I played $1/$2 limit hold'em successfully for the second time last night. After about an hour I was up $25. Since we decided to start playing no-limit at our regular poker night, I felt it was prudent to get a little practice. And let me tell you, I definitely need it. I was doing okay for a while. I stretched my winnings up to $30, but then I made my one bad decision (TM) and called an all-in raise on the river. Needless to say my pair did not hold up.

What I should've done was parlayed that $25 into two super-satellite tournaments for my shot at a free trip to aruba. But I do need some practice. Maybe I should start reading up more on my no-limit poker.

Updated 3/28/2005: Wow! I just had an awesome session. The great thing about no-limit is you can really pick on those people who are not as good as you. One person at my table kept buying back in for some reason. I proceeded to bust him twice. I played some tight-aggressive poker, and believed people when they raised over the top. Well, not always. The aforementioned loser raised over me in a number of situations. Either he was executing a great play, or was bluffing. I called him down a few times and caught him bluffing with 4 high once! But in general, I was playing much more solid poker than last night.

The night wasn't all great though. I had another session playing $1/$2 and got badly outplayed by one character at my table. However, my no-limit gains more than amply made up for my losses: I left the table with $175 after a $25 buy-in! Between this and my poker tournament championship title, I guess I'm not half bad!

Laura and I went to Za last night (Mass Ave in Arlington, next to the Arlington Diner). The resturant is a little on the small side perhaps 20 tables. A large chalkboard hanging in the dining room declares the days specials, all of which do seem special. A small wine-and-beer list accompanys the menu of pizza and salad.

I started with a salad of baby spinach, red onions, walnuts, apple butter, and a sherry vinaigrette, Laura had a south-west inspired salad of avocado, blackbeans, tortilla shells. I forget the rest, but the bite I had was tasty! My salad was excellent. The spinach was very fresh and the vinaigrette contrasted nicely with the apple butter.

The pizzas at Za are all 10-inch pan pizzas. Almost the perfect size for 2 people. A simple cheese pizza starts at $6, and specialty pizzas top out at $11. We decided to get a little creative with our pizza, and ordered a 'specialty pizza' off the menu: Bosc pears, carmelized onions, dried cranberries, gorgonzola, and (I believe) some scallions as a garnish. This pizza was mind-bogglingly good. If there was anything that I would've changed it is perhaps I would've blanched the pears a little before cooking the pizza as they were still crisp. I nice difference in texture, but I was hoping for a little more pear flavor out of them. I think perhaps this type of pizza will help me get a little more creative in my own pizza making.

Our meal (2 salads, pizza and two drinks), with gratuity came out to $44, about average for a night out, but at a very above average resturant.

Okay, I think its time to share my secret brownie recipe. It wasn't really a secret at all, however the book I got it from, I'm Just Here For More Food, had the recipe incorrect. This was obvious because the instructions made no sense what-so-ever! The many times I made the brownies (about 5), I muddled through, and combined recipes from other sources. They always came out in ways that made me very frustrated. Until yesterday.

You see, perusing Alton Brown's website, I discovered the list of errata for the aforementioned book. In it are contained the correct ingredients and directions necessary for these brownies to come out perfectly! I affectionately call them AltonBrownies. Enjoy!

There's one complication that I still have to work out. I'm baking in a glass 8x8" baking dish. About an inch and a half of the edge is being overcooked. I guess the glass is getting too hot perhaps? I might try a metal baking dish, but alas I do not have one. Perhaps its time for a trip to the resturant supply store?

I plan on making these a few more times this week, as well as experimenting with a variety that uses chocolate, as opposed to cocoa powder. I will be sure to post some very appetizing pictures later!

I was at the movies the other night watching Life Aquatic, and in the pre-show entertainment an economics question came up from Econ4U.com:

20. How much money is currently held in the Social Security Trust Fund?

• $0
• $100 million
• $500 billion
• $900 billion

Now, I've seen questions from these people in the past -- they're usually personal finance questions, small business questions, and things like that. However, I guessed $900 billion, since after all Social Security Trust Fund is perfectly solvent until 2042 to 2053. (Those long-range forecasts are hard to pin down obviously). Imagine my surprise when Econ4U tells me that the correct answer is $0! They explain:

Zero. The taxes you pay for Social Security today are used to finance current retirees and other government programs (emphasis added). When you retire, taxes on current employees will be used to pay your benefits. This transfer system has worked well for the first 60 years of the program, but current demographic trends create concerns that employee contributions will not be able to sustain payments to the aging "Baby Boomer" generation in the near future.

If you would like to take a look at the quiz, check out question 20.

The company behind these questions appears to be the Employment Policies Institute, a right-wing economics think-tank. The seem primarily concerned with the minimum wage, but perhaps they just haven't gotten the memos yet on the importance of destroying Social Security. Stay tuned for more propaganda at a movie theater near you.

Our vacation in florida was downright awesome. Laura and I did lots of reading and relaxing -- just what the doctor ordered. We saw a few movies, and went to Waffle House as often as possible (really just 4 times).

Getting down there was ridiculously easy, we had absolutely no traffic on the way down, and made it through D.C. by 1pm or so. We ended up staying the night just outside Savannah, GA.

The way back was a different story, however. While the first day was relatively uneventful, we made a gross miscalculation in actually trusting the weather forecast for Boston. It was supposed to rain all day, and only change over to snow at night. Well, it started snowing somewhere in New Jersey, and got really bad in Connecticut. I swear, I don't think they've heard of this modern invention called Plowing. After a 4 hour traffic jam through Hartford, we finally made it to the Mass Pike where the I was driving on actual pavement for the first time in about 6 hours!

The worst thing about a traffic jam in a snow storm: snow collects on your wipers, which eventually turns into ice, which renders your wipers useless. All over the highway, people are sticking out arms, scrapers, brooms (not really) to knock off a little ice so that they might see.