Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Million Dollar Crybaby

I watched Million Dollar Baby finally.
Pretty good flick.
Though they shoulda called it Million Dollar Crybaby, because my GF bawled through the entire second half of the movie. That's an hour and a half of straight niagra falls. I'd give it a "rent-it" rating. The story was good, Swank was awesome, same with Freeman, but Clint's acting is lacking; and most of all, what ruined it for me was the hype. Of course it got hyped with the Oscars, and everyone at the water cooler was talking about it. So by the time I watched it I was expecting Raging Bull (which is on my top ten).
All in all it was very depressing. I felt like shit after watching it. Sort of like, no matter how well I do in life, someone could cold-cock me while my back is turned and I might snap my neck and be stuck in a goddamn hospital be with tubes sticking in every orofice.
Bleak.
Then my poor GF will be sitting next to me in the hospital reading me weird Irish Jig songs. Then she'll have to kill me, but instead of adrenaline, she'd have use something cheaper like Drano, because we're so poor.

How miserable.

Monday, July 25, 2005

Odoggie dog


Odoggie dog
Originally uploaded by Joe_13.
I have this picture on my computer desktop. I can't stand looking at it, because it makes me want to go home and hug Odie.

Look at that pathetic mug... (sob)...

Saturday, July 23, 2005

Heat

It's f-ing hot.
My house feels like a convection oven.
I have an ice pack strapped to my head right now.
It's ridiculous.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

shorthanded

I entered a $5 shorthanded (5 players) sit & go tournament (single table) and won it last night. Cashed a whole $17 baby!

Small stakes I know, but after playing the REALLY small stakes (.15-.30 lmit), a $17 win seems like a lot.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

New Melones Houseboat

The heat would've been unbearable if I wasn't submerged for the majority of the time. With the lifevests wrapped around groin like adult diapers, we floated near the houseboat, bobbing happily in the water, with only our beer and our heads exposed to the sweltering heat. It was all we could do to keep from melting under the 108 degree air.
We had 2 waverunners, 2 ski boats, the houseboat with a hot/cool tub and a seemingly limitless supply of tequila and beer. That and a potato-gun made this weekend excursion an ideal situation to escape the realities of civilization.
This was pure redneck fun. I was loving it. At least it would've been redneck fun except for the hippety-hoppety I was blasting from my iPod.
I made my first attempt at wakeboarding this weekend. At first it seemed as if this sport wasn't for me. My first 4 attempts resulted in a nose full of lake water. On my fifth attempt at getting up I finally was atop the water, skating unsteadily. I crossed the wake and ambitiously pulled myself toward the wake in a ridiculous attempt to catch air. I was greeted by more than a nose full of water this time as my face slapped the water at 20 mph. "One more time," I said as Mike pulled the Ski Centurion around. "Go!" He accelerated and as I began losing my balance I heard a familiar pop as my shoulder was yanked out of its socket. "OK, I'm good, that's it." I called it a day.
Blasting across the water at 50 mph on the waverunner was a blast. We took turns making the glassy waters rough, doing donuts and flooring the throttle. In the wide expanses of the lake, cruising on the waverunners was remarkably liberating.

More beer followed.
Then some Morton's Tri-Tip.

Day Two was more of the same as we traded waverunner for more diaper lounging. The sun was intense and despite constant reapplication of 36 spf, my shoulders were a toasty red, nice sunburn.

As night fell, someone decided it was time to play some poker. What a good idea. Steadily the players knocked each other out one by one... guess who made it to the final two. Yours truly and ScottO. On the first hand of heads-up play, Scott O went all-in with A3o. I instantly called with A4 of spades. The flop brought two spades and the turn brought another making me the New Melones Poker champion.

Houseboating was fun. Do it if you get a chance. And if you happen to own a ski boat, let me know when you are skiing, I could use a chance to redeem myself.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

EXPLOSION-reporters


EXPLOSION-reporters
Originally uploaded by Joe_13.
This is a week late, but it happens to be the biggest news to hit Los Altos in a long time.

