Post Christmas

We had a great time celebrating Christmas twice. Our visit to Germantown felt very quick, heightened by the fact that we decided to return home on Friday night rather than Saturday morning, but that ended up being a good call on our part. We had finished all of the festivities at the McCandless house and everyone there was exhausted so Beth and I got on the road around midnight. It was great to be able to sleep in our own beds and wake up at home on Christmas Eve as opposed to getting on the road that morning.

I've seen two good movies recently...Walk the Line and Munich. I really enjoyed the Johnny Cash movie despite the fact that I'm certainly not a diehard fan of his music. One of the most amazing things about the film for me was that Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon both did all of their own singing and did a fantastic job. This certainly helps keep you in the story of the film, as opposed to taking you out of it thinking "that's not really him." Good movie, well paced, with great performances. Witherspoon was really impressive.

We caught Munich yesterday and it was about what I expected. In fact, I'm not even sure exactly what I think of it yet, but that's probably the intended nature of the film. One thing Spielberg does consistently well is establish a clear, visual tone for his films and this one is no exception. I'm not a huge student of early 70s movies but this one flat-out looks like one. Eric Bana is very good in the lead role, and I was also intrigued by Daniel Craig, an actor that I've heard of but never seen before. I believe that he has been tabbed to be the next James Bond and it is an interesting, unconventional choice. The string of Pierce Brosnan Bond movies were completely underwhelming for me--I haven't even seen all of them and the ones that I did catch blandly run together in my mind. And this is coming from a huge Bond fan, so I hope that picking Craig means that the producers plan to reinvigorate the series. Craig kind of has a young Steve McQueen air to him. Give him the license to kill and get it started!

ASU won their bowl game last night and unfortunately we were subjected to the ever-inane Brent Musberger in the booth. He clearly did no preparation at all because he had no idea what he was talking about the entire time, and the only thread he was able to latch onto was the fact that just being there was a huge accomplishment for Rutgers because they have never won a bowl game before, essentially completely ignoring the rather compelling angle of ASU's freshman quarterback Rudy Carpenter throwing for over 400 yards and leading an offense that nearly tallied 700 yards of total offense in the victory. No, all that Brent and his cohort Gary Danielson could do was go on and on, slurping Rutgers for their huge moral victory. I understand that the Insight Bowl is a janky third-tier game but feel free to pay attention to the game as it develops if you're being paid to sit in the booth.

I'm saving some poker and Red Sox thoughts for later blogs but I've got some stuff to say about both.

Holidays

We're headed up to Germantown for a few days and returning to Little Rock on Christmas Eve. I hope that everyone is having a great holiday season. Hopefully I'll have more reasons to post somewhat entertaining or exciting stuff during the new year.

Go Pats!

Busy few days

On Thursday we got the first batch of notes on our script and I was really happy with what we heard. My expectations were pretty low, based on how many changes our producer wanted from our original treatment, plus the fact that we threw a ton of stuff into the first draft and worked on it very quickly. Well, it turns out that he really likes it. He didn't ask us to cut anything and he only asked for a few small changes here and there, some of which were things Johnny and I had already discussed. So we're very excited about the positive feedback and we're looking forward to quickly implementing the producer's suggestions into the second draft. Oh, and this is pretty funny: apparently the producer's next movie he's making is a zombie movie...and he wants me to be in it. Johnny the professional actor found this very humorous: "Nice that you're getting acting gigs out of this," he told me in an e-mail. I certainly won't hold my breath waiting for it to happen, but who knows. If I do end up in "Fist Full of Blood"--yes, that is the working title--I'll certainly write about it here!

On Friday night Beth's division at work had a group meeting in a luxury box at Alltel Arena (fittingly) for an Arkansas Rimrockers game. They are a minor league hoops team in the NBA's developmental league. Looking over the rosters I only recognized three or four names but it was still an entertaining game to watch. Not Memphis Grizzlies--blasting G'N'R entertaining, but still fun. And if you are headed out to an NBDL game anytime soon, it seems that there will be plenty of good seats available. The announced attendance was three thousand and change but it looked like about half that. And the luxury box is definitely the way to go for a game that you really don't care about--free food and free beer, enough said.

On Saturday we went to watch the Jermain Taylor fight at the house of one of Beth's co-workers. Now, I don't want to say that this friend lives out in the middle of nowhere but the directions included things like "turn after you pass the three trailers on your right" and "if you see a toothless guy with a banjo you went too far." Truly it was only 20-30 minutes away but it felt like more. But it was fun to get to watch the fight, although we won't be seeing this bout on ESPN Classic...well, ever. But hey, the hometown hero of Little Rock got the job done and retained the title. I bet he'll end up facing Winky Wright sometime next year.

Nice win for the Pats on Sunday. Sure, it was pretty ugly again and the Jets truly suck but I'll take them any way I can get them right now. My theory is that Coach Belichick is playing a little bit of rope-a-dope, knowing full well that we're going to win the division easily and we don't need to do anything tricky or exotic to get there, and then when the playoffs roll around, anything can happen. And if we can keep Cory Dillon and Kevin Faulk healthy, well, then we might actually have some semblance of a running game for the rest of the season.

Thanksgiving wrap-up

We went up to Memphis on Wednesday and stayed through Sunday, and it was great to have an extended visit with the family. My niece Kate is now a little over two years old so it's fun to see her communicating more clearly...at least more clearly to me. My nephew Logan is almost two months old and I can't believe how much he has grown since the last time I saw him, which wasn't that long ago! Thanksgiving day was great. I fried a turkey since most of my family had never had it that way, plus Mom roasted one so there was plenty of bird to go around all day and all weekend for leftovers. Beth and I went to the Memphis Grizzlies-Houston Rockets game on Friday night--Dad bought a ten game pack of tickets and this is the first time we've gotten to go. Now, the following will make me sound like a bitter, old man but the NBA certainly wasn't like this when I was a kid. For me, the most jarring thing was the music that they blast during every single play. I knew that it would be a "show," rather than a game, but the tunes while playing caught me off-guard. Granted, I'm used to the Boston Garden in the '80s, with Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, and company, where nothing but the finest basketball team in history was needed to keep the crowd's attention. And I'm all for blasting music--I even got into it a few times when they played good stuff. But it was the presence of the pre-loaded 24 second snippets that they played every single time that really threw me off. But the FedEx Forum is a great arena and the experience was definitely fun. On Saturday, Casey and I headed down to a casino in Tunica for a few hours. I had never been there before but it was about what I expected. I played $3-$6 limit Hold 'Em for a couple of hours and although I didn't catch any cards and lost a little bit of money I was amazed at how bad the players were. At a table full of ten people, there were maybe three that seemed like they knew what they were doing, and the rest were just awful--calling down to the river with second or third pair, no kicker, etc. The twenty five cent-fifty cent games on Full Tilt have much better players, no joke. Anyway, I can't wait to go back with a nice roll and sit in for an extended session, because I have faith that I could destroy that game. The Pats game on Sunday was pretty bad, but they are so banged up that I really can't even be disappointed...we just don't have a healthy enough team this year. Case in point, we have six defensive backs alone out for the season. Six. I can't complain, or at least I won't, given how much success we've had the last few years. We should still win the division, so we'll see how things go, but I'm certainly not expecting an automatic Super Bowl win like I have the last couple of years.

Goblet of Fire

We caught Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on opening night and it was really good--right now I think it's my favorite one of the movies thus far. It was my favorite book in the series so my expectations were high, but I also knew that they would have to trim a ton of material, but they did a good job with it. Several scenes were exactly like I pictured them, which is great. I won't give anything away in case people haven't seen it yet, but if you dig the books or the movies, check it out and I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I cashed in another tournament on Friday evening and although I didn't win much it felt like quite an accomplishment. Early on, I had AQ and raised it up and got a caller, only to see the flop come A-Q-J. Needless to say, he hadK-10 and I lost a bundle. I didn't have any kind of a read on him at that point so I couldn't lay down top two but I was a little surprised that he'd see a pre-flop raise that big with just K-10 off-suit...but really, nothing should surprise me in the world of on-line poker anymore. So that loss dropped me below 300 chips (started with 1500) and I battled all the way back, doubling up a couple of times when I needed to, and I ended up cashing in 25th place out of 211 players. I was very satisfied with my effort and being able to stay focused with such a short stack early on. But I need to break through and win one of these suckers. The last tourney I actually won (aside from SNGs) was the Full Tilt freeroll that sent me to Vegas. I've cashed and made final tables since then, but in these rinky-dink $5 and $10 tournaments I play there's no decent money to be made unless you're in the top 3-4. Unfortunately my final table appearances have seen me going out earlier. I think it could be that I'm too concerned with making the money, as opposed to flat-out playing to win during the early stages, and that's something that I plan to address in the future. I also want to re-read both of Dan Harrington's books, just to brush up.

The script / a final table

We turned in the first draft of Eden's Bluff on Tuesday. We had to scramble a little bit to meet the deadline (not shocking to anyone that knows me), but that is due in part to the fact that our filthy little nudist colony comedy clocked in at a robust 121 pages. Yes, that's long for a comedy script, but our mindset was simply that we wouldn't throw anything out of the first draft--instead, we'll let the producer make those decisions for us. There's definitely too much in there for the rumored budget number that we have heard but, again, we can deal with that later. We really just wanted to make it as funny and as good as possible for this draft and we really feel that we succeeded. There are parts that still make each of us laugh out loud when we read it, and that's a great sign.

