Friday night, Diana and I went out for dinner at a little seafood market near our house, and I had I think the best bowl of clam chowder ever. I've had a LOT of clam chowder in my life, so this is no small claim. I was highly impressed.

Later that night, I got a call from Iwan. The Buhrs were in town, and a little impromptu poker night was being set up! Diana was tutoring in the morning, so while she headed to bed, I went to see the boys.

Poker was a LOT of fun. We (Adam, Iwan, Little Buhr, Gabe, Miami John, Baron) cashed in for $10 playing pot-limit $.20/$.40 hold 'em. I actually ran through my $10 pretty quick, getting out-kickered a couple times, or someone picked up a second pair on the river, or whatever. I bought in for $5 more, and was able to win it all back, and more. Most of that came from one huge hand. I had 5-6 offsuit. I don't remember my position, but I think I was a blind. The bet was raised by Baron for a tiny raise, which I called. Most people were in from the flop. Flop comes 3,4,7 rainbow (three suits). I've flopped a huge hand. I believe I checked from an early position, someone bets, Baron raises, every folds to me, and I raise again (or call), and everyone else folds. Turn comes 8. I bet big, Baron calls. I don't remember the river, but I was feeling pretty good with my straight. I lead off with a big bet (around $4). Baron thinks for a long time. I'm staring into the pot, saying in my head "pleasecallpleasecallpleasecallpleasecall". He mutters about what I might have, including "5-6", but why would I have survived a pre-flop raise with 5-6 (because it was a small raise and I was already partially in, being a blind!) He calls. I show. He mucks (later revealing he had pocket queens). That and a couple smaller pots cashed me out for $24. I then lost a dollar or two on the famous post-poker Little Buhr Blackjack. All in all, it was a really fun time.

Saturday, Diana tutored in the morning. I lolled for a while, and met up with most of the same boys for some flag football. We played a great game, and Baditude took some footage for a video he's going to make. We retired to his place for some Mario Kart Double Dash, and then home. I met up with Diana, and we got ready for dinner. A group of us headed out to a fondue restaurant, which was a lot of fun. The food was pretty good, but sitting around and cooking it yourself and hanging out with friends was great. Dinner was like 3 hours, and since I'm working this morning, it was home for bed.

This morning, I'm at work on support, surfing the web and hoping that nothing goes wrong that I need to worry about. Getting out of warm bed with a sleepy, cuddly wife on Sunday morning is hard. :(

Football has left me about as sore as I've been. I jacuzzi'd yesterday, and might need another does today.

Thanksgiving!

Yesterday, Diana and I got up and started working. We made beans and a salad for our upcoming feast. We also were able to take a li'l walk, which was nice.

Early in the afternoon, we headed over to some family friends of Diana's family, where we met my parents and her parents. The whole group of us had drinks and munchies, then a great traditional Thanksgiving dinner, followed by a rousing game of "Beyond Balderdash". All in all, it was a really nice evening, and we were stuffed and ready for bed by like 8pm. :)

I'm thankful for:
Diana - I feel lucky every day that she is in my life (again). There's simply too much to list her without doing it justice. She is so much fun to be around, smart enough to discuss anything, silly enough to sing duets about literally anything, and easy on the eyes to boot.

Our house - I feel so lucky that we were able to get our house in the location that we did at the bargain that we did. I enjoy it every day.

Our parents - Our parents are almost overwhelmingly loving and supportive and proud of both of us. If every child could have such parents, the world would be a better place.

My friends - I love my friends. As we get older, it seems to be harder and harder to make time for us all to get together, but when we do... LOOK OUT!

My job - I have a great job at a great company, with great people. I get paid to do stuff that I love doing. I'm learning all the time and (albeit indirectly) making a difference in lots of peoples lives.

That's the top of the list, at least. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

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OH! My car's mileage recently turn over 65536! First person to comment why this number is significant wins Adam Respect Points!

Work is slow today, so more bloggin'!

I'm planning on upgrading our computer. Currently, I'm running a 1.2 Ghz Athlon on an ABIT KT7A-RAID motherboard with 1 gig of (cheap, mismatched) RAM. I also have a Radeon 9700 video card, which I don't think I should have gotten. It has gotten VERY mixed reviews. The proponents say it's the best card ever. But it's really finicky with different motherboards (including my own), and has caused some problems. Our computer, for example, won't show video on a cold boot. We have to turn it on, wait a few seconds, then hit the reset button. Stuff like that scares me.

