Hawaii and Lacrosse posts soon to come.....

Got a couple of Hawaii posts that I'm getting ready. Just need to work through all the pictures to figure out which ones to add to the posts. Hawaii blogs without pictures are like peeing with your pants on. Neither one is very productive or enjoyable to look at in any way.

Also, I'm going to the Johns Hopkins Lacrosse game tonight. The 7th ranked Johns Hopkins Bluejays will be hosting the 17th ranked University of Maryland-Baltimore County Retrievers. The Bluejays just had a 19 game winning streak and 37 game home winning streak snapped by Princeton. I'm quite sure the Bluejays will be irritated about that and put a good beating on the Retrievers. I'll have pictures and a blog so my midwest friends can see what lacrosse really is all about.

A tale of two cities......

So Mrs. Lime and I are closing the sale of our house in Kansas City end of this week. As part of the arrangement, the closing papers are being sent to someone out here in Baltimore to be a witness to the signing of the papers. My first task is to call the person at the title company in Kansas City to get the details.

I called Nina to find out the location and the name of the contacts. She was very helpful and gave me the phone number, address and names of the people I needed to call in Baltimore to set up the meeting to sign the closing papers. Very nice lady.

I then call the number to speak with Fran, my contact here in Baltimore. Evidently she's a lawyer. I explain who I am and why I'm calling. Before I even finish what I'm saying, she responds that 'she knows who I am' with a less than appealing tone. Rocky start.

After that, I asked if it might be possible for my wife and I to come at separate times to sign the documents since we may not be able to make it at the same time. She responded that we could, but than gave me responses like 'if we do that, it's going to waste a lot of my partner's time' and 'we're not getting paid much to do this, so if you did that, we'd have to charge you another $200 for the extra time that would be wasted'. Already, I'm feeling like I can't wait to meet this lady.

Finally, when I ask if she might be able to help me with finding a place to park, she mentions that she has a spot there in the building that she pays $XX.XX a month to use. But she's not sure at all if there's anyplace close where I can park. So she took time out to 'help' me by telling me that she had a great parking spot, but failed to give me any idea at all where a good spot would be for me to park.

It's official. I'm ready to move back to the midwest.

Tips from golf lessons....

I'm just putting these tips in my blog so I don't forget what I was taught at my lessons over the past two days. If anyone wants to peek when I get home, I have a full booklet with many useful tips.

Full Swing:

1. Angle upper body back.
2. Cock Arms at 90 degrees and delay release as long as possible before impact.
3. Rotate arms hard through impact, varying rotation to hit hook/fade.
4. If your swing gets too vertical, hover club over the ball and swing to miss the ball, then put that same swing on the ball.

Chipping:

1. 80/20 front weight distribution.
2. Keep hands solid.
3. Always use less loft than you thing you need to avoid mishits.

Pitch:

1. DON'T DECELERATE!
2. Square to the target, 60/40 front weight distribution
3. Only use lob wedge, Pitching wedge not enough loft.
4. For flops, put ball even with front toe and open slightly. Double swing compared to usual swing.

Aloha from Maui

Having a good time in the 50th state. We are staying in a condo overlooking cliffs where the water crashes in. We can also see two of the other islands (Lanai and Molokai) from our balcony. We've got a couple of great outings lined up over the coming days. I'm taking golf lessons today at the Kapalua Golf Academy. I'll have a full report once we get back the coming weekend. Plenty of pictures to share.

Off to Maui....

Heading out to Maui for the next week. We'll get to see the island and the whales. Hopefully will get to play the Plantation Golf Course at Kapalua too (a PGA course). If I can, I'll post from the island. Otherwise, I'll have several sets of pics and blogs when I get back.

Sad news in the haircutting world........

For those of you that are a regular reader of this blog, you may remember my entry where I waged the great debate of whether the salon girl or the barber gave a better overall haircutting experience. You may remember that I mentioned my wife's gay hair stylist.

I have unfortunate news to report. It seems that my wife's hair stylist was caught smoking something other than a cigarette at work. Early reports are that it was being used strictly for medicinal purposes, but judging from the permanent vacation that he has received, it appears the employer has evidence to indicate otherwise.

As a result, there will be no more men on a regular basis wearing pink clogs and bright colored clothes at the salon.

"Pass the dutchie on the left hand side......."

Public service announcement.......

I felt like this would be an excellent time to educate the people warped enough to read this humble blog about something that can cause major problems in your life.

That something is..........hot chocolate.

Please note that I'm not speaking from experience in this post.

I can't believe that anyone would actually drink hot chocolate at their desk at work. Worse yet, there are people that actually drink hot chocolate at desks where computers are located. So I feel it's important to let everyone know just how dangerous this can be.

For example, use your imagination to envision someone reaching for a piece of paper on their desk. As they reach for the paper, they totally forget that they have a piping-hot cup of hot chocolate on their desk. In their haste to get the paper, they accidentally tap the cup, causing it to start wobbling.

Now, rather than just allowing the cup to wiggle to a stop and remain standing, the imaginary person quickly reaches back to try to stop the cup from wobbling. In turn, they end up hitting the cup with their hand at a high rate of movement, resulting in a flying cup of hot chocolate that explodes onto the monitor, keyboard and surrounding desk and papers at this imaginary person's desk.

Sounds terrible, doesn't it? Thankfully, I'll never know what a mess that imaginary person made in my, I mean, their cube.

I don't even know him......

There's a guy who's 21 that I speak to regularly via instant message on Tigerboard. He went to Oak Park High School and dropped out one year before graduating. He said high school just 'wasn't for him'. He did, to his credit, go ahead and pick up a GED. After heading out into the work force, he quickly realized that he didn't like working jobs that were meant for people who graduated high school only.

At some point, he decided to go to a community college to start furthering his education. He's struggled at times, but it seemed like the 'school's not for me' mindset was creeping into his head. He did managed to finish two years at the community college and earn an associate's degree.

Now, he has just enrolled at MU. I chatted with him via instant message right after he got there. He was obviously very excited to be at the big campus and getting started. But I could tell just from his general comments that he might not be fully focused on what he needed to do.

I contacted him again the other day to see how things were going. He had noted that he had a 1000 word essay that was due the next day in one of his posts on Tigerboard. I sent him a message with the subject line saying, "You better bust your ass and get that paper done." He laughed. He said that the first round of tests didn't go as well as he would have liked and that he was going to have to bear down and get some things done.

He thanked me for telling him to 'bust his ass' and actually mentioned that he appreciated that someone was trying to encourage him to do well. I've always had the impression that he's had a rough home life. I think he was sincere in his thanks. It's nice to know that you can say something in a joking, yet pointed way to someone you don't even know and yet have a positive impact on their life.

Some quick updates........

Since everyone evidently didn't get the memo, thought I'd pass on a few things about our upcoming moves.

---We just signed a contract to sell our house. Nice to finally get it sold. For those of you that may be curious, the house sold for $147K. We had a list price of $149.5K, so we got pretty much what we were asking. We'll have the final closing on March 10th.

---We will be moving to Kansas City at the start of July. We'll probably rent an apartment or condo until we find a more permanent home.

---Mrs. Lime has taken a job with the same group that her sister works for presently. It's a teleradiology group. Basically, she'll be working from home and reading various x-rays, cat scans, etc. from hospitals all over the nation on computers at home.

So you all are now officially updated. Consider yourselves warned. We will be invading Kansas City in the very near future.

Don't eat yellow snow.......

It's about time. We've got some warmer temperatures to melt the 12 inches of snow we received last weekend. A lot of the snow, except for some of the larger piles on the sides of the roads and parking lots, should be melted by the end of the day. Actually, I'm quite glad that the melt is finally happening. When you have two very large dogs, a lot of yellow snow begins to appear after a few days. The snow no longer is pretty at that point.

It's become quite evident that my dog prefers snow. Every time we take him out for 'potty' breaks, he does his business and then immediately looks for the closest pile of snow to lay down. It appears as though it's his own quiet protest that it's too damn hot in the house for his own tastes. It appears that the ladies in the house will not be dropping the thermostat any time soon to appease his requests. I tend to agree with him, but I don't have much more say in the matter than he does.

Spring must be approaching. Soon, the Johns Hopkins Bluejays will begin the defense of their 2005 NCAA national championship. The stadium is a 5 minute walk from the house, so I will be attending all the games that I can. It will be my first taste of live lacrosse. From what I've heard, it's a really fun sport to watch in person. I'm sure I will be blogging some about my experiences with lacrosse. Should be interesting to learn a sport that's basically new to me. I know they use a ball, sticks with a basket and a goal. I also know that it's a very rough sport. Outside of that, I'll have to learn everything else. I'm ready and willing.

Sorry for the long delay between posts.....

Should have regular posts again now that we're back into the flow of daily life. Hope you enjoyed the pictures of New Hampshire from today's post.

New Hampshire Skiing Trip

We went to Waterville Valley, NH to celebrate Valentine's Day. We took a plane Friday night to Manchester, NH. It was actually a very nice city. The airport reminded me a lot of Kansas City. The walk from parking spot to the terminal was very short. There were only 17 gates. Rental car places were in the same place as the baggage claim, which made it easy to get both things done in a minimal amount of time. Very nice place.

New Hampshire is relatively sparsely populated. Manchester and Concord are the larger cities, but they are pretty small. Downtown areas were maybe 1/4 the size of Kansas City's downtown area. Mr. Lime mentioned that they just seemed like very livable cities and relatively safe.

We took I-93 into the mountains. Lots of trees. The vast majority of the trees were either evergreens or a tree that had a white bark that shed off the tree. Really nice roads (you start to notice these types of things after living in Baltimore for a year). The mountain streams were similar to the Canadian streams that I visited when I was younger. So clear you felt like you could drink the water straight from the stream.

We stayed in a hotel that was all suites. Basically, all of the units were privately-owned condos that were rented out to visitors when the owners were not using the unit. Really nice. Master bedroom with bathroom, two closets, kitchen and living room with a murphy bed. Great view of the mountains from both the living room and the bedroom.

We got a night's rest and headed to go skiing the next morning. We used the shuttle buses to go to the mountain. Rented the skis and headed up the mountain. It was nice to ski again. The first day was a really nice day. Very clear so we could see all the mountains around the area. The mountain was obviously not as big as mountains in the Rockies that we had skied on previously. Trails were somewhat limited. Also, even the black trails were groomed. So no mogul skiing for me, but Mrs. Lime didn't mind the chance to say she skied a black trail. It was a nice place to go skiing after a 5 year hiatus from the slopes.

We headed home after a day on the slopes for a quick nap and a night out. There was a really nice place called Town Square only a few hundred feet from our hotel. It had 6 restaurants and 15-20 shops. We went to a restaurant called Black Diamond North. Great food. We got some entertainment from some kids at a nearby table. 5 kids at a nice restaurant. Their orders? 3 macaroni and cheese and 2 hot dogs. They, of course ordered 5 Shirley Temples to go with their fancy meals. Mrs. Lime mentioned that she used to always get Shirley Temple's when she went out to eat as a kid. After dinner, we did some brief shopping and got a few things. In addition, there was a grocery store. We picked up some eggs for the morning breakfast.

My father-in-law had an annual rite of passage that he would perform once a year on the Fourth of July. He would pick up a load of morter shells ranging from 3-5 inches and head out to a lot on a lake north of town. He had 3 pipes buried in the ground. He then would tie a flare to the end of a broomstick and light the fuse and then dive into a hole as the morter exploded into the air. Occasionally, a morter would explode prematurely or rain down on the spectators. Neighbors all around the lake would applaud at his show of force.

