tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66472654841107619882024-02-21T00:20:00.081-08:00SEXY BIKINI GIRLUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger890125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-76521639824909718712013-06-21T11:25:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:36:36.622-07:00Perspective"Good job Heat. Not the outcome that I wanted, but easily one of the most competitive NBA Finals that I've ever seen... #spursfan #proudofit" -@coachatx-<br /><br /><br /><br />2013 NBA Finals<br /><br />My Prediction/Actual Result<br /><br />Spurs over the Heat in 7 games/Heat in 7 games<br /><br /><br /><br />Good afternoon everyone. I'm about to do my second full-scale hoops post in the past 3 days, but before I address the surely somber mood of a South Texas fanbase that nearly watched its basketball team win its fifth NBA Championship in the last 15 years, let me remind everyone to keep things in perspective. Although I'm about to give a lot of attention to basketball here, I do know what's really important, and what actually matters... For example, six months ago I was just a couple of hours away from giving someone arguably the most important Christmas card that I have ever written, and the opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to that person for playing a pivotal role in lifting my spirits after my Vegas debacle of last August. I never had that chance due to a turn of events that was nothing short of stunning, and I'm sure that anyone who is reading this has also been through several trying times of their own. My point is, don't lose sight of the fact that this is BASKETBALL that we're talking about...<br /><br />Okay..., having said that, the series between the Heat and the Spurs was everything that I expected. Last year Miami eliminated the Thunder in five games, and that was an Oklahoma City team that still had James Harden. Regarding Harden going to the Rockets, I am never going to understand the logic behind that... Anyway, I anticipated a great series (which I why I wasn't surprised, and actually predicted that it would go the full seven games), and I can't think of any other combination of teams that would have given us a better Finals. I made the comment before the series began that I wouldn't have bet on this series, because I thought that it would be that close... I will tell you right now that I won't be watching SportsCenter for a week... This has become the norm for me when my team comes up short in their quest for a title, and as an adult, I have been fortunate in that my favorite teams have been involved in championship games on several occasions. The sad thing about that previous statement is that I "lived and died" with my favorite teams' successes or failures much more when I was younger (see the 'perspective' paragraph up above), and my favorites didn't fare quite as well when I was in high school and college. In my lifetime, the Spurs are 4-1 in the NBA Finals, the Steelers are 6-2 in the Super Bowl, and the Red Sox are 2-2 in the World Series (I didn't "fact-check" those, so let me know if there's a mistake)... I'm also a Montreal Canadiens fan, but due to the severe lack of NHL coverage that I've experienced since moving to Texas 100 years ago, it's just not the same... Anyway, when one of my teams loses in a playoff series (and conference championship losses are pretty tough to take also), I usually survive by not watching ESPN for a couple of days. I also walked for a couple of hours last night just to blow off steam after the game (I've told you before that I do a lot of my serious thinking when I walk), and this was pretty impressive considering that I did 300 situps throughout the course of last night's contest. And yes, I did watch last night's game (as well as Game 6) in the privacy of my own home. I have a lot of patience and restraint, but I would have WANTED TO punch somebody if I had to deal with some of the innocuous comments that I surely would have heard... :)<br /><br />Okay, so where do we "start?..." We had a 7 point game last night - that's another made Spurs 3 and 1 missed Heat 3 from being a 1 point game... Just like in Game 6, there were several opportunities for the Spurs to capitalize on. As I alluded to briefly in my post on Wednesday, but will touch on in greater detail now, any missed opportunity during the course of the game is just as important as what transpires in the final seconds. The media (and the public at large) tend to focus so much on what happens at the end of a game, while disregarding what took place throughout the course of the contest. Let me give you an example of this from when I was coaching: sometimes kids would be so devastated because they made the final out of the game at the plate, or missed the game-tying/game-winning shot, etc... I would always point out to them that it wasn't their fault that we lost, and that the whole team missed out on opportunities throughout the course of the game. "Did you make the only out of the game?" "Did you miss the only shot of the game?" This brings me to a couple of points... First, one person doesn't win or lose a game, and the people who are "LeBron's legacy this or that" today (it's online too - you can't get away from it) - PLEASE... If you talk about last night's game without mentioning Wade..., or Battier..., or Chalmers..., you're just disrespecting those players. My second point is that the Spurs missed so many shots last night (I don't even want to look up the number), and had plenty of turnovers, etc..., that if you want to try to pin the game just on Duncan's missed tip-in attempt, or Parker's shooting, or Ginobili's turnovers, or Green's shooting, etc..., it's not just one person. I saw a few people last night who were blaming the whole Finals on Ginobili, and these were "Spurs fans." I'm assuming that they just want to disregard Game 5, or send back the last 3 trophies that we won, or even the 3 that cut the lead from 6 to 3 last night... Don't get me started... ;) While on Ginobili, I will continue to enjoy the train of thought that his being fouled in the lane in a ONE POINT GAME late in Game 6 was totally irrelevant and that the non call didn't play a role in the game's outcome... #yeah Back to last night, where Green disappeared during the last 2 games (and let's be quick to forget how he CARRIED THE TEAM at times during the first 5 games), Kahwi Leonard played extraordinarily well, especially for a 21-year-old... I would say without hesitation that the Spurs were pretty much completely gassed last night, and I think that played a part in the decision to give Miami's outside shooters so much room. It takes a lot of effort to play defense, and the Spurs key players got the majority of the minutes in Game 6. On the flipside, although Bosh wasn't scoring last night, he did play a key role for the Heat, because you can't just unleash Duncan. That being said, it was important for somebody else to step up for Miami in addition to James and Wade, which is why the offense from Chalmers (highly disregarded) and Battier was crucial for the Heat. Anyway, for some of the reasons that I avoid SportsCenter for a week (HE won the series, HE lost the series, etc...), my facebook is also annoying me, and I don't get that from people who are supposed to be fans of a team. It reminds me of the people who go "shouting from the rooftops" after a divorce or a bad break-up (i.e., let's focus on and broadcast every negative thing that we can think of, but not give any credence to the good...). Of course, if people avoided this, there might not be any divorces or bad break-ups, right??? ;) Anyway, without notes, these are just some thoughts off the top of my head. As for the Spurs, I think that it's extremely likely that this is their last title run (with this core group). Duncan and Ginobili are approaching the end of their careers, and when they're gone, Parker is going to get A LOT of attention, so that will be something to figure out. This group was also fortunate to enter and proceed through the playoffs without anyone having to miss games due to injury. Like I said above in my tweet, good series Heat. Both teams had numerous opportunities throughout the course of the series to just put their tails between their legs and walk away, but instead we were treated to a heck of a Finals...<br /><br />Now for some quick "odds and ends" (and I'm sure that Alison will appreciate being called an "odd and end")... :) During the course of my two-hour journey last night, I made several laps around the Square, and in addition to the NUMEROUS people asking me, "why aren't you working tonight," I also ran into the "famous" Alison (take THAT Alyssa!)... :P This is the same Alison that was the Vice President of the Student Body here at Texas State before graduating in May, and today she embarks to Tucson, Arizona on the first leg of her journey into the "real world." Something that I realized about Alison last night (it finally "clicked" with me) is that if you see her before or when she sees you, you'll exchange your normal pleasantries, etc... However, if Alison sees you first, you'll be greeted by a "HEEEEEYYYYY!!!" the second that she spots you... :) I want to wish Alison the best of luck as she goes out to the desert to hang out with the Wildcats for a week and a half. Also, let me wish Belinda good luck as she competes in the Adela Classic tomorrow in Austin (see, I got the ATX in here also, in addition to bodybuilding - this blog covers everything)... ;) I would be remiss here if I didn't also mention my friend Leanne, who won't be able to compete tomorrow due to injury, but who has also been working extremely hard to get her first shot on that stage... #veryproud :)<br /><br />Have a great weekend and I'll see you again on Monday!<br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-70392432624012494302013-06-20T06:26:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:36:36.632-07:00I Remember The First Time (22)"Don't ever worry about labeling yourself - people will always come up with plenty of labels for you..." -@Scdavis24- (via twitter)<br /><br />"According to these ghost hunting shows, every house in Ireland is a castle..."<br />-@BaldyLockzz- (via twitter)<br /><br />"I wish men were nicer to women that have their children..." -@heatherjs- (via twitter)<br /><br />"My life coach is pizza..." -@TheNastiestB- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Your face will always tell me the truth, even if your mouth lies..."<br />-@Cass_Sniperess- (via twitter)<br /><br /><br /><br />I remember the first time that my vacation was over... Good morning everyone. Since I left my job a week ago Saturday, my main areas of focus have been losing weight and trying to get my sleep schedule right (I'll get to those more in a second)... Last night I started filling out my first job application, and I have an idea that this "newly inspired me" will at least be actively looking for bigger and better jobs (if not filling out applications for them) for the rest of my life... <br /><br />I remember the first time that the situps, the walking, and the dieting started to pay off... Over the coming weekend, I am likely to pass the 10-pound mark for weight lost since May 18th. Now my blogging friend Grrouchie (link over to the right) can seemingly lose this much weight in his sleep (VERY IMPRESSED with your progress Grrouch), but for me it's been quite an accomplishment... ;) <br /><br />I remember the first time that Coach made situps and math fun... Okay, I crunched a few numbers for you. I told you recently that when I started doing situps while watching t.v., they would be in sets of 25 every 15 minutes. This lasted for about four days, until the reps became too annoying because I was bothered by doing them so often. I felt fine doing 25 situps, so I bumped the number up to 50 per set. I am now doing the sets of 50 situps every 30 minutes, and although it feels like I'm actually accomplishing something, I still feel okay. I have done 300 situps each of the past 2 nights, and here's my little math lesson for you: Even if a person only does 300 situps 5 nights a week for 50 weeks (taking off 2 days per week, and 2 weeks per year), that still comes out to 75,000 situps in a year... Accordingly, doing 200 situps for 5 nights a week for 50 weeks will give you a total of 50,000 situps for the year. This is definitely something that I am going to try to develop into becoming a habit... ;)<br /><br />I remember the first time that I sent a tweet to a t.v. station... I did the majority of my situps last night during the Stanley Cup Final, during a Game 4 that the Blackhawks won 6-5 in overtime. I didn't see the game-winning goal however, because KXAN, the NBC station out of Austin, WENT TO A NEWS PROMO DURING LIVE ACTION, and when they returned to the game telecast about a minute later, the Blackhawks were already celebrating... I LOVE spending hours of my time invested in something without getting to see it to its conclusion... The tweet that I sent to KXAN you ask: "BRILLIANT job on the hockey coverage - are you SERIOUS?! Show your news promos at some other time than during LIVE ACTION..." Surprisingly, they haven't responded, and yeah, I wasn't happy... :O<br /> <br /><br />I remember the first time that I had the worst time in getting my sleep straightened out... Honestly people, there were workweeks where I had three days off and had better luck sleeping at night than I have over the past dozen or so evenings. I did manage to sleep for more than 10 hours during the past 24, and I finally got the number of those during darkness up to over 5 - WOO HOO!!! :) As I write this, I'm wondering if you even get eight hours of sleep per day. I have run into so many people in my life who tell me that they get by on 5, 6, etc... hours of sleep, and I don't know how they do it. While I was coaching, I almost never got eight hours of sleep in a single night, but I almost always made up for that by CRASHING on Sunday...<br /><br />I remember the first time that someone saw me "working out..." Since the weather became nice again in San Marcos, America, I have been getting out and walking as much as possible. Invariably, almost any night that I worked over my last two weeks, someone would tell me that they saw me out "running" or "working out..." This makes me smile because in my younger years (and remember, I'm 100 years old now, though not really) I completed 3 marathons, a half-marathon, and would routinely go out jogging 3-5 times a week. I honestly find walking to be easy and relaxing (it's where I get a lot of my thinking done, that "walker's high" ya know...). :)<br /><br />I remember the first time that tubers made the blog... So it's about 10:50 p.m. last Friday, and I'm walking by Bikini Hill on my way to the Square (and don't worry about me, I actually took part in enjoying the Square last Saturday). After having blogged several times about how there's a river that runs through our beautiful little college campus here, it did my heart good to see 2 female tubers walking their tubes up Bikini Hill and to their car..., at TEN-FIFTY at night... :) Actually, the university routinely organizes "midnight floats" here. How do people go to school anywhere else??? :)<br /><br />I remember the first time that it was ten minutes later... So now it's 11:00 p.m. last Friday night, and I'm walking down University Drive, which runs right in front of campus (what an aptly-named street)... ANYWAY, about ten bicycles come FLYING DOWN THE STREET in my direction, where I'm on the sidewalk to their right. Then one of these cyclists reaches out, offering me a "high-five." I decline, and then another one of these cyclists does the same, with me again declining. Now if you've read the blog for any length of time, you know that I'm not averse to high-fives, handshakes, fistbumps, hugs, etc..., BUT at the moment, I've got my Droid (music) in one hand, and my poker chips (shocking) in the other. Also, I'm not too keen about having my ARM RIPPED OFF by these guys, or about the prospect of possibly pulling one of them OFF OF THEIR BIKES... I mean, have you ever been on the receiving end of that "too hard" high-five (or handshake, or fistbump)? Have a nice bike ride guys, but no thanks...<br /><br />I remember the first time that Game 7 was tonight... I may be forgetting a series somewhere, but off the top of my head, this is the most competitive NBA Finals that I can remember since 2005. I was working as a chip runner at the World Series of Poker during these finals, and this was the ONE NIGHT that I went into work late (my shifts had normally been running from 6:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m..., ummmm..., whenever...), when I stayed home for a few extra hours, watching the Spurs beat the Pistons in a very competitive seventh game. The Heat are favored by six points tonight (at the moment). I have no read on how this game is going to go. The Spurs gave so much effort last game, and had so many chances, but our outside shooting was nowhere near what it had been. The Heat should be stoked tonight at home, but Chalmers had an uncharacteristically high-scoring Finals game on Tuesday, and Wade has that iffy knee (to go with Parker's iffy leg, to go with, to go with...). This is why I have NEVER..., EVER... bet on sports... ;) <br /><br />Have a great day, enjoy Game 7 tonight, and celebrate safely, no matter which side you're on... ;) See ya tomorrow!<br /> <br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-46547446569914216832013-06-19T08:51:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:36:36.641-07:00One More To Go..."In related news, Kleenex sales have skyrocketed in the San Antonio area..."<br />-A.J. Davidson- (via facebook)<br /><br />"@coachatx. How ya doing? What a tough loss. Worse choke of all time?"<br />-@Robvegaspoker- (via twitter)<br /><br /><br /><br />Good morning everyone. I'm going to keep today's post short and sweet (relatively speaking)... :) Above is what I woke up to this morning after watching one of the most hotly contested basketball games that I've ever seen. WONDERFUL... (And I use your word quite a bit Kelley)... In case you missed last night's basketball game (well, then you're probably lost if you're here reading this blog), the Miami Heat beat the San Antonio Spurs 103-100 in overtime in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, knotting the series at 3-3, and forcing a seventh and deciding game that will be played in Miami tomorrow night. You may have noticed that I changed the colors of the blog today in honor of my Spurs. I also included a little bit of gold since it is the NBA Finals... ;)<br /><br />How did you respond to the status and the tweet that are shown above Coach? Well, let me start by saying that I have no issues with either A.J. or Rob (other than the fact that they're Mavericks and Lakers fans, respectively)... ;) In response to A.J.'s status, I commented, "In other news, the Dallas area has an abundance of Kleenex since they didn't play in any meaningful games..." In response to Rob (who has a blog listed in the links on the right), I tweeted, "I'm fine. I'm sure that you're talking about the officials, choking on their whistles???" Rob and I ended up trading tweets for about the next twenty minutes, and I'll touch on those in the following paragraph(s).<br /><br />What are your thoughts on the game Coach? Well, for starters, I predicted that the series would go the full seven games, and I took the Spurs to win it. Since Rob and I had the twitter discussion this morning, let me say here that he also expected a close series, and that he gave Miami a slight edge. As for last night, the Spurs had their chances to win the game. Obviously, in a game that went to overtime and was eventually decided by only three points, you can point to almost any missed shot, missed free throw, bad call, non-call, etc... as being huge. The play that stands out in my mind, the instance when I fear that the championship slipped through the Spurs fingers (for last night) took place at the end of regulation when LeBron James missed on the 3-point attempt with 27 seconds left to go. Three Spurs went up with each other fighting for the rebound, which resulted in the ball being tipped to a Heat player (Miller?) who passed the ball back out to James, who this time ended up hitting the shot, closing the gap to 2 points. Ginobili and Leonard (who played very well last night) each missed a free throw down the stretch that would have been big. Again, the Spurs had their chances... The most frustrating part of the game for me was that in spite of these specific instances (and these instances are just a few of MANY - for example, there were poor calls the whole game, both ways, numerous missed shots, etc...), Ginobili was fouled in the lane driving to the hoop with the Spurs only down one point, and the referees ate their whistles. Not long afterward, Danny Green was fouled shooting a game-tying three-pointer, and nothing was called. Despite what Jeff Van Gundy said during last night's telecast, a foul isn't only a foul during the first 46 minutes of the game. I PROMISE YOU that nowhere in the rulebook is that stated. Officials, if you see a foul, CALL IT... If Ginobili gets the call on his foul, he's shooting twice from the line, down by a point, with just seconds to go in the game.