The House
Jenn: As requested, I will make it my mission over the course of the next eleven days to post one picture per day, and eventually showcase all of the rooms in the
house. The living room seems like a good place to start. Apparently Annie decided to take a picture of me the morning after we moved in as I was rummaging through the book/DVD section of the room. Luna Carpet is coming next Monday to install new carpets in the pad, so we can't quite finish this section of the room, which is killing me because it's all dead space with unfilled bookshelves and boxes upon boxes of books.
The living room is huge and cozy, and we bought a new coffee table (as evidenced above) and a new entertainment stand (as seen here). It's wonderful to sit on our couch and just zone out after a long day of organizing or painting or car-buying or whatever. I call this photograph "The TV is my God."
I broke my anti-lawnmowing pledge. I tried to figure it out the other day, and I am pretty sure that I have not mowed a lawn since 1996. I think my brother took over the lawn-mowing full-time by that point, or at least my sisters were doing it. I'm not sure. But, I digress. I mowed our lawn on Sunday morning. It was actually kind of fun. Mowing lawns is one of those chores that I hate to have to start doing, but while I'm doing it, I'm totally okay with it. In fact, I even kind of like it. It's like a puzzle almost.
Owning a home, in general, is pretty sweet. We are amazed at how quiet it is out here. The first night we slept here we couldn't hear any noises from the neighborhood or from the main road (St. Charles) which is about six or seven lots away. The only thing I can hear at night is the faint sound of train brakes in the distance. I love it.
Here's a funny story: Jesse came over yesterday afternoon and picked me up to go to a Sox/Twins game with he and his parents. They had an extra ticket and were gracious enough to offer it to me. Plus, I hadn't seen his parents since our wedding last summer, and thought it would be nice to catch up with them as they are two of my favorite people. So, we spend some time in traffic from my place to his in Forest Park, then walk to the CTA Blue Line, which we use to catch up with the CTA Red Line, and make our way to the ballpark. We walk almost all the way up that pedestrian ramp, as the seats were upper-deck, find his parents, get a couple of beers and a couple of brats. We eat the brats, begin the beers and get settled. My phone rings. Annie, who was just getting home from her first new commute to the house is locked out because the Home Depot keys we bought don't work. So, mid-way through the first inning I stand up, say thank you very much to Jesse and his parents, and make my way out of the ballpark, back to the Red Line, back to the Blue Line, and end up meeting Annie at the Damen Blue Line stop where she picks me up and we head home. What a bummer.
So, until tomorrow, I bid you adieu.
Sing a Song of Six Pence a Pocket Full of Rye
the kids were sitting around the table working on some art (just in general, art) when i asked what song should we sing? a common question, answered with the common twinkle, twinkle or the ABCs. today a little girl said that we should sing the number six song by gabriella.
i said oh geez i dont know how that goes. can you show us?
so she gives us her very best rendition of the number six song by gabriella. she sang every single word along with a nice addition of verbrato in some parts-- the parts where it was needed.
so she gets half way through the song and hits the chorus. she closes her eyes and really lets that song have it.
i was keeping a pretty decent smile on my face up until this part. my eyes started to water because i was trying so hard to contain my laughter that i had to get up and "wash my hands". it was so hard.
after the little girl was done i applauded and said wow. you are a wonderful singer. she said i know i tell my mommy that i have gabriella's voice and she has mine.
then a little boy said i want to loose a tooth so the tooth fairy will come to my house.
me me me. i heart me.
so with these pics, it's obvious that i got through everything that i told you about earlier this month. weddings, triathlon, poker, sleeping, etc. in about 9 hours i help marc and annie move into their new home. good stuff. then i play more poker. even better stuff. then i sleep.
bottoms up to that...
thumbs up to that...
covers up to that...
butts up to that...
The Hungry Brain
On Monday night I was playing around with my camera again. I was trying to capture the view from our living room window. This was taken at about 11pm, just before the storm rolled in.
