Why So Much Anger in the World?

I have witnessed such unbridled anger this past week and I have to ask the question, why is everyone so angry? Most of the anger I witnessed stemmed from a blog of professional poker player, Daniel Negreanu. He made the mistake of thinking that he lived in a free country and posted his feelings on the current administration running the US and an opinion on the Iranian President.

All hell broke loose on his site, FCP. People were creating accounts just to rip him a new one over his "opinions". What I find most interesting is that the people who go off on huge hissy fits of anger are usually ones who are supporters of Bush. Is it just Republican nature to fly off the handle and deal with all opinions different then the their own with personal attacks and lots of screaming? I unfortunately have yet to meet a Bush supporter who can not debate the issues without getting overly defensive and not throw at least one personal insult toward the person or people they are debating with. Sure this may be a gross generalization, but in my experiences it rings true for me.

I, for my own reasons which will be possibly discussed at a later date, do not support our current administration. As an American that right and am happy to continue to have that right. People who support Bush for their own reasons have that same right and I would never tell them they do not, yet they like to tell me and others that we "have" to support our President. Sure, these are the same people who didn't support Clinton but why be so nitpicky right?

My wife works for a campaign and in the short time I have spent seeing it first hand I have witnessed her fellow campaign workers, the candidate, and myself be insulted, cursed at, and been given the finger by "proud" republicans. Wow, okay, you are proud, but also terribly classless. It is really sad that many republicans think that a good debate is a flip of the bird and a "Fuck off, Bitch!". Yeah, that really drives your point home. Just that attitude alone makes me not want to be a republican.

But the sad part is is that this country is horribly divided. My wife explained that our great leader said he would reach his hand across the isle and bring us all together. That doesn't seem to be the case. I guess Mr. Rove had more to do with that but as the President of the United States, you get to take the blame. Deal with it's probably in the job description.

Remember after 9/11 everyone was so nice to each other? Remember how we all got along, regardless of political affiliation or pretty much anything else. We were hunting for Bin Laden and things were not that bad. When did it all change? Iraq? I don't know for sure but that would be my guess. The minute we stopped doing anything about 9/11 this country took a turn for the worse in my opinion. Guess we are back to looking for him again but it's pointless now. Plus it seems to be a political ploy to help the failing republicans in Novembers elections. As stated in my profile, I hate people, the reason I do is because for the most part they are all stupid, so many will fall for this ploy. But I think they will still be in trouble come November.

Let's just be nice and respect each others opinions and views. How does my view being different from yours hurt either one of us? If you like Bush, go right ahead. I disagree but I won't rip your head off about it. You should learn to do the same. This is America, we are supposedly fighting for Freedom *snicker*. Let's not be hypocrites.

Pub Poker

Decided to go to one of the local sports bars last night and play some pub poker. Tried it a few months ago and enjoyed it and decided that the new season started I would try to make some of the games and see if I can't squeak into the top 100.

Game started at 7pm with 27 players on 3 tables. Seems everyone knows everyone and I was one of the new guys. Everyone was pretty cool and it was interesting just sitting back and observing them. One of the guys at my table was a would not shut up. He would critique every single play made at the table. He kept saying that he hated playing with terrible players but don't worry, none of us were that bad. Of course at this point I have yet to play a hand. He was good for some entertainment at least but his poker knowledge was not all that impressive. I had to at one point correct him on an analysis of one of his hands when he incorrectly calculated his outs.

So first hand I played was 33 in the BB. 3 players to the flop and it was pretty ragged. All checked to the turn and checked all around again. I took a stab at the river but got reraised and let it go.

About 30 minutes in I was down to about 2900 from my starting 3875. I was dealt JJ in MP. UTG who was on the final table the last time I was there raised to 800 when the blinds were 100/200. Folded to me and I called. Everyone else folded. Flop came 862. He bet He bet 500 and I reraised to 1200. He called. Turn was a 5. He checked and I bet 1800 and he folded after taking about 4 minutes.

Very next hand I am dealt As6s. Folded to me and I limp. Button calls and the BB (the guy I beat last hand) checks. Flop comes Qs 3s 4s. Flopped the nuts. BB checks, I check, and Button bets 800. BB thinks and calls, I take sometime and make a call. Turn is the 5s. BB bets 1000. I take sometime and then raise to 2000. Button is pissed and folds. BB calls. River is the 3h. He checks and I tell him I will put him all in and he calls showing a J high flush. I flip my cards over and scoop the large pot. Mr Poker can't get over how well I played the hand (though I don't think I did anything all that special. Not hard when you flop the nuts) and how I got all the value I could out of it. Top class play. LOL. Okay, whatever.

