Mike Compton - a day in the life of…

ok, so I havent kept up on this blog, gimme a break, 2 kids on the way!!!!

so here goes. we finally finished the house. painting *done*, deck *complete*, landscaping *done (for this year anyways)

now the important stuff.

Jen’s pregnancy is going well. All her ultrasounds/tests/doctor visits have gone perfectly. It seems that the two little monkeys are getting closer to joining us though. Jen is 35 weeks this friday, so probably at any point over the next 3 weeks her and I will be PROUD parents of two amazing kids.

Summer hasn’t been the same as past. No vacations. No weekends away, etc. All we’ve been concentrating on is getting ourselves and our home ready for 2 kids, and I think we’re there. Well, we’ll NEVER be ready for it, but I think we’ve done the best we could so far.

I’ll TRY and keep up w/ any updates as I have time

looking back over the past 5 or 6 months……. its not that much hasnt happened, its just that I havent had the time/effort/patience to write a 3 page update on whats new with us.

I still really dont have that time/patience thing going on, but here it is anyways!

to start, Jen and I have been trying to conceive for the good part of two and a half years, and as of January…….. WE’RE PREGNANT! Well, I shouldnt say WE, although I look pregnant at times, Jen is actually the one we’ve decided will carry our baby. It’s the greatest thing to know that after 2+ years of trying that its finally our turn. It was starting to get disheartening knowing lots of friends/family were having kids, yet the people that wanted them most couldnt seem to be that lucky. But finally its our time, and we’re ready for it. Our home is in order, our finances are in order, and when we moved we had kids in mind. Although we liked our last home, it just wasnt the area in which we thought would be good for kids to grow up in. Now we’re in a great little tucked away subdivision of new homes, mostly younger families like us, that will be a great environment for kids.

That being said (the kids part….) the news is ***drum roll please*** we’re having a girl!!!! (Oh, AND a boy, thats right, you read that right,  TWINS!) Without asking Jen I could probably go on record as saying that was the happiest day of our life together to know that we’ll not only be parents, but parents of twins! I’ll admit, it was a shock as well as a great suprise when we went for the Ultrasound last Friday, since we didnt know thats what we had in store. After the first 5 seconds of initial shock on both of our faces, then the ‘glow’ set in. Such an amazing thing, and even better, we’re having a boy and a girl, exactly what we had both hoped our family would end up as.

Now that we’ve had a weekend to let the shock wear off, we’re really just thinking of how lucky we are in so many senses of the word. We’re too now able to start the family that we’ve wanted since the day we were married. Dont get me wrong, I know its going to be insane having two infants around that will take up 99.9% of our time, but that completely trumps the month after month knowing that there goes another opportunity to start our family.

Well I know that one post doesnt make up for 5 or 6 missed months, but the news from this one should make up for it

So here is it: Baby A and Baby B *note, they already have names waitin’ for them too*

It’s weird how you have such highs and lows all in one 2 day weekend

Saturday everything sucked since my home computer decided it no longer wanted to startup. Changed out the motherboard/power supply, computer fires up, and now disk is corrupted. nice. Good thing I’ve been burned by this before and have everything backed up to my server, so I hopefully wont lose any music/files or more importantly, pictures that Jen and I have from vacation, honeymoons, family events, etc. I really didnt feel like re-installing this week, but it looks like that’s how things go.

The BETTER part of the weekend was downtown. We spent the afternoon at a Germanfest, then off to the Bears game. It was an up and down game, Bears scored first and then ended up trailing most of the game. We had *awesome* seats too (thanks Jen!) so we were like 20 yards from all the action. 4th quarter, Bears are down 14 points w/ 9 minutes or so to play. People are starting to leave. Bears hold on defense then block a punt… so on and so forth. Here it is 4th down, 25 seconds to play in the game, Bears at the goal line. Pass to Berrian. TDDDDDDDDDDDDDD. PAT made, all tied up with 20 seconds to go. Broncos get a nice pass down the field to get them to midfield, next play, false start, 10 second run-off. we’re going to OT. Bears win the toss and march all the way down to the 20, line up a Robbie Gould FG, GOOD! Bears win, after being down 14 points with 9 to play. Offense looked horrible, defense looked horrible. Special teams once again saves them. It was a great game to be at! So much fun!

And to top off the good weekend, today is Jen’s birthday! happy bday sweetie!

Its been so long since Jen and I were able to get away for a day and do something enjoyable on the weekend. Normally its housework, laundry, yardwork, or some birthday party, etc

This weekend we had tickets to go see Dane Cook at the United Center. But before we went to the show, we figured we’d stop for some dinner in Chinatown. It was goooooooood. Went to Royal Dragon on Cermack/Wentworth. I’d recommend it. And at 6:00 on a Saturday night, there was hardly anybody in there. Some sweet & sour chicken, sesame chicken, and chicken fried rice! Then back to the car to find I had about thismuch space to try and get the car out. Made it out w/o using the other peoples bumpers and on our way to see Dane. Traffic sucked as downtown chicago traffic normally does, but we made it there just before showtime, only to find out he didnt end up going on stage for another 45 mins or so. Awesome show though, Jen and I were near tears for most of it. Then the LONGGGGGGG trip back home. It was a really enjoyable evening though.

Then sunday was just putting the Halloween decorations away, and beginning to bring out the fall/xmas stuff. Before you know it the xmas decorations will be up. And trust me, we have TONS of that. probably 8 large bins of stuff!

So I got in that blogger tournament over at PokerStars yesterday. 1337 entries.

I played well and was in the top 1/3rd of the players for the first 40 mins or so, then comes the gross injustice….

I raise 5x the big blind, in pretty good position, blinds fold, 1 caller (well, raiser)

after all is said and done, my pocket aces vs. pocket two’s. yeah, who do you think won? he has a 2 outer, and we’re all in, of COURSE he hits the 2. GROSS

there were 3 of my friends in the tourney too. Larry/Dannie fared better than me, but Cliff made it to just about the top 25%. Ah well, there’s always next year :/

Jen rules. I was the last one out of the house this morning, and there sat a lunch all neatly packed for me.

Subtle, yet GOOD hint that I shouldnt eat out so much

Love you baby. Thanks!

So last night I got into a 10,000 player freeroll poker tournament at Pokerstars. It’s a satellite tourney to a $1k freeroll next Sunday. I had just hoped to do well, increase my skills, play tourneys better after reading a little of Phil Gordons LITTLE GREEN BOOK. I’m only into the book 30 pages, but already its made me more wiser on what to play/ when to play /why to play, etc. A few HOURS (yes hours) into the tournament, I’m completely holding my own. 9,000 players already gone, ok I’m in the top 10%, not bad. Did I mention only the top 27 get the satellite tournament ticket? More pressure, but I play on. Down to 250…. down to 100, now 65… Down to 65 and it gets INTENSE. In the 50’s… and you realize you’re at the top .006 percent of the players. NUTS. K, down in the FORTY’S now. Everyone starts playing really tight so that they can make the cut of 27. Now is when Phil Gordons book pays dividends. "If you’re in position, near the bubble/money line, get aggressive" I’m at about 250k chips about that place, and get super aggressive. When it gets that low, the tables play hand for hand, and I have the chance to bring myself right into the 27 w/ knocking out a short stack. I have an Ace, they’re blinded ALL-IN, I raise to bump out other players, and BAM, Ace hits. 28th player, eliminated.. and I did it! w00t, I’m in… top 27. With all that aggressive play, I’m actually in the top five in chips….10,000 players, top FIVE…. So a few guys go crazy… ALL IN here, ALL IN there… down to ten. Now we’re at the FINAL table. The top .001% of the players, all good. I beat a few, a few drop by others… now down to three. Tension is KILLING me at this point.

I’m at $12 million chips, player 2, $2 million, player 3, $1 million. my hand. pocket 6’s. Pocket pairs in 3 player, I’m going for it. I shove ALL IN. Two callers. UH OH. player 2, pocket ACES… ouch, player 3, pocket 2’s… pallatable at least. So I figure I’m losing.. but not out. Flop comes. K68, all spades. TRIPSSSSSSSSS….. and nobody has spades. Next 2 cards, I truthfully dont even remember I was so estatic.

I just won a tournament of 10,000 players. Insanity. Best poker moment *ever*

And just think, next Sunday is the satellite. Wish me luck

So yeah, I commute 500 miles/week.  Being on the expressway that much, you see a lot of crazy stuff.

The past 6 months I’ve had not 1, 2, but THREE trucks blow out tires next to me, a car next to me got rear-ended at about 40mph, and today, a semi truck ran against a guardrail in front of me for about 5 seconds. Dodging sparks/ raining rubber… so much fun.

Happy Tuesday morning!

So the past 2 months or so I’ve been playing online poker from the client at Pokerstars.net

It’s pretty cool. You get like $1000-2000 in play money, and then you can find tables for anything from No-Limit Texas Holdem, Omaha, etc. There are a few other poker games that I’m unfamiliar with, so I steer clear of them. After poker got big in the past few years, I’ve followed it more on tv, and played it any opportunity I could. I’ve played a few home games with good results, and one time at the boats, also, good results. But this whole online poker craze thing was a lot bigger than I thought it was.

When you watch the World Series of Poker on tv, you always see the ads for it, Play for free this, that. I’ve always found the play for free stuff to be scams, starting with ok, give us your credit card # for verification of your age, etc, but truth be told, Pokerstars is legit. Its completely free, no credit card verification, etc. Never even had to enter one to get an account. Don’t get me wrong, they have another client on which you can play for $, but of course that’s illegal in the U.S. and nobody would do that haha. But I’m content just playing a few hours here/there when I get the chance, and I feel my game is improving too. I’ve entered 5 of their tournaments they call ‘freeroll’, which is just that, free tournaments for fake chips, just to see how you match up w/ other players. Granted this is to give you the gambling bug and get you to download their client on which you can play for cash, but the play alone is satisfying my poker bug. Anyway, the last 5 tournaments went like this. Tournament 1, I took a bad beat IMMEDIATELY and got bounced. Tournament 2 & 3 I got deep into the field and just missed placing. Tournament 4, I played an Omaha tournament, placed 107 of 1750, ‘cashed’. Last night, a No-Limit Texas Hold-em tournament, 5,000 entries.. yes, 5000, I placed 223rd, finishing ‘in the chips’ Although its play $, its still good to know my game is improving as I play more. From starting w/ $2000 chips a few months back, I’m around $24000 chips now. If ONLY that was real $. Dang