Once again, a usual Vancouver morning at a cafe for breakfast/blogging.
Our plan for the day was to bike to the Capilano Suspension Bridge - but luckily we found out that it was a good 15 mile bike up a hill before we went to the rental store. Instead, we took the SeaBus to North Vancouver, and took a bus from there to Capilano. Public transportation in Vancouver is extremely reasonable as far as pricing goes. Interestingly enough, they dont even have a place to check your tickets on the SeaBus. Seems like it would be pretty easy to just walk through and get on without paying.
The Capilano Suspension Bridge was very fun. We took some good pictures, which I'll be able to upload as soon as we're home. I also bought a pretty sweet hoodie for myself as a souvenir, which is good because I don't usually buy too many souvenirs.
We got on the bus going the wrong direction as we were leaving Capilano. We were planning to get back on the SeaBus, but it brought us up to Grousse Mountain. We just shrugged it off and figured we just need to sit on the bus until it turns back to the SeaBus. It wasnt until we had already turned around that we realized that Grousse Mountain would have been pretty sweet and we should have just rolled with it. Ah well - something to see next time.
We went to a British Pub called Chester Cheese's for lunch. Sampled a few more local brews, and this big 500ml bottle of "Monty Python's Holy Grail", all of which were excellent. We shopped a bit before getting on the SeaBus to return to greater Vancouver.
This will need to be a 2-part blog, because the battery is running down on the laptop and I will need to turn it off soon. So until next time...
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Vancouver Trip - Day 4
Started out this day the usual Vancouver way, by walking to a coffee shop and just chilling out with a delicious cup of coffee and a giant muffin. This is always a very nice time to get in a blog post. After reading over my first few blogs, I would definitely like to include some more pictures to spice them up a bit. They are pretty text-heavy and could use some sprucing up.
After the coffee shop, we headed to the Vancouver Art Gallery, or VAG. The VAG was very unique in the way it was set up. The lower level was completely dedicated to early photography from different regions. Mostly from about 1890-1920. The second floor was dedicated to trees, and their role in art. Tree-art is especially prominant in Canada, and this was probably my favorite floor in the VAG. The third floor was extremely unique. It was divided into 2 sections. Each section had dozens of televisions set up, all playing interviews from people from the same "utopian" city. The exhibit was designed to highlight the argument that utopia is different to each individual, even if they are all living in the same utopian city.
After the VAG, we returned to the area near the New Amsterdam Cafe, where they have an upstairs Vapor Lounge. In the Vapor Lounge, you just pay 5$ and sit around a table that has a Volcano Vaporizor on it. You pack the vaporizer, it inflates a huge bag, and you pass it around. Oddly enough, we were probably amongst the oldest people in the room. We chilled there for an hour or so, and then walked back to our hotel to relax before dinner.
Dinner was truly the highlight of this vacation day. We walked along the seawall to a restaurant called Cardero's. We had been looking forward to some good west-coast fish since before our vacation even started. I ordered the West Coast Salmon, which was the house special. Mary had the Halibut, which had just come into season. Both meals were absolutely amazing - I really can not say which I liked more.
To compliment our great seafood, Cardero's also had a variety of local brews on tap. I can't remember the names, but we each had 1 light lager and 1 medium cream beer. All 4 beers were excellent, and went very well with the fish.
Cardero's is definitely among my top 5 meals of all time. The service was quick and polite without being too in-your-face. The food was easily a 9+/10. The beer was a 9+/10. I would reommend this restaurant to anybody in the Vancouver area.
Only 2 full days of vacation left! We will be cramming in the Capilano Suspension Bridge, UBC trip, Conservatory, and looking through a few open houses in the next 2 days.
We don't want to leave.
After the coffee shop, we headed to the Vancouver Art Gallery, or VAG. The VAG was very unique in the way it was set up. The lower level was completely dedicated to early photography from different regions. Mostly from about 1890-1920. The second floor was dedicated to trees, and their role in art. Tree-art is especially prominant in Canada, and this was probably my favorite floor in the VAG. The third floor was extremely unique. It was divided into 2 sections. Each section had dozens of televisions set up, all playing interviews from people from the same "utopian" city. The exhibit was designed to highlight the argument that utopia is different to each individual, even if they are all living in the same utopian city.
After the VAG, we returned to the area near the New Amsterdam Cafe, where they have an upstairs Vapor Lounge. In the Vapor Lounge, you just pay 5$ and sit around a table that has a Volcano Vaporizor on it. You pack the vaporizer, it inflates a huge bag, and you pass it around. Oddly enough, we were probably amongst the oldest people in the room. We chilled there for an hour or so, and then walked back to our hotel to relax before dinner.
