Monday night I had my usual poor showing at poker. This time my big bonehead play was moving all-in with pocket three's when somebody else at the table was a short enough stack to be pot-committed with their big blind. The reason this is so bad is because 33 isn't a big favorite against any random hand except 22, so I was basically putting myself in a lousy position since the other guy was gonna have to call anyway. If there was a chance I could have taken the pot down without any resistance it would have been fine, but obviously that wasn't the case. Then of course the guy who calls me has KK, but that was just to drive home the badness of my play. It wasn't long after that that I was eliminated.
Ultimate frisbee league tonight. The second week of my captaining. I'm gonna try hard this time to use the white board.
Nobody's at work, as per usual. It's been very frustrating so far with everybody in Walker's group being gone at the same time. I hope they get back soon.
Well, making pies is fine. The part that I can't stand is making the crust, because I am completely incapable of making a thin, even crust. I just don't get along with rolling pins.
In brighter news, here is the last entry from our road trip:
So, my last entry ended Friday, May 19, around 5 or 6pm. After Tiff got back from her run, we spent a little more time hanging around the area. While lieing down on a nearby dock, I decided to do some back exercises, since camping is not conducive to such activity. In the process my cell phone nearly fell into the lake. Thankfully, the space between the wood planks wasn't large enough, or I would have been in deep trouble.
After that, we ate dinner at a dark restaurant called The Rhinelander, or something like that. The main thing I remember about it was that there wasn't much light from the outside world, or from the available lamps either. Also, Tiff and I are cheap dates -- I got a burger and she got a chicken salad sandwich type thing. I think both were the cheapest items available.
Once we finished eating, it was time to head out of Rhinelander. We went straight south first, but then we reached a "fork in the road", and had to choose to continue south to Madison or head east to the coast of Lake Michigan. We eventually decided to stretch the road trip a bit longer and go east. We figured we could camp somewhere between Green Bay and Chicago and make the trip to Midway airport a bit easier the next day.
After a lot of driving, including looking for a Dairy Queen for over an hour and not finding a single one off the highway, we stopped at Kohler-Andrae State Park just after 11pm. We were very concerned that the park would be closed like the other Wisconsin park we tried to stay at earlier. Fortunately, however, the park was open and we rolled into an available spot. As Tiff was setting up the tent and I was filling out the registration form, a ranger came up to us and informed us that unregistered guests couldn't stay after 11pm. Because we were so exhausted from driving and we didn't know the nearest that we could stay at was, we were desperate. However, I wasn't bold enough to advocate for a bending of the rules. Fortunately, Tiff was. Also, fortunately, the ranger was willing to bend the rules for us after a bit of pleading. So, we ended up spending the night there.
We woke up early the next morning, around 7am, and packed up in about 16 minutes I think. A record for us, but we were concerned that the group that had the spot we stayed in might come early in the morning. We ate breakfast on the coast of Lake Michigan. Tiff tried to spot the other end of the lake with binoculars, but apparently it's not possible. We then drove right out of Wisconsin and down into Chicago. I thought we gave ourselves plenty of time to get to Midway airport, but we ended up needing all of it, since there was a lot of traffic and I wasn't driving very aggressively. Fortunately, I think Tiff managed to drive away from the airport without encountering any traffic at all!
So it was definitely a great road trip. I'm hoping to have a road map showing where we went and pictures of the places we visited posted soon.
I got a haircut yesterday. The only mildly interesting thing about this entry is the part where I lament about how I am unable to get the haircutter person to leave my hair long enough on the top. I said, "I want it to be a little longer on the top". She says, "Oh yeah, of course, blah blah blah." And then once it's all over it's just too short. Apparently, I need a more specific thing to say, like make it so it's three inches on the top, or something. It's the sort of thing that ranks up there with my inability to buy shoes or clothes that fit.
So summer league started last night. I'm the captain, but I'm feelin' mighty sick (good ol' Grand Funk Railroad). Actually, I'm feeling pretty good about being a captain. I didn't get to pick the team, but I think everyone has a pretty good attitude and we should have a fun season. We did lose both games last night, but they were close and could have gone either way. Also, we have a number of new players that I hope will become better as the season goes on. So there's reason for optimism. One funny thing: I bought a huge white board last weekend for drawing diagrams, and never used it once during the games! I'll have to be more bold next week and get people to circle up for a few minutes of strategy talk.
Since I nominally work in the dome and it's 100 degrees outside, this is a good thing. Fortunately, I've been able to get some stuff done in the lab in the meantime, where the AC is not broken.
I got back in Tucson a few days ago from the road trip with Tiffany. The road trip, btw, was awesome, as they always are. I've attached the third entry from the trip, and I'll be writing the fourth and last entry sometime soon. I plan to upload the pictures to my website in the near future, and also do a road map like I did for the first road trip.
Last night was poker. I didn't do very well, finishing sixth and losing my usual $5. However, the exciting news is that I did a podcast of the tournament! You can grab it from the LPL poker league website. I'd describe it as about 25 minutes of me rambling with other people interjecting about half the time.
