Fantastic Birthday Weekend

It wasn’t done specifically for any celebratory reasons, but last weekend turned in to a birthday weekend full of fun activities. I began the beginning of my 40th year by cashing in both games at Kajagugu’s neighborhood. That was a nice boost to the live bankroll and I cleared enough to pay my buy-ins for the next 3 months with 2 games each night. During football season, the games in my neighborhood dry up so I really look forward to spending the evening with the EG friends once a month.

Saturday was spent chilling around the house watching football and playing small stakes cash games online. Auburn was able to extend their undefeated season under our new coach. That was subsequently squashed yesterday against Arkansas but I’m still pleased so far. We need a ton of work, but they have proven that the are capable of putting lots of points on the score board.

Speaking of small stakes poker, I rarely can clear any bonus programs that online poker sites run because I don’t play enough when it comes to time or the monetary stakes it takes to accumulate points. Another reason is because I haven’t needed to deposit to PokerStars or FullTilt since my initial deposit to each several years ago. FullTilt did have a Take 2 promotion that didn’t require any deposit to qualify. It was the easiest I have ever participated in because it had such easy terms. I didn’t play quite enough to take full advantage, but I did make $25 of the $50 available. To do it, I played less than 1 hour a day at (2) .02/.05 games at the same time for as many days as I could. I was able to reach the 3rd level by playing 15 of the 30 days. I didn’t realize I was making enough points while playing on my lunch hour so I let some days slip. If I had been paying more attention, the full $50 would have been very easy just by playing 25 of 30 days. I’ve now signed up for the Ivey’s share thing they have going, so we’ll see what that will get me.

Sunday was a full day. It started with me going to Best Buy and picking up my birthday present. I got a Samsung BD-P1600 Blu-Ray player. I am totally digging on this player. It has great load speed along with Netflix, You Tube, and Pandora applications that I can take advantage of since my router is very close to my big screen set up in the bonus room. I have been watching this model since it came out earlier this year but I wasn’t willing to pay over $200 for it. A couple of weeks ago, everybody lowered the price to 199.99 and Wal-Mart even had it for 189.99 I think. Since it wasn’t a must have purchase, I figured I would wait until Black Friday and see what specials could be had. I was willing to wait, but Best Buy had the player with a $50 gift card for 199.99 so I figured that was about as good as it was going to get. I used the gift card to replace a dead UPS and picked up The Dark Knight on Blu-Ray.

In addition to taking most people’s money on Friday night, I was given 2 tickets to the Braves’ season ending game at home. When I got back from Best Buy, I joined Kajagugu, Kajakid, 2 other dads from the poker game along with their kids and we motored down to the ball park. We had a great time but had to leave a little early due to some other party commitments for Kajagugu. We were there long enough for me to get my smiling mug up on the big screen. We left during the 7th inning and the score was tied. I give the players a ton of credit because the game ended up going 15 innings. This was the last game of the year and they still gave the fans more than their money’s worth. Well done fellas.

I got home in time to head to dinner at one of my all time favorite restaurants, Kobe Steaks. You can’t beat their fried rice with bucket loads of the chili paste. I usually order double on the fried rice and this gives me to save for another meal with a little bit of the filet and vegetables I have left. I’ve been to other Japanese steak houses but this one is still the tops for me. It was a fantastic ending to a fabulous weekend that fell perfectly in to place.