Quiet Weekend

Well, back by popular demand, more photos of my custom table, purchased from Big Slik Poker Tables in the Atlanta area. I've tried to see if we could get some sort of discount, but I haven't heard back from them (sent one email, so not much of a try). We had a major logistical disaster yesterday. My family has given up eating out for Lent, allowing only one meal per week. Each of us get to pick a place each week, and my wife was up first out of the chute. She had selected Olive Garden as the location for our first meal out. Now I know it's not the greatest place ever, but we never go because there isn't one near us and it's one of her faves, so we were all enthusiastic. It was a gorgeous day, and our oldest two boys had invited friends (or friends somehow came over). Well, All-In's friend was dropped off, then told Sweetie that "...they'd come pick up (our son) after errands..." Olive Garden is probably 45 minutes away, and we were planning on looking at soccer cleats along the way. 5:00 comes and goes, and no sign of anyone leaving our house. I tell Sweetie she needs some alternate destinations, and she quickly spirals to maybe we could go to a new pizza place, maybe they have Italian. Too much risk, so I trade with her and we go to El Porton's for Mexican. After carboloading, I may not be in ketosis anymore.

So, I've been playing more stud as my game of not caring too much and wanting to kill some time. That's when I need to multi-task, watching TV, doing proposals, listening to my iPod, while answering emails. I'm playing microlimits ($0.25/0.50), and I don't think I'm getting any better, but I haven't lost yet. As in I've never not won at a session. Which must mean I'm really good.

SPOILER ALERT: If you don't want to know how the National Heads-up Tourney is going, then skip this. They're down to eight players. Chris Ferguson vs. Jim McManus, Huck Seed vs. Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu vs. Sean Sheikhan, and Ted Forrest vs. Sam Farha. CardPlayer has an updated bracket of the 64-player field (just click the click here sentence in red at the top). Here's hoping NBC will devote considerable time to showing this, as there are some terrific matchups.

Without further ado, Monday's Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, where I go to another poker blog linked to mine, and see where we end up.

• I'll start with PokerCats. kurokitty is in Vegas this week, but normally he's slugging away in the ATL. I think he works at CNN or the Travel Channel or something, because he's occasionally mixing his poker travails with stories of either going on some news story deal or something (OK, I told you I don't have any short term memory). Read how he actually got pulled over on the Strip for speeding (I've never seen traffic move faster than 10MPH, so I don't know if I believe it).
• Next is kurokitty's good buddy, surlypokergnome. Mark has a pretty tough life living in Honolulu. Mark spends all of his time with his back to the beach, focused on his poker game. He previously was in Chile, which predates my introduction to his blog. Is he in the CIA or something? I'm not quite sure. Always entertaining, and heck, if you start reading his blog constantly, maybe you can score a place to crash with you and your buds when you fly to Hawaii.
  
• Ramblings of a MadMan: You can't say Waffles isn't entertaining. Or offensive at times. He's a believer in the Hammer for sure, so beware if you find him lurking at your table. Always funny when I find him.
• This is Not a Poker Blog: From Austin, this lady is always in the know. Widely read by all the big names, so check her out.
• Slayre's Poker Journey: Also from Austin, Slayre is joining the ranks of some others struggling with their game, taking time away from poker. He's an avid moviegoer (me too), so worth the stop for some good stuff. We've all hit the wall, but this taking a break may be a bit more specific to this online poker phenomenon. I'll do some thinkin on it.
• the babykicker Kicks Babies: Well, it does get your attention for sure. "the babykicker offers his strategy for playing microlimit sitngo tournaments"--well, alrighty then.

Trying to find a family vacation place for spring break where I can use Delta SkySaver miles (normal number of miles rather than double). We may have to drive somewhere or something, because it's virtually impossible to find anything less than three weeks out (thanks, Delta). My wife said if we plan something, then I'll probably get busy with new contracts. So, I think we need to plan something so I can close new business.

I'm still in this 20+month limbo state for my career. I was VP of Marketing at a couple of companies (a $1bil division and a $650MM systems integrator), then started my own company five years ago. Net worth has dropped 75%, I've learned alot, done some good stuff, built a small company, then saw it shattered when we lost a large client. Had my values tested significantly, wallowed in my own malaise, have gotten to live in the same house for five years, have seen my boys growing up in the same great public school. If I wanted to continue this business, one option would be to move to G-Vegas. We have a lot at the Cliffs, with a golf membership that I never use. Schools would be the big downside as we'd either have to put the boys in private school or they'd go to TR I guess (which is a couple of steps down from our school system--the high school the boys feed into has the highest number of National Merit finalists in the state of Georgia). The right thing to do would be to get a job, but more than likely it would mean moving. Still haven't moved too much on this, but I sure hate dealing with inept folks who can't get out of their own way as clients. We'll see.

That's it for today--probably a pretty weak post, so sorry for this. I'll try to play some and find more photos of Melissa Gilbert.