The end of 2013...it was a good year.

Greetings and salutations.
I had to get on here and throw down some thoughts on how the year went for me and to set some expectations for 2014.
Poker has really taken a back seat, I live through Gulf Coast Poker.net and some friends in Vegas.  I truly plan to get back into action in 2014, slowly but surely.  My action figure business did not get off to a good start and following up on that with my other responsibilities hurt my slothfulness.
I found golf again and I have really gotten into it but I SUCK right now, my last score was a 115 last month...I need to practice, but do not get out there to do it, so that will be part of my weekly life.  Getting back into poker is going to help supplement my golf outings and practice, I am going to try to become a scratch golfer in two years...glass is half full!
I got back into the gym and was very consistent until November, but I dropped an official 34 pounds in 2013 and plan to get 80-100 pounds in 2014, I have a great game plan and with the results of this past year I need to piggy back that and get better into the new year.  Also, less weight will help with the golf game and the ability to stay at the tables longer if needed.
Work, was good far too many items going into block and quality and I had to write off, that will affect my review and bonus but I have identified some items within myself that need to be fixed in order to have a better year.  Power walks need to happen daily, pre-shifts on a daily basis, follow up on all PIT inspections, break down the safety topics, stabilize the inbound process and control block and quality.  These keys will drive a consistent workforce and get my small building back into shape, not saying we are that bad off but if you do not expect the best, mediocre becomes the worst.
I have a new employee so I have some expectations for him and my floor lead, who is very young, will have some lofty goals but attainable, they will keep him busy.
I started coaching 11-12 year old basketball and my team won one game.  I am coaching again in 2014, we have had three practices and my team looks great.  Our first game is this Saturday and I expect a win.  I hope that I can teach these kids a bit about basketball as I am channeling Coach George Diaz and Coach Cordova, my eighth grade and ninth grade coaches.  I played varsity in high school and could have gone and played basketball in college but I had more success as a football player.  However, I learned most of my basketball from these two great men, we dominated the scene as 8th and 9th graders.  Flashback over.
It was great seeing all the good people who I call friend and who I know have healthy babies and I hope that they grow into great conservative adults who push the small government viewpoint when they are our age.
With my family, more time.  More time is what needs to applied to all of them and with that continue to show them the correct values and to walk the Christian path.  Always more love, right?
So it looks like, poker, weight loss, better golf game, healthy work ethics, successful basketball season and more love to the family, never enough love for the family.
Hope your 2013 was a good one and looking forward to a great 2014!
Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Realization

Greetings.  Not that it matters to many but it matters to myself.  As I am watching the Barclays and switching from it to the football game I realized what my buddy J.P. meant when he said I was opening too soon when I drive the ball.  We had a text conversation about a week ago, he told me what he saw after reading my blog and looking at the video.  I went back and looked at it myself and did notice that I was casting a bit but I could not see where I was opening up too soon.  It somewhat frustrated me but it was not until today as I watched Stadler, who is leading, hit the ball that I realized that I am not always on the right plane and that is why my shoulders are opening up too soon and why I am casting at the ball, probably creating an outside in motion which pushes the ball to the right.  I JUST REALIZED that as I took some practice swings with a diet dr. pepper bottle.  I noticed that my right shoulder was not lower than my left when I was swinging through and that my left shoulder was opened and my hands followed and I saw the cast!  Wow!  Now I need to get on the range and hit some balls to get the right feel and get that muscle memory involved!  Thanks J.P!
J.P. Stadler is doing work even with that gut!
Enjoying the WSOP Main Event coverage.  Maybe one day I will get to play in it.  Quick and sweet!  You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

