Eric's Journal

My latest Foxwoods trip wasn’t profitable but I had a good time getting away for a bit.

Wednesday

I woke up early because I was going to Foxwoods for a couple days.  We originally had five of us going but at the last minute Darry had something come up so it became just me, Jon, Steve, and Dan.  Four is more perfect because it makes the car ride and the room situation more comfortable. 

We left around 11am and got to Foxwoods around 3pm.  We checked into our rooms and walked around the casino a bit before playing some poker.  In the hotel room I found a penny on the ground, and I was going to joke and ask if Dan wanted it until I saw it was heads up.  So I figured that’d by my lucky penny for the trip, and after inspecting it I saw that it was a 1956 wheat penny.  Later we passed by a fountain and I wondered if I would double its luck by tossing it in, or if that would negate it.  I asked Steve and he said I shouldn’t push my luck so I didn’t.  (Obviously I don’t believe in lucky pennies or things like that but it’s fun to indulge in it sometimes.)

The other three guys played a few tournaments as well as cash games, but I just stuck to cash.  So I was largely on my own this week but I went to play poker so it didn’t matter.  I decided to buy $100 in greenbirds so I could tip one if I won a big enough pot, because those are really rare to get as a dealer so I wanted to help them out.

I was happy that the table I got was one I played on before, and the open seat was in seat 5.  That’s a perfect seat because I can see all the players, I’m right in front of the dealer which makes tipping easier, and I can see the cards (which are small-faced there) much better.  The next day I sat in seat 6 which is the other best seat to get so I at least ran good in that.

I looked at my table and the players were all older than me, and most were middle-aged and older players which is good.  There was a lot of money on the table which I like, because if I’m coming in for $300 (I was playing $1-$2) and have the most money than what’s the point?  My table didn’t have a single chop in the whole 11 hours I played, and there were very few hands where someone raised and took it down pre-flop.  But I like action so it was fine.

I have tons of hands I could talk about but that would take a very long time so I won’t.  But I quickly noticed that people were calling down people with second pair and chasing every draw.  I found myself playing a little looser or more aggressive than usual, but I didn’t think it was bad because it was cheap to see a flop and I didn’t get out of hand.  I had a lot of good or good-looking hands, but I didn’t realize it until the next day when I went really cold.

So I was in for $300 and went up and down at first.  I took a lot of hits throughout the night in situations where I could have won big pots.  I was still above $200 though for a while until we got a new player who decided to shove all-in pre-flop a few times.  The first time he did it he showed Q J, so I told myself that if I got a hand I’d take my chance to get his money.  He did it again and it was folded to me, and I had AQ so I called.  He had 8s and I didn’t catch so I got down to $75.  I knew it’d at least be a coin-flip so I’m happy with my decision.

I had to go to the bathroom so I was going to get up and take a break but we already had two players leave so I waited.  I was dealt Aces the next hand and nearly doubled-up so I was glad I stayed.  Then I got up to $180 with AK so I has happy I didn’t get up just yet.  But after I did I had Ac 5c on the flop of 10c 9c 6, and I bet it and was check-called.  The turn was a 7 and I believe I bet again and was check-called.  The river was a blank, and after the guy checked again I bluffed at it and he thought for a minute and called with a 9 and no kicker.  He didn’t look like he had a read on me but was just terrible and couldn’t get away from his horrible hand.  So I was right back to where I was before my little rush.

I was thinking of leaving because I hadn’t eaten since before we left, but the table was still full of beatable players so I knew I could make money in the long-run.  So I added more money and I was in for $600, and I knew that if I ended up losing it all I wouldn’t be that upset because I know I could make my money back. 

I started my comeback and had a good read that an older guy was on a draw, so I started working my stack back up.  I went on a little heater and got up to $500, and then was even at $600 with Aces that worked out for me this time.  Later I flopped trips and bet right out and got called down, so I was up to $666. 

I told myself before that I wouldn’t just stop when I got back to even (or at this small profit) because the table was still good.  But my good fortune was over and I lost some key pots to fall back down to $300.  In the last hand I made a bad call on the river to a guy who rivered a straight.  I thought he just called me down with a gutshot straight draw and got lucky but he had a double belly buster straight draw so I guess he didn’t mind calling me down with a draw.  So I finished down $310 which was disappointing, but that was my stop-loss so I finished there for the night.

The other guys went deep in the tournament, and Jon went out first a little ways from the money.  They paid the top 9, and Steve went out in 11^th.  So just Dan was left, but he ended up busting in 10 which was the bubble.  It was a bounty tournament so Steve and Dan basically broke even, and Jon was freerolling from cash games before so they were even and I was down.  I stopped playing at 2:30am and got some Noodles with Dan and Jon before calling it a night.

Thursday

The next day the other three guys went to Mohegan Sun to play the tournaments there.  I slept in and went down to play $1-$2 around 4pm again.  This table wasn’t as good as my first one, and there wasn’t as much money.  The chip leader got up shortly after I got there, but the guy next to him had some money.  He was also playing pretty strong, and would raise or reraise very forcefully.

So I waited him out for a few hours and watched how he played.  Someone would raise to like $10 pre-flop and he’d reraise to $60 with moderate or semi-strong hands.  I was card dead most of the night and there wasn’t much money on the table besides him, but I stayed just to wait him out. 

Finally I had my chance.  I had Kings and made it like $10 after someone limped I think, and he raised to $40 or something.  I was excited to finally get him.  I put him all-in since he had lost a lot of his money (because he’s an idiot) and I knew he’d call me with something weak.  He snap-called, and I asked if he had Aces.  He said no and showed JJ, which he loves because he got lucky earlier with them and has won with them a lot in the last couple hours.  I showed my Kings, and then the flop was A Q J so he flopped a set.  I still had a straight draw and my set redraw but I lost that $250 pot.  He loudly celebrated and that pissed me off, but mostly because that was finally my chance to get him but he still sucked out. 

I got pretty tilted after that, and I only kept playing because I still wanted to get my money back from him.  He quieted down after that though and I got nothing, so I lost just about the rest of my money.  I didn’t want to buy back in because I was sick of poker by that point, and certainly not to that table.  Instead of just throwing the rest of my money away I left with my last $50 and figured I’d use that for dinner.

I finally walked over to the Chinese restaurant that I’ve wanted to eat at the last two times we’ve gone to Foxwoods.  I really wanted sushi and asked if they had that (it looked like they would), but they said they didn’t have sushi there.  I was disappointed, but also glad that I never dragged the other guys there for sushi when they don’t even have it.  I walked around and saw if Subway was still open and it was, so I got dinner there. 

