Double Trouble with Prim and Harrier - Poker, Sports, Cooking, Gardening, Mixed Drinks and more

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Meanwhile, Bowser jr. had an idea: Why not do a little freeroll-fun-challenge? JUST playing freerolls and see what we can get out if it? As I don´t have much time to build a whole BR or so, it could be cool to see, if I eventually can win some money only with freerolls? Seem a nice little challenge for a recreational player who plays once per week, doesn´t it?

I think that's a very nice idea. A classic "zero to hero" challenge, it would add a nice touch to those weekend freerolls. Instead of them being some isolated tournaments, you would now have a proper long-term plan for them.

I like it.

Paleo Surprise Menu

This weeks motto was a "home game" for me, because I already had followed the Paleo diet for some time a couple of years ago. On Friday, it was "Fishy Friday" and I thought, I could make something really simple: Two different fishes and different sorts of veggies:

Paleo is a pretty simple way to eat (primitive! if you will). Any grains (like pasta, bread) are not allowed, no dairy products, no legumes and of course no processed foods! Rice is ok, potatoes are ok and oats are like "semi-ok" (depends on how strict you follow the concept). So, there it was: a yummy fishy friday with radishes, asparagus, cucumber and bell pepper!

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Paleo is a pretty simple way to eat

"Simple" really isn't how I would describe the Paleo diet. What always frustrated me about it was the lack of clear rules, you always get close to having an idea for a Paleo meal, only to realize that this or that still isn't allowed. Other diets like vegetarianism may be much more restrictive, but at least you know what you get.

I already decided that next week's Surprise Menu will be skipped to make room for a special cooking challenge. It will be my task to make sushi next week, and maybe we will find a nice challenge for Primrose too.

Still doing well so far. Next week should be quite manageable too, I expect, but the ones after that appear to be a little tougher.

Tomorrow will finally be a proper rest day, except that I will start with my new pushups plan.

Coming up on Thursday: TROLL OPEN!!

Speaking of sports: And I announce the next Trolland Gaross, coming up on Thursday (offical vacation in GER)!! With more experience, more endurance and more fitness but stronger Villainesses! Can Prim keep up?!

We will see ....... on Thursday!

Nice Hand!

I commented before that I hadn't seen quads on top of quads before. Well, now I have... and it wasn't even a Fantasyland deal:

Nice hand indeed. The Queens on top came in handy too.

This Week in OFC

Well, I can hardly believe it myself... we somehow finished the week in profit after all, despite the terrible start. And this doesn't even include the above session with the double quads.

No point in presenting the breakdown by stakes, because I only played the µBTC 1 per point stakes this week.

I will, however, present another additional graph, which I prepared today. Since I always keep track of how much the µBTC that I use in my games are worth in USD and update this ratio every week for my stats, I think it would be interesting to keep track of how this rate develops over time. So I prepared this smoothed line graph for the µBTC to USD exchange rate, the points in the graph mark the times when I have checked the rate:

If you are interested in crypto trading, take this graph with a grain of salt, there are far more accurate ones easily available online. This graph was compiled to keep track of the exchange rate only to the point in which it is relevant for my crypto poker games.

Weekly Best: 75 reps

I will from now on keep track of my weekly records, hoping that one of them will eventually reach 100, in which case I can end the challenge with a success. If not, then this way of keeping track will at least add another motivation to keep going.

The new program, explained in this post, will start tomorrow, with six sets of 40 reps each, to be repeated on three days next week.

Weekly Best: 3:10 minutes

I will do a similar thing here, and I think I will from now on do two sets on the days on which I am not doing any pushups. The first set will always be 2:30 minutes, the second one will be open-ended. Let's see where I can get eventually, even if it's not the full five minutes.

Do I even want to go there? According to this study of 168 healthy college age participants (18-25 years), the average plank time for males was 1:48 minutes, with almost all of them describing themselves as athletes and more than two thirds of them being active members of an NCAA team, so I'm certainly doing not too bad with 3:10 minutes. I will see how things develop in the next couple of weeks, and then decide if and in what way I would like to continue.

Everything else

There shall be sushi next week... though I already ran into some early troubles, more on that tomorrow, maybe. We will find another appropriate dish for Primrose to cook next week, we both already had some ideas.

The new bankroll challenge that Prim mentioned the other day shall also be underway, though the grindette still has to cash out first in order to create the best starting conditions.

I will also keep the Road to 10K going, of course, and I should have my first "proper" karate training on Tuesday. Let's see if the uniform and the belt will have arrived already, I also ordered a hoodie and t-shirt.

If you guys are still reading, feel free to drop us a few lines, it will make it more fun to keep going. Our view count suggests that there are a few inactive readers, at least, which are of course also welcome and appreciated, and I will be the first to admit that I am a bit of a lurker in many online settings myself. Still, I often feel as if it is mostly Primrose and me talking to each other here, so don't be shy if you have any comments.

Mottainai

It's a Japanese phrase I learned the other day. I don't think it has a direct translation, but it is meant to express regret over waste, or a resolution not to waste anything. Wikipedia has an article about it here.

