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Racquetball Wager

So Brian decided he’s going to continue playing racquetball with me despite his protestations yesterday. It may have had something to do with our post-racquetball conversation yesterday that went like this..

ME: If you hate racquetball so much then don’t play with me. It’s not like I force you to play.

BRIAN: I’ve told you numerous times that I don’t want to play and yet you make me anyway.

ME: If you don’t want to play racquetball with me, all you have to do is say so. I’ll find other people to play with. It’s just that it’s hard to find someone to play with because no one likes to play cut throat. They either want to play singles or doubles and we’re going to be one person short. If you’re going to be half-assed about it then I’d rather you didn’t play with me.

BRIAN: But if I don’t play with you, you’ll find some strapping, hot, young guy to play with and then you’ll leave me.

ME: That’s the idea.

I’m a horrible, horrible person – I know. LOL!

Just so you all know that I’m honest, I actually lost today. Which is why I’m sitting here blogging instead of still playing racquetball. At around eight o’clock, Brian and I were sitting at two wins each. He decides to bet me the last game that if he wins we quit playing and if I win we get to stay until nine o’clock.

He won the last game and so we had to cut the two-hour racquetball session that I had schedule short. But he only won because he hit my left boob with the racquetball and it hurt like a bitch.

ME: Son of a bitch! (as I grab my left breast to ease the pain; Brian thinks it’s hilarious and can’t stop laughing) Dude, it hurts! I may never be able to breast-feed. It’s not funny! I think it’s swollen! (Brian starts laughing even harder)

BRIAN: Enjoy it before it shrinks back to its regular size!

How can anyone concentrate on playing a serious game after that? That is BS! That is cheating. We’re supposed win based on our own physical, racquetball prowess. Psychological warfare isn’t allowed! Ugh. You can always count on Brian to cheat. He goes, “I’ll win however I can.”

And that’s fine. At least I’m not the one who’s shaving my balls.

Sore Loser

“I only started playing racquetball to kiss ass to my boss. I didn’t think YOU would fall in love with it.”

Sorry to steal a line from Torque but that is truly the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard! Look what all that ass-kissing got him – nothing. This prooves, yet again, how retarded ass-kissing is and why I do not believe in it.

He talked me into signing up for a YMCA membership for what? So that he could continue kissing his boss’ behind? Alright, so it didn’t take a lot to convince me. Bite me.

But still, I thought that he enjoyed racquetball. He seemed to at first. That was part of the reason that I agreed. Do you really think that I would be paying $40 a month for a YMCA membership that I didn’t think would be used? If it were up to me, I would just stay home (maybe). I may be frivolous about shopping but I still have my frugal, pragmatic Asian side.

In Brian’s effort to stall from playing, we end up psychoanlyzing the situation. He thinks that I use racquetball to feel good. Umm, hello? I have toys to make me feel good. Is he referring to my self-esteem? I’m not nearly as good at racquetball as I would like to be but my self-esteem hardly needs any help. I’m awesome at a LOT of other things and that in itself makes me feel good. I don’t need any help in the self-esteem department. My head is big enough as it is..

I play racquetball because I think it’s fun. It’s as close to volleyball (which I also enjoy) as I’m going to get because I don’t know where I can play volleyball in the winter time and I don’t know any people to play with. I play because I love learning new things, games, activities. I think it’s fun and challenging. And I want to see myself improve, even by just a little bit each time.

I think he’s just a sore loser. He can’t handle that I am better at him at racquetball, of all things. But who cares who’s better at what? He is better than me at some things and I am better than him at other things. We’re not playing the game of who’s better at what. I don’t really give a shit. I just want to play dammit!

But my theory is that somehow my being better at racquetball bothers him. Like it takes away from what little semblance of manliness he has left or something. Perhaps he was amused at the notion of me getting into racquetball. And he thought that it was funny that I wanted to play so much and to try so hard to learn and get better. But deep down he was convinced that he was better than me at racquetball if he put forth just a bit of effort. Now that I’ve shattered that notion, however, it’s not so funny anymore. Now that we know that even if he tries he won’t win, he’s not so amused.

Why the discussion? Because now he has to shave his balls. That’s why.  

