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Friday May 09, 2008

eBay update...

I finally shipped the final items from the recent eBay spring cleaning. Amazing what some of the things went for... We cleared about $500 after all was said and done. Surprised how much shipping charges have gone up since the last big eBay jam we did. Trading my old stuff for other folks $$ is a great feeling.

Thursday May 08, 2008

Book Review: 21:Bringing down the house, by Ben Mezrich

I needed a book to help me kill time on the flight to Orlando and back this week. 21 was just the answer. It was a fun fast read that could be put away when landing and picked up several days later and within a paragraph, I was right back in the book. My recent fun with Poker makes the book more meaningful. Highly recommended to anyone needing to kill 4-6 hours.

http://www.amazon.com/Bringing-Down-House-Students-Millions/dp/0743225708

Tuesday May 06, 2008

$1000 turkey encounter

There are dolphin encounters that can be pretty pricey, I have read about being in a shark tank which is also expensive, but that doesn't hold a candle to my run in, literally, with that damn turkey from my recent blog. Getting it checked out tomorrow, but worst case is a G. Not on the top of my list on ways to drop $1000. Oh well.

Monday May 05, 2008

Full house AAA/33

Played in a charity poker event on Saturday night and a cash game broke out later. My highest dollar hand and best winning hand went as follows:

I was dealer with 10 players and had Ah3d. Called $1 as most players were in the pot. Big blind raised to $3 and most folks stayed in the pot. Flop comes A,J,8. I have top pair with terrible kicker. Someone makes it $3 and 4 of us stay in the hand. The turn is A so I have a set. Still shifty kicker but feeling like I'm in good shape. Player makes it $6, I raise to $12 and still have two callers. The river is a 3. I hit my boat. Unless I'm really unlucky and someone was playing AJ or A8, I have the nuts. I was willing to take that beat if it went that way. Both players checked and I had $20 left and went all in. Both called. One drunk, err player had Q8 so was playing AA on board plus his 88, which was foolish. The other fellow had A4, we would have split with AAA plus J8 on the board. That was a sweet hand.

10 minutes in security line in RIC

Flying to see the mouse today, Orlando through Richmond. This is a great airport with lots of close cheap parking, free WiFi, and easy TSA lines. Looking forward to DISA show and doing booth duty. More on the show in the week.

Sunday May 04, 2008

The best boogboarding 40 year old there...

Yep, I am not the fastest, richest or best looking, but today, I was the best on the boogie board at the MassWaterPark in Harrisonburg. My son had his 10th bday, really not until next weekend, today with some great friends and his bonehead dad at the Water Park. I'm a big fan of the place and the bday party deal is awesome. $190 for 10 guest for 4 hours (which is plenty) and pizza/cake/drinks and $3 at the arcade. It was $38/person to get in otherwise, so this was a steal. The place was also really quiet today, so we got lots of time on the wavemachine.

Damn Turkey....

Going to a business meeting in Norfolk this past Friday, and I ran into a turkey, or the turkey flew into my car, worse, my wife's car, as I was going about 75, err, 65 on the interstate. It was about 6:40am and with about 5 other cars and I spotted a turkey and clearly, he didn't see me. But the stupid bird didn't turn back and worse, flew at the last second, just in time to get up to my hood area and with a quick puff of feather, it was over. I didn't think it could have done the damage it did. An hour later I was getting gas and the person at the pump beside looked and said, "Dude, that sucks." I then went to check out the damage and he was right. I'm sure it will be $5 less than whatever my deductible is these days...

Tuesday April 29, 2008

OMG - Someone stole my car...

After a great night of poker, we had an issue. My wife made it to 4th in the event while I was knocked out in 6th. After I finished in the game, I played in the cash game and did well. Cathy wanted me to leave with her at midnight and I was on a roll. She ended up getting a ride with the person that finished in second place, I thought she took the car when I left an hour later; I was walking out with a cash game buddy talking over hands and bad beats and walked by a car that looked like mine.

A few minutes ago, my wife went to leave house and noticed that my car wasn't in the driveway. I have been crushed with work and not even thinking about stuff. I ran downstairs and feared the worst. In 10 seconds, we were ready to call 9-1-1 and I asked if she left the keys in the car when she came home from poker. She advised that she rode with Darren and I commented that I rode with Gary. Then the shock of leaving our car at our friends place overnight and what Mark is thinking. (Mark, I know you read my blog, so here is to you)

Turns out that we blocked in a car in Mark's driveway and the SOP is to leave keys in the car if you block in someone, so I did. The car was moved from spot A to spot B and given that folks were still playing when I left, I didn't realize that the white car on the other side of the drive was mine given that I thought that Cathy drove home. I was so pleased to have won a bunch of cash that I didn't pay attention as I walked in the house last night... The joys of old age.

Spring cleaning and eBay

I spent most of the weekend doing "spring cleaning" type of activites. Keep in mind, I'm big time type A, so having a list and crossing stuff off the list is quite a nice feeling.

