MissT74

My Photo
Name:
Location: United States

Too much about me to list here...read my blog...you'll get to know me quite well.

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Pollyanna Indeed!

Well, although my intentions are ONLY good, it appears that I am a bit of a Pollyanna and have decided to post the following after conversations with many of my friends:

I will not be personally handling any monies or items for Katrina victims.

I would strongly encourage any donations that are to be made, to be made directly to Red Cross or FEMA.

I am the type of person that acts quickly on emotion, this can sometimes be a hinderance. I hope that everyone can understand why I would want to do what I suggested, and I did get some positive feedback, but honestly....it's just not realistic.

Sorry to be the fool, thinking I could do something good in today's day and age.

Hey, maybe this will earn me an entry into http://donkeymanifesto.blogspot.com/ !!!!

EDIT:
OH GOD....what did I do?? I was messing around with my blog tonight, getting more "involved" and shit and I seem to have done something that has OPENED the floodgates of SPAM HELL!!! How do I get RID OF THIS??? HELP ME!!!!!


Listed on BlogShares

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Update on Rick

Have communicated with Rick and they are, as stated, safe in NC.

Him and his wife, Peg, have already started the road to recovery and are registering at both Wal Mart and Target for items needed.

Once I have links, I will post. What I would like to do is organize one big shopping trip, ship it directly to him in the same order, thus only having one S&H charge. I have no problem paying for that S&H myself, if anyone is willing or wanting to donate to this shopping trip, let me know via email at tanya@pecksmedicalbilling.com

THINK about it, even one stupid $10 item would be a huge help....$5, $10, $20.....whatever can be given would be totally 100% appreciated, AND it adds up people!! If you can't donate due to your own financial limitations, then just your thoughts and prayers are enough, please don't feel bad or obligated, we can only do what we can do.

Money can be transferred to me at PokerStars or FullTilt, you can specify the item you want to purchase for or just add it to the kitty. I am misst74 at both sites.

I can either keep a running list of names and donations so that everything appears "above board" or I can keep it anonymous, you decide.

More details tomorrow.


Technorati Profile

DAMN You Katrina.

My heart is so heavy, the video and pictures that are coming in are just stunningly obscene. These poor, poor people.

I know a lot of people feel the way I do, a lot of people out there who would like to do something, ANYTHING to help.

We all know that we are able to send donations to Red Cross or FEMA and then hope that money actually goes to what we're donating too....

However, I have another idea. What if we, the poker community, actually came together to help people, families, that we actually KNOW?

Most of you have heard of, or know, Rick "DaVoice" Charles. http://www.voiceofpoker.com/ a very well know, upstanding member of our poker community.

Posted today on his Live Journal Blog http://adb_davoice.livejournal.com/

"Well, Katrina DID do her worst. She turned East right before making mainland landfall and our entire area of Biloxi everywhere from Lee Avenue (about 5 blocks to our West) South of the railroad tracks (5 blocks to our North) and all the way East to the Back Bay of Biloxi has been completely FLATTENED or devastated. It may be more than a week before we're even allowed back in to the neighborhood to see if we can find what used to be our house. We're devastated, we have only the few clothes we were able to pack and get the hell outta dodge. We're at our old Friends Greg and Amy Webb in Asheville, NC just watching the overflight videos of what used to be our neighborhood.

Beth and Michael stayed with Michaels mother in a shelter about 30 miles inland and they are safe, alive and well, although I got an (rare due to communication blackouts from the coast) SMS on my cell this morning from Bethany, they were able to get to their house... It's completely destroyed, although not leveled like ours is. They were barely able to open the door to the house and everything inside is ruined.

We're still not able to get in touch with some of our friends who did NOT heed the warning and are hoping and praying they are alive.

The Emergency Management Office in Biloxi had to be evacuated and 35 people left there wearing life vests into 20 foot seas and have NOT been heard from since."

OMG...can you even imagine the horror of what this family is going through? Yes, they are safe and their family seems to be intact, but "we have only the few clothes we were able to pack..."

So, I replied a post to his post on RGP and have asked him to email me directly. I have spoken about Rick to my husband, and we are going to help him as much we can, financially.

NOW....what about you doing the same? Instead of donating to Red Cross or FEMA, why not donate to someone you know, or know of? What about other families or members of our poker community? Why not start a pool of money and then divide it amongst our own?

Now, Rick is the only one who has posted so far, but I'm sure there are others out there, from our poker community, that could use some help.

Again, what if we all got together and donated to people directly from our community vs. simply handing over to Red Cross?

NOTE: I am NOT talking about holding a charity poker tournament, or asking poker websites to hold tournaments (they'll do that anyways). I'm talking about hard, cold CASH that these people need NOW. Not a month from now, not 2 months from now, but like....today. Tomorrow. Next week.

Am I just a pollyana??? Is this possible???

It would be an honour and privilege to organize this, and I feel that my integrity is above reproach, so trust is not an issue. Please, leave your comment below...let me hear what you, a poker community member, think about this, tell me about other families that need assistance.

Can WE actually make a difference in someone's life at this critical time??

My heart is just so heavy right now.....

Monday, August 29, 2005

PS TLB

Previous week rankings:
August 21 2005 to August 27 2005 23:59 ET

35. misst74 1205.02

DAMN...if only the $215 from 8/28 was added it, I might be even higher!

Oh well, so I'm proud of myself, sue me!!! (35!!)

: )

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Marathon City

Boring entry, but it details ALL the poker I played this weekend. Yeah, I probably should have been working, but I'll just pull an all nighter next week to get 100% caught up.

On Friday, I worked until about noon, then decided to donk the day off playing poker.

17 hours later here's the scoop:

I played 20 different tournaments and kept track of them all.

1. $20/$2R, LHE, $1050 WCOOP satellite, 34 people, 10th place.
I had 4,4 vs. K, 10. The flop was 8, 7, 3. He bet, I raised, he called. Turn was a 10 and I'm out.

2. $27/$2, NLHE, $215 WCOOP SNG, 9 people, 5th place.
Made a move with 2,2 got called with 10,J and a J came on the flop.

3. $20/$2R, NLHE, $1050 WCOOP satellite, 53 people, 27th place.
Made a bad call here, got confused, thought it was a R/B tourney and lost on As3s.

4. $10/$1R, PLHE, $215 WCOOP satellite, 78 people, 8 get seats. During this tournament I made a donkey move. My computer has a habit of crashing randomly, it has to do with all the crap that the newsgroups put on my computer, but I digress....So, my computer crashed, I rebooted, which usually takes close to 5 mins. SLOW ass system. Once I got back online, I proceeded to check out my forums, going to RGP, etc. Totally forgot about the two tournaments I was in. When it finally dawns on me, I rush onto PS and see that I am still in this tournament, there are 17 left, and I'm in 15th place.

I proceed to get hit with the deck. 10,10; 8,8; A,J; I am like a whirlwind and I proceed to move up to 4th place in 15 mins. I'm able to hold it and at bubble time, it was left to me to take out the short stack. I have A, 10 and I raise, he flat calls. Flop comes 9, Q, 4. He does a Stop and Go and moves all in on the flop. I think and debate and finally say, FUCK IT. I call, he shows J, 6 and I take down the win for the table. Winning a seat into the WCOOP #4, PLHE, on 9/7/05.

5. $20/$2, LStud8, 128 people, ended up in 107th place, this was the 2nd tournament I was playing when I "forgot" to play.

6. $50/$5, PLO8, 85 people, 5th place for $340 prize. Lost with 2, 3, 9, 9 when he had A, 2, K, 5. Flop was 4, 7, 8; turn J, river K. The river K brought him the 1 of 2 higher hands to beat my 9's so I was out.

7. $150/$12, NLHE, 326 players, out in 93rd place. Lost with K, J vs. Q,Q. J on the flop, but no more help and I was out.

8. $30/$3, LHE, 180 players, 108th place. No notes.

9. $30R, 50K guarantee on Paradise, 542 players, out in 98th place when I was slowplayed with A,8 vs A, A. Well played, Sir!!

10. $0, RGP satellite to 1 Million Freeroll on Paradise. 184 people, 100 get seats, do you think Tanya could beat 84 people to get in? Nope. LOL. Out in 173rd place, what a disgrace.

10. $5/$.50, NLHE, SNG on FullTilt, busted out in 9th when my A,A ran into 4,4 with a 6,6,4 flop. Oh well!

11. $10/$1R, LHE, $215 WCOOP satellite, 74 players, out in 51st place.

12. $20/$2, PLHE, WCOOP SNG, 12 players. I ended up bubbling in 2nd place good for $25 when I flopped TP and he flopped a straight. (oops!)

13. $30/$3 R, NLHE, no notes, but ended in 182nd place.

14. $30/$3, LStud8, NO notes whatsoever, but I know I lost, lol.

15. $30/$3, PLO, 127 people, out in 120th place with the following hand. I have 5, 9, Q, K. Flop is 10, J, K, I'm betting, he's calling. Turn is x, I move all in, he calls with KK in his hand and yep, the river is a 10, pairing the board and I'm out.

16. $10/$1 NLHE, 707 players, out in 361st place.

17. $20/$2, LHE, 129 players, no notes, but I know I lost, lol.

18. $20/$2, HU NLHE, Some unknown RGP'r challenged me and I wiped the floor with his ass. +$40.00.

19. $50/$5, NLHE, 189 players, I ended up in 10th place when my AK ran into KK and no A help for me. Earned $113.40, ended at 5am and I dragged myself to bed.

SATURDAY:

OMG, what is wrong with me? I only played in FOUR tournaments the entire day. However, I did have a lot of fun sweating a good friend from RGP in the Paradise Million. He did extrememly well and ended up in the money, so congrats to him!

1. $50/$5, LO8, 90 people, 38th place.

2. $20/$2, NLHE, WCOOP Test, 1100 people, placed 319th.

3. $10/$1R, NLHE, 25K guaranteed, forgot how many people, but it had to be a lot because I got 967th place, LMAO. IN A REBUY. Sigh.

4. $30/$3R, NLHE, $2600 WCOOP satellite, ended up in 66th place.

OHHH, now I remember what I did Saturday night. Instead of playing, I simply railtarded all night long and chatted on AIM with an awesome bunch of peeps, and decided to make some Apple Martinis for Bill and I.

For one of the first times ever, Bill and I stayed home and got drunk off our asses. Those Apple Martinis are the BOMB! If you've never had one, I highly recommend them. We crawled into bed around 2 am after cooking up some scrambled eggs with toast.

SUNDAY

Woke up early, no hangover OF COURSE! I'm one of those lucky ones that never gets hung over, so it's off to poker!

1. $10/$1R, NLHE Turbo, Satellite to the $215 $500K guaranteed on PS. I ended up busted out after spending $81 and with a little encouragement from a few friends decided to just buy in directly and play.

2. $200/$15, NLHE, $500K Guaranteed, 3307 people. Placed 116th for a prize of $661.40 and here's a little info:

278 hands played and saw flop:

- 4 times out of 31 while in small blind (12%)
- 17 times out of 32 while in big blind (53%)
- 25 times out of 215 in other positions (11%)
- a total of 46 times out of 278 (16%)
Pots won at showdown - 10 out of 17 (58%)
Pots won without showdown - 35

Yes, folks, yours truly only played 46 hands, and still ended up in 116th place out of 3307 people. I'm awful proud of myself right now!

3. $10/$1, LO8, $530 WCOOP Satellite, 68 players. This is the last tournament I am playing for the evening, as I type this entry out. 11 players left, 3 get seats, I end up out in 8th place good for $22.

4. $20/$2, LO8, 170+ players, out in 158th place.

5. $20/$2, PLO, no notes but out in 60th place.

6. $10/$1, HU Stud, only 6 players, it was a private RGP tournament, but I did manage to win my second round, then proceeded to lose the third round which put me in 2nd place, since I had a bye for the first round, te he he. Won $15. Woot!

So that's it, it's about 1AM and I am headed to bed, time to start another work week. All in all, I ended up ahead over the weekend, even with all my buy ins, due to the wins I was able to pull off, but nothing major to take home to the bank.

More to Follow.....

...for now:

PokerStars Tournament #11247711, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $200.00/$15.00
3307 players
Total Prize Pool: $661400.00
Tournament started - 2005/08/28 - 16:30:00 (ET)
Dear misst74,
You finished the tournament in 116th place.
A $661.40 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Where Have I Been??

I know, it's been awhile since I blogged, sorry for that.

Let's try and get you all caught up.

Picked up Cherissa from Las Vegas last Sunday, she has been gone for 3 weeks, and good grief.....she looked all grown up!! We had gotten her a perm and her eyebrows done before she left, her hair is just adorable now and she is looking more like a young lady/teenager then a little girl that she's always been. One day, I know she's going to stop calling me "Mommy" and I'll just be plain old "Mom".

She talked non stop about her Mexico cruise that Grandma took her on. She was completely surprised and had an awesome time. Carnival Cruise line has programs for children, depending on their ages, so she was in the 12-13 age group, where they have a private dance club called "Fuel" and so she was able to go "clubbing" every night and had her curfew extended from 11pm the first night up to 1am the last night. Grandma states Cherissa was coming home well after she was already in bed and was living up life more then she was! Well, what can I say, like Mother like Daughter. Enjoying life, that's what it's all about.

On Monday I decided to play hooky from work and went down to Laughlin for the day. I wasn't planning on it, but it worked out that way. I was up and down all day, leaving around 10:30pm after blowing off a $500 profit, but still came out OK, so that's what it's about.

Tuesday, Wednesday and today have me just playing tournaments non-stop. I wasn't doing anything too memorable until last night. I have played about 15 tournaments since Tuesday, making the money 5 times, final table twice, and winning ONCE.

Yes, yours truly kicked ass last night in a $50/$5 NLHE event with 488 players and around 11:54pm was declared the winner. I had a lot of sweaters from RGP and a special thanks to all of them for helping me stay calm and focused while I tried to just play good poker.

RGP'r Morphy stated: Next book from Tanya: How to fold your way up the money ladder.

It made me laugh because that's not normally how I play, yet due to some educating from RGP'r Fellknight, I did just that. At final table time, I was #2 in chips. I literally folded every single hand, practically, until there were only 5 people left. This was very hard to do as I started feeling panicky, dropping down to #3, and just not PLAYING. In retrospect, this is definantly a smart way to play final tables and with practice, I will continue doing so. It was just very hard to do and hard to overcome the feelings of panic and the "OMG, I better play a hand!!!" etc. etc.

Once we got down to 3 players left, it was like I switched the "ON" switch on and just went to town. I was playing very aggressively, and they were folding their blinds left and right to me. The shortstack ended up folding every single hand, and folded himself from what should have been a guaranteed 3rd place spot to 2nd place when I got into it with the 2nd place guy and won. For the life of me, I can't remember that hand, however, the most memorable hand was when he was the chip leader, I look down to KK on the button and raise 4X the BB (40K?) He reraises me A LOT (120K?) I then pushed all in and he folded to me. It was a major pot that then put me in 1st position and it was just all over after that.

