RoLLLL TiDDDDDeee! GeeeaaauuuXXXX SainnnnTTTsss!!!

Alright alright...settle down folks! I am NOT incarcerated! I logged on the other night and saw all these comments that always seem to pop up whenever I go a few days without blogging. But go almost a week...and ya'all get downright ornery!!!!

Its been a bit of a slow week, kind of. Wrapped up the meds for my kidney stone situation...and slid in a few follow up visits to the doctor. Found out my Crestor is REALLY having a good effect on my cholesterol levels. That's very encouraging. Also, my screwed up knee? That always seems to swell up huge when I am in a prolonged period of sitting at tournament tables? Saw doctor about that as well. He put me on some anti-inflammatory pack program thing....6 pills one day, 5 the next...so on and so on...til today is the last...and my knees feel completely great now! No swelling. No pain. Nice! Just in time for New Orleans Harrah's event!

Went out and bought the adapter for Xbox360. I am now in the world of XBoxLive. How cool. My buddy Joey "LuckBox" Gross up in Baton Rouge got me initiated the other night in a friendly little game of Modern Warfare 2. Good times. Cool features on their XBoxLive too...you can watch all NetFlix movies on streaming video. And on my new kickass Samsung...even sweeter. Also picked up Assassin's Creed 2 and Flashpoint...two pretty killer games. And I am almost finished with my 9th Vince Flynn novel, "Executive Power." Not my favorite of the bunch...but still decent. After that its "Memorial Day" and then on to the latest one just released, something with the word HONOR. And that will be all of them. Then I guess I read the new Grisham novel and then the rest of the Stephen Coonts books. I have also come to the conclusion that I have GOT to get me some glasses. My eyes are getting awful.

I arrived at that decision after my new laptop arrived. Well, actually, my second laptop arrived. See, I bought a new Dell Studio 15...very nice, with the new Windows 7, which takes some getting used to. And then I discovered my portable drive is missing. So I'm bogged down with trying to move my files from the old jacked up computer to the new one using disc-burning as a method. Slow and methodical. Well, I kept thinking...hmmm...do I want to get one of those mini laptops? Kevin O'Leary is always carrying his around at the Venetian. And its the reason he doesnt get told to put it away...cuz its small. I broke mine out there one day...and got reprimanded. Sigh. Plus...there are just places where it would be very handy. So I went ahead and bought one. It showed up two days later. Wow. Fast. But when you are surfing the web the text is REALLY small. MUST GET GLASSES!

Shall we talk football? Why don't we! What a week! WHAT AN EFFIN WEEK! First, I win the Confidence Pool last week. Then, I almost win it AGAIN this week. If Minnesota had won last night...and Green Bay wins tonight, I would have taken it down. But whatever. What a day Saturday was. Squirrel and I strapped on all our Bama gear and went out to watch the game. I have to say, I've watched that team all year and they have often times looked very beatable. But not Saturday. Nope. They looked about as good as I have ever seen them look. What a performance. Need a 3rd down conversion? No problem. Need a big stop on 3rd down from the defense? You got it! Need 6 to 8 yards from your running back every 1st down? There it is! Thing about it...with Florida...it wasnt until about 5 minutes remained where they could really relax and feel like it was in the bag. Squirrel was about as happy as I've ever seen her. I was happy for her. There was a lot of class exhibited at the end of the game...with Saban instructing his boys to take a knee on the 12 yrd line...with just under two minutes remaining and Florida with 2 timeouts. And then Urban Meyer did the right thing and didn't use them. After the game the two QB's, McElroy and Tebow were about as classy as you could ever want to see two guys be. It was all just very impressive. And holy smoke, Bama is in the Title Game...albeit against Texas, who did everything they could to NOT win against Nebraska. Talk about getting lucky. Wow! But...it does have a nice ring to it....Bama vs. Texas. First time they have met in 30 years. Two teams steeped in tradition. Bama is an early 3.5 pt favorite. I think that is about right.