<br /><br />Anyway, back to my chat with my friend Rob, I tried to pin him down on this being the worst choke of all time, because I have watched A LOT of sports, and the Spurs had to come back very late in the game to even take the five point lead. Then he added that it was the worst coaching job ever, which also got me going. "All time" and "ever" are pretty broad statements, which was the crux of our discussion. Rob ended up quoting Magic Johnson and giving me a link to some San Antonio columnist (I never clicked it Rob). I'm saying this to Rob's credit, because when I tried to pin him down on "ALL TIME" and "EVER," he ended up telling me that he was using hyperbole... For those of you who aren't my friends on facebook or followers of my twitter account (shame on you), Magic Johnson gave the Spurs "no chance of winning" after Game 4, and I would NEVER use him as a source for ANYTHING now... :) Anyway, the idea of the "old team" that many considered a "big underdog" (has Vegas ever favored the Spurs in this series?) somehow pulling the biggest choke job EVER made me shake my head. It's a good thing that I have some Kleenex, right? ;)<br /><br />Enough of that. As a Spurs fan, I'll be rooting til the very end tomorrow night, whether the Spurs win, lose, tie, it gets rained out..., whatever... Ask people who really know me how prone I am to giving up... :) By the way, I'm watching ESPN's 'First Take' right now, and they can take away Steve Javie's mircophone when they take Magic's also... #goodnessgracious The Spurs will get to keep this revamped blog look until July 1st, win or lose, and then it's changing... :P <br /><br />I hope that you have a great day, and that you will be treated to another overtime game in the Stanley Cup Final. The overtime is a lot more fun in the hockey than it is in the baskeball... ;) Have a good one!<br /> <br /><br /> <br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-46305961070858070072013-06-18T08:03:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:36:36.652-07:00Could You? (22)"Decide what makes you happy and fight for it..." -via Jade Monahan- (via facebook)<br /><br />"It's amazing I've been able to stay above water in #FantasyBaseball with David Price, Bryce Harper, Ian Kinsler, and Jose Reyes all on the DL..." -@AMAAS- (via twitter)<br /><br />"One smile can start a friendship. One word can end a fight. One look can save a relationship. One person can change your life..." -@BestTextMsgs- (via twitter)<br /><br />"The Heat are going to lose tonight..." -@texasguy04- (via twitter)<br /><br />"It's better to look back on life and say, "I can't believe I did that," than to look back and say, I wish I did that"..." -@thechrismyzter- (via twitter)<br /><br /><br /><br />Could you tell me about the new feature that you added to your blog today Coach? Good morning everyone. There is now a search window over to the right (I haven't been able to figure out how to label it) that allows you to search for words that are included in every single blog entry that I've made (I tested it earlier by typing in 'Ginobili'...). ;) I know someone named Alyssa who should have HOURS OF FUN with this... :)<br /><br />Could you make up your mind? I've decided that this five posts per week schedule is only going to be valid through the month of June (sorry Miletus). HOWEVER, I will still post 4 times per week starting in July, instead of scaling it all the way back to 3 entries...<br /><br />Could you let us know what you neglected yesterday? I meant to include that fantasy baseball tweet that's shown above in yesterday's entry. And HE THINKS that he's having problems with his fantasy team... :) Click on a few of my recent Monday entries Andrew... :(<br /><br />Could you tell us about another famous UT Twitter follower that you've picked up? The UT-Austin Albino Squirrel is now following me in Twitterland... In the first of SEVERAL posts that I'm sure to mention the squirrels at UT in the coming months, well..., you can follow this on Twitter by going to @AlbinoSquirrel5. While working at UT-Austin, I saw this squirrel on numerous occasions, and I'm SO STOKED that I found him on Twitter... :) The squirrels at UT will actually APPROACH YOU for food instead of scampering away, and I'm talking about almost attacking you, even if you don't have food... :)<br /><br />Could you give me my money back? I watched Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final last night (a Bruins victory over the Blackhawks - Boston now leads the series 2-1), and the game DID NOT go to overtime... I want a refund...<br /><br />Could you FIGHT for my chicken wrap? I walked over to McDonald's on Father's Day (I spent Sunday with my Dad at the bar that he has worked at for almost 34 years), and the wrap was among the things that I ordered. I was honestly waiting very patiently, and the wrap was the only item that wasn't ready. As the cashier is standing at the row of obstacles separating him from the kitchen, he starts POUNDING HIS FIST on the handle of the refrigerator door as he's looking back, wondering what is taking the cooks so long to come up with the wrap. His impatience was inspiring... :)<br /><br />Could you miss me? I've visited my old workplace several times during the past week during walks around San Marcos, America, and I actually went there on Saturday night just to see how the other half lives... :) It was then that I was told by one of my former coworkers and friends that I'm a "legend..." Evidently, one of the customers that approached this friend of mine asked, "Where's that man that's always here? He's a LEGEND..., with the knee braces..., and the poker chips..." I don't even know what to say... :)<br /><br />Could you tell me what's going on? Speaking of customers, I had a chat with my friend Tim on Saturday night. A loyal customer and a good guy, Tim also played a little bit of football for my alma mater here at Texas State over the past few years (quarterback, wide receiver..., the glamour positions, you know)... ;) Oh, and congratulations on earning your diploma Tim! :) Anyway, when I told Tim that Texas State and UT don't share any home football dates this fall (which is great for both schools), the topic of last fall's Bobcat home game against Texas Tech came up. The Tech game was the first to be played in the expanded 30,000 seat stadium here, and Tim told me that as the team bus approached the stadium, there was tailgating taking place almost as far out as I-35 (the Valero station), and that the players on the bus were just looking at each other in DISBELIEF... The previous capacity of the stadium was about 15,000, which pretty much forced people to park and tailgate ALL OVER TOWN for that game, which was a sellout at 30,000...<br /><br />Could you get yourself in the proper frame of mind? That tweet above from @texasguy04, well..., I like the way you think! Go Spurs Go! ;)<br /><br />Have a great day, enjoy Game 6 of the Finals tonight, and I'll see you tomorrow!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-80157662190283068462013-06-17T11:00:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:36:36.662-07:00The SECOND I Knew About Manu..."Stay positive and think clean..." -@BuckyGodbolt- (via twitter)<br /><br />"You can't climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets..."<br />-Arnold Schwarzenegger- (via Leanne Calderon/facebook)<br /><br />"Prediction: Look for Ginobili to show up tonight..." -@coachatx- (via twitter)<br /><br /><br /><br />Good afternoon everyone. We have a lot to get to today, so let's get started... I want to start by giving a shoutout to Bucky Godbolt. Coach Godbolt is a former Longhorn football coach and is the host of the 'Buck On Sports' show on 1300 AM from 6am - 9am daily in the ATX. You can follow Coach Godbolt on Twitter at the address shown above with his tweet, the very tweet that he sent to me when he decided that in addition to following 286 of his closest friends, he would also follow ME on Twitter... Don't look now, but my little blog is about to BLOW UP..., 200..., 300 years..., tops... ;) Seriously, tune into Coach Godbolt's show for your morning commute. All you need to do is read his welcoming quote to know that he's a solid guy...<br /><br />Speaking of solid guys, let's segue to my favorite basketball player, Manu Ginobili. Yesterday my facebook friends and Twitter followers were treated to a rare occurrence, and that was me hitting on the one prediction that I'll get right in my lifetime... ;) There had been a lot of talk about Manu's performance in the first four games of the NBA Finals, and then yesterday I heard the pregame analysts talking about how Ginobili had answered an interview question leading up to last night's tipoff. In response to a question about his play, Manu said that he was getting sick of doing rehab for his injuries, and that this might be his last year, etc, etc... As the analysts dogged him, they also mentioned that he was going to be in the starting lineup for last night's game. At that moment, I instantly knew that Ginobili would show up for last night's game (and I shared the good news with my facebook friends and Twitter followers)... :) I didn't know that he was going to go for 24 points and 10 boards specifically, but when have you EVER heard Manu crying about his career in that manner, ESPECIALLY during the NBA Finals? I'm positive that all of that was for Miami's benefit, and as the Spurs relentlessly pushed the pace last night with Manu hustling and scoring and making precision passes, I was all smiles... :) I wonder if the Heat really believed that Ginobili was just going to give up and whimper and whine as he walked away from his stellar basketball career... <br /><br />Speaking of the Spurs (as I continue to segue), I had an interesting conversation with my friend Steve (and a few others) before he attended Game 5 last night. Steve has been a Spurs season ticket holder since 2006, and he gave me a collectible 2013 NBA Finals lapel pin before he left for the AT&T Center (a "lucky pin" if we win the title)... ;) I was curious if there were many season ticket holders who were selling their seats for the Finals, and when I asked Steve if he was seeing any different people around him than he had during the regular season, "EVERY GAME" was his response... :) I was also told yesterday that courtside seats at the AT&T Center have been going in the neighborhood of $5,000.00 - $6,000.00 for games during the Finals, and that the cheapest seats in the building have been selling for $300.00 - $400.00.<br /><br />Speaking of championship playoff series (here on segue day), Game 3 of the NHL Stanley Cup Final will faceoff tonight in Boston at 7:00 p.m. CST. In case you haven't been following the "ice soccer" (courtesy of my friend Denney), my wishes have been answered as the first two games of the Final have gone to OVERTIME! :) The first game went to THREE overtimes as a matter of fact... The Bruins and the Blackhawks are currently tied at a game apiece, and although you already "know" that the Bruins will take the series in six games (having read it here), watch anyway because they'll appreciate it... ;)<br /><br /><br />And now for my fantasy baseball teams (and GET READY, you're not going to believe this...):<br /><br /><br />League 1 (25 entry fee - 1st place/125, 2nd place/25)<br /><br />1) DraftDodgers 75.50 (2 weeks in a row at the top)<br />2) Neshanic 71.00 (still hanging around the top)<br />3) Rocky Roto 58.00 (moves up to 3rd this week)<br />8) The View From Bikini Hill 43.50 (NOT last, NOT 9th, but 8TH!!!) :)<br /><br /><br />League 2 (40 entry fee - 1st place/300, 2nd place/50)<br /><br />1) Breaking Bats 83.00 (the 80's are impressive...)<br />2) 4troublemakers 68.00 (the race for 2nd/3rd is close...)<br />3) Loons XXIV 65.00 (see, told ya...)<br />6) The Bikini Hill Bobcats 48.00 (focus on League 1 improvement...)<br /><br /><br />League 3 (40 entry fee - 1st place/300, 2nd place/50)<br /><br />1) Mad Men 68.50 (still my most competitive league)<br />2) Nappy Heads 68.00 (see, told ya...)<br />3) jonnylove7 63.00 (see, still told ya...)<br />6) The Bikini Hill Nine 53.00 (again, focus on League 1 improvement)<br /><br /><br />In disabled list news, The View From Bikini Hill had 1 new player going to the DL this week, while 3 came off of the list (FUN team to manage, let me tell you)... The Bikini Hill Nine only has two players on the DL, and my pitching staff is SO DEEP on that team. I'm happy that they're in my competitive league currently, because they have a shot... My Bikini Hill Nine pitching staff: Starters this week - Kershaw, Kimbrel, Colon, Arroyo, Scherzer, Lincecum, Jim Johnson, Corbin, and Strasburg; Bench this week - Lynn, Weaver, Medlen, C.J. Wilson. The team does have pitching...<br /><br />Have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow (MAYBE not with so much sports Miletus)... ;)<br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-33553446889780176422013-06-16T07:37:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:31:46.473-07:00Stripes and Sunshine Yellow Skater Skirt !<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="float: left; padding: 5px 5px 5px 0px;"><script src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share" type="text/javascript"></script><br /><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> <span style="color: black;">On this beautiful bright sunny day I deemed it perfect to pick cheery colours for my Outfit Post : <strong>Orange </strong>and <strong>Yellow</strong>. I paired a deep <strong>Orange Shirt </strong>with <strong>Black horizontal stripes </strong>and<strong> </strong>my <strong>Sunshine Yellow Skater Skirt</strong>. </span></span></div><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">I wore my new <strong>Blue Mirrored Sunnies</strong> ,my <strong>Jimmy Choo Black Weaved Ankle High Heels</strong> with a Neon Yellow Orange Trim<strong> </strong>and a <strong>Snakeskin Texture Box Bag</strong> in orange, green and black<strong>.</strong> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">I accessorised with a Multi Coloured Stone and Gold <strong>Statement Neckpiece</strong> and a multi-coloured <strong>Cuff Bracelet</strong>.</span></div><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><strong> </strong></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><strong>Stripes </strong>continue to reign in the current fashion scene and I absolutely am obsessed with the trend too and love this horizontal striped shirt.</span></div><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> One of my other favourite Summer trends is<strong> </strong>the<strong> Skater Skirt-</strong><em> the <strong>flared mini high-waisted</strong></em> skirt ,that has become a fashion staple<em>.</em>The style has a trademark cut, it basically comes in fitted at the waistline and then skims over the hips and thighs in the way of a full circle skirt. The length of the skirt is typically designed to fall mid-thigh and it’s splendid for those who love to show off some legs.</span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The Skater Skirt is <strong>fierce, sassy, chic, and flirty</strong> all gift-wrapped into one adorable high wasted mini. If you love <strong>twirling</strong> around in a dress/skirt, the skater dress will be the <strong>ultimate twirl-inducing dress.</strong></span></span></div><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> </div><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSF0rhS_9krfskJFB-w-k0IMwqeIvWkOtpt7OydPvdbIYOKUlm0VzFhxiWn9FKo2kU9EdpQfV894r_ddrw9dWza6tJ_c83uSCIJXxB1tTNn8kFTxJhHfgxm_dnu9yGGIpfTzQdy9ntqeg/s640/CYMERA_20130612_0007571.jpg" /></div><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" trbidi="on"> </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiOpv_8_qvSVbg6DbyPPv0XLtBzTO9wmwsspck2D3ZfFtwnIJkLZB6UXF5KYjwpU-1HWR0MOO920IwoNviO_YfgXQO7QcXNu3GqUBI68v4F6TmIe-y7KBuq1pedDS8jzamDvfh4Oxxil4/s640/CYMERA_20130612_000524.jpg" /></div><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" trbidi="on"> </div><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsupa3IRuJ4LK5g11z7AnKNWQ1Kx56FDLm-jmgmlhPfoqNreYr7eFEzhvyghqJ-AZNyIzcCwDs7ICCsESau2q_qluHuDTTyqTZl-zGBPb1uebblYt6BaHePm8caOCP1VEVranLKRo-Lc4/s640/CYMERA_20130611_234454.jpg" /></div><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="color: black;"><u>The Birth of the Skater Skirt</u> </span></strong></span></span><br /><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><strong> </strong>It was somewhere in those kitsch & funky ’80′s, when – <strong>skating fashion</strong> was pretty huge, hence the name of the skirt, inspired by the <strong>skating dancers’ styles</strong>. I’ve always thought those <strong>ice-dancers</strong> were the most beautiful and ethereal thing ever, and it’s probably that image that we keep going back to, with the <strong>Skater Skirt</strong> <strong>Trend in 2013</strong> – a sort of multifaceted femininity or careless playful innocent girl, who loves to play dress-up. </span></span></span></div><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br /><strong><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><u>Figure Flattering Skater Skirt</u> </span></span></span></strong><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> This little skirt is probably the most flattering item in your closet <strong>regardless of your body type</strong>. It <strong>adds curves</strong> where there’re not, it <strong>hides them</strong> if it’s the case, creates <strong>long legs</strong> due to its high waist and mini cut.</span><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The cut of the skirt is perfect for just about any body shapes. If you’re apple-shaped, you can rock the trend. If you’re pear-shaped, you too can look good in it too! For hourglass-shaped gals, you’d be a fan for life as the skater dress will hug you gently around your curves making you look ultra feminine. The high waist at the top and loose flared fit on the bottom creates the <strong>illusion of a slimmer waistline and slimmer hips.</strong></span><br /><br /><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHkl7eFWPRr8S3xNa8owcPIPJYPDOiIpmVBehO5G-xx7oOd9TwZoHJGKWRbdR86CsbC39bqqrhT0NDVwlv7NPhNCLtsg4hUTmz0kDq69qYxYtki4R_B6bxH7LVHdfTvQLK-fjb2K2YQbQ/s640/CYMERA_20130612_004538.jpg" /></div><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" trbidi="on"> </div><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqvbTRERWQLR_UwLcOC3e8k1WD5RW_VtWLeav9jrqcNn6xZObG7XEXB-97Ln4UgT-MKgykvJRP7h7gojO1-VfSDriuH2ijNGvWeLUPUgy3u9tAtC71cZ4Dqghwlwjzxd0nBdJR6zDifDQ/s1600/CYMERA_20130611_235047.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqvbTRERWQLR_UwLcOC3e8k1WD5RW_VtWLeav9jrqcNn6xZObG7XEXB-97Ln4UgT-MKgykvJRP7h7gojO1-VfSDriuH2ijNGvWeLUPUgy3u9tAtC71cZ4Dqghwlwjzxd0nBdJR6zDifDQ/s640/CYMERA_20130611_235047.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" trbidi="on"> </div><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAx5aE-wi7cfC1LSCIxB5usUqKaRF4RFTtRrhiTevLQPtYzN9Swjd7T_i1qfnVSk14RXk_z9BwgGF-bji23YiLdLgtmGA-Tieepzke0L7n3RtVc8ufYLzjeXhRutjf_o8DVf1USrcY9Qg/s640/CYMERA_20130611_235314.jpg" /></div><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" trbidi="on"> </div><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid5CTODOKQjUEOd8BVmL1XGYXOm0FxazYqWf_4Fv-AxmeaZgbLGyS9ewdKVxFp0W_8TVOelmmBhQ9AX8dWyUFvfdYuGE7PTaGa6ScYDjkKtDI68dpGZMrZJSZO-mBpGVulLt5anMdhrUw/s1600/CYMERA_20130612_005059.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid5CTODOKQjUEOd8BVmL1XGYXOm0FxazYqWf_4Fv-AxmeaZgbLGyS9ewdKVxFp0W_8TVOelmmBhQ9AX8dWyUFvfdYuGE7PTaGa6ScYDjkKtDI68dpGZMrZJSZO-mBpGVulLt5anMdhrUw/s640/CYMERA_20130612_005059.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" trbidi="on"></div><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> <span style="color: black;"> I adore this</span><span style="color: black;"> stunning <strong>statement neckpiece</strong> with multi coloured stones and gold ,that really makes the look pop.</span></span> </div><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYlhK0pb_cyW8IytSqWcQhIJysnmdUwAPAV45GPzwqLYYjkYhCqqH-uNgSun7o1NVBi3QkjSXqNAGChe5goUg0PYgx32LqgcjUCjV2gIOyc6GVltgt0Y4brov5Y7kLKOa6G27S_s8evSs/s640/CYMERA_20130611_235553.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> <span style="color: black;">I also accessorised with this Multi coloured Metal <strong>Cuff Bracelet and</strong> carried this super sleek <strong>Snakeskin Texture Box Bag. </strong>W<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">i</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">th the year of the snake finally here, it's time to add a dose of edginess and daring to your wardrobe with snakeskin. Currently taking over runways, this exotic reptile print has sparked a new trend</span> .</span></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" trbidi="on"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhIQvnrk6NgfUqGCqQXC5SBenYJD5M2CFZyS3xcEBFf8tSg26GksEAi5Sc7VJCKcUsVECbZEi0doFOMMMuaUIh4keNSjTTHUB8Qu-idAMx1qLCOQYkpMiozVg2wN0LOsft-QD1CxEqBCE/s640/CYMERA_20130611_235739.jpg" /></div><div class="separator" dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" trbidi="on"></div><div align="left"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"> <span style="color: black;">My look was perfectly rounded off with my<strong> Jimmy Choo Black Weaved Ankle High Heels</strong> with a Neon Yellow Orange Trim</span>.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhulsa2TdwH7bPYmFu4vaem2MEW8BVPXkz1vGRsX4GnS8TSyNENPkoQh_x4HOlJMxunz8Q9LzL-arZMDmQz7f5phtkvuIjTNVIgoII8Ji8NV0Y8Z6ZcqDb7MLmpF8oQWJNja7N_7-bOGP4/s640/CYMERA_20130612_000058.