I didn’t have any big topic this week so I just have some random updates from the week.
> Amelia got her first teeth this week, and she’s finally back to normal after struggling through a week of terrible diarrhea, diaper rash and fevers. Finally on Wednesday night we saw the teeth start to break through. She now has her bottom two teeth coming in, so she keeps moving ahead
> On Saturday night, my mom came up to watch the kids for the evening while we got to go out to celebrate our 8th anniversary. We started out at the local bar/grill/bowling alley where they have a free poker tournament. There were 19 people who played – 5 of whom smoked. It’s a rough start to the tournament because you only get $40 in chips with $1/$2 blinds which go up pretty quick. I took a pretty big chance after the first blinds when up, and from then on I sailed along. I got to the final table (8 players), and was 3rd in chips. I kicked it into gear there and took out the last 3 players to get down to heads up. I found it unfortunately ironic that when we got down to 5 players – the other four were all smokers. I had my opponent down to his last chips all-in with my pocket 2s against his J-4. He, of course, made two pair, and then he pretty much won every hand from there on out. I did get a Cherry Snapps T-shirt for my efforts, so that was huge. Becky had some bad luck in the main tournament, but she ended up winning the side game and picking up enough to pay for half of supper.
For supper we joined my friends Uggie & Suzi and Kelly and his girlfriend Amanda. We faced an hour and a half wait at a new restuarant (at 8:00 at night), so we headed over to the Timber Lodge. It was fun to get out without the kids and have adult conversation. It was something we’ve done rarely since Amelia’s come along, but something we’ll have to do again soon.
My friend Kelly hasn’t had many serious relationships with the fairer sex in his 14 years of majordom. This one may turn out different. He can be himself around Amanda and she seems to enjoy his company. She’s smart, has her own personality and seems to be up for whatever adventures Kelly likes to spring on her. Kelly has a tendency to go through phases, and I just hope that when his next passion comes up (new job, desire for relocation, etc.), he takes time to think about the impact on his relationship. Hopefully they give it time to figure out if this is going to be long-term or any decision impacts the relationship negatively.
Thanks to my mom for being nice enough to sacrifice her sleep (she had to get up early on Sunday) so we can have a night out.
> We’ve been married now for 8 years, and I often say it seems like much longer. I don’t mean that in a bad way at all; I just couldn’t imagine not being married to Becky. I’ve seen a few cases of how life can be really miserable being married to the wrong person, just because so much is wrapped up in that relationship, and I must say that being married to the right person is great. It just makes life so much happier and easier if you are in sync with your partner. 8 years is hopefully just a small fraction of our time together.
Eric's space 