Well, This Hasn't Been My Week

No, it really hasn't.

I didn't realize this immediately; the week lurked quietly in the shadows until Tuesday evening when I went to play poker. After eating a decidedly uninspiring sandwich at the Bay 101 deli (next time I'll try the restaurant instead), I sat down to my first losing poker session.

Everyone asks me "How much did you lose?" when I tell them this. Well, I lost more this week than I won last week, and I won quite a bit last week. I should have realized that the table I sat down to was pretty tight and not likely to be very profitable. On the other hand, I also got dealt one lousy starting hand after another. I felt like I spent the evening looking at 7-2 off-suit or worse. I think I got dealt 4 pairs all evening: 9s, 7s, 6s and 5s. Now, the odds of being dealt any pair are 16 to 1, so over 3 hours of play I probably should have been dealt 7-to-8 pairs, so I was definitely off the pace here. I didn't do so good in high cards, either.

My best winning pots were my pocket 5s which turned into trips and won the pot, and a J-T set which turned out to be top two pair - but I split the pot with someone else who also had J-T. That's the sort of evening it was.

I should've called it quits after 2 hours, but I decided to vary my play to try to do a little better and see if I could figure out how to get an edge. It didn't work, and I gave up after my pocket 9s got beaten (by someone else's pocket jacks). Sigh.

So that was a bummer.

Then, to add insult to injury, last night at gaming at Subrata's, I lost decisively while playing one of my current-favorite games, Union Pacific.

To a pair of players who had never played before.

One of whom isn't old enough to vote (let alone drink) yet.

Oh, and also to Susan.

Sigh. Maybe I shoulda stayed home and read comic books instead.

I'm trying to be a little more active, and have been taking a couple of walks per day around the outside of the campus. It takes a little over 10 minutes, which is just enough to get my heart rate up a little.

Debbi bought us each a pedometer which I've been wearing every day. I average around 5000 steps per day, now over 7000 with these new perambulations. Not a whole lot, I guess. But it's more steps than I'd thought to walk to and from my car, and to and from the cafeteria.

If you're interested, you can view the results of my Johari window. I only got 10 contributions, but that's, you know, better than none. Thanks to people who did contribute!

It's good to know several people find my friendly, knowledgable and trustworthy (all three, really, but the last resonates the most, I think). A little odd that no one perceived me as being organized. No one marking complex doesn't surprise me; I think I really do maintain a facade in that respect.

If you worked where I work and on my floor, then you could listen to my music library via iTunes. If you did so, then here's the new music you'd be able to listen to this week:

• Grey Eye Glances, Eventide
• Jadis, Photoplay
• Kino, Picture
• Stride, Imagine
• The Tangent, A Place in the Queue

I'm ready for the weekend.