5% Poker: I dropped $70 Saturday night in the "friendly" neighborhood poker game. That brings my two session average to -40. It is a mixed game that ranges from "Two Card Guts" and "Acey Duecey" up to plain ol' NL Hold 'Em. It is dealer's choice and there are always crazy games with wilds. I struggle with figuring out when my 4 of kind Kings is going to lose to the 5 of a kind 3's. The game is mostly loose with one LAG that was the big winner (+160) this week. He has the best poker skills and is very aggressive with pot bets when he senses weakness. He also hit a ton of his winning cards on the river this past game. I will work on my strategy for playing in a Loose Passive/Loose Aggressive game where the gamblers don't mind the stakes. I already know that I cannot bluff much or at all and that with all the wilds and crazy gambling games that are played I really need some luck. I suspect that I am a little too tight right now. Regardless, it is a good time and I enjoy being able to play for 5-6 hours with good people, get my beer on, and then stumble home through wet lawns and heat up some pizza rolls cuz I have the munchies at 2:30 AM.
5% House: The house is coming along with a lot of hard work. I learned the true meaning of Labor Day this weekend when I spent "Labor Day Weekend" power washing and then staining the deck, weeding and raking all the landscaping, removing rust stains from exterior surfaces of the house, getting a chip/crack in the windshield repaired before winter, mowing the acre plus and whatever other bidding the pregnant missus ordered. She did help with the weeding and it was appreciated. The deck staining was the biggest PITA as it has a ton of spindles and was really in bad shape. The previous owners of this house suck and if I ever had the chance to meet them, I would kick them. It took me 2 hours to stain one section of railing and this was less than 1/4 of the whole railing. Uh oh. The staining took basically 2 days but was very rewarding as the difference was amazing. The wood was high quality wood and it looks like a new deck now. After 3 days of "vacation" I could not wait to get back to work. My brain is in much better working shape then my painting shoulder.
90% Baby: SteelerSteph and I had our mid-pregnancy ultra-sound on Friday. This can be a pretty nerve wracking milestone of a pregnancy. During this ultrasound the doctors measure and inspect all kinds of things to make sure development is proceeding correctly. It did not hit me how complex this entire process is until this session at the hospital. They check things as simple as making sure the heart has 4 chambers and they are the correct relative sizes. How does all this crap know how to develop? It boggles my mind. It is also during this ultrasound that they can tell you the gender of your baby if you so desire. We desired and much to my surprise and pleasure I found out I will be having a baby boy!!
This took some time to get my head around. When the ultra-soundologist (I just made that title up) asked if if we really wanted to know and then typed "It's a", drew an arrow to some bit on the computer screen, and then finished on a line by itself, "Boy".... I just started laughing. I could not stop. I had imagined and prepared myself mentally for many years to be the father of a girl. I was ready for the tea parties, the hairstyles, the discussions of *gag* emotions. I was dreading the puppy love, broken hearts, and those dirty little boys that would be interested in my daughter. I KNEW what they were interested in, I was a dirty little boy myself. That would be my cosmic karma payback. Add to this the odd offspring pattern my family seems to have (a generation of all girls, a generation of all boys, and my youngest brother kicking of this generation with two girls) and I was confident I would have a daughter. In an odd way, I was looking forward to the special bond that seems to exist between fathers and daughters. I look at how my wife has a special love for her dad and thought that would be pretty cool to be the dad for a girl. I was ready.... and in an instant... I was not.
A boy? What? Are you sure?
Really?!? A boy?! Wow.
How sure are you?
A boy. I have to admit to initially being a little disappointed. I was so mentally prepared and had focused on all the "benefits" of having a girl that this was a bucket of cold water. The more I processed this new information, the more it grew on me. While I felt an odd sense of loss that I would not have a girl, the expanding awareness of my options with a boy were growing. I could rough house with him, build stuff, throw the ball around... he might like sports and if he inherits my wife's athleticism he could have a lot of success on the playing fields. This is going to be sweet, and I won't have to worry about what those dirty little boys will want to do to my daughter.... I will have to worry about my dirty little boy! :)
__________________________________________________________________________
The other constant thought in the back of my mind during the ultra sound was that this is probably the session in which my friend at work learned of his little girl's trisomy-18. I am sure his despair at this news was inversely proportional to my pure joy in learning that we had a healthy and properly developing baby boy. He and his wife are still in my thoughts as I progress along the path that they tread recently. At each of these types of checkpoints, I find myself mentally putting myself in his shoes. Those shoes hurt.
