Aggravation

I was up early this morning and kicking myself that I could be out the door by 8:10 when I need to take my cat to the vet, but can't even be AWAKE at that time to go to work.

Anyway, cat goes in for the day because he reacted poorly to a vaccine last time around. Turns out this isn't the year he gets that vaccine anyway, as he's due for his Rabies shot this year instead. So he's at the vet's with benedryl in him and I get a call that amounts to "Do you want us to use the 3-year killed vaccine that MIGHT give him cancer, or the 1-year live vaccine you've been warned by breeders not to use?" I went with the live after the vet assured me ther was no danger, as the live portion was in fact a canary pox, not a feline virus.

I was also told that because he was "feisty" (read: a vicious, clawing, hissing, biting, growling, death machine with anyone he doesn't like who backs him into a corner) that they can't do the checkup without me there. But they don't have space tonight so I have to make another appointment. It's a 15 minute drive if there's no traffic, but the times I can make it are during rush hour, so it's a 30 minute drive each way.

I am annoyed.

I'm also strangely warm... I'm hoping it's either exhaustion or dehydration.

Enough bitching.

Once again Poker Stars is showing how soft the tables are there. Well, at least when I'm rebuilding a bankroll from < $100. This means $6.50 turbo SnG. I've cashed in every one I've played since Saturday. An example of typical hand:

I get something like KQo and raise to 3x BB. SB or BB calls. Flop comes Q-high, rainbow, no draws. Blind minbets, I call. Turn comes a brick, blind minbets, I call. Flop comes another Q, blind minbets, I potraise, blind thinks and calls. Blind mucks K2o. I shit you not. Somehow, that K-high was deemed worth a bunch of minbets and pot call. And I don't know how many times I've been called down by bottom pair on draw-heavy boards, or that an AT that misses the board wins multi-way pots.

Plus, the bad beats have been minimal, and when they do happen, I'm well-insulated by my often huge chipstack. Last night I lost half of my stack with a flopped straight vs a set that turned the boat. Within 7 hands I was back to the chiplead, and more chips than before, without a showdown.

Yah, I know, $6.50 buy-in, very exciting.

Here's an old story from the authors of Freakonomics. It's about a bright guy who hit a wall of being paid well but feeling unfulfilled. So he quit his high-paying Washington corporate job and started selling bagels on the honour system. He quickly ended up making more than he did in his old job. The story uses his tale as a backdrop for his exploration of honesty and it's correlations to various corporate environments and economic trends.

And lest we forget one of my favourite topics - Monster Cable returns! Sadly, they didn't actually go anywhere, but they did send a letter they meant to be scary to Blue Jeans Cable - a company at the opposite end of the spectrum who sells quality cables cheaply because they don't try to give people bullshit about a length of wire. Monster claimed Blue Jeans were infrigning on a bunch of their design patents for connectors. This is allegedly standard for Monster, as they've been known to scare settlements and licensing agreements out of small cable companies. The problem is, the President of the company is a litigation lawyer by trade, and he responded in kind. Methinks that he won't be hearing from Monster's lawyers again.

Congrats to Hoy for winning a TOC seat from the Skill Game last night. Well-deserved no doubt. I can't wait for the 325 screen shots.

Mooooooooooooooooookie tonight! 1500 chips, NLHE. I plan to have nothing by aces and kings tonight. You know, like I usually do.