In Las Vegas

I'm in Las Vegas for the next two weeks. In part I plan to play a lot of poker but I also want a long enough stay to enjoy the sun and other attractions.

As such I'm not blogging much. It's too hard to blog on an iPhone. In fact this post got deleted the first time. Currently Meier and I are at the El Cortez waiting to play poker. This isn't my first choice of poker room and really not in the top 20. Long story short. Meier came down to join me. The cheapest flight he could find was $340. But through Expedia he booked the same flight and three nights at the El Cortez for $260. That's just a bizarre deal. So we drove over to check into his room even though he's not staying here. And since were here we're going to try to play poker since we'd never come here again. I believe it's 50 cent-$1 no limit!!

Day 11 and 12, Sports

Met a friend for breakfast at the Original Pancake House in Kirkland.  On weekends this place is packed crazy, hard to find parking, and basically you give your name and walk around for 45 minutes.  I was surprised that at 8:30 during the week I could park right in front and the place was empty.

Spent a bunch of time Wednesday trying to get my softball team in order.  Everyone seems to be out of town this weekend and I'm trying to find subs to show up at 10 AM.  Fun, fun, NOT.  Also the floor guy came back to check on the hardwoods and how they're "settling".  Can see the cherry wood getting darker already.  We set the official date for him to finish and talked about doing the stairs as well.  Will all wait until I'm back from Vegas.

Wednesday night went to the second Storm game of the season.  I've been to two of two games so far and will likely make about two games the rest of the year.  As I expected they were sloppy at times and looked great at times.  They trailed most of the game but put in together in the last three minutes and won by 3.  In the end it's a W not an L and that's all that counts.

Started some research on electric toothbrushes for Monica (why aren't these called teethbrushes?) and continued today.  Down to a handful of choices.  Basically got up today, had breakfast, did some misc stuff, tried to walk Hunny Bear until the drizzle turned to pouring rain and got ready to go to the Mariners game.  When Aaron and I split up tickets before the season, I figured this would be a beautiful day to be outside and the Mariners would be fun to watch.  Instead it was 50 and cold.  The sun was out for a couple of innings, but then they closed the roof because storms were approaching. Then it was 50 in the shade and COLD.  And the Mariners were terrible, down 3-1 going to the 9th.  In the ninth they showed more life than they have in weeks and put together a great rally to win!!  This was the first time I've seen them win in person this year (1-6).  Aaron, who I share seats with, says they've won every game he's attended. 

Got home, made dinner, and met with a photographer who's doing a family photo for us.

Day 11, Cocoa's Birthday

Today was Cocoa's 6th birthday.  He got some steak with breakfast, took a nap, then I dropped him off at daycare to hang out with his friends.  There's a great picture of him on my and Monica's Facebook pages. Cocoa also got some steak for dinner.

Spent most of the day dealing with a couple of issues from the softball league where the rules are a bit ambiguous... and I thought we had fixed all the loopholes and confusion years ago.  Also looked into purchasing a second home, either to flip it or as a rental.  The previous owners started an illegal conversion to a duplex -- they never got any permits -- and then the bank foreclosed on them.  The house is in limbo -- either the conversion needs to get the legal approval and be completed, or it needs to be reversed back to single-family housing and the bank certainly isn't going to spend any money to do so -- so it's selling at a big discount.  Unclear how much work and time would be required to fix it.

Picked up Cocoa.  The day care put a birthday hat on Cocoa and took a picture of him. He's adorable.  Cocoa got more steak for dinner. I think he ate better than I did today.  Then I made dinner for Monica and I -- salmon and brown rice -- and as I type this the brownies are out of the oven and cooling.  Mmm, time for dessert.

Day 10, Monday

Took it easy and slept late.  Didn't do much.  Yay, me.

Met a friend to play poker for an hour at Parkers.  Had never played there and not a bad place.  Then met Monica and friends at Bell Square for dinner (Cheesecake Factory) and some browsing.  Good news is we had great service.  Bad news is I figure I get service like that once a year and we still have six months to go.

Tomorrow is Cocoa's birthday. We don't know how old he is.

Friday and the weekend (long)

Friday I finished cleaning our outdoor furniture and moving it upstairs to the deck.  We now have 10 chairs and a "bench", so it's more work than it sounds.  Though it's mainly tedious -- lots of trips around the house.  I moved our table on Sunday.  It's big, glass, and heavy; that was actually work.  And when I thought I was done, Monica said "hey let's put one chair downstairs so I can sit with the dogs".  Score one point for well-written acceptance criteria.

