I’m Sunny S#@%!^ Wylde!

Cory and April made a special t-shirt for Sunny to wear to the WPT Celebrity Invitational this weekend at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, California. On the front of the shirt it has a circular log with all four suits of cards represented and then underneath it reads, Don’t you know who I am? On the back it reads, in big letters: I’M SUNNY S#@%!^ WYLDE! with (I’M KIND OF A BIG DEAL) written under it inside parentheses in smaller print.

We’d all talked about making a shirt for Sunny over dinner last Saturday, but Brian and I are used to ordering things online and figured the shirt would never make it in time for their LA trip. Who knew there were places in town that could do that for you in a day? Go Cory for making this happen!

Sunny and Scott, Alissa and Shawn, and Kurt and Kathy are all going to on this trip on behalf of WPTAPL. Sunny, Scott, and Shawn are all playing in the WPT Celebrity Invitational poker tournament (because they’re all celebrities in their own right). I believe Sunny with be on TV no matter what because she is being interviewed by Vince van Patten and Mike Sexton. I hope that all three making to the final table, though. It would be fun to watch them all play in a nationally televised poker tournament.

P.S. I’m not exactly sure when this episode airs. I believe it will air sometime in March. Please check your local listings.

February 28, 2009 | Posted by Ching under Poker

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In Case You Missed It

My girl Kate Winslet won best female lead in 81st Annual Academy Awards…

Here’s the full list of winners:

Slumdog Millionaire
Motion Picture of the Year

WALL-E
Animated Motion Picture of the Year

Sean Penn in Milk
Best Male Actor in a Leading Role

Kate Winslet in The Reader
Best Female Actor in a Leading Role

Slumdog Millionaire
Achievement in Directing Award

Departures
Foreign Language Film of the Year

Slumdog Millionaire
Best Song and Musical Score

Slumdog Millionaire
Achievement in Film Editing

Slumdog Millionaire
Achievement in Sound Mixing

The Dark Knight
Achievement in Sound Editing

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Achievement in Visual Effects

Smile Pinki
Best Documentary Short

Man on Wire
Best Documentary Feature

Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight
Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role

Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role

Spielzeugland (Toyland)
Best Live Action Short Film

La Maison en Petits Cubes
Best Animated Short Film

Slumdog Millionaire
Achievement in Cinematography

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Achievement in Film Makeup

The Duchess
Achievement in Costume Design

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Achievement in Art Direction

Slumdog Millionaire
Achievement in Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Milk
Achievement in Writing (Original Screenplay)

Slumdog Millionaire really cleaned house. I’ve added it to my Netflix queue. What about you guys? Any surprises? Disappointments? Any movies that you really love? Any movies that you want to see?

February 24, 2009 | Posted by Ching under Movies

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You Don’t Always Get What You Want

What I wanted…

What I got…

The long story…
We’ve been enduring our old (as in, almost ten years old) washer and dryer for the last few months and they’d started marking our clothes. Well, it was really the dryer that was doing most of the damage but the washer was pretty rusty too. Besides, when you replace one you have to replace the other so that they match. Right?

Anyway, we had already spent a fortune on our plumbing this year so we figured that we’d suffered long enough. What the heck! Why not go for it and get a new washer and dryer while we’re at it? If you’re going to go broke, might as well go all out.

We drove to our neighborhood Sears (they’re doing 0% financing for 12 months, but I think this is something that they do all the time) to check out the selection. Brian wants a fancy front-load one that is as big as my parents’ set. I think they have the largest capacity available because our six loads at Brian’s parents’ house was equivalent to only three loads at their house.

I’m pretty agreeable so whatever. Why not get one with the fancy steam thing like in the TV commercials? Oh, and I love that they make washers and dryers in car colors now. I guess if you’re going to pay the price of a used car for your washer and dryer the least they can do is paint it to match your home decor. Kidding aside, I really liked the red washer and dryer set shown in the top photo.

Brian and I both liked it because it had all of the features he wanted, plus all of the unnecessary frivolities I wanted. We almost bought it, except for this little voice in my head that told me we should measure the depth of the laundry closet. We should have done this to begin with, but Brian and I tend to do things backwards (like buying a house and then getting married a year and a half later).

