I know I haven't been heard from lately

But maybe filing a missing persons report on me was a bit premature.  I have been a very busy beaver that's for sure and most nights when I get settled in for the night I am just too tired to post.  I know its an old story but the truth is the truth.  

So what have I been up to in my normally hum drum life?  Not too much.  Still a lot of work, a bit of poker (badly) from time to time, and some entertaining and gathering from time to time.  First between a visit by Lightning and his wife the weekend before and through Valentines Day.  It was truly good to see Lightning again after the pounding he helped give me last year at the Vegas poker tables.  It was too bad we didn't get a chance to play here but maybe it was a good thing too as my run bad has continue.  Mrs Lightning is a lovely woman and an understated counterpoint to her sometimes outrageous husband.  Like many couples she fills in the parts in her spouse.  We had a great time going out to dinner and talking for a long time about our history, growing up,  families etc.  Unfortunately the weather was not as nice as they had hoped as they visited on the coldest weekend of the year.  Luckily it did warm up again before they left but a week earlier or later and the weather would have been perfect for laying out and soaking up some sun.  Unfortunately I couldn't get time off from work to really goof off with the Lightnings. 

About 10 days later I'm busily pushing my nose to the grindstone when I get a text from my "favorite" cousin Chris that he was coming into town and wanted to meet up.  He was taking a quickie 3 day weekend and flying in from RI on Friday morning.  About 2:30 Friday afternoon I get a half drunken call from him.  He's laying at the beach with his pal Terri and they're trying to drink all the tequila in the hotel.  Though they didn't manage to accomplish that feat they did kill one of the bottles at the bar before they basically passed out and slept the rest of the afternoon away.  We made plans to meet up for dinner that night after I got done with work.  I hadn't seen my cousin in a little over 2 years.  He's the closest cousin to me in age and we grew up only a half mile apart or so.  Most summers our families spent a lot of time together.  He's also a very funny guy with a great dry sense of humor.

After getting out of work and having to double back to the bank to deposit some money in dear daughter's account, I called him up and woke him up from his no longer semi drunken stupor.   I went home and fetched the PQ and we headed down to his hotel on St Pete Beach.   The PQ and I did a bit of drinking while he dried out with club soda.  Apparently too much tequila can be bad for you.  Who knew?  Causes headaches and other bad things.  I knew there was a reason I never touched the stuff anymore.  Once Terri got down to the bar we decided to wander over to one of the restaurants and have dinner.  We had a nice meal and talked and laughed for a couple of hours then wandered down by the beach and such while we yammered about jobs and such.  Chris is a big wig for a small company he's been working at for quite a while and he puts in a lot of hours.  He needed some time off.  Of course the past few months have been a bear for me and the PQ is in the process of moving from her current department where she is boss of about 12 people to her new department where she will have 48 people to deal with. 

That night I slept like a log but woke up really early.  I wonder if the booze had anything to do with it?  I managed to be a zombie much of the day then made plans with Chris to meet up for dinner.   He and Terri had been out on the beach a good part of the day again.  Something about leaving in a snowstorm and landing in 75 degrees made him want to worship the sun it seems.  So I joined up with the two of them for dinner again and we had a great dinner (paella for he and Terri while I had a massive dish I couldn't finish) and talked almost until closing time.  I was taking him to the airport before sunrise the next morning so we cut out fairly early for a Saturday night and I headed home. 

5 am came way too early but I was there to pick him up at 6.  He surprised me by being all ready to go with a cup of coffee in hand as well.  I got him to his flight with a minimum of fuss and headed home where wife and dog were still sleeping.  I wasn't worth much on Sunday either but that's not so surprising for me.  Another weekend for me.  Shockingly I hit the sack early that night missing out on all of the Oscars hullabaloo.  Lucky me.   I hate those type awards shows anyway so I wasn't missing much.   The PQ on the other hand loves the shows, the preshows, the post show and everything.  Like Mrs Lightning, she fills a lot of my holes in my life as well.