Noche Buena

It seemed like it had been forever since we came to visit mom and dad. Their house looks so different now than the last time we came over. They hadn’t put the Christmas decorations up then, and the furniture was arranged differently. I guess now that mom and dad are both at home most of the time they’ve got more time to do stuff with the house. Mom and dad (yes, dad is getting into it too; mom managed to get him to paint the master bedroom and master bathroom) are in a redecorating and reorganizing frenzy. Aah, the perks of working from home.

Noche Buena was nice. Matt, Logan and Jude came per usual. Ray and Tito Don came too. It was nice. Mom had tons of food. Way more than she has ever prepared and served in the past. The selection of American and Filipino foods was vast. Everything was yummy. And my belly was very, very happy.

Speaking of family gatherings, my grandmother’s tourist visa application got approved. It’s only good for a year, though. But they’ve given her as long as six months to stay. She’s coming in March. It will be her first time traveling outside of the country so she is traveling with some of our relatives who live in New Jersey. Mom and dad are then flying to New Jersey to come pick her up. And then the three of them are going back home to the Philippines later in the year so she won’t have to travel by herself at all.

I’m so excited! Since she’s staying for six months, she’ll be able to attend the June ball and meet all the other Filipino folks. I’m looking forward for her to meet Brian also. And, of course, I’m sure she’s anxious to see her very first great grandchild Logan. I love when relatives come to visit us! News of her upcoming visit is the best news I’ve heard in a while. What a great Christmas!

Small World

Speaking of.. It really is a small world. We ran into Casey Abay tonight at IHOP. We went there for post-poker munchies after Heroes. He happens to be friends with this guy that knows Brian from T-Mobile who sat with Brian, Jason and I in our booth and talked our ears off about how wonderful Brian was for what seemed like an eternity. Ugh. I get it already!

Anyway, it was so weird! To hear this guy rave about Brian.. It was nuts. It was like he worshipped him. Must’ve been the pot (and when I say pot I’m not referring to coffee) because the guy was totally stoned out of his ass.

The funny thing is that Brian would always tell me stories about reps lining up and trying to compete to get into his team because he is so fuckin’ awesome. He would tell me how all the reps just admired him and thought highly of him and everyone wanted to be on his team. I’m like, “Whatever.” We’re all deluded in one way, shape or form. I never really fully believed him until now, when I witnessed this guy just praise Brian out the ass.

Don’t get me wrong, I know Brian is wonderful but I didn’t think he was THAT wonderful.

I had to ask if Brian put him up to it or paid him to say all those things – or something. But then when that wasn’t it, I had to wonder if Brian somehow buttfucked the fella without my knowledge because of all the compliments that he was giving Brian. At one point the dude actually goes everyone at T-Mobile sucked except for Brian and then he realized that Jason works at T-Mobile and he had to back-paddle really quick and say that Jason was cool too because he was the IT guy who worked behind the scenes and made sure that everything worked. But that’s really all he had to say about Jason. Brian was his main focus, his IDOL! He was like a child meeting his hero for the first time. It was very, very weird.

At one point, the dude actually goes “I WANTED TO BE YOU!” Brian is all embarrassed to shit about the adulation so he’s trying to keep this guy’s ranting and raving level. Jason and I gave each other a look which pretty much said, “If you only knew.”

When he found that Brian had gotten fired, I thought he would cry. And then he’s like, “So what are you doing now? You’re probably working some place else where you are ten times more successful, right?” Brian told him that the termination of his employment just happened recently and he was still looking for a job. The guy is like, “They’re all assholes anyway.” And then he proceeded to tell us about he was screwed over by T-Mobile because this blonde supervisor with huge tits promised him that he would get a Monday to Friday schedule and he didn’t. He also said that he was told he was being hired on as a senior rep and then he was really just a regular rep. He’s like, “I wouldn’t have left my previous job that paid $22 an hour if I would’ve know I’d be answering phones!” Senior reps don’t make $22 an hour, mind you. So I’m not sure what he’s talking about.

He then went on to tell us how messed up it was that he had his masters degree and he was answering phones for T-Mobile. He must have brought up the master degree thing like a dozen times during the whole weird encounter. I guess he had greater ambitions than getting drunk and getting baked? Who would’ve thought?

This is what we get for spending almost three hours BS-ing at IHOP. Never again.

Next time we’re taking the food back to your house, Jason!

