A few weeks ago Debbie and I went out to breakfast with a friend and his wife. After this breakfast something funny happened as Debbie and I were preparing to leave the restaurant. A light rain was falling outside as Debbie and I both walked to our car. I routinely open Debbie's car door for her whether its raining or perfect weather outside.

Initially this morning was no different than any other morning. After I opened Debbie's car door letting her in then I proceeded to the driver's side of our vehicle and I got in. Right after I got in an elderly couple walked up to the car parked next to us. The lady looked at me with this big smile and at first I didn't understand why. But then it became clear after she turned to her husband and demanded he open the door for her.

Her husband begrudged-ly came to her side of the car unlocking the passenger side door and letting her in. During this process this couple was bickering back and forth. Apparently this older gentleman was not used to pampering his wife by opening doors for her on a regular basis.

Debbie and I drove off and at first I really did not understand what just happened. Initially I just saw the old lady look over at me with this huge smile and I couldn't figure out why. After watching this episode unfold next to us Debbie figured it all out and explained it to me and we both chuckled as we drove off. I guess chivalry is not quite dead...

Today's news of the bizarre or weird...
Woman Who Believes Music Triggered Seizures Can Listen to Music Again After Brain Surgery

Which made me think technology (newer music) caused this issue and technology (advanced brain surgery) fixed this problem... How weird and kewl at the same time!

Well I have been playing poker professionally now for almost six months. I have thought about writing about my experiences and perhaps turning this into a book project. Although I am not sure if this type book would actually sell. I guess I would need to win a big tourney (WPT or WSOP perhaps) before this might generate enough interest.

The truth is I have gone on a real roller-coaster ride of emotions during these past several months. Many of you know I always wondered if I could actually play poker for a living. After all poker has been a big part of my life now for about thirteen years or so. Of course not every body is cut out to make it as a professional poker player. It takes more than just a good knowledge and hunger for the game.

It takes a big enough bankroll, some good luck, patience, and heart to mention IMHO a few critical pieces of the puzzle. So far I have been successful in this endeavor but it has not been with a few bumps along the way. February was a horrible month for me as it was my only losing month. It helped humble me like life does and also help me see that I needed a bigger bankroll to sustain this profession.

Thankfully I have had lots of help along the way from my fellow RGP (rec.gambling.poker newsgroup) chat friends as well as other local poker friends that I respect. I have concentrated mostly on the $2-5 no limit Hold-em cash games but I do play a few tournies from time to time. My theory is as long as I can win regularly in the cash games I will never go broke and our starve.

In the beginning I promised Debbie that I would deposit at least $2k a month into our joint checking account. I am proud to say that I have been able to make this deposit every month including in February. Additionally I am happy to say that even though I lost money in February I have been averaging over $2k a month and have had a couple months winning in excess of $5k. But I still do not think that this is enough money for me to continue on this path over a year.

I am trying something new (for the past couple months) that appears to be helping me do lots better than before. I am focusing on playing shorter sessions (three to five hours) instead of longer sessions. Some days I am also working on playing a couple of these shorter sessions and so far it has been working very well for me. Also I feel that my game keeps getting better and better all the time. I also have been doing some book study but I need to ramp this up even more.

I am sorry that I have not been writing a lot here in LJ but I am sleeping in as my schedule is evolving. So I need to find a best time to do more writing here as I think it is a great writing venue and a tool to keep in touch with more of my old and new friends.

Finally I am also feeling better after passing my last kidney stone. Sadly there were a few complications but I am now (almost five weeks after my last episode) really starting to feel like normal!!! BTW thanks for every body's support during my tougher days.

Well I have certainly neglected LJ these past several days/weeks. I had great time at Barge visiting all my great RGP (rec.gambling.poker newsgroup) old and new friends. And I did decently in the cash games and in the NL HE main event (8th place finish out of 218 entrants).

And last week I flew with Debbie to Texas (Corpus Christi area) to spend some time with her parents. They just bought a new fifth wheel and a nice big Dodge diesel truck to haul this new home. It was a fun time had by all. Lots of good eating and a fun side trip to San Antonio's Sea World park. I must admit that I had fun but I am damn glad to be back home in the Las Vegas valley again.

