Boy did I make a dumb move last night. Playing a $5 sng I was cruising along nicely in 3rd place with 6 left I found AQ on the button. Flop came TQ4. BB bet minimum as she was likely to do with small pair which she would fold to raise. UTG+3 bet 3x BB. I doubled UTG+3 bet. BB folded UTG+3 went all in. I though for a while. If I folded, I would still be in decent shape and I knew not to go broke with one pair. But, for some reason I pushed all-in and was called by Q4. IGH. I knew I shouldn't have played, but I was tired. I have no other explanation for what I did. I was just tired and made a bad decision. I risked my tournament life when, I really knew I was beat and I did not have to make such a move. I guess I will just file that in the things not to do again column.

Weekend recap

On Friday I played in a final 20-person SNG to tune up for Saturday's tournament. I won the whole thing. I did it by playing my M to perfection. It also helped that early on I eliminated 3 players on one hand. That is right, I quadrupled up in the very early stages with my nut str8. I caught the str8 on the turn and the betting went bet, raise, re-raise all-in me, call call call. I thought for sure I was splitting, but the guys had either 2 pair or the low end. This stroke of luck enabled me to withstand a ridiculouse suckout late and still win the thing. I was confident going into Saturday.

On Sat night, I played well. Maybe a little loose, but I was still in the final 2 tables. As soon as we got down to 2 tables my M was 4 and I started to go all-in. Luckily mostly I wasn't called and after 3 times my M was 7 and I was in good shape. Ken went all-in and was called by the player to his left who was short and I called with AK and had the other guy covered, but was short of Ken. The other guy and I both had AK and we split the side pot and I won the side pot. My M was up to around 10 and I could tell from table discussion (they were openly discussing the wild nature of our table with all of the all-ins) that most of the table did not know the proper strategy. With an M of 10 and hearing some moaning, I figured I would slow down a bit. Then this hand came up. Ken bet 600 and was raised all-in 1,700. I had the raiser covered, and possibly Ken. I looked down to find KK. I re-raised all in. Ken reluctantly folded and villian turned over AA. I did not improve. Looking back, I should have just called hoping Ken would have entered and then going all-in on a non ace flop. I don't know though, I had to figure that I had the best hand and was trying to get my money in the middle. As it turned out, that was the hand that crippled me. I lost a little while latter when Ken sucked out on me.

After the tournament I played in a cash game with some really bad players. I played my normal selective-aggressive play. I also took full advantage of a drunk guy on my right. I ended up winning 40 for the game and thus 10 for the night. The take-away is that I played pretty well. I am studying a NLHE tournament book and hopefully I can win the next one.

Questionable daddy skills

Last night my daughter wanted to go out, and I didn't feel like staying in the house either, so I took her to Barnes and Noble. I knew that we were going to violate one rule, that being bed-time at 8:30, but I figured since we break that rule every time mommy is away, it wasn't a big deal. The other rule I broke was the "always watch the daughter like a hawk rule". I usually break this rule every time I am responsible for the daughter (it isn't saved for the special occasions when my wife isn't home for bedtime). So we get to Barnes and Noble and I grab two personal finance books and head to the children's section with Abby to let her play with the train and look at books. I was seated at a small table and Abby was wandering around checking everything out. The place was pretty empty, which by the end of this event I was glad of, and thus it was pretty quiet. A strange sound broke the silence. It sounded like a large deck of cards, large in size and number, was just riffle shuffled. Immediately following the strange noise a sweet voice said "I guess I better pick these all up". I immediately recognized the voice as the one that belongs to my daughter. As I walked over to where the noise came from, I noticed thin children's books scattered all over the floor and a half empty rotating wire display rack. Abby was calmly putting books back into the display. I asked here what happened and she replied that she was spinning it and she guessed she got it going too fast. I guess she somehow overcame the centrifugal force that should have kept them in their place. It was funny to see her response was so laissez-faire we just picked up the mess and moved on. This shows her nature I guess.

I managed to get to the gym this morning. I was late, and my workout was short, but I made it. Tomorrow I will do 4 X 400 on the treadmill with a 2 minute rest between sets and then I will make it back to the gym for Friday. Hopefully I can squeeze in a workout on Sunday for 4 x's this week.

I also did a little work on the investment club. I have really slacked on that task. I am going to shift a portion of our holdings into a S&P 500 index fund and then shoot to have 5 other stocks. I think this is a strategy that will work. The ETF will get us market returns while the other 5 can outperform. The amount that is in either category will depend on how confident I am in my stock picks.

I have got to get my groove back

I have been slacking in the workout category lately. I just seem to stay up too late and not wake up. I know how to change that, I just need to commit to wake up early to Crossfit. The wife is away so I can do it tomorrow, but I will not be able to leave the house early on Thursday. I can still get 3 workouts in if if make it to the gym on Wed and Fri and do a treadmill run on Thursday, so that is the plan.

I ate well last week, but so far this week I haven't done so well. I think a large part of this is that last week, I did the shopping and the cooking. Jane has done it this week thus far, and she isn't as nutritionally motivated as I am. I have to pack my lunch for the next few days and try to incorporate some more fruits and vegetables into my daily diet.

I went to DC this weekend to spend some time with and old friend. We did all kinds of guy stuff. We drank too much, rode mountain bikes, ate steak, and went to the NRA shooting range. It was all good stuff.

Job

I had lunch with Richard yesterday, and we are getting closer. He has the re-org plan almost done and I a going to start going to his office next week to look over the company's financials and his personal financials so we can finalize the re-org plan. The fact that he is opening up his personal financials to me is a huge step in the processes. He has several large projects right now and he is realizing that in today's market without adequate forecasting/budgeting mechanisms in place he is potentially losing money.

We are still on track for spring, so end of March is still looking good, possibly April 1. So I think I will give my notice for the Feb board meeting. That will give this company 4 weeks to find a replacement and still probably provide some opportunity for some consulting.

Playing HORSE last night, I made one big mistake. I had about 1/2 of the chips at the table with four or five players left and I decided to try to complete a draw against the next biggest stack. About midway through the hand I realized that I was drawing for no good reason. If I won, it would be great, but a big stack would not be playing a speculative hand, so I was drawing against a made hand when I did not need to. Of course I folded, but I lost precious chips. If I had not played, I would have accomplished two things. First, I would have maintained my chip lead, and second, I would have denied the other big stack more chips, As it ended up, I finished second to the guy I gave my chips to. I can chalk this up as a lesson learned.

The new year has started, but my new habits really haven't. Well, that is not entirely true. I am budgeting my money and I am eating better. I am still playing too much poker and not waking up in time to crossfit. Also, I am not keeping up with our investment club. I really need to get on the stick.

My wife is out of town for a few days, so I will try to work out at home and do some productive things in the evening.

The Fisher Rides again

The Fisher is now a single speed. I was able to get the chain line right by replacing a spacer with a cog that I wasn't going to use. Ultimately, I was able to use mathematics to calculate where the rear cog should go. Also, I was able to remove two links from the chain and thus remove the chain tensioner. The looseness of the chain may have been a part of the problem as well as the alignment. I do not know, but the bike seems to run. I will take it our for some further testing over the next few weeks. I do not know, but it seems to work.

My diet is a bit off thus far this week as I haven't really planned my lunches well. Next week I need to plan better.

I have only cross fitted once this week. The wife has had to leave early the last two mornings so I haven't made it to the gym. I will attempt tonight. Cindy is the WOD, but I might do a slight modification where for 20 minutes I do the Cindy exercises substituting dips for push-ups. It will go something like this: do as many pull ups as possible, once you fail move to dips and do as many as possible, once you fail move to squats and do as many a possible. Once you fail, repeat. I think I will just stick with Cindy

No luck with the singlespeed

I still cannot get the rear wheel lined up on the Fisher. Just when I think it is good to go, I hop on and pedal to the same effect. Some times it is smoother than the other attempts, but it ends up the same. I have a few choices now. I can give up, I can get a different spacer set, I can take it to a bike shop, or I can give it one more try.

On the surface, I would like to give it up. I don't really need a single speed, I just thought it would be fun experience to build it. I don't think I have this in my heart though. I just hate to quite on anything. Especially something that I think I SHOULD be able to do. If I don't quit, I must then take another action. For now, I won't quit.

I have tried various methods of lining up the cog, but I have failed in each attempt. This is not really a surprising outcome as I am not very talented when it comes to these kind of things. I cannot do a lot by sight. The Surly web page had an article on how to use measurements and math to calculate where the rear cog should go. I think I will calculate this tonight to see if I can line it up with my current spacers. If I cannot, I will call Dirty Harry's to see how much they would charge. I will then evaluate at that point what to do going forward.

The Fisher Single Speed is giving me fits. I cannot seem to get it right. The chainline must not be straight. I have tried many different configurations of the spacers, but none seem to work. Also, I did not completely follow the directions on the chain tensioner as I did not have a cone wrench, so that may be an issue. I think it is more likely though that the spacers are not adequate. I think I will try to shorten the chain and just ride it without the tensioner for now.
This project is not as easy as I tought it would be.

I overslept again this morning. I do not really know why. I was in bed at a reasonable hour. It was later than I originally planned, but I stayed up to watch the Iowa Caucus. I just do not remember hearing my alarm. It is time to switch the tone and go to bed earlier.

Today is the first paycheck of the new year, so it is time to implement good budgeting. I am going to work on budgeting each paycheck first so I can get a good handle on my finances. After I have that dialed in, I can move to monthly/yearly budgeting. I will incorporate that into my weekly review, that I am also going to start implementing today.

The new year has started off pretty much like the old one ended. I played poker too late and slept through my last two scheduled work outs. I guess that will have to fit into my resolutions for 2008.

In the past, I have made elaborate lists of several resolutions. This year I am going to keep it simple as there are only a few areas that I truly fall short of my ideal behavior.

1 First and foremost, I am going to spend less than I earn. The first step is better personal budgeting. With the earning that I am not spending, I will pay off debt.

2 I am going to sleep more. I will aim to be in bed by 10:30 every night. This will enable me to crossfit in the morning.

3 I am going to eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetable per day. This won't be hard, it is just something I must do.

4 I am going to keep up with the BBBIC. This project has not been well-managed for the last 2 year.

5 I am going to implement and follow GTD