It was the re-pipe that created the problem because the water connections were relocated on the right side on the lower part of the wall. They are now behind where the washer and dryer would be instead of above them. We lost a good four inches of depth as a result, which meant that getting a washer/dryer that measures 30″ in depth is out of the question. If we really wanted the fancy, cherry red washer and dryer that we had drooled over at the store just moments ago then we would have to leave the laundry closet open as we wouldn’t be able to close the closet doors shut because of the fronts that would be sticking out.

Brian and I looked online to see if there were any front-loading washers and dryers that were 26″ or less in depth. Our old units measured a little over 25″ in depth and the barely fit in the laundry closet after the re-pipe so we figured it would be best to find something of similar depth. We couldn’t find any. Most front-loading washers and dryers bulge out so even the smaller capacity ones would still be too large. The only washers and dryers we could find that would fit were the old-fashioned ones like the ones we were replacing. On the bright side, the conventional kind are half the price of the fancy, front-loading washers and dryers.

“I think this is a sign from God that we should stick to the el cheapo variety and not live beyond our means,” I told Brian. For a lot less than the price of the cherry red washer, we were able to get both a washer and dryer that can fit inside the laundry closet with the closet doors shut. So you don’t always get what you want, but as long as your needs are met then that’s all one can really hope for these days. At least for poor folk like us.

P.S. I did get a pair of Brighton studs as a consolation. I guess Brian figured that’s the least he could do to keep me from whining. Although, getting me a Cherry Pi necklace would have kept me from blogging about it. It would have been a pretty cheap bribe.

February 24, 2009 | Posted by Ching under Wishlist

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The Last Supper

Took grandma and grandpa to Cheddar’s for dinner tonight. It is our last dinner together before Brian leaves for Germany.

February 22, 2009 | Posted by Ching under Family

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The Perks of Being Famous

Here’s a photo of Tallboy and “The BUZZ Kill” at dinner last night. Hey, I didn’t say it! Tallboy coined that phrase himself. =P

Sunny was actually a good sport and helped me polish off two one-liter carafes of sangria. The sangria at Abuelo’s is pretty good, but not nearly as good as my own sangria… Or so Sunny says anyway.

In attendance last night: Sunny and Tallboy, April and Cory, Becca and Jay and Mama Dill, and Brian and me. Dinner was fun and we finished in time for the Blue Collar poker tournament. Brian and I did not do well at all and were both knocked out before the break (again). Becca won the whole thing, though. Go, Becca!

P.S. When Brian and I arrived at around 7p were told by the hostess that we had another hour to wait for a table, despite having “called ahead” for a table at 6p. (They were extremely busy last night because the WSU game just finished and everyone decided to come to Abuelo’s for post-game munchies.) The hostess said we were quoted 1 1/2 to 2 hour wait when I called. I distinctly remember being quoted a wait of 1 1/2 hours at most, but whatever. I told myself I wouldn’t get cranky until about 730-ish. However, not five minutes after Sunny arrives our coaster starts vibrating to signify that our table is ready. We didn’t have to wait another hour after all. I’m guessing someone recognized Sunny and figured they’d best seat us immediately. She’s kind of a big deal, you know.

February 22, 2009 | Posted by Ching under Life, Poker

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And she says I have nothing to worry about.

chart
For those of you that have been reading, you will remember that Ching called me a credit card Nazi a few days ago. She tells me that she is not going to go crazy with the credit card and she tells me repeatedly that she is reformed. Yet, she was showing me the perks of our new card, one of which was a chart that shows you what you spend the most money on. According to this wonderful new tool that I will be looking at regularly now Clothing and Shoes is the largest purchase item that we have done this year. I usually use the card for food and gas. So I guess this new card will be better than the other.

February 22, 2009 | Posted by Brian under Life

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Watchmen Here in Less than 2 Weeks

Watchmen will be here in less than two weeks! Except I have specific instructions to wait until Brian returns from Germany to watch it. I can’t wait!

February 22, 2009 | Posted by Ching under Movies

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Adventures at the Women’s Fair

Carly and her sister Jenny, at the Women’s Fair this morning… The photo below was taken while we were all waiting in line for a haircut at the Eric Fisher booth.