Met my friend Jay for lunch on Friday and got to catch up.  Jay's sort of like Griffey, Jr. -- he was the face and the star of our softball team for a number of years but was often injured and those injuries have finally led him to retire.  What's that?  Griffey hasn't retired yet?

Spent a lot of time over the weekend working on taxes, mainly stock sales, interest, and dividends.  This is where having managed accounts -- like mutual funds but you own actual stocks -- becomes a pain. Lots and lots of stock transactions.  Import/download is a life saver, but verifying is still a fair amount of work. Yuck!

In more fun stuff, Saturday I helped man the both for Monica at the Redmond pet fair.  My role is basically to watch the booth when she needs a break and keep her company.  It isn't busy enough and I don't really know enough about Ttouch or pet adoption counseling to share the booth.  For the first time she's set up at one of these things, it was actually useful.  I don't know if she'll actually get anyone who calls, but she talked to a number of people who seemed very interested in her services, took her card, and should call her. On of our observations mid-way through the day was that 10-3 was too long for this event.  Everyone started packing up their booths at 2:30, so I guess we weren't alone in that view.  I walked outside at 2:25 to get some fresh air and when I came back 1/3 of the "vendors" were gone.  I think once the first person bailed, everyone else decided it was OK to follow suit.  By 3:00, there was no one left.
 Saturday night we went to a great dinner at Ruth's Chris, separate post coming.  Sunday was mainly running around.  We had softball in the morning and played one of the key games of the season.  Before the 2008 season I split our team in two.  We had developed a group of players who thought recreational co-ed softball was all about winning and not about having fun (OK they liked to have fun, but their idea of fun was winning).  Their attitudes sucked and it made it no fun to play on Sunday.  I kicked a couple people off the team a few of their friends from my team joined them and they decided to recruit a bunch of good players and form their own team.  I wouldn't say this team is our rival but they're one of the better teams in the division, they care a lot about the final score, and half the players used to be on our team, so the game is special.  We scored 3 runs in the top of the first and never trailed though the game was a toss up until we pulled away in the 6th and 7th innings.  We played terrific defense which was the key and got them out running the bases four or five times, though the umpire missed one of the outs.  Final was 13-6.

Sunday afternoon Hunny Bear had an acupuncture appointment.  And then Sunday evening I went to the Storm Opening Night.  The game was sloppy as I'd expect.  Training camp is about 3 weeks in the WNBA and the star players don't get back from overseas until the last week.  So you're watching a team that's practiced together for about 4 days.  It was pretty ugly at times and the Storm had long stretches where they didn't score, but in the end they beat LA, their #1 rival, by about 10 points.

Oh yeh, Sprint 3 planning Sunday night.

Day 8, Thursday

A very busy and productive day, though I started by sleeping in since we didn't have contractors coming at 7:30.

I made it back to the gym for the first time this week.  Lined up a contractor, actually two it turns out, to trim and tack the carpet in the doorways where it bumps up against the new hardwoods.  Made a nice dinner -- brisket and sweet potato casserole (Yams Richard).  Was a nice treat to do that without it being a holiday.  Sort of like turkey only gets made once or twice a year. 

Made a lot of progress catching up on financial records.  Really I hadn't entered our "bank" statements into MS Money in a year.  Which was really dumb because it took 10 minutes for most months and 20 minutes for tricky months... it just became a pile I never looked at.  Caught up through the end of 2009, so I can work on taxes now.  And so, I really started on our taxes for 2009.

Went to Kinko's to print some brochures for Monica's business to use at the Pet Fair this weekend.  In the end, she has nice looking brochures -- I assume, I've only seen the proof, but the process was a bit frustrating.  Actually working with the people at Fedex/Kinko's took 5-10 minutes but driving there, figuring out where I needed to be, and waiting in line took 45 minutes -- very high signal to noise ratio.  Also helped Monica do through all her stuff to get ready for Saturday.

Worked out cleaning our outdoor furniture for the season.  Everything has sat outside getting rained on or worse since the fall.  A quick soap and rinse and letting mother nature do the drying.

Somewhere in between we took Hunny Bear for a nice long walk.

Week 2

After another typical weekend -- Mariners lose, softball team wins -- it's back to work.

This week I've been keeping an eye on our dogs while parts of the remodel are in progress.  I was going to put them in daycare, but they're actually been pretty good about staying out of the way and not barking at the workers or all the noise.  Nailing in a hardwood floor is noisy, but Tommy sleeps right through it.

Monday the hardwood guy got to work installing boards and my painters arrived.  Fortunately the were working around each other.  When we moved in we removed a divider from the bottom of the stairs and patched the walls and ceiling but never painted.  I picked up some paint six months ago to see if I could get a match, but it was never on the top of the to do list.  Sort of out-of-sight, out-of-mind but more after staring at the ugliness every day, we just learned to live with it.  But with hardwoods going in, we wanted to paint first rather than risk getting paint on the new wood floors.  In the end, we cut out a chunk of the wall and did a color match.  They were able to feather in the paint to avoid painting the 15" wall above the stairwell and perhaps other walls to match which was a great saving of time and money. Hard to explain really; you have to see it.

Tuesday the hardwood installer got most of the floor done and Wednesday he finished up with the hallway and the edges.  Looks great and it hasn't been sanded or finished yet.

Meanwhile I've been working on planning my trip to Las Vegas and it looks like it's a go.  I'll be there May 24th through June 4th.  Have airfare, hotels, and a rental car booked.  I'm staying off the strip at Alexis Park the first week to keep my costs down.  Even Imperial Palace wants $200 for Saturday over Memorial Day weekend, then moving to IP the second week where I have 4 nights for $85!  My plan is rather than to play poker non-stop to actually have a vacation.  See some shows, walk down the strip, maybe sit by the pool.  Get away from the strip to see some other parts of Vegas.  And really before 11 AM the poker action isn't that good. 

Also working around the house.  It seems the laundry never stops, even for just the two of us. I've been catching up on entering our financial records into MS Money in preparation for doing our taxes.  Yes, I haven't even started taxes yet.  Finished reseeding the back yard.  Dogs and dog "output" do a number on a lawn.  I can't believe how bad it looks just a year after we put down sod.  Seeding is more work than it sounds like.  Had to loosen up the soil in lots of places and work the seed into the dirt.  Otherwise it just washes away.  The lawn eeds a lot of TLC (and a lot of water) this year.  Hope to see some grass and hope in a couple of weeks. 

I installed a keyless entry for the garage.  That was actually a fun project where I felt like I accomplished something rather than started something that will eventually finish.  Our garage is attached to our house but is external so the door is locked and it's a pain to unlock it, every time to go into the garage.  I looked at doing this when we first moved in, but didn't see one that would work.  Maybe it's a new model, but this was pretty easy to install and only took an hour and works great.already.

Also made a trip to the vet.  Hunny Bear and Cocoa are fine -- still needs another round of meds for his yeast infection -- but Tommy has problems with ears and eyes.  And it's almost impossible for us to medicate him.  He sees the dropper bottle coming for his ears or eyes and he runs.  When you catch him he shakes and jerks his head.  Try putting eye drops in while shaking -- impossible. That's my challenge foe the week.

Friday Day 4

The remodel started for real. Our hardwood installer ripped out the carpets. While they didn't look so bad from the top, I was amazed how badly stained they were once you could see the underside. No wonder cleaning didn't help. Monica says thanks to Hunny Bear, Cocoa, Tommy, Jazz, Shayna, Duke, and all out other dog visitors for her new hardwoods. Barak Obama says thanks Monica for stimulating the economy.

I dropped the dogs at daycare to get them out of the house then worked out at David Barton Gym. Best workout yet. I felt energized afterwards rather than tired. Then went to the Mariners RBI Club luncheon and heard pitching coach Rick Adiar speak.

My softball swing was way off in our first games,so I went to the batting cages to work on it. An it's still off but at least I have some ideas. I'm dropping my back shoulder and getting under the ball. And since I'm not a power hitter that's awful. Think Jack Wilson hitting fly balls. My stroke got a bit better in the third round. We'll see what happens on Sunday. I think I'm heading back to the cages next week no matter what.

After dinner Monica and I went to the Issaquah Art Walk. Issaquah has a free art show along Front Street every Friday during the summer. This year they've expanded to Gilman Village as well. We got in a three mile walk and got to see a lot of art and artistic mediums, though nothing we liked enough to think about buying. Not that we have any space.

Weekend here I come :). Our vet us having an open house on Saturdayand I'm going to the Mariners game to try to break my streak.

Day 3

Went to Hideaway to play their 10:30 poker tournament. This is the best structured daily tournament in town.  You start with 100BB which gives you some time to play before you're short stacked and generally the field is small so it's not a luck fest until you're at the final table.  One of the guys who seemed to be a regular said they get 40 or 50 people which I found surprising.  They actually had 22 people at the start and just had two tables with two alternates. I lasted about an hour in the tournament.  On the only good hand I had early I managed to steal the blinds.  Lost a bunch of chips where I got unlucky and then bluffed off much of my stack against a guy who couldn't figure out he should fold, or had an amazing read on me.

Had lunch with my friend Meier and talked at length about ideas for an upcoming Vegas trip.  Seems like it actually might not make sense to drive down, even for a long stay.  Then came home to work on the yard.  I fixed the light in the backyard; actually if just fixed itself but I programmed the timer.  Filled in half a dozen holes in backyard and pretty the ground for reseeding.  We love our dogs, but wow do they do a number on the lawn; number 1 that is.

Then to the Mariners game for the second night in a row. Who knew filling dirt would be more fun than the Mariners game.  Wow is it cold for May baseball.  The reported crowd was 17,000 but this is one of the two smallest crowds I've seen. Can't believe it was much more than 10K, if that.

Day 2, Wednesday

As planned much of the day was pre-work on the hardwoods.

To replace the carpets in the living room and dining/piano room with hardwoods (thanks doggies), we need to get all of the furniture out of the way.  For the most part Monica and I could move the items ourselves, but there's the matter of a huge, heavy piano so we hired professionals to store everything in our garage for a month.

Got in a quick workout before the movers were scheduled to arrive at 10 AM.  Unfortunately there was a car fire on the 520 bridge and even more unfortunate they chose to take 520 instead of coming across I-90 which delayed them until 10:45.   Other than that the move went smoothly.  The wood delivery showed up at 11, but they kept out of each other's way though they were using the same space.  Move was done by noon.

My little project for the day was to fix the outdoor light for our backyard. At least I thought it was little -- position ladder, remove bulb, replace bulb.  That didn't help.  The light is on a programmable timer switch and it turns out the batteries in the switch needed to be replaced.  Had to go to Fred Meyer to get tiny watch-like batteries.. and now the switch works but the light doesn't come on.  Working more on this today.  Also picked up a programmable lock for the garage -- the kind where you can punch in a combination instead of using a key.  Our garage is detached so we need to unlock it every time we go in there.  This probably would have happened a year ago if there was room for my car in there.

Went to the Mariners game last night.  Pretty good for 7 innings, but overall yuck.  It's pretty painful to watch Griffey play.  And without Bradley, that offense is terrible.

Off to play poker in the AM.

Days 0 and 1

The weekend doesn't count because I'm usually "unemployed" on weekends, so this isn't different.  And this was pretty typical for a spring/summer weekend.  Went to the Mariners game on Saturday and played started softball season on Sunday.  Mariners lost and I've yet to see them win in person this year.  Softball team went 1-1 which is good since we started last year 0-7.  We also met with our hardwood installer again and finalized our floor plan.  We're going to install real cherry wood floors rather than prefinished wood.  It's a lot messier and will take a few days longer because it will have to be sanded and finished, but it will look a lot better and be less expensive.  Also we can get the wood this week instead of a 3-4 week backup for delivery.

Monday was day 0.  When we got laid off, it was supposed to be our last day of work, but as noted I was already done so my real plans were for Tuesday.  Slept in, went to the gym, hit Costco for some essentials, finished Mother's Day shopping and mailed all our Mother's Day gifts.Got movers in place for Wednesday.

Tuesday I had some plans in place.  I took the dogs to the vet in the morning.  Cocoa was due for his annual checkup and some vaccines and Hunny Bear needed to have stitches removed from his surgery last week and was due for a vaccine as well.  Hunny Bear is great though Cocoa has a yeast infection in his ears.  We need to do some serious ear cleaning on him. Then I met a friend for lunch, met with my financial adviser to discuss converting my traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs which has special rules in 2010.  It turns out to be a good idea if you're far from retiring and don't want to be forced to take withdrawals at 70 1/2 -- say you don't expect to ever need the money.  Didn't make it to the gym.

Monica and I had a 4:30 meeting regarding the Humane Society's vision plan, so it was a bit of a short day.

Plan for day 2 is to be here while they do the prep work for converting carpets to hardwoods.