Today I was back at the poker tables trying to make a few bucks. I won $899- in about three hours playing $2-5 No Limit Holdem at Bellagio. I am still wondering if I can make this a profession or not. Only time will tell if I can make enough at poker or not. For now I am just calling it a test run until I got enough data...

Additionally, I just switched my primary LJ email addy to see if that fixes my LJ auto replies or not. I must admit that when I switched to my primary personal email address I was not happy when I stopped getting my LJ replies automatically. I figure if I switch to my secondary hotmail account this might fix the problem.

Finally I am glad it is almost time for the regular college and NFL football seasons to start as I am just love football!!!

Well today is yet another huge milestone in my life. Yes its Debbie and my seventh wedding anniversary today! I am a very lucky man to have found such a wonderful and extremely loving lady to share the rest of my life with folks...

I plan to take her to dinner at Green Valley Ranch. But right now I am going to go out and buy her some flowers ;')

Well its been a couple weeks since I posted anything here in my LJ. So much has happened in this time-frame too. I will try and cover the highlights here. First off about two and half weeks ago Debbie and I adopted a four month old kitty (Misty) from the local shelter.

The funny thing was we first picked out a little one year-old female cat who appeared real affectionate when we came up to her. Once we filled out a waiver and had a shelter aid bring out this cat to hold she acted very differently. Debbie was the first to hold her and she felt so uncomfortable she passed this cat onto me to hold. Right away this cat started growling and acting real pissy. If only she knew the great home she was passing up on with this strange behavior.

Although we were both still in shock it was fortunate that Debbie had also picked out a little four month old kitty that she liked. This kitty was very affectionate when we handled her. So we opted to choose her for our newest member of the family. We decided on calling her Misty as it was a mystery how she become our new cat Vs the older cat who didn't respond well to us...

Misty has kept both Debbie and I real busy. She was sneezing right away when we got her home then started coughing, which lead to Misty's first visit to a vet. After getting her on some antibiotics for a pretty standard shelter kitty upper respiratory ailment then one of her eyes got infected ;'( So it was trip number two to the Vet for her. Thankfully now she is a healthier and even happier kitty. But I should add she now has way too much energy to play and get in and out of trouble!

Other than the kitty stories I have been very happy that several friends visited Las Vegas including evwhore and rcfox who both arrived on here on separate non-related trips. evwhore came into town for part of the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic poker tournament series. I had dinner with Spencer and several of his college buddies and a female friend at the Mirage, which was a hoot. Whereas rcfox came to town for a bloggers poker tournament, which I never signed up for or attended.

I was fortunate though to spend a couple nights with Russ and other friends playing poker and having c couple nice meals. That is one thing that I do like about this town, people are more apt to visit me here in Las Vegas/Henderson than when I lived in Sacramento. Now if I wasn't on GAP so often (every four weeks) it would be even better! I should also mention that I had got to also finally meet Matt Lessinger (Card Player columnist and recent poker book author) when my good friends Nolan Dalla, fich, and Nick Christensen cam over to watch MNF at my house. So it has been a pretty fun filled several weeks of seeing old friends and making some new ones!

We also had to have some semi-major work done on our spa/pool area this past weekend. We had a very slow leak around a seam inside our spa where the fake rocks join up with the finished area. It took me weeks to find the right person who could fix this leak and paint the fake rocks after wards. We ended up having the entire pool acid washed too and draining and refilling the pool in the process. It cost us lots of money but the end result looks great so far. Sadly now the automatic pool filler valve is leaking. We had to turn it off during all the repair work and naturally when I turned it on it starting leaking water. Oh well welcome to home ownership - just glad we can afford the repairs!

Finally I also am sweating more rounds of layoffs at work and some potential big changes on my companies policies against telecommuters like myself....

Tomorrow I am off to Santa Fe, New Mexico to help my parents celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Damn no that is some accomplishment isn't it? Debbie and I are looking forward to this trip as Santa Fe is a fun spot to visit and it will be great seeing my parents again. We plan to be back Monday afternoon so this trip will be short and sweet...

