Haruko's Rickenbacker

Thinh did an amazing job on this "weapon" that Haruko uses against her enemies in FLCL. He said it cost around $30 to create and it looks really nice. I think he or Sarah is going to add a strap to it later so they don't have to hold it the whole time which is probably a good idea. I need to hurry and order my stuff this week...

Cheddar's Again??

I've been to Cheddar's about four or five times now in the past couple weeks and it really never gets old that place. As usual, you can't start a meal here without the Santa Fe Spinach Dip, so here's a few more shots of greatness. Not so sure what is so "Santa Fe" about it but its pretty damn good stuff.

Yeah that's my dad...his fingers anyway.
What every bowl should look like at the end.
Mom's B-Day Strawberry Margarita (only $2.50!)
Andrew's Buffalo Chicken Tenders
My Blurry Chicken Tender Basket
My Beans and Rice side (w/ spicy Sausage)

Potato Skins w/ Jalepenos because Justin HAS to have 'em hot.

Hawaiian Chicken Sandwich

The Rollercoaster that is...

I just got home from a 1/2 no limit hold'em cash game where the min buy-in was $30 and max $100. There were just four left playing by the time I got there around midnight but was able to turn $50 into $100 just as we finished for the night at 1am. That was the good news. The bad news was that I then proceeded to lose about two buy-ins or about $50 online at a .10/.25 ($25max) no limit table. Oops. So now I'm back to even for the day I guess.

Time for a couple turbo SNG's and its off to bed to dream about well...poker hopefully. That or zombies.

Oops...

I think I jinxed her.

She ended up finishing in 17th place but won $334,535 for her valliant effort.

Oh well.

----

Thinh and Sarah came by the office to show off the guitar he hand-made for Sarah's Haruko Haruhara cosplay character. I don't think I mentioned yet that we three are planning to hit AnimeFest 2008 like a hurricane with our FLCL cosplay crew!!!

But now I just did.

Thinh is going as Naota Nandaba (a.k.a. Ta-kun) and I will be Commander Amarao (a.k.a. Eyebrows).

I'm pretty sure that we're going with one other girl, a friend of Sarah's...can't remember her name, starts with an A/haven't met her either yet, but I'm already having Mamimi thoughts that probably won't happen but its still early so who knows for sure yet. It'll be her first convention though and I sure didn't want to cosplay at my first one ever so it'll be understandable if she just wants to come along for the experience of it all.

And speaking of AnimeFest, I purchased the tickets online tonight so I think I'm set and can just focus on making my costume complete now. I need to order the right sunglasses, the fake guns, find a black suit and get some red hair dye/spray stuff. Oh, and lose 10-15 lbs...

*EDIT*

UGH, and I just found a perfect Mamimi costume but for $100 online at http://www.elusivevisions.com/index.cfm/Custom_Costume_Info

maybe if we all chiped in for $20? eh? eh??

39th WSOP ME 2008

I'm already starting to get lazy with updating...need to keep it going or I'll give up and I'm not going to do that anytime soon--I don't care if anyone reads this or not, I have to keep it going or something awful will happen. Or not... but I just feel like this blog is something that I should keep going, for good feng shui or whatever. Okay on to the news...

The World Series of Poker Main Event is going on right now in Las Vegas and they are down to the final 27 players from the initial 6800+ runners that bought in for $10,000 each putting the prize pool at over $64 million bucks. Over $9mil goes to this year's winner and I really hope that the only girl left in the event wins as that would be HUGE news--for not just the poker world but for the general media as well. It'd be great for poker and hey, she's not bad looking either...GO TIFFANY MICHELLE!

July 7th Dinner

@ Work. via Papa John's delivery!

Thanks to the lovely 50% discount our property has with the pizza joint, I was able to snag a large order of the new "White" pizza that they offer now along with that new snazzy wheat crust that they're boasting about now on the cheap. Oh yeah, and obligatory side of chicken tenders.


As always, pictures below!

Three cheeses: Ricotta, Garlic Parm, and Mozzarella

July 5th Dinner

@ Cheddar's Casual Cafe


This place has got to be in my top five for best place to eat in San Angelo. I know it's a chain but its a damn good one for both the price, value, quality, and atmosphere. I always make sure to get at least one of these three things when I come here: the spinach dip, the chicken tenders, and the broccoli cheddar rice casserole. And usually it ends up being all three like it did a few days ago when I went with Billy for a little (romantic?) dinner night out. Oh yeah, they finally finished remodeling this place and it looks REALLY nice now. Like hip, cool, and happen'n nice.

Obligatory pictures below!

My chicken tenders and honey glazed baby ribs w/ red beans n' rice

Broc Cheese Casserole

Buffalo Chicken Wraps

Billy's chicken torilla soup

As you can see...ribs were'nt bad.

Sorry no pictures of the glorious spinach dip...we ate it all before I even thought about taking pictures, always next time.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Let's see what did I do today (I guess yesterday now since its almost 4am, yikes)... went with my brother to the mall to get mom a birthday card and we both also settled on getting her a gift card since we both know how hard it is to shop for her even though I always think gift cards are a bad idea since they lack original thought but we didn't have any this year! We're both just lazy when it comes to these kind of things. We ask for money every year and then when its the parents turn we get them stuff that they never use so gift card it was was what we both thought.

