prestige 3, meat

looks like i’ll be hitting the poker tables again.  i need to play off a bunch of hands to claim a bonus i started at stars several moons ago.  it’ll be like starting over.  hopefully that means i’ve left stupid habits behind and i’ll be thinking about everything as i play.

in other news, i put a couple of pork butts in the oven last night to make a pulled pork for the tavern tonight.  they take 13 hours to do, so i have to put them in at night for the next day.  here’s what happens.  they’re coated in a spice rub.  the heat hits those spices and they release an aroma that makes my stomach say “YESS – gimme some!!!”  this happens while the meat is 13 hours away from being ready to eat. 

so for 13 hours my house smells like this, and my stomach is churning overtime in anticipation.  why do i do this to myself?

February 23, 2010   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Lenny Bruce is Not Afraid

although i’m not quite sure that it’s the end of the world as i know it. 

i haven’t been blogging lately.  i figure it’s because:

A) i have no poker thoughts to share and

B) i haven’t found myself at the ‘puter in a good story telling mode

but, to the good, i haven’t posted up a half dozen whiney bitch rants either.  tonight i decided i’d post up “ something, anything, even if it’s wrong” over a Heineken Dark.

i put down poker essentially, after deciding that i should play during awake hours when i can concentrate.  it turns out that instead of being drawn to cards during the day, i’ve been either performing passing duties (say, plowing snow, doctor’s visits, etc.) or being drawn towards WORK. 

lately it’s been more passing duties.  hopefully this week i’m back to ‘puter work by wednesday.  i’m waiting on a new power supply for my main ‘puter, so i’m typing this out on an old machine that i never threw out.  yay for the pack rat.  in the meantime, the bar is there to keep me occupied if i feel the need.

lent starts wednesday.  so, it’s mardi gras and valentine’s day back to back?  heh.

i’m off to bed.  hopefully tomorrow brings some neat olympic activity, and a head start to the week’s endeavors :)

February 14, 2010   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

crowd surfing

January 14, 2010   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Merry New Year’s

it looks like the reset button has been pushed, and we’re in a new decade.  i’m thinking small picture here, hoping to make 2010 one point two buttloads better than 2009. 

think i’ll start working on it in the morning. :)

January 1, 2010   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment

Uncle!

last night was a new experience.  i played a gig with the blues band that was an after christmas Christmas Party.  we set it up as a fundraiser where the door money went to a food bank, and we played it at a local fire company so the bar sales go to a good cause.  it’s not exactly my local fire company, but it’s the closest one with social quarters.

at 1am the singer calls it quits.  and i know he had more in him, and i’m thinking “take a look at this crowd.  if we just make noise for the next half hour the bar could ring in a bundle!”  what happened was that the guy who was in charge had said to the singer “look dude, it’s 1 o’clock.  look at this place.  enough is enough man.” 

they couldn’t keep up at the bar and handle the crowd, and were all out of gas for the trying.  basically, they cried uncle.  i’ve never played a place so packed that the people shoveling the cash into the registers were overrun to the point of pulling the plug.

it was a GREAT time that turned into an unexpectedly BIG Great Time.

and i’m gonna tell you that at this place the band sets up in the shape of an “L”, with the drumkit as the bottom horizontal line, and the rest of the team as the vertical line.  i couldn’t see past the bass player to the singer/guitarist #1/guitarist #2/harp player because the crowd pushed into the way.  now, the crowd that did the pushing was mostly hot young chicks who were asking “does this pose make my ass look hot?” the answers were “yes”, “yes” and “yes”.  the peeks at the tramp stamp/whale tail combos were nice as well. 

i set the drums up in the front room, and put the cases in the back before i started.   i waited until twenty of two to start breaking down because there was no way i could make my way through the crowd to the stage with drum cases.  that’s completely insane. 

College Football – there are two local products in the major NCAA ranks right now.  the fullback for the Pitt Panthers went to school with my daughter, and the quarterback for the B.C. Eagles lives down the block from the bar.  they both played yesterday.  the panthers won their game, and Hyno did fine.  Shinski took on the USC trojans and made a game of it (although to be honest i didn’t get too see the better part of the game.  still, he didn’t make a goober of himself, ahem, Notre Dame, ahem, interception, cough, cough.  i know, i’m an ass.)

Sunday Football – today was probably a great day in the NFL with lots of close games, playoff implications galore, yadda, yadda, yadda.  i spent it watching hockey.  i stumbled onto the World Juniors (under 20?) Championships.  AWESOME hockey!  the announcers were fantastic!  they didn’t simply tell you what was happening in the game, as if my eyes weren’t working or something.  they announced mistakes, analyzed coaching, talked about match ups between players and styles of play, and just tons of insightful stuff. 

it was like watching a good poker video. 

i can’t tell all of what’s going on in a hockey game.  i get to see what One television camera shows me.  that’s it.  they filled in a lot of the blanks. 

plus, the players played a style that looked like the street ball that i play, on ice.  i was mesmerized.  (btw, the U.S. is 2-0 so far).  i followed that up with a Flyers game.   