I was recommended some stuff by a co-worker of my dad's who builds computers on the side. Here's what I'm thinking:

ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard ~$185
Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz 800Mhz FSB CPU ~$220
512 Megs RAM ~$135
Total: ~$540

Not bad to upgrade to basically a dream system. RAM might be doubled to 1 Gig, and CPU could be bumped up if I really got greedy.

Also, I should definitely have enough spare parts to build a second computer, if need be. I'd really like Diana to have her own computer, 'cause I'd hate to do some tweaking and lose her teaching/billing/schooling work.

Work is picking up! Gotta go.

Dumb!

I just read a news story about a guy who, as a kid, slept in the same bed with Michael Jackson. The point of the story was that he said that "nothing weird happened". Not only is it sort of funny that sleeping in a bed with MJ isn't weird enough by itself, but there's sort of an illogical implication.

I mean, I knew a guy in high school who ended up murdering both his parents. But he didn't kill *me*. Does that have any meaning implications? No.

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I just got invited to a Secret Santa party! I love Secret Santa parties! I'm excited.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow. Me and the 'rents and the wife and her 'rents are meeting at some OTHER peeps' house for an extravaganza. Should be food-eatin', game-playin' good fun.

There's also rumblings of friends getting together to play football, Mario Kart, watch movies, or do other fun stuff, but it hasn't really been specified yet. The only bummer is that I have to work some this weekend, which kind of sucks. I'm probably not even going to be working, but just hanging around in case something goes wrong. Oh well. That's why I get paid the *big bucks*.

So... A pretty lazy weekend for the Adman. Diana and I went and saw
"Master and Commander" on Saturday night, which was fun. It was a
pretty good movie, in spite of not a lot really happening. It was very
much like a novel, where there was a single overarching plot, and lots
of little things that happen along the way. But worth seeing.

I watched the Chargers lose this weekend. Poor Chargers.

I recently got the jacuzzi cleaned out and warmed up, and that's been
nice in this latest cold spell. It's been really clear and dark out at
nights, and Diana and I saw a couple shooting stars, which was fun.

Not much other news to report. Work is going well. I was assigned a
task which I thought was going to be pretty tough, but I was clever and
found an easy way to do it (to programmers, laziness is a GOOD thing),
so now I'm sort of waiting for my idea to get reviewed. I've already
written the code, so I hope it does! :)

Crazy dreams!

I had some CRAZY dreams last night. The first was that I was at my parents house. I was filling out some sort of form or something that involved filling in addresses and phone numbers or something. And our family dog (who died in when I was in junior high) was there, and seemed really interested in what I was writing. So I flipped the paper over to the blank backside, and wrote a number 1, and said "One", and he repeated it back in a doglike voice. Took a couple tries, but soon he was counting to 10. Pretty soon after that, he was speaking with about a 5-year-old's vocabulary! Then my grandfather (who died when I was in college) came out from a nap, and the dog went up to him and said (I don't remember exactly, but the equivalent of) "Hey, what's up?", and we all chatted it up.

I also had another dream that I left work at lunchtime and was driving somewhere, and a female coworker of mine had left at around the same time, and was in the car behind me, being driving by some man I didn't know. And they were totally making out while driving on the freeway. I was both worried they'd rear-end me (because he wasn't watching the road), and curious who this guy was that she was seeing.

There you go.

Random memory time!

I remember as a very little boy learning a particularly witty little "street rhyme", like "Eenie Meenie Minie Moe" and whatnot. I was very excited, because it was quite funny, and I wanted to share it with someone.

My mom was taking a nap. I went in and performed the following little piece of delicate art:

"Chinese!" (I put my fingers to my eyes and pulled them down, making crude slanted eyes).
"Japanese!" (I pulled my fingers upwards, making crude slanted eyes the other way).
"Dirty knees!" (I put my hands on my knees)

And the coup de grace... I can still feel the anticipation:

"Look at these!" I used my thumb and forefinger, delicately pincing my t-shirt above each nipple, and pulled outwards, making boobies.

My mom politely told me she didn't think it was very funny or appropriate. I guess I can see her point.

Vegas.

Friday morning, I met Iwan and Eryn for lunch near Diana's work. She joined us shortly after noon, and we headed out for the long drive to Vegas.