Dinner was truly the highlight of this vacation day. We walked along the seawall to a restaurant called Cardero's. We had been looking forward to some good west-coast fish since before our vacation even started. I ordered the West Coast Salmon, which was the house special. Mary had the Halibut, which had just come into season. Both meals were absolutely amazing - I really can not say which I liked more.
To compliment our great seafood, Cardero's also had a variety of local brews on tap. I can't remember the names, but we each had 1 light lager and 1 medium cream beer. All 4 beers were excellent, and went very well with the fish.
Cardero's is definitely among my top 5 meals of all time. The service was quick and polite without being too in-your-face. The food was easily a 9+/10. The beer was a 9+/10. I would reommend this restaurant to anybody in the Vancouver area.
Only 2 full days of vacation left! We will be cramming in the Capilano Suspension Bridge, UBC trip, Conservatory, and looking through a few open houses in the next 2 days.
We don't want to leave.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Vancouver Trip - Day 3
We started the day off with a buffet breakfast in the downstairs of our hotel. It was very good, but pretty damn pricey for a breakfast. After breakfast, we took a walk to Stanley Park. Along the way, we found ourselves about 20 ft from two Vancouver Police officers who were walking as well. We also happened to be enjoying some of the goods we had acquired the night before - so that was a bit of a close call.
We decided to go to the Aquarium today, which was only about a 2-3mile walk from our hotel. I guess everybody else had the great idea of going to the Aquarium on Easter Sunday, because that place was extremely crowded. It was still a very good time, and we were both glad we had lifted our spirits shortly before entering. That really made handling the crowd of tourists much easier.
After going through the Aquarium, we walked back into town, and went to a Mongolian BBQ for lunch. I've got to say it was pretty relieving to have a 7$/person meal as opposed to 15-25. The food was exactly what you'd suspect a mongolian BBQ to be.
Mary needed some decent walking shoes, so we stopped at a store on our way back to the hotel so she could get some.
Both of us are definitely not used to walking for extended periods of time, because as soon as we were back in our room, we passed out from about 5pm-11pm. There really isn't much to do in Vancouver at 11pm on Easter Sunday, so we spent a few hours watching canadian TV before we fell back asleep
We decided to go to the Aquarium today, which was only about a 2-3mile walk from our hotel. I guess everybody else had the great idea of going to the Aquarium on Easter Sunday, because that place was extremely crowded. It was still a very good time, and we were both glad we had lifted our spirits shortly before entering. That really made handling the crowd of tourists much easier.
After going through the Aquarium, we walked back into town, and went to a Mongolian BBQ for lunch. I've got to say it was pretty relieving to have a 7$/person meal as opposed to 15-25. The food was exactly what you'd suspect a mongolian BBQ to be.
Mary needed some decent walking shoes, so we stopped at a store on our way back to the hotel so she could get some.
Both of us are definitely not used to walking for extended periods of time, because as soon as we were back in our room, we passed out from about 5pm-11pm. There really isn't much to do in Vancouver at 11pm on Easter Sunday, so we spent a few hours watching canadian TV before we fell back asleep
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Vancouver Trip - Day 2
It's amazing how much difference a full night of sleep can make.
It is also pretty amazing just how many coffee shops a big city really needs. Yesterday morning at Cafe Artigiano, we were facing the outside window, and noticed that there was a coffee shop on all 4 corners of that intersection.
We spent most of the morning doing some light shopping, and further exploring the city. There was a very nice dog park along the water that we wished we could bring Nala to. It is unfortunate that we don't have any kind of off-leash dog park in Evansville. Nala could use some practice being loose in public.
We continued walking along the water, and made it about 1/4th of the way around Stanley Park before we decided to return. A bike or rollerblades would make that trek much nicer. We may rent some and explore the park a bit deeper. Hopefully the weather gets a bit nicer before we have to leave.
The plan for today was to go to the Capilano Suspension Bridge, but we'll see how the weather treats us this afternoon. It is very gloomy and has been raining a bit. The weather is actually supposed to stay pretty gloomy until we leave, but we definitely don't want it to be raining when we go to Capilano.
During our walks around the city, we were constantly keeping an eye out for one of the "smoke-friendly bars" that are around the city. We must have walked 6-7 miles without finding what we were looking for. On top of that, our connection did not follow through. We were a bit bummed out by the evening. Luckily, I decided to get on the internet and look up the location of the New Amsterdam Cafe. We were only 6 freaking blocks away from it! And our walks through the city left us less than 1 block away multiple times without ever seeing it!