I made the final table of a $5 tournament on Full Tilt the other night (265 players) and it's my first strong showing in a while. I was actually the chip leader a couple of hours into the tourney after winning a huge pot like this: I had pocket queens and raised three times the big blind before the flop and got two callers. Flop came down with two clubs, including a queen. All the money ended up going in the middle right there for all three of us--I had the top set, the guy to my left had a set of 8s, and the third player had A-Q of clubs for top pair and the nut flush draw. The turn and river were bricks and bingo, my stack was gigantic. Quite a hand. Then I went card dead for the last hour and got knocked out in 8th place.

No such luck last night. Experts say that all you can do in poker is make correct decisions, but that is little solace when you do it and it still doesn't work--especially twice in half an hour. Case in point: I'm in the same $5 tourney last night, looking for back-to-back cashes. I've got pocket jacks, only to see my raise re-raised and re-raised again. I know that one of them has me beat so I lay it down. I was right--one of them had pocket kings...but the flop would have given me a set of jacks and a monster pot. Later, with a somewhat dwindling stack, I was faced with a big decision on the turn--I had top two pair and I knew my hand was winning at that point in the heads-up pot. I just knew it. There was a flush draw on the board, so I pushed it all in...and the guy called me with a K-8 off suit, and only the 8 to the flush draw! Naturally, he caught it on the river and I was out before the first break. Two correct decisions...and neither one helped me at all. That's poker.

WSOP Final Table

The World Series of Poker final table coverage is tonight on ESPN. And so far, the episodes have been really entertaining. I used to think Mike Matusow was just a total jackass but he has been hilarious to watch throughout the WSOP. And even though I know how it ends up, it will be fun to watch Tex Barch at the final table. He was a really nice guy during the little bit that I played with him, so big congrats to him for all his success.

$7.5 million for first place is just mind-boggling. And Harrah's is clearly expecting that to go even higher next year judging by the 2006 schedule they released--four day ones and two day twos...that could accomodate almost 10,000 players if it comes to that. I need to go back!

Good script, bad football

Eden's Bluff, our screenplay about the "clothing optional resort," is coming along nicely. It has turned out to be much funnier and much easier to write than I had anticipated. When we got the whole batch of producer's notes, I really didn't know how we could manage it all. The protagonist seemed like a character that I couldn't relate to at all, and thus I thought she'd be really hard to write for. But the time in L.A. with Johnny was huge--we came up with a great outline and we've been working faithfully off of that. I don't think that this script would be in nearly the shape that it is if I hadn't made the trip out there. We're turning in the first draft next week and I'm very curious about what kind of feedback we'll get from our producer. The big plan has simply been to make it so funny and so good that he has to shoot it. But with two subsequent drafts in our contract, that would be quite a ways away, if it happens at all.

Last weekend we went up to Fayetteville for the Arkansas-South Carolina game. Let me tell you, it's a strange experience to be at a sporting event with no emotional investment in the game whatsoever. I was even planning to place a bet on Arkansas, just so that I'd have a real reason to root for the Hogs...until I saw that they were favored. I didn't want to be an ass and go the other way, so instead I just went to the game and it was pretty brutal to watch, even from a neutral observer's point of view. Their quarterback situation is a mess but they have a couple of decent young running backs, which translates into the most vanilla, predictable play calling you've ever seen. To sum up: in the 4th quarter, facing a 4th and 1 with the game and, essentially, their season on the line, Arkansas called time out. They came out with a formation that they had used all day, one that I immediately recognized indicated that they would probably run it off tackle. Now, throwing a nice play action pass or a little bootleg out of that set would have been great--it would have been almost guaranteed to pick up a first, if not score. Instead, they ran off right tackle...which they had done about 30 times already. Obviously, they got stuffed, and ended up losing. Their coach needs to go.

On the way back, we stopped on a scenic road called The Pig Trail to scatter some of Jim Bob's ashes. It was a beautiful spot, up in the mountains, surrounded by trees full of autumn foliage. The moment itself passed pretty quickly, but at least it was done nicely.

Other than that, not too much happening on the home front. I can't believe that it's the second week of November already. I find myself saying this every year, but every year it really seems like the holiday season arrives earlier and earlier. Thanksgiving is just over two weeks away! Crazy. The script will keep me busy for a little while but I'm curious to see where things take me after that.

Headed home

I head back to Little Rock on Tuesday afternoon after a very productive trip. The script isn't finished but it is currently in great shape--much funnier than I originally thought it could be. I'm really excited about it. More details when I get home. I hope everyone has an enjoyable Halloween night.

L.A.: Two earthquakes and a thirsty homeless guy

The flight into Los Angeles was pretty uneventful, which is always good. I got an exit row seat for the whole trip so I had a little extra leg room, which is big for the knee and for me in general. John picked me up but he had to work pretty soon after that--right now he has a job working in the art department of a low-budget film that is supposed to finish shooting tomorrow. He can't wait to be done so we can really focus on our screenplay.

Apparently there were two earthquakes here today but I didn't even feel either one. I guess they were around 3.0 or 3.1, pretty minor. I went through a much bigger one when I lived here--big enough that I could feel it, at least. The other "event" of today was having a smelly homeless guy ask me to buy him a beer at the store. I politely declined, only to find him peeing in the parking lot shortly thereafter.

John has to work Sunday but we're still going over to officially sign our contracts in the morning. We will also receive our first check, which is nice. And then, umm...I guess we have to actually write this thing. Wish us luck!

California

On Saturday, I'm headed to L.A. for a paid gig to write a screenplay for a producer out there. It's a long, sordid story and I'm still curious about how everything will turn out but I'm definitely excited about the opportunity. My friend John Kinsman and I will be co-writing this one together, as we did with "Whiffleball." We're not getting paid a ton but we will see a decent chunk of change on the off-chance that this thing ever actually starts production. But for now, I'm just happy to be doing it. We plan to have a first draft done by around November 1, which is a little ambitious. Should be fun!

Also, I did appear on the ESPN WSOP coverage this week. It was during the second hour at around the halfway mark, and just as I predicted, I caught a little camera time because of the guy next to me in the red shirt and big red pimp hat. ESPN re-runs these all the time but it's certainly not anything to sit down and watch if you just want to see me, because if you blink, you'll miss it. There's a chance I could be on again next week during the coverage of day two but none of my tables got any heavy camera action on that day so I think that my 15 minutes of fame--or, in this case, one or two seconds--are up.

WSOP Main Event on ESPN

ESPN began their coverage of the World Series of Poker Main Event last night, dedicating one hour blocks to each of the first two "day one" flights of the tourney, meaning that my day will be featured in their first hour of new programming next week, probably followed by an hour dedicated to day two when I got knocked out. I really don't expect to make it on TV at all, and if I do it will definitely be a "blink and you'll miss me" moment. It was fun and a little surreal to watch the tourney on TV knowing that I was there and that I was a part of it. There were also some crazy hands, like Jennifer Harman losing when her opponent caught a straight flush on the river to beat her. It was also informative to see Daniel Negreanu at the TV table--he admittedly had a terrible WSOP, blaming most of it simply on cold cards. Some people are quick to criticize him, saying that he had lost his focus at the tables and was becoming too concerned with his poker celebrity and other outside interests--a criticism also often aimed at Phil Hellmuth. Well, judging by the coverage, Negreanu has absolutely nothing to worry about. His reads were dead-on and he played nearly perfect poker but just couldn't catch the right cards. It happens.

ALDS thoughts

The ALDS begins on Tuesday and I think that the Red Sox are in remarkably good shape, considering the shaky state of their pitching staff until now. One huge move that should not be overlooked is Bronson Arroyo's move to the bullpen for this short series. Rookie Jonathan Papelbon has emerged as a solid set-up guy, filling the role that Mike Timlin vacated when he became the closer. But the big hole in the bullpen has been the huge, sucking void in the search for any reliever that can get people out before the 8th inning--enter Bronson. The White Sox have a predominantly right handed line up, which helps even more, as lefties have been giving Arroyo fits lately. Papelbon has been a stud in September and he can easily handle 2-3 multiple inning appearances in this series, if needed. Same for Timlin. But having Arroyo out there to quell any early fires is a dynamic that we've been missing all season.

I also think that despite Matt Clement's second half struggles he has a chance to do really well in game one. The White Sox hitters aren't patient, so Clement's penchant for walks--the one things that gets him in more trouble than anything else--won't be as big a factor. If the Red Sox can take early leads, they can get the White Sox out of their small-ball mindset, and I think they'll do just that in game one against Jose Contreras, a pitcher that the Red Sox have historically lit up. I like the Bosox in game one, and to win the series, probably in four games.

Wasted Saturday

Saturday was a complete waste of a day. It all started with the donuts.

At about 11 AM, Beth asked if I wanted some donuts for breakfast before the Sox game started. Of course I did, but I was already in pre-game mode and really didn't want to leave the house. I just turn into a hermit and have no desire to be "out with the people" when I get locked in like that. But we're talking about donuts, so I relented and agreed to make a quick trip with her to Shipley's, which is right down the street. We arrived there and their shelves were absolutely bare, although the sign indicates that they are open until 2 PM, so I'm not exactly sure what they plan to sell for the next three hours. "Come back tomorrow," implores the shopkeeper, as if they are purveyors of some exotic, hard-to-find item. No thanks, we'll go to Krispy Kreme. That trip was pretty uneventful, aside from Beth's fruitless attempt to purchase a gallon of milk there, ordering one at the drive through window. "Do they have gallons?" I asked. Before pulling off, they had forgotten our milk entirely. Beth reminded the girl at the window and then was handed the standard, small bottle of milk. Which is all I figured they had. But whatever.

