Outraged at Iraq

I came home from a relatively good day. First thing my wife brings to my attention is a news report she heard about an Iraqi orphanage for special needs children was neglected by the caretakers. 24 boys, only one of them could talk. I was sick, disgusted, and mad as hell. I wanted 5 minutes with the care takers so I can kick their teeth in.

All I could do is pick up my son with special needs and hold him tight. I kept picturing him helpless like those kids. No, it's not easy dealing with special needs, but I can't imagine life without him either.

Wife gets the shock of her life.

I've been dreaming of this day for years. Now it's a reality. You see I have always wanted to throw my wife a surprise party. I missed the opportunity when she turned 30 and 35 didn't seem right. So I had to do the 40.

I got her friend involved and her mother involved. Her friend set the stage for a "girls night out." I kind of felt bad because she was really stoked to go out.

Things sort of hit a snag on the way. I wanted to do it on her actual birthday. Problem was her mom was going out of town. So we agreed to do it a week earlier. Figured it would throw her off. So we figured out the food, number of guest and what not, but how to get her over to her parents house without raising suspician? That was the challenge.

Well as it turned out, days after I picked the week before, it turns out we get an invite for another party. I really had to keep it in check. But there was the girls night out and there was our way out of the party, but even the day before we were stumbling on how to get her to her folks.

Saturday morning, I sat straight up and concocted an idea. I said out loud, "I'm not going to the party."
She said, "You're what?"
"I'm not going. I just don't feel socialable."
Boy was she mad as she said, "We talked about this."
"I won't go and you can't make me. I'll watch Gabriel, but I'm not going."
We didn't talk to each other for an hour. She finally said, "I'm mad at you." I expected that.
I told her, "We'll talk about it tonight, it will all make sense then." I thought I gave away too much, but apparently not.
She finally left, came back, left again. I got her cake (Big costco hit) and any other food I needed to get for mom.
When I got there, people we're asking me, "Well if you're here, how are you going to get Paula down."
I said, "I'm going to call her about 5:15pm and say, 'I'm at your dad's fixing another computer SNAFU. Drop the kids off, I have your clothes and YOUR MAKE UP here.'" They loved the idea, especially the women. I kind of got the impression it is Taboo to mess with a woman's make up.
So she shows up and I decided to meet her at the van. I didn't give her time to think. I grabbed Gabriel and said we had to walk through the back.
She wanted to go through the garage and I said how I got chewed out for being in there so the back it was.
"So what is the computer problem," She asked.
"Just your usual, he doesn't maintain anything kind," I replied as I pulled back the slides for Paula to hear, "SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!!"
I say it was a job well done.

16 year old collapsed and died playing soccer

This is 6 weeks after Carly had her heart attack and she was only 15. Really beginning to wonder if we're pushing our kids too much. Here is the article:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/10/BAGEOQD0PS4.DTL

Laptop VS. Desktop

Personally I prefer the laptop because of the freedom of mobility. I can pretty much do almost anything anywhere. However I do suggest having a desktop. Just look at it as home base for your computing. Good article.

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/29230/laptop-vs-desktop-which-is-right-for-you

A great final hand...

There was 3 of us left in an 18 player tournament. Here's how it went down.

PokerStars Game #10343672524: Tournament #52405693, $1.00+$0.20 Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2007/06/09 - 01:28:17 (ET)Table '52405693 2' 9-max Seat #8 is the buttonSeat 5: 03grizzly (8040 in chips)
Seat 6: GPennRef (12905 in chips)
Seat 8: creatoo (6055 in chips)
03grizzly: posts the ante 50
GPennRef: posts the ante 50
creatoo: posts the ante 5
03grizzly: posts small blind 300
GPennRef: posts big blind 600*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to GPennRef [Ad Ah]
creatoo: calls 600
03grizzly: calls 300
GPennRef: raises 1200 to 1800
creatoo: raises 1200 to 3000
03grizzly: calls 2400
GPennRef: raises 1200 to 4200
creatoo: raises 1200 to 5400
03grizzly: calls 2400
GPennRef: raises 1200 to 6600
creatoo: calls 605 and is all-in
03grizzly: calls 1200*** FLOP *** [9c Qs 4h]
03grizzly: bets 1390 and is all-in
GPennRef: calls 1390*** TURN *** [9c Qs 4h] [8d]*** RIVER *** [9c Qs 4h 8d] [7s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***03grizzly: shows [Td 9s] (a pair of Nines)
GPennRef: shows [Ad Ah] (a pair of Aces)GPennRef collected 3970 from side pot
creatoo: shows [Js Ac] (high card Ace)
GPennRef collected 18165 from main pot*** SUMMARY ***Total pot 22135 Main pot 18165. Side pot 3970. Rake 0 Board [9c Qs 4h 8d 7s]
Seat 5: 03grizzly (small blind) showed [Td 9s] and lost with a pair of Nines
Seat 6: GPennRef (big blind) showed [Ad Ah] and won (22135) with a pair of Aces
Seat 8: creatoo (button) showed [Js Ac] and lost with high card Ace

And that was a great way to finish a tourney

No soccer, just poker..

Been a while since I have been on. Basically have had nothing to report. Won some poker games here, lost some there. All in all, just refining my poker game.

The company I work for had me helping with the organizing of the poker game. Unfortunately things happened during game day. I had two good hands and got sucked out by crappy hands despite playing them right.

Still injured. Starting therapy in a couple of days. Hoping I can get back on the saddle by July. I didn't realize that I did referee my 10 games to fulfill my amateur requirement. I just need the maintanence.