So close to OK (Not much poker content)

Being unemployed has one side benefit: time. I am oozing free time out of my pores and have been spending it wisely with Ali, who is similarly infected with free time, having finished her law school finals two weeks ago. Ali's summer asoociate job doesn't start until June 1st, so we're doing a lot of lazing about along with chores and occasional fun things like movies, museums and dinners.

One of the great things we did this past week was to go see a Yankee game at the new stadium. First of all, I have to say that the new stadium is awesome! There are entrances on all sides of the stadium now, so getting in and out is a breeze. It's only a 15 minute ride to the stadium from the 72nd street B train, which is a huge plus. And to top it all off, the weather was an unreal 70 degrees and clear that night. Just an outstanding night for baseball. I had gotten seats on the field level all the way out in right field and am happy to report that the sight lines were excellent. We couldn't quite tell balls from strikes, but we had a great view of all the action. The new screen out in centerfield has twice the amount of info as the old screens and is crystal clear and bigger, to boot. From the screens you can tell who's up, what the count is, what the lineup is, what the score is, what the speed of the pitch is and what type, the batters season stats and (my favorite) the complete boxscore AND SITUATION (baserunners, who's at plate, who's pitching, etc.) of up to four different games at a time going on around the country. It's a cornucopia of information and is very welcome.

The game was against the Minnesota Twins and featured all the hallmarks of a game to remember:

1. A solo homer from Derek Jeter
2. Two solo homers from Justin Morneau
3. A solo homer from Joe Mauer
4. An inside the park homer (!) from Brett Gardner <----wow
5. A thrilling come from behind finish with the Yanks scoring 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th culminating in a 2 out single by Melky Cabrera with the bases juiced. Yanks won 5-4 after being behind the entire game.

Gardner had come in the game for Johnny Damon, who was ejected after arguing with the ump the second time he was called out on strikes. Gardner came in and hit a single his first time up, the inside the park homer the next time and finally hit a lead-off triple in the bottom of the 9th to start the rally that led to the Yanks win! The triple was *almost* another inside the park homer, since Gardner tripped up a bit rounding first, but he would have been held at third regardless. Amazing game and a wonderful lift to the spirits.

In poker news, we are having the final table tonight of the six month long Wall Street World Series of Poker satellite, ending in a $3,000 grand prize for the winner to go to Vegas and play in a WSOP event of their choice. I wish I could have won a seat myself, but I didn't quite make it. I'm excited to see who's gonna take it down. It's a very tough table tonight. I'm just happy that we were able to get 10 seats filled, given the recent fall off in poker attendance. Not just at my place, by the way. I've heard reports from all over the city that the economy is choking poker games everywhere. {Sigh}

Oh yeah, I fixed my TV too. This is, by far, the most exciting news of the past few weeks. My TV, for a few months now, has had a weird glitch in which the background music WAY overwhelmed the dialogue, making watching most TV shows and movies quite irritating. I figured the speakers were blown, or something, but they seemed to respond well, just off balance. I had finally had enough and called a TV repair company to come make a call. After 10 minutes of fiddling with the settings, we discovered that the SURROUND feature of the TV was turned on, which somehow split the signal into a front and back of which only one seemed to be going through the TV speakers. Turning this setting OFF cleared the problem instantly! It's like getting a new TV! I had to pay for the guy's parking costs and gave him a $10 tip for his troubles, so $130 later (welcome to Manhattan), my TV works again!!! Totally worth it.