indeed, absolutely

Its been another long stretch of no writing, but that's mostly been because of a busy week. Here's the recap:

It was a short work week, which was a bit of a blessing. Only a couple of short classes to teach and some emails to do. Tuesday I went with Catherine to her appointment and sat in to discuss the latest findings and see what we need to do. It was a surreal, but in the end a positive step forward.

Wednesday we headed off to Las Vegas for a quick stay for Catherine's birthday. The rest was definitely needed and appreciated. We had some good meals, saw Circe de Soliel's O, which was nice, and did a lot of talking and reconnecting. We also were able to get a bonus from work to fund out poker bankroll, so we were able to play a good deal. The first day I received some christmas present type hands, where I happened to have a big hand while someone else had a worse big hand and I got their chips. The first was against a tight asian girl who seemed competent. A few people limped and I checked the BB with 66. The flop came 4s5s6c. I led at the pot, the girl raised. Folds back to me and I reraised because I knew she had a big hand, probably a set at the minimum. But seeing as how I had top set, I didn't have a choice, so I raised, she pushed, I called and she had 55 for middle set. The board bricked out, so I won that big pot. It was an interesting hand because if I had middle or bottom set I'd have to start to think about dropping the hand at some point.

Another Christmas hand was when a few people limped, a late position player raised, I called in the bb with 88, a couple others called. Flop comes down 88K rainbow. Obviously a good flop, but not a great one, because it is usually hard to get people to commit a lot of money unless they have KK and maybe AK...usually. So I check, someone in middle position bets, the raiser raises and I'm left with a decision. I think it would have been better if I led, given my position relative to the raiser and the rest of the field, because now, in my mind, if I cold call the bet and raise on this board I HAVE to have a big hand. While I'm thinking about it though I noticed that flop bettor is preparing to shove two stacks of red chips (200) into the pot which, I thought, would be an all in for him. He didn't even notice me. So I called the raise and, sure enough, he shoved those stacks in. Then the raiser calls all in for less than 200. I'm shocked! I double check my hand to confirm, yes, I have the other two 8s. What the hell could these guys have? So I call and immediately turn over my hand, which actually probably cost me 45 bucks because the bettor wasn't all in yet. Oh well. In my mind, honestly, even if I didn't turn my hand over he can't call because I have to have at least an 8 with all of this action, which, unless he has KK, means he's drawing very, very slim. Anyways, he folded, the other guy had AK and I scooped another large pot.

After that, I ran a big bluff into the one guy at the table who can't lay down a hand (good one). But that paid off somewhat because I was able to make some really sick value bets and get paid. The 2nd day was very much the same for me, good cards mixed with good play. However, Catherine had a rough trip all three days in poker and the third day my luck dried out, so we ended up down a bit for the trip. Oh well, we have some money in our bankroll now and, overall, I'm confident in my play and Catherine's play, so I'm sure our luck will change.

We came back on Friday after a hellish day of travel, but we were happy to be home again. Saturday I took Catherine to the mall to get her some more birthday presents, which was fun. She got some cute shoes and some good smelling body splash. Saturday night was the first meeting of our Tri-Valley Whiskey Society, which was a lot of fun. We tried out some good bourbons in a blind tasting, and it was a interesting to see the differences between the four that we tried.

Sunday I surprised Catherine with a birthday party at my parents house with our close friends. That was really fun to plan, although keeping a secret from her is the pits. But the party went off great. Thanks to everyone for their help. Then we watched the Giants just smash the dreams of the Patriots and basically turn Tom Brady into their bitch. I ended up losing some money on the game due to super bowl pools and bad bets. Oh well. It was a fun time.

One last thing I want to comment on in this entry: Its amazing to me the shrillness of the conservatives over John McCain. I understand that they don't like him and don't want him to be nominated. But to hear some of them talk you'd think it was Vladamir Lenin himself we were nominating. This sounds extreme but more than one conservative has strongly stated that they would vote for Hillary Clinton if John McCain becomes the nominee. To me this is utterly preposterous and it makes them sound like whiney little brats. I'm sick of it. That's all I'll say about this right now.

Game I finished last night: Bioshock
Game I'm looking forward to getting: Endwar