I walked back to the shuttle and got back to my room to eat and watch the second half of the game.  I would have preferred some sushi but I was hungry for anything so it was still delicious.  I needed something else to drink so I wanted to grab a Dew from a vending machine, and I had to pay $3 and walk down a floor to a vending machine that worked, but it was worth it. 

Then I played Diablo with Brian for a few hours and he helped me beat Belial.  I had no idea how to beat him on my own, but with Brian we did it in one try.  I went from level 24 to 28 that night, and after he stopped playing I played for a couple more hours.  The guys came back from Mohegan and played some stuff at Foxwoods, but no one cashed in either tournament that day as well.  Dan came back to the room briefly and then played cash at Foxwoods, and I stayed up playing Diablo until he came back.  I felt stupid for staying up so late just playing Diablo, but I was on vacation so whatever.

Friday

I got a few hours of sleep and then got up at 11 for our noon checkout.  We met Steve and Jon downstairs which was the first time I saw them since Wednesday.  We left and I got back home around 4.  I was pretty tired so I just laid down and then went to work.

I realized that the more I get to play poker the less I like to have to deal it.  It’s so easy to sit at a table and play for hours and hours, but to deal and run a game all night is a lot more work.  And it’s obviously more fun to play than to just deal.  When I was playing at Foxwoods I raised pre-flop and the blinds folded, so I tipped the dealer those $3.  I saw Brian do that once and I like it because I’m not raising just to take the blinds, but because I have a good hand and hope to win a good pot.  So I don’t mind tipping away all my profit to the dealer.  When I did that the dealer said thank you very much, and then asked if I was a dealer.  I laughed and said yes, because that was kind of a bold guess just from one thing that I did.  But that was cool.

So as I just said, the more I play poker the less I want to deal it.  However, the more I see how other dealers act the better I get at my job.  I pay attention to how they act and respond to things at the poker table, and I learn from that to get better myself.  One thing I heard a dealer say which I like happened when he pitched a card that got stuck under someone’s blinds.  He said “That’s the money card.  It got caught in the money.”  I liked it, and I’m going to start saying “That’s the money card” when that happens.  So at work I was really friendly and joked around a little more than usual.  I liked it, and I think if I can keep it up it’ll do me and the players well. 

The poker room was a little busier than I thought it’d be, but the tournament wasn’t too big and we had plenty of dealers.  We quickly were down to all four-table runs which is perfect, but then that quickly changed to all table-breaks or table-table-breaks.  My first few tables were all good, and then I saw that coming up were all table-breaks so I just asked to leave.  I already made $89 in 3.5 hours and 4 cash games, with one being the main game of $500 max so that was fine with me.  I was really tired anyway so I was happy to go home. 

But that brings up something I’ve wondered before.  If the poker room is slow and dealers are making slow tips, you could argue that they would want to stay and keep grinding it out.  But sometimes you might want to just leave if it’s slow because there’s not much money to be made.  On the flip side, if the night is good you could either leave quick after making some decent money, or stay to make as much as possible.  So you could argue to stay or leave regardless of whether it’s busy or not.

I was going to type up all of this awesome goodness that night but I ended up playing Diablo with Brian, and then I fell asleep because I was exhausted.  So I ended up going to bed late anyway and left this blogging until Saturday.  But now it’s done and that’s the end of my latest trip to Foxwoods.  Thanks for reading, and “Why did the sign say ‘Not an Exit’?  It should have just said ‘Gorilla Door’.”

—Eric Del Medico

I’m going to Foxwoods for the next couple days. Hopefully it’ll be a good chance to get away for a bit and maybe make some decent money.

Dreams

I had a dream where I was with a group of people in this big open room, and it was like we were at a casino but not really.  A waitress went around and asked if anyone wanted a drink, and a few people got some alcoholic drinks so I got a rum and Coke.  I’ve only had a few of those when at Foxwoods, and I thought about it because last night at work some guys were drinking them.  I don’t feel guilty about drinking because I’m on vacation, I’m safe (don’t have to drive or be responsible for anyone else), and I’m only having a couple which haven’t done anything to me.  But I know that I don’t have to defend myself because most people I know drink, and drink a lot.

One Year Ago

Work was very slow on this Sunday and I only worked for 4 hours and had all table-breaks.  After work I went to dinner with my mom and then we saw Thor.  Those two things were good, but we had to do a lot of running around which added a couple unnecessary hours to this whole outing.

Because I’m going to Foxwoods Wednesday through Friday I’ll do this section now so I won’t have to worry about it during all of that and so it won’t make that post even longer.  A year ago from this Wednesday I had to work on Memorial Day, and some people really bothered me.  One was when a player didn’t know there was a bet and he made one himself, and he asked if I was supposed to announce when someone bets and then asked me to do that from now on.  I said okay but I was mad that he was so stupid and unobservant that he couldn’t see there was a bet.  That continues to drive me nuts, like when a player asks how much the bet is when it’s so clearly visible.  Have you ever played poker before you moron?  After work I watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid:  Rodrick Rules. 

A year ago from this Thursday I went with Brian and Cheetara to see The Hangover Part 2, which was a pretty funny movie.  Then the next day Brian and I started talking about getting a poker game going, which eventually turned into the dealer game I have now.  I bought new cards and started researching poker chips, and it was fun looking into that for a week or two.  Later that night we played Risk but I lost.

NBA Playoffs

The Thunder played the Spurs in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, Spurs lead 1-0.  This game began fairly competitive, but the Spurs went on a run in the second quarter to get up by 11 at halftime.  The Thunder couldn’t get many easy shots but the Spurs were shooting really well and got up by 22 at most.  The Thunder tried to stay with it and were down by 16 heading into the fourth quarter.  The Thunder halved that deficit as the Spurs went cold, and it was still a high-scoring game by both teams.  The Thunder could never fully recover and the Spurs won the game to lead the series 2-0.

My Day

I expected my dad to wake me up with a phone call today around noon but he never did.  I think it’s because he had yesterday off so he did his Monday stuff today and will do his usual Tuesday stuff tomorrow.  So I kept sleeping and was awakened by my step-dad calling to tell me he had the keys to the car I’ve been driving.  He asked if I needed it, and I said I did because I was going to clean the church before Foxwoods.  So he came back to drop off the key for me, but he never took the car.  I guess he had the keys so he could make copies but otherwise it’s odd to take the keys without the car.

So when I got up around 2:30 I went to get a haircut, and there were about six people in front of me.  After I got in John the Barber closed because he was cutting people’s hair straight from 9am.  So I was the last one to go but at least I got it done before Foxwoods.  It’s really been bothering me lately and has weirdly itched like something was crawling around on my head.  And with the recent heat it feels much better.

