Instructed

One of my daily feed reads is the Instructables1 feed. The site has how-tos which are illustrated and compiled by the site’s subscribers. I’ve seen geek projects, crafts, recipes there; you name it, they’ve got it.

Yesterday, they had a Texas Hold ‘Em how-to. The article explained the rules of the game, in a “how things work” fashion. I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that in spite of reading Scott, Dave, and James, all of whom talk about poker with some regularity, that I was fundamentally clueless about the rules to the Texas Hold ‘Em poker variant. I had to guess about the precise meaning of “Flop”, for example. And I had no idea about such terms as “the river”, and “the turn”.

I’m ignorant no more. This article has instructed me, not with nuances nor strategies, but with the basic rules of the game. Here’s what scares me, though: As one who has all too often lived his life by the Anything worth doing is worth overdoing credo, I may become a jaded roue, up at all hours playing this game online. My little bride could very well find me in the darkened basement of tbbs world HQ, my pasty face illuminated only by the glow of the computer screen, with a heaped ashtray and a warm half consumed Shiners within reach, as I think “just one more game”.

Oh, the humanity!

-k-
[stags]Instructables,Texas Hold ‘Em,poker[/stags]


1 The World’s Biggest Show & Tell

Still Rainin’

And the drought gets dinged a little more. A nice, sometimes heavy, but a pretty soaking rain, too. Cold, wet, and a good night to be inside.

Needing the rain as we do, you’ll hear no complaints from me. My little bride, our faithful cat and I are in front of the teevee, warm, and awaiting the arrival of the Hunan Herndon guy.

Mmmmm … lemon chicken.

-k-
[stags]weather,eats[/stags]

Drought Dented

Over the last day or so, practically every place in the region has received at least 2 inches of rain; some locales got 3+. There’s the promise of yet more precip over the next 36-48 hours.

Even though it’s wet and cold, we are grateful for the rain.

The drought still isn’t broken, but it’s at least dented.

-k-
[stags]weather[/stags]

Go Rockies!


The World Series starts tonight, and even fair weather fans like myself are compelled to declare an allegiance. At least the Series is devoid of any New York teams. The downside is that we have the Boston Red Sox in their stead. Being a National League partisan, except in the extremely unlikely event that the Kansas City Royals are in the hunt, I’ll just say Go Rockies!
-k-
[stags]Baseball,ColoradoRockies,WorldSeries[/stags]
[tags], , [/tags]

NASCAR HotPass Lineup

As we roll on with the Chase, the Nextel Cup Chasers rule the DirecTV airwaves tomorrow, for the running of the Subway 500 from Martinsville VA.  And the lineup looks like:
795 – Carl Edwards, #99
796 – Kevin Harvick, #29
797 – Martin Truex Jr, #1
798 – Denny Hamlin, #11
799 – Tony Stewart, #20

My little bride and I are safely in Roanoke, preparing to head a little further south tomorrow.
-k-
[stags]NASCAR,DirecTV,HotPass,Martinsville[/stags]
[tags]NASCAR,DirecTV,HotPass[/tags]

Packin’ Up

Tomorrow, my little bride and I make the trek to Roanoke VA, where we’ll spend tomorrow night, and head to historic old Martinsville Speedway for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Subway 500 on Sunday.

For short trips, packing clothing, etc, is easy. Black chinos, Harvick t-shirts, a racin’ hat or two, some extra skivvies and toiletries.

No matter the trip, though, the electronic devices are the same: cell phone and charger, laptop with all its cables, cards, and accessories. Additionally, for a race event, one needs his Racing Electronics scanner, two headsets, the Bostaroo splitter, and batteries for all the foregoing. Throw in binoculars, digital camera and batteries. In the non-digital realm, we have two clear plastic Racing Electronics bags, into which we put our seat cushions, neck lanyards for ticket stubs, a few snacks, slickers in case of rain, sunblock if there’s no rain, and hopefully leave enough room for some claptrap we inevitably purchase from souvenir trailers.

An hour to pack electronics and race related items, check and recheck that everything is present. 15 minutes for the rest of the stuff.

Man, this is great.

-k-
[stags]Martinsville,NASCAR,RacingElectronics[/stags]
[tags], [/tags]

Update: Oops, about forgot to mention Diana the GPS device.  We’ll take her along as well.

We are Strangers to the Rain

If no measurable precipitation falls today, this area will hit a record 34 straight days with a bone-dry rain gauge. Much of the area is 12 inches or so behind yearly averages.

There is a chance of some fairly heavy rain overnight tonight and into tomorrow, but it sounds pretty spotty overall.

What we’d like is a nice lingering tropical system. We’ll take what we can get.

-k-
[stags]weather[/stags]