Snow, a choir concert, and teachers?

Greetz my fellow penguins! As I was headed off to bed last night the weather hacks on our local tv station were calling for snow overnight, and treacherous conditions. I was skeptical as I fell asleep. I awoke this morning to initial alerts of a two-hour delay for school which was quickly upgraded to a complete cancellation. Generally speaking the kidlets are treated to more time off due to the predominant secondary roads in the outlying areas. Today, my thinking is that school officials were mostly concerned about the continued accumulation of the white stuff throughout the rest of the day. It's still coming down and I'm lovin' it!

Actually, the snow let me sleep in a bit. At first I was planning to take the kids in late to school for a two hour delay, but when they cancelled Teresa decided I could just drive us both to work. I usually start the day at 6:30, she not until 8:00-ish, after getting the kids to school. I only need the four-wheel drive in a couple of spots, but it was nice knowing it was there. Our office is supposed to be going to Logan's Steakhouse today for our Christmas Dinner, so that'll shorten up the day as well. : ) Of course making me fatter as well, but I did order the Mesquite Grilled Salmon, so I did "try" to eat healthy. I'll keep it down to only a couple of beer chasers! I need to fit in a workout today of some sort. I need to do both the bike and lift, but we'll see. I biked yesterday, which I've done now a few times since the knee has been bothering me so much. I'm a runner though and it's not my first choice, but honestly it hasn't been so bad, and I'll give the Bureau credit for buying some top notch Precor fitness equipment in the room downstairs!

No poker content today kids sorry. Last night was about getting Cole to and from basketball practice, Whitney from cheerleading practice, fed, and then back to her choir concert and then attending that along with my mom. So it was nearly 10pm when I got home and settled in. It was a fantastic concert! The music program at Parkersburg South High School is TOP NOTCH. The tradition of great music and support of the arts in general is very much alive and well in the Wood County, WV school district! The choir director, mentioned "my" old choir director last night and said that it had been her desire to continue the traditions and high standards of performance in keeping with the example which he had set, when she too was his student. I think of Dan Thomas (Mr. T) from time to time and remember him as a positive influence in my life. He taught me the values of striving for personal excellence BUT being part of a greater whole. He taught me to think for myself, and challenge conventional wisdom. All things which you wouldn't necessarily expect from a choir class. He is one of maybe 3 teachers which I remember fondly from my pre-college education who helped form the oddity that is "cheer_dad." In fact, those educators are: Mr. Thomas (11th-12th grade choir), Mr. Stout (9th grade English), and Mrs. Doherty (11th grade Humanities.) Thanks for giving me the tools to work with... (or should I say, "with which to work.") Sorry my prepositions still dangle every once in a while! ; )

Enough of the stroll down memory lane, get back about your business folks...

Regards,

cheer_dad

Broad spectrum of topics

So I started this long, in-depth analysis of the "Final Rule" submitted by the Federal Reserve System and the Department of the Treasury providing policy and regs related to the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act.) I was up to page 30-ish of the document which appears to be like 121 pages long and I've already created my own commentary that's just scrolling off the page, and suddenly it hits me. WTF!?! Why are you bothering!? The Act was crap, it was enacted in a shady fashion, it's been argued, beaten, commented upon, ignored, revised, and now this "final rule" gives us the regs for how to get it done. In short, this is just furtherance of crap. I immediately deleted my diatribe on the finer points of the most recent document. Look folks, we're beatin' this dead horse... and keep giving it new life, somehow. I'm not suggesting ignore it, but it seems the regs are here to stay at least for a while, until someone or something else comes along which renders it impotent or we just find a loophole to work around. I read Shamus comment in which he says he's sorry for the mushroom cloud picture and inciting a panic, but honestly I think we all know he wasn't suggesting that the end is nigh. He went on to cover I. Nelson Rose's comments which I think are spot on. Life will go on for poker and we who play her. However, the economy of the thing will suffer. What I mean to say is that the harder it becomes to "move" money about online for poker purposes, some folks simply won't bother. And a lot of those folks are fish and so you are going to continue to find yourself engaged in tougher and tougher games online. I'm not looking to deposit any time soon, if ever, since I have a comfortable sum online that I play with now. (I'd like it to get bigger, but I don't want it to rely on me depositing money to get there.) But with less new money flowing into the poker community, the skillset of those you will encounter is only going to improve. Only the strong will survive and the weak will not bother with a redeposit if they have to put too much work into it. So, I think Shamus has it right in this respect. The poker boom online owes much of its success to the ease with which you could get money online. There will be an impact, I'm certain, but I have no idea to what degree.