Once I knocked him out, the very next hand I had KsJs and the SB (very short stack) raised, I moved all in, he called and showed J,8 or K,8 or something like that. Game was over on the flop and I congratulated him on folding his way into 2nd place money.

Soooo that was last night, it was very exciting, I haven't won a MTT in a while (2 months?) and was starting to feel like I would never win one again. Of course, I know this not to be true as DAMN IT, I'm a good player!!! (LOL)

Playing a PLO MTT right now, 17 left, I'm in 6th place, dare I make another final table today? Not much in the prize pool, but every bit counts and I am currently #30 on the TLB board for the week on PS, Woo Hoo!!!

Will post more frequently as I try to climb up that TLB board.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

PSFTUB

In that order....that's where I played today, and I played a LOT.

I started with a $20/$2 NLHE tourney around 1pm, didn't finish until about 5pm, and of course, out of the money. Sweet one too, 1st paid $6800.

I then went on to play the RGP Challenge, 7 card stud tonight, and OY! 4th person out or thereabouts. However, I did play a $100 LHE MTT and ended up in 2nd! You would think WOO HOO! However, only 9 people played, so I got a whomping $270. Ah well, at least I made the money!

I then decided I was bored and went to the $100 store to go shopping. You know which one I mean, Wal-Mart. You can go to that store for ONE item, and still walk out spending $100. I am in need of a new printer, so was going to go look at what they had there, because otherwise I'll have to drive 45 mins away just to go to a real office supply store. Turns out they don't have a printer that's good enough, but I found some other stuff. I escaped with having spent $98.33.

Got back home and played 2 tourneys at UB, but didn't do well over there at all, so quickly left once I busted out of both of those.

Moved over to PS, played a $20/$2 Omaha H/L, stunk.

Played PLO, loving it! Still playing right now and only 53 people joined, but I have been chip leader for almost the entire tourney. There are currently 21 players left, I am in 2nd position now (but just barely), and top 2 places get a seat into the PLO WCOOOP Event on 9/16/05 worth $530.

My strategy in PLO may not be the best, but it's working tonight so far. I try to see as many flops as possible. I will raise pot preflop if I have AA, KK, QQ, AK, double suited cards with A or K, etc. Otherwise, I simply limp and the players are allowing this tonight. I then see the flop and go from there. It's allowed me to make quite a few hands as "you never know what's coming on the flop". Of course, being chip leader helps with that. I couldn't see nearly the number of flops I'm seeing now if I had no stack. Also, now that it's getting towards the end, I'll have to start playing a little bit tighter.

15 left, I'm in 3rd position. Still looking OK.

KcKhQh10c, 1 limper before me, I raise pot to $880, the SB is all in but he's been on auto for hours. I get no callers, and they knock the SB out without even running the cards. Weird, I thought they would at least run the cards? Hmmm. I'm thinking that PS automatically folds their cards if they are "sitting out".

Some random thoughts while I sit here:

Felicia seems to be feeling much better. She decided to stop the chemo therapy, and I can't say I blame her. I would be doing the exact same thing in her situation, but she made a comment about how people might not agree with her decision but I say Screw Them! They don't have to live with the repercussions of chemo.

Morphy of http://donkeymanifesto.blogspot.com/ is recovering from back surgery. He seemed to be having a bad night tonight, but I wish him all the best, less pain, and a speedy recovery.

Dr. Pauly is back in NY now, if your not keeping up with his blog due to the WSOP being over, then your missing one HELL of a writer. http://taopoker.blogspot.com/

Fellknight seems to be missing in action, haven't seen him around RGP or at the RGP Challenges lately. Getting burned out on poker already?? Hmmm.

I've been tearing up the forums over at www.internettexasholdem.com if you haven't checked that forum out, you should. Matthew Hilger is a great author, and the people that make up ITH are most cool.

Haven't been given too much crap over at RGP lately. www.recpoker.com An interesting thread evolved from a tourney that I was watching, sweating a fellow RGP'r named Smellmuth. They were down to 3 people in a $10/$1 R and they agreed to do a chip chop count. When Patrick, the CSR from PS, gave the numbers, I knew immediantly that the numbers were wrong, but honestly, I was too scared to say anything. I didn't want to appear "rude" by speaking up as just a "railbird". After all, I wasn't in it, so I should keep my mouth shut, right?

I've come to the conclusion, after discussion about this on RGP, that if players are discussing the chop, as far as who gets what, then to absolutely stay out of it, unless specifically asked for advice. However, if the CSR from PS comes back and gives wrong numbers, then to speak up right away. Would have made Smellmuth an extra $500-$600. Ah well, live and learn.

13 left and I've dropped down to 6th. Cripes, I better start concentrating! OK, 1 hand later, back in 3rd. It's going to be a pretty close game. The top 4 are all within 2K-6K of each other, and 5-9 are all within 4K of each other. No major leaders, and one good hand with an equal stack can really put someone over the top of everyone else. Blinds are 500/1000 now, 12 left.

I will post this now, so as not to lose it accidentally and come back and edit my results. Wish me luck!

EDIT:
BLEH....6th place. $33.00, no major mistakes, just outdrawn on a few hands. The 2nd to last was when I flopped top 2 pair, but he flopped a set and slowplayed it. Bedtime now.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Pimpin' Bill

This is the link for photos that Bill took at the 2004 WSOP.

Some of these were published in the first issue of Bluff Magazine.

The last few photos are of lunch with my previous PantherPoker partner, some dear friends, and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson.

Enjoy!

http://pecksweb.com/photos/wsop/

Monday, August 15, 2005

Full Tilt Night

Well, it started off innocently enough with me just entering the $10/$1 RGP Challenge for the evening, NLHE.

Then we got a $10 last longer bet going with 11 people.

Then I got a $100 last longer going with Howard.

Shoot, the last longers were worth more then 1st place. LOL. I was doing very well, but ended up busting out when my 10, 10 all in was called by K, K. The river brought my 10, but that was after the flop and turn brought him an A, J, Q...so he caught his straight and I missed the last longer by one person, ending in 12th place. Mukworm ended up taking that $100 down.

I did, however, win the $100 LL with Howard, so it's not all bad.

However, I did lose $11 when I accidentally sent a player named "Jaffa" a transfer, when it was MrJaffa who wanted the transfer. Full Tilt support tells me that I would have to find Jaffa on the tables and ask him for the $11 back, they won't interfere. Pshaw! It was a typo, I don't even know the guy! It's not like I owed him money and then wanted to renege on an agreement or something, but oh well, my bad. I consider it $11 worth of Karma and it did come back to me ten fold tonight, so it's all good!

Before the RGP event, I joined the $20/$2 NHLE and with 278 entrants, found myself chip leader with 30 people to go, then 20, then 10.

I busted out on a horrible, horrible play. I misread him, thought he didn't have as much as he did and made a bad call.

I had 10, J in the SB, I limp in. He raised to 5200, I called. Flop came 8, 9, 3 and I bet 5200. He moved all in, he had me outchipped due to a previous hand he had just won (I was 2nd in chips) and I debated. I truly thought I had the outs with any 10, J, 7, or Q being good, plus I had the back door flush option as well. However, he turned over 9, 9 for a set, and IGHN with no help on the turn and river, with $59.

I know that I should not have called on a draw, not at that point in the game and I'm livid with myself. However, all I can do is try to learn from my mistakes and carry on to the next tournament.

So, I decided to unwind a little and finish the night by playing some HU SNG's.

For those that recall, I had decided to do a little experiment on UB with HU SNG's. I played 10 $20 SNG'S, won 5, lost 5; so I was basically out the rake. I then proceeded to play 5 more, winning 3 of them, then had to quit for the cruise. So I'm back to the HU matches now, but playing them tonight on Full Tilt.

#1: $10/$1 (Just to warm up a little bit): We went back and forth for a long time, suck out after suck out, first me, then him, then me, then him. Good grief, I wanted this one to be over so bad. Finally, the critical hand, I have Q,6 and am on the SB, I limp in. He raises pot, I call. Flop is Q, K, 4. He bets 120, I raise to 240, he moves all in. Hmmm. I think and decide to call. He shows A,4 and gets no help and is down to 110. Very next hand, I get A, 5. He moves all in preflop, I call and he shows Q, 5. No Q shows up and I win the first one of the night.

OK, so only 1 for tonight, I got bored and decided to play some $1/$2 Razz instead. Sat down with $50, but then decided the pots weren't big enough so got on the $2/$4 list and sat down with $100, while still playing the $1/$2. Besides, I have a bonus to work off!! Decided to make a limit though, of 30 mins.

Left the $1/$2 table with $12.25 (-18BB)

Left the $2/$4 table with $181.20 (+20BB.....and these BB were bigger too!)

Plus, got $5 released in bonus, woo hoo!

All in all, OK night, nothing major, but every little bit earned feels good.

Back to Poker

Finally!

Whew, I can take a big breath and get back to what life is all about, poker!!

I started playing in the satellites for the WCOOP on PS, and I probably should have typed this blog while playing because now it's all hazy and my information is not going to be at it's best.

I played 3 $10/$1 R sats to various events, but the one I did really well in was the PLHE. I say really well, although I still ended up bubbling in 5th place while top 3 get the seats. Sigh. Good for $33. Woopee.

I was chipleader for most of the final two hours, but was crippled when my QQ ran into KK against the 2nd place chipleader. We ended up all in on a flop of rag, rag, rag and luckily I had him covered with about 13K, was able to build it back up to 35K, then lost it all with A,2 vs. A,K against the same guy. Bad timing.

What might have caused some distraction to me was the frantic pounding on my door at 1:30am. My dogs started freaking out, barking up a storm, and I am scared out of my mind, who comes to your door at 1:30 AM?

I start shouting out the door, "Who is it?" I was very loud and wanted them to be intimidated, turns out it was a female, "My name is Michelle, my car is stuck in the mud down the road and I was walking to get help and I got bit by a dog and I need help" She starts crying while she says this.

Yeah, right. And I just won a million dollars.

However, I did advise her that I would not be opening my door, however if there was a number for me to call for her I would, She said No. (???) I think we ALL have a number to call at 1:30AM if a problem arises. So I did the next best thing and called 9-1-1.

I live in a rural community, in a neighborhood that is considered horse property as all homes are on 1/2-1 acre plots. We have no street lights. My house is in the middle of the block. I don't THINK so.

I called 9-1-1, they sent out the patrol car with an ambulance and low and behold, they couldn't find anyone in need of assistance. Hmmmm. Interesting that a woman could get her car "unstuck" from mud and be out of the neighborhood in 6 minutes.

Scary, when you think about it.

Anywho, her knock at the door came during the QQ vs. KK hand and I never recovered!

So, that's it for now but I felt that I hadn't blogged in awhile, so there you have it.

I am back, playing in full force and will post regularly on my outcomes. I plan on winning a seat into all WCOOP events, if not buying in directly to the cheaper ones.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

B.A.T.R.

aka Boring Ass Trip Report.

Well, to you maybe, as the reader, but to me....not so boring at all, I had a good time, not GREAT, but it was nice vacation.

Friday 7/29/05

Left for Vegas around 7 am, arriving early to get Cherissa on her plane to Grandma in Phoenix, and then to get us on the plane to Seattle around 12:30pm. I get through security the first time with her, no problem. Then, I get stopped the second time through (with Bill) and get 1 of my 3 lighters confiscated. NICE security.

Stress comes in now. We are boarded on the plane and they have been trying unsuccessfully for over 30 mins prior to the flight to get people to give up their seats as they were oversold and the weight of the passengers and the weight of the baggage in conjunction with the heat in Vegas that day would not allow the plane to take off. I debated about it with Bill as they were offering a first class upgrade and two free tickets anywhere, just to take the a later flight and arriving in Seattle around 8:30 pm instead of 3:30 pm.

However, due to the problem with my lack of birth certificate and the fact that we had already booked and scheduled the shuttle that would take us from Seattle to Vancouver at 5:30pm, it probably was not in our best interest, so we declined.

As apparantly, did everyone else, so the decision was made to take off 30 pieces of luggage and put them on the next flight, having them arrive at 5:00 pm. OF COURSE, we saw them unloading the luggage and sure enough...there goes 2 of our 4 pieces. Sigh. Bill was having a fit, I was too, but really, there was nothing we could do, so why get all stressed about it? We did get unlimited free drinks, I had 3 on board, he had 2 and the stewardess packed up 6 bottles to go to make it up to us. We were pretty buzzed when we landed.

So, after landing in Seattle, we wait anxiously for our luggage, hoping it would arrive before we had to RUN across the airport to where the shuttle was to pick us up. Bill went early to hold the driver, but at 5:25 pm I had to run to the shuttle with no luggage and just pray that they would deliver it to us that the hotel in Vancouver that night since we were boarding the ship at 11am the next AM.

I get to where the shuttle is, and of course, he's not there. I call the shuttle company, and he's late due to traffic. OK, cool, no problem, I tell her that I'm going to go back to try and get my luggage and could she get the driver to wait in case he pulls up right away. She said NOPE, he leaves once everyone is on board, which of course, pissed me off. So I sit there fuming for another 10 minutes and at 5:45pm decide that I am going to go run and see if the luggage is there, because I can just visualize it going around and around on the conveyor belt. I make Bill promise to make the driver wait, saying I was in the bathroom and I RAN across the airport.

Sure enough, the 2 remaining pieces were there, and I had to run dragging two huge suitcases across the airport again. I made it though. I was out of breath and sweating (aka out of shape) but I made it! The shuttle arrived a good 15 minutes later. LOL.

So, back to the birth certificate. I have been going back and forth with the taxi company and she tells me to just find out when we are 1 hour from the border and she will send the driver then. I tell the shuttle driver and he is so nice and trying to be so helpful, that he says, Forget the taxi, I'll get the other shuttle to pick it up, drop it off where we're going to be and you'll be good to go and won't have to pay the taxi. Sounds good, right?

Nope. Turns out the taxi company was pissed off at the shuttle company for stepping on it's toes, that they called the hotel and forbade them to give my package to the shuttle company, they bowed out gracefully and the taxi was back on.

Next, of course, we got stuck on the bridge...well, the bridge got stuck on us and we were stopped for about 45 minutes while they tried to fix the bridge to go back down after a boat had passed, this was in Seattle still. We finally got on our way and made it to the border without further mishap.

Then, I couldn't find the taxi driver, so our shuttle driver got on the phone with him and JUST as we were next to talk to customs, the driver comes running in waving my envelope, $105 later, I pulled out my birth certificate and we got through without incident. Well, Bill had to go through customs 3 times as he kept walking over the border and then back again, making him have to go through the BS every single time. It was almost comical now, looking back.

So we get to Vancouver, where our shuttle driver was kind enough to drop us off at our hotel door instead of the airport where we then would have had another 30 minutes shuttle drive, so that was much appreciated. We checked in, ate dinner at the restaraunt next door and decided to head out and check out the nightlife of Vancouver. Went way out of our way to a highly recommended bar where there was nothing going on, so we had one drink and then decided just to go back to the hotel and go back to bed.

Saturday 7/30/05 and Sunday 7/31/05

We catch the shuttle to the harbor without incident to the harbor, where we proceed to go through check in, customs, etc and finally we're on the ship! (I found out later by my father in law that it is very bad form to call the cruise ship a "boat" as it is, indeed, a "ship". Whatever. LOL)

We leave dock around 5:30-6:00 PM and unfortunatly, the in-laws planned on dinner being at 5:45 every night so we were unable to see the ship leave the dock , which was a bummer as we really, really wanted to see it. We spent the rest of the evening and the next day at sea, not reaching our first port until Monday. Not much to report, although I had fun a few nights of the cruise dancing and kareoking (sp?) but for the most part, I was bummed about the entertainment on board. There only seemed to be one nightclub and they changed the variety of music every night, so I only got to really go dancing 2 nights of the cruise, which pissed me off as I wanted to club every night!!

Monday 8/1/05

Ketchikan

Our first port of call was Ketchikan, lovely little town. Our first stop, 7:50am, was an excursion that I had planned titled: "Raptors and Native American Storytelling" I thought Bill would enjoy this and I was right! Turns out, not a single excursion I planned was "wrong". We enjoyed them all and found them all to be very educational if not entertaining. On this excursion, we got to learn about the salmon hatcheries of Alaska and heard some stories from a beautiful native alaskan who was dressed in her tribe's finery. Saw a bunch of injured, recovering raptors, including 3 bald eagles, an owl, some other types of birds, etc. etc. Fun time.

We then went shopping! Bill lasted pretty long, I must admit, and we headed back to the ship around 3pm, exhausted.

Tuesday 8/2/05

Juneau

This stop had us doing a 7:50am "Gold Panning" excursion, where we were able to actually pan for gold and Bill got a big kick out of this one. We ended up with 3 vials of gold flakes which we are combining into one to give to Cherissa.

We then went shopping, again, although Bill was starting to feel a little commercialized as the shops were pretty much the same as the shops in Ketchikan. So, he left me to my own and I found a few things that I would have bought if he was with me, but knew that I couldn't without his permission. This beautiful, gorgeous, I absolutely had to have it, black sheer rex fur stole. 3 stores later I found a beautiful, gorgeous, I absolutely had to have it if I can't have the fur stole, black cashmere with fox fur trim cape for 1/2 the price of the stole. Well, to make a long story short, I couldn't convince Bill to come back to shore with me so I had to wave bye bye to them from the ship as we left.

However, we didn't leave until we went on our 2nd excursion, the Evening Whale Quest. We were guaranteed to see whales, or our money back. Well, whales we saw. In fact, we were able to see the rare eating custom of the humpback whales when eating in groups. There were 4 of them, and they form a circle blowing bubbles up and trapping fish in the center of the bubbles, then taking turns coming up to the surface with their mouths wide open to gobble up all the fish. We were able to hear them with the underwater microphone and the sounds were absolutely fantastic. Apparantly, they (the crew) hadn't heard a recording quite that good in several years as two of the crew actually cried tears, it was that awesome. This was, by far, our most favorite outing. I have fantastic pictures, will try to post them and more later.

Wednesday 8/3/05

Skagway

What a FUN little town, the locals (all 800 of them) like to dress in the 1898 regalia and we took a very cool Original Streetcar Tour of the city. Our driver instantly reminded me of ME. She was very outgoing, vivacious, red hair, dimples, acting up a storm. She was my kindred spirit, and it was kind of weird watching her throughout the tour. Bill thought she was sexy. LOL.

We then ate breakfast in town, great homecooking and it got us away from the cruise food. We were severly disappointed in the quality of the food on board. It was not at all what we imagined and I think that we may have built up cruises to be more then what they acutally are, in our minds. We did book another cruise for next year, our 5th wedding anniversary, however, I am going to be contacting Carnival Cruise Lines (We were on Princess) to see if they will match or beat prices and then try the different cruise line to see if there is a difference or if all cruises are the same.

Did a little shopping next, although I will admit that even I was a little shopped out (hard to believe, I know!!) and then we went on our last excursion titled the "Dangerous Days of '98" It was little play that gave us the history of the town, and I must say this little town had a lot more history in it then the other towns, I found this stop to be my favorite. Very colorful, to say the least. They still have brothels! (Um, just not open of course, LOL)

Thursday 8/4/05 and Friday 8/5/05

Both of these days were spent on the ship, at sea, going through Glacier Bay and then through another area, which for the life of me, I can't think of and am too damn lazy to look up, but if I remember it, I'll edit. Anyways, the Glacier Bay was suppose to show us 6-10 glaciers, but it was so overcast and cold that we just stayed in the room for much of the day and saw 2, I believe.

The next day was where we saw the 2nd phenomenal sighting for us. Calving. Calving (sp?) is what they call it when parts of the glaciers fall off and dump into the ocean. We were probably 600 feet away from the glacier, and the noise, "White Thunder" they called it, was so fantastic, it was hard to believe that a little bit of ice could cause that much noise. Of course, it only looked like a little due to the distance, but it was a fantastic sight. At one point, an entire section came down and it was so huge and monsterous that everyone who was hanging out on their balaconies or on the decks were cheering and shouting approval, it was an awesome, awesome sight.

Saturday 8/6/05 and Sunday 8/7/05

We debarked at a small town called Whittier, so small in fact, that we had to take a train 2 hours south to Anchorage to pick up our rental car to drive back 2 1/2 hours north to the town of Seward. Bill and I had gotten our own car, seperate from the rest of the family, so we headed straight to Seward and got there around 2pm. We checked into our Bed and Breakfast. A JOKE. The view was great, sure, but Bed and Breakfast's are not suppose to look like hotels, the owner should be there to greet us, and we should not be served a continental breakfast. I strongly discourage anyone from staying at Alaskan Seawater Lodge if you ever happen to be in Seward.

We left for town, where we had an absolute fabulous meal. Then did a little bit more shopping where I got a fantastic pair of hand carved, hand painted copper earrings that went splendidly well with a new shawl that Bill bought for me there. Love them, and of course, they looked great on me. Ha ha ha.

Family met up with us around 5pm and that was when the real problems started as the rooms were all messed up, as far as reservations, and next thing we knew, we were being bumped from our ocean view room to a room that overlooked a clothesline. Sigh. What can you do? Family arguments happen, especially when your together for the amount of time that we were, but we all made up around 7pm in time for dinner and a few drinks. Turns out they don't know how to make Mai Tai's in Alaska, but the calamari was divine and the drink still had alcohol in it, so I can't really complain, right??

We ended up in bed around midnight, which was weird to us, because we were exhausted around 9pm, but due to the sun still shining, felt odd going to bed. Turns out, the sun didn't set until about 10pm and the last light was gone around midnight, so we finally went to bed after a walk on the shoreline.

Sunday we had agreed to go to on a day long Wildlife Boat Trip and it was ALL DAY LONG. I took a Dramamine and that with the combination of the lulling of the boat had me dozing almost all day long, barely waking up to see the bald eagles, otters, whales, birds of all types, glaciers, etc. Nice trip, but WAY too long. We did not get seasick at all on the trip, although this part of the trip is when we finally experienced sea legs and couldn't understand why our room wouldn't quit rocking. LOL.

There was one bad day on the boat, Thursday night, after Glacier Bay where the ship was rocking like crazy, in fact, Bill was not feeling well at all and he went to bed early, although I was able to stay up and audition for the Princess Idol contest. Yours truly lost when she sang a smashing Peggy Lee's "Fever" against a bubbly, cute, yet STUPID rendition of "Grease Lighting". But I'm not BITTER or anything. (However, I will mention that she hardly even knew the words and kept laughing during the "performance". Bitch.) LOL.

Monday 8/8/05

We woke up around 10am and headed off to Anchorage, catching our flight at 2:30pm. We had a 2 hour stop over in San Francisco, then proceeded to Vegas, arriving around midnight. We then drove home, arriving around 3 am. I started doing laundry while checking my email and then woke up Tuesday (today) around 9am and have been working nonstop catching up on work, but not even getting closed to being caught up, and only stopping to take a break to type up this report.

I told everyone I would be back 8/10, as I knew I would need this day to get at least "a little bit" caught up, but the rush and the work starts again tomorrow. Not looking forward to it at all, and have been feeling torn and stressed as to whether I really should have gone on this trip. Not hard to say No, when the cruise was a gift, but still, I have never been gone this long from my business, all in one stretch, and I can see why. Linda, my manager, did a great job handling fires and keeping up, but I still feel guilty and I feel like I missed a lot that I should have been here doing. Ahhh...the hazards of being a small business owner.

All in all, the trip rates an 8 on the scale of 10, and although I would recommend Alaska and cruising, just don't build it up to be something in your mind that it really isn't. Add the in-laws being with us for the full trip, the stress of returning to work, and the length of the trip, then it would make the trip a 7, maybe even a 6. Both Bill and I were ready to come home last Thursday. So take it what it's worth. We did have a good time though, don't get me wrong, but I was also cold ALL the time and I would so much have preferred Hawaii or the Virgin Islands. Next year, Mexico Riviera Baby!!!

On another note, Cherissa left port yesterday with my Mom, Grandma, for her little 5 day Mexico cruise. A surprise from Grandma for her 13th birthday that is just around the corner. Spoke with her today, and she is having the time of her life! She has already made friends, joined the little teen club they have for her age division and was able to go "clubbing" last night on the ship. Yeah, she's loving life and will be full of stories once she returns home!

Thanks for reading, will catch up on work soon and then be back to POKER, eventually!