Goodbye, Albuquerque

First things first.  Thank you, Sean and Amy.  You were wonderful hosts.  I did not want for anything during my visit.  Especially food.  Steaks, burgers, chili, and the wonderful fish I had at the fancy joint for Amy's birthday.  I could not hope for better friends, and I thank from the bottom of my colon.

I finally made it to the casino last week.  I didn't do as well as the last time I was there, but I can't complain.  The first hand was dealt before I was even in my seat.  The action was coming around as I looked at my first card.  Ace of spades.  Underneath that, ace of hearts.  Yeah, I think I'm gonna raise this up a bit.  A little over $20 in the pot at this point as it was raised up to $5 to go by the guy across from me with a few callers.  I raise to $20 and the initial raiser pushes his stack of $50 into the pot.  Everybody folds, except me of course.  And my aces hold.  First hand up about $75.  I played for a while, the dude across from bought in a couple of more times.  But then he started getting lucky.  And he was gunning for me.  A couple hours later, I lost $50 to him in what I believed to be a good fold.  I looked at my stack and realized it had doubled exactly plus a dollar.  And I thought it best to just call it a day.  No use in feeding my money back to Mr. fast and loose.

For my last weekend, we traveled into the Jemez Mountains.  It was a gorgeous day filled with gorgeous views and picture taking.  Also of note was the lunch we had at the Los Ojos Restaurant Saloon in Jemez Springs.  It had a real "out West" feel.  The bar stools were all carved out of logs and I was surprised to not find sawdust on the floor.  We took our seats at the bar.  While we were eating our food, a guy who said he was from Pennsylvania sat down near us and struck up a conversation with the bartender.  It seems he was a bit unhappy, as his buddies "out East" had said this was supposed to be a rough and tumble biker-type joint.  And now he's here and it's too tame and ordinary.  Sean was shaking his head, and it would have ended with that simple yet vague derision, but this guy kept going on and on.  Finally, Sean locked eyes with the guy and said, "I'm sick of listening to you.  You want a fight?  Really?  Cuz I'll cave your fucking head in, even if only to shut you up."  Amy was mortified and trying to quietly calm Sean down.  I put my sunglasses on and smiled for a second as I looked the guy up and down.  Sean railed on, "Ask my wife here.  I'm a helpful guy.  You want a fight?  I have no problem lending you a hand, or a fist.  I believe in working together to make each other happy.  It would seem to me that punching you repeatedly in the face would make us both happy."  The bartender then quipped to the man to be careful what he wishes for, and backed away from the bar.  Now Sean was on his feet and bellowed, "So what it's gonna be, huh?!"  Up until this point the yank hadn't spoken a word to Sean.  And when he did, the backpedaling was so fast it was nearly impossible to understand.  This, of course, just infuriated Sean further.  "What the hell are trying to say here?  Are you familiar with concept of enunciation?!"  As Sean kept repeating, "E - NUN - SEE - A - SHUN," Amy was quickly settling the tab.  After which, she tugged on Sean's arm, and pleaded, "Let's go.  Please."  Sean turned toward the door and replied, "Alright baby.  How was your sandwich?  Mine was fantastic."  And then it was over.  Well, there was a moment of contemplation in the parking lot after Sean eyed the guys car and said he should key it with the words EXCITEMENT BOY.  Amy quickly shot him a look accompanied by a, "Don't you dare."  She even used his middle name so he knew she was serious.  Sean quickly changed his tune, but then asked with a smirk, "What about Excitable Boy?  You know, get this guy thinking about Warren Zevon."  Amy gave her final, exhausted, "Seanny..." and we were on our way.  We got out of the car a couple miles down the road at a scenic rest area.  We all kicked back and looked for shapes and faces in the rockface in front of us.  Sean and I both saw a pony eating a soft serve cone.  We were so mesmerized I forgot to take pictures. Anyway, we decided to head back.  Once we began to leave the Mountains, we checked the radio to see if we could pick anything up.  We could.  And just then, "Lawyers, Guns, and Money" started playing.  Sean turned it up and we all sung our hearts out.  Especially the "huhs..."