With the help of some friends I was able to begin moving stuff into the new house yesterday. I am amazed at how many books Annie and I own. It seems as though, every time I turn around to start packing a new box I run into a fresh pile of books that have been hidden away. For example, there's a stack that I can clearly see now, ranging from Twain's
Huck Finn to Bronte's
Wuthering Heights to Rhodes'
Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb to a collection of essays by David Foster Wallace. And that's after we moved a few hundred books yesterday. I somehow managed to get all of my musical equipment there, too. Now I can begin setting up the recording studio.
I think it goes without saying that I was excited to play some Dollar Day Poker (henceforth known as DDP) in my basement. I should print out a copy of this picture and frame it - my first poker game at my new home. I did fairly well in this game. I never had to rebuy, and I walked away up three bucks. John and Scott did not fair so well, and went bust on the last hand to Jesse.
The day's big winner had to be talked into rebuying with about seven hands left to go. In the end, we split the winnings ($5 to Jesse and $4 to me). Definitely awesome to play in my house at my table with my friends. Loved it.
ZK, Scott, Annie, and I went out to Dunlay's on the Square for dinner, and had a few laughs over some very large Fat Tire Ale's (though I was experiencing an IPA brew) before ZK, Scott and myself made our way to the Hungry Brain, where we met up with Jeff, Matt Fast, and Joe Hall. It was a fun night, and we obviously spent quite a bit of time mugging for the camera. I think Scott said it best yesterday when he claimed that "hanging out with Marc is like hanging out in a movie. I know he's documenting everything, so it makes me want to do cool things so I can look at them later and say, 'I did that!'". Indeed. I'll let the photographs speak for themselves.
The Artwork of Matt Fast:
The Whiskey Shakes
A Ghostly Presence
The Tale of Two Sittings
Gathered Around Galaga
Lighter
El Jefe
Must... finish... packing. Too overwhelming.
Like Flies on Shit
on my way to work, i passed a pile of poop. the flies scattered and one landed on my lip.
Painting, Tequila, and Rainer
Saturday - Painting
It has recently come to my attention that quite a large percentage of my extended family may be reading this - thanks, Mom - so, as promised, here is a picture of the new house. The happy couple takes a moment to stand on their new front stoop and wave to the neighborhood. We figured that Saturday, the hottest day of the summer up to this point, would be a good day to go in and repaint two of our bedrooms and strip the wallpaper from the kitchen and the bedroom. What we initially liked about the place was that we didn't have to do too much work on it. That notion has been turned on its ear.
Jenn and Annie's sister, Elizabeth, helped us out, while my parents took care of the bathroom wallpaper as best as they could before my mom nearly passed out. By the way, this is quite possibly the most disgusting picture of me you'll ever see in such a public forum. I just wanted to give you some idea as to how hot is was. And, I'll begrudgingly admit this, I need some kind of forum to show off my ridiculously intense guns. Two tickets, please... two tickets to the gun show. Check.
Saturday Night - Tequila
On the way to our new favorite neighborhood restaurant, El Cid II, we passed this on Milwaukee Ave. in front of Tianguis. Looks like someone had too much to drink prior to 7:30pm. Maybe he or she consumed a little too much of the below? Either way, it was totally gross, but keeping in line with my documentation purposes for this website, I was forced to photograph it. In fact, this is a picture from far later in the evening. Scott and I decided that, unlike my first attempt at capturing this monstrosity, we should give it some kind of perspective, so Scott volunteered to stand next to it. What size shoes do you wear, Scoot? 12s? 13s? Ick.
We pretty much closed the open-air dining area down by the end of the night, and not before I got to practice a bit with our camera. Jesse was showing me some tricks on it during our last Adventure Day, and I thought I'd try some motion capture shots here. Most of these shots consist of the camera balanced on the neck of a bottle of a Corona bottle. Jenn's shot, above, I love because she looks like a ghost. And Libbi's picture, below, is awesome because she was able to stay perfectly still for 15 seconds while the exposure captured all of the movement around here. I'm not going to pretend that I actually know what I'm doing, but I did get a pretty big compliment from my wife, who said, "You're getting pretty good at taking pictures." She of the art degree approves. Ego, you may inflate.
