I Remember The First Time (6)

"Some people come into our lives and leave footprints on our hearts and we are never ever the same..."

-Flavia Weedn-

I remember the first time that I read a quote and thought about a specific person...

I remember the first time that I heard something that didn't make any sense at all...  So last night I'm checking I.D.'s at the front door of Harper's, and this girl hands me her driver's license.  As I'm looking at the license, I hear the girl say, "that's realer than real..."  Hmmmm.....  I have to admit, this is one time that I couldn't bite my tongue.  Before I knew it, I was smiling, my eyes were rolling, and the words, "IT'S REALER THAN REAL???"..., yeah..., coming right out of my mouth...  :)

I remember the first time that I put one of my favorite jokes in my blog...  Now I'm going to tell this as a "blonde joke" since that's the way that I heard it (and because there are a couple of blondes on campus here at Texas State), but you can substitute brunettes or redheads or Aggies or whoever you'd like in here when you tell it...  ;)  Coincidentally (on purpose, not really a coincidence), this is the perfect joke for Bikini Hill...

Blonde #1:  (looking confused, yelling to her friend across the San Marcos River)  HOW DO I GET TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RIVER?!

Blonde #2:  (in total disbelief)  YOU ARE ON THE OTHER SIDE!!!

I remember the first time that I couldn't find the party (okay, if you count the time that I couldn't find Carlos and Nick's house in the November 14th, 2012 post, "Just Come In, We're Out Back," then this wouldn't be the first time)...  :)  A few weeks ago, 4 guys were walking up and down the Square looking through the windows of every bar wondering why none of them were busy at 10:00 p.m. on a Sunday night...  Yes, seriously...  :)

I remember the first time that I answered an easy question.  Not too long ago, a group of people approached me, pointed back to our "shot bar" (Slackers), and asked the question, "how do we get out of there?"  (Put it on a freakin TEE for me, right?!)...  ;)  Yes, of course I answered, "you ARE out of there..."

I remember the first time that I didn't understand a "tradition" (I'm not sure if 'tradition' is the word that I want, but it's the one that I'm going to use)...  I don't understand why opponents wish each other "good luck" before they compete in something (or after the chips go "all-in" during a poker hand).  Do you REALLY WANT the other person to win?  I often play chess at MSN while I eat (a 20-minute max. game), and recently I've done some..., "investigating"...  ;)  Here is one of those conversations:

Opponent:  "Good luck."

Me:  "Why are wishing me good luck - do you want me to win?"

Opponent:  "As a courtesy..."

Me:  "But do you want me to win?"

Opponent:  "Do you have a mental problem?"

BA HA HA HA...  :)

I remember the first time that a customer asked me a weird question (not the first time, obviously)...  As I grabbed a plastic cup from the bag for a customer's drink, I was asked, "are they clean?"  AGAIN, I was pulling the cup from a stack of cups that were still IN THE BAG...  GRRRRRRR....

I remember the first time that I was REPEATEDLY BOTHERED and ASKED and BEGGED and REMINDED and PESTERED and AGGRAVATED about mentioning someone here in the blog, even to the point where that person came into work on their day off and yelled, "BLOG ME, BLOG ME, BLOG ME!!!" as they walked by me.  Okay, here ya go...  Here's your blog mention........................., Chris.  ;)

I also want to wish a 'Happy Birthday' to my sweet friend Christie!  See, she didn't even ask Chris...  :P  Have a great day and I'll see ya tomorrow!

  

  

  

Eeekkkkk!!!! :D

"Your life is an occasion.  Rise to it..." -Suzanne Weyn-


Good afternoon everyone.  So today is my Las Vegas/poker/life day (yeah, I added life for today) here on Bikini Hill, and I woke up very motivated to do my entry, got someone's permission to mention them in the blog, ate..., AND..., WENT RIGHT BACK TO BED...  #fail  :)  Speaking of Las Vegas, we have had a very similar trait in the weather over the past few days here in San Marcos, America:  WINDY...  As I said earlier in the week, it was just too windy for me to go to Bikini Hill on Monday.  Yesterday I actually made it to Bikini Hill and studied some fantasy baseball in the time window that was bearable.  At some point after 2:00 p.m. yesterday the temperature broke the 70-degree mark and the wind speed dropped below 10 m.p.h. - this combination lasted for just under 2 hours by my estimation.  While we're on the subject, it's a good thing that I have twenty-five more days until my fantasy draft, because I have NO CLUE at this point (and remember, this is coming from the person who finished TENTH is his TEN TEAM league last year)...  Also speaking of Las Vegas, I would SO MOVE BACK (that's how the cool kids talk) and bet sports to my heart's delight at the end of the summer if I had the money, but I don't see that happening, so I still have to figure out how to make more money...  This brings me to the subject of motivation:  the motivation to lose weight; the motivation to figure out what I'm going to do; the motivation to rise to the occasion (see how I brought in the quote for today?)...  ;)

