Sunday Nights...

... carry with them this unfortunate property of being the last thing I'm consciously aware of before it's Monday morning. Now, I have it better than most people - I really like my job. But getting up in the mornings sure isn't the part about it that I enjoy.

This week has been a little "meh" in some aspects. The garden desperately needs some attention, but it seems that whenever I have the energy to give it the attention it so desperately craves, the weather gods have deemed it appropriate to let it rain. Often a lot. Then, when there's no chance in hell I'm getting out to mow the lawn (like Saturday morning, hopelessly hungover) it's nice and sunny. The afternoon approaches, and voíla! Rain.

Kein regen, bitte.

The reason I was hungover on Saturday morning was because we went over to R & J's on Friday night, for dinner and board games. There's a group of us who play a lot of board games together. In my opinion, real board games are terribly underappreciated. I mean, step away from Monopoly and Risk, people. There are many much more interesting games around. Some of my favorites include Alhambra, Thurn & Taxis and - recently - Rio Grande Games Carcassonne The Count Board Game. I helpfully include the Amazon links here in case you want to buy them immediately. Please do, I think I get a percentage somehow, although I'm not sure how that works. They require a bit more strategy than monopoly does, but they make for great fun. Especially coupled with drinking but that goes with almost all activities, and given who my readers are likely to be, I'm probably preaching to the choire.

The funniest part of the evening for me happened when we were playing a game called Alias, which is not really a board game per se, but more of a pictionary-but-with-synonyms-instead-of-drawings type game. The idea is that you have 30 seconds to try to get your partner to get as many words as possible correct on the cards you have in front of you. The word was "crawl" and the dialogue between two of our contestants went like this (and I remind you there had been drinking):

"Okay, how babies get around."
"Walking."
"No, using both hands and feet."
"Cartwheels."

... and the image of an infant cartwheeling itself around the house got stuck in my head.

As for poker, I'm running pretty hot, which is awesome. It's a bit annoying that I almost never get any action with my big hands (and when I do, it seems it's more often than not when I'm holding KK vs. AA) but today alone I've gotten it all-in on the flop with the nut flush draw four times, and got there every time. That makes for a pretty good result at the end of the day, and I'm up $1,200 this weekend. I'd play more $200NL, but the game selection at those stakes just don't compare to the $100NL tables. Usually six regulars sitting around paying rake, which just isn't for me. I think I may have an edge on some of those regulars, but the tiny edge I have there vs. sitting at a table with a couple of 45+% VPIP players at the lower stakes just doesn't compare. I don't mind grinding it a bit in situations like that. I'm going to make a point of checking the $200NL tables for fish in the future though, and try to sit at them if I can find some juicy tables.