The drive was a lot of fun. We chatted about stuff, and Eryn pulled out a book called "Cocology" (or something like that) that was quite a bit of fun. It's apparently all the rage in Japan. The book was filled with lots of little mini quizzes that were supposed to tell you what kind of person you are. For instance, we were supposed to draw three stars of different sizes, and add a tail onto one of the stars to make it like a comet. After doing a couple things like that, depending on how you drew your stars, which had the tail, etc, was supposed to tell you about your current career and it's future. Lots of bullshit, but a lot of fun. My cheeks were sore from smiling and laughing. The trip went well, and I had a lot of fun with everyone.

We rolled into Vegas around 6 or so, and met up with Heather and Mick who were already at the hotel. We got cleaned up and headed out to PF Changs for a nice dinner, and had a good time catching up. We then headed downtown to the Horseshoe for some blackjack, where me and D won some money, but everyone else lost (I think). We then headed over to the Sahara where me and D's winnings were quite quickly turned into losings, and other people lost even more money. The night was still somewhat young, but the $5 tables had taken quite a toll on us, so I headed to bed with the ladies, and the rest joined us soon after.

The next morning, we all got up and headed over to Capriotti's, which is a little hole in the wall sandwich shop which has the BEST sandwiches ever. The "Bobbi" is shredded turkey, stuffing, mashed potato, and cranberry sauce in a roll, and is a favorite in the group. After lunch, we headed down to the other end of the strip to the Excalibur, where Iwan and I checked out the poker tables. We decided to play, while the rest of the group wandered the strip and saw the sights.

The poker was a lot of fun. The previous night I dropped $80 on the $5 blackjack tables in about 20 minutes, so being able to cash in for $100 and play for a long time was a neat. I played at a $1-$3 spread limit game with a single $1 blind. This means that every hand, there is one person who's automatically in for $1, and everyone else can fold for free. Minimum bet is $1 on every round, and you can raise up to $3 on any round (max of 4 raises per round). Because of the small, single blind, you could potentially play for hours and see lots of hands for only a couple bucks. I started off folding quite a bit, waiting for good hands. When I did see a good hand, I'd try to raise pre-flop and knock out some players to improve my chances, but knocking out players seemed to be hard to do at such low stakes. So my AKs would face a flop of 3-6-8, and someone would bet $3 into me. I might see another card, but it would quickly become apparent that my ace-high wasn't going to win.

I had a couple hands where I got creamed. I had Ax suited, and the flop comes giving me four-to-the-flush. I and a couple others are betting and raising. The turn completes my nut flush, and my heart is racing. More betting and raising. River comes up a 9, pairing up with another 9 on the board. A new guys raises, and my heart drops. I call and he shows his TWO-NINE OFFSUIT, which gives up a full house and busts my straight. He was betting his 2-9 two-pair from the flop with all those raises and stuff. Urgh.

Another hand, I think I had the nut straight, and a card came on the river to make an even bigger straight possible, and I got stuck in a raising war with two other guys, and they ended up splitting the pot with the big straight, and I lost. I probably should have folded, but it was a tough move.

All in all, I lost $100 playing there, only winning one or two pots. In spite of that, it was the most fun I had gambling the entire weekend. I was able to play for a long time, and had some really thrilling moments. Iwan didn't play as long as I did, and cashed out with a profit of $52, which was great to see. Next time I go to Vegas, I'm definitely going to forego blackjack (especially $5 blackjack, which I think is above my means) and save money and play more poker.

Iwan and I met up with the gang late that afternoon back at the hotel. Iwan and Mick settled in to watch college football, while the rest of us rested and hung out. Soon enough dinner time was rolling up, and Iwan and Mick were showing very little signs of wanted to go anywhere. The girls were getting hungry, and I was getting restless to go out and do SOMETHING (I didn't come to Vegas to sit in the hotel room!) We waited for the footballers for a while, heading down to the casino to lose even more money at the blackjack tables (ugh!). We eventually headed out to dinner at the CPK at the Mirage. At the CPK, we sat at a table next to a famous poker player who was featured on the World Poker Tour. I don't remember his name, but he was a really annoying guy who licked the corners of his mouth a lot, had a weird nose, called bets "quack-quacks", and went by the moniker "X22". We were all thrilled to see a minor celebrity like that.

Saturday night, we were a little gun-shy about gambling. We left the Mirage and wandered around a little, but no one really seemed rarin' to go. We headed back to the Stratosphere and played a little more blackjack. Eryn won some decent money, and I won a tiny bit, which was nice, and had lots of Tom Collins', which was nicer. :) It was fun to have some excitement at the tables instead of just watching our money dissappear before our eyes.

I was beat, and headed up stairs to bed shortly after the ladies, surprised to see it was only 1am. Eryn and the boys followed pretty soon after, after playing some roulette.

Sunday morning, Iwan and Mick headed to the sportsbook and settled in for a long day of football. Eryn and Heather and Diana and I got some brunch, and then Diana and I hit the road. The traffic was pretty bad, but it was nice to spend some time alone and talk about the trip. We eventually made it home. I picked up the Chargers game that my parents were nice enough to record for me (thank you!) and watched that trainwreck. The only good side was that Shannon Sharpe had 3 touchdowns, which helped the Birdmen (my fantasy football team) a lot. And then we went to bed, thankful for our new mattress.

This trip, overall, was good, but not the best ever. It was a lot of fun to see Mick. I really miss having him around. And I always have a great time with Iwan and Eryn and Diana and Heather. Everyone is always uniformally so happy and funny and just generally fun to be around. I love to be reminded of what great friends I have, and how much I enjoy their company. The gambling was kind of the rough part of the trip. In previous Vegas trips, I remember our group getting a table to ourselves, drinking round after round of Tom Collins', cheering wildly and booing loudly at the swings of the table, and just generally having lots of fun. The gaming this time around was really subdued. Not a whole lot of drinking, lots of dissapointing losses and not a whole lot of winning.

I don't mean to end on a sour note, because I really did have a lot of fun. I spent quality time with my peeps, learned some lessons, and have some stories to tell. And because of our cheap hotel room and driving, this weekend certainly wasn't very much more expensive than any other weekend getaway.

Now... Back to work!

Well, this is it.

The calm before the storm. Tomorrow, I depart for Vegas with some compadres for a weeking of carousing the likes of which have never been seen!

Well, maybe they have, but we should have a good time.

I'm going to try to play poker while I'm there. Apparently there is a good newbie-friendly, low-stakes game at the Excalibur. Full details upon my return.

I'm bored.

Someone hit the power transformer outside my work with their car and knocked out power, so we all were let out a little early. Pretty crazy.

So, I was home early, Diana's not home until 10pm, and I'm bored. Don't feel like watching TV, don't feel like playing computer games or programming. Don't really feel like reading. Played poker and lost and got bored. Bleah. I did talk to Diana's sister on the phone for a while, which was nice.

I guess I'll go try to track down some food.

:|

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Update: Went out and got a sammich, went to Barnes and Noble and read computer and poker books. Much better. :)

Weekend roundup.

What a great, floppy weekend.

Friday night, it took me like an hour to get home from work. Bleah. Diana and I went out for a nice casual dinner and read the free entertainment magazines.

Saturday, we took my car in for it's 60K service, and on the way back went to Fry's and picked up a new monitor and case. I spent the next couple hours up to my elbows in computer parts (swapping the guts from one computer case to another isn't that hard, but it's not for the squeamish), and lo, everything worked. We now have a nice quiet case on the floor (rather than a big open one on my desk), and a nice clear monitor that doesn't cut out every so often for no reason. We definitely went for more budget options compared with what we could have done. A small part of me wants a cool computer case with a window and lights and stuff, and a flatscreen monitor. Most of me, though, realizes that that the extra $600 to get both those things probably isn't worth it. Anyways, my office is a lot quieter and cleaner looking now, which is nice.

Sunday, we sort of vegged around. I watched the Charger game, which was great. The boys played as well as I've ever seen them play, spreading the ball around and getting stuff done. It was great to see. Did a little cleaning, went in the jacuzzi, played some poker. A nice, quiet day.

A great, restful weekend. Diana's been so busy and stressed lately with school stuff that it was great to spend some quality time with her.

You ever just have one of those days?

Last night, we all got sent home from work early (thank you very much, Slammer virus!). I didn't check my morning work schedule before going to bed like I normally do.

So, when I checked my stuff this morning (around 8:15am), I saw that I had an 8:30am meeting. It takes me about 35 minutes to get to work usually. So I get ready as quick as possible, and spill a mostly full cup of hot apple cider (now cold since it was left out since last night (by yours truly)). Clean that up. Rush to work, fully aware that I didn't pack a lunch (aware that I *promised* my lovely wife I would do).

On the way to work, remember that I didn't fill my car with gas last night, figuring I'd do it this morning. Contemplate running out of gas on the way to work, but make it.

It's not a big deal to be late to the meeting, which was good. Sit down with some work to do, and immediately get slammed from all directions from people with either a critical thing to do, or needing help with something, or asking my expert opinion on something else. Deal with shit until about 1pm.

