A long weekend

I'm officially embarking upon a nice 3 day weekend where I really don't have a whole lot to do.
This was almost a 4 day weekend but I kind of got guilt tripped into going to work today..... let me back that up a little bit.

Weds night I had my lady and her son over for dinner (chicken and biscuits) and video games (Jak and Daxter with a little bit of Motorstorm in there).  After dropping them off at their house and trying to get some sleep I was rudely interrupted - by what you may ask?

I'm waiting

cult: By What grrouch?

Thanks... Well, it seems I tried to Jimi Hendrix myself.  I woke up at the beginning of some throw up (and all the ladies say eewwwwww).  It must have been right at the beginning because I didn't have any on me and none on the bed, but I had a bunch just gargling in the back of my throat.  I quickly tried to swallow and make my way to the bathroom where I proceeded to almost puke for 30 minutes.  The back of my throat burned and I felt horrible.
In fact, for the 1st 5 minutes I thought I might die because I couldn't breathe.  I couldn't inhale properly and I couldn't swallow or get anything down, probably because the acid from my stomach was stuck at the back of my throat and then swallowing it back down caused my body to revolt.
So, I was hunched over the toilet looking for relief that never came.

The next day (or the same day since this all happened right after midnight) at work I felt like hell the whole time and ended up leaving early.  I had planned on just calling out of work the next day (Friday - today) and making it a 4 day weekend but as I was spending time with the woman and talking to her about this plan of mine she made a comment along the lines of "well, I know you'll go to work anyway."
I asked her to clarify and received "You want to call off, but I know you well enough to know that you'll do the right thing."

The right thing.
The right fucking thing.
The guilt trip... that's what it felt like - no matter how she meant it.
Those words stuck in my head, echo'd there.  When I left her place I fully intended on calling my store and telling them that I've been horribly sick for 24 hours and wasn't going to make it tomorrow.  I had the phone in my hand and the call dialing and I kept hearing "you'll do the right thing" playing in my mind, like a broken record and I hung up.  Went home, went to bed and by the time I woke up my 1st thought was "I can still call off" but then my second thought was her voice telling me to do the right thing.

So, 3 day weekend instead of 4 it is.  Bloody hell.
Where was I going with this?
Oh yeah, 3 day weekend.  Hell yeah, no work for 3 straight days!!!

This weekend I don't have a whole lot planned.  I'm thinking about meeting up with Rob and Lightning for some poker - mainly in the form of a tournament at the Aria.  This is not decided in my head and I might just show up to support their efforts and attempt at a good cash and play some cash games while they're grinding out the tournament.  I don't know and won't profess to know until tomorrow approximately 5 minutes before the tourney starts.  I guess we'll have to see how my fancy gets tickled.
However, I would love to get some cash in with them.  A nice relaxing environment where we can sit at the same table and crack jokes and I can drink heavily and embarrass everyone!  Oh yeah - that sounds like fun.

Sunday is a busy day as I've got friends coming over to watch some football early in the day and then a night of drinking with the lady and another friend of hers who is in town visiting.
Monday is then a birthday dinner.  She knows I'm taking her out but I have not told her where we are going.
I'm sure she will be pleasantly surprised and I will be rewarded appropriately.  (And baby, if you read this, I just mean with your love and affection - I'm totally NOT talking about.... oh, yeah I am.  Who am I trying to kid right?).

I was planning on editing and inserting witty comments into Cokeboy99's trip report but I'm not sure if I'll have time to get around to it like I had planned.
However, you can click on his name above and be taken to AVP where he has the information about his unsuccessful cash game run but his HIGHLY successful Tourney run including a win and two 5-way chops which is what made his trip to Vegas successful.

I officially got PokerTracker 4 - I chose it over the other alternatives because I was familiar with the old versions and felt that I didn't want to have to go through any learning curves.
I played 2100 hands this month and won a little over $8 while getting somewhere over $2 in rakeback.
7.92 BB/100
My goal is to put in 10,000 hands for December and hopefully get up to 10 BB/100.
I'll need to sit down and figure out PT and what it can do for me in regards to finding my leaks and whatnot. However, until I have at least 10,000 hands in the system I don't feel that any information will really mean anything.
Since most of my sessions are all very short (30 minutes give or take) I know that some information is skewed.  For instance, my VPIP and PFR are both higher than they would normally be because I've been starting up new tables and playing very short (2-4 handed) for good portions of my sessions instead of waiting for full tables to open up.  I do realize that PT is going to tell me that I've got a leak there, but whatever.

I'm hoping to get my online bankroll to $125 and my live bankroll to $600 by the end of December.
Baby steps as I get my feet wet into this thing they call poker again.

Cokeboy99 is a Tourney Monster

Just as an FYI - our friend @cokeboy99 yesterday took down a TI tourney and today was part of a 5-way chop in the Aria 2pm tourney for over $1800.

Was fun virtually sweating him and keeping up with the on goings.

He said he was going to be writing a trip report for it and I am going to, right this very instant, publicly offer to cross post it here if he'd like.

Great work man - and hope the rest of the trip continues to ROCK!

A Night at the Flamingo

Since Nick Gale (cokeboy99 on twitter) is visiting I got the chance to go out and meet him in person instead of just through twitter interactions.

Now, I knew that he was going to end up being my arch nemesis at the tables from the moment he told me that he works for Coke (hey, he could just be an addict with a taste for overindulgence) being that I bleed Mountain Dew and all.  

Overall it was a good meeting, we had some brief discussions on random crap and as always it was good too meet someone whom I would never have gotten the chance to meet if it wasn't for this little blog of mine.

That being said, he did have the unfortunate timing of being the guy who doubled me up so that I could actually leave with some profit.

Now, before I continue (notice I'm using extra spaces to make up for Coach's lack of spacing) I want to point out that I absolutely detest playing at The Flamingo.  I hate it.  I loathe it.  If I were to make a list of places that I want to play, The Flamingo would not even be considered.  If I had to make a list of places that I wish got destroyed instead of O'Shaes, The Flamingo would be numero uno on that list.
The Flamingo is an evil cursed place where I have tried to play on a bunch of different occasions for different reasons and every single time, EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME I have failed to show a profit.  In fact, I have gotten stacked there in quite a few unique ways thanks to the randomly bad play by whoever was sitting at the table with me.
I made a post on twitter about this and got a reply from Poker Dealer (@pkrdlr) that he has NEVER registered a winning session there in over 8 years or something now.  So, this is proof that the place is cursed.

