An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

I usually play Chick Poker but Pirate Rick has added Mary O and me to his monthly poker group. It's mostly guys. Mary and I were the only ladies last time and Friday night it was me and one other woman with ten guys since Mary was in Big D. I like that ratio. The first person I saw when I got there was my nemesis from the last home game of Rick's that I played in. I gave a chipper, "Hi!" and got a glare in return. I was mentally going , WTF? Then, I found out he had recently read my recap of the last game. Ooops. He didn't come out sounding too good on that one. I told him, "Dude, it was pretty much true to life." I'm so about winning friends and influencing people. We played at the same table and after a while our equally charming (or not?) personalities came through and we were all good. He wasn't even upset with me when I took all of his chips. And he restrained himself from using the P-word (think kitty related). I ended up coming in third w...

Damn TV shows with parents/kids going through separation trauma! I can't handle dying parents or kids (even if it's fictional) and I was trying not to bawl like a baby when Claire was saying good-bye to her Dad while he was apparently dying from a gun shot wound. Good thing I saw the previews...

Whoo hoo - I don't have jury duty tomorrow! It's not that I don't want to do my civic duty. It was just that I was really stressing about the fact that I was going to have to get to Surprise (40 miles) by 8 AM, have to stay there until 5 PM then get to Gilbert for poker by 6:30 (50 miles). All of the travel time would have been during rush hour. I felt nothing but absolute dread about the whole thing. The directions told me to call after 4:30 today to see if I needed to go. I very carefully listened to the recording and whooped out loud when I heard that my group number was excused. Actually, all of the groups were excused. By the way, did you know that you're supposed to send in a questionnaire when you get your summons? Yeah, I didn't read that fine print (which wasn't all that fine to be honest) until last night when I was looking for the number to call today. Oopsie .

My favorite Lacrosse player, Dan Dawson, was named the NLL Offensive Player of the Week for the second time this season. You can read all about it here . Dawson and goalie Rob Blasdell have also been named to the starting lineup of the West Division in the upcoming NLL All-Star Game. Cool.

Click on the box to take the test. Got this from Vern .

Which would you rather be: lucky or good? That was the big question at the Arizona Parrot Head's Second Annual Mom O'Malley Memorial Poker Tournament on Saturday. First, let me just brag that we raised $1,000 for Hospice of the Valley which is totally awesome! Pirate Rick and His Wench, Julie, hosted the event at their house. The O'Malley Babes supplied pizza and wings for everyone which was nice. Rick browbeat a bunch of his work buds (several of whom are both cute and single but I behaved myself) into playing with our crazy group. Most of them seemed to have a good time but some of the guys ran into that person who's at every tournament...the Clueless But Incredibly Lucky player. In this event, it was Sarah. I wasn't at her starting table but it was reported to me that she actually asked, "Is this single deck?" Since we were playing No Limit Texas Hold 'Em, that wasn't exactly an appropriate question. I also heard the tales of her stayin...

My actual score: 31.75542% - Total Geek Got this test from El Capitan .

If Dante lived in Phoenix today, I'm sure one of the circle of hell would be weekday traffic. Aye, carumba ! Thursday, I had to head over to Glendale for the Coyotes' game. It's 22 miles from work. I bailed on the 202 after it took me almost 20 minutes to get from 40 th to 24 th streets. My next thought was to take McDowell west but that was backed up so I went down to Thomas. I took that all the way out to 95 th Ave and it wasn't so bad after I got past 7 th Ave. It still took me nearly an hour, though. Friday night, I had to head back to my old neck of the woods to SE Chandler. The 202 was brutal until the 101 and the 101 looked absolutely miserable so I stayed on the 202 and took Alma School to Ocotillo . It was another nearly hour long trip. Saturday, I went to the poker tourney in Gilbert and it took me less than 20 minutes. Sunday, I left my house for the Sting game which was at Glendale arena. I got there in about 25 minutes. Weekend driving is so swee...