You probably wonder why this story is being thrown into a story about a serene setting in the mountains. Well, right after dinner, there was supposed to be a fireworks display. I nearly lost it when I saw two red flares being lit on the other side of the lake, followed by the loud noise of mortars being launched in the air. It was my father-in-law's fireworks display being reinacted all over again. It even included people all around the late clapping and making lots of noise. When the display was all finished, the father-in-law copycats waved the flares in a circle. Evidently, this was the sign that it was all over. It was pretty amusing stuff to say the least. The full moon was behind the fireworks and lighting up the mountains surrounding us, providing a really nice setting for the whole show. You should be able to see the moon in all of the fireworks pictures above.

We were in bed by 9:00 (evidenly skiing takes it out of people over 30 years of age). We woke up the next morning to a colder morning with flurries. Quickly, the flurries turned to a snow storm. Great skiing conditions for us to enjoy.

We skied for a couple of hours and then realized we should probably head back early to Manchester to see if we could get out of town. We had already heard that Boston had over 16 inches of snow with more to come, so we knew that Manchester would probably have more snow. We headed out mid-afternoon. Driving conditions were initially good, but quickly deteriorated to blowing snow on the roads and snow-packed roads by the time we got to Manchester. We saw one pretty bad wreck on the road, but we were never in a dangerous situation. We just took our time getting back and made it just fine. Below are pictures of I-93 on our way back to Manchester.

We got an early flight that was leaving in an hour. We got on the plane in the middle of a snowstorm with visibility of about 1/2 mile. We got the plane de-iced and headed out to the runway. It was snow-packed, but surprisingly, it was one of the smoothest takeoffs I've ever had. I was amazed that a plane that large could take off in the middle of a blowing snowstorm. We got home early and took the rest of the night to relax.

Off to New Hampshire

Mrs. Lime and I are headed out tomorrow after work for a weekend in New Hampshire. We're going to Waterville Valley (http://www.waterville.com). We're going to do some skiing, tubing, sleigh rides, eating, etc. I'm taking along the camera, so I should have some photos to show off on Monday. It appears that they'll be having 4-6 inches of snow later Saturday, so we will probably have something that is relatively rare for New England skiing..........fresh powder!

WSOP guy and Pitt

WSOP is the ultimate in poker players. I call him WSOP because he claimed to have played in the World Series of Poker main event a couple of years ago. This guy is common of many poker players. Several tell-tale signs that you might be playing with this guy:

---He makes sure you know that he's played in large poker events.

---He goes to Vegas more times than he can keep track.

---He goes out of his way to tell you how well he can read all the other players and what they have.

---He will be sure to point it out if you say anything he deems incorrect or make a play that was a terrible that ended up turning out well.

---He talks non-stop to try to make sure that everyone knows who is in charge of the table, when quite the opposite is usually true.

You want a WSOP guy at your table. He draws attention to himself, allowing players who are solid, conservative players who wait for good hands to fly under the radar without being noticed. His distractions are an advantage. Also, if you watch WSOP guy-style players, they will often lose money because they are so intent on winning hands to show how good they are that they often make bad calls or raises rather than just making the correct play and folding.

On the other side of things, we have a player like Pitt (nicknamed because of her Pittsburgh Steelers shirt). She's a lady in her 60's who is a very dangerous player. She knows what she's doing and likes to float under the radar. Don't let her kind looks and smile fool you. It will cost you in the game if you do so.

Pitt took the nice lady thing to the extreme when she showed up. She sat down and immediately, with a smile, took chocolates out of her purse. She began handing chocolates to all the players at the table. Very nice gesture, but also a bit disarming from a poker standpoint. It appeared that her chocolates worked as she walked off a winner a couple hours later.

350 + 250 + 120

I will now discuss the side of poker which makes profit for good players. It's a phenomenon know as 'dead money'. The players are called dead money because they are not sound players and are going to blow all their money if they hang around long enough. These are the types of players who play every hand. They will get lucky at certain points, but over the long haul, it's a losing battle.

The first example of this was a guy I'll call Sancho. He was a guy who showed up with a rack of approximately $150 in chips. He played every single hand. He would bet and raise with nothing. A couple of times, he got really lucky with his hand and would win a big pot because everyone assumed that he was bluffing. But after 40 minutes of playing time, Sancho threw his last chips into the pot and walked off $150 lighter.

Second example is such a good example of this situation, I'll call him DM (Dead Money). He deserved this special nickname. He was a guy in his early 40's. He showed up at the table obviously a bit agitated. He sat down next to me and it was quickly obvious that he smelled like booze. He told me that he had just been at the No Limit Hold 'Em table and had lost $350. Judging from what I had already observed, I wasn't too surprised by this revelation.

Much like Jamaica, he made the rational decision that any compulsive gambler would make. Rather than walking away and making a sound decision to avoid playing on tilt, he decided to move to a limit table to make back all his money. Tilt is a phrase used by poker players to describe a player that is making plays that are not good because they are angry or upset about previous hands or situations where they lost money. You want a player like this at your table at all cost. It's an ideal situation. You just pray that you get a good hand to play to take advantage of all of the chips being thrown into the pot.

So DM starting playing every single hand. He complained and cursed openly about his 'terrible luck'. First of all, a note to all beginners in poker. If you look around a table and everyone else's chip stack is growing while yours continues to shrink, you may consider the idea that it may be a bit more than terrible luck. It may be that your simply not playing well and need to leave the table immediately to avoid large losses. After 45 minutes, DM was down $250 at our table, much to the delight of everyone else who had won a hand in those 45 minutes. He kept telling me how badly everyone else at the table was playing. I went out of my way to tell him just how right he was to make sure he hung around just long enough for my next good hand.

At that point, they made an announcement that there was going to be a $120 single table tourney opened up. DM heard this and asked how that all worked. I told him that there were 10 players in a single table tournament. Each of them put in $120 and the winner received $800 with 2nd place getting $200. Once again, he made the rational decision that a compulsive gambler would make.....he decided he would drop another $120 and try to win the $800. He shook my hand and said it was nice to meet me. He went off to play the tourney. Several minutes later, I saw him leave the poker room looking agitated again. I'm guessing that the $120 could be added to his losses.