Sadly, we were not out of the house long enough to kill the entire FOX Sports pre-game show. I'll save most of my venting about the FOX baseball broadcasts for subsequent posts, assuming that I'll be watching more of their horrific product in the weeks to follow. But they are awful. The Red Sox themselves weren't great either, and I could tell from the first inning that we were in trouble. When Tim Wakefield's knuckleball is on, it floats and dances through the strike zone, causing many missed swings by batters. That just wasn't happening. From the top of the first, the Yanks were getting good wood on the ball. The Sox battled back a couple of times but just couldn't break through against Randy Johnson when they needed to, and thus we're left with a shot at the wild card berth. We can wrap that up with a win on Sunday or a Cleveland loss. It won't be as satisfying as winning the division would have been, but I'll take it. And thankfully, Sunday's game will be on NESN. Last one of the season.

Game two of my personal double-header was the ASU-USC game. I had the mildest of hopes that the Devils could actually pull off an upset against the Trojan juggernaut, and obviously I really wanted to see the game. It featured the number one team in America, the two-time defending national champs, playing a top 20 opponent on the road...so, of course, the Little Rock ABC affiliate elected to show us Nebraska-Iowa State. Absurd. The move would be defensible if the choice involved even a single team with the slightest regional interest--any team from the SEC, for example. But Nebraska-Iowa State? Give me a break.

The only alternative is the Game Plan, an option through the satellite that allows users to purchase out of market games. We went with that. Beth did it, actually, in a very kind gesture, going to the computer and signing up for it without even telling me, knowing full well that I was already annoyed beyond belief by the Sox loss that was nearly over.

So we buy the game...and it doesn't come on. There are an array of channels featuring these pay-per-view contests and none of them have the ASU game on, even the single channel dedicated solely to that game. Oh, but two channels have the Nebraska game. I'm not even joking. And to make it worse, they even had different feeds of the game. For some inexplicable reason, the ABC affiliate here elects to show afternoon games on a slight tape delay if they get to them after they have started. This is a practice that used to be commonplace...about 20 years ago. Hello, 2005 called, and they say "hi." Are you kidding me? In the information age, exactly what is the point of, say, a 10-15 minute tape delay? It's absolutely insane. In this instance, it resulted in us getting the Nebraska game on ABC local with a feed that appeared about ten minutes behind the one we were getting on the ASU-USC channel on the dish.

The ASU game finally kicked in with about six minutes left in the first quarter. I won't rehash the game itself, as I'm sure anyone who cares at all already knows what happens. But I will add that we lost the game feed for no reason at all in the 4th quarter, and during the time it was out we missed the two teams exchanging touchdowns and two lead changes. So that wasn't worth watching at all. Of course, it kicked back in just in time for me to see the Devils completely melt down at the end of the 4th. After the game, Beth called DirecTV to bitch and she rightfully got the charges for the game refunded.

So that's how my Saturday went. Pleasing.

MVPapi

Whiffleball goes to Hollywood

My buddy John and I finished the script for Whiffleball. He's in L.A. and he already has a couple of industry people interested in reading it, including one story that is so bizarre and "out there" that I'm not even going to write about it here yet. But I'm going to keep a running journal of our experiences shopping the script and I'll post stuff about it later on, when the time is right.

Don't even get me started on the Red Sox. I'm not sleeping well. Let's leave it at that.

ASU vs. USC on Saturday. Yeah...I'll say that we have a chance. I don't feel as well as I did the last time we had such a huge regular season match up like this, which was vs. Nebraska in '96 when we were 26 point underdogs and I told everyone I knew that not only would we definitely cover, but that we'd probably win the game outright. Of course people dismissed me as a blatantly home-rooting crackpot. Which I basically am, but I also don't go around making huge calls like that too often, and I'm not making one this week. Right now USC is probably the best college offense I've ever seen, and I really don't know if we can stop them or contain them. But there's a chance that we can make it interesting, and it should be a hell of a game to watch.

Angst...a good thing

The Boston Red Sox won the World Series last year. Sometimes I have to type that sentence, or at least say it in my head, because it still hasn't fully sunk in. It's something I had waited for my whole life, and it happened in insane fashion after an incredible ride. But it did have one long-term effect (or so I thought) that I didn't expect: it changed the way I would root as a fan in 2005. It made me more relaxed. For the majority of this season, being the World Champs changed the way I felt about things, muting both the highs and the lows. We were in first place for much of the season, and that was great, but I didn't get too fired up over it. And when bad things did happen, things that would have had me cursing or breaking things in prior years, I maintained an even keel, a shocking level of calmness. Is it possible that winning a championship changed the way I watch the game? Was Dan Shaughnessy actually right...do Red Sox fans really define themselves by losing?

I am happy to admit that the answer is a resounding "no." As of last week, all of the Red Sox Angst came rushing back, as if we'd never won anything...and in the best way possible. That blown game in Tampa Bay had me swearing loud enough that one of the dogs was huddling in front of me on the couch, unsure of what to do. We're still the 2004 World Champs, and that's something that can never be taken away. But now 2005 feels like any other year and I'm rooting accordingly, and ecstatic about it. If we blow it this year, I'll be just as pissed as I was in any pre-'04 year, and that's great. Seven games left. Tied with the Yankees. The season ends with three Sox-Yanks games at Fenway. I live for this.

And no, I'm not bitter that I had tickets to the Friday Sox-Yanks game but sold them. Nope. Not at all. *sigh*...

Quick good stuff

With so much bad stuff happening lately at seemingly every level, I thought I'd take a moment to reveal a few great (but minor) things going on:

The season premiere of Lost was excellent. They actually showed something meaningful inside the hatch! I had my doubts about how season two would begin but they really opened things up well.

Have A Nice Day by Bon Jovi is probably the best new song I've heard in at least a year. It's one of those songs that's so catchy that you want to sing along with it even when you don't know the words. Well, you don't. I do. I love it. I also really enjoy the fact that in 2005 Bon Jovi can release a song that works as well for me now as Livin' On A Prayer did in '87.

Joey on NBC was absolutely hilarious Thursday night. I watched all of last season, basically out of blind loyalty because I was such a huge Friends fan, but a lot of Joey's first season was really mediocre. Tonight's ep was literally funnier than all of last year combined. I hope they keep it up. Nice Kevin Smith cameo, too.

Right now the Sox and the Pats, sadly, don't belong in a "good stuff" piece. I really hope that changes this weekend.

Death and Life

My father-in-law passed away on Labor Day and my nephew was born three days later. I don't really feel like rehashing everything about Jim Bob's death in the blog because it was just so draining for everyone for a while. He had a heart attack and basically died instantly. It is horrible for the whole Hillis family and I just did the best I could to support everyone in any way I could during the aftermath. He was only 60 years old.

On a much lighter note, my nephew Logan is adorable. We just got back from Memphis where we got to see him for the first time at just shy of a week old. It's pretty amazing how tiny he is.

Anyway, I don't really have a ton to add but I'm sure I'll come up with some random material later this week. I hope everyone is doing well.

New Orleans

Thanks to everyone who has passed along their best wishes, inquiries about friends in New Orleans, or a simple statement of "I'm glad you don't live there any more!" I'm not really in touch with anyone that still lives there either. Most of our friends have left so the only others there are acquaintances I made in school or co-workers from the restaurant and I don't have any phone numbers or e-mail addresses to get in touch with anyone. I just hope they got out, because the situation for those that stayed looks simply despicable. Leave it to a legitimate natural disaster to bring out the absolute worst displays in certain people. Why is that any catostrophic event now gives specific segments of the population a license to behave as if life is Lord of the Flies? I don't get it. I'm not talking about grabbing some food or water from a store, but rather the rampant occurences of gangs brandishing guns, stealing absurd things like jewelry and TVs, and actually opening fire on people that are trying to help. It's inexplicable to me. For any volunteer/cop/National Guardsmen/soldier/etc./ that finds him or herself in such a predicament, I know that I speak for many of us when I simply say: shoot back. Any criminal taking advantage of such a deplorable event deserves whatever they get. Sorry to rant, but hearing about it really, really pisses me off.

On to lighter things.

I finished the Murder One DVDs. Brilliant. I was actually sad when it ended because it was so good and I had becomes so invested in the characters and the story. Okay. I'm done babbling about Murder One for now.

Random list of the day: The last five CDs I listened to in their entirety:

5. Mix CD that I made in March, 2004. The mixes that I make for The Loop March trips usually rock and are always staples of my collection.
4. Mix CD that I made in October, 2001, that features not one, but two tracks by Steel Dragon, the fictional metal band from Rock Star.
3. Appetite for Destruction. It's easy to forget how great this whole album is when you only ever hear three songs on the radio. And speaking of that, exactly when was it decided that all classic rock stations would play "Paradise City" about twelve times a day in 2005? Not that I'm complaining.
2. Disc two of the Van Halen: Best of Both Worlds greatest hits compilation.
1. A mix CD that I made in January, 2002, before heading to Vegas to watch the Pats win their first Super Bowl. It was a disc that somehow had slipped through the cracks of my collection, one that I thought was lost for good. I was preparing to make my best attempt to re-create it, mainly due to the fact that I have owed a copy of it to a friend of mine for a long time. I put him off because I didn't have the heart to tell him it was gone. Then I found not one, but two copies of it just the other day. Bizarre...

We're off to Memphis for the long weekend. Mom and Dad just drove down a couple of days ago so it will be great to see them, plus Laurie could give birth to the little guy any day now. Everyone have a great weekend!