I do not know these 3 chicks and the one dood, but they were not waiting for me at The Flamingo

The session started without much fan fair as we both got seated at different tables.  I put in for a table change and played the waiting game.  After I was down about $6 a seat opened and I moved over.
I got involved in a few pots, had a few big draws and missed most everything and at one point was down about $90 on the session.  However I kept grinding and kept getting back up to being down only $50.  Nick and I kept tangling because every time I raised he had hands worth calling and every time he raised I had hands worth calling.
As (bad) luck would have it I got the best of him in the last 3 hands that we tangled in starting with calling a raise with JJ and winning a few bucks off of him.  A few hands later he raised and I had QQ and decided to just call as I was to his immediate left and almost nobody at the table was playing to raises at that point.
One other guy came along and the flop came out Q high to give me BINGO.
He bet and I called and I believe we strung a 3rd guy along.  The turn was nothing scary and he bet again, I debated between mini raising or pushing and decided that my best bet was a push.  A mini raise would result in him either putting me all in or us getting our money in on the river.  A push gave him the best chance to get away from his hand with me showing strength.  However, he decided that calling my push was his best option and I got to double through as he was drawing dead at that point.

This hand put me up a bit over half a buy in and right around here is where I ordered my 3rd and final beer.  I knew the session was coming to an end soon so I set my limit on how low my stack could get for an immediate pick up.  However, the last orbit that I played I managed to add another $40 to my stack (give or take) and left up $148 on the evening.
My first EVER winning session at The Flamingo.  Will I go back there and play again?  Probably, but only if someone who is visiting wants to meet up and play there (Rob, you listening - this is your chance to set up where we should play because this casino puts me at my most stackable!!!)  So, Happy to leave with a profit but kind of annoyed that it had to come at the expense of the very person I set out to meet that evening.
So Nick, it was great to meet you and hopefully next time you happen into town we can do it again.

I do feel, however, that pretty soon I am due to start spewing money to people who I am meeting up with.  Nick is #3 on my list of people who happened to be sitting in the wrong seat at the wrong time against me.  Lucki Duck was 1st and Rob was 2nd.  Who will be #4? Will it be me?

So, this $148 victory gives me a HUGE boost to my live poker bankroll and puts me up to $360 currently.  While I won't be playing with my entire roll again (1/2 NL is still a way off from being my regular game) I'm happy that I don't have to wait a while to save up and go again.  Then again, that's the power of having a job and only playing for fun.  I don't have to worry about going broke and ending up homeless.  I've got another paycheck just around the corner.

I also got my rakeback set up on BlackChipPoker after numerous emails back and forth and received my first Dollar!!!  Oh I can feel the profits rolling in now.

The Forty-Third and Nick Gale and Jon Lajoie

Everyone please welcome Vincent Nissen (if that is anyone's real name) to my devout cult followers.

I just reactivated my Netflix account and am working my way through Season 2 of The League.
I forgot how much I loved this show.  I started watching explicitly for Jon Lajoie but then stayed because it was damned funny.  Any red-blooded male who eats meat, bangs chicks, drinks beer and watches football will like this shit.

For those of you not in the know - Nick Gale landed in Vegas today and is staying around for a few days.  Looking forward to getting out and running into him at the poker tables or the bar stools or whatever.  Hopefully tonight.  Always enjoy meeting new people.

BCP Update

Per information given to me by Zin, all I would have to do is email BlackChipPoker to set up rakeback with them.

The first email I sent off I asked about it and they told me that all I had to do if I was interested was respond telling them that I was interested and it would be set up.

So, I responded.  Later I received another email saying I had to send an email to a specific address to set up my rakeback and thus I did that as well.

I just got a response back saying that they were unable to set up rakeback on my account and it's usually one of two reasons.
1 - I have a rakeback account set up with another merge skin elsewhere and they only allow one rakeback account in the entire network.
2 - I have played on another skin within the last 6 months and I would have to avoid playing on that skin for 6 months and then request rakeback to be added to my BCP account.

Being that the ONLY online poker I have played since they nixed PokerStars and Full Tilt from the states has been on BCP I can rule out number 2 as a reason why my account can't have rakeback.

This leads me to the 1st and that's that I already have rakeback on a different merge skin.
However, I went to this address for Merge Partners and the ONLY site on there that I even recognize is Carbon Poker but that's just because I've heard some of you all talk about it.  I have never signed up with an account on any of those sites to my recollection.

I have responded in kind to my email from BCP giving them all the information that I have and am now waiting for a reply to see how to proceed from here.
Going to be a little annoying if, for whatever reason, I am unable to obtain rakeback through BCP or any other merge skin for that matter.
I would then have to withdraw my monies and then switch to some other network where I can get rakeback and start anew.

I long for the days of Party Poker and it's 13 skins and collecting $100-$200 bonus's monthly from each skin.  Oh, those were the days my friend.

Online Pokering again a bit

So I've been putting in a few hands recently on Black Chip Poker.

It took me awhile but I figured out who my affiliate was and it is rakebrain.

My issue is that none of my stats are updating on the site.  Thinking about switching to Carbon which is on the same network and setting up with a different affiliate that pays out quicker (and maybe has up to date statistics).

Maybe Vook can weigh in with an opinion here, or anyone else that plays with a rakeback deal that can point me in a good loyal direction.

My other step is that I need to get a tracking program - I've used Poker Tracker before and will probably just go back to that unless someone else knows of something better.

That's all

Very minor

whatever

grrouch out

Turkey Day Part duex

Yesterday was quite an amazing day.  My lady friend (I need to create a Rob type fake name for her so I can stop using other terms to reference her - Any suggestions out there?  I should make her sound exotically Asian and talk about how she spends all my money) came over last night for our delicious Lamb dinner.

This stuff was (to use a phrase I hate) the bomb.  It was delicious and juicy and succlent and everything was holy and good about it.  The sides were good as well with corn, peas, mashed potatoes and stuffing.  For desert there was a choice of cheesecake or pumpkin pie and BOTH were amazingly well done.

Afterwards (and before) I played a bit of Skylanders with the kid and then I started trying to get him into other games.  I introduced him to Jak and Daxter via the HD collection on the PS3.  He quite enjoyed it and in fact called me up earlier today to ask if I could bring it along when I came over for dinner so he could play it afterwards.

