Looking Forward; 2009

Before I get into the projections for the new year, just a couple of quick things that happened over the holidays.

Boxing Day was spent at my youngest brother's in Cambridge. He and his family, our parents, and other brother Dave all joined in for some really fine eats. Ham, trout, salmon, chicken, all cooked very well, despite my sister in law not being able to boil water without burning the crap out of it. The meal was excellent, and no one even mentioned the lack of salt beef this year. Because of our Newfie heritage, a Christmas without salt beef was going to be questionable. Mom & Dad were both told by their doctors they are forbidden to eat the stuff any more. Talk about knife in the heart of a Newfoundlander! Still, with all the selection that was there, it was a very good holiday feast shared by family. After dinner and the official gift opening, my brothers and I sat down to play some hold em. No money exchanged, just for fun. Dad came down just as we were starting, and we invited him to play. Now Dad doesn't know hold em, but claims he can play poker, just hasn't in 20+yrs. So after a quick tutorial, we were playing together. I have never played cards with my father, and it was great for the four of us to play together. Still, of course, newbie donkey took the whole game down. Now we'll never hear the end of it from him. Took a pic of him with all the chips with my cell, and I'll download it when I figure out how. Spoke to Mom the other day on the phone, and she told me it was all he talked about driving home, him playing with his boys...and beating us. Seems he really enjoyed it as much as we did.

Nathan brought down his Mum's Christmas present...a used clothes dryer. And wouldn't you know it, the damn thing doesn't work. He's handling the issue with whomever he did the work for in lieu of cash, but it has really left us in a spot. After some discussion, he has found a new dryer for her, and is bringing it down soon, only thing is I offered to pay for it because he really doesn't have the funds to do it himself. His business, this is the wrong time of year, and he's a bit strapped for cash. No problem, but I'm a little short as well, and will need to budget a bit in January to do it. Truck needs work too, have to include that in the budget as well. Sigh...new year...same old crap though.

Okay, 2009...what could it mean to yours truly?

Well, here's hoping the work situation improves dramatically! And I don't mean with the place I'm at now, I'm done with that zoo thank you. I need to get a totally new start somewhere else, somewhere that I can have potential again, somewhere where I can feel as a part of the team again, someplace that actually works to improve things for the company and not make every goddamn decision based on the CURRENT financial position with zero concern for future requirements. I actually took the liberty to see what the sales projections were for 2009. If we were to hit it, it would be over $16m in sales....BEST we would ever do. The problem is that most of the work hasn't started yet, and with the current leadtimes for production and processing, we're very very late. Reason we're late is because the bean counters are not paying for any raw material purchases, and the CEO refuses to get any operating capital extensions from the BOD or banks. My To Start list of jobs is now over 100...and its NEVER more than 20!! If we can't start jobs on time, we'll never hit that sales target. I'm not seeing any positive moves, and with Sciex announcing they are closing in 2010 and will be offloading most of their production by June 2009 to Singapore, I'm not liking the picture at all. There are other personal reasons for my decision as well, but that's the icing on the cake. CFN is in bad shape, and I need to get off that sinking ship. Can't come soon enough for me.

Okay, enough doom and gloom, time for some positive thinking now.

Poker wise, I want to be able to get out more and play some live tournaments outside my own league games. This means Woody's, West Side, maybe a couple of underground games once in awhile, and ultimately, a casino tourney. Maybe NOT Vegas in April, but at least some bigger buyin event somewhere locally. Speaking of Woody's, I qualified to play his Season Ending game tonight. Game time is 7pm. Its a freeze out, which is different from his usual rebuy format. Since I play a lot more freezeout than they do, I might have a small advantage, and considering that I'm starting short stacked tonight because I didn't earn as many points as the rest did, so I'll be at a big disadvantage chip wise, but I think I can outplay them more preflop because of the game format. We'll see anyway. I haven't played a West Side game in a very long time, and I usually do pretty good in them. Haven't won any of them, but usually go pretty deep, and besides, the cash games afterwards are very good to me ;) The Vegas trip is on my mind too...would love to go, just not sure if I can swing it or not. Maybe I'll talk to Darryl, he's the one organizing it.

My golf game is on winter break, and most likely will be until April at the earliest. I'm not going to pay for lessons again this year, but I want to hit the ranges a bit more than last year. This year, I think I'll concentrate on my short game more, try to save myself a few strokes that way. I usually can get to within 120yds easily enough...but muff it from there with club selection, distances, and accuracy. If I can concentrate on those aspects of my game, I'm pretty sure I can break the 90 mark this summer. Also, want to get a chance to go see my brother Dave and get out to play a round or two with him. He lives 8 hrs away, near Ottawa, so if I do go, I want to make it an extra long weekend sort of thing, that way we can golf, go fishing, and maybe even play some poker somewhere together.

This year, I also want to get out and do more fishing. Not a lot maybe, but definitely more than the once I got out last season. Its something that I KNOW I enjoy, and really would like to get back into without it having to cost a fortune to do it. I haven't started tying those flies for the swap yet, but I will by the end of January. Might take me a bit to remember how to do them, but its like riding a bike really...I hope. One thing I do want to do is get together with a couple of guys from Hipwader forum and get a fishing partner again. There are times I want to be just left alone to fish, but there a lot times that having a buddy around to bs with is just as much fun. Since moving to Brampton, I don't see my best friend much at all anymore, and it gets a bit too quiet on the rivers sometimes.

UPDATE: JAN 4
Played Woody's game last night, and did pretty well. Didn't win it, but I did take home 4th place cash. Great way to start the new poker season! It was good to see all those guys last night too, and the fact that half of them can't play freezeout format was a bonus. Only hand I really had all night was KK UTG and I three bet it to 300. Folds around to Bill in LP and he cold calls it. Then it gets re raised all in by dealer. I quietly call, Bill wisely folds, and my KK hold up against AQo for a change. That double up kept me in the game the rest of the night. Good thing too, as I never saw another decent hand to play for quite awhile. Last hand I played I had 78o. Bill raises just enough to push me all in as I didn't even have 4BB left. He shows a dismal 10 2o, but hits the deuce on the flop and I didn't improve. He goes on to win it all after that. Good game, good bunch of guys, and I know I can play them too. Like I said, would like to play there more often this year.