Happy new year...3 months late

Damn, I've been SLACKING on the posts! This has been the longest freaking winter EVER! It was 16 degrees this morning. Usually by now we've had a few days of 55+, but not this year. I've barely been outside since before Christmas. Depressing.

Let's see, what's new...Home: we're on a bit of a health kick. Lots of fruits/veggies lately. Caprice is on a roll and doing great. I need to catch up! Gonna try a 5-day juice fast with Mean Green from "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead". I can use the reboot.

Speaking of reboots, Id been updating some tech at home as well. Got a MS Surface RT, hated it at first, then really started to like it, but it doesn't do Google stuff well. So, I sold it (it was new) and used the money to get a used Pro version from Gazelle on eBay, and it's great. I only have 2 complaints. The touchpad on the type keyboard/cover is awful, and the AC adapter magnetic connection sucks ass. Stick with the plug!

Saw Kings of Leon in Columbus with Graham in mid-February. Great show, very solid.

New glasses: Got some new glasses and contacts. I like the glasses, it's a cool new look. I just have to keep my hair trimmed, they don't look good with longer hair.

New phones/service: We switched back to AT&T! So glad we did, the reception is much much better, and we got new Galaxy S4's, which are a nice upgrade to the S3. Of course, the new HTC One looks freaking killer and came out right after we switched.

Guns: Sent my XDs9 back for a recall repair recently. Got it back and they hooked me with an extended magazine, although they sent the .45 model, so I have to send it back.

Soup cookoff: Took 3rd out of 15 in the AmVets soup cookoff back in February. Smoky potato with bacon and leeks. MMMMMMMMmmmmmm!

new years: Went to TK's. Coleman joined us. We had a great time, though it ended up being only 7 of us.

poker: I've barely played! Still getting crushed at the cash game lately, but I'm doing well in tourneys. I need to find a good one somewhere soon.

I got into a new series lately (besides Walking Dead, which isn't fantastic, but fun to watch), called True Detective. Quite possibly better than Breaking Bad. Just amazing. Found some episodes of a Brit series called Black Mirror. Kinda like a modern Twilight Zone with lots of technology. Pretty cool.

Chicago trip: Just got back last night. What a cool town! Did the museum, aquarium, skydeck at Sears Tower, Cubs game at Wrigley (woo! bucket list item) and even caught a very funny improv comedy show. Family friendly too, since we had the kids with us. It was a lot of fun.

Work is going GREAT! Just switched to a new help desk system called Zendesk. "Love your help desk" is their tagline, and I love my help desk! It took me some time to get it all set up, and I'm still working on a few customizations, but it's very Zen-like and smooth. Really makes our workflow easier, and from the end-user side, it's a breeze as well.

I'm going to bring in a 37" TV that I have sitting in the attic, and set it up as a "control center" monitor for the network, tech tickets, wireless syste, etc.

I just started taking some Google tests, for the Certified Trainer program, and I'm 2 for 2 so far. I also just had a great evaluation.

We just got some new cabinets in the office and I moved all of our parts/supplies into them. They look MUCH better than the beat up metal cabinets we had before, and they hide all the clutter, and lock so we can put new iPads/laptops in there at night. There have been times where we had $30k worth of tech just sitting there. I do have a small motion alarm that might help, but a locking cabinet adds a lot of security.

So, that's a quick update for now, I'll try to keep up from here!

RIP Ray

Lost a long-time friend the other day. Cancer sucks.

Reading this right now

In Focus, Psychologist and journalist Daniel Goleman, author of the #1 international bestsellerEmotional Intelligence, offers a groundbreaking look at today’s scarcest resource and the secret to high performance and fulfillment: attention.

Combining cutting-edge research with practical findings, Focus delves into the science of attention in all its varieties, presenting a long overdue discussion of this little-noticed and under-rated mental asset. In an era of unstoppable distractions, Goleman persuasively argues that now more than ever we must learn to sharpen focus if we are to survive in a complex world.

Goleman boils down attention research into a threesome: inner, other, and outer focus. Drawing on rich case studies from fields as diverse as competitive sports, education, the arts, and business, he shows why high-achievers need all three kinds of focus, and explains how those who rely on Smart Practices—mindfulness meditation, focused preparation and recovery, positive emotions and connections, and mental “prosthetics” that help them improve habits, add new skills, and sustain greatness—excel while others do not.