Sadly I seemed to have caught some sort of bug (sore throat/congestion) and so I plan to shutdown early today and get some rest!

I would like to wish ghostsandrobots a wonderful and fun birthday today! I hope your having fun day Zig, doing something special...

Well last night was my last chance to go out and play poker before I went back on GAP again. So I took that opportunity and drove off last night to the Strip and chose to play at Mirage. If you have not noticed like many players I have focused most of my cash game action playing smaller or baby no-limit Hold-em cash games.

But when I arrived it appeared that I could more readily get a seat in a $10-20 Hold-em game so I did! It was kind of funny playing in a limit game after such a long time. I played well but in about an hour and a half I was down $79- when I was finally called for a seat in a new $2-5 $500- cap no-limit game. So I got up and took my remaining $421- (I bought into the $10-20 game for $500) and sat down at the $2-5 game. I started off my session in this second game pretty rocky.

As I waited patiently for some good cards I happened to notice that the player on my right had some physically messed up hands. In fact many of his fingers were either munched up and partially missing or what appeared to be badly deformed. Suddenly I went from really wondering how to turn around my session to really curious what happened to this guy on my rights hands. Well after talking to him briefly this mystery was suddenly cleared up.

His name was Rick and he came to town for some IT Telco conference. He then went on to tell me (without me asking him first) that he used to be a fireman who was laid off. Then he worked temporarily in a farming machinery shop where his hands got crushed in a metal milling machine. It was an incredible story of how one human spirit overcame a pretty serious tragedy in his life.

What really amazed me is how candid Rick was about what happened to him and how he even joked and laughed about it all. But what I liked the best about Rick is how upbeat he was and how well he handled the cards and chips during the game. I loved the fact that he never gave up after his accident rather he became a very successful IT specialist who just re-invented himself. He went on to tell me he leads a very active life hunting, fishing, and following many other personal pursuits.

Well needless to say I thoroughly enjoyed my time talking with Rick last night and getting to know him better during my outing. Was also nice to see after I was a bit distracted listening to his fascinating story that I started picking up a few good cards and winning. I ended up picking up an extra $281- but even more importantly I picked up a lot more appreciation for all the good things I have going for me today! I sure hope I get to meet Rick again too...

Happy birthday lafille, I hope you have a blast today and on your trip to New Orleans! Damn I remember most of my twenty first birthday even today ;') I had dinner with my parents in Foster City at a restaurant that is now gone. Linda Carter of "Wonder Woman" fame was also having dinner at the same eatery so our waitress hearing it was my birthday got Linda to sign a menu for me. I might even still have that menu somewhere in the boxes I have dug out so far in this move.

Later that same evening one of my best friends Dave and I went out to a local dance club to watch my cousin Rob play in the band. During one of the earlier sets Rob actually pointed me out and announced that it was my twenty first birthday and so I got several free drinks! I remember it was a school night as I was going to San Mateo JC and I was so hung over I skipped at least my early classes the next day. It was certainly one of my best and most memorable birthdays to date.

Any how I hope Shelly you birthday is a wondrous occasion too!!!

Saturday my buddy Nick and I went on the strip searching out some poker rooms we hadn't played in yet. It was a fun day and I was also able to pick up a few more $1 & $5 casino chips for my collection that I currently did not own. I also had fun playing in several other casinos that my normal haunts like Bellagio and the Horseshoe.

On the final stop of our trip we checked out the newly opened poker room at Bally's, which is right across the street from Bellagio. Because this poker room was new many of the dealers and the cashier had been re-trained from other areas of this casino e.g. the sports book. I went up to one of these newly trained employees at the poker room cashier's cage.

I pulled out two hundred dollar bills and asked for $180- in $5- chips and the remaining $20- in $1- chips. This gal pulls out a rack of red $5- chips (100 chips in a rack or $500) then proceeds to pull out another rack of red and pull out twenty of the red chips in it then pushes me both racks with a total of 180 red chips in them worth $900- to me.