Come home for lunch (remembering to stop on the way to get gas). At the gas station, while filling up, I decide to go get a drink (I haven't eaten all day and am pretty hungry). The line is long, and the guy is trying to figure out how to refill the register receipt tape. Put back drink and leave. Get home. Diana is sick and crashed out on the couch. Lunch is sitting on the table made for me. I love her so much. Not for making lunch, but for understanding me. Eat lunch. Stroke Diana's face lovingly while she sleeps. Back to work. High point of day.

Finally make some progress on fixing stuff. Play foos and lose (breaking my 5-game win streak). Now it's about 4:30pm, and I'm ready to go home, take a shower, and veg out, either playing poker online, or watching TV. Maybe I'll buy some beer. I deserve it.

PS: I played poker online last night (play money). I started with $1000. I left with $560,000. Not too shabby at all, if I may say.

Weekend roundup…

Let's see here…

On Friday during the day, I went over to have lunch with my mom. This wasn't as much of a thoughtful thing, but a way for me to weasel out of going out to a show they invited me to. Let me rewind a little…

*stereotypical "back in time" harp music*

The phone rang. It was my mom.

Mom: "Hi dear… Your dad and I would love to take you and Diana out for your birthday. We bought tickets, and have two extra ones, to go see…"

Adam: (at this point, I'm pretty excited! What are we going to see?! A play? A neat show like Stomp or Cirque de Soleil? A magician? Comedian?)

Mom: "… a live show of Garrison Kealor's 'A Prarie Home Companion'"

Adam: (Struggling to hide his life-long loathing of that infernal show) "Oh! Um… Let me talk to Diana. That's really nice of you to think of us!"

Now I was stuck. I call Diana, who's not feeling very well and in the middle of her own situations, who plants a square "I don't care one way or the other" on me. Tickets had already been purchased for me for perhaps the last show I'd actually pay money to see. To be fair, I actually haven't listened to *that* much PCH. But I've heard enough to know that there's probably a lot of people in the world who'd rather go than I would. And they're probably mostly over 50. It's kind of like inviting my mom, for her birthday, to go see the Red Hot Chili Peppers or go to a computer game center for an afternoon of Counterstrike.

I even get an opinion from Dr. Dave, who says that even he can't stand that show, and that since tickets were already purchased for me, that I "was hosed".

Ugh. My choices were to weasel out of going, risking seeming ingrateful and unappreciative of my parents, or to go to the show, waste a Friday evening, and probably suffer physical pain from Garrison Kealor's voice.

I decided to go for the former. As we all know, weaseling out of things is what seperates humans from the rest of the animals… (except the weasel).

I explained to my mother that the last thing I would want to do is seem ungrateful. However, the *second to last thing* I would want is to actually sit through that show, and maybe they could invite someone more appreciative than myself and Diana, and we could do something else instead. This was accepted and went over well. The rest of the conversation was about what great kids my brother and I are, what great parents my parents are, and what great parents my brother and I will be. So, no feelings hurt (I hope), only minor guilt on my end, and no going to the show. :)

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Friday night was Halloween. We didn't have any plans, and neither did any of my friends, so we invited everyone over to sit at our house and not have plans together. I carved pumpkins. Everything showed up, and we grilled some food and hung out and chatted and watched "Scream", which was a lot of fun. I really feel lucky to have the friends that I do, and really enjoy hanging out with them all.

We only had like 4 trick-or-treaters come by, which means we have a lot of freakin' candy left over.

Saturday, Diana and I gathered up some clothes to donate to fire victims. I was called into work briefly, and then we headed downtown to donate the clothes. We then drove through a little bit of Scripps Ranch and looked at burned homes. Sad stuff, but at the same time, it was clear that the firemen did a HUGE job of saving the homes that they could. There were lots of signs thanking them posted in windows and whatnot, which was nice to see.

Saturday night we went over to Hbomb's new house, and hung out with her and Baditude. The evening was fun. Heather and her sister have a tiny new kitten, and let me tell you this: kittens and hardwood floors make for a hilarious evening. :)

Sunday, we had the sets of parents over for brunch, which was nice. Afterwards, I went and helped my dad out with their new computer. It made me eager to upgrade my own machine, which I've been wanting to do for a year now (which makes me realize how not-critical it is :)

That afternoon, I watched my taped game of the Chargers lose. Fuckers. We also watched more of the miniseries "Lonesome Dove", which we've been enjoying.

That's about it for now. Not a bad weekend 'tall.