I got back home close to 6 and then showered and went to clean the church.  I got started at 6:45 and finished at exactly 9pm so it was almost perfectly timed for me to catch the game when I got home.  I worked on this blog and had dinner while watching the game, then finally played about an hour of Diablo.  I didn’t realize I was so close to another boss battle which most likely ends Act II.  That boss is really difficult because there are tons of enemies to beat before going to the boss’s final form, and then its health starts again.  So far it has killed me in that final form within a minute, so I’m working on figuring out my course of action.  I don’t want to look up how to beat it because I want to do it on my own (or by asking other people for advice).  I’m going to bring my laptop with me to Foxwoods so I might get some playing in if I bust or something.  Now I’m going to bed around 3am and will be getting up early tomorrow for our trip.  Thanks for reading, and “I don’t wanna run; just overwhelm me.”

—Eric Del Medico

Somehow worked a full shift on Memorial Day. I expected to work for like 4 hours so any overtime was surprising (and upsetting).

Dreams

I had a weird dream where it was Christmas Eve I think and we were decorating our house.  I realized that I forgot to get cards for everybody, so I knew I’d have to go out immediately and get them or I’ll be a big jerk.  Then I was playing a new video game with some friends like Lino from college.  It just came out that day and we started playing, and I can’t remember what it was called or what type of game it was. 

One Year Ago Today

This was a very slow and boring day of work, and I was falling asleep during my breaks and the tables were lulling me to sleep too.  After work I watched the indie movie The Trotsky which was pretty funny.

NBA Playoffs

The Celtics played the Heat in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.  The Heat got off to a good start and led by 10 after the first quarter, but the Celtics stayed with it and tied it up at halftime.  Then the Heat turned it back on in the second half and ended up winning the game by 14 to lead the series 1-0.

My Day

I woke up tired as always but at least I didn’t wake up in a fright.  It was another really hot day, which made the ride to work uncomfortable and then most of work itself.  I predicted the poker room would be a little bit busier than our normal Sundays, and that was true for cash games but the tournament was really small.  Somehow the room stayed busy enough to only have one break for a couple hours and then just one more for a couple more hours.

I started on break and then went to $2-$4, and I broke it during my last hand.  So they combined to the other table and I went to the tournament.  After that I went to that other $2-$4 so it was a poopy start.  There still weren’t any more breaks for me for a while so after starting on break I had an 8-table run before my next break.  I felt good except my left arm has been killing me all day, so every time I drag in chips or cards from the left side I was in lots of pain.  So that wasn’t too fun.

I got called out on looking at girls again today, so I must be doing it more blatantly.  I was at table 30 which is in the corner of the room, and when it was on the guy in seat 2 I was looking past him to a girl walking by out on the floor.  After I looked back at the table that guy looked over, and he must have seen me looking and got the hint.  Then he said, “You’re supposed to give me a heads-up when there’s eye candy to see.”  He added that he saw me looking and I just laughed because I’ve been caught twice in two days now.

There weren’t that many good tips today, and I dealt every table at least once.  At one table there were a few new-looking players, and one was a girl (not really attractive).  After she won a hand she didn’t tip me, but instead she tossed a chip to her boyfriend.  She said her stacks were uneven, and I laughed to myself because not only did she not tip me but she gave a chip to someone else for an obscure reason.

Jon left after less than an hour, and everyone else was stuck.  Then after midnight it slowly died down, and other dealers slowly left.  By 3am there were still four games going, and Brian and I became the only ones to get stuck because the others signed the EO and there were only three grave shift dealers coming in.  That made me mad because they should have anticipated the room being like this I think, and we shouldn’t have been there nearly that long anyway. 

Thankfully I just had to deal for an extra 10 minutes until the 3-handed $2-$4 table finally broke and that dealer tapped me out.  Brian was still there, but he was done 20 minutes later when the same dealer broke my table.  So we didn’t have to stay much longer, but I was still hoping to be home hours earlier so it sucked.  I made $162 which is only decent for 10 cash games and 8 hours, but I’m just glad I’m done for the week.  I got home after 4am and now I’m going to bed a bit before 6am.  Thanks for reading, and “And if you’d ‘a took to me like a gull takes to the win; well, I’d ‘a jumped from my tree and I’d a danced like the kind of the eyesores, and the rest of our lives would ‘a fared well.”

—Eric Del Medico

I’m finally back to my regular schedule of blogging at night and sleeping from 6am to 2pm.

Dreams

Another weird thing about these last few days is that I’ve had several dreams in the night that I remember when I wake up, when lately I’ve had maybe one or two.  I had one where I was at my grandma’s house, and we had another relative or friend that had Autism like my cousin Ryan who lives in California.  There was some miscommunication because someone thought that it was my uncle who had Autism, so she was talking to him differently and he was going along with it.  This might be from how the other day at work two players were talking about something, and I realized that they were talking about two different things but didn’t realize that the other wasn’t on the same page.  So the conversation kept going and they kept having basically two different conversations, and I just listened and enjoyed it.

In a brief dream I left the high school to have lunch at home with my college roommates.  I usually didn’t join them there for lunch so I wondered if they’d be surprised, and there was something about riding a weird vehicle on my way home but I don’t remember. 

Then I was at “home” and about to go to sleep.  We had a couple beds right in the middle of the big open living room where we slept, and then my step-dad came home.  I thought he should have the bed and I’d go in the other room, but he said that if I was already sleeping there I should stay there.  But I told him I had literally just gotten in so I could leave.  It was pretty awkward though and all very weird.

There was another dream about work, and it was during a tournament week.  I was late getting to my tournament table, and I sat down literally one second before the tournament started.  I don’t know why I can’t have a work dream where there isn’t something weird going on, and why I can’t dream with the real work setting instead of some weird (and almost always different) dream version. 

In the last dream I was driving “home” to what was like our old trailer.  I was with Steve from work, my dad, and another person or two, and then when we pulled in I said I had to run somewhere quickly.  I guess it took me a while to come back and they just had to sit and wait so I felt bad.  Steve asked if I had to stop by the car auction or something, so it was weird.

One Year Ago Today

I picked up a shift for someone on this day but it was at 10am.  I felt pretty good when I woke up though, and I listened to some of The Killers during the ride and that was great.  At work a player complained about seeing a dealer leave the bathroom without washing his hands, and I noticed two guys do the same thing that same day.  That makes me mad because that’s gross not to do it anyway, and especially when your job involves handling chips and cards that hundreds of other people touch.  After work I watched the movie Logan’s Run, and I learned a remake is in the works.

Thoughts

I finally got rid of the crap that was on my computer.  When I got Diablo I added and deleted a bunch of programs to help speed up my computer, but I got a couple bad ones.  One thing was something called I Want This, another was Wishlist, and the worst was Text-Enhance.  The latter randomly made words in my blog links to stupid ads.  The first two were largely unnoticeable, but the last one was really annoying.  I tried to figure out what program caused it so I could uninstall it, and then I realized I could just Google it.  So I did that and learned it was a plug-in, so I just removed those problems and now it’s fixed.  One less problem I have to deal with.

NBA Playoffs

The Thunder played the Spurs in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.  I didn’t expect either team to falter to the other, and this game was close the whole way.  The Spurs led most of the way but the Thunder stayed close, and they gained the lead briefly in the third quarter.  I wish I watched this game so I could talk about it more, but the Spurs pulled away at the end to win the game to lead the series 1-0 and keep their winning streak alive (which began in the regular season). 

My Day

Things have been a little unusual the last few days, and the origin (but not the cause) was getting my new car.  I only got 3-4 hours of sleep the morning before, and my dad called me a million times which kept me from sleeping.  After playing tennis on that Thursday I played a lot of Diablo, but I fell asleep because I was so exhausted.  But I woke back up eventually and continued playing, then went to sleep late like usual.  Work was really busy on Friday, and when I got home I fell asleep while working on my blog. 

So I went to sleep after 7am again, and I woke up several times in the morning.  I don’t know if it’s from the heat or because of my aching body, but I woke up startled.  I finished the blog just before leaving for work on Saturday, and when I got back home I wanted to finish that day’s blog to end the cycle.  But again I fell asleep because I was so tired, so now today on Sunday I finished Saturday’s blog and started on this one.  But I woke up in a fright again today, and I had forgotten to charge my phone and set my alarm but it’s not a big deal.  So hopefully I can end the bad cycle today.

Brian and I went to work, and I didn’t expect the poker room to be too terribly busy.  There were only like 10 games going but the tournament already had a lot of players, and we ended up having 141 players.  We didn’t have enough dealers so we had to seat 11 at a table for a while, which made it take longer for those tables to break.  The tournament still went down quickly, but people filled up the cash games so the board stayed busy. 

It took a while to get out the last of the day shift dealers, and with all the tables we kept adding there was only one break on the board for a while.  I had a break after my first table, and then had a 9-table run before my next break.  I didn’t mind too much because I felt good, other than an insatiable tickle in my nose.  I realized that my allergies are kicking in because I also have a tickle in my throat, so now I have that to deal with.

At my first cash game I dealt to Bertha who is the most miserable person I know.  She hates me and just about every dealer, and she hates us so much that it’s funny.  She got mad the first time I busted her because I gave someone a flush on the river, and she bought back in.  She busted again, and then she looked at me very seriously and said, “I hate you with a burning passion.”  I can’t even type that without laughing because it’s so funny that she would say something so mean to me.  The other players were a little uncomfortable about how mean she was being to me, but I just smiled and said that I know she hates me.  Then she just sat there and when I asked her if she was done or waiting for me to leave she said she was going to wait for me to leave because she did not want me to deal to her anymore.  Fine with me because I hate her.

I notice a lot of players get distracted by some of the waitresses and other beautiful women that flow in and out of the poker room.  It’s so blatant sometimes when they check girls out, so when they do that when it’s their turn to act I just pat the table and tell them it’s on them and wait for them to snap back.  Today I saw a girl pass by and although she wasn’t particularly attractive she still caught my gaze for a few seconds.  The older gentleman in seat 1 said to me, “Hey, pay attention to the game.  I’ll let you know if you’re missing something.”  I just laughed because he caught me and was calling me out, but he did it in a joking way so I appreciated it. 

The room stayed busy until midnight when we gave away a seat to an upcoming tournament, and then people slowly left.  It took a while for the room to get down to a manageable size before it got to where we could start leaving.  I had only two breaks and was able to leave at 2am instead of going on break just to have one more table.  I made $167 which is pretty decent, and again I’m just glad to get out of there so I can sleep.  Now at 6am I can go to sleep after finishing this blog on time, so that makes me happy.  I still have to decide if I’m going to Foxwoods this week, and there are numerous cons to that with the only pro being to just get some good poker in.  But we’ll see what happens.  Thanks for reading, and “No one’s gonna love you more than I do.”

—Eric Del Medico

I didn’t notice that the date on my watch was behind a day until today. I guess I haven’t looked at it much in the last 26 days.

Dreams

I had a dream where I was living on an urban street like Utica, and my brother was walking around with a gun although it was also like a basketball.  I told him he could get in trouble for walking around with that, and then we were running from the cops.  I led the way, and we took a longer way around the block to shake them off. 

Then I was at my church trying to clean (although my church isn’t the one I clean), and it was during a busy service like Easter.  I was getting mad because there were still tons of people all around when I wanted to clean, but obviously I shouldn’t be trying to clean during a service.  Then while we were sitting downstairs at coffee hour a guy came up to us and handed us his business card.  He was kind of a mentally challenged white man, and somehow he owned a Chinese restaurant.  The card had a picture of the inside of the restaurant and it looked really nice, but I think it was like the upper floor of a doctor’s office.

One Year Ago Today

I fixed the cassette player in my car because it had been stuck for weeks, and then I bought a new adapter for my iPod.  I said that $10 was better than replacing the whole stereo in my car, but I said, “However, I think I’ll get a new car sometime in the near future instead of continuing to pour money into my car.  But that’s a topic for another day.” 

Well that day is today.  I’ve been meaning to talk about this for a while so now seems like a good time.  I said I was tired of pouring money into my car, because I’ve had to replace just about every single thing on that car at least once, and I had dozens of problems with it.  The next time I really thought about this was on January 17 on my way to a poker game.  I made a note on my phone that read “Car problems all the time” which echoed the thought I had a year ago.  I was tired of spending all this money on this old car, and I wanted to get a nicer one.  I was thinking that I was happy I had a poker game where I can make some extra money to pay for my car problems, and how it always seemed like when I won big something would break on my car and the money went right to that.  The significance of that date is it was the day I got robbed, so poker didn’t seem like an option anymore.  Later I had to get back to it because of the money I was making, and now that (but mostly saving up from work) has led me to afford the new car I’m getting.

NBA Playoffs

The 76’ers played the Celtics in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semis, so it was basically up for grabs.  The game went just about how I expected:  The Celtics got a good lead but the 76’ers came back in the first half, and it stayed close.  Then the Celtics got up again, but the 76’ers closed in on them.  But in the last few minutes the Celtics stayed above and they won the game to win the series 4-3.  They’ll play the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Thoughts

After the topic I had in my Thoughts section yesterday, I thought about how my writing can change from one day to another.  I wrote that post the day after the events happened, and I wondered how different that section would have been if I had written it the day before.  A lot of my “deeper” thoughts are fueled by emotion, so the longer I have to distance myself from the emotion the more my writing changes.  That can be bad because I lose the spirit of the thought, but it can also be good because it allows me to look at it and recount the event with a more objective viewpoint. 

My Day

I woke up around 3 and was really tired despite getting 8 hours of sleep.  I worked on my blog before work because I was too tired to do it after work the night before.  Brian didn’t have to work tonight so I just drove up myself.  The poker room was just as busy as I like it, which was busier than a Sunday but less busy than Friday. 

The board looked good to start, but we still had some day shift dealers to get out and we had boards for most games.  So the board kept getting busier and busier until about midnight, and then it started to cool down a bit.  We had a few $500 max games, two Omaha games briefly, and one or two $20-$40 games.  But I only dealt $2-$4 and $1-$2 all night, and I dealt $2-$4 four times.  They put two of them right next to each other, and when I broke a table I was sent back to the start of those again.  I didn’t mind too much because it kept me from Omaha, but when I broke the second $2-$4 game I just missed a $500 max game I was going to next. 

So at 2am I broke that table and they asked if I wanted to go home so I did.  I was tired all night from the night before so I was happy to get out of there.  So I worked 7 hours and made $155 which is pretty good but significantly worse than last night.  I gave Dan a ride home again, and we got Denny’s afterward.  I didn’t get home until like 4am, and I fell asleep while typing up my blog for the second time.  So after I woke back up I shut down everything and left this blog for the next day, which is why the last two blogs have been posted a day late.  I’ll explain that a little more in the next post.  Thanks for reading, and “In the end, there’s nothing more to life than love, is there?”

—Eric Del Medico

Here’s my blog for yesterday. I was a bit too tired to post it then but I’ll do it now.

One Year Ago Today

I had my car at the shop to get the oil changed and it looked at, and when it was ready I decided I’d walk down there to pick it up.  It was the first time I walked from Mohawk to Herkimer, and since it was a nice day out it was a good walk.

Thoughts

I’ll start this by saying that there’s a reason I had previously made the rule that I would not pursue a girl that has a boyfriend.  In the past I have been interested in girls, but once I found out they had a boyfriend that was quickly the end of it.  In Haiti there was a girl that I started to like, but I wasn’t sure if she had a boyfriend.  So as I was gathering information about that I kind of distanced myself, and then I learned she did have a boyfriend.  That was the end of it, although a few people told me that I shouldn’t give up just because of that.  There was more to that because she was a new Christian but her boyfriend wasn’t, so I knew it would not last (and it didn’t; it was over a month or two later).  Still, I had this rule and I stuck to it, although I regret it now.

I’ve said before that there’s a girl I like whom I work with, but she has a boyfriend.  I think about this all the time because it’d sound more romantic if I said I was in love with her, and I could gather great sympathy for my cause.  I don’t know if I like her just because she’s really beautiful, or because I see her all the time, or because she actually willingly talks to me and hangs out with me.  So every day is basically a battle where I see how close I can go to demonstrating how much I like her without seeming like I’m trying to steal another man’s girlfriend. 

Usually there’s no harm in this because what I consider flirting is less than standard practice for male and female friends.  Her boyfriend comes up in conversation a little too much for my liking, and the last thing I want to do is see him and talk to him.  A couple weeks ago she forgot her phone, and her boyfriend texted me from her number.  He asked if I was working with her today and could tell her she forgot her phone.  I thought that was stupid because obviously she would realize she didn’t have a phone.  I was working that day so I just said that and that was it. 

It happened a couple days later, but this time through the Draw Something game.  We were playing and then I found out he was on her phone again and moving for her, and he wrote out that message in the game instead of texting me or something like a normal person.  The strange thing was that he added, “…and tell her I love her.”  That seems like an odd request to have someone say to your girlfriend, even if you’re just delivering a message.  So I started wondering if maybe he suspected that I like her, and he was trying to subtly tell me to back off.  I have met him one time weeks before that, and maybe he just doesn’t like how we used to give her rides to work and whatnot.

So like always, this is all backstory to the issue at hand.  I owed her a meal because we made a Words with Friends bet for Taco Bell, and I happened to lose that game.  I didn’t take a dive although I had won the last 10 or so games between us and I won the one after that.  That wouldn’t be a bad idea though because it reminds me of Seinfeld when a guy made a bet with Elaine he knew he would lose so he could take her to dinner without asking her out on a date. 

Since she doesn’t need a ride anymore we don’t get Taco Bell together, so she said I could just buy her dinner at work.  So we went in to get food, and I told her she could get whatever she wanted because I’m a man of my word.  Just as I said that her boyfriend walked up, and I went into full shutdown mode.  She told him that I owed her a meal, and I just awkwardly walked away toward the checkout line.  Her boyfriend walked away too and then she joined me at the register, and now this simple little thing because super awkward.  I paid for our meals not knowing where he was because he could be looking right at me buying his girlfriend food.  Then she asked where I was going to sit, and thankfully I picked up on the fact that she wanted to (or felt she had to) sit with her boyfriend.  I certainly didn’t want to sit with him, so I said I was just going to go back to the Sun Room and she could stay there. 

It was really awkward, and the first time really that things between us became awkward.  Nothing was said but I felt it, and it stayed that way for a little while.  I keep thinking about Jim and Pam’s relationship on The Office, and how I felt very close to how his character came across on the show.  It’s like I’m standing at her desk making jokes, and then her boyfriend comes in and I awkwardly walk away.  So that’s when I remembered why I had that rule about not pursuing girls who are already taken because it hurts too much every time you remember that another guy gets to be with them and you don’t.

My Day

I got up at 2pm today and I was really sore like I thought I’d be.  I had breakfast and then decided to have the rest of my leftover Chinese food from last night.  That was good and bad, because it kept me from getting hungry at work but it didn’t really sit right. 

Dan texted me asking for a ride back from the casino later tonight, so I told him no problem.  Then he needed a ride to Vernon Downs where he works, and he needed to get there by like 6:15.  At first I thought that would be too unnecessarily early for us to get to work, but it was actually perfect because we’d get back to Turning Stone when we normally would. 