Then at 7pm I went to Shenanigans to play some tourney poker and I did pretty good in the first one but played a little sloppy in the second game at 9pm but I overall liked how I did--I just need to get more aggressive in these shallow tournaments more often. Can't sit back and expect cards in these bar games.

Did some much needed laundry awhile ago and played several SNG's that went 0-6 which is a rarity but I wasn't on my A-game...I played too fast, chased too much and well that's what happens in those things. I never did go on tilt though, everytime I'd start to like when my 2-pair would lose to some guy's better 2pair or whatever I'd just look to the right and see my Hannah there sleeping upside down and moving her cute little paws--looked so cute how could I get upset! ^_^

I better get to bed soon...have to get up and head to the house by 3pm...

Bored @ Work

3:30 AM, at work, bored as hell (i doubt hell's actually boring)

Surf'n the net, looking at apartments for vegas and albuquerque, and ABQ is looking a lot better by the minute...

Sandia Resort and Casino in Albuquerque just posted an opening for a "Front Office Agent" FT, $10.55/hr salary, with benefits...everything I'm doing now but w/ way better pay/hrs/benefits. I should be jumping through flaming hoops to try and get this position but how serious would they take an applicant who doesn't even live in their state? ARGHGHGHGHGHGh.

**EDIT**

Fuck it, I went and registered just so I could apply for it. If I get a call asking to come down for an interview I'm fucking going. Yeah, I think I'm drinking too much coffee right now but I'm definitely going for it. Can't hurt to try right.

Happy 4th Everyone!

This is the monster 4th of July dinner I made for myself.

Yup, hot dogs! Hey, its tradition right?

Anniversary Lunch

Billy's eggrolls
Yoshio Tatsuo Special
Crystal Shrimp Roll, Unagi, Tuna, Salmon, Yellowtail
Sparkling Sake (I've wanted to try this for a long time)

Spring Roll, MUCH better than the eggrolls here

Happy Anniversary Honey!

Yesterday marked four full years of Billy and I putting up with each other. It blows my mind that four years have already passed, it really doesn't feel like it was all that long ago when I met Billy while living at the Crestwood Terrace apartments but I guess that really was four years ago now...

A lot has happened, and a lot has changed over the years and through all the great times and all the very memorably bad times--we've managed to stay together somehow and that has to count for something! I think that for every year a gay couple is together, it counts double to that of any hetero-relationship so if my strange math is correct, Billy and I have actually been together for EIGHT years now...gay years that is. ^_^

I had to work unfortunately but we had time to have a great lunch at Nakamura and I have pictures for tomorrow!

Nite.

Hotel Reservations 101

I will never understand why certain people reserve rooms with empty credit or debit cards and then somehow expect to have their room still waiting for them when they get to their hotel.

Fifteen minutes ago I had to tell this poor family who had a reservation in place since January to find someplace else to stay and why? Well, the card that they used to reserve with back in January had declined today when I did my credit card pre-authorization checks! Hotels do these things people!

One thing you MUST do when booking a room is to make sure that your credit card can handle the room charge plus something like an incidental charge of say around $50 to $100 extra just in case because some hotels do put in hidden incidental charge just in case you take something from the mini-bar or start watching a pay-per-view channel or make use of the hotel's dry cleaning service. That stuff is always extra and your card better be able to handle the extra charges even if you don't plan on using them.

That unfortunate family that I had to turn away probably won't be able to find another place in town either since its the weekend of the 4th and NOBODY has rooms today. So while I feel bad for them, I also know that they'll have learned something about this give and take business called the hospitality industry and hopefully they can come back next time smarter about these things...

**I wasn't a total ass about it either. Even though our policy was to cancel said room at 4pm I held off until 8pm before I finally had to do it. Reason being, if I kept the room for them and they never show--its lost money for us and a possibly empty room for the night which is very unacceptable on a weekend like this one. I called them twice and they never answered and after that there's really nothing we can do for them anymore.

Working...

I just checked in a very large man who's last name was Hunger. Not even joking.

--

My last post was still pretty vague as to what I was getting at but essentially what I want to do is be out of this town by July of next year. If I can accomplish that then and only then can I over-look my own laziness that was the past couple years...

July 1st - Still Here.

I can't believe it's July already and that we're already past that half-way point for 2008. This year has moved much too quickly, but as I've come to realize over the past several years, the older you get, the faster the days just seem to go by. School was always something that made the days go by slower for some reason. Once you're done though, days go by like weeks, and weeks like months. It's something that most kids can't grasp until they grow up and realize how life really is out in the real world.

Am I 'grown up' yet?

To be honest, I really don't think so. I won't be able to convince myself of that until I move away. To me, that will be my barometer, my true test. When I can move away and not have that safety net at my back to easily pull me out of a bad situation, that will be when I know what I'm made of. I just don't feel like I am now. I still owe my parents for favors they've pulled for me over the past couple years and for those things to have even happened kind of tells me I'm not ready. I turn 25 this month. From as far back as I can remember I had always sworn that by that age I wouldn't be here anymore. Where am I supposed to be then you may be thinking?

Thousand Miles West...