Back To the Grind

For the record, I would like to state that being sick stinks. I am sitting here on my first day back post-Christmas wishing I was curled up in bed. The Man, Zachary has been sick for a week with RSV and an ear infection and he must be a sharing type, because he has passed at least some of that good stuff on to Mom and Dad. It appears as though at least three other people in the office are feeling ill, so I am not suffering alone. The baby, while sick, is in good spirits. The Man Zachary has a great little personality. One second he is coughing and making an insanely terrifying choking/gagging noise, the next he is smiling and laughing. God, I love that kid. Even if he gave me the gonnecoculous creeping death.

My holiday was pretty good. Spent Christmas Eve at our house with my parents and Gabby, plus Kim's Mom and Brian. I usually get all kinds of fired up on Christmas Eve when my parents and Gabby open their presents, but this year was tough for me as I was already feeling sick. Christmas Day we went to Kim's Mom's for presents and for breakfast. Christmas morning breakfast is easily my favorite meal of the year. I believe I ate breakfast on Sunday for an hour and a half straight! We went home, got cleaned up and headed over to Kim's Aunt's around 4. The Von Bargen Christmas is always a very cool production. Zachary was the center of attention, and he made out over there like a bandit. From there we headed back to Kim's Mom's for dinner. I made out fairly well this year. Kim always does a good job in picking out gifts for me, and this year was no exception. Some gift highlights are the Lost: Season 1 DVDs, O.C. & Stiggs (one of my favorite 80s movies, just released on DVD - very goofy) DVD, a very cool watch (I have never really worn one, but will start now), two awesome poker books (Super System II & Harrington on Hold 'Em), some much-needed clothes, a cute little frame and picture of the The Man Zachary, and a very cute quasi gag-gift. I have been saying for years that the next huge thing (after the internet boom of the 90s) will be cloning various large animals into much smaller pet-sized versions for home keeping. With that being said, I have said that once this technology is available, that I want a mini-elephant to keep in the house. So, Kim got me a little motorized baby elephant that scares the hell out of the cats. Very cute.

Got to spend some time with the neighbors over the weekend, which was very nice. Our house is the social center of the block, and we always like having people come over. Looks like we might be doing something small in the neighborhood for New Year's Eve. This would be good, since all of the neighbors have kids that need to be accounted for that night. Plans are still up in the air though. New Year's Eve used to be my favorite day of the year, but now that I am old and boring, I don't have the same level of excitement about it that I used to. The best New Year's ever was 1999, hanging out with Jordan and the 7749 Crew waiting for midnight to yell and scream and also to see if Y2K was going to turn off the lights. Plus, unlike the year before, I managed to avoid falling down the deck steps. We did, however encounter some beach witches and warlocks that night. These three people (two girls and a guy) came up to us on the beach while we were running around and talked to us about their Wiccan belief-system. Not sure what kind of impact it had on me other than the initial shock of seeing three figures clad from head-to-toe in black approaching us on the beach. Very strange night...

We had our office Christmas party Friday afternoon and I wasn;t really into it. I was already coming down with the cold and was looking to get out of here as early as I could. A poker tourney ($20 buy-in) broke out and I was torn. Normally I would leap at the chance to take money from my boss and his brother, but it wasn't to be. We started with $230.00 in chips and the blinds were going up every 15 minutes. There were too many calling stations and I caught nothing in the way of cards. I finally got fed up around 3:15 and called an all-in bet with two suited connectors (I had an inside straight draw, and a straight flush draw). My boss re-raised me all-in and turned over 7-5 off-suit for a full boat on the flop. I needed a 6d to steal the pot and survive but it wasn;t happening. I was looking to get out the door so I could get up to RoFo to pick up Kim's last present before rush hour, so my disappointment level was minimal. I will play more disciplined next time I sit down with the boss and his brother though. They fancy themselves to be good players, but no matter how much time they spend in A.C., they are most beatable.

All in all, my holiday was okay. It would have been much more fantabulous if I were feeling better though.


[Currently Listening: Soup Dragons - "Divine Thing"]