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

December 27, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

i need to make friends with sleep

if i can do that ONE thing in 2010, it will improve my life in unbelievable ways. 

today, being the holiday, is a very odd day.  but, that brings it all out into the open.  i got to bed at 3:15 or so, which is typical if you work until 2:30am.  actually, it’s pretty good.  most people get out of work at 5pm and might hit the hay at 10/11 or so, which is five/six hours later.  for me that kind of experience puts pillow time at 8am, or well after sun-up.   THAT will totally wreck a day.

the bother is the boy child was already up a 3 wanting to “inspect” the christmas packages.  and what the hell, he’s 13 and he’s excited and wants to know if he’s getting what he asked for.  and it’s one of those things that you can decipher by picking up the box and shaking it.  (no, he didn’t find it)

the emotion carries over to the morning, and he shakes me at 6am.  i’m closing in on 3 hours into the sleep cycle, so i protest and get another 1/2 hour reprive.  i’m not sure how much of a difference that made, but i get up and we do the gift unwrapping.  and it’s always great stuff.  i hit the coffee pot hard and i bang down the chocolates from the stocking and i make it through it a happy person.  dazed, but happy. 

and then BLAM.  i crash.  it’s the end of the buzz, and the payment came due from the sleep debt.  and so i get another two hours.  now i’m close to five hours for the cycle.  and off to grandmother’s house we go.  which is awesome.  great food, great people, really good times.  four hours into this i’m looking for soft spots on the floor.  they’re there too, which makes it really tempting.

but i hold out and we all make it home.  and then i get a nap, and wake up when the body/mind feel like coming awake.  i dunno, might have been another hour, but at that point i feel a lot more like myself.  maybe it’s an important hour.  so, i’m up and we can officially start the day.  but, the next thing i know it’s 8:30 and the rest of the family is in bed.  my brain has been scrambled enough that playing a mind game like poker is not in the cards. 

so i play some Call of Duty (Modern Warfare 2 – BragLion on the xBox, ahem, it’s the kid’s account – hit me up if you’re brave), bang out some achievements, tilt back some dark rum and cokes, and find myself sitting here.    at 10:30.  and it occurs to me, once again, that i spend too much of my life fighting sleep at night, and gripping the covers too tight in the morning.

the geek in me says “that’s just not optimal”.

and i think a lot of it developed from the fact that a lot of what i do is set by my own schedule.  so, if i have any energy there is no “well, tomorrow i’ll get up early and start on project X”.  instead it’s “i should start on project X now”.  and you just keep going until the sleep demon takes away your ability to do something productive.  now, that’s faded over the past two/three years, but i think that’s where it all started. 

hehe, i can hear tommy angelo now.  practice sleeping.  or better yet, practice falling asleep.  take a shower, put some night clothes on, turn off all of the 37 lights in the house that aren’t being used, turn off the tv and the computers, get the dog out of the bed, and settle in with a fresh pillow.

December 26, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

FlowChart

PSAT’s are in . . .

both the girl and boy child took the PSAT’s this year.  the girl child is a junior who is college bound, and she did well.  there’s some room for improvement, but it really was a solid performance.  pop it up a smidge, say 4% and she’s in the sweet spot.

the boy child however, kindof threw me a curve.  he’s performance is apparently better than 63% of college bound juniors.  if he were a college bound junior, there would be issues.  but considering he’s in 7th grade, i’m gonna call this one a very strong showing. 

in fact, i think this one is worth a two day pass.  so, for two days in 2010 i will not say to him “Boy, I’mma put a boot up your ass!”  . . .  he does not get to pick the days.

FlowChart

ok, maybe it is, maybe it ain’t.  here’s what i’ve gotten from the very first chapter of Tony Robbins.   four steps he calls his “Ultimate Success Formula“.  fear not, he’s encouraged me to “share what i learn”.

STEP #1 – Know Your Outcome.  define precisely what you want.  i can do that.  but, there are a couple of chapters on goal setting that are coming up, and i think that’s only fair.  precise goals aren’t exactly the best goals.  but, ok, say i want to be able to do 50 push-ups.  that’s precise.

STEP #2 – Take Action. makes sense.

STEP #3 – Analyze.  well, actually he puts it as develop the ability to recognize the responses and results that we get from our actions.  and to gauge whether they are taking us closer to our goals or not.

STEP #4 – make changes.  change your behavior until it is producing the results you want.

see how simple?

hehe, i’ll post some results when they come in.

in the meantime, i have some gifts that need wrapping.

December 24, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

the squirrels are safe

and so are the chipmunks, all the feathered creatures, the field mice, rabbits, and on and on.  i get out of the shower and it seems my bed turned into a slumber party for everything in the house with four legs and fur. 

squirrelsAreSafe

December 18, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment

i’ve had the whole week off

which means that i could have pounded the card tables, or crushed piles of business opportunities that are waiting for my attention, or banged the drums and almost be where i felt the rust would start to crack and fall off.  instead, i’ve got nothing accomplished. 

in the early part of the week i know that i spend more time working on the tavern than at the tavern.  the rest of my free time has gone to seeing my daughter’s choral recital, my boy and girl child’s christmas band shows, having dinner out with the family, christmas shopping with the wife, time playing games with the boy child, and just enough pecking at work to have clean desks at the home office AND the tavern office.  i’m also now prepped for putting a better system into place in two weeks when the new year (and the new year’s accounting duties) come around. 

i don’t feel a twinge of regret.  

besides,  i look to have another week free ahead of me, and i have all the rest of the night to get some revenue generating deeds done.

December 17, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

chendo – 462 da f@#K

what a town.  our local newsbird came in the bar today and started flapping his gums about being in shenandoah and seeing the FBI arresting the town police force.   he’s a teller of tall tales, and this is certainly tall stuff.  turns out to be true. 

there’s no doubt in my mind that the cops coaxed the kids to get them through the rap on that murder case.  and while the feds were investigating that, they noticed that the cops were taking from the bookies.   bookies in shenandoah are famous.  word has it that one once put together a scheme to offer a better price on the state lottery. 

the lottery has three buckets of ten balls which can be picked to yield numbers 000-999 (or 1,000 different results).  the lottery commission pays half of what they take in (500-1 for an exact match).  so, local shopkeepers and underground entrepreneurs would take action on lottery results and pay out 750-1 to folks that hit, taking $250 per $1,000 in action for themselves.  which, if you’re an old lady playing the daily number, yay. 

but, the state of PA has lottery data computerized and noticed the dropoff in action.  so they investigated. 

i’m not sure i believe it, but, we are talking about chendo now . . . .

i used to play street hockey up there, and it was like driving into a bad neighborhood in brooklyn twice a week.  i remember one game where some fights broke out, and the ambulance came to pick up the fallen with a stretcher.  they trotted right onto the court, went right up to the guy and trotted right back off without him.  it was comical.  then they came back with a gurney.  guess they needed something more stable.  we finished the game with a puddle of blood to the left of the Villan’s goal. 

don’t feel bad for the fellow either.  he’s on the short list of people i absolutely cannot stand.  in fact, when he dies i’m buying a round because the world will be a sunshinier place without him. 

in the end i’ll probably find out if the cops were squeezing the bookies, or if they were offering a blind eye for a taste of the action.  doesn’t matter to me, but it sounds weird that paying law enforcement doesn’t have its perks. 

the CNN reporting on the racial murder strikes me.  they set it up that the fighters were hurling ‘racial slurs’ during the altercation.  heh.  ever been to shenandoah?  if you have an obvious race/ethnicity and you’re in a fight,  you’re getting called on it.  and if they can’t figure out what slurs to throw your way, you’re gay.  well, in less polite terms.  lol, come to think of it, maybe the fighter isn’t doing the jawing, their women will be doing the bantering while egging on their beloved in a bout of fisticuffs. 

i played hockey with some of the guys from shenandoah in a city league.  frustrating experience, but whatever.  we lost our goalie one year.  he was in State College and died when a barfight spilled outside and his head got whacked off of a curb.  nothing ever came of it.  bettinger turned into a corpse, and no one even got a citation.

my memories of the town are just . . . well, it stuns me.  i can easily see a group of guys beating someone up and having it all end in ruin.  i kindof seen it before.  the racial slurs, that’s a no brainer.  whether the beating was because he was hispanic i could go either way on.  it wouldn’t shock me if the answer was yes.  it wouldn’t shock me if he owed money, he knocked up someone’s sister, he got loaded and pissed on the wrong grandma’s petunias on the way home one night, and this group of would be thugs decide to, in their minds,  teach him a lesson.

instead they kill him, and the cops cover it up as best they can.  priceless.  oh, and the cops are on the take from the bookies (or are they squeezing the bookies?)  either way, they’re about as crooked as you can imagine. 

 did i mention our high school football teams used to play each other.  instead of throwing eggs or snowballs at the bus on the way out of town they’d throw rocks?  and once the fights on the field and in the stands merged, it was decided it was best just to stop playing against each other.  that, was many, many moons ago. 

i know that there are good people in chendo, but man, the idiots have run amok.  no wonder we have the joke . . .

> “Why wasn’t Christ born in Shenandoah?”

> “They couldn’t find three wise men or a virgin”

they had a reunion street hockey game this past fall.  there are some guys that i would have liked to see again.  but i thought about it for a moment, and decided that i made it through those years and the worst i got was a broken nose.  i rode that horse already; the league fell apart and there’s no sense tempting fate at this point. 

oh, in case you’ve never been, if you ask someone from Shenandoah where they’re from, they’re say “462″.  as in my phone number is 462-pdqk.  and they use the phrase “da f@#k” the same way Monica Lewinski uses the ”like”.  “I was, like, getting my hair done when, like, my like, phone, like rang”.

December 15, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments