One-up-man-ship

Doug is a techie and math geek. Me, not so much. And that’s fine, we’re both cool with that. It usually means that we have the latest and greatest gadgets and computer tools ever known to man. If we have version 2.5.7.86.105.2 of any one item and version 2.5.7.86.105.3 comes out, we usually have to get it, you know, because it’s BETTER.

Because Doug is the techie in the family, and I’m not so much, he feels he should make most of the “who gets what” decisions, which is fine with me. He’ll get the latest version of Java’s PERL ARC GIS Microsoft Swanson dinner software and I don’t ever feel the need to get myself say, some new clothes.

A couple of years ago he gave me an iPod nano 8 gig (which is why I’m hip – see my very first post) for Christmas. It was great and so much better than either of our MP3 players. Of course, as soon as I opened it he took it and programmed it and loaded music and created playlists etc. etc. Once he realized how cool it was he started commenting about how maybe he should get one as well. Of course you can see the reasoning – he’s the techie – I’m not. I have something cool, he doesn’t. Ergo – he needs to get bigger and better iPod. So he does, but not the iPod nano – he got the iPod video 32 gig.

A couple of months later, my old cell phone finally broke for the last time and we both went to get me a new one. What a sleek phone I got – thin as a credit card, with camera, browser and 2 gigs of memory. And, of course, once I got it home, Doug took it and programmed it and downloaded music to it and surfed the internet with it and realized – “hey wait a minute! this is better than my phone”. Yep, it only cost him $300 to break his contract ….

Which brings me to Annie Duke.....if I go to this seminar, I'm not sure what Doug will have to do to make it up to himself....

The Zen of Poker (part 2)

Doug and Annie Duke

I've mentioned Annie Duke and how she is the most famous woman poker player, EVER. She is a walking encyclopedia of percentages when it comes to poker hands and poker pots.

And, because of the math thing, she is Doug's newest, best friend.

So, this is how it came down. We were leaving the seminar when they announced that Annie would be holding an all-women's clinic in Las Vegas in June. Now, June is my birthday month and my first thought is:

Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday, get packed!
Happy Birthday to me!

It also just happens to be at the EXACT same time that Doug is hosting his annual all-guys poker tournament weekend.

My thoughts - Yip-P as in Perfect timing

Doug's thoughts - Whaaaat??? You get to go to Vegas and hang out with Annie Duke and I have to stay and play poker with the guys. Whaaaat?????

Next up - Doug and his need for one-up-man-ship.

The Zen of Poker (part 1)

Doug taught me how to play poker. It started with him playing for fun, online, and me watching him. He finally let me try a game, all the while giving me bits of advise that sounded like this:

"Blah, blah, pot odds, blah, blah, something or other percent, blah, blah"

And, of course, I replied:

"It's ok - I use intuition - I can just tell when someone is bluffing me".

This went fine for quite a while - we would take turns playing and Helping each other out. Well, at least until I started Helping him out - something along the lines of:

"I knew that was going to happen" or "Why on earth would you have done that, couldn't you just feel that was wrong????"

Yeah, well now I play upstairs in my own office, on an entirely different site - I don't think Doug wants to chance us being in the same room or on the same table EVER.

But we did both enrol in a one day poker seminar taught by Annie Duke (the most famous woman poker player, EVER). She is amazing! This is what she says:

“Poker is about the math”.

Wow! – how amazing! Nobody has ever put it to me like that before.

What? When? You did? Of course I was listening to you, Doug.

Tax Time - The Comedy

Doug and I both work from home. Well, actually, it's more that he computer programs and every so often I'll do paperwork. There are so many benefits to working from home:

1. Short commute
2. Relaxed dress code
3. Relaxed personal hygiene (eeewww - but it's true)
4. Long lunches/and or early dinners
5. Set-your-own-salary (totally dictated by how-much-did-we-invoice)
6. All that together time....
   

For the most part it works well. For the most part.

You see, it's tax time. Now personal taxes are one thing. Those I can do. Corporate taxes are quite another thing. Doug is of the belief that the government shouldn't make tax forms so difficult that you would have to hire someone (like an Expert) to fill them out.

So, for the past few years I have been in charge of putting all the numbers into the right spots. It usually goes something like this:

I spend a few hours in my office thinking up nasty things to do to Revenue Canada for complicating corporate taxes, wondering what perverted thrills accounting people really get from doing this and then I shut down my computer, stomp down the stairs in a huff, open a bottle of wine and tell Doug "everything's coming along fine".

After a rather compelling and convincing debate (ok, temper tantrum) we have finally hired the Expert to do this year's corporate taxes. He's good. He even has a sense of humor. Like wanting to know where our trial balance is.

Riiight, like we actually have one of those.

If it's hip I'm there!

I was never one to keep a diary or a journal, even though Oprah says I should. But for some reason I really like the idea of a blog (although, if I did have a diary, it would have to kept under lock and key so that no one could read it). It feels so anonymous to write and post in the vast universe of the internet. I mean, is anyone really going to read this?

So, a little history. Married twice, one current husband (other husband is ex) three children, two stepchildren, two sons-in-law, four grandchildren, no live pets (or plants), one parent, one step-parent, one parent-in-law, two step-parents-in-law, three siblings and numerous other people that my mother tells me are related (oh and tons more that are my husband's relatives, but I don't know who they all are because he doesn't know who they all are - only his step-mom knows).

Oh, and just because I have grandchildren does not make me old. Just ask Mathew, my six year old grandson. He's pretty sure that his dad is older than me. Although numerically it's not true, I can only assume that it means I just look younger than his dad.

So, now I have a blog. I also have an iPod.

It's official - I'm hip!