This brings us back to Bikini Hill yesterday...  During one of the breaks that I took in studying my fantasy baseball magazine, I checked my facebook.  Before you ask, "how hard can it be to study a fantasy baseball magazine?" - well..., I was actually copying names from the magazine onto a "cheat sheet" for my draft.  Hey, this tried and proven method got me tenth place in my.......  Yeah.......  ANYWAY, the status that I opened up to read as follows:  "Omg....  This has to be the happiest I've ever been!!!!!  Eeekkkkk!!!!  :D"  Now this was something positive - the facebook status came courtesy of Leanne, one of my former softball players, but although the status had three 'likes', it didn't explain why she was so happy.  It was only like ten minutes old, so I figured that I'd study some more, check back, and SURELY someone would ask her why she was so happy.  So I studied for about another twenty minutes, and then I checked my facebook again.  Now Leanne's status has over ten likes, and still, NO ONE has asked her why's she's the happiest she's EVER BEEN!!!  Goodness gracious people...  :)  At this point I like her status and ask, "Because???...  :)"  A minute later I LAUGH OUT LOUD on Bikini Hill (which didn't seem to bother the other FOUR people that were there, a.k.a., "the masses" - yeah, the weather was pretty pitiful) when Leanne replied, "I got a cheat meal today :)))))" (we'll get back to Leanne's cheat meal in a minute).  Then I read the statement that made my day.  Immediately afterward, Leanne had replied, "Plus everything in my life is finally falling together....  Blessed"  :)

It makes me extremely happy when things are going well for my former students/athletes, and Leanne's story ties into my theme of needing to get motivated.  Leanne has been lighting up facebook over the past few months with fitness photos, motivational quotes, her prepared meals for the week, etc..., which are all seemingly part of her quest to LITERALLY become Wonder Woman...  :)  Okay, I'm picking on Leanne here, but not by much...  I saw her dressed up as the superheroine for Halloween, and now Leanne is working out tirelessly and sticking to a strict diet to become the next bodybuilding and kickboxing wonder (if my understanding is correct - maybe world domination is in her plans???).  :)  Back to Leanne's "cheat meal" line, I laughed so readily because I've been in the same position on regimented diets, just SO HAPPY to actually eat something GOOD...

After reading everything that I just explained above, I came home and weighed in at 228 pounds (the same as last week).  I decided on the spot that I will be down to 215 pounds by April 1st, weighing myself everyday, no excuses, living on water the last week of March if I have to, down to 215 pounds (and NO, this is not an April Fools' joke)...  Punks...  :)  Once we get to April 1st, I'll decide where to go from there...

I hope that all of you are having success in accomplishing what you set out to do for 2013, and I'll see you again tomorrow.  Have a great day!

                            

Could You? (6)

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened..."  -Dr. Seuss-


Could you start us off with a cartoonish theme today Coach?  Good morning everyone.  So the "Harlem Shake" seems to be all the rage these days.  For those of you who don't have the same facebook friends that I do, this isn't a cool refreshing beverage that you can pick up at a Dairy Queen in New York City (ba dump, ching!).  The Harlem Shake is a dance that has been filmed in NUMEROUS locations with NUMEROUS people participating in the making of NUMEROUS videos...  I had honestly viewed ZERO of these videos..., well..., that is until yesterday, when one of the links that came across my computer was from a person that I knew was participating in the festivities.  I saw that the length of the video was only about thirty seconds, so I caved in and watched Ali and the Texas State volleyball team doing their rendition, complete with costumes and props...  :)  Then last night a former student shared an old 'Peanuts' photo on facebook with the caption:  "Harlem Shaking, before it was cool..."  This cartoon shows the various Peanuts' characters playing instruments and/or strutting their stuff in several different dance poses.  I can TRY to be clever on my facebook page and MAYBE get 4 likes on a status, but this cartoon has already drawn 11 likes (and another share) Thanks ladies...  :P  I would point to this as proof that the Harlem Shake has run its course, but I still hear 'Gangnam Style' being played at work from time to time, soooo...???  :)

Could you please make tying the knot this easy?  So my friend Jennifer FINALLY gave me another quote from her daughter that I could steal...  I use to steal the gems from this five-year-old to my facebook page, but that was also back when my facebook page had more views than Bikini Hill...  ;)  So this weekend the girl was being asked what kind of man she wanted to marry, and her response was, "I guess any man that asks me!!"  Ahhhhh, if only love was so simple...  :)

Could you tell us when you lost your innocence?  As I was getting my fantasy baseball entry ready for the upcoming season, I was reminded of the fact that it is now almost impossible for me to watch a televised sporting event in its entirety without having a wager on it or the event having some sort of fantasy sports implications...

