Quest of a Closet Poker Player

It was a great long weekend, the last before school starts and the year begins in our family’s home.

The Little Guy makes his YouTube premiere in a quite rough filming by Sweetie, his rendition of an Aaron Shust song. Sweetie took it using a camera, and I dumped a ton of photos and videos from the summer.

We left for the mountains north of G-Vegas after going to All-In’s Sneak Peek (where students see their teacher, etc.). Hawk (aka The Big Guy) went on Wednesday to his new Middle School as he makes the jump to 6th grade. All-In is the popular hunk, and he has a class filled with hotties and buddies of his. After we left, we headed to the String Instrument store to pick up a rental viola for Hawk and get on a waiting list for the cello for All-In. Cello will be pretty cool for him if he can stick with it, so we’ll see if he takes to it. Hawk’s orchestra program at the Middle School has over 300 kids in it. He’s no prodigy, but he seems to enjoy it.

Here’s a view from the lot we own at the Cliffs. It’s a pretty incredible place, and there are now five golf courses plus three more being built plus fitness, lakes, tennis, equestrian, clubhouses, etc. I got to play golf for the first time in probably eighteen months or more at the Cliffs at Keowee Falls. Hawk played with us and threw down a 136 including his first par on a real course. I shot 91 with rented clubs and tennis shoes, so I’ll take that in a heartbeat. I tossed a birdie to go with a few double bogeys, and I started to get the itch to get back out on the course more. If Hawk and All-In can get into it, it would be a great thing to enjoy.

This is the lake that Sweetie spent all of her childhood summers on, just like her father did growing up. It is her favorite place in the world, and we were there with her friend Shannon from Hilton Head. The Little Guy was a swimming fool, and I got to play alot in the lake with him. We collected rocks that he stepped on in the lake, threw a ball back and forth, and watched his brothers go off the rope swing (in the trees left of the photo). He is a swimmer at three, jumping in and going under water then turning and swimming back to the ladder.

We got to go on a date at the Peddler Steakhouse, an old haunt from our courtship. Their ritual used to be that they brought all the meat out to you then cut it as you asked for it (you told them to stop at the thickness you wanted). New owners had done away with that, and my ribeye was one of the worst I’ve ever had. Salad bar was great, but I won’t return I don’t think. We then headed to see The Bourne Ultimatum. The three Bourne movies have to be the three best action trilogy movies ever, if you put things like Lord of the Rings and The Godfather out of the equation. Matt Damon is just great, and I remember feeling sympathy for him as he was accosted by photographers at the WSOP.

We got back yesterday afternoon, and the boys headed off to school apart from each other for the first time in four years. Hawk hopped on the bus as the junior pledge an hour after All-In jumped on his bus headed to Elementary School.

I must admit I’ve hated the calendar for probably two or three years. It means months and years that have gone by as I’ve struggled to figure out this post-Corporate life that I’ve carved out over the last seven years. It’s been seven years since I founded my company, and it is a challenge for me at times. You’ve read most of it before, and I’m not in a good place to get into it right now, so later on that.

Sorry to everyone who hates it when there is no poker, but no poker content right now. You can check out Part I of my interview with Greg Raymer. I’ll post all the links once the interview is completely up; it could be two or three articles. Have a good day, and I’m sure I’ll hit PokerStars later this afternoon. Join me there by downloading PokerStars and jumping in!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 10:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized.