Paint!

We're up to our butts in paint! We have a guy over painting the ceilings, and Diana's been repainting the whole house. The new ceilings looks great, and Diana's doing a really good job on the painting. Everything is pretty much in dissarray, with furniture all moved around and drop-clothes everywhere. It's very dynamic.

The whole house used to be a light yellow'ish. Now, the hallway and one bedroom are a very light tan/purply (really almost white). One bedroom (my office, soon to be guestroom) is going to be a sort of smoky green, and the bedroom (guestroom, soon to be my new office) is a steely blue. The living room and dining room are a the same tan/beige/purply color that the hall is, but a shade darker (which is still very light). Family room and kitchen and master bedroom and bathroom are still TBD.

It's really good stuff. I didn't like the whole house being one color, and not only that, the previous paint job was terrible. I've helped a little, but Diana's really done a huge amount of work and seems to be enjoying it, so mad props to her. It's going to be great.

Saturday, we headed up to Vista with Diana's parents for some sort of Highland Games festival. Lots of people in kilts (and not a few white-supremacist looking folks) wandering around, watching bagpipe bands, cabers being tossed, and sheep being rounded up by sheepdogs. The sheepdog competition was pretty cool to watch. Those dogs are incredibly well trained. Good stuff.

Saturday night, I gave my boy Iwan and call, and we decided it was high time to head up to a local casino to play some poker. Diana wavered on joining us. Iwan claimed that we'd be home at the latest by 11:30pm (he had an early golf round the next day). Diana decided she'd come and watch, so off we went.

The casino we played (apparently card rooms are legal in California? So I don't think this was an indian Casino?) looked pretty seedy from the outside, but it was bright and nice inside. It was non-smoking, which was VERY nice. The obvious choices were 1-2 or 2-4, and the waiting list for 1-2 was pretty short, so we signed ourselves up. Diana went from "I'll just watch" to "Adam, how much money do you have?", and signed up to play, which was great.

We ended up at three different tables, which was probably good. I decided I like live play a LOT more than tournaments. Tournaments with raising blinds really put a lot of pressure on you to really win quick or lose. Live play was really no pressure, and I think I played really well. I don't remember throwing away what would have been winning hands. I also didn't stay in too many hands. In fact, I only saw 5 showdowns, and won 4 of them. I never got more than a few dollars below my original buyin. Letsee how much I can remember.

I got pocket 10s, and the flop came 9 high (I think like 2-6-9). I bet, and get a couple callers. Turn comes some small card. I bet and get a couple callers. River comes another 2. I bet and get a couple callers, and win with my 10s and 2s. Nice.

I played a K-9s in a late position, and flopped a king and turned a turned a 9. That went pretty well for me.

I got pocket 10s again, and flopped another 10. At some point, someone bet, Doofus (more on him later) raised into me. I immediately re-raised, and they both called.

I think I had something like A-J and an ace came out, and I outkicked someone else with an ace.

The hand that I didn't win, I had A-Q, and the flop came queen high. I was in the big blind. Little blind was checking, I'd bet, and a couple people called. The river made a potential flush on the board, and the small blind now bet. He'd been chasing flushes and straights all night (and showing me his cards if I wasn't in the hand), so I knew I was beat. I threw in the $2 to see it, along with a few others, and he flipped up an A-6 or something for a flush. I told him what I had, and he kind of apoligized and said "Don't worry, I'm sure I'll pay you back by chasing these". I told him quietly that some others at the table had already paid me back for him by doing the same.

There was a guy (Doofus, above), who literally didn't know how to play poker. He had a loose idea of what hand beat what, but didn't know what a flush was or how good it was. He was happy and good natured, and eager to learn, but he really should have done some studying up before showing up. The other players were very nice to him, and eager to help him out. It took me a good long time to figure if it was an act or not, but when he called to the river with 2-7o with absolutely NOTHING helping him, I figured it was either a great act or he really didn't know what was going on. Good times.

At some point, he ordered a beer, and set aside $3 to pay for it in chips. Before the beer came, he ran out of chips, and debated about and finally called with some of his beer money. I made a comment about two addictions in battle with each other, but (probably thankfully) quiet enough that no one heard me.

There was another guy at my table who understood the concept of a kicker, but didn't really realized that it extended down the line of cards to the end. That is, A-A-K-J-8 would beat A-A-K-J-5. Lots of people really had the "hey, it's low limit! Let's just play and have fun and chase those straights and flushes." I got a good natured comment about being the rock at the table, which I took as a compliment. People really played pretty passive: lots of checking and calling. I was lucky/patient enough to get the right combinations for hole cards and flops a few times, and got callers to the river.

I checked the clock at around 11:20pm, and saw that Iwan and Diana were still at their spots. I looked down to see I was up $39.50. I played until the blind came to me, and checked out of the game. I walked over to watch Iwan win a monster pot, catching a straight draw on the river which put him back to even, which was good. Diana was down $9 at this point. They checked out of their games, and we headed off, sharing our stories. It was a really good time, and I'm glad that we didn't have any big losers.

Iwan and I both cashed in for $90, but that was really overkill. I don't know about Iwan, but I only went into my original stack just a tiny bit. I luckily won the first hand I played out, and just played with winnings the whole time, which is a much better feeling than trying to get back up to even. If you played tight, I think you could sit comfortably for $40 or so and have some fun.

Whew.

Sunday, I went over to my parents house in the afternoon. My dad and I got his computer all set up and running, the result of which was his ability to connect to the hospital computer system in a secure manner. With that, he could us a program that allowed him to see patient records. He showed me how he could look up notes and things about patients. I asked if they had X-rays and stuff, and a moment later, we were looking at the chest X-ray of someone, right there online! Really pretty cool. This probably means that he can do more work from home, which I think is always a nice option to have. Good stuff. Diana showed up later and we had a nice steak dinner. We went for a little walk around my old stomping grounds, which was fun, and then home.

So, there it all is.