Could you have some sort of destination in mind?  More than I would like to admit (for the sake of the people that I'm about to pick on), this situation has been occurring at work A LOT recently.  On the busier nights at work, I'm stationed at a place in a hallway that is pretty isolated.  Quite often I'll be approached by customers who have exited our second-level bar, and they'll ask the question, "what's up here?"  I'll respond with, "there's a bar on the roof..."  This happens as I wonder..., "WHERE WERE YOU GOING???"  Maybe people just have that Magellan gene..., or that Columbus instinct, to just..., GO EXPLORING when they're out partying???  :)

Could you give us an old cliche' Coach?  This is applicable to everyone, but aimed especially at you younger readers:  TIME FLIES people, it really does...  Figure out what you want to get out of life, and start doing things to accomplish your goals...  As I sit here typing this, the high school and college students of San Marcos (yes, America) are just less than two weeks away from experiencing spring break.  It does not seem possible that my sudden move back here from Las Vegas took place almost a full six months ago...

Could you PLEASE not compliment me on my piece of garbage watch?  I have worn digital watches for a long time, but the last time that one of my watches broke, the cheapest replacement happened to be one that had actual hands.  You have to understand, the watches that I buy are SO CHEAP that buying a new watch actually costs less than replacing a watch battery...  So, I'm disappointed with the watch that I bought because the hands are gold (not real), and the face of the watch is ALSO gold (again, not real).  In the light of the store, I did not realize how difficult it would be to read the time if the light wasn't perfect.  So, I'm already disappointed with this watch, but ALL THE TIME at work, I have customers COMPLIMENTING ME on my cheap, sorry, FIVE DOLLAR piece of trash...  "Oh, I like that watch!" - "Is that a Rolex?"  "ARE YOU ON DRUGS?" (I've been tempted, but I haven't responded with that)...  I know what you're thinking:  "Coach, they might be giving you a hard time on purpose, because the watch is SO AWFUL..."  I've considered this, but SO MANY PEOPLE have told me how much they like this stupid watch...

Could you stop whining, do your errands, and go enjoy Bikini Hill for a few hours today?  Well, the temperature is supposed to be 70 degrees, I've barely cracked the cover on my fantasy baseball magazine, and I am off today, so that's EXACTLY what I'm going to do.  Have a great day everyone, and I'll see you again tomorrow!  ;)






  








    

What's The Number For 911?

"I drink to make other people more interesting..." -Ernest Hemingway-


Good morning everyone.  Today is the start of my weekend, and normally a great opportunity to visit Bikini Hill, except for the 20-40 m.p.h. winds that are forecast...  I'll be saving the fantasy baseball magazine studying for tomorrow evidently...  I learned something interesting about my blog this weekend.  Facebook and twitter definitely influence who stops by here to visit.  When I "advertised" on Friday that my entry was about my upcoming fantasy baseball draft, I ended up with about a 30% decline in traffic over the weekend...  When the time comes, I guess that I'll have to combine the actual draft results with something that interests the rest of you...  ;)

How about drinking?  Let's talk about drinking, and how you can spot a person that's had a "911" shot for the first time...  A 911 is a combination of Goldschlager and Rumplemintz (at least at our three bars here in San Marcos, America)...  This conversation took place between two customers shortly after 1:00 a.m. a few mornings back:

Guy #1:  "That tasted like a combination of..., TOOTHPASTE..., and..., MOUTHWASH...
Guy #2:  "Yeah, it's AWESOME!!!"

I couldn't have said it better myself...  ;)



Okay, so I'm manning the workstation/checkpoint that I watch on the busier nights this past weekend when a group of three guys approaches me.  I'm watching as one of the guys just starts..., PUNCHING THE BAGS OF PLASTIC CUPS, like they're punching bags...  The following conversation ensued:

Me:  "Grow up..."
Rocky:  (as he's walking by me) "I'm twenty-one..."
Me:  (eyes following him the whole way, as I SNAP BACK)  "ACT LIKE IT..."