The NA Cafe is pretty much exactly what you would expect it to be. A pot bar. About 20-30 people sitting around and constantly rolling/smoking joints. Twice on the way to the bar, we heard "need some bud?" from some very sketchy looking characters, and we decided not to buy anything on the street. We were lucky enough to meet a couple college kids at the Cafe who were leaving tomorrow morning, and had more than they needed. They invited us to join them for a little while, and sold us what they had left over. Lucky us. The whole experience was very new and exciting.
We left the Cafe at about 10pm fried out of our minds. A few more homeless-looking guys asked us if we needed some bud, and one definitely-homeless guy said, "Got any bud? I got a lighter!!"
Back at the hotel, we finally indulged in the Jose Quervo we had bought the night before. It did not take long to fall asleep that night.
It is also pretty amazing just how many coffee shops a big city really needs. Yesterday morning at Cafe Artigiano, we were facing the outside window, and noticed that there was a coffee shop on all 4 corners of that intersection.
We spent most of the morning doing some light shopping, and further exploring the city. There was a very nice dog park along the water that we wished we could bring Nala to. It is unfortunate that we don't have any kind of off-leash dog park in Evansville. Nala could use some practice being loose in public.
We continued walking along the water, and made it about 1/4th of the way around Stanley Park before we decided to return. A bike or rollerblades would make that trek much nicer. We may rent some and explore the park a bit deeper. Hopefully the weather gets a bit nicer before we have to leave.
The plan for today was to go to the Capilano Suspension Bridge, but we'll see how the weather treats us this afternoon. It is very gloomy and has been raining a bit. The weather is actually supposed to stay pretty gloomy until we leave, but we definitely don't want it to be raining when we go to Capilano.
During our walks around the city, we were constantly keeping an eye out for one of the "smoke-friendly bars" that are around the city. We must have walked 6-7 miles without finding what we were looking for. On top of that, our connection did not follow through. We were a bit bummed out by the evening. Luckily, I decided to get on the internet and look up the location of the New Amsterdam Cafe. We were only 6 freaking blocks away from it! And our walks through the city left us less than 1 block away multiple times without ever seeing it!
The NA Cafe is pretty much exactly what you would expect it to be. A pot bar. About 20-30 people sitting around and constantly rolling/smoking joints. Twice on the way to the bar, we heard "need some bud?" from some very sketchy looking characters, and we decided not to buy anything on the street. We were lucky enough to meet a couple college kids at the Cafe who were leaving tomorrow morning, and had more than they needed. They invited us to join them for a little while, and sold us what they had left over. Lucky us. The whole experience was very new and exciting.
We left the Cafe at about 10pm fried out of our minds. A few more homeless-looking guys asked us if we needed some bud, and one definitely-homeless guy said, "Got any bud? I got a lighter!!"
Back at the hotel, we finally indulged in the Jose Quervo we had bought the night before. It did not take long to fall asleep that night.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Vancouver Trip - Day 1
I'm writing this from a corner coffee shop called Cafe Artigiano. The hotel we are staying in is obviously used to catering to businessmen who are only in town for a day or two - because they tried to charge me 16$ PER DAY of internet access. No thanks. Free internet at Cafe Artigiano!
Our flight out of Evansville was supposed to leave at 8:40am, but there was heavy snow in Chicago so we had to take an earlier flight at 6:00am. Everything went pretty smoothly, aside from having to kill about 4 hours in the extremely busy Chicago airport. The Chicago>Seattle flight was about 4.5hours, and the Seattle airport was a breath of fresh air compared to Chicago. Much more calm.
We reached Vancouver at about 5pm, and took a taxi to our hotel. We have a very nice room on the 23rd floor of the Marriot Pinnacle, with a panoramic view of the water, mountains, and city. The room isn't especially big, but we only really plan on "sleeping" and cleaning up there. With a king-sized bed, the room is well equipped for our needs.
For dinner, we went to a resteraunt called "The Keg" which was just a few blocks from our hotel. You'd expect a place called The Keg to have a good beer selection, but their menu didn't even have a beer list. Their highlighted beers were Heineken, Molson, and Coors light... neato. The Keg made up for their small beer selection with some amazing steak. I ordered the largest size, because it was about 4 bucks more and I always enjoy leftovers. This steak must have been 2lbs. I'd estimate it was 2.5-3in thick and cooked evenly. Marbalized fat throughout the cut. The leftovers are sitting in the fridge and will make a great steak sandwich.
We decided to end the night by getting some liquor and relaxing in our room (we had slept about 2 of the last 48 hours). Apparently in Canada, there is some rule restricting the sales of alcohol on Easter Weekend. We probably walked 2 miles and followed 2 sets of bad directions to find a liquor store that was actually open.
