The real quick weekend update

Well another weekend is going by the boards and I have nothing new to report.  Well I do but this is much to short a post to go there as I might need an entire day just to put it all together.  Here is my week in a nutshell

Work work work sleep work sleep lots of phone calls blah blah blah. 

Actually work was pretty damned busy for sure.  My teeth are better but still not great and talking on the phone for a couple of hours a day starts getting to me.  So every afternoon  my mouth starts to hurt and I'm popping naproxen.  A couple of nights I ended up taking a vicodin to help me sleep and I'm thinking, this is hurting way more than I remember last time.  So I'm getting pretty concerned as the week goes on.

I have an appointment with the dentist on Friday morning so I'm figuring on waiting till then to discuss this with him but by Wednesday night things are really bugging me.  I'm in some pain, not more than I can stand or anything and if need be I could get by on otc pain relievers but my nose is running and is stuffy (dentist warned me it might be that way and I can't blow it for a week because I might blow the stitches out of my mouth) and each time I sniffle, I can smell infection.  What an ugly smell.   So as I said I'm getting worried and figuring on calling the dentist first thing thursday morning.  But before bed on Wednesday I did the salt water cleaning again which instantly made my mouth feel better and the vicodin got me a decent nights sleep so by Thursday morning I felt a good bit better, not great but ok

So I hold off till Friday morning and head on in to the dentist office.  I tell him I don't think I'm healing all that well and about being stuffy and all but he tells me I'm healing really well and he expects I might have a little sinus infection/inflammation due to all of the work he put in trying to get that last root out.   He prescribed some amoxycillin for the infection and it seems to be working pretty well as the smell has been much reduced (not at all today).  He also told me to remember I'm not 25 like I was when I had the other 2 wisdom teeth removed and I'm not gonna heal as quickly as back then.  Which is a consideration I didn't think about.  He said the healing process is a lot longer at my semi advanced age. 

Saturday was a slow day for me and I puttered around the house most of the day missing out on a trip to IKEA with the wife and extended family.  As the day continued it got pretty danged cool outside and very windy.  I had the back sliding glass door open and the front window but the breeze blowing across me started getting to me and I closed the back door.  By the time the wife and family got back it was downright chilly outside.  The wife took a nap and we headed out for our Saturday evening poker trip.  I did poorly, the PQ final tabled again but went out 9th.  Nothing to speak about for me as I was pretty card dead and didn't play very well either.  I did have some success betting the dogs at least.  I bet one dog across the board (to win place and show) for $2 each and the dog took third.  And paid $30 for a two dollar show ticket!!   Say what? 

I have one poker question lately.  Why is it my suckouts don't remain but when someone sucks out on me I never resuck??  Last time I played I was all in with 9-9 and ran into KK and AA.  Door card is a 9.  YES   next card is a King.  Good night to me.  This week I get in with a straight draw which hits on the turn against the gal's set.  She of course makes quads on the river.  QUADS.  WTF.  Her second time of the tourney they tell me.  Oh yay.  This was only about 2 hours in.  I can't get quads once in 2 months and she gets it twice in 2 hours.  I get in good and they suckout and I can't resuck.  I get in bad and the few times I do hit, they catch up.  Talk about running bad.  I know it's just a phase that will pass (hopefully) but it is truly annoying as shit while you live through it.

So last night was 34 degrees.  34!!  Its been a warm winter here with only a couple of coldish nights but last night was one.  It's 11 am now and it's only 41.  I'm heading to the airport to get him and his wife soon and it appears he brought the arctic weather down ahead of him so he'd feel right at home when he got here.  If he is expecting mid 70s today he is gonna be sorely disappointed though we'll be there in a couple of days.  So I better wrap this up.  Sorry for the venting boys and girls, I just had to get it off my chest and out of my still a bit sore mouth.  Stay lucky you nuts, luckier than your chilled host. 

Hoping for a Super Sunday

Well its finally here for NYG and NE fans.  Though I'm no longer a Pats fan, I can't deny I grew up a fan of them and still root for them except when they play the Buccaneers.  The Pats opened up favored by 3.5 which was immediately bet down to 3.  A lot of money has come in on the Giants and almost everyone I hear is picking them to win.  Which makes me feel that the Pats will probably find a way to win.  Whenever everyone is betting one way, it's time to bet the other way.  This is true for sports and the stock market. 

When you look at the teams everything seems to point to a Giant victory.  They have played a tougher schedule and seem to be playing better down the stretch.  Eli Manning has played very well in some very tough situations like the monsoon they had in SF 2 weeks ago.  They are completely healthy now which was not true for most of the season.  Their defensive line is putting a lot of pressure on the QB, they are running the ball better and playing better defense.  They beat the 1st and 2nd seeded teams in the playoffs on the road.  Everything seems to be setting up for a magical finish for them today. 