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><strong><u><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">HOOK MY LOOK</span></u></strong></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">~ Orange & Black Horizontal Striped Shirt - <strong>ZARA</strong></span></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">~ Yellow Skater Skirt - <strong>FOREVER 21</strong></span></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><span style="color: black;">~ <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Black Weaved Ankle High Heels with a Neon Yellow Orange Trim - <strong>JIMMY CHOO</strong></span></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">~ Statement Neckpiece with multi coloured stones and gold - <strong>DIVA</strong></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">~ Multi coloured Metal Cuff Bracelet - <strong>DIVA</strong></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">~ Snakeskin Texture Box Bag - <strong>H&M</strong></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">~ Blue Mirrored Sunnies - <strong>RAYBAN</strong></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="javascript:void((function(){var%20e=document.createElement('script');e.setAttribute('type','text/javascript');e.setAttribute('charset','UTF-8');e.setAttribute('src','http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinmarklet.js?r='+Math.random()*99999999);document.body.appendChild(e)})());" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Pin It!" src="http://i1314.photobucket.com/albums/t563/StephanieT2525/PINITBUTTON_zps456a396a.gif" style="border: currentColor;" /></a></div><strong><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"></span></strong> </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;" trbidi="on"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Show me some love and Follow on </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/telekgoreng" target="_blank"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Facebook</span></a><span style="color: purple; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> // </span><a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/en/blog/6639445" target="_blank"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Bloglovin </span></a><span style="color: purple; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">// </span><a href="https://twitter.com/StephanieT2525" target="_blank"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Twitter</span></a><span style="color: purple; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> // </span><a href="http://pinterest.com/stephaniet2525/boards/" target="_blank"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Pinterest</span></a><span style="color: purple; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> // </span><a href="http://instagram.com/steph2525#" target="_blank"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Instagram</span></a></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> </div><div dir="ltr" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" trbidi="on"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-81609051678968272642013-06-14T10:08:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:36:36.671-07:00The Silver Lining"My signature move is walking sexy down the street until I have everyone's attention, then tripping over a pebble and face planting... -@SweetestSarcasm- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Best of three now. Let's get it. I can't wait for Sunday..." -@mchalmers15- (via twitter)<br /><br />"When someone appears in your dreams, it means that person misses you..."<br />-@MostSecretFacts- (via twitter)<br /><br />"It's easier to come on here after a win. Still more work to be done..." -@m33m- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Paintball sounds like fun because you get to hurt people in the name of art..."<br />-@iheartgunts- (via twitter)<br /><br /><br /><br />Good afternoon everyone. The heart of today's post will revisit my Las Vegas break-in back at the end of August, highlighting the silver lining of that unexpected situation. Let me touch on some other things really quickly, and then we'll get to that.<br /><br />First, you may have noticed that above I posted two tweets from players (Mario Chalmers and Mike Miller) who are members of the Miami Heat (I also retweeted these on Twitter). This might seem strange to you since I'm a Spurs fan. However, since I recently posted a facebook quote and a tweet here that weren't exactly pro-Heat, I thought that I'd give them their day. Of course I'm going to notify them that I used their tweets (which I always do), while letting them know that I'm a Spurs fan... ;) This segues in several directions... Today I changed my Twitter handle to @coachatx (you can always find this at the top of this page). I wanted to line up my handle with my new Twitter bio and my new blog name. I'm not living in the desert, so I don't see the point of @desertcoach being my handle. Back to the Heat and the Spurs, I did expect a very close series (a seven-game series is what I predicted), and the series is now tied. What I did not expect is for the games to play out in the way that they have. I pretty much expected that each and every game of the series would be similar to the first game - a close game, wire-to-wire. Now we are left with basically a best-of-three series, with the next game being played on Sunday in San Antonio, followed by a Tuesday tilt in Miami. A seventh game (if necessary) would take place in Miami on Thursday. In a non-related (but very important) story, remember that Dave Smith (Memphis Mojo) will be participating in Event 26 (the $1,000.00 Seniors No-Limit Hold 'Em event) of the World Series of Poker, which begins today. Please send him your good karma... <br /><br />Okay, now for the silver lining of my Las Vegas break-in. To give you a quick recap, I moved to Las Vegas at the end of last July, packing everything that I could into my Montero Sport, before making a one-way trip from San Marcos, America to the desert. After spending about ten days with the very gracious Carmel Josephine, I moved into a pay-by-the-week apartment that was in the same neighborhood that I lived in when I was in Las Vegas before. The neighborhood is in a low-income area, but I never had any problems there before, and it's close to the Strip. Well, at 1:00 a.m. on the Thursday night/Friday morning heading into Labor Day Weekend, I returned home from playing poker to find that my front door had been kicked in. In spite of the fact that everything that I owned was in that apartment, all that was taken was three pairs of windpants and my Droid charger (yeah, I know...). I agree with the police that the thief (thieves?) was probably spooked, especially since it was obvious that closet doors and drawers that I had left closed were now open. During the hour and a half that the police spent investigating, I decided that I was going to move back to San Marcos. I figured that it was probably not a good idea to just stay where I was, giving the criminal(s) another chance to get the rest of my stuff. Like I said, this happened on the front end of Labor Day Weekend, and it would have been expensive to find another place to stay with such short notice. I was also still looking for a job at this point in time, which played a major role in my decision. After the police left, I spent the rest of the night repacking my things (which didn't take long), and at 7:00 a.m PST (9:00 a.m. CST) I made some phone calls to San Marcos, America. First I called my friend Ollie, asking him what he thought about the prospects of me getting a job when I returned to town. Ollie is the same friend who hired me on the spot at the Texas Music Theater a few summers ago when I told him about my inability to get back into teaching and coaching in the tough economy (and yes, the last couple of years of my life have just been STELLAR...). Anyway, Ollie said that he would speak to Sean for me, who ended up hiring me at Harper's/Slackers/The Veranda, where I had worked "spot shifts" during the previous year. Actually, the Veranda (the bar on the roof - yes, upstairs, and not in the basement) was not open at this point, but would be opening in the middle of September (two weeks later). Then I called my friend Lindsey, who was the manager of my apartment complex the year before. As fast as San Marcos is growing (the fastest-growing large city in the U.S., remember?), I didn't know if there would be any available apartments anywhere in town. Lindsey actually oversees two complexes, and this is how the conversation went (and this is a story that I have told SEVERAL TIMES during the past year):<br /><br />Lindsey: "Well, we don't have any units available at your old complex, but we still have two units at the other complex. Now these are two-bedrooms, but we can lock a bedroom, and rent it to you as a one-bedroom..."<br /><br />Me: (OBVIOUSLY THINKING, 'well that's incredibly nice...') "That's great, but I won't be there until about..., 4:00 in the morning tomorrow???" (remember, this is the Friday morning of Labor Day Weekend, and even if I did make the 20-plus hour drive straight through, the office would be closed until Tuesday, while I would be arriving very early on Saturday morning)...<br /><br />Lindsey: "That's okay. I'll just leave the door unlocked, and leave the keys and the parking permit in the apartment, and I'll see you on Tuesday morning..."<br /><br />Me: (OBVIOUSLY THINKING, 'well that's incredibly nice...') "Thank you Lindsey..." :)<br /><br /><br />Like I said, it's been an incredibly rough past couple of years for me, but you have to look for the silver linings... Have a great Father's Day Weekend, and I'll see you again on Monday!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-19152601064915032002013-06-13T14:00:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:36:36.680-07:00I Remember The First Time (21)"If there is such a thing as the right side of the bed, I've never woke up on it..."<br /> -@WideOpen357- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Sometimes, we have to fight for what we love and care about. Other times, we have to find the strength to let go of the things we love most..." -@DearJohnFilm- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Dunkin Donuts now has a bacon breakfast sandwich on a glazed donut... this is big."<br />-@spencepascuzzi- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Don't allow your wounds to crush you... allow them to strengthen you..."<br />-@MikeDavis_1- (via twitter)<br /><br />"This isn't actually overtime. The Bruins and Hawks are just going to make up for every period of hockey missed during the lockout..." -@PensNation_Ken-<br /><br /><br /><br />I remember the first time that I got exactly what I wished for... So if you've been following the blog for the last month, you know that I LOVE multiple overtime playoff games in the NHL. Last night, it's the first game of the Stanley Cup Final (I evidently used an incorrect word - 'Finals' - on facebook and Twitter throughout the night last night...), and the Blackhawks and Bruins went to TRIPLE OVERTIME. Not only that, but they went LATE into triple overtime. I believe that the game was the fifth-longest in the HISTORY of the Stanley Cup Final (c'mon guys, it's FINALS...). Anyway, great game to watch (and the Blackhawks eventually won 4-3, in case you missed it).<br /><br />I remember the first time that I almost got my sleep right... Okay, so I went to bed at 1:00 a.m. last night (early this morning), and I woke up at 4:30 a.m. I took another shot at it at 9:00 a.m., and woke up again at 1:30 p.m. I'm SO CLOSE... :) <br /><br />I remember the first time that I told you about one of my dreams... Okay, that would have been in the entry 'Rattlesnakes and Dreams,' but when I just woke back up at 1:30 p.m., I remembered my dream, so here you go... I was on the West Campus of Texas State (and evidently younger than 100 years old, because I was on a meal plan). Well, my meal plan had actually run out (I believe that they use 'Bobcat Bucks' now, but 100 years ago, you could prepay for your meals for the whole semester). I don't know if you can still do this, but prepaying for your meals for the whole semester in the cafeteria-style setting they were implementing allowed you to eat all-that-you-could-eat... Good times... :P ANYWAY, I'm talking to the guy about getting meals for the last week (and I'm REALLY HUNGRY as I'm doing this). He takes me into an office located just off of the cafeteria, where I find out that it will cost me $90.00 to eat for the second week of December (the last week of the semester). Well, that's too much for me, and some other people (like three) come into the office, so I make my way out, but I grab two pieces of baked chicken before leaving the dining hall. As I exit, walking down the sidewalk which takes you past where the Student Rec. Center is now located, I'm peeling the skin from the chicken and tossing it away, all while eating the chicken in a way that my body is shielding my eating of the chicken from the view of anyone who might be watching from the dining hall (evidently I'm very James Bond-like when I'm stealing poultry in my dreams)... :P In totally unrelated news, it just started POURING here in San Marcos, America...<br /><br />I remember the first time that I updated you on my workout regimen... Okay, so last night as I watched the hockey game, I ended up doing 275 situps. I thought that I would keep track so that you would have some idea as to how many I knocked out doing 25 of them every 15 minutes. I actually only ended up doing them until the start of the second overtime, and twice during that time period (start of the game through the start of the second overtime), I missed a set (for whatever reason)...<br /><br />I remember the first time that someone sounded like they were from San Marcos, America... With a river running right through campus, the water is a very big part of life here at Texas State (and don't worry UT - I'll be writing stories involving you soon enough...). Anyway, at work last week, I heard the following from one of our regular customers: "I haven't been on the river this WHOLE YEAR!..." Keep in mind that this statement was made on JUNE 7TH, leaving our friend only almost all of June, July, AND August (and September, and honestly most of October also) to enjoy the river... :)<br /><br />I remember the first time that I wondered, "WHAT IN THE HELL IS THAT IDIOT ON THE MOTORCYCLE DOING?!"... Like I said, I woke up at 4:30 this morning, so I decided to go do some grocery shopping. Well, I ran into a train (just past Strahan, and approaching the Bobcat softball and baseball fields, for those of you keeping score at home)... Heaven knows that I'm going to miss the trains... Anyway, I'm first in line waiting for the train to pass. Actually, I'm the only one on my side of the tracks who is waiting for the train to pass, when I see this motorcycle approaching in my rearview mirror. But this bike doesn't pull up behind me - NO, it starts to PASS ME on my right! As I stated above, I was pretty much, "WHAT IN THE HELL IS THIS IDIOT DOING?!" Then the motorcycle stops on my passenger side (it's a nice night, and my windows are already rolled down), and I hear something in the ballpark of, "why are you still up?" At this point I realize that it's MY FRIEND Chris, who I worked with last year at the Texas Music Theater... Of course I recounted everything that I just typed above to him as my stress level immediately plummeted... :)<br /><br />I remember the first time that a story had a happy ending... So my friend and recent spring semester graduate Natalie (yes, the famous Natalie, as opposed to the non-famous Alyssa - HEY Alyssa...) had a job interview recently. Shortly after completing the interview, Natalie told a few of her friends that an ambulance showed up, because she KILLED the interview. NOTE: I've heard this story a few times now, and I haven't told Natalie that if she "killed" the interview, it probably would have been more appropriate if a hearse had shown up (what is an ambulance going to do for a dead interview?, but I digress...). :P ANYWAY, it turns out that one of these friends who heard Natalie's story actually works for the company, and they passed the ambulance story UP THE CHAIN OF COMMAND... (Cue the ominous music - DUN DUN DUNNN...). WELL..., before Natalie takes part in a second interview over the phone, with the regional boss of the complnay, she receives an e-mail advising her to have an AMBULANCE ON STANDBY for the phone interview... :) (I'm hearing the song, "That's What Friends Are For..." in my head right now...). This e-mail came to Natalie from a guy who is just under the regional boss for the company, one who heard the ambulance line from a coworker..., who heard it from Natalie's friend... :) To quote Natalie, all of this was "extremely embarrassing and hilarious when it happened," but Natalie was offered the job the day after the phone interview with the regional boss... :) Congratulations Natalie!<br /><br />On that note, I hope that all of you have a great day, and I'll see you again tomorrow!<br /> <br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-26059905798132511992013-06-12T14:08:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:24:02.987-07:00Stanley Cup and Cheesecake 2013 – Cup Finals EditionAs you might suspect, my heart isn't super-into this one...after the colossal turd the Pens laid in the ECF, the last thing I was all excited about doing was a Cup Finals illo for another team. Still, a trip to Heroes Con over the weekend salved the wound a good bit, so I managed to get my shit together enough to finish out the postseason here.<br /><br />anyway...<br /><br /><b>Boston Bruins vs. Chicago Blackhawks</b><br /><b><br /></b>If I'm being completely honest, I really would've been scared of a matchup with Chicago had the Pens advanced that far. They've been top dog all season, and they don't seem to play with the mental fragility Pittsburgh does. Boston will no doubt give them a harder fight, and a harder series, but in the end, I think the Blackhawks will solve Tukkaa Rask and score enough goals to win.<br /><br />And besides, what's the alternative? Don't forget, Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs is one of the main reasons we had to suffer through the lockout...do you really want to live in a world where such a man gets to lift the Stanley Cup over his head for the second time in three years? Ain't NOBODY got time for that.<b> Blackhawks in six.</b><br /><b><br /></b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj24oaROvQuAc5yCVVB3H9N3dyognx6jDlRhLKZ-sh2ZJGGYRnE7lgcOmlPLw8nIz-0c3i1jTQNrCOcyzSXhM2PKrLo11_AGVhK4mj-lpsiAOzIeCNroFnUN606GtZHcjVCwklMoDYdOwwp/s1600/Blackhawks1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj24oaROvQuAc5yCVVB3H9N3dyognx6jDlRhLKZ-sh2ZJGGYRnE7lgcOmlPLw8nIz-0c3i1jTQNrCOcyzSXhM2PKrLo11_AGVhK4mj-lpsiAOzIeCNroFnUN606GtZHcjVCwklMoDYdOwwp/s640/Blackhawks1.jpg" width="419" /></a></div><b><br /></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-18576166949619340682013-06-12T12:02:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:36:36.688-07:00The Roof In The Basement"This dude once asked me what reciprocity was... The entire concept was so foreign to this fool, he'd never even heard the word before..." -Jessica Johnson- (via facebook)<br /><br />"One subpar game - okay, everyone has an off night. But THREE in a row?! Yet another example as to why LeBron shouldn't be compared to Jordan..." -Eric Keller- (via facebook)<br /><br />"Snow boots and shorts are not a fashion statement - it's more of a mental health statement..."<br />-@Up2Long- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Birdman looks like if meth was a person..." -@kumailn- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Sometimes all a girl wants is for you to fight for her attention..."<br />-@taking_a_CRIPE- (via twitter)<br /><br /><br /><br />Good afternoon everyone. I'm happy to say that I've got my sleep completely under control now. I went to bed at 2:00 a.m., woke up at 5:30 a.m., and have not gone back to sleep... UGGHHH... I'm hoping to publish this and then take a quick nap before tonight's Stanley Cup faceoff at 7:00 p.m. While we're on the subject of sports, do not mistake the quotes that I included above as overconfidence on my part that the Spurs have the trophy wrapped up. I'll remind you here that I predicted the series to go the full seven games, and I think that it's far from over. Throw in a Tony Parker hamstring injury, just to make things interesting - WONDERFUL... (<<< Kelley word). However, I do think that Keller's statement about people who try comparing LeBron James to Michael Jordan is completely accurate, and the Birdman quote made me laugh immediately, because it seemed to make sense... :) Now don't get me wrong about the series - I would LOVE to see the Spurs win it in five games (just to win it, PERIOD). I've said before that I do my very best to keep personal bias out of my predictions, and I don't want the series to go back to Miami just so I'll have the chance to get my prediction "exactly right..."