Matt says: "Dude, did you play poker today. I just assume that you're always playing poker. Your website just has pictures of faces, cards, and chips on it. Poker blows."
Poker rules.
Sunday - The Nuhr and Family
We went out to visit Rainer and his parents on Sunday afternoon/evening, and were astonished at how often he lounges male-model style in the below pose. That kid is going to be a lady-killer in the very near future. I tried to play with him, but just the same as the last time I visited for our fantasy baseball draft, he began to weep uncontrollably most of the times I got close. He liked Annie and Libbi, though, which is nice. Kid sure knows how to make nice with the camera.
And, for the record, he does not like carrots.
After the little guy went to bed for the night, the marrieds moved down to the basement for some good, old-fashioned couple vs. couple Trivial Pursuit. The Ks ended up cleaning house on K-Family rules - landing on a color and giving a correct answer gives you a pie for that color. They cleaned up on the literary questions, for sure. Annie and I came in second, and the Ts placed a distant third, primarily because Scott was too busy spilling water all over the used question cards, which had to be dried out on the carpet.
We then moved on to a game of Matt Fast... er, I mean poker. Ryan, as mentioned in a previous post, had a bad experience with cards at another event, so we wanted to show her what a real game looked like. She ended up finishing fourth out of six people, and said that she enjoyed herself. During one of the early hands, I thought I had her with three 8s. She flipped over her hand - full house, 8s full of Qs - to take down the pot. Kudos.
Eventually, I ended up besting Scott to win the match. I eliminated both Zach and Ryan on the same hand just before that. The above picture is a shot taken by ZK of his stack. He was reluctant to change out his $100 black chips for $500 white chips because he thought it looked cooler to have more chips. I can't say I disagree with him. I love poker.
Matt, you didn't seriously think I was going to go a whole post without a picture of some poker chips, did you?
The Week
Tuesday - Dollar Poker Day
We went in a different direction regarding the typical poker portrait shots for Tuesday's Dollar Poker Day. Scott and I were thinking of recording that day, until his sump-pump gave out with a loud beep-beep-beep, so recording was out. We audibled into Dollar Poker Day that afternoon. God, I love these days. Three-handed dealer's choice, and this time we played a lot of wild card games. Scott had four-of-a-kind in three consecutive hands and ended up losing two of them to better hands - a straight flush and a better four-of-a-kind, I believe. He had to rebuy once and ended up losing everything by the end of the game. I, too, had to rebuy once, but ended up making it back on the last hand.
John, the Poker Ghost, ended up walking away two dollars ahead that day. I swear to you, this guy is a poker machine. He's so quiet and unassuming at the table, you hardly notice he's there. Next thing you know he has all of your chips (or money in a cash game). He's the only two-time bracelet winner in our monthly game, and I think he's my bet for the player of the year for our upcoming 2006-2007 season. He should go pro.
Wednesday - ???I have no idea what I did on Wednesday.
Thursday - Adventure Day
Jesse accompanied me to my walkthrough at the new house that morning, and we spent the rest of the day tooling around the near Western suburbs looking for boxes for me to move with, and bracelet-like materials for the monthly poker game. Obviously we were successful on the first account, though we did not find anything cheap with which to make bracelets.
We did have an interesting poker discussion, though, prompted by Zach and Ryan's story about Ryan being put all-in on the first hand of a game. The question:
Is it ever justifiable to go all-in on the first hand in a poker tournament?
Obviously, the guy response is "yes" it is justifiable if you are holding a hand that absolutely cannot be beat, and if you have a player that you believe will call your all-in. Check the 2004 World Series where Sam Farha puts Kate Hudson's brother all-in on the very first hand of the tournament. Both had full houses - Farha, As full of 10s; Hudson, 10s full of As.
