Birmingham

It's Monday afternoon and my last full day in Birmingham. I got here last Tuesday, and I leave tomorrow afternoon. God, I miss Alabama. I hope I always have some ties to this place because coming back here is so much fun. I got to see some old faces which was nice. I'm heading down to Tuscaloosa for the first time later today to with my Mom to see and eat dinner with my younger sister, Carly, who is a student at The University of Alabama. When I arrived Tuesday I spent the day hanging out with my Dad at his house in Birmingham. On Wednesday morning we went to Edwin Watts Golf Shop in Birmingham and I picked up a nice new, complete set of Callaway's Big Bertha clubs. I am around a 23 handicap, but I usually only get out to play 3 or 4 times a year. Also, the irons I was using were too short, so I like to think I'll blame the irons for that handicap to this point :) I hope to get out to play a lot in Vegas instead of sitting on my ass from the hours between noon and 5 p.m. like we usually do at the house. If anyone wants to play in Vegas email me. We don't have to (and I don't want to) gamble while we're out there. Thursday my Mom arrived back in town from helping Carly move from one house to another in Tuscaloosa. We hung out most of the day and went out to dinner, I think. Later I joined my friends Philip, Tim, Blair, Jake and Claire at Buffalo Wild Wings for drinks, and then some of us eventually found ourselves playing pool at Hogan's across the street. Friday afternoon I layed around and then my sister, Heather, my Mom and I all went out to The Comedy Club at the Stardome. I try to hit this place atleast once every trip home. It is owned by my friend Bruce Ayers, and it's probably the best comedy club in the southeast. We saw "The Love Master" Craig Shoemaker. This guy is siiiiiick funny. He used to be really big time but kind of fell off the planet for a bit. Nonetheless, it was the best comedy show I've ever seen in person. Saturday I headed north two hours to Huntsville. Stephanie's mom is getting married in August of 2008, and they were having an engagement lunch reception at a restaurant called Rosie's. Great food and a lot of fun. I went back to Stephanie's and slept because I ate too much while she shopped with her mom. Later, we watched Barry Bonds make history by tying Hank Aaron at 755 homeruns. I've been watching all these games with interest, not because I like Bonds but because I want to witness the HR record tied and broken. I woke up Sunday morning and drove back down to Birmingham. I played the online tournments and lost a little bit. I did finish in the money of the FTP half-mil guaranteed but ran into a cooler to get crippled pretty early into the money. Also, on Stars last week I won a seat into the WCOOP main event in the 300 dollar satellite. This week I was in shape to win another seat (cash) but I played horribly on the bubble and then blinded off for 4 orbits before AJ was no good against A6 to get eliminated on the embarrasing EXACT bubble. Oh well. We head out tomorrow and will be back in Vegas for a few days before heading to Los Angeles. I am excited about the trip to LA. I am determined to get some nice, long hours in at 20-40 NLHE at Commerce. I won't be playing many of the small tournaments before the main event at The Bike. I may mess around in some of the Stud and Omaha tournaments, because I'd like to get some good live experience in those games. We're all probably going to catch several Dodgers games over the 3 week period that we're out there. I've neglected to do anything physical in the week I've been home, so the plan is to hit the 24 hour fitness gyms in LA as well. There is absolutely no excuse not to get in shape. It's just a matter of being lazy. I've got to quit eating so much trash, and I probably should limit alcohol intake as well. Drinking is just so much fun though! I hope things are going great for everyone, and I appreciate you reading this whole blog. Cheers, SS