The Arizona Sting played Edmonton on Sunday. Edmonton's a cellar dweller but they managed to beat the Sting last weekend so it was payback time. My man, Dan Dawson, started it out right with the first goal and the Sting were off to an early lead. Too bad. Once they got a couple of goals ahead, they went into the prevent defense (or whatever the Lacrosse equivalent is) and just looked tentative and completely unaggressive. Wrong move. Edmonton stormed back and took the lead. With only a bit left in the final period, the Sting got a power play and tied it up. It was my first Sting sudden death overtime and I was worried that their tentative play was going to continue and that Edmonton was going to punish them. I needn't have worried, though. My man, Dan Dawson, scored the game winning goal a few minutes into overtime. Whew! He's such a stud...and older than Steven so even though I'm earning the Mrs. Robinson nickname I'm not being totally pervy and wanting someone you...

They should call today "Let's Rub It In That You're Single" Day. I mean, it's all nice for the married and hooked up folks to celebrate their love and whatnot but if you're single and unattached you just keep get reminded of that fact all frakking day. I'm already quite aware that I'm single so I don't need a lot of reminders, thank you very much. I was going to work late tonight and head straight home but the O'Malley Babes made me an offer I couldn't refuse. They had a colleague, Brad, who was in from Dallas and invited me to join them at Zipp's for beer, bar food and table shuffleboard. Can't tell you the last time I played shuffleboard but I used to be pretty good at it. Go figure, a bar game that I have some experience at. Boy, am I rusty and now I feel compelled to go practice. When you're a bar girl, you should be good at bar games so I'm pretty competitive when it comes to darts, pool and pinball, too. Blondie and I ...

I looked at my work calendar for tomorrow and I have NO meetings. Nada, zilch, zero. I've been averaging six meetings a week since I started working on our latest acquisition so having an empty calendar is an incredible treat. I might actually get some real work done!

Nicknames in our club are rarely self proclaimed. Usually, they're earned by sustained behavior or long history (Crime Dog, Mrs. Robinson), a one time event (Cheap Bastard, .11) or a combination of things over time (St. Jello-Shot Queen). I believe I've come up with a nickname for someone who hasn't had one yet... There's a term I've heard in poker a few times. It's "Luck Box". Generally, it means someone who may not deserve to win but who lucks out and gets the cards he or she needs to come out on top. If ever there were a Luck Box in our club, it's got to be Annette. Her first poker tourney, she came in Second Place. She did it despite listening to some very good advice from me and Cheap Bastard. OK, we were knocked out already so maybe the advice wasn't that good. Not only does she win on her own, however, she gets help. Last year at the Dog Races, she made a bet on the way down to the track for our group picture. The guy gave her the wron...

Last night was the Bud Shoot Out, a no points race at Daytona that's the start of the season. To get in it, a driver needs to win a pole in the previous year or be a defending Shoot Out winner. I'm a little rusty on my race watching. I recorded the race since I was out last night and I forgot to avoid the sports section this morning. Rats! I knew Tony Stewart won before I got to watch it. Oh well, at least it wasn't a points race. I'm excited for this season for a lot of reasons. I want to see how Jimmie and his team do defending the championship and the Daytona 500, of course. It will be interesting to see how Toyota does in its first season. And, we'll finally get to see the much talked about Car Of Tomorrow, NASCAR's latest attempt to bring parity and increased safety to the field. It will also be personally interesting to see how I can fit in another 5 or more hours of TV watching into my schedule. I sense a lot more 1 AM bedtimes in my near future.

The Arizona Sting lost last night to Edmonton. Bummer! However, Dan Dawson was named the National Lacrosse League's Offensive Player of the Week. That's my Dan!

