It's been awhile...

I typed this about 2 weeks ago otw to san diego and LA...

Well, it sure has been a long while since I've shared my thoughts in a blog...

It's been so long I don't even know where to start, and since I'm on a plane, I don't even know where I left off last.

It's been quite the interesting last number of months. July was the wsop and getting all of the remodelling figured out for the new house while still living at Jon's. I was hoping to be moved in by the beginning of August but it Bill the contractor was taking his time on his terrible work. I was fed up at the end of august and decided to move in and just deal with the contruction pains and noise and maybe that would make him move faster.

I don't really feel like rehashing every last detail, but the gist is he did nothing but terrible work, his tile/stonework had to be scrapped and I had to hire a seperate contractor to redo the bathroom and entry way, and that took time to find and wait for their availability. They finished up a faaantastic job about 2 weeks ago and Bill was finishing up some of the plumbing in the bathroom when he decided to take the shower valve cap off without turning the main water line off. I heard it from my office and knew immediately what happened. I don't remember the last time I ran that fast. Down one flight of stairs...sprint, down another flight of stairs, sprint. Crank, crank crank crank omg hurry up turn off! Got it. As I go back to the main floor water is just pooooouring out of the canned lights. Towels. Every last one I could find. buckets/bins. Check. The new wood floor was not damaged, but the cieling on the main floor and the carpet in the master were. All said and done not some huuuge deal, but the last straw for mr bill. I should have fired him long before, but I guess I just put too much faith in people...and with all the delays just wanted stuff done so I could move on. This was too much. I had to fire him, and he took it just fine it seems. I probably paid for a little more than the services I recieved but I just want to move forward.

So, I've hired a new contractor and he's been finishing up. He'll be done soon and as soon as I pick out replacement carpet for my bedroom, I can actually live in it! Haha. I wouldn't even remotely care except for the woodpeckers that seem to like the front of my house and constantly wake me up. It's good they're on the wall that my bed is one because a good pounding and they're gone for a half hour. Haha.

My furnature has been delayed in addition to my disdain of all the detailed decorating involved in furnishing a house. I have a decorator helping me and she's been good, she's just a little on the over-creative side so I can't just trust her to do her own thing...

I've learned a lot about people and project management as well as being a responsible adult in the last number of months. I've lovvvved having the house to myself at night but 2 days ago was the first time somebody else hasn't been there during the day. It's not particularly annoying having people in your house working on things but it just gets tired after a while. I actually have to get dressed and stuff?!!?! WHAT? Haha. It's nice just being in charge of things and I've learned a lot of 'handiman' things of which were no interest to me b4 having my own house. I also like being able not deal with/address things when I don't want to. There is no mother or other roommates who have to suffer the consequences. I was the only one who got to care when I didn't have trash service for the first 2 weeks of living there. :)

I spent a couple weeks up north with my family and then michelles family in august so it was one of my lowest hour months in a couple years, yet the time I put in I ran well so I made a healthy amount which made relaxing away from life that much easier. September and October Michelle has been very busy with her masters program so in addition to the big twins push I've been playing a lot of poker with great results. EVen still, the long hours with the house stuff I think had me a little more stressed out than I like being. I bet the twins actually didn't help down the stretch. heh.

I just feel like I've really honed in on a place in poker where I can make great money (hu limit online) and I want to take advantage of it while the landscape is the way it is. Put some money in the bank so if something changes, even drastically I have time and resources to reestablish another method without giving up the lifestyle I've become accustom to. So this definitely means playing a little more than would be 'fun' but it's all about the fututure. If I wouldn't have played live/tournaments I'd be havinbg a really good year but unless something changes in the last 2 months, have to settle for a 'decent year' because I've just lost my ass live and haven't done anything in any tourneys. I guess in 2009 decent year is good as almost everyone in normal business is having a crappy year.


A friend and I started a business project a couple weeks ago that has some good possibility of being a good passive income generator. It's not a get rich type of thing but quite possibly a liveable enterprise. I have some ownership in a couple other companies and I'm just trying to touch more things with the hope that eventually all together they can cover living expenses. I don't plan on ever quitting poker, it'd just be nice to have some non poker income (obviously, lol).