My pursuits in life

Well met!
Got a few things going on in my life along with fatherhood.  I started getting back into the gym regularly after tipping the scales at 374 this past January, after my doctor's visit, to make sure everything was ticking okay.  Well here it is August and I am down to 327, 47 pounds!  Nice but not where I want to be.  Goal is to be under 300 before the end of the year and by next August to be at 240-250, my playing weight when I was at PITT.  I plan on doing two a days in the next week or so, running in the morning and weights in the evening.  I just need to get to bed a little earlier.
The other thing I have gotten back into, since the weight loss, is golf!  Oh, how I missed it.  Funny thing is my wife continued to hammer me about getting back into golf, to get me away from all the poker.  I told her that golf is more expensive than poker and I do not want to do that right now, that was four years ago.  Now she understands that it is expensive, with the range balls and rounds of golf, the new (used) clubs (from ebay, finally have my 14 that I like) in the bag.  Now I want this mizuno bag with samurai warriors fighting each other, of course this is a vanity item like my superman putter cover, so I may have to wait for it.
Well, those are the two things that I have gotten into, the weight loss got me into golf and golf is my new sports love, more than football!
I have not given up on poker, I do not get many sessions in because as a father of four, three still at home and a husband, your time must be allocated accordingly.  Also, hitting the gym and playing golf sucks up the free time.  There fore, my sleep time is used to play a lot of Black Ops 2.  Yes, I am a video game geek as well.  My kd is 1.14 and my wins are at 1.15.  More of a first person shooter guy who used to enjoy rpgs but because of the lack of "TIME" they are not purchased as much.  I did enjoy the newest Assasin's Creed.
Here is a video of me playing at Bayou Barrier on the West Bank, unfortunately the same weekend that Kidd Kraddick passed away after he played some golf at the country club nearby.

Work, right now is becoming a challenge only because of the fact that we are dealing with loads that have damaged units and it is out of our control and very frustrating but I truly enjoy my job and plan to be here for a long time.  This blog is about how my poker life coincides with my real life and real life has swallowed up poker.  No doubt, poker will always be there and some of my plans to develop a good bankroll have gone to the wayside of procrastination or just not doing them.  But there is a plan in place and my wife is on board.  So I plan on using this to track poker, my weight loss and my golf game, and life as I move forward.  I do not have many readers, one or two, so it will be a journal of sorts for you all and myself.
All right you all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

What a life...

Greetings and salutations!  I have been in the middle of living the life.  Just got my bonus and I did not get Chevy Chased, so I am now painting different areas of the house.  We finished the kids bathroom and now are working on the girls room.  Going to paint it pink and purple, their favorite colors.  What is it about the color purple?  I understand pink but so many females love the color purple almost as much as they love pink.  Moving along.  Got my review from my manager, who resides in Dallas and I crushed it.  The one opportunity is going to be an easy fix, it will involve a lot of hard work but when we get it going on a consistent basis...easy street!  Tax time was generous, my wife is going to college so we got to use that and it was good...of course in about three years we will have student loans to pay off.
Poker...had my second home game and a neighbor won it all.  I was in the chip lead but made a couple of bluffs as the eventual winner, who would not lay down after raising with 7-2, missing on the flop, firing on the flop and turn and having to fold to a significant river bet.  I was out two rotations later and watched him march to a very nice victory.  My wife hooked up the snacks, the fellas brought over the beverages and most left intoxicated and not hungry.  I had a pretty good talk with a buddy of mine who I met in the poker rooms and he now lives on the other side of the lake close to me, invited him over and he came over.  We talked about how these young ones are that much better because of the internet and how they are playing the person versus their cards and how well they get it.  We thought back on ourselves and laughed at how bad we were but thought we had it.  Still it is the dream and I will continue to chase it.  Playing pro football will not happen, but hey, poker, still a possibility.
Life is good.  Disney trip is coming sometime in May.  I am pretty pumped as I never got to go there but even more pumped because I can take my family. I might be able to get some real poker in sometime between this writing and the trip but I hope to be back on to blog about it.  Heh.  My little girl sat on an alligator and held it's jaws up...I would not do it...she's pretty awesome...well my whole family is pretty awesome.

No worries in that smile huh?

Alright, until next time.  You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Birthday, bad beat jackpot history and a little life.

Greetings and Salutations,

I write because I like it, sometimes it becomes a labor and something that I do not like to do because of the time it can take.  I would rather be a-Playing Call of duty, b-Playing Borderlands 2, c-Watching TV, D-working out(just got back into this in July).  I used to LOVE to write but when I finish I have to fix what I wrote and that takes a lot of time.  You see I am the kind of writer that writes what he thinks, sometimes it comes out the wrong way so I have to go back and correct it and make sure it flows for a reader outside looking in.  Maybe, one day I could be an editor...NAH!  I suck.