The problem was that Brian didn’t know about this sudden change of plans and he wasn’t going to be ready to leave at that earlier time.  So I said I’d drive since the green car was back, but that still wouldn’t work for him.  We ended up just driving separately, but that sucked for me because I was scheduled for 8pm anyway.  I was only going to go up there earlier so Brian and I could ride together, and now I’d have to wait around for an hour before work.  Not only that, but I had to leave even earlier than I would for starting at 7.  Plus, if Dan needed to get to work by 6:15 then Brian should be the one to take him up since I work later.  So it was a big bowl of crap, but sometimes things just don’t work out.

They didn’t need me at 7 so I just hung out for an hour before starting, but tonight ended up being a really good night.  I started at $2-$4, and it was actually a good table.  Basically all of my tables were good tonight, and despite only getting two redbirds my toke box filled up from tons of several-chip tips.  I even had one table where two guys tipped me when I sat down and when I left, and that’s really rare but great.  I had $20-$40 next which was all $1 tips and a couple $2 ones, and then I had the regular $1-$2 game.  So I had a good start to the day because I had three cash games in a row without having a tournament down. 

There’s this one really hot girl that plays poker occasionally, and I saw here there wearing a really stunning dress.  She came to the table I was dealing, and she sat right in seat 5 which is directly facing me.  Usually a hot girl will end up being in seat 1 or 9 somehow so I can’t see them, but now I had to try not to stare because she was right in front of me.  It was at $500 max, and the first hand she played she ended up busting with AK on the A 6 9 flop against a set of 6s.  I felt bad and I’m sure everyone else was upset because she’s a gorgeous girl among a bunch of dudes.

I had a couple great reads today on players.  The first and biggest was at that first $2-$4 table.  It was limped around to the kid in BB and he checked.  The flop was A K 2 and everyone checked.  The turn was a 5, and he quickly looked back at his cards.  Then he looked around the table at their stacks, and as he bet he made a big expression as if to say, “Oh well, I guess I’ll bet.”  I knew the only hand he could have is 3 4 for the nut straight, based on the betting and his actions.  I was right, and I thought about saying it just before he flipped over his cards but I didn’t.  The other read was when I dealt to Dan later in the night.  He limped in SB and the flop was 3 x 3.  He checked but with an odd hand motion that said he was strong but wanted to seem really weak.  He did it again on the turn and then bet the river, and he showed that he had 10 3 for flopped trips. 

Because I started at 8 I stayed until all the 7pm starters left.  The board was pretty good all night, and I would have gone out around 1am but when the others left I had to stay.  I didn’t mind since I was making good money.  My last string was a 3-table run which kept me until 4am which normally would be overtime, but since I started at 8 it was just a full shift.  My last table was a short-handed $2-$4 table, and they played from 5-handed down to heads-up.  I didn’t make that much that down and it was definitely my worst, and I didn’t make anything in that last 10-minutes or so of heads-up.  I didn’t mind too much since I already had a great night, and my toke box was so full I had to struggle to get the last few chips in (which is a good problem to have).

So I was there for a full 8 hours and only had 4 breaks which is pretty perfect.  I just dealt one tournament down which was the final table, and it almost broke while I dealt but waited until a few minutes after me.  I made $207 which was great, and then I took Dan back home and went home myself.  It was the latest I worked in a long time, and it wasn’t until after 7am that I finally went to bed.  Thanks for reading, and “From this moment on I know exactly where my life will go.  Seems that all I really was doing was waiting for love.”

—Eric Del Medico

I will soon be the proud owner of a red 2006 Chevy Impala LT with 106k miles. Great condition so I’m pumped.

One Year Ago Today

This was the first time I picked up a shift for an older dealer named Ted, and it was a slow Tuesday.  I started to work for him every Saturday that I wasn’t scheduled, and I liked getting the extra day but it was always a 10am and sucked.  It’s kind of like picking up a Monday on swing shift except even slower and at 10am.  After work I watched Gulliver’s Travels which was a really funny and entertaining movie.

NBA Playoffs

The Heat played the Pacers, and the Pacers got off to a strong start.  They led by 7 after the first quarter, but the Heat started coming back.  Wade had a big game and scored 41, and the Heat led by 10 heading into the fourth quarter.  The Heat just shot and played better and they closed out the Pacers to win the game and win the series 4-2. 

My Day

I went to bed at 7am this morning, and my mom came in to (needlessly) wake me up about 3 hours later.  I had a little trouble getting back to sleep but I managed to, until my dad called me just a few minutes later.  He went to a car auction with a friend of his and were looking for a new car for me.  He told me there was a black Chevy Impala that looked good, and because it had a little hail damage it should go for a little less than all the other ones.  I told him that it was fine and to bid on it for me, and I again struggled but managed to go back to sleep. 

My dad called me shortly after to say that they got the car, so I was getting excited.  But I was a little worried about the hail damage, and I was starting to get mad that the only decent car poor Eric can get is one with something wrong with it.  I tried to fall back asleep because it wasn’t even 11am yet, but I couldn’t this time.  So I got up and took a shower, and my dad called me again.  He told me there was a change in plans, and I knew that was a good thing.  He said there were a couple other things wrong with the car, so his friend was going to sell it himself.  But they did find the same kind of car though that was in “100% better condition” and they got that for me.

So once everything gets finalized (which should take a week or two) I’ll have my new car.  It’s a red 2006 Chevy Impala LT with 106k miles.  It’s going to cost me about $7,000 which includes the bidding cost, auction fee, taxes, plates and whatnot, and any little thing that might needs fixing before it comes to me.  The going price for a car like that (and in that great condition) is about $11,000 so I made out great by cutting out the middle man (or having my own minimal middle man). 

My dad told me all about the car which took place over several calls and a couple pictures throughout the day.  I didn’t need all the little details right now before I even see it, but I was glad that he was excited about it for me.  So I won’t tell you every little thing about it, but my dad says it’s in great condition so it was a good buy.  He said there is no rust at all, it looks brand new underneath, and all it needs is new rotors.  I’m really relieved that I shouldn’t have to replace the brake and fuel lines for a while, but they said I’ll need tires for the winter which I guess aren’t cheap. 

All in all I think this will prove to be a smart buy for the long-term.  However, I’m starting to get really scared that I’ll get in an accident or something with it and ruin it, and if it’s my fault insurance won’t cover it so I’ll screw myself.  I guess I’ll just have to drive even more conservatively and take care of it better than my two other cars.

So all of this stuff happened before noon, and I’m not used to being up even before 2pm.  I played some Diablo, and then I ended up playing tennis with Brian and Dan.  It was fun to get outside and get a little exercise, and shortly into our first game I was getting exhausted.  Brian and I played first and we had almost the longest game possible.  We basically alternated winning games, and just about every game had several deuces.  I ended up losing to Brian 7-6 but it was fun.  Then Brian and Dan played and their game was pretty long too, and Brian won that.  I played Dan after and somehow he crushed me 6-1 even though I thought I was playing better than against Brian.  It was fun playing though and I’m going to be super sore for a few days. 

When I got back home my legs were killing me, and I settled in to play a lot more Diablo.  I’m now level 24 and very close to 25, and I completed a good chuck of Act II (at least I feel like it was a lot).  My mom and I got Chinese food, and I went with chow mein today to see how that was, and it was delicious but not as good as the lo mein that I love.  I watched the game tonight but was so exhausted I fell asleep for much of the second half and afterward for a bit.  Then I finished playing Diablo for the night and watched Watchmen, and I’ll probably get to bed at like 4:30.  I’ll sleep at least 10 hours I figure and that’ll be much needed.  Thanks for reading, and “Good joke.  Everybody laugh.  Roll on snare drum.  Curtains.”

—Eric Del Medico

I would feel bad about going to bed at 7am, but I could not go to bed at all & just play Diablo all morning.

Dreams

I remember several dreams from last night.  I was at my high school graduation, and during the speeches I was getting really sad and scared about moving on.  Standing up to speak were some people from my high school, which surprises me because in my dreams I usually have people in odd places but they were almost all appropriate.  Conant spoke first, and when David Jones interrupted Conant just kept going.  Then Wistrand talked, and Darry was up there too and he was acting like it made sense he was speaking although he wasn’t from our high school.  There was also something about John the Barber, like people wanted him to speak.  (Some of those names are first names and some last names, and I know you don’t know them so it doesn’t matter either way to you.)  All the speakers mentioned something about “When you get there” to talk about our futures, which I thought strange because they weren’t focusing on the now.  This dream came from something I saw on TV about Obama giving a commencement speech, and from all the Facebook statuses and photos of people graduating.

My other dreams were much shorter and easier to describe.  At our school we were having a problem with people falling through the floors of the upper floor and getting stuck.  In another dream I noticed that I was going to be late for work, but since numbers always change in my dream it was hard to figure out exactly how late I was going to be.  The clock said 5 something and I figured we were like 30-60 minutes late, although that doesn’t make sense.  In my last dream I had a job as the person or one of the people in charge of some kind of factory-type place.  We were inside a building with a bunch of workers and outside our area was a group of workers.  We were trying to keep our stuff a secret from the workers outside, and I was telling some of the other guys that we had to hurry up and finish before they find out because it wasn’t exactly legal.  That last dream came from Awake where the bosses at the police station the main guy works for stole a big shipment of heroin and were secretly trying to sell it off.

One Year Ago Today

This was my only my second day off from work after the first 16 days of my current employment.  First I mowed the lawn but broke one of the handles, so I had to duct tape it back together for a few more mows before we got it fixed.  Then I did a bunch of other errands all around the area which made for a busy day.  I talked about how I wasn’t able to go to Vegas with some of my college friends for my friend Austin’s birthday, which was a plan in the works for well over a year.  I still had to pay for my share of the room because I canceled on them so late, and I tried to do it online but sites weren’t working and I wasn’t able to do it.  I planned out this whole day for efficiency, but the bank ended up closing at 4pm (instead of the normal 5pm like every other place in the world) and I got there at 4:05.  I was really upset because I planned my day the best way possible I thought, and there were several little things that could (or could not) have happened that would have made me still get there on time.  The bittersweet joke that I made was, “I tell ya, I never thought I’d have so much trouble throwing away $200.” 

NBA Playoffs

The Celtics played the 76’ers, and since the 76’ers were at home I expected them to pull this one out.  The game was very close the whole way but the 76’ers held a slight edge and won the game to tie the series 3-3 and force a Game 7.

My Day

I woke up at 2pm again so I’ve been good with that this week.  After I showered I played a little Diablo before poker, and the current area I’m in is really big and taking me a long time.  But I got to level 20 and got a lot of better weapons and armor so my character is getting even better.  I had planned to order pizza or something for poker, but I forgot until after we started but we got Denny’s instead since one of the guys works there right before coming.

Poker

This ended up being another big turnout with 9 players, and thankfully once the first person came everyone else came very shortly after.  So we started about 40 minutes late but at least we were able to start immediately instead of waiting well over an hour. 

My first big pot was an unusual one.  I had 8s 7s and limp-called a 9 BB raise pre-flop because those suited connectors are just so pretty.  The flop was 5d 8d 5s which to me looked really good.  I bet and got two callers, and on the 2s turn I bet again and got one caller.  The river was a third spade so I had a flush now, and I kind of anticipated getting a flush despite flopping top pair with just one spade on board.  I won to Jim who claimed to have an overpair, but he didn’t show it so he could have had anything. 

I was at $150 after that pot and got up to $175 at my peak.  Then I took a couple hits to Joe when I flopped top pair but checked, bet the turn which gave Joe a draw, and then paid him off when he hit it on the river.  That happened twice and I was upset it happened twice and that I paid him off both times.  I also made a couple stupid bets and plays, so I was upset with myself for letting my frustrating effect my play.

I was down to $66 at about my lowest point, but I got some of it back and then doubled-up against Dan with 5 6 suited to his Ah 2h on the 3h x 4h  7 board.  I got back up to $170 when I had Aces and reraised pre-flop and took it down on the flop, and I lost a little back but ended up $67 when we finished.  We played for about 8 hours and had 8 or 9 players most of the time so it was a pretty good game. 

Now I’m going to bed at nearly 7am because cleaning up and getting ready for bed took a while.  I’m not sure how tomorrow is going to go because I still don’t have a car at the moment, so I might not be able to clean the church this week.  And my dad and his friend might find me a new car tomorrow so I’m excited.  Thanks for reading, and “What’s the deal?  We’re supposed to be shorts buddies today.  You saw the schedule:  Monday, Tuesday: Shorts; Wednesday we wash ‘em; Thursday, Friday: Shorts; weekend: Optional (I’ll be wearing shorts).”

—Eric Del Medico

If you actually think you can win the lottery, then you’re okay to think your flight is the one to go down.

Dreams

I had a dream where I was part of a 3-man team that stole money from the casino or whatever we were with.  We did it at 2am, but we couldn’t make a getaway because we were stuck there until the next day.  I think this dream was from watching Casino last night because my favorite quote is the one I used as my closing quote in last night’s blog.  It was talking about how everyone’s looking to steal from the casino, so in my dream we were just more literal about it.