I looked at her and said "What are you doing?" She said she was giving me my chips and I said "I like a deal when I can get it but $900- for $200 in this case would be wrong. I put together a little jingle for her next stating if their red (the $5 chip colors) you might be dead but if their blue they are true ($1 chips color) as one chip equates to one dollar.

That young lady was very happy I was an honest guy and she told me she bet I would win lots of money in the game that night. The funny thing during that subsequent session I was down most of the night looking at awful cards like 72, Q3 (Queen Three), K2, etc and was frustrated but kept folding these losers for a couple hours. I ended up winning a dollar by the end of my night at Bally's.

But I must admit the following afternoon I returned to Bellagio and I had a fabulous session winning over a thousand dollars on a $400- investment. Maybe it does pay to be honest, what ever my conscience would not have it any other way!!!

Ok I am back from my one week of vacation! I spent this vacation moving into our new house in Henderson Nevada which is located in the Las Vegas valley. Here are some of the highlights of my week:
Movers came on time and finished dropping off our stuff on Tuesday with only one screwup!
Driver actually took back extra mattress, box spring, bed frame, and other assorted chairs etc... that I don't need down here instead of me having to put together a dump run!
Debbie and I went to the Grand Canyon on Weds as a day trip.
I finally won over $1k playing in the baby no-limit Holdem game at Bellagio.
I won over $2,800 playing poker for the entire week!
Debbie and I got to swim several times in our new pool.
We saw the movies Bourne Supremacy and Collateral.
Debbie and I got to check out a couple new restaurants here in the LV valley and we found a great pizza parlor around the corner from us!

Overall I am extremely happy with our move to the Las Vegas area. I feel like I have been liberated especially now that I am getting my office setup so that I have the capability of connecting to three computers in it etc...

Now I have my mind set on winning a major poker tourney and attempting to pay off our new house. Perhaps this is a pipe dream but hey its a good one. Now back to work. 8"0

This afternoon I finally got the news I was anxiously waiting to get. My realtor called me this afternoon to congratulate me on becoming a new home owner here in the Las Vegas valley. Yes finally, I can start moving out of this extended stay hotel room ;') Yesterday I got more good news I heard that the movers will show up next Tuesday which is fabulous news too.

When I first called the movers back I heard that they just lost one of their out of state drivers thus our load might be delayed as much as ten days... Finally things are really coming together now! Debbie and I plan to take next week off to do the move and possibly take a mini trip, perhaps to the Grand Canyon.

Well another Barge (Big Rec Gambling Excursion) poker weekend is in the books. I had a blast getting together again with 200 + new and old chat frendz. One again I was not disappointed with my experiences at this outing.

I showed up Weds night as soon as I could logoff and get out of here (my current extended stay hotel and office). I was able to get to Binions Horseshoe (downtown Vegas) in about 15-20 mins. In another 15 mins I had managed to check into my hotel room and drop off my bags. Before I knew it I was sitting down a poker table playing poker with several old chat frendz.

Nothing substantial happened right away other than I decided to move between a couple games trying to find the most optimal and fun cash game to play in. I was sitting besides my good buddy Marc "The Occupant" Gilutin when Dave Fruchter showed up and said Hello to us. I quickly asked Dave if anybody had pointed out Maverick (online super jerk) and he said no so I pointed out Mav to him and got an instant $100- pre-determined bounty. DING, this was without a doubt the quickest and easiest $100- I have ever made in my life. One of the best parts of it too was the rest of the Barge weekend anytime Mav saw me he asked where his cut was BWAHAHA (Mav would have received $200- if he was the first to introduce himself rather that somebody else pointing him out to Dave Fruchter).

I must admit that the $100- bounty helped me out as I lost $21- playing cash games before my first official Barge event team Chorse. In this team event I played three hands all night as the Holdem leg of the Chinese Poker Rulerz team. I was drafted by this team who was last years team Chorse champs. This year we sucked and lost all our buy in in $70- per person plus a $10- last longer with Don Perry's team, which was a major bummer ;'((

So on Thursday morning at 11 AM I was set to make some amends in my first individual tourney effort. It was the TOC event based on the old Tournament of Champions event that rotated between the three poker games of Holdem, Omaha 8 or better, and Stud high. This was another $70- buy in event and I played a pretty solid game and was rewarded by my patience and not losing too much at my weakest game stud. In fact, I was fortunate to make it to the final table of this event!!!

