Dear Diary,

No pictures. Oh, I suppose I could have taken pictures of our meals at the dining room table: t-bones, baked blue potatoes, brussel sprouts and carrots one night, take-out Thai the next. Or a simple snap of us sitting around the living room chatting about literature. Otherwise, no pics.

Does that mean that there was no travel involved when my niece and her college roomie came to visit? No. DW took them up to a local hot springs for a relaxing dip. I suppose DW could have taken the camera and snapped some shots of the tattooed guy in his birthday suit.

The young women left this morning for Portland. We are going to head that way this evening for dinner with them and fellow PAer sbstar. I’ll take the camera, just in case.

It was a nice visit. Both girls are very bright, well-read and conversant on many topics. I also enjoy watching my niece mature into a young woman. She’s not had it easy in a lot of ways, primarily because she had the misfortune of seeing her father (my Dear Brother) struck and killed by a drunk driver four years ago. Something like that is going to leave a mark. This uncle tries to fill the void as best as he can for her and her two sisters. DW’s generosity of spirit helps as well.

While the women were relaxing in the magma-heated waters, I spent some time in the barn, readying my work area for the eventual seed plantings. What a mess! Yet, I made some progress, and with a couple more hours of undivided attention, I’ll be ready to start my production line. (I just received the numbers from my buyer, and it’s not going to be a huge production; actually quite manageable.) And, there will be pictures. I promise.

Today is a beautiful day, a perfect day for the Violet Green swallows to return. I was out tending to the ducks and I heard a familiar chirp. There they were, flitting around and checking out the real estate. They’re not camera-shy in the least bit, so I got my camera, but by the time I returned, they were nowhere to be found. Sorry

Of course, even with company, I managed to squeeze in a little PLO late at night and finish reading Hwang. I must say, I’m a bit confused with my mixed results. At first glance it appears that I am still very much in the middle of finding a range of hands that play well on a consistent basis. Yet, in PLO that quest seems to be a little more elusive than in NLHE. Of course, the other side of that coin is figuring out the range of my opponents. I’m not doing a lot of preflop raising (Hwang’s advice to the newbie), which makes the task nigh impossible; yet, even when I do raise preflop, I am sometimes amazed at what someone is willing to call with. Add to the equation a difficulty with hitting draws while others seem to do so with ease, and I’ve got some variance. My buddy Stan says that the variance should be less in Omaha than in HE, which seems counterintuitive. Clearly I have a lot more work to do.

And right now, I have to work on my seed orders.