This past week I managed to come down with my 3rd cold of the winter.  And it really hasn't been much of a winter here.  I don't understand it as I get maybe one cold a year most times but this year I'm really hurtin.  Thursday night when I left work I was really cold and on Friday the coughing and sneezing started, though not too much.  This past weekend I had made plans to go shooting on Saturday with my pal Chad and his wife but had to scrub that.  Can't cough and shoot at the same time too well and Saturday I really started coughing a lot.  I relaxed all day and popped enough medicine to reduce the coughing to a manageable level.   The PQ really wanted to play the 8pm poker tourney so I went along though I didn't want to play the tourney.  I was afraid I'd start coughing and didn't want to be tied up in a tourney.

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I started this a week ago and you can see how well I did to finish it after I stopped last Sunday.  This cold has really kicked my ass and between work and drugs I have not been worth much of anything at night.  I slept hard a couple of nights courtesy of the drugs but I wasn't sleeping that well.  Today is the first day I have felt almost normal again.  This had better be the last cold I get for a while. 

Anyway back to the poker from last Sunday.  I sat down to play some Omaha while the PQ went to the tourney.  I played about an hour and had nothing much to speak of when the table broke up.  I lost some money but not too much.  I went to play some 1-1 no limit after that.  And got killed.  No matter what, I got sucked out on.  I wasn't playing that great, I was a bit tired and the drugs probably didn't help.  At least I wasn't coughing up a lung.  But when I did make some good plays, I got punished still.  Got it all in when I flopped 2 pair (J8) on a QJ8 flop.  The gal next to me calls with a Q3.  Catches the 3.   Raise up my only really good starting hand QQ and get called by KJ.   Flops a K.  I managed not to lose my ass in that hand but overall the hits just keep coming and as crappy as I felt I ended up leaving the table down a couple of buy ins.  Yuck.  I decided to rail the PQ and lick my wounds.

She had just reached the final table.  6 get paid.  She had a slightly above average stack of about 70K at the start of the final table but took a hit early and lost about 25K.  The guy in seat 10 is the chip leader by a good bit and the guy next to him is 2nd.  Seat 3 has a good sized stack.  The PQ is in seat 4.  She buckles down a good bit and gets back some chips.  The pace is pretty slow as no one wants to go out but eventually a couple of shorties go out.  Guy in seat 1 is pretty short but makes a couple of nice plays and builds up to above average while the 2 guys get knocked out.  The guy in seat 3 also builds his stack and becomes chip leader as the leader is bleeding some chips.  Then seat 3 has a brain fart and raises up on the button with A6 only getting called by Seat 10 who is second in chips.  Flop is Q44.  Seat 10 bets and he raises him all in.  Seat 10 happily calls and tables AA to take a huuuuuuge chunk out of him while becoming the massive chip leader. 

The PQ goes on a bit of a run and takes seat 3 out of his misery.  He was pissed, not at getting knocked out so much but at misreading the other hand and going from chip leader to out of the money so quickly.  Then seat 1 knocks out the 7th place finisher and they're in the money.  It's about 2 am and some guys want to split the pot but the chip leader has such a lead he doesn't want to and the 2nd place guy doesn't either.  So they keep playing.  And time drags on.  It takes forever to knock out anyone else.  PQ runs into QQ from the guy in 2nd and costs herself some chips but then makes a huge bluff on another hand and chips up again.  She then waylays the guy in seat 1 and is up to a healthy 100K plus.  It takes 3 hours to get from 6 to 3 people.  When they finally get down to 3 she raises up the guy in 2nd place preflop.  He calls and they see a QJx flop.  She pushes all in and he goes in the think tank.  He has around 200K in chips and it will cost him 130K to call.  If he loses he is by far the small stack.  Eventually he gives it up.  He had flopped top pair with a weak kicker.  The PQ had a Jack and got him to lay it down.  Wish I could get people to lay down Q with weak kicker.  Its now 5 am and with the 3 of them fairly close in chips they decide to chop up the top 3 places.  Everyone gets over $1100 and the PQ leaves the room happy but exhausted.  She really played well choosing her spots and making a couple of good laydowns.  I was just exhausted myself but very happy for her. 

