Our new house

We bought our first house! It's been in the works for most of the month and we closed yesterday...on our fourth wedding anniversary. Pretty cool!

I root for the laundry

I know that as a fan of teams that have delivered me four World Championships since 2002 I have no room to complain about anything, but that doesn't change the fact that typing this list below kind of makes me sick.

Adam Vinatieri, Indianapolis Colts
Pedro Martinez, New York Mets
Johnny Damon, New York Motherf***ing Yankees
Willie McGinest, Cleveland Browns
David Givens, Tennessee Titans
Ty Law, wherever
Bronson Arroyo, Cincinnatti Reds

I could go on and on. Sure, it's the nature of the game, and everyone on that list brought me so much happiness that I could never thank them enough. But now I can't really root for them. Sure, there are degrees...I still pull for Pedro almost every time out. But Johnny Damon is now deader to me than Fredo Corleone to his brother, and the mere notion of having to openly yell "miss it, Vinatieri, MISS IT!" just turns my stomach.

I don't have a point. I just needed to vent, I guess. It's a sad day for me.

Quick poker session

I haven't posted about poker lately simply because there hasn't been much to report. I have been taking meticulous records of each session I play (an actual New Year's resolution that I have stuck to) and that has helped because I always know exactly how I'm doing for the day/week/year. I'm up for 2006, but not by a ton...just trying to keep grinding that bankroll up before the WSOP. A quick little session today certainly helped.

It's a little after 4 PM and I've got some time to kill until the NCAA tourney selection show, so I log onto Poker Fantasy for a little bit. No SNGs are about to start so I sit down with $25 for some .25-.50 NLHE. With JQ suited in the big blind I make the 2nd nut flush on the turn, get it all in, and get paid off...I now have $49. A little bit later I get pocket kings in late position with a few limpers ahead of me so I raise up to $2. Small blind calls, and the big blind goes all in for $6 and change. Trying to shut out the first limper, I push all in. The guy I am trying to force out calls me with $38 and change or so and turns over pockets 9s. The short stack has A-9. No help for either of them and I drag a huge pot, and I now have $93.53 in front of me. I cannot wait to just walk away with my winnings for the session but I decide to wait until before my blinds...and get dealt pocket aces. Raise to $2, one caller. Flop comes three unders with a couple of face cards and two spades (I have the Ace of spades), so I bet $5, trying to take it down right there, he calls. Turn is a brick, check-check. River brings a possible straight so we check it down (I may have been playing too cautiously here) and he shows Ace-king for TPTK, so I drag that one and bail because it was the last hand before my blinds. Sat with $25, and twenty minutes later I left with $102.24. Definitely the craziest and fastest NL rush I have ever had on that site.

Oscar picks

I usually try to see several of the big Oscar contenders before the awards but this year I just really didn't want to. I haven't seen many of them, in fact, so instead, here are my own choices for who would win if I was the sole voter in the academy (obviously this only includes movies that I've seen, so...sorry, Brokeback, Capote, etc.)

Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line
Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line
Best Supporting Actor: Ian McDiarmid, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Best Supporting Actress: Rachel McAdams, Wedding Crashers
Best Original Screenplay: Steve Carell & Judd Apatow, The 40 Year Old Virgin
Best Adapted Screenplay: Steve Kloves, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Best Director: George Lucas, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Best Picture: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

And other categories that could be awards, but aren't:

Best faithful adaptation of a comic book or graphic novel: Sin City
Best performance under so much makeup you can't even tell who it is: Mickey Rouke, Sin City
Best ending to a movie because it happened in real life: Fever Pitch
Best comedic ensemble: The 40 Year Old Virgin
Best reinvigoration of a seemingly dead franchise: Batman Begins
The Caddyshack 2/Rocky 5 Memorial Award for Worst Sequel: Be Cool
Weirdest performance: Johnny Depp, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Best DVD rental with no expectations that turned out to be pretty good: Red Eye
Worst DVD rental that could have been great but wasn't: Two for the Money
Biggest letdown: Serenity (just because it wasn't as good as the great TV show)
Best...umm..."performance" in very tight or skimpy costumes: Jessica Alba, Sin City, Fantasic Four, Into the Blue.