<br /><br />My current plan for the blog is to make an entry every weekday. I'm not promising anything, except that it's more difficult for me to make posts on the weekends, and there seems to be less interest, which is understandable. I know that I'm far less inclined to make Saturday or Sunday posts once the football starts anyway, plus I plan on using that time to roam around the ATX or San Marcos, America trying to find something else interesting to write about... ;) <br /><br /><br />As promised, I still have some "leftover" work stories to give you, so let's take a moment to do that... Last weekend in the hallway on the way up to the Veranda, a girl made a comment that was impossible not to laugh at: "I remember when you had to throw somebody out - it was the best day of my life!" Yeah... :) Also last weekend, when I was in Slackers monitoring the early traffic that was heading up to the Veranda, some of our customers were mistakenly walking up the staircase inside of our shot bar, thinking that was the way to go. This is how one of those interactions played out:<br /><br />Me: (Motioning to the customers) "The roof is this way..."<br />Customer: "Upstairs?"<br />Me: (Nodding my head 'yes', as I thought to myself, "No, the roof in the BASEMENT...")<br /><br />It will truly be a challenge finding things to write about now... ;)<br /><br /><br />I have, slowly but surely, embarked on my exercise program. As I tweeted last night (my twitter address is at the top of the page), if you want to make any television program go by a little bit faster, do 25 situps every 15 minutes while you're watching it. I plan on doing this again while I watch the hockey game tonight, and hopefully I'll be tired enough to fall asleep sometime around midnight. I am an extremely motivated person right now, and it's my hope that you'll be reading a lot of positive things in this blog in the months to come... <br /><br />Speaking of positive things, Zach Greinke, my favorite fantasy pitcher, was involved in another brawl last night... MERP... (<<< Alyssa word). To his credit, when Greinke got hit in the head by a pitch while batting (don't you love that pitchers have to bat in the National League???), he stood there and DID NOT charge the mound, or anybody for that matter (although a brawl ensued anyway, as a result of earlier hostilities that occurred in the Dodgers game against the Diamondbacks). I just see the day coming where one of my fantasy teams has as many players on the disabled list as it does in the starting lineup...<br /><br />On that note, I hope that you have a great day, and I'll see you again tomorrow!<br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-29800389373259435222013-06-11T18:13:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:31:46.484-07:00Tropical Print & Polka Dotted Retro Bikini in Thailand's Tropical Paradise!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> On my recent vacation to Sunny <strong>Thailand's beautiful island of Phuket</strong>, I stayed in this <strong>beautiful Beach Resort</strong>, which was surrounded by acres of stunning gardens and lush green foliage, resembling a <strong>Tropical Forest</strong>. I had a relaxed time by the swimming pool, basking in the sun and sipping cocktails.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"> I wore my favourite <strong>High Waisted Polka Dotted Bikini</strong> and a <strong>Tropical Print Shirt Dress</strong> over it. I accessorised my look with <strong>long green and gold feather earrings</strong> and some <strong>coloured hand beads and bangles</strong> and wore my comfy <strong>White Strappy Wedges.</strong></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> I absolutely love the <strong>high waisted bikini trend,</strong> I adore the <strong>Retro Vibe</strong> of it. It'<strong>s</strong> injects a slight <strong>vintage</strong> feel into otherwise modern swimwear.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> I am also obsessed with one of Spring 2013′s hottest trends; <strong>Tropical Prints! </strong>This season fashion has taken a trip to the tropics with <strong>bright eclectic prints</strong> propping up everywhere.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The easy, breezy tropical print trend definitely puts you in the mood to take a beach getaway and so was absolutely fitting for my <strong>Thailand Beach Vacation.</strong></span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSPCTmUYQxcGccf9Y9df7VtIFv5DA2m_ixYMPI6Vi838O5xRpUFUELllXwB30vC3TX_LqUFQu4rbTwfSWEeoCxw_lTDNLLR8dre8bSvzA0n-r7D49AXVpSjnm5Q3zeEN8pkZJINo2fvyg/s640/CYMERA_20130611_034205.jpg" /> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0kbzrOx9NITAjH61t1X2ybryrnmVLUmETquo1tOZlq6HDzBPPjx7I4NXhXW_khK2Wliw0gn3gdk-ExYdAPNu6S3H_WlcZcY_vRMNRl_CcupbQasulSCD21SvlX3Mh642XBoMkcCpURr4/s1600/CYMERA_20130611_041002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0kbzrOx9NITAjH61t1X2ybryrnmVLUmETquo1tOZlq6HDzBPPjx7I4NXhXW_khK2Wliw0gn3gdk-ExYdAPNu6S3H_WlcZcY_vRMNRl_CcupbQasulSCD21SvlX3Mh642XBoMkcCpURr4/s640/CYMERA_20130611_041002.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpNTKHYy8Wv0A9BgVu8wf_L1g6npqEqIdtrOu96KmJ4oPYYewttti5dS7GpoI56pfLiG5gIKYtIdO0oiAIvQ0EjExeuXL0XjbtVkEUBd9zllAPadH1qE1Ys9BB2kUF_5pDdd5HojFvbaY/s640/CYMERA_20130611_034531.jpg" /> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp70-oPf8Kvwhb5dvNurBEv_h4J-cx6yJ9vsORfReIz32GjJaDrhKB8npTfufIkq-Wx8tKo_53iuUIj-2QVyG-VsC6cEhl6IhTIew2dU4BT3YxxjcRbGhzzhvOMJe4CWPuDEJp8uIN0wQ/s640/CYMERA_20130611_034750.jpg" /> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><a name='more'></a> <span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><strong><u>Perks of the High Waist Bikini Trend</u></strong></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The <strong>high-waist bikini</strong> bottom offers women who love to wear a two-piece; but the option to have a bit more coverage in the midsection. It also channels the <strong>1950′s glamour</strong> and pinup girls such as <strong>Marilyn Monroe</strong>. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">High waisted bottoms give <strong>extra coverage to the midriff</strong> allowing for this sexy, slimming torso high waist trend to be pulled off effortlessly; just ensure the swimsuit fits flawlessly with your shape. The high waist bottom compliments most top half styles including halter neck, bandeau and underwired so this is a look you can get really versatile. Don’t be afraid to bring out your inner goddess and prepare to bring your pin up style to the table. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><strong><u>Styling Tips for Tropical prints</u> </strong></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> The <strong>Tropical prints and flowers</strong> might be <strong>bold,</strong> but the <strong>Styling Tips </strong>are easy:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">For a more subtle look pair printed tops or bottoms with <strong>simple minimal pieces</strong>. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">For a bolder look, add <strong>neon or gold accessories</strong> for an extra fun pop! Besides your on vacation anyways right? Bring out your <strong>inner starlet</strong>!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie0bT-FOQZl1FjdPYTJKUh6WeE65PiDJkVkwj-C75BEmLSbwqXQE9I9071_DMQ9YWiYudIY5tUO48T7a5hWw7r5Lh5neoNO13IqtM4AWOs2e0T10TZrTbu4bOUgBjyJ01iXTDdaU1czyA/s1600/CYMERA_20130611_040514.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie0bT-FOQZl1FjdPYTJKUh6WeE65PiDJkVkwj-C75BEmLSbwqXQE9I9071_DMQ9YWiYudIY5tUO48T7a5hWw7r5Lh5neoNO13IqtM4AWOs2e0T10TZrTbu4bOUgBjyJ01iXTDdaU1czyA/s640/CYMERA_20130611_040514.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggmpXLZ4dwkrTVNde5z_WnWIY-4sNrdwoW3MppXU1tt4-N_6SUY7_-KvU2ZqOmyQA87Jc7lyxqTKWzIH9Ym8s-mUFRpqhTHQBzzjFB6Bs9lvQvdE-P5EtnLuVr8zWuDQrneMwClYz1FK0/s1600/CYMERA_20130611_040303.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggmpXLZ4dwkrTVNde5z_WnWIY-4sNrdwoW3MppXU1tt4-N_6SUY7_-KvU2ZqOmyQA87Jc7lyxqTKWzIH9Ym8s-mUFRpqhTHQBzzjFB6Bs9lvQvdE-P5EtnLuVr8zWuDQrneMwClYz1FK0/s640/CYMERA_20130611_040303.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuS4jHSTGXgGkuyaMEflCKHVaQWntFm-Xzwzk83JuSfd-zIdQxFzDZUh6FbhkOeoTkoFN8BX9Jyl_F_8mtvJiuLhc5-7t5zaZ8pgEUof54u9_yR-17CxH9qj3CzZLKB7YBdxe0ag1Qkuc/s640/CYMERA_20130611_040123.jpg" /> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhItPsxtWvhLqsmC4FhK30k59iYETaMRCgz0es2FRej3WgWJb0CYRn0HzsPqP5MPjV4v6o3_pvOkMIJEaheDgXBIV14cp1c7LsLeKvQrwQSYu2TFzpmex7YAugvr9IiRVpxogeIrqJcw8A/s640/CYMERA_20130611_042042.jpg" /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">I <strong>Accessorised</strong> my Vacation Chic look with <strong>green and gold Feather Earrings</strong> to add to the <strong>exotic appeal</strong> of the island, some <strong>colourful Arm Candy</strong> to match the Tropical print of the Shirt Dress and my favourite <strong>Sunnies</strong> from Aldo.</span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1bxfr46wqdt_-UE44Bh35ssh0Jv9VJ9sg-DiBz6kxja27BbU5mOQEHDRDnqoUo7fv3yVRjxEu_nJ0-JZgMiwxpabSHGKRmPSh2Alf79LcsE0U6mIbdnGLNQpoh4TOE7bXm7QPTqfEUIA/s1600/CYMERA_20130611_035513.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1bxfr46wqdt_-UE44Bh35ssh0Jv9VJ9sg-DiBz6kxja27BbU5mOQEHDRDnqoUo7fv3yVRjxEu_nJ0-JZgMiwxpabSHGKRmPSh2Alf79LcsE0U6mIbdnGLNQpoh4TOE7bXm7QPTqfEUIA/s640/CYMERA_20130611_035513.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><strong><u>HOOK MY LOOK</u></strong> </span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span><span style="color: black;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">~ High Waisted Black Polka Dotted Bikini - <strong>TOPSHOP</strong></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">~ Tropical Print Shirt Dress - <strong>NEXT</strong></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">~ Green Feather & Gold Earrings - <strong>DIVA</strong></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">~ Coloured Hand Beads & Bangles - <strong>ALDO</strong></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">~ Sunnies - <strong>ALDO</strong></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">~ White Strappy Wedges - <strong>ALDO</strong></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="javascript:void((function(){var%20e=document.createElement('script');e.setAttribute('type','text/javascript');e.setAttribute('charset','UTF-8');e.setAttribute('src','http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinmarklet.js?r='+Math.random()*99999999);document.body.appendChild(e)})());" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Pin It!" src="http://i1314.photobucket.com/albums/t563/StephanieT2525/PINITBUTTON_zps456a396a.gif" style="border: currentColor;" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="javascript:void((function(){var%20e=document.createElement('script');e.setAttribute('type','text/javascript');e.setAttribute('charset','UTF-8');e.setAttribute('src','http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinmarklet.js?r='+Math.random()*99999999);document.body.appendChild(e)})());" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-60213448210950121542013-06-11T15:10:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:36:36.695-07:00Could You? (21)/Stanley Cup"Is it really necessary for you to clap along to the Fraggle Rock theme song every single time? -My dog, probably-" -@okaymachado- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Keep on dreaming, even if it breaks your heart..." -@niles_melissa- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Every time I think of going back to school for my doctorate, I just read other people's tweets who are in school, and then go back to sleep..." -@DanaDavidson- (via twitter)<br /><br /><br /><br />Could you do yourself a big favor and get your sleep right Coach? You'll love this... So last night, after having stayed awake until 6:00 a.m. on Sunday night/Monday morning, I stayed awake until 9:30 this morning... YEAH... Hopefully I can stay awake now without taking a nap for the next ten hours - if I can do that, I should be okay. I don't know about you, but normally an hour of sleep keeps me awake for two hours (much like the "normal" 8 hours of sleep keeps people going for 16 hours)... Well, I slept from 9:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m., so that should keep me going until just after midnight, and THEN, if I can just manage to crash through the night... :) It's becoming vital that I straighten it out now, because every waking moment in my near future will be focused on how I can make the most out of living in Austin, Texas (more people who can help me to do that are awake during the day than at 4:00 in the morning is where I'm going with that)...<br /><br />Could you think about hard enough that you might finally "get it" Coach? Okay, so I'm walking through the Texas State campus to go to the Square yesterday, and I pass the 'Paws N Go' store located just off of the Quad. I have walked by this store SEVERAL TIMES, but this time it occurred to me: "Paws N Go, as in, pause to buy something, and then go... Is that how they meant it?..." I don't know if I've been so dense that I FINALLY had this "REVELATION," or if I'M THE CLEVER ONE, and no one else has EVER read that into it, including the creator(s)... Yeah, I've probably been that dense...<br /><br />Could you give us one of those cold, hard, facts of life kind of quotes from an unexpected source Coach? Colleen, who is one of my friends and a former coworker, is one of the sweetest sounding, most unassuming sources for the words that you're about to read. I honestly don't remember what we were talking about (and I may have just walked up on this conversation at closing) when I heard the words, "If you don't have common sense, then you deserve it..." come from Colleen's mouth... Like I said, I don't remember the context, but let me give you an example of a situation where I believe that this would apply: As I was waiting at an intersection (the bottom of North LBJ) to cross the street onto campus a few days ago, there was a pause before the second car in line moved after the light turned green, and when I looked over, I saw that the driver was flanked to two dogs in the front seat, AND that her delay in moving forward was caused by her texting, which she CONTINUED TO DO as she made her way through the light, and onto the construction heavy Sessom Drive... Now if she were to get into an accident, reference Colleen's quote above, right??? I swear, you have to be SO CAREFUL AND ALERT...<br /><br />Could you be more outgoing Coach? Yeah..., RIGHT??? :) I was enjoying the air conditioning in Slackers at work a few nights ago when I got into a conversation with one of our customers. After a few minutes, Katie stated, "You're cool. You don't talk in the hall..." HUH?! :P As I tried my best to respond to her like she wasn't crazy (I probably failed), I asked Katie, "WHAT are you talking about? I ALWAYS talk to people who stop and want to talk..." And then she said, "I asked for your name, and all you said was, 'Coach'..." (She played the part of me in a mocking voice also, saying... "COACH...") ;) And then I looked at her as if to say (while I actually said it of course), "yeah..., that's what you asked me!" :) It was nice meeting you Katie, and when you speak of me..., please speak kindly... :P<br /><br />Could you make a prediction for us Coach? I PREDICT that if I had a DOLLAR for every time that somebody refers to me at Harper's/Slackers/The Veranda between now and the end of the year, that I could move to Las Vegas and live off of that money for a year, and that the amount would be at least $20,000.00 (for those of you who are math impaired, that means that it is my belief that I will be referenced at least 20,000 times between now and the end of 2013). Now this reference could simply be 'Coach', or it could be, "where is that one hundred year-old guy that used to work here?", or it could be, "yeah, the guy with the blog..., the most NON-WRITING GUY that ever had a blog...," or "that poker chip guy," or "that sports illiterate dude..." ANYTHING along those lines is what I'm saying - just ANY REFERENCE to me, by ANYONE... TWENTY-THOUSAND TIMES... I feel bad for my former coworkers... ;)<br /><br /><br />Could you stop stalling, and give us your prediction for the Stanley Cup Finals? Okay..., but first, let's look at my predictions for the last round:<br /><br />My Prediction/Actual Result<br /><br />Blackhawks over the Kings in 5 games/Blackhawks in 5 games (OF COURSE!) ;)<br />Penguins over the Bruins in 5 games/Bruins in 4 games (UH OH...) :O<br /><br />WELL..., let me tell you what I've been thinking..., what my train of thought has been..., as I've continued to pick against the Bruins in the later rounds. I VIVIDLY REMEMBER Boston being down two goals to the Maple Leafs REALLY LATE in that game, that seventh game, and have held it against them. I held it against them as they were about to face a Rangers team that had an exciting series win over the Capitals, and again against a Penguins team that had just been CRUISING through the playoffs... At this point I'm starting to think that I should have viewed that Bruins comeback much like the Red Sox turnaround against the Yankees when they were down 3 games to 0 in 2004... The Rangers looked SICK against the B's, ESPECIALLY in Game 3 at home, when the "GARDEN CROWD" was virtually nonexistent... The Pens offense was virtually nonexistent in this last series...<br /><br />As for the Blackhawks..., well..., I've had them in every series so far (and I'm 10-4 through 3 rounds of the NHL playoffs to this point). The Hawks were down 3 games to 1 against the Red Wings, and it really did look as if there was no way that they were going to beat Detroit at that point, as well as the Wings were playing (a commentator's thoughts, which I had to agree with)... Of course Chicago came back, and then they beat the defending champion Kings in five games - sometimes I'm right... ;)<br /><br />Now the NHL utilizes a 2-2-1-1-1 format as opposed to the NBA's 2-3-2 format to determine who is hosting each game of the series. The Blackhawks have home-ice advantage entering this series, but the Bruins have STIFLED their last two opponents, so I'm sorry Lightning, and I hate to jinx you Pete (and Bruins fans everywhere, including my friends up in New England), but I'm predicting...<br /><br />Bruins over the Blackhawks in 6 games<br /><br /><br />I hope that all of you have a great evening of basketball (Spurs vs. the Heat - 8:00 p.m. CST - ABC) and I'll see you again tomorrow!<br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-41800232202869326252013-06-10T21:45:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:36:36.703-07:00The Next Chapter..."Woman are all best friends at 2:00 a.m. in the bathroom at the bar..."<br />-@cuckoo_cachu- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Ever noticed that life lets you win every now and again..., just to keep you interested..." -@P8NT4R- (via twitter)<br /><br />"My new diet started off really well this morning until I got hungry..."<br />-@Matty_Lombardo- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Looking over your shoulder only detracts from accomplishing the task ahead..."<br />-@MarcusOreally- (via twitter)<br /><br /><br /><br />Good evening everyone. I apologize for the very late Monday night post, but I have some good news for you (or likely VERY BAD NEWS if you enjoy reading quality writing)... :) I plan on posting more frequently in the near future, and if I don't post daily, it will be almost daily... Today I realized that I have a backlog of things to say and more time to say them... The next chapter in my life has begun as my last day working at Harper's/Slackers/The Veranda was on Saturday, and as you can tell, I haven't straightened out my sleep schedule yet - this post would have already been published if I was sleeping in the realm of normal people, and not on vampire time... I added John Lackey (Red Sox/pitcher) to one of my fantasy teams today, and I woke up from an early evening nap (double segue - sleep schedule and fantasy baseball) in time to see the Sox bullpen blow a win for him (this surprises NO ONE by now, I know)... As a matter of fact, let's get the fantasy baseball out of the way right now...<br /><br /><br />League 1 (25 entry fee - 1st place/125, 2nd place/25)<br /><br />1) DraftDodgers 73.50 (new leader in this league)<br />2) Neshanic 73.00 (my belief system is crushed now) :P<br />3) Shazzam 59.50 (just ahead of a logjam of teams)<br />9) The View From Bikini Hill 39.00 (amazed I even have 39 points)<br /><br /><br />League 2 (40 entry fee - 1st place/300, 2nd place/50)<br /><br />1) Breaking Bats 83.00 (impressive lead)<br />2) 4troublemakers 69.00 (leading the next group)<br />3) Loons XXIV 67.50 (reaching for second)<br />6) The Bikini Hill Bobcats 49.50 (had a pretty rough week)<br /><br />League 3 (40 entry fee - 1st place/300, 2nd place/50)<br /><br />1) jonnylove7 66.50 (tenuous lead in my most competitive league)<br />2) Nappy Heads 65.50 (again, my belief system is crushed) :P<br />3) Mad Men 62.50 (my favorite show, hanging tough)<br />5) The Bikini Hill Nine 55.50 (my best chance to get my money back)<br />5) Pittsburg Crawfords 55.50 (1 of 6 teams within 11 points of 1st place)<br /><br />Okay, so The View From Bikini Hill has NINE PLAYERS on the disabled list now, and as I'm fact-checking right now, I see that Jedd Gyorko (who is still in starting lineup) was placed on the DL today. IF I WAS TRYING to pick the players that I thought would get injured, I couldn't hit a number this high!!! As long as you're laughing, it's okay though - I'm here for your entertainment... ;) #courtjester The Bikini Hill Bobcats, by comparison, only have five players on the DL. The Bikini Hill Nine only lists four players on the DL, which probably explains the success of that team. OH, and The View From Bikini Hill is the team that I added Lackey to, the team who suffered through the Red Sox squandering the SIX RUNS that they scored in the FIRST INNING (on a related note, Alex Cobb is NOT a starter for ANY of my teams, so that's a tough break for someone out there)... ;)<br /><br /><br />As I said, I have a myriad of subjects to write about, and I will get to them in due time. There are some of them that I can't put off until later however. First of all, I want to give a shoutout to all of my friends at Harper's/Slackers/The Veranda. As I wrote in my three weeks notice (yes, an extra week - I'm a visionary, I know...), it was a great group of people to work with. I was also told that I'm welcome back anytime, and I THINK that was meant as just more than as a paying customer... ;) Seriously, great group of people to work with, and a lot of great customers... Thank you...