First full day of the $100 maximum bets allowed at Blackhawk, and wow, what a breath of fresh fucking air. Cash games that require a bit of skill are finally being played. I got off work a little early, headed up to where Laura works (gilpin), and played until her shift was over.

Not a hugely profitable day (+$36) but better than nothing. I drove Laura home and she works again today, so another day at the tables is imminent.

The start of July signals the end of having to worry about my previous residence. With the generous help of Laura and Lynn, who cleaned it out for me, I handed the keys back to the landlord on June 30. Not really a HUGE deal, but it’s really nice to get the whole thing out of the way.

Today marks my last work day until July 13. I had originally planned to move/clean during this week off, but instead resolved that the last two weeks. Now I have a free 10 days to do whatever.

I will definitely be heading up to Blackhawk and seeing how the new $100 max bet limits are, as the poker games are going to be REAL poker games for a change, instead of the $5 bingo-like poker. I hope the “spread limit” games are like what I played in San Jose a couple years ago.

I also finally picked up Ween’s last album, which I’m embarrassed to re-discover it’s been out for nearly two years. I had been meaning to buy it and just kept putting it off… time fucking flies.

The point is, it’s a great album (”La cucaracha”). Listening to any new Ween album has become a truly blissful trip back in time for me. It reminds me of the first time I heard Chocolate and Cheese driving around with Nick in high school. And then in college I was introduced to Godweensatan, which totally blew my mind at the time, and is still one of my favorite records, ever.

One thing is clear: Dean Ween is a guitar god, was a guitar god, and has always been a guitar god. His skilled play shines through on every song, and then is magnified on every guitar solo. So brilliantly great.

Essentially a repeat event of just four weeks ago, Adam and I entered into the CKA’s third tournament of the year. Everything is scheduled at the same time, the event is held at the same location, every judge is now familiar to me, and most of the competitors were the same. They simply change the name from “RAGE” to “Summer Jam” and that’s that.

Adam has a funny attitude about these tournaments. I can’t tell if he’s even interested in winning, even though he’s won easily for his age group in the point sparring divisions the first two tourneys. And he won today, again. But, he doesn’t seem to get very excited about them, but he puts enough effort in to win first place.

The harder division, continuous sparring for anyone 18 and under AND 121 pounds and under, is where he at least faces competition. He finished fourth last tourney, and managed another fourth place (both times with about eight total competitors), so he won but then got beat pretty soundly in the semifinals and 3rd place match.

He did say he’s been dealing with a hurt little toe, on top of a fairly painful tailbone problem he acquired via BMX tricks. So, hats off to the kid!

As for me, I hadn’t even been to any classes at the dojo all week, thanks to various oddities. So I was a little “rusty” — although it’s not like if I had been to class, I wasn’t going to go Van Damme on anyone anytime soon.

But I felt good for the first event, the continuous portion, and beat some blue belt guy who was in his middle 30s, and really wasn’t that good. It netted me a first place trophy, but I’m not really that proud of the “accomplishment.”

I then got matched up with some younger guy in the point sparring, and lost 4-3. If I wasn’t so tired and hadn’t been stinging from a rib shot, I would have probably won. Next time.

Last night, Laura took me to the Mayan Theatre, a local indie film theater, and we watched Little Ashes, the biography of Salvador Dali and friends during the 1920s-30s.

I don’t know a lot about Dali’s life, so it was principally a learning experience for me. Laura is quite knowledgeable on Dali, and surely enjoyed it more than I did. Not that I thought it was terrible, but it was a little pretentious — and that was probably the point.

I did just view Un Chien andalou, and it’s pretty interesting. I took every available film course offered at UNL between 1996-99 and never saw this, so I’m a little disappointed. But hey, better late than never, right!?

Getting settled into my new place, and we’ve discovered that watching a movie is a bit more enjoyable in the new living room.

But last week, before I had any furniture, Laura and I watched Shutter, a Thai (I think) horror piece. Nothing too groundbreaking, but it was moderately entertaining at times, but my chief complaint would be there were too many dream/fantasy sequences. Still, I’d recommend to anyone wanting to see a fun horror flick.

Last night, we watched He Was a Quiet Man. Definitely funny seeing Christian Slater cast as the balding loner working a menial office job. Oh yeah, and he wants to gun down his co-workers. It’s got some cute plot twists, and some interesting usage of CGI. Overall it does a fine job of conveying the intended message, and I recommend to anyone.