Greetings from Glendora, California, USA!
Photo taken on Saturday, May 31, 2008.
Memorial Day was on Monday. When you are not working, every day is a “holiday” or “day off”. I’ve barely worked two weeks and having a three-day weekend felt too soon. So despite the recent work and subsequent cash flow, I intentionally kept the holiday uneventful, which spilled into the remains of the workweek. Tuesday was the last day of my two-week job at the Orange County Register newspaper and I went back working full time at my friend’s office after that.
Friday was the eve of my birthday and I hosted a pizza & poker party. I would never turn away a present but instead of gifts this time, I asked guests for $10 donations towards a community project called ChildSpree, which I will write about in the future. About two dozen people came and I collected over $250 as some guests donated more. Additionally we had a Texas Hold-em Poker Tournament. Buy-in was $10 and 16 people played. I competed and advanced to the final round with the second-most chips of the remaining 6 players. The $160 of prize money was split for the top three spots and I finished 4th. Interestingly the winner was the player who entered the final round with the fewest chips.
I did not have the party on Saturday, my actual birthday, because a friend was having his annual crawfish boil that day which I would have skipped out on my own party to attend. For the uninitiated, crawfish are best described as miniature lobsters. This week’s photo shows my friend pouring onto a table a freshly boiled batch of steaming sausage, garlic, corn and crawfish, of course. The shot makes my hungry for more but sadly this was the last boil. For several years, my friend has hinted to moving to Texas and he looks close to actually doing it as his invitation clearly stated that this was his FINAL crawfish boil.
At the boil, I was pleasantly surprised by a birthday cake of delicious chocolate. It was brought by another friend who joined me in going to the movies to watch the latest Indiana Jones movie later that day. “Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls” was enjoyable but I rank it third out of the four movies in the series, better that “Temple of Doom” but not up to par with “Last Crusade” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. I have a tough time deciding which of these last two is better. It’s too close to call. While I was happy to see another Indiana Jones movie, this will likely be the last one and I wish it ended on a better note. Better to stop now than have Harrison Ford in a wheelchair fighting Cold War-era Russians in “Indiana Jones and the Secrets of the Kremlin”. I shudder at the thought.
Angelo
Photo taken on Saturday, May 31, 2008.
Memorial Day was on Monday. When you are not working, every day is a “holiday” or “day off”. I’ve barely worked two weeks and having a three-day weekend felt too soon. So despite the recent work and subsequent cash flow, I intentionally kept the holiday uneventful, which spilled into the remains of the workweek. Tuesday was the last day of my two-week job at the Orange County Register newspaper and I went back working full time at my friend’s office after that.
Friday was the eve of my birthday and I hosted a pizza & poker party. I would never turn away a present but instead of gifts this time, I asked guests for $10 donations towards a community project called ChildSpree, which I will write about in the future. About two dozen people came and I collected over $250 as some guests donated more. Additionally we had a Texas Hold-em Poker Tournament. Buy-in was $10 and 16 people played. I competed and advanced to the final round with the second-most chips of the remaining 6 players. The $160 of prize money was split for the top three spots and I finished 4th. Interestingly the winner was the player who entered the final round with the fewest chips.
I did not have the party on Saturday, my actual birthday, because a friend was having his annual crawfish boil that day which I would have skipped out on my own party to attend. For the uninitiated, crawfish are best described as miniature lobsters. This week’s photo shows my friend pouring onto a table a freshly boiled batch of steaming sausage, garlic, corn and crawfish, of course. The shot makes my hungry for more but sadly this was the last boil. For several years, my friend has hinted to moving to Texas and he looks close to actually doing it as his invitation clearly stated that this was his FINAL crawfish boil.
At the boil, I was pleasantly surprised by a birthday cake of delicious chocolate. It was brought by another friend who joined me in going to the movies to watch the latest Indiana Jones movie later that day. “Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls” was enjoyable but I rank it third out of the four movies in the series, better that “Temple of Doom” but not up to par with “Last Crusade” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. I have a tough time deciding which of these last two is better. It’s too close to call. While I was happy to see another Indiana Jones movie, this will likely be the last one and I wish it ended on a better note. Better to stop now than have Harrison Ford in a wheelchair fighting Cold War-era Russians in “Indiana Jones and the Secrets of the Kremlin”. I shudder at the thought.
Angelo
