We have this bowl of potpourri in the bathroom at work; I really like how it looks and smells. Super-cheap from Walmart. I bought a new one, but I liked the big green leaf from the old one, so I kept that.
Shiny gold car.
Kendra brought some great drinks to the last poker game.
We try to have all our parties on the same weekend of the month. That way we only have to sweep the floor once a month right afterwards.
I was about to get into the shower, but I heard Ogii come home, so I ran into the bedroom. She went into the bathroom to scare me, but I snuck up behind her and scared her instead.
Paperclips that look like glasses. Cute, but I absolutely never use paperclips.
I'm sure there's some law or regulation against this mess.
This poor dog sits in this apartment and stares out the window all day long.
There's actually another dog in there he could play with, but he doesn't. Poor thing.
Ah, this car is behind me, how can I get out? Not too big of a deal, I can drive forward and go back and around some of the other cars, but if all of the other cars were there, I'd be stuck.
Ogii bought these socks just a few months ago and already some are way more stretched out or shrunk.
I sent in my dues for the California Optometry Association, but somehow I was short $8.13. Ugh, now I have to write another check just for that, which is like 0.005% of the dues.
Maybe the meat lower down is good? Better not risk it, though; I'll just have PB&J instead.
I love these bags for the beach, but I wear them out, so I have to keep going to this yearly CE event just to get the bag again.
One of the ATMs was broken and this guy was taking a really long time doing whatever he was doing.
The line inside the bank was huge, too, so that's not an option.
All the people who were waiting for the ATM. I guess Saturday mid-morning is a bad time for this.
I went to play volleyball in Playa Del Rey. There's a little lagoon by the beach that I sometimes have to park on the other side of if the spots closer to the beach are full.
These geese were wandering around on the road there.
It's 80 degrees outside, so should take advantage of the weather.
Reaching.
Hitting and blocking.
A swing from down low.
Diving.
Serving.
Jack is so good at getting the ball to go where he wants. Most of the time he doesn't spike it; he just taps it over to wherever a hole is on the other side.
Big dive.
She's fired up.
David hitting it over.
George serving.
Micheal going way up in the air.
Nancy with her eye on the ball.
Big spike.
Jack went back to get the ball, so he just served from way back there in the other court. I like the expression of the guy in red shorts playing there.
Jack going up for a spike.
Big hit.
Crystal serving.
And digging.
Paul spiking.
Ogii bought me this chinup bar.
You have to support it above the door frame. However, none of our doors have frames.
No frame here, either. Hmm... maybe I'll check the door at the office.
I made chili and added some chili powder... and a little more... and a little more... oh wow, way too hot. And you can't remove the chili powder. I guess you could add more meat and beans, but that would be a lot of work. I'll just drink a lot of milk with it.
You can watch a lot of movies for free on Amazon Prime. Unfortunately, The 13th Warrior isn't one of them. However, it's $3 to rent on YouTube, way cheaper than the $10 on Amazon.
We both signed up for Lyft to get their $1000 new driver bonus. However, their system got overloaded with so many new applicants. They said they were only giving the bonus to people who signed up by Friday at noon, which we both did, and gave a ride by the following Thursday. You had to have a mentor ride with you and inspect your car. Ogii did it on Sunday morning, but their system was so overloaded it wouldn't let me even request a mentor until Monday morning. Now we're just waiting for it to approve us to drive.
Lots of Wells Fargo banks around in different neighborhoods.
One in a Jewish neighborhood.
A poor neighborhood.
And a rich neighborhood.
Online poker tournament. A good start here where the opponent called a half-pot bet when I had two pair.
I raised preflop, bet the flop just in case he missed, then we checked it down.
We were both all-in preflop.
This was tempting with two overcards, but not with a shove and a call in front of me.
Yep, good fold.
Three-way all-in.
Again all-in preflop after multiple reraises.
He bet, I shoved, and he called. With a straight draw, flush draw, and two overcards to two of the cards on the flop, I'm usually doing pretty well here.
Yep, hit my flush. I like the little animation for cracked aces, too.
I thought about calling here but I folded instead, aw.
A single ace is good enough.
I was a little too loose here. He bet every street and I called every one only to be outkicked.
All-in preflop and I held up.
The blinds are 250/500, so a normal raise would be 1000 to 1500, then a normal reraise would be around 3000 or so. An all-in for 30,000 instead is just a tad abnormal.
This time my flopped top pair was good.
Aw man, I was busy doing other stuff for a bit and came back just in time to see my AK folded.
Nice hand, but only one opponent called my raise and then he folded on the flop.
I'm sure I'm good here, so I'm just calculating the best way to be all-in by the river. If I just call, the pot will be around 30k and I'll have around 20k left, which is almost perfect for a bet. If I raise her, it might scare him away. On the other hand, he might not get the card he wants on the river and then fold whereas here he might still call. Tough decision.
I just called on the turn, he bet small on the river, I went all in, and he called.
I raised preflop, he shoved, I was pretty much committed at that point so I called. Reminded me I have to be wary of shoves from the short stacks behind me.
A good starting hand, but it could get scary with that board, so I thought I'd shove to try to get the draws out.
Except he already had a straight. He should have won this, but I got super lucky and hit runner runner to make a full house.
I'm in 5th place, doing well.
I hate AJ. At best I'm usually slightly behind, but the pot odds almost make it worth calling.
Not when he had QQ, though.
I bet 5000 on the flop, he shoved for only 5000 more, so I called and lost.
I raised, they both reraised so I figured I'd better fold, and then I would have made a straight.
I raised, bet, and bet and the opponent folded.
Sometimes all you need is a pair.
This is tempting, but not too tempting; any A-high or pair is ahead of me.
Yeah, I wouldn't have done very well against KK.
I bet out on the flop, he shoved all in, but since it wasn't for too much more, I called. And then I got extremely lucky when the board made a flush.
A pair is good, but 22 looks really weak with so many raises in front of me.
Yep, good fold.
Not too hard to get away from this one.
89dd had an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw and is actually a favorite to win the hand on the flop against the A that made a pair.
Four aces, nice.
Hit an ace and good.
The opponent shoved on the turn, it didn't seem like he had anything, so I called with A-high and won.
I lost this flop when he went all-in preflop. Lost around 60,000 on this hand.
And then another 80,000 with this one when we kept raising preflop until I went all-in and he called.
And in two hands, I went from near the top to near the bottom.
Ah yes, AJ, my least-favorite tournament hand. I was in a lot of trouble here and didn't get a lucky ace.
I played for five hours and made $22.79 ($33.79 winnings - $10 entry fee) for $4.56 per hour. Of course, I can also do other stuff on my computer between hands I'm in, so it's not quite that bad.
Ooh, free pawn on e6.
And another.
A knight vs three pawns is close, but since my pawns are so far apart, the three pawns should win.
He's not happy he lost.
I could take the h4 pawn with check and then get the pawn on b4 for free.
As a bonus, I protect my pawn on b7 that he's attacking. I didn't see that, but it worked out.
If I move my bishop to b6, I could fork his queen and rook.
He pushed his b pawn forward, and I proceeded with my plan. Except his b pawn now blocks my queen which protected my bishop, so free bishop for him. Whoops.
Rook fork.
Except by taking one of my rooks with one of his rooks, he gets out of it. And he gets my pawn for free.
Unless he moves his king there, in which case I can fork his king and rook with my knight.
I started playing 1-minute games with no delay instead of 3-minute games with 2-minute delays. You tend to make lots of mistakes, but it's pretty fun; very hectic. Here I brilliantly forked my own rooks.
Since you have so little time, people tend to pre-move a lot. Sometimes that doesn't work out very well, like here...
... where I pre-moved taking his pawn, except he moved is knight out and got my queen.
Then I tried attacking his knight with my pawn and got forked. Time to give up on this game.
Here he tried to attack my knight...
... and I got a fork.
This was a cool little sequence I had planned with only 1 second left.
I take his queen with my queen...
... which lets him take my queen with his rook.
But then I can back-row mate him because my bishop is covering his escape square.
I can't take his knight because I need it there to protect against checkmate by his queen on h7.
I tried using my queen to take his knight, but it was too slow; he can just checkmate me still.
I forked his queen and rook.
He moved the rook instead of the queen, and then when I took his queen, I forked his king and rook. Pretty devastating sequence of moves.
This happens a lot in the 1-minute games. If you can move much more quickly than your opponent, even though you might be way behind in pieces, you can win on time. Or, in this case, draw, because I don't have any pieces I could even theoretically checkmate him with.
This is one of my weaknesses in 1-minute games; I let their pawns march too far down the board.
And then something horrible like this happens, where he gets a free rook.
It's fun getting rooks who are trapped by their own pieces with knights.
Another mistake of pre-moving; usually they bring their knights out on f6, but not in this case, so I guess he gets a free bishop.
Except he moved his other knight out too quickly, so I get a free queen.
This time I ran out of time with the easy win.
Pawns vs pawns, pretty close (ignore the times because I took screen shots after the game was over).
Pawn race.
He queened first but I got my queen right after that. I was also a pawn up, so I just needed to force a queen exchange and then queen with my other pawn.
And then I ran out of time.
Three pawns vs three pawns. Thankfully I have a little more time to think this one through.
And I end up getting a pawn through.
I'm so far ahead in pieces I should win easily, but I lost on time. Pretty easy checkmate at this point, too.
Again, I got myself in trouble by moving the pawns in front of my king.
This seems like a good defense...
... until he just takes my pawn, forking my king and rook.
I tried to hang on for a bit but it didn't work out.
Skewer. I should have taken his bishop with either my bishop or rook, but I moved my king away instead.
Then he messed up and didn't take my queen. What horrible games you get with 1-minute clocks.
I ended up coming out of the exchange ahead on pieces and time.