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Arrrrgh!

Well my new revised weight goal of ‘not gaining weight in August’ (from the previous ‘lose 10 lbs in August’) may be acheivable.  I was rocking 229 this morning and I was even lighter at the beginning of the weekend.

This past week has just been crazy and I can only imagine it to continue at this speed for most of the year.  We will see how we make out.  The guys trip to Vegas is coming up in a couple of more weeks so at least I will have one long weekend to get away from the craziness.

I have been doing as much as I can to get ready for the Magic: The Gathering Canadian National Grinders (as my rating is no longer high enough for me to qualify for such things).  They are a week from this Friday.  I hope to play in the 4pm Standard event with a chance at the 6pm one if that goes bad.  I spent most of my time this weekend with the family not doing much because the next week and change will be pretty Magic-centric.  At least Heidi has her Harry Potter game for the Wii.

Travis has just been hilarious recently.  He has finally started talking a bit.  Anytime something drops on the ground he says ‘Ooh-Ooh’.  Sometimes he says ‘Ooh-Ooh’ and then pushes something off of a table.  He may not quite understand it or perhaps he is even funnier then I give him credit for.  This weekend we had a huge breakthrough.  Now you can say ‘Travis, what does a Pirate say?’ and he will respond with ‘Arrrrgh!’.  One day he will thank me for these skills.

Piratey Anniversary

Well, we ended up going to the movies for our anniversary after all and we quite enjoyed ourselves.  We ate dinner at Trattoria Domenico II a Italian restaurant in town that seems to be a little unknown (as it is rarely busy) but has excellent food, that Heidi and I love.  The main attraction is of course Domenico, the owner/chef who may be certifiably crazy.  But at least he loves Canada, The Maple Leafs and Women.  Watch him wander around, singing and hitting on ladies.  It is like dinner and a show.

Finally, long after it opened we managed to get ourselves to the new Milton Galaxy Cinema.  It is very matter of fact, nothing too exciting but gets the job done well.  The seats in the theater were very comfy.  Admission prices for a Saturday evening show was $10 bucks which seems pretty good (strictly in comparison to the prices at the other theaters around … I still remember $2.50 Tuesdays at the original Milton Theater, zebra’s and all).

We went to see  Pirates Of The Caribbean III: At World’s End.  It thought is was very entertaining and enjoyable.  I give it my maximum rating of ‘One And Three Quarter Thumbs’!  Of course there is a certain amount of ridiculousness that you need to overlook but remember, it is a movie about pirates, not real life (it is was a real life pirate story everyone in the audience would be dead, or at least had their timbers shivered).  I highly recommend it.

As for as my weigh in, I was at 233 this morning so I lost a pound and some change.  I am now a Goodlife Fitness member and have 6 personal trainer sessions as well.  I sure I will be in ship shape in no time!

WSOP 2007

First things first … what did we learn from last nights Pirate Master premiere?  Well it started off a little slow but turned a corner half way through.  It is a little big brother and a little survivor.  The most interesting part of the game is the aspect of your winnings/treasure and being able to use it (bribe) during the game.  The most disappointing part of the show was the very end.  It was my understanding that the loser was to ‘Walk The Plank’, but instead they just put them on a raft and ‘cut them free’. 

Now that I have seen my top three picks in action I already want a do over.  First off, JD is out of control.  At the first opportunity he will probably be voted out (I had picked him as my #2).  Jay is a little more sleazy then piratey and I underestimated Louie.  It seemed from his picture that he was overweight but he is just barrel chested and a absolute tank.  Easily the most piratey of the bunch.  I am sending him to the number 1 slot with Jay number 2 … JD has left the building.  At least I got the part about women not having a chance right.

On to the topic of this post.  Today the 2007 World Series of Poker begins.  They have a much better mix of events this year but there are a lot (55 to be exact).  My group of buddies decided to do a pool using the scoring stolen from ESPN (found here).  It looks like 5 players paying $10 each (though Graham may enter 2 teams).  Simply pick 20 players, whomever’s team does better takes the money.  Here is my team …

Rock Solid Producers – Men ‘The Master’ Ngyuen, Barry Greenstein, John Juanda, Allan Cunningham and Daniel Negreanu

Scorching Hot – Paul Wasika, Nam Le, Ted Lawson, James Van Alstyne and Kirk Morrison

Scorching Hot and Named JC – JC Tran, JC Alvarado and JC Mortensen

Something To Prove – Phil Hellmuth, Eric Lingren

With Play Absolutely Every Event – David Williamson, Scott Fischman

Team Pokerwire Radio Bet – Gavin Smith, Joe Sebok and Jeff ‘Mad Dog’ Madsen

I wanted my team to consist of people who were going to play many events and not distracted by cash games or other action (Barry and Negreanu are worth the risk IMHO but that is why I didn’t take players like Ivey or Antonius.  I wanted to cover players that played many types of games (though Sebok and I believe Wasika are hold’em only players, not positive about a couple of the ‘hot’ guys).  Sprinkle with a few veterans and a few young guns and I am pretty happy.  I wanted to squeeze Scotty Ngyuen in but just couldn’t do it.  You call here and it’s all over baby!

Avast!

Prepare you buckles to be swashed. Pirate Master is finally here … and they have a wiki page too! I am bold enough to make some early predictions about the results of the show.

I am sure I will get in trouble here but I have eliminated all of the women from contention already. I may be old fashioned (or blatently sexist) but the pirating is best left to the men. Simply reviewing the bio info provided on the site there are 3 that stand out to me.

Louie Frase – One with the sea, lives and breathes boating and looks piratey too. He will make it far but I don’t see him winning. I think Louie would make an excellent first mate but isn’t captain material. He is a little older and not as fit as some of the other guys and I am betting a bit of a sweetheart. This will get him in the end.

JD Morton – On the surface he looks like a strong bet as well. He is a professional ‘SmokeJumper‘ so he is crazy. Seems athletic and has sailing experience. But once again he is not conniving enough to be a proper pirate, he seems a little too hippy like.

Jay Hatkow – Here is your PiratesAndNinja.com predicted winner. Jay is a Automotive Parts Salesmen … anything to do with auto and sales makes you the right kind of character to be a pirate. He seems fit, lists poker in his interests and describes himself as devious in his bio. The real selling point is that on his wiki page he mentions before the show he spent time reading up on his Pirate History. Now that is dedication!

In other reality show news … we have been watching the start of Season 3 of So You Think You Can Dance. A very manly show I might add. We support all of the breakdancers and b-boys. Last night we saw the return of ‘Hok’ from last year, with proper visa in hand and Phillip Chbeeb, the sickest popper I have ever seen. I hoped to add the video of his performance to the post but I simply can not find it anywhere.

Pirate Master

Recently I got a high level communcation from my good friend Matty P. He was letting us know of a great upcoming day in everyone’s life. May 31st will be a very special day.

When you sit around and watch the big reality TV shows of our day (Survivor, Amazing Race, American Idol) what is the number one thought that comes into your mind … These shows are not ‘piratey enough’ (though I think this alot about many different things, probably more then the average person).

Well here comes the solution. ‘Pirate Master‘ is a like survivor on a ship. 16 Modern day pirates will attempt to find the $500K booty. Each week one Pirate will be forced to walk the plank. I am gitty with excitement.

Please do not attempt to talk to me on May 31st. I have much more important things to attend to.

Arrrgh He Be One Mates

Shiver me timbers I can’t believe it. Daddy’s little boy is 1 year old. The picture above was taken while Travis was enjoying his first piece of birthday cake. It seemed like he was more interested in licking off the icing then the cake itself … which he gets from his mother (she likes icing, I like cake).

 

This was the scene when he first caught sight of the piece of cake being delivered to his tray.  In the bottom of the frame you can see the awesome cake that Heidi made (with real gold doubloons).

And finally you see Travis working over his enormous pile of gifts.  We are going to run into some space issues in the house at this rate.  He received some other piratie-good gifts from his family in the States including a treasure chest sand box and a inflatable pirate ship / ball pit.  Good thing Travis likes to share with dad.

The party was great.  There was somewhere around 20 people that came by.  We ate, drank and were merry.  Everyone was very generous with their gifts as well (even though we really didn’t expect anything).  Thanks to all.

Heidi served up some honest to goodness southern BBQ in three flavours … pork, chicken and beef.  Easily a top 5 meal on my list and it really isn’t much more then some buns, large chunks of meat, some crock-pots and BBQ sauce.  There was enough left over that I had it for diner last night and lunch today.  I am still not sick of it … (diner #2 here I come).

Mr. Thumbs Goes To The Mall

Well my ongoing search for a Nintendo Wii took me to the Pacific Mall at lunch today.  I have never been there before but I have heard lots of things (mostly involving piracy of all forms, Arrr Matey, and/or the Police).

It certainly is an interesting place.  Interenet Blog Sensation Jorge has one of my favourite quotes about the Pacific Mall …

Due in no small part to the Pacific Mall, which seems to have been teleported here from another planet

Boy is that true.  Even though my years of Ninja training have made me quite accustomed to Eastern culture, I still felt a little out of place here.  I did a full tour of the main level and was only able to find one place that seemed to be related to gaming.  They had no consoles but did have 1 Wii-mote which they wanted $65 (they retail for $45).  No thanks, that’s the one thing I have.

It was hard to even determine what each store/cubicle (imagine a giant airplane hanger that divided into 20 x 15 areas) sold.  I know you are supposed to be able to get all your consoles mod-chipped at the mall somewhere so I am sure I missed some places.  But if you are interested in any of the following things then this is the place to visit:

• Bootleg DVDs (even some stuff still in theatres) 1 for $5 or 4 for $15
• Knock off fashions / sunglasses
• Crappy electronic devices from companies you never heard of
• Computer parts (not sure how the pricing was though)
• Anime/Manga books, video or toys (including the creepy ‘adult’ stuff)
• Cell Phones, Cell Phones, Cell Phones
• Green Tea and Ginseng

But as I as I am concerned … the quest continues!

 

Fantasy Hockey Keeper League Auction Thing

My local group of friends and I are about to start up a full blown Fantasy Hockey Keeper League that hopefully we will play in until our dying days.  Currently there are 7 people but I always feel the more the merrier (and the more the skill). 

So if you are serious about your Hockey and are interested in managing a fantasy team for the rest of your life drop me a line.  The draft is this Sunday at my place and you need to physically be there (for the proper abuse that takes place), I believe Chef Boyd Hardie will be working his magic on the BBQ … and there may be beer.

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Here are a couple things that have been sent to me with regards to yesterdays glorious events and this website.

 

Pirates Vs Ninja – The Movie

Pirates and Ninja – The Video Game

And of course, the awesome pirate computer keyboard …

A Pirate Joke

A Pirate walks into a bar with a ship’s steering wheel attached to his crotch.

Bartender: Did you know you have a steering wheel attached to your crotch?

Pirate: Arr, and it’s driving me nuts!

(Click here to see the trailer for Team Fortress 2, which was recently announced to be included in Halflife 2: Episode 2.  Totally new style from the original but it looks like it is going to be really cool.)