Back by popular demand.... well, I'm back

Don't know how much demand there was, or how popular said demand was. The important thing is, I'm back! It's been months since I've been here. It's a little dusty, and slightly smaller than I remember it to be. But enough about that, we have some catching up to do!

The name of this blog is Music, Poker, and Life.... because it's my damn blog, not yours, and I will compartmentalize it any which way I feel. So hear is what's going on in those three categories. Let's review, shall we?

Music
I guess the most exciting thing that has been happening as far as my musical interests are concerned, is planning our upcoming trip to New Orleans for jazzfest. I'm trying to put together a solid crew to stroll down Bourbon Street with, and it looks like the pieces are falling into place. The lineup for the Fairground was announced earlier today, and it's looking like a great couple of days of music! Jess and I will be there for 8 days, encompassing the 2nd weekend, and we're gonna see a TON of great music! Of course, it's not going to be without it's challenges. Jess and I fell in love with New Orleans, and it's gonna be difficult to pass through some of the devastated neighborhoods, and hear some of the locals stories, without feeling their heartache.

I haven't been to many concerts of late, at least none of the music variety. Jess and I did see George Carlin last weekend, that can be considered a concert I suppose, right? (But not music, I know, so go ahead and bitch at me for putting it in the wrong category) Carlin was a fun show, he was trying out all new material on us, some of which was funny, some of which was not. He's hoping to do one more HBO special, and this was the beginning stages of him putting that act together. Man, he is getting up there though! As he said it himself, he's now considered an old fuck.

Anywho, the only other music I have on my horizon now besides jazzfest, is when Galactic comes to town next week. I expect that will be a funky, bootyshaking affair as always. Those boys bring it every time out.

Poker
I haven't been getting down to Atlantic City as much as I would like lately. It's that homeownership thing, I think. As far as my online exploits are concerned, by bankroll is right about where it was last time we had chatted. Now, that doesn't mean that it has stayed constant..... it's been up and down more often than a yo-yo lately. A subpar season wagering on the NFL didn't help matters there either, because it all comes out of the same account. My bankroll took a much needed boost a week and a half ago when I placed 2nd out of 530 on a Bodog 12K Guaranteed Tourney.

When we do make it down to New Orleans for jazzfest, I have learned that we will be staying right across the street from the Harrah's Casino. Which will make it quite interesting as far as how am I going to survive 8 drunken days with zero hours of sleep, without losing everything I bring to that town, and then some. (Don't tell my wife I just said that, please)

Life
I am still employed, sending fruits and veggies all over this great country of ours. The job offer that I was hoping would be on the table after the holidays still has not presented itself, so now I am just biding my time, wondering if I am ever going to have to make that decision.

Home ownership is fun, I suppose. It's nice to be able to make as much noise as you want- lol. You are a little more concerned about property damage, however. Here's a little story for ya- We had a bunch of people over for New Years. Started out innocently enough, but after the drinks had been flowing for a few hours......

This is my dining room. Take note, specifically, to the wall on the left, behind the table. There's a mural on that wall, that we didn't particularly love, but until we had figured out which direction we wanted to take the decor in that room, both Jess and I were fine with leaving it up. OK, back to New Years..... the booze is flowing freely, good times are being had by all, there's lots of folks hanging out in the dining room (because there was dining going on, after all), and the topic of conversation switches to the mural, who is minding it's own business and not bothering anybody. Since we have moved in, we have mentioned many times to anybody who would listen that the mural was not in the future plans of the room. Somebody thought it would be funny to grab a Sharpie, and draw a boat in the middle of the lake. And a smiling sun in the corner. And a boy fishing off the country bridge. Then a U.F.O. And a dog taking a shit. Fornicating teenagers. And, next thing you know, I walk into the dining room and basically see a wall of graffiti that looks like it came out of Queens, circa 1986. So..... guess who spent New Years day removing wallpaper in his dining room! The fumes did wonders for my hangover.

Well, that's about all the time I have for now. Hope that my updates aren't as few and far between as they were the past few months. If you see me slacking, be sure to get on my case about it! And hopefully, some interesting shit will happen to me that I feel like I need to share.

Motivation....