Then I introduced him to Marvel vs Capcom (3) and of course he really enjoyed Spiderman (his Favorite Super hero) but told me that Deadpool was annoying because he talked too much.

When I informed him that Deadpool was much like spiderman, only more awesome he looked at me like I was fucking retarded and called me dumb.  Whatever, I love Deadpool.

There will be no video games tonight, however there will be Turkey and Rice.  I'm bringing over a freshly baked (Jell-o No Bake) Cheesecake as my divine offerings to the "make nice with the family" gods.

This will be the first real sit down dinner I have had with her family (I have gone over to watch boxing with them and brought pizza, but that doesn't count) so I'm curious to see how this goes - perchance might even become a bit nervous.

I'm putting on some fresh duds (read not my everyday hobo wear) and even semi shaved today.  Oh yes, it's that type of day.

I've also finished up some more Xmas Shopping by hitting up Walmart who already had their "8pm" video game and blue ray prices in the system.  I didn't buy any movies though - yes, I bought something for myself.

That's how I roll.

Next up on my radar is the big birthday date as I'm taking the little lady out on her birthday to a nice fancy dancy restaurant that she has never been too before.  I've still got to pick up some form of a gift and I don't really feel that an extended battery for her phone screams I Love You very much so that might have to be a throw in Xmas gift instead.

My 3 days off have all been great, nothing to be grrouchie about.

I want to hit up Best Buy tonight at 8pm or so and see if I can luck out and get one of the PS3 3D Displays that they are CLXing out for $99 (they were $499 when they first came out 8 months ago).  This would be a nice edition to the game room - the kid can watch 3D movies or play some games in 3D and be utterly amazed at how awesome I am.  Does it get any better than that?

Tomorrow I work the closing shift and as such I should miss out on most of the actual holiday traffic and maybe have a nice quiet evening where I can get some work done instead of having to actually talk to customers my whole shift.

Only time will tell.

Happy (actual) turkey day folks.

Hope your holiday has been as amazing as mine!

Happy Thanksgiving

Ho Ho Ho - Happy Thanksgiving Everybody

This Turkey Doesn't Fuck Around

Tis the season to be thankful for everything you have and celebrate by over eating and stuffing yourself to the point that your clothes don't fit any longer.  When you get to that point it is then tradition to unbuckle (unbutton, unzip, remove completely, whatever) your pants and begin anew as you've just magically made more room inside that skin of yours.  Oh yes - the holiday of gluttony (not to be confused with Xmas which is the holiday of greed - more presents, less food) and what a splendid time of year it is.  

Thanksgiving is about getting the family back together. You don't have to like the family but you really have to remember to invite everyone of those motherfuckers over because if you slip up and forget one or ignore the slutty sister you are going to hear about it for the next nineteen years, give or take a decade.  So yes, invite everyone over including your drunk cousin who always has 10 too many and then tries to get all gropey-grope with the younger ladies because he is family and this holiday is about eating and fighting with family.  Oh, also over drinking. Overindulgence in general.  Just don't let gramma with the bad eyes and her own personal bottle of Bourbon do any of the food prep or you might be down another child - kind of like 3 years ago when little baby Todd when missing.

Help Me

Going to go out on a limb here and say don't let the redneck portion of the family "provide" the turkey either.  I mean, it's really nice of them to volutneer to go huntin' to catch the family meal but this kind of shit should be left to a grocery store or uncle Larry winning a turkey at the local Eagles Pub through their pick-ticket give away.  Sure he spent $200 on it and went through another $87 in booze, but the guy won a free  turkey and that's something to be proud of.

Last year when Trevor brought home something he ran over on the way to granny's house everyone lost their appetite and two people got sick and passed out after looking at it.

Put the Hatchet down you Ugly Bastard

I personally have a very non-traditional family and we like to mix shit up. For instance, the only turkey that I'll be partaking in this year is one of the Wild variety.  Oh yes, none of that tame store bought turkey for me.  Give me a large serving (or three) of a Wild Turkey any day of the week and twice on Thanksgiving.  After all, I am thankful that I can still function the next day when customers are coming in droves looking for a fucking shop-vac that is normally $79.99 but today is only $14.99 and they really seem confused and angry when I tell them we sold out before noon but they're at the store at 7 fucking PM and thinking that everything in the advert should be available all day long.

Stop calling these things doorbusters and call them Ball Busters instead. Give me a mallet and a sign that says I get to hurt the 1st 6 fuckers that decide to ask me a stupid question.  Oh, this sounds like fun in the making!!!

As I mentioned above, my family is non-traditional. This year we are celebrating Thanksgiving TODAY.  We will not be serving Turkey but instead are cooking up a nice tasty and succulent lamb for all to partake in.  I have a feeling that the kid is not going to like lamb so we also bought some chicken nuggets to cook in a pinch.

Tomorrow, when the rest of the nation is busy arguing with their family over just how creepy uncle Larry really is or while Orville was sent back to prison for the 3rd time in 8 years I'll be sitting down with my remaining bottles of Octoberfest (oh, I horde that shit so I can have some when no one else can) and watch the football games - which is the REAL reason Thanksgiving exists in the 1st place.

The Pilgrims and Indians started that tradition. The first turkey they plucked was the football and it was a messy occasion, but tradition lives on.

So, now that You've sat through all of that here is some shit that I am thankful for on this particular holiday.

I'm Thankful to have my family back.

I'm Thankful to slowly forming my own family with the most wonderful woman I have ever come across.

I am thankful that even though I have lost a lot of weight and cut down my portion sizes this year I can still eat like a fucking pig for occasions such as this.

I am thankful that I have found people who support me for who I am and what I do/what I want to do.

I am thankful for Linda for prodding me along on a journey of self discovery and sleaze (oh please let there be sleaze).

I am thankful that I have a job that I (mostly) enjoy and pays me well enough to do everything I want.

I am thankful to have my house, so my parents never have to move again.

I am thankful that all of you continue to be loyal readers.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and that your team of choice (or whomever you happened to have money riding in) wins since my Steelers aren't playing.

Gobble Gobble Gobble Mother Fucker

(Houston, Washington and New England will all win, fyi)

Black Chip Poker

While avoiding actually doing any real work (Hey, I moved my bed and that's an accomplishment right?) I noticed that I still had the BCP shortcut on my desktop.

So I fired it up, let it update for 10 minutes (Don't think I played since summer) and discovered that I have $76.04 still left in my account.

Looks like I can do some low stakes grinding in the near future.

