Not Tonight Sunapee

Good morning everyone.  It's fast approaching midnight here, and it's not so much that I have a lot to say this evening, but more that I told a few friends who I'm stealing material from that I'd publish today, so off we go...  My big social activity for the evening was attending my Alma Mater's boys basketball games, and I'm pleased to report that both the J.V. and Varsity Crusaders beat the visiting Sunapee Lakers by about 20 points each.  Sunapee is supposed to be a pretty good squad, at least compared to the other opponents that I've seen come into my old high school gym so far this season, but although the games were more spirited, they weren't very close.  The Varsity Lakers managed to pick up a couple of techncal fouls, so there was that...  :)  Anyway, after I returned home, I found some food and watched 'Enemy of the State,' and now I'm talking to you.  It's ironic that I actually did something other than work tonight, because the theme of this entry is how my friends have been out having fun while I have pretty much been working.

We'll begin with my friend Nick, who just had a profitable visit to Las Vegas.  Each stack of red on this poker table is worth $100.00, and Nick started his session with two of the stacks.  That's right, there's just over $1,000.00 pictured here.  I should probably learn how to play poker...  Nick also met my brother Pete durng this trip while Pete was working at the Bally's sportsbook.  I should probably learn how to bet on sports too...  :)  Okay, so everyone's in Las Vegas, and I'm not.  Well, except for those people who are in Arizona...

This appears to be my friend Crystal and some guy at a basketball game.  I think it was very nice of Crystal to agree to pose with Coach Popovich...  :)  Our Spurs are doing very well again this season, and this coming spring ought to be very interesting.  Poker, basketball...  But has anybody been to a hockey game recently?

Right on cue, there's my friend Jaidhe (pictured in the center).  I can assure you from the seemingly hundreds of photos that Jaidhe posted that the arena wasn't empty, and that a Bruins game did indeed take place...  :)

Like I said, I don't have a lot to say tonight, but I'll leave you with a photo of my friend Trevor's dogs...

No matter how many times I look at this picture, I still can't get over the expressions on their faces...  :)  Alright, that's all for tonight, but I'll be back soon to bother y'all again.  Have a good one!

Sleep Is Good

Good morning everyone.  Midnight is fast-approaching here on the east coast, but there's zero chance that I'll hit the 'publish' button before midnight, so good morning.

This is the Christmas present to myself that I previously mentioned, the new tablet that I am currently typing on.  Anyway, after working eight days straight, I now have 4 out of 6 days off.  I spent the first of those days catching up on my sleep.  Starting about 24 hours ago, I slept for 8 hours, then took a 3-hour nap shortly afterward, and then took another 2-3 hour late afternoon thru early evening snooze.  I believe that this 13-14 hours of sleep in a 24-hour period is the most that I've had since arriving in New Hampshire.  Well, I watched my Spurs beat the most hyped team in the NBA tonight, and now I've got 'Law & Order' playing in the background as I tap these keys.  My brother recently sent me a nice package from the desert, which arrived today...

For those of you who know me a little, I have a habit of playing with three poker chips, even when I'm not at a poker table.  I manipulate the chips thru my fingers and against each so often that I actually wear away the clay that the chips are made of.  Thankfully some reinforcements arrived today...  :D

Speaking of my brother, Pete and myself both called a first last week in my blog Coach's Parlay Card.  Never before had all four road teams won playoff games in the NFL's Wild Card round, but Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Seattle, and Green Bay all picked up W's last weekend.  Along with our friend Joey, we'll all be back at my other blog tomorrow with our predictions for this weekend's divisional round of games.

As I mentioned last time, I'm way behind in posting stolen material and stories involving my friends, so off we go...

In her first competitive show ever, my friend Leanne placed 5th out of close to 100 contestants.  If you search the blog archives, you'll find her name 1 or 100 times as I've stolen from her quite often.  :)  Congratulations Leanne - super proud of you!!  This contest took place before Christmas - that's how far behind I am here...