This was a great accomplishment especially when I was rather short stacked when we were down to two tables. I waited very patiently when I was getting no cards at all. Finally I got so short stacked I had to take a stand with K7 off against Ploink's pocket sixes (two sixes in his hand) and I was able to double thru him when I hit a seven on the river card (last card dealt). Once again I had to wait awhile longer for some playable hands. Finally when Bulbert made a substantial raise I found pocket Kings and moved all-in. Jim folded to this raise but this made me very healthy again.

Before I knew it we were at the final table and I had an average stack. The very first hand I got pocket Kings again. I raised it to $20k when the blinds were $3k & $6k but I got no callers. In hindsight perhaps I raised it too much here but at least I didn't loose with this nice hand! I still wasn't getting great hands but was able to semi-steal a few blinds with AJs and pocket 8s when I everybody folded to my raises. On the pocket eights hand I pushed all-in and Barry T almost called me with what he told me later was Q9s.

About two to four hands later I was dealt two Jacks and I raised it to about $12k or almost half my stack and Barry T moved all in. I thought for about a sec then decided to call. He had something like A10d and the board came with no Aces Tens or Jacks and one diamond. The turn brought another diamond but the river was a blank and I busted Barry out as he had the exact same amt of chips as I had when this hand began.

Now we were four handed as Dave Fruchter (big stack), Bulbert (smallest stack), Ploink and I (we had similar stack sizes) continued onward. Soon afterwards Bulbert who was obviously looking for a hand moved all-in when I was in the big blind (blinds were $5k & $10k. Everybody else folded to me and look down at two fours in my hand. I went into the tank thinking about what hands Jim might actually have here. Normally this isn't the best spot to call an all-in bet with such a low pocket pair. But something told me after studying him that I had a much better hand and when I looked at the prizes I saw that the difference between fourth and third place was only a couple hundred dollars so I called this bet (I also had a little less than a 2-1 chip advantage against Bulbert here).

Jim turned over pocket and twos and was certainly not happy to be called with my two fours. On the flop Jim got now help but the turn brought a very ugly two and I got no help on the river thus doubling up Jim instead of eliminating him when I began this hand as a huge favorite. From there the blind basically ate me up and I had to take a stand with a less than perfect hand and I lost thus busting out fourth in this tourney. I hated losing that pivotal hand against Jim but felt great about my days play and my $1,300- payday in the end!

I played in two more tournaments and several more cash games over the rest of the weekend. In the stud shootout tourney I was at a big disadvantage against Peter Secor and Scott Byron and the other players at the table who knew this game way better than me. I definitely gambled it up too much and busted out sixth place at our table. In the NL HE event I played extremely well considering I was dealt very few playable hands. I ended up busting out 88th out of 206 players. The highlights were raising with my best hand Pocket Aces only to not getting called at all. After patiently waiting for a hand getting AKo and jamming with it only to get a split pot when my opponent's AQo got lucky when a second pair hit on the river. And finally when I was very short stacked not even looking when I was in the big blind playing against the little blind shoving in with 26o and doubling through. Once again I had to take a stand soon afterwards with 73o when I was in the big blind and did not have enough for another orbit (round of poker) and my opponent dominated me with his K7o and busted me out of this final event.

I still had a wonderful time and got a chance to enjoy scotch tasting with several of my good RGP friends. I also went on the first part of the ritual craps crawl netting a little over $120. I truly enjoyed just visiting and laughing and joking around with so many great people who showed up for Barge this year. It was real interesting this time being a Las Vegan when I used to fly or drive in for this event in the past. This time I felt a little more relaxed as I did not have to squeeze everything into one weekend since all the great poker and other gambling is always minutes away. Sadly so many of my dearest RGP chat frendz have gone home and another successful Barge has concluded...

