An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

Most of 2020 sucked. But, there were some good moments that made memories to cling to. I'm going to review some of those moments from each month. (Disclaimer - my memory isn't what it used to be so this is my story and I'm sticking to it regardless of reality.) April is the month I went hard core online. Our club events and NFW as well as weekly meetings with my friends Crash and Jim,  nearly weekly meetings with the Verzaks and Rodriguezes, Wolf Pack gatherings and my Book Club all became Zoom or Google Meet events. My friend Steve had started a weekly home game on Pokerstars.net  in March and that became a bright light for the end of the work week. I was online meeting tech support more times than I can count and it's a role I continue to play. #blesstheirhearts Why am I not in this one? Oh, well, it was the best I could find of the many screen shots - someone always looks goofy. Some of these events might become permanent. Crash, Jim and I are in three different stat...

Continuing on my quest to feel happiness, I'm going to post three things I'm grateful for for 21 days. My Poker Chicks. I first met Stacey, Angela and Chris back when we all worked at Bookstar. We only worked together for a short time but those initial bonds have remained. Through the years, we've not only managed to maintain a solid friendship but have also added in Stacey's sisters, Cyndi and Beckey, and Angela's husband, Morgan. We go to movies, dinners, concerts and play poker, of course. Most of their poker play is maddening to me but they really enjoy my frustration so it's a win for them. I just don't know why I don't come home with their money each time. We played last night and did the math. We met in 1993 so this is our 20th year together. That makes me grateful. Now, if it would just not make me feel old. It's one thing when you add up the years with your grade and high school friends. But, when it's 20 years with people you met afte...

So much for my goal of blog posting an average of once a day. February killed me and March isn't being much kinder. My Dad is always asking me, "How do you do it?" By "it", he means work, play, club stuff and travel for  all three of the previous items. I usually say it's just what I do and he thinks it's exhausting. Usually, I don't agree with him but I'm beginning to see his point of view. My internal battery has been running low and it actually ran out of juice yesterday. Despite going to bed early on both Saturday and Sunday nights, I was wiped when I got up yesterday morning. I took a sick day and a four hour nap and I was still pretty tired last night but I survived the work day and actually feel OK though I suspect I'll retire early tonight. It wasn't all from lack of sleep, it was also a case of nearly overwhelming stress. Stress from what? Well, I have a list. We're in month 802 of the project that won't end at w...

It was a good night at Chick Poker for me. I turned my $20 into $41 and change. Always a good feeling. The better feeling came from our annual holiday donation. We've collected money in December each year  for a while now and collectively donate it to an agreed upon charity. This year, we decided to give it to Season for Sharing which is run by The Arizona Republic and 12 News (a local radio station). The double up is that Gannett matches all donations up to $400,000. If you're looking for an organization to donate to this holiday season, I suggest checking it out. Here's the scoop on Season for Sharing from azcentral.com : We'll Increase Your Donation. You Increase Their Potential. Season for Sharing is  The Arizona Republic  and 12 News' annual holiday fund-raising campaign. Through an eight-week news, editorial, direct mail and ad campaign, readers and viewers are encouraged to donate to the Season for Sharing fund to help human service agencies in Arizon...

Or, whatever the frak the exact quote is. This four day weekend couldn't have come at a better time for me. Work has been crazy and my social calendar has been fully booked. It was so nice to have some down time. Not that I didn't have things to do. Or, that I didn't add things in. Thursday was great. I slept in a tad, rode my exercise bike, did my hair (back to red!), watched my Green Bay Packers win over the Detroit Lions then went to my parents' house for dinner with our extended family. Steven and I managed to get all (too much for the amount of people there) of the food on the table at the right temperatures. I also banned any talk of illness, surgery or death of someone that Steven and I had never heard of from the table in exchange for us giving up the kids' table. It was nice. I got home about 8:30 and my neighbor to the front heard me walk up. She called over her fence, "Hey Kathy, my friend Angel and I are about to get into the hot tub. Want t...

I know I'm often whining about how busy I am but, damn, I'm really busy. Like wanting to hide in my bedroom and rock back in forth in the dark to escape the busy. What's up? Well, October is always Jimmy Buffett in Vegas month. And, we always get the tickets in hand very late thanks to the venue. Because I'm the ticket coordinator for the club, that means I get lots of emails asking when we're going to get our tickets and explaining that I just don't know. Once I get the tickets, it's a mad rush to divvy them up then hand them out. I really only have time to do one hand out this year so a lot of people are going to get them mailed to them. The reason I don't have a lot of time is that we charter a bus to go to Vegas. The tickets need to get to the non-bus riders because I'm not going to try to meet up with people on concert weekend. It's too stressful. Oh, did I mention I'm in charge of the bus? Yeah, this is also the time when I send...