Finally, we were about to give up our search, and stopped into a grocery store to get some random supplies for our vacation. We were greeted by a bitch security guard who was probably on her period. She gave us some very blatant attitude, and started making fun of us to one of the cashiers as we were walking away. Luckily for me, Mary didn't put up with her bullshit and called her out while we were paying for our groceries. The cashier was extremely nice, gave us a 50% discount on our groceries, and directions to one of the only open liquor stores in the city! The whole time, that bitch security guard just stood there quietly avoiding eye contact. Thats what you get, you stupid bitch.
Alcohol is about 2x as expensive as it is in the states. After going as far as we had to find alcohol, we felt obligated to follow through, and now we have a 45$ bottle of Jose Quervo.
We finally arrived back at the hotel, and were so tired we couldn't even enjoy the spoils of our journey. Regardless, it was definitely a great experience that we will remember.
I'll be back tomorrow morning with more updates!
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
SNE Quest - March 15: Hard work paying off
VPP COUNT: 219540
I put in 10 hours today, and pulled in nearly 8k VPPs! The first 4 hours threatened to continue my ugly downswing, but I stuck with it and ended the day with a nice profit.
Very satisfying.
I have 5 days before my vacation, and probably will fall a bit short of the 250k goal. If I average about 8h/day for the next 5 days, I'll still be around 245-250, which I am fine with. I'll have 4 more work days after the vacation is over, and as long as I am over 250k by the end of the month, I'll still be ahead of pace.
I put in 10 hours today, and pulled in nearly 8k VPPs! The first 4 hours threatened to continue my ugly downswing, but I stuck with it and ended the day with a nice profit.
Very satisfying.
I have 5 days before my vacation, and probably will fall a bit short of the 250k goal. If I average about 8h/day for the next 5 days, I'll still be around 245-250, which I am fine with. I'll have 4 more work days after the vacation is over, and as long as I am over 250k by the end of the month, I'll still be ahead of pace.
Friday, March 14, 2008
SNE Quest - March 14: Ouch
VPP COUNT: 211593
Well, my motivation has been fairly low this past week, and have been running absolutely terribly.
On March 12th, I had a session that lasted exactly 1 hand.
I was loading up my tables, and after about 5 tables were up I got my first hand. Pocket aces in the big blind. There was a raise and re-raise preflop. Long story short, I lose a 400$ pot to QJs. Session over.
Yesterday, I finally toughed it out and put in 9 solid hours of play. Nearly 14k hands. Unfortunately, I had a huge downswing and felt like crap all day. On the other hand, I did clear over 6.5k VPPs and unlocked my 2000$ milestone bonus.
So I'm currently in the middle of a ~10-15 buyin downswing and pretty pissed at poker. I am not able to take a break either. I'm still about 12k points ahead of schedule, but with my Vancouver trip on the way, I've got to average about 6 hours per day for the next week. No time to grieve over a downswing.
1 week until I go to Vancouver!
Well, my motivation has been fairly low this past week, and have been running absolutely terribly.
On March 12th, I had a session that lasted exactly 1 hand.
I was loading up my tables, and after about 5 tables were up I got my first hand. Pocket aces in the big blind. There was a raise and re-raise preflop. Long story short, I lose a 400$ pot to QJs. Session over.
Yesterday, I finally toughed it out and put in 9 solid hours of play. Nearly 14k hands. Unfortunately, I had a huge downswing and felt like crap all day. On the other hand, I did clear over 6.5k VPPs and unlocked my 2000$ milestone bonus.
So I'm currently in the middle of a ~10-15 buyin downswing and pretty pissed at poker. I am not able to take a break either. I'm still about 12k points ahead of schedule, but with my Vancouver trip on the way, I've got to average about 6 hours per day for the next week. No time to grieve over a downswing.
1 week until I go to Vancouver!
Monday, March 10, 2008
Saturday, March 08, 2008
SNE QUEST - March 8: It has been a while
VPP COUNT: 204984
Well it has been quite some time since I've updated my blog. I've been fairly lazy about my poker play. I took March 1st off, but went back to work the 2nd-5th. I also took the 6th and 7th off. I definitely could have put in 4-6 hours each of these days, but just didn't want to at the time.
Today was my first losing day of the month. I had some pretty major winning days earlier in the month, and was pretty much expecting a downswing some time soon. I'm still doing great for the month, and still have a solid lead on the pace for SNE. On-pace right now is about 185k, and I'm at 205, so I'm fairly comfortable.
