'Tis The Season

Wow. A whole weekend of Football. Not being one who subscribes to the NFL packages, it's nice to be able to watch a few "real" games, seeing as how watching the NFC West games is more depressing than tuning in to a Jerry Lewis Telethon. The best part is knowing the Chargers made it to the play-offs... the wife's a San Diego native, and trying to root for both the 'Hawks and the Chargers over the years we've been together has been a driving force towards our downward spiral into alcoholism and gambling. :) It seems now that we have a glimmer of hope, and all of our years of faithful fanaticism has paid off!

Chargers and Seahawks in the Superbowl. Now there'd be a game! Heh.

Here's something no one needs to ever see again.

Christmas is a rough time, especially when you're on a budget, which we hadn't had to worry about for the last 3 years. But now, every time I whip out the credit card, I look over my shoulders to make sure those High-Interest-Rate Viking Warriors aren't charging at me cause I'm not using the Capital One Primelock Card....

Not to say that the kids aren't gonna get what they asked Santa for this year, plus a few extra higher-ticket items that Dad especially can't wait for them to open: a Nintendo DS, Donkey Konga, and Mario Party 6. Yea yea, I'm a Nintendo Fanboy, and I love any game that comes with a silly accessory. I've had them all: Virtual Boy, the Power Pad, the Power Glove, Super Scope 6, even the Genesis'Activator!

Our current party favorites are Dreamcast's Samba De Amigo; PS2's Karaoke Revolution; and of course Dance Dance Revolution, played on our $600 Cobalt Flux metal dance pad set. Grubby, you can put your money and me and I'll dance my ass off for you when I can make it to a Vegas WPBT. ;)

Speaking of Poker, we stopped by the Midway last night to see if we could make a few bucks through the Pai Gow Tourney. I didn't win a single hand in my round, and Shawni was beat out by just a few chips in her Semi-final. She bought in for a rack at the 3/6 table while I opted to sit back and watch. She had set a loss-limit of $50, and when that was getting near, I see her call a pre-flop cap with 35o. Okay, so the call took her under $50, and she would fold after the flop and we'd be out of there. Except that two 5s flopped. Obviously there were already a bunch of maniacs on the table, and her raise was re-raised... capped again with 4 players after the flop! The Turn brought a 2 which gave someone with Pocket Dueces their full house, but a 3 on the River pushed the $100+ pot towards Shawni! I asked her what the hell she was doing, and she said she was feeling it.

Hey, women's intuition - I'd take hormones for that if it were available!

Her very next hand was 85o, which again got capped pre-flop, which again she called. A 5 on the Flop and another on the Turn. Someone said, "You can't have trip-5s again..." as he raised. She raked in almost another $100 on that one. And her next hand, 33, flopped a Full House with 773; and she took another $100 and busted out 2 people. Someone had once called her a table-killer, and she was living up to it tonight! She actually tightened up after that, and it ended up costing her... AK, KK, and JJ all got beat, and the 47 she tossed away on a capped pre-flop pot flopped a Straight. It was just one of those crazy nights where anything could hit. And at a 3/6 game, there's just no way to scare people off with a raise when you're holding a good hand that misses. My wife was living proof of that!

So we left with $250, and even though I didn't play (my 2nd straight weekend!), just watching all of that action was pretty satisfying.

But I digress. Suffice it to say, this weekend was a very holiday themed one. More house decorations, a visit to Santa, and way too much mall time. I made, not one, but two wrong turns driving through the shopping mall area and got stuck for almost an hour trying to get back to where I started.

Yes, it truly is the most wonderful time of the year.