Tonight is Suede’s companies Christmas party. We won a free pass to the party including a limo ride there and home with complimentary champagne. The limo? It is one I never thought I would ride in.

Read more to see it.

Friday night I played in my first poker tournament. It was a $40 buy in, and it was put on by one of my co-workers. I was a little apprehensive since I had only really played poker once before. But, it was only $40, and I thought I would at least go check it out and see how I do.

I ended up having a lot of fun, and if I am invited again, I will do my best to make it.

We were playing No Limit Hold ’em. Just like I have seen on TV. After verifying a couple rules, we were off and running. We had two tables going, and I won a few hands. One guy at the other table was out in 20 minutes or so.

One hand in the first round that stuck out for me was a hand that came down to me and Craig. Craig was low on chips, and I had a pair of 10’s. I was feeling pretty good, so I was going to stay around. Craig went all in (I think it was after the flop). It was all he could do. I called, and we showed our cards, Craig with a Jack high, me with my pair. The turn card was a Jack! Crap! Then the river card was another Jack. Craig lived to play a little longer. 🙂 It was pretty exciting, even though I lost that hand.

The table I was at was the first to get down to 3, so we waited for the second table to knock another guy out.

At the final table I think I played fairly well, and only got suckered into one bad hand.

Another really fun hand was when it got down to Jason and I. I had a 9, and another lower card. In the community cards were 2 9’s, and 2 10’s. Sweet. I did my best to keep Jason in it, and when it came time to show, I told him full house, 9’s over 10’s. He was not happy and threw his cards down. I didn’t pay attention to them. Another player pointed out that Jason had a 10. That meant he had a full house, 10’s over 9’s. Doh! I lost that one by a hair.

After making it to the final 3, I was feeling pretty happy with myself. Part of the pot went to the person with the highest hand. Jason had 4 of a kind (3’s with a Queen I think). Mike and I got into in one hand. I was dealt a pair of 10’s, and was pretty happy with those. The flop contained 2 more 10’s. Hmm, now that is a hand I wanted to see. I did my best to keep Mike in the hand, but he ended up folding. Being a novice, I tossed my cards in and started collecting the chips. I mentioned that I had 4 10’s and was hoping Mike was going to stay in. Then I was told that if I had thrown them in face up, that would have counted as a played hand! I could have had the highest hand, but I didn’t know to throw them in face up.

Around 12:30 Jason, Mike and I agreed to put a time limit on it. When time rolled by, we called the game, and split the pot 3 ways. I ended up with $110. Sure was fun though.

This past Saturday Suede and I were on our way to a friends house for a party.

We stopped at the lights on Lampson to cross Esquimalt. We were heading north, and the intersection lights are a little different. The Eastbound Esquimalt road traffic gets a green with a left run arrow. Next goes the Westbound traffic, again with a left turn arrow. Finally if there is any traffic on Lampson, it will get the green.

Suede and I were in the truck on Lampson, and the Westbound traffic light had just gone red. When our light went green I checked the intersection, and noone was running the light. A split second after I started moving, Suede yelled for me to look out. Heading Eastbound, a lady had taken off from the line!

I jammed on the brakes, and with both hands layed on the horn as she crossed less than 5 feet in front of me. I saw her look up at the light, look over at me. She was scared. I left the horn on for along time to drive the point home.

She continued through the intersection and pulled over. I think my message got through to her. I put the truck into first gear, and proceeded to the party.

I have no idea why she jumped the light like that. When I started into the intersection she definitely wasn’t moving. Inattention almost caused an accident.

The last week I have been battling this awful cold. Last Tuesday I woke up with a sore throat, and by noon I had to leave work because I felt so bad. Wednesday I spent the day at home trying to recuperate. Since then it has been a series of feeling better, then relapsing. Sheesh. Be gone cold, be gone! I hate colds a the best of times, but when they drag out like this, it makes me miserable. I have a hard enough time sleeping as it is, let alone trying to sleep while I am coughing, wheezing, and aching.

Downtown in any largeish city is bound to have some interesting people. Throw in a rather pleasant climate, and you get all kinds of poeple living on the streets.

Today I saw one such person. Many street people have a dog with them. I can understand this.

Today I saw a new twist.

I saw a guy walking down the sidewalk with a huge back pack. So far so good. What was perched on top of the backpack? A cat. That is a little different. The cat was on a leash. Good thinking, you wouldn’t want fluffy to run away. The ca was wearing a sweater. Aww, he wants the cat to stay warm. The sweater made from an old work sock (you know the kind, it is grey with a white then red band at the top). That is a little odd, but to each their own.

After riding, I spent a couple hours disposing of the leaves in our yard. What a pain! I must say that I rather hate Gerry Oak trees (we have two of them in our yard).

After cleaning myself up, I met up with Suede and K and E downtown. After grabbing hot drink we walked over to the parade grounds, and met up with some more friends, the Patricks. We settled in and soon the parade began.

It was pretty neat how all the kids got so excited to see the cars all decorated with lights. I had fun to trying to capture some of the essence of the parade. It was difficult, and I look forward to the day I buy a new camera (soon). It wasn’t a long parade, so the ending was disappointing to some.

My pics are here.

This was one of several Orca’s that Suede and I saw from the ferry when we were returning from the Tragically Hip concert. The picture isn’t very good, but it was the best I could get. They certainly don’t surface for long, and it is hard to predict where they will surface. Also, my camera doesn’t have the greatest zoom range, so the Orca is pretty tiny in the full res version.

Still, it was very cool to see them from the ferry. This is only the second time I have spotted Killer Whales from the ferry while travelling to or from Tsawassen.