Panhandle

I'm spending the night in Tallahassee. For those of you keeping score at home, you know that means I'm on my way back east.

As I hinted at yesterday, I spent the afternoon in New Orleans. As expected, I didn't find it to be the best place in the world to hang out by myself. Looks like a crazy town to visit with friends though; the French Quarter was full of people getting drunk in the street at 2:00 PM on a Thursday.

I accidentally drove through some rough areas, too... entire blocks of apparently abandoned houses, with groups of locals loitering on the street corners. Didn't look like the best place to get a flat tire. I also got yelled at by someone who ran a stop sign and almost hit me, though I didn't understand what he said other than the ubiquitous F bomb.

I headed back to Biloxi afterwards, deciding to drop in on the 1/2 no-limit game that I didn't get to play the day before. That turned out to be a good idea, as I made back most of my earlier losses and got comped another two meals (one of which was the grossest lunch buffet ever. I might need to write just about that in a separate post some day.)

Continued eastward this morning and made it to the Air Force Armament Museum, about 30 miles east of Pensacola, FL. THAT was cool! Inside are several exhibits, including small arms, large machine guns and cannons, missiles and small planes, trainers, and history. And outside, they have actual Air Force planes, such as:

The F-15:

And the B-52 (sorry, it's so big it doesn't all fit in the pic. 8 engines... gaaa) :

Looks like I might make it back to Tampa tomorrow.

A somber update

Here was the view from my room yesterday morning from the 9th floor of the Isle of Capri: (camera-phone pic, sorry for lack of quality)

I drove to New Orleans this morning, via route 90 along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Basically, for about 35 miles, there is a beautiful beach on the left. So if you want to be in your own happy little world, you keep looking left.

On the right... I know I can't adequately describe it. I'm going to give up for now, but I'll try to revisit it later. For the curious, the words that stick out in my mind the most are "graffiti", "cement", and "emptiness."

Biloxi, MS

As much as I'd like to post another poker boast, I'm checking in in the negative column tonight. I'm at the Isle of Capri casino in Biloxi, MS, on the gulf coast. My limit game is very much weaker than my no-limit game, but the only game they were running here was a 4/8 limit game with 1/2 blinds. Yeah, weird blind structure... I'm still feeling a bit confused by it. If any limit hold'em experts out there are reading this, perhaps they can offer some words of wisdom. Anyway, thanks to two huge suckouts (that's what limit is all about, right? and apparently always against me) I finished my 10 hour shift slightly in the red.

I did comp a $17 buffet, and got a reduced rate on my hotel room, which is a whole lot nicer than the Motel 6s I've been staying at! And again, it's too cold to sleep in the car down here, so this trip may be testing my budget more than I anticipated. I'm shocked; I expected it to be a lot warmer in the deep south.

A couple of notes on the buffet: First, I kind of justified the gross over-indulgence and extreme over-eating of the holidays by reminding myself of my summer trip, and how I ate very little, filled my days with activity, and in fact lost several pounds. So then here I am the second day after TurkeyBall and I am comped a free all-you-can-eat buffet (and um, sitting on my butt for 10 hours). YAY!!!! Second note, they had snow crab legs, of which I ate several, though refrained from pigging out since I'm still a tad worried about my phantom crab allergy. No symptoms though... I seem to be doing ok.

I also see that the stock market had a rather nice rally today which makes my poker loss look smaller than the tip I just gave to the bartender here.

TurkeyBall 2007 - The End

Sunday morning, Doug packed for his flight and then he and I headed back to the beach. This time, however, there were far fewer people, and only one set of lines for a volleyball court, which was kept occupied the entire time we were there. After some beach time, we eventually gave up on playing and went to the bar for food and beverage. Amy and Brian joined us shortly after, and we managed to get in a quick game of 2s on our hand-dug lines, and then I took Doug to the airport for his flight back to Vernon.

Note to self: next time, bring lines!

Monday was somewhat less eventful, though Amy did treat us to steak lunches at Remington's before I took Ron to the airport for his flight back to warm, sunny CT. Thanks, Amy! Later that night, we watched the single worst Monday Night Football game ever-- it was so bad, it was like a car wreck: you couldn't help but watch.

And now, having driven all day, I am still in Florida! I'm in Pensacola. Man, Florida is huge. Still not sure where I'm going from here, but I'm thinking of looking for a poker game in the Biloxi/Gulfport area of Louisiana tomorrow.

Thanks again to Dayong and Ron for hosting such a wonderful Thanksgiving vacation.

TurkeyBall 2007 - Saturday

Saturday was the day for the beach. We got off to a bit of a late start, leaving the house around noon. We went without Ron, who spent the day at Busch Gardens, and without Dayong, who played in a volleyball tournament with Ashley.

