State Championships & Reunions

Good evening everyone.  Just looking for a job, a place to live, and watching the NBA Finals right now, so why not do a little blog post?  Well, first, my alma mater won a state championship in baseball for the first time since 1979...

Those of you keeping score at home may recall that the boys also brought home the title in basketball earlier in the school year.  Is it simply a coincidence that the boys bring two state titles back to Littleton in the school year that I moved back to town?  YES, it's a total coincidence, but going to watch them play was a great way to pass some time...  :)

Speaking of time passing, I had a nice little reunion with one of my former athletes yesterday.  Kyleigh played a little bit of basketball and a WHOLE BUNCH OF SOFTBALL in San Marcos, and followed that up with some juco ball, then more ball at a four-year school, and then tacked a Master's Degree onto that, just for the heck of it.  Underachiever...  :)  She is now living here in the desert and will be getting married later in the year.  What can I say about Kyleigh?  She was a competitor, and coachable, and bright, and I'd take nine of Kyleigh and play against anybody anytime.  So when I tried to pay for our meal yesterday, Kyleigh tells me that she's picking it up, since I had to deal with her as a teenager, etc...  I just laughed.  If only all coaches had it so rough...  :)  I agreed to let Kyleigh get our meal, and if you're friends with me on Facebook, you'll probably never guess where we ate...

 
The Pizza Joint at the Flamingo ought to be paying me for all of this publicity that I give them...  Immediately upon seeing how this photo came out, I complimented Kyleigh on her outfit, and how it seems to blend right in with the pizza paper...  :)  Anyway, great pizza and an enjoyable afternoon catching up.  It had probably been four years since I'd seen Kyleigh, and that was just briefly, on the Square in San Marcos.

As I said before, I'll let y'all know when I know more (job wise)...  Have a great weekend and I'll see you soon!

Thirty Years

Good afternoon everyone.  It's been a long time since I posted from my phone, and it's out of laziness, and not due to necessity this time around.  I was prepared to write for you last night, and then I ended up watching the end of Zodiac, a movie that I had started watching earlier yesterday.  And this brings us to about 1:00 a.m. this morning, when I started watching Vision Quest, which played right into my reminiscent mood, and successfully thwarted the possibility of any writing being done last night.  Vision Quest gave a little airtime to an up and coming singer in a small club scene as she sang parts of 'Gambler' and 'Crazy For You.'  Maybe you've heard of Madonna...

Yes, that's how long ago Vision Quest was filmed, and thirty years ago today, well, what do you know, I graduated from high school.  Yes, WOW...  I need to give a shout out to the Class of 2016 at my alma mater, as they're graduating 30 years to the day that my class did.  A special shout out goes to my friend Ally, who I worked with at my hometown Walmart.  Ally was still pretty new to the store, and in an instance when I was just being me, doing... SOMETHING, this high school senior flat out called me a dork...  Of course I started laughing, and that's when I knew that Ally was one of the cool kids...  :)  Again, congratulations to Ally and to all of the Crusaders leaving Littleton High School today.  In related news, the baseball team at LHS has reached the state finals, and that game has been moved to Tuesday because both schools (Littleton and Sunapee) are hosting graduation ceremonies today.  Good stuff...

As for me, I have yet to get a job dealing poker (maybe the game had passed me by?).  Anyway, I'm about to open up the job search, because money does come in handy, and my brother's family will want their house back at some point..  :)  Seriously, they have been SO hospitable, and I appreciate it IMMENSELY...   Since I'm getting older (remember, I graduated from high school 30 years ago), I'm thinking it's probably about time I settled down somewhere (maybe??)...  For a city that thrives on tourism, I see a glaring lack of customer service in many instances, and I just need ONE GOOD JOB...  After having found out on May 4th that my landlord in Littleton had found a couple who wanted to rent my place in Littleton, giving my two weeks notice at work (while pushing to be out of my place by noon on the 18th), making arrangements to move here, and then driving a little more than 2,700 miles across the country from 5:00 p.m. on Friday, May 20th til 7:20 a.m. on Monday, May 23rd, I'm JUST NOW..., FINALLY, not feeling completely exhausted all the time.  I know, I know, I "gained" 3 hours while driving west, so I need to suck it up...  :)  There's no doubt that in my 30 years since high school, and in my 47-plus years overall, I lived a pretty adventurous little life (which I'm reminded of every time that I fill out a job application, and have to provide my work history - UGGHHH)...

Today I have a day full of the Strip and poker ahead of me.  My brother has been doing some "double-duty" at work, so on days he works at both the sportsbook  (Bally's/Paris/Planet Hollywood) and the World Series of Poker, we arrive on the Strip at about 11:00 a.m., leave for the Rio at 7:00 p.m., and head home at around 4:00 a.m.  Yes, he's a trooper...  :)

As for myself, I'll let you know more when I know more.  Have a great weekend and I'll see you soon!

