To borrow a phrase from “The A-Team” (and date myself in the
process) I LOVE it when a plan comes together. I’m writing from the parking
lot. The top is down and I’m catchin’ some rays. The drive in was beautiful this
morning. My complimentary breakfast at the hotel was beautiful. As the song
goes (there I go dating myself again!) “Everything is beautiful, in its own way…”

OK I couldn’t scare up a bar fight last night. It woulda
been tough as the only customer at the bar was the clerk who checked me into
the hotel. He’d been so cheery and helpful at check-in, but now he was just pear-shaped
and half asleep. Too bad, he’d have been a perfect candidate; I think I could
have taken him down in a brawl. So I was reduced to a cold beer and small talk
with the bartender which was, I imagine about as exciting as watering the lawn.
I say “I imagine” because I don’t think I’ve ever actually watered a lawn. And
no, that’s not on my bucket list.

The sports bar is called “Winners”. That, my friends, is the
definition of a misnomer.

The good news is that before I nodded off to sleep I was
flipping channels and landed on this PBS nature documentary that rocked my
world! It was about how certain species travel in massive packs. I’m talkin’
swarms with a capital S. They showed sardines in South Africa and Emperor
Penguins in The Antarctic, but most fascinating of all were these budgies (I
think from South America?) who travel in swarms that number in the millions!
All green budgies, and when they fly together it looks like a toxic waste plant
imploded. It was mesmerizing. I couldn’t stop watching it. They also had these
Mayflies who travel in packs that cover 4 and a half square miles. Imagine
that. That’s enough mayflies to fill The Annex. If this was a mini-series, I’d have skipped the tourney.

We had a budgie in my house when I was growing up. He was
blue though, and his name was Joey. The family trick was that we could get him
to land on your shoulder and we could tell him to take a crap, and sure enough,
as if on command, he would drop a pellet right on you. It was really very
charming. The family secret to the trick was that Joey had the metabolism of a hummingbird
and the bathroom habits of a sewer rat. He crapped anywhere, everywhere, all the
time, anytime. So it was all an illusion. Poker can be like that. Nice segue, huh?

So anyway, I’m here. As far as I can see there are 240 left from
a starting field of 578. The average stack has gone down a bit to about 71K. I
have 59,700 and blinds start today at 600/1200. My buddy Domenic also made it
to day 2 but he starts a little shorter at 38K. Good luck to us.

Ok, here goes.