In the last few week, when picking out clothes for my kids, not a regular happening, I always find the shirt that doesn't fit and the "high water" jeans... So on rainy Sunday, we pulled all the clothes from the closet and only put back the items that fit. We lost like 1/3 to 1/2 of the clothes. A fair amount of them are now on eBay. We have more than 40 auctions running and will probably sell $500-$800 of stuff that still has life in it. Name brands like UnderArmour, Boden, Izod and Polo sell like crazy and thankfully my little one with all the cool threads is easy on her clothes. Seems that we get better than 50% of the price back on lots of items, so the next purchase isn't bad.

I could do a whole series on selling on eBay, but not today. If you have stuff to sell, first be a buyer. See what you like in a seller and what annoys you. Build up your feedback score, I'm well over 400 at this point and don't sell until you cross 10 or 20 positive feedbacks.

Monday April 28, 2008

Did 4 yesterday in between rain showers...

Got in a nice run yesterday in the middle of doing a weekend of spring cleaning. If you haven't run for a while, get back out there... I need to take my own advice and push harder on the exercise.

Which heals quicker: broken arm or cut on shin???

Depends if you are 7 or 40... The day before my little one broke her arm, I got a pretty bad cut on my shin while helping my wife coming in on her kayak in the waves at the beach. The next day, shorty broke her arm. Today she got the cast off and is more or less fine. 98% healed as her doctor described it. Yet my shin is still not 100%. I'm sure it is that I'm old and very little blood flows to the shin, so repairing itself is slow. Oh well. Getting old sucks. :)

Wednesday April 23, 2008

Ran 3.5 yesterday

You haven't seen this blog entry in a bit. I have turned into a slacker, but now I'm back. The weather is turning great and I'm mentally done with winter. I still have those winter pounds on me so back to work to look and feel good. I'm getting a kick out of taking my dog. He needs to blow off some steam as much as I do, so I get the good dog owner feeling plus the feel good from the run itself.

No better day than today to get your running/biking/workouts back on track.

Monday April 21, 2008

4 cute kids - 3 human and 1 goat

My folks have a great farm with lots of petting zoo animals and a fun place to play around. They recently, 2 weeks ago, had 3 baby goats. They also have 25 sheep which were clipped this past thursday. In the picture are my kids and a little one's BFF and one of the female goats. We are expecting another goat mom to have more babies this week. I'm sure if that happens, we will be in the car again next weekend.

Friday April 18, 2008

Vacation review of Costa Rica: part 5 (pics)

Awesome shot of the Arenal Volcano . My pics weren't this good and I couldn't get one at night to prove my sightings of red hot boulders.

I love warning signs with no fence, although this sign of High Volcanic Risk was pretty scary. I hear that a few folks die a year from gases and tumbling rocks.

Vacation review of Costa Rica: part 4

I want to wrap up from Costa Rican blogging with the possible exception of a few more pictures at some point with this entry.

After two day nights at Finca Rosa Blanca, we went to the Peace Lodge at La Paz Waterfalls and were blown away. The Peace Lodge may be the greatest hotel stay ever. It was a bathroom that happened to come with a bedroom. The bathroom had a waterfall, just flip the switch, a hot tub, a waterfall shower, a regular awesome shower and hundred, yes, hundreds of plants. The bedroom was impressive with a big poster bed with netting and a river rock fireplace. At 6500 feet in elevation, that fireplace was running the whole time we were there. The high temperature during our visit was 65, although nights was only high 50's...

The Peace Lodge had great waterfalls and trails as well as a Zoo/park attached. As guest, we were free to come and go but many tour buses stopped each day for the same attractions. I love the hummingbirds, while my kids liked the birds, monkeys and big cats. MayMay the puma was a favorite and still talked about in my house. The 6 month old Puma chased my kids as they run up and down the steps beside her cage. Can you say "prey"? I was impressed how much the employees cared for the animals as well as how close we could get to those same animals. I had to get a toucan away from my little one's Crocs as the toucan was trying to pull her butterfly gibit off the shoe. You don't see that at the National Zoo in DC.

The final stop on our CR tour with at the Arenal Volcano and Tabacon Hot Spring Resort. I loved the area and the bungee jumping/zipline/adventure theme of the area. I however was very upset with the 5 stars Tabacon Resort. It was at best a "Best Western" with a hot volcanic spring running thru the property. The service at Tabacon was great. The rooms were dark, no overhead lights and five 40 watt bulbs in a double room and the bedspread was that nasty and Motel 6 quality. Not fine thread count like all the other nice places we stayed and Tabacon was the most expensive place on our trip. I will not let a friend of mine stay there if I can help it.

We did see the Volcano erupting on our final night from our balcony. The sky above the volcano would turn orange/pink and then we would see a red ball rolling down our side of the mountain. The lava flow is actually boulders getting blown out every few minutes and not like Hawaii where it is a molten river.

We loved Costa Rica and may start learning spanish in the area so I'm more ready for my next trip.