Mid March Update

I'm finding it really hard to find the time to sit down and full out blog lately. Its not that I don't have tons of stuff to say or report on. It's just that I'm so busy doing stuff by the time I feel like sitting down to write, I've moved on to something else.

So, I decided to just bullet everything I can think of that's interesting to me or going on:

Vegas on hold, On the road with FURTHUR: I had hoped to be going out to Vegas during the WSOP but FURTHUR announced their summer tour and it conflicts. I'm a Deadhead thru and thru and I enjoyed Utica so much I'm heading out on the road this summer for 4 FURTHUR Shows: I'll be attending the two Coney Island, Brooklyn shows at Keyspan Park, the home of the Brooklyn Cyclones. Keyspan is actually renamed to MCU Park. Looking forward to these two shows as my dad was born in Brooklyn and graduated from Brooklyn Tech and my grandparents and great aunts and uncles all lived there. Grandpa C used to always bring up pastry from Scotto's bakery which is still in existence today. Cool thing is the NY Historical Society has an exhibit of Grateful Dead artifacts/memorabilia on loan from UC Santa Cruz. I'll plan on taking that in as well as visiting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame annex.

I'm also heading to shows at The Museum at Shelburne Farms, Vermont (just south of Burlington) and Herkimer NY at the Gelston Castle Estate. I never knew of or had heard about the Gelston Castle Estate until the show was announced and Herkimer is only about an hour and 20-30 minutes away. I'll be taking my flip camcorder with me and hopefully getting some great video.

Phish should also be announcing their schedule soon. I'm crossing my fingers for June as July and August is so hard to get time off from work other then what I already have put in for and have approved.

Other shows I'll be attending are Max Creek at Bearsville Theatre in Woodstock and hopefully, Ill be able to catch one if not both of the anniversary shows over in Hartford at the Warehouse at the end of April. Scott Murawski played a few shows with Bill Kreutzmann of the Grateful Dead and Oteil Burbridge of the Allman Brothers as one of the members of BK3/4 (aka the Bill Kreutzmann Trio or KBM) and then went out with Mike Gordon of Phish for Mike's short sweet tour. Sadly, I got shut out of tickets to the local show down at Revolution Hall. I will never let that happen again.

I'm watching American Idol for the first time since the Clay/Reuben years. I didnt watch the auditions. I started with Hollywood Week and have my favorites. Crystal Bowersox and Didi Benami are my favorite females. Big Mike, Casey, Lee and Aaron Kelly my favorite guys. Although, Simon thinks the girls will win this year, I think the talent of the guys is much better. I would have rather seen Katy go home and Todrick or Alex stay. I also think Lily should still be around. I like her better then Lacey. I'm just not feeling Lacey.

Been watching 24 fairly faithfully. It had a couple of slow spots and I was channel flipping to the Olympics and Bachelor for like two weeks which coincided with the slowness, but Sweet Lord that poor kid wired with an explosive vest and the aftermath when Jack opened the door after the explosion left my mouth agape. I mean obviously I new what had happened but to see red splattered everywhere it was just so final.

This week I'm looking forward to the Gathering of the Vibes line-up announced. My wish list includes Furthur and Max Creek and Phish (one can dream). Since Camp Creek is looking like it wont happen again, I'd like to plea to Eric (Max Creek's manager) make it happen dude!! I cant make it to Nateva in Maine where Creek is playing with Furthur. I just cant drive from Herkimer NY (west of me) then Northeast to Maine and then back west across to Vermont in the span of three days. Well actually I could but I remember the traffic heading into to Oxford Maine for the Grateful Dead and Little Feat in 1988.

March Madness is set to begin. I'll be doing couple of March Madness Pool's. If you are a reader of Coventry Music which I contribute to come join in the fun. My Alma Mater CU is not known for college basketball except for giving the NBA Chauncey Billups so I rout for local team the Siena Saints. This year the University of Vermont Catamounts also made the big dance. I attended UVM from Sept 1978 to May 1980 before transferring to University of Colorado. I actually took Friday off to watch nonstop hoop and will begin watching as soon as i get out of work at 6PM Thursday.