Anyway, I'd like to tell you I've been playing lotsa poker, but that'd be a lie. I did excavate and pour a concrete driveway extension to accommodate a third vehicle in the cheer_dad clan. Recall the yellow volkswagen now sitting out front in the belong of my daughter, Whitney. Two days of back-breaking work and chilly weather now behind me. The muscle aches and pains still bear witness to the feat though.

I'm tired, and now reviewing the log file from my phone it looks like I may have been called by the school (shudder.) Very likely in response to an email that I sent to my daughter's Geometry teacher, telling her that I think some changes are in order in her teaching approach. Okay, maybe I was a little more diplomatic than that. I can do that when I write. Not so much when cornered on the phone or in person. Diplomacy can then take the backseat... an argument will shortly ensue. But we shall see... and I shall blog.

Oh and don't forget... tonight we travel to Bridgeport, WV where the South Patriot Football Juggernaut faces off against Bridgeport High School in the first of our playoff games. Keep those fingers crossed! Let's GOOOOOOO Patriots!!!

Later all, it's just that kinda day.

Regards,

cheer_dad

PHS vs South Tonight

The cross town rivalry football matchup of Parkersburg High School and Parkersburg South High School is tonight! The PHS Big Reds (3-3) play host at Stadium Field to the PSHS Patriots (4-2.) As is always the case excitement is high for this game. Throughout the state of West Virginia this is known as one of the hottest rivalries around. My wife (Big Red) graduated from PHS, while I graduated from PSHS, we live on South Side and our daughter CHEERS for PSHS, so you do the math (and it ain't friggin' geometry) we'll be cheering the Patriots on to night. We leave very shortly so this will have to settle for a post.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Parkersburg South vs McKinley Tech

Tonight the Parkersburg South Patriots played host to McKinley Tech from DC and there was much cause for celebration and laughter. That's my baby with the big smile on her face having a great time during the game. : )












McKinley in white, South in Blue are shown here in play action.






Here's another picture of yet another kickoff by the Patriots. Let's just say we had to do that a lot!!!









Mad Max ran the length of the field more times tonight than I think he cares to remember, as each time a TD hit the scoreboard he got to do his thing and run the flag. When the dust settled and the final gun went off, the scoreboard read Patriots 49 McKinley 0... Lots of points on the board, and what a great start to the season. Keep up the intensity boys, work and play hard.

Congratulations! We'll see you next week at Warren High School.
GO SOUTH!!!

Regards,

cheer_dad

Getting back in the swing

Since returning from the beach it's been rough to get back in the swing of things. It's kinda like detox, and needing a vacation from the vacation. On Thursday I had to pick Whitney up from cheerleading, right when we got home, and then turn around and head up to Parkersburg South High School for her Orientation. Yes, my baby girl is now in high school, stop reminding me. I'm still struggling to understand how there's going to be enough room for all these kids at South, in spite of all of the renovations and additions to the school over the past couple of years. Of course, I'm not sold on the whole "middle school" concept either. But we'll just have to wait and see. I wish the kids and the administration the best of luck!

Later that evening Big Red and I headed for the Eagles and met up with JR and Nikki and Frank also showed up after a while. I drank a few, and then a few more. We both had a little slot machine time and came out on the plus side, including our bar tab!

The next day, Big Red had to head back to work... haha! : ) I slept in a bit, but then got started on the pile of laundry. Later in the day I took Whit to practice between other chores. The evening was a quiet one and the whole family spent it together in front of the tv, reading, and listening to Cole play with his wrestling action figures. No they are NOT dolls!

Today, was South's Meet The Team festivities at Erikson All-Sports Facility. Long drawn out process, that should really be condensed. But I did get to see my daughter perform and so that was a good thing.

Since getting back today I've been wading through the blogs. Wow, I had a lot of catching up to do, since there were nearly 400 "unread" items to check out. It felt nice to get back in to the frame of mind of reading through these postings again, and sharing out some items and skimming others.

I did talk to Frank today, who didn't in fact head to Tri-State "Casino" on Thursday, but settled instead on Friday. He and Vince and Theresa all headed down to see all the goings on. Frank let me know that he made like $350 and that the place was full of fishies! He's trying to talk the wife into letting him go back tomorrow (Sunday) for another go at 'em. He did tell me that the management of the room left a bit to be desired, and wasn't up-to-par. He was upset by the chaos, particularly since they've had so long to prepare and could have easily taken some pointers from Wheeling and Mountaineer to the North, but it appears that would have been too much to ask. I'll wait for Frank's trip report on his blog to see what other goings on he encountered. Eventually I'll make the trip myself and offer up my impressions as well.

Time to get back to the pile of laundry folks...

Regards,

cheer_dad

Pack the House

Last word from Mr. Yanok sounds like the basement is going to be full, when it comes time for the cards to get in the air. Tonight at 7:30 we'll converge at the Yanok home for the August qualifier tournament. Maybe I'll actually get around to doing well in one of these. This one would be a good one to take down too, since the numbers, the $$$, and the points will all be high. But let's not get ahead of ourselves huh...

The work day was short, as promised but I actually had to put in some actual work before calling it a day at noon. This Configuration Management thing will most certainly be the death of me. But on a positive note... we leave for vacation on Sunday for Myrtle Beach, again! Unfortunately, Whitney won't be coming along with us this time, as her cheerleading duties and schedule have re-prioritized her life. She's okay with it all though. I haven't heard any complaints anyway. What with all that teenage angst, she's probably looking forward to the time away from the 'rents! For any of you little twits out there who are thinkin' about stopping by to hang with my little girl while I'm out of town, just wipe it from your little brain! She'll be heavily guarded.

Gotta run, now and take Whit and Jordan to the Homecoming festivities. Then, poker Yanok style awaits!

Regards,

cheer_dad

Do the Humpty Hump...

Hope you've all had a Happy Hump Day. Congrats we've nearly survived yet another day working for the man! Tomorrow night is Eagles drawing night, followed by an oh so short day at work on Friday. We're getting early dismissal due to Parkersburg Homecoming, which basically overtakes the streets, parking lots, etc... all around our building. There's just not enough to go around, and all the concession carnies start setting up on Thursday night/Friday morning in the street right behind the building, so it gets crowded quick. Aww... how terrible that they just have to send us home so early. I might just drink lunch.

Later that evening we'll converge on the home of the Yanoks for their monthly tournament extravaganza. My daughter will have some various Homecoming duties to attend to throughout the weekend as part of the South Cheerleaders. I think there's a Dilly Dunker in her future. Also this weekend (Sunday) we're leaving for Myrtle Beach, again! I joked today at lunch with Big Red and both of the Brotherses, when Laura was going over her packing list. I let her go for a while before breaking in to say simply... flip flops, trunks, beer... packing's done! Looking forward to feeling the sand beneath my feet one more time this summer, and just soaking up mass quantities of sun and alcohol.

I played a few of those uber cheapie SNG's on Bodog again last night. I fired up 3 tables, and ended up grinding out a 2nd place and two 1st place finishes. Pfffft, this game's friggin' easy. : ) These games are teaching me patience, the power of position, and to not get excited one way or the other. If you win... no big payoff, but if you lose, ehh it's just a little pocket change. Still it's MY Pocket Change though!

Hope all is well with the lot of you, and remember after Hump Day, it's all downhill to the weekend. Now if we can all just avoid ramming into some obstacle on the way down.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Quickie post

Work is going by in a bit of a blur again, although it doesn't seem there's much to show for it. Weeks like that do pop up from time-to-time. Our team did take our summer employee out today for lunch, as she will be heading of to college for her freshman year. She's a good kid and she's been a great addition to our team. We hope to see her back during break and/or next summer.

My daughter has already started in to cheer leading practice. All day sessions ever since tryouts have kept her occupied and active. That's a good thing! A little bit of order in her life is a very good thing. By the way, don't be surprised when I start hitting you all up to buy the fundraiser stuff to support the Parkersburg South Patriot Cheer Leaders! You know it's gonna happen just smile and pay the girl. With my thanks of course!!! : )

We are in a rush this evening as usual, to get things squared away and go out to dinner with part of the larger crew tonight. We're celebrating both Julie's birthday and Chris and Laura's anniversary. Luckily there's a bit of a lull in the action to allow us to get there.

Don't forget that Saturday is JR's hosting turn at NDPT Tournament #11. Oh and in case I haven't mentioned it in a while... I am currently in the points lead, if only by the slimmest of margins. Regardless, you'll need the "A" game people, I'm not going down without a fight, or at least lots of alcohol... and I'm preferring Jack Daniel's these days if you're buying.

Time to call it a post.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Whitney made cheerleader...

