which was a lot of fun. That night, we went over and hung out with Batitude and H-Bomb and Li'l Mike, and had dinner and learned a card game, which was fun, too. Nice to hang out with those folks.

Today, we went to brunch at Rancho Valencia (where we got married a year ago). It was fun to watch another wedding going on, and remember back about how that was us. Brunch was awesome. That place rocks. Then, we came back and hung out here for a little, and went over to Home Expo to look around a little, and played 9 at Lake San Marcos. Ugh, we played HAR-ribly, especially me compared to my last outing. Oh well.

Now, time for a little grub, and a little cuddling on the big f'ing sofa and watching "Spirited Away" which I borrowed from B'tude. Huzzah.

Oh yeah. RIP Frodo the Thief, who got two wishes from two seperate water elementals freed on the first two levels of Nethack! I fell down a trapdoor and landed in the vault of the next level with no way to escape. The guard eventually came, and demanded I drop all my money. Not on my watch! Even with Mjollnir and blessed +3 grey dragon scale mail (my wish results) he smote me. :(

Poker Night II

We gathered for the second time in our hopefully regular poker game. Baditude and H-Bomb were stuck in traffic and going to be late, so me, Miami Kyle, Miami John, and Iwan (who really needs a good nickname) decide to get a little warmed up. Everyone checks in for their $20 in chips, and we sit down to play.

I'm on the button, M.Kyle's SB, John is BB, Iwan is under the gun. I don't remember whether Iwan and I stayed in to see the flop or not. Regardless, flop comes like Kxx, two diamonds. Kyle and John get into a bet-raise-call match. Turn comes another diamond. More crazy betting and raising. A blank comes on the river. Kyle bets. John raises. Kyle (this is the first hand, mind you!) says "fuck it, I'm all in". John thinks for only a moment, and calls, flipping over his A-9 diamonds for the nut flush. Kyle flips over K-x for his pair of kings. *wince* Kyle hands over all his money to John on the very first hand. Craziness.

We played 3-handed for a little while before Eryn and Heather showed up. I overvalued my hands, I think, and ended up losing about $10 pretty quickly. Over the course of the night, I lost $20, bought in for $10 more, and won it all back to get a little ahead of even. Then lost a few more bucks to end up down $3. Running total: +$37

If I'm ever going to be a good poker player, I need to improve my memory. Not only good memory, but I need to be able to recall how someone acted at the beginning of the hand when the final cards are flipped over. That's not so easy to do. But that's why poker night is so fun! Lots of stuff to practice.

Diana's been really busy this week with schoolwork. This weekend is our 1 year anniversary (on Monday, actually). We don't have any big plans, really. But we're definitely looking foward to just spending some quality time together. Hopefully we can see at least one of Pirates, T3, or Tomb Raider. Take a walk. Stuff like that.

Our new big sectional is early! It's arriving sometime tomorrow. I'm pretty jazzed. I hope it's ok!