Tuesday

Thank goodness for long weekends. We all spent a much needed, nice relaxing weekend together. Went to the Newport Aquarium on Saturday...for anyone in the area, it's an easy drive (just over the Ohio River into Kentucky from Cincy) and is a very nice aquarium. The girls loved seeing all the fish, sharks, manta rays, etc swimming around. Danielle kept calling the fish by name from "Finding Nemo", so that was very cute. Well worth the trip for anyone looking for a fun and educational day trip. The area around the aquarium is very nice...very 'Easton-like', with restaurants, shops, live bands playing, etc....very cool.

Was able to attend the local poker game on Saturday night....47 players over at Bishop's house for a great game hosted by Hammer, Wendy, Bishop and Julie. I made it down to the final 11-12 on the evening and got eaten by the blinds...ended up pushing my stack all in with the blinds at 3000-6000 from the small blind for an extra 7000....ended up with 4 callers all just trying to get me off the table...my pocket 8s almost made it, as the board ended up with a 4 card club flush to give me the 8 high club flush, but one of the other callers had Jc5h to take down the pot and end my run for the night. I've been wondering if I should have limped in, let the BB dictate the action and possibly push a couple of the guys out for me....as I think the guy with J5 would have folded if someone else would have bet out, either pre-flop or post flop, as he had nothing at that point....if he's out of the hand, I win the pot and stay alive in the game....oh well...any suggestions from anyone on how to play the hand?

Dad made the road trip down to see Jen yesterday for her birthday, which was very nice of him. Course, getting to see the girls and all was a bonus for him as well. Unfortunately he was fixated on the issues with he and mom again, so ended up a pretty stressful day for me. I will be very happy when this is all over with and he can get on with his life.

Short, but busy, week coming up...Jen work Wed, Sat, Sunday this week and if probably headed for Toledo on Thursday/Friday for her dad's surgery. Not sure what I'll be doing...hopefully finding a poker game somewhere...lol. Have a great week everyone.

Friday lunchtime post

Just hanging out for a few minutes waiting for the girls to arrive here at work for lunch. Really looking forward to it, as it's been a long time since the girls were in the building, and it's always fun to show them off a bit.
Today was Danielle's last day of school for the summer...hope to have pictures later today for everyone. I'm sure she'll be pretty sad when she realizes that she doesn't go to school anymore, but they have some summer sessions for the kids, so she'll get to see all of her friends over the summer.

nothing real exciting planned for the weekend at this point...hoping for a day trip with the family to do something fun on Sat or Sun...maybe the aquarium in KY or something...will depend on Jen's sister coming into town or not. Anyway, girls should be pulling up any second...gotta go get them.

Back home...finally

Hello everyone....I am so happy to be back home after two weeks of jet setting all over New York and New Jersey. Nothing fun to report on the trip except for some great meals on the company dime....can't beat Ruth Chris' Steakhouse when you don't have to pick up the tab......and to be honest, Hooters is pretty cool as well when money is no object....the wings were great, the beer was cold and the...um...game on the TV was great...if only those waitresses would have stopped walking by the whole time, I might be able to tell you who was playing....

Anyway, no trips scheduled for the next couple of weeks at this point, but I would expect that will change soon, as I know I'll be spending the better part of a week in Virginia sometime in June, and probably a week or so in California in late June/early July as well....and who knows how many 1-2 day trips as I work to chop out the GMP audits from the rest of the vendors.

Life is good otherwise, was great coming home to Jen and the girls last night...got to watch the season finale of Alias, which is a FANTASTIC show for anyone that has missed it over the past 3 seasons....great mix of James Bond type adventure, intrigue, plot twists and character interactions that have meda for a great show....and every few episodes, Jennifer Garner ends up in a teddy or such, which helps me to keep tuning in every week.

Nothing new on the poker front...trying to lay off for a few days and try and get my head back on straight with the game....been kicking myself for the terrible play last weekend when I was pretty depressed...learned a valuable and expensive lesson over those couple of days. Have a couple of freerolls this weekend, so hopefully I can do well in them and get back in the swing of things. Hopeing to attend the league game next Tuesday night as well here in Columbus....nothing like freerolls.

Finally, for any family and friends reading this, make sure and remember that Monday is Jen's Birthday...Make sure to call or send a card for her.

Monday in NJ

Hello everyone...sorry for the sporadic updates the past week or so, but with the travel schedule over the last week, I haven't had time to sit a collect my thoughts long enough to sit and type anything coherent.