I've had my share of cell phone butt dialing experiences. Mostly on the receiving end but I'm guilty of making a few outbound calls myself. When I first got my Droid, I called The Rocket Scientist a few times but I've been pretty good since. Until last Saturday, that is. A group of us who were enjoying a beautiful afternoon in Lakeside, AZ decided to play a No Limit Texas Hold 'Em tournament. Ten of us put in $5 (and we somehow ended up with $5 extra) with a payout to first and second place. I used the alarm on my phone to keep track of the rounds. The blinds went up every ten minutes. It was a challenge trying to play at the same time I was resetting the alarm which was compounded by not wearing my old person glasses and the glare of being outside. While I did OK with the alarm, I somehow managed to call Steven three times. He sent me a text, “stop butt callin me while playin poker”. I missed his text but did manage to hear my phone ring when he called after realizing ...

The Rocket Scientist and I were at the bar (I know, shocker) a while back when I said to him, "You know what I want?" OK, I think he was truly afraid to ask so I don't think I even let him but just continued. "I want to go somewhere for a weekend where there's nothing on the agenda. No Parrot Head events, not parties we have to go to. Just somewhere where we can go with the flow and do whatever. I'm thinking maybe Vegas." Being the good sport that he is, and having some vacation time to take, he considered it. Although he won't play blackjack in Vegas for hours on end like I will (because he was the worst blackjack mojo I've ever seen) he is willing to go play some poker. I can get behind that idea. There's just one little problem. Despite saying (more than once) that I'm not going to over-schedule myself in 2011, I've already started doing so. And, I'm not even going to be President of the Arizona Parrot Head Club so I can...

It's a great time of year for foodies in Arizona. Restaurant week is a wonderful way for chefs to show off how great their food is and for patrons to get a taste at a fixed (reasonable even considering what you get) price. Check out all of the places and menus here . My chick poker girls and I try to hit as many places as our schedules and eating loves permit. So far this year, we only have one place on the calendar. We're hitting up True Food on Sunday in lieu of actual chick poker. I'm so good with that. A much less stressful evening although one without Morgan, our dealer. He's out on the dinner so I'll miss him. I won't miss waiting for the yappers to realize we're actually playing a card game and not just sitting around, well, yapping. In fairness, they'll probably be happier too since I won't be bitching at them. Hopefully, I can get another couple of meals in. They extended the week to be from Saturday through the next Sunday this yea...

The Arizona Parrot Head Club holds Mom O'Malley Memorial Poker Tournaments that benefit Hospice of the Valley. My contribution to the event is buying the first place award. I go to Things Remembered and get engraved items - Shot Glass set, Mugs and Flasks are some of the historical awards. The only problem with going to Things Remembered is that it's in the mall. I used to love malls. I could spend all day there and be very happy. Not so much anymore. I don't need running shoes, fancy jewelry, tea, coffee, expensive dress shoes, designer clothes...none of the crap that's prevalent there. So, I always have to wait about 30 minutes for the engraving and there are only two stores that I'm willing to browse during that time. Those are Claire's and Bath and Body Works. Inevitably, I end up spending more in those two stores than I do on the award. I can't help myself. The tournament is today so I hit Things Remembered as it opened at 10. My order in, I ...

Our latest work competition for the Challenge Cup was us versus Sales. They won the trophy in kickball. No way am I playing kickball so we challenged them to bowling. We're good at bowling and I can drink beer during the event. It's a win/win. There was much negotiating on the event date as both departments tried to make sure their "star" bowlers were able to play. I think we finally picked a date where everyone could make it then the trash talk began. Neener , neener , neener . The sales team thought they would be funny and brought the trophy by "just to let you see what it looks like since you won't be winning it back". Ha ha. Very funny. We did our usual competition format. Everyone who wanted to bowl did two games then we took the top four combined game scores from each department then those 8 bowlers faced off. Total pins for a final game for each team determined the winner. I always hope to be out for the final game so I can sit back and d...

A friend of mine came over last night for a short visit. No surprise, but I was playing Full Tilt Poker. I'd just made the final table in a Sit and Go Tournament when he arrived. He watched me play a few hands then started offering up advice. I gave him a "look" and he said, "Sorry, I won't tell you how to play." That vow lasted about one hand. Wonder how I ever made the final table without his help… (I busted out in 7th...coincidence?)

Oy, I feel so badly about not putting consistently witty posts out here. Or, at least consistent posts. I've got lots of them half written in my head but no time to get them posted. Here's what's going on: work, club stuff, poker, Facebook (including Mafia Wars and Pirates), Twitter (oh, that Brent Spiner!), dating, book club, family events (July is a killer - 3 birthdays and my parents' anniversary) and the usual out of town trip that I seem to take every month. Here's what else that I'm not doing because of the above: reading (unless it's for work or book club), watching or even reading about NASCAR, housework, exercising, cooking, watching TV and sleeping. Ah, sleeping. I remember when I was good to go on 6 hours a night. Now, I feel like I'm lucky if I get 5 uninterrupted hours. Another neglected activity is playing with my baby. George doesn't know if I'm coming or going but she knows the going part isn't good. When I am home, it...

