Beautiful day here in Toronto…

Just found out I’m going to Germany from July 7th to 13th to visit my grandma. Haven’t posted much, just been busy enjoying life. One funny observation I have. We had a free breakfast courtesy of our building management. It started at 7:30 and went to 9:30. It was funny seeing all the people head over to grab there free breakfast. I headed over as well, and ran into my boss and the head of the Research department there. Which leads me to my observation: It doesn’t matter if you make $30K or $3MM, free food is free food!

Under the weather…

Overdid it this weekend. Did a hard leg workout Sat AM, then went rock climbing with Brian and Megan. It was alot of fun except for the wierdo trainer. I’m not really “Johnny Rope” so it was annoying having him be annoyed at my lack of twine skillz. Apart from that it was great and I did a couple of hard climbs. Apparantly in rock climbing you wear these shoes that are like 1/2 the size of your feet. They kill! Went out to my gf’s co-workers place for dinner in Burlington. It was nice. Their house was SO BIG! They have two kids and alot of space. I was almost envious until I remembered all the reasons why I can’t live in the burbs:

1) Snow shovelling and random lame chores (I did enough gardening as a kid)

2) The commute (I did enough of this going to university and the first couple of years working)

Being in TO is really really cool and really convenient. We walk almost anywhere and most everything is located close to us (seeing as we are right in the downtown core). It would be really hard for us to leave this life. We’ll see what happens but as of right now things are good as they are.

Worked out again Sunday AM and spent the day chilling. Watched some more 80’s Shaolin movies with Jet Li. Classic scene where he accidentally kills his love interests dog, and then because he feels guilty about burying it, cooks it up and eats it. Pretty funny stuff (from a Western perspective…)

We have our final floor hockey game tonight so going to grab some rest and then head off to that.

Party in July?

I’m hoping we can host our next party in July. Will probably invite my MBA class as well as my girlfriends. Should be good times as we haven’t had a party since I had the surprise party for her. I’m 1/2 way through Black Swan and love it. Great book so far…

MBA Dinner…

Went for dinner with a couple of pals from the MBA. It was great catching up and making fun of the CIBC bad boy. He missed the event but we are hoping he is allowed out to the next one. Actually we are kinda planning to invite ourselves over to his place for a BBQ!

I just started a great book by one of my favorite authors Nicholas Nassim Taleb. The book is called Black Swans and focuses more on what we don’t know rather than on what we do know. I think this book will make it into my top 10 list, along with his other book, Fooled by Randomness. A full review will follow once I am finished the book.

Life is Good!

Just finished playing hockey in our Toronto Sports and Social Club Rec league. We used a heavier ball and I finally found some of my stride. As a kid I couldn’t afford to play ice hockey so I just played street hockey all the time with my friends. I loved it. The Baron, Tournament Specialist and I would spend many a Saturday afternoon at TS’s place playing ball hockey in his driveway. It was amazing exercise and a blast. We loved it. TS has the most wicked wrist shot I have ever seen. The worst thing he used to do when you were a goalie, was to drag his stick along the pavement. You knew the shot was coming, you just never knew when!

That was a lot of good times, including the infamous spearing incident. TS had dinged the Baron in the head with one of his wrist shots and the Baron got angry. The Baron is a great guy but may or may not have anger management issues. Anyway, TS accidentally pinged the Baron again, and I think I was the goalie? Anyway I saw the whole thing in slow motion, TS went to grab the ball and then the Baron hoisted his stick from around 30 feet away like a spartan and hurled it. The Baron hit TS square in the back and TS hit the ground like the famous scene from Platoon. Ahhh, street hockey, good times! 

Off to play some volleyball…

Heading off to play for the Hope charity tournament. I haven’t posted much as of late as I’ve been spending time stopping to smell the roses. I start studying again in August, so I’m sure I’ll get back on my regular posting schedule then. I’m thinking of having the next poker game on June 23rd. If so I’ll have to send out the invite pretty soon!

Bad Call at the Final Table?

I played at one of the Piranha Poker Tour events tonight and made the final table. I think I ended up 5th? I won some big hands with AA (a 4 way all in), KK, and A-Q. I dropped A-J three times and was happy with my call, even though I would have lucked out and won one hand. My big call of the night was at the final table. Blinds were $3K and $6K with $500 antes. I had $18, 500 and was next to the big blind. I had A-K and raised to $12K. I had 1 caller and the flop came 5 8 10 rainbow. I thought about it as I thought the other guy didnt have much. I pushed in my remaining $ and he called. He had like 8-5 or something? Turn was a 5 which gave him trips and then the river was an ace. Did I play that right?

A hand before this I had Q-J and the blinds were 2K and 4K. I was small blind and called. Flop came A-J-8. There was a raise of $4K and 2 other callers. I thought for sure someone had an ace so I folded. Turned out no one had a jack let alone an ace, and I owuld have won that hand as well. I think I made the right call there…? 

MBA Convocation tomorrow!

Developing…

Just got back from a work dinner…

Went out with a bunch of the traders from work. The last 2 hours were spent watching arm wrestling contests and wagers on who would win said contests. It was quite entertaining.  Must sleep now to get ready for our busy Fridays…

Jav Time

Ahhh, sorry for the lack of posts I have been using the time to actually enjoy myself. Seems strange I know, but it feels good. Almost like after CFA (or any brutal exam) where for the month after it feels surreal that you aren’t studying. Been doing a lot of research on different things and just enjoying life. Life is good!

P.S. Does rain make people dumb?

P.P.S My MBA graduation ceremony is next Thursday, going up with my parents, and my girlfriend will be in attendance as well. Wow’ it’s been almost a year since I started the blog, how time flies!