Quick Wednesday Night Thoughts -- Scores and Scorches

1) I sent in a check to pay what should be my last obligation on my daughter's lease from her ill-fated move to Texas. Thank goodness the property managers found someone to sublease the apartment. Otherwise, I was on the hook until October.  SCORE

2) Turned in my signed contract for next work year. I was on the contract team when we negotiated this sweetheart five-year contract about four years ago -- right before the bottom fell out of the economy. Nothing like putting money directly into the pockets of your coworkers to make you feel the love.  SCORE

3) A big down side of my daughter's Texas travails -- and we were afraid of this -- bed bugs! My daughter's apartment had bed bugs and we most likely brought some home with us. My arms look like Josie has been slapping me around. We seemed to find the source (hopefully), so with some cleaning and an exterminator's help we will get this unpleasant surprise taken care of.  SCORCH

4) I really miss playing blogger tournaments and cash games at Full Tilt. I was really ready for a great BBT6 series. I have still been playing some cash games at UB, but it is not the same.  SCORCH

5) Las Vegas is coming sooner than I think. Only 5 1/2 weeks to go! I'll be there June 19-24. I hope to meet up with Yestbay1 before he leaves town. I have already offered my services as his final table servant should he go that far in his WSOP event! Anyone else going to be in Sin City that week? Let me know.  SCORE

Tuesday Thoughts: Softball, Texas Freedom, and the Chicago White Sox

One thing about life that is certain is that it is always interesting. Sometimes , however, interesting may not be that great.

Softball

Softball seemed to reach a new low for me as a dagger to the heart of a recreational player was felt Tuesday night. My team was cruising early when the new guy on the team, our big slugger, knocked out a three-run home run. Before he even got to third base, the opposing team challenged his hit, saying he used an illegal bat.

wtf -- This is a stupid recreational league! Worse yet, the umpire, before the game, was checking out our bats. So if there was an illegal one in the rack, shouldn't he tell us we can't use it?

The umpire was a total, wimpy moron. He checked with someone, then declared the batter out. The captain of my team chose not to play the game under protest, and I felt like we were the wimps of the world. An inning later, the other team got a player on first and the guys on his team were telling him to make sure he breaks up the double play. Uh yeah -- I was the second baseman. So, as stupid as this sounds for a guy who should not be thinking this, I was prepared to knock the shit out of this guy if he came anywhere near me. As luck would have it, the next batter grounded to short, who flipped to me at second. I made the pivot and the throw to first but the runner was nowhere near me. Probably saved myself lots of hurt!

Oh yeah -- the end result was that we lost by one run. The bat turned out to indeed be illegal, but calling a team on that in a recreational league is a d-bag play. And ... once again I went two for three, keeping my .667 batting average. Not bad for a ... veteran.

Texas Freedom

I had recently been bleeding money left and right. It used to be that money was bled in $20's, then $100's, now $1,000's. I was delighted to find out that my daughter's apartment in Texas, for which I had guaranteed a lease through October, has been rented! Yes -- off the hook to the tune of several thousand dollars. Hmmm ... maybe I should be considering a WSOP donkament ...

The Chicago White Sox

The Chicago White Sox have hit bottom for the young season, sporting MLB's worst record and getting no-hit tonight by arch rival Minnesota. With the Sox starting rotation and band of good hitters, I was expecting much the opposite this season. They are already ten games out of first place and could be 10 1/2 before the night is over. Is it finally time to pull the plug on the Ozzie show and move in a different direction? Frankly, I have gotten tired of watching Ozzie vs Kenny Williams, Ozzie vs Bobby Jenks, Ozzie vs the Chicago Cubs, ... With a last place team and knowing that you can't fire the whole team, I think the manager's hot seat should be steamimg right now. Stay tuned ...

Travel Update

College Station, TX:

Yesterday I got into 70's temperature for the first time in ages; today the temperature is in the 80's. Yowsa!

The drive through eastern Texas was very nice. I had been to several areas of Texas before -- Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, and Lubbock. I was a bit surprised at how lush the land seemed to be. Many nice ranches and lots of hills. College Station, TX appears to be a pretty nice university town. Lots of shopping areas abound, and many apartment complexes are close to the Texas A & M campus.

The complex where my daughter lives is not as nice as I thought. The apartment is fine, but little care has been paid to the outside grounds in some time. Maybe I should not expect so much from apartments in a university town?

My daughter sold most of the furniture she needed to sell. We still have a problem in that she still has a bed and a table and chairs set that we are not taking back home. I hope we do not have to give them away.

After many hours of driving these past two days, I hope to relax tonight watching the Fighting Illini taking on Kansas and at the Sunday night blogger Survivor game.

See ya at Donkey Island!

Travel Update: I'm in Atlanta ... Texas?

