Monday, October 20, 2008

Football week 7 and weekly recap.

I had a busy last few days. Mama IG had foot surgery to repair the toe next to her big toe last Wednesday and I had to take her to her post-op appt on Friday. She then took me out for a belated birthday lunch. I of course had to drive as her foot is in an elevated boot for two weeks until she can downsize to a flat foot thing. So I of course had friday off and ran first thing in the AM making it twenty minutes.

Thursday nite I got out of jail free; I mean work early as I had a dentist appt at 4:30 PM. there is no way I am coming home and working for an hour or two till 7PM when I'm off on friday. I am starting the weekend early and that means Starbucks trip. I had wanted to go play live poker but my mom requested I stay on stand by in case something happened and she needed me to respond asap. As it was she had a friend come over to keep her company for the evening. I watched my tv shows of Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy. I hadnt slept well the nite before and was tired so I'm glad I stayed home.

Jumping to Saturday, I ran in the AM again. I am up to twenty minutes and running 1.7 miles+ I'm definitely not down to ten minute miles yet but i added a long uphill into a new loop and i know im already covering more ground only a week into my "training regimen". I did errands in the late morning and prepared to head out to play the little "big' game. I call it the little big game because the buy-in was dropped a bit to $125 from its prior $140 to bring in more people at a new venue from where it previously was held. Poker report to follow.

Sunday I took mama IG to the Glenville Queen Diner where I had Eggs benedict and home fries my favorite. We then went down to Barnes and Noble and killed some time. My mom is not a football fan and she wanted to get some fresh air so I obliged. I also then brought in her hoses and dumped the dead plants and brought pots and plants in for her. When I arrived back home I went for some R& R which meant watching football, baseball and the Amazing race.

So IG's picks for the week were :

>> BUF>> CAR>> CHI>> PIT TEN>> MIA>> NYG>> DAL>> HOU>> IND NYJ WAS>> TB>>>> Monday game>>>> DEN POINTS - 45>>

Heading into the week the Snake vs IG challenge looked like this:
(IG) 56-32 (Snake) 54-34

Still holding my two game advantage.

Since its Monday I can announce early results . We we picked 4 games differently this week. Three of the games were early on Sunday. I swept Snake 3-0. We have picked tonights game differently. Me=Denver, he= NE. Can I run my lead out to 6 games?. Here's hoping so. I received a congratulatory text from Snake yesterday on my picks. I'm pretty sure he came right home from hunting and checked to see the standings. I did not rub it in when we spoke briefly post text message. He told me was in rough shape after two days of hunting and he could barely move. I jokingly told him he needs to get in shape and come running with me (not really possible since he has a steel rod in his upper back). He may run around in the woods a bit while hunting, but sitting in a tree stand waiting for a deer/turkey etc. to come by isn't exercise. I've already dropped 5 lbs from a diet change and from exercising (yeah i know its water weight).

I'm going to keep poker out of this post and reserve it for another one as there is too much to say.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

NFL Week #6

Season record thru week 5:

IG 48-26
Snake 46-28

I won two of the three games we picked differently and moved back to a two game advantage. All picks are Straight up (SU) vs ATS (against the spread) in my three season long contests. This week Snake and I picked 4 games differently and they are all early games. I can sweat the games and then go play live poker.

California Rob's league looks like this:

JD 53 21 (has had two weekly wins this year)
JUNX 50 24
SOOZ 50 24
DOUBLED 48 26
GREER 48 26
IRONGRL 48 26 (yours truly... can hang with the boys on the field as well as the felt)
SAL 48 26
SBCCVAQ 48 26

followed by the rest of the league: DOM 47 27 JACK 47 27 TY 47 27 POPS 46 28 VELIO 46 28 RUMBLER 45 29 BIGD 44 30 51 43 31 JMW 43 31 RT 43 31 (California Rob & league commish himself) STEVEM 43 31 ZILLI 43 31 RJW 42 32 SCHOTTS 42 32 WILL 42 32 PMILLER 41 33 RAK 41 33 CU 40 34 LJF 40 34 V 40 34 MAYBE 38 36


I'm in a multi way tie for 14th place in the Tao of Poker league 5 games out of first place with 48 points. there is 1 at 53, 1 at 52, 1 at 51, 4 at 50 pts, and 6 at 49, 7 at 48 (includes me) there are about 82 of us who have picked all 5 weeks left.