I really wish turbulance on planes didn't affect me. I'm so jealous of those who just cruise through it like it's some fun ride. I had a hell of a time on the last flight from DET to CHI and then on to MSP. We had to fly through storms and it was missserable. The entire flight from chi to msp i just sat there with my head in my hands in my lap constantly looking at my watch hoping to be closer. Somehow, I've never thrown up on a commercial flight (but did on a small private plane when i was like 8) yet I feel like garbage a reasonable amount of the time I fly. It's mostly the decent that gets me and more than one in a day is almost always trouble...so I'm gonna start sucking it up and paying for the more expensive direct flights so I don't have to suffer. My thrify side just thinks it's dumb but it's getting the point after all the misery.

I've also decided I need to treat myself to another helicopter skiing day this winter. I just had so much fun 2 years ago and what's the point of all this work if I really don't do what I think is the most fun thing in the whole world every once in awhile. I'm really jonesing for a nice little ski trip and with the little snow we've gotten (that didn't stick) it has me really in the mood. The rainy crap we've had lately I can do without...nice weather or winter sounds better..haha.

remodelling, wsop

I'm really looking forward to getting back to my 'normal' life...Wake up between 9 and 2, work most of the standard working people day, see michelle or go do fun things like twins/wild games in the evening and more often than not work before going to bed. These days the afternoons are consumed with kitchen/house planning and it's getting a little old. It's really not my style of thing, but it's my house that I could live in for a very long time so I may as well try to do it right the first time and I just gotta suck it up and do it. It's just kind of overwhelming...buying a first house and then before moving in and even knowing really what I want, having 18 people asking me what I want for each and every detail of the remodelling process. The control I have over it is pretty cool but really I don't feel like I'm experienced enough to be making all these intricate decisions. My mom has been helping me and that's been really helpful, but really most of it's on my shoulders.

So the government decided to give me a small business/self employed census, tell me I somehow owe them $100.38 underpayment of 2008 estimated taxes, and decide that poker accounts are foreign bank accounts and have more forms to fill out...so while each of those things are very small to deal with, on top of the house shinnanigans add another layer of stress. I know I'm probably very spoiled and whining about those things is annoying to some people, but hey it's my blog I can whine if i want! Haha.

On an up note I'm on a plane with Michelle to Vegas for the world series of poker main event. I play on day 1c (sunday) and will potentially be here for a week and a half. If I get unlucky and bust out the first day I'll be back on wednesday and if not, whenever I bust out. We're seeing O tonight and I'm lookin forward to that. I'm also gonna teach her how to roll points for 45 minutes at craps and rack up the dollars. Haha.

Jay has been staying with me at Jons' the past week and that's been sweet to have him around...I know mary's with me. And she pwwwwwwned him. She got the valet in on telling him they backed into picketts car (which he's borrowing) so he was totally buggin out. :)

I think him and Dave Schnettler are spending the rest of July at my house after the wsop and I'm sure that'll be fun. I owe them for all the time they've put me up in San Diego. Hopefully the house remodelling wont be too annoying to us while we're there. About as soon as the house gets done it's Du Nord time! Kinda funny, but it'll def be a great break from everything and I hope to be fully settled by the time I come back so I can just be DONE. :)

I'll be posting wsop updates to my twitter (bicyclekick) if you want to follow my deep run you can.

and stuff

I've been very busy these days and definitely put blogging on the back burner. It also didn't help for blogging that in vegas I won $700 1 short session and otherwise lost every single other session. It was never a big number but bleed bleed bleed. I did manage to have more fun than usual though as I golfed twice, hung out with some great people I dont get to see very often, and found the 2 tournaments I played to actually be fun (vs the standard ughh why did I enter this tourney 6 hours into it). I think that has a lot to do with the structures which I find to be a million times better than any other live tourneys I've ever played and the limit tourney was 6max so a lot of action...very fun.

I close on the house in a week and it's been so busy because I've been working with a contractor and a kitchen remodeler to redo the kitchen and master bath before I move in. We've made some great progress and even though it stresses me out I'm really looking forward to the finished project.

I had a pretty good may for poker but it finished slugishly and june has been no different. I haven't been blowing my brains in overly, just on the negative side of the variance tree. Meh, so much else going on...I don't really have time to think too much about it and it's been lots of short sessions so I don't feel like I've really been tilting too much.

