Advice Needed

Tonight, I am going to meet with the couple whose marriage ceremony I will be performing the last weekend in March. Now, I'm no preacher but I do take my role in their marriage very seriously. As a married person who has gone through the troughs and peaks of a onetime tumultuous marriage, I feel qualified to offer some guidance as they start their life together. What I want is some advice from any of you who have it to offer.

I think my primary advice will be to not let problems sit around unattended. If it is serious enough to bother you, talk about it now before it festers. Better a uncomfortable discussion now than a blow-up in six months over what was, at one time, a minor issue. Everyone always says that communication is the key to a good marriage. That is partially true. You do have to implement some filter though. Much of marriage is just "getting over" things your spouse may do that bother you. Hey, if he/she did it before the marriage, did you really expect it to change? If he puts the toilet paper on the wrong way, is it really that big a deal? If she likes to step out of the shower to dry off rather than doing it in the stall, thereby getting the floor all wet, should you raise a stink? After all, the toilet paper still comes off the roll and floors eventually dry. You rarely can change others but you can always change yourself. As long as both are willing to deal with the other's foibles, everything should work out. Just don't worry about the little things that will always remain little things. Deal with the ones that will have a real impact on your life together, not the ones that you can easily deal with by acceptance.

That, and separate bathrooms.


EDIT: I jsut found this quote on IMDB from Barefoot in the Park and every wife should say this when appropriate, and it is always appropriate:

"Paul, I think I'm gonna be a lousy wife. But don't be angry with me. I love you very much - and I'm very sexy!"

Live Poker Sucks As Well

80% to win after the flop doesn't mean a thing if you are 5% after the turn. I definitely have lost some of my aggression mojo in tournament play as it has been correspondingly ramped up in ring games. This is an interesting mental block to work on

Anyway, in real life, we took our annual winter camping trip the week after the Super Bowl.. This time was a return trip to Davidson River outside of Brevard, North Carolina. The weather was fantastic with clear skies, low wind at our elevation, and lows in the mid 20s. Senior Swab made his second trek and performed spectacularly, hiking two-thirds of the way up Looking Glass Mountain. He was carried during the middle third of the trip, but he did about two miles and about 1000 feet in elevation.



This is how we pack for a trip.

Every time I drive past Binions in Hendersonville, NC, I hope to see that they have started a card room. They used to have a sign that depicted a poker hand. As it is no longer there, I will assume they got tired of people coming in and asking to play cards so they took it down.


They call it Cold Mountain for a reason. It's brisk up on the Parkway.

A venison loin roasting fire.

A scotch drinking fire.