I'm pretty sure you're new to my blog, so I'd like to encourage you to subscribe to my RSS feed. I generally talk about books, authors, blogging, and life. Feel free to poke around; I think you'll really enjoy it! Thanks for visiting!

Finally, we’re home! I think that the best thing about going away is coming home. There’s nothing like your house and your bed and your food and your computer. As much fun as vacations are, coming home is the best part!

I’m going to warn you now: This post is not funny. Nothing funny happened. Well, that’s not exactly true, but the few funny things that did happen I can’t relate here. Because the funny things had to do with my fiance being Mr. Grouchy McGruff. And him being Mr. Grouchy McGruff was definitely not funny. D-d-d-efinitely. D-d-d-efinitely not funny.

Friday night we met up with our friends and the birthday boy. We chatted and ate some appetizers and finally decided to head down to the casino and see if we couldn’t win any of the money that’s out there for the taking. Well, apparently we couldn’t. Dave and I each tried our luck at some craps, and our luck was just that, crap. I played a little bit of poker but didn’t win or lose much, so we finally called it a night.

Saturday was the day where we’d planned to play in a tournament that the casino hosts. It’s a Limit Omaha High/Low game, and even though I don’t play Omaha much, I know the basics and played because everyone else was playing. Well, silly me, while I lasted longer than most of my friends, I got busted out right after the first break. I was frustrated and needed some hair of the dog: more poker. So I sat down at a $1/$2 No-Limit Texas Hold ‘Em table with $200 in front of me. I was playing fairly conservatively when I hit pocket Aces. Even people who don’t play poker know that this is the best hand you can have. Unfortunately, in the poker world, pocket Aces are notorious for getting “cracked”, and every poker player has a story to tell about when he had pocket Aces and lost. Fortunately for me, after some raises and re-raises, I had called two people’s all-in bets and my Aces held up. I doubled up to $400! Unfortunately, I only left the table with $235, but at least I was making a dent in my losses.

That evening, after Dave and I had a wonderful dinner, I sat back down at a $1/$2 No-Limit Texas Hold ‘Em table and had another lucky run. I had pocket Aces again. Theoretically, you will get pocket Aces every 1 in 220 hands you’re dealt. So I was definitely ahead of the curve. Once again, I had two people make large raises in front of me and call my all-in, and once again my Aces held up. I now had over $400 in front of me again. I later had pocket Kings and again pocket Aces and pocket threes that hit a set on the flop. When I finally left the poker table, I had $635 to cash out! Woohoo! So I was finally up!

This is where Mr. Grouchy McGruff comes in, but it was definitely not funny.

I decided to hang out for a little while with some of the people in Reno with us. We comandeered a black jack table, despite the fact that I’ve sworn off black jack after every time I play because I’ve never won money. But I was being social and I was in the positive, so I threw down a little bit of money to play at the $5 black jack table. With some help from my friends on how to play, I ultimately won another $30 or so. I decided to quit while I was ahead and called it a night.

And now I’m home. In this wonderful place that hasn’t ever looked more welcoming.

And if anyone is wondering, I only gamble with money that I can lose. I had a garage sale last weekend and used that money to gamble with. If I lost, I wasn’t losing money to pay bills. If I won, then I’ll have some extra money to put in the bank account (wedding expenses are never ending). So don’t worry. I wasn’t going to hock my computer to continue gambling. I almost hate to tell people that I gamble because there is a stigma (in my mind, at least) of all gamblers being degenerate gamblers. But Dave and I play responsibly.