My picks for this week:

WAS> CHI> HOU> BAL> MIN> NO> NYJ> TB> DEN> DAL> PHI> GB> SD> >
Monday game> > NYG > > POINTS - 45>

It's really really nice to be able to watch your alma mater play on national TV 5 of the first 6 weeks of their season. It is not nice to watch them lose three weeks in a row. CU lost to Kansas in a game that got away from them totally in the second half. Cody Hawkins was pulled by his coach who happens to be his father to give the backup QB Matt Ballenger some experience for the second week in a row. What i saw left me scared for the future. Where is Kordell (Stewart) or Koy (Detmar)? I flipped the channel in despair to watch the much better game of Texas vs Oklahoma.

Congrats to Texas (who beat up on CU last week) for beating Number #1 Oklahoma. I know all to well the anguish that was on the faces of the Sooner fans as they left the stadium late in the 4th quarter. I remember all to well the sea of Sooner Red and sea of Cornhusker Red in my stadium during my college years.

Although my hammies were sore today when i woke up, I took to them with a quick roll of my massage stick and I hoofed it out the door for another 15 minutes of slogging (I cant call it jogging just yet). My baby loop is 1.3 miles just about and I beat it down the line at about 11:30 mile pace. Short of stopping to double knot my shoe I have not had to mix jogging with walking. Tomorrow I will take the day off and be back at it Wednesday AM. I came back inside to watch an ESPN story on a San Diego triathlete who was killed in the first fatality in 50 years from a great white shark attack. Of course I had tears welling from my eyes. Read the compelling story here.


Yours truly the real Ocho Cinco (eat your heart out Chad Johnson!!!) at the West Point triathlon circa August 2002 or 2003. My arms and legs are both toned and although not as thin as when i was solely a runner I was in awesome shape. My goal is to achieve that body composition once again.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Inspiration move me brightly

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Lao-tzu, The Way of Lao-tzu- Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)


Maybe its because this is the weekend of the Hawaii Ironman World Championship in Kona which is streaming live at Ironmanlive.com as well as the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon which yours truly directed for 5 years from 2000-2005. Or maybe its because its a beautiful fall day with a nip in the air with the leaves turning. Or just maybe its because on Monday (10/13) I turn 48 and the my usually curvy boobs and butt are noticeably fuller and untoned and Ive developed a bit of a Buddha belly.

A stint on Dancing with the Stars would certainly help me get in shape and I can dance. Although never formally trained in ballroom, I do have classical ballet and jazz and modern dance training in my background. Unfortunately, I am not even a D list celebrity (maybe a D-list poker blogger). I could join the likes of Chris Berman, Chris Carter, Mike Golic, Dan Marino and Marie Osmond (who I share a birthday with) and join the NutriSystem bandwagon.

But the surest fire way for me to get in shape is to get off my lazy cerebral, poker playing ass and begin running. The seed was planted earlier this year when i saw the launch of the Xterra trail running series held in conjunction with the Xterra triathlon series. It was further planted when I got together this summer with one of my oldest & dearest friends, Debbie up at the Saratoga racetrack and we talked about our old adventures and how we should have tried out for the Amazing Race (both of us are former running club presidents, race directors, snowshoe racers, trail runners). Debbie will always have a place in my heart for trying to teach me to Mt bike and laughing at me during my numerous falls off the bike including almost cracking my elbow. She didn't even blink an eye when I took a tumble off her $3000 Serotta.

I had even suggested a weight loss prop bet to Snake prior to his trip to Vegas. he begged off saying he couldn't start prior to Vegas. Instead i listened to his tale of overindulgence at Lawry's the Prime Rib and the Palm Steak House. I mean if Mike Matusow can lose 60 lbs, IG can certainly lose 10-20 lbs (15 is the goal). JLo completing the Nautica Malibu Triathlon further inspired me.


Today I laced up my Adidas trail runners and ran for the first time in a long time. I made it 15 minutes without stopping and wore no watch (my Timex Ironman is lost) but did carry my cell to at least have an idea of time run. I felt great then shitty, then great then shitty. Same as it always is. I wore no IPOD, I wanted to get my breathing in sync with the movement of the rest of my body. When I found myself running the tangents instinctively, I chuckled and decided to run the curves. I'm a pretty relaxed runner, i carry my arms relaxed and I'm pretty efficient but damn if my legs didn't feel like tree stumps! Not the same as when you transition from the bike to the run but towards the end they were leaden.