Let's Find A Job

Good afternoon everyone.  It's approaching noon in the desert as I type for you today.  As a result of what we'll call "drive lag" from my cross-country excursion out to Las Vegas, combined with the stomach bug that went through my brother's household, I've been recuperating for the better part of the last two days.  After returning home from the Strip with my brother at about 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, I spent the vast majority of the next 21 hours in bed, got up for 3 hours, and then went back to sleep for 9 more.  After staying up for about 5 hours this morning, I returned to bed for about 3 more, and now I'm ready for the world (hopefully)...

While my brother worked on Tuesday and Wednesday, I inquired about possible poker dealer openings while playing a few hands myself.  The poker has been going well so far, and I've put together three modest winning sessions.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining - a small win beats a big loss anyday.  The job prospects also seem promising, and I will be filling out online applications for the forseeable future.  My plan is to fill out applcations until I land a job, and then find a place to live that is close to my place of employment.  In the meantime, to audition/interview for jobs, and to play poker, my brother is my transportation to the Strip and the heart of the city, as his family's place is located on the outskirts of town.  Hopefully I'll some good news for y'all on the job front shortly.  In the meantime, have a happy and safe Memorial Day Weekend and I'll see you soon!

Return To The Desert

Good evening everyone.  I've got some pretty big news for this milestone entry.  I haven't felt like writing much over the past six months, and as it turns out, my lack of words (and views) play right into this being the post that is going to put this blog over 100,000 total pageviews.  I moved back to my hometown in September with the intent of living there for a long, long time, having giving up a recently-earned full-time job at the University of Texas at Austin, but things didn't work out with the girl that I moved back for.  I've spent most of the last half-year between work and my apartment, and having signed a one-year lease, I didn't expect any relief til December 2016.  However, after the possibility of shortening the length of my lease without penalty came up in a casual conversation with my landlord, things happened pretty quickly...  Within weeks, I had a couple who viewed and signed a lease for my place, I gave my two-weeks notice at work, and I made plans to make the 2,700 mile-plus drive out to Las Vegas, where I'm staying with my brother and his family until I get settled.

For those of you who are friends of mine on Facebook, thank you for your support as I made my swift journey across our wonderful nation.  This may explain why I neglected to respond to your well-wishes...  I left my hometown in New Hampshire at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, and after driving through the night across Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and half of Iowa, I arrived in Des Moines at about 3:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.  After spending the night, I left at around 11:20 a.m. on Sunday, journeyed across the rest of Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, and a tiny bit of Nevada before arriving at my brother's place at 7:20 a.m. Monday morning.  Yes..., PHEW...

I'm currently a professional poker player, and my immediate plans are to find a permanent place to live, in addition to finding a job to pay my bills...  :)  I'm hoping that my attitude and mood will improve tremendously over where they've been in the last six months, and that I'll feel like writing a little more.  As a footnote, I'd like to remain in the desert for a LONG TIME this time around, so if you plan on visiting, let me know when you'll be in town.  :)  Thanks again for your support, and I'll see you soon...

Man On A Ledge

Good morning everyone.  It's not often that I write at 2:00 in the morning and rip off the title of the movie that I'm watching to use as the title of my blog post.  It's pretty amazing that my little blog is closing in on 100,000 total views considering that I haven't posted an entry in almost a month.  My lack of writing hasn't been due to watching an abundance of movies in the wee hours of the morning, in case you're wondering.  Since I've returned to the White Mountains, it's very rare for me to stay up this late.  And then when I start thinking about how late I used to routinely stay awake, and then I consider time zone differences...  For example, if I go to bed at midnight now, and then stop to realize that that's 9:00 p.m. in Las Vegas, when the night is just about to begin for thousands of people.

So what have I been up to?  Basketball has been my big social event of the winter.  Lots and lots of Littleton Crusaders girls and boys basketball.  The girls team at my alma mater had an outstanding season, going all the way to the state final, where they were only beaten by four points.  On the boys side, a layup with only three seconds remaining in the game gave our hometown Crusaders an undefeated season and rewarded the boys team with their first state title since 1990.  This is worth 1,000 words...

That photo comes to you courtesy of the White Mountain Record.  Congratulations to both the boys and girls at my alma mater on their outstanding seasons!

So that brings us to the current basketball, which is the Men's NCAA Tourney.  Now for someone who was on the bench for a lot of high school girls basketball games, I'm not going to say that I haven't been watching any NCAA women's action this year, but I just found out yesterday that the women had gone to playing four quarters this season (instead of a pair of 20-minute halves).  ANYWAY, back to the hoops that I will be watching over the next couple of weeks.  My friend Joey and my brother Pete have joined me once again at Coach's Parlay Card to give you our favorite bets on the ongoing tourney action.  If you wanna stop by there later today or early Thursday morning, we'll each have our favorite bets up for the 'Sweet 16.'  I don't know if it has anything to do with both Joey and Pete working in Vegas sportsbooks, but they both went 3-2 on their bets last week, while I went 1-4...  :)

Anyway, that's what's going on up here, and I'm sure that I'll have more for you as the 100,000 mark gets closer...  Have a great day and I'll see you soon!