My answer is a little less straightforward, and I think it goes back to how I play at the table: I say "no," it is
usually not justifiable to put a player all-in on the first hand, for a few reasons:
(1) In a friendly game, such as the one Ryan encountered, the motivation for playing should not be money. It should be socialization first, money and competition second and third, or vice-versa. This is especially true when you are playing with people you are marginally friends with, and you are simply getting together to get to know one another more outside of your comfort zones (i.e. - work). I have no way of knowing if the above situation fits Ryan's predicament, but in that case, I would not put someone all-in on the first hand. Where's the fun? Where's the camaraderie? What happens, then, to the person that ultimately loses that hand? Do they have to sit at the table and endure the rest of the game without chips, without cards, and without a vested interest in the goings-on? I think it's a garbage move, frankly.
(2) Betting precedent. Scott and I have talked about this before. Obviously, the blind and ante structure is very rigged in any poker game. For example, our monthly game starts off at $1/$2 blinds and doubles on upwards to $500/$1000 blinds. Also, we all start off with $1000 in chips. When the minimum bet at any hand is $2, what sense does it make to push $1000 chips into the pot? It's overbetting and it's a bit reckless, in my opinion. Instead, I would much rather make value bets at a pot. I would be worried that, should I have a decent hand, even after the flop, if I were to push my opponent(s) all-in, he would immediately fold, thinking that the amount wasn't worth the call. I would like to take a lot of that person's chips, instead making bets in smaller amounts which I think that would be called as each round of betting progressed. Jesse's argument differs with mine at this point. He says, "Why not go all-in and double-up and play from a position of strength throughout the rest of the game?" Fine, if you can, do it.
In reality, his idea is ideal, though it works more often than not in theory, not in real life. Also, he called my thinking "pansy" betting and playing more to be "friendly", which I had to explain to him repeatedly was not the case. Any thoughts, please post in the comments section below.
We talked about some of this playing catch, in some of the stores we hit up, and at a Denny's on Harlem in Oak Park.
Friday - Homeownership Day
Annie and I officially own a home today. We closed this afternoon and made it to the house in the early evening to tear down some wallpaper. Tomorrow we paint with the help of some friends and family. I'll take more extensive pictures then.
The closing thing took three hours. Everything was smooth as could be, according to both of the lawyers and the realtor that were present, though the person actually doing the closing for some title company didn't quite have her stuff together. We signed all of the documents in one hour and sat around for another two waiting for her to finalize everything. So we talked and talked and talked about everything from poker (shocking) to Soviet submarines to boating to traffic.
I still cannot believe we own a home.
Lawn boy.
I spent all day Tuesday tending to my spread. I:
---mowed the grass
---raked the clippings (my mom made a comment last time she was here, something along the lines of, "enough with the leaving the clippings," and she has a greener thumb than Martha Stewart, so the dude abides.)
---pulled approximately 72 weeds
---pulled the grass from between the cracks in the sidewalk
---picked up five (five!) bottle rocket sticks from my back (BACK!) yard. (Side note: I'm convinced that one of the kids that lives across the street has it in for me and that he spent most of his 4th of July sneaking out of his house at three a.m. to try to burn my house down with a sparkler.)
---threw said sticks into my negligent neighbor's front yard (or at least
at their front yard, since throwing a thin stick of wood over seventy feet is like really not that easy)
---picked up said sticks from my yard and, with great discontent, threw them in my garbage can
---threaded plastic wire into my weed wacker. No.
Tried. That shit ain't easy.
---spread about seven bags of mulch
---cursed at the fact that twelve bags of mulch can't cover half of the trees in my yard
---cursed at the humidity, which was so bad I soaked through my shirt even with three ten-minute A/C breaks
---received eleven mosquito bites, including
three on my back, through the shirt. I thought we had a deal with the mosquitoes? Through the shirt, boys? There's a line!