I love playing games. Card games, board games, puzzles, etc., not physical make you sweat games. The former are all fun. However, it seems like all I play lately is Poker with the occasional game of Euchre. My choice for the most part but I also lacked someone to play with. Recently, a friend of mine and I have started spending our evenings playing games. Of course, we played head to head Hold 'Em because I am all about poker. The first night we played, I dominated him. In his defense, he got crappy cards the whole night. The second night, we played to a tie. I know, hard to fathom that the super-competitive person that I am would accept a tie but I was good with it. We also played Megiddo . That's a game from my college years that my best friend Andy and I used to play. It's like Pente and it requires some lateral thinking. My friend had never even heard of it and he started beating me right away (until the alcohol kicked in then I took advantage of his less th...

OOPS! I Won Too Much Money: Winning Wisdom from the Boardroom to the Poker Table by Tom Schneider My review rating: 4 of 5 stars Our CFO read this book and recommended it to a bunch of people. Very easy format to read - 1 to 2 page stories with a paragraph summary of the "wisdom". The wisdom/lessons apply to daily life, poker or business depending on how you take them. And, usually all three areas are relevant. Schneider uses lots of poker and business anecdotes to illustrate his lessons. Since I love both poker and business, I thought it was great. You don't need to know poker but I think it would help. This was a quick read. One of my co-workers who doesn't enjoy reading finished it in one night. View all my reviews.

I readily admit I have an addictive personality. There's too much evidence to the contrary to deny it anyway so I just embrace my passion (or obsessive compulsion) for various activities and enjoy it. What I didn't realize is how my addictions can feed off of each other. I recently got on Twitter (az48fan if you want to follow me) and I've been adding people to follow here and there but with no plan. It was mostly just my friends. But, in the past few days I decided to make the effort to add as many people of interest that I could find. I think I was inspired by the Time cover story on Twitter combined with several electronic articles from the various tech sites I follow. So, I added some political folks, some business leaders and some entertainers. But, I didn't stop there. Somehow, it came to me to follow some pro poker players. Next thing I knew, I had added a bunch of them and some general poker Tweeters, too. The players are all in Las Vegas playing in WSOP (...

My friend Dawnie has come out to visit from Des Moines a couple of times. When we don't have any formal plans for when she arrives, she gets in on time When we have formal plans that revolve around a specific time, bad things happen. Last year, she was flying in through Denver and was supposed to get in at the end of the workday. We had a big group scheduled to go to Margaritaville for dinner and the plan was to just pick her up on our way there. Her plane in Denver got held up then made repeated return trips to the gate for "fixing" before it finally took off. We ended up picking her up on our way home from dinner at Margaritaville. She was due in on Friday afternoon at 4:45. We thought it was good that she wasn't going through Denver this time as they were having some bad winter weather. We were wrong. She flew in via Dallas and the Big D had gotten our windy weather from Thursday. Her plane ended up circling for 45 minutes before landing making her 10 minu...

Our club hosts No Limit Texas Hold 'Em Tournaments in honor of Mom O'Malley . Mom was a club member, friend and the actual Mom of my friends The O'Malley Babes. We donate money to Hospice of the Valley from the tourney so it's fun and a good cause. The Babes always provide the main portion of our dinner meal (pizza, subs and the like). I always (except for the very first tourney) donate the first place prize. I like to get something engraved so I end up at Things Remembered. We've given away a set of shot glasses, a flask and various mugs that could be used for coffee or beer or a cocktail depending on your desire. My usual modus operendi is to run into Things Remembered, order the prize then come back a day or two later to pick it up. I went in after work on Thursday and the store manager threw me a loop when she said, "It's 8 PM, I'll have it ready for you by 8:15." Really? Um, OK. I had 15 minutes to kill in Fashion Square. I don...

I've been playing a lot of poker through a Facebook App called Poker Palace. There's another app that I tried but didn't like as much. It's just so easy to jump into a table and play a tournament. They're pretty fast to get through as the blinds start at $10/20 and go up every 5 minutes. The payoff if you win is good, too. I buy in for $2,200 and first place pays $12K, second $5K and third $3K. I tried one tournament at the $5K buy in but the antes went up too fast for my comfort. I've learned that there are a lot of idiots who want to go all in in the early rounds. If you get good cards, it's worth calling them or going all in yourself to bust someone out. Or, if you don't have good cards, you can count on someone else clearing out the idiots. I usually make it to the final four but sometimes suffer a bad beat before I cash. It's poker, those people call anything, so it happens. The thing is I will just be sitting there on Facebook checkin...

A couple of months ago, our department defended the Corporate Challenge Cup in a bowling match. That made three wins in a row for us and I have to admit we were cocky. Our nemesis department is Print Manufacturing and they were jonesing to come back at us. However, they suggested an intriguing idea instead of the usual head to head competition. Open up the competition to all of the departments in the company with a No Limit Texas Hold 'Em Tournament. Hmmm , poker? It took us about two seconds to agree. One of our Finance guys actually won $41K in a tournament that is sometimes shown on TV. He became our tournament director, I coordinated the teams and bought the food and the Manufacturing guy booked the place. The plan was to have 4 people from each department form a team. We ended up with 6 teams so 24 players. To prevent people just dumping off chips to a team member, we gave out points to only the top 12 finishers. That meant people had to try to stay in as long as poss...