Okay, it seems these catchup posts are getting to be the norm. I hope they aren't though - so I'm gonna try and get caught up here and start getting myself back in the habit of posting here. First up, the big thing lately has been my return to poker. I started playing a few weeks ago to catchup on some PSO promos that they've been adding with remarkable regularity. I started with Carbon Poker where I jumped right in at 100nl and did quite well and banked a $500 profit plus my $120 PSO bonus. Next was Action poker, which I didn't do quite as well at. Even with the $100 deposit bonus, I was only able to claw my way back up to even a little after finishing off the $120 PSO bonus. I didn't really like Action poker - there wasn't enough tables, and I never really felt comfortable. So I was quick to move on. My next promo though was Cake Poker, and it feels much better. Being up $500 plus the $90 PSO bonus doesn't hurt in that respect ... but I'm also rather enjoying the fast bonus clearing rate. So I think I'm going to stick around at Cake for awhile before I move on to my next PSO bonus.

Work is going well. I just moved offices, and have started to get familiar with the code that produced the bots that played in the man-machine match this past summer. I'm super excited to work on the next iteration of these bots ... and even more excited to pit them against the world's best players. At the moment we're trying to lock down some money to challenge some players with. Any ideas where we could get that money? We'd ideally like something on the order of $50K or more to use as prize money. I don't have many ins with people, but if you have any ideas I'd love to hear them.

Diane and I are doing well. We're currently in the midst of wedding plans which are going pretty smoothly I think. We've got several months to go, but we've got a lot of the important things locked up and several others in progress. Hopefully we can have invitations out in a month or so. We've been pretty busy with social stuff too - attending quite a few fun events over the past month. Too many to really recount in a short space here, but the latest was a Chili cook-off. We made some pretty awesome bison chili (if I do say so myself) along with some skillet cornbread, apple crisp, and cookies. Mmm - it was quite a cooking day! We had a lot of fun in the kitchen, and it's making me want to force myself to spend more time cooking on a regular basis. I'd certainly eat better (and healthier) if I did.

The Oilers are maddening to watch at times. The most recent game against the flames was sweet to watch though - now if only we could put together an effort like that on a more consistent basis. I see a lot of potential on our club. If we get a few key members back and contributing, we could have a contender on our hands. I realize it's a lot of ifs, but what else do we have? In particular, I'm really impressed with Robert Nillsson's play. He's been fast, creative, and strong with the puck - I'm starting to get excited every time I see him get the puck. One last thing: what the hell is with the hit on Hemsky? That should've got a suspension for sure! He could've been badly hurt on a play like that!!!!

Not bad for an update post huh? If you've got questions, let me know - I'm feeling a bit lonely in blog land!

Heraldk