<br /><br />Next, Amy, Mo, and Raymond get special shoutouts for getting me some of the FOOD that I listed in my "going away food wish list" post (the entry wasn't actually titled that, so don't look for it under that name)... Mo brought me 2 bags of Haribo Gummy Bears (is it completely horrible that 1 of the bags has disappeared already?), and her friend Amy brought me a bag of Snyder's of Hanover 'Hot Buffalo Wing' pretzel pieces... I know that I requested Gardetto's, but Amy said that she couldn't find them. HOWEVER, this little bag of pretzels (only half-eaten) has a code on it which enables me to get 14 issues of Sports Illustrated for $1.00. It's a damn shame that I don't like sports, huh?... ;) And as we waited for our establishment to get busy on Saturday night, Raymond ordered some PIZZA from Papa John's!!! I woke up really early (4:00 p.m.) for my 8:00 p.m. shift on Saturday night, so the pizza was a LIFE SAVER...<br /><br />And then there's ELLEN... :) This girl is the proof that I'm one hundred years old... Back in my second year of teaching and coaching, and my first at a new school (a hundred years ago, of course), I coached with Ellen's dad and taught with Ellen's mom. Chris and Paula were nice enough to let me stay at their house on Friday nights so that I didn't have to make the half-hour drive back to Dallas, followed by the quick turnaround on Saturday mornings to be back in town by 8:00 a.m. on Saturday mornings when I was coaching football. Well, Ellen was born during that fall (during the best month of the year by the way, and that has nothing to do with the fact that my birthday is in October also), and for some unexplained reason, this little girl likes me... I actually had a few photographs of Ellen as a youngster included among the myriad of pictures that I would display on or near my desk in my classrooms as I moved on to other schools, and was asked several times if she was my daughter. Of course my response was always along the lines of, "a girl that pretty..., MY CHILD??? C'mon..." ;) Well, Ellen graduated from high school on Saturday (a year early I might add - overachiever...), and did so as the VALEDICTORIAN OF HER CLASS, and I'm very proud to give her a paragraph in my blog as she moves on to the next chapter in her life also. Congratulations Ellen - I'm SO PROUD of you!!! :)<br /><br />I hope that all of you have a great day and I'll see you again on Tuesday (which is probably today)... :)<br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-31507435857881736762013-06-10T04:24:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:31:46.494-07:00Awards & Features the month of May & Guest Post on GingerSnaps!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> <span style="color: black;">Hello, all my lovely readers, I'm so glad to share with you the <strong>Features and Awards</strong> I received for the month of May. It being my Birthday Month, it was just a great feeling to be noticed and rewarded for all your passion and hard work. Thank you all for the love and support too. Promise to keep the good content coming.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-large;"><strong><em></em></strong></span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">~</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> <strong><span style="color: black;">Awarded </span></strong></span><a href="http://www.stylepile.com/styleicons/201305" target="_blank"><strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">Style Icon</span></strong></a><strong><span style="font-size: x-large;"> <span style="color: black;">for May'13 on Leading Fashion Website </span></span></strong><a href="http://stylepile.com/"><strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">StylePile.com</span></strong></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><strong><span style="font-size: x-large;"> <span style="color: black;">!</span></span></strong> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQy700T5QWtjTuXNemt3GWANdROzcTmAVIhP0nmOMhNsohg41YqPZRInw8dmnBwDUNSSfhyphenhyphen0NqM-AiDsqb2JSITayLnSpJQ1EXF3XzMsNqAc5E3K29nRatrXTlWz04mnANFLPvIn203V0/s1600/Style_Icon_Widget_220_TEXT_MAY_13_original.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQy700T5QWtjTuXNemt3GWANdROzcTmAVIhP0nmOMhNsohg41YqPZRInw8dmnBwDUNSSfhyphenhyphen0NqM-AiDsqb2JSITayLnSpJQ1EXF3XzMsNqAc5E3K29nRatrXTlWz04mnANFLPvIn203V0/s400/Style_Icon_Widget_220_TEXT_MAY_13_original.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">~ <strong><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Featured by </span></strong></span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=593603824003835&set=a.593603717337179.1073741838.104958196201736&type=3&theater" target="_blank"><strong><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">British Vogue</span></strong></a><strong><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> <span style="color: black;">on their</span> <span style="color: black;">Homepage for the Street Chic Section !</span></span></span></strong></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPzJUJPoEWa4cfgp4RVANA1M-WW_08B3G848xCSHfsDPFL2ce1-Uz3Xg-MbFIe29yuV4PypNJz1fptDD78mXL958vJZIag6tJFFSMgdu9xX1eFF9zjRS6bxnAVj72O6YtM1aUFi6NtAi4/s1600/british+vogue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPzJUJPoEWa4cfgp4RVANA1M-WW_08B3G848xCSHfsDPFL2ce1-Uz3Xg-MbFIe29yuV4PypNJz1fptDD78mXL958vJZIag6tJFFSMgdu9xX1eFF9zjRS6bxnAVj72O6YtM1aUFi6NtAi4/s640/british+vogue.jpg" width="464" /></a></div><span style="color: black;"><span class="userContent"></span></span><a name='more'></a><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">~ <span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Fashion Feature Articles published in the Indian E Magazine </strong></span></span><a href="http://tamarindrice.in/tamarind-rice-issue-2/fashion-may-2013/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Tamarind Rice</span></strong></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzqwc-CmjejpBhlgcn5l81F3vHz_NNVN0LHnS6ts5o2cEjcL60GUcQhZ6kmfagAhFIJy1QTcZsxb786yG9gqWdZ9rfafpdo9iZzfObx5QvtoYtCxlfMpmitpz9LZdymvwvclLXb88a4Rs/s1600/tamarind+rice.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzqwc-CmjejpBhlgcn5l81F3vHz_NNVN0LHnS6ts5o2cEjcL60GUcQhZ6kmfagAhFIJy1QTcZsxb786yG9gqWdZ9rfafpdo9iZzfObx5QvtoYtCxlfMpmitpz9LZdymvwvclLXb88a4Rs/s640/tamarind+rice.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><span style="font-size: x-large;">~ <span style="color: black;"><strong>Featured on </strong></span></span><a href="http://instagram.com/p/Zt3X_-v0yR/#" target="_blank"><strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">Top Fashion Blogs</span></strong></a><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><em><span style="font-family: Times;"></span></em> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCVTnAUh3Oz3zoxCoPDki5lIXoIXMRqBHztwZvpJyJpxEGyypXeZYG64pEs-cUCNwG67oMH9OQ0OJobehWHCalID-uzp6IJog6KhxtPo_pf854IEiHmIBi_XuRF4-D0R0NpooxCfpoDNA/s640/top+fashion+Blogs.jpg" width="552" /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">~</span><span style="font-size: large;"> <strong><span style="color: black;">Featured as the ,Fashion Bombshell of the Day', one of the most Influential Fashion Websites</span> : <span style="color: blue;"><u>FASHION BOMB DAILY</u></span></strong></span></div><span style="color: black;"><span class="userContent"></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> May, 21 2013 1:16 pm</span></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: black;"><span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Fashion Bombshell of the Day: Stephanie from Mumbai</span></span></span></span><br /><div class="meta"><span style="color: black;"><span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em> by </em>Claire</span></span></span></span></span></div><br /><span style="color: black;"><span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW8IqqcoV6nHGh3qX6JFMp32iwydUPDzoI5zawMGEItNG5TYHr49n789p4WUBT0XfPoAP66I8a9Yi_sU8fHtheKzXyxeGmuIkKghkFSf3xCFI5epDTQC-DZAm8xqSewcOLFeosLRCA1yc/s1600/Screenshot+(6)EDIT.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="530" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW8IqqcoV6nHGh3qX6JFMp32iwydUPDzoI5zawMGEItNG5TYHr49n789p4WUBT0XfPoAP66I8a9Yi_sU8fHtheKzXyxeGmuIkKghkFSf3xCFI5epDTQC-DZAm8xqSewcOLFeosLRCA1yc/s640/Screenshot+(6)EDIT.png" width="640" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwMqq9L5j4BmY5Ffn3yRxOw2HeZGycKfAfdNjms0QPcan52pKhiZBbYtFZqsWRKa9TKgoAxOmSObq9l95tnCkyWhZWO9qef0FmtkCnIU2hvQqqskJQhGMsxGHfA_VnLRjgI4qZE4Bzx7Q/s1600/2013-05-22-05-23-00.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwMqq9L5j4BmY5Ffn3yRxOw2HeZGycKfAfdNjms0QPcan52pKhiZBbYtFZqsWRKa9TKgoAxOmSObq9l95tnCkyWhZWO9qef0FmtkCnIU2hvQqqskJQhGMsxGHfA_VnLRjgI4qZE4Bzx7Q/s640/2013-05-22-05-23-00.png" width="441" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">I have</span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-large;"> also written a <strong>Guest Post </strong>titled<strong> <a href="http://www.gingersnapsxoxo.com/2013/06/aztec-stripes-mixing-up-prints.html#more" target="_blank">Aztec & Stripes : Mixing Up Prints!</a> , </strong>for the Lifestyle& Beauty Blog <strong><a href="http://www.gingersnapsxoxo.com/2013/06/aztec-stripes-mixing-up-prints.html#more" target="_blank">GingerSnaps</a></strong>. Do hop over to <strong><a href="http://www.gingersnapsxoxo.com/2013/06/aztec-stripes-mixing-up-prints.html#more" target="_blank">GingerSnaps</a></strong> and have a read.</span></span> </div><br />--> </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-48866043778443538832013-06-08T07:06:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:31:46.502-07:00Bohemian Chic in June Bloom !<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Call it an effect of the shift in global consciousness or a gypsy revival, the fashion world is witnessing a <strong>Bohemian Bonanza </strong>this summer. Boho Chic has gained popularity over the years with glamorous renditions of it. What started out as a modern day interpretation of the 1960s flower child is now an independent look with its own personality and traits.The look is storming the ramps and the high street with fresh zeal and modern updates. </span><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> Today's my <strong>Boho Chic Look</strong> is a pretty <strong>Yellow Pleated Long Maxi Skirt</strong> paired with a <strong>Coral Tank top with Crochet</strong>. I accessorised with lots of colourful <strong>'Arm Candy'</strong> with coloured <strong>wooden bangles</strong> and <strong>bracelets.</strong> I wore long <strong>dangling multi coloured Earrings</strong> with a little ethnic feel and a <strong>Blue beaded Neckpiece.</strong> I also donned a<strong> Floral Neon Hat</strong>,wore a <strong>Neon Orange Clutch</strong> bag across my torso and <strong>Neon Orange Peep Toes</strong>. </span><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">It is a very modern day Boho Chic look with a colour burst. It's June Bloom time and we shot amongst the beautiful surroundings of garden, trees and flowers. Today's pictures have been shot by talented photographer <a href="https://www.facebook.com/PoojaSinghPhotography?fref=ts" target="_blank">Pooja S</a> .</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixdiush8pHK-sWQOOxLqkUWTeNErmVAy7FnUmyspOptd0KCmJqutpBGhOL_o38GePJngcFhT3mL29GydrsHmTHN30WwdGGyuIzjwWo3n3LKBxuf9O9NRd9U3YgXR85Q5GtRYu7e_nTO_4/s1600/DSC_7518+copy+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixdiush8pHK-sWQOOxLqkUWTeNErmVAy7FnUmyspOptd0KCmJqutpBGhOL_o38GePJngcFhT3mL29GydrsHmTHN30WwdGGyuIzjwWo3n3LKBxuf9O9NRd9U3YgXR85Q5GtRYu7e_nTO_4/s640/DSC_7518+copy+copy.jpg" width="423" /></a></div><strong></strong><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><strong></strong> <img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNzD-VebXKOmLNvJPe9fAlGpt1z6ifitN6OCK_MhqeDUvDSHhsXjan-D7ki9fUyq5oPOJrTlp2L7nErd_VecbLymClmM1dHjG8Sn_pxQNnIyCy_PGPBrzCogoYu0fT3Xx7bInMQqVicNo/s640/DSC_7528+copy.jpg" width="424" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong></strong> <img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisjZ7N4JlU3k3S5_smUht1DAsKYTmv8U_Ib4rbEBWepnw5ChZ5VKyOh656n5Ld1HXiCWbJ0gHYLWfiYhfotpPL_n1xChze6dPm-Z5ZhSbEDDvLKDPuG5syFwzv1EN8Wm9IZOHvGFKhUaE/s640/DSC_7561+copyedit.jpg" width="640" /></div><strong></strong><br /><a name='more'></a><br /> <span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><strong>Boho is short for bohemian</strong> and by definition,<strong>unconventional</strong>. The reimagined trend has found <strong>elegance</strong> hence the term '<strong>chic'. </strong>Boho is all about looking individual and natural. In essence it means putting together your outfits in such a way as to be <strong>uniquely stylish</strong> and <strong>unusually, unexpectedly elegant.</strong> The look is <strong>free-spirited</strong>. A woman who prefers this look is considered fun, ungoverned by mainstream fashion rules and independent. </span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"> Some of its famous practitioners include <strong>Nicole Ritchie, Kate Hudson, Miley Cyrus, Vanessa Hudgens, the Olsen twins </strong>and<strong> Sienna Miller.</strong></span></span></span><br /><strong></strong><br /><div style="text-align: center;"> <img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihiByofX8Y0h_9yfIWbkyRNwAddzfPb9g0INmXl0EyxmjZGhHIhwdGCMy6VYyROUPqJARYoFG9Y4LHFI3s_LwnTsSAjC43HWW1Ssujou0DyRgdBvXYBZlm70MLbgnATvo5_rqM5aAQcWc/s640/DSC_7585+copy+copy.jpg" width="424" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghYTkEQkqJ6McDqH5HMUe5wn2RyJTOrBSvLKo-CXwpcVj8mWjqDBVUBfLtVp7mYp5Ga3hxVUtt170qw8Y-WUBc1uyB0agf0PL0GvAMm9TelUb3gjxvB2GYN5Bbn43Xh44YMTqav1vjPuo/s640/DSC_7624+copy+copy.jpg" width="424" /> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs4UGIbzj-KuT-JalVf9l60XR8pvc0xLbR2-jU3Lz0oLkqXGaii4bEX0Y0-9iTquTGjq3rwHi77wXMCxCZszv_oE2fA4PUrdEqnlenhAzZBeGvPxBrJquGJDyiZW1cvgJfpCS67g_Tgls/s640/DSC_7656+copy.jpg" width="424" /></div><br /><strong><u><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Boho Chic Styling Tips</span></u></strong><br /><strong><u></u></strong><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">1<strong>. Clothing</strong>: Boho chic has moved from simply being an earthy flavour and loves tones such as greens, oranges, yellow and magenta. Look at the length of your skirts and dresses. They tend to be floor-sweeping, making it a critical part of this look. The skirts are flowy, hair is loose and print from floral to animal is on. Look for tops with beading, embroidery, floral prints, crochet details. This summer, some of the dress trends are super long dresses, prints, floral patterns, and bright colours paired with earthy tones.</span><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><strong>2. Accessories</strong>: This is probably the most important part of all. Boho chic is synonymous with "<strong>accessories galore</strong>". This means plenty of bracelets, ankle bracelets, mix-and-match necklaces, and dangling earrings.. Layers of bracelets make the phrase “<strong>arm candy</strong>” very boho. Long, dangling earrings and wooden bangles are perfect and you can also wear a small purse across your torso.</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Your sandals can be in neutral tones, but pops of colour can be a fun way to make this trend your own.</span><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">I <strong>Accessorised my Look</strong> with some Coloured Wooden bangles and Bracelets, Blue Beaded Necklace, Multi coloured dangling earrings and a Neon Floral Hat.</span><br /> <img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2rFNy6AoB4Qthq6hEY6fY297hj-Sn3nHflRIL3z22cYQlpzOWngOcFQGezwDr_kIvYuDmogij_k4qevBlyJ2P4RjzXEJIa8vEhQQ8SYkGs2ueIBlCQrzkHX3N9eJAhucLl2yKeeagnkQ/s640/DSC_7581+copy.jpg" width="620" /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHgaglooIqGMSIprzMHO1g8F_uQXm2HyeLK4ZBIO1ojpOYYKTSo-mBiOsprZa4cnrGDEzB8T1iHJlCEhyphenhyphenhZubgOekagz9DbLBT27gQgxx5LCh_WhR7BKO6IspJO1YcEsDPGCKdUsA7qkU/s640/DSC_7683+copy.jpg" width="640" /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><strong><u><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">HOOK MY LOOK</span></u></strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">~ Coral Tank Top with Crochet Detailing - CHARLOTTE RUSSE</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">~ Yellow Pleated Maxi Skirt - PULL & BEAR</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">~ Coloured Wooden Bangles & Bracelets - Local Store</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">~ Blue Beaded Necklace - ALDO</span><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: large;">~Neon Floral Hat - Bangkok</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">~ Multi Coloured Dangling Earrings - FOREVER NEW</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="javascript:void((function(){var%20e=document.createElement('script');e.setAttribute('type','text/javascript');e.setAttribute('charset','UTF-8');e.setAttribute('src','http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinmarklet.js?r='+Math.random()*99999999);document.body.appendChild(e)})());" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Pin It!" src="http://i1314.photobucket.com/albums/t563/StephanieT2525/PINITBUTTON_zps456a396a.gif" style="border: currentColor;" /></a></div><br /></div><div id="chictopia_fp2" style="background-color: white; border: 0px currentColor; color: black; height: 45px; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; width: 160px;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.chictopia.com/photo/show/873958-Bohemian+Chic-red-crochet-cotton-charlotte-russe-top-yellow-pleated-pull-bear-skirt" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" src="http://assets0.chictopia.com/photos/Steph25/images/fp/873958.gif" style="border: 0px currentColor;" /></a></div><br /></div></div></div><!--BEGIN HYPE WIDGET--><script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.2/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="http://lookbook.nu/look/widget/5013292.js?include=hype&size=medium&style=button&align=center"></script><br /><div id="hype_container_5013292"></div><!--END HYPE WIDGET--><br /></div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-81253479587418381372013-06-06T13:00:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:36:36.711-07:00I Remember The First Time (20)"Sometimes you never really know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory..."<br />-@AdamDelane- (via twitter)<br /><br />"I'd have less of a headache if I put my phone away each time I have free time..."<br />-@b_jai2012- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Believe in yourself and there will come a day when others will have no choice but to believe in you..." -@Okema_07- (via twitter)<br /><br />"You're never too old to be young..." -@Starlight2112- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Everyone's all like "summer's finally here" and I'm over here like "summer started a month ago"..." -@luhoral- (via twitter)<br /><br /><br /><br />I remember the first time that I knew that somebody lived in San Marcos... As soon as I read that last tweet above, I KNEW that she had to be a Bobcat... Forecast high of 91 today, in case you were wondering...<br /><br />I remember the first time that I was quick... Last night "Socks" (one of our regulars who is a local tattoo artist) walked by while I was going through my usual ritual. He commented "you and your poker chips...," and I instantly fired back, "you and your tats..." ;)<br /><br />I remember the first time that I got positive feedback about Bikini Hill's new look... Everything that I've heard about the changes here has been upbeat, especially in comparison to the bright green that I had recently implemented. If you have any more feedback for me (good or bad), please let me know...<br /><br />I remember the first time that I wasn't surprised... Stephen Strasburg and Jake Peavy both went on the disabled list yesterday. Strasburg is one of my fantasy pitchers, and Peavy..., IS ONE OF MY FANTASY PITCHERS... Shocking, I know...<br /><br />I remember the first time that I was punished for doing something positive... George Karl was named the NBA's 'Coach of the Year' less than a month ago, so naturally the Denver Nuggets fired him today... As bad as I feel for Coach Karl, it's strangely reassuring to know that I'm not the only person who's ever been unappreciated and ambushed - hang in there Coach...