Considering school is out and, outside of work, there aren't many demands made of my time, I've been remiss is posting here, I see. I'm sure the internet will somehow survive.

I just got home from a rousing evening of shuffleboard. I again held my own, winning two games out of three. As usual, I fell apart in my last game (I tend to break down after two games), and was trailing by fifty points before finally getting my stuff together and rallying. We were playing to 100 points, and I had come up to about 85, when Cecily just needed to score to win. She landed her last puck in the seven-point quadrant, so I had to knock her out to have a chance (a fairly good chance, especially if I could get in the seven-point quadrant myself) to win. And I connected squarely, got the points myself, and send her flying. Then I heard a mighty metallic thud, from her puck hitting the poles that adorn the shuffleboard court in Balboa Park (they at one time supported an awning, or at least that's what I think they were fore). And the puck ricocheted back, coming to a rest squarely within the seven-point region, giving her the game. So that hurt a bit. Followed that up with a viewing, finally, of Kill Bill, Vol. 1. Was surprised by how little an impression it made either way. Interested me enough to want to see Vol. 2, so I guess it has something going for it. Just figured my time would be better spent watching some of the films that influenced Tarantino than the film itself. Guess I just don't find profusions of arterial blood every five minutes either gleefully fun or horrifically shocking.

Went to Viejas yesterday. A sudden change of plans left me with some free time, and so I decided it had been far too long since I'd played poker. Took an Omaha seat while I waited for them to start a 3-6 Stud game. Lost about $50, mostly because I played a few too many hands (tough to throw away a suited connector when the bad beat jackpot for Omaha was at about $80,000. Then I got a stud seat, and for awhile things followed the same pattern. But things soon turned around, winning quite a few hands; scopping pots where I was going low, when one pair would hold up. I lost one or two big pots that could have really made me some money. I also had a dark moment with a near-miss of the low jackpot. For the jackpot, you need a 6-4 beat by a wheel, and I had a wheel, when I got into a raising war with another player. We all discussed how nice it would be to hit the jackpot, but instead of turning over a 6-4, the other player also had a wheel. So no jackpot. I still won half the pot, and made a small profit, though (the same situation had occured to me once before, but that time another player had a flush, so I only got 1/4 of the pot and actually lost money--you'd think I was playing Omaha). But I walked away with a tidy sum to take to Vegas with me in a few weeks. And I had enough on my player's card to cover my dinner. And I saw the usual suspects who have been playing stud there for some time, who claim to have missed me in the time I've been gone (I probably hadn't played poker in almost six months).