Great weekend

No Friday plans turned into Joe Senser's to watch the UMD NCAA hockey playoff, and wow, what a game... two goals in the last minute to tie, with the tying goal at 0.8 seconds. Their momentum carried them to a win in OT. Now I'm not a fan of UMD, not at all, but I do appreciate a good hockey game. I was with a few alumni so they were quite ecstatic.

Saturday was a bachelor party -- a little unorthodox by my standards, but it turned out to be great fun (and exercise!). A bachelor party in my mind has us going out in public at night after day activities, but no biggie here as it was some good fun. We started by going to play dodge ball and wallyball, which was AWESOME. And very tiring. I'm more sore right now than I've been in a long, long time. A lot more stop and start sprinting in dodgeball than I remembered. Next was dinner at a local restaurant and then back to the emptied bachelor's parents house for games and more games. The games ended sometime after 5:00. 5:00 AM...

Today was a lay and do nothing day/poker to make money day with hockey to end. Still have that hockey buzz going...

One more thing to end this post -- now I know I'm a nerd that fancies nerd humor, but this collection of real, actual exam papers is some of the funniest crap I've ever seen. I'd seen some before in e-mail attachments, but to have 40 of these at my fingertips in one central location, it's just gravy. http://www.kontraband.co.uk/pics/16714/Funny-Exam-Papers/?gpage=1#show

Spring fever

I've often been asked if I would move to a warmer climate. Many people would initially react with a "definitely", but I still think the contrast between changing seasons makes each season change more exhilarating -- I think you need to feel one extreme to fully enjoy it's counterpart. In this case, to fully enjoy spring, one needs to experience winter. To appreciate free time, one needs to be busy at times. To appreciate truly great food, one needs to understand what bad food is.

With the warm air that has recently hit, I have visions of poolsides, pontoons, and grill-outs. Love that stuff.

And for today, I had an exhausting week, and woke up with nine hours of sleep under my belt. Feels good.

Looking into the crystal ball

I can't predict the future. Maybe, maybe there are some out there that have some power to see such a thing, some trait unexplained by science, but not me. What I can foresee is a need for myself to become more efficient in my time if I want to keep up with all of my activities I'm so used to doing.

Ideally I'd like to keep up with all of my friends, which includes traveling to various cities throughout the year. I'd like to keep up with hockey, rollerblading, softball, bowling, golf, etc. I'd like to have time to cook new and difficult foods, for the pleasure of others and myself. I'd like to plan fun summer events, including cabin trips, bachelor parties (one I’ve been assigned to), camping trips, concerts, and other fun out-of-the-ordinary activities. I want to keep up a steady workout routine. I'd like to travel beyond the borders of the 48 continental US states (and I will). I want to find time to play poker as it provides a highly fluctuating yet rising source of money. I want to become a better writer. And I want to believe I can do it all.

I think the next several months are going to test my will to balance work and play without reaching burnout. From my standpoint, I'm one month into this test, and I've gotten past everything that's been thrown at me. I'd say this ends the short pessimistic blog streak.

The weekends of spring and summer are really starting to fill up. And fast.

This weekend I have a thing Friday, a thing Saturday afternoon, and a free Saturday night, which will, no doubt, be filled with something ridiculous that doesn't include me taking it easy. Sunday is open, with hockey in the evening.

Next week I have the usual hockey and bowling, with a comedy show Friday, a bachelor party Saturday, and hockey Sunday.

The week after that I have the usual hockey and bowling, a friend's b-day on Saturday (I'll probably cook), and hockey Sunday.

The week after that I have the usual hockey and bowling, a rare free weekend that will surely be filled soon, and then I leave for 2 weeks...

That next week I'll be in San Francisco for work until Thursday. I then travel straight to Las Vegas, with friends flying in and staying until Sunday. I then work in Vegas Sunday until Wednesday. I then fly to San Antonio and work Wednesday until Saturday. I then have a short flight to Houston, where I get to see a roomy from school. Then I finally fly home Monday.

The next few days after that I have the usual hockey and bowling... then May comes.

May may consist of another four days in Vegas, and possibly two weeks in South America.

June, at minimum, consists of a week in Canada.

And THAT'S why, it's going to be a test.

Overanalysis

I think I've kept myself so busy that I haven't had time to think over the past month. I don't know what my overall take on everything is... everything just... is. At least that's what I think I think. I'm probably overanalyzing the situation. I do that sometimes. I think. Or do I? Okay now I'm just being silly...

Being the somewhat selfish person that I am, right now I think the thing that's bugging me the most is how off-track I've gotten in keeping fit. I FINALLY got to hockey for the 2nd time in like a month last night, and I felt like Rocky in "Rocky Balboa", still with some flashes of brilliance but with old age catching up (except in my case it was lack of recent exercise). I was so out of breath but felt great afterwards. I still don't know if I can bowl this week because of my moron antics (slipping on the same patch of ice twice).

My office is having a series of cooking contests and I was literally too busy to enter last week, so I pretty much have to enter this week's throwdown. The dish is either hotdish or soup, themed as one last hot meal as the winter ends; it may be a week tardy as it was well into the sixties today. And yeah, that spring fever is hitting hard. Anyways, back to the food talk... since there are prizes involved, I went with what has gotten the most positive reactions from those I've made it for (and fits the category), and I decided on cheeseburger soup. I don't really follow a recipe, I just throw it together...

I started with my huge aluminum stock pot, filled with 350 oz. of filtered water, and made my stock by boiling celery, carrots, tarragon, and yellow onions for a few hours. I prepared 3 lbs. of hamburger and a pound of finely cut bacon on the side. I also cut up carrots and russet potatoes into bite-sized chunks. Once the stock was finished, I removed the exhausted stock vegetables and added the cooked meats and uncooked veggies. As the veggies cooked, I sea salted and peppered to taste, using a mixture of freshly ground black pepper and white pepper. I also threw in a bit of garlic powder. The cool thing about using these two root vegetables (potato and carrot) is that as the soup cooks, the flesh of each breaks down and give the soup a grainy but very desirable texture. I also like the appearance of the cooked vegetables as the edges get rounded off -- a sign of a long cooking process. Once the vegetables have cooked and everything has been seasoned to taste, the final ingredient goes in (and it's a sin) -- 2 bricks of Velveeta. The soup transforms from a cloudy gray to a beatiful white-yellow color that looks velvety when the soup is stirred. This is one thing I make that definitely tastes better than how it smells. I literally say "holy shit" after my first try and proceed to down an entire piping hot bowl. I give the soup a little while longer to cook and boil down to a nice viscosity. Then I fill up literally every possible storage container that I own for storage (crock pot, 2 cooking pans with lids, and all nine of my available disposable tupperwares). Then I realized it was 1 AM. I am so so bad with my sleep schedule....

Plugging through without emotion

For now. I'm going over everything in my mind from the past week and it feels like I should be having some type of breakdown. I literally have not had time to blog.

The list:

22 hours put in this week so far. IT'S MONDAY NIGHT.

I found out my godmother has cancer.

I sprained my right ring finger and messed up my right shoulder from slipping on ice and so I can't bowl this week, and am not sure about upcoming weeks.

I had to miss hockey yesterday because of work.

My grandma died.

I have to miss hockey tomorrow because of work.
___________

And yet I sit here, seemingly okay. Has it just not hit me?!?!

First pessimistic blog in a while. Hope it doesn't become a trend. At least I have a lot of books waiting to be read... and a 2+ week trip in April... and I still feel invincible for not catching the yearly winter bug yet...

Hmm very confused, gonna numb my mind with some 24 now.

Quick thanks... and up coming

Once I again I thank my weekly activity schedule for keeping me sane. Yesterday at hockey, I arrived stiff and moody, slowing being broken down by my witty friends and smiling by the end. Today I bowled after another long day and had a lot of fun.

Upcoming weekends are really starting to fill in. Saturday plans are tentatively set, the weekend after plans are tentatively set, and then the last weekend in March and first weekend in April I'm definitely set. Later in April I do another two-week (or more) work travel hiatus that will be both challenging and rewarding. This busy lifestyle as of late really makes me appreciate even a single hour of free time.

That's all for now I suppose.

Fat busy bee

Haven't had time to write in a while...been doing a lot of the blog title items lately.

I'm finally back to the weekly routine, still exhausted from the past 2+ weeks. It's holiday season all over again after a lot of food, work, play, and minimal exercise. I'm ecstatic to get back to hockey and bowling.

Well I guess I'm stretching for things to write about other than work or poker, so... well... I'll break my rule and write a little bit about poker.

While in Vegas, after the work days were done, I really didn't have my going-out friends with so I did the thing I know next-best: played poker.

I started out playing piddly 2/4 limit and made a few friends along the way, making it fun, and I actually won too, making it profitable. Yay. I played around 40 hours in the Flamingo poker room getting $1.50/hour in comps too, so I racked up about $60 in comps for my next trip, likely in April (for work again, I swear!). In those 40 hours playing piddly 2/4 limit, I won $177 after a LOT of tips ($1 or $2 per pot won, $1 per drink).

At another casino, I was waiting in-between work meetings and sat down in the middle of a 1-2 no-limit game with a bunch of locals. They were decent, but I was an unknown and it worked to my advantage, winning $195 over 2.5 hours playing 1-2 no limit. Joy.

Finally, I played some 0.50-1.00 pot-limit omaha at another casino for 3 hours, and won $218 there. Quite the opportunity cost situation, in hindsight... I had a friend pondering coming out for a few nights but the plane tickets skyrocketed at the last minute... had he come, I would have spent much less time playing poker and a lot more time going out. Worked out okay, I suppose. I'd still much rather go out than play poker, any day.

Enough for now, it's hockey time. Finally.