Now I guess I should start by figuring out proper bankroll rules and go from there.

Lowest NL cash game that I saw was 2 cent /4 cent and then going to nickle and dime.

Oh the Joy

My Wallet is Starting to Feel the Holiday Crunch

I'm hoping that before the end of this month I can have all of my Xmas shopping done.

I know this is a big task for a guy who hates to shop and usually does it all at the last minute, but a goal is a goal.

I've got more people to buy for this year which stretches me out so it's a good thing I got that fat ole raise about 2 months ago now.  Also, November is a 3 pay month which makes life easier as the 3rd check covers the bills for the beginning of December.  The second check has some bills attached to it but a larger portion of it is free to spend as I see fit.

I believe I have the kid taken care of for the most part. I'll probably have one or two minor things to add but the majority is done.  It's so weird because I keep seeing things I want to buy for him but have to remind myself that he is getting presents from a million different people and I don't actually need to go overboard (I just want to).

For him the main portion is a Skylanders Themed Wii controller set and two Wii video games.

The games are not important, random kids games that I'm hoping he finds enjoyable and gets some use out of.

My parents are always an easy one for me as I know what they like and what to get them.  So, I haven't gotten anything yet but I'm not worried about that at all.

However, after that it starts to get complicated.

I have absolutely no clue what to get the woman currently, nor her parents.  Those will be the last 3 people I buy for this year and I'm sure I'll spend the most time agonizing over what to get them.

In addition to Xmas - December is also the birth month of the two most important women in my life which throws additional complications into the mix.  Luckily they are spread out with the woman's birthday being at the beginning of the month and the mothers birthday being the day before Xmas.  

Not sure what to get as a gift but I've got what I think is going to be a great date planned out for her birthday, the first one I'll actually be spending with her.  In fact, I just finalized the dinner reservations!

So, I'm trying to make a good impression and hope that I don't set myself up to fail in future years by having to equal or best this years.

I have today, tomorrow and Thursday off.  Tomorrow is MY Thanksgiving as my girl and her kid are coming over to eat at the house.  Thursday is reserved for Football as usual.

I've got another random post planned for later today with some pictures of things I've bought over the last few months.  Until then

grrouch out

10 Years

Unmolested

Driving down the 95 traffic suddenly comes to a near stand still as I approached the Valley View exit.
I change lanes and slow down while looking around to try and figure out what in the hell is causing me to possibly be late for my date.

Finally, way off to the left (on the shoulder) I notice sparks flying as if someone was operating some heavy machinery and cutting into the pavement.
As I'm trying to gather my wits and not run into the guy in front of me I notice something bouncing along the highway, making its way across the interstate.

A Tire
I go to watch the tire cross the entire 95 from the left hand shoulder to the Valley View exit, take the exit and continue on to the right hand shoulder and roll right up the exit until I drove past and could no longer watch and find out where its final resting place would be.
Now, the completely amazing part of all of this was that the car that had the tire pop off came to a rest without incident and the tire rolled across essentially 6 lanes of traffic unmolested (oh, there is that word again).  Nothing was hit, there was no accident.  Everyone was paying attention and all's well that ends well. Well, at least for everyone but the guy with 3 wheels.

In order to make this post more interesting I did a Google Image search for Tires and Boobs.
The 1st one was one of the top choices and I decided that I'm going to play dirty and post it.
The 2nd one is because I felt that people would need a pick-me-up after seeing the 1st one.

Obama Killed the Twinkie

R.I.P. Twinkies

Listen guys - I just need to get this shit off my chest.
I woke up this morning to find out that my beautiful healthy snack food of choice has died.
Somebody murdered the Twinkie (and a whole lot of other shit that Hostess produced, but lets stay focused here).

This is no doubt another Victim of Obamacare and the fact that this Hitler like president got re-elected.  This shit would not have happened if we would have elected Romney.

Sure, women would lose the right to actually be anything but a cum receptacle  but we'd still have the fucking Twinkies and that means something to this poor fat man in Vegas.

Screw you Obama - Next time I'm Voting Your Ass Out!!!

In other news, I hear someone is going to be asking for a divorce.

Easton Calling Games is Good for the NFL

Anyone that follows the NFL this year knows about the whole saga of replacement referees.  Fortunately that mess has been cleared up and we have the proper zebras back calling the games.  

I wonder what will happen to Shannon Easton now that the refs have been calling games again.  For those of you that are just straight football fans, that was the woman that was a replacement referee.  Those of you that follow poker know her as the female ref who was getting in trouble due to her past as a "pro poker player."

The NFL's antiquated policy against gambling nearly cost Easton her job before she ever got a chance.  For those of you that aren't familiar with the policy, if you are in the NFL or work for the NFL in any capacity, you are not allowed to gamble.  Their policy is so extreme that they snubbeda poker charity event in Las Vegas because it was held at the Golden Nugget.

Fortunately the league realized that Easton was not a threat to fix games and let her call games while the referees were on strike.  She was the first woman in league history to officiate the game and officially broke the gender barrier in the game, at least where officials are concerned.

The question now remains whether or not Easton will get to officiate games in the future or if this will be a one-time thing that only came about as a result of the referee strike.  If that is the case, it would be a shame. 

Easton calling games in the NFL isn't on par with Barbara Enright playing the final table of the WSOP or Vanessa Selbst dominating the modern game.  Women are never going to be a major part of the actual on-field game due to the fact that women do not have the same physical attributes by and large. 

However, they do have the ability to call games the same as any male.  It would be great to see Easton return to the field as an official next year with a full time gig instead of a replacement gig.  Just as women are "good for poker", Easton would be "good for the NFL."

-----Post Script -----

grrouch here - the Above was written by one of my silent readers who recently contacted me about making a guest post touching both on Football and Poker and I figure'd that it seemed like a great idea.

The information above is info that I actually knew nothing of because I was too busy living my own life and ignoring what goes on around me but is great knowledge to have.

Hope and Promise

This, I believe, is the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, finally caught on camera.
This is also the proverbial path that should not be taken, the easy road.  Everyone should take the path less traveled in order to reach their goals or by taking the easy way they end up right here with everyone else, bitching and moaning about how their life didn't turn out the way they want it to.

Last night I had my first meeting with Linda about my future as a sleazy Vegas Open Mic Comedian!  The entire thing lasted about two and a half hours but it felt like 30 minutes.  I wasn't really sure of what to expect going into our meeting and I was actually a bit nervous about it.

