My summer session class ended, and I don't have anything more to say about it than I've already said. Good class, enjoyed it, etc. And during my first week off, I went to work. (Such an exciting life I live...)
Actually, I only went in four out of five days, as Friday I flew back home to Livermore for the July 4th weekend. It's always good to go hang out with family. Justin and Janet also came up from Long Beach for the weekend, so it was a full family time. It also turned into some extended family and family friend time as well. It seems that things are generally good with everyone.
As always, there was lots of food, and probably too much food. I think Saturday night was tri-tip, sirloin, and chicken. I cooked it all, and it came out okay. I really think I could have done better, as it was slightly under-seasoned. Salt control is still something that I don't feel quite comfortable with, especially with larger pieces of meat. I also did ribs on Sunday, and they felt like they needed a little bit more flavor. I probably should have spent a little more time trying to build a bit of a glaze or sauce for the ribs, but the timing just wasn't really there. I guess I'll probably get another chance around Thanksgiving.
I also got to see Karen, Chad, and Oliver on July 4. We went to the Oakland zoo in the morning and play around at Big Trees Park in the afternoon. I don't think I've been to a zoo since I left San Diego, so it has been a number of years. It was good to hang out and talk about stuff and life in general.
I came back to Vegas on the 5th, two days ahead of the 2+2 meet-up. The 2+2 meetup is an annual gathering of poker people that always happens near the beginning of the World Series of Poker Main Event. I ended up at the strip at around 1:30 in the afternoon to meet up with Tyler and Doug (whom I've met before), and a couple new people (Buzz, Bryan?, and Eva). We had some food at the Mirage and then headed over to the Venetian to play some cards. We ended up playing 4/8 HORSE. About the only notable hand from that session a heads up razz hand against Doug, in which I properly read his hand as pairing up too many times and called him down with a very rough 8 (87642, I think). I ended up winning $185 in that short session, which is well above anything that would resemble an normal winrate for that game.
After a couple hours of that, it was over to the Wynn for free food and more poker. I got a chance go meet one of the guys I've known by screen name only for several years. Todd seems like a nice guy, but I ended up sitting quite far from him when we ate and at the table, so I didn't get too much of a chance to talk to him. The poker was goofy, as it always is. We played things like 5-card Omaha, razz-dugi, and double flop crazy pineapple. I anticipate that almost every person who bothers to read this has no clue what these games are, and that's okay. It's really not knowledge worth having because they're just silly gambling games. I broke even while not even trying to play well at all, which isn't really an accomplishment since I don't think anyone at that table was trying to play well.
I missed a chance to go hiking with some of these people today because I had to go in to work to cover for one of the classes for a PTI. I also found out today that the building has settled in a strange way so that my door doesn't close all the way anymore. Apparently, this is nothing new, and the building has had these types of issues from the very beginning.
And to go out of order in time (I know there's a word for that), on Wednesday night we had our most dominating win all season long, while fielding our weakest team all season long. I think the final score was something like 59-21. It was a good win to stop our 3 game losing streak. We're currently in a 3-way tie for first at 6-3. There are a total of six teams with records of either 6-3 or 5-4, and it's only an 8 team league.
And that's how I spent my first two weeks of summer vacation.
