But tattoos are permanent

In June, my wife and I will celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary. Holy crap, that’s a long ass time!

We’ve had this long running joke, which isn’t so much a joke as it is common sense. It usually starts off with somebody asking me if I have my wife’s name tattooed on my body. The response is always the same, “What, are you crazy? Tattoos are permanent.”

So, it’s sorta been a mutual agreement that no matter how long we were together, we wouldn’t cross that line and tattoo one-another’s names on our bodies. Well, this past Monday, I broke that agreement.

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Chris didn’t seem upset when I surprised her with it Monday night. Actually, I think she was just short of giddy.

To answer your obvious questions:
- No, it wasn’t the most painful tattoo I’ve ever received (actually, it was barely even uncomfortable)
- It healed in about 3 days
- No, my lip did not swell up like a balloon
- Yes, I am crazy to be getting the inside of my lip tattooed

My tattoo artist put a photo of the tattoo up on his blog taken minutes after it was done. You can check it out here if you’d like.

Getting Shit Done!

I had an amusing and motivating chat with Todd & Hargrove at work the other day. We were lamenting on how it sucks to pay monthly fees for things you no longer use. Hargrove pointed out that he can’t access his World of Warcraft account because he can’t remember his password. He could have his password sent to him if he can answer the secret question he created when he first set up the account. No problem, he just needs to answer the following:

What is my favorite movie?

While that may seem like a pretty easy one for most, he has all of the following adding to the level of difficulty:
- The answer is case sensitive
- He wrote that question in 2004
- He was likely drunk while writing the question

He pointed out that he would just call customer service and deal with it that way, but their hours of operation are the same as his work hours making that a bit difficult.

Well, after that conversation I decided it was time to stop paying for a couple things that I have been paying for without really using. So, in the past 4 days, here’s a list of my money savings:

- 2 memberships to Las Vegas Athletic Club - $42.50/month (Yes, I know I NEED to go to the gym, but I haven’t been in a year so I may as well stop paying for it until I get motivated…)
- Sirius Satellite radio subscription - $12.95/month (I don’t use the portable unit since my car has it built in and I received a 1 year free subscription)
- Subscription to dotcombuilders.com - $20/month

And, in the next two weeks I’ll be ready to end my hosting agreement with 1and1.com since I sold 95% of my sites and have already moved my remaining sites to my dedicated server at MarquisNet - That’ll be another $20/month savings.

Feels good to finally get this stuff of my plate and off my mind!

Oh, and on a side note, since posting about deleting all my MP3s, I have since ripped over 1400 songs. The library is coming back and I’m a happy little camper.

Jam Packed Weekend!

Wow! I can’t remember the last time I had a weekend with so many activities packed in. Here is what it looked like:

Friday after work, Chris and I went and played in a World Series of Poker Circuit event at Caeser’s Palace. The event we were to play in is a daily event held each nite at 7:00 PM. We had initially planned to play in the same event on Sunday because it was Chris’ birthday. That was to be my gift to her. But, since it didn’t start until 7:00 PM, common sense said that since we both get up early on Monday, a late tourney on Sunday may not be wise. So, we opted for Friday’s event instead. For a recap of how I did in the event, check out PokerStories.info.

Saturday we got up fairly early and Chris and I both got massages. Since Chris graduated from the massage school, her massages are free. And, when she graduated, she received a stack of gift certificates good for free massages. I use those. So, mine too was free. Sweet!

We then went out to lunch at Road Runners Saloon to celebrate Chris’ birthday with her mom, brother & sister-in-law. After a big lunch, we headed home and took a nice long nap. We got up in time to get dressed and head on over to the Silverton Casino to see Twisted Sister in concert. Paxton had discovered Twisted Sister a few months back. I’m certain it had to do with one of their songs showing up in a video game he was playing. But, he had downloaded some of their videos and we had also bought him a greatest hits CD which he liked a lot. So, when we found out they were coming to town, we surprised him with tickets for the 3 of us to go. He was stoked. The show was great. Dee and the boys sounded great. The photo above was taken during the last song of the night. To see a bunch of photos, click here. If you ever go to see a show at Silverton that is going to be at the Pavillion, be sure to wear a bathing suit. You can watch the show from in the pool that is no more than 15 feet from the front of the stage. Makes for a nice “Slosh Pit”. har har har.

