Maui Trip Report, pt. 1

I don't want to write anything about the Canucks-'Hawks series until it is over. Until then, I'll post a serialized trip report from my recent vacation - with pics to come.

2nd April

Get up early for 6 hr flight to Maui. Supposedly I'll be sitting next to sister, brother-in-law and 16 month-old nephew in bulkhead seats - more room to stretch out? yes please! - but they prove to be a myth. Bad beat.

I had resigned myself to long odds that Oliver would behave on the flight but he came through like a champion, much to the delight of everyone in the vicinity, as we gladly enjoyed the 7-to-1 shot. Only bad part of flight was about 1 hour's worth of fairly significant turbulence. Would happily have traded back the hour saved - we landed in just over 5 hours - for a smoother flight.

Somehow we spent 2.5 hours on arrival collecting baggage and picking up two rental cars. We then drove to . . . Costco. Yep, the first stop on a Hawaiian vacation was a giant store. Nothing says you're in Maui like Costco! This store was quite a bit different than the ones you'd find in Vancouver, though. Picked up essential supplies, then proceeded to posh resort. A spot of trouble with our room, but this was sorted out to our satisfaction and we settled in. (We soon found out the unit we were renting was for sale for a cool 1.4MM.) We spent a quiet evening getting the hang of the place and barbequed some burgers, than we turned in, ready to hit the beach the next day.

Escaping to paradise

I have been mulling over what to do with this space. Like many bloggers whose authorial voice has waned, my posting frequency has dropped to nearly nil. Since it's not 2005 and I no longer feel the need to try to post a lot about my poker adventures or record my halting steps towards proficiency at various forms of the game, I have been considering what other topics I might opt to write about here. I have a few ideas and once I've made some preparations, all six of you who still read this blog will hopefully be rewarded with some content of non-negligible value.

In the meantime, I'm happy to say that I'll be taking a family vacation in a week's time to Hawaii. It'll be my first time to that island paradise, and we're all set to stay at a very nice resort. I hope my nephew, who is fifteen months old, behaves on the flight. Other news of interest: my father, who is a few years older than this car enthusiast, and probably has even more disposable income than his fellow doctor to make frivolous purchases, will likely own one of these very soon. Needless to say, I have dibs on taking it out for a spin - my brother-in-law will have to get in line!

Sadly, I'll be an island away from this poker blogger when I'm vacationing, and it doesn't look as if I'll be able to hop over for a visit because our schedules don't mesh. I guess our next meeting will have to wait until Vegas in December.

I hope to fit in a round of golf whilst in Maui, so if anyone has any golf course suggestions, I'm all ears.

In the words of an English peasant

This brilliant scene from one of my all-time favourite movies resonates with me more than usual this week, since Sunday is my birthday - my 37th. And I'm starting to notice the onset of age. I've spotted some gray hair. Carpe diem!

At least no-one has yet called me ...

King Arthur: Old woman.
Dennis: Man.
King Arthur: Man, sorry. What knight lives in that castle over there?
Dennis: I'm 37.
King Arthur: What?
Dennis: I'm 37. I'm not old.
King Arthur: Well I can't just call you "man".
Dennis: Well you could say "Dennis".
King Arthur: I didn't know you were called Dennis.
Dennis: Well you didn't bother to find out did you?
King Arthur: I did say sorry about the "old woman", but from behind you looked...
Dennis: What I object to is you automatically treat me like an inferior.
King Arthur: Well I am king.
Dennis: Oh, king eh? Very nice. And how'd you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers. By hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society.


Go watch the whole thing. And laugh your guts out. Or go see Spamalot, because it's nearly as awesome.

Musings on the year that was 2010 and some 2011 predictions

Here are some predictions for 2011, and a few thoughts on 2010.

I will lose ten pounds to reach my target weight of 165 lbs (which is what I was at back when I graduated high school).

I will achieve some much-needed professional development and move upwards, not laterally, in the coming months.

I will improve my endurance and run some 10K races this summer, hopefully breaking the 55-minute barrier.

The Vancouver Canucks - currently the best team in the NHL - will be Stanley Cup finalists for the first time since 1994. We will probably lose in heart-breaking fashion to the Pittsburgh Penguins because Sidney Crosby always finds a way to win. This will be a time where my sincere admiration for Crosby will (temporarily) turn to unvarnished hatred.

I will attend next December's blogger gathering in Las Vegas.

I will put more time and effort into crushing some local private NL/PLO cash games that I've recently discovered. I will likely play more online poker in 2011 than I did in 2010, sticking to lower stakes mixed games and PLO8 cash games and a few bloggaments. Bring on the next BBT, Al!

I will blog more (but it's likely poker won't be a regular topic unless the American online poker industry blows up in dramatic fashion).

Looking back on 2010, I have a lot to be thankful for. I significantly improved my fitness, I saw the most famous international goal in Canadian hockey in my lifetime from 40 feet away (my DOB is post-Summit Series), and most importantly of all, my close family is all in good health and grew by one with the birth of my nephew Oliver, who recently turned one on December 30th.

Nineteen

Tonight marks the night when #19 rises to the rafters. Just two years after his retirement from the NHL, Markus Naslund, the best player in Vancouver Canucks team history (he owns a ton of team records for his accomplishments as a Canuck), has his number retired by the Canucks. It's the third number retired by the franchise, following Stan Smyl (#12) and Trevor Linden (#16).

It couldn't happen to a more deserving person.

The only thing that could make me happier as a lifelong fan of the team is a Stanley Cup parade.

Two words: no-hitter

Roy Halladay is the best pitcher in baseball.

Even though he's no longer pitching for my team, I still cheer for him.

Now that he's pitching in the playoffs for Philadelphia, casual baseball fans realize just how good Doc is. All he's done for the Phillies this year, his first season playing in the National League, is put up a Cy Young-worthy season which featured a perfect game, and now the second no-hitter in baseball's postseason history (NB. there have been 1,264 postseason baseball games played since 1903 - so this was a truly staggering feat). And this wasn't an easy task - Halladay was facing the highest-scoring team in the league in the Cincinnati Reds - and he made the Reds batters look completely helpless at the plate. No-one even came close to getting a hit; and Halladay only walked one batter during the game.

Five men have thrown two no-hitters in a calendar year or a postseason no-hitter. Halladay just became the first pitcher in baseball history to accomplish both feats.

I look forward to the day Doc gets inducted to the Hall of Fame, and I can see him wearing a Blue Jays cap once again.

Two words: whisky night

The long hot dry summer is over.

A night out with father, brother-in-law, and brother-in-law's father (visiting from Scotland) put paid to the mostly alcohol-free summer. We spent a night out having a good meal followed by the real treat of the evening, sampling a great many expensive offerings of Scotland's finest export in Vancouver's best gastropub - none of your Irish or American or Canadian inferior offerings for this party of four, if you please (the menu had a full page of single malts; there was about seven or eight Irish whiskeys on the back page, and a few North American and Japanese).

My favourite - we sampled about twenty, accompanied by a tasty cheese plate, some sausage and french fries - was a classic offering: a 16 year-old Lagavulin. But if you pressed me, I'd have cast a strong second-place vote for the 15 year-old Bruichladdich. Or my perennial favorite, Caol Ila (a real fire-starter, an 8 year-old with over 64% alcohol content), could have taken pride of place. Or there was this very good recommendation by the bar manager ...

I'm glad we thought ahead and booked a cab for the trip home.