Oasis

Gotta love that view! Had dinner at The Oasis with the Arredondos the Saturday over Memorial Day weekend!

Just call me "Bubble Girl"....

Laura and I decided to play in a poker tourney on Saturday afternoon/night. It was $100 buy in, 24 people playing, pay out top 3 players. High stakes, yes, but we figured we earned it. :)

The game started with 3 tables of 8 people, 10,000 in chips, at around 530. There were 4 women playing out of 24, and 3 of us ended up at the same table. Lucky for Laura, she was at a table of her own. I am just not a fan of playing with women, especially annoying ones.....like the ones that say things like "Now why did you do that?", when you raise before the flop. Um, because that's how you play poker....now shut up and either call or fold. Anyways...I got over it, but not before I handed a LOT of my chips to one of the ladies who didn't even realize that she had a full house and beat me on the hand. More annoying.

I was playing terribly, but still having a good time. I was down to about 5000 in chips and got a pretty decent hand. Blinds were 200/400. KB raised to 800, I re-raised to 1600, and then Chris to my left raised it to 5000. To call him put me all in. I had K-10 suited. I'd seen the hands that this guy had been playing, they were all over the place....so I sat there and thought for a while, and decided to call him. I would have been pretty much out anyways if I had folded with only 3400 in chips left. So, I called. He had A-K. Well, a 10 came on the flop and nothing else paired....so, I WON. It was one of those hands that really makes you sweat...I was SO thrilled that I won it!!!

Now I had 10,000 chips again, so I was starting from scratch. I got A-A a few hands later, and bet REALLY big pre-flop. One guy called, I think out of pity, and then on the flop I bet big again, he folded. I had to show because of the hand that I had, and thanked him for the generosity.

Shortly thereafter, I got moved to Laura's table. I didn't really win any big hands, I over bet my good cards to be sure I wouldn't lose, and managed to stay in long enough to make it to the final table, top 8 players. I was lucky to be sat in seat 8, so I got to stay in the longest without posting blinds too. (yay!). KB was also at the final table with me, to my left. Well, KB went out pretty quickly, so then it was down to 7. I wasn't the shortest chip stack, but was FAR behind the leaders. I let the other players take each other out. It got down to 4 people and I got K-10 suited again. (It was the hand of the night for a lot of people). I went all in, the big chip stack called me. He had Q-10. The flop came with 2 of my suit.....turn was a Q, and river was nothing. So, I went out 4th. Did I mention that they were paying top 3??? Oh well, I got a few lottery tickets as a loser prize, and think that I made $10 on them. The 3rd place walked away with $230, 2nd $900 and 1st was $1170. Man, what I could have done with that kind of cash....but, overall, I was surprised that I made it that long, so I can't be too disappointed. I never had anymore than about 18,000 chips the entire time and hung on until 4th. :) Fun night overall....better luck next time.

A FULL Week of Work in VEGAS, BABY!!!

I spent the last full week in Las Vegas, for A's user conference. I manage the SW partnership for D, and was there to coordinate D's participation in the conference, and make sure that it all went off without any problems. I managed to squeeze in some fun while there too. Quick photo recap of the week of events. :)

Jamie and I went in on Monday afternoon, and were able to grab dinner at Delmonico, that evening. We met up with Buddy and Garrett afterwards at TAO. We didn't get to see any celebs, but I did get a photo opp with Cleopatra! Ha!

Tuesday, Jamie and I hung out at the pool for a bit, before I was to report for duty to setup the booth. Man, was I SOOOO happy that George, the events guy, convinced me to hire Steve to help with the setup. That was the BEST advice that George could have ever given me, Steve was a lifesaver throughout the whole show!! :) That night we hosted a party for all the D customers that were in town for the show, at Margaritaville. The A sales guys showed up too, and since it'd been since the last MF that I'd seen them, it was great to see everyone again!!

S had their sales conference in town at the same time, and since they just purchased A, all of the executives from both companies were in Vegas. Jamie busted her ass getting a bunch of meetings setup, so that was what we did on Wednesday. That night, we had a really nice dinner at MESA Grill in Caesar's. I got a fun picture too, before dinner, with some local Greeks in the Casino. :)


Let's see Thursday.....oh yeah, booth duties and such. That's not very exciting to report, but that night we had the MF Party. They'd rented out PURE, the nightclub in Caesar's. More than half the people in there (including myself), would have NEVER been let into the club had the entire thing not been rented out. Ha! But I was happy to be part of that crowd, and I didn't have to pay for drinks to boot! The perfect way to party at PURE!

Friday was a day of wrap up.....although I did take time to take a quick snapshot with KJ's nephew's "Flat Stanley". Ever heard of this little guy? Evidently (I think it's) 2nd graders cut out this little guy, and then decorate him, and then he's supposed to travel and take pictures. KJ told his nephew that he'd take FS to Vegas and get a picture. So, I met him for a parting pic from Vegas. Bet no one else's FS made it to MF! :)


It was a GREAT trip, lots of work, and lots of play. Got to see some old friends and make some new ones too!! Looking forward to the next one in Orlando!