It was about 1:00 and a little cloudy, though perfect temperature, when we got to the Undertow Bar at St Pete Beach. There were four volleyball courts set up, and we had to wait a bit before we could play. I started playing 3s with two other girls, against Doug, Amy, and Akiko. My team won pretty easily and held the court for a while before my friends made it back. Fortunately, once they did, we all got to play for the rest of the day. And, long story short, we played until after the sun went down... by the time we finished, it was hard to see the ball. And unfortunately we were too busy all day playing to take pictures! We had a few snacks and drinks at the beach bar before heading back home.

Dayong cooks unbelievably good Chinese food, and he was cooking when we got home. We were pretty exhausted, but once again thankful for great food. I felt a little bit like a stuffed goose when Ron brought out dessert, but there's always room for ice cream, right?

Finished the night with some college football, including getting to see an Auburn player attacked by a police dog. Bad dog!

TurkeyBall 2007 - Friday

We went to bed Thursday night thinking we'd try to get up early and go on a canoe trip before Feng's flight back to New York. Didn't happen. It was around 9:00 by the time I stumbled downstairs and I was the first person up.

Dayong and Ron took Feng to the airport that morning, and Doug and I decided to take the canoe trip anyway. It's the same one we did last year, down the Hillsborough River via Canoe Escape. We got to get up close and personal with lots of wildlife, including some baby alligators:

And some not-quite baby alligators:


Lots of other wildlife as well, including herons, comorants, turtles, and jumping fish.

When we got home, Ron was setting up the house for Dayong's birthday party, so we helped set up. There were even more people there that night than on Thanksgiving (including Amy and Brian, who flew in later that evening), and unfortunately, I can't remember all their names. But it was another great meal, this time, steaks and asparagus cooked on the grill. And I learned something very important about myself. Two of their friends brought over some homemade crab soup. Now, I've lived my life so far convinced that I'm allergic to crab, since it runs in my family, and because i sometimes get some mild allergy symptoms if I gorge myself on shellfish. So I initially declined the soup, but it smelled so good I had to taste it. And then I couldn't stop eating it... but neither the hives nor the anaphylactic shock arrived to ruin my evening. So I have been living with a phantom crab allergy, and now I can eat all the crab I want! (might have been better to learn this back when I was making lots of money, but oh well!)

Finished the night off with cake, of course, and then more wine, of course, and then plenty of college basketball.

TurkeyBall 2007 - Thursday

Time for the volleyball tournament! There were six of us, so Dayong put together a schedule of ten games that had each person playing with and against everyone. The winner would be the one who played the most games on a winning team. And to spice things up a bit this year, we made betting sheets, where, for a dollar, you could pick winners and losers in hope of winning the final pool by picking more correctly than anyone else. So, as an optimist might say, there were two chances to win! The tournament, and the pool.

In addition to those of us from yesterday (Dayong, Feng, Doug, and myself), we were joined by two of Dayong's Tampa friends, Akiko and Ashley. We headed to the court at about 1:00, just in time to get rained on. Fortunately (or not, depending on your perspective) the rain ended about midway through, and that's about when two more of Dayong and Ron's Tampa friends showed up and started taking pictures.

Dayong on the attack (Akiko and Feng looking on, Doug blocking)


Me hitting, set by Feng. Ashley playing defense:


Feng passing with Akiko:


Me blocking Dayong:


Doug trying to block Dayong:


Doug showing perfect hitting form:


Final Results of the TurkeyBall Tournament: Dayong won, with 7 team victories. Feng won the betting pool, having picked an amazing 9/10 correct! Congratulations to the winners!

Thanksgiving dinner, of course, was to follow. Ron cooked an amazing turkey dinner, and their friend Sue brought over a really fantastic ham as well. As happens so frequently on these occasions, I ate to excess. And as is the TurkeyBall tradition, the tournament losers (of which apparently I was one, along with Akiko) have to do the dishes. I think that means we don't have to do them next year at least, no matter what happens.

As the last guests were leaving, Ron brought out the poker chips, and Doug, Feng, Ron, and I played the first annual TurkeyBall Poker Tournament while Dayong watched the UConn women trounce perennially overrated (in every sport) Stanford. Feng hadn't played before, and was knocked out first by Ron. It looked like I'd be next to go, losing most of my stack to Doug when my trip queens lost to his straight. But I managed to double up a few times and then knock Doug out, and eventually take out Ron when my pocket 77 held up against his AJ.

So I guess when I said there were two chances to win, I was wrong, as there were actually three!

TurkeyBall 2007 - Wednesday

This may not all fit into one blog post... may have to go one day at a time.

I arrived in Tampa at Dayong and Ron's place Wednesday morning after a chilly night in Jacksonville FL. On arrival, I met Feng, Dayong's friend from New York, and then I unpacked the Subaru and got ready for the beach. We drove to the airport and picked up Doug, who had just flown in from Vernon, and headed off to Fort De Soto, which was named 2005's Best Beach for some reason.