Here is the third road trip entry:
Friday, May 19, 2006, 5:17pm.
Tiff is off on a run around the lake near her Grandpa Jimmo's house, so I'm taking the opportunity to write a bit about what we've been doing. I think the last time I made an entry was at the motel in Madison, so I'll pick up the next day, which was Wednesday, I believe. We knew we had a lot to get done that day, so we left the motel as quickly as we could in the morning. I think we were out of there by around 9 or so. Then, we drove back into downtown Madison, where we looked for a Kohl's, to get Tiff a nice jacket for work. The most interesting thing that happened at Kohl's was that the Men's bathroom was being renovated, so I had to go outside to a port-A-potty they had rented. It was a nice one though, with running water and everything.
After Kohl's, we stopped at a bike shop and looked at a few bikes, but Tiff decided she would wait till later to get a bike. At that point, we drove around town, looking at random neighborhoods to find nice places to live while waiting for any of the dozen people Tiff emailed the previous night to get in touch with us. We found a bunch of places with For Rent signs, so Tiff felt better about being able to find a place quickly.
Eventually, we decided to head for campus to check email and see if anyone had responded via email instead of phone. We finally managed to get in touch with a couple people and set up a couple meetings in the afternoon. I ate lunch on the terrace overlooking the lake and Tiff went for a run. And shit, I just remembered that's when I made my blog entry. Fuck.
Ok, now for new information. In the afternoon, we looked at two places. They were both nice, but the big choice for Tiff was living alone or with four roommates. Later that day, she decided she liked the one bedroom place better and chose that one. Housing in Madison is amazingly cheap! She only has to pay $200/month for three months for the summer. That afternoon we took a nap on campus, ate some fantastic ice cream made on campus, and ate our cold dinner leftovers from the previous day, also on campus near the lake around sunset. Then we set off for St. Paul, Minnesota.
We managed to drive about a third of the way there before getting so tired that we had to stop. Unfortunately, the first place we tried was a State park that was closed till Memorial Day. So we stayed at a KOA campgrounds a bit further along the road. It was a fine place to stay, except that it was very close to the highway and was pretty loud at night. We were both so tired that we didn't notice it at all though. The next morning we took a shower and were ready to go.
I called Toots (my great Aunt, or my Dad's Dad's Sister) and Ben (her husband) when we were about two hours away from their place. She was very surprised to hear from me but was happy we were coming. She also gave me directions to find their house. Although she gave good directions, Tiff and I nontheless managed to find a way to get lost for awhile, but eventually we found their house. It's in a really great location on a lake. They have their own dock with a little paddleboat that Tiff and I got to take out on the lake for a spin (it was a blast!). They also have this beautiful extra room at the back of their house that Ben built that has windows on three of its sides and is really fantastic to sit in.
After we talked for a bit about random stuff, we drove over to Dad's cousin Becky's house on the same lake and met them. Unfortunately, their kids weren't around, but it was nice meeting more relatives. We talked for a while their about more random stuff, including the benefits and drawbacks of living in Arizona, since Randy really wants to move there soon to get away from the long cold winters up north. Eventually, it was time for us to go and get back on the road. It was tough to say goodbye to Toots and Ben after such a short time, but that's sort of the way the whole trip has gone: not enough time to do everything for as long as we'd like. Still though, I'm really glad I got to meet them. I feel like I have a connection to my family from Minnesota, where my Dad grew up as a kid, that I didn't have before and I feel a lot better for it.
Our next goal was to get to the Mall of America, where I wanted to buy a twin cities t-shirt of some sort. However, we got lost on the way (typical of our experience in the area the whole day!), so we didn't have much time before the stores closed. We ended up spending the few minutes we had on a roller coaster ride (for 5 bucks each!). It was fun and worth it though, in no small part because we ate too much for dinner and were threatened with the possibility of puking on the ride! That just made it more fun though.
The next stop on the trip was to Roseville, where Dad grew up as a kid. I talked to Dad on the phone (he helped us find the Mall of America) and told him about meeting Toots and Ben, and I also asked him where he grew up in Minnesota. So, he told me where it was and how to get there, but he wasn't entirely sure about the address. He only remembered the number 1257 that popped into his head, and that it was a brick house on the north side of Ryan street, and also that it was near the St. Rose of Lima grade school. Coming from the Mall of America, it took us about half an hour to get to the school, and then another 5 minutes to find 1257 Ryan St. And sure enough, it was a brick house! So that must be where Dad grew up. Unfortunately, it was dark, so we didn't get to take a picture of the house. But Tiff thought she recognized it from a picture I showed her online of Dad in front of his house in Minnesota, so I think it was the same one.
After that, it was finally time to head out of Minnesota. We made it to interstate park, right on the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin, around 11pm. Thankfully, it was open and we stayed the night there. It was another nice park on a river and we enjoyed our stay there. We left around noon (our latest departure time yet), and headed off for Rhinelander, where Tiff's parents are from.
After a lot of driving, we got there around 4pm. Actually, I might as well say we got "here" around 4pm, since we're still here. We saw a bunch of places in Rhinelander, including the house where Tiff's Dad grew up and her Grandpa Jimmo's house on the lake. We took pictures around both houses too. So, Tiff is still on her run and I'm running out of battery power. I think it's time to go.