A man was trapped under the rubble when his house literally blew up. His two children narrowly escaped the explosion with only minor injuries. It took 3 hours for firemen to rescue him from the wreckage.

Loooong weekend to come

Today is my Friday.
Tomorrow we'll be heading out to Lake New Melones to celebrate Chestnut's 30th with a long weekend houseboating, waterskiing, jet skiing, catching some rays, swimming and binge drinking.
YEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHAAAAAAAAA! This is going to be some real redneck fun and I can't wait.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Freeeeerooooolll

I stayed up late last night playing in a freeroll tournament on Hollywoodpoker.com. Through a field of more than 250 players, I managed to hang in there till the end. I finished in first place winning a whopping $10! WOOO HHOOOOOO! I can buy lunch now!

BTW, Hollywoodpoker.com is filled with fish. Along with a chance to play against such huge stars as James Woods as well as B-listers like Michael Woods (whoever that is) the donkeys at Hollywood can be easy money.

Monday, July 11, 2005

weekend

This weekend was mostly work.
Saturday I attended an awards banquet in which my newspaper won a second place prize for sports coverage. That's all fine and dandy, but the only thing I contributed to those pages were that I took the pictures for the section. So I drove an hour ($20 in gas), got lost for another 30 minutes, paid $3.25 to get money from the hotel ATM, paid $6 for parking to watch a slide show.
In the photo categories which I entered I won a measly honorable mention for a sports photo I shot. I won nifty "certificate"... Wooop-dee-doo.

Sunday I worked some more.
The Los Altos Arts and Wine festival was going off as per usual, but unlike every other year I've gone, I didn't get to drink a single beer. Photos only. And it was a hot one. Sweltering. Otherwise it was par for the course. Moms, Dads, Gramps... and art, or should I say crafts.
I followed this assignment up with a killer freelance gig. $500 for just over 3 hours of work.
Fundraisers are interesting to work. Because everyone there is rich. At least rich enough to dish out $200 just for a seat to the event. On top of that, theres the silent auction where rich peeps purchase wine for even MORE than they're worth. And then a live auction where they spend a SHITPILE more than the product is worth. But as great as these events are for the blind kids the money will go to help, it really destroys my self-worth. Here's a group of people who are willing to drop $5000 for a case of wine. Is that fucking ridiculous? Or $20,00 for a night on the town...
To those people willing to drop $1000 for a bottle... FUCK YOU.
That bottle will be gone in 20 minutes. With my friends, a bottle would last 3 minutes tops. But $1000 would last me at least a couple days. And $10,000 would last me months, or provide me with a top-of-the-line camera setup which will allow me to make a living for years

OK, fine. I'm jealous. So fucking what?

Friday, July 08, 2005

3rd of July at Utz's

I've been housesitting for my best buddy's mom for a couple months and I decided to throw a party.
It's a quaint home. Quaint in the Los Altos Hills way. That is, it's large, with a huge deck , swimming pool, pool house, and a 180 degree view of the bay area. Boo-yeah.
Swimming, cards, music, dancing, beer, beer, beer and more beer and some conversation later it was fireworks time. From here we were able to see at least 4 different fireworks shows. They aren't quite as exciting from that distance, but we all contributed to an ear-shattering rendition of the Star-Spangled-Banner anyway.
We then unleashed the full fury of one box of "safe-sane-and-weak" poppers (fake fireworks) into the air and at Luke. "Dance Bitch Dance!" Luke abliged with some sort of hilarious Irish Jig.
We moved the party indoor and played several rounds of Kings, an old favorite drinking game. Til, Daniel tried to leave, the table burst into a top-of-the-lungs version of, "NaNaNaNaa, NaNaNaNaa, HEY HEY! GOOOODDBYYYYEE!" With middle fingers raised and waving. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing.

The party was a success, and I think everyone had a great time.
I know I did.