Adventures From the NH Seacoast to the Jersey Shore

Life

Started the day off today be sleeping a lot later than normal…I must be still trying to adjust to the time change.  Today is the start of getting re-focused on many things.  First on the list…my health.  The Mrs. has been on me for sometime now in regards to losing some lbs.  I have packed it on over the past eight months and need to shed the winter coat.  I have not been too self conscious about it; but recently I have had a number of casual acquaintances comment on my increase in girth.  I am not discounting my wife’s concerns; but I guess having people comment on something that you would never expect them to comment on is a little bit of a wake up call.

As of this am, I am at 219.  Expect weekly updates; and if any of you other late 30-somethings out there feel the need to do the same; be sure to check in every Monday and leave comments on your progress.   My goal is 185-190, it probably should be lower but we are not going to get to crazy now.  My two weapons of mass destruction for this task (I refuse to call it a diet) are (1) getting into some sort of regular exercise plan (at least 3 days a week) and (2) elimintate all snacking during the day and foods that are questionable at best.   After this week, we’ll start adding new items to focus on to the plate.

Politics

Are you into Internet Radio?  Are you interested in squashing corporate America’s desire to squeeze money out of those smart enough to squeeze it out of them.  If so there seems to be a movement to squash Internet Radio by raising royalty rates to those broadcasting over the Internet.  http://www.savenetradio.org   There is a movement to send the following to your local congressman.  I guess it says it all.

I do not support The Copyright Royalty Board’s (CRB) March 2nd decision to substantially increase royalty rates. Not only will it impact my choices, but the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) manipulation of these rates, and the CRB’s indifference will hurt working artists, damage small record labels and force law abiding small webcasters, already paying a large portion of their revenue per month in royalties, out of business. This decision will also damage hundreds of small businesses providing goods and services to working artists, small record labels and small webcasters.

I respectfully ask that you evaluate the CRB decision and do whatever is necessary to establish a reasonable royalty rate for all the parties involved.

Wow!  I woke up today and the world was still here.  Congress’  best efforts to end the world by sending all of our computers into a tailspin by moving daylight savings three weeks early only resulted in millions of cranky kids cheated out of an extra hour of sleep..three weeks early.  I for one am glad the world is still here so I can tell you about this hand of poker last night.

We are three-handed and I am down to my last 700 in chips and the blinds are 400/800.  I am the big blind and forced all in.  The guy under the gun calls to put the final bullet in me (sit-n-go pays the top 2).  We don’t look at our cards and ask the dealer to peel the board out.  The board is 5h, 5c, Qh, Ad, 9s.  The opponent flips over the 1st card a 5s giving him trip fives.  I flip my 1st card over for a Qd.  His next flipped is a 2s and as you can probably imagine right now..my next card was a Qc…that’s right pocket queens for trip queens!   Those 1400 chips did not do much for me after that but what a fun hand.

That hand was almost more eventful than the 7th place finish (out of 160) I completed just a couple hrs earlier.  Good tournament, made a couple mistakes early but recovered nicely.  Lesson of the day from that tournament that I will share is to always leave yourself an out.  Early in the tournament I was on the button (blinds 200/400) and I raised to 2600 leaving myself 1000 in chips.  It was a semi-bluff as I made the move with A10 to steal 1200 in limped chips out there.  The big blind came right over the top of me putting me all in if I called.  It was an easy lay down for me.  Once I did the guy across from me accosted me for not calling as I had already put more than 60% of my stack in.  I replied with, “why”?  He obv has AA or KK and I’d rather play the next few hands with my 1K in chips than go home.  I made a move and I got his message.  Sure enough the big blind woke up with pocket AA that hand.  My strategy worked as 3 hands later I pushed my chips all-in with pocket JJ, got five callers, and quintupled up.  If I played like my accoster suggested I would have been headed home 3 hands earlier….instead I hung in there, did not slip into desparation mode and came back to take 7th place for $330…a decent payout for a $70 buy in.  I should have gone up a few spots; but I made a move for 70% of my stack of 70K chips and got nailed…that is discussion for a future post.

In the end, yesterday proved to be profitable with my 7th place finish and a 1st place $400 finish in a $150 sit-n-go.   Let’s see how today goes.

It was great getting away for a little over a week.   We had the best of weather including a few days over 90 degrees; which even the local took some extra time to enjoy.   Highlights of the trip included a day at the Kennedy Space Center.  Any parents out there vacationing in the Cape Canaveral area, or leaving on a cruise from Port Canaveral should really think about spending an extra day to see your tax dollars at work.  

The Up Close tour is amazing (esp. since the Atlantis was still out on the pad); there are some very cool IMAX movies and event the view of the wildlife is quite impressive.  There is no shortage of alligator sightings and seeing the bald eagle’s in their nests high above the ground was very cool.  One of the nests viewed is though to be over 50 years old and 8 feet wide!

The majority of our trip was spent in a little town north of Vero Beach called Sebastian.  It is located on the east coast about 70 miles south east of Orlando.  We took a little break from the rut of vacation dining and found a little Jamaican restuarant in a strip mall called the Mo Bay Grill.  Compliments to the chef as all of our dinners were excellent! 

Sebastian is a popular destination for east coast surfers as the Sebastian Inlet’s man made jetty provides a point break which is what I understand surfers like.  My brother-in-law surfs and that is about how far my knowledge on the subject goes.   From my understanding the other East Coast location for similar point break surfing is Manasquan Inlet on the Jersey Shore (which is where we vacation every summer).  Maybe I should take up surfing?  We were lucky to catch a couple of 90 degree days which made time at the beach very nice. 

Even the locals were enjoying the unseasonably warm Florida weather.  Ah yes…all things do have to come to an end though.  We were hit with the equivalent of a 500 mega volt taser gun when we landed in sunny New Hampshire’s 5 degree weather with a wind chill dropping the temp to below -10.