Friday, September 26, 2008

Fall has sprung a leak

Fall has arrived with a vengence. It started raining yesterday and is still going strong. Its a bit of a Noreaster. We get more of these then hurricanes this far north. They blow almost as hard and can create quite a mess. It absolutely destroys walking time. I feel bad for Frodo, he doesn't understand that I don't do walks in the rain. When I come home from work he meets me at the kitchen door when I come in from the garage, he gives me a fair amount of doggy kisses, then runs and sets by the front door waiting for his walk. When I tell him "not today" his tail droops between his leg and he goes and lays down and gets the most forlorn looks. He can achieve some of the most sorrowful looks. It almost makes me look for a raincoat or umbrella, notice I said almost! For those of you who don't have pets, especially dogs, they somehow become the boss of the household, even small ones like beagles. It seems that all actions are based on what would make the dog happy. It's very apparent when it comes to bed time. He gets this wrinkled head look and comes and lays his head on your lap and lets out a big sigh. He does this a few times and if you ignore him, he drags himself to bed. When you look in on him he normally is in some pitiful position with one of his stuffed animal. I usually give in and go to bed with him. It's actually funny, it's almost to the point where I can't sleep unless he is snuggled up to me. All in all I wouldn't trade him for any amount of money!

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Quite of the Morning

Frodo (my beagle) and I set out on our morning walk at about 7 am this morning. I love walking early in the morning, it is so peaceful. We live close to the Garden State Parkway, so unfortunately I do get a lot of highway traffic noise, but I can still hear most of the sounds as the forest comes alive. It seems like it starts with a single bird call and the next thing you know the whole forest is alive with the chatter of a dozen different birds. I have seen everything from Robins to Turkey Vultures. This morning we had a couple of Canadian geese honk out their warnings when they saw the dog and I coming. They like to do an early morning feeding in the soccer field behind the local high school. For some reason Frodo never seems to be interested in them, could be that his nose is too busy with other smells to pay them any attention. Did I mention that he has an incredible nose? A couple of weeks ago we were walking on the sidewalk with some trees and shrubs to our right. All of a sudden he puts on the brakes and goes lunging into the woods, I thought he had seen a critter, but no he comes out chewing a piece of bubble gum that someone had thrown away! I have no idea how he smelt that gum. I didn't let him keep it!

Don

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Poker Pressure

I don't think there is a way to quite duplicate the nervousness and pressure I felt the first day of the tournament. As a woman, sitting down to deal cards to a table of ten men, all of whom know poker better than I do and have played for years, can be quite intimidating. I made it through without having a stroke though. Of course, I made mistakes. What new poker dealer doesn't? The table (players) helped me out with a few instances on occasion. There was the time I was so nervous I couldn't count chips down for a payout. It wound up being about 394,000 in chips. There was another time I got confused with a side pot. There's one thing about it, poker players know how much in chips they're playing with and where it's supposed to go. Oh, and one time I was supposed to shout out "Seat open, table two." Instead, I shouted, "Table open, seat two." That got a laugh from everyone. On the last day, I mucked one of seat one's cards by mistake when everyone at his end of the table folded except for him. He was in for 3,000 in chips. I had to call the floor person over. The player played the hand with one card and lost. I felt terrible, but I guess that's one of the reasons why the casino announces over the loud speaker to protect your hands if you are in the one or ten seat. The WPT (World Poker Tournament) at the Borgata is continuing through the 18th. The 16th was my last day. Don and I were only temps. Hopefully, we can work at their next tournament too.

Cheryl

Saturday, September 13, 2008

A Walking Adventure


I have a beagle, that means lots of walks and slow enough for his nose to smell every blade of grass. We went on a three mile one this morning. I love walking in the early mornings, not too hot, and more of a chance to run into some of the local wildlife. This was the case this morning, we came face to face with a couple of deer. They were a ways away but they stood watching us and we froze watching them. We all turned in opposite directions and went our separate ways. Then a while later into the walk we came across a box turtle. Now my beagle is very curious, but he is also the biggest chicken dog I have ever seen. He was almost by the turtle when he noticed movement. He went to investigate and when the turtle pulled his head back into his shell Frodo jumped straight up into the air and tried to run in the opposite direction. I finally was able to coax him into walking around the turtle, but soon as he knew he was clear he took off on a high speed sprint, thank God for 15 foot leashes. He is a very smart dog though and knows all our trails, I just ask where he wants to go and he finds the trails. I think his favorite part is going to his wading and drinking pond at the end of our walks. He never swims, just wades and drinks. This morning there was a fisherman there and he didn't hear us coming and Frodo just about gave him a heart attack. It is always an adventure with Frodo, you never know what he is going to do or get in to!

Don