Thirty Years

Good morning everyone. It seems like a good time to fire up the blog again. Well, yesterday seemed like a good time also, since it marked thirty years since I graduate from college. In the almost YEAR that I have taken off from blogging, it seems that Blogger has decided to transition to a new format. You can switch to the new format, or in the new future, Blogger will automatically switch your blog for you. At the current time, regardless of which format I try, I'm unable to upload photos (or at least unable to figure out how). When I tried yesterday, they uploaded as link text. I tried to figure out why, got frustrated, and gave up on writing. This text looks small as I type it, and I can't figure out how to adjust that either, but I'm going to publish this anyway, and see what it looks like. In the preview window it doesn't look horrible, but we'll see... Obviously a lot has happened in the last year, with the presence of Covid-19. The virus was a major factor in my decision to leave my sportsbook position in Biloxi, Mississippi. I just recently moved back to San Marcos, America. My reasoning was that I didn't see team sports (especially football, which I wrote the most bets on at work, and bet the most myself)having much success in the near future. If there's not going to be much football, it makes more sense for me to be in Texas than in Mississippi, or in Las Vegas, etc. I think that the NBA has the best opportunity for success, because they have the smallest number of players, or they're keeping them isolated ("The Bubble," if you will). I think that the NHL has the next best chance for success, as they have the next smallest number of athletes, and are also staying isolated. Major League Baseball, and then football are next in the pecking order, and they have more challenges because of their expanded rosters and the traveling that they are doing. The Big Ten and Pac-12 just postponed their fall sports seasons yesterday, so it appears that my decision wasn't completely without merit (for any haters out there)... Don't get me wrong, I'm whole-heartedly hoping that we find a vaccine as soon as possible, and I want to see EVERYTHING played, but it wasn't worth the gamble for me to sign a lease in Biloxi til the end of next July based on the information that I had available to me at the time. As for myself, I'm finally getting my sleep back on a normal schedule. Just this past week, I'm finally sleeping eight hours consecutively. It rained practically the whole week that I was preparing to leave Biloxi, and I wanted to leave the yard at my rental house as short as possible, so I was trying to find spots between the rain drops where I could cut my grass. Managing my yard came in addition to packing my stuff and cleaning the house of course. On the day that I did move from Mississippi to Texas, I woke up at 1:00 a.m., finished packing and cleaning until about 8:30 a.m., returned my cable box and internet modem, turned in my house keys, and then drove over nine hours to San Marcos, where I unloaded my stuff and ate my traditional "moving pizzas..." The pizza is about the most unhealthy thing that I've eaten recently, as I've lost about 20 pounds from my peak weight this summer, and plan on losing about another 20-25 more. Maybe by then I'll figure out this photo-posting riddle, and I'll be able to give you some comparison pictures. Other than eating smaller portions, while also eating more healthy food, I've also been spending a lot of time playing DraftKings fantasy golf, while I slowly unpack and get my sleep schedule right. Until this last week, I had won money three weeks in a row, scrambling up a bunch of different lineups of golfers, and having a few hit each time. I'm also starting to watch more NBA and NHL, as they may represent the majority of team sports that we'll have for a while. I've also continued to play a bunch of free poker on an app called 'Poker Legends' that I found early in the spring. I'm thankful to have found it, because I was watching way too much t.v. when our sportsbook closed on St. Patrick's Day. NOT that the t.v. hasn't been on while I chip away on the poker site, but at least I haven't been glued to it nonstop... : ) I'm hoping to get this apartment in order pretty soon, and then to have some job information for you. Which reminds me, I was finally able to buy the car that I had been saving up for this spring, which helps tremendously on the job front (and many other fronts). ; ) Well, I have a day full of unpacking and watching hockey games ahead of me (did you see that FIVE overtime game yesterday/last night?!). I have stated before, I LOVE playoff hockey games with multiple overtimes, where it just becomes a battle of attrition. Oh yeah, I'm also putting a few bucks each day on the fantasy hockey, just to have action. : P Have a great week, and I'll see you soon!

BRING ME ANOTHER SMURF!

"And whenever you're dark inside, don't let go, no, don't let go, remember there's rain, and there's candy, and Christmasy winter snow, snow, snow..." -Blue October- (For My Brother)

"And this is how you remind me..., this is how you remind me of what I really am, this is how you remind me of what I really am..." -Nickelback- (This Is How You Remind Me)

"Being polite is so rare these days that it is often confused with flirting..." -Spirit Science- (via Chris Abramski)




Good evening everyone.  We have a lot to cover on this Tuesday night, with the usual segues and stolen material from my friends showing up in force.  Let me start off by mentioning that my friend Chris brought his "'A' Game" to facebook this week, and that I'm stealing from him twice in this post.  That quote right above this paragraph was shared by Chris earlier in the week, and it was just SPOT ON...  I'm a pretty good guy (despite what you may have heard), and I've seriously had girls go so far as basically flipping out on me because I was nice to them, and I was just like "WOW..."  We'll get back to Chris later in this entry...

My friend George posted a Nickelback status today, and it reminded me (pun intended, but not initially) of the lyrics quoted above.  Back when I used to run (I completed three marathons back in the day - presently my brother and I let our sis Whitney do the majority of the running in our family), I'd often have the lyrics of that song playing in my mind as I strode around 'Bikini Hill' and the rest of San Marcos, America.  As it turns out, I may be able to hang out with George and an all-star cast (including, but probably not limited to, Jackie, Nick, Floyd, and Beau) this weekend at a crawfish boil as South By Southwest (SXSW) kicks off here in the ATX.  SXSW is a little festival held in Austin during spring break every year that includes a little music, movies, celebrating, etc...  Oh, and CRAWFISH, which I happen to love...

Speaking of spring break, the weather here earlier in the week had me recalling that set of Blue October lyrics above.  BOY did we have some rain here yesterday!  I have complained countless times about the winter weather in my hometown in New Hampshire, but I don't think that I'm cut out for living in Seattle either.  Rainy and dreary and rainy and dreary...  It's great when you want to sleep in on a Sunday morning, but it gets old pretty quick.  Well, I'm more than happy to inform you that the ten-day forecast for Austin has our highs in the low 70's and our low's in the low 50's...  :D  That should make for great weather as SXSW kicks off, and I'm ready to celebrate, only having my 'New Employee Orientation' to attend on Monday...

As poker players and sportsbooks throughout the desert cry, I'm probably not going to be moving to Las Vegas anytime soon because I received a job offer that was too good to resist.  The change in my job classification will have me attending the orientation on Monday, so some low-key partaking of crawfish with friends this weekend is probably in order.  While we're on the subject(s), we can't mention crawfish or new jobs without congratulating our friend Alyssa (remember, she's the one who doesn't peel crawfish quite as fast as me - that's my story and I'm sticking to it) on her new job.  Congratulations Alyssa!  :D

Okay, let's see what else my friends have done this week...  Well, we were talking about food.  My friend Claudia shared this little peanut butter cup the other day...

"Reese's who?" was all that I could think to ask, as this thing weighed in at 230 pounds.  Turning our attention to breakfast, my friend Susan shared this photo this morning...

Susan's description was "Something does not belong here.  #boys #dinosaursforbreakfast"  My immediate thought was "fossil fuel."  Do you see what I did there?  I can be semi, sort-of-clever every once in a while, kinda...  ;)  And then there's Brittany, who has probably managed to get herself in this blog almost as many times as Alyssa.  Although we don't have Brittany posing with Emmitt Smith this time around, she did share this informative photo about beverages...

And that's why we keep Brittany on the payroll...  ;)  I told you that we'd get back to Chris, and if you were wondering about the title of tonight's post, here ya go...

