Giving sking a cool reception, a Speaker-like experience and a move that made me turn 180 degrees

My alarm went off at 4:45 a.m. An emo band screamed in my ear. I didn't catch the name. I didn't care. Truth be told, I still don't.
I pulled on five layers of clothes, including a sweater that made my hair look like what I'm assuming is the style for the singer of the emo band.
I went outside to the 10-degree air (cold enough, if you're scoring at home or living in California, to keep your ice cream frozen, climbed in my car and drove a long hour to a Park N Ride named after a dinosaur.
I found what I think were Stegosaurus and Triceratops to be, well, extinct. Denver decided to tear two of the four lots out. I hope for improvements. City officials, in their infinite wisdom, chose the ski season to do this. As a result, I battled 573 other cars attempting to park in lots that had exactly seven spots left.
I don't think there is any other group more self-centered than skiers. At least skiers trying to get to the slopes. They parked in the middle of the lot to load their equipment in their friends' cars, attempted to pass me IN THE LOT (unsuccessfully, I might add) and forced me to drive out in the middle of traffic after refusing to let me in. These people make actors at an Oscars party look like a bunch of Red Cross volunteers.
Thankfully, most ski drivers are also stupid. I found a park about a football field's length away from the entrance to the last Park N Ride and enjoyed my pick of at least a dozen spots.
My brother picked me up, and, after fighting traffic for two hours (at 7:30 a.m.), we found a spot at Winter Park, walked to a hill, skied down it and promptly waited in line for 15 minutes for a spot on the lift.
The air was so cold my fingers almost immediately felt as if they had been dipped in liquid nitrogen. They would feel that way most of the day.
When we finally left at 2 p.m., with the long, long lines at the lifts, we had maybe a dozen runs under our fleece belts.
I used to love skiing. When my brother, who also used to be a ski fanatic, commented that, maybe, he was getting a little sour on skiing, I found myself daydreaming about a fun sled down a long hill.
Next year I trade in my skis for an inner tube.

• • •

I had a Speaker-like experience at Taco Bell Friday.
I don't like to name-drop too much on this blog. But one of the many things I love about Speaker's blog is his rants when he's not served properly at a resturant.
So here's my rant.
We walk in and wait at the cash register. Finally an employee saunters up and takes our order. After repeating myself at least four times — she could barely understand English, and while you won't see any redneck "Learn English or Else" comments in this blog, doesn't it seem to be a good business practice to put someone at the counter who can understand the language at least 60 percent of your customers will speak? — she told us to take our seat.
Now, I don't know about you, but when I go into a fast food joint, it ain't to enjoy the ambiance, unless plastic seats, sticky floors and pop music from 1997 is your idea of pleasant surroundings. No, I go there for cheap, easy, somewhat tasty food fast. So when we waited 10 minutes for our food, I wasn't exactly pleased.
And then when they got our order wrong, well, I was less pleased.
I went up to the counter. Um, yeah, I said, you forgot our bean burrito, you gave us a Quesadilla, and you forgot my order of Taquitos.
Anything else, the woman at the counter asked.
No, other than those three things, you nailed the order, I said.
Five minutes later, the rest of our order floated out to us. Brought by a guy who explained that the Quesadilla (which I kept) and the Taquitos were the same thing, except the Taquitos were rolled and the Quesadilla was flat.
He said this in a way that sort of made it sound like I was the idiot, like I should have known that, and how DARE I just not accept the flattened shell instead of the tasty rolled-up variety.
When he finished explaining the unique and special exotic differences of each Taco Bell entree item, I just looked down and took a bit of my Taquito and set aside the Quesadilla.
"Thanks for lunch tommorow," I said.
Ha.

• • •

In poker news, I managed to play two 180-player person SnGs at Poker Stars when I got home all chipper from skiing and after watching KU beat down Texas for sole possesion of the Big 12 title.
In the first one, I'll bet if I took a deck of cards, took out all the paint and those pretty A cards and scattered them on the floor and then took out seven other cards to decrease my chances of a pair and then shuffled and dealt those hands out one at a time, I would STILL better hands than what I got. I've never seen so many low-end hands in my life.
But in the second, after a stretch of cold cards, I got A,Q, pushed my meager stack in on a flop of 8,8,5, a guy with a draw called, and I doubled up. And then I went on a rush and got good cards and played them aggressively.
Pretty soon, I was 15th with 25 players left.
I get KK for the second time in a row.
My M is 15. So on an A high flop, what do I do? I push the rest of my stack. I win right there and I"m close to chip leader.
But the guy, who did not re-raise me, calls off most his stack with A,8 and I do not improve.
It was a $4.50 SnG, so I wasn't concerned about cashing, but I did miss the money by six spots.
I told myself that I wouldn't care about the cash, I still had 15 spots, all with plump stacks, to decent money. But later the move really bothered me. A lot more than I thought it would.
I think now it was the Stupidest Play Of The Year. I had a tight image, yes, but checking it down (there was a third player all in with a short stack before the flop) would still leave me with 10 BB. I had outplayed most of the field and was catching cards. There was no need for desperation. And why play for two hours if you're just going to donk off your stack on a board that shows even a stupid call can beat you?
Anyone else hate the play as much as me?
Thought so.


And oh yeah, since it was cancelled last time, even if I am working, I may just try to play in this:

Online poker mac