<br /><br />I remember the first time that I felt even better about being a Spurs fan... Last night at work when I looked up at one of our t.v. screens, I saw a shot of Justin Bieber wearing a Miami Heat ballcap... That's all... :)<br /><br />I remember the first time that it was my last weekend at Harper's/Slackers/The Veranda... This is it folks - it's time to start a new chapter in my life (I'm really wishing now that I would have learned how to read)... Ba dump, ching!.. ;) ANYWAY, if you want to give me that goodbye handshake, hug, fistbump, pile of cash, list of complaints, etc..., come by and see me tonight, tomorrow night, or Saturday night...<br /><br />Have a great day, and remember that the first game of the NBA Finals is TONIGHT! See ya on Monday... :)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-80359323559567947562013-06-04T17:00:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:36:36.784-07:00Could You? (20)/NBA Finals"When you become number one and everybody talks about how much you're going to kill the other team and they've done nothing but lose and you're on the road, it's at night and it's cold, it's a trap game..." -Mack Brown- (University of Texas/Head Football Coach)<br /><br />"We need to play. We don't need to play a game, take a week off, play a game, take another week off. That's not a very good schedule for us..." -Dennis Franchione- (Texas State University/Head Football Coach)<br /><br />"We have guys that are inspired by these types of moments in the bright lights..." -Erik Spoelstra- (Miami Heat/Head Basketball Coach)<br /><br />"I asked them if it wasn't too much trouble, if I wasn't being too pushy, if they could execute what we were trying to do. And if it didn't make them too angry, if they also wanted to play some defense on the other end, that would be great..." -Gregg Popovich- (San Antonio Spurs/Head Basketball Coach)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Could you write a lot about sports and colleges today Coach? Yes, I believe that I could, and good evening everyone...<br /><br />Could you leave the predictions to me brother? So after the first game of the Bruins/Penguins series, a game that Boston won 3-0, my brother predicted that the Pens would change goalies before the series was finished. Fast forward to the second game of the series last night, where Pittsburgh pulled their goalie at the 3:29 mark of the first period after the Penguins fell behind 3-0 - good call Pete...<br /><br />Could you tell us about another text that your brother sent you? I have to admit that I don't watch even close to the amount of college softball that I used to since I stopped coaching it as a high school coach. Last night I get a text from my brother that says, "how about this softball game?" I change the channel to find Tennessee and Oklahoma tied 3-3 in the top of the 12th inning, after each team had just scored all 3 of their runs in the 11th inning. After Tennessee was retired in their half of the 12th, the Sooners got a runner on base. At this point, Oklahoma sends a batter to the plate that has been hitting very well, and the commentator says, "Will they walk her? No..." And then, BAMMMMM!!! When I look up from my computer monitor, I see a ball clearing the fence just inside the left field foul pole, and the game is over. The Sooners now lead the championship series of this year's NCAA Women's College World Series 1-0, with the second game taking place tonight at 7:00 p.m. CST (ESPN).<br /><br /><br />Could you tell us something about Texas State University and the University of Texas? Well, yesterday was the first day of summer classes at Texas State, and Thursday will be the first day that summer classes meet at UT. You know that this only means one thing: the upcoming football season is now less than three months away... ;) Being the team player that I am, I researched the 2013 football schedules for each of these programs today, and I'm about to type them for you below...<br /><br /><br />Texas State Bobcats 2013 Football Schedule<br /><br />Aug. 31 @ Southern Mississippi<br />Sep. 7 vs. Prairie View A&M<br />Sep. 14 OFF<br />Sep. 21 @ Texas Tech<br />Sep. 28 vs. Wyoming<br />Oct. 5 @ Louisiana-Lafayette<br />Oct. 12 vs. Louisiana-Monroe<br />Oct. 19 vs. Georgia State<br />Oct. 26 vs. South Alabama<br />Nov. 2 @ Idaho<br />Nov. 9 OFF<br />Nov. 16 @ Arkansas State<br />Nov. 23 vs. Western Kentucky<br />Nov. 29 @ Troy<br /><br /><br />Texas Longhorns 2013 Football Schedule<br /><br />Aug. 31 vs. New Mexico State<br />Sep. 7 @ BYU<br />Sep. 14 vs. Ole Miss<br />Sep. 21 vs. Kansas State<br />Sep. 28 OFF<br />Oct. 3 @ Iowa State<br />Oct. 12 vs. Oklahoma (@ Cotton Bowl)<br />Oct. 19 OFF<br />Oct. 26 @ TCU<br />Nov. 2 vs. Kansas<br />Nov. 9 @ West Virginia<br />Nov. 16 vs. Oklahoma State<br />Nov. 23 OFF<br />Nov. 28 vs. Texas Tech<br />Dec. 7 @ Baylor<br /><br />The thing that pleases me the most about these schedules (and that should make San Marcos and Austin businesses smile) is that the Bobcats and Longhorns do not host a single home game on the same day as each other this fall... That's the reason that I chose the specific Coach Fran quote above that I did. Between open dates and one team being on the road while the other is at home, I will have the opportunity to see any home game that I choose to attend this fall... :) I have also decided that as a part of making my weekly football predictions, I will predict the final score for all of the Texas State and UT football games this fall... :O<br /><br />Could you please stop stalling and give us your prediction for the NBA Finals Coach? Well, before I do that, let's take a look at the previous rounds... After the first 3 rounds of the playoffs, I am now 10-4 picking the winner of each series. Below is a recap of my predictions for the last round, and my prediction for the finals:<br /><br /><br />Third Round - My Prediction/Actual Result<br /><br />Heat over the Pacers in 7 games/Heat in 7 games<br />Spurs over the Grizzlies in 7 games/Spurs in 4 games<br /><br /><br />NBA Finals Prediction<br /><br />Spurs over the Heat in 7 games<br /><br /><br />As a Spurs fan, I obviously want the Heat to lose, but I try not to be biased when I make my predictions here. If you remember my preseason predictions, I predicted that the Thunder would meet the Heat in a rematch of last season's NBA Finals. At the time I made that call, OKC still had Harden, and Westbrook hadn't suffered his playoff injury. That is the reason that I don't like making "prop bets" - too many things can happen over the course of a season. Well, these developments opened the door for the Spurs. The Spurs and the Heat played each other very closely in each of their games in the regular season this year. As you might recall, each team played a game without its superstars. I'm sure that David Stern remembers, since a team is supposed to make sure that its stars are on the court to please the road fans instead of looking out for its own best interests evidently... Anyway, one reason that I like the Spurs in this series is that they got the chance to rest a little bit. Another reason that I like them is that they seem to be more disciplined that the Heat. If somebody is going to get frustrated or is going to be ejected from a game in this series, I would see that happening to someone on Miami's team first. I also believe that the Spurs have a deeper bench than the Heat. And yes, I do realize that the Spurs will have to win a Game Seven in Miami if the series goes that long, but I just believe that it's going to be a great series, much like the Spurs/Pistons series of 2005. <br /><br />I hope that you have a great day and I'll see you again on Thursday!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-65530512173604987702013-06-03T13:18:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:36:36.858-07:00I Panicked"I think my new dream job would be a host for a show on the Travel Channel - the show would be all about eating at buffets and working out..." -Zane McCoy- (via facebook)<br /><br />"I wonder if Vegans are ever concerned that animals are going hungry because they are eating up all their food..." -@LeroyTee- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Love is what is left in a relationship after all the selfishness is taken out..."<br />-@jjblonde84- (via twitter)<br /><br />"My friend told me I'm delusional, so I set him on fire and took off on my dragon..."<br />-@_InsanelyNormal- (via twitter)<br /><br />"You haven't truly made it on Twitter until someone recognizes you in the unemployment line and asks for your autograph..." -@carlyken- (via twitter)<br /><br /><br /><br />Good afternoon everyone, and welcome back to something completely different... I did a short post on Saturday, where I explained my reasoning for the new name and background for the blog, but I assume that most of you are seeing it for the first time today. Like I asked of you when I made the changes before this, please let me know what you think of the new look - I really do appreciate the last round of comments, and they in no small part led to this new look. You told me that the green under the new format was too bright (especially on cell phones), so hopefully this will be readable now (you know, the words..., not that my content will start making any sense)... ;) I tagged a big group of you to this post on facebook because I know that you'll be honest with me. However, don't feel slighted if you're not in that group - please let me know what you think of the new name and look, whether that be via the comment section here, through facebook, twitter, or in person. <br /><br /><br />As I give you my completely horrid weekly fantasy baseball update, let me also give a shoutout to those of you in my leagues who have been reading Bikini Hill. The way that the view tracking is set up here by blogger, I only get a 'sampling' of where pageviews come from (websites, etc...), but I have seen cdmsports.com showing up on a regular basis, so I hope that you're enjoying reading about my misery... :) Now onto this week's wonderful news...<br /><br />League 1 (25 entry fee - 1st place - 125, 2nd place - 25)<br /><br />1) Neshanic 76.50<br />2) DraftDodgers 69.00<br />3) Pappys Boyz 60.00<br />10) The View From Bikini Hill 38.00 (Yes, I renamed the blog out of shame)... :P<br /><br /><br />League 2 (50 entry/40 w/discount - 1st place - 300, 2nd place 50)<br /><br />1) Breaking Bats 90.00 (NINETY freaking points...) Punk... :)<br />2) 4troublemakers 68.00<br />3) Loons XXIV 67.00<br />5) The Bikini Hill Bobcats 54.00<br /><br /><br />League 3 (50 entry/40 w/discount - 1st place - 300, 2nd place 50)<br /><br />1) Nappy Heads 71.50<br />2) jonnylove7 59.50<br />3) Mad Men 59.00<br />5) The Bikini Hill Nine 55.50 (Fishing For Trout, Loons XXI tied for 5th)<br /><br />As for my "favorite" fantasy horror stories this week... Well, The View From Bikini Hill is now back to SEVEN players on the DL after Huston Street and A.J. Ellis decided to join the crowd (oh, and A.J. Ellis was my catcher for ALL THREE TEAMS) - "and the hits just keep on coming..." So I'm at work on Friday (I believe), and Clayton Kershaw has a 5-3 lead in the 9th inning, with a reliever in the game against the Rockies. There's a runner on base when the batter just CRUSHES THE BALL! Anyway, the game is now tied 5-5, and no win for Coach... #shocking THEN I see that Strasburg was pulled in the 2nd inning of his start with an injury - BEAUTIFUL... Just for the sake of you being kind enough to stop by and read my blog, I hope that y'all are a bunch of sadists... :)<br /><br /><br />Speaking of sports, things have broken right for my San Antonio Spurs to this point. The Heat and Pacers will be playing a Game 7 tonight, and the winner will have only 2 days of rest before tipping off the Finals with the Spurs on Thursday. I'm hoping to watch a triple overtime game tonight... ;)<br /><br />Let me give you a little story from work last night... :) I'm working at the front door, and in the right lane of the street in front Harper's, a car starts cruising slowly behind the row of cars that is parked in front of the businesses on our side of the Square. The guy on the passenger side then leans out of the window as the car comes to a stop behind one of the parked cars, waving his right arm as he starts yelling, "LET'S GO!!!" Of course the car that he is motioning to and shouting at is COMPLETELY EMPTY... :)<br /><br />As I write my blog today, let me retell the story about how I wouldn't even have a blog if it wasn't for --S, who writes 'Life as a Las Vegas Poker Dealer' (link on the right). When I was dealing poker in Las Vegas, --S was dealing poker at the Flamingo (sorry, the Pink Chicken), and he would often come to our "bustling poker room" to play. In his most recent blog entry, --S stated that a move to Hawaii with his wife is pretty much in the works. One of the reasons that he gave for this was that he finds the thought of spending any more time in Vegas depressing... This is something that I have said about the desert before, as I continue to wonder why we can't just have an intersection of Bikini Hill, 6th Street, and the Strip right here in Central Texas. :) I want to wish my friend and his wife the best of luck as they make plans to move to paradise, and I won't even address the INSANE CLAIM that if he had his life to live over again, that he'd do nothing in his past any differently... :)<br /><br />Speaking of friends who are trying to annoy me, I mentioned fellow blogger Lucki Duck (Small Potatoes Poker and Sports Betting - link on the right) here recently, and that he was going to be playing in Event 7 of this year's World Series of Poker. Well, the $1,000.00 No-Limit Hold 'Em event began yesterday, and out of 1,837 entries, our friend Pete finished in 154th place, for a $2,033.00 cash... :) I can't be in Vegas, and he's CASHING in WSOP events... Congratulations Pete!<br /><br />And speaking of annoying people that my little blog can't seem to get rid of, our friend Alyssa (yeah, that one) made a trip to South Texas this weekend. I'll let her tell you the story about what happened: "Drove through Dairy Queen to get a snack to eat while driving, and when the lady asked what I wanted to drink, I panicked and responded, "cheese"..." You can take the girl out of San Marcos, but you can't get her out of the blog... :)<br /><br />I'm not going to improve on that, so have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-13846207439415359742013-06-01T20:18:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:31:46.511-07:00Aztec with a Fashion Turban - Tribal & Arabian Blend!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">I am quite excited about today's outfit post, I couldn't wait to style my favourite shopping finds from my holiday:</span> <span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Today's Look is an interesting blend of <strong>Tribal and Middle Eastern culture</strong>. I wore an <strong>Aztec Print Dress</strong> (Mexican tribal influence)<strong> </strong>and paired it with the uber chic accessory the <strong>Fashion Turban</strong> (Middle Eastern influence) - an <strong>Embellished</strong> <strong>Royal Blue</strong> and wore a <strong>Peach Sheer Jacket</strong> over the dress. My <strong>Neckpiece and Earrings</strong> also had a Tribal influence.: Metallic with geometric shapes, in the form of <strong>varied triangles</strong>. I wore two solid colour Leather studded <strong>Cuffs Bracelets</strong>, matching the dress colour tones, to complete the look.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6wsONW-0kOVxe65W4m9Kje7TQXMPam1-os08WHXLlJe2CnInvAsm0OXAnblOS4p1Fq3YNB-hX4RHbbT1oeIzhAuc48OCwK2DLBEoN1lqCiBrwFKv4lGmyMd6ZDui_5WlErK8vX4FVIBo/s1600/CYMERA_20130602_034755_new.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6wsONW-0kOVxe65W4m9Kje7TQXMPam1-os08WHXLlJe2CnInvAsm0OXAnblOS4p1Fq3YNB-hX4RHbbT1oeIzhAuc48OCwK2DLBEoN1lqCiBrwFKv4lGmyMd6ZDui_5WlErK8vX4FVIBo/s1600/CYMERA_20130602_034755_new.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyNrHpEgkS0IRXZ5eqFSoxkIdOskiOKwX_oJC93xgIOgbV7bWFSbSypV6lKJ4hyU0yFvU0BjvqXPwLDgqu4QYAbMpLM9q1dIrvNOalZS4blIVrP-rJu36B4jLoBR-q-dAUEi0LH4Sz0uk/s640/CYMERA_20130602_033313.jpg" width="456" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><img border="0" height="506" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUuDixdoWSuNUj4wgeVO6WuwXbEmixxvle_zgbaSoBsW6y1o6liNVmyhVNQscmCN5Kv02edkfis1qBp5J2wCrvMYpHZRQ3p7dxk01WM4jALrhTeSQXe-LCB5_Z9hlC_vTkAOsC-IeGI7A/s640/CYMERA_20130602_035629_new.jpg" width="640" /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYJSSkSRN5tRaRtqySqLWQqqMMBQiKf7AZMfrKYxIPjHRap7OuKRQpfyBR06AWRQr-N8iKv-ArjRZU9xozsl5ybBntUUhd7hwH_VeZN7S_hXdNZKcN3BOUy7HBeocHTnZbFsa0CPx4occ/s1600/CYMERA_20130602_034050_new.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"></span> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"> <span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">I love the <strong>bold colours and pattern play </strong>of this <strong>Aztec Print Dress</strong> I'm wearing. The Aztec style originates from <strong>Mexico </strong>and was influenced by a long history of tribes. It made its debut on the modern runway way back in 2009 at the <strong>Matthew Williamson</strong> spring/summer show. In the fashion world, <strong>Aztec prints</strong> have become the style du jour among the trendy and hip. Known for their daring colour combinations with black outlines, bold geometrical shapes like triangles and circles, lots of strong colours and a mix of patterns and lines. These fearless prints have become a dominant theme in fashion runways all around the world.</span> </span></span><span style="color: black;"> </span></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><strong><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><u>Styling Tips for the Aztec Trend:</u></span></strong></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> When wearing a tribal print, your look is instantly trendy. These fashion-forward pieces give you street-style flair with a cultured edge. This look stirs up dreams of far-off lands and ancient civilizations. Incorporating a few statement patterns will add a new dimension to your fashion sense. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">1.If you aren't sure how to incorporate it into your wardrobe, <strong>think Classic</strong>. Balance Aztec prints with simple silhouettes and clean lines. Opt for classic shapes and styles like shifts or mini dresses, totes and flats. You can also pair the vivid prints with neutrals like black and white. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">2.Aztec prints look brilliant with <strong>faux fur, leather and suede</strong>, which give body and balance to this heavy print. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">3.The print itself is catchy enough, so keep the <strong>accessories muted</strong> and to the minimal to avoid looking tacky. When adding accessories, look for a <strong>subtle colour in the print</strong> and bring in out in your earrings or necklace. It will instantly add a pop of colour to your outfit.<br />4.Combine this trend with <strong>solid colours</strong>, that can anchor the look.</span><br /> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4LEHvk9OOH3X7-zZtp-9K24rcf0MCND__jVLz1ZqvLYtzNXw-Mka1bT_m3_wpqb96B-7CyW7Sl8ibJsStKgYDfzPcXY2Uh-gs9hapOINKjcUsBhoE9evxteWJkeCRzdBi_1hGswylZ2U/s640/CYMERA_20130602_040234_new.jpg" width="603" /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_t77LWRCRUnR9Y1-8YCeZv6qQKboUu9SGGl1O0PDU1b4GpkbV2Z0dn3iT7BG3pJXrh-00niGi7Ddb6uzCaNnU0L-cWz3F6IJlnCvGeIS92vzIcGZ-ggKvZQTNlwLedjOibGWFc424YFw/s640/CYMERA_20130602_040125_new.jpg" /> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMUOZX1Hvx0VmwVRFTBB3mbAtY81heFO0qWL-wOuYpcHVpcXrEmwlSJmSHjYtjBYI1wvKN9wNCi7BkOTbRPkfd3Pum6pHTgdQ5AQ2yA4M4BxNM3oO86V7iOthVs6AdkIO0CpnjBde5Na4/s1600/CYMERA_20130602_033708.jpg" /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> <span style="color: black;">I<strong> </strong>wore a solid colour <strong>Fashion Turban in Royal Blue, </strong>embellished<strong> </strong>with a centre brooch with crystals and a pearl. </span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times;"><strong>Turban chic</strong> may very well be the <strong>summer accessory</strong> trend that brings me the most joy. The <strong>turban trend</strong> has been making a huge comeback in the world of fashion. Turbans have been around for centuries, first as a symbol of religion but more recently as a fashion statement. Recently, this trend has reinvented itself and made a major come back. They have become the <strong>ultimate quirky,</strong> <strong>but</strong> <strong>elegant accessory.</strong> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">R</span></span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">emember how sophisticated and glamorous <strong>Sophia Loren</strong> and <strong>Lana Turner</strong> looked when they graced the silver screens in their elegant turbans? </span></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This time around it was <strong>Carrie in SATC2</strong> and <strong>Salma Hayek </strong></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">made turban born once again.</span></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These days women again are looking to the turban as a bold fashion statement. Celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kourtney Kardashian, Beyonce and Eva Mendez have been seen sporting turbans both on the red carpet and as casual street wear.