Thank you for staying tuned while I have been, ummmmm, on sabbatical. I'll be updating again soon! Jimidan, thanks for the motivation. =)

Plasma

Owning a house can sure tire you out!

The last week and a half I have spackled, primed, painted, scrubbed, drilled, installed, screwed (not the fun kind), and hammered enough to last me for 20 years. The good folks at Home Depot now wave to me when I show up twice a day. There is still a lot to do, but we are getting there.

Big day yesterday....... deliveries!! I had been in a rush all week to get the living room painted because on wednesday the furniture was getting delivered. We bought a sofa and loveseat for the living room, and a huge sectional couch for the basement. And the TV. The whole reason I bought a house in the first place was so I can buy a kick ass TV. And when I found a house with a BAR in the basement, I knew I found a home for a great TV. I'm glad the deliveries didn't show up until late afternoon, if they were there in the morning I would not have gotten anything done all day!

I am still *slightly* bummed that I am not in Vegas right now. This was supposed to be the week (actually, 10 days) that I was going to be out there for a poker bender, and then the Vegoose music festival. But alas, we bought the house and there was all this spackling, priming, painting, etc that had to be done. The adult thing to do was cancel the trip. Doesn't mean that I like being an adult. Stupid sexy responsibility! BUT, since I missed out on the Vegas trip, I decided that a few days of this "vacation" would be spent in beautiful Atlantic City. I'll be heading down in a few hours (I miss you already plasma TV!), Jess will head down after work, and we'll be meeting up with Jimmy and Jennie down there sometime this evening. I will be looking forward to getting some quality time in @ the poker tables. Jess will head back on friday during the day, I may stick around and see what kind of fishes swim in for a friday night.

HOMEOWNERS!

Check us out.....we have the keys and everything!

The good and the bad

Overall, it's been a good week.

The positives:
*My back is feeling much better, maybe not 100 percent, but definitely 100 times better than it was the past 2 weeks.
*The New York Football Giants got their act together against the Redskins and went to 2-0 in the NFC East. I was able to get up to the game (thanks Jimmy!) and had a blast. I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank my wife, who allowed me to leave her stranded at the airport Sunday morning, so I could drive up to the Meadowlands for the game. She's the best.
*While the past few weeks on the virtual poker tables has been pretty brutal, I had a mini breakthrough of sorts in my Multi Table Tourney play. Well, whether it's a breakthrough, variance, or dumb-ass luck I do not know, but whatever it is, I'll take it. On Tuesday morning I finished 7th out of 425 in bodog's 1am $4000 Guaranteed, and tonight I just finished up the same $4000 G'teed tourney in 4th place (out of 395). 2 final tables in 3 days, not too shabby if I do say so myself. I would have been poised to make a run @ first place tonight, I was 2nd in chips and went out when my KK was cracked by the chip-leaders AQ.
*It's been over 3 weeks since I quit smoking. I've struggled at times, but I'd say 80% of the time it's not an issue. Unfortunately, that leaves 20% of the time when I am ready to physically harm someone.
*And last, but certainly not least, tomorrow we officially become homeowners!!!! We have the final walkthrough tonight, and then closing is friday morning. Excited, anxious, and nervous would accurately describe the mood around Jess and I.

The Negatives:
*The Yankees...... need I say more? And then the odd, tragic story of Cory Lidle. =(
*Several friends of mine have lost loved ones this week. My heart goes out to you. You know who you are.

Pain in the......

It's been so long since I have had a chance to update this thing, I don't even know where to begin.

I missed the Bash @ the Boathouse. Yes, I suck. Seeing as how I had all these cool mofo's here in my backyard with endless amounts of alcohol and debauchery at my fingertips, I am quite ashamed. There's no way I could have gone however.... I couldn't even get out of bed for days. Somewhere along the way, I threw out my back. In a bad way. I missed 3 days of work and took more painkillers than even I care to imagine. It's somewhat better now, over a week later- still sore and stiff, but nowhere near the debilitating pain that it was at one point. But it did keep me from the Bash, and that ain't cool.

It's been over two weeks since I have had a cigarette, and while for the most part I am handling it well, there are definitely moments when I want to rip somebody's face off. Like right now. I hear that feeling subsides at some point. I only hope I don't hurt somebody first.

