And the Rodents have Landed!

The two new arrivals at the Casa de Piggy and Otter steal the spotlight for now. I finally...FINALLY...has a pet at home. I have never gotten one due to my travel schedule and lack of budget/time to actually take care of a pet well. I spent a lot of my youth raising and training animals and it gets to be a big part of you, like it or not. Its hard to be a dog person without a dog, but these little guys seem to fill the void a little and can make it on their own at home for a day or so without having to be crated, kenneled or left outside to the elements. They are very bright and were picked up from the California Chinchilla Rescue in Menlo Park. (www.chinchillarescue.org) The boys are 12 years old (they can live to be 25-28 yrs old but have a typical life expectancy of around 18) and used to belong to a very nice gal that had to move away but could not take her childhood pets with her. In steps Lani and then in come Marie and I to take these fellas home. We went looking for one, but felt for the pair and outside of pelleting on us (actually quite clean, considering) they were very well adjusted and happy and seemed to be the best choice from over a dozen. Marie shot this little video (ignore my babbling) and I'm sticking up a couple of pictures too.





I final tabled the $300 Super Saturday tournament at the Oak's this week coming in a technical 6th though we had $2k stashed for everyone. With the entry fee tucked back and tips and a donation to PAL animal rescue (it was also a memorial tournament for a long-time friend of the Card Club and tournament who's love was pet rescue and bringing the team chocolate.) it tucked home enough to get some running money back under the bankroll since the WSOP fiasco. Final two hands were AJs against a short stack on the button who shoved when no-one raised and I called in the big blind for 35k more. Blinds were 5k/10k with a 1k ante and I had about 80k at the time so it was cut and dried really, except he woke up with jacks there. A few hands later I picked up Ten-Ten on the button (after eating a round of blinds and antes being card dead with action in front of me) and saw the other short stack (who had more than me by a bit) turn over KJo. He caught the king on the turn and I went out a lot further back than I thought I would...but hey, crap happens and it was a nice profit anyway.

Last week Piggy and I packed off to the Zoo in San Francisco! We had a great time and I went on photo safari. Working on getting those up on Flickr where you can see them or a "best of" on here but I really went nuts, so it is taking a while.

What may have brought on the missing-pet solution could have been the great time that we had going out with a friend of mine from work to Fort Funston beach just down the road on Skyline Blvd. two weekends ago. We took her highly energetic Golden out for a beach run/retrieving session and saw folks up there hang gliding (its a pretty sheer cliff face drop to the beach) and kite flying but almost no-one but the recently defunct jellyfish on the beach. Sadly, it was the first time we'd made it down the road to the beach that is practically in my back yard...but its not like we are in SoCal or Florida weather to enjoy it. No photos there but cheers to our new buddy and her canine pal for spending the afternoon with us!

Just heard that the lil' otter and her mom made it out for a long day at Six Flags and had just come back from some camping the week before. I hope that I get some photos, but if not, they tell me they had a blast!!

Prayers out to: My Mom as she looks for a new Nanny position (email me if you know anyone.), Piggy as she copes with my craziness, the players dealing with the end of the WSOP and their Main Event bust outs, my Dad as his election for a civic position, and my brothers as they both head into new parts of their careers (or in one case...trying to get one going).