Fargo Rock City

As I mentioned before, I loved Chuck Klosterman's book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. I checked his list of previous titles and it turns out a few years ago he wrote a book completely about 80s hair bands called Fargo Rock City. The title is terrible, because the Fargo reference is basically meaningless, despite the fact that he grew up outside of there, while the "Rock City" part only makes people think of Kiss, who are hardly a focal point of the book. Klosterman agrees, as he writes that he would have preferred it be called Appetite for Deconstruction. And if you don't get the pun, then the book isn't for you. But if you agree that Poison were wildly underrated and that Appetite for Destruction is one of the greatest albums ever recorded, run to the store and pick it up. It's a series of anecodtes and essays told in semi-chroological order, starting when Chuck listened to his first Motely Crue album in '83. One of my favorite chapters entails him explaining a principle called "the jack factor," an analysis of an album's value based on how much money someone would have to pay him to willingly never listen to it again. Great stuff.

I checked out the premiere of Prison Break on Fox last night and it looks like it has potential. You have to immediately shrug off the laughable premise and just try to get into the show. I'm not sure how long this concept will have legs but the first two hours were pretty interesting and well done. They say that they already have story lines for subsequent seasons but I could see it wearing thin pretty quickly. One good year would be nice. Kind of like Murder One had in 1995-1996...

I'm almost done with that season of Murder One on DVD and I can say I was more than a little surprised that they reached a verdict in episode 21...of 23. Hmm. Anyway, the show is really good, better than about 98% of anything that's on TV now, and it's too bad it never got a real shot at success when it aired.

I'm really happy we don't live in New Orleans any more. Our old street is completely underwater, as is about 80% of the city from what I can tell. I hear that the Saints are considering temporarily relocating to San Antonio. Yes, I know, that's the least of what anyone should be worrying about but with the start of football looming I can't help thinking about it. Plus the San Antonio Saints is a pretty cool sounding name. I wonder how they would draw there--probably pretty well. And I guarantee the Alamo Dome is a nicer facility than the airplane hangar they are accustomed to playing in.

Great TV show

I've been watching episodes of a ten year old TV show called Murder One on Netflix lately and they are really good. I remember watching the show a few times when it originally aired on ABC and I enjoyed it then, but they idiotically scheduled it against the juggernaut that was ER...and this being pre-TiVo, keeping up with two shows in the same time slot was just too much. But the show is great and it holds up really well. Check it out if you're looking for a full season of shows to rent.

My nephew arrives in less than a month...crazy! I still think of my little brother as, well...my little brother, so wrapping my mind around the concept that he is now 30 with a real job and (soon) two kids is pretty wild sometimes. But I can't wait to meet "the little guy," as he is being called until he gets a name.

Sox are in the middle of a brutal road trip but I think they'll be in great shape in a couple of weeks. Finishing up with a ton of games at Fenway will be a huge advantage for them. They will probably win the division for the first time since 1995. Bring on the playoffs.

It is absurdly hot here. Over 100 degrees with humidity is just cruel. I keep hearing that Arkansas has an actual change of seasons and I really hope I see something like that happen soon.

Good for Phil

Major #2 for Phil Mickelson and I'm very happy for him. PTI had a discussion about his future prospects today, debating how many major titles he'll finish with, having the over/under set at five. I'd love him to go over, but it's funny that as recently as two years ago people wondered if and when he'd ever win one. I think now that he has a couple, it will get even easier for him. He'll win another one next year.

Go Lefty!

Have a great weekend everybody.

Mickelson extends lead at PGA

Random thoughts of the day

I was driving in my car today and Youth Gone Wild by Skid Row came on the radio and it could not have made me any happier. I absolutely cranked it.

I cooked decent dinners at least three nights in a row this week and that is probably the first time I have ever been able to say that. Yes, I'm that bored.

I recently read Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman and I was absolutely furious at myself for not picking it up sooner. I literally have held the book in my hand but I inexplicably never bought it. It's frickin' brilliant. I am absolutely his target audience, as the book addresses things like how the Celtics-Lakers rivalry can be applied to practically any competitive situation, the cultural significance of The Empire Strikes Back, and why John Cusack has potentially spoiled the chances of true love for nearly everyone. The book is subtitled "a low-culture manifesto," but that is selling itself short. It's the most brilliant insight into pop culture that I have ever read. It's so good, I wish I wrote it. Sheer genius.

Cool new TV show: No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain (10 PM Monday on the Travel Channel, check your local listings). I loved Bourdain's book Kitchen Confidential, so I decided to check out this show, which is basically a cuisine-centric travelog, albeit one filtered through Bourdain's inimitable ballsy sensibility. Last week's episode saw him in Iceland in the dead of winter, eating shark meat fermented for months in lye--a product that he was implored not to touch with his hands, for fear that it might injure him...before eating it. "That is the worst thing I have ever put in my mouth," he stated afterwards. Coming from him, that means something. It also says a lot about him to add that he had more of that lovely shark dish later at a local watering hole, prefering to do that and quickly chase it with some Icelandic schanpps rather than offend his hosts.

I'm selling two tickets to a Sox-Yankees game on eBay, and you can imagine how much this pains me.

The NFL pre-season begins in less than three hours. Enough said.

Manny Being Manny

The MLB trade deadline has passed and I am absolutely ecstatic that the Boston Red Sox did not deal away Manny Ramirez. The reported offers that were on the table for him were just dreadful, and thankfully Theo Epstein and company were smart enough to realize that the best move was to stand pat. And honestly, this whole situation has been ridiculously overblown. Manny is just a goofy guy who flakes out for a few days about once a season. That's it. That's all. That's the entire story. For the rest of the time, he's the most feared hitter in the American League, a cleanup bat that we could never replace, and a future Hall of Famer. Thank god we kept him. If we can just get a couple of people healthy, we'll probably win the whole thing again.

Free poker money

A while back, a poker message board that I frequent had a post about a site called powerplayer.com that was literally giving people $25 just to sign up on their site. Lots of poker sites give out sign up bonuses and whatnot, but this was flat-out free cash with no deposit required so I used the code to try it out, if only because it sounded too good to be true. It wasn't. The $25 was immediately deposited in my account. The code is now defunct, otherwise I'd post it here so anyone could give it a try.

I hadn't played much on that site, mainly because I don't really like their graphics or their software. It is a skin (a duplicate site that looks exactly the same but has a different name) of Poker Room, which I had tried before because my friend Vince used to play there occasionally. Anyway...I was bored on Friday night and logged onto the site as a $5 MTT (multi table tournament) was about to begin, so I signed up. I ended up finishing in 12th place out of 250 starters. It was a rebuy tournament with an add-on but I didn't do either one and I cleared almost $20 of profit. I got knocked out with pocket queens on a pretty short stack so I can't really complain about the final spot. Tonight I logged back on there again and came in 2nd place in a $5 sit and go tournament (a single table tournament that starts when ten people sign up). Not too bad--all of this for free! My plan is to run the account up to a couple hundred bucks, try to clear an additional $75 bonus that they give you for free if you play enough, and then move the money into my Neteller account.

We saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory today and it was really good. I loved the book as a child but I've never seen the original movie all the way through, so I can't compare there, but it did seem very faithful to the novel while still incorporating some modern touches. Johnny Depp was great, as always. I can't think of an actor working today that commits more to a role than he does (e.g. Pirates of the Caribbean, Once Upon a Time in Mexico), and he's always great fun to watch. The cast of kids they got was phenomenal as well.

On the other side of the spectrum, I recently rented Napoleon Dynamite. I held off on seeing it for so long because I just didn't think I would like it. I was right. When it finally ended, I was mentally labeling it one of the worst movies I've ever seen. However, a couple of things are making me reconsider this position. First, I've found that I'll occasionally think back to a scene or a moment that is weirdly funny. And secondly, and probably more importantly, my brother thinks that I should give it a chance. If anything, I thought that he might hate it more than me, but on the contrary; he suggests that under the right conditions--his exact preference was "watching it with Kinsman after a few beers"--that I might find it funny. This is probably true, so maybe I'll put this theory to the test some day. Until then, I'll just have to work on my nunchuck skills.

Back to reality

I didn't win the World Series of Poker. I didn't even win any money.

I'm back home, and it's been long enough that I can finally sit down and write about it all. This will probably be long and rambling, if only to make up for the dearth of posts lately.

So where was I? That's right, I was in Vegas for the WSOP. My friend Shaw B was in town with a bunch of his buddies from Dallas, a rowdy crew of guys that I had never met. I met them at The Palms and we had a blast. They were all sitting at a blackjack table together and Shaw relinquished his third base seat to me. To make a long story short, the session ended after everyone there won a decent amount of cash and we all pounded a round of shots called a Red Headed Slut right there at the table. After that, we headed up to Ghostbar, one of Palms' notoriously cool hipster hangouts. This one happened to be 55 stories up, including a balcony patio with a gorgeous view of all of Las Vegas. Good times.

After several absurdly expensive cocktails, we made our way back downstairs, only to find ourselves all sitting down to play blackjack once again. What ensused was classic Vegas material: we all were feeling good and had had plenty of beverages, so of course that led to even more rowdy behavior at the table, exacerbated by the fact that we hit a tremendous stretch of cards. We had a blast. The details were a little sketchy even the next morning, let alone this long after the fact, so we'll just leave it at that.

I spent the next couple of days scouting out the WSOP and just having fun. Poker legends were everywhere, as were Hollywood celebrities. I saw Antonio Esfandiari at least five times. We saw Jennifer Tilly out and about more than once, wearing her WSOP bracelet, which I thought was great. I caught Tobey Maguire playing some high-limit Hold 'Em at Bellagio. I met Phil Hellmuth at a party and he was great. All in all, it was a fun and crazy week.