I'll try not to be such a stranger and you can also follow my tweets at http://twitter.com/bicyclekick. I dont put much there - mostly wsop stuff and I'll be updating it for the main event but I throw a bone every once in awhile. Haha.

house

They accepted my low re-counter offer!!!!! wooooo!

quick vegas update

I decided to join the twitter fad for updating on wsop stuff here in vegas so if you want to keep up to date with how i'm doing in the different tournaments you can find out at http://twitter.com/bicyclekick

I made the offer and got counter offered and re-counter offered on the house. I should know really soon.

house update!

I think I've found the house I'm going to buy! I'm suuuuuuuper excited. Not only is it really good it's the first house I haven't been able to find anything wrong that's not cosmetic and it's cheaper and better location than the rest too. I'm going to redo the kitchen and probably a few other cosmetic things but it's a really great house space wise! The yard is reallllly good too.

6am is gonna come too quick so I'm gonna try to unwind and get some sleep!

Camping etc

I feel like even though I'm doing mostly fun things that I'm constantly running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. I've been waking up to an alarm for the last month or so and I'm sure I'll get zero sympathy for that but isn't one of the perks of being a poker pro supposed to be lack of alarm in the morning?

The camping trip was a blast and could have been disasterous considering the rooftopper we had on top of the car flew off in reletively thick traffic while I was going 75mph. Everyone swerved properly and the state patrol was able to get it off the road and escort us off and tell us to get different and better straps at fleet farm. Only a few dents on my car and a 2 hour delay. Coulda been far worse.

The campsite was pretty cool, nice and wooded and we didn't have anyone overly close to us so sound wasn't an issue. We went hiking in a couple state parks and had some nice picnics and went to a winery and brewary. Also there was a really really sweet restaurant a calm bay on lake michigan that we had dinner one night and it was absolutely perfect. 70, sunny, and no wind. Very nice.

Nights were very very cold. Around 40 degrees...luckily we all brought hats and stuff so we all managed. We pulled the picnic table close to the fire and that helped a lot for playing cards. The first night I slept without a hat on and it was kinda annoying so the last 2 nights I slept with a hat on and it was much better. Now that I'm no longer a whipper snapper sleeping on the ground wasn't particularly thrilling. I got the best compact pad REI had, but next time I'm bringing an air matress lol. I woke up with a sore neck and back every day. Waaaaaaaaaah waaaah. :) I have a lot of respect for the people on survivor.

Since I felt like I was working a little too hard, I basically took a couple days off before my trip and then obviously didn't play on my trip, so that was really pleasant to have basically a week off. I'm back to playing 100/200 on my own action again and have won a little at that. I might chop more of the 6max action and take my own HU action because my edge is way bigger.

I skipped the twins game today cause of that running around with my head cut off feeling and then had my business meeting for 5pm get cancelled which actually kinda pissed me off cause I wanted to play tennis and also had originally planned on having my PA come over and help clean up the disaster I've made in my room and I cancelled her but she was able to come after all. I missed the tennis but I'll manage. I'm seeing a house at 8pm that I'm really hoping is great...as I'm getting a little antsy. My financial planner changed her recommendations about the housing market from do what you want to buy small as she thinks the upper housing market still hasn't been affected by the forclosures and they are going to come in the next couple years and if I bought one and wanted to move it'd be a lottt harder and there will also be good deals then to take advantage of if I do in fact want to 'settle down for sure' in one place for awhile. Seems to make sense to me...so this house is definitely underwhelming compared to some of the others I've looked at but it's location is great, it seems to have a pretty private back yard with woods behind it and deeded access to lake josephene.

Mike's friends who we're going on a golf trip this weekend must think getting up and atem early is the way to go, so they made tee times for like 11am 4 hours away for tomorrow, which means we have to be on the road by 6am. Brilliant imo. At least my sleep schedule is like 2am-10am so while it'll be brutal, it could be worse. I think i'm going to vegas next wednesday. This is contigent to me not feeling overwhelmed and also not having house stuff I have to take care of.

Michelle has been quite the supportive awesome gf these days and I feel like I should give her some extra public credit.