The Pats on the other hand played a very easy schedule compared to NY and you can't say they looked great in beating Baltimore on a missed field goal (after a dropped TD) to get into the superbowl.  Of course Baltimore was a tough team to play and I was impressed on how they handled the Ravens running game for the first 3 quarters and if they didn't turn it over 3 times, they might have taken down the Ravens a lot more easily.  While their defense was not great during the season, they have played pretty well in the playoffs.  But the injury to Gronkowski is going to hurt them today.

How do I see it.   The Patriots win if they successfully run the ball.  They have to negate the Giant's pass rush to have any chance to go downfield to Gronkowski and more importantly Hernandez.  Those 2 are matchup problems for any team but if they cannot use play action to freeze the linebackers, it's gonna be a long day for the Pats.  You can run on the Giant's D and if you do and get time to pass, the Giant secondary is not very good.  They cannot turn it over 3 times.  You have to think the Gmen will be able to score some points with Nicks, Cruz, and Manningham not to mention Bradshaw and Jacobs.  If the Pats turn it over and fall behind by 10 or more, they're cooked.  Then it's Brady back to pass and Giant linemen pinning their ears back and heading for the QB.  And Tom may be terrific but he ain't so fleet of foot.

For the Giants the recipe is exactly the same.  Ensure they can run the ball, avoid turnovers, and don't fall behind.  They have been very good protecting the ball and getting turnovers.  At some point that has to end.  Maybe today.  Belichik is supposed to be the genius at designing defenses, does he confuse Eli enough to make a few mistakes?  Logically no.  You cannot defend good wideouts like the Giants have with converted wide receivers and expect to keep them contained.  So logically I have to give the Giants the edge in this game. And if the Pats turn it over, this could be a blowout win for the Gmen.  But I just don't think so. 

I think we'll see a large dose of Benjarvis Green Ellis today for the Pats.  Run and run and run again until they've softened up the Giants D enough to complete some big plays to the tight ends.  And Green Ellis doesn't fumble, in fact he hasn't lost a fumble in his career.  If he is making yards and keeping the Pats in manageable 2nd and 3rd downs, they can control the game and maybe win it.  If the Giants shut him down without overloading the box it'll be a long day for the Pats.  Everything seems to be setting up for the coronation of Eli Manning as the new elite QB of the league but I just feel he doesn't have a great game today and turns it over early. The Pats get a lead which allows them to continue to run the ball and then take shots downfield.   So I'll take the Pats to win - and probably have to eat my words.

Well time to go all.  Enjoy the game, lets hope its a good one.  I'll be at my sis in laws to watch the game.   Looks like I'll be the lone NE fan there but they'll take pity on me due to my upbringing and recent dental surgery.  Or they'll laugh in my face everytime NY scores.  Have fun everybody. 

Who is your hero?

Growing up as a kid, I had different people who were my hero.  Back then sports stars were usually heroes to us impressionable kids.  It had been that way forever and still is somewhat today.  I think many pro players took their image seriously when it came to kids back in the day but as time went on it became less and less true.  Today we have any number of stars who do everything in their power to make sure they are not hero images to the kids of today and yet kids still emulate what their heroes do.  There are many who do take it seriously still but for every Steve Nash there are any number of Shawn Kemps, for every Tim Tebow there are your Rae Carruths and OJ Simpsons.  Baseball was probably where most of us found heroes as it was always THE game when I was young (not anymore, football has definitely supplanted it) and we had people like Mantle and Yaz and Rose to cheer for.  Turns out they really weren't people you wanted to emulate but back then you didn't hear about this as the media didn't report everything twenty four hours a day and in fact many of them actively went and protected the players.  Of course, for the most part the players back then were more interested in being peeping Toms and banging groupies than in doing any truly serious crimes.  I remember reading the first tell all sports book, Ball Four, when I was 11 or so.  Certainly opened my eyes some. 

So who were your heroes when you were young?  Mine were not the typical ones.  Though I grew up in RI and rooted for the Boston teams in general, I was never that big on the stars at the time.  Yaz was the biggest Boston star but I was a fan of Ken Harrelson who was definitely a free spirit back then.  The Hawk was a different guy for sure and I was really saddened when Boston traded him to the White Sox.  I also really cheered for Harmon Killebrew of the Minnesota Twins.  The man was big ole farm boy from the northern woods of Idaho who was really a tremendous home run hitter.  Few people remember that in 1967 when Yaz won the triple crown, he was tied for the home run title with Harmon Killebrew.  I also liked guys like Orr and Esposito for the Bruins but I was really a fan of Wayne Cashman who was a gritty little winger who did the tough dirty work in the corners so Esposito and Orr could score all those goals.  And in football, though Jim Plunkett was the star QB for the Pats, I really rooted for little wideout Randy Vataha and LB Sam Hunt.  Vataha was a teammate of Plunkett's from Stanford who did pretty well playing for the Pats.  Kind of a faster version of Wes Welker.  After football he became a nationally ranked racquetball player.  Hunt was a big middle linebacker who was a solid run stopper and tackler.  Back in my high school days, I was at Bryant College playing in a tennis tourney in June while the Patriots did their training camp there at the same time.  As the players were walking past the courts to the locker room I saw Sam Hunt up close and personal.  The man was like a walking refrigerator.  All I saw was this head and really broad shoulders.  The rest of him went straight down from there all the way to his feet.  A very large man. 