I started the tournament on Saturday at 11 AM and I was understandably a little nervous. However, those feelings quickly passed and I settled in to play my best game. For the record, my first hand ever at the WSOP was a glorious 2-8 off suit...glorious in that I didn't even have to think about playing it. I played pretty tight at first and it became evident that almost my entire table was filled with players that weren't very good. The lone exception was the player on my left, a friendly and personable guy about my age who went by the name of Tex. We got to chatting a little bit and really only got involved in two pots against each other. In one, we were the only players to see the flop and although I had no hand at all, I made a token bluff. He raised right back at me and I laid it down. This was very early, so it didn't cost much. In the other hand, I hit a fluky full house and he laid down his hand after I made a sizable bet on the river.

Shaw B and Erik, my faithful railbirds, also took a liking to Tex's wife, whom they met as they were all watching us. But Tex and I soon parted ways, as our table broke up pretty early. I wouldn't run into him again, although several days later I found out (spoiler warnings for anyone waiting for the ESPN coverage) that Tex went on to make the final table and finish in 3rd place, winning a cool $2.5 million. From all indications, he is a great player and a great guy, so good for him. And I'd bet good money that his wife logs some ESPN camera time.

The rest of Saturday was fairly uneventful. My stack didn't make any huge swings one way or the other. I did knock out a couple of other players and sit next to a couple of other pros, notably Gavin Griffin and Arnold Spee, who were both very nice guys--in 2004, Gavin became the youngest player ever to win a WSOP bracelet; Arnold won a World Poker Tour event in Reno, defeating Phil Ivey, among others. Late that night I went pretty card dead and was basically happy to have survived the day with a bigger stack than I started with. I ended the night with $12,000 and change in chips, which we bagged up at around 2:30 AM. I then went outside to find the longest cab line I've ever seen at a hotel in my life. I got to bed at around 4.

I came back eager and ready to play on Sunday and won a decent pot with AK on the first hand of the day. Shortly after that, former champ Chris Moneymaker busted out three tables away from mine. I got a chance to meet Chris and chat with him a little bit on Thursday and he was incredibly nice and gracious, just a super guy, and accomodating as can be for someone who still gets hounded everywhere by fans.

The cards went dead again and I just hung around, waiting for my shot. It finally came in the afternoon when my stack was down to about $11,000 and I was dealt pocket aces for the first time in the tournament. A very loose player with a big stack two seats to my right raised to $2500, so this was my chance. I wanted to get all of my money in, and I wanted him (and only him) to call me. Thus, it was Hollywood time. With one player sitting between us, I went into full acting mode, leaning out, staring at his stack of chips, then checking my own stack, then looking at him, then at his chips again, then at my cards again...before finally going all in. Everyone else folded, and he called with a suited KQ. I ended up making aces full of tens and my stack went up over $25,000, the highwater mark of the tournament.

Then the cards went dead again. Dan Harrington got knocked out two tables away from me and walked right past me to do an ESPN interview. He got a standing ovation from the whole room, including me. Harrington's two books were a huge help for me, and it felt odd to see him bust out before I did. Apparently I even held up the action at our table for a moment as I was standing and applauding while the action was on me.

Harrington is a tight player and his books preach patience, which had gotten me this far and looked like it would get me to the dinner break again, which was fifteen minutes away when I was dealt pocket kings. I raised to $2500 and got one caller--exactly what you want to happen. He took quite a while to make the call so I thought he had a borderline hand. The flop came 6-8-9. Perfect. I was first to act and bet out $7000. He thought long and hard before calling. He had a ton of chips and clearly was on a draw of some sort. Me, I had about $11,000 left at this point after my two big bets. The turn brought a useless deuce. I thought for a moment, knowing that I had the best hand, and pushed it all in. He eventually called and revealed a 6-7. He had called a $2500 raise pre-flop with a suited 6-7. Absurd. But I was right all along--he was on a draw and I had him beat.

Until a 7 fell on the river. He made two pair, and I was out of the tournament. I was stunned. I made my way out of the tournament area and Erik and I made a beeline to the bar, where we quickly downed several Captain and Diet Cokes and I made a few requisite "I'm out" phone calls and sent a few text messages. I couldn't believe it was over.

After taking some time to get a little distance from everything, I realized that my feelings about everything couldn't be more conflicted. I was completely happy with how I played. I was in the biggest tournament in the history of poker and I finished in the top 20% and outlasted many of my heroes. That felt great. And I went out on a hand that I read right and played right...but it still knocked me out, and that felt terrible. If I had won that hand, I would have been over $50,000 in chips and I would have been looking really good. But it just didn't happen. I had an incredible time and it was a great experience, but I was left with a painful, nagging feeling that I still have been unable to shake: I can play with those guys. They're the best in the world, and I can play with them.

I'll fill in more of what has happened since soon. Nothing earth-shattering, although I have read a couple of good books.

Tuesday - part one

On Tuesday morning, the alarm clock went off at the ungodly hour of 4:10 AM. I had what cannot truly be considered "sleep," but rather a few hours of laying in bed and picturing busting out Phil Hellmuth. But all things considered, I felt surprisingly refreshed and hopped right out of bed.

We arrived at the Little Rock airport shortly before 5 AM. I think that this particular airport has a sum total of 12 gates...which was great. No snags getting to the gate, aside from the woman in front of me who held up the security checkpoint a little bit. Apparently she thought that she'd have no problem clearing the metal detector with her six metal bracelets on.

Once at the gate, I popped on the iPod and tried to catch a quick nap. This prospect was made a little bit tougher by the presence of two young kids, one of whom seemed to be trying to cough up a lung while the other chattered away like a chimp. Naturally, upon boarding, Plauge Girl and Monkey Boy were one row behind me. I debated whether blasting cold air on my face would do anything to combat the germs or just contaminate me quicker. I opted for a light breeze and a cran-apple juice for some much-needed vitamin C.

The plane from Little Rock to Dallas was a puddle-jumper that may or may not have been held together with rubber bands and duct tape. The only thing that could possibly make this flight any less appealing was the captain's announcement that "we've got a couple of things going on." I'm quite sure that during the entire recorded history of air travel, this has never been followed by good news. No pilot ever says "we've got a couple of things going on: surf and turf in coach and free cocktails for everybody!" In this case, the flight was oversold and some weather had come up on our flight route, and we would now be "flying around it." Thus, we took the scenic route over Mississippi and Louisiana. In Dallas, said weather put another kink in the plans, keeping us on the runway for about 90 minutes. I slept the whole time.

In Vegas, I checked into my hotel...at the airport terminal. I cannot explain how brilliant this concept is. The hotel line took 5-10 minutes, after which I was completely checked in, including room keys. Then I walked out to the first baggage carousel, within sight of the hotel line, and immediately grabbed my bag and hopped in a cab. My driver apparently has aspirations of joining the NASCAR circuit, as I'm pretty sure he hit about 200 miles an hour. Fine by me, as he got me there quickly.

I don't want to hog the computer here at the Full Tilt suite for too long, so I'll update again when I can. Juicy content to expect includes my first trip to the Palms, more poker pros than I could shake a stick at, and my official registration for the WSOP (I got Saturday, day three).

Talk to you soon.

Off to Vegas

Well, I leave for the airport in about five hours and tonight, really for the first time, I started to get anxious and excited about everything. I know that it will be a great experience and something I'll remember forever but I don't want to just show up--I want to do well. I guess we'll see how it all turns out.

I'd love to update the blog while I'm out there but I won't have a computer with me so I don't know if it will be possible. But I'll see what I can do. I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and I look forward to talking to you soon. World Series, here I come!

Rental movie reviews

I've watched a handful of rental movies lately. Here they are:

Hitch: They tried to advertise this as if it's not a traditional romantic comedy, which is exactly what it is, albeit one that is watchable due to Will Smith. He gives a charasmatic performance and it's really hard not to like him. Kevin James was decent too, as was Eva Mendes, but the script was absolutely paint by numbers. Grade: B-

In Good Company: Another mediocre movie made watchable by a great cast. Topher Grace is really good and Dennis Quaid is great too. I'm not really sure how they got Scarlett Johansen for this, as she's basically wasted. And the ending of the movie is completely flat with not nearly enough resolution for either of the two young leads. All in all, pretty disappointing. Grade: C+

Coach Carter: Overlong and predictable, but made somewhat entertaining by the always-brilliant Samuel L. Jackson. It's a theme that's been done a million times before (and done better): the hard-ass coach who comes in to fix up the messy situation, but only if he can do it HIS WAY. Of course, the punkish players are resistant, but then buy into it. Yeah..."Hoosiers" called, and they want their story back. But I'd watch Sam Jackson read the phone book, so...Grade: B-

Team America: World Police: Okay, I had really high hopes for this one. After all, the theme song alone is one of the funniest things I've ever heard. But the movie just wasn't that great. it had its moments, and if you're looking for hot marionette sex then this is the film for you. But comedy-wise, it certainly didn't reach the peaks of "South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut." Grade: B-

Ocean's 12: I had to save this review for last. It warrants mentioning that the Ocean's 11 remake is one of my favorite films ever. In fact, I think it is literally perfect. It's funny, cool, and clever. That being said, I got a really bad vibe about Ocean's 12 just from the ad campaign. It just didn't look good and somehow, despite loving the first one, I waited until video for this one. And when I do that, unfortunately, I usually turn out to be right. This is one of the most disappointing sequels in the history of film. There's bad, there's really bad, and then there's the likes of Caddyshack 2, Rocky 5, and now, sadly, Ocean's 12. It was just dreadful. No humor, no spark, and a muddled, unengaging story including a "plot twist" so ludicrious an ill-conceived that you have to wonder what has happened to the writers and producers who came up with it and allowed it to be filmed. Just horrible. Grade: D-

Not much happening

I've only got one more physical therapy session scheduled and they moved it from Friday to next Tuesday. Then I see the doc on Wednesday morning, and I really hope for full clearance at that point.