And it looks like on April Fool's day I will be undergoing the knife and having a wisdom tooth removed. I'll know for sure Friday after discussing with my general dentist who I have gone to for years. I have the surgery tentatively scheduled as the oral surgeon's office is booked and if I cancel I'll really need it and be screwed. I still have all four of my third molars aka wisdom teeth. The bottom ones are so deep in the bone and next to the nerves but fortunately asymptomatic. My upper right one #1 on a tooth chart has been sideways and a little bump on my gum for years. Its decided to try to erupt like Mt Saint Helens. I'm on antibiotics right now to prevent/ward off infection as my gum is badly inflamed above my back two molars. My general dentist is hoping if I can stand it that it will come through the gum and be easier for the oral surgeon to extract (and cheaper. Fortunately, I have a high threshold for pain. Its more annoying then anything although my right side of face is tender in spots (no swelling yet).

And the highlight of my April (besides filing taxes and getting a refund) will be catching up with Otis, Change100 and Dr Pauly over at Mohegan Sun during the Pokerstars and Mohegan Sun sponsered NAPT. Hopefully LJ will also make the drive over from New Jersey too as I haven't seen her since our last get together in NYC many moons ago. Of course, I expect and hope a host of other east coast bloggers will be there during my visit too. I'm off Friday April 9th and will at least head over for a day trip but preferably an overnight. I hope to play in one of the side events. Sadly, Ive played no poker in a month.

Finally my four FURTHUR You Tube Video's already have 2591 hits after only three weeks. That doesn't count the 354 hits on the Vimeo 15 minute China Cat Sunflower/The Wheel video or the reconfigured one's by David from Grateful Dead Video's under his username. David synced my video with the better taper AUD (audience) recording of Chris Laporte to make a much better sounding music video. It's like being there.. I can now add the title of short film/documentary/music video director/videographer to my resume!!

Furthur Utica 2/20/2010

I'm not going to cross post it here. You can read my post over on coventry music blog. As well as a teaser video: Unbroken Chain. I have also uploaded video to You tube (Irongirl99 username) and over on Deadvids.com
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Besides you should bookmark coventry music and visit us every day!! follow us on twitter @coventrymusic.

UTICA BOUND

I'm out the door raging solo for a concert in UTICA armed with a FLIP camcorder. Hope to get some good shots of Bob Weir and Phil Lesh at tonight's FURTHUR show at the Utica Auditorium. I'm not heading out too early as Utica, NY is not exactly the most interesting place in the world to visit. Think the last time I was there was to run the Utica Boilmaker 15k or the Distance Running Hall of Fame Half Marathon. Besides the brewery the long distance running hall of fame is located in this old factory town. I'm not really sure how it wound up in Utica but remember when it opened and have visited it.

Yup with me you never know what your going to get as my interests are varied. But that is what keeps life interesting.

Peace

PS. For those who have no idea what FURTHUR is/was. It was the name of the bus Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters toured the country in. It is also the name Phil Lesh and Bob Weir (Two of the four surviving original Grateful Dead members) are using for their current tour.

Health Care in America

To say it is a dilemma is an understatement. My dad went without health insurance for many years when he owned his own ski shop, when he was employed as a Sporting Goods Rep and when he worked for other small businesses. Both my parents who are divorced from each other, are now are medicare eligible and are enrolled. My sister, a Culinary Institute of America Graduate and trained chef finally purchased her own insurance last year at age 46. My mom was covered by her employer, a division of McKesson up until her retirement. I've worked for major corporations for years and have always been covered, short of a 1.5 year stint 20 years ago, after I left my cushy financial sector job and went uninsured while attempting a career change during the height of my alcohol abuse.