I need to put down the phone/tablet/laptop and FOCUS. Focus on losing some weight, on exercising, on eating healthier, on passing the Google certified trainer tests, etc. My mind is going full speed in 10 directions at once lately. A thought will come into my head, say, something I need to add to a to-do list at work, and as I'm looking for the list, the item slips my mind. I'm hoping this book will help with that, among other things. 

Tournament cash and Thanksgiving

Had a decent T-giving dinner. Food was great, but it was me, mom, brother, and sister-in-law. They ate and ran so they could go shopping. Unreal. So after they left I popped the cork on some wine. I happened upon Tisdale Cabernet at my local supermarket for $4 a bottle, and originally got it for cooking, but this wine is damned good! I've had $30 bottles that were not as good. Very smooth.

So Black Friday I played Julie's $100 deep stack tourney, and finished 4th out of 28. Got sucked out on the last hand when Luckbox Linda lived up to her name, shoving preflop with 7-8 suited against my AK suited. She got a flush. NH. I would have had a monster chip lead with about half the chips and 3 left. Ah well. Paid $300. I then sat at the $.25/.50 cash table for 30 minutes and raked in $40. Not bad.

So what did I do with my profit? Sunday after watching the Browns lose a game that should have been cake, I saw a Microsoft Surface tablet on Craigslist pretty cheap, and made the guy an offer. It was brand new in unopened box. For about 24 hours, I HATED this thing. I still wouldn't recommend it to the casual user, but I am getting the hang of it, and it's pretty slick in many ways. Gonna sell my Samsung laptop to cover the cost. That will leave me the Asus laptop, the Surface, Nexus 7, and a desktop I never touch. Wouldn't mind trading the Samsung, Nexus, and Surface all for a Yoga 11 or even Surface Pro 2. Very cool.

I think we finally got the fleas off the dogs! Had to dip them s few times and stay persistent with washing their bedding and spraying the floors.

Oh, and check out the pic of the Browns app for Win RT. I don't think those stats are accurate. Pierogies in the pic were for a potluck at Amvets for the OSU-MI game. Killer! And what a game that was!

A wee bit of food porn

Just this...

New Facebook page!

I have created a FB page to promote awarenes of Big Retail's encroachment on our holidays. It's getting quite a few Likes already! See it here:

https://www.facebook.com/takebackyourholidays

Who knows how far it will go, but if it takes off, I'm gonna try to keep it going year-round to also help persuade people to quit buying shit they don't need.

I also want to email the managers responsible for deciding to open their doors on Thanksgiving. Just awful.

Words of Wisdom

Someone posted this on FB...good stuff

http://tinybuddha.com/blog/a-simple-but-powerful-way-to-kick-the-worry-habit/

Slow weekend

Not much to report from the weekend. Getting ugly outside. (BTW, the new jacket has arrived, woooo!)

Played Caryn's Saturday tourney. $150 deepstack with $50 bounty. Great structure. Played well but chased a few hands down the stretch that didn't pan out. Later doubled up with QQ, then busted when my KK lost to Nicole's pocket 10's. Aww well. I wanted the call and just got unlucky. I like the big $$ bounty though.

No Browns game this weekend. Barely left the house actually. I did buy an 18.5" barrel for my 12ga, should be here in a few days.

Here's a pic of me and the Pup from a camping trip this fall.

Gun range with mom

Mom did well with the P22. The head shot group in the pic is mine. I had some trouble with the Sig, every 2nd to last shot failed to load. I'm thinking it's the magazine. Gonna try to add some tension to the existing spring before plunking down $40 for a new mag. Gonna give it a real good cleaning as well. Might need to polish the feed ramp too. Raegen went with us too, she shot well also. I forgot to get video/pics.

The laser on the Sig was a bit off, and I was quite a bit more accurate with the Walther. Need to shoot it some more to really check it out.

Mom's in much better shape after her back surgery.

Firearms shuffle

Trying to sell the PT111 that I loaned my mom so that I can give her something with a light on it so she can see if something goes bump in the night. I ended up buy a used Sig Mosquito with a laser, which I have yet to shoot, but it seems like a nice little .22 plinker. I put a light on my Walther PK22 and will loan that to mom. It holds like 11 rounds, is easy to handle, won't deafen you, and should do the job if really needed. I ordered some CCI mini mags to go into it.