Got the script down to 107 pages with a little tweaking. The problem is that there are a couple of scenes that we want to add, so I haven't decided if we'll just put them in or if we really need to cut something else first.

The Spurs will win tonight. So will ASU in the college World Series.

Started season two of "Alias." Getting full seasons of good TV shows that you've never seen on DVD really is a beautiful thing. I think I might do that with "24" when we finish these. Another supposedly great show that I've never seen.

Sox are red hot. Just wait until we get Schilling back too. Back to back champs? It could happen!

Departure to Vegas countdown: 12 days. I can't wait!

Whiffleball first draft

We finished the first draft of the "Whiffleball" screenplay. It clocks in at a beefy 111 pages and the first thing I need to work on is cutting it down a bit. In screenwriting, there is a vague but generally accepted rule that movies time out to one minute per screenplay page on average. So 111 would be fine for an action movie or a drama, but it's definitely a little long for a comedy. I'd like to trim at least 5-6 pages, which might be tough. Other than that, we just need to whip it into shape and get it as funny as it can be before we check in with that producer. It was really fun to write--Johnny and I had an absolute ball with it, continually e-mailing and text messaging back and forth with notes, comments and jokes. And if the angle with the producer never works it, we really could strip it down some and make it ourselves.

I'm scheduled for my last week of physical therapy this week. I'm hoping that the three sessions are all that I'll need but I should get the definitive word from the doctor on the 29th. But right now, I feel good. I can walk without the crutches and I'm sure I can bend it enough to fly, although it starts to hurt and get pretty stiff after a while. But that's nothing that will hold me back.

Other random thoughts to start off the week ( in classic, cliched writer/dot dot dot style): we've been watching season one of Alias on DVD and it's fun and entertaining. A lot of the plots are pretty goofy but you just have to have an active imagination, suspend disbelief a little, and buy into everything they are selling. From what I've heard, the storyline of the show takes lots of big, broad turns so it will be fun to be able to fly through those on DVD, as opposed to waiting all summer to see how things turn out...(*cough*..."Lost")...my favorite show on TV this summer has to be "Entourage" on HBO. I loved season one and season two is off to a great start. Jeremy Piven as Ari the agent is one of the best characters on the tube right now...conversely, the worst show I'm watching is "The Comeback" on HBO with Lisa Kudrow. I love the idea of the show a lot, and the format. But her character is just brutal to watch and it makes the entire show painful and annoying. And yet, I'm still giving it a chance...I predict that the Red Sox will be in first place before I get dealt my first hand at the WSOP...I still haven't pre-ordered the new Harry Potter book yet because I don't know if I want to go get it at midnight or just have it mailed to me. I must be getting older. That, and just being in bookstores now feels different after B&N...Robert Horry is pretty damn clutch...I think it's going to be dreadfully humid here in Arkansas this summer, and that's something I haven't had to deal with lately. Although it probably won't hit 120, either.

That's it from me for now. As usual, nothing exciting going on.

Long time, no blog

Hi there!

I haven't updated the blog in a while mainly because there isn't a ton of stuff going on. I can't do my blog like Kevin Smith does his and tell you what I had to eat every day and stuff like that. But the last couple of weeks have been fairly interesting, so I'll get caught up now.

A couple of weekends ago, my friend Johny Kinsman and his girlfriend Lindsey came through town and stayed here for a couple of nights. He is a buddy of mine from back in Massachusetts. He's an actor living in L.A. now and they had gone back to Boston to pick up some stuff and a car that they were driving back to California. John co-starred in and co-produced the movie that we made in New York almost three years ago. Anyway, we always like throwing around new movie ideas and things like that and I had one that I had been saving because I thought it was something we could produce ourselves very quickly and very cheaply if we could just take a week or so and go to Cape Cod at some point. It's a goofy comedy idea about some friends that put on a whiffle ball tournament.

Well, John loved the idea. We ended up staying up until 4 AM on that first night, just throwing out ideas, characters, and scenes. Then he stayed an extra day so we could work on it even more. Although the more we worked on it, the bigger the whole thing became. Then he got back to L.A. and met with a new friend of his, another writer. Apparently this guy knows a producer who makes straight-to-video movies with budgets of a few million bucks, and this producer is actively looking for scripts right now (comedy and horror). So that's what we're aiming for now. Meanwhile, the story itself has gone from a subtle, pseudo-documentary small movie to a much broader, wilder, "Dodgeball," type story. We've been working on it essentially every day since John left here, with me writing script pages and e-mailing them to him, with him sending back changes, comments, etc. It's working pretty well, as we're almost done with a first draft. I think we're on page 73 of what will probably end up being a 100 page script. And we're already planning to write a vampire flick as a follow up after we sell this one for a few hundred grand. Piece of cake!

Other than that, the physical therapy has been keeping me busy. I go three times a week and the knee is gradually getting better. I still can't bend it as much as I'd like, but at least it's stronger than it was. I hope that it improves even more over the next few weeks, especially the range of motion. I have two more P.T. appointments this week and three scheduled for the following week, with a follow up doctor's appointment after that. I hope that it just keeps getting better...since the WSOP Main Event starts three weeks from today.

I've been playing a lot of poker too, with mixed results. There are two things that bother me about it: first off, there is just no way to simulate the actual tournament. Any on-line tournament just moves too fast compared to what the structure will be like at the real thing. For example: in No Limit Hold 'Em tournaments, there are two forced bets called "blinds" on every hand. They are at a set amount and they go up in stakes periodically. In any on line tournament, the blinds go up somewhere around every six to ten minutes. At the Main Event, they only start at $25-$50 (out of $10,000) and go up every two hours. This means that players can be patient and wait for good hands, which is a style that fits well with how I play. But on line, I can't do that at all. The other thing is that I'd really like to log some time at real-life tables before the tournament starts. But as it stands now, it might have to wait until I get to Vegas. I definitely plan on playing some warm up action out there on July 5 and 6. And in another week or so, I should find out what my first day will be for the tourney: July 7, 8, or 9.

So that's what I've been up to. Nothing really new or earth-shattering. I'm starting to get pretty stir cray at home and I really hope the doc clears me to start driving again after I see him on June 29. I've lasted this long, so I guess I can make it a few more weeks.

Great weekend

We had a very enjoyable and relaxing holiday weekend in Memphis. Beth got out of work a little bit early on Friday and she had taken the dogs over to her parents' house during her lunch break so we were able to pack up quickly and get on the road. The only snag at all came when we stopped to fill up just outside of town and it ended up taking almost half an hour. The "pay at the pump" machines weren't working so every gas-buying customer had to go inside and pre-pay, thus clogging everything up.

Friday night in Germantown was very low key. We had some pasta and then watched one of the documentaries from the Seinfeld DVDs. Kevin arrived on Saturday and we spent the day just hanging out and catching up. He's got a great new job in Washington, DC, so we heard a little bit about that as well as the Little League team he's coaching. I've known Kev since he was in the 4th grade and it's great to see him finally catch a couple of breaks and to be doing something so rewarding. He also flies back to Boston once a month to continue his former job as a tour guide at Fenway Park. Nice gig!

On Sunday afternoon I caught Revenge of the Sith for the third time because Casey hadn't seen it yet. I think he really enjoyed it. And I loved it (again) because this theatre had a digital projector--the first time I've been able to see one in action, and it was great. Incredibly crisp picture, no reel breaks...just awesome. Every theatre should switch. Any, my brother was very psyched to see the flick. He even popped in the Episode II DVD beforehand to get warmed up. On Sunday night we intoduced Kev to The OC by showing him a few of the classic episodes from the season one DVD. That really cracked me up because he just doesn't seem like the type who would enjoy that show at all but he did. But then again, Casey doesn't either but he has gotten completely hooked as well, calling it the TV equivalent of bad crack. He's got a point. Kev and I stayed up until about 2:30 AM, just talking and catching up (and having a couple of shots of Cuervo that Kev served up in plastic mini Sox batting helmets). We capped the night off with a little bit of the Larry Bird: A Basketball Legend DVD, which was a perfect way to end the night.

We headed home at about noon on Monday and then went to the Hillis house for barbecued ribs for dinner. They were excellent--definitely one of Jim Bob's specialties. Then we even managed to get a little more unpacking done at home. My friend John Kinsman, an actor living in L.A., is back in Boston right now to move some stuff out and he'll be stopping here sometime this weekend so we need to get the guest room all set. And Beth leaves on Friday for a wedding in Connecticut. Throw in physical therapy for me today and Thursday and it will actually be a pretty busy week around here.

Here's a picture of me with my brother, my niece, and Kevin

Long Weekend

We're off to Memphis for the weekend. My good friend Kevin Keegan is also coming in from DC so it will be great to see him since it's been quite a while. I hope everyone has a great weekend and I'll post something more interesting (maybe?) when we get back.

Starting physical therapy

The doctor's appointment went well today. He said that everything looks good and he wants me to start physical therapy right away. My first session will be on Thursday afternoon and then I'll come back three times a week for a month. I let him know that I need to be on a plane the first week of July (Vegas, baby!) and he said it should not be a problem to get the range of motion on my knee up to at least 90 degrees by then. Now, it's at about 50 degrees or so pretty comfortably. I feel great about starting the PT and getting the knee really better but I do feel bad for my poor father-in-law who is going to get stuck taking me every time. But he's completely fine with it.