This is another photo that Terrell Suggs (Baltimore Ravens) posted, and I don't know who initially looks at this photo and comes up with that caption, but it did make me smile (however unfortunate that may be)...  :)

As Gonzaga just handily disposed of BYU in the West Coast Conference title game, let me take this timely opportunity to remind you about one of my other blogs.  You can find yesterday's post, 'Kentucky Is Going To Lose (& Gonzaga Will Too)' at 'Coach Goes Viral'  In this entry you can read my thoughts as to why Kentucky won't go unbeaten this season, and why Gonzaga shouldn't be a #1 or #2 seed (and will also lose).  Currently I'm chatting daily sports with my brother, but Joey and I will be back at 'Coach's Parlay Card' with basketball picks once the 'Sweet Sixteen' begins.  I'm actually making almost nightly picks there now, but visitors are still struggling to find my fledgling site...  :)

That's it for tonight, but I hope that all of you have a good one, and I'll see you soon!

Spring Forward

"Thanks to everyone who posted on my birthday.  To the rest of you...  You are dead to me..."
-Pete P. Peters-

"I think my ponytail is on too tight..." -Yvonne Gonzales- (Yvonne's response to not getting a reference I made).

Grrouchie:  "Excuse me, where do you have the ears of corn?"
Smith's Employee:  "Umm, I don't even know what that is..." -Grrouchie-

"No matter how much times passes, great friends always pick up right where they left off..."
-Summer Rodriguez-

"This is what happens when it snows in Texas..." -Gisele Verissimo-


Good evening everyone.  Long time, no see...  With the weather that we've had recently (and that we're forecast to have this weekend), I've pretty much accepted the fact that I'll stay home this weekend.  It's not like there's nothing on t.v., or that I have nothing to do here, but I'm ready for our Texas winter to be over.  My friend Verissimo posted this photo with that quote above when nasty weather hit the Metroplex (Dallas-Fort Worth area) recently...

Click on that photo and you'll see a lot of bad news for drivers.  You can see from the top of the photo that this took place at about noon also.  Here in Austin (and at the University of Texas more specifically) we've had delayed starts to workdays because the biggest threat to drivers has been ice in the early morning while the temperatures are still below freezing.  It's not supposed to get quite that cold this weekend, but it will still be cool enough, and we have an 80% chance of rain on Sunday, followed by a 100% chance on Monday.

Like I said a minute ago, there's plenty to watch on t.v., and I have plenty to do.  The conference tournaments are starting up in men's college basketball, and I still have my NHL and NBA.  I'm noticing just now that my Bovada account is down only $2.24 from what it was on February 8th (with no deposits, and with microbet upon microbet).  I still haven't downloaded the Bovada poker again, but that's something that might happen pretty soon.  As always, I have plenty that I can do around the apartment.  This isn't even taking into account the blog reading that I've gotten behind on.  It seems that's almost all of my fellow bloggers (listed on the right) have made at least one post that I haven't read yet (while some have posted several times).  A vast majority of the time I will comment on my friends' entries after they have posted, just to let them know that I've stopped by at the least.  There hasn't been much commenting on my part this week...  :)  This just shows a bunch of laziness on my part, especially since I didn't have to report to work until 1:00 p.m. yesterday...  As a preferred night owl, my first move when discovering a delayed start at work the next day is too stay up later that night.

In addition to having reading to catch up on, I've also been neglecting all of my blogs.  I waited so long to rant about Gonzaga not deserving a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament that they went and lost a game before I did.  While I'm talking about college basketball (and this isn't a rant), I'll go on record right now with my belief that I don't think that Kentucky will go unbeaten this season.  The Wildcats have been tested a few times in a conference that isn't very tough.  If Kentucky played in the ACC, they'd probably have more than one loss already.

Since I mentioned it, I've been pondering downloading the Bovada poker (just for research for my poker blog, of course)...  :P

I think I'm gonna let y'all off the hook for now, but you may see me here again this weekend.  Have a good one until then, and remember to set your clocks ahead an hour before you go to bed on Saturday night!