I've worked for a major health insurer in dental claims/customer service for the past 12 years. You can imagine that recent debate among many of my uninsured or under-insured friends has made me uncomfortable, especially when the industry that employs me is deemed corrupt and crooked. I have no answers, on how to fix the system. Heck people have worked their entire lives on this issue and we are still worlds apart on a solution today. For what its worth, most of my beliefs lie closer to the European models (call me a Socialist if you must).

I'm not here to say anything more then the system is broke and has to be fixed. What I am going to tell you is to read Otis's recent blog post THE REAL COST OF HAVING A BABY.

It's a fascinating albeit personal story on the cost of having his second son who we call DOS (for #2 if you hadn't already guessed) down in GVegasland. Many of you may not realize that Otis is one of the main contributor's to the Pokerstars Blog. For those of you not familiar with Otis's BP (before poker) work, I suggest you click here.

Pokerstars WBCOOP

I have registered to play in the WBCOOP PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! You too can Play Poker Online at PokerStars.com and take part in the WBCOOP which is open to all Bloggers by registering on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 630467

2010

Contrary to what a few of my friends believe and have teased me about, I did not disappear into the rabbit hole after my immersion into Phish during my Weekend with Dr Pauly following the two night run at Albany's Times Union Center. I actually decided not to write about the weekend and let Pauly do the talking over on Coventry Music and his Tao of Pauly blogs. So much of Dr P's life is public record and getting to share time with "my lil bro" is few and far between. I did give him free rein to have as good of a time as he wanted that weekend. He guided me thru all the Phish music I have never heard and I was there to belay him he if decided to go too far off the edge. I'm pretty low key at Phish/Grateful Dead shows being the tour vet I am. The 2nd night (Saturday), 2nd set of Albany left my face melted. After almost 50 minutes of intense jamming on the 7 Below/Ghost jam, one catch your breathe song, they continued the momentum with what could easily be the best set of sound, I have ever heard. I turned to Dr P after my eyes in awe, mouth agape with a biggest smile I have ever had (except maybe the perma-grin that comes from taking LSD) and high-fived/fist-bumped and hugged him. By golly I finally had gotten what it took so long to get. Most of my exposure to Phish had been during the falling apart 2.0 era and I just didn't get it.

After Phish, I had another concert at Troy's Revolution Hall on Kim's birthday December 4th. We saw one of our other favorite band's: Max Creek. I attended my company Xmas Party right before and won two bus tickets to Foxwoods. I also had my name pulled as a winner of $50 gift card to Chico's a BBQ joint that sounds delish. But i could only win one so they threw that one back in and pulled another person. Coupled with a twitter win of a two night stay to the RIO in Vegas. I was running good.

Kim got lost in South Troy trying to find Revolution Hall. I was trying to guide her in and kept asking her what side the river was on. When she said its right in front of me i knew she was heading west back over to Watervliet and not in a North/South direction which is the way she needed to go to get where I was. I found this funny only because we both spent a lot of time at RPI which is located at the top of the hill from where she needed to be and which i was trying to use as a reference point. She dated a Theta Chi and I a Alpha Chi Rho (that would be the one and only California Rob). We wound up missing the McLovins but were ready for Max Creek when they took the stage. It was a great show as always. They played one long set as they were on their way to Utica for a show the next night.. Scott and the drummers (Scott A and Gregg V) jammed thru the "set break" while John and Mark took care of whatever they needed to take care of. There was one song in particular where Scott Murawski's harmony vocals showed a range I had never heard before (Think Mark was on lead) that proved that after almost 40 years of playing he still has tricks up his sleeve and is still learning and improving.. During one of the Jam's I'm pretty sure Mark Mercier teased the Vince Guaraldi piano piece from It's a Charlie Brown Christmas dance. I had this weird idea that it would be cool to see a bunch of hippies/hipsters etc Snoopy dancing to that whole piece!!