Now as the group of guys wanders around the corner and up the stairs, I've got something to think about - I did a pretty good job of keeping my cool since the guy didn't really hurt anything, but the group will have to pass by my on their way back down the stairs, and who knows how much I aggravated the guy...  Predictably, our business picked up as the night wore on, and I would have missed the guy when he passed by me, except for the fact that he said:

Rocky:  "I apologize for earlier..."
Me: (half-stunned, but taking it in stride)  "Thank you, have a good one..."

Sometimes you get through...  ;)



The rest of today's entry will also focus on work stories since I have some momentum going.  I want to give a shoutout to my new friend Sarah (my new favorite Ole Miss Rebel) for giving me a slice a pizza on two separate occasions this weekend as my shift came to a close.  You see people?  If you just GIVE ME FOOD, you can get into the blog...  ;)  I also want to give a shoutout to my friend Sam (who evidently took some grief back in the fall when I typed here that he FORCED ME to eat pizza while we were watching the World Series of Poker).  Sam has hooked me up with food on SEVERAL occasions, and he scored me a hot dog at the Texas State baseball game yesterday (a 4-2 loss in 10 innings).  We'll talk more about the baseball team later in the week, but another close game, and another close loss for the Bobcats...

Also in the spirit of being nice to me, we have this...  A small group was walking by my workstation a few nights ago when this conversation transpired:

Her:  "I saw you last night..."
Me:  (nonchalantly)  "I'm here on every busy night..."
Her:  "I LIKE IT!  It makes my night so much better..."

Awwwwww....  :)



I had a couple guys passing by me on their way out the other night when I got this:

Guy 1:  "You have a bunch of Communism going on up there?
Me:  (extremely confused) "I do???"  (I got no response)



"This is a weird way to get to a rooftop" was a comment that I heard last week, and I just wanted to answer with, "going up stairs???"  Nah, I didn't say it...  :)

"They need to give you a tip jar" is a comment that I've heard a few times during the past month (great idea).  I think I know a group of doorguys that would be all for this...  ;)

One of my new favorite things (it just seems to be happening more lately) is when the customers exiting/or coming around the corner approaching Slackers start breaking out their dance moves as soon as they hear the music that is playing...  :)

As I've mentioned here before, I do have to figure out what's next, but there are far worse places to be than San Marcos, America...  ;)  Have a great day everyone!





















  

Linger

"If you, if you could return, don't let it burn, don't let it fade, I'm sure I'm not being rude, but it's just your attitude, it's tearing me apart, it's ruining everything..."

(Skip ahead)

"Oh..., I thought the world of you, I thought nothing could go wrong, but I was wrong, I was wrong...  If you, if you could get by, trying not to lie, things wouldn't be so confused, and I wouldn't feel so used, but you always really knew, I just wanna be with you..."

-The Cranberries- (Linger)



Good morning everyone.  You see how I am?  One day I'm leading off with a corny joke that somebody made about the lead singer of a band, and the next day I'm posting some of that band's lyrics...

Speaking of leading off (YES..., HORRIBLE segue, I know, and WHEN did I decide to start using the word 'segue' so much?), the Major League Baseball season begins in about 37 days (not that anyone is counting).  I'm going to be fielding a team in the same fantasy baseball contest that I "competed in" (VERY LIBERAL USE of the phrase 'competed in') last year.  The draft for this 10-team league takes place exactly one month from tomorrow, and I've drawn the second overall pick in the "snake draft" (I'll be selecting 2nd, 19th, 22nd, 39th, etc...).  Last year I finished 10th out of 10 teams (that means LAST), and I was doing so badly (that means LAST) that I actually QUIT TRYING when I moved to Las Vegas (for one month, GRRRRRR...) at the end of July.  If you want to learn about my draft strategy and the unfortunate results that helped lead to that STELLAR last-place finish, go back to my March 26th, 2012 post:  'My 2012 Fantasy Baseball Draft/Strategy & Results' - catchy name, I know...

I plan to stick with the same basic draft strategy again for this season (at this time).  Last season I suffered through a lot of bad luck with injuries and through poor performances from some of my top picks.  I will again be posting the results of my draft for this season after the draft takes place.  If you do take a peek at this blog entry from last March, you'll see that my misguided expectations for the success of the Philadelphia Phillies were a key factor in my team's demise.  By the way, for the upcoming season, I named my team 'The View From Bikini Hill' (original, RIGHT?!), so if you happen to be one of the nine people on the planet who is competing against me AND you're reading this right now, then you have some very good insight into my draft strategy...  ;)

Have a great weekend and I'll see you again on Monday!