Anyway, poker has been a drag lately....reloaded my last $200 in profits on Sat and promptly doubled it Sat morning, so I thought I was back in the swing of things...then between Sat evening waiting for the guys to show up and Sunday evening, I promptly gave it all back....so I'm sitting at about $50 on UB and that's it....going to try and avoid playing from the hotel room for the next couple of nights and get my head back on straight...watched myself go on major tilt last night...playing each hand like a crazy man and just giving away my last $100...was sad to see, as I normally recognioze tilt and have the discipline to stop playing, but I was in a very bad mood last night after talking to my dad and just didn't give a damn about the poker....which is a very bad recipe for playing effective poker. So...lesson learned...

As I mentioned, last night pretty much sucked after talking to my dad....as some of you gusy know, my folks have decided to seperate after 40 years of marriage and I am just not dealing well with it....strange, I'm 36, and you would think I could deal with this better. jen and I talked last night about it, and she confessed that she has seen the change in me, especially after I talk to my Dad and get all the gory details of the current state of affairs between he and mom....I haven't slept well since before Christmas and I tend to have a much shorter fuse the normal, especially when dealing with Danielle and Ashley....not that I have that much of a temper, but I tend to be very short on the patience and less able to deal with the needs of the two little ones...I guess hearing that Jen sees it and I admitted to it (as well as typing it here) is helping me confront the issue to some degree....we'll see.

I guess the real issue at this point is to have it out with my mom....as she really seems to be pushing the envelope of fairness in her dealings with dad and the devision of their assets...not to mention that she has avoided discussing any of the details from the last 6 months with me leaves me pretty indifferent to her plight...given that she has shown little remorse for moving back to PA and has apparently found someone new there, her treatment of dad and the rest of the family has been pretty dreadful. I'm probably going to giver her a call tonight and try to discuss these issues, as I can't have them effecting my life like this anymore....wish me luck.

Enough of this....hope everyone is happy and healthy....later.

Long Week...Finally Friday

Whew...what a week....spent 3 1/2 days in NJ assisting in a vendor audit. Lots of long days and time spent reviewing files and SOP at the supplier...glad to be home. Of course, I'm heading back to NJ on Monday morning for another three day stint with auditing two additional vendors. No much fun to be had, and I'll be missing Jen and the girls again.

Ashley is on her way to becoming potty trained.....YEAH!!!!!! She had her first positive experience in the big potty yesterday afternoon, and has been working at it again today, so hopefully she'll get the hang of this soon and we'll be able to stop buying diapers for a few months at least.

Jen had a check up today with the baby...everything tested out fine...baby's heartrate was strong and Jen is doing well with BP and such. Her energy level is coming back a bit, so that's a plus as well.

We're headed down to Circleville tomorrow on a whim to look at an old house on the market. Circleville is about 30 minutes south of Columbus on Rt 23...we're not real serious about buying something further south, but the house and price look very inviting...we'll see when we look through it tomorrow.

Poker has been a drag this past week....down about $450 over the last week total...feels like a 'cashout curse' from UB....I had almost $900 in my account....pulled $400 out to set aside my car payment fund and to clear a bonus on bodog.com (got $100 bonus, but cost my $110 to clear it...go figure...was up initially, but hit a few beats of loosing boat against boat and K high flush to A high flush and dropped some profit). Anyway, UB has been the same way over the last few days while in NJ...was able to play via the hotel connection and was just getting terrible cards...lost most of the cash getting nickle and dimed on the $5/10 table with seeing flops with AK/AQ/KQs, etc and missing, or catching mid-pocket pairs and watching the flop hit AKJ...last hand (and my last $100) went on a hand of 88, a flop of 6-8-4 rainbow, I had raised pre-flop from late position and had 4 callers, checked to me and I bet post flop...got 2 callers and a raise, so I smooth called him and everyone stayed in...I figured he had a AK or a A6 suited and was going after middle pair with high kicker. Turn brought a 3, which I figured was no help...first two guys checked, guy to my right bets, I raise...both checkers fold and he reraises me, I cap the bet at $40 and he calls. River brings a 5, so now there is a one card straight on the board(7), but not much else....he bets, I raise, he reraises and I call my last $10 to see him flip over 77 to beat my set of 8s with the straight off the river. He collected a nice $165 pot and then proceeded to mock my play on the hand.....saying I should have known I was beat. My argument was that I had top set, and only a handful of cards beat me (any 7 or 2 for a straight...no flush on the board) and that he was an idiot for over betting a small pair the way he did....but he got lucky and I left the table....oh well....that's poker.

Not much else to discuss....some of the guys (Tom, Chris, Fitzy, Tom, etc) are coming over tomorrow afternoon for an afternoon of poker/Risk 2210...so that's going to be a blast. Have a great weekend everyone.