A few hands later the 3rd table broke putting us down to 18. I had about 12.6K at this point. I got into a hand with the new guy at our table who was the chip leader. I was in the BB and he was the CO. Play folded to him and he raised to 1200 (200/400 level). Folded to me and I called with KcJc. Not my favorite hand, but I wanted to defend my blinds and figured it was good enough to see the flop. Flop came Qc Jc 3h. I checked hoping he would make a continuation bet and I could check raise but he checked. Weird. Turn came a Kd. Now I have top pair J kicker, straight, striaght flush, and flush draw. I bet out 1800. He thinks for a bit and makes the call. Hmmm. Not feeling good about this, I need a big river. River came a 6h. Blah! I checked and he checked and I flipped my K and he showed AJ for the straight. If only a club hit. Oh well. Could have lost a lot more if I played it more aggressively. As that happened 3 people busted out on the other table and I was sent over there.

The chip leader was now at this table after busting 3 people with 2c3c. I didn't get the whole story but those were his cards he called 3 all ins with. Heh. I sat back from a playing a few hands to get some reads on players. Two were shortstacked and pretty much blinding themselves out. I saw one in the BB with 300 left with KQs and she checked it all the way and lost to a pair of 2's. So not a ton of skill going on here. I was down to about 6500 at the 400/800 level and put it all in with AKo. I got one caller who I figured for a pair on how fast he called and he flipped over AQo. Whew. That held up and I was back in business.

Finally we made it to the final table or 9 and I was sitting on about 10K with 400/800 blinds. Stole a few blinds early to help me out and finally got my chips in UTG with AJs. Sadly I got two callers, AQ and AK. The AK hit a pair on the flop and took us both down. I finished in 7th.

It wasn't too bad. I can play with these guys, everyone seemed nice. I was tired and didn't stay for the second game but will next time.

TV Land: Amazing Race & Studio 60

So the new fall season is getting underway and here are some reviews of two new shows and some comments regarding Wife Swap from last night.

AMAZING RACE 10

Ahhh my favorite reality show of all time is back with a new season and a new bunch of losers to watch run around the world being annoying, stupid, rude, racist, and plain amusing. Nothing much seems to have changed in the show. They did get rid of a team during a non pit stop activity but other than that it was the same great show that keeps winning Emmy after Emmy. Getting that Survivor, stop messing around and get back to what made that show good, not some gimmicky crap you got going on know!

Anyway, so it's early in the season but I will post my thoughts on all the teams.

Bilal & Sa'eed
Best friends from Cleveland. The new common theme in reality shows is to get Muslims on. They were okay. Little over religious for my tastes (and if they were Christians or Buddhists or whatnot I would say the some thing). I was curious to see how they would get through the whole race since it seemed they were strict followers of their religion since they wouldn't even shake fellow women competitors hands. Too bad they were slow as molasses and were the first to be knocked out.

Vipul & Arti
Married couple from Florida. Eh. Wife liked the guy and I was indifferent on him, hated the woman. No real reason. Just the way she presented herself. She was way to daintily and I have to say I don't like men who call their significant others "love" That's just weird. They were also very slow hence they were the second team to go home.

David & Mary
Here we go. These two are supposedly married from Kentucky. They seem to have left the part out about them possibly being brother and sister as well. Yes, I just said that. So what. So I guess they met working at McD's and fell in love. She has the self-esteem of a cow and he is as bright as a...well...he just isn't that bright. What should be interesting about them if they last long enough is to see how they grow together. They still seem to live in the world of the women is a slave and the man is god mentality. I don't predict them to go far but I sure get a good laugh out of them.

Duke & Lauren
Duke is the father of the Lauren the Lesbian. He seems to have a hard time with that as he broke down crying talking about his shame for his lesbian daughter. Should be interesting how they handle each other. They might grow on me if he can grow up but I doubt it. She seems cool though.

Dustin & Candice
Two beauty queens from Cali and NY. Not to smart, little ditzy, more air between their ears than airtime on the show for me to get a good read on them.

Erwin & Godwin
Bothers from San Francisco. My pick currently to win it. I like these guys. I have nothing bad to say about them. They seem intelligent and funny. GO TEAM!

Kellie & Jamie
Wow, nothing annoys me more than cheerleaders, especially southern cheerleaders. They spent the whole episode acting and clapping like cheerleaders. That is annoying. They are probably close to the Kentucky couple in terms of smarts. The blond one asked the brunette one if Sa'eed and Bilal worshipped Buddah after being told they were Muslims and the brunette didn't seem to know herself. Wow. They will get annoying fast and they possess no qualities that want me to keep them around any longer than they need to. The blonde though is by far the most annoying of the two. They didn't even know how to put the Mercedes in Drive. Wow.

Lyn & Karlyn
I started off liking these two but quickly changed my perception of them. They will be the major whiners of this season. Whine, whine, whine, whine...that is all I heard from them since about 20 minutes into the race. History has shown that whining about what other teams are doing is counter-productive and will hurt you in this race.