This meme shared by my friend Heather is an accurate enough depiction of my own New Year's Eve, and one that I'm determined not to repeat.  I had to work until early that evening, and having to work again on New Year's Day, I spent the evening in bed watching the Alabama/Michigan State game...  #yippee

This is a really cool photo that my friend Candice shared just before Christmas.  The information given with the picture only says that it is a bridge that goes from Missouri to Kansas.

I also wanted to note in this entry that another blog has joined my list of suggested links over there on the right.  'Roads To Tommorow' is the newest poker blog to join that list, and what makes it different from the others listed is that the writer is still in his infancy playing poker (relatively speaking, compared to the other writers), and that he usually posts more often than the rest of us.

I'm going to call it a night, but I'll be sure to bother you again soon...  :)

Snow Dogs

Good evening everyone.  I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to post.  As the holiday season progressed and I got more and more busy, it took longer for me to post.  In turn, this gave me more material to steal from my friends and write about, which meant that I'd need to do an even longer post with the material that I had stored up.  This is how my mind works...  :)  Tomorrow I begin a stretch where I'm working several consecutive days again, so I will hit the 'publish' button tonight, regardless of whether or not I cover everything that I want to get to.  I go into this entry knowing that I currently have 4 of 6 days off of work at the end of the stretch, so you will see more posts in your future.  Where to begin...

Let's start with work.  For those of you who don't know, I'm working for Walmart here in my hometown.  I took the job about a month and a half before Thanksgiving, which really means about 45 days before 'Black Friday.'  The time from 'Black Friday' through last Sunday has pretty much been a BLUR...  :)  I am currently training to be a Customer Service Manager for my hometown Walmart, and the past few months have seen me cashier, work at the customer service desk, push carts in the parking lot, and work at the layaway desk, just to name a few things.  For those of you who know me a little, you know that I have quite an extensive resume'.  I have a business degree, I have over 30 post-graduate hours of college on top of that, I taught and coached high school for nine years, I've worked at the World Series of Poker, I've dealt poker on the Las Vegas Strip, and I've worked for the University of Texas at Austin (among my many, MANY jobs)...  Now I can say that I've worked through the holiday season for THE major retailer.  As you can imagine, working for Walmart through the holidays presents several challenges, and I'm happy to say that our group did one heck of a job bringing the store into the new year.  I need to give a shout out to all of my fellow employees for making that happen, and for your support and guidance along the way!  As you can imagine, several people are being tagged on facebook to this post...  :)  My coworkers have also been very kind in giving me rides to and from work when our schedules mesh.  If you'll remember from Austin (and even Las Vegas), I walked or took the bus to and from work (or to the Strip).  The walk is longer here, and the weather is colder, so the rides are GREATLY appreciated.

Ah yes, Coach touched on the weather.  Now seems like a good time to break out the snow dog...

 

My friend Brigette shared this to facebook not too long ago, and I had to do a double-take.  When a snowman just won't do, right?  :)  Okay, about this weather.  Our last warm day was Christmas, when the temperature was 51 degrees.  I have proof of this for you later...  :)  Anyway, when I left work last night, the temperature was 1 degree.  ONE...  For people like me, we have been incredibly fortunate to have such a mild winter.  Well, winter has arrived, and we won't likely see 51 degrees again anytime soon.  Back to Christmas, my mom and her friend were my lunch dates...

And here's my proof of the last warm day ever of 2015...

If you look very closely in the upper left hand corner of the photo...  :)  Don't worry, just for your amusement, I will be sure to post several photos of the snow and misery throughout the winter...  ;)  Speaking of good things winding down, I feel that I must cut this blog post short (ahem)....  :)  If you were looking at my blog note sheet, you would realize how difficult this is for me to do.  A couple of things before I go...  First, I told my friend Michaela that I would include her awesome facebook share tonight, so...

That would be a shot of Texas from the International Space Station my friends...  And I also need to share that with my new job, I haven't seen the amount of football that I'm accustomed to watching.  HOWEVER, I will be able to see the Alabama/Clemson game, and I will also be watching both AFC Wild Card games on Saturday...

Go Steelers!!!  ;)  Have an Outstanding 2016, and I'll see you soon!