I'd like a 25k cushion before my vacation.
It was warm outside for a few days in a row, and we were pretty hopeful that winter was finally over... nope. The weather got crappy some time around the 6th, which is also the first day I just didn't feel like working. I think I'm seeing a pattern.
I do need to get better at posting regularly, but this is pretty normal for me. As long as I'm writing something once a week, I don't think the blog will die out.
Until next time
Well it has been quite some time since I've updated my blog. I've been fairly lazy about my poker play. I took March 1st off, but went back to work the 2nd-5th. I also took the 6th and 7th off. I definitely could have put in 4-6 hours each of these days, but just didn't want to at the time.
Today was my first losing day of the month. I had some pretty major winning days earlier in the month, and was pretty much expecting a downswing some time soon. I'm still doing great for the month, and still have a solid lead on the pace for SNE. On-pace right now is about 185k, and I'm at 205, so I'm fairly comfortable.
I'd like a 25k cushion before my vacation.
It was warm outside for a few days in a row, and we were pretty hopeful that winter was finally over... nope. The weather got crappy some time around the 6th, which is also the first day I just didn't feel like working. I think I'm seeing a pattern.
I do need to get better at posting regularly, but this is pretty normal for me. As long as I'm writing something once a week, I don't think the blog will die out.
Until next time
Sunday, March 02, 2008
SNE FEBRUARY
Hours: 120.4
Hands: 148859
VPPS: 187795
February started out pretty slow, but ended strong. I have definitely honed my game even more, and learned a few more tricks that will up my hourly rate and help me reach SNE.
SHORTSTACKING
I put in about 80k hands at 6max this month. I ended up with a very nice hourly rate, and a good VPP rate. It also gives pretty much 0 satisfaction and does very little to further your game. Plus, everybody hates you. If something comes up and I cannot cut it at the full ring tables, I would fall back on this. Otherwise, you wont be seeing me shorting much any more.
24-TABLING
Just when I thought I wouldn't play more than 18 tables, I upped my max again. I'm really happy with my ability to maintain my solid game while playing all of these tables. This upped my VPP rate, and I'll probably be doing it for the rest of the year.
LEAP DAY
PokerStars did a double VPP promotion on Leap Day, and did not give much notice. I learned about it at about 7am on the day of. As soon as I learned, I decided to devote the entire day to earning as many VPPs as possible. After 13 hours of play, I put in over 20k hands, and earned over 18k VPPs before the 24h period was up. This was a tremendous boost to my quest, and gave me some much needed cushion. I'll be going to Vancouver in less than 3 weeks, and would like to have at least a 20k point cushion - which I do!
CONCIERGE
I already purchased my Vancouver trip via concierge, and in the next week or so, I think I'll be doing the same for my Maui Honeymoon in September. I've been working up some major FPPs lately. At the end of April, I should have the FPPs to cover the wedding as well :)
Not the best month, but still a very very good one.
Now in March, I have 3 weeks to make 4 weeks worth of profit. Bring it on.
Hands: 148859
VPPS: 187795
February started out pretty slow, but ended strong. I have definitely honed my game even more, and learned a few more tricks that will up my hourly rate and help me reach SNE.
SHORTSTACKING
I put in about 80k hands at 6max this month. I ended up with a very nice hourly rate, and a good VPP rate. It also gives pretty much 0 satisfaction and does very little to further your game. Plus, everybody hates you. If something comes up and I cannot cut it at the full ring tables, I would fall back on this. Otherwise, you wont be seeing me shorting much any more.
24-TABLING
Just when I thought I wouldn't play more than 18 tables, I upped my max again. I'm really happy with my ability to maintain my solid game while playing all of these tables. This upped my VPP rate, and I'll probably be doing it for the rest of the year.
LEAP DAY
PokerStars did a double VPP promotion on Leap Day, and did not give much notice. I learned about it at about 7am on the day of. As soon as I learned, I decided to devote the entire day to earning as many VPPs as possible. After 13 hours of play, I put in over 20k hands, and earned over 18k VPPs before the 24h period was up. This was a tremendous boost to my quest, and gave me some much needed cushion. I'll be going to Vancouver in less than 3 weeks, and would like to have at least a 20k point cushion - which I do!
CONCIERGE
I already purchased my Vancouver trip via concierge, and in the next week or so, I think I'll be doing the same for my Maui Honeymoon in September. I've been working up some major FPPs lately. At the end of April, I should have the FPPs to cover the wedding as well :)
Not the best month, but still a very very good one.
Now in March, I have 3 weeks to make 4 weeks worth of profit. Bring it on.
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