Don't You Have A Raven To Train?

Good evening everyone.  It seems like it's been almost two weeks since I've posted.  I might have just looked back and checked actually...  :)  Back in September, I remember driving 33 hours nonstop from Austin up here to the White Mounains.  Today, after sleeping 8 hours (I think) last night, I took separate 2 and 3-hour naps.  Getting older, I tell ya...  :)  I've been hard at work trying to get through the rest of this (admittedly mild) winter, mostly taking a short break from sports, other than following my alma mater's very successful girls and boys basketball teams.  The Littleton Crusader girls finished their regular season with one loss, and won their preliminary round playoff game last night.  I was thinking about going to the game, but when I got home and turned on the radio, I tuned into a 32-6 Crusader first-half lead.  As tempting as that sounded, I decided to forego the brisk weather for that barnburner.  Meanwhile, the Crusader boys are unbeaten, having capped off an 18-0 regular season with a road victory tonight.  There's probably a little bit of high school playoff hoops in my near future as I await the start of the NCAA men's conference tournaments and March Madness.  Work has been keeping me busy as I dream of swimming pools and warmer temperatures, and I've also been all over the new 'Better Call Saul' season.  A show that I've never taken much of an interest in is 'Modern Family,' but while I was tuned into something last night while reading poker blogs, the show that I had been "viewing" ended, and as I was turning off my t.v. before going to bed, I heard this exchange between two characters...

Alex (a goth character):  "Don't you have a class to fail?"

Haley:  "Don't you have a raven to train?"


I don't know why exactly, but that raven line made me laugh and put me in a great mood as I was going to bed last night...  :)  I actually had to Google the script of the show to find the character names for you, as I don't watch the show.

Anyway, I just wanted to pop in and say hello.  Have a good one and I'll see you soon...

Then You Really Might Know

"God forbid you ever had to wake up to hear the news, 'cause then you really might know what it's like to have to lose..." -Everlast- (What It's Like)

"And I watched as you turned away, you don't remember, but I do, you never even tried..." -Fuel- (Hemorrhage)

"Things aren't the way they were before, you wouldn't even recognize me anymore, not that you knew back then, but it all comes back to me, in the end..." -Linkin Park- (In The End)



Good evening everyone.  I decided to dust off my trusty (not very) old tablet and write a little for you tonight.  This is my first winter back in Littleton, U.S.A. in thirty years, and we're about to have a true winter weekend.  As I write this just after 9:00 p.m., the current temperature is 0 degrees, and the wind chill factor is -16.  The high temperatures over the next three days are forecast to be 21, 7, and 4 degrees, respectively.  Happy Valentine's Day, huh?  :)  The silver lining is that we're almost halfway through the month of February, and this is the worst that the weather has been.  To keep myself in a positive frame of mind, I've made a picture of Bikini Hill my cover photo on both Facebook and Twitter...

And yes, Bikini Hill is actually part of the campus at my alma mater, Texas State Univerity.  As I've fought through this winter, counting down the days til spring, I've thought a lot about San Marcos (home to Texas State), Las Vegas, and other warmer climates that I need to get to.  I mentioned recently in another one of my blogs that if I ever do return to Las Vegas or another locale where I can gamble on a more permanent basis, I feel that I should focus more time and energy (and bankroll) on poker than sports betting, because my sports wagering results have continued to hover right around the .500 mark, which isn't a recipe for doing anything but spinning my wheels.  I'm not saying that I'll never place a sports wager (DUH), but I'm talking about something along the lines of a 90/10 split in my poker/sports betting bankroll.  I actually received the first of my study materials earlier this week...

I won my last subscription to Card Player through the old site Spadeclub, and of course it kills me to pay knowing that I could be reading for free if I was living near a casino, but it's nice to be able to get current with the world of poker without racing all over the internet.

In addition to catching up with the card world, I watched the conclusion of the football season last Sunday.  Thanks again to Joey and Pete for predicting games with me at 'Coach's Parlay Card.'  Future topics at my little rant blog should include how utterly inexcusable it was for Cam Newton to refuse trying to recover his fumble, and how silly it is for people to keep moaning about every single Super Bowl halftime show.  Breaking news - we all have different tastes in music, and we will never be in 100% agreeement on who should perform...  Anyway, I've also been watching the circus that is the 2016 Presidential Race.  Good times...

Actually, I have enjoyed watching some more high school hoops recently, as the varsity boys and girls teams at my alma mater are closing in on the state playoffs.  Both teams are well-coached, they play hard, and are a lot of fun to watch.  I got to put on a headset for a pair of games recently as a friend of mine does the radio broadcasts of the Crusaders games.  I spared the listening audience of any torture (I kept my mouth shut), but I enjoyed myself as it was like listening to a game on the radio and being there in person at the same time...  ;)

That's all for tonight.  Have a great weekend and I'll see you soon!