It's not a Five-Assed Monkey but....

May I introduce the Four-Eared Cat!

It looks kind of evil. So does the cat.

Birthdays hurt

We went out last night to celebrate my birthday since Niki will be working on Tuesday night. It was just the two of us and my friend Cesar. We stuffed ourselves silly (at least I did) at Sushi+Sake at Green Valley Ranch and then wandered over to Quinn's for some beer. Unfortunately, Quinn's no longer has the Sunday $2 Guinness deal. I guess that was a blessing in disguise because, since I wasn't tied to cheap Guinness, I got to explore my options and discovered they have Murphy's (my new favorite) on tap. I already had 2 Irish Car Bombs, 1.5 Guinness, and 3 Murphy's when Cesar and I decided to play Beer Pong. I was pretty hammered after 2 rounds in which I drank about a pitcher of Smithwick's. We had a lot of fun.
Today I am paying for it. Some day I will learn that I shouldn't drink like that on a Sunday. For now I just wish I could curl up some place dark and quiet.

Xerox Poker League update #1

Friday was the first Xerox Poker League game. Seven out of nine current players showed with two expected absences. Unless another person joins, which is doubtful considering they would be at a one game disadvantage, the new payout structure will be $500/300/100 for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively.
I hit a setback early on but maintained a viable chip stack by playing conservatively while the blinds were low. About half way through the game, I was dealt a suited K-9 and the flop (Q-10-6) gave me an open ended straight draw. When 5th St. revealed a J, I checked to feign weakness and invite an aggressive play for the pot. Somebody went all in thinking his trip 10s would hold even if he got called. That win made me the chip leader by a small margin. As the blinds went up, I started to play more aggressively and turned my modest chip lead into a massive stack.
When it got down the to final three, my old boss (Jesse) who was short stacked went all in and got a quick call by the other player (James). I was big blind, was getting very good pot odds, had a chance to take 1st in one hand, and had pocket 10s to boot. It would have been stupid not to call. James sucked out on the river with a straight eliminating Jesse and tripling up.
I still had a huge lead but one double up for James would make him a big threat. We went back and forth stealing each other's blinds for a few hands when James finally went all in. I had A-2 suited which is a pretty good hand in heads up poker and I didn't put him on a great hand. I took my time contemplating my options and eventually made the call. James flipped over a K-9 off suit and the race was on. I thought I was sunk when a K showed up in the flop. The turn was a blank and everybody was about to congratulate James when a glorious A hit the river. I won $50 for the night and a big 10pts towards the final payout.

Pineapple Express

I'm not quite sure how to feel about Pineapple Express. Parts of it were extremely funny, some parts not so funny, and some just plain awkward. I laughed my ass off but I'm not so sure it was good. Maybe it is because of the schizophrenic genre hopping. Maybe it would help if took a couple bong rips before I watched it. Maybe I just need more time to let it marinate in my brain. I don't know. Judge for yourself.

Shuffle up and deal

I have joined a small poker league consisting of me and probably nine other Xerox employees. Each player buys in to the league for $100 which goes toward the final payout. We will play one game a month for six month, each with a $10 buy in for that night's pot. Points will be awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places in each game. The three players with the most points after six games will split the final payout 60/30/10%.
It should be a lot of fun. It also doesn't hurt that I will be schmoozing with a bunch of managers. I have played with most of them before and, if past performance is any indication, I should at least place.
Updates to follow.