Okay, so I had my 41st birthday this past 27th of October and I asked for two things, hamburgers on Saturday and taco salad on Sunday.  Two of the many favorite dishes that my wife makes.  Now I am about to bitch because I am very disappointed but I do not want to do so to my wife because I do not want to put anymore stress on her right now.  She is AWESOME!  She is the mother to my four kids and we took in our 14 year old niece, so she cooks for all of us, cleans this house, pays the bills (she is the CFO of the family, I make it she spends it, I have to ask for a stipend, but this works and we are happy) and is working on getting her college degree while still being an awesome wife and mother.  I want to say something but I do not think it is worth it.  So I will put in on here...I have to get it off my chest.  So, on Saturday we had Halloween in my subdivision, I am on our advisory board (pre-HOA) and we fought about having trick or treating for the kids on Saturday or Wednesday.  We finally settled on Saturday which allows the kids to get it, come home and eat it and be sick on Sunday.  Well my wife along with two other neighbors decide to have a block party when the trick or treating was over.  So last Monday she met with a couple of ladies and they are going to have a hay ride, bob for apples, and food for everyone.  My wife volunteered to make chilli, a couple of dips, cupcakes and who knows what else.  I got a great break feast, as I normally do on Saturdays got to hang out by myself as my wife went out to buy a few things to prep for the party Saturday night.  When she got back three pumpkins appeared and she asked me to work with the kids to help carve them.  I didn't want to carve pumpkins but as parents, you do so to make your kids happy.  I started with them and of course all three were gone running around before they were done so I finished them off as I sat in my garage with the candy to start passing that out at about 6 pm.
(I just had to face book a lot of my friends on the east coast, just to make sure they were okay, funny thing is, now they are going to experience something that I did, when Katrina hit.  I was like them, it's just rain and wind no big deal, I learned a lesson and learned it well.  I hope they all stay as dry as possible, stay out of harms way and do not freeze to death.)

Yes, I decided to let my wife take the kids around the neighborhood and I would take care of the candy.  It was cool, got complements on my kids pumpkins.  Check it out:

So at about 8pm nobody is left and I have a bowl full of candy left.  My subdivision is about four years old and most of the construction picked up in the last two years, we are at about 70% finished, 90% brings in the HOA and then we pay dues...weeeee!  Okay, so after that I go down to the block party that has become one house as it got cold,  but it was cool had a couple of birthday shots and drank my first moonshine.  Did I get my hamburgers?  NO!  I did get two hotdogs, a bowl of potato soup and some nacho chips.  Oh, I did get a birthday cake, carrot cake, it was good, but no happy birthday song. Not really bitter about it though.  So Sunday comes around and we go to church, I come home and lay in bed with my wife, she eventually leaves...no boom boom for me.  HA!  But I got to sleep until the Cowboys game, but I was hoping to get either hamburgers or taco salad.  My wife tells me we are going to have gumbo.  For the love, now do not get me wrong, her gumbo is fantastic but my mind was set on burgers or taco salad.  I got nada.  So 41 was not as sweet as 40,  I know that I should not expect a lot but I did request two things, neither came through and I was put to work most of my birthday.  Alright, that is off my chest.
I got to go to the new casino in Baton Rouge, L'auberge, fantastic casino.

Nice poker room with seven tables, they spread, on the weekends that is not sure about the week, two 2-5 nl games, 3-1-2 nl games and 2-4-8 limit games.  All juicy!  Well I left because the list was monster long, came back at about 1am to play and later that morning they hit the bad beat jackpot, so I was part of history first day opening, of course technically, it was into the second day, but I was present when the very first jackpot was hit that day, check it:

