Chicago was awesome. The game was exciting, but hotter than blazes. A bottom of the ninth walk-off single made the crowd erupt in excitement and relief that they could FINALLY get in the shade. I am sunburned, but only on my wrists and hands, oddly enough.

We took the El(evated Train) from Skokie into Chicago and got off right on Addison. It was very convenient, and everybody involved was very, very helpful. Except for that bastard on the last stop. "Does this go to Skokie?" I asked. "Yeah, Skokie" he replied. It definitely didn't. Thank God Kading remembered the color of the train we were supposed to be on. Saved us a trip downtown.

Eggroll's family was VERY nice and helpful. I felt bad leaving so soon. His Mom had planned to take us on a little tour of Chicago. "How am I supposed to show you how nice our city is?" I really, really wanted that tour.. I could've skipped another day of work, but Kading was CHICKEN.

The trip back was one of the longest drives in my entire life. It took 5 hours to get there...not bad. 6.5 to get back! We were at a stand-still on I-80 by Iowa City because the Iowa Erosion Control was checkin' stuff out at 1030 at night! Ridiculous.

I had a great weekend. I went back to Cedar Rapids to see my cousin get married and for my 1-year anniversary with Jean. It was all very pleasant.

Jean and I went downtown Saturday morning for the pet-parade and saw some VERY sweet doggggs. I'm leaning towards getting a basset hound, but I still want my lab. Don't think I'm going to forget about that.

Yesterday, Jean and I went shopping together to get each other anniversary presents. While we were at the mall, they had the Crest Country Talent Search, so we stopped and listened to people sing karaoke country songs while judges figured out which was the best one. I liked it. Jean put up with it.

My parents are crazy as ever, but Sophie was exceptionally down this weekend. I hope it was just cause it was so hot, but she only played with me ONCE, as opposed to her constantly forcing toys into my hand.

Anyway, it was a very good weekend. Cubs game on Wednesday! YESSSS.

I was just looking through google satellite images of Cedar Rapids and I got so incredibly home sick. I love my home town and all of the the people it reminds me of.

I'll bet you can't guess what this is. And NO CHEATING.

Found this list today. I love number 2.

The Bible - College Version
Top ten ways the Bible would be different if it were written by college students

1. Last Supper would have been eaten the next morning - cold.
2. The Ten Commandments are actually only five, double-spaced, and written in a large font.
3. New edition every two years in order to limit reselling.
4. Forbidden fruit would have been eaten because it wasn't cafeteria food.
5. Paul's letter to the Romans becomes Paul's e-mail to abuse@romans.gov.
6. Reason Cain killed Abel: They were roommates.
7. The place where the end of the world occurs: Finals, not Armageddon.
8. Out go the mules, in come the mountain bikes.
9. Reason why Moses and followers walked in desert for 40 years: They didn't want to ask directions and look like freshmen.
10. Instead of God creating the world in six days and resting on the seventh, He would have put it off until the night before it was due and then pulled an all-nighter.

I'm done.

After getting up over $190 playing $1/$2 limit, I try my hand at $2/$4 limit. I am down to $60 in about 2 hours. I give it up for the night and go to bed.

I woke this this morning because my bed was making this eerie sound, and decide to switch it up and play No-Limit. Fourth hand I played I was dealt AA and, unfortunately, somebody was dealt KK. MY AA held up and I was $50 richer. Ahhh, the beauty of No-Limit.

I have a stress ball kinda thing in front of me in the shape of a van. I play with it about every day..driving around my desk..that kind of thing. But I am finding that more and more I am like Sophie.

Today, for instance, the wheel was a little loose...so I tore it right off. Same with one of the front wheels. You should see Sophie's toys. When they aren't empty waterbottles, they have almost no jagged points because she just tears them off!

I bought stock in the World Poker Tour Enterprises (WPTE) a couple weeks ago because I thought I should at least buy into what I love. Since then, the company has announced major licensing deals, kicked off a new season of its TV show and opened an online casino.

The stock price has doubled. Moral of the story? Always buy more than three shares.

We are having MORE router issues. I seriously do not understand this little bastard. It's worked fine for a week, and now all of the sudden it just stops working. So I unplug the cable modem and plug it back in, the I unplug the router and plug it back in and it works great!

8-10 minutes later it does the exact same thing. I was on hold for motorola tech support for over an hour. I guess they really don't care. Heh.

I had the biggest comeback in heads-up poker I've ever experienced last night. I probably had 30 chips to Kading's 170. In about an hour (the longest heads-up our poker tournaments have EVER lasted) I took all the chips and a whopping $15.

Mozzarella sticks were purchased and are awaiting my return. Mmmmmmm... Fried-cheesy goodness...

It always does.

=w=

Was a good weekend. I made pancakes for the first time. I'm awesome.

We killed the ants. Killed them!

I was thinking today how similar tilting is to being in a terrible accident. Tilting, if you aren't familiar with poker, is losing focus and playing poorly after you take a particularly bad beat on a hand that were a large percentage favorite. Poker players show the same symptoms that accident victims display, and that could destroy your game completely.

I was in an accident on Blairs Ferry when I was younger with my Grandma driving. For years, every time we passed the spot on Blairs Ferry where the accident occurred, I was very uncomfortable and shivers ran down my spine.

The same occurs in poker. When I am chased down by a backdoor flush, the odds are nearly 85% in my favor. But for some reason, whenever I see a rainbow flop and the second of a suit on the turn, I shiver. It's this uncomfortable feeling that can lead to the breakdown of a player's game causing him to fold or be abnormally apprehensive about the looming river.

I don't know what the moral of the story is. Players like Tyler Watt, who feel that the best cards will always win the game, should realize how much mental fortitude you need to be able to withstand the bad beats. You should even go so far as to grin when you realize that given a long enough time span, you will break their bank.

FINALLY! We have internet, ladies and gentleman. Setting up a wireless router wasn't hard at all. Fixing it once I broke it (within 15 minutes) was another thing altogether.

After a tech-support call to MIT and one to Motorola, we are back in business.

I have a sudden..inexplicable urge to ride a roller coaster. Man, those things are fun.

Without internet, the house is a lot less fun. No poker, no online games, no fair... Catherine is picking up somebody elses wireless internet from the attic, but I can't get it for some reason. It makes me very angry. I'm actually thinking about moving my computer to the attic.

We called Mediacom.. They said the earliest they could "install" would be June 8th. They also said there would be $94 in installation charges. Installation? What are they installing? I argued, but to no avail. "The $94 is for testing to ensure it works." Can't I just flip around on the TV myself? It would cost a lot less than $94.