Everywhere is signs...

I have had a pretty special week and I want to tell you all about it, starting with the most precious of all. My good friends had a baby girl and man oh man, is she just adorable. Mama looks as gorgeous as ever and has fallen right into the role of doting mother.  I have never held a newborn before so this was quite an experience for me. Its amazing, at that moment I want to make sure I am doing everything right - is her head cradled properly, is she warm enough, is she happy. And so I can imagine for a parent this must be multiplied by one thousand right then and only increasing over time as the child grows. 

Me and Yahtzee were honored when we were asked to pick them up from the hospital for their homecoming. Yahtzee drove 10mph through Manhattan and over Queensboro bridge, ignoring all the honks and and explicits and focused only on the mission at hand, to get this little girl, her Mama and Grandma safely to her home in Astoria.

Thank you for sharing this special moment with us, we can't wait to watch this little New Yorker learn and grow and explore all the wonders of life.

Ok, but this is not all. I was also invited to fundraiser that was organized by four women (collectively, they established  MARA Society) that supports various Romainian organizations. One of those A's in MARA stands for Andreea, a wonderful smart and beautiful friend of mine who obviously has a very giving heart.  The event I attended was at the Essex House to support school children who lack financial means.  The night went off like a charm and was well attended, and I won my first item in silent auction - a signed copy of Before Sunrise, one of my favorite movies. Ethan Hawke was there too...with his wife...who is also pregnant.

Are these signs?






And this week we also got a surprise visit from our token Canadian friend who, we are happy to know, is moving back to the city with her husband and baby. Now HER little boy (there is a theme here, or ?) just learned to say "cheese" so you can imagine the photo-taking fun.  But this was one of my favorites.  Pretty darn cute.

The one in the middle is the biggest Jag of all!

We had a great night and got to catch up on work, life and love on Snug's deck.  It was great to jag around again, I sure missed that from our Soccer Days.

We look forward to many more fun times, YOU JAG!

SHARKS

I thought I would try my hand at Poker this weekend. This would require some schoolin’ – so me and the ladies went to the illustrious “School of Cards” ALLLL the way over on the far West Side.


As an aside, I’d like to first say, this was Lola’s first “Stella ride” and she voiced her excitement the whole ride over which I totes understand, I share the joy every time I set eyes on her. We were a little nervous to leave Stella in front of Scores but she ended up being well looked after.

Blake was our dealer for the evening and kept us quite entertained teaching us the rules, some new words (I staked her, as opposed to I steaked her – which I have to admit I thought was a 2000’s take on the 1980’s term “I porked her”) and feeding us snacks and alcohol. What was so fascinating was the different approach each of us took toward the game. Let me introduce the playa’s by name, as I have learned from there are more than just SHARKS out there – of which, btw, none of us were (see http://www.handsofpoker.com/).

THE PLAYA's

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The Rock: aka DASHA

Play very tight & premium hands (high pocket pairs and high hands). Best to avoid getting involved with them unless you have a really strong hand.

The Fish: aka LOLA

  Play a lot of hands and chase pots on draws. They will call down to the river with almost any pair so value bet your big hands against them.

The Calling Station: aka MINERVA WEBB – (our british friend)

Prefer to let other players force the action and call with almost any pair. Like to see lots of flops and are involved in many showdowns. The best way to make money from these players is to value bet big hands so that they continue to chase their pairs, or weaker hands. Bluffing these types of players is not a good idea though, as they are more likely to call with weaker hands.

The Bomb: aka – HOT PANTS

Players are extremely aggressive and scary to play against. They try to win a lot of pots by bluffing, semi-bluffing and raising big. These players can usually be knocked off a hand by check raising them when you connect on a flop as they will almost always continuation bet after a flop where they have raised pre-flop

Afterwards, we met the men at Beauty Bar

and Ottos for some Tiki Action.

Once again it is confirmed, Dark and Stormy’s make me dark and stormy.