[ILLINI1A]

First off, I havent been on much since Tuesday. Our Power has been off and on and along with my cable internet doing the same, I have been at a hotel that only had bletooth in its lobby the last 2 nights...my one week of not having to travel much has been pretty crazy. the reason why this has been going on I will explain later...It involved Sunday nights Freeroll...LOL...anyway...

I first wanna appologize to BSgutshot. Me and him have had an all out war on here since I signed up last week. I felt he had sorta disrespected me when I signed up, and he felt like I wouldnt be around long. The other night, while I was actually able to get online and play in a few freerolls...I saw on here he had an AOL IM name. So I put it in and looked him up. I talked to him for quite awhile, the talked to him a little more later that night. I have alot of respect for him. He is a pretty cool guy. He seems to know alot about Poker and is not quite the arrogant jacka$$ I had once made him out to be. For this, I appologize. And to anyone else that takes my comments on here the wrong way...I appologize, but I just like to have fun and talk about my favorite hobby...POKER...

On the new League rules...I like them alot. I will be makng this Sunday's League buy in, and looing forward to it. should be alot of fun...

Now onto Sundays crazy night. I was doing pretty good, made final table, and felt pretty good. I then learned that we had a major storm on the way. I knew it was coming and knew i was really bad as Springfield IL (25 miles away) had been hit, and early reports of Tornado damage was bad. So I keep playing the tourny, and Start hearing Thunder outside and wind really picking up. Being the poker player I am...I was determined to finish before heading to my basement. After the first person was eliminated from the final table, I heard the Tornado Sirens go off...Again, I was determined to finish... well...I ended up 7th and immediatly closed my laptop and headed to the basement...I heard what people claim as "train sounding wind" and joined my girlfriend under the stairwell. Well... 4 minutes passed... and everything was quite...I emerged from my basement to see that my front picture window had a treelimb stuck through it. Started looking and was pretty amazed to find out that the limb was the only damage. I walked outside and was horrified... there are 4 houses that surround mine (weird set up on the street) 1 is completly destroyed...the one next to it looks untouched (maybe a few shingles here and there like my house) but the one next to it has no roof...I couldnt believe it.

Power came back on Monday night, and I played in the buy-in, had a really quick exit (couldnt catch a cold) and went to sleep. Woke up the next morning, and went to Work in Springfield on Tuesday...only to find out that the generator went out and we would be off until the next day. I grabbed a hotel... and spent the night playing in some tournys to pass the time. Went to work Wednesday through Friday...and decided at night to go to Jerome (village in Springfield ) and do what I could to help. I have finally made it home tonight...and since I hadnt had alot of time this week, I figured I could finally post this...

Weird week, but things are starting to get back to normal...

Ernie