Gambling Totals:
Tournament Poker +$960
Cash or Ring Game Poker +$120
Maverick Bounty +$100
Asst Other Gambling -$130
Total +$1060

The entire Barge Experience PRICELESS!!!

This afternoon I leave my extended stay hotel to move into a hotel in downtown Las Vegas. I plan to join up with many of my best friends who I have met via the news group rec.gambling and its spin off rec.gambling.poker (RGP). Finally it is time for me to participate at Barge (Big August Rec Gambling Excursion). But this year I am not getting in a plane to journey to this get together. Rather I am just getting into my car and driving downtown ;')

Barge is the big grand daddy of all the RGP weekends. It is a magical time where I get to mingle, play, and talk poker with so many great people I have met over the years being associated with the RGP community. Some of the people who come to Barge I only see once a year. I will spend the next several days (this afternoon thru Sunday) talking and playing poker with lots of really fun people. Thus don't expect to see me on-line here in LJ until next week as "Barge awaits!"

Next week I hope to have some fun stories surrounding my Barge weekend...

Started off the weekend by taking Debbie on a date. We went to dinner at the very convenient Orleans Hotel's buffet. The food was okay but nothing spectacular. I really am not a big buffet guy any ways so it would take a lot to make me give this meal a stunning review.

After we finished dinner we headed upstairs to this casino's big movie theater and checked out Bourne Supremacy. I must admit after a bit of a slow start this movie really kicks into high gear. It had a ton of action and a decent storyline that makes this a solid sequel. In fact, I think I might like this movie better than the first Bourne movie. A couple thoughts, first, I am a little surprised how much movies push the envelope. This was a PG-13 movie and you could tell at least one scene was edited to ensure this one did not cross the R-rating line. Two big thumbs up for this action movie...

On Saturday Debbie and I had our final walk through for our new home in Henderson NV. We both continue to be extremely happy looking at our new place. The current owners John and Joanne also continued to go out of their way to ensure we were welcomed in the house while they still own it. John spent a couple hours showing me how to operate the pool filtration, water softener (must in S NV), reverse osmosis filtration system, and many other little gadgets and addons in this house.

Saturday night I played a nice long session of poker at Binions Horseshoe downtown. This is the home of the World Series of Poker and will also host this weeks BARGE (Big August Rec.gambling Excursion), which is one of my favorite times of the year. Saturday night I lost about $290- playing a baby No Limit Holdem game. I never seemed to get the most out of any of my few premium hands. I lost the only allin bet I called when I had the best hand (three tens) but couldn't hold on when my opponents gut-shot straight draw hit on the river ;'(

Yesterday Debbie and I got to do a little shopping then hit the pool for a bit in the afternoon. Finally we picked up some good friends of ours who had come in early for BARGE and took them out to dinner. After wards we hit the Palms for a little gambling and again I dropped a couple hundred bucks this time playing BJ and craps. Damn, I better stick to poker as I know I can beat it in the long run.

It was great to have a four day weekend! Debbie and I took Friday off to continue to look for a house here in the Las Vegas area. Up until this point in time we had been focusing on the west side of town mainly concentrating on the Summerlin area. Since we had not found a good house that fit our criteria (5 yr old or less single story 3-4 bedroom home with pool etc...) we decided to open up our search to include Henderson (east side of the LV valley) and also look at two story homes.

Well low and behold we found a wonderful home in Henderson that really came close to be the perfect home for us. It is $2,395 sq ft (about the same size as our old 2 story CA home) it is a 3 bedroom home with a den, formal dining room and family room. This will allow Debbie and me to both have offices in the house and still have one guest bedroom!

Also the home has a lot of character (not just a square box) with lots of neat tile flooring and a little rotunda with a kewl designed ceiling above. Also it has a very nice sized pool, spa, and wonderfully landscaped back yard. It is also in a gated community surrounded by some million dollar homes. We didn't necessarily want the gated community but do believe this will help us retain our re-sale value on this house.

Overall Debbie and I were satisfied that we had found our house. But I still wanted to sleep on this decision over night before we actually made an offer on this home. It was late afternoon Debbie and I came home to relax we thought about taking a nap and tried. I couldn't sleep as I kept thinking about how nice this house was and decided to go back to the realtor's office to make an offer.

As fate would have it, right after we wrote up our offer (15k less than the reduced price) we called the seller's agent only to find out another offer has also been submitted. Debbie and I felt as if we had been kicked in the stomach. We did some quick soul searching and decided we really wanted this home. So we countered with an new offer $5k more than the current price (was on the market 3 weeks and was recently reduced $19k) of this home. We had to wait till the following day and make one more counter offer (non price related) to find out we actually got this house!

After looking over the area where this house is located Debbie and I are both very happy with it. Now we can't wait for the rest of the related details to be completed as our close date of 8/4/04 nears.

BTW besides this stressful but very happy new house news Debbie and I also got to enjoy some of the Las Vegas fireworks on the fourth. We were able to check out two of the major shows from a Starbucks on Flamingo. I also wonder a bit over $500- playing poker and I have now made back all the money I lost when I initially moved down here. So "it was a wonderful weekend indeed!"

Tomorrow Debbie and I have plans to continue our house hunting in our new Las Vegas home town. So far we have been concentrating on homes on the west side of the Las Vegas valley. Tonight Debbie and I are planning to drive through the east side of town to get a better feel for it. Perhaps we will see some great things about this side of town.

So far we like Summerlin best, this is a big master planned community on the West side of town. It has some of the newer homes and a lot of stores and other great places to hang out away from the action on the strip or downtown. I feel real happy and safe in Summerlin. This is not to say there is not any crime in this area but rather it just does not have all the visible homeless people and street walkers that Debbie and I have seen closer into the strip.

Green Valley is sort of similar to Summerlin as it is a master planned community in Henderson on the east side of the valley. Debbie and I have not spent as much time in this area but have also heard a lot of good things about it. I also have at least one friend from each area of town. All of them like their east or west side best for various reasons.

Since Debbie and I have had such a hard time finding a good spot on the west side of town that fits our initial criteria (single story 3-4 bedroom house with pool) we need to keep our minds open to other areas. We are also warming up to the idea we might need to buy a two story house also if we just don't find a desirable one story home. Overall it is a lot more fun looking for a new house than it is selling one!

This past weekend now appears to be a bit of a blur. Debbie and I looked at lots of houses. We started looking at houses that were priced at the higher end of what we thought we would have to pay for a house down here. We only saw one house we even really would even consider at that price. In addition, my Saturday plans for further house hunting were interrupted severely when a co-worker had a server crisis that they could not handle alone.

You see I am a backup escalation mgr and the primary escalation mgr along with our other team lead were both on vacation. By default I became the point person on the team and for my co-worker who was having these painful problems. Thus I had a real hard time house hunting when this nagging server problem existed. But I did manage to help my co-worker coordinate some additional resources to troubleshoot this server problem. Ironically after my day of house hunting was done I ended up working on this problem full time and covering Saturday's GAP for my co-worker friend who had been up since 3 AM.

With that being said Sunday was a much better day for Debbie and I. I got de-tangled from my work problems after I had finally isolated the problem and handed it off again to the person who was on GAP and who finally got some sleep. Then Debbie and I raised the bar by searching on more expensive houses. We finally started seeing a lot more homes we thought we would really like to live in.

By yesterday we had two of these homes on our final list. After sleeping on it another night we had both narrowed this done to one house. Sadly in this inflated market many people are just setting their selling prices outrageously. When we started pricing other houses in the same neighborhood that had recently sold or where also up for sale our first pick appeared $50- to $100k over priced ;'( Our realtor called the seller's realtor with these findings and didn't get any disagreement from her that this property was over priced.

Unfortunately the seller's only had this house on the market for about ten days and they were not budging on the price. So our hunt goes on when we continue looking again this Friday. In the meantime, our CA house did record change of ownership last Friday and the funds hit our banks yesterday! We immediately paid off our cars and currently have more money than we ever had in our lives...

Oh I forgot to mention Sunday night I finally had my first winning poker session since I have been down here! It wasn't huge ($148-) by my standards but it was definitely a moral victory...