---hit my leg with the wire from the weed wacker, which doesn't hurt so much as cut holes in your skin
---listened to the same audio cassette four times (I still have a tape player, a rather expensive little Sony that runs on one battery and picks up WGN like a dream, but somehow doesn't have that little function that was
super-sweet in the late 90s where your tape automatically turns over so you don't miss a sweet moment of ________________)
So every time you complain about your landlord or your nextdoor neighbor's penchant for ass sweat tofurkey, remember---at least you're not pretending to know how the fuck to tend a lawn.
My wife hates poker.
So theRy wanted to play poker last night, just to get some practice. She got me a chip set last year for my birthday, so we cracked it open and decided to play with about $1000 in chips.
Ry does not like to lose money. Even fake money. She liked the idea of antes, but every time I bet she shuddered to think: "Why is this husband of mine trying to bankrupt me?"
So I slowly bet her into submission, and she has about 400 "dollars" left. All night she'd only been betting when she had a good hand, so it was easy to know when to sing the Kenny Rogers song. So she has 400 left and she gets this look on her face and shoves all in.
Now, a good husband can make two choices here, depending on his marital read:
1. Fold the cards you have slowly, and with deliberation, and let her have the pot.
2. Stay in the hand, knowing that if she's willing to go all-in you're likely not going to win.
Each choice here has it's ups and downs. I was holding King-Queen suited, so I had a damn fine hand. Option 1 looked good, except there was basically nothing in the pot and I thought she'd be disappointed not to win some chips. But Option 2 also looked good because I was pretty sure her hand would beat mine, if she was willing to go all-in.
So I called her. She flips over pocket Aces, all smiles.
The flop? Oh, you know. Jack, Queen, King. I flop two pair. She's not happy, but I think to myself----PLEASE GOD GIVE HER THAT TEN. If she loses with pocket Aces she'll never play again.
Another Jack.
Another King.
My wife hates poker.
Florida & the 4th of July
Let's see... Where to begin?
Wednesday - The Last DayIt dawned on me on the train ride towards Kankakee that Wednesday night could very well be the last night my family all lived together in the same state. See, I've already talked about my sisters moving to Florida, but I haven't talked much about the fact that my parents have sold their house effective next summer, and they're considering moving down towards Tennessee or North Carolina. I grew up in the same house from two years old. My sisters both moved out of there permanently this past weekend.
I thought that, since I left after lunchtime, I'd be able to avoid most of the packing duties that would have otherwise been mine. And, while I did miss a lot of the small stuff, I did happen show up in just enough time to lend a hand loading (and unloading and reloading) the big stuff. Not cool. My brother also had me and my dad come with him to load a set of stairs in a trailer at the festival grounds. My life flashed before my eyes briefly as I could feel the weight of the stairs begin to break my strength. I should really start to work out more often.
The family then went out to Chicago Dough, our old stomping ground, to scarf down some pizzas and have a quiet chat for a bit. Some people at the table next to us were talking about loose stool.
The whole neighborhood then came over to say goodbye to Lindsey and Erin. We laughed and joked, and we collectively readjusted a few more things in the moving truck, and...
my grandpa conned a ride in a hot sports car from my parents' next door neighbor. My grandpa is a speed freak, by the way. He's been pulled over twice in the past two years - once in Kentucky and once in New Mexico - doing 92mph both times. I guess he figures that, at the age of 82, he better get things moving along as fast as possible.
Before we went to bed, I taught my sisters and my brother how to play a little Texas Hold 'Em. Lindsey won the game, though we weren't playing for cash. She cleaned up on the final hand with a fours full of fives full house. She also knocked out Erin, my other sister, with a straight to Erin's set of kings. Congrats, Linds.
Thursday - The Drive
We were out and on the road by 6:30am, and made our first pit-stop at a Starbucks in Kankakee. We had two cars and the moving truck, which was towing a third car for their new roommate, who is moving into the apartment next month.