We'll see how I feel tomorrow. My goal is to run at least 4 days a week but I'll start at 3 days

Thursday, October 09, 2008

October TRUCKIN' Pimpin

I've only been playing a little poker lately. As the Sheryl Crow song goes: "A Change will do you Good" . Instead, I've been reading and watching alot of the new TV season including college and NFL football. Something, I haven't done much of over the last four years.

When I am playing poker, I'm hungry and focused. I final tabled my last live tourney just about two weeks ago (cash bubble girl) and I finished 432nd of 13626 trying to win a piece of MDM (Million Dollar Man) David "Chino" Rheem. I missed a piece of Chino (top 100 get .01% of his winnings) but did convert 500 FPP's into $31.50 of cold hard cash. I'm about 70 FPP's short of trying for a piece of another MDM. My choice would be the Ruskie Ivan Demidov who did the unthinkable, he final tabled the WSOP Main event still to be played and final tabled the WSOP-Europe Main Event.

I noticed Pokerstars has these new double or nothing SNGs. Kind of like the bankroll builders on Bodog or Cake Poker. In this case no graduated payments for the top 5 instead top 5 finishers of ten earn just about their buyin back. Seems to me to be a +EV way to build a bankroll.

One of my favorite ways to spend a day off rainy or otherwise is in a bookstore. I'm a fast reader without utilizing speed reading techniques. When my attention span or lifestyle kept me from reading full length magnum opi, magazines and short stories could still command my attention. So it is fitting that for the first time I pimp Truckin' on my blog. Some of my favorite poker bloggers are regular contributers and show off their literary chops. If you enjoy the stories send Mr McGrupp an email to be added to the monthly ezine mailing list. You won't be disappointed.


Truckin' --- http://mcgtruckin.blogspot.com/

Truckin' - October 2008, Vol. 7, Issue 10

Welcome back to another issue.

1. Maisy Wednesday by Paul McGuire She always wore bright lipstick which brought out a little gleam in her lips. She frequently smiled, but never initiated any sort of conversation... More

2. Happy Anniversary by John 'Falstaff' Hartness As we stood outside the courthouse in our newly wedded bliss (which also somewhat resembled the look of people who have just survived a tornado, as it happened much faster than we expected) we decided that since Suzy didn't have to be at work for another couple of hours, we'd go have lunch. So we scraped together a few bucks and trundled over to a nearby McDonald's... More

3. A Lock of Bonnie Parker's Hair by Johnny Hughes They was real famous and in the newspapers and all robbing them banks, when banks were unpopular. I asked Bonnie for something to remember her by. We didn't have a pencil for an autograph. She pulled this little pair of scissors out of her purse and gave me this... a lock of her hair... More


4. Whiskey Kisses by Betty After Dark Held apart by distance and circumstance, brought together in soft voices, the pieces of who we are fill the room with every drink we pour. The gaps in our lives slowly closing as the light from the window crept into the room. There was something unavoidable that connected us, but the details were never as clear as they were this night.... More


5. What I Knew? by Dusty Rhodes Just walk up and ask her you idiot... You've been friends for four years... she doesn't have a date and either do you... Quit being a pussy and ask her... Christ dude... what are you nervous about... More


Peace!!!

Saturday, October 04, 2008

NFL Week 5

My Week 5 picks:

>> TEN>> CAR>> CHI>> GB>> IND>> SD>> NYG>> WAS>> TB>> AZ>> DAL>> NE>> JAX>>>> Monday game>>>> NO>>>> POINTS - 40>>

Stats thru Week 4:

IG 39-21 (all three of my season long contests)

SNAKE5970 38-22

I'm hunkered down with Costco's yummo shrimp salad and a Trader Joe's Flourless Chocolate Cake.

CU (3-1) plays Texas (4 & 0 and ranked #5) at 7 PM on FSN.

I may try to win me a piece of David "Chino" Rheem thru the MDM thing on Pokerstars. I've played no poker since live Sunday.

I'm patiently waiting for my copy of Rocking the Cradle: Egypt '78 (2 Cd's and a DVD) plus Road trips IV From Egypt With Love. I ordered it as an early birthday present to myself thru Deadnet.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008