I found myself uttering this phrase when I was checking my pantry and found out that my sushi vinegar had expired in 2021 - and it was barely even used. It even would have been fully seasoned already, without any need for additional salt and sugar.

Well, that's kind of the problem. Sushi is an amazing dish, but a little intimidating to make at home. It seems that making it well is almost an art form, one that takes years to master. This is not the first time that I invested in exotic ingredients, only to have them expire after one use, or even no uses at all.

Maybe I should just brush up on my sushi making skills, and get more confident with it so the next bottle of sushi vinegar that I buy will get more use. I just hope that I can find some at the local stores, I don't really feel like making a trip to the Asian grocery store out of town. If I won't find anything, this week's sushi challenge may have to be postponed.

As for Primrose's challenge, assuming she will have time for it this week at all, I still think she should go for a homemade pizza. It's another extremely popular dish that most people prefer to buy rather than making it themselves. Otherwise, if that's too inconvenient for Prim this time, I suggest simply making an "internationally popular dish" at home, that could be this week's cooking motto. Both sushi and pizza would surely fit the theme, but there are plenty of other possible choices.

Just a quick note to point out that I will be dropping down one week in the new program. Six sets of 40 reps each proved to be surprisingly difficult for me today, and I couldn't quite make it through all of them. For the rest of the week, I will do six sets of 31 reps instead, and then move on to the intended 6 x 40 next week.

The Troll Draw

Haven't had one of those in a while... I have locked up my Fantasyland deal, seems like nothing can go wrong... until I get my last draw, and find that I have no legal way whatsoever to place those cards. We are forced to use either a King or a 6 here, giving us a better hand than the one on the bottom line.

The Good Draw

Playing Drawmaha now. Trips are a good hand here in general, having a nice shot at the Draw pot, while also often keeping your options open for the Omaha pot - like with this gutshot here. I decided to stand pat instead of drawing to a full house or quads to keep that free gutshot alive.

I get a backdoor straight, and manage to build a decent pot with it.

And... scoopage!

The Revenge

It didn't take long for my opponent to get their revenge, I think this one happened just two hands later. We hold a 5CD straight, and a very vulnerable Omaha straight too. At least the Draw part should hold up, maybe giving us a freeroll for the other part of the pot, with three players in.

Oh dear... our opponent from before has a better 5CD hand, as well as a better Omaha straight. If it wasn't for that full house with the 9 on the river, at least we would have gotten the other part of the pot in full, against the other opponent who had plenty more chips to spare.

As it is, I was only entitled to the 5CD half of the pot against the other opponent. Could have been worse, but it's a loss here for sure. The session still finished with a decent profit.

Other Exotic Games?

Got a cash in a 12-Game freeroll tonight as well. A negligible amount, as always, and not the most satisfying finish either, considering that I was chipleading the final table for a bit - but 2-7 Triple Draw was not kind to me. Still, it's a cash in a game that is arguably 50% cooler than 8-Game.

The 12-Game lineup can be found in the lobby screenshot above, in case you are unfamiliar.

Didn't play poker in a century, i feel.
Missing it

Still have to manage an account with a bank to be able to play again.

Did plant some vegetables though and already harvesting salad, tomatoes and mint ♦

Originally posted by Zeezout
Didn't play poker in a century, i feel.
Missing it

Still have to manage an account with a bank to be able to play again.

Did plant some vegetables though and already harvesting salad, tomatoes and mint ♦

Well, as you commented in another thread, online poker has seem some better days. But we're making the most out of it.

I love the game selection on that crypto room, the only thing that is missing are other players... but when they do show up, some fun rounds are to be had.

I am also still waiting for Primrose to get her PartyPoker account ready for her new challenge over there, which should work well with our limited schedule and opportunities.

Most of all, though, I hope that we can see some more gardening updates from her soon. I already heard some reports, I would love to see some pictures soon too - if nothing else, as another threadsaver.

Originally posted by Primrose6789

Originally posted by SDK1987
Well done with winning both matches primrose.

Thank you, SDK! It was hard work, but a lot of fun!

That's good to hear you had a lot of fun as well

Sushi Update

I found some rice vinegar at the store, at least. That's rice vinegar, not sushi vinegar. In order to upgrade it to sushi vinegar, I need to season it myself, some sugar and salt should be enough, I just need to find a good ratio.

I picked up some extra nori sheets too, now all that's missing is the most important ingredient - the rice. I couldn't find any appropriate short grain rice for sushi yet.

Also, apart from cream cheese, I didn't get any fillings yet, because I prefer to buy them shortly before their use, which should be Thursday or Friday. I plan to make California rolls, Philadelphia rolls, possibly Boston rolls, some simple salmon-based hosomaki and some standard nigiri with leftover salmon and shrimps. Maybe I can do without the shrimps, but I will need salmon for sure, surimi sticks, avocados and cucumbers. None of these should be too complicated to get, even though graved salmon has gotten unreasonably expensive these days.

Sushi Update

I now have everything - except for the rice. A minor problem if you intend to make sushi, isn't it?

Actually, I do have a very small amount left at home, but not nearly enough. I will definitely need to pick some up on Friday.

Pre-Match Analysis

It's Ascension Day tomorrow, which is a public holiday over here, though it overlaps with the secular "Father's Day" and is more commonly known as that. Either way, it's a day off, and also another tournament day for Primrose at the "Troll Open".

It will be two matches of women's singles for Prim yet again. Her first opponent is a bit of a dark horse. Technically, she is two rankings or so above Prim, but that is all we have to go by. The grindette has never played against her, but she does remember getting a decisive win against another player who had a close loss against tomorrow's opponent, so Primrose is optimistic. It may not be easy, but it should be doable, at least.

Prim is more familiar with her second opponent, who is ranked just a little higher than her, maybe one ranking? It's hardly any difference, and the grindette is quite a bit younger, so once again, it should be a winnable match.

My prediction is two wins for Prim, a clean sweep. No pressure, of course, just do the tennis equivalent of putting your chips in good.

I have no information about the opponents that her husband is facing in men's singles, but I'm sure he will give it his all too.

Best of luck to the two of you. I will keep you in my thoughts as I am running my miles.

About the running, I also decided to swap Wednesday with Thursday in my training schedule, including this week. The above schedule already reflects those changes.

I was just dog tired today, I had a very busy day yesterday, while tomorrow is a holiday, as I explained above, so I will have all the time in the world that day and can approach my run well-rested. I'm completely fine with not running at all today, the new schedule would say '0-3 miles', and I do plenty of stuff that could be considered "cross-training", including my pushups program, my physical labor job, and I also brought some heavy debris to the local collection station today.

It should also make sense in the weeks yet to come, as I have tennis practice scheduled for Wednesday evenings, and there would also of course be karate on Tuesday before, so it shouldn't be too wise to cram too much running in that day. Thursday should be much more suitable.

Keep on keeping on, this week should still be quite manageable. I'm less optimistic about the two weeks after that, but we will get to those in time.

I can't believe I played some NL Hold'em tonight... let alone that I cashed.

In my defense, my typical session still usually looks like this:

Better find something nice to do while you wait for opponents.

Harvesting tomatoes already, as well as mint, parsley, basilicum and salad.

Grew them in my inside greenhouse that I put outside a month ago.

Yummie!

Originally posted by Zeezout
Harvesting tomatoes already, as well as mint, parsley, basilicum and salad.

Grew them in my inside greenhouse that I put outside a month ago.

The mint in our garden will have a special role when cocktail season starts again this summer, of course.

We have some basil too, though it doesn't look that great. This one can also be used for some cocktails, but I haven't tried it so far. Maybe this year.

For the tomatoes, we just put the framework for some shelter outside today.

The fruit orchards near the start of my running track are a less impressive sight than last week, when I started this program. Not that many visible blossoms in the trees anymore.

The rapeseed fields next to the later parts of my track are still going strong, possibly to the annoyance of those people with allergies.

And as usual when I bring my camera on my run, I couldn't resist the urge to take a break to fight my vertigo and get on one of those raised hides, taking some pictures of the surrounding landscape.

This one didn't even have a proper cabin, just one of those wooden beams to sit down on. A loose one, apparently - I almost dropped it at one point.

Troll Open with my "tennis twin" but a BIG OUCH!

Hey guys! Today at Trolland Gaross, I met my "tennis twin". This woman played like me, ran like me, I could have played with a mirror. Well you can guess, was THAT means!!!!!!!! The match lasted about 3 hours or so, there was big action, big fun, big winners, but also big "outs" from both sides. We enjoyed the game a lot and I could very closely win the first set. Villainesse made a lot of mistakes in the first set, then stopped making mistakes, then made some again and I won the first set 7:5. In the second set it was ME who made stupid mistakes (tired!) and again, it was close with 4:6. That meant: Champions-TieBreak (10 Points for the win). And that´s where "distaster" struck!!!!! My achilles tendon started to hurt - and with every sprint it hurted even more..... it was like 5:7 against me, when I noticed I couldn´t move to the left properly. I fought bravely, swallowed the pain, but against SUCH a Villainesse that was not enough. Lost the TieBreak 6:10 and that was it - but was a GREAT match!

Couldn´t play the second match anymore, but you have to play a couple of games, so that the result (w/o - walkover) counts. So, I went to the tenniscourt with the second Villainesse and we played just a couple of fun games, I had to "donate" her the win, cause I was already limping - but still had fun hitting a couple of balls.

Bad luck for me, but great luck for HOMER!! To be honest: It was not his best tennis - AT ALL! But Villains played just worse.... What a funny coincidence: Today is Father´s Day here, so a perfect day to be a "Gentleman´s day" in tennis.

And now? Quo vadis Trolland Gaross?

Well, no more Trolland Gaross in May, due to injury. Got achillodynia! AGAIN!

So will take it a bit slower now ......................