My father in law is doing as well as can be expected. Home from the hospital and going absolutely stir crazy because he really can't leave his couch. While that sounds nice for a day or two, and Lord knows I have pulled that off for a weekend here and there, I couldn't imagine being confined to that spot for weeks. He has a walker that he can use to get around a little, but the doctors don't want him moving around too much. And of course the insurance companies are going back and forth trying to get the other one to pay for his hospital bills, so that will be fun for the next six months. But we are glad that he is home, and all things considered, still in one piece.

Poker-wise, I have really been stinking up the joint lately. I've been playing way too many MTT's and been busting out on the bubble (at best). My rate of return on SNG's has been awful. And let's not even talk about my performance in cash games lately. So yeah, I'm having bankroll issues. Thankfully I've had 3 winning weeks with the sportsbook since the NFL season began, which is keeping my head above water. Barely. All this has been online, by the way. I haven't had the chance to get down to AC in a good number of weeks, and its probably a good thing with the way I've been hemorrhaging money lately. Plus, in less than two weeks we close on our house (YAAAAAAYYYYY!), and there is a big difference, in my mind at least, between dropping a couple hundred on a table in Atlantic City, and donking away a couple hundered of my online bankroll.

Speaking of online bankrolls, seems like our "friends" in Congress attached an Internet Gambling ban to a defense bill designed to beef up security at our ports, which easily passed over the weekend. Because after all, who doesn't want more secure ports? Unfortunately, the sneaky SOB, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) backdoored a piece of legislation through that will make it illegal for banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions to transfer money to and from gambling outfits overseas. We are still months away from the date when these banks have to comply, but be careful friends, as Big Brother will be watching, and they may just decide to confiscate your bankroll.

Stressful times

It's been one hell of a week.

On saturday night, we got a call that Jess' dad was in the hospital after getting hit by a car while crossing the street. We rush down to the Hosptal of UPenn to find that he was brought into emergency surgery where they were trying to save his leg. Many hours later as the sun is rising on sunday morning, we get word that the operation went well, and with the help of a good amount of hardware, amputation was avoided. It was a looooong night. We're thankful that everything seems to have worked itself out, now we just keep our fingers crossed that there will be no infection (always an issue with multiple compound fractures), and that recovery will be as pain free as possible.

So of course being up all night saturday, I slept through a good portion of the Eagles-Giants game on sunday, but I was very happy with the result. Living as a Giants fan in Philadelphia can be unbearable when the Eagles are victorious. Would you believe I haven't heard a peep out of those obnoxious Philly fans this week! I've actually behaved myself and haven't rubbed it in too much, with as brutal as that loss was.

Things are moving forward on the house front. We'll be homeowners in three weeks!!!!! That's really right around the corner. We're already freaking over mortgage payments- lol. We took a good look at our budget, looking for places where we could easily tighten up and save a few dollars here and there, and have come to the conclusion that we spend WAY too much money every month on cigarettes. Between the 2 of us, we figured that we were wasting $300 a month. So on Monday, we both quit cold turkey. She hasn't missed it too much yet as she has had a cold and probably wouldn't be smoking while she is sick anyhow. I, on the other hand, have been an absolute *JOY* to be around the last 72 hours (~sniff~sniff~ smell that people??? the sarcasm is strong with this one) Especially with the events of last weekend, it may not have been the best timing in the world, but there's no time like the present. There's no doubt in my mind that I am now a non-smoker...... but these next few weeks aren't gonna be pretty.

This weekend is the big "Bash at the Boat", thrown by one Mr. Al Can't Hang and associates. I am looking forward to the festivities and meeting a few bloggers whose writing I enjoy on a daily basis. Of course, nobody will know who the hell I am, but that's their problem, not mine. I'd like to thank Al for putting me on the list of attendees on his blog, in turn pimping out this site to anyone desperate enough to work their way 30 deep into a list of blogs, looking for something decent to read. Not that they found that here. ANYHOW, I'll be heading over to the Boathouse after I get out of work on saturday evening, and will be throwing back copious amounts of alcohol with some fine fine people. From what I imagine, it will be a wild and crazy evening. I hear there will even be sorority pledges on call to act as designated drivers. Sorority girls, is there anything they can't do???