  

I Remember The First Time (5)

"I used to date the lead singer of The Cranberries, but she cheated on me.  Turns out she had some turkey on the side..." -Jarod Kintz-

I remember the first time that I gave you a quote like that first thing on a Thursday morning - sorry...  ;)

I remember the first time that I downloaded a bad update for facebook onto my Droid.  So for over a week I had been fighting a bad update that constantly kept forcing the facebook application on my Droid to close. I kept thinking about uninstalling and then reinstalling facebook, but I didn't do it (I was just hoping that facebook would soon come out with a better update).  If you find yourself in a similar predicament, just reinstall the application.  I haven't had a single problem with it since doing so last night...

I remember the first time that I noticed something.  I was watching an episode of 'The Dead Zone' a few days ago when the group hiking through the mountains approached a footbridge.  My immediate thought was, "anytime that you see a footbridge in a movie (or on a television show), it will always break..."  Sure enough, as the last person is crossing, and there go the creaky boards...  

I remember the first time that someone called me "Doug..."  I was a high school softball coach here in San Marcos, America about a 100 years ago (not really that long ago).  For some reason, one of the kids decided to tag me with the nickname Doug.  No, my name isn't Doug, and I'm not even sure if I know ANYONE who is named Doug.  This brings us to the other morning when I was at the grocery store here in town (yes, during the same shopping trip that I spotted the Seagrams 'Jamaican Me Happy' wine coolers)...  As I was entering the store, I was greeted with "Hey Doug" by one of the YOUNGER SISTERS of one of the kids who had played for our program.  I'm not going to call out the specific person who came up with this nickname, but yeah..., it stuck...  ;)

I remember the first time that somebody got in trouble outside of class.  So the other night at work, this guy is telling me that he just saw his professor at the bar.  The guy was dressed in a shirt and tie at the time, and he said that he was informed by his professor that she expects him to dress up for her class from now on.  Evidently he has been wearing muscle shirts in her classroom the whole semester...  :)

I remember the first time that I picked my college from a catalog.  I don't think that I've told you this story before...  Yeah, for as much as I praise my alma mater and San Marcos, America, I actually applied for school and was accepted here without ever having visited the campus or this college town.  I was a high school senior in northern New Hampshire, and I applied for admission to one school in the Granite State (that would be New Hampshire) and to three schools down here in Texas.  When I told my dad which schools had accepted me, he said that San Marcos (and Southwest Texas State University, at that time) was just half an hour up the road from San Antonio (yeah, I didn't even know that much at the time).  It's funny how things work out, isn't it???

I remember the first time that I didn't trust someone...  Do any of you trust guys that wear wool beanie hats indoors?  And let's be clear, I'm not talking about wool, "I'm robbing you and I want all of your money ski masks..."  I'm talking about it's over 70 degrees inside and it really looks like that thing would make your head itch wool hats...  

I remember the first time that a girl gave me her phone number.  Oh, and him, and him, and him, and that guy over there evidently...  :)  WHY do you think that I'd be interested in calling you if I see you with a different guy EVERYTIME that I see you at the bar???  Hmmmm....

Have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow!

    

    

      

      

Freia

"I am fond of pigs.  Dogs look up to us.  Cats look down on us.  Pigs treat us as equals..."
-Winston Churchill-