Brian didn’t grow breasts, but did acquire a headache. He is now taking a much-needed and much-deserved nap after running around with me this morning.

That’s Crazy Aunt Rose above. She is brilliant. She shouted out to Eric Fisher that it is Carly’s birthday today so Eric Fisher picked Carly out of the line up (she was number three in line this year) and personally performed her haircut on stage.

Happy birthday, Carly!

Of course we had to stop by The Pink Boa booth…

Bonnie and Steph had matching Pink Boa shirt and tutu outfits. I didn’t get a picture of Steph because she wasn’t there the first time I stopped by. Steph wasn’t particularly fond of the outfit because she said it was too girlie. She looked adorable in it with her hair all done up in curls, though.

Brian said one of the organizers came by and took a photo of him and Steph together as evidence that straight men do come to the Women’s Fair. I guess only the ones forced by their wives.

He did get a testosterone re-charge at the Harley-Davidson booth.

He took me over there to meet the nice people and try the Buell they had on display for size. It needs to be lowered just a tad bit more so I can touch the ground with both feet flat instead of being on tip toes. I made the comment that my feet would touch the floor fine if I were in heels, but that is a huge no-no. You never want to ride a motorcycle in heels.

Anyway, I think this is Brian’s way of hinting at a Buell. Not this year, unfortunately, because we still have the trip to the Philippines to plan for… Perhaps in a couple of years we will be able to get “his and hers” motorcycles. Time to start playing the Kansas Lottery!

Incidentally, Sunny was at The Buzz booth promoting the Kansas Lottery today. We all ended up winning stuff. We got free t-shirts and WPT baseball caps. Becca won a nice leather jacket. Cory won the best prize of all, though. He won a very nice, very official-looking WPT poker chips set. He would have been content with just that because that is what he really wanted to win, but he found out that he won the WPT octagonal table topper along with it. He was completely ecstatic!

I was ecstatic about my el cheapo $30 haircut ($20 donation to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization and $10 to Sara, the stylist who cut my hair) at the Eric Fisher booth. It usually costs $50 or so on average to get haircut just about anywhere in town any more these days so I was thrilled that I saved $20. Although, I realized later (while we were playing poker at Highlands, the Blue Collar poker tournament monthly invitational for the month of January was held today) that the cut was a little uneven. “What do you expect for $20?” is Brian’s only comment. I think he was cranky because we both got knocked out of the invitational tournament early (he got knocked out before I did, though) and also because he had a huge headache. He did help me fix the stray strands before he took his nap so that was nice of him. I think he mostly agreed to do it so he would not have to return to the Women’s Fair with me. It was super crowded today. I could not even get to all the booths I wanted to check out. It was almost 12:30 before we knew it and we had to quickly bail in order to eat lunch and make our poker tournament. We ended up eating at Highlands because we figured that would be the quickest and most convenient.

I’ve had a little too much Highlands this week, having had dinner there last night and then lunch today so we are going to Abuelo’s tonight for dinner. We are experiencing a bit of a slump at poker too, so Brian and I are leaning toward skipping the Blue Collar poker tournament this evening. We’ll see how the rest of the day plays out, though. We’ve said that before and ended up at Highlands at the last minute.

Anyway, I’m in charge of calling the restaurant ahead of time so they can prepare a table for our group tonight so I’ll end it here. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

P.S. My Women’s Fair “cherry” has officially been popped!

February 21, 2009 | Posted by Ching under Life, Wishlist

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Women’s Fair 2009 Schedule

Anyone else going to the Women’s Fair this weekend?

February 20, 2009 | Posted by Ching under Things to Do

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Brian’s Rental Car

This is the car that Brian will be driving in Germany. It Mercedes Benz A150. The irony is that Brian is looking forward to driving in the German autobahn, but the car he’ll be driving has a top speed of 109 mph. He won’t be flying very fast. My advice? Stay off the left lane, baby!

P.S. At least Viega was nice enough to wait until after Valentines Day to send Brian to Germany. Last year they sent him to New Hampshire the week of Valentines Day so Brian and I ended up spending Valentines Day apart. =P

February 19, 2009 | Posted by Ching under Life, Travel

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