Texas style

I know, I know, I'm boring and never post pictures. Largely because I rarely take pictures. This is from weekend before last, and I finally got it from my friend who took it. This is with some dear friends who were visiting for the weekend (so good to get to share our lives with them!!), and we were all at a 30th birthday party for another friend. This other friend (the birthday girl) is from Texas, and thinks J is great because he is too, so she had him run a table of Texas Hold 'Em.

It was hilarious. Most of us had no idea what we were doing-- my wonderful husband had to keep telling us how the game was played over and over all night-- but the really hilarious thing, from my point of view, was that I WON. I do not think this is any evidence of great poker talent on my part-- I just kept getting crazy good cards. And feeling really guilty when I would, um, take people out. In an early hand I, in consultation with the cheat sheet, figured out that I was one card away from a straight flush, and though I was disappointed it wasn't and a bit daunted by all the things that could be better than a plain old straight, I figured a straight was probably okay. (Any of you who know poker can probably guess-- I think that was the only straight we saw all night!) At one point the experienced poker player to my left bet everything on a couple pairs, and I (through another consultation with the cheat sheet) realized that, my goodness, I had 5 cards of the same suit. Wow, who knew 5 cards of the same suit was such a good hand. The poker player to my left just kept saying, "Wow, I never even saw that coming. Wow, I never thought about that. Wow, I had no idea." And there I was, just rolling in the chips, until it came time to take out my wonderful husband. Sigh. I can see why people get hooked. It was a blast.

My friend the birthday girl said that people kept talking about us, and J especially (although I had made a 4-layer carrot cake, always a sure-fire way to make friends)-- they thought it was great that he was dressed up and playing the part. Ha ha! Bostonians aren't used to someone who wears a hat and boots just normally.