__________________________________________________________________________
Finally, because I don't want to end on a sad note, I found out Sunday of some more fantastic baby news. I can't share more than that because it is only 5 weeks... but it is good news and I am very happy for this couple.
Gotta jet and I am working on getting some $$ back online so I might see you there soon.
5% House: The house is coming along with a lot of hard work. I learned the true meaning of Labor Day this weekend when I spent "Labor Day Weekend" power washing and then staining the deck, weeding and raking all the landscaping, removing rust stains from exterior surfaces of the house, getting a chip/crack in the windshield repaired before winter, mowing the acre plus and whatever other bidding the pregnant missus ordered. She did help with the weeding and it was appreciated. The deck staining was the biggest PITA as it has a ton of spindles and was really in bad shape. The previous owners of this house suck and if I ever had the chance to meet them, I would kick them. It took me 2 hours to stain one section of railing and this was less than 1/4 of the whole railing. Uh oh. The staining took basically 2 days but was very rewarding as the difference was amazing. The wood was high quality wood and it looks like a new deck now. After 3 days of "vacation" I could not wait to get back to work. My brain is in much better working shape then my painting shoulder.
90% Baby: SteelerSteph and I had our mid-pregnancy ultra-sound on Friday. This can be a pretty nerve wracking milestone of a pregnancy. During this ultrasound the doctors measure and inspect all kinds of things to make sure development is proceeding correctly. It did not hit me how complex this entire process is until this session at the hospital. They check things as simple as making sure the heart has 4 chambers and they are the correct relative sizes. How does all this crap know how to develop? It boggles my mind. It is also during this ultrasound that they can tell you the gender of your baby if you so desire. We desired and much to my surprise and pleasure I found out I will be having a baby boy!!
This took some time to get my head around. When the ultra-soundologist (I just made that title up) asked if if we really wanted to know and then typed "It's a", drew an arrow to some bit on the computer screen, and then finished on a line by itself, "Boy".... I just started laughing. I could not stop. I had imagined and prepared myself mentally for many years to be the father of a girl. I was ready for the tea parties, the hairstyles, the discussions of *gag* emotions. I was dreading the puppy love, broken hearts, and those dirty little boys that would be interested in my daughter. I KNEW what they were interested in, I was a dirty little boy myself. That would be my cosmic karma payback. Add to this the odd offspring pattern my family seems to have (a generation of all girls, a generation of all boys, and my youngest brother kicking of this generation with two girls) and I was confident I would have a daughter. In an odd way, I was looking forward to the special bond that seems to exist between fathers and daughters. I look at how my wife has a special love for her dad and thought that would be pretty cool to be the dad for a girl. I was ready.... and in an instant... I was not.
A boy? What? Are you sure?
Really?!? A boy?! Wow.
How sure are you?
A boy. I have to admit to initially being a little disappointed. I was so mentally prepared and had focused on all the "benefits" of having a girl that this was a bucket of cold water. The more I processed this new information, the more it grew on me. While I felt an odd sense of loss that I would not have a girl, the expanding awareness of my options with a boy were growing. I could rough house with him, build stuff, throw the ball around... he might like sports and if he inherits my wife's athleticism he could have a lot of success on the playing fields. This is going to be sweet, and I won't have to worry about what those dirty little boys will want to do to my daughter.... I will have to worry about my dirty little boy! :)
__________________________________________________________________________
The other constant thought in the back of my mind during the ultra sound was that this is probably the session in which my friend at work learned of his little girl's trisomy-18. I am sure his despair at this news was inversely proportional to my pure joy in learning that we had a healthy and properly developing baby boy. He and his wife are still in my thoughts as I progress along the path that they tread recently. At each of these types of checkpoints, I find myself mentally putting myself in his shoes. Those shoes hurt.
__________________________________________________________________________
Finally, because I don't want to end on a sad note, I found out Sunday of some more fantastic baby news. I can't share more than that because it is only 5 weeks... but it is good news and I am very happy for this couple.
Gotta jet and I am working on getting some $$ back online so I might see you there soon.
