Going Going Back Back to Cali Cali

First off I want to thank everyone who posted their condolences. I really appreciate them and things like that do mean a lot to me. Thank you very much.

It's been a great weekend and I'm ready to go home. The Celebration of Life ceremony was really nice and I got to see a ton of family that I hadn't seen for a long time, 20 years in some cases. We decided to start some sort of annual or bi-annual family reunion so that it doesn't happen again. We're all on the West Coast or Hawaii so it shouldn't be too hard to put together. My vote is for Hawaii in '07.

I'm sorry for the jumbled bunch of pictures I put up over the weekend. I usually sort them into one post and talk about them but I've been using my grandpa's dial-up connection and words can't describe how frustrating it was to put them up even in the crude form that they're up now. I have no clue how people used, an continue to use, such a slow connection. I swear, I'll get a full Antarctica trip report up eventually.

I was planning on moving back to Seattle next weekend but I might put it off until the following week. I didn't realize that San Diego was hosting the NCAA tournament and now the Huskies are opening there so I pretty much have to stick around. Also, the semi-finals of the World Baseball Classic are next weekend so I might try to snag a ticket there. The WBC has been pretty cool and it's been successful in whetting my appetite for (a) the MLB season and (b) soccer's World Cup. I think national pride is rather petty in most cases but I think it's awesome in sports. I can't wait to chant "U-S-A! U-S-A!" in Munich. If anyone wants to fly down to San Diego it should be a fun sports weekend and I'll even drive you back to Seattle if you can only afford a one-way ticket.

In other sports news, Steve Hutchinson signed an offer sheet with the Vikings, giving us one week to match the deal or let him go without compensation. They way overpaid for him but I'd like to keep our lovely o-line intact. I'm sure Mr. Ruskell has his reasons but I'm baffled as to why they gave Hutch the transition tag instead of the franchise tag. Can someone who knows more about NFL free-agency let me know what's up? I'll do my own research tomorrow but tonight I refuse to surf using this satanic dial-up. The bottom line is that I have full faith in our player personnel guys and I think they'll do the right thing but to me the right thing is keeping Walteria and Hutch together.

In other sports news, the Sonics suck. In Mariners news, Mr. Beltre is en fuego at the WBC and he looks like he's in great shape. Let's hope he keeps ripping the ball during the regular season and he shows us the .330 batting, 49 dinger, MVP candidate that we signed up for. He was the NL MVP that year(2004) among non-Frankenstein candidates. I'd really like it if Bonds never played another game. By some cruel twist of fate I have the Giants 3 or 4 times in the first few weeks of my baseball road trip and I'd rather not lose my voice showering him with boos.

I've been looking on craigslist for my tough baseball tickets and I found a post from mlb.com saying that additional tickets were released so I logged on and bought Red Sox-Yankees tickets and Orioles-Red Sox tickets at face value, a major coup as far as I'm concerned. Those games were both sold out and I figured I'd have to pay a premium for tickets. I also found a Mets fan to go accompany me to Shea. Matt Matros is one of the main guys that I try to pattern my tournament game after and I've learned a lot from his blog, his book and some of his other strategy posts. I was lucky enough to meet him in Vegas last summer and I'm glad we've kept in touch. I saw the blog comments from him and now I fell all sorts of added pressure to put out somthing of quality in this blog. Sorry in advance for the meanigless drivel that I provide.

I'm also looking on craigslist for a good minivan and I found a few Honda Odysseys for $6-7K with around 100,000 miles on them. They're great vans but people are overpricing them because a lot of people don't check the BBV before buying. I'm going to try to negotiate for a cheaper van and I'll definitely let you know when I but one. I'm going to feel pretty lame driving around in a minivan but it really makes sense since I'll be on the road for 2 months and 11,000 miles. I took the Prius to Spring Training a few years ago and it's just too small for an extended road trip. I guess my new nickname can be Brandon "soccer mom" Schaefer.

I played some tourneys today and busted out pretty early in all of them. I played like crap for the most part and got a little unlucky in some spots and that led to no cashes. Full Tilt was especially frustrating as I got my money in with AA vs TT on a J87x board and watched a 9 fall on the river. There were still 300 left but I would have been 3rd in chips had I won. 2 hands later I still have 15 blinds and get it in preflop with AK vs AJ and a KQT flop sends me to the rail. It's funny because my grandma thought, when I told her that I was going to play some poker today, that I was going to sit for like 30 minutes and play. She was getting increasingly agitated as I tried to explain that I couldn't just get up and leave. About 2 minutes after busting from Full Tilt, my last tourney, she almost raised her voice for the first time ever and said firmly, "It's time for dinner, get off the computer!" The poker gods sure know how to make my grandma happy.

I think that's all for now. I'll try to bang out something about Antarctica tomorrow. Brandon "soccer mom" Schaefer, out!