Posting up and Cashing out

This weekend was mostly dedicated to finishing an article for a conference I am attending in November. That got done -- and those pages will almost certainly end up in the dissertation in some form, so that was good work. I posted those pages to the interwebs on Sunday.

On Friday, ran 40 minutes in the Park with McAsian, a fellow grad; the weather has just turned brisk, and it was a beautiful day for a run; call it just less than five miles.

J and M had Friday off, so that made for a good day all around, much housework got done. Have I mentioned that we own a robot? I thought not -- Rhoombia, our Irobot vacuum cleaner, is teh awesome. Seriously, since J has been sussed out as having cat allergies (to go along with M's previously known sensitivity) the robot has been invaluable in keeping the house clean. If you have the means, I highly suggest you acquire one.

On Saturday, I allowed myself to be persuaded to take the day off from training, and go to Atlantic City for to enter a Texas Hold-em poker tournament. Being a white male between the ages of 25 and 40, I am obligated by our charter to know how to play the game, and occasionally risk some scratch in a game of chance, "helping pay the electric bills," as my mother's family (from Nevada) calls it. Six of the folks I play games with (B, Large Land Mammal (LLM), Brother Ike, the Prince of Darkness, and Kapezastan) made the trip. Brother Ike, PoD, and myself made the final table from a starting field of 37. Ike was short stacked, and was essentially blinded out. Immediately after I busted PoD's K9 with my AQ, reducing the field to 8, the table decided to chop the pot, so a nice profit for me. I haven't decided what to do with the profit, though it has been observed that my winnings would almost exactly cover the cost of an Iphone, which I covet . . .

I was going to do a rundown of the tournament -- but I find, as with Diplomacy, I don't remember much about the specific hands. I remember the rush of adrenneline when I was dealt KQ on the opening hand, and hit a king on the flop. I remember laying down QQ preflop to the chip leader, who went all-in two seats in front of me on the final table; making the decision not to put my cash on what would likely be a coin-flip (and he showed AK, so it would have been a race, and thats not someplace I want to be when I can just shoot free throws to money). Post mortem, I think I really just played less bad hands -- threw away a lot of unsuited connectors, and baby pairs out of position to pre-flop raises. So, sadly, not much of an exciting report.

Sunday, ran 4.2 with B before I taught the WCSwing class for the university club.