As far as going to the game? I would really, really like to take Squirrel to the game. Its on a Thursday. On Saturday there is a party in Vegas I would kind of like to attend. It would make for a fun weekend. But a very expensive one. So...with that in mind, I will be requiring a very big victory of some sort this week coming up in New Orleans. I started pricing tickets...good gawd...like $700 to $1000 a ticket. Crazy. But what an experience. I went to the Rose Bowl in 1991...the year we played Michigan for the National Title. I sat about 50 rows up in the end zone. The Rose Bowl is amazing. Huge stadium. Beautiful field. And my Huskies beat the snot out of them. It was a great, great day. Speaking of great days....finishing the season with a 42-10 ass-whooping of Cal on Saturday was a helluva way for us to end our season. From 0-12 last year to 5-7 and narrow losses to LSU, Notre Dame and two others has got to have Husky fans feeling optimistic about the future. Now if we can just convince Jake Locker to stick around for one more year...we might actually make a bowl game next year! Good job Dawgs! Good job!

The Saints? WTF is going on with that team? I mean....every time someone has them on the rocks, they just seem to find the ability to come back and win. They have that feel of destiny to them, dont they? Granted, while I would like them to win every game...on this particular Sunday, with them having just thoroughly pummeling the Patriots...and having clinched their division with Atlanta losing...I kind of had a reason to root against them. I am in this guy's Loser Pool...and we are down to only 5 people. Well, one would go out after taking Arizona to lose. And two others had Washington to lose vs. the Saints. Had Washington decided not to gift wrap the game and hand it to the Saints...I would be heads up with this other person for $3400. Would have probably been content to take $1700 each. On top of that...I am down to 3 in the Venetian's $100 Survivor Pool. We all agreed to take $400 each and play for the remaining $1000. And I am still alive in my $100 Survivor, my $25 Survivor, and my $50 Midseason Survivor. So hypothetically, its shaping up to be a pretty damn good year in the Pool department. My Bowl Pool starts on the 19th. I won that sucker for about $5,000 two years ago. Regardless...to see the Saints sitting there at 12-0 is simply incredible. I would love to see the Saints and the Colts run the table...and meet in the Super Bowl, both 18-0. Guess the Dolphins and their tub of champagne would be kinda screwed then, huh!??? I wonder who Archie Manning would root for? Tough one huh?

Did you think you were going to read about poker here? Hope not. At least ...well, it was a slow week in poker. I did manage to get out one night and play some cash game. Brandon Jarrett is in town, or was. He convinced me to come meet him one night (Friday night) at the IP...to play some 1/2. He didnt last long. He was losing, and not taking it very well. I was up and down and not really caring that much. Well, I had been wrestling with insomnia really bad for like two weeks...and with New Orleans coming up, really needed a solution to this sleep situation. Keep not falling asleep until like 5 or 6am and then sleeping in til 2 or 3. Not good, not good. So I decided, since I knew I was going to have to go watch the Bama game with Squirrel on Saturday at 3pm...to just pull an all nighter and try to pull myself out of the funk. I hit the wall at about 7am...but knew I couldn't give up then. If I did it would just screw me up even more. So I slogged on. We had a really fun table for the first 8 hours. The last 6 hours? Not so much. In fact, I pretty much hated everyone at my table. At some point there was a conversation about this Christmas tree Squirrel has constructed in our living room, and the cost associated with it...and this old curmudgeon decided to turn it into me 'trying to impress people with my expensive Christmas tree.' Huh? Dude...um, really? That's what you're taking from this conversation? Same guy also didn't want to do the 'put a dollar on the button when its your button to act as a tip for the dealer if you should happen to win a hand on the button' thing that I started. Simply put, the guy was an old pecker-head. Fuck him. So I finally crawled outa there at like 1:30pm. Got home...got into my Bama gear...popped an Aderol (life saver!!!) and was good to go! And now...my sleep situation...lot better place!

I have been getting slaughtered on Pokerstars all week. I won a $12/180 for $600 like Tuesday...and every since then have just gotten murdered. Nothing holds up on that site. No one ever folds. Draws always hit. Over cards always call when you move in with, say 10-10 on a 4-5-9 board....and hit. I bubble like its my job. Its just ridiculous. And trying to win the fucking PCA trip? What a joke. This has become like a 5 year odyssey that always ends the same. Get deep in everything, and get hosed. Or win Steps 1, 2, 3, 4 and then get fucked in steps 5 and/or 6. I just think I am destined to NEVER ever win that trip. As much as I am dying to make that trip and play that tourney. Thats January 5th til like the 12th. Then there is this tourney here at the Beau Rivage. Of which, of course, I am still not 'allowed' to play in. So I have NO IDEA what January holds for me. Depending on when the Borgata Winter Open is..I might go play that. But I also booked Squirrel and I to go to Seattle for a get together with my family from the 23rd to the 31st. And if I win something in N.O. and decide to take Squirrel out to Pasadena for the BCS Title Game...I wouldn't be able to play Pokerstars PCA anyway.

I kind of just wish Johnny and Ken would call and tell me I can play the Beau Rivage event. I don't even care if they let me back in to play in their live room, or their weekly tourneys. If they could just allow me to play the big tourneys there, I would be perfectly fine with that as a compromise. And not write a single word about them. Maybe they will surprise me. Who knows.

I am very excited about this Harrah's event. And yeah...I am allowed to play there. Hmmm. Wow, intereresting huh? How did that AUTOMATIC THREE YEAR BAN work out for ya there, Monkey Hater Guy??? Eat me! I talked to Steve again tonight, just going over the structures and everything. They are going to be incredible. The same on the SNG's, which weren't great the first day in May...but which Steve IMMEDIATELY changed! And then they were super. But these tourney structures for this event? Absolutely insanely good. 25/50, 50/100, 75/150, 100/200, 100/200 w-25, 150/300 w-25, 200/400 w-50, 250/500 w-50, 300/600 w-75.......and so on. Just killer! I mean...oh, and great starting stacks. But not TOO many chips, which is nice. 7k chips for $200 and $300. 8k chips for the $500. Perfect amount. I expect to see a LOT of good players making the Final Tables over there. And I hope I am one of them. I would like to win ONE event, and Final Table 3 others. That would make for a great trip. And cash in the Main. Those are my goals. Should be a really good week. And I am looking forward to seeing a lot of you! Lets have some fun!!!

Squirrel is home early from work and wanting to go do something. But its kind of my last night before New Orleans, and I really want to go to the gym. I went for the first time in a long time last Tuesday...and HOLY CRAP! I was so freaking sore for 4 days! My whole upper body was just shot! How pathetic is THAT!?? Yeah clearly, I have let things go on the 'ol body! Last night she was off and we went to see a movie that I had no idea about. "The Blind Side." Are you kidding me? Maybe the best movie I have seen in 5 years! It was a true story based on the life of future All-Pro left tackle Michael Oher of the Baltimore Ravens...who was a 2-time All American at Ole Miss. He was a forgotten, left for naught kid growing up in Memphis, when he was discovered, helped, then later made part of a wealthy, white family. They showed him love, he gave them purpose...and together they conquered a lot together. It was a truly inspiring movie. I found myself tearing up about 4 times during the film. The acting was incredible. Tim McGraw played a good father. Sandra Bullock played maybe her most impressive role ever. And even the teenage daughter and young son were phenomenal. And to be set in the always racially divisive south made it all the more impactful. I am now a huge Michael Oher fan. If you haven't seen this movie, and you like sports...and feel like you are a good person, or would like to be...go see this film.  I used to coach Little League baseball every season. At least when I could. Three years in Pensacola. Five years in Atlanta. Never while in New York. And another 4 when I lived in Seattle. I love it. I love coaching/teaching baseball, and I like working with kids in the 8-12 age range. I get along with kids so well, and really identify with them. I also love being a role model to them...and being a mentor. And helping the ones out who really need a helping hand. Watching that movie just kind of reminded me that I possess that gene, in case I forgot...after not having coached the last few years. I would REALLY like to get back into coaching again. I miss it a lot. And I miss the personal feelings I get from doing it. Winning and losing in Little League is so irrelevant, though my teams do always seem to win a lot. And sure, winning is fun...but my teams always had fun no matter what. The worst day of Little League was always the last game, or the team party...when I wouldn't see them again. But I would occasionally hear from one of them later on...and it always made me smile, to know I made an impact in their lives. Yeah...I miss that a lot. Kids...their so cool.

Okay...well, I think I have fullfilled my blogging duties for the day, yeah? Maybe I will go to the gym...then come back, and take Squirrel out for sushi. Always in the mood for sushi. Oh and by the way...that place I was bashing? Where we used to always go? Off of exit 50? Saki? Well, Squirrel went by there one night, and the 'actual' owner...not the little bitch who offended us...offered a heartfelt apology to her...and now we have decided to give them a second chance.

If I forgot to write about something...sorry. You will just have to read about it later!!!!

MONKEY