In another dream I was at home during the winter, and our neighbor’s garage burned down.  They were outside working on cleaning it up with firemen or whatever, and I felt bad.  For some reason our shed was hanging in the air by some kind of rig, and I wondered if its floor was strong enough to keep everything inside it.  Then in our driveway I saw two school buses which was strange because I wondered what they were doing there, but didn’t think about how two full buses could not fit in there (and especially not when one was parked sideways).

In the last dream I remember I was at Wal Mart, and I wanted to get a frozen pizza for dinner.  I picked one out and took it out of the package for some reason, then decided that it’d be better to just order a pizza since it would cost the same.  This was going to be for poker, which was either from last week or in anticipation for this week.

One Year Ago Today

This was the last day of my long 16 of 17 days at work.  I dealt $5-$10 no-limit which is a game we rarely run, and I was blown away by how much some of the guys had in front of them.  Most of the players at the casino are either terrible or average, but there are a few who are legit. 

NBA Playoffs

The Pacers played the Heat, and the Heat pretty much dominated.  It was relatively close after the first quarter, but the Heat outscored them every quarter and shot much better.  The Heat shot a franchise playoff record high of 61.4%, and the Pacers shot a record low 33.7%.  The Heat cruised to win the game and lead the series 3-2.

My Day

My dad woke me up around 12:45 but he didn’t come over, and I decided I’d get up anyway.  I showered and then had breakfast, and I didn’t know if I’d be cleaning the church today or not.  My parents needed the car I’ve been driving because my mom’s car is in the shop, and my mom needed it tonight for a dinner she had.  So I ended up staying home and playing Diablo which was just fine with me.  I went from level 16 to 19 tonight and I made it to Act II.  I really love this game and there are a lot of cool things about it, and I might go into it all later.

So I watched some random stuff on TV, then watched the game.  After that I made a pizza for dinner and I watched Underworld: Awakening.  I saw the first three all on TV all in a row a little over a year ago, and they were better than I thought they’d be.  I forgot a lot of what the story was about, and this movie recapped it a little.  I was surprised that it was only 80 minutes long (before credits), and the movie definitely felt short.  The effects were good, and I’m sure seeing it in 3D was cool, but it was just too short.  It got right into the story immediately, had the action-filled opening that all action movies have, then right after was the middle where they decide what they’re going to do, and then quickly move to the final battle right afterward.  I liked it for the most part, but it just went by so fast that it didn’t feel like a complete movie to me.

After the movie I got ready for bed earlier than usual and then played a little more Diablo.  I’m so happy I made it past the hard spot I was stuck in because it was driving me nuts.  It took me probably 2-3 hours of trying and trying but I finally beat the boss The Butcher, and then I made it to level 17 and got to do all the other stuff I did today.  I was going to keep playing until 6am but decided to stop after getting level 19 and then go to bed closer to 5.  So thanks for reading, and “Now hold on, in my defense it is my experience that I am generally correct about most things.”

—Eric Del Medico

I bought a laptop chill mat and was able to play Diablo 3 for hours with no problems! No more overheating!

Dreams

I just remember the dream I had right before I woke up.  I was at work (big surprise), and before leaving there was a player who wanted to make a food order.  So I told him I’d go get the person, and on my way out of the poker room there was another guy who wanted the same thing.  I left the poker room but wasn’t sure where to go, just like in real life.  I went to a room where there were a few military-looking guys talking quietly, and they made me leave.  Then the whole building (which became a school) was running after me and trying to keep me from doing what I wanted to do.  It was so frustrating because I was just trying to go the extra mile and people were hassling me for no reason.

One Year Ago Today

This was the first day that I finally tipped the chip runners and board people at work, but I didn’t do it correctly.  I figured since I owed them for a while I’d get a greenbird to the two I work with the most and two redbirds to each of the other ones.  They weren’t all there when I was ready to do this, so I put the chips in my pocket and waited until the next day.  I later learned that you can’t have chips in your pocket, so I could have gotten in some trouble.

NBA Playoffs

The 76’ers played the Celtics, and the first half was close.  Then in the second half the Celtics started getting away with it, and they won the game by 16 to lead the series 3-2.  Later the Lakers played the Thunder, and that was a close game for the first three quarters.  Then the Thunder started to really take it to the Lakers despite Kobe’s 42 points.  They ended up cruising to the end, and they won the game to win the series 4-1.  They’ll play the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals. 

My Day

First of all, this was a rare blog post where I basically typed it all in order.  Usually I bounce from section to section to get the quick ones done first or whatever, but this time I did it all right before bed so it all had to be done at once. 

Anyway, I got up at 2:30pm and my brother just beat me into the shower again.  Since I had the day free I figured I’d play Diablo while I waited and before my laptop got too hot.  It was running pretty good and only was slow a few times, and it didn’t crash.  I only played for about a half hour and my laptop got really hot already, so I shut it down while I showered.  Then I played for another hour before going to dinner.  First we went to Best Buy because I wanted to get a cooling pad for my laptop.  I wasn’t sure if it’d help with my gaming problem but at least it should keep my computer from overheating and crashing.

So my brother and I drove to Outback Steakhouse to have dinner one last time with my aunt, uncle, and cousin from California along with my dad, uncle, grandpa, and grandma.  I tried to go to Outback twice before, but each time was during the weekend and there was too long of a wait.  I got their classic/original steak and it was delicious.  My grandpa paid this time, and after we all thanked him he said, “I’ll have to put all your names in my income tax return.  Make sure I spell them right…”  It joins the ranks of classic jokes that he’s made about money.  After dinner we went to my grandma’s house for cake and ice cream and talked, and then we left.  We picked up our mom on the way back because her car was in the shop, and then I had the rest of the night free.

I tried out my new cooling pad and was happy that it isn’t very loud but you can hear that it’s working.  I watched the second half of the Lakers/Thunder game and then Casino while trying to play some more Diablo.  I noticed that Brian had just signed off the game about 10 seconds earlier, so I just missed him.  I ended up playing for about 5 hours, and my computer didn’t crash once and it never was really that slow either.  When the game is running smoothly I can get a lot more done, so I went from level 12 to level 16 while playing today.  I cannot tell you how happy I am that I was able to play this game as it was intended.  I didn’t think the cooling pad would help this much, but I’m so happy it does.  One of the best $30 I ever spent.

And now at 6am I’m going to bed.  Thanks for reading, and “In Vegas, everybody’s gotta watch everybody else.  Since the players are looking to beat the casino, the dealers are watching the players.  The box men are watching the dealers.  The floor men are watching the box men.  The pit bosses are watching the floor men.  The shift bosses are watching the pit bosses.  The casino manager is watching the shift bosses, I’m watching the casino manager, and the eye in the sky is watching us all.”

—Eric Del Medico