Anyway, that's it. Here's some other random information--my life is so boring right now that I have to actively think about stuff to put in here. Feel free to add your own answers in the comments if you like:

Last movie attended: Revenge of the Sith
Last CD purchased: Revenge of the Sith soundtrack (which is awesome, by the way)
Last DVD purchased: Seinfeld season four...maybe their best season ever
Last book read: The Closers, by Michael Connelly. Reading it right now.
Last pizza toppings: sausage, mushroom, and meatballs...and when I say meatballs, I mean actual meatballs...good stuff!

Revenge of the Sith

I wanted to run right home after seeing Revenge of the Sith on opening night and post my thoughts, but instead I decided to give it some time to sink in...as well as catch it again on Saturday. I'm a Star Wars geek through and through, and this one would stand as the defining film of the prequel trilogy. I enjoyed Episode I, although in hindsight I do think it's a little flawed. I loved Episode II (much more than most people). But Episode III is the crucial one, that film that needs to wrap up the prequels and tie everything together. I'm happy to report that it completely delivers. I loved it. It's perfect. I'm actually baffled by the handful of bad reviews that I've seen, and I've come to the conclusion that these people simply don't get it. Star Wars has never been for the critics, but I still cannot comprehend how anyone, on any level, can fail to see how this film absolutely delivers. (spoilers ahead) The movie begins with an awesome continuous tracking shot of Obi-Wan and Anakin flying their fighters headlong into a heated space battle that's the best one ever seen in a Star Wars film. The shot itself is great--notice how long until there's actually a cut--and the scene is epic. It also begins the brilliant performance of Hayden Christensen, who is great throughout this movie. He got a bad rap in Episode II, delivering what I felt was one of the most misunderstood performances I've ever seen. He perfectly captured the cocky arrogance of a young man who's not quite comfortable in his own skin yet, a guy with so much power and so many things going on without the experience to handle them well. He was great in Episode II and he's even better here. The Jedi duo quickly arrives aboard the droid ship of General Grievous, the fantastic new villain for this film. I got a glimpse of Grievous in action during the "Clone Wars" series on the Cartoon Network but that didn't do him justice...he's awesome. From the voice to the unique walk to the bizarre hacking cough, he is yet another brilliant George Lucas creation. Grievous is downright scary and great fun to watch. The confronatation between Anakin and Count Dooku is perfect, as it begins to set the much darker tone for this film. Ian McDiarmid really shines as Palpatine in this movie, slowly but gradually letting the true, evil nature of his character seep out. Watching him implore Anakin to kill Dooku, then seeing young Skywalker do just that (by lopping off Dooku's head with two lightsabers, no less) is chilling. I often wondered exactly how and when Lucas would have Anakin turn to the Dark Side, and he does it a little earlier in the film than I expected, and it absolutely works. That turning point is a great scene--I'm sitting there, actively rooting for Anakin not to turn, knowing full well that he does. And by doing this fairly early on, it raises the stakes and builds tension before the inevitable climactic battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan. For years, Star Wars fans have heard the rumors about the lightsaber battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan on some lava-spewing volcanic planet and the scene surpasses anything I could have imagined. The fight itself is great, but the emotional aspect of the confrontation is perfect. Natalie Portman is great in the moments building up to the fight, and Christensen and Ewan McGregor are both brilliant. The ultimate reveal of Darth Vader in his costume is another moment that fans have waited for and Lucas nails this one. Honestly, I could analyze just about every scene of this film, but that really doesn't do it justice. I give it a 99 out of 100, with it losing one point only because I wanted to see more of the Wookiees kicking ass on Kashyyyk and more than just a cameo from Chewbacca. But that's just nit-picking. This is the best Star Wars movie yet, prequel or original. It's everything I hoped it would be and more. It answers every question, ties up all the loose ends, and serves as the perfect bridge for the prequels to the originals. I can't wait to see it again. I also can't believe that it's over.

WSOP TV schedule

I know some of you watch a lot of poker on TV (like I do), so you might find this interesting--I found a link to the television schedule for the WSOP. It starts in August but coverage of the main event (the one that I'm in) doesn't begin until October 11, and that will air in twelve one hour episodes shown two at a time for six weeks.

WSOP Broadcast Schedule

Not much else going on. Off to see Episode III tonight. It will be my first post-op trip to a theater so I hope I can get a comfortable seat. We'll get there plenty early just in case.

Bored

I have absolutely nothing going on but I figured I was due for an update anyway. Poker has been frustrating the last few days because I'm just not catching any cards. I played in a tourney with about 100 people today and came in 15th, but they only paid out to the final nine. I saw less than 20 flops the whole time and still managed to last that long so I think I played all right but still had nothing to show for it. At one point early on I was down to less than half my stack but managed a rally. I'm already dreading what it will be like if I get close to the bubble at the WSOP--the "bubble" being the cut-off for payments out to winners. I suspect that with so many people expected, they'll pay out around 500-600 spots, since last year they paid 225 with about 2500 players. Now, for most people, just finishing "in the money" won't be a big deal because it means that the people at the bottom just break even by getting their $10,000 back. But for me, that's all profit! And it goes without saying that I could really use ten grand right now. But if it gets close, how do I play? Super tight just to finish in the money? Some experts advocate getting very aggressive then, specifically because people tighten up their play just to cash and it's a great time to pick up chips. Who knows, but it's something I hope I'll have to think about sometime down the road.

I booked all of my travel plans. I'm arriving on the morning of July 5 and I have a flight scheduled to leave on Monday, July 11. I say "scheduled" because I really hope I have to change it because I'm still alive in the tournament after day two. But if I do bust out early, I figure at least I'll have the rest of the weekend in Vegas to drown my sorrows. Mom and Dad were kind enough to kick me some of their frequent flier miles, so that's awesome. I'll be staying at the Flamingo--it's got a great central location and, much more importantly, is home to Margaritaville. I guess it's also fair to say that the Flamingo has been lucky for me before, because that's where we stayed for my bachelor party when the Patriots won their first Super Bowl. Let's hope my gambling is anywhere near as successful this time around.

The other "highlight of the week" for me is definitely my lightsaber spoon. This thing rules! I'm using it for my Frosted Flakes every morning. Yes, it's true...I have no life.

Sick

I've been pretty sick the last couple of days, which is hard to figure out since I almost never leave the house. Mom thinks I might have caught something from Kate, my niece who is about a year and a half old. Oh well. I'm feeling better this morning than the last couple of days.

For people asking about the WSOP and TV: I don't even know when ESPN will start showing the episodes or if I'll be on at all. This year there are over 40 different events in the Series and the Main Event will be the last one that they show. Since the WSOP starts in June, my best guess is that ESPN won't start showing the preliminary stuff until probably August or even September. As for getting on TV, the longer I last, the better my chances are. Early on, they usually feature a couple of tables that have a well-known pro or two at them, so if that's the case this year, I hope that I'm not on TV on the first day. But I'll keep everyone posted as soon as I find out anything more.

Got my Star Wars tickets...10:30 PM showing on opening night. I wonder if I wear my big brace and bring the crutches if they'll let me cut in line. Hmm...

The Celtics stink

Wow...what a disastrous showing by my Celts in game 7. Nothing to say, really, aside from "we sucked."

The weekend in Memphis was great. Very low key, just hanging out with the family, playing board games, good stuff like that. The family is all excited about my poker stuff and I had a free tournament to play on Saturday so we hooked the laptop up to output to the big screen so that they could check in and watch periodically. The tourney went well. It is hosted by Card Player magazine and it's a sweet deal--for signing up with their website and making some quality posts a few months ago, I now get to play in a monthly tournament for free that gives out real cash to the top fifty finishers. There were almost 800 players this time and I managed to crack the top 20, taking home $30 for my 17th place finish. I was happy with the way I played, especially after losing about two thirds of my stack right before one of the breaks.

Not much happening on the home front. I won another single-table tournament today and I'm almost done with Harrington's book, which has been brilliant. Other than that, just counting the days until Episode III. Yes, I'm a geek, I know...

More poker reading

I finished the Hold 'Em sections in Super System 2. I'm glad I read it, but it wasn't too helpful because there is just no way I can play the way that Doyle Brunson advocates, because that style is just too aggressive for me. So I recently picked up Harrington On Hold 'Em by 1995 WSOP champ Dan Harrington. He is ironically nicknamed "Action Dan" because of his conservative playing style but he's also the only player in the world to make it to the final table of the main event the last two years, which have had by far the biggest fields the event has ever seen. I'm part way through the book so far and it's really good. He also has a volume two coming out later this month and I'll probably pick that one up as well. My favorite tip of his so far is that you tend to win the most money by playing the opposite of your traditional style--tight players win by getting a little looser, and vice versa. Simple, but true.

On Thursday I won a single-table tournament on Full Tilt. The entry fee was only $4.40 and there were just nine people but it means that I now have a "satellite chip" that I can use to buy into a more expensive tournament of my choice. The entire World Series of Poker consists of around 45 total events this year, including the big one that I am in, and Full Tilt runs a lot of qualifying tournaments into the other events as well. Who knows, maybe I'll win my way into another tournament out there too!

We're off to Memphis for the weekend to see my family. Mom and Dad are headed back to Cape Cod for the summer so it will be good to see them before they go. And I haven't seen my brother since January so it will be fun all around. I'm sure we'll be watching game 7 of the Boston-Indiana series on Saturday. GO CELTICS! I want a piece of Sully and his World Champion Detroit Pistons in round two.

