Slipping Dominance

Quick recap of the 24 hour period from 10 pm Thursday to 10 pm Friday :)

At poker, I broke my 3-week "1st out" losing streak and went out 3rd. I'm not beating myself up too much though because I lost the majority of my money on Pocket Ks vs Pocket As. Basically, I raised pre-flop, Sergei went all in, two people besides me called. The flop came out with an A, but the A matched the suit of one of my K and there was a decent flush draw. Someone else bet 10, and I knew they had an A, but I had a good draw and a lot of money already in the pot, so I called knowing I was beat. The turn wasn't a K or my suit, and the guy with an A bet again - I folded. It was a good fold and everyone was impressed (he actually had 3 A so it was a good thing the turn wasn't a K!). I still had a little money left after that, and lost it to Dave when he actually managed to pull out a flush (I thought he was bluffing and that my 2-pair was good). So I felt better than I have after the last couple of games. Nick ended up taking 2nd place. I also took 2nd place in the second game, but it was winner-take-all so I didn't get any money back.

Friday after work, we went to a matinee showing of Hot Fuzz, from the makers of Shaun of the Dead. Some of you may recall that I didn't really like Shaun of the Dead that much, and in fact, spent an entire evening ridiculing it the night we watched it, and are wondering: why now, why this movie? Especially when you rarely go to first-run movies? The answer, of course, is peer pressure. We went with a whole group of people. And, I have to admit, I had a good time. And one point in the movie, to my horror, I actually clapped! Yes, my favorite scene was that good. So I am somewhat converted, and it was a fun movie.

After the movie, Nick and I returned home and played a set of tennis outdoors. It was a perfect temperature (50s), light out with no sun in our eyes, and both courts were open. It was a little windy, but overall, great weather for playing. Nick ended up beating me 6-2, but I was happy just to win a few games. To finish off our evening, we played two games of Trains and ate supper. I'm happy to report that Nick didn't manage to beat me, but he did give me a scare in the final game:

A Tie!! But I'm still undefeated - I think my Karin vs Nick record is now about 50-0-1.

We're Baa-ack!!

Yes, the Bacos started off strong, winning all three games tonight :) The other team never even broke 20! The guys voted me All-Heart player of the game based on my serving. I got us the ball back on their first serve in the first game, then served 4 straight points to put us up 5-0, as well as serving the game winning (ace) point in the third game! We all seemed to play pretty well, but it was hard to tell because the other team was rusty and had trouble getting the ball over the net. We followed our games with Nick-grilled steaks and a game of Trains, which Dave dominated. Luckily it was 5 players so I didn't feel bad.

In baseball news, after a disappointing loss on Sunday, the Twins bounced back in Seattle, winning 11-2 last night. They are up 5-0 after two innings tonight so far. Go Twins!

Here's Apple

Tonight we took a huge group of people (15 of us!) and went out to eat at Granite City for supper. It was notable only because Nick finally got his growler :) With not drinking during Lent, Dave and Rob actually passed him up and got theirs first:

Lots of Beer!

Ultimate Victory

After playing a few friendly games of Trains against Nick, Nancy and Erin, I pulled out the Ultimate Trains victory!!

As always, I am the green trains. My cards are in the lower right-hand corner.
Nancy's (red trains) cards are next to me.
Erin (blue trains) came in third.
Nick (black trains) not only came in last, he was lapped by me.

It's Done!

Yes, I finished the blue scrapbook tonight after work! Yay! Now on to finishing up the wedding one and then working on November - present. Only 5 months, not too bad. Wonder what it would be like for my scrapbooking to be up to date??

Twins are Back!

After two devastating losses, the Twins are back on top: they beat the Yankees 5-1!! Go Twinkies!

Karin also stays on top, managing to keep her early lead and beat Nick by 10 points in Scrabble.

Oh happy Day After Victory Day :)

No Volleyball Again

The first week of outdoor volleyball was delayed due to the fact that it has been snowing all day! It doesn't feel very April-like here!!

I just opened the front door and took this picture. It looks like February! Wait, we didn't have snow in February :(

The Inbetween

In between the freezing house and the Karin Trains victory, we did some other fun stuff too! Mom and Dave came over mid-afternoon on Saturday and the four of us headed to Uptown for the evening. We ate supper at Famous Dave's in Calhoun Square, then headed upstairs to see the Comedy Sportz show. I haven't been to a show in a number of years, and Nick had never been, and we had a great time. The ref was one of our favorite local talents from Acme, James Moore, which made it a little more fun, but the whole show was awesome as well. Nick liked it so much that we are taking Erin there this weekend :) When we got back to the house, we introduced Mom and Dave to our Wii and ended up playing that until about 1 AM!

Posing outside of Famous Dave's

Unfortunately, Easter morning was still chilly. But as payback for all those childhood Easters, I did make Mom and Dave take an outside picture with me with no coats on:

Brr!!

Then it was time to get down to business. Nick and I cooked one of the easiest fancy dinners ever. We ended up getting everything from Costco except the milk: pre-sliced ham, corn, potatoes, rolls, and chocolate cake. It was all very yummy and of course I pulled out the wedding china to serve it all:

Easter Feast - the extra place settings are for Ed and Paul

After dinner we all split up. Mom and I played three games of Trains (she won the third game, guess I taught her too well!), Dave took a nap, and the guys played Wii. It was a very relaxing and fun day - hope everyone else had a good time too!

The Curse Is Broken

Yes, Dave got back from Australia yesterday and tonight we had him (and Rob) over for Easter dinner leftovers and a couple of games of Trains (which Rob declined to play). My first game was very strong, but I lost to Dave by one point (incidentally, I could have picked up tickets and won). I thought my second game was weaker, but I ended up winning by 25! Go Karin!!

Look at that spread! I am green, Dave is red, and Nick is black.

Brr!

Unseasonably cold inside and out!! Yesterday right after work Nick and I drove down to the MOA and met his aunts and cousins for supper. We had a nice meal with them and sat and chatted for a little while after we were done eating. When they left for their hotel, Nick and I did a bit of shopping ourselves. I got a piece of cardstock I wanted for my scrapbook (only 3 pages to go!) and we finally found a Twins T-shirt for Nick. Then we hit pay dirt: Sears had 4 Wii controllers in stock! Well, only two now. ;) We've been looking for a while so it was pretty exciting for us.

When we got home, it was like walking into a freezer! Our house was only 57 degrees! Nick fiddled with the furnace but couldn't get it to turn back on. We ended up building a fire and playing Wii and cribbage in front of it to keep warm. Then we piled the blankets on our bed, turned on a tiny space heater and went to sleep. In the morning, our room was toasty warm and the rest of the house was freezing (down to 43 degrees). This is exactly the opposite of how things normally are: our bedroom is usually the coldest part of the house! Luckily we were able to get a furnace guy out here at 10:30 and he fixed the problem in about 20 minutes: the ignitor went out and needed to be replaced.

It took a couple hours, but the house is finally warm again. I'm never taking the furnace for granted again!