Archive for the year 2009
Speaking of Critters…
Posted on September 13, 2009 by Ching under Life.
We found a couple of garter snakes on our driveway the other day. Brian said the garter snakes were harmless, but they gave me the heebie jeebies anyway.
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Spider, Yikes!
Posted on September 13, 2009 by Ching under Family, Life, Poker, Travel.
We hadn’t driven the truck in so long (probably a month or so) that a spider decided to spin a web from the basketball pole to the truck. That is sad. LOL.
Besides being sad, it scared the bejeezus out of me. It was a huge spider! Speaking of the truck, after driving it for the first time in several weeks Brian and I realized that it is overdue for an oil change. If we went by the date, it would be long overdue. However, the mileage isn’t that much over the schedule. That’s because the truck hardly ever gets driven. Brian says it needs new tires before winter also. When it rains it pours.
In other crappy news, the KOHL’s gift card that we bought for Brian’s mom at Cosentino’s Market last weekend turned out to bunk. We were thinking that we were being smart by just buying it there while we were at Cosentino’s. How convenient, right? We won’t have to make a separate trip to the store or anything. So much for convenience.
KOHL’s couldn’t fix the problem so we asked Brian’s mom to give the gift card back to us so we could deal with the hassle of getting it fixed. I called Cosentino’s today and, just as I feared, they aren’t able to verify my purchase using one of the confirmation numbers on my receipt. I have to physically return to the store to get it fixed. Yuck.
Brian was really upset when he first found out about this. I, however, am an optimist. Why make lemonade out of this yucky situation? I managed to talk Brian into calming down and not being so upset and frustrated and bribing him with poker at Harrah’s NKC. We weren’t planning on returning to Harrah’s until possibly next year or at least after we return from our trip to the Philippines. But whatever. You gotta do, what you gotta do.
The plan is to leave Wichita at 5 AM next Saturday, play the Saturday morning poker tournament at Harrah’s, hit Cosentino’s on the way home to get the gift card fiasco resolved, and then come home and deliver the corrected gift card to Brian’s mom. It will be a really long tiresome day. And, we will miss the Fabulous Fleshtones this weekend at Duke’s as a result of this spontaneous trip to Kansas City. We have to take care of this, though.
The downside to this whole thing is that gas probably costs about as much as the gift card that we are trying to get fixed. Not to mention the driving time to and from Kansas City. It is a major hassle. Brian and I are none too happy about the circumstances, but there’s no point being pissed. It’s our fault for buying a gift card out of town. Never again.
My hope is that Brian and I can both cash in the tourney so the elation over wining some money can somehow overshadow the reason that we have to return to Kansas City in the first place. Maybe we’ll cash and recover our tournament buy-in, gas expense, and then some. What can I say? I’m an optimist.
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Obama’s Education Speech and Ignorant Educators
Posted on September 13, 2009 by Brian under Leadership, News, School, Videos.
Lately I have been hearing a lot about this Obama video to the students of America. Today my wife pulled it up and we watched it. First let me tell you that I have no allegiance to one party or the other. To be honest, I have never voted. I am 35 years old and I have not ever voted. I have my reasons and at this point in my life I choose to just observe and report. In my opinion this gives me a unique perspective on politics, I am not swayed to one side or the other. I kind of consider myself to be Switzerland when it comes to the politics of the United States.
What I keep hearing about this video is that schools across America would not allow their students to watch it. As a matter of fact, I have read a few articles that claim that some schools advised their students to not watch it at all, not even on their own time. I don’t understand this. I watched it and it sounds to me like Obama just told the children of America to get off there lazy fat asses and learn something. It sounded to me like he told the students of America that if they don’t make something of themselves then they have no one to blame but themselves. It sounded to me like he put the burden of self-improvement solely on the students of America. Personally, I have no problem with this. I have been preaching this to people for years. I look around at the youth off America and I fear for the future. Now let me tell you, I am no supporter of Obama. I don’t agree with many things that he has planned for the future. I applaud him for wanting to change many things that are broke in the country. He is one of the first to try to correct some of the problems instead of just talking about it. However, I think he is going about it all the wrong way, but that’s a conversation for another blog.
Back to the subject, this video. I listened to the video waiting for this “Call to the Hitler Youth” tone that I had been hearing everyone talk about, it never came. When the video was done I just looked to my wife and said “It’s about dammed time.” To sum it up, he basically went on TV and told the children that they need to get off their asses, get out from in front of the XBOX, PlayStation and Television and learn something. Make something of themselves by bettering their education. He even provided examples of other people their age (some older)how that have overcome adversity and have made something of themselves by applying effort and hard work to learning. He even pointed out that it is not easy, they will have to work at it and at times they may not like it. But the reward will outweigh the struggle. I only wish I had listened to my parents when they told me this years ago. I never liked school, all I wanted to do was draw and watch TV and movies. I was one of those students who said “I’ll never use this stuff in the real world” and never spent the time or effort to learn beyond what the teachers gave us. Hell, I barely learned what the teachers gave us. Now I struggle in life, I have had to learn everything that I need to get along in the real world on my own. Math, English, Grammar all of these things that I slacked off on in school I am finding that I need in order to do things in life. If I had listened to my parents, or had someone speak to the students of America like Obama did then maybe I would have turned out differently.
However, I had a choice. I was given this kind of speech from my folks and I CHOSE to ignore it. Most of the students of America had this choice removed. They were not given the opportunity to make up their own minds, they were not given the opportunity to think for themselves. A person within each of these schools decided that he or she did not want the students to think for themselves. These educators wanted them to continue to trudge along in life and not be something other than what they currently are. What if a student who is currently being pressured by gangs watched this video and decided that he had another option, then went on to create the cure for cancer. That option has been removed from his life now. He may now join that gang and not live past 25. What if another student is struggling with family hardships that are causing her to loose interest in school? Maybe this would have given her the strength to pull her head up and move past this and become the next President of the United States, maybe the first female President. That option is now taken from her because of someone else’s selfish actions.
Personally, I don’t see a problem with this video. I actually applaud it. I do now blame the teachers, principals and parents who kept their children from watching this video. The future that is going to be for your children is your making and I feel that by preventing them from watching this video you just darkened their future. Again, I am in no political organization. I lean towards no political party. I just feel that this was a powerful message that should have been heard and it’s an injustice to the children of this nation that the opportunity was taken from them.
Thank God for YouTube.
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Poker at Harrah’s NKC
Posted on September 12, 2009 by Ching under Poker, Travel.
I don’t really like to toot my own horn, but I’m going to take this opportunity now to do so. Brian and I did extremely well during our poker trip to Harrah’s over Labor Day weekend. Believe it or not, at least one of us cashed in every tournament we played.
We originally planned on playing four tournaments altogether: one on Saturday, two on Sunday and one on Monday. However, we found out later that the Monday poker tourney was at 1 PM and not 10 AM as we expected. We had to scratch that one off our list because we would finish too late for the drive back to Wichita, and still function normally the next day. We are spontaneous but sensible after all.
So we played three poker tournaments. The first one was at 10 AM on Saturday. Brian didn’t make the final table, but I carried the torch for us and cashed in third place.
The next day we signed up for both the 10 AM and the 7 PM poker tournaments. Brian and I both made the final table on both tourneys. Can you believe it? It was amazing enough to both make the final table together once, but we did it twice!
I got knocked out in seventh place, but all the other players gave me $5 each so that I could get my buy-in back. I gave $5 to Gary, the nicest dealer they have in that poker room, so I didn’t really make any money. But who cares? I had a lot of fun and Brian was still in. Yes. He actually outlasted me and cashed in fourth place.
During the evening tournament, though we both made it to the final table, I once again got knocked out before the money. Brian knocked me out this time, of all people. I was all in blind, though, because I didn’t have hardly any chips left. Brian miraculously (and I say it’s a miracle because he didn’t have much more chips than I did when the final table started) outlasted a whole bunch of other people. The evening tournament is a $50 buy-in, 40-player tournament. Since the field is smaller (compared to 60 players in the daytime tourneys), they only pay five places instead of six. Brian was one of four players left in the game.
The chip leader, who happens to be the nicest man on Earth, proposed a four-way chop. When the chip leader suggests a chop, you don’t think about it. You just say yes. LOL. Everyone agreed and got $364 each. It was the best cash we had the entire weekend. Go, Brian!
Anyway, I had done really well in the Sunday tourney the weekend before by taking fourth place and raised the bar on Saturday by taking third. I guess Brian didn’t want me to get too ahead of him in winnings because he truly stepped it up. We are once again pretty even in terms of poker prowess. I think I have more final table showings than he does, but if you add up the prize money then he’s got me. His cashes total more than mine. I’m sure of it. And that’s what really counts. It’s pointless to make the final table if you fall short of cashing, you know?
Whereas I am consistent, Brian has endurance. The dude is like a cockroach. Once he makes the final table, he just won’t go away. Thus, his cashes are usually greater than mine. Lately I found that I get too aggressive too soon after making the final table so I get myself knocked out. Anyway, between the two of us, we are a poker duo to reckon with. I’m actually trying to find some Jack & Jill tournaments because I’m just convinced that we are the perfect pairing for it. Hmm… Where to play next?
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Dinner at Gordon Biersch
Posted on September 8, 2009 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Brian and I had dinner with Bree and her friend Sam at Gordon Biersch on Saturday. Brian and I weren’t really hungry because of our late lunch at McFadden’s, but it was a good excuse to hang out.
Brian and I just decided to split a pizza. It was good, actually, but not as good as Il Vicino. It was cheap, though, and it fed three people since Bree had some of it too.
The only other thing I tried besides the pizza was the sangria. It was good enough for me to drink two glasses of it, but it definitely wasn’t as good as my sangria.
Here are some pictures from dinner:
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