Lack of bloggage.

I'm sorry for the delay in posting. I have put up exactly one post in the past ten days. It's not that there hasn't been any blogworthy material, it's just that I have been lazy and playing poker (that's right, poker). I wrote one post on Thursday that was posted for about three seconds before I decided it sucked. Maybe it will be included on the "Brick Discarded Posts Extended Remix Edition." Also, I didn't want to bump down the "gay cowboys" post because it was damn good. But it's time to move on.

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Baldo and Mrs. Baldo came to visit last week. We went out for tapas. I stupidly set my glass of sangria next to the edge of the table. I reached over (right hand across to left side of table) to grab some goat cheese. On the way back to my plate, my right elbow caught my glass (my full glass) of purple beverage, sending it shattering and splattering to the ground below. I felt like a dumbass and dudes had to come out and clean it up. Luckily none of it sprayed on other patrons and my jacket took the bulk of the damage.

Baldo and I split the bill 50/50. He is the one friend I have that when we go out we have to fight over who pays.

Me: "I'm paying!"
Him: "No, I'm paying!"
Me: "Fuck you dude, I'm paying!"

The first time we went to that tapas place, Baldo tried to hand the waiter his credit card, and I had to rip the leather thing with the bill inside out of his hand and I paid. Baldo tells me he is writing up rules for splitting the bill. I have yet to see a draft, but he tells me he is sick of all this fighting.

It's kind of a nice fight to have I guess, because with my normal in-town crew we always have to argue about who didn't pay tax or tip. And in Otto's case, the $6 beer he ordered. With him it's always:

"Let's see, Ms. Otto and I split this thing that cost 9.95. Here's a Hamilton."



Gee, thanks. I guess your food was tax-free and that beer was on the house and you weren't satisfied with the service.

Even when we manage to not invite Otto, it's still a splittage nightmare because everyone only carries Jacksons.



I think the main reason behind Baldo's bill splitting desires is the "well you took us out so now we have to take you out" syndrome. Now we can avoid that, I guess. It makes it less fun, though.

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We had a poker game on Thursday. We play .10-.25 no-limit, $10 buy-in. Me, Matt, Scott, Alex, and our older gay companion, Cilarus. I don't get what the deal is with Cilarus. He is a single, good-looking, 40-something, gay male. Somehow his Fridays and Saturdays (and Thursdays) seem to always be available. Call him on Saturday afternoon: "Hey, wanna go ice skating tonight?" "Sure!"

How he came to be our companion is another story. Actually, it's not. He met Alex through Alex's job and now he hangs out us. He chooses to hang out with non-gay guys that are 17 years younger than he is. That's so gay.

Yeah, so we played poker. $10 buy-in, so $50 on the table, right? No. Cilarus sucks and usually manages to burn through 3 or 4 buy-ins. This time he only lost $7. I followed my policy of playing like shit and getting crappy cards, but I managed to make my $10 last a good four hours, losing my last $3 on the last hand.

So how did Scott manage to walk away with $63, and Alex walk away with $54?

Matt. He lost $90. I know losing $90 in a poker game is no big deal. I myself have lost much more than that on a single hand. However, when you are talking about a game with a big blind of a quarter, it is. That's like losing $900 in a 1-2, $100 buy-in game.

It went something like this:

"All-in. Damn. $10 in chips, please."
"All-in. Damn. $10 in chips, please."
"All-in. Damn. $10 in chips, please."
"All-in. Damn. $10 in chips, please."
"All-in. Damn. $10 in chips, please."

Etc. Etc. Etc.

I should mention that Matt was downing beers like prohibition was going into effect the next day. Luckily he didn't bite any of us or try to fight us. He was just hugging us forcefully, and getting incredibly stupid with his money.

He has this peculiar habit where he shoves all-in when he misses his draw. And he did it about nine times that night.

It was a fun time. Matt managed to not get too upset and went outside to smoke a lot.

We played a little while longer and Scott nearly flipped when he saw the clock said "11:45PM" because that's way too late to be awake and he left.

We played a little bit longer and at 2AM, we called it a night. Good ol' Matt.

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The Ms. and I went back to the dreaded Sam's Club on Saturday. I managed to spend $165 and I have nothing to show for it except a 36-pack of Diet Pepsi. I know the $165 is not too bad for a Sam's Club trip, but when you spend it like this:

200 garbage bags: $10
5 gallons of laundry detergent: $15
24 rolls of paper towels: $13
56 rolls of toilet paper: $17
36 Diet Pepsis: $8

That's all I remember getting. There's $100 more in there somewhere. I remember a simpler time when toilet paper and paper towels were provided free of charge by the birth-givers.

It sure sucks to spend $165 and not remember what you spent more than half of it on.

I did discover one thing about Sam's Club, though. They have really good pizza. There is a food counter up front and they have a special: 1 big piece of pizza and a big Coke for $2.48. And the pizza is good. Way better than expected. Seeing as a large pizza is only $8, I think I will be going back just for the pizza some day.

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That's all for now. I still need to write about the Colts losing yesterday. Sorry, Scott.