Nowadays we are told by many athletes not to emulate them.  Charles Barkley always said he was no role model.  And in that sense he's right but other athletes look at the fact that they are in the public eye now more than ever and take that into account.  Some relish the fact that they can influence young lives in a positive way.  Others just want to live the good life, get well paid, and not be bothered with their image as long as the party goes on.  Personally if I were famous and rich, I might be the same way.  I'm no great thinker who is gonna make the world a better place and the last thing I want is a lot of people all around me.  Ask my wife how much I like crowded places.  Nah for me, if I achieved fortune and fame, I'd drop out of sight as soon as possible, hope that people forgot about me, and try to live a life out of the public eye. 

My heroes today are a lot different than back then.  The people who put on their shoes everyday and do backbreaking work or risk their lives are my heroes today.  My wife is definitely my hero.  She raised our kids often without a lot of help from me, and has achieved an important position in the county where she has earned a lot of respect for her work and her management ability.  She is also a pretty damned good poker player.  She is the one who got us into playing locally years ago.  I got her into watching it on TV and from there she pushed me to take her to the local poker rooms then pushed to play in tourneys.  And she likes sports too. 

This woman is one of my heroes too.  Unarmed and naked she beats down a guy who invades her house with a bedpost.  Now that is some woman.  Any number of cops, firemen, coast guardsmen, military men, etc are heroes as well.  They risk their lives to save others and though it is their job, it cannot be easy to do it everyday.  I have no sports stars who are heroes to me though I do admire some.  I admire Tim Tebow for his faith and his unwillingness to stoop to other trash talking anyone else.  I admire MMA champion Jon Jones who on the day of his Lt Heavyweight title fight, helped subdue a robber.  And a number of others.  But these guys are well paid famous people, not people who often times struggle to get by.  So support your local hero, sometimes they can use a hand.

Well last night was kind of a restless night for me.  I'd sleep a few hours then wake up for a bit.  I wasn't in pain, mainly due to Vitamin V and Sodium Naproxen.  I kept drinking a lot of water when I'd wake so I was also making trips to the bathroom every few hours as well.  The Vicodin made me feel a little loopy and disconnected but at least I felt no pain.  About 6:30 I woke up and took the dog out.  I felt like I was floating out there instead of walking her.  The dentist told me not to bend over quickly as it would raise the blood pressure to my head and possibly blow out my stitches in my mouth.  I popped some more Naproxen this morning but have left off the Vicodin.  So far there is no pain and now that the Vicodin is mostly out of my system I feel mostly normal outside of the holes in my mouth.  The PQ wants to play some poker tonight so assuming I still feel ok, I may join her.  Gotta remember however no hot drinks and no carbonated drinks either.  Guess I'll have to stick to either iced coffee or screwdrivers.  Perhaps a pina colada or 2.  Get the guys to think I am a wimpy man at the table and then clean them out. 

Well think it's time for a nap now.  Hope everyone is having a great weekend.  Stay lucky you nuts and heroes.

Playin Hooky

Is there anything better taking off on a Friday creating a 3 day weekend out of it?  Outside of a 4 day weekend?  But today is not all about playing hooky, as much as I'd really like to.  No the reason I'm  blogging from home instead of placing my nose to the grindstone at work is because I had to get a couple of wisdom teeth removed this morning. 

Getting teeth removed seems a bit of a painful way to get a day off from work but with the amount of work I've had to put in lately, it seemed like the best thing to do.  Now that's a slight exaggeration but I have had a good amount of OT over the past 3 months.  Just this past week I worked 11 hours Monday, 13 on Tuesday, 10 on Wednesday and another 10 on Thursday.  The main reason I haven't posted much is because with all the hours I'm putting in, I can barely function when I get home.  I start nodding off in front of the computer.  So I apologize for my lack of posts but at least my bank account appreciates the extra effort.  Which is pretty important as it looks like the PQ and I may be buying this home we live in. 

About 6 months after we moved in, the owner put the home up for sale as she hasn't been able to find a job lately.  She had originally bought this home as a place to retire in and was renting it out for income until she retired but apparently the economy hasn't been kind to her lately.  We looked into getting the home but things weren't working out and then fairly recently we went another route and now we have made an offer which was accepted.  Since the home is going up as a short sale, it is supposed to take a while before the house will be ready for settlement, but so far everything looks good.  Unfortunately, this has also meant the PQ and I had to put off the trip to Vegas we had been planning for the end of February.  Hopefully we'll be able to take this trip in the late summer or fall. 

Well I'm gonna wrap this up.  I think it's nap time.  I took a Vicodin a little while ago and it seems to be kicking in now.  I feel pretty good all in all, the jaw is a little bit sore but not really painful.  Vitamin V does the trick.  So good night for now.   Enjoy your weekend everyone, more than I am enjoying mine at least.