You see, the unknown pretty much freaks me out.  I love consistent and routine and I have built my life around it but I'm stepping out of my comfort zone and going for something that I have wanted to do for quite some time and that's where the uncertaincy (Per my spell check that is not a word - whatever) comes into play.  So, this compounded the initial nerves I was feeling just going into this meeting.

Not knowing what to expect, what we were going to talk about or anything else. (For my editor friends, I realize that is not a sentence but I'm leaving it that way to give you a nervous tick!)  The meeting was actually a lot of fun and very relaxed.  For most of the evening she had me talking about what is currently going on in my life and we talked a good deal about my past.  We swapped horror stories about the Vegas dating scene and just a whole lot of other random stuff like you would if you were meeting up with an old friend for the first time in a couple of years.  It really felt like we had known each other for quite some time.

In the end she gave me some advice and said she was going to start sending me information via email to look over and read and to help guide me along this first step.  I was also given a homework assignment and we set a due date for it.  So, I'm telling ya, I really hope the next month and a half goes really really slowly even though I realize it's the holiday season which means time will fly by and I'll be pulling an all-nighter just as if I were back in college again!

Either way, good times were had by all and I've got a bit less than two months to come up with a solid 5 minute routine that I can run by her so we can go from there.

Now Accepting Jokes

Oh, and our waitress pretty much sucked ass

It's SooOoOO Cold

Yeah, the weather this November has dipped down into the 50's and Vegans everywhere are starting to panic and break out the heavy winter clothing.  I lost count of the number of times I have heard someone tell me in the past few days that it's so cold outside currently - usually right before making fun of the fact that I'm in shorts and a T-shirt still.

I've been told that over time you adapt to the weather here much like anywhere else and when you were used to 20 degrees or below being cold or freezing or whatever eventually Vegas weather will prevail and the 50's will end up being the new "I'm freezing" point for you.

However, here I sit 6 years later and really still haven't gotten into the whole cold weather thing here.  Maybe it's because I'm still fat and have all this extra padding on me and next year is going to make a huge difference after the loss of 80+ pounds?  Who knows.  What I do know is that I think everyone is crazy thinking that this is horribly cold weather which calls for a winter jacket.

This week is my Sunday/Friday at work and I have actually made plans for my Sunday.

I'm going to start by waking up early to clean the floor in the living room.

This is where I tell you that as a flooring salesperson I love Laminate flooring, but now that I have some in my own house I would probably never get it again.  maybe it's because I'm in the desert and things get dirtier/dustier around here or maybe it's just this particular laminate that came with the house being all high gloss and such, but I'm no longer a fan of it.

After cleaning I've got a Strat game set up where my Las Vegas Scumdogs will be battling the Erie Colonels for possession of 2nd place in the division.  We both sit at 2-1 while someone else is 3-0 currently and yes this is only the 4th game of the season but it would be nice to own that early tiebreaker!!  Of course the next game is against the currently undefeated team and I'm hoping he suffers a tragic loss this week :)

After (and during) the Strat game will be football on the TV.  I don't know what games I'll be watching currently but I'm looking forward to some good ones. 

Once football ends (1st two games at least) I'm going to be making a trip down to Henderson to meet up with Linda Lou and we will have a few beers and discuss things comedy related.

I have no real expectations of how this is going to go down other than a few beers and a few laughs.  Either way it will be a worthwhile evening and hopefully give me a few ideas on what direction I need to start focusing on.  For those who don't know Linda is a great local comedian (meaning she lives here - she also performs elsewhere when it strikes) who has volunteered to help me out in any way possible to help make this pipe dream of mine a reality.  So, I'm really looking forward to this.

(On a side note I also have one other person who has volunteered to help me out as well through discussions, emails, bouncing ideas off of her, etc - I'm truly blessed right now to have people in my life that support my decisions and are willing to help me attain them!)

After the meeting of the minds I've got a decision to make.  I work late on Monday so I'm able to stay out late and enjoy myself but I don't know what direction I'll be heading.

I can visit a friend (and see the next topic that I'm covering to end my post) or I can head down to Bills Gambling Hall and Swap Meet to play a couple of hours of penny poker and looking for stories to regale you all with.

Last conversational topic.  The Hobbit.

My date to the Hobbit has never seen any of the Lord of the Rings movies.  She has agree'd to go to the Hobbit because I never argue about anything she wants to see or do.  I brought up the fact that she should watch the LotR movies before hand and she agree'd.

I debated taking her to the all day showing of the Trilogy at the theaters but I didn't want to overwhelm her (though I'm thinking about attending myself).

So, what I settled on was forcing her to sit down and watch the extended editions with me.

Now, I do realize this is probably the wrong choice - but I have decided to treat them as 6 movies instead of just 3.  

For those of you who don't know, the extended editions come on 2 discs.  Broken up around the halfway point of each movie and (as far as I can tell) at a logical end point.  So Sunday night might be the night to let her watch the 1st half of Fellowship and then Finish off the Trilogy Weds, Thurs and Friday.

I've already warned her that the 2nd movie will probably be her favorite because it has the most action but that she is going to have to sit through the 1st movie to get there.  

In all reality I'm really hoping she likes them because I love re-watching these movies every couple of years!

For now, I need to play some video games or read some Deadpool in order to prepare for an evening of work!

grrouch out

A Year in the Making

The last year has been a pretty fucking wild whirlwind for me.  It's been full of ups and downs and a whole lot of uncertainty and doubt. It has been, without a doubt one of the strangest 12 month periods in my life and I went on this self-discovery journey and started to pick up the pieces that have been falling apart for a number of years and I just wasn't aware of it.

Oddly enough, one of the biggest influences in my life has been all of you people.  Yes, whoever happens to be reading this shit right here, I'm talking about you.  Even if I have no interaction with you in any other way or if I talk to you daily through phone, texting or even social media you all have helped me out in one way or another.  What started as another (to be) failed attempt at keeping a blog of some sort to detail certain aspects of my life for shits and giggles turned into the ultimate version of self help and self discovery.  I've gained quite a few friends and positive influences along the way and I'm happy to have you all in my life.

And by our I mean My - It's all Mine Dammit!

So, November 8 2011, one year ago to the date I erased the last 5-6 months worth of poker related content that was populating my blog and I began anew with a less focused blog and just some random desire to express myself.  I started with just a few random people who would read regularly and posted links in various places that I would frequent depending on the content of the days ramblings.  Over the course of the last year I have gained a small following and it still amazes me to this day that people come back regularly to read and even comment on the various crap that filters through my fingers - but whatever - you are the cool people of the world!

There is a party in my pants and you're all invited

I have never kept up anything quite like this for this length of time.  I generally lose interest after a few months but something changed this last time.  I rediscovered my love of writing and telling stories.  I suppose it was the change of focus from trying to be something that I wasn't completely comfortable with to actually partially finding my "voice" as it were.  You see, I had registered this blog sometime back in 2008, 2 years after moving to Vegas, with thoughts of detailing my poker experiences and seeing how I have changed and improved over the years.  At first I just regaled myself with poker stories from my past and different humorous situations that I got myself into when playing up at the Indian Casino's in New York when I was living in Erie PA.  I never marketed the blog and never told anyone about it and thus never received any hits, not even a couple of random ones.  Whatever, no big deal.

My next adventure started a couple of years later when I became a functioning member of the Vegas Poker Now forums and started occasionally blogging about poker again.  At that time they forums had a Wordpress blog set up that I used that linked directly to the site/forums.  I enjoyed it a bit and kept it up until the site finally was bought out by AllVegasPoker.com.  I saved my blogs and imported them here.  A little while after that I started writing again but deleted everything prior to it - probably a dumb move.  I'd love to go back and read anything random that I wrote from those time periods but that will never happen.

This was my pattern and I expected it to continue.  Write for a few months and then quit. Come back a year or two later and start all over by deleting the previous experiment and beginning anew.  Somewhere in there I got back to what I enjoyed doing and that was just entertaining.  Sure, I know that a good many of you specifically started coming because this was a rough "poker blog" and that was a big part of the group that I managed to weasel myself into. However y'all stayed when this became a (for lack of a better term) "life" blog and I just started talking about whatever the hell I wanted and stopped trying to focus on just one aspect of my life.  I thank you all for that.

Over 60,000 page views, over 3,000 comments and 42 registered followers (And also a few regular anon's who comment and give feed back - Chuck and Fboy the main two).  I also randomly got paid to make one of the blog posts (though I don't think I ever talked about that on here) which still blows my mind! It's all pretty surreal to me in all honesty.  Over the next year I hope to interact with you all a little more.  If you have a blog I'm going to attempt to visit regularly and leave comments and feedback as well because I know how much it means to me when someone takes the time to respond to let me know that they are following along.  Hopefully in another year I can look back and marvel on the fact that I've been doing this for 2 straight years as I really haven't grown tired of it in the least.

With all of that being said, this next year promises to be fucking amazing.  Everything that was wrong with the previous 12 months is no longer valid and my life has done a complete turn around.
I'm happy, I'm in love and I'm about to take a few steps towards some goals that I set for myself decades ago, yes - decades.
As of this writing I currently have set up a meeting with Vegas Linda Lou who has agreed to help me try and break into the comedy biz. She is one of two people who have volunteered to help me out and allow me to make an attempt at something that I've always wanted to try and yet still scares the piss out of me at the same time.  I don't mind the whole public speaking aspect - it's the potential failure that knots me up.
However, I have talked about it in the past and now is the time that I finally put the foot forward.  You cannot succeed at something that you do not even attempt.

So thank you all for being amazing and accepting me for who I am.  Thank you for checking out my little part of the world and making yourselves comfortable.  I hope to continue to provide some sort of entertainment for at least another year and really hope y'all stick around for it.

This was enough seriousness - hopefully my next post has more humor and probably some titties in it just to change the mood and keep people interested!!!

Most Important Day

The most important day of the year was not Yesterday - It is, in fact, Tomorrow.

Political Rambling

Yeah

Presidential elections are much like leap year. They come around once every 4 years and one day later no-one really gives a shit about them any more.

I don't vote, I don't care.  I registered once in my lifetime and that was when I was forced to do it upon turning the arbitrary age of 18. That was 18 years ago and in all honesty I don't remember how I registered all these years later - probably as an independent though.

You see, I've never followed Politics.  I remember being young, riding a school bus to - uh - school and talking about the presidential election and who everyone thought was going to win (and by think I mean just a bunch of kids repeating the ramblings or wisdom of their parents) and I remember knowing the name Ronald Regan.

After that I remember having an election that, to me boiled down to Bush or Cock and I told everyone that if I was voting it would be for Bush because what man is going to vote for Cock - and much to my prediction Michael lost that match up.

Also - and this sounds entirely random and made up - but every election that has happened since then I have made my predictions based on personal feelings and nothing to do with politics or national consensus or anything else and every single time I have been right, so far.

I knew Clinton was going to win because he was more of an every day American than Bush.  He was fat and liked to eat fast food but at the same time was into banging broads.  I knew bush Junior was going to win and even though I preached to the world that this country wasn't ready for a Black or a Woman to be in charge that whichever of the two made it through to the actual election would become president because, quite frankly, the other candidate was a pretty scary choice.  Especially after choosing Palin as a running mate.

So to continue, or to break for that matter, my streak I'm using this public media forum to make my bold prediction and let the Apocalypse happen as it may.

You see, I just don't think Romney can win this thing.  I think the guy has built his campaign around a million and one lies and has told them so much he believes them.  Every time I think he is going to say something that makes sense he beats around the bush and doesn't actually give any information.  His campaign is, from the little that I have observed, built 100% upon what Obama has NOT done in the past 4 years as president.

Here is my issue with that.  I think Obama has just finally gotten to the point where the last 4 years of Republican bullshit has been finally cleaned up and he has an opportunity to make a difference.  The economy crashed under the Republican watch but it just so happened that the Democrat took over while the ship was sinking and now all of the Republicans want to come out of the woodwork and talk about how the economy died with Obama in office while not admitting any blame for the mess that they helped to create and build before We The People got wise and kicked their asses out of the office.

Yeah, I guess you could say that in a two party electorial system I'm more Democrat than Republican but I think that's just because the last couple of decades the Republicans have given us shit to work with.  Al Gore? Bob Dole? The crazy fucker from the last election? And now Mitt Romney?

I wish that any independent actually stood a chance so that it could become a real 3 party race but the fact is that the 3rd party gets so little attention that they really don't matter and seemingly only exist to be made a mockery of.

So, tomorrow (I'm writing this on the 5th no matter what day you read it on) I am going to wake up way too early and head out to work and after that I'm going to pretend that nothing special is happening.  I'm going to go ahead with my day and enjoy it while trying to stay out of any political discussions.

Fact of the matter is that come November 7th nothing will have changed for me.  I'm no longer below the poverty line but I sure as shit am not too far above it.  I don't make enough income for the real politics to really affect me.  Maybe if I were really part of the Middle class I'd care a bit more because I know that deep down the Republicans want to eliminate it and create a bigger divide between upper and lower.  Whatever - that's for another time and place.

I've still got my bills to pay and I've still got my life to live.
To all of you who decide to vote - I hope your guy wins and that it makes a difference in your life.
To all of you who decide not to vote - that's your right as an American as well.

To all of those who haven't read my Facebook.....
My politician has a bigger dick than your politician!

grrouch out

Holy Shit I Gotta Pee

For those of you who have never had the fortune to listen to Pig Vomit at an earlier point in your life - I stole the title from one of their songs.

We've all been there before, sometimes you really have to go.  Enter the house and the bathroom is on the entire other side of the entrance so you start making the quick dash of shame where you are simultaneously undressing yourself and throwing your clothes everywhere just so they aren't in your way by the time you make it to the bathroom.

However, this is all acceptable because it's your own private residence and even if there are a few people around to witness it they are in your house and they can choose to look away.

So, right before playing a little bit of poker I decided to go see a man about a horse.
Walking into the bathroom there is an old man in front of me who either A) really has to piss or B) just doesn't give a fuck any more.
Two steps into the bathroom he is loosening his belt.  We've all seen that before.
However he doesn't stop there.  WELL before he ever gets to the urinal (and I'm talking 10 feet before minimum) he undoes his button and pulls down the zipper.

Like this but up close and in person - and way scarier!

His pants are below his ass with 5 steps still to go and I get to see old man ass crack.  Glad I don't have the front view because his pants are just as low there and I can only assume everyone else gets a good shot at some droopy old man balls.

The image is currently stained in my mind. Old pasty white ass crack.
I'm going to need some sort of cleansing or a night of heavy drinking to get this visual out.
I've been scarred. I need to cry.
Someone hold me?

And now another What The Fuck is Wrong with People moment.

Before (blue) Waffles comments - She left her panties on and almost pissed in what I'm presuming is her own shoe.  And someone thought it was a bright idea to fucking post this on Youtube?
Christ on Crutches people.

Triumphant Return to the Tables

New Years Revolution #1 for um, the rest of the year.... Play More Poker.

Remember back in the day where everyone talked about poker and everything was right with the world? And now almost all of the "poker" blogs that I've followed pretty much never talk about poker any more and instead we have morphed into this group therapy mentality where we bitch and moan about the chick at Wal-Mart who called us fat even though her chins are larger than our thighs but at the end of the day we all feel a little bit better about it because that's just how fucking therapy works right?

Where was I going with this?  Oh yeah - Poker Poker Poker.
Gimmie 3 steps, gimmie 3 steps mister.

I want to play more. I desire to play more.  This year has been pretty shit in the poker department.  I mean, I just recently found out that I lost my Platinum status at Harrah's/Caesars/Whatever because I haven't put in any frigging hours this year.  This is the 1st time in probably a 3-4 year span where I've lost that status.  How in the hell am I supposed to eat at their buffets now?  Stand in line? I don't fucking think so.

If  you'd like to go back - here were my thoughts as of a couple of months ago.  Actually that just links to everything with the label of "bankroll challenge"  which is what I'll be using with all of my subsequent posts on the subject.

I'm not actually following those guidelines currently but I do wish to work my way up to them.  Fact of the matter is that I really just want to play poker at this point because over the last couple of years I have not put in a whole lot of time or effort.  I want to get my feet wet again and just start to enjoy the game again.  Thus I have decided to play some really low stakes poker and just have fun.
I'm playing in the lowest game in the whole frigging city (with it still being No Limit) and I'm going to enjoy myself.  If I find myself not having fun I'm just going to leave.  My hobbies should bring enjoyment to my life right?

Last night I decided to grab a few bucks and head down to Bills Gambling Hall and Swap Meet and just play for an hour or so until something else came up.
I bought in for $20 and was off to the races.

Yes, I just said that I bought in for $20.  You will probably be hearing this a lot in the future until I steamroll the game and work up to real poker.  Whatever.

3rd hand of the evening I have KJ on a K high flop and no one bets.  Turn is another K and I put in over half of my stack and one caller.  River puts another pair on the board and I push, guy calls.  I split with K7.  Whatever.

A few hands later I get involved in a pot where come close to doubling up with something I don't remember. What I do remember is that Atlanta had just scored a touchdown and the next hand was going to be a splash pot and I was going to be on the button.

I straddle the button and the cards are dealt.
An extra $50 is added into the middle of the table for everyone to fight over - that's 2.5 buy-ins!  I have to compete for it dammit.
Small Blind Pushes all in.  Small Blind is drunk and loves to re-buy.  Small blind also has pocket Tens and I determine that I'll probably call if one or two others come along no matter what my holdings are.
There is a caller out there in middle position and then it comes to me.
I have AQ of spades and there is no way I can fold now.  So, my money goes in the pot as well.
I have a side pot with pocket tens guy.
Flop has a pretty ace and is rainbow.
Turn brings a 2nd heart to the game.
River brings a 3rd heart to the game.
Guy in middle position finally shows his hand.  J9 of hearts.  Says he only called because some other guy talked him into it.  Scoops a $100ish pot including the $50 already in there.
I scoop a $24ish side pot and am back to starting stacks.

The night went on and I lost another to a rivered flush but I kept taking chips from the drunk guy next to me (I moved seats to have position on him a few hands later though).  I noticed his betting patterns when no one else wanted to bet but he had at least bottom pair and thought he might be good.

One time I called him down on a board with 3 overs to my pocket 5's and he only had bottom pair.
Another time I called him with a pair of 9's on a 259JQ board and he had paired the 5's.

And even though he just re-bought for $80 I had received my phone call that alternative evening plans had arrived and left with my huge profit of $12.
Yes - that's over half a buy-in somewhere in the range of 1 hour played.

I don't care, I'll take it.

Current Sockroll: $212 -
I'm not going to tell you guys which sock I keep it in so don't think about fucking mugging me when you see me walking the cold, dark streets between Bills and Bally's on my way to or from my car.