Sugar Daddy turned me on to NBC's Poker After Dark and I am totally hooked! The setup is that six different pros buy in at $20K each with the winner taking all. They play Hold 'Em and the tournament is both played and shown in the wee morning hours. There's an hour show each night (morning) at 2:30 AM then a condensed version of the whole week on Saturday nights. One tournament is spread out over one week. Since the players all know each other pretty well, it comes across very much like a home game. A home game for big money, granted. Depending on who's on, there's lots of chatting about the game, telling of past stories (poker and otherwise) and needling of players. They also show most of the hands which gives you a great appreciation for how talented these players are. It's not unusual for them to predict what the other player has and I'm amazed every time. Tonight's episode was classic Phil Hellmuth. He wasn't having the best run of luck and the ...

Only one complaint - the show was too short. Two and a half hours went by in what seemed like 15 minutes! I was so entranced, I could have sat there all night. Norene and I are continuing our concert going habits from last year. I'd seen an email about this show and forwarded it to her with this message, "I feel we should do this." She replied, "I can't argue with that logic." Man, am I glad I convinced her. The setup was pretty basic. The four of them on stage with just their guitars taking turns singing (mostly) original tunes and telling stories. Funny stories, too. Lyle, of course, was the funniest but Guy Clark was nearly as funny. Guy Clark - his name was familiar and he started out with L.A. Freeway and his next selection was Always Trust Your Cape. That explained why he was familiar, those are AZPHC favorites. He also did Desperados Waiting for a Train and after I got home, I found out at his site that he wrote Home Grown Tomatoes . I'm pretty ...

If you haven't watched tonight's episode, read no further because there are spoilers ahead. OK, did anyone not think that Jack's Dad was really a bad guy and that he wasn't going to kill Graem? Helloooooo! It was so obvious. I'm just waiting for Jack to find out that Graem's wife is involved, too. And, Morris? The whole "your brother has radiation poison but you can't leave now" was too reminiscent of Edgar's Mom dying while he had to soldier on so you knew there had to be a catch. I do have to admit that Palmer's speech (he still hasn't taken his shirt off, dang it) was great. Though again, you knew he was going to refuse to sign the emergency action or whatever they were going to call it even though it sounded like he was going forward with it. Why so many red herrings, 24 ? Or, should I ask, why so many obvious red herrings? I must admit, Powers Boothe is an awesome addition to the show - he projects so much evil. I love him! And, ...

I said I would order a Sting jersey if I won enough money at poker. Saturday afternoon, I played in a Hold 'Em tourney. The buy in was $100 and we only had 10 players. There's usually close to 20 but it's a lot of guys who work at the same place and they had a project due that weekend so a bunch had to bail. I was the only woman playing and I was a tad nervous at the beginning but played it tight until I felt comfortable. We were at two tables of five and the guys all know each other pretty well and know how they all play. I was definitely the wild card. There were a couple of hands that I wish I could replay. I just wasn't smart on them. I got lucky when I was shortstacked and tripled up on one hand so I had a ton of chips when we were on the last hand of a round. I had pocket Jacks and the guy on my left called my raise. I tried to bet enough to get him out of the hand but he wouldn't budge. We ended up betting it up a lot and he caught a bigger pair on the river....

Friday afternoon found me at the FBR Open. One of my buds scored corporate tent passes for us so it was free drinks and food the entire day. We got there shortly before noon and stopped to watch one threesome tee off before heading to Corporate Village. All of the big sponsors set up big platforms overlooking the course and they stock them with beer, wine, hard liquor and lots of food. The domestic light beer available was Coors Light so I "slummed" by drinking Amstel Light. They give you a punch card to limit you to 10 drinks. I pity the person who hits 10. That's out of control. What's funny is that half of the bartenders don't even bother checking off your card so you could go over 10 without anyone stopping you. Friday's lunch options were grilled chicken, salmon, green salad, potato salad, potatoes au gratin, soup, roast beef sandwiches, big cookies and cheesecake. I didn't try everything but what I did have was great. A couple hours after lunch, they...