My daughter, Whitney, made the JV Cheer leading Squad. She was a little dejected about not making the varsity squad, but Big Red did remind her that she hadn't "cheered" or done gymnastics in nearly 4 years, and so making a high school squad at all was quite an accomplishment. Gone are the days of good looks and a loud voice being enough to make cheer leading. Requirements involve some high level athletic ability. Minimum of a standing back handspring, and a running round off/back handspring combination. You may think they just stand there and look pretty, but I've got news for you. There's a lot of time and effort involved. As part of her schedule for the year, she will practice a minimum of 2-3 days per week for at least 2 hours after school. They are required to also take an outside gymnastics class, to develop new stunting skills. They not only appear at sporting events, but also at fundraisers, charity work, parades, competitions, etc... Also, during the remainder of the summer, leading up to the 1st day of school, they will continue to have some all-day practice schedules. Tryouts and subsequent meetings yesterday, were LONG! Warm up began at 2:30pm, tryouts started at 3:00. At 6:00pm they finished tryouts, and results were posted shortly thereafter. Then parents and cheerleaders met regarding responsibilities and $$$. Uniforms were put together (by the way they each have 4 different uniforms.) It was going on 10:00pm when Whitney and Teresa made it home last night. And she has to be at practice at 10:00am.

I really hope that this turns out to be a wonderful experience for my daughter. I'll do all that I can to help make that happen!

Today, I'm back to the ole grind, after my extra long weekend. : ) It was all right here waiting on me, as usual. The major problems, the minor irritants, the petty squabbles, the typical bullshit. Oh goody. Is it Friday yet?

Time to get back to it...

Regards,

cheer_dad

NDPT #11, Blogger spam issue update, Wheeling and cheerleading too

Here's the latest announcement for the next NDPT Poker Tournament from Jr:

Tourney # 11 is scheduled for August 9 (Saturday) at 7:00. R.S.V.P. Now!!!
It will be interesting to see where the points fall after this tourney. Remember, only the top 10 finishes are counted.
20 - person cap
$25 Total
$20 1,000 chips
$5 All-in (Bounty) chip

Hope to see you all there!
Thanks,
Jr.

P.S. - Second tourney tentatively scheduled for the weekend of August 23rd. Will be either Saturday (at my house) or Sunday afternoon (at the Eagles). There will be no cap if we have it at the Eagles.

Interesting P.S. there too! The Eagles has as of late "inquired" as to our interest in bringing our little poker game "back" to the club. I remember a time when we weren't so welcome. What a difference a new set of officers and a little over a year makes... But that's ancient history now. I'll be happy to return, we'll just see how it all plays out.

In other news I'll make mention of a couple of posts that came from Blogger. I recently made note of the fact that a couple of my favorite bloggers AlCantHang and DrPauly had been identified by Blogger as spammers and their respective blogs were interfered with. That injustice has been recognized and corrected according to the following posts which appeared in the Blogger Buzz...

"Spam Fridays
August 1, 2008 — While we wish that every post on this blog could be about cool features or other Blogger news, sometimes we have to step in and admit a mistake.
We've noticed that a number of users have had their blogs mistakenly marked as spam, and wanted to sound off real quick to let you know that, despite it being Friday afternoon, we are working hard to sort this out. So to those folks who have received an email saying that your blog has been classified as spam and can't post right now, we offer our sincere apologies for the trouble.
We hope to have this resolved shortly, and appreciate your patience as we work through the kinks.
— Brett "

"You Are Not Spam
August 2, 2008 — You knew that already, and now we do too. We have now restored all accounts that were mistakenly marked as spam yesterday. (See: Spam Fridays)
We want to offer our sincerest apologies to affected bloggers and their readers. We’ve tracked down the problem to a bug in our data processing code that locked blogs even when our algorithms concluded they were not spam. We are adding additional monitoring and process checks to ensure that bugs of this magnitude are caught before they can affect your data.
At Blogger, we strongly believe that you own and should control your posts and other data. We understand that you trust us to store and serve your blog, and incidents like this one are a betrayal of that trust. In the spirit of ensuring that you always have access to your data, we have been working on importing and exporting tools to make it easier to back up your posts. If you'd like a sneak peek at the Import / Export tool, you can try it out on Blogger in Draft.
Our restoration today was of all blogs that were mistakenly marked as spam due to Friday's bug. Because spam fighting inherently runs the risk of false positives, your blog may have been mis-classified as spam for other reasons. If you are still unable to post to your blog today you can request a review by clicking Request Unlock Review on your Dashboard.
— Siobhan"

That's good news and I'm glad it's been worked out.

