i am so good at poker when i try to be. too bad i didn’t on friday night. i ended up doing my usual routine of having too many beers before the cards start coming out and then playing sloppy early on, getting into a hole i can’t get out of. there goes another five bucks.

at least i had a new beat ’em up game to play on xbox with gino and whoever else got out after i was eliminated. sword fights are way cooler than poker anyway, right? i’d forgotten the simple pleasure of repeatedly beating on each other. a few more nights of that and my investment in soul calibur iv this week will have been worthwhile.

making some nice progress on RV renting for the september trip to austin city limits too. we actually walked inside some on saturday, got a quote — did you know that in september you can get half price miles once all the wholesome families have had their summer vacation trips and demand goes way down? it’s like the planets are aligning for our party bus to texas. i just hope once we get in it someone doesn’t drive it into the grand canyon on the way; none of us are super experienced at driving massive residential trucks.

i also finally finished the book i was reading (rollover for review below-right). thank god, too. that was some too-long, unfulfilling stuff right there. very excited to be moving on to some nice tightly-written short stories from harlan ellison, and if i remember to go pick it up, our new book club selection. let’s see if i’m the only one who actually starts reading it this month.