Same as it Ever Was...

In some ways, not much exciting has been going on. In other ways, I've been busy as crap, and it shows no signs of letting up for quite awhile.

Poker has been, well, poker. I've been sticking to Bracelet Races and other MTTs on Full Tilt, and have little to show for my efforts. Last night was pretty indicative of the way things have been rolling, as I went out just before the money in a $33 rebuy and out in 10th in the Bracelet Race.

In the rebuy I had QQ versus AK versus AK in a ginormous pot that would have given me a hefty chip lead on the field, but a lovely flop of x K K squashed that. I was utterly card dead for hours in the Bracelet Race but barely kept my head above water by stealing here and there, got lucky and doubled up with Q6h versus K9o, and had a decent stack with 10 players left. Lumped a good bit of that stack in from the button with 1010 and the SB insta-shoves. He'd been re-stealing pretty light and I talked myself into calling, assuming at worst we were flipping coins. He had AJo and the flop was safe but the turn J killed me good. Win that hand and I'm a solid second in chips with 9 players left.

None of those beats are all that terrible, and I'm really not even griping. For what seems like forever, though, I just can't seem to get over the hump in MTT spots like that, as far as reaching that critical juncture late with many chips at stake and not being able to get there. Such is life in the MTT world, I know, but I still can't quite eradicate the whiney part of my brain that keeps muttering "Jebus, when am I going to actually win one of these hands?"

Still busting my butt in general, working on both the Austin house and the new flip house, trying to get both of them ready to list. I can't say I love dealing with getting bids for new roofs and kitchen counters and what-not but so far it hasn't been too painful. Now if I just had a helper monkey to, umm, help me with all the silly grunt monkey work that needs doing.

I miss my rat buddy. It's odd how much pets became a part of your routine, as far as feeding them, cleaning up their crap, etc., and then suddenly there's a big gaping hole there. My wife and I are both jonesing for more rats pattering around the place, but we're trying to be smart and get some from a breeder this time, as far as hopefully getting ones less susceptible to tumors and other maladies that can be exacerbated by poor genes and breeding. Then again, pretty much everything is a crap shoot, and well-bred rats can just as easily get tumors, so we may just go yoink some baby rats from the pet store, instead of waiting months for the breeder we found to have rats available for adoption.

I've been dabbling a bit in swing trading of late, with reasonably good success. The indecisive markets of late have helped, and, honestly, I've simply gotten lucky on a few trades, but the process seems to suit me in some ways, as far as narrowing my focus to 10-15 stocks and moving in and out of positions based on pre-set targets/conditions, with little emotional hanging-on.