The concert let out pretty early. So, after getting home and dropping off Paxton, we, of course, went out to play poker at Sahara in the 11:00 PM tourney. I ended up going out in 18th spot after making a bad play. 8 away from the money. Damn. We got home at about 3:00 AM and after a LONG day, finally got some sleep.

We got up on Sunday morning and I asked Chris if she wanted to go back to Sahara to play the 11:00 AM tourney. Reluctantly, she agreed. Man, I’m so glad she decided to go. After being short stacked for most of the way, I ended up making it to the final table. Since only 69 players started the event, they were only going to pay out 7 spots. We all agreed to chop $90 off first and second spots in order to pay spot 10, 9 & 8 $60 each. At least they would get their buy-in back. It sucks to make it to the final table and still not get any cash… I played fairly tight at the final table and watched as spots 10 through 8 got busted out. At that time, I announced to the table that I was not going to accept any deal to chop the pot. Even if that meant they all come gunning for me, I wasn’t chopping. It took a little while to do, but before too terribly long, we were down to the final 4. I had doubled up a time or two so I was sitting pretty well in chips. Player 4 got taken out and it was down to the final 3 of us. All of us were fairly evenly stacked. I was the shortest stack and this was the first time somebody had mentioned a deal. I declined the deal and we played on. I picked up pocket 5s in the Big Blind and the small blind raised me. I went ahead and moved all-in. He called and showed Q-8. He didn’t get any help and I doubled up and took a nice sized chip lead. He still had about 25K chips left. A few hands later, he moved all-in and I called with K/J. He turned over J/8 and he did not hit his 8. We were then heads up. At the time we started heads up, I had a sizeable chip lead. I had approx 200K in chips to my opponents 40K. Funny thing though. In No Limit hold ‘em, that can change in a few short hands. And it did. He battled back and I doubled him up… Then, the final hand came up. I was the Big Blind. With the blinds 5K and 10K, a lot of chips move around pretty quick. He raised to 40K and I pushed all-in with A-3. He called in an instant which scared the crap out of me. He turned over K/J. All I needed to do was NOT get unlucky here. The flop was all blanks. The turn was an Ace. He was drawing dead. When the chips were counted down, I had him covered by 4K chips. I won the tourney and it felt sooooo good! This was my first ever first place finish in a casino tourney. I’ve chopped the final 4,5 or 6 places a few times before, but this was my first actual solo first place finish. I can’t wait to do it again!

With all that, you’d think that would bring us to the end of the weekend… But you would be wrong. We took Chris out for a birthday dinner. We went to a place called The Melting Pot. It’s a fondue restaurant over on Eastern. Holy cow! That place was excellent. You start off with a cheese fondue with bread, veggies and apples for dipping. Then, a salad (they have some great salads & dressings!!). Then, they bring you out your main course. You cook your main course yourself in the center of the table. After the meal, you absolutely MUST have dessert. We had a smores fondue. Milk Chocolate, graham cracker crumbs and marshmellows heated in the pot. Then, a plate of strawberries, mashmellows, bannanas, cheese cake and brownies for dipping. We all left feeling quite full! Two quick things you will want to know before heading there for dinner… Don’t go if you are in a hurry. Dinner took a little over 2 hours. Second, the place is not cheap. They add an 18% gratuity on any party of 5 or more. And, our meal worked out to be a little more than $45 per person. I was not expecting that at all.

So there ya have it. A great weekend has come to an end. I’m going to need to go to work in the morning so I can rest up. ;)

Viva Las Vegas

I’ve lived in Vegas now for a few years and before living here, I had visited Sin City dozens of times. Yet, until this past weekend, I had never once set foot on the little patch of dirt in front of the World Famous “Welcome To Las Vegas” sign. And, had it not been at the request of Drew, that record would still be intact. But, to help out with a project he has for his photography class, I headed on over once the sun went down and the lights on the strip were burning bright.

Ya know, for being a Sunday evening at 9:00 PM, that sign gets a lot of traffic! I got their a little early and watched for 15 minutes as a steady stream of people parked their cars and ran over to take photos in front of the sign. There is also a spot where cars can make a U-turn right in front of the sign which also gets a fair amount of traffic. 2 tour buses and 4 limos in 15 minutes.

We walked over to the sign and set up the shot prior to bringing the car over. Once Drew had the shot set up the way he wanted, I walked back and rounded up the car. Sadly there are no ramps to drive up so you have to actually jump the curb to drive on to the patch of dirt. I pulled the car into position and we took several photos from varying angles. We stopped a couple times to let other people jump in front of the sign and take some pics. Including a group of canadians who wanted their photo taken in front of my car.