I'm eating lunch on top of the student union in Madison right now while Tiff is off on a run around the lake. The weather is pretty good right now, with clouds over most of the sky but the temperature just about right. Unfortunately, I just bit my tongue so I'm not feeling so great right now, but it's not too bad. Hmm, looks like it's starting to rain so I'll have to head for cover...
That's better. As I was saying, we're in Madison now. We got here yesterday evening, around 7pm or so. We made pretty good time from Colorado Springs to here, although I guess I was driving too fast because I got my first ever speeding ticket, going 86 on a 65mph highway in Illinois. Fortunately, it'll only be $95, so I'm not too concerned about it. I just have to make sure I don't get any more violations for the next year so my insurance doesn't take a whack.
Getting back to Madison, it is a really beautiful place. The university is right on Lake Mendota and has fantastic views basically all along the lakeside. There's a bunch of sailboats out on the lake and I even see a few windsurfers. They're moving kinda slow because there isn't much wind, but I think they're enjoying themselves anyway. We ate dinner at a nice Eastern Africa restaurant last night. The food was great and was a good sign that the diversity and quality of food in the area is high.
We had a bit of a hard time finding a place to stay though. The first hotel we saw was a Best Western that had available only rooms for $150, which was way out of our price range. Then, we went to another Best Western that had rooms for $110. This was harder to turn down because we were already a bit tired of driving around looking for motels. Eventually, we went a couple miles out of town towards the airport, and found this generic motel place that was only $45 per night. It had everything we wanted: wireless internet and a non-smoking room. Plus, it also had a pool and hot tub that we took advantage of before going to bed. So we really lucked out in finding that place.
So far today, we've been driving around looking at places Tiffany might like to stay at for the summer (haven't found anything so far), went to a Kohl's store to get a nice jacket for Tiffany, looked at used bikes, and walked around campus getting an internet connection and talking to potential sublettors. We have some leads on places to check out, but we won't be able to see them until tonight or tomorrow. In the ideal world, we would find a place for Tiff today, then hit the road for Minneapolis tonight or tomorrow morning, go through Rhinlander, and be back by Thursday night or Friday morning. However, things aren't always ideal.
So far, the road trip has been fast-paced but good.
Tiff and I are on the road. Actually, we're on a break from being on the road, since we're staying in Colorado Springs with Tiff's parents. We spent the first two days doing pretty much only driving, leaving San Jose around 11am Friday morning and arriving in "The Springs" around 8pm Saturday night. Friday night we stayed at a state park in eastern Nevada. It was our usual routine of arrive at 11pm, set up the tent and go to bed, then wake up at 8am, take the tent down and get moving. It was a pretty nice place to stay, especially given that we weren't planning on staying there and only ended up going there because the casinos at the nearby town of Ely had no non-smoking rooms available.
The next day wasn't a whole lot more exciting, although the drive was prettier. Eastern Utah and western Colorado have beautiful scenery on the right routes. We took the smaller road, choosing I-50 over I-80. This was particularly nice the first day, since we drove right by Lake Tahoe and ate lunch there on the lake. It was a bit slow coming out of Lake Tahoe and around Carson City, but the scenery later on in western Colorado made up for it. We also drove by a littany of ski resorts in Colorado, including Vail, Breckenridge, Copper, and many others. Unfortunately, we didn't have any time to stop at any of them. That's the way the trip has been so far -- not enough time to do all the stuff we'd like to.
In addition to spell-binding posts on my blog such as this, I've been doing audio recordings with the ipod. I've discovered that the recording device works ok (not great, mind you) if you don't have headphones plugged in when you use it. So we've been recording little 2 minute sessions about where we are and what we're doing. We might have a whole hours worth by the time the trip is over. Well, that's about all for now.
Peace, dawg.
Take home final for one of my classes. Start: 9AM. Finish: 5PM. Here is a synopsis of my performance so far.
1a) No clue
1b) No clue
2a) No clue
2b) Easy (cha-ching!)
2c) No clue
3a) Probably missed the point of the problem
3b) Most likely wrong, but who knows
3c) Possibly right, probably wrong
3d) No clue
4a) Easy!
4b) Possibly right, probably wrong
4c) Most likely wrong
4d) Most likely wrong
4e) No clue
'No clue' means I had no idea what to do for the problem, not I have no idea whether I got it right or not. I'd say for about 60% of the test I had no clue what to do. 10% was a slam dunk, and the rest I got most likely wrong. Yeah, what a great way to spend 8 hours.
I didn't get the NASA fellowship I applied for. That means I have to teach next semester in addition to passing the written prelim, the exam that sums up everything I was supposed to learn over the past two years, but didn't because classes are so shitty.
I also have to take the oral prelim defending my research at some point over the course of the next seven months. Since I'll be teaching in fall, and since the I take the written in September, I'm going to do all that I can to take the oral in July. Otherwise, the entire fall semester could be a pretty bad scene, as opposed to just the first two months.