The next day we went and looked at new mattresses.  I was really feeling lousy from my cold by then but we were determined to replace the one we had as it was well past its prime.  We found a really nice one which was delivered yesterday.  The rest of the week was pretty much a blur.  I was going to maybe go shooting on Friday but that went by the wayside, and a good thing it was.  Yesterday the PQ and I returned to the scene of the crime and the 8pm tourney.  PQ started pretty well, I did not.  By the time the first break rolled around, I was down to about 5000 from my original 10.  PQ was a bit over 10K after losing some early.  A little while later I was transferred to her table down to 3500 by then.  I went out not much later with 42 when my flush and straight draws didn't get there.  Not surprising, nothing had gotten there the whole time.  I went 1.5 hours before I got a pocket pair (99) and had to lay it down to a raise and reraise which was good as the reraise was with 10-10.  Sucked for me.  Never got AK, AQ, AJ or A10 the whole time.  Almost never got 2 face cards.  Every time I made a play I was raised.  It was just an ugly time.   I was so fed up with my play and everything I went to play straight $2 limit poker.  Figured I could lose a lot more slowly that way and maybe make a big hand and get a bonus in the process.  The poker room was paying $100 to anyone who hit the highest hand at that moment and the high hand of the hour got $500.  So you had a chance at $600 every hour.  Well for me it was Fat Chance. 

Still it was not a bad time at the table.  While not making any high hands I actually had a few draws pay off and after being down a little early I got up by about 20  or 30 bucks and never got down again.  Made the right laydowns for a change and stayed in mostly at the right time.  I lost a bit on a couple of good draws that didn't pay off but then hit top two pair with AJ while another guy hit 2 pair with A7.  Took a bit more and was up to $85 from my $50 start.  Then the PQ comes up to me and she is a bit miffed.  Got knocked out 16th ( and the last woman standing again) when her AK got beaten by 44.  She goes off to hit the ladies room and I get my biggest hand of the night. 

I'm in late position with 88 when the gal under the gun raises to 4.  Guy next to her makes it 6 and lady next to me calls as do I.  UTG caps it.  Now she is new to poker and her raise could mean AA or it could mean 72.  There is no telling with her and she will call with the weakest pair as well.  She had already contributed some chips to my stack when she stayed in with top pair vs my turned straight.  Flop is perfect, K98.  Lady bets, guy next to her raises again.  Lady next to me calls and I reraise.  This time UTG just calls but the guy caps it and we all call.  This is building a big pot.  Turn is a club 6.  I'm not too worried about that.  UTG bets again!  Guy calls, lady next to me calls, I raise again.  UTG calls, the guy finally comes to his senses and dumps what I'm guessing was AQ or QQ.  Lady next to me doesn't and calls again.  She chased all night and hit some big hands but gave back a lot more than she made.  River is perfect as well with another 6 hitting the board.  UTG bets AGAIN.  The lady next to me finally dumps it and I take pity on the lady and just call her since we are the last 2 left anyway.  The dealer turns to me and says "Full house?" and I flip over my 88.  The lady turns over KJ for two pair and was shocked she didn't win the hand. 

The PQ was ready to leave then and making $90 in $2 poker was enough for me so we hit the road then.  Hey it wasn't even 1:30 am and we're heading home.  Nice for a change, especially since I had to get up this morning and attend the gun show.  But that's another story.  And I got to sleep on my new mattress as well.  Not long enough but it was a good sleep none the less.   I could have used the hour of sleep we lost. Sorry again for the long lay off, I should be better from now on.  But I make no promises.