After 10-15 minutes of photo taking, the job was done. I don’t know if this is going to be the final shot that Drew submits for his class, but I like it all the same. Thanks for letting me be part of your photography class. I had a blast.

Functional art

I received a link via email from my buddy Dan the other day for a cool site called skellramics.com. They have all sorts of unique products like the handmade bottle to the left. My wife and I got to see much of their work in person when we went to the crafts fair here in Las Vegas 2 or 3 years ago. I had visited their website right after we saw them, but haven’t been in quite some time so I was very happy to see the link in my email. I don’t think I’ll be buying any of their one of a kind pieces any time soon as they are a little pricey, but, I may have to pick up a t-shirt.

Everything scrolling in one spot. GENIOUS!


Can I move this to the top of my Christmas List? Damn this looks like a cool little tool. This thing checks your email and displays header information, displays instant messages from ICQ, AIM and Yahoo, plays MP3s, stock ticker, local weather, RSS feed aggregator and it may just wipe your ass. OK, I made up that last part… For a guy like me with ADHD and OCD, I need all this data scrolling on something other than my 4 monitors. I need to save that real estate for playing online poker and watching TV.

Massage anyone?

How about a big ‘ol congratulations to my wife? After a year in school to become a massage therapist, today she took a huge step forward and passed her National Certification Exam. I couldn’t be happier for her! Now, the next thing to do is figure out what she wants to do. Start a private practice, work in a spa, stay home and massage me all day… I’m really leaning towards the third one. We’ll see how that pans out.

Octopus Vs. Shark? Place your bets!

My buddy Doug sent me this insane video of an octopus that has been eating sharks in an aquarium at some zoo. It’s an absolute MUST SEE! Check it out here.

An all around good weekend!

What a great weekend! Of course it started off with a couple beers at PTs after work on Friday. I didn’t stay long as the family was looking to do out to dinner. We had a good meal over at Chili’s and then headed home. I then spent 3 or 4 hours completing a project that I had started at work. That wasn’t really the plan when I got home, but I just kept finding “one more thing” I wanted to fix on it. By the time I was done, I was really happy with the result. I guess you can’t ask for much more than that.

Saturday we went over to the mall and pretty much just walked around. I finally got a new battery for a watch that I’ve had for SEVERAL months that hasn’t been working. Amazing what a fresh battery can do, huh? After the mall we came home and took a bit of a nap before getting ready to go to a halloween party at some friends’ house. The party was excellent. The place was packed. There must have been 60 people there. There were some great costumes, too. My favorite was a guy who came dressed as Richie Tenenbaum from the movie The Royal Tenenbaums. He looked just like the guy! I failed to bring a camera so I have no photos to share. But, as soon as somebody else posts some, I’ll be sure to set up a link or two. There was some great drunken foolery, as well. We had polished off a bottle of tequilla in the first 45 minutes and the keg was gone after about 90 minutes. Like I said, it was a good size party. I’m glad I stopped drinking fairly early on in the evening. I woke up at a fairly normal time on Sunday, and felt great. No hangover in sight! Woo Hoo!

Sunday was pretty cool, too. Went to the movies with Rob. Jason was set to join us, but after a weird set of happenings, he wasn’t able to make it. Turns out, it was a blessing in disguise. The movie that we went to is “Saw 2″. I had loaned Jason the first Saw movie and he hasn’t had a chance to check it out yet. After seeing 2, it’s clear that you should REALLY see 1, first. While it’s not mandatory and the plot stands up on it’s own, there are some cool things that relate back that make for some added coolness. I can’t write about too many details just yet… Jason reads my blog and I’d hate to spoil it for him at this point.

Spent the rest of Sunday working on a project. I’m glad I sat and worked on it. Several key things fell in to place and I was able to mark a large portion of the project complete. I still have some updates to do for the sites in question, but they are “good enough” at least for a while.

The hockey weekend is here!

Man, I’ve been waiting for this weekend! My buddies are here in Vegas to play in the “Las Vegas Hockey Classic“. The tournament is always fun. It’s great to get to play some hockey. But, more than anything it’s awesome to hang out with a great group of guys. We’ll play hockey Friday morning, have a poker tournament Friday afternoon and then play another hockey game Friday evening. We’ll likely have the team dinner Friday night and then go out gambling til all hours of the morning. You just can’t beat this kind of entertainment!

I’ll give you an update on how we did after the weekend is over.

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