Brian commented that this is the weirdest night he’s ever had and he’s even sober! He added that he never had weird nights like these even when he was a stoner. It must be Jason then! The dude seems to be a magnet for weird-ass situations!

Speaking of Jason, I just realized that counting the time we spent at IHOP, we spent almost ten hours with the guy today. The sad part is that after we dropped Jason off at his place and we arrived home, the three of us proceeded to get on Yahoo! Messenger and chat. Very, very sad.

Anyway, the boring part where I narrate the evening’s events come next so feel free to stop here. You will get bored, I promise.

So you’re still reading, eh? Alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This is how the weird night began. We went to pick up Jason around six-ish at his place. Of course, we spend several minutes looking for his freakin’ wallet which he misplaced and turned out to be in the coat closet – of all places! We decide to go to Arby’s for dinner. It’s cheap. As soon as we get out of the car, Jason’s blackberry starts vibrating. It’s Jill (Jason Dill), Jason’s “boyfriend.” Jill’s like, “I’m at your place, where are you?” Jason tells Jill we’re fixing to enter Arby’s. It turns out that Jill had gone to grab some Arby’s to bring to Jason. How sweet! His boyfriend bought him dinner.

After BS-ing for a while at Arby’s the clock strikes seven and we agree it’s time to head to Heroes. On the way there I get a call from Nick questioning whether there is, in fact, poker at seven thirty. I flip out because I’m thinking that I could’ve been playing racquetball instead of going to Heroes this early if there’s not an early session. That’s the only reason I agreed to skip racquetball. This is what I get for believing a bunch of drunk guys!

We get confirmation from a couple of people that there is, in fact, a poker game at seven thirty and when we arrive we see the poker coordinator setting up tables. Some of them were already setup even. I don’t know what Nick was smoking but apparently it impaired his vision because he didn’t see all the poker paraphernalia when came in the door. There were a few people that came who I recognized from poker at Jason’s the night before. And then Jeff was there, too. He used to play with us at Fingers. He said he’s going to start playing our Tuesday night poker game at Jason’s so that should be fun! I like Jeff.

Incidentally, I found that Jeff and Jen went to school together. He goes, “I asked her out in eight grade and she turned me down.” I go, “Maybe she could tell the future?” And then laughed hysterically. And then I realized that wasn’t very funny. Ouch! There’s a line that divides witty and mean.. And I crossed it. I really shouldn’t have said that because I like Jeff. He’s likes to bet a little happy but he’s a really nice guy. As soon as I realized what I’d said, I told him I’m sorry and that I was only joking and then gave him a hug.

Bad, bad Ching! I hope he doesn’t hold it against me and still comes to play with us next week. I’m a really good person. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. It just happens sometimes. You know the phrase open mouth insert foot? (Or open foot insert mouth, as I say when I’m really, really spacey.) I am prone leaving my mouth open when it should really be shut. All sorts of things, other than just my foot, end up getting inserted. Okay, that didn’t come out right but we are moving on..

Mano, Jeff and I were the final three. Mano took third and I got second. I won an APL shirt for Brian. Go me! When we got home I actually asked Brian, “Isn’t it supposed to be the guy who wins the girl a teddy bear at the fair?” To which he replies, “Yes but we’ve already determined who the man is in our relationship.” LOL! I guess we kinda-sorta have. Add gender issues to all the other issues on my list.

We also found out that I qualified for the in-house tourney on January 26. All the people who finished in the top five positions did. I’ve already marked my calendar! I’m going to miss class especially for the event but it will be worth it. There’s no entry fee (you just gotta qualify first) and it’s a $300 prize pool. First place pays $150, $100 for second place and $50 for third.

Second session was a bust. I think we were all distracted by this one guy’s sidekick. She was this chick with ENORMOUS boobs and she would sit next to him as he played. I mean, they were huge! If you were there, you probably know who I’m talking about. They were so huge that Jason was totally enamored by them. He was so enamored that he actually got caught staring! Typical.

How I got knocked out of second session is a story that I have already told at least half a dozen times so I will spare you the gory details. I went all in on pocket As and I actually lost! I was robbed!