So, I have yet to sell the PT111, and I'm now thinking about trading it to TK for his S&W Bodyguard .380 with laser. Caprice wants something with a laser and it might be decent for carrying. Definitely thinner than the little PT22 I have for her now, although it only holds 7 rds. We'll see. I'll do some more homework on the S&W.

I've also added a pistol grip to my 12ga, and will add a shorter 18.5" barrel when I can. Toss in a sling, ammo clip, and maybe a cheap light and I'll have a nice little zombie slayer/hunting combo gun. I've hunted with it (like 25 years ago) and it's really accurate.

So, winter is coming and I've been thinking about getting a new coat. I really miss the old  L.L. Bean parka I had many years back, so I looked it up and they still sell it, but it's $200! So I dug around the site and found one on clearance for $129. Only thing is that it's almost identical to my old one. They only had the 1 color left in dark navy/black. Screw it, I loved that jacket! Can't wait for it to get here. My old one needed an additional hoodie and was heavy as shit, so this will be a sweet change of pace.

Check out the awesome pumpkin I carved this year!

House party, poker, Browns, etc

Had a house party last weekend, made some pretty good food, and had a good time. Watched Sharknado. As good as it gets! House looks great with the refinished floors.

Took a booze cruise to Kelly's Island to watch the Browns lose to DET the weekend before that. Had fun and even hit a $5 square in the last quarter to win $125!

Bought a full truckload of slabwood for $30! It's not quite seasoned but it worked well for the backyard fire for the party even though we didn't hang out outside because it was pretty wet. We also bought a cornhole set. Instead of sports, I decided to get a custom set made, and asked for the A of spades and K of hearts on contrasting backgrounds, and red/black bags. See the board we got? He also didn't have the bags but we should have them this week.

Mike Doughty show at the Beachland on Tuesday was great. ALL Soul Coughing!

Meeting friends at Crocker Park to see The Counselor tonight. Looks like a good movie.

Another win

Decent win at the Shoe the other night! Won a big side pot in a hand where I actually lost with JJJQQ vs QQQQ...another guy nearly had a royal, so we were dancing around the $225k BB jackpot. The 8 of diamonds hits again.

Saw Glenn Schwartz last night. Still sounds great but he's not looking good. Krazy Mike even came in from PIT to see the show.

My mom just had back surgery. She's in some pain but will be able to walk with much less pain once she heals up. They scraped arthritis spurs from her spine...ewwww. Makes me kinds nauseous to think about it.

Camping last weekend

Some pics

Vine

I've been playing with Vine for a couple days now, and it's a blast. Here are a couple I've put together. I recommend following Jeffrey Gray, he's damn funny.

Poker!

I used to keep the 8 of diamonds in my wallet for good luck. It was a numerology thing I either got from my ex wife or some online poker blog/website. I stopped carrying it for a very long time. Last week, as I was walking in to work, I found an 8 of diamonds right outside my office door, and put it in my pocket.

About a week later, yesterday as a matter of fact, I got a text about the evening poker game in Brecksville, Matt G's little berry patch. I had played with these guys twice before and the action was amazing, but hadn't won. A few of the guys are real assholes. Anyway, I decide to go since I'd bailed the last 5-6 weeks in a row, and didn't want to get pulled from the player list. We started at 7:15 and by 8PM I was up $600+, but really couldn't leave so quickly, as hit and runs are really frowned upon in home/private games, especially single table games where a couple people dropping out can kill the entire night. Oh, I forgot to mention that James the Horseshoe poker room manager was there also. I'd played against him on several occasions a few years ago at LF's game, and had pretty much owned him. Somethings never change. I ended up stacking him 3 times for about $1700 total. Rivered a set with KK, turned a set with QQ, and flopped the nuts with 9-10. We were in a $2400 pot around 11PM.

I was up over $2200 (this is a $1-2 NL game) at 11:30, and locked my chips down after that. At about 1AM, I lost $200+to2-3 off suit as bingo hour was getting underway. I got 5-6 callers with AK when I raised it to $25 preflop. They all wanted me to double them up, so I decided to cash. You should have seen the look on their faces. They whined and cried, but screw them, I was up $2002 on a single buy-in. Best $1-2 cash EVER. I think the 2nd best was around $1400-1600 way back when Coleman was hosting.

Moral of the story...the 8of diamonds works! Go Tribe!