House update

Stopped by the house last night...septic system is almost completed (tanks in, drainage trenched and laid out) and internal plumbing is going in. All the tubs/showers have been installed, so we're excited about seeing something in the house rather than studs and windows. Jen will be able to do laps in her bathtub in the master bath, so she's excited about that. Not to mention the girls can't wait to use the tub as well, so there may be some fighting on who gets to use the big tub on batch nights.

Septic should finish today with inspection tomorrow. Siding should start going up today as well. We have our meeting with the construction foreman tomorrow to discuss lighting placement, wall outlets, phone and cable outlets, etc. Should be fun.

Signed up to take some local classes at the Home Depot on laying tile and ideas for a wireless house this weekend...should be fun.

Survived the big lay-off here at work last week. Trying to recover now and get the new boss up to speed on what I'm doing...always fun to train the boss on what to do.

ttfn.

Quick Friday update

On the house front, the kitchen pantry issue has been resolved. KHov made an error that we were able to prove on the size and location of the pantry, so no change order and the pantry has been moved already. HVAC is supposed to get started today...Jen is at the house now checking to see if they are there and to discuss placement of the furnace so we can get as much finishable space in the basement as possible.

Well is finished...they had to go 309 feet to hit water, but we're getting 50 gallons a minute and everything is set there. Meeting the setic company this afternoon to discuss septic system and they should start next week. So things are moving along.

More over the weekend....ttfn.

Wednesday update

Quick update before heading off to lunch....

Work
Dismal day at work....can't say much here, but let's just say it starts with RE and ends with ORG. Many stressed individuals siting around waiting for the phone to ring.

House
Jen had to bear the brunt of two days of house issues. Apparently the 48 inch kitchen pantry that was approved via change order 3 months ago never made it to the the final blueprints, so we currently have a 32 inch pantry in the kitchen. KHov has agreed that it should be 48 inches and are trying to figure out what to do.....duh, move wall 16 inches and be done with it.

Also having issues with the well....contractor has been there since Monday morning drilling our well. As of last night around 7pm they were approaching 300 ft with no water....not sure where they stand today or what the cost or next steps are. more to follow

Poker
Actually played some poker over the weekend and while in NJ. Have worked the $10 from UB up to almost $70 via some profitable sessions at the low stake NL tables and by winning a prestigious and action packed $2 SNG (18 man) on Monday night while in NJ. Decided the bankroll could afford the $2 entry fee for the chance to win $18....ohhhhhhhhh.

First hand - AA in the BB, no action to speak of, but won the pot. Sounds like a good start, but hopefully don't peak early with good hands and then go dead later on.
Proceed to get a steady stream of solid hands, or hitting on cheap flops. I mean, who doesn;t love getting a free flop in the BB with Q2os and seeing Q-Q-2 flop and then bust a dude that slowplayed AA. Anyway, steered clear of confronting other big stacks and focused on pressuring the short stacks as we wound down to the final table. Once there (top 3 paid), again just biding time, picked up small pots by exerting big stack pressure and stayed in the top 3 of chips. Bubble boy went out when my pocket 22 spiked the set on the flop and a boat on the turn to bust his AA when he went all in on the flop. Put me in the chip lead (~10k-8k-6k) traded chips back and forth a bit, as one guy was playing pretty solid poker and not willing to roll over and let me push him around constantly.
Everything was going pretty slow when he suddenly pushes from the SB...button had called the blind and action was to me in the BB looking at Q-10s. His push felt like a weird play with the tempo the table had been keeping....mid-pair or AK was what my brain screamed to me. I paused for a sec to consider....I had him covered by about 3k, so not out of it if I loose and can still play with the 3k. Have already made the money (not that a $1 profit was exciting, but hell...its a max profit of $16, so WTF). I make the call, button folds and we see a flop. UB has modified their all in program by not showing cards until after the river. So I see a open ended straight on the flop with 1 spade (K-J-x), a second spade on the turn and then a lovely A on the river for a straight. cards are revealed to see him with AKos and top two pair and a loosing hand. Pot gets raked to me and he explodes. Berates me for making the call, telling me I knew I was beat and such. I tell him that I was only slightly behind pre-flop, ended up with a ton of outs on flop and turn and nailed a winner. He's steaming from a terrible play on his part (IMHO) by pushing with AKos. Sure, my call was WAY loose, but WTF, it's not like this was for millions of dollars or anything. Anyway, I end up crushing the remaining player in heads-up when he pushes into my A9 suited with K-10 and I catch an A on the flop to win the tourney....wheeee....$16 in profit for the hour of work.

So, I'm happy to be playing some poker for a change as well as WoW. Nothing exciting on that front, as haven't really played since the weekend.

Time for lunch now....ttfn.

House pics

For anyone checking this out...here are some pics of the house as it has progressed.

Pouring footers back in June

Broken driveway conduit...now completly clogged and acting as a dam when it rains.

Foundation getting put in place.

Back of house with completed roof (July 16).

View down upstairs hallway looking into master bedroom and closet, master bath is to the right of the closet. Alan's room is the doorway that you can see on the right.

Ashley snuck into this pic of the great room...I'm standing in the kitchen lookin at the fireplace, sliding door to backyard on left.

