Its time to get rid of my old Peace Lilly plant. It grew too big for its space. And, the weight of the leaves widened its circumference too much. So I bought a new one.

I highly recommend it as an indoor plant. It is tough. It can handle low light conditions. And the leaves will droop when it needs water (once a week is enough normally).

In my limited driving around, I have only found one large field of blue bonnets in bloom. And that is at the IBM complex. Which is nice, for sure. I like to be greeted in the morning with something pretty to walk past.

I do want to drive around the Texas Hill Country some time and find some better blue bonnets areas. It is on my list of things to do in Texas…

Buck’s Bikes was holding their annual sale. And I was considering buying a new bike. I have been riding my Revive for over two years now. It is not what people would consider a long distance bike. But I have been riding it for 15 mile loops. And it is not easy to fix on the road when you get flat tires.

So I bought a Bianchi San Mateo. I’ll see how easy that it to ride hunching over. I also got clipless shoes. That’s going to be fun getting used to. I must remember to twist my foot off the pedal when I come to stop.

Just great. As I was cleaning my glasses this morning, they snapped in half! At least I can use my old pair until I get a new set.

Looks like the Blue Bonnets have started blooming. I wonder how plentiful they will be this season… Spring is the only pretty time in Texas.

One of my vices is the weekly breakfast tacos at IBM’s cafeteria. For a long time, I didn’t know about it. You see, they offer pre-made tacos that sit under heat lamps. But if you wait at the grill, you can get made-to-order tacos for only 30 cents more. Not only can you get whatever items you want, but these tacos are huge. One of these tacos is easily bigger than two of the pre-made ones. The only drawback is that the chef is rather slow and likes to talk. So be prepared to wait.

I went to the IBM club’s Casino Night and played no limit Hold-Em. It was fun. Everyone started with $200 in free chips. So everyone plays differently — much looser. But not me. I was tight. I only had one pocket pair tonight and the Queens held up.

The last hand of the night was amusing. Since the chips would turn into raffle tickets at the end and I could care less about the raffle prizes, I decided to go all in. I then look down at my cards: an eight of diamonds and a three of spades. The second worst hand possible. Sigh. Still, I was determined to go all in no matter what. Four other people called and I had the smallest chips of all of them, so there was still betting going on.

The flop comes Ace, King, three of diamonds! I have hope now for a flush! Then the rest of the people bet and go all in. I am sure someone has a better hand than me at the moment, but it is out of my hands. The turn is a Jack of diamonds! Yes. I made my flush with only three possible cards that will beat me (Queen, ten, nine). Now I have to hope that the board does not pair. The river is a seven of clubs. Everyone one reveals their cards and no one else has a higher diamond (or any diamond for that matter). Woo woo!

It is always fun ending the night quadrupling up.

Well, the vine wall was briefly propped back up. But it fell back down. And now another section has come down. Sadly, it doesn’t look like they are going to fix it. They are just leaving it alone currently. I’m sure the middle part will die off from lack of sunlight soon…

You know, nothing that I know of makes me aware of the inexorable progress of time like public speaking does. I hate public speaking for two reasons. I am not a verbose person by nature and when you give a speech, you need the ability to improvise among other things. However, the main reason why I hate it is Glossophobia. I have heard that more people are afraid of public speaking than dying.

I was told on Tuesday that I had to give a 5 minute speech for our area meeting. I thought I was lucky that I only had to dread this upcoming event for two days. But then it was postponed until the following Tuesday. Argh! A whole week of dreading is not a fun thing at all.

But I got through it! Woo woo!

One of the few things that I like out the IBM campus is that some of their high walls are covered by climbing vines. A wall of plant is much more pleasant to look at than a wall of pinkish concrete. So I was sad when I saw that a corner of it came down… I hope that they can fix it…