If you ever play poker at a poker room, you can't let your feelings for what these people are doing to themselves influence how you play. You have to remain focused on the game and the fact that you are playing for your money as well. You should never play with money that you can't lose. But you are there to some extent to make money. The fact that these people are reckless with their money to an extreme should not affect how you play. In the end, they more likely have more problems than just the fact that they lost a few hundred dollars gambling and nothing you can do or say will change that over the course of a poker game.

Mr. Rogers and the old man

We had the most anti-social introvert I've ever seen at a table. Guy was wearing khakis and a collared shirt with a sweater evidently designed by Mr. Rogers. He had on glasses and a comb-over and read stock quotes out of the paper and a William Faulkner novel (Soldier's Way) in between hands. Guy was an absolute rock (that's poker-speak for a player that only plays great hands). He played pocket pairs and AK/AQ/AJ/AT.

Later on, another guy sat down. He beat my pocket aces early on with a full house (had 57 off-suit and hit a 5 and a 7 on the flop and a 7 on the river) and rubbed it in my face. I didn't say anything other than 'Nice hand'. So later, Mr. Rogers raises and 57o reraises. Mr. Rogers caps along with two other players and we've got a big pot already. Flop comes KK2. Mr. Rogers bets and 57o raises. Other two players call and Mr. Rogers calls. Right then, I was POSITIVE that the two kings scared Mr. Rogers because he had AA. Knew that 57o had a K at a minimum.

Turn is a 5. Mr. Rogers checks, confirming my suspicion and 57o bets. Other two players still call and Mr. Rogers calls.

River is an A. Mr. Rogers bets. At this point, I know I'm right. 57o raises and other two people bail. Mr. Rogers and 57o eventually cap and Mr. Rogers flips over his AA. In disgust, 57o flips over AK. Mr. Rogers had hit the one outer to win a monster pot.

I decided to take full advantage of the situation and told 57o that I was shocked that he reraised on the river after Mr. Rogers initial bet. 57o was irritated to no end and said 'you wouldn't cap a full house in that case?'. I said that I knew Mr. Rogers had AA. 57o said, 'so you knew he had AA? Yeah, right. What are you, psychic?'. I told him that I played with Mr. Rogers all day and knew exactly how he played. Mr. Rogers smiled and nodded back at me because he knew that I was serious. 57o grumbled some and then we got back to work. I only hung around for another half hour after that, but 57o managed to give away $60 in that half hour. Mission accomplished.

Mr. Rogers later got on my bad side. An older man in his 80s had got up a couple of times from the table next to us and had to squeeze between Mr. Rogers chair and the chair at the other table. The older man always politely asked if Mr. Rogers could scoot his chair in. Finally, for some strange reason, Mr. Rogers suddenly imploded the third time that the older man asked him to scoot up his chair. Mr. Rogers yelled, "What am I?!?!?! Your %$#%ing servant boy???? Why the #$@% do I have to move my chair every #@$%ing time you need to get up?????".

Needless to say, this caught all of us at the table in addition to everyone in a two table radius totally off guard. The poor old man (who also had a cane) was being yelled at by a guy for asking to be let through. A couple of guys at the table laid into Mr. Rogers for cursing 'with a lady at the table'. It was actually quite frightening that a guy who was so quiet all day suddenly exploded with such fury on an old guy with a cane. He eventually sat down at the table and didn't respond to any of the criticisms hurled at him.

I honestly was not going to say anything. It's best to avoid conflict in a poker room. You never know what you'll run into in a given session. When Mr. Rogers had his outburst, the first thing I thought of was that he was one of those quiet guys with some inner turmoil that you wouldn't be stunned to find out later that he had killed multiple people and stored them in his freezer. It sounds crazy, but that's exactly the kind of impression I got from him. Thankfully, I knew I was on his good side, so I would probably be the last one he targeted if he went crazy on us.

Acid reflux.........

A guy I'll call Jamaica sat down next to me at the table. He was a pretty big guy. I call him Jamaica because he had a ring tone that we heard several times on his phone that sounded like some sort of Jamaican-themed song. Several people mentioned that he should probably get a receptionist because of the frequency of calls to his phone. A few times, he answered the phone and had no clue who the person was on the phone. He just muttered that it was 'another woman'.

At some point, the phone rang and it had a different dial tone. He answered it and it was his wife he later told me. I asked him after the phone call why the ring tone wasn't the Jamaican music. He turned to me with a glare and asked, "When did I say I was Jamaican?".
Evidently, he somehow construed that I had called him Jamaican because he was a black person. Several people at the table quickly came to my aid by clearing up that I was asking about the dial tone, not calling him a Jamaican. I'm glad that they did, because it appeared that he had me mistakenly pegged as some sort of racist and was about to pound a hole in my skull.

Later in the game, Jamaica decided to tell us that he had something crazy happen last night. Evidently, he had gambled all the cash he had away at some point on the poker tables. He was down to 50 cents in his pocket and asked a cocktail waitress who he had given several tips if he could borrow $3.00 to get a sandwich because he had an acid reflux problem and needed to eat something. She, of course, refused. He gave her a few choice words and then walked off.

Next, he decided to do what any compulsive gambler would do in his situation with only 50 cents in his pocket. He threw his last two quarters into a slot machine and hoped to win enough money to buy a sandwich. He did so and hit 3 bars, earning an $8.00 win. He cashed it out and bought his $3 ham sandwich. He pocketed the other $5 and headed off to bed. He mentioned to us that he had lost $400 to put himself in the position where he couldn't afford the sandwich. Hey, Jamaica! How about only losing $397 next time so you can afford a sandwich when you're through gambling?

The BLT incident.....

So we begin. I'll note that I will assign nicknames to the various players to try to make it easy to keep track of the participants.

The ride up to Atlantic City was a very quick one. For those of you that don't know the area, the ride is a pretty easy one up I-95 followed by trips on the New Jersey Turnpike and the Atlantic City expressway. All roads are a 4 lane road at a minimum and most of the time they are 6 or 8 lanes. Most of the road is also a toll road. Tolls total $10.50 for a one way trip. To their credit, the roads are very well maintained, so it's pretty obvious that the tolls do go to maintain the roads themself.

Another common trait of these roads is speed. The general speed limit on the road is 65 MPH. Evidently, that is merely a suggestion for those that can even read the signs. My guess is that most can't read the signs well at the speeds they are going. I traveled at a pretty steady speed between 75 and 80 MPH. That was pretty much keeping pace. I counted 5 dual-exhaust Audi's that blew by me like I was driving in molasses.

Perfect example of what the norm is on the NJ toll roads occurred on my return trip. I was going about 80 MPH in the fast lane and passed directly in front of a NJ highway patrol officer. I, of course, did not do it intentionally. He was in the median with his lights off. After I saw him, I obviously hit my brakes to slow down. The HP officer didn't even pay any attention to my misdeed. These guys don't even mess with people going 75-80 MPH because they know that they'll get someone going 90-95 MPH if they just wait a few minutes more. Since speeding fines are doubled on any NJ toll roads, they can easily make several hundred dollars for each stop over 90 MPH. If I had passed in front of a cop going 80 MPH in Missouri, you can be sure that I would have been pulled over, especially in Booneville.

I made the trip in 2 hours flat (which is good time) and got into the poker room around 9:00 AM. When I arrived, a guy I'll call Action (because he liked to play a lot of pots) was already at the table. Action was a nice guy in his 70's who was really fun to play with. Constant chat, even with other people while playing a hand. He's the kind you want at a game because he's a nice guy who's not afraid to throw money out on the table. Several minutes later, a guy I'll call WSOP showed up. I'll get into his nickname in another blog. WSOP had not had breakfast yet, so he was looking for a cocktail waitress. He had mentioned that to everyone at the table.

At some point, Action, who is a regular player, got the attention of the cocktail waitress. Action told the waitress that he wanted a coffee and a big old BLT. The cocktail waitress smiled at Action and then went over to WSOP. WSOP said that a BLT and coffee sounded great to him too. The waitress laughed and said OK. After a few minutes, the waitress returned with the coffee. WSOP waited about 15 minutes and wondered aloud where his BLT was. Action just smiled. After another 15 minutes, he did the same thing. I chuckled at his plight as did several others including Action. A few minutes later, the cocktail waitress showed up again and WSOP mentioned that he never got his BLT. The cocktail waitress laughed and said she thought he was kidding because they didn't serve BLT's. WSOP mentioned that Action had ordered a BLT. She said that Action was a regular and always does that to mess with her. Action starting laughing along with most of the table because it became obvious that Action knew how the BLT order was going to end. WSOP chuckled and ask the waitress to bring him a bagel. WSOP then turned to Action with a laugh and said he was going to take him down.

At some point around lunch, Action got up to go get something to eat. 30 minutes later, WSOP got up for a smoke break (poker rooms are the only non-smoking area in most casinos). Action came back while WSOP was smoking and asked where WSOP was. I mentioned that he went off to a smoke break. After a few minutes, WSOP came back and sat down. Action stood up and extended his hand to WSOP with a smile. In Action's hand............a fresh BLT from the restaurant. Everyone busted out laughing and WSOP took the sandwich and shook his hand. Great gesture from a really nice guy.

Should be some good stuff in the coming days.....

I went up to Atlantic City today and put in a 10 hour poker session. I honestly never go to play poker strictly for money. I go for the entertainment and the social aspect that live poker offers.

One thing I never realized today is how many nutty things happen in a poker session. The strange thing is that after you've gone through a few poker sessions, you quickly realize just how crazy (and fun) a poker room can be. Over the coming days, I'll be blogging some of the stuff that happened today. Simply unbelievable that this many crazy things can happen in one poker session. It's the main reason that I keep going to the poker room.

For the day, I was down a total of $30 over 10 hours of play. Honestly a good entertainment value. I would have spent more than that elsewhere anyway if I did something in Baltimore. But the experiences I get in a poker room are worth every minute. To hold you over while I get some of the stories typed in, here's some pictures of the recently renovated Tropicana Resort where I go to play poker. It has a Cuban feel to it. The pictures are in the shopping area. The final 'tree' is made entirely of live flowers, much like you see when churches put together poinsetta trees around Christmas by putting multiple plants on a platform shaped like a Christmas tree.

Catholics and gambling

I was invited by some friends to go to a 'Night at the Races' party at a Catholic church in the area. Since Mrs. Lime was working this weekend, I took them up on the offer. The event was held in the fellowship hall in the church. For $10, you could have all the food, wine and beer that you wanted. Age range was a wide variety of people. Not everyone there was from the church.

There were lots of things to choose from as far as stuff to do. Blackjack, 7 card stud, dice game, money wheel and a poker tourney. The main event of the evening was horse racing. The church paid a group called 'Armchair Races' to help out in the event. Basically, the company sends out several taped races sealed in packages to the event hosts. Anyone that wants to can bet on a horse to win for $2. Then they play the tape and pay out on the results. Looked like fun, but I didn't try it.

I did notice a couple of things at the event. First off, Catholics really consume a lot of beer and wine when they get together for parties. Second, I was extremely surprised at how many curse words were uttered while gambling. I told my friend that the church probably should have moved the confessional booth from the sanctuary to the corner of the fellowship hall to save the people some time as far as getting back on God's good side. I'm sure there were some qualifying for some time in purgatory just from their actions that night.

The highlight of the evening was a guy who everyone called 'Frank. He was evidently a member of the church there for the entertainment. He was quite a lively guy and sang several songs by Frank Sinatra. Everyone was getting a big kick out of his act. Here's a picture on the left of him hamming it up for the camera.

At the end of the evening, Frank sang the song 'New York, New York' for the crowd. You note in the picture below that several people formed a kick line and were doing it Rockette-style, much to Frank's delight. Seemed like everyone had a great time and now I know how Catholics party in Baltimore.