I'm going to interrupt myself for a moment and say a huge THANK YOU to Dayong and Ron for hosting another world class Thanksgiving vacation! Every year, their already unparalleled generosity exceeds that of the previous year. I am so lucky to have them as friends.

Anyway, back to Fort De Soto. This is supposed to be a common spot for sighting dolphins, but unfortunately for us the dolphins weren't around this time. We did see massive schools of bait fish darting around under the shade of the pier, and lots of herons which were plucking them out of the water. Then we went to the actual beach. There were no volleyball nets set up, so we just soaked up the sun while peppering a while before taking a dip in the gulf. Seafood and tropical drinks followed at Bahama Breeze, a chain restaurant I had not heard of before, but, being a chain restaurant, will surely exist in the Buckland area in a year or less.

We got home, uncorked a few bottles of wine, and I learned how to play dominos. Then we all played dominos and if memory serves me right, I lost every game.

Back in the saddle

It's great to be back on the road. A few noticeable differences this time, though, unfortunately for the worse.

First off, it's COLD! I'm in Virginia now... about 25 miles northeast of Richmond. This is the South, isn't it? And yet it's about 40 degrees. I'm really not excited about sleeping in the car when it's this cold out (though come to think of it, I did spend some chilly nights up in the higher altitudes this summer.)

Second, it's DARK! When I was doing this during the summer, it would still be light out at 9:30 PM. Tonight it was dark before 5:30 PM. That means more driving in the dark, which is lame, plus more difficulty in finding things like stores, restaurants, and motels in the dark in unfamiliar territory. In addition, the drive is far less interesting, since you see a heck of a lot less scenery.

Third, I had to drive through NEW JERSEY, a state I blissfully skipped during my summer trip. I was in more traffic today in the entire state of NJ than I was in all summer. And the NJ rest stops were dirty and did not have wifi. Plus, strangely enough, it began raining as soon as I crossed the border into the state, and immediately stopped raining as I paid my toll to leave.

Though I guess I will concede one positive about NJ: they figured out how to make EZ Pass work at highway speeds. And they seem to have managed to grasp the exceedingly complicated notion that if you put the EZ Pass lanes on the outsides and let the cash-paying fools dawdle in the middle lanes, you don't have as much problem with people not realizing until the last second that they're in the wrong lane and then trying to move over into the right lane, all the while blocking as many lanes as they can and generally looking like idiots, thereby eliminating all possible gains of installing an otherwise speedy RFID-based toll system in the first place. That's right, Massachusetts, New Jersey is making you look dumb.

The Color of Key Lime Pie

The Saint Joseph College Fall Season student-athlete awards ceremony took place earlier this week. In a way, this was a sad day for me, as it was the last stop in my rookie year as the assistant volleyball coach. That aside, I can't express how happy I am for the team, and how proud I am of their accomplishments this season. The girls worked so hard from pre-season to post-season, and while there were definitely some ups and downs, some injuries, and even a few tears along the way, I think that by any measure, the season can only be considered a success.

Where does this leave me? Well, it's almost time to hit the road again! Thanksgiving and volleyball in Tampa (aka, TurkeyBall), a road trip to Everglades and Biscayne National Parks, a Caribbean Cruise (which may even take me to Virgin Islands National Park), and then Christmas with my brother in Georgia.

And yes, a road trip means there will be blog updates :) So stay tuned!

Finally, what does all this have to do with the color of key lime pie?

Early this season, I was having dinner with the SJC volleyball team before a home game. The cafeteria was serving a mysterious dessert: a yellowish, custardy pie that tasted sort of like bad key lime pie. However, my suggestion of such was met with strange looks and a chorus of "Key lime pie is green, dumbass" (I am paraphrasing somewhat). Despite (or perhaps thanks to) my assertion that real key lime pie was in fact yellow, I was made the brunt of their taunts and jeers for the remainder of the dinner. This was exacerbated further by the fact that the cafeteria staff referred to the dessert as "lemon custard pie" even though the only resemblance to lemons that this strangely flavored dessert bore was its unnaturally yellowish hue.

Anyway, fast forward to the previously mentioned awards ceremony. At the end, I was surprised and delighted to be presented with a thank you gift of a card and a key lime pie by the girls! I knew that, whatever the outcome, this was the perfect way to get back into blogging.


Here is the pie, in its container. Note the Key Lime logo is a rather brilliant artificial green color. I'm not sure what to think at this point. I am not familiar with "The Corner Bakery." The green logo here worries me somewhat, and makes me think that this place might artificially color their key lime filling, or maybe use normal green limes instead of yellow key limes.


The opened package. Can't really tell anything yet... will need to cut a piece out for definitive results.


That's looking pretty yellow to me! Wow, a lot of meringue though. Let's scrape it off and get a better look at the filling.


Key lime pie is yellow! QED.

PS. It's also delicious.