Peter & Sarah
Here is where I probably write my ticket into hell. I despise Sarah. Sure she is just a person on a TV show, but she irks me in so many ways. For one, she has an annoying personality. Yes, she has no leg, boo hoo. I know I should feel sorry for her but I refuse to since she seems to get around just fine. Missing a limb will not get you extra points in my book. If you bug me, you bug me. I like how in their intro she talks about her huge longtime crush on Peter. She really focused on that and her missing leg. He never once expressed his feelings toward her in his time. I find that hilarious. The site says they have unresolved romantic feelings for each other. Don't know what that means but my guess is that he is actually gay. That might make it hard for her to bag him. Just my opinion, not that there is anything wrong with that. She seems to bring up her missing leg often in the 90 minutes of episode one and if that continues she could really ruin this season for me. I am not going to feel sorry for her. She decided to run this race and almost got screwed by having to climb the wall and I had to listen to her feel even more sorry for herself. But baby, you chose this, so shut up and deal with it. My wife will get mad at me for posting this but I will say watching her run makes me giggle and I am 100% certain that makes me a bad person, but it is the truth.

Rob and Kimberly
Ahh, the typical elitist, better than everyone, fight with each other couple. Can't have an Amazing Race without this team. Two dating bartenders from LA. They will be fighting with each other all season long, let's just hope there race is short.

Tom & Terry
The Forehead Team. Gay couple from NY. That is all I have to say. Not rooting for them but I can handle them for now. They didn't get that much air time to judge them as harsh as I have judged others. :)

Tyler & James
Two drug addict models. LOL. I like them. I will root for them and Erwin & Godwin. Fun guys, seem nice, not overbearing, just looking to have some fun.

So this should be an interesting season. I wished I liked more of them but what can you do when you hate people as much as I do.

Studio 60
Well living in a house with a diehard Aaron Sorkin fan it would be hard not to watch this show. My wife is a West Wing junkie and has been dying for this show to premiere regardless of the fact she watched the pilot on youtube a month ago. As with many of Aarons work (West Wing, Sports Night) he tends to have similar events and storylines. Luckily he is an amazing writer and can pull it off well. Cast looks good, I like Perry and Whitford a lot and it seems they will be hilarious together. I look forward to the next episode and I hope he can make this as good as WW and be able to stick with it longer since his leaving WW killed the show for me. Check it out. You won't be disappointed.

Lions are teh Funny!

Ahhh, the Detroit Lions. If you haven't heard, yes, they are still an NFL team. Sure doesn't seem like it if you look at the last 15 years but they still are a pro team. So much has happened this year. New coach, new QB's, new attitude, new team. But after watching the preseason and the first 2 games of the year I have to admit, I see no difference. As my wife said, they might even be worse than last year.

We got a new coach who preaches discipline, focus, professionalism, respect, and hard work. Okay. So why are we committing 14 penalties in 22 minutes in the last game vs. the Bears? Why is your Defensive Line coach getting caught at a Wendy's Drive Thru in Dearborn, MI drunk and naked? We'll address that in more detail later.

We have selected 3 WR's in the 3 of the last 4 years 1st round of the draft. Charles Rogers, Roy Williams, and Mike Williams. They cut Charles this year. They kept Mike though he hasn't played a down yet, and Roy is the main focus of the recent controversy in D-Town.

Let's look at Charles first. Chuck was a great player at MSU. He sadly broke his collar bone early in his rookie season. Then he broke it again the next year early. Last year he got suspended 4 games for toking up which he was in trouble before in the past. Then they stopped playing him and took him to court to get the signing bonus back. Then we get new coaches all around and early on they said he was looking great in practice. But then he never played much in the pre-season and was cut the week before the season started. No real reasons, just didn't think he was good for the team.

Roy Williams is probably the best receiver on the team, though that is not saying much when your second WR is some dude from the Arena Football League and the horrid XFL. Roy has a professionalism problem for sure. He means well but it all comes off wrong. He said last week that the Lions would win against Detroit if they played well. Well duh, Roy. That's how it should work. But the national media took it and cut off the last part and made it sound like he just said, "I guarantee the Lions will win next week..." Ahh, big difference without the "if we play well" part huh? Oh well, nothing new there, gotta make a story out of something. Of course the Lions played one of their worst games in recent history and fell to the Bears 34-7. Trouble is even with the score 24-0 whenever Roy caught a pass for a 1st down he would showboat a little. Now everyone is on him for that. I agree it is the wrong time to do that but I also think that he is one if not the only player on the team with any drive to do well. People are coming down on him hard and I think it might be unfair. As one guy said on the radio this morning, the NFL wants to turn these guys into robots who might break a 89 yrd TD run and afterwards just hand the ball to the ref and quietly go to the sideline. That is not a good thing for the game. Part of the fun of the game is the celebrations and the emotions. Now, being down 24-0 is not a good time to act cocky, but I don't think he was doing it for bad reasons, he just cares and is an excitable kid.

Mike Williams. Now there is a story and one that will grow as each day or week passes. His fellow teammates have stated to the media that they think he is doing well in practice. A lot of them expected him to play on Sunday vs. the Bears. Nope. No go on that. When asked in the presser on Monday you could tell there was some tension regarding Mike. Mike has stated he has no idea what he has done or what he is doing wrong in practice to not get the chance to play. Maranelli claims he has told him and he doesn't really care what the opinions are of the team on whether Mike can or should play. We did just sign Az Hakim last week which tells me that they made the decision to bag Mike but as this organization has shown in recent years, too scared to tell people what is going on without making it some elaborate production that only makes them look like a poorly run organization. If the Lions lose against the Pack this coming Sunday and Mike isn't playing, this issue will get heated really quick. So stay tuned next week to see what happens if you are interested.

Last but definitely not least, Joe Cullen, our wonderful D-Line coach. Mr. Cullen is quite the story around here. Everyday I hear something new about this guy. He was fired from Mississippi in 05 fro public intoxication. He allegedly used to throw up in front of his players to get them pumped up before games. On August 24th he was pulled over for drunk driving and being totally nude. On Sept 1st he was pulled over again when he blew a .12 (.08 is the MI legal limit).

Now, this is a coach. You are trying to get this team of lazy misfits to be more professional, disciplined, and respectful yet this is one of your coaches. Interesting thing is that the media didn't catch wind of this story until a week after his 2nd arrest. His punishment? 1 game suspension. Yup. That was it. Personally I would send him away for help and give him a clothes stipend and thank him for his work till that point. If the media hadn't picked up on this story I don't think the Lions would have done one thing. By the time the Lions reacted it was over a week after it happened and then they laid out the horrible punishment. If you look at what this guy has done and what Mike Williams is going through...how can you take this organization seriously? I don't know. But I am sure I can post more fun blogs about them as the season wears on.

My prediction: 3-13

Internet Gambling on the Hot Seat

As a online poker player I have been paying attention to the bill that is trying to be passed in the Senate against Internet Gambling. I personally am not for the bill passing for the obvious reason of not being able to do something that I love and have some skill at. But last night I saw 60 minutes was going to do a story on it and watched it (well sort of since I was online playing poker.

So the main argument this time was based on the fact that kids would be able to gamble online. That is a bad thing. Sure, so is drinking, smoking, and taking drugs, but no one seems to be trying as hard to stop kids from doing that these days. The thing they addressed was how a kid could take dad's credit card and jump online and start gambling. Well here are a few things I noticed about that senario. First off, when the kid tried to access poker sites he was not allowed on. That says something right there that the sites are doing their job in keeping people like that kid from accessing their site with a credit card. Secondly, the site the kid did get on looked to be GlodenPalace.com which is a "real" gambling site. By real I mean, not a poker site. Poker is defined these days as not "gambling". I believe, and correct me if I am wrong, but in states that do not allow games of chance, many actually have poker rooms that are legal because poker is recognized as a skill game, not a chance game. My point is that go after the right people. Go after the sites that offer slots, craps, and roulette, but leave the poker sites out of it. Now, some sites do offer both. Make the site pull the blackjack and crap off but leave the poker aspect in. I'm fine with that.

But one of my problems with this bill is the other reason and that is that internet gambling is used by terrorists to launder money. Oh give me a break. You keep saying it but not once have I seen one shred of evidence presented that supports that series. Maybe that guy I saw on Pokerstars last night with the handle OSBL4885 was Osama trying to win some money to fund another attack.

I understand we need to keep the kiddies safe. But this is ridiculous. Where is the parent in this equation? Why does the government feel the need to become the parent? The kid steals dad's credit card and then loses $500 on the slots. The kid should get in trouble for that by his parents. You may as well ban OnDemand on digital cable cause what stops a kid from going on there and buying porn every night. The parents will find out, just like they did with the gambling.

Stay away from the poker. It's just that simple. Feel free to block credit card access on those sites, I don't use a credit card so no skin off my back. Hell, do what Norway (or Finland or Sweden) did and start your own poker and gambling site. Get in on the action. Just leave us alone.

Poker Post

Not doing too much with Poker since I was gone the whole week. Played a couple $4.40 180's on Stars yesterday and finished 13th and 40th. I was doing well in the latter till I lost with AA vs. 66 when he hit a 6 on the turn after we both got all in after the flop came 284.

Watched some FCP guys play in the WCOOP #1 Limit Razz. Hanguk from FCP finished in 13th which was an amazing finish. I tried to stay up for the whole thing but fell asleep sometime around 1:30am-2:00am. Even got me in the mood to play razz but since I feel it is not a strong game of mine I only played a $1.50 SNG. Finished 3rd though for a whopping $.35! LOL. So good job Hanguk, you should be proud!

Today I felt like crap but had a craving for poker. Played a 45 man SNG and was top 3 from start till about 11 players left when I got my KK sucked out on by 78s who hit a straight by the river. Finished 10th. Played 3 6 Max SNG's tonight and won one, bubbled the other and dead last in the third after losing with KJ vs AA after flopping two pair. Oh well.

Also played a Moneymaker $2.5 Million Stage 1 and finished 306th out of 58xx and some. It was pretty funny,

But my head hurts too much to continue playing today. Just watch some football and keep an eye on a few FCPers in the WCOOP #2 $1.5 million tourney.

Also a shout out to Ray Powers who did well today in a FCP Protege Qualifier Event. Go get em in the next stage!

I Swear, I Could Have Smacked Her...

So after a 10+ hr drive home from D.C. I was tired and hungry. Liz really craved a Chicken Gyro from National Coney Island. So after watching the footage I taped all week and watching the end of the Tigers mauling of the Birds I headed out into the cold night for some good food.

When I got there it was rather busy, guess there was a HS football game and the place was crawling with teenagers. Never thought I would get old enough to be so annoyed with teenagers, but I have hit that mark. The gentleman in front of me orders his food and then they take my order:

Chicken Gyro Deluxe (w/fries)
Chicken Gyro Deluxe, no tomatoes, w/ cheese fries

That is it. Not too hard.

After they take my order they take the orders of the two women behind me. Then the wait begins...

As I am waiting I notice that one of the ladies behind me gets her food. She was the last to order. The gentleman, me, her friend, then her. Odd, but no biggie. I am watching the two girls deal with people and do their jobs while waiting. The one who took my order seemed okay. Little cheerleader type girl, slight attitude but not that bad. The other girl was pure emo. I am was not sure what emo was until I saw her. She was miserable and absolutely rude to everyone she talked to whether it was us or co-workers.

Finally the gentleman in front of me got his food and there was two of us left for waiting. Finally I see all out food hit the counter and the emo chick starts bagging it. But then...she stops. Cheerleader girl doesn't know how to use the credit card machine. So they sit there trying to work it out and get the customer on his way. Me and the lady waiting with me are now getting a little annoyed. It has been over 20 minutes and her friend got her food 15 minutes ago and it's getting cold waiting. Why they did hers first is beyond me.

So now they both have forgotten that two of us are waiting for food and start doing other things. The cheerleader is fixing her hair and the emo chick is talking to a co-worker about exchanging $50 in $1's. As they are working it out I step up and say "we would really like to get our food...can we stop what we are doing and do our jobs?" This prompts emo girl to look at me with great disdain and anger. I think she thought she had lasers in her eyes and was melting me with them. That prompted me to get angrier and I said, "Listen, get our food or get the manager, your choice..." Emo girl ignored me and cheerleader woke up and went to start bagging the food.

So things are looking up and I get my food without any more confrontation. But that would just be a dream I guess since next thing I know while talking to the other woman waiting, a bag of food gets thrown on the register counter by cheerleader. So the woman and I just look at each other...who's is it? So I ask...and then it happened...cheerleader girl snapped! In the most pretentious, rude, angry, sarcastic voice she whipped her little head around and said "that's yours...HAVE A NICE DAY!"

Wow...that was rude. My only response was to smile and ask for the manager. She repeated to me that I have my food and to have a nice day and I told her "it doesn't work like that, get your manager know!"

So the manager came out and I explained the situation to him and left.

Then I get home...

Two chicken gyro's both with tomatoes but both with no lettuce. No sauce either...

I am so sick of this common trend in customer service. I guess the only places I can eat and be treated normally by competent people is places where I will be spending $40 or more a plate.

DC Trip Day: 7

Well I am typing this as we are on the way home. We left DC around 10:30am and stopped in Gettysburg for a gander. Hard to get into it when you got a battlefield and then a KFC. Hopefully we will be home in the next 5 or 6 hours. Once I get behind the wheel we should make up sometime.

-Well we made it home about 8:30pm. Long trip. Just finished dinner which I will blog about tomorrow. I hopefully got two rude girls fired tonight. Thanks for reading.

DC Trip Day: 6

Today was the rainy day. We headed over the Tysons Corner Mall and walked around ate lunch. We found a nice Japanese Bistro that we planned on having our Anniversary dinner. After lunch we headed to the Metro Station an headed back to the Capitol. Today we went to the House of Representatives. We stayed there for about 2 hours watching them waste our tax money debating about immigration measures. Republicans wanted to pass a bill to build a 700 mile wall in the south while the Democrats wanted a more comprehensive plan then just sticking up a wall and being done with it. I guess from the proceedings it was stated that a bill had already been passed in the HoR and the Senate that included this wall, more patrol, more detention centers, etc, but it was stuck in committee. So it was all a moot point and a waste of time, but cool to watch the process and see two votes happen.

Then we headed over to the National Musuem of Art and walked around for an hour looking at paintings from Cezanne, Degas, Monet, Renoir, and Van Gogh.

After that Liz wanted to o to her favorite little store of Presidential memorabilia. After walking about 45 minutes she found it. Pretty cool store. Lots of old campaign stickers, buttons, and posters, Real White House stuff fro staff members that sell it to the store. From there we headed to the Federal Triangle M Station and headed back home.

We hung out a bit. We were pretty tired from all the walking we have done the last 6 days. I took a shower and then we headed over to the mall to eat dinner. We ate at Pauli Moto'’s Bistro. I guess it is a new restaurant from Iron chef Morimoto. It was really good. For drinks, Liz had Asian Pear Sake and I had a couple glasses of Hoegarrden. We had he crab and cream cheese spring rolls for an appetizer. For dinner I had Moto's Spicy Chicken and Liz had Angry Lobster Pad Thai .Both dishes were excellent. I really hope they bring one of these to the Detroit Area. It would give PF Changs a run for it'’s money and I donÂ’t like many of Royal Oaks Chinese restaurants.

DC Trip Day: 5

We got up and headed to the Metro station and took the M to Capitol South. We got to the Capitol and headed to the Senate Gallery. That was a cool experience. Saw many big names like Kennedy, Lieberman, McCain, Clinton, Kerry, Boxer, Lott, Stabenow, and such. They just got finished voting on something and most cleared the room and then a new issue was brought forward. Sen. Clinton yielded 2 minutes to Kerry as he demanded that civility be brought back to the Senate after some deplorable comments made the day before. When he was done Sen. Clinton talked of getting aid to those sick from the 9/11 aftermath due to poor conditions. Made sense to me. Sen. Harris from Maine argued that it was not fair only to aid people from NY but also the people who helped during the aftermath of the Pentagon. Sen. Clinton agreed but said that the Pentagon crews were all given respirators and garb that protected them while the EPA told NY they didn'’t need any of that as it was safe. But that if people that worked on the Pentagon were also effected then by all means deserved the same aid. Sen. Boxer also talked on behalf of helping these people saying that we need to do something to say thank you and we are sorry. I gotta agree.

We headed out for lunch and saw another Motorcade. This one was he Korean PM.

After that we left and headed to Chantilly, VA to the Air and Space museum. This is a different A&S Museum from the one in DC as it holds the planes that are too big. Here we say an SR71 Blackbird, the Enola Gay (dropped the bomb), and the Space Shuttle Enterprise. We didn't have but an hour and half to go through but it was worth it. Lots of cool planes to see and to see how large the Shuttle actually is was great. Once we got kicked out of there we headed back to DC to eat dinner at the Austin Grill and then head back to the Hotel.

DC Trip Day: 4

Today we woke up and headed out to DC to check out the National Archives. Here we saw many cool things like the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the Magna Carta. Pretty cool place but very small and not that much to look at. Just 3 small exhibits.

When we got outside we both saw that we had a missed call from my mom, who should be on a plane to Detroit. She left a message on LizÂ’s phone that said they got as far as Dulles. They left out of Reagan. I guess about 10 minutes into their flight the captain told them to prepare for an emergency landing. When landing the runway was full of firetruckss and ambulances. After sitting on the runway for sometimes they finally got to taxi to a gate and they were left to find new flights to their destination. From what she understands, one of the planes engines caught fire. She got home later in the day but it took awhile.

From the Archives we headed over to the Capitol to see when the tours were. On our way there we saw the Motorcade. Pretty scary thing actually. About 8 police motorcycles, then a few patrol cars, two limo's, and then a bunch of Secret Service vehicles and SUV's with the rear windows down with SS men with assault rifles pointed out the windows.

We got the info and then headed back to our car to move it closer and to fill up a another meter. We got a new spot and headed over to the Capitol again and then jumped into the next tour. You start the tour by going through an intensive search and then you get taln on a walk to the back entrance into the Rotunda. Very cool place as you can see in the pictures. The we headed to the Statue room where many famous people in history used to have desks. Like Andrew Johnson and Abraham Lincoln. From there we went to another room and then sent on out way. We headed to some Police officers and asked for passes to the Senate and House of Representatives and we got 2 of each. We decided to see them tomorrow as we had probably had our car towed by now. We got the the car to fond it was still there but there was a $100 parking ticket attached to the wiper. Bah!

We shrugged it off and then headed to the Jefferson Memorial and the FDR Memorial. Both were amazing and beautiful. After that we were tired and just headed back to the hotel and ordered Pizza and watched House.

DC Trip Day: 3

Today was the last day my Mom and grandmother were in town and so we had a lot to see before the sun went down. We started out by heading out to Mt. Vernon, the home of George Washington. Eh, nothing all the great. Some houses and his mansion. The tour was completely lackluster and done very poorly. We took a walk to his crypt and then headed off.

Next stop was the National Zoo to see the Pandas. Only one Panda was out but it was exciting for my mom since every time she has gone to see a Panda it was never there. I was sad to see that the Kangaroo I saw last year had passed away. He was quite old last year and he was gone. I was pretty bummed about that. Saw lots of cool animals and got some great video.

Liz and I are celebrating our 4th year anniversary on Thursday (day 4) so my mom and grandmother wanted to take us out to dinner. We headed off to Austin Grill. We loved this place last year and was very happy to finally find it on Day 3, even though we were looking for it since we got to DC. Had a good dinner there and then headed to see the White House at night. We go a parking spot near the back of the WH and headed over to view it. Then were promptly kicked out at as he was starting his stupid speech. Guess he worries of hecklers who are about 600 yards away from the window at night. Whatever. Glad I missed the speech as I heard it was same old same old GW.

After that we dropped them off and headed back to our hotel for a good nights rest to prepare for the busy upcoming days.

DC Trip Day: 2

Liz and Mickey got up and got ready while I lay in bed content not to be going to work. They headed off to breakfast while I sat and watched TV on our rooms large flat panel wall mounted TV. Once they got back we called my mom and headed over to pick them up. The main reason for our trip was to get my grandmother to the WW2 Memorial. My grandfather died a year and a half ago and never got see it. He was in North Africa during the war and this Memorial was very important to him. My grandmother promised him that she would go see it. We headed straight to the WW2 Memorial located between the National Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. Liz and I visited the site last year but it was still cool to see it. It is a beautiful Memorial and located in the most perfect spot on the National Mall. One direction is the Monument and turn around and you have the large reflecting pond with the Lincoln Memorial at the end.

After seeing the WW2 Memorial we headed down the reflecting pond to the Lincoln Memorial and took some pictures. Then my mom wanted to see the Vietnam War Memorial. She lost many friends growing up in Nam and never got to see the wall till this day. They have books located all around where you can look up names and find out which section of the wall and what line they are located on. She looked up Jack Zoomsa? He was born 1 week before her and she went to Kindergarten through HS with him and he as the first person in her class to die. He is located in section W13 line 25.

We headed to the car which was quite the walk. Both my mom and grandmother had hip surgery and they were having problems getting around. But both did really well. My moms knee hurt more since her hip problems caused her to walk wrong for years before she had the hip fixed. But if she tried to do this a little over a year ago before the surgery she never would have done 1% of what she did.

It was lunch time and we decided to take everyone to the Hotel Washington. We ate there last year and figured everyone would enjoy it. After searching for a while we finally found it and headed up to the top floor outdoor restaurant. From there you can see the city and direct to our left was the White House. You are close enough to see the snipers stationed on top of the WH. During lunch we heard a helicopter coming by and there it was , the President coming back from NY after laying wreaths at Ground Zero. That was pretty cool to see regardless of my undying hatred for that schmuck.

Liz took off to take Mickey to the Bus Station so she could head back to Philly. It was cool having Mickey there. She is cool and funny as hell. Too bad we couldn'tÂ’t see her more.

Liz picked us up in front of the Hotel and headed out to the National Cathedral. Luckily Liz's father gave her a Garmin (navigation system) for Xmas or her Bday and it was the best thing we had on this trip. We never got lost once. The church is amazing. I am not a church goer but I might consider it if I was to get to go there every Sunday. It was also important to Liz and my Mom because it was the site of the West Wing episode "“Two Cathedrals".

From there we headed back to Crystal City where my Mom and Grandmother were staying. We dropped them off and headed back to our hotel is Falls Church. We ordered up room service for dinner and watched the Manning Brothers play.

Trip to D.C. Day 1

We planned on leaving at 6am but that would be hard to do when you don’t set the alarm and wake up at 6:30. Luckily we pretty uch went to bad fully packed so it was freshen up and head out. As I type this we are on the Ohio Turnpike. That is about the extent of the trip so far.

We are meeting my mother and grandma in DC and a friend of ours from Philly. My mom and GM flew and were departing Grand Rapids at noon. Everyone said that the drive would take around 10 hours. Some said longer, some said 9 and one person said he made it in 8 hours. My goal was to beat that time. The trip was pretty much uneventful as we got there is 7hrs and 48min. We beat my mom and GM who flew by 1hr and 30 minutes.

Once my mom and GM got to their place we headed over to pick them up and just go hang out downtown. We drove over the Washington Monument and the WW2 memorial which is why my Mom and GM are here. We headed over to the Capitol and hung out in front of that till around the time we needed to go pick up our friend Mickey at the bus station. We found her and picked her up and headed out to find some dinner.

Liz and I ate at a place last year that we loved but of course we couldn’t remember where it was and what it was called and after a half hour of searching we decided to just give up. Sadly we went to a place called Harry’s. Remember that name. If you are ever in DC never ever stop to eat at this rat-hole.

The menu is sparse. 1 Burger, 4 salads, some sandwich’s and spaghetti. That’s pretty much it. The service is even more impressive. When we go to order drinks my GM tells her that her and my mom will be on one check and us three on the other. The woman said fine and took our drink orders. 1 Sprite, 1 Beer, 1 Water, 2 Coffees. We were brought 4 Sprites, 1 Water, 1 Beer. No biggie but should have been a sign of what’s to come.

Food was okay I guess. Had a Turkey Club which was dry and flavorless. The spaghetti my wife got looked horrible. She said it was okay but it looked like noodles, meatballs, and raw steamed tomatoes for the sauce. Anyway, the bill comes and it is all one bill. My GM is a little upset and decides to take the bill back to her and ask her to split it like she was asked. 20 minutes goes by and we still have no bill. My GM gets up and finds her still trying to do the math…yes, math. Somehow they figure out their part of the bill and my GM pays her and comes back. Okay, but where is out half of the bill. 5 minutes later the waitress comes back with a napkin in which she wrote $53.40 on and walks away.

A Napkin? My bill is an amount written on a napkin. I’m sorry that is completely unacceptable. Not only has the service been bad, the food suspect, and then this? I lost it. I got up and headed after her. She got to the bar where I said out loud, “Excuse me, this is not a bill, this is a napkin with an amount on it. I want to see exactly how you came up with this number.” She said nothing. The bartender asked me what my problem was and I said “we are 2 parties, the older woman in the other party asked her to split up the bill as we are paying separately…” This is the part where she goes on the defensive and tells me and the bartender that noone asked such a thing and was lying. That prompted me to turn around and get in her face and ask explain to her that she is confused as my GM did tell her that. She called me a liar and had this shit eating grin on her face. The bartender tried to get my attention and explain to him what y problem was. I explained that we asked for this to be done at the start and she didn’t do it and it has been 25 minutes of her trying to learn math to get us separate bills. She took care of my GM but still took 5 minutes to get us our bill which turned out to be a napkin with an amount on it and I find that completely unacceptable. I refuse to pay a bill that is written on a napkin. He explains he can get me a receipt if I need one that bad and I tell him I don’t want a receipt, I want a legitimate bill. He tells me to go back and he will take care of everything.

I get back there and the waitress is trying to explain why she is a complete moron and I tell her the mamager will be taking care of this and that I want her away from the table. Everyone at the table looks at me like what is my problem and I tell them that the waitress says we are all liars that we never asked for separate bills. The fat round ass of a manager comes over and starts getting in my face. He tells me it was a misunderstanding and I need to relax and that I should have gotten his attention earlier to avoid this situation. What? Are you stupid? I have a problem and we have gotten your attention. I didn’t know that this was going to happen…how would I expect a napkin with a total. How do I know what the total really is. The bill could be $43.40 and she is going to pocket $10 cause she is well aware she lost her tip long ago from us. She calls me a liar twice and it’s just ludicrous. He says I need to calm down. Realize that I have been sitting in my seat the whole time we talked and I never even swore once. But I needed to calm down or he was calling the cops. Okay fat ass. Fine. JUST GIVE ME A REAL BILL SO I CAN GET OUT OF YOUR STUPID CRAP HOLE.

I don’t know how it all ended and I don’t care to know. My wife took care of the rest cause I was too violent I guess. Heh. So, Harry’s in downtown DC. Stay away, very far away.

So that was pretty much it. We dropped them off at their hotel and we all went back and prepared for day 2.

Full Tilt $30K Tournament

I decided last night to use one of my $26 tokens and play in Full Tilt's $30K Guaranteed Tourney. Wasn't expecting much as I am not a great MTT player but latey my MTT stats have been decent so I gave it a go. 1566 players were registered and the top 153 made the money.

Started out well, won my 1st pot in the second level with AA. I won a small pot with the Krablar in the 3rd level so I knew things were going well. lol.

Took a small hit in the 3rd level when I checked the BB with J8. Got to the river cheaply with and OESD and hit my straight but lost to a straight. Ahh, now that seems familiar to me. Later in round 5 I was able to get some of it back with KK. Overall I have been card dead except for a couple hands and staying around average in chips.

In the 7th round I got all in with JJ against a lagtard and knocked him out when he didn't hit with his AK. That is when things started to go downhill. Losing to a shortstak with AJs vs. KK and then stupidly called a raise against a better player with ATs and had to bail after the turn.

By the 120/240 level I had KJ and was low on chips. A donktastic player who had been going all in and showing horrific cards raised my bet on the BB and I called. He showed a hand I was expecting, Q4. Winning this hand should get me back to average and give me the chance to start playing again. Sadly he completed his 7 high straight on the river putting me down to about 1400 in chips with around 300 players remaining.

Now things start looking up. I stay around till the 250/500 level and get lucky to have a calling station with a stack to play with. I go all in with A3s with 2700 in chips and get called by KQ and trip aces. That puts me at 6,666 in chips. Shortly after that I am in the BB with ATs and the same guy raises to 2200 and I push. He calls and shows 33 and I win with Aces up. I am now back in the game and sitting about 87th out of 175.

Finally in the money and I get JJ in the BB. Again, the same guy above raises to 4000 and I push with 12K. He calls and shows AJ and I double up again and now sitting really well.

People start dropping like flies and I am just playing tight and stealing when I feel it is good. Then the bottom drops out. Blinds are now 800/1600 200 ante and I raise to 7400 with 77 in MP. It gets folded to the BB who eventually pushes all in for 10K. I call and he flips up Q9. 9 hits the flop and I am down to 18K. Next hand I get ATs and I limp for 1600. It gets folded to the table bully. He has half as much chips as anyone and has been stealing like crazy. He raises to 8000. I go into the tank. Is he stealing or does he have a hand. If I call I am left with less than 10K which is not good as the blinds go up. I decide to push all in and he calls showing 66. Bah! Nothing hits and I am out in 78th.

So all in all I am happy. I was all but dead with 300 or more to go and I stayed alive and gave myself a good chance of getting far. I don't play these tournies often so I am pleased. I have played this, a $12k and a $6.5K and finished in the money in 2. Maybe I should play them more huh? I won $58.25 for my $4.40 buy in and made my way through a large field. I have to be positive about it right? :)