Today was a long travel day but fortunately the weather was nice. As we got farther and farther south and west, the temperature kept going up. It was very nice to see the 70's -- it had been some time. We were not able to eat lunch at one of our favorite spots, Lambert's Cafe in Sikeston, MO -- The Only Home of Throwed Rolls. The wait was 1 1/2 hours, so we ate at the local Ruby Tuesday instead. My wife was very unhappy since they screwed up our order twice. I, on the other hand, had a great time. Me thinks it has something to do with the low-cut black tops and the more than ample chests of two of the waitresses. I'm just sayin' ... The biggest mess we saw was in Texarkana. If you have never been there before, a highway divides Arkansas and Texas. There is construction going on and little detours, blocked roads, etc seem to be everywhere. We were going to spend the night there, but were frustrated just getting around. Also, many hotels were filled due to, apparently, a big bull sale going on in town over the weekend. You just don't see that in Illinois ... Ate at a Waffle House for the first time in years. The chilli I had was the best I have had in some time. Great cheap meal for all. Since College Station was still about five hours away, we drove out of the Texarkana mess and are staying the night in this little town of Atlanta. In the morning we will have a drive of a bit more than four hours to get to our destination.

Good News Today & Off To Texas

Scholastic Bowl State Finals

Today had an air of excitement since my son's Scholastic Bowl team, in only its second season, competed at the state tournament. They were one of eight teams in their division that qualified for state.

Expectations were high as the team won a squeaker in the first game in its bracket. However, the next game was against a special high school that was designed to recruit the best science and math students in the state. Sheesh, were they tough! Needless to say, the brainiacs took the rookies to town. They eventually won the tournament.

The final game was against an experienced team from a wealthy suburban Chicago school that was three times the size of my son's school. Another lesson for the rookie team. This team only lost one game -- to the braniac team, of course!

We were pretty proud of my son and his team. My kids were never interested in sports, so getting to go to the state finals of Scholastic Bowl competition was a thrill.

What ... a job????

Finally, after almost two years spent searching for a professional job, my wife finally got a job offer! The position is currently half time with the possibility of it moving to full time. This works well for now as it gets her back doing what she has come to love -- training students and staff in computer software applications -- while allowing her to keep her part-time job assisting with the religious education and the administration of the local temple. She is very excited, as the tough job market and her lack of success in landing a job had begun to wear on her.

Off to Texas

In the morning we are hitting the road to fetch my daughter home from Texas. She just was not ready to move that far from home yet and had a terrible string of things happen to her. I am not sure how her return will work out, but it was certainly terrible for us to see how unhappy she has been these past couple of months. Unfortunately, this was an expensive lesson for both her and us. However, she is doing excellent work in her online classes, so at least her education is progressing.

Las Vegas calling lightning36 ...

Reservations are now set for my next trip to Las Vegas -- June 19-24. I will be staying at Bally's the length of the trip. I'll bet The Neophyte and Lucki Duck are surprised to hear this! Anyone else going to Las Vegas that week? I am not sure what tournaments I might play -- maybe WSOP donkathon, Venetian Deep Stack, the summer series at Binions or the Golden Nugget -- who knows?

I am taking my laptop with me to hopefully post on the road these next few days. It looks like it is time to experience part of America one mile at a time.

Till next time ...

Friday Family Updates

Sometimes things just do not work out, as my oldest daughter found out the hard way. Her move to Texas this past January did not turn out the way she hoped. She was immediately homesick, had difficulty finding a job, had to deal with bed bugs three times, had car problems, blew a tire, on and on ... We finally decided that enough was enough and pulled the plug on her Texas adventure. She is really looking forward to coming home despite having to immediately live with her parents! I'll be heading into Lucki Duck territory in a week to get her.

Mrs. lightning has a job interview at the neighboring university next week. We hope it goes well. Although she has applied for a number of university jobs, this will be only her second interview. She is almost at the two year mark without full-time professional employment. She has always been able to find part-time gigs that don't pay much, but getting something more closely fitting her education, experience, and skills would be nice.

It was about one year ago that we started checking into a health problem my son was having. On April 2, 2010, I wrote a post about my son's early struggles in life. Among other things, I said "Challenges exist in every family. We seemed to have weathered this major one." Little was I to know that on one week later my son would be diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, necessitating an immediate trip to the Mayo Clinic for surgery.

I am happy to report that my son's recovery has been excellent. He appears to remain cancer-free. He has really gotten into school work, and we think that by the end of his high school junior year he will have already accumulated 29 hours of college-level credit thanks to taking Russian at the local community college and testing high enough to receive many AP credits.

My youngest daughter survived her bullying problems from a couple of years ago and can not wait to get out of middle school and begin high school in the fall. She is still waiting for her dad to take her back to Las Vegas!

As for me -- well, I'm still chugging along. My plan for healthier living got waylaid last spring due to dealing with the cancer ordeal. However, I am giving it a shot again and have already started changing my diet and eating habits. The exercise part will soon follow. I continue to have a great secure job, and I am certainly thankful of that in this economy. However, the legislative peckerheads in Illinois are doing everything they can to get at my pension money. Only time will tell how successful they will be.

I continue to play online poker, probably with less enthusiasm than in the past. I need to play more b&m poker. I am excited to hear, however, that BBT6 is on the way!

That is it from my little corner of the world. Challenges are always present, but I am thankful to have the life, family, and friends that I have, including several of you online poker donks! My best to all of you as we make our way through this thing we call life.