Everyone took their turn on vocals that night, except drummer, Greg Vasso which left me a little sad because A)I <3 Vasso and B)I love it when he does Sympathy for the Devil. I said a quick hello to Scott M after the show and left pretty tired after seeing 3 concerts in 8 days.

I did not attend the winter WPBT gathering and would have loved to do the tasting dinner with Astin and company at Joel Robuchon. Next time I would love to do a tasting at a great Seafoody place. One with a seafood tower etc. Sounds like I missed a good time but December is just such a hectic month with work and the holidays around the bend. Astin did manage to take down the winter donkament and a big congrats to him for that (again).

Rags is now inside and my second cat. He's not actually inside my condo as Bailey wants no one in his domain. There has been hissing and growling on Bailey's part thru the pet gate I installed. Rags just sits there and does nothing, its as if he knows its not his territory. Pretty funny since outside Rags was a little hellion taking on all invaders. He definitely was abused/mistreated and then abandoned as he will recoil a little if i go to pet him with my hand coming towards him. But I can pick him up and snuggle him and he loves to sit on my shoulders. He's living in my carpeted stairwell and pretty much lives on the top landing outside the door that enters into the condo. He is very affectionate and grateful. I do let him out as he prefers to do his business outside. I know he has some loss of functioning in his kidneys as is typical in older cats and he does have some dental disease also typical. But hes in a lot better shape now then he was last year when he ran from people and spent the winter outside. I decided I'll make his final years as comfortable and easy as possible.

I did play poker New Year's day. Third time live in about 6 months I think it was. I had a monster stack proving I still can accumulate chips but I was rusty getting nervous when normally I'm chill. Things were going extremely well, until I had your classic on-line make it or break it hand: in a min-raised 4-5 way pot with one person all in I flopped a straight with Q8d on an all heart board. I led out a feeler bet hoping no one flopped a flush after it checked around. One caller, a young kid who was a good player and was second chip stack to me at the table and perhaps the tourney. Turned out he had flopped a baby flush so he called. A turn diamond and he led out with a bet. I all in'd there thinking he was drawing trying to protect my made hand. He thought I had a bigger flush with the Ace and he tanked for quite awhile before calling and actually wound up hitting a straight flush on the river. Which was good for him and launched him into the chip lead and that crippled me down to starting stack of 13k from a high of 50k or so. Sick feeling in my stomach obviously. Sick feeling in young guns stomach as he passed on the high hand pool!! So, all my hard work for naught and after eating prime rib and baked potato etc., my ADD kicked in and I got bored and didn't feel like rebuilding, yup I gave up instead of trying to come-back which I've done before. I shoved with 99 after my table move on the very first hand dealt at the new table. No callers. I lasted a few more orbits and eventually I shoved JT or JQ into AK and busted out unimproved. Home I went to play some online.

2010 will be more concerts with Furthur shows on deck for February and hopefully Mt Jam in June and gathering of the Vibes and Camp Creek in July. More poker as I turn the big 50 in October and can play Senior's events. Also trying to shed the tummy I have acquired going thru the change and I plan on resuming running. I have been taking a body jam class but haven't been in a few weeks with the holidays.

2010 goals - Lose weight, eat better (I did remove most processed food in 2009), chew longer, play more poker, read a lot, see live music, run.

And if you really want to know what I'm doing check out my twitter feed. I twitter aka microblog alot more then I do full blog posts. I'm @irongirl01 on twitter.

Justin Shronk Memorial Tourney

Where: Full Tilt Poker
Tournament ID: 121607994
Title: Justin Shronk Memorial Tourney
Game: NLHE
Buy-In: $5+$5
Starts: Sunday, December 6 at 18:00 server time (6 p.m. EST, 3 p.m PST)
Password: Justin Shronk (title case, with the space)

Half of the buy-in goes to the Justin Shronk Memorial Fund at the Temple University School of Communications And Theater (SCT). This is the same fund for which Brian Lemke (Shronk's cousin) provided a $20,000 lead gift after winning his WSOP bracelet this summer.

