Friday, March 15, 2019

Pokering Out West Next Week

Flights on a MAX8 anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

I am ready to take off on some spring vacation time this weekend. I will be heading out to Seattle on Saturday to visit my son. Unfortunately, my flight out -- a choice morning direct flight -- was scheduled to be on a MAX8 plane on Southwest. The direct flight was eventually canceled and instead my wife and I got a flight that stops for a couple of hours in ... LAS VEGAS ... before finishing up in Seattle. Unfortunately, we will lose most of Saturday with the change. I was hoping to get in some poker time at Fortune Casino outside Seattle, but the loss of weekend time might make that difficult.

On Tuesday, we will be traveling to visit family and friends in the Phoenix Area. I will be going to a Giants at Cubs spring training game on Thursday, and before the trip back home on the weekend, I will surely get in some poker time at Talking Stick Resort and possibly Wild Horse Pass Casino.

I have continued to track my poker winnings/losses and am still making a profit for 2019. Seeing as how the Stick has a reputation for soft games -- and I can't disagree with what I have seen at the lower spread limits -- I hope to add to the lightning sockroll next week.

Also, while out in the greater Phoenix area, my wife and I will be looking at rental properties for a potential move there in late 2020 or in 2021. I have lived my entire life in Illinois with roughly the first third up in the southwest Chicago suburbs and the last two thirds in central Illinois. The prospect of moving to a different state far away with different challenges is both scary and exciting.

I will tweet if I am able to play at Fortune Casino on Sunday and will probably throw out a few tweets when playing poker in Phoenix. If you are in the area, stop by and say hello!

Thanks for reading!

Monday, March 04, 2019

R.I.P. Luke Perry ... Who Probably Thought that I Was a Creeper


I was sad to hear that actor Luke Perry, who recently had a massive stroke, passed away this morning. To many who watched the series "Beverly Hills 90210" in the early to mid 1990's, he will always be the dark and mysterious Dylan McKay.

The title of this post came from on event back in 2012 -- Wizard World Comic Con Chicago, which was held at the Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL in August. My youngest daughter began getting into cosplay around that time, so we made plans to go to a day of the Wizard World Comic Con convention in early August.

My daughter was extremely thrilled to be at her first convention where cosplay was a part, and she quickly met some new friends. I was thrilled to be able to gawk at some of the celebrities who were part of the convention, hawking their autographs and photo ops. In particular, I was happy to go on a day when Lauren Holly would be in attendance. I made sure to visit her area a few times as I took in the many sights and sounds of the gathering. Knowing that my daughter usually would run out of gas at anything that took several hours, I was prepared to leave in the early afternoon after looking at comics, guests, displays ... Unfortunately, since my daughter had made some new friends, she asked to stay longer. Okay. What to do?

Well, knowing that I would be stuck at the convention for another hour or so, I decided to head to the basically empty celebrity area and take in a little more Lauren Holly. It was actually quite interesting to see the lack of paying customers got that particular day. Joey Lawrence was there, and I swear that I saw not one soul come near his booth. Luke Perry got a little traffic, mostly from girls who grew up loving his Dylan character from 90210. Lauren Holly got some visitors also, but largely the celebrities sat around looking kind of bored. A buck is a buck, however, I imagine.

I called my daughter again, but she asked to have even more time to spend with her new friends. I told her that was fine, but what would I do to pass the time? I hung out at the snack area for awhile, then headed back to the celebrity area. By this time my presence had become pretty noticeable, even more so since I ended up having a couple more hours to spare. So of course, I looked a lot at Lauren Holly. Luke and I kind of nodded to each other each time I returned, and I am guessing that he was amused at the time I spent looking at her -- or thought I was a real creeper! There was really nothing else for me to do but hang out, so why not there? It was just one of those weird situations.

So ... today I take you back to August 2012 and the Wizard World Comic Con Chicago. Here is my blog post for August 15, 2012 titled "My Day at Comic Con Chicago."



I had quite a day this past Sunday at Wizard World Comic Con Chicago. Join me in a short journey of my day via a few photos ...

My last post featured a picture of the cartoon character my daughter attempted to emulate -- Sollux Captor:


My daughter:


Before we entered into the actual convention area, we scoped out the famous autos in the outer area:

Na na na na na na na na na  -- Batman!

Most famous DeLorean

Who ya gonna call?

There was a big crowd waiting to get in.



Pretty soon I was in geek heaven.



I mean, it WAS Comic Con, right?

People there lived for dressing up like all kinds of characters. It was a heck of a good time seeing everyone in their costumes.






I discovered quite an appreciation for women dressed up like super heroes -- especially when the costumes included leather, spandex, and lots of boobage!

There were celebrities there, of course. You could get autographs, pictures ... if you were willing to shell out around $40-60 per. This guy -- no way! However, I was able to get past the volunteer nazis to snap a few freebies.

Ooh ... Lauren Holly was hot. Not like I have had a thing for her for years or anything ...

The real Hulk ...

Probably the second best Superman to George Reeves

He's still trying to figure it out -- Kelly or Brenda? Brenda or Kelly?

Ever wonder what Lacey Underall from Caddyshack looks like now?


Here is the answer:


She still looks kind of cute in the picture, but in person not so much. Ah well ...

My daughter met some friends who follow the same cartoon she does. They hung out together for most of the afternoon.


So yes, it was an interesting afternoon. My daughter had a great time, which was the most important. As for me ... I am still thinking about the leather and spandex. But ... it is time for a "peace - out" from my daughter before I start talking about Stan Lee, Tom Felton, Norman Reedus, the Bella Twins, ...