Four of a kind, 10's, were beat by a heart royal flush!
I went a few more times, got snapped off, broken off in after a 10 hour session, felted in one hand...feel like it was my fault.  We are short handed, six people, I have 10-8 off, I limp under the gun.  Two more limp and lady, who I have some history with during this session, opens to $12.  Big calls, I call and one of the other two call.  Flop comes J, 9, Q, two clubs.  She LEADS out for $60 big folds, here is mistake one...maybe...I min-raise to $120, next guy folds she says, "Are you drawing for the club?"  She calls, turn card is a red Q.  She bets $100 into me.  HUH?  Now I know you don't have a full house, I know you don't have K-10...are you drawing to the club and trying to block me?  I think so, so I shove for another $280 on top.  I think it took her 10 minutes to call.  Then she says, I was priced in.  You didn't have enough to make me fold.  I think she is right as she showed the AK clubs for the win on the river as a club hit, but why did it take you 10 minutes to decide, maybe it was more like five but felt like 10.  Either way if that was an easy decision call quicker, right?  I do not like it when they try to reason like that, she had trouble calling because it would have left her with about $100, that was why it took her so long to call.  They must eat this lady up at the 2-5 game!  That one hurt only because I had been playing for so long, so yeah, maybe I should not have played it but I did and SNAPPAGE!  What do you think?
Finally, I got back into the gym in July, free monthly pass, hit it for about two weeks all together and decided to join.  Found out my insurance covers my membership at a lower rate so that was a cool bonus.  I have been working out consistently since late August and am stronger, getting tighter in places but still have a long way to go.
Overall, I have an awesome life.  To get pissed at not getting a burger or anything that I wanted that day is very selfish but I am in a place where I can afford to be, I've worked my butt off to get into a position where I can take care of my family, got my wife a beautiful home and she does not have to work right now.  So yes, life is good but...

You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Belle of Baton Rouge

Took a drive over to the Belle of Baton Rouge to play a little poker.  I thought they would open a 2-5 NL game but they did not.  I sat in a 4-8 limit game and it was bonkers.  Everyone thinks it is okay to chase you down, it got so bad I started to do it.  I had to rebuy and that brought me back to reality.  This is what $500 looks like in a 4-8 limit game.

I got aces three times and won with them, I got kings once and lost with them, a pretty big pot, it looked like it ended up being about $180.  I got AK twice, and won, made a full house on the river on the last time I got it, but I didn't need it.  Guy raised me on the turn, where I make two pair, I popped it back and he just calls, then I river the king, he checks I bet, he calls.  He mucks. I have to be able to focus in on the hand I am in, I lost track and missed a couple of tells that would have told me I was in trouble but I did miss them.  I did pick up certain things as these folks did not know how to bet while in position, for example we had a flop that came K, J, 4 at one point, five of us were in the hand.  I was the small blind, I checked and it checked all the way around.  The turn is an 8, I bet I get two calls, hi-jack and the button, the river is another king, I check, hi-jack checks and the button bets...'huh'? You don't have a king or a jack, a missed straight, I call, the hi-jack folds, button shows me Q-9 as he folds, I show my A8.  Send me the pot.  Overall, I got hit in the face with the deck, I was blessed.  This was my best, low limit session ever!

The Belle has four tables, I think when the new casino opens at the end of August it is going to hurt them even more they might lose those tables.  I do understand that the Belle has a $50 NL hold 'em tournament on Sundays that starts at 10 am, 1000 in chips and 15 minute levels.  The dealers were okay, now there may have been one or two that take their time dealing, I believe one of the regulars counted SIX hands...wow!

You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello.

WORK THROUGH

I got most of our mezzanine lighting replaced today, pretty happy with myself, however I did not get the highest point, three light structures that had to be 18-19 feet up.  I would have had to get on the top of the 14' ladder to replace those bulbs...so not going to be this guy, plus it said not to get on the last step as it is unsafe, so I did not.  It was our month end and I believe we hit our numbers for the month, pretty exciting as I believe the company is doing much better than last year, whew!

The 14' ladder on my little Pontiac Vibe.

Finished the day off at about 12 noon and headed home.  Then I got to see this as I was heading down I-10.

It didn't end up being that bad, got underneath this storm and got out in about two minutes.  When I continued north on I-55 it got a little hairy, but we made it to the crib.
I was looking forward to playing a little poker this weekend but I had to make a decision and be a grown up about it, even at my age, outside of work, it is tough trying to be a mature adult!  One day I will grow up, I need to grow up.

You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!