Here is the full text of information Ashley Lomery of the Temple University SCT sent to Full Tilt:

Founded in 1884, Temple University has grown with the city in which it thrives, Philadelphia, PA. Today, Temple is a comprehensive public research university with more than 37,000 students. With schools of law, medicine, pharmacy, podiatry and dentistry, Temple is the nation’s fifth largest provider of professional education. At home and abroad, Temple remains committed to providing access to educational opportunities and improving local communities. Temple was the first college in the United States to offer a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting in 1948. The School of Communications and Theater, with nearly 4,000 students and six departments, is the third-largest academic unit at Temple. Through creative instruction, a curriculum that reflects today’s changing media and professional facilities, the school provides students with an unparalleled educational experience. The result is high national rankings and demonstrated success in readying students for first jobs and careers.

The Justin Shronk Scholarship will provide scholarship support for students majoring in Broadcasting, Telecommunications and Mass Media within the School of Communications and Theater. Students must have financial need, and there is a preference for a student who has a deceased parent. While a student at Temple, Justin’s father passed away and he considered dropping out to help his mother. With her encouragement, he remained at Temple, graduated and went on to start his career. The recipient of the scholarship should also exemplify some of the same characteristics that Justin exhibited during his life—an absolute passion for everything media, a great wit and sense of humor, loyalty in his friendships, and someone who would take a job for less money to be able to do the work that he loved. With a generous gift earlier this year from Brian Lemke, Justin's cousin, the scholarship was permanently endowed and will honor Justin's memory in perpetuity. We are hoping to raise additional funds toward the endowment through this tournament to increase the amount available to award to deserving students in Justin's name year after year.

On Deck- Phish Albany

I was seriously thinking of going out to Syracuse for tomorrow night's show but Thanksgiving week time off from work was pretty much unavailable since I didn't put in for any in advance, so I'm hanging tight for two nights of Phish at the Times Union Center on Black Friday and Saturday. I went to work the day after the SPAC show and was exhausted. Dancing for three hours is tiring. I have been taking a Body Jam class to prepare myself for a busy series of concerts and my return to running.

First up your Phish Pforecast: We've had a pretty mild November this far and Turkey Day Weekend should be no exception. Right now 45 on Friday with chance of showers so bring your Wellies and Saturday a little cooler at 41. I'll probably cross post something over on Coventry as show time approaches. Give you peeps and tweeps some places to eat etc. Just an early PSA. Plan ahead and leave early. Exit 23 of the Thruway to 787 may not be too bad that is the exit you take to the Times Union Center. But traffic around town will be crawling as it is Black Friday and Saturday. Leave early. Exit 24 of the Thruway which is where the Thruway/Northway/ and 90 converge will be a clusterfuck.

Dr Pauly will be taking in the shows with me so Coventry Music will be well represented. He'll be kicking it old school style with his "big sis". BFF Kim and her son (nephew Zack) will also be attending for at least one night. And I believe a whole host of the Phish Twibe members will be here. I'm bummed I'm going to miss the NYC shows which Pauly and Nicky will be going to the following week. She's not flying east until after the holiday so I miss my chance to catch up with her. Again time off from work is the issue. I'm trying to save 40 hours till 2010 so I have like almost 7 weeks off.

I won two nights at the Rio Las Vegas in a twitter promotion and have to use them up before 3/31/10. Cant hold on to them for the WSOP time but im thinking Venetian Deep Stack in February or March Madness time if its not blacked out. Think that would be fun to see kickoff weekend in a sports book in Vegas.

Sunday Overload

I am trying to do/watch too many things at the same time.

NYC Marathon: I caught most of it on line at Universal Sports but missed the finishes of the races. Had to run out and hand off my moms goodies I got for her at Trader Joe's and Costco. Plan on catching the NBC highlight broadcast in a few minutes.

NFL Football a full day of games ahead.