Good morning everyone.  This is Las Vegas/poker day, and we'll get to that (somewhat), but let me start off by telling you about my neighbor's cat.  My cat story will segue into several other tidbits that I have for you today if you give it a chance...  Freia is one of the most beautiful cats that I've ever seen (and yes Alyssa, Belle is one of the most beautiful cats that I've ever seen that I've never met)...  :)  Let me mention here that the word 'beautiful' is a word that I don't just throw around without meaning it.  Anyway, Freia is a beautiful cat, a mix of black and brown with some white (a persian cat maybe??? - I'm sorry, I'm trying to describe the hairstyle of a cat, which isn't my strong suit...) - gorgeous cat, nonetheless.  Freia is similar to the stereotype of cats mentioned in the Churchill quote above, except that I don't believe that Freia looks down on me, it's just that Freia is gonna do what Freia wants to do...  When Freia wants attention, she will approach you and nuzzle up to you, depending on where she wants you to pet her (which side of her head/neck basically).  There is a group of steps near my front door that I will sit on when I see Freia, and she will come up to me until she's had enough pampering (this usually lasts for a couple of minutes), and then she leaves.  Okay, maybe Freia does look down on me...  :)  Fast forward to this morning, when I was in a hurry to get to the campus bookstore, and Freia was right outside my front door as I exited.  I reached down and gave her some quick affection, petting her around her head, and she ducked away.  This is when I decided to leave.  "WHOA" is what you could imagine Freia thinking, as she took some quick little cat steps, semi-sprinting ahead of me, stopping at my side where I could give her some more attention.  I decided to just walk past her, which I've NEVER done, and this must have totally confused my beautiful little feline neighbor, as she proceeded to dart halfway down the first third of about twenty steps, and stopped RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of the stairway.  I carefully stepped over and around Freia, and she again hustled down the steps, again stopping directly in my path.  I never broke stride, again evading her, and she followed me down the next small stairway and into the parking lot, where she gave up after I passed the first row of cars.  There is no point whatsoever to what you just read, except that it reminded me of the quote above, which I found yesterday when I was searching for yesterday's laughter quote.  I'm sure that if you're a poker player or a people (cat) watcher, you can spin some sort of behavioral analysis out of that.  If you happen to be a quote Nazi, I have seen that quote above in at least four different forms (all attributed to Churchill), and I apologize if I chose the incorrect version.

Speaking of pets, I did find a new betta.  I picked up my new fish on Monday and named him George.  Think about what holiday Monday was, and you can probably figure out why he's named George (think about it, think about it)...  :)  Speaking of Monday, AFTER I went into my bank, I realized what day it was, and then I wondered why the bank was even open.  Then I concluded that the former Presidents are the ones that are on all of the money, so...  Going back to my Valentine's Day (yes, I'm segueing all over the place today), around the time that we discussed Alyssa's cat and Melanie's dogs, I was asked if I had any pets.  "OH, we brought up a bad subject!" was the response that I got after I told about the demise of my most recent betta (I still feel bad about that).  Just so you know, George is in the same glass mug that my last betta resided in, but the mug is covered with the white plastic top from the container that George was sold in.  George is not going anywhere...  ;)

Okay, so I've ditched Freia and I take the bus to campus.  The most eventful thing that happens on the way to campus is that at one of the stops, the bus driver steps off the bus and takes the time to smoke a cigarette.  OKAY..., but I don't have a class that I'll be late for, so whatever...  We get to campus, I walk to the bookstore, they don't have what I want, so I return to the bus stop.  As I'm walking up to the bus, the bus driver decides it's a good time to pull away.  Fortunately, I have time to cut across and make it to the other side of the bus semi-circle.  UNFORTUNATELY, when I flag the bus driver down on the other side of this unlucky bus horseshoe, she shrugs her shoulders and keeps on going.  UGGHHH...  I already tweeted about this wonderful experience, asking my followers to retweet me if they've ever suffered through a similar circumstance, and so far I've had three retweets and my tweet has been favorited twice...  You want me to walk - I'm 100 YEARS OLD!!! (not really)

So late last night I FINALLY started catching up on some of my Las Vegas blog reading.  I am at that point again where I wouldn't mind being able to play poker and bet on sports (that's what reading will do for you), but I just don't think that the funds will be there to do that by August.  I did enjoy browsing through a few of my favorite blogs for the better part of an hour, but I naively believed that I would be able to enjoy a wine cooler while doing this.  I bought these wine coolers as a sleep aid (again kids, don't try this at home), and that's EXACTLY how they worked, as I became too tired to read any longer.  I had intended to subscribe to a poker magazine in the case that I don't move, but now I'm thinking that there is just SO MUCH on the internet (not to mention all of the catch-up reading that I have to do) that purchasing a subscription would be pointless.  Now I might start trying to figure out if there's possibly any way that I can return to the desert for some of the World Series of Poker this summer.  What to do, what to do, what to do???

As I leave you today, I have to mention something that's happened twice during the past week (well, three times if you count a photograph) that has brought a warm and fuzzy feeling to my heart.  After writing here last week about how I came to eventually meet my friend Jennifer, how I thought that the names Castelluccio and Verissimo at least warranted the CONSIDERATION of never getting married (why lose those names?), and after writing about finding the perfect Valentine's Day gifts..., well..., my little blog became a part of three facebook statuses (pasted onto two, plus a photograph of the bottle opener keychains on a third - again, IF that counts)...  Thank you - I know the best people...  ;)

I hope that you have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow!