Another weekend comes to a close

Hello -

Just an update on goings on, since I can't think of anything really profound to say...

On my busted gaming system:
I went through all the tutorials regarding dismantling the box, getting at the DVD drive, dismantling the drive, and cleaning the lens and mirror of the laser. I had to purchase about $30 worth of tools and accessories to do it (including a cd/dvd cleaning disk that did nothing). I cleaned the appropriate surfaces and 're-mantled' the X-box. Turned it on....still broken. So, after much deliberation with the wife over whether I should try and purchase just a new laser for the dvd player for about $25, or a whole new drive for between $25 and $75 (the difference there being really crappy and cheap DVD drive versus high quality DVD drive), I managed to snag a high quality DVD drive off of Ebay for $35 plus $15 shipping. That is about $20 cheaper than all the other auctions I saw for the same item. I was quite lucky. So....hopefully that will arrive Tuesday, when UPS said it would, and hopefully it will be fully undamaged and functional.

On my son:
Teaching him to use the toilet. He is successful when naked, but accidents abound when he has underwear on. We are now using M&Ms as motivators. And we have bought stock in paper towels.

On my softball team:
Crushing and embarrassing defeat this weekend. Only had 10 people show up, so everyone played, even though a couple players didn't know quite what a softball looked like. It is ok, though, I should be grateful. If they hadn't played, we would have lost by forfeit. Instead, we lost by humiliation. :-) On another note, I was forced into sliding three times in the game. I have concluded that three slides are approximately two slides too many in one game. The first is not so bad. Come up, minor to no pain, just a little scratch maybe. Second slide, same spot on the leg as the first, hurts significantly more. Dirt grinds into small scratch already there, plus more ripping and tearing of leg flesh to open up a healthy wound. Third slide: pure agony. Dirt and rocks embed in the limb, whole wound gets a nice coat of blood/dirt mud mixture. Trying to slide a different way yields a second wound right on the knee cap that is even more raw than the first, due to the fact that there is nothing but skin and bone on the knee. Plus, it hurts that much more if one is called out, as was the case in my third and final slide. Perhaps I should consider wearing pants to the next game, instead of shorts.

On my weekend:
Fairly crappy Saturday. First, the softball game (see above). Then, went to a Texas Hold em tournament and got absolutely awful cards. The kind where you actually think you may have a good hand, but it is just bad enough to lose to someone else at the table. As an example (for those who know the game), I went all-in after the flop, since I had an 8-9 underneath, and the board flopped 10-J-Q, giving me an instant straight. Someone else at the meager 5 person table called, because he had a K-A, giving him the higher straight! The odds of that were ridiculous, especially considering there were only 5 people at the table, but that was the way my evening went. Tournament started at 6pm, I was busted out at 8:30pm. Lost $20. Awful.

Then, after having pretty much a loser Saturday thus far, I decided to go to a coworker's mudwrestling party from the poker fiasco. By the time I arrived, the mudwrestling was over, but I figured I could mingle with some of my drunken coworkers for a while. Unfortunately, there were only a total of three people at the party that I knew, out of about 40 or more. One was the hostess, and two left the party at about 10 pm, leaving me adrift in a sea of unfamiliar faces. The house was just too amazingly cool to leave though, so I stuck around in their fully surround sound theater room and watched some Will Ferrell SNL and a movie. By the time the movie was over (at about 1:15am), I was the only conscious person left in the room. I shut off the equipment, went upstairs, said goodbye to the only conscious person upstairs, and drove home to crawl into bed at 3am.

8am came early this morning, for church. That is all I have to say about that!