</span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"></span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><strong><u>Styling Tips for Turbans</u></strong></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></span><br /><div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: white;"></span><span style="color: black;"><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;">1.Hair: </span></span></strong><span style="font-size: large;">Loose curls provide balance for the top-heavy head wrapper and ascertain a symmetry of sorts.</span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></span><br /><div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;">2.Make-Up<em>: </em></span></span></strong><span style="font-size: large;">If you choose a high-colour, high-sheen turban, which undoubtedly captures attention, your make-up musts are smouldering, smoky eyes and flawless skin. A tangerine blush with a slight shimmer on the cheekbones and a nude lip will complete this look. </span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></span><br /><div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;">3.Accessories:<em> </em></span></span></strong><span style="font-size: large;">A sparkly brooch or a feathery addition to the centre of your turban works brilliantly on satin or silk. Always avoid bulk at the neck, whether with scarves, collars, or excessive jewellery.</span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></span><br /><div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span> </span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpoz-RYIfT8zWRbwCnmQ9_H4soDegXBny3IfFXRA5osp8X4CGSG8jsk1BXeSfs-aR86RTzb05zoCddoh3B47xKC4jbBm8lpmyWXpS0WD-Hm8qI5K93dwBacVSW-unuMb1jAJbwh_4skIM/s1600/CYMERA_20130602_040605_new.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpoz-RYIfT8zWRbwCnmQ9_H4soDegXBny3IfFXRA5osp8X4CGSG8jsk1BXeSfs-aR86RTzb05zoCddoh3B47xKC4jbBm8lpmyWXpS0WD-Hm8qI5K93dwBacVSW-unuMb1jAJbwh_4skIM/s640/CYMERA_20130602_040605_new.jpg" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"></span></span><br /><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuDy4acRiT7f98RSyq0EYan-HVXzsXzkxhBBYft0hqay-8lhET5XyNRwpstpBUltVokTlDPxRJjEp6AAAAsa02XT1eTIDJYCe0oysVWoryGOk7cps4HTKTP3smulGMpOah6ahFK5OH0vI/s640/CYMERA_20130602_040818_new.jpg" /> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwCb7OKG-sNgFvbQiuIGGEw6EP4Rejp3g75_0J2OBW9qsoaWUNyrutpgphMLzBxfJdaWQD3M9rgi6fDIIPACEgoIylLbs0Du7yg-_yG8sg1A8phvLgbX4FWyTLb0y6ChJkUoH3RLRvgTQ/s640/CYMERA_20130602_041115_new.jpg" /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> <span style="color: black;">My <strong>Accessories</strong> complemented the Tribal Trend of the dress ,with geometric shapes of varied triangles. The Neckpiece is metallic gold with orange inverted triangles and the earrings are white and orange .</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY-IqzTLKZwqUZxLKbEYq1bJyejBK3S4hci0FeKQk8OzK9P5zFXcB0ehNM1f_gtc8i4LgAYw5yw5UYvWFOGbI9tnxPX6tQkAlkASzHOICumJlvUV-df_R0ZIOlh-0zMhhGOfi6SdcetCM/s640/CYMERA_20130602_042142.jpg" width="617" /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> <span style="color: black;">The Leather studded <strong>Cuff Bracelets</strong> I wore were in Solid Colours of Green and Pink with metallic gold, matching two tones of the Aztec Print of the dress.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDxvngS2PYXY5I6PEtAYi-L0Vmnut0bi5WKLGQxk6O1PCamxyHFezpBtcCpjMdkXFUrSI0rGXtOWJ5gfesXkvtWp5sVxROeB6lskKTJX9XqLduITYwfz6XI7hyphenhyphenMllj97mvk2ZLXqEzg2E/s640/CYMERA_20130602_041303.jpg" /> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><strong><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><u>HOOK MY LOOK</u></span></strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">~ Aztec Print Dress - <strong>H&M</strong></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">~ Sheer Peach Jacket - <strong>MANGO</strong></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">~ Royal Blue Embellished Turban - <strong>TOPSHOP</strong></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">~ Metallic Neckpiece and Earrings - <strong>DIVA</strong></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><strong>~</strong> </span><span style="color: black;">Green & Pink Leather Pyramid Cuff Bracelets <strong>-</strong> <strong>HERMES</strong></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">~ Orange Lace Peep Toes (old) - <strong>ALDO</strong></span></span></span></div><div id="chictopia_fp2" style="background-color: white; border: 0px currentColor; color: black; height: 45px; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; width: 160px;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="javascript:void((function(){var%20e=document.createElement('script');e.setAttribute('type','text/javascript');e.setAttribute('charset','UTF-8');e.setAttribute('src','http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinmarklet.js?r='+Math.random()*99999999);document.body.appendChild(e)})());" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Pin It!" src="http://i1314.photobucket.com/albums/t563/StephanieT2525/PINITBUTTON_zps456a396a.gif" style="border: currentColor;" /></a></div><br /></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.chictopia.com/photo/show/870285-Aztec+with+a+Fashion+Turban+Tribal+Arabian+Blend-black-aztec-print-h-m-dress-blue-embellished-topshop-hat" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" src="http://assets0.chictopia.com/photos/Steph25/images/fp/870285.gif" style="border: 0px currentColor;" /></a></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-75799111702158416652013-06-01T17:27:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:36:36.933-07:00Bikini Hill, 6th, & The StripGood evening everyone. After changing the name of my blog recently from 'The View From Bikini Hill' to 'The View From Bikini Hill & 6th' due to my upcoming move back to the ATX (Austin, Texas), I thought about the new name and what I write about in this blog, and I decided that 'Bikini Hill, 6th, & The Strip' more accurately reflects the blog's content. For those of you who are regular readers, this will be the last name change (for a while at least)... ;) And yes Lightning, this does mean that you won't be reading a blog entry here next week under the blog name of 'Bikini Beach'... :) Also, for the guys who were waiting in line to get up to the Veranda last night and started yelling, "C'MON, THE VIEW FROM BIKINI ATOLL..." - NO, you won't be seeing that as the name of the blog either... :) Have a great weekend and I'll see you again on Monday!<br /> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-7739807247356976662013-06-01T10:34:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:24:02.994-07:00Stanley Cup and Cheesecake 2013 – Conference Finals Edition<br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><b>EASTERN CONFERENCE</b></b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><br /></b></div></div></div></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">(1) Pittsburgh Penguins vs. (4) Boston Bruins</span></b></div></div></div></div></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><br /></b></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This is as absolutely amazing a final four as you could want. None of this 7th and 8th seed BS, just pretty much the top four teams (standings be damned) over the course of the season, squaring off for the right to go to the finals.<br /><br />This matchup definitely seems to favor the Pens. After a shaky six games against the Islanders, they steamrolled the Senators, scoring goals in bunches and clicking at a very high rate on the power play. Boston's defense is deeper than Ottawa's, but they also play within a system and are not particularly speedy, which should rule out most of the chaos that Pittsburgh had such trouble with against the Isles.<br /><br />The Bruins, who I frankly thought looked done and disinterested entering the playoffs, found another gear and dispatched the terrible New York Rangers fairly easily after their dramatic scare against the Leafs in round one, winning in the way that teams who have been there before tend to win. The Penguins are a whole different challenge, however, and the Crosby and Malkin lines figure to produce offense at a level they haven't yet seen. Factor in the Bruins lousy penalty kill and I just can't imagine a way they manage to best the two-headed monster four times in seven tries. Or even twice. <b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Pens in five.</span></b></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSUIKFfkSM2BI5eUSaJX94aeiN9TWXV98ftNezb_LD2P7r79eiVg-QiLPGOgCx8up_IWydVO6_eXKTfrBXR8OFf0a6qdPVmMnzlcTUWa-Xp_AwUbCKvww2LOm-KB9-HQQpvlokMqBgHOGm/s1600/PensBruins.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSUIKFfkSM2BI5eUSaJX94aeiN9TWXV98ftNezb_LD2P7r79eiVg-QiLPGOgCx8up_IWydVO6_eXKTfrBXR8OFf0a6qdPVmMnzlcTUWa-Xp_AwUbCKvww2LOm-KB9-HQQpvlokMqBgHOGm/s640/PensBruins.gif" width="480" /></a></div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></b></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> <b>WESTERN CONFERENCE</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br /></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">(1) Chicago Blackhawks vs. (5) Los Angeles Kings</span></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />This is a real battle of titans that, honestly, could go either way. Though both teams' series went the distance in round two, I think the revelation in Chicago was "Maybe the <i>are</i> beatable", whereas the story in Los Angeles was "Man, Jonathan Quick is really, really good!" He's gonna steal a game, and he might steal two or three.<br /><br />Still, the Blackhawks showed a ton of resiliency in coming back from a 3-1 deficit against Detroit, winning win they had to, and emphatically at times. Their forwards are incredible, and if they can get rolling and score goals... especially on the road... they should be able to move on.<br /><br />It's seemed all season that this was the matchup we'd see in the Western finals, and it's a series I really can't wait to watch, 'cause it's gonna be good! <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Kings in seven.</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7VgD3tjPYobO77paPDQ2AH5m6pgMNCmuVJtORVpJnxxg-0GRvU2DoFgApoN0Hu0EFxAHCocbWKX7j9yOxofuOsWHV-4_niQF-M4DCvM2c9IzF1frPCdG3sSLuKFd7Bry5f9LCK5kobglR/s1600/HawksKings.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7VgD3tjPYobO77paPDQ2AH5m6pgMNCmuVJtORVpJnxxg-0GRvU2DoFgApoN0Hu0EFxAHCocbWKX7j9yOxofuOsWHV-4_niQF-M4DCvM2c9IzF1frPCdG3sSLuKFd7Bry5f9LCK5kobglR/s640/HawksKings.gif" width="518" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-69890994957807653012013-05-31T14:41:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:36:37.006-07:00I Remember The First Time (19)/NHL 3rd Rd."I'm the Michael Jordan of mumbling song lyrics until I get to the part I know..."<br />-@Really_OK- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Nothing makes us feel as good about our relationship as spending time with far more dysfunctional couples..." -@ShipInTheKnight- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Playing the lottery is one way to tell people you didn't pay attention in math class..."<br />-@Cali_Kid_Mike- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Don't trust people too easily - not everyone approaches you with sincerity..."<br />-@writersdream- (via twitter)<br /><br />"This is the time of year when I start running up to random people asking, "Hey, do you have a pool? Will you be my friend?" -@BrianHDot- (via twitter)<br /><br /><br /><br />I remember the first time that I heard something brilliant on the Square in San Marcos, America... A drunk patron said the following to my friend Tim, who works at the bars next door to Harper's: "Man, you're cool as hell, but that bearded doorguy that used to work here is a jerk..." 'Jerk' is a substitute word - I'm trying to keep it 'PG' here, and Tim got rid of his beard about two weeks ago... ;)<br /><br />I remember the first time that the Scripps National Spelling Bee was on ESPN, but I didn't want of bunch of kids to make me feel stupid, so I didn't watch it...<br /><br />I remember the first time that I worked as a chip runner at the 2005 World Series of Poker... Yes boys and girls, it's already been eight years. Again, this year's WSOP started on Wednesday, and you can keep up with everything at www.wsop.com/ <br /><br />I also remember the first time that I played in an event at the World Series of Poker... I played in the $500.00 buy-in Casino Employees Event the following year at the 2006 WSOP, when my short-stacked pocket aces went up against pocket queens and pocket sixes, queen on the river... Oh, such fond memories... :(<br /><br />I remember the first time that I bored you with blog statistics... May 2013 is now officially the month that Bikini Hill & 6th received its most views. The current count for the month now stands at 3,832 views (36,760 all-time), and any other clicks in the next 2 and 1/2 hours (til 7:00 p.m. CST) will add to that total. The previous high total for a month had been 3,805 views in January 2013. This is also the fifth consecutive month that the blog was viewed more than 3,000 times. Thanks for stopping by... :)<br /><br />I remember the first time that I bored you just a little bit more chirping about the blog... I recently asked for input about the new background, and the most common complaint that I have received is that the green is too bright. With the template that I'm using now, the green that is in place is the darkest that I had to choose from, but the next time that I change the background, I promise to find a darker green or a darker color. Thank you for your input... :)<br /><br />I remember the first time (or the first one hundred times) that one of my fantasy baseball teams imploded... So yesterday the White Sox are playing the Cubs at Wrigley, and I've got Jake Peavy on the mound. I'm in the kitchen (t.v. in my bedroom) when I hear, "and that ball is hit DEEP to left field......., AND IT'S GONE!!!..." More or less, that was the call when the Cubs PITCHER, Travis Wood, hit a GRAND SLAM off of Peavy, who is obviously one of my fantasy pitchers... I'm sure that the blog is getting its money's worth in entertainment value from the $105.00 that I spent on my 3 fantasy league entries, but HAVE A HEART... Isn't the season over already???<br /><br />I remember the first time that was the second time that Verissimo was a doorguy in training... So Verissimo stops by 'Coach's Corner' last night (they should call it Coach's Corner, shouldn't they, and put up a plaque or something there when I'm done after next Saturday? - more about that in a minute...). So Verissimo asks me why SHE DIDN'T get to use the clicker the last time that she was there, since Angelica did. I said, "oh, you know Angelica?" Verissimo says, "no..." :) Evidently Verissimo can read... ;)<br /><br />I remember the first time that I told you when I'm leaving my job... So next Saturday (June 8th) will be my last day at Harper's/Slackers/The Veranda. My friends Amy and Mo stopped by Coach's Corner (see, it's catchy, right?) last night, and Mo asked me what I liked to eat - DANGEROUS QUESTION, and do you have a lot of time to spare??? :) Mo said that she might bake something for me since I'm leaving, and I told her that I don't eat many sweets (cookies, cake, etc...), but that I would get a list to her of things that I do like. It occurred to me that I should just go ahead and put the list here since I'm sure that all of you are just DYING to give me something... :) What do I like?: lasagna (when I worked for Greyhound as a food services supervisor in San Antonio while working on my teaching certification, Mary, a friend of the family and my supervisor, made me WHOLE LASAGNAS that I would basically eat for EVERY MEAL until the lasagna was completely gone...); pizza (mushrooms are my favorite topping); Haribo gummy bears (an exception to the sweets rule); Blue Diamond almonds (the wasabi flavored ones); and Gardetto's cheese or mustard pretzels. Now, let me BE CLEAR - I do not expect anyone to make or get me anything, but there's your list Mo... :) Oh, and I also like the Spurs, Red Sox, and the Steelers... (I'm SO HORRIBLE...) :P<br /><br />I remember the first time that I told you what happened while I was talking to Amy and Mo last night... So this line of about ten people starts walking by us going downstairs while we're chatting about the important subject above, when this guy goes, "HIGH-FIVE" and slaps Amy's hand. The guy then TOTALLY IGNORES Mo as he walks by, at which point Mo shouts his name. Yes, you read that correctly - the guy gives Amy, who he doesn't know, a high-five, and COMPLETELY BLOWS OFF Mo, the girl he does know... :)<br /><br /><br />I remember the first time that I needed a Kings fan... Okay, so now it's time to make my predictions for the third round of the NHL playoffs. Here's how things went in the last round:<br /><br />My Prediction/Actual Result<br /><br />Penguins over the Senators in 5 games/Penguins in 5 games<br />Rangers over the Bruins in 6 games/Bruins in 5 games (shut up Pete)<br />Blackhawks over the Red Wings in 5 games/Blackhawks in 7 games<br />Kings over the Sharks in 7 games/Kings in 7 games<br /><br />I'm now 9-3 through 2 rounds of the playoffs, and I nailed the exact number of games with the winner TWICE in the second round (okay, get me a going away present)... ;) Back to needing a Kings fan, I have three regular readers of the blog who still have a team in the hunt. My brother Pete in a Bruins fan, my blogging friend Grrouchie is a Penguins fan, and my blogging friend Lightning is a Blackhawks fan. Without any further stalling, here are my predictions for the conference finals...<br /><br />Penguins over the Bruins in 5 games<br />Blackhawks over the Kings in 5 games<br /><br />If my quick research is accurate, the Pens were 3-0 against the Bruins this season, and the Blackhawks went 2-1 against the Kings. The Penguins have looked dominant so far in the postseason, and Quick makes me nervous in goal for the Kings, because he strays so far. I'm happy to say that I have probably watched more hockey in these playoffs than I have since I was in high school... :)<br /><br /><br />I hope that you have a great weekend and I'll see you again on Monday! <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-50211955476213258122013-05-29T10:14:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:36:37.081-07:00Sean Is A Better Poker Player Than Me...Good morning everyone. Don't look now, but you're about to read an actual poker post... For those of you who haven't been reading Bikini Hill & 6th since its inception (which is pretty much everyone), the original plan was to write about poker once a week. If you look over to my links on the right side of this page, most of those writers originally started out with true poker blogs... Due to the "perfect storm" of a VERY EARLY Memorial Day poker tournament and the first cards of the 2013 World Series of Poker being pitched today, you get to read about some Texas Hold 'Em... :)<br /><br />So I innocently left work after my Sunday night shift (very early on Monday morning) and went to the grocery store. After I returned home and turned my phone on, I had a call and a text waiting for me. For those of you who don't know, if I'm not using my Droid, I usually have it turned off because it has a nasty habit of calling people if I leave it on while it's in my pocket. Keeping it off also saves the battery, so there ya go... Anyway, it seems that some of my friends and coworkers had decided to play some poker after I had left work, and wanted to know if I'd be interested in playing........ HMMMMMM??? I texted back that I would be there in about twenty minutes, after taking a quick shower. After getting out of my five minute shower, I got a phone call - "are you coming or what?!..." :)<br /><br />As I walked into the house, I heard a lot of commotion..., and DICE??? It seems that three of the people who were about to play cards were warming up by laying down what turned out to be more than twice the amount of the tournament buy-in on a lucky roll of the dice - can you say Phil Ivey??? :) For an impromptu poker tournament, it turned out to be very organized: 7 players; 100 in tournament chips; 30-minute rounds; a doubling blind structure starting with blinds of 1 and 2 (2/4, 4/8, 8/16...); First place would take everything, but the final two could make a deal.<br /><br />I had never played against anyone at this table, and I hadn't played poker since my December trip to Las Vegas, so this was going to be an interesting start to my weekend (my Sunday night shift being my "Friday"). The first major hand occurred when a misread (or misclaimed) straight shoved on a scary (?) board against pocket aces (player to my right). I put the '?' after 'scary' because this hand brings up some interesting poker points. The shove came post-flop (obviously), and the player who claimed to have the straight (which never came) said that he was surprised that aces called him there. Of course aces would be vulnerable to a straight, a set, two pairs, etc... in this situation, but some players just don't ever lay down pocket aces... This was the question being pondered by my friend with the busted draw as he finished in 7th place.<br /><br />My hands during this tournament were either premium hands (about a half-dozen), or they were garbage. My first hand of note came about midway through the first round when I had pocket queens. I got cute and limped in this situation, which was not a good idea. To this point, people had been playing pretty loose holdings, and I didn't want to run everyone off (which was my reasoning at this juncture)... Well, the board came out with a low straight draw and a flush draw. I made a bet of five after the action was checked to me, and had a single caller. The turn brought both a possible straight and flush, but I bet out five again after being checked to, and was again called. On a seemingly innocuous river (a non-flush nine), my opponent suddenly bet out. Hmmmm... To this point, my opponent's play in the tournament could best be described as "super-apologetic" (I dare you to find that player type in your poker books and magazines). I took this to mean that he had NO IDEA what he was doing, OR that he had a REALLY GOOD IDEA about how to play. I only had twelve chips invested in the hand, and it was still very early (the tournament started at 5:15 a.m., so it was REALLY EARLY), so I proceeded to fold after asking, "that NINE hit you?" MANY TIMES I have seen people bet a "blank" on the river after slow-playing a good hand, but my read was wrong in this case. My friend showed a pair smaller than the nine, and just a pair, so my queens would have won there - live and learn... <br /><br />The next big hand of note in this tournament involved my friend Sean and the player to my right. Sean is the only person that I spoke with about making this blog entry, so his is the only name that I'm using other than "my friend," which will be every other player... :) Anyway, for a tournament with 100 in chips, 50 going in from each player on the river constitutes a big hand... The board on this hand (still in the 1/2 round I believe) had a queen on the flop, and played out with two other cards which would make a king-high straight possible. I know this because after the player on my right bet 20, Sean raised him to 50..., and was CALLED..., by the nut (no possible flush) king-high straight... When I saw the winning hand, I remember remarking, "just the nut straight" (I think I dealt this hand), but no one at the table (including myself) commented on the fact that the winning hand ONLY CALLED here... I think that Sean went ahead and showed a big queen at the end of this hand, and in hindsight, it probably would have been better for me if the winning hand WOULD HAVE raised here, just in case Sean would have called...<br /><br />As the chips flew back and forth (and back to Sean) throughout the rest of this round and into the second round: I RAISED my pocket queens this time, checked around a king-high flop, and then made a small bet on the turn and took the pot; I limped with AK and WHIFFED; limped with pocket 7's, turned a set and checked heads-up, saw a third flush card on the turn, and a FOURTH flush card on the river, and took the small pot at showdown (Sean was away from the table for this hand and shouldn't be entitled to this information, so SHHHHH....); and my hand of note during the early second round came when I raised my A Q to 20, got TWO callers (so much respect), and AGAIN whiffed the flop, which I had to fold to a bet (both hands went to showdown, and I was behind as 1 of the 2 weaker hands that called me preflop paired up). Also during this round, my "super-apologetic" friend busted out, as did another friend with a unique playing style. 'Unique playing style' would make a preflop raise to 11 for example, and then bet 4 (the minimum) after the flop (this tactic was utilized more than once). <br /><br />So now we're down to 4 players, and we're in round 3, with blinds of 4 and 8, when I see pocket aces. I believe that there was a single limper, and my raise to 25 got no action (pocket aces - you win a small pot or lose a big pot with them, so the saying goes...). The majority of the chips at the table were now in the stacks of Sean and the player to my right as Nike busted out in 4th place. Nike (true to his name) had been running back and forth across the room between our table and another table ('casino' would be way too strong a word, but it was a fun predawn Memorial Day party)... :) Nike played a lot like me, except that he got bigger pieces (SOME PIECE) of the flops that he saw, so his stack-size fluctuated more than mine. <br /><br />At this point, I suggested that we give 3rd place their buy-in back (I was a DISTANT THIRD at the time, but it was worth a shot)... :) Sean shot this down, and I don't blame him, considering the stack that he had at the time. As play continued, I might (??) have won another hand, but in the late tournament style that I'm "famous" for (ask my brother about the Sahara tournaments that I cashed in...), I just hoped that one of these stacks would knock the other off, unless I got a premium hand of course... Well, as luck would have it, Sean did knock out the player to my right, and we were now heads-up. Of course I immediately suggested that we give second place their buy-in back, and I could see that Sean was seriously considering it when his wife came over and gave him a hug, which had me thinking, "DON'T BREAK HIS TRAIN OF THOUGHT KATE!" :) Sean did agree to give second place their entry back, on the condition that I tell everyone that Sean is a better poker player than me, in the event that he won... I agreed to this of course, because how could I argue that Sean wasn't the better player, if he won? This also brings up some good poker points (yes, I'm going to keep you in suspense as to how the tournament ended, unless you already read the title of this post of course)... The first point is that the agreement to give second their buy-in back wasn't a bad move on Sean's part, and in all honesty, if I did start mounting a comeback, I would have suggested that we give second place more, in case I won the whole thing. Here the reason why: I have seen SEVERAL tournaments where the chip-leader refused to make a "chop-agreement," and then got BURNED because their stack disappeared. When play got down to heads-up, Sean was ahead of me about 650 to 50: if I double-up once, it's now 600 to 100; another double-up, and it's 500 to 200; and with one more double-up, I'm now ahead 400 to 300 (it can happen that fast, and I've seen it, SEVERAL TIMES)... Second, Sean is a good poker player (saying that he's "better than me" doesn't necessarily mean much)... :) As a friend, I wouldn't worry about Sean sitting at a poker table in Las Vegas (he's never played at one before). In our post-tournament discussion, Sean pointed out how he was sure to sit to my left, giving him position on me (the opportunity to act after me in each hand). Sean also noted that he saw how I wanted more action on one of the hands that I won. This gets to something that I'm going to address in future posts that I do about working at Harper's: I feel like I've earned a Doctorate in people watching during the past year, and Sean pays attention too... <br /><br />Okay, enough stalling... So on the VERY FIRST HAND of heads-up, I look down at 10-7 in the big blind. I call Sean's small preflop raise, and the flop comes J-7-x. What are the odds that your opponent hits a flop? As you ponder that question, I ended up shoving my pair of 7's, and Sean calls before flipping over J 8 - what are the odds?... :) The turn was a Jack (I'm now drawing dead), and the river was an 8 (and now I'm buried)... <br /><br />At this point, let me note that Sean was the person who hired me after my disappointing move to the desert last summer, and that he's one of the people that I'll come back to, BEGGING FOR A JOB if I can't find something in Austin (oh, I would HATE that commute)... Let me also wish Sean good luck on his surgery today (he has a torn tendon in his arm, the kind that's going to require a "Ray Lewis-type brace" - Sean's words, and all of us football fans can IMMEDIATELY picture it). Let me also say that Sean has a custom poker set that Kate bought for him in Las Vegas, and all that it's missing is a good deck of cards. Well, someone that I know has two authentic decks of plastic poker cards that they used while training to be a poker dealer in Las Vegas, and would probably give one of them up for someone who is having surgery today, so the question is, "red or blue Sean?" ;)<br /><br />As I said, the World Series of Poker starts today. The WSOP will run until July 15th (except for the "November Nine"), and you can follow along at www.wsop.com/ Card Player's site www.cardplayer.com is also another excellent poker site for keeping up with what's happening in the poker world. If you want people to root for, a couple of fellow bloggers (again, links on the right) are competing in the WSOP this summer. Pete Moffatt (Lucki Duck) will be playing in Event 7, and Dave Smith (Memphis MOJO) will be playing in Event 26 if you want to track their progress during those events - good luck guys! I actually just received my t-shirt in the mail yesterday from one of Pete's blogs (#1SportsPicks), and I will be wearing it to work tonight, in the spirit of supporting his efforts (and because the material is light - it's hot in San Marcos, America now)... :) Also today, San Marcos bids farewell to Alyssa (yes, THAT Alyssa)... We wish her the very best of luck on her move to Abilene (some people will do ANYTHING to get into the blog)... ;)<br /><br />Have a great day and I will see you again on Friday! Oh..., and Sean is a better poker player than me... :)<br /> <br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-25382141836327029392013-05-28T08:18:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:36:37.156-07:00Could You? (19)"I'd rather be optimistic than to be a hateful person! Only you can change who you are and who you want to be!!" -@texanslover100- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Being honest may not get you a lot of friends, but it will get you the right ones..."<br />-@shizKendallSays- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Please doubt me - that's when I do my best work..." -@thatUPSdude- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Me every night: I can have exactly 7 hours 23 minutes and 48 seconds of sleep if I fall asleep right now..." -@ComedyTruth- (via twitter)<br /><br />"Am I that strong..., to carry on?... I might change your life, I might save my world, COULD YOU SAVE ME?..." -Fuel- (Falls On Me)<br /><br /><br /><br />Could you give us some great lyrics from an inspirational song that include the question "could you?" since that's your theme today Coach? I could... ;) If you've never heard that song above by Fuel, please check it out. Actually, anytime that I quote lyrics from a song, your homework assignment is to check them out. I have great taste... ;)<br /><br />Could you tell us what your schedule was like when you were teaching and coaching? Check out the quote above the Fuel lyrics about falling asleep... That was me ALL THE TIME when I was a coach (if you change the '7' hours to 4 hours... Getting burned out was the main reason that I got in and out of the profession so many times...<br /><br />Could you please let me know what you think of the new blog background? Bikini Hill & 6th turned twenty months old today, and I was more than tired of seeing that dying dandelion that was at the top of the page, so it's gone... Whether you leave me a comment here, or on my facebook page, or on twitter, or in person, I'd like to know what you think of the new color scheme. I will let you know right now that the colors here will change depending on things that are happening in my universe (for example, if the Spurs were to win their fifth NBA Championship in a few weeks, you might see a lot of black, white, and silver)... For now, I didn't want to depart too much from the old color scheme (the yellow heading representing the sun, the blue repping the sky, the green representing grass, etc...). I have already found that using this template will help me to align my columns more easily, but in turn, it has also messed up the alignment of many of the columns in my older posts, which I have no motivation to go back and change by the way (other than yesterday's post). Please let me know what you think, if this color scheme is readable, etc...<br /><br />Could you please not deplete San Marcos, America of all of its Pittsburgh Steelers fans? I found out a couple of days ago that my friend Gabby will be moving up to Chicago to do her internship. Gabby is from Ohio and is a diehard Steelers fan. Coupled with the fact that I am going to be moving back to the ATX in the near future, there is definitely going to be a even more severe shortage of Steelers fans here in the fastest-growing large city in the United States... I think that Gabby should take the brunt of the blame for this, but I wish her the best of luck in the Windy City... :)<br /><br />Could you please make me roll my eyes? Over the weekend I was fortunate enough to see my Red Raider friend and former hoopster Jennifer, the same girl who posted 849 photos of her class ring on facebook recently... Jennifer made her first trip up to the Veranda during this visit, and when she came back downstairs, I asked her what she thought about it. My friend 'DJ Z' was working up top and Jennifer commented on the number of people that were dancing and how she felt old... Let me tell you, I cannot get enough of my former Rattlers telling me that THEY'RE OLD... ;)<br /><br />Could you give us another Veranda-related story, since you already brought it up? Over the weekend, as some customers were approaching me after our line to get upstairs had vanished, due to the number of people up there dipping back down below our capacity of 200, I heard the following: "Summer is cool because there's no one here..." I just smiled as the small group walked by en route to the 193 people that were still partying up on the roof... ;)<br /><br />Could you tell us just one more Veranda-related tale, pretty please? Once our customers have been carded downstairs, it is no longer necessary for them to prove their age as they proceed upstairs, but they often try to show me their licenses when they reach me. This is understandable due to the spot where I'm positioned in the hallway, so much so that I haven't even made a point of picking on them here in the blog... :) However, I was amused over the weekend when a girl approached me rapidly with her right arm fully exteneded, license in hand, asking me, "did you see it?" She never stopped as she rushed on by on her way up to the roof, like my brain was equipped with some..., TOLL TAG READER, Terminator-style technology, processing her age-verification as she sped on by... :)<br /><br />I hope that you have a great day, and I will see you again tomorrow with an actual poker post!!! (That's a message to all of the blog writers whose links you see on the right side of this page)... ;)<br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647265484110761988.post-1999348881848520922013-05-27T17:10:00.000-07:002013-06-22T07:36:37.231-07:00I'm A Training Doorguy..."Grrrrr....... I charge the Kindle after it's been laying there for days so I can read, only to get it and it's dead again!!! Really kids!?! I'm hiding the cereal, toaster, milk, granola bars, bananas! And whatever else they want for breakfast..." -Alma Medrano- (via facebook)<br /><br />"It's hard to say no to Yoo-hoo - the name literally beckons..."<br />-Sheldon- (The Big Bang Theory)<br /><br />"I don't believe in fate - you make your own opportunities..." -Don Draper- (Mad Men)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Good evening everyone. I'm sorry about the late post, but I took part in an impromptu poker tournament last night (very early this morning) after work, and I ended up staying out until 8:15 a.m. The good news for you poker people is that I will be doing an actual poker post on Wednesday, which is coincidentally (not really a coincidence) the first day of this year's World Series of Poker. That will give you at least a fourth post this week (Tonight, tomorrow, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday). Let me get started since I'm going to try to publish this by 7:00 p.m. CST, which is coincidentally (not really a coincidence) when tonight's hockey game will faceoff (Chicago @ Detroit - Game Six - NBC Sports Network). I honestly think that this is the most playoff hockey that I've watched in a season since I was in high school and living up in New Hampshire.<br /><br />It only seems fair to warn my coworkers that there is a high level of interest in the "gatekeeper" position that I will be leaving shortly at Harper's (actually it's in the hallway on the way up to the Veranda, but you get the idea)... My friend Verissimo (you can't go five minutes here without reading about a Chi-O) came by this weekend, and as many of the happy people who have been celebrating at our establishment seem increasingly inclined to do, she notified me that she was a "training doorguy..." Of course my immediate thought was, "OH... JOY..." :P Verissimo is harmless enough, so I indulged her for a few minutes, and let her interact with some of the many customers that we saw over this Memorial Day Weekend (I hope that you're enjoying yours). The highlight (and end) of Verissimo's training occurred when a male customer approached us by himself. When the customer reached us, Verissimo asked him to stop and to tell us his name, to make sure that it was "cool enough" to allow him to continue up to the roof... :) Of course we let him proceed to the Veranda... And then there's Angelica... :) Angelica stopped by my little checkpoint on her way out and "raised" Verissimo (sorry, I played poker last night)... Angelica actually wanted to utilize the "clicker" that we use to track how many customers we have upstairs (for capacity purposes). Angelica not only kept an accurate count during her training, but she is also a very good listener evidently, as she echoed MANY of the remarks that I routinely make to customers as they're leaving our place for the night... :)<br /><br />The mayor of San Marcos, America shared a very interesting fact on facebook late last week that I'll share with you now... It seems that San Marcos, America is the fastest-growing large city in the United States according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Of course Mayor Guerrero was very quick to give my blog the credit for this growth and to start plans on a future awards ceremony to honor this achievement... Okay, everything in that last sentence was totally fabricated, but San Marcos, Texas REALLY IS the fastest-growing large city in the U.S., and that's definitely newsworthy. I want to congratulate my friend for overseeing this growth (and our mayor is EVERYWHERE)... :) I also have to point out that this growth is the reason that I'm moving back north to a quiet little place like Austin - San Marcos is just TOO BIG... :P<br /><br />Another big deal (to many of my friends anyway) is the invasion of Whataburger Ketchup to the shelves of H.E.B. (a big South Texas grocery store chain). I would have NEVER believed that I would have seen SO MANY facebook statuses about a condiment if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes during the last week... :) Whataburger is a very popular fast-food burger chain in Texas if that's a mystery to you. Actually, it's unfair to call Whataburger "fast-food" in that they cook everything to order, which does seem to improve the quallity of their food. Back to the ketchup, it may not be as big a deal to me because I tend to eat french fries with almost everything but ketchup if given the opportunity (chicken fried steak gravy, ranch dressing, McDonald's hot mustard sauce, etc...). I know at this very moment you're thinking, "NO WONDER Coach is in such great shape...." The shape that we're referring to of course is ROUND, but I'm working on it... ;)<br /><br /><br />Okay, it looks like it's time to give you my weekly fantasy baseball standings due to the fast-approaching hockey game, but I'm posting at least three more times this week, so I'll try not to feel guilty...<br /><br /><br />League 1 - (25 entry fee - 1st place 125, 2nd place 25)<br /><br />1) Neshanic 73.50 (doesn't leading all the time get old?)<br />2) DraftDodgers 64.00 (clinging to 2nd place...)<br />3) Pappys Boyz 60.00<br />3) Rocky Roto 60.00<br />9) The View From Bikini Hill 44.00 (I'm NOT in last place this week!!!)<br /><br /><br />League 2 - (50 entry fee - 40 w/discount - 1st place 300, 2nd place 50)<br /><br />1) Breaking Bats 80.50 (still over 80 points...)<br />2) 4troublemakers 74.00 (also clinging to 2nd place...)<br />3) Loons XXIV 72.50<br /><br /><br />League 3 - (50 entry fee - 40 w/discount - 1st place 300, 2nd place 50)<br /><br />1) Nappy Heads 74.00 (again, leading all the time - BORING...)<br />2) Mad Men 65.50 (again, clinging to 2nd place...)<br />3) Fishing For Trout 62.00<br />4) The Bikini Hill Nine 57.00<br /><br /><br />A couple of interesting facts from the baseball diamond this week... The View From Bikini Hill had ANOTHER player go to the DL last week, so I now have six players on that list again... #shocking Also, The Bikini Hill Nine got NINE pitching victories for me last week, which is A QUARTER of the 36 total wins the team has accumulated for me (in 2 months). <br /><br />As I leave, let me give a shoutout to Miletus, hoping that she had a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY on Saturday. Miletus is one of the ORIGINAL followers of this little blog... :) I also hope that all of you enjoy your NHL and NBA playoff games tonight (GO SPURS GO!!!), and I'll see you again tomorrow!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0