2004-08-05 - 8:46 p.m.

On the internal soundtrack: Some song I heard on the radio, and, of course, do not know the name of.

All right, I'm back.

This vacation turned out not to be much of a vacation. I was supposed to work maybe 20 hours last week finishing up a project, and spend the rest of the time with family. Instead, some new information came out that forced a change in the design of my model. I would've thought we could get an extension on the project since the information appeared at the 11th hour, but noooooooooooo. So I worked 44 hours last week. I was not happy. The whole family missed me. Meanwhile, I'm sure the client will have all kinds of new ideas on how to add new tables and reconfigure existing ones. FINE!

Southeast Florida has been having a pretty dry summer, but during our visits it traditionally rains a lot. This visit was no exception. Once the nieces left (I assume they were influencing the weather in their own way), it started pouring every afternoon, for longer periods than the usual late afternoon Florida thunderstorm. I was pleased, because I am a vampire and usually stay inside during the day when I'm in Florida anyway, and I love to watch the rain and the clouds.

I would've liked to see Chelsea, but she has a knack for going out of town when I'm in Florida. :)

I have more stuff to write about the vacation, but for the time being I'll jump on the bandwagon with the handwriting meme. I wrote this last night:

Forgot to mention that all 3 regular employees at the Mexican place also recognize me, and the one guy (the owner, I think) knows me by name.

My handwriting was a lot rounder and girlier when I was younger. Since I almost never write by hand anymore, my skill has completely deteriorated, plus I'm too impatient to write slowly.

While the girls (my nieces) were in Florida with us, the seven-year-old, Christie, asked Uncle Poindexter if he'd teach her to play "Porker". So he did teach them both to play, and it was decided that Porker would be the evening family cardgame, replacing -- much to my relief -- the way-too-overplayed Fantan. My grandparents were saints for playing that game so many times with my brother and me when we were kids.

I am thirty-two years old and up until this point I had never played poker. Ever. I just assumed I wouldn't like it. I'm not the gambling type at all. Two years ago we changed planes in the Las Vegas airport and I gambled for the first time. I put a quarter in a slot machine. I got two quarters back and decided I was done. I'm a risk-averse person and an information junkie, and don't like to make any kinds of decisions without having a lot of relevant information collected first, and poker involves taking risks predicated on far too many unknowns.

Despite all that, I was surprised and pleased to find that I like playing poker. I'm absolutely terrible at it, and I think I won maybe once in five evenings of playing, but I didn't find it boring or annoying like I thought I would. I really like all the different ways you can play it -- the family plays "dealer's choice" -- and the more complicated, the better. I really like one that Poindexter called "Omaha", although the popular five card draw is always entertaining too.

When the family plays, we all get 30 pennies and 7 nickles from Gramma's coin stash. Everybody eats rod-style pretzels as though they are cigars. Since it isn't real money, there wasn't much in the way of bluffing going on -- some family members simply will not fold. My SIL consistently got ridiculously good hands and beat all of us on a regular basis, piling up the pennies. So unfair.

Looks like somebody hitched a ride home with us from Florida. Don't know how happy he's going to be here once fall arrives, though. Check out our stowaway:

Poor little fucker lost his tail during the traumatic journey.

Poindexter saw him on the upstairs landing last night after unpacking the suitcases. We saw the gecko in the guest room in FL when we were packing, but when we didn't see him anymore we thought he'd left the room, not jumped into the suitcase. Little did we know.

I'm surprised the thing was still alive after getting thrown around by baggage handlers, never mind the pressure and temperature changes. I put him outside on the brick wall and he scampered off out of sight.

previous index next