Lindsey and I shared the first drive, and asked Erin and Andy to hook us up with some chocolate milk chugs from a gas station along the way. They get the genius idea to buy quart chugs instead of pint chugs. It was one of the rare times in my life where I had more chocolate milk than I could drink, and I thank them both for that.
Typical passenger responsibility on a 19-hour road trip: sleep. Lindsey, above, demonstrates the proper passenger-seat sleeping position - head against window, arms folded across chest, eyes closed.
Andy thought he was hot stuff because he drove the truck for quite a bit of the trip. I optioned out of that responsibility as soon as we hit a patchy spot five miles into the trip and the car on the back of the truck looked like it was going to bounce off the trailer. I didn't want to deal with that kind of responsibility. So they let this guy do it instead. Again, another genius move.
We stopped at a rest area in Tennessee, and it was completely and totally packed. By far the busiest rest area I've seen in my entire life. Mind-blowing, to be quite honest.
I closed out the first day's trip with a foot-long chili cheese dog at some Dairy Queen in southern Georgia. We still had about an hour-and-a-half until we hit the hotel. I scarfed it down in five minutes, though everyone else left us behind. We told them we'd catch up, and kindly asked that they give us updates if they saw state troopers along the way. Wouldn't you believe we ran across five squad cars sitting in the median in the middle of the night with their running lights off in the span of about thirty miles? I'm amazed I made it through without getting a ticket.
Last note about Thursday: the cab in the moving truck, we discovered during a late-night rainstorm, let water flow through in quite tremendous amounts. My dad and my little brother were soaked. The next morning, as we made our way through Florida, my dad and my sister got soaked.
Friday - The Move
We arrived at their new pad at about noon and we had them all moved in just before 2pm, thanks in large part to the fact that we were able to back the moving ramp to the stoop which lead directly into their living room. How awesome is that? We sandbagged quite a bit of the smaller items and only teamed up on the larger things like mattresses and furniture.
It was kind of surreal having to come to terms with the fact that my little sisters are both half a country away now, and that I may not see them again until Thanksgiving or Christmas at the latest. I am proud of them and I know that they will thrive in their new environment. This picture's for you, kids. Enjoy.
My flight left Orlando at 6:15pm and I was back at my apartment in Chicago by 9pm. It's amazing to think that it took us about 19 hours to drive there, and less than four to get me all the way back again.
Side note: I do not miss flying on a weekly basis at all.
Saturday - 4th of July PartyNow why, you are probably asking yourself, did he rush to get back home so soon? Well, it was Annie's family's annual 4th of July Party in Rockford. Nothing but fun, games, and food, that's all.
Every year there is a red, white, and blue contest. This year the contest was to create a red, white, and blue-filled basket. Annie filled up a trash can with red, white, and blue trash. Her sister took a small basket and filled it with red, white, and blue clay hands along with the word "HELL" crafted from clay - Hell in a handbasket. Quite clever, both entries. They received honorable mentions. Pictured above is their cousin Todd's entry: a "Red, Wheat, and Blue Beer 'Basket'" (aka Beer Garden), which he erected in the back corner of the year. He had a large metal bucket filled with Red Seal Ale, Blueberry Ale, and Wheat Ale, and, since everyone at the party wears red, white, and blue clothing, his "beer basket" was also filled with appropriately-dressed patrons, as well. Infinitely clever. He got my vote. First prize was a lawn chair complete with a sun umbrella, pictured above.
Bingo's one of the big games everyone plays with prizes for pretty much everyone. I took in this mosquito head net for completing my BINGO during the second round. I'll wear it faithfully during the camping trip at the beginning of August.
Did I also mention that there's enough food there to feed a small country, too?
All-in-all, it is one of my favorite family functions of the year. We just got home today, and are trying to recup from all of the motion over the course of the past week. Now I guess we just have to prepare ourselves for our own big move.