The beer sampler to end all beer samplers

So we went to a place called DuClaw Brewing Company to eat the other night (http://www.duclaw.com). In the menu, there was a sampler of the beers available for $8.00. I thought I'd give it a try. The menu showed it as 5 beers. You can imagine my surprise when this showed up at my table:

Actually, this was not even all of them as there was one glass that came later (a porter beer). So, 10 glasses of beer to sample, roughly5-6 oz. per glass. The names were the best part.

Kangaroo Love - A light, golden beer. Very good. 4.5%

Bad Moon Porter - Dark beer with good flavor. My favorite of the dark beers. 5.1%

Misfit Red - Voted the best beer in Baltimore in 2001. Amber beer. 5.0%

Venom Pale Ale - I actually received two draws of this beer. A light amber beer. I received a regular draw and a 'nitro' draw which somehow supposedly had different gases in it because of how it was drawn from the tap. I couldn't really tell a difference between the two glasses, but more beer is always good I suppose. 5.6%

Bare Ass Blonde Ale - Good golden beer. Nothing fancy, but my favorite golden beer of the bunch. 5.0%

Old Flame - Getting into the big boy beers here. Amber beer with some obvious punch. 7.5%

Blackjack Stout - My least favorite of the beers. I suppose dark beer lovers may like it, but just not my thing. 8.5%

Devil's Milk - Very good stuff. Dark amber beer. Wife even liked this one. It lived up to it's name. 11.5%

Repent - The name says it all. Absolutely sinful. Tasted very much like a port wine. Sweet, tasty and a kick that will lay you on your back if you aren't careful. 12.5%

I never knew there were so many beers around. I actually found a couple in the sampler that I'd try again. Pretty cool stuff. If you come into town, remind me and we'll head off to take in the sampler platter at DuClaw Brewing Company.

The great haircut debate

I have a situation that should be addressed by someone. Probably the United Nations security council.

Why does it cost me $10 to get my hair cut by the old guy at the local barber shop, yet it costs me $30 to get the exact same hair cut at a salon by a woman? I look the same once all the hair stops flying.

I've decided to go through the plus/minus comparison of the two experiences.......

Barber

Plus

---The old guy at the barber shop gives me the added benefit of a straight-edge razor cleanup on my neck, which allows for an extremely good look.

---The old guy is very quick in his work and gets me out in a hurry.

---Nice guy who loves to talk about his family and grandkids. He loves it when I ask about his wife/family. He takes care of his wife in a wheelchair. I tip him 50% on the $10 haircut just for that. Always puts a smile on his face.

---Military veteran. Always a plus in my book.

---Has a dirty magazine stash hidden in the cabinet that all the regulars know about. I've honestly never looked at the magazines, but the 40-something guys just eat them up.

Minus

---Gets a bit distracted at times watching the Jerry Springer show on TV, but I'm sure that's good entertainment for most.

---Hair cut slows down when some of the guys he knows are in the shop.

---Sometimes tells horrible jokes and then laughs at his own jokes. Actually, I can somewhat relate to that.

---Has a dirty magazine stash hidden in the cabinet that all the regulars know about.


Salon Girl

Plus

---Female. Always a plus if you're a heterosexual guy. (I feel the need to point that out given that there is a gay male hairdresser in the establishment that my wife uses.)

---Single. Despite me being married, I feel less guilty when she flirts with me because she's single.

---Very clean joint. Got a lot of fancy pictures that you can even buy if you bring a few hundred dollars along with you.

---Easy to get an appointment. Except for right before holidays, it's not tough at all to get in.

---Shampoo. Love that.

---The head stroke. Everyone knows what I'm talking about. For some strange reason, every female hairdresser has that thing where they run their fingers over your head in a massage-like technique. I don't know if there's a special name for it, but I'm going to have to find out if there are training classes where my wife can learn how to do it.

Minus

---Don't catch her on a bad day. She's pretty rough on the hair on those days. Not a pretty thing.

---It costs $30. That's 3 times as much as my old friend in the barber shop.

---A lot of talking. I have to come to my haircut with discussion topics ready. She'll talk my ear off and I feel guilty if there's a moment lacking conversation.

---No dirty magazines in the cabinet for the regulars. Given that there is a gay male hairdresser in the shop, this could also be considered a positive. I'm not sure I'm interested in all that.


So in summary, there's plenty to like about both and a few bad things. Really hard decision to make. In the end, I'm going to have to choose.......

The BARBER! Nothing wrong with my salon girl, but a military veteran who brags about his family and takes care of his wife gets my nod in a heartbeat. Honestly, the money thing doesn't even come into play. Anybody that has the character of my barber deserves my respect, admiration and frequent business. May he live many more years.

Hamas and Government

So I'm watching the world events and noticed recently the election in Palestine. The people chose to elect Hamas as the ruling majority in their government. Initially, I can't say I really blame the people of Palestine. They have had to deal with the corrupt rule of Fatah for some time now. Unemployment is around 50%. The number of Palestinians who used to work in Israel (where they could make 10X what they make in Palestine) was around 130,000. That number is around 0 now.

Hundreds of millions of dollars were taken from government budgets by Arafat and his cabinet. The government itself is nearly bankrupt. The government is now actually paying Arafat's wife several million a year to tell them where those hundreds of millions ended up. It was simply stupid, corrupt government at its finest. I have no clue why Arafat was so beloved by the people when he continued to screw them over so badly.

Now, Hamas is in charge. All peace negotiations will obviously cease. Hamas has a charter that specifically calls for the removal of Israel and its people. There are daily confrontations between Hamas and Fatah supporters in the streets. From a political standpoint, I personally think that Hamas getting in charge may end up being a good thing in the long run. It appears to be uniting the U.S. and their allies when they had not always got along previously because of Iraq. The open failure of a government run by terrorists may destabilize the region in the short term, but could result in the eventual loss of support from the Palestinian people in regards to Hamas. Just below is a propaganda picture that Hamas thinks is a good thing. I'm guessing that posing a 1-year old baby next to a machine gun is not going to draw much sympathy from most people.

Meanwhile, I read about several families in Palestine where the father is unemployed, but would love to work in Israel again to make the $1,000/month so his family can live comfortably. How screwed is this guy? He has a choice of Fatah and Hamas for his voting choices to 'help' his situation (there are other smaller parties, but much like in the US, they are not a major factor). Suddenly, I like the choice between Democrats and Republicans. It may not be without corruption, but it's a much better alternative than my friend in Palestine has at this point.

Imagine what this country could do without corruption in government..............Ah, it's always nice to dream.

Limelicker is not a role model....Part 2

Ah, so you thought there was just one incident of misbehavior in Limelicker's past? You are sorely mistaken. The amusing part of this is that my parents don't know about this one. But I digress. We'll entertain just why that is a bit later in this post.

I had an English teacher in 8th grade named Mr. Brown. He was either a high school track or football coach who taught as a side job. You know what I'm talking about. The ones that are a whole lot more interested in the coaching part than actually teaching the material. It's not that they are necessarily bad teachers, but their priorities obviously lie in sports.

One day, I come into the classroom pretty early. There's only 4-5 people in the classroom. I notice in the back of the classroom that there is a video camera on a tripod set up facing the front of the room where the teacher stands. I set down my books and go over to the video camera, making sure to duck under the lens portion of the video camera. I turned the video camera to where it faced out the window towards the football field. I went back and sat down to wait for class to start.

Mr. Brown came in once the bell rung. He began the lecture on whatever was being discussed that day. After about 30 minutes of talking by him, he suddenly stopped talking. He appeared to be pretty agitated. He said to the class, "Who turned around the video camera?". Being the good person that I am, I refused to tell him who did it, full well knowing that person would probably be in a lot of trouble. Mr. Brown went on to explain to the class that the camera was being used to tape him for evaluations of teachers by the principals. Obviously, since some fool in the class had spun around the camera, the entire tape now consisted of a recording of the football field outside the classroom window. Mr. Brown made the class sit in silence the rest of the period.

Of course, I knew I had got lucky and got away with my little prank. I was glad to get out of there without any major damage done. A couple of days later, I was called by the secretary via intercom to come up to the front office. I thought that something was being delivered for me or something like that. Once I got up to the front office and saw Mr. Brown standing in the office with his arms crossed, I knew I'd been had. But how did they figure it out?

Then I was shown the video. I definitely was nowhere to be found on the video. But there was another person visible on the video. Her name was Tiera. She lived just down the street from my house. Right as the video camera was turning towards the football field, a voice (quickly recognized as Tiera's voice) distinctly was heard on the audio of the tape saying, "Lime, I wouldn't do that if I were you!". Damn the luck.

So I was given papers for a Friday after-school detention. This was the same year as the previously mentioned incident in yesterday's blog entry. I couldn't have my parents finding out about yet another screw-up by yours truly. So I did what any other 8th grader idiot would do in this situation. I signed my mom's name on the dotted line and handed the papers back in the next day. I served the detention that Friday, telling my mom I had after-school jazz band practice. My parents don't know that this incident ever occurred.............well, until now. I may be punished retroactively once they finish reading this blog entry.

Good night for the Limelicker clan.......

Mr. and Mrs. Lime played in a 8-person tourney tonight, $20 buy-in.

Mr. and Mrs. Lime finished 1st and 2nd. We actually just took the first and second place money and split it so the others could start playing again. $100 profit for 3 hours of work. Not bad at all.

Limelicker is not a role model.......

So, I've decided to come clean. I am a wonderful husband, child and brother to all who have to deal with me. But the slate is far from clean. I have screwed up a time or two. Time to admit my imperfections.

In 7th grade, I was in Mr. Cumberford's science class. The previous day's homework was to write a two page written paper about something related to science (the subject matter doesn't really affect the story and I don't remember it anyway). I totally forgot about the assignment that night.

The next day, upon entering Mr. Cumberford's science class, he immediately announces that there will be a pop quiz starting immediately. He also mentions that immediately after the quiz is completed by everyone, he will be collecting the two page assignment from everyone.

I'm in a big world of hurt at this point. Not only did I not write out the two page assignment, but now there's also a pop quiz to boot. As quickly as I can, I complete the quiz. I am the first in the class to finish the assignment. So now I have some time to try to get some of the assignment done. My goal is to at least get 1 page done. I know the subject matter, so it's just a matter of getting it on paper. If I get something down, I'll at least get some points for putting something down on paper.

I take out a folder to write on and some paper and begin writing on the folder under the table so Mr. Cumberford doesn't see what I'm doing. After a minute or two, Mr. Cumberford of course walks over to my area and notice me writing below the table. Mr. Cumberford always addressed everyone by their last name (i.e. Mr. Smith or Ms. Glass). He says to me with a smile/smirk, "Mr. Limelicker, what are you doing?".

At this point, I should have thought of a straight forward response such as 'I'm finishing up my paper' or 'Just some homework from another class'. But evidently my mouth caught my mind taking a nap. In frustration at being caught finishing an assignment that was due, I instead chose the words, "What the hell does it look like I'm doing?!?!?!".

Bad move.

The paper was snatched out out of my hands immediately. Mr. Cumberford told me in a stern voice to just head straight to the school office. He said I'd have to wait down there until he sent down the discipline papers. Off I went, quite dejected at my ability to say something stupid at such an inopportune time.

Normally, this would be a good enough story in itself. But my life is never simple. I got down to the office and the papers showed up about 30-40 minutes later. I was immediately asked to meet with Mr. Eddington, the vice principal. I went in to the office and we had a brief conversation just to verify the information about the situation.

Mr. Eddington then says he's going to have to call my mom. My mom at this time is an elected member of the school board. So imagine my delight when he calls her to discuss my behavior. Mr. Eddington knows my mom personally. So when my mother answers the phone, instead of immediately telling her about my behavior, he begins pleasant small talk with my mother saying things like 'how have you been?' and 'how's your husband doing?'. Meanwhile, I'm left to squirm in my seat knowing that the discussion will eventually turn to my brilliant blunder.