Monday morning - quick update

well...I hope everyone had a better aggregate weekend than I did. While Sat was a great day with Danielle's activities and such (even tempered by the poker loss), Sunday pretty much sucked rocks. I had the pleasure of spending the day with my dad (which was a great thing) but we spent it hauling stuff out of my parnets home due to the impending disillusion of my parents marriage after 40 years. So the wash of emotions of carrying stuff out of the house I grew up with has me in a pretty tenuous emotional state today. Was very surreal....looking at the couches I slept on, bedroom I grew up in, kitchen I learned to cook in, etc, etc etc, most likely for the last time. The memories are almost overwhelming at this point, even as I type this at work on Monday morning. Have to head to a meeting now...more later if I have time.

Sat night update

WHAT A DAY!!!!!! We started a rainy day here in Columbus with Danielle's first gymnastics Olympiad this morning at 10am. She was fantastic, did some of her tumbles better than I've seen in awhile, and is real close to mastering her cartwheel. She was also hamming it up for the crowd and LOVED being the center of attention...I have NO idea where she gets that from, as Jen and I don't like performing or speaking to crowds,
Next up was a birthday party for one of her classmates at Magic Mountain. An afternoon of games, face painting, pizza, cake and indoor playground equipment...Danielle was in heaven playing with her classmates. Jen and Ashley stayed home to nap (Jen had to work this evening). Danielle and I played some skeeball and kid's Pop-a-shot (she made her first shot too), then came home. After Jen went to work the girls requested hot dogs (big surprise there) and watched some movies while I cleaned up the kitchen. Then they helped me sweep and pick-up the play-room, so it looks like we have a house again...YEAH!!!

Played some poker today with dismal results....lost about $250 while playing some $2/4 and $5/10 on Bodog (really don't like the site...very slow interface), won back $90 back on UB, so not as bad as it could have been....still have the next few car payments pulled aside, so that's pretty cool.

I did manage to win a freeroll on bodog last night to win a seat in the lowest level of qualifiers on bodog last night....get a Bodog calendar and a poker book as well...so that was cool. Played in the qualifier today and just finished a few minutes ago, making the final 10 and qualifying for the next level up...if I finish high enough in the next qualifier, I win a seat in the $200 WSOP qualifier, with the winner getting a seat in the $10,000 WSOP Main Event....so, I'll keep you posted over the next week, as I'm traveling and not sure when I'll get to play again.

Time for bed now....later.

Performing on the parallel bars....she did great on everything today....made us very proud.

Waiting for her next routine...and obviously paying attention to something other than me. 

Posing before a routine....I love the shy, "who me" look...she was quite the ham today, I hope the film pics catch some of it. 

The first of many medals for our young gymnast. 

Finally Friday

Wheeee....finally Friday. Nothing much new to report. The meeting yesterday with the local stone/etching company went well, but the price point for the stones is still going to be an issue. I've found a source to get the stones in quantity, now I just need to come up with the stock designs and find someone that can etch them for the right price...unfortunately not as easy as it sounds...if I had the capital, I'd buy an etching laser and do it myself, but I don't have the resources to lay out that kind of money.

One request from my faithful readers...I'm looking for designs to use on the stones as stock pieces...would like at least 6-8 designs, but can really do as many as I want, as they would get loaded into the etching computer and then just called up as needed. Any artists out there that can make cool, simple designs that would translate well to the etching process...should be simple and clear, without much fine detail. Just drop me a line at mvilla@insight.rr.com with any thoughts or ideas.

new PokerStones...see pics below

Below are the newest pics from my new PokerStones....I'm hoping to have a web site up and running soon on the web to start taking orders. Will have 6-8 basic designs for personalization at the base price (hopefully around $20-25) then extra charge depending on teh amount of customization...can get as detailed as photo-quality etching. These are black granite, but can also do the same with black marble or acrylic, glass, etc.....very cool stuff.

More later...time for Survivir and CSI tonight.

Different design, but still looks very nice. 

New sized stone....logo and everything...just a bit larger than a regular poker chip...YEAH! 

Side View of new Stone....a little out of focus, but you get the idea. 

Made it....wheeee

My presentation went well last night...won't say spectacular or anything, as there were some rough spots in the flow of the presentation, but had a very attentive audience that seemed very interested in what I was describing as the cultural changes going on in our business to elevate brand quality into everything we do. Sounds easy on paper, but to try and change business practices and evolve the way co-workers go about their daily tasks is time consuming and relentless.

But enough about that...the presentation went well and I was happy with it...was amazed that I talked for almost an hour...time just flew by once I got started.

