Wu-sup WSOP.

The time we spent in Tunica has been nothing short of an interesting experience. Despite the lack of things to do, cigarette smoke-filled everything, rude people and nasty weather… we had a pretty good time.

Of course we wouldn’t have stayed over a week if Ethan didn’t do so well in the WSOP Circuit Events. Out of the five tournaments that he played, he got to the final table twice. He finished 5th place (out of 514 players) on Day 1 then on Day 4 he finished 2nd (out of 905).

Now I’ve never actually sat and watched the progress of said tournaments. Everything before the final tables was pretty boring… and I’m not just saying this because I’m not a card player. Any poker player will tell you it’s not much fun being in a big conference room with 500 to 1,000 smelly men, watching them fold, check, raise, call, fold, check, raise, call…and on and on and on for hours and hours. If you earn, and keep, enough chips to make the final table you’d better be prepared to play at least 14 hours of tournament before you break for the night. The afternoon of the next day you are rewarded with the final table, usually against 8 others, which could last well into the evening. Of course at this point things get a bit more exciting. I can’t imagine the stream of emotions that the players feel. They are moved to a stage with lights that are way too hot and the tournament director’s running all over the place; microphone in mouth, pretending he knows what’s going on. Lucky for me, I was safe and secure in a chair in the corner of the stage… and still I could hardly keep it together. Shove, all-in, call, flop, turn, river… Ah! It all goes really fast… and really slow at the same time.

Watching the table go from 9 players, to 8, to 7, to 6, etc. was so stressful. I nearly had an anxiety attack. In fact, the man beside me told me to keep my sighs to myself! With this said, I now have a whole new perspective on what my husband, and other poker players, do for a living. Without putting him on a pedestal, he’s the most patient, relaxed, easy going person I know. I don’t have any idea how he holds it together at the tables… live or online.

I believe that no experience is worthless. What did I take away from this not-so-great experience in Tunica?

Poker is definitely a REAL job.

Celebratory Weekend

Friday Night

We started the night out with a tour of Sun Studios. For those of you that don't know, this is where Elvis (as well as many others) recorded his first song. It was very interesting, but the tour guide was a little cheesy... I guess you'd have to be if you're speaking to a bunch of blank faces most of the day. There were lots of awkward silences.

Here's Elvis's mic. The black X is supposedly where young Elvis stood facing his band mates, Bill Black and Scotty Moore, instead of Sam Phillips, who was recording in the room behind him. Shy, much?

After the tour, we went to dinner. My favorite food (at least has been for the last few years) is sushi, so Ethan found 'the best sushi in Memphis'. Earlier that day, he had tracked down a nice bottle of Sake and a cake and delivered them to the restaurant. It was a very nice surprise and the sushi turned out to be pretty good!

We finished up dinner then headed downtown for one last surprise. The performing arts is another one of my favorite things, so Ethan got tickets to see The Drowsy Chaperon at the Orpheum. Very cute musical and a beautiful building that was entertainment in itself.






Saturday Night

We (mainly me) decided that we hadn't seen enough stuff in Memphis yet so we decided to go to the Peabody Hotel and the RockNSoul Museum downtown. We arrived at the Peabody Hotel about 3 minutes before the famous duck walk... it was packed with tourists. We ended up hearing more than seeing. But we were able see one ducks tail feathers and grab a photo by the fountain! The RockNSoul Museum was just a few blocks away and ended up to be a tour of photos and narration... next time we'll go to STAX.

We then headed over to 2nd street for some famous BBQ at Charlie Vergo's Rendezvous. The place was packed but this restaurant worked like a machine and we didn't have to wait very long for a table. We got seated right by the window of one the open kitchens. I felt like we were in the action... we even got to see Nick Vergo reprimand a couple of employees. It was great!

After a great meal of ribs and brisket we headed down to B.B. King's Blues Club for some live blues music. We got great seats in the back of the club, where the music wasn't too loud and the view was good. We even met a few people from Kansas... small world!

It was a great Birthday!

Today, we're headed to Tunica, MS so Ethan can get some work done. I guess I'll be able to spend some quality time with the pups... and the spa employees. :)

Museums...

Yesterday was my 3rd time to Graceland and it gets better every time. Of course, the older I get, the more appreciative I am... but those tricky marketers really know how to entice you. Since I was here last, they've added the Private Presley museum and re-packaged everything to look just a bit better than before. Fortunately we are visiting the area in the off season so the lines were non-existent and we walked through the mansion pretty much by ourselves.

Ethan's favorite room was the den, aka "the jungle room". Back in the day Elvis turned this room into a temporary recording studio, turns out that the green shag carpet on the floor and ceiling made for really good acoustics.

My favorite is still the TV lounge in the basement. Something about the bright colors and the freaky monkey on the coffee table has always attracted me.

Today we visited the Private Presley and the National Civil Rights museums. The Private Presley museum was a small room filled with displays of the King's service uniforms. It took about 15 minutes to look at everything and watch the video of the press release that was recorded the day of his return to the Memphis. The National Civil Rights Museum was much more interesting. The museum was built around the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. MLK was assassinated in the late '60s. The museum is a good place to be reminded of the past and be thankful of today. We even came face-to-face with Jackie Smith, 21-year-plus protester of the energy and money spent on the museum.

Tomorrow: we celebrate.

The Desk

Finally! The desk is completed. Ethan has been going on and on and on about his work desk since we talked the idea over with Sean in November. I have to say, it turned out to be a pretty nice work station/kitchen table.

Before

After

Sean and Evan pumped this desk out in about 2 days. It has a curved top, two single-door cabinets, one double-door cabinet with shelve and pullout/lazy susan printer shelve. And, yes, we still have the kitchen table to eat on. Slowly but surely this is becoming more of a home...not just a house on wheels.

After all is said and done,

I am glad that Sean & Evan got a chance to bond with their new brother. Awww.

PS - We're in Memphis, TN for the next 5 days. Off to Graceland today!

Update to Now...

Well, I must say that we have done quite a LOT since Christmas. Our holiday couldn't have been better. Evan and the girls came to Vegas for a few days before we left for our journey eventually ending up in Kansas. Here's a play-by-play of our ventures so far, although this blog entry would be far too long if I went into all the memorable details.

December 28-30
Our first stop was in Oak Creek Canyon, AZ, just a few miles outside of Sedona. Come to find out, 'adult only' RV parks exist. Of course the time that we have my 6 & 10 yr. old nieces with us, I book one of them, Zane Grey. Off to a rough start! It ended up to be no big deal, the owners were very nice. And the girls were phenomenal. We had fun in AZ. We went to the Montezuma Castle National Monument & Montezuma Well. Then at dusk we walked around a small Sedona neighborhood, close to Tlaquepaque, who was having a light competition. Due to our tardiness, our admission was FREE but we were unable to vote on the best lights.

















December 30-January 1
Our second stop was in Las Cruces, NM at Hacienda RV Park. This was quite a drive (about 9 hours in the RV) but Ethan did a FANTASTIC job! I only drove for about 3 minutes, then got stressed out and gave up! Claudia really wanted to go hiking so we decided to pack a picnic lunch, pack the dogs up and go to La Cueva the next day. We drove around for quite a while trying to find a 'dog friendly' trail. We decided to break for lunch then Ethan asked someone at the visitors center for a suggestion. Turned out that there was a great trail for all 7 of us about 5 miles down a dirt road. After walking for a while, Missy, Bruty and Claudia were getting exhausted so we decided to turn back and head in for some authentic Mexican food; after all, we were in Las Cruces. Needless to say our dinner was delicious and our waiter was nothing less than a character! That night we had to celebrate - it was our 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY! Surprisingly I remembered to put the top tier of our cake in the RV freezer before we left. We were so grateful to spend our anniversary with our nieces and brother. It was fun to shove the cake all over our faces...again. The girls really seemed to get a kick out of the concept too!

January 1-3
E2 and I were prepared to make it to the Lubbock RV Park in TX at a decent hour on the first day of '09. Well, about half way into the 5 hour drive we got a flat on the trailer. Thankfully there was a Wal-Mart about 5 miles away. E2 got the problem fixed, while us girls stayed in the RV and watched a movie. At this point of the trip we all were pretty tired of all the running around so we decided to just take it easy. We didn't miss the chance to learn a little while we were there. Claudia, Alexis and Ethan all learned who Buddy Holly was. Even though Ev and I were stunned that Ethan didn't know who Buddy Holly was, we still enjoyed the small intimate museum in the late musician's hometown. We finished the Lubbock stay with grilling, s'mores and family Wii time.


















January 3
We headed up to Ft. Worth to drop the girls off with their mom. It was a sad day, as this was the beginning of the end of this family vacation. It was a short drive to the girls' school. They were especially excited to show us their surprisingly large elementary school. We gave our hugs, kisses and shed a couple of tears and we were on our way to Kansas...less two energetic, full-of-life, loveable young ladies.



















January 4-5
After a short stay in the Purcell, OK Wal-Mart. E2 and I drove a few hours to Wichita, KS. We found a service shop for the RV and packed up enough stuff for a few days to stay at my oldest brother, Sean's, house. We stayed there for a couple days and got to watch our 20 mth. old nephew, Noah... aka Cooper... aka Coop... aka Coopster. We were grateful to spend two full days with him!



















January 5-present: Happy B-day to Gavin, still in Iraq (1/5). Happy B-day to Elvis & Ann (1/8).
We have now got the RV out of service and are parked at 'the school-house', just a mile outside of my hometown, Augusta, KS. Jimmy, a friend of Sean's, has had the two buildings for over 10 years and was kind enough to let us dry-camp here for a couple of days while E2 and Sean make, customize and install Ethan's work desk. The second of the two school houses on this land was built over 70 years ago and has been renovated into a studio for the artist extraordinaire, Jimmy Lytton. Also, other carpenters who are in need of a temporary workshop have a spacious work area here to build things... such as, RV poker desks.

That brings us up to the present. I feel like we've done so much already. Strengthened relationships, learned new things, celebrated and enjoyed time together and we haven't even started the Adventures of Ethan and Amanda yet!

More (and more often) blogging to come...