Topless in February

I went skiing for the 10th time this season on President's Day. The snow was much better than expected, which was a fun surprise. I kept up with Michelle this time, which was also a surprise. And for my third surprise, I am blogging from the porch, topless, two days later. I'm listening to the woodpeckers and other birds while going deep in a FT tourney. I like Februaries in Seattle.

The Plot Thickens

5:45pm on Friday night without any set plans, I suddenly remembered Kat's donkament. I hadn't played in months due to a minuscule bankroll, but I got second in the fantasy football pool this winter, and won a T$22 token earlier this week, which I converted to funny money. There were about 12 runners, and I re-bought 13 times, making the final table as a shortie. I went from short-stack to 2nd biggest stack in the span of about 10 minutes...

...and then I got a phone call.

*Rewind to last week*

Last week I realized that the teaching program is winding down. We've only got a month left of classes together, then we have our full-time student teaching assignments, where we only see the other students in our school. I think we meet as a cohort one night a week, and that is it. We've been doing everything together for the past year, and it will be strange to cut that link.

The people in the program are a lot of fun, and the realization that we only had a month of class together left, made me reassess who I want to spend that time with in the cohort. There are a few people I wanted to know better, but really have never hung out with outside of class. I sent out a few invitations to watch Survivor here at my place on Thursday, and Erin was the only one wanting or able to come.

From our introductions a year ago, I knew Erin had a pretty serious boyfriend of 3-4 years, and that she is super busy maintaining a job while going to school. Not a big shocker we never got a chance to hang out. I was excited for her to come over and get to know her better, because all of our conversations in class have been fun.

She comes over Thursday night and we fire up Survivor, both excited for the new season. I suggest that we play Nightmare Fantasy Survivor, which involved picking a man and a woman for your team. Each time either of your picks does something completely idiotic, you get a point. If either of your picks is booted off the island, you get 5 points. You have to make your picks by the 2nd commercial break. It really spices up the viewing!

Erin and I pretty much ignore the Survivor episode and talk the entire hour. It turns out she and her boyfriend broke up last summer--and I had no idea. I like surprises. I end up winning the Nightmare Fantasy game on a big come-from-behind string of stupidity from the douche who looks like Steven Seagal. We bet a massage. And then we hopped in the hot tub.

The next day in class (yesterday), we had fun poking subtle jabs at each other. I told her that she looked a bit tired, and did she get enough sleep last night? Hehe.

So I'm back home last night, with a healthy stack in the donkament when Erin calls. She finished up with work, and I invited her over. I joined Buddy Dank Radio for the tail-end of the donkament, but had to shut that down to avoid complete embarrassment when Erin arrived.

I was still in the tourney when she came over, so we talked while I tried to crash and burn out of the donkament. I eventually ran my 77 into AA, and wanted to type "now for some fun" but accidentally closed Full Tilt down.

Funny, Funny Shit!

This is quite possibly the funniest interview ever captured on TV:



Then, I somehow stumbled upon this joke at a roast for Bob Saget:



Laughing is fun. And guess who is on Conan tonight, again!

High Hopes

I had high hopes for the winter this year. Season's pass for the first time ever, and some pretty fun friends I just recently made at the beginning of December. Up until now, the friendships and season's pass have under-preformed. I envisioned having sleepovers at friends' places and going skiing the next day, and that has yet to happen. I've only really skied with each friend once or twice, and I was really hoping to make the most of my season's pass, but schedules and lack of snow have kicked me in the junk.

That is all starting to turn around, with the simple and glorious fact that I am house-sitting for the next month and a half. And snow is coming. I've had friends over all weekend and had a blast. Friday night was Talent Show night for the school I am student teaching at, and the funniest skit had to be a couple of 2nd graders prancing around the stage to the following song. I only know the song from YouTube, and from the kid in the YouTube video:



I could barely contain myself in the audience, but managed through the song without completely losing it.

Sarah and I met Natalie back at my house on Friday night for some fun Wii action. Natalie talked shit about real life bowling, so she'll have to be dealt with in due time.

Saturday night was the big poker blogger gathering, which was amazing like usual. Eight runners ponied up the $10 buy-in to the first tournament, well that technically isn't true, only seven people actually paid, because I was due a bloggerment buy-in from the Doc. I had almost forgotten! We DO need to get another challenge going--with the condition that we're both losers unless we make a profit... so we'll have to make humiliating bets on this, instead of just monetary.

Shrike (PL), Matt, Josh, Cayne, Michelle, Doc, Zeem and myself were the 8 runners. After taking Shrike's stack on a very brutal hand early in the tournament, I bled chips and got bounced in either 7th or 6th. The hand I took Shrike's stack was brutal. It was the 3rd hand of the night, and the dealer flopped me a K-hi flush. Shrike flopped a 9-hi flush and Zeem had the Q-hi flush. I am about 80% certain the flushes were because the deck wasn't shuffled enough (new deck). Shrike had an inside straight-flush draw, and Josh revealed to the table that the 8c (which would have given Shrike the straight-flush) was in the burn pile... which led me to believe a weird shuffle. I was tempted to give Shrike some of his chips back due to the oddness of the hand, then I realized Zeem was able to fold his Q-hi flush, and the cards were dealt around the table, so there had to be some randomness to our hands (I don't think everyone at the table had clubs in their starting hands, or someone would have said something... unless they masterfully were plotting against the Canadian!!!).

Zeem was freaking ridiculous on the night. The fifth orbit, when the blinds were at 150-300, he tossed out three white chips for his big blind (25 each), we told him he needed black chips, not white ones, and without hesitation he called us all racists and preached the Obama doctrine. It was amazing. The Wife has some more of Zeem's quotes from the night on her blog.

Speaking of The Wife, she was hot hot hot last night. She has very nice boobs, and that isn't just the half-bottle of wine I've drank tonight talking. We got into a massage war, and we both won. At one point in our massage session, I was on top, and apparently hitting a good spot on her upper back due to the primal groans coming from her. She said something along the lines of certain spots just making her lose control. I knew what she was talking about, because I was not not not not not not not not not not not not not not not not not not getting wood at the time. I had no control over it.

Back to the poker. After being bounced out of both tournaments and getting massages in, I headed back to the table for a cash game around 1:30am. Now, I'll preface the cash game hijinx by saying I really, really suck at cash games, especially with bloggers. With bloggers, I have not left a cash game table with more money than I sat down with. I think every single one of you fuckers is Gus Hansen, and trying to bluff me. That said, I turned $10 into $70 with a couple of no-brainer hands. Flopped boat vs. QQ and flopped top two pair vs. Aces in crazy pineapple. Poker is easy when you have easy decisions and your opponents don't.

Tonight I had Eddie's crew over for some hot tubbing, and I roped the lovely Mary Ann into giving me a massage in the hot tub. In theory, this would have a happy ending, but I've got to say, that girl has no idea what the hell she is doing when it comes to massaging. She pawed at my back for two minutes then stopped. Boo. New goal for the rest of house-sitting is to turn MA into a world-class masseuse. I think she has potential, but I may need a hoodie, a bike, and some Mike Tyson's Punch Out music.

Tomorrow night, I shall try to conjure up a plan for world domination. Zoinks!

A Busy Week

Well shit, a lot has happened in the past week. I will channel my inner business-side and prepare a bullet list.

--Went skiing twice at Stevens
--Rock Climbed
--South Park Marathon
--Led two rounds of MASH in my cohort class during lecture via google group chat
--Paid up on a dinner and movie bet, for being outlasted at Fantasy Football
--Had a kick-ass super bowl experience
--Wowed my master teacher with another fun and interactive math lesson
--Getting ready to host the next Seattle Home Game!

So the math lessons last week confirmed my hypothesis of roller-coaster teaching. Wednesday's lesson was terrible, and Thursday's was amazing. I'm starting to pick up on what makes lessons terrible or amazing, and I'm trying to keep the lessons as active as possible for the students, while still keeping the learning going. Some days, like Thursday, it all works out and the kids have fun while learning something new.

I went skiing up at Stevens both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday I carpooled up with J and Sam, and we met a few more of their friends up at the pass. All of their friends are national and world-level ultimate frisbee players, which means they are all incredibly athletic. One of the ladies in the group turns out to also be a former member of the Canadian Air Force, AKA the Canadian Aerials Ski Team. I've never met an aerialist. She has got it going on, and we hit it off. I got her digits, since she's also got a pass to Stevens, and we hope to go up many more times this season. As the conversations continued, she finally asked, "How old are you?" I told her my age and she said, "Oh." Probably not a good thing. I think she is a few years older, but that ain't no thang, baby! I hope the hot tub and house-sitting for parent's for the next two months will offset the age gap.

Right after skiing, J, Sam and I headed to Marc's to pay up on our bet. Marc and Sam were the only two of us to make the playoffs in our fantasy league, and Sam was too much of a pussy to join in our bet this year, so Marc won without winning a playoff game, so lame. Marc decided to redeem his dinner and a movie by choosing AAA Chinese Buffet--an all you can eat Chinese buffet--and then going to watch "My Bloody Valentine" in 3D. I snuck beers into both the all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet and the movie.

Sneaking the beer into the buffet was much harder than the movie theater. I borrowed J's car keys with a bottle opener and took a plastic cup into the men's room with me. Luckily for me, the urinals had little curtains separating each urinal for privacy, so after I finished my business, I took the keys to the bottle of beer and tried to open it. The fucking things kept jingling, and there was a dude in the stall next to me, that must have been wondering what the fuck was going on. When I finally got the lid started, I let out a big sigh, "AAAaaahhh" to cover the fizz from the beer as I opened it. I left the beer bottle on the urinal, washed my hands, then resumed eating dinner with my beer. My time spent in the men's bathroom had me come to the realization that the new worst job in the world would be men's bathroom attendant at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. There were some nasty sounds and smells in that bathroom.

My Bloody Valentine in 3D was terrible. The best part was the naked girl stomping off, boobs jiggling in 3D. The 3D ads in the Super Bowl the next day just freaked me out--is 3D really here for good? I don't think so.

Sunday at Stevens was just Kristy and I, and we intended to go early and leave early in time to watch the Superbowl. Apparently we were not alone, because the mountain was packed until about 1pm, then it was empty. We actually stayed around later than I thought, and ended up getting 20 runs in. My knees were beyond shot by the end of two consecutive days of hard skiing (laps on double diamonds are fun, but god damn!).

I dropped off Kristy at her place and went straight over to the Montlake House and caught the end of the 2nd quarter and the huge 100yd interception return and Larry "Big Hands" Fitzgerald attempt at a touchdown-saving tackle that turned into receiving a knee in the groin... OUCH! The party was a blast, with a handful of guys and a couple football-savvy ladies (so hot). We played some liar's dice afterward's, and I probably should have won, but botched a call when we got down to 3 players. I had the game in the bag!

Yesterday, I saw enough of my cohortmates on google chat that I started up a group chat with about five of them. By the end of math class, we had about a dozen people in group chat playing MASH. It made math class amazingly more fun, and I think Natalie wound up married to Newt Gingrich, living in a shack under the Viaduct, with octuplets, and riding a magic carpet to her zookeeper job.

Today, I got back from morning class and went to Costco with my mom, both for her trip to Arizona with pops, and also to make sure I don't die while they are away. We stocked up on the essentials: Beer, wine, and mac & cheese. After Costco, I hit the climbing wall and finally got a few problems I have been working on for months, so that was a huge boost to my climbing esteem!

Seattle Area Home Game is still on for this Saturday!!! Be there or be square. That's right, 90 degree corners, equal sides and all.