Training for the WSOP

I've got a little over two months to get my game in shape for the WSOP. And since I'm still confined to the house, my training will consist of three things for now:

1. Playing tournaments on the internet.
2. Reading good No Limit tournament Hold 'Em books.
3. Studying old WSOP shows and World Poker Tour episodes.

I've done all three since I won the satellite. Before I left AZ, I picked up Doyle Brunson's Super System 2 and it is pretty informative so far. Brunson is a legend in the game, essentially the Arnold Palmer of poker, except he can still compete at the highest level. He's a two-time WSOP main event champ so his insights are remarkable. I will devour everything he has to say about tournament no limit Hold 'Em.

My TiVo is now jam-packed with poker shows and I'm studying them to see how the pros play and, as crazy as this sounds, to look for tells, because any of these pros could end up at my table at any point. I think I found a small but significant tell on Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari that I could actually use if I ever get involved with him in a pot.

Finally, I'm playing on the internet. On Monday I entered a tournament with 246 players and finished in 35th place, just five spots out of the money. I was happy with my play and I would have been guaranteed a money spot until my pocket aces got cracked by running hearts on the turn and river to make a flush that beat me. That didn't knock me out, but it took a huge chunk of my stack. But I can't complain--I played well and took a bad beat. It happens. On Tuesday morning, I played in another similar tournament with 209 players and finished 42nd. This time around, I just never really got into a groove. I got hurt on one hand when I made a big pre-flop raise with pocket queens and got two callers. The ace that came on the flop was not good for me, and the loss on the hand put me in pretty bad shape. I hung around for several more levels but just never got any cards and couldn't double up even once, eventually going out with mediocre suited connectors. Again, I was satisfied with my play but it wasn't good enough. And if I'm not cashing in cheap internet tournaments, I'm certainly not ready for the WSOP Main Event. I need to get better, and that's my goal for the next two months: to get my game in the best shape ever.

The knee is doing better too. I can finally limp around and put some weight on it, although I still use the crutches. The wound is healing up and I can now get into and out of the back seat of a car with no help. And the exercises are working--it's starting to feel stronger. I think by sometime in June I'll be good to go. And I'll certainly be healthy enough to sit at a card table.

Brunson, Chan, Moneymaker...McCandless?!?

Something pretty crazy happened on Saturday night. Most of you know that I enjoy playing poker and play a decent amount on-line. Well, one of the sites that I play at, Full Tilt Poker, has a frequent player points program that they use, and after accumulating a certain, very minimal number of points, I was enrolled in a free tournament that took place on 3:30 Saturday afternoon.

Here's how it worked: 1417 people were signed up, and the first prize was a free buy-in to the $10,000 main event at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas in July. The big one, the main event, the most prestigious poker tournament in the world, the one that determines the World Champion, the one that ESPN plays and replays incessantly. Anyway, in most tournaments, first place gets the biggest prize (obviously) and other places pay out proportionally. But since the web site was putting on this tournament as a freeroll, there was only one prize--the $10,000 seat for free. Coming in second would be worth absolutely nothing but the pain and heartbreak of knowing that you came so close.

And I won. I actually won. I'll get into the specifics of winning at some other point, but the bottom line is that I'm going to be playing in the WSOP. It is, quite literally, a dream come true. More updates on this will follow. Tons of them. You'll be quite sick of hearing about it, I'm sure.

Today, Monday, is Beth's birthday. We went to her parents' house last night for a nice, quiet dinner. Everyone was surprisingly tired and reserved, myself included. I think I was actually still emotionally spent from the tournament the night before. Clearly, I need to practice and get into better "poker shape" before The Big One.

Okay...I'm off to look for Vegas hotel rooms and watch some World Poker Tour episodes on TiVo, looking for tells from my possible opponents. Oh, I forgot to mention that first place at the WSOP this year is estimated to be around $10 million. *gulp*...

The Eye of Sauron

I forgot to mention one aspect of the house here that is driving me crazy. Those of you that know me well understand that I'm very particular about my TV and audio/video set-up...this being the reason that I had a huge black felt drapery covering the window in our last place. I just can't stand glare on the TV; it's completely unacceptable. Well, I thought that the situation here would be okay. There was only one wall to use for the TV but there was no direct sunlight aimed at it, so it should have been fine. What I failed to factor in is the three foot long, oval glass window pattern built into the front door. It's perfectly nice, looks great from the outside, blah, blah, blah...and it blasts sun right into the center of the TV from where I sit, stranded in my recliner. We shifted the TV a little last night but that just moved the bright glow a little to the left side of the TV. I can see reflected cars and trucks from outside, but this thing is way too bright and really annoying. We have nicknamed it The Eye of Sauron because it is impossible to escape from it.

The doctor's appointment went well on Wednesday. They gave me some exercises to start doing and then I'll return for a follow-up appointment in four weeks. But for now, I'm starting to get around a little bit better. The gas guy came today (finally) so we can start cooking in the kitchen...but there is a problem with the hot water heater that the landlord will have to fix. I really hope that happens tomorrow but I may be dreaming.

Unpacking forever

Sunday was a pretty quiet day. Beth got started on unpacking kitchen stuff with a little help from her grandmother. Jim Bob and Aimee came over too, but didn't really do too much. We finally made some progress on Monday because my Mom came down for the day to help out. She's the perfect person to recruit for a thankless task like this so it was great that she volunteered to help. She spent all day unpacking stuff in the kitchen and putting things away, powering through almost every box in there. And she even brought a lasagna too! Although our gas still isn't turned on, so we can't eat it yet, but still...

I have a doctor's appointment with a general practitioner today. I'm thinking that it will basically be a wasted trip since all I need is a referral to an orthopedic specialist out here, but this is what has to be done, I guess. I hope he'll at least change some of the bandages for me because they are starting to itch a little bit. As for progress, I was sitting in the recliner in the living room the other day and I was able to left my right leg for the first time. I even did it a few times to make sure that it wasn't a fluke--although I'm not sure how much of that I'm even supposed to do yet, if any, so I quit after a few. I don't want to over-exert it or risk straining it or anything. I hope to get some more information about the recovery timetable whenever I'm able to see a specialist out here. But it's not hurting as much and I'm getting around just fine on the crutches. I'm not much help unpacking though. We're nowhere close to done and from the looks of it, it will take quite a while to get everything unpacked and put away.

We're moved in

The movers arrived shortly after 8:30 AM on Saturday and got down to the business of unloading all of our stuff. It was a four man crew--Steve and George from our Arizona team and Curtis and Leon, a couple of local guys on this end. They were all great--very accomodating about putting anything anywhere we asked them to. We also received the lovely news that they found a rat in our garage in Chandler and a black widow spider inside my guitar amp...which Beth is now ready to throw away just on principle. The DirecTV installer here also found a huge, dead rat in an air duct of some sort outside so clearly we're having an exterminator come before we get too settled in.

But the house looks much better now that we've gotten some stuff inside. Beth's grandmother, Na'Nan, was kind enough to buy some nice rugs for the house, which we sorely needed since the whole place has hardwood floors. There's a really nice one in the dining room and a handful of cheaper ones in the living room, master bedroom, and office. And my Mom has a nice rug that she's going to bring down for use in the guest bedroom. Mom will be heading down here on Monday and that will be huge, as she is an unpacking and decorating savant. So that will be nice.

But the best news is simply that I got to sleep in my own bed last night, I have internet access at home again, and the dish and TV are set up, including a new TiVo for the main system that holds up to 70 hours of programming, meaning that the old 30 hour TiVo can go in the bedroom. Given my current condition, 70 hours is probably about what I watch in a week. I was even able to get everything up and running before the first round of the NFL Draft ended. I saw that ASU QB Andrew Walter went to Oakland in the third round, which I know will make my friend Brandon Bown happy.

Anyway, we're in the house. There is a ton of unpacking that needs to be done and I'm going to try to help as much as I can, but I know that it will be a gradual process. I'll try to post some pictures at some point. I hope all of you are having a great weekend.

Little Rock...my new home?!?

We arrived in Little Rock early on Thursday afternoon without incident. Dad and I swung by the new house first to drop off the Focus, then went on to the Hillis residence. Dad quickly got on the road to head home to Memphis...he was clearly pretty fried and ready to be home. I still can't thank him enough for all his help.

After Beth got out of work, we went to our house and I got to see the inside for the first time. To put it mildly, it's a little disappoiting. It's smaller than it appears from pictures, it's located close to a pretty loud street, and it just seems dingy to me. The good things are that it should be okay, space-wise, as it's bigger than our last apartment, and that it is substantially cheaper. And since I won't be able to work for a month or two, that's a pretty big deal. I'm sure I'll feel a lot better about it once we clean up the inside a little and get all of our stuff unpacked, but for now I'm completely underwhelmed. I'm trying not to be too negative about everything but I think my attitude is wearing on Beth a little already. It's tough to be too optimistic with the way things are for me right now.

Good news: the movers called and now it appears that they will arrive on Saturday morning after all. That threw a kink into Beth's plans because she wanted to do some painting and cleaning on Saturday before our furniture arrived but we'll be fine. I'm happy about the idea of having everything set by Saturday afternoon. The Sox play, the Celtics have a playoff game, and it's NFL Draft Day, so clearly I need my system set up!

And to address one of the anonymous comments: I have NEVER owned leather pants--come on, I don't think they make those in a 44 waist. The yellow shades died years ago, although I do have some more subtle green Ray Bans. But I had the cheap black wraparounds going for the trip. And Steph, my Dad really enjoyed "Saturday" so the recommendation was a success.

Off to run some errands. Thanks for the comments and keep them coming!