Long story short, he eventually addressed the situation with my mother, she was less than happy and allowed him to wield the punishment stick (i.e. I got two 8th hours cleaning up Mr. Cumberford's science lab). I had no defense for what I did, so I was just glad that my first run-in with a principal wasn't any worse.

By the way, Mr. Cumberford eventually rose to become principal of a high school in the same school district. He was a great teacher and quite a nice guy to boot. Last I saw him, he was doing quite well.

Pumping gas in New Jersey....

For those of you that don't know, there is a law in New Jersey that basically states that all gas stations must be full-service. A law was passed in 1949 stating that it was far too dangerous for citizens to pump their own gas because it was so flammable. That law is still in place.

So I was driving up to Atlantic City last month and had to stop in New Jersey to get some gas. It took FOREVER for a gas station attendant to get over to my car to start pumping the gas. My guess would be a five minute wait. I wanted to just jump out of my car and start pumping it myself. Finally, someone did show up and pump the gas for me.

Here's another thing that nearly caused me to laugh out loud. The pump that I pulled up to had the credit card slot built into the pump, which is obviously meant to make it easier for self-service customers to pay for gas. He took the card from me and actually inserted the card into the pump. Did I really need a guy to walk over to me, take my credit card and turn one step to insert the card and then hand me back the card? Good lord. After roughly 2 1/2 hours at the gas station (slight exaggeration), I headed off to complete my trip.

Late last month, I went up to see the Chiefs game when they played the Giants. Most of the drive is through NJ. As hard as I tried, I was going to run out of gas before I hit the New Jersey state line. So I was forced to fill my gas at a New Jersey gas pump. When I pulled up, I immediately thought back to my previous New Jersey gas filling experience. So when an attendant didn't show up after 10-15 seconds, I got out of my car with credit card in hand and headed for the pump intending to insert the credit card into the pump. Imagine my surprise when an attendant showed up before I could get a card into the pump and asked me how much gas I needed. I told him and he started filling the gas tank. When the gas finished, I got out of my car and headed back to the tank like I was going to remove the filling handle from the gas tank. Yet again, I couldn't make it back there before the gas attendant showed up to remove the handle and send me on my way.

The moral of this story is:

If you have a car with out-of-state plates, pretend you don't know New Jersey law and try to fill your gas tank yourself. You'll get immediate service and be on your way in a hurry.

To think we take it for granted......

Don't be fooled by the general tenor of news coverage of overseas events. Most people in the world want no more than what we already have.......pure freedom. Here's an interesting exchange between an American and an Iraqi.

"This evening I went to the ING [Iraqi National Guard] compound – mainly to coordinate another shopping trip to Dahuk – I am trying to buy heaters and blankets for the poor people with no heat. As always when visiting with Iraqis, there is an art to the conversation – you must “make small talk” — it is expected and polite to converse about little things before getting down to business – our conversations will usually flow from insignificant things, to business and back again. Tonight was no exception. I was able to make more plans to work with the ING to help the Iraqi people – we will help the ING get kerosene to their compound, and then they will share the kerosene with me so I can distribute it to the schools and some poor people."

"Anyhow, at one point after being there about an hour and a half, LTC Amar asks if we mind if he asks some questions. He first asked about some of our leaders, mentioning Condoleezza Rice – he asked if in America there is prejudice against African Americans. We said that it is against the law to be prejudiced, however unfortunately there are still some people who feel that way. Then he asked a question that almost brought me to tears. He asked us, “Your freedom, the freedom that you have in America, can you feel it? – is it something you can feel inside of you?” I immediately answered “Yes, I feel it very strongly.” He then asked other questions, like, what if your president does something you don’t like – like he becomes like Saddam Hussein – what do you do about it? We explained the balance of power between Executive, Legislative and Judicial. Said that the President just can’t do what he wants. To which he replied, then what is the President for if he can’t do what he wants?"

"He also asked: what if someone doesn’t like the president and says bad things about him – what happens to that person? We told him that as long as someone doesn’t threaten to hurt the president, that person is free to say whatever he likes. LTC Amar raised his eyebrows at this. Our conversation turned to the towers in New York, why we think they were bombed, and about the evilness of terrorists who choose to murder innocent people. It was a very interesting discussion that will stay with me forever."

Sorry for the long delay in posts.....

Between the travel home and various family things, been very busy this week. I should have time to start posting regularly now. I had my laptop power cord fall in half (thankfully the sparks didn't catch anything on fire), so I had to order a new cord for that computer. It should be in today, so that should help a lot.

Thanks to all for the well-wishes related to last week's event.

I'm not meant to be a tester.....

It's not all peaches and cream. Don't get me wrong, I'm paid quite well for what I currently do and like the people that I work with in Baltimore. But it's not really what I would like to do long-term.

For several years, I was a programmer. I liked it because it was constantly evolving. It resulted in late nights or occasional overnights of work, but I liked the rush of having to fix something in a short amount of time. It was even more rewarding that I often exceeded expectations in regards to those critical situations. Often, that resulted in me jumping other, older workers who didn't work as hard as I did. As a result, some didn't like me at work, but I honestly didn't care. It was no fault but their own for getting outworked by a younger worker.

Currently, I'm a tester. This means that I basically run the system through various tests to make sure it's running as it should. I like the job when I am busy, but that usually only occurs about half the time. The other half is spent documenting various processes. While I understand that documentation is needed, it's just not my cup of tea. I like action and a testing job just doesn't provide enough of that action.

So, life lesson learned. I know that I'm not a tester. Between the lack of action and the fact that I only find problems, it's just not for me. If I find the problems, I want to fix them too. Who knows, someone may read my impressions and figure out that one or the other job may be for them. If so, I've spent the last 5 minutes doing something that helps someone else, and that's always a good thing.