Okay, I take that back. I will tell you the story because it is messed up! Here’s the scenario. The blinds are $2000 and $4000 at this point. The guy to my right only has $1000 left so he goes all in with his last chip. I look at my cards and I find pocket As, so naturally I go all in with my last $8500. The small blind folds. The guy in the big blind position just happened to be the chip leader and it was only $4500 more for him to call and so he does. It was the smart thing to do, given that he was holding a pocket pair himself.

The flop comes 8 3 2, or something similarly crappy. We all reveal our cards at this point. The dude that was all in for $1000 had pocket 4s and it turns out chip leader had pocket 8s, of all the cards in the world! All I could hope for was another ace to trip me up. The turn and river card are both 4s, so the guy who had $1000 left now has $4000 because he caught runners to win the main pot. The side pot where all the rest of my chips were went to the guy with the pocket 8s who was already the chip leader, thus only adding to his already huge stack. And I was the only one who got screwed over by that hand. And to think I had the MONSTER pocket pair! It was so lame! I hate it when that happens but I guess my luck had to run out eventually.

Speaking of pocket pairs, we had three people with pocket pairs at Jason on Tuesday night as well. The guy with the highest pocket pair actually won so the hand actually played out pretty fair. The remarkable park, however, is that all three pocket pairs tripped up. They were pocket 7s, Js (my favorite) and Ks going against each other. The flop comes 4 10 K. The turn is a 7 and the river is a J. I’d never seen that before. It was really amazing. But of course, the guy with the set of Ks takes the pot, naturally. As it should be. As I should’ve on the hand that was my undoing. It was totally unlucky!

Last night was probably one of the most interesting evenings we’ve had in a long, long time. I must say, it was worth skipping racquetball over. I gotta work out tonight though because I didn’t yesterday. But it works out because poker at either Zach’s or Jason’s house (depending on whether we can get a hold of Zach or not) won’t start until ten thirty or well after. Anyway, I’ll let you all know where we end up so you can come play with us if you want. It’ll be super duper fun!

Jen’s Initiation

Jen played poker for money for the first time tonight. As the beginner’s luck fairy would have it, she kicked ass. As of right now, she’s in the top three (in the money and chip leader at that) positions and my ass is at home blogging. I hope she wins because I want to get her hooked on poker just as I got her hooked on booze many, many years ago. Just kidding. I had nothing to do with her chronic alcoholism.

Of course, Jen is not even close to being drunk but Jason was almost desperately trying to convince me that she was. He’s like, “How’s she going to get home?” I’m like, “She’s fine. Trust me.” I think he wanted me to say “Oh yeah, good point. Let’s convince her to spend the night at your place.” He freakin’ has no couch.

This is a classic example of the male ploy: let’s take advantage of the drunk girl.

One problem: the girl is not quite drunk enough. Jen would need to consume a lot more alcohol for that plan to even have a chance of succeeding.

But then, it wouldn’t be so bad for the two of them to hook up. Jen and Ray are, after all, kinda-sorta on the outs.. Not quite sure where they stand at this point.. So by all intents and purposes, she is a free woman.

So anyway, Brian schnaggled his way out of racquetball tonight and, it turns out, he is trying to make another play at getting out of racquetball tomorrow night. Instead of playing just the late session at Heroes, we are now playing BOTH sessions. That just scooted racquetball right out of the picture. As you know, I’m a poker addict first and foremost, so if anything can get me to cancel racquetball that would be poker. It seems Brian has found my Achilles’ heel and he is totally using it against me. Or perhaps he has known my weakness all along and has finally decided to use it to his advantage.

At any rate, if anyone wants to play racquetball I’ve got a court reserved from 8p to 10p at the North YMCA which will not be used. It’s under Brubaker and Hoffman if anyone wants to use it. Enjoy!

I’ll be at Heroes. It’ll be my first time back in the APL circuit – a long awaited return that I’ve been looking forward to for months now. I’m still mad that Fingers shut down but I’m sure I’ll find a new favorite poker place. See you all around.

UPDATE: Okay, Jen just called. She won first place!! You go, girl! Awesome job for a first time! But then, now that you have been kissed by the beginner’s luck fairy, you may not be so lucky tomorrow. LOL!  

Racquetball was a Bust

Racquetball was a bust naturally.  I intended to play for two and half hours.  Of course, I would be playing with Brian alone so I had my doubts.

I won the first game.  As in, totally whooped his ass.  Second game, Brian won 16-14.  I gave it to him.  I didn’t want him to feel impotent or anything.  Third game, I won again.  He was totally whooped.

Brian decides he is out of breath and has had enough.  Typical.  He sits in the corner while I play by myself, just hitting the ball against the wall.  I have him count how many times I can hit the ball against the wall without messing up.

Just so you all know, I’m not really any good at racquetball so I can barely break six on this silly play-by-yourself-because-Brian-is-too-tired-to-play-with-you game.  It’s really boring and stupid and I hate it.  I hate that he gets tired so easily.

So I get totally bored and I figure that he’s had enough rest so I tell him, if I can get to 15 he must get up and play with me again.  Brian, assuming perhaps that I wouldn’t be able to do it, readily agrees.  I fail several times, barely even getting to 10, but I persevere.  I get to 12 finally and almost mess up but I recover and get all the way to 24.  Go me!  Brian doesn’t have a choice but to start playing again.

At least, his word is good.

He’s all grumpy and whiny as he gets up.  We hadn’t even resumed playing again and he’s already whining about wanting to go eat at Chipotle (his favorite place to eat these days) and stuff.  It’s barely even 8:00 pm, mind you!  Our court reservation was from 7:00 to 9:30 pm.  In my frustration and utter complacency, I challenge him to a bet.

Overwhelmed by my own misplaced cockiness I go, “You win this game and we’re done.  You won’t have to play anymore.”

“Eat at Chipotle?” he asks, with as much excitement as he can muster.  If you’ve ever met Brian, you know that he’s not the most expressive person.  It’s like getting excited almost takes too much energy.  He is the antithesis of me.  I say this because everyone knows, I am highly excitable.  I’m all the way to the right of the periodic table, trust me.

“Sure.  You can do whatever you want.”  I was oozing with arrogance.  I oozed it like a brand new tube of toothpaste.  I’m soo evil!

Anyway, big mistake!

After the first couple of rallies, I knew I was in trouble.  Yes, you heard me right.  Brian freakin’ rallied!  He was all over the place, returning almost every freakin’ hit.  I was flabbergasted!  Whoa!  Where did this come from?

“Why don’t you ever play like this normally?  You’re so much more fun to play with when you play this way.”  I egged him on, and I shouldn’t have.  I was down, but all I could think of was – wow, this is so much fun!  I thought to myself, even if I lose it would be worthwhile because he’s ten times more fun to play with when he plays this way.  Of course, I was still of the belief that I could catch up at any time and whoop his ass.

Needless to say I lost.  And then it wasn’t so amusing anymore.  I must’ve given Brian one of those evil glares that I am known for because he goes, “What?”

“I wanted the game to be more challenging, but I didn’t want to fuckin’ lose!”  Ugh!  I will get him next time.  Now that I know how to motivate him to play, we’re going to have so much fun from now on!  

Homesick

Sometimes you come across photos that just make you homesick. That’s what Aaron Vicencio’s photos do to me. I can’t even remember how I came across his PBase gallery. I just end up all over the web whenever I try to sit down in front of the computer to do homework. I really shouldn’t procrastinate but I can’t help it. There are so many interesting sites to visit, fascinating people to read about (and talk to) and vivid pictures to view.

Anyway, I want to go home so bad.. Perhaps see old friends, visit relatives and travel to the tourist attractions that I never got to see or experience when I was living in the Philippines.. I want to do the whole tourist thing. It would be so much fun! Sadly, Brian and I can’t afford to right now though. Given our current financial status, we won’t be able to for a while more than likely.

Thankfully, Mama Iyay’s visa got approved so she will be visiting us in a few months. That’s at least something to look forward to.. But then, I fear that her visit will make me even more homesick. *sigh*

Carded at the Movies

I should be in the freakin’ movie theater watching Blade Trinity right now. After all, Brian bought our tickets this morning and everything so we wouldn’t have to fall in line at the box office. We left Abuelo’s in plenty of time so that we could be at the movie theater by 3:30 pm, get our snackies and secure good seats.

When I say good seats, I mean right smack dab in the middle. I MUST sit in the middle. I count the number of seats and everything. Yes, I’m psychotic like that. I absolutely can’t stand not being in the middle when I watch movies.

So Brian goes, “Do you want to go get our seats?”

At first I was like, “Nah – I’ll just wait for you.” But then I changed my mind when I saw the line for concession. I figured I had to get our seats before someone else grabs them. I gave Brian a quick kiss, took my movie ticket and headed to the ticket boy.

“Are you seating for Blade Trinity yet?” I asked.

He goes, “Yea – but I need to see your ID.”

“What do you mean?”

“I need to see your identification,” like I didn’t know what ID stood for. What a dumb turd-bucket!

“Are you serious?” I was going to tell him how old I am but for some reason I can’t ever remember my age when I’m put on the spot. I hate that!

So all I could say was, “But I’m [uh..] old!”

I mean, how can you not fucking tell I’m over the age on 18? I’m almost 30! I have wrinkles! I have cellulite! Yes, I still have baby fat but I’m fucking OLD!! Ugh!

He counters, “But I can’t tell that.”

With a sigh of resignation I replied, “I don’t have my purse on me. I’ll have to go get it.”

Anyone who knows me knows that I NEVER EVER bring my purse anywhere that I go with Brian. If I have to bring my ID like when we go to a bar or watch a movie in the balcony I just give him my ID. Why the fuck would I want to lug around a purse when I know I’m not going to need anything in it? Brian didn’t tell me that I needed to bring my ID so I didn’t have it on me. We would have to drive all the way back home to get it and come back. What a pain!

I return to Brian who hasn’t moved an inch in the concession line.

“Let’s go get our money back,” I tell him.

“Why?”

“The ticket boy carded me and I don’t have my ID. We’d have to go back home and come back and I really don’t want to see the movie if I have to sit in BAD SEATS.”

Brian was pissed off because he really wanted to see the movie but he really couldn’t do anything because I had my mind made up. We weren’t going to see it because they had already upset me.

He goes, “Did you stumble when he asked how old you were?” He’s alluding to a time during our cruise when I wanted an alcoholic beverage.

It was at one of the bars on Lido and the guy carded me. Of course, I didn’t have my ID on me. I was in a freakin’ bikini! When the bartender asked for my age, all I could manage was “I’m a.. uh.. uh.. How old am I, baby?” Brian still picks on me about that.

“No, he didn’t ask me.. I was actually going to tell him but I couldn’t remember how old I was again so I just said I’M [uh..] OLD! What a fucking douchebag!”

“I can’t believe they carded you. They never card us. I guess if we would’ve gone in together, you probably wouldn’t have gotten carded.”

“Of course, they’re not going to card me when I’m with you! YOU HAVE GRAY HAIRS! They’re probably thinking I’m sure she’s old enough, she’s with a 40-year-old guy!”

Brian and I were rolling with laughter. Picture the two of us in the car, laughing our asses off about our silly conversation. I was laughing so hard I was crying.

I really was ticked off, though. I wish I would’ve gotten that boy’s name and gotten him fired. I really wanted to watch the movie. I guess it’s a sign that I should do my school work. I would definitely much rather procrastinate by watching Blade Trinity than playing on the computer!

That douchebag will pay!

DINK

Jen demanded that I update.  I really don’t feel like it to be perfectly honest.  I am stressed out, worn out and frustrated.

You know how sometimes you forget that God exists and then He thumps you on the head and goes, “I am watching YOU!”  I think I’m having one of those days (weeks? months?) ~ sigh.

As many of you know, Brian lost his job last week.  So we went from being DINK (Double Income No Kids – an acronym I picked up from David Johnson, Half of Reason, we were classmates last sem) to SINK (I’m hoping that ya’ll are smart enough to figure this out so I won’t have to explain what the letters stand for).  Hopefully we won’t go from SINK to SUNK!  Sunk doesn’t stand for anything because I’m not as creative as Brian who then said, “Let’s pray we don’t become DUNK!”

Anyone who figures out what DUNK stands for gets a cookie (or donut, your choice).

By the way, since we are broke and all I decided I’m going to start selling crass t-shirts from tshirthell.com and resell hosting.  Some of the shirts are quite offensive (but that’s right up my alley, I like offending people) while others are downright hilarious!  The hosting is cheap and if you get hosting through us, I’ll give you permission to bug me 24/7.  So help us out.

Oh, and those Google ads on the left are actually supposed to create some revenue.  I haven’t seen a check yet but that’s because you don’t click on them!  Ugh!