I'm hoping to play once a week for a few hours and maybe get a post or two out of it for your entertainment.
I do have one more story to tell from this evening but it deserves it's own post.

Playing with Cox

Over my few years here in Vegas the one thing that has remained consistent is that I have Cox internet service.  I have never bothered to go through anyone else as I feel that even though the price might be a bit higher than elsewhere the internet service has been very consistent for me and I have had relatively few issues with it.  

So, when I moved back into the house I transferred my service from the apartment.  Recently I logged in to look at and pay my bill online but it was still only showing the information from the apartment still - there was no information as to my new service or address.

I fired up the live chat.

For those of you who have never used live chat before, you basically fill out a form and submit your "question/concern/whatever" and once a "live agent" is available they come on, mention that they are reviewing your information and start to try to provide solutions for you.

I did my end and the little box popped up telling me that I am connected to William or some shit like that.

After about 3-5 minutes William finally types "We have been connected for quite a while and you haven't said anything, do you wish to continue?"

My reply was "You haven't held up your end of the bargain - I submitted my question and thus far you haven't even said hello."

William: "Yes, I see here that you are inquiring about adding TV and Phone Service to your existing internet service"

grrouchie: "Your reading skills are pretty piss poor if that is what you got out of my paragraph.  What I said was I want to pay my bill but the information is NOT showing on my account online"

William: "Oh, sorry about that. Let me look into it"

grrouchie: "No, I'm afraid you'd probably fuck that up too.  I'll just call a live person from India so that I can't understand what they are trying to say but at least I know someone is there and maybe paying attention"

Then I called the support phone number and after talking to some random guy for about 10 minutes he tells me that he will be connecting my new account to the old account so that I can access the information.  I ask him how long it will take for this to happen and he said it would be available next time I logged in.

So, today I go to log in and notice that my information is still not there.  I decide to go the Live Support method again but everyone is busy fucking over other people.

So, not wanting to talk to anyone I decide to send an email instead of make a phone call.

I write up a detailed paragraph stating that when I log into my account my billing information is not there.

I would like my information to be there so that I can actually give them the money that I owe them.

I just received my email reply.

Below is a copy/paste of the exact information just changing information dealing with my account/passwords/etc....

COX

Dear grrouchie:

Thank you for your inquiry. Cox is committed to providing the best customer service possible.

A temporary password: WeAreRetarded was installed to your account. Please change the password to prevent unauthorized use by clicking on "My Connection - Manage My Account - Change Password".

To login, visit our website at: https://ww2.cox.com/ibill/home.cox and enter your login and the temporary password to access your account.

I hope that we have been able to provide you with the information you requested. If we can be of any additional service to you, please do not hesitate to contact Cox Communications again.

Thank you,

Michelle U.

Cox Communications

Las Vegas E-Care Team

October in the Rear View

On the weight loss front I'm still recovering from my buddy's reception.  As I talked about before the food was amazing and I really couldn't stop myself from forcing more and more into my mouth and swallowing.  I knew the results would sting a little bit but that it was only a one day minor set back in which I would lose again over the course of the next couple of weeks without an issue.

Of course, it takes some time to make up for a 4 pound gain out of nowhere but whatever.  Now that a week has passed I've lost about 2 of those pounds back and by the end of next week I expect to be back to where I was before.

Octobers Monthly Goals were a disaster and I'm going to blame this on my budding social life.

By social life I mean I've been spending my time with mostly one person outside of work instead of spending that time at the house and on the computer or playing Video Games.

I had a goal to beat one Video Game which I later changed to playing a certain amount of hours.  I am going to write this one off as a Win.

I put in a couple of hours of Skylanders. I put in a few hours of Borderlands 2 and I played 2 games of Strat-o-Matic football which takes a couple hours per game so I hit my goal but just the minimum.

Read 2 books - FAIL - bit fat fail with a side of "not even close."  I started reading a book on my lunch breaks at work and just really couldn't get into it and thus lost interest in reading in general.  I've got a bad habit of not being able to just switch to a different book.  I generally have to take some time off before switching because I still have the last, horrible, book in my mind.   Blah.

Exercise goal - Fail

Drink Goal - WINNER!   I didn't keep track all month because that got too tedious but whatever.  I realize that I put a lot of bad liquid in me and as such I'm going to make an effort to slowly change that.

Budget goal - Passed.  I put together a budget for November and will carry it forward to December as well. I need to make a few tweaks to it as my insurance at work is going to be going up a bit and I've begun contributing to a 401k plan again.  Plus I completely forgot to put anything in there about Xmas...  oopsie, how did that little holiday slip my mind.

Goals for November:

#1 - 10 hours of Video Games

#2 - Dexter Season 4

#3 - Drink More Water, Drink Less Dew

#4 - Weight Below 250

#5 - Read 1 book

#6 - Revise Novembers Budget and stick to it, Complete Decembers Budget

Now, one more small tidbit before I go find something else to do before work today.

Earlier in the year I had talked about finally trying to reach one of my life long goals of giving Stand Up Comedy a try.  I wanted to be able to do it by the end of this year but there were way too many life complications in the way for me to reasonably be able to do what I wanted.  However, all of my challenges have been eliminated and I've begun thinking about it again.

That being said - Over November and December (two extremely busy months in their own right especially if I take on a second job for the next two months) I'd like to start trying to write a few jokes and organize some thoughts and figure out how this whole process works.

So, that means I've got an email to send out to Linda Lou who so graciously volunteered to help me reach this goal and start getting some advice and direction.

Publicly - I hope you are still willing to have me and take me under your wings Linda!!! :)

Whore

Forgot how much I loved a good female screamer!

So, 100% by chance (and I'm glad it happened) the radio station played a song the other day that I really dug.  The first thing I did was Google what I thought were some of the lyrics to find out who the band was so I could check out some more of their music.

As it turns out I was slightly wrong on some of the lyrics that I thought I heard but at the same time I still got enough right that I got the info I was seeking.

Next move was to fire up my Amazon MP3 app so I could check out prices and whatnot.  The album that I was after was $5.99 and that's about $.99 more than I'm used to paying but I really enjoyed that one song so what the hell right?

So, the song I heard was the 2nd one that I'm putting up but the 1st one is the one I'm digging the most at the moment.

The album is not flawless but it's well worth the money that I paid for it.

I've been a bit absent lately with work and pleasure but my load should be lightening up a bit in the near future so that I can try to get back to some sort of semi-normal posting schedule