Also, something I meant to mention in my last post related to the impromptu trip to Wheeling on Saturday. Chris finally realized that when I referred to one of my favorite people who worked the Wheeling Island Poker Room, that it was Diane "the dealer" and NOT Diane "the room supervisor." There's no comparison. Diane the dealer is great, and always has a smile on her face and can dish it out as easy as take it. She's great to have at a table! I only wished I'd been able to play at her table longer. Incidentally, she's sporting a new hairstyle. Regarding the other Diane... well let's just leave it at that, mmmkay?

My "little girl" just left for cheer leading tryouts. She's nervous, worried, wants it to be over, and all that; but she's worked really hard for this and that's all she can do. She's just gotta get out there and do it, and leave it all out there on the floor! Good luck baby girl!!!

Regards,

cheer_dad

Wheeling impromptu trip again

Startingly following last night's AMBUCS drawing that Big Red and I, along with Chris and Laura; our degenerate quartet jumped in the car and headed to... yup you guessed it... Wheeling! JR and Vince were already there (having called me much earlier, to rub it in and invite me along.) I don't know where the idea for us to go to Wheeling came from, but the decision was ultimately Big Red's to make. It probably wasn't the brightest thing I've ever done, but hey any day playing cards and a little casino gaming is just all too appealing.

It was going on midnight when we arrived in the Wheeling Island Poker Room. I was seated immediately, and waved my hellos to JR and Vince, who remarkably were not seated together, and I didn't catch either of their tables either. The room wasn't really all that busy either. Now, I did get to play with Chris at the table with me, so that was kind a nice to have a somewhat friendly face there with you. There were really only a couple of players with issues at the table, you know issues that I can spot and try to exploit! : ) The one, I never got involved with in the #6 seat. I think he tended to push a little hard but he was playing a lot of stuff. The other guy in the #7 seat however, I got involved with. He was first to act and simply called the $2 BB. I popped it to $10, and everyone but the #7 seat folded, he made the call. Now I popped it to take it down then and there... simply playing my position as I should, but in this case it wasn't a terrible hand. The flop came 3-K-3. I bet out $20, and I got a quick call, so there is concern in my mind now. But then the Turn fell a beautiful 9, giving me K's and 9's. As soon as it drops, the #7 seat makes this grossly exagerated motion like he's conducting a symphony orchestra and says "all of it!" I pause only briefly and tell him if you got the 3 I'm paying you and I'll congratulate you on your win. He's got me covered. I turn over my K-9, he shows K-10. So, yes he had me dead to rights and was trying to rope me in, but making the smooth call earlier. But I hit the card and had already decided what I was going to do before it came to that. At first a couple of the guys at the table miscalled the hand as a split, the dealer nodded agreement just like my opponent did, when the River Ace fell. I had to remind them I had Ks and 9s for the win. Yes, it was an ouch for him. And the pile headed my way. What was more interesting was to begin listening to the guy after that. He first criticized me to the girl beside him, saying he couldn't figure out how people who didn't know how to play could win like that. Then, for the next few hands, he couldn't get away from a hand to save his life. Tilt had arrived, and his stack began to dwindle, and finally got off the table. Not long after that I gave some of my stack to the guy beside me, when I raised with AJs in position and got him as a caller. I flopped TPTK with my Jack. I bet out he called, and then the board began to unfurl. We both check the turn, but the river came out filling in a potential straight. He wisely priced me in, with a small bet, which I had to call. He immediately told me that he'd sucked out and hit the straight. Not long after, the table broke up as players filtered their way out of the poker room.
I cashed out up around $30-ish, and headed up to look for Big Red. I played a few slot machines and then finally perched myself at a Three-Card poker table with my wife. She lost the last of her money and I was about to join her when I went on a run and hit two straights in a row, with the dealer qualifying. These paid out 6 to 1. A few other decent hands and I went from the brink of disaster to be up an additional $100.
Not long after that because my eyes were getting heavy, we cashed out and rounded up the herd and headed back home. Of course we had to make our obligatory stop at Denny's for breakfast. When I got home, I grabbed a couple hours sleep and then got up to go into work for patch maintenance on our servers. Thank goodness for coffee.

All in all, last night and early morning was a really good time. Of course I'm tired and it'll take a while to catch up on my sleep. I'm off tomorrow, so that'll help. Hope everyone's day goes well, oh and keep your fingers crossed for my daughter PLEASE. Cheerleader tryouts are today, and she's really busted her ass to try to make it. Just once let her have some luck of her own, and not the lousy kind that usually befalls me.

I'll see you all soon!

Regards,

cheer_dad