NASCAR at Talledaga - Granted I don't follow Nascar as much as I used to since my driver Rusty Wallace headed to the broadcaster's booth but I still like to catch snippets here and there.

Festival 8 - Third and final day of Phish's Halloween run of shows from Indio, CA. Most of my colleagues from Coventry Music are in attendance. I've been listening to as much as I can on Sirius Satellite Internet Radio. Got a free 7 day trial and I must admit I'm liking it. Love the Jam-On station. Currently gigging down to a live Widespread Panic (WSP) performance on which Oteil Burbridge of The Allman Brothers is guesting. I've had my face melt a few times over the last two nights. Can't wait for the Albany Phish shows Black Friday and Saturday!!

Amazing Race- Gotta see how Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho capitalize on their second place finish after last weeks leg. The Amazing Racers head to the Netherlands tonight.

World Series- Granted I'm not much of a baseball fan but I am interested in this East Coast rivalry: Cheese Steaks vs NYC Style Pizza.

Poker - Once again attempts to get out and play live are a fail. I may join in the FTOPS warm-up at 3:05 PM to see how long I can last.

IF a cat could talk...

Yesterday I brought Rags in to be tested, neutered, his ears rid of mites and dewormed. He got his nails trimmed to and his fur cleaned up. My neighbor Mary Lou and I split the cost and another neighbor Randy is going to pitch in too. I was a little worried the little dude was going to test positive for Feline Leukemia or Feline HIV. I also wanted to get an age on him. I had an inkling he might turn out to be older then the 18-24 months I initially thought for a couple of reasons: A) He has full jowls, B) His balls were fully developed C) I noticed his teeth were discolored, including one of his canines being a snaggletooth.

I got him into the cat carrier no problem at all. From a cat who ran at the sight of people 10 months ago he now greets our Post-person Sandy when he hears her mail truck every day when she brings him treats. He's become quite social and I can pretty much handle him and pick him up. He weathered the car trip to the Animal Protective Foundation well. Drop off time was 8AM and I wasn't the only one bringing in a cat for the program. One lady brought in 5-8 semi-feral males the last of the bunch from a colony in Ballston Spa. She had already done the same for about 38 other kittys and had found homes for most of them. When I returnd to pick Rags up at 4PM at the APF's education center there had to be at least 12-15 cats all lined up waiting to be picked up. The vet must have worked on them assembly line fashion.

Much to my surprise Rags came out of his day like a new man. When the volunteer told me he had some dental disease and the Vet removed his snaggle-tooth because it was loose I wasn't surprised. When she told me he was about 10 years old my mouth hit the floor. I was also told he was not a feral and was very nice with the vet. I looked at him in the carrier and said "Dude what is your story?". He was glad to see me and when I got him home came right out of the carrier and butted my hand even though he was still groggy.

Where this cat was the first 8-9 years of his life me and my neighbors will never know. Maybe someone threw him out, or moved away and left him behind or he was abused and ran away. I know he knows how to hunt and he used to dumpster dive. He's definitely been in a bunch of fights (torn ear and hes battle-scarred). Since I've worked with him he's become quite affectionate (male cats typically are). He will cross the threshold of my doorway but doesn't want to be inside behind a closed door yet. When I closed the door but didnt completely shut it he walked over to and and took his paw to open it and leave yesterday. right now he only comes in because he knows where is food is.

I've fixed up his cat house with a fleece mat and old towel on top of his straw bed and he's content in that or on my door mat. I will definitely bring him inside if he wants to come in when it gets bitter cold. He may have to stay in my entry way but at least he'll be warm at night.

All I can say to the person who turned Rags out: Karma is a bitch and what goes around comes around. I have no compassion to anyone who disposes/mistreats an animal.

October 16th is National Feral Cat day. Across the country there are thousands of volunteers working with our homeless cats. If you can afford to contribute for a spay/neuter please do so. For more information Alley Cat Allies is a great resource.