Pic of house and family on July 16...the missing windows are what were stolen from the house that night. Apparently they were left out so that the roofers could get access to the house from the second level. Payments and orders for replacements were made yesterday, so hopefully things will get turned around quickly. House now has a roof on it, pics of that coming this weekend.

F&^%ing Rat Bastards

Well...I had planned on getting some pictures up of the new house in progress. Took some interior and exterior shots last night, but just didn't get the pics loaded yet....be patient, they'll be up soon.

Roof was up yesterday, with tar paper and shingles scheduled for today (weather permitting). Starting to look like a home now and we're very excited.

But, here is the fiasco that was this morning. Apparently some local scumbags decided to rob the house last night, taking a service door, two bedroom windows and the foyer 3-window piece that were all not yet installed on the house. Have to figure on 2-4 guys to do this, as the big window was upstairs waiting for installation and had to come back down the stairs.

Get so pissed when I even think about all of this....and I'm in NJ so I'm completly of no use in helping Jen work through the police, insurance and construction issues that have come up. Biggest concern at this point is the potential delay in siding the house waiting for the custom windo to get reordered and delivered, not to mention the potential weather damage with 3 days of rain scheduled for this week. Contractor is trying to board up the windows and install doors and locks to secure the house as best we can against future break-ins. May have to push to get the security system installed earlier or start sleeping at the house once some of the interior pieces start getting delivered.

I hope they all stepped on nails and have hernias today from their 'work' last night.

No other news worth reporting at this point....ttfn

Weekend update

Hey all...actually have some poker news. UB has tried to lure me back to the site by putting some free cash in my account.....a whopping $10. Wow...that makes me want to come and play ona site, a free $10......

ok, so it worked....I had UB up and running about 10 seconds after reading the email. Played some 0.25/0.10 NL ($10 max) and I think I'm up to about $25 now, which includes a $10 loss yesterday morning when my JK suited in the BB called a pre-flop raise to $1 (heads-up, as everyone folded). Play on the table was pretty LAG, as it was 6 handed and the pre-flop was typiclaly raised to about $1 every hand by someone. So I called and watched a flop come out K-K-6, giving me trips with a decent kicker. We both checked the flop as I tried to see what he would do (for reference, I had $9-10, he had $35), no continuation bet indicated he was either slowplaying something big or the KK on the flop had him scared. I checked a turn of a 9, no flush or straight on the board, he put in a $2 pot sized bet, I come over the top for $5, he insta-pushes. Now the only hands that have me worried at this point are AK, KQ or that he boated up on the 9 or 6 with a small pocket pair. Would love to say that I made a smart laydown, but with only about $3 left, I called to see him flip AKos and take the pot with a bigger kicker....not really upset about it though...

I rebuy with my last $16 and play around a bit (hey...not like it's my money). Few hands later, I see AQs in the BB and have the button make an overly aggressive push (had not seen this move from him yet) for about $8. I contemplate folding the nice had when the SB folds...but remember a conversation the other night at a poker dealing gig that 10-10/J-J are pretty much all-in or fold hands pre-flop in some games. So I put him on one of these two hands and know that I'm in a 50-50 race with my suited AQ. I call, watch a georgus A hit the flop with one spade, a second on the turn gives me extra outs if i need them (UB doesn't flip the cards immediately on all-ins for some reason). River produces a blank and we flip....he has 10-10 and I take down a nice pot, recouping most of the $10 I lost above.

Played a few more hands and won a couple of small pots with pre-flop raises and continuation bets on blank boards. Then left with my account back to the $25 or so that I started with.

In other news...we ate our first meal at the new house on Sat....burgers from the local burger joint on a blanket in the great room of the house. How cool. The second floor is up (walls only). Figuring they will be putting up the roof today. Will have pics tonight, as I was able to find the USB cord for the digital camera over the weekend.

Not much else....pulled 3 garbage bags of weeds from the front flower bed with the girls yesterday, looks less like a jungle now and we can see the flowers. Girls did a good job helping, found a toad living in the garden that fascinated them. Looked like he was having a good time with all the bugs around that we were kicking up...not sure where he came from though.

Off to NJ tomorrow through Thursday, so will update as I can. ttfn.

Wow...2 month break

Well....can't make any excuses, just haven't had the desire to update. That's not to say that there hasn't been a ton going on. Will work over the next few days to provide moe details, but here are the highlights...

- sold the house in Reynoldsburg and moved to Johnstown, OH.
- Construction has begun on the new house. Hope to move in Oct.
- Been to China again, caught flu virus that had me crying like a baby.
- No poker to speak of....played in a freeroll here and there, but with no cash to focus on messing with playing poker online, just hasn't been any fun.
- Still playing Warcraft with friends.....Martello is lvl 70 and working on pimping his gear. Drop him a hello if you play on Emerald Dreams.
- Kids are getting big...trying to wrap my head around having a 7, 5 & 2 year old in a few short months.....hard to believe they are getting so big so fast.

That's it in a nutshell.....so if you're checking here for poker content, don;t expect to find any soon. If you're family and friends, I hope to start getting back into the swing of things of updating more frequently.

Take care all.....ttfn.
Mike