On to more exciting news...I have a meeting today with a local business that I'm hoping can help me get the PokerStones business up and running. They should have some etched samples for me to look at and a price point for the stones and etching to discuss. I'm really excited, as I think I have about 10-20 orders lined up with local poker players if these end up and nice as I'm hoping they will be. Also, I believe the imaging techniques that this company uses will allow for the image transfer of photo quality images onto the stone, so I could get a pic of all the kids on one side and some text on the other, or who knows...the possibilities become endless at that degree of detail....should be really cool if I can pull this off. more details tomorrow after the meeting.

Also...need to make a shout out to my buddy Dave and point everyone to his blog...very entertaining to read about a guy getting beat up by 12 year old girls in karate training...enjoy. http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=theBruce58
Thanks for the kind words yesterday Dave....hell, I was just happy to know someone out there is actually reading this stuff I'm typing.

Today is the day

Tonight is the night of my ASQ presentation, so send me some luck/good fortune tonight around 6pm. I have put together a pretty nice PowerPoint presentation, so I think it will go well.

Rob and Amber didn't win the Amazing Race last night, but they did make for great TV for the past 10 weeks or so. My gal Jennifer Garner is on tonight (hopefully I'll make it home in time)...I'm just hoping that the rumors about her pregnancy with Ben Afflick are false....he's such a dweeb. At least Survivor finishes this week as well, so Jen and I will have more evenings free from watching TV as much as we do in the evenings.

No poker at all the past few days....by the time I've gotten the girls to bed the past couple of nights, I've been in no state of mind to play poker online. I was hoping to deal at a charity event this Friday, but apprently it's been cancelled, so that's out now. There is also suppoed to be a poker tourney on Sunday at OSU, but I think I'll be back in Toledo helping Dad finish moving...not exactly how I want to spend a Sunday, but I'm sure he'll be happy to have all of the events of the past 6 months behind him and be able to get on with his life...I know I will be happy about it as well.

Time to head to work now...

Time flies

When you're way too busy, hardly had any time to even play poker the last few days...

Well...Hardly.....heh.

Played for a bit on Saturday morning...had a freeroll on UB sponsored by Cardplayer.com...went out on the third hand when my pocket 8's hit the set on the flop and a guy called me down to the river and hit a straight....I was playing very aggressive, as there were 700+ registered for the tourney, but only 260 actually showed to play, so I was hoping to take out someone early and coast to the money, but it was not to be....oh well. Was able to make another car payment on the $5/10 tables on UB in pretty short order....I've covered my first 4 car payments now in the week since I bought the car, so that money has been pulled from UB and is sitting in my Neteller account until the end of the month....So sweet to have that taken care of and not have to worry about it for the next 4 months.

Also, for anyone that is reading this and doesn't know already, Jen and I are expecting our third child in late November. Danielle is excited, but Ashley may have some adjusting to do, as she likes being the baby of the house I think.

Work is keeping me busy...I'm speaking on Wednesday evening at the local American Society of Quality monthly meeting on "Quality at Bath & Body Works"...Mostly talking on the history of the company and the strides we've taken to develop a corporate quality culture over the last 4 years...Hopefully it goes over well.


Nothing else to report....not sure if I'll be online tonight to play or not....may just veg on the couch after the girls go to bed and watch some WWE Raw....Also, I have to give a huge plug for http://www.pokertrails.com/ for the package I received in the mail today...Apparently I won a monthly drawing on their site and picked up the complete DVD collection of the season 2 WPT tourneys...how sweet is that....22 hours of poker coverage with no commercials....way cool.

The start of another week

Well...another week is upon us. Going to be a busy week at the Villa household...One of my best friends from back in WV is in town for the week. Jason arrived late yesterday and should be coming over tonight to catch up with all of us. My brother and his family will arrive later this evening to stay over and catch a flight to SC tomorrow as he continues his job search...I'm sure they'll love their visit to SC...going to miss seeing them if they move that far away though, but I've never visited SC, so will be a great excuse to do some travelling this summer. Elisa and Gunner (their daughter and Golden Retriever) will be staying with us for a couple of days, so Danielle and Ashley will have a ton of fun getting to spend some time with their cousin.

Had a nice quick session on UB $5/10 yesterday morning...16 minutes, 26 hands, won 7 and cleared $130, so that about covers next months car payment....going to try and cover the car payments with poker winnings each month and see how that works out...don't need to financially, but going to try it and see what happens....so far, so good.

Sat evening

Just a quick update for the day...placed 3rd in a WAPt event today, netting a nice $60 for a freeroll event. Decided to trade in the Explorer for a new Ford Focus...needed something better for mileage and reliabilty, and the Explorer was starting to need some work, so this was a win/win for us...

More tomorrow.