Little Angel Sophia

I met Scarlett through Corey about 6 years ago. She and her husband John are 2 of the nicest people that I've ever met. I went to Scarlett's baby shower this afternoon (30 mins late after getting lost on the freaking toll roads to Pflugerville), although she wasn't pregnant anymore.....Scarlett had Sophia a week before her baby shower. I met with Scarlett for lunch at the end of February, and she was having a great pregnancy, no issues, complications, feeling great, until one of her dr appointments around 24 weeks. She went in and they told her she had preeclampsia, and that she had to stay on bedrest until further notice. Well, she went into the doctor a week or so ago for another checkup and they took her to perform a c-section that day. Sophia Belle was born on March 22nd, 2 months early. She weighed in at 2lbs 10oz. She'll be in the NICU for about 7 weeks so everyone can keep an eye on her, and she can get bigger. She's really cute and she looks just like John.

Scarlett is in great spirits, and looks AMAZING. When I asked her where John was during the shower, she said that he was playing golf. They were going to head back to the hospital later together. She has it so together. I can't say that I would have been in any shape to be anywhere BUT the hospital a week later, but the doctors are taking good care of her, and you have to continue to live and do your day to day things to keep your sanity, I guess. I've got a lot to learn about being a parent...but I can't wait. :) Anyways, I know that they are going to be wonderful parents, and I look forward to the day when they bring Sophia home and we all get to meet the little angel.

Nae Nae Turns 28!

Tonight I celebrated Renae's birthday at Buca with a few of her friends. We ate GOOOOOOD too. Fun times.


I came home and watched Trust the Man. Good movie...I really like Maggie Gyllenhal's hair in it. Was thinking about heading to bed, but I realized that I have tonight's episode of 6 Degrees on DVR, so I'll watch it and then head to bed. What an exciting Friday night, I know you are all jealous!

Ugh, stupid ISO

I was messing with my camera and reading stuff online about ISO settings and when it was appropriate to use ISO 800 and, etc....well, I set it to that, thinking that I'd get better pictures with it on that setting....WRONG. I figured out that was the reason that ALL of my pictures recently were turning out grainy, when they used to be so clear. SOOOOO frustrating since ALL of the pics in Mexico, Cap 10K and book club, were all taken on this yucky setting.

Oh well, good news is that GOOGLE, once again, saved the day, and I found out the reason, and it's been fixed. Back to the days of nice clear pictures. :)

Rodeo Austin...and Taylor Hicks

My friend, Rick, is a HUGE Taylor Hicks fan....has been since the last season of Idol started. Back when it was in the beginning stages last season, I told Rick that I also really liked Taylor. I thought he was different and would go far in the competition. Over the course of AI, I got about 3 emails a week from Rick with the latest news on what Taylor had done, what people were saying about him, etc, etc, etc. Well, he won, as I am sure most of America knows at this point. So, when Taylor was in town last time, Rick asked me if I wanted to join him for the concert at Antone's. I went, and had a great time....Taylor put on a great show, in typical TH form, complete with the funky dance moves and with his old band. So, when Rick found out Taylor was going to be in town for the Austin Rodeo, he asked me to go. We headed out there a little bit early to enjoy the rodeo. The cowboys, the bull riders, horse riders, etc, were so entertaining. Taylor on the other hand, IMHO, wasn't so much. This time he was performing the songs from his album, the ones that the producers made him do, ones that were so snoozefest to me. It was very appropriate to most of the audience though....I think that I might have been the youngest person there. I felt bad for him, because you could almost see that he was also bored, and missing where he came from. But what do I know. But regardless of the show, it's always fun to hang out with Rick Stein. :)

Just incase this ever happens to you...

I was in the middle of working, typing along like crazy, and then all of the sudden my screen went blank....and when it came back, it was sideways!!! I tried to fix it but gave up and just shut down. I thought that maybe when I started back up, it'd be normal, but no go. So, thank goodness for Google. SO.....if you accidentally hit a bunch of keys and end up with your laptop screen staring back at you in a new portrait landscape, Ctrl-Alt-Arrow will get you back to normal viewing. :)

Need Digits?

A few days ago, I was looking for something in a cabinet, and in the process of sorting through all of the stuff in there, I pulled out a ridiculous number of phone books! I threw away the outdated ones and after the recycle bin was full, put the rest of them back. And THEN, another one came on the doorstep just another day later! I mean, who needs phone books anymore with the internet. Just can't imagine who still thinks that paying money to make and advertise in a phone book is good business.

AMALAH in Austin TX!

Corey and I have been reading Amy's blog, www.amalah.com, for a little over a year. She, and her adorable family, live in DC and keep us entertained daily. I was so excited when I saw her post saying that she was coming to Austin for SXSW. Even more exciting was that a reader, Jennifer, was having a little party at her house, so dorky readers like me could come meet Amy. Kara and I headed over to a part of Austin that neither of us had been before, and went to hang out with complete strangers. What a strange feeling to be around someone that you feel like you know everything about, and she has NO idea who you are. I hadn't even ever posted a comment on her site...I was just one of the stalker readers. Anyways, it was a great day, and really neat to meet in person someone that had shared her life with me for so long.

Mega Zeros (I didn't get to quit my job)

So, a few friends had this great idea to each put in a sum of money (I'll leave the ridiculous amount undisclosed) and purchase a large amount of MegaMillions lottery tickets. We all got together and went through all the tickets.....bottom line, we didn't win the big one. We DID come out with $42, but not enough to warrant me quitting my job. Boo.