Amy Carter turns 39 today. Her brother Jack's Nevada campaign for Senate is doing so poorly that I hadn't even heard of it until today.

I don't know whether to ask for an Aeron chair for my home office or go for broke and ask for Gob Bluth's Segway (via Marcotte).

Nine-handed. Early position raises $4 BB to $10. Two folds, one caller, and I call with two black tens. Two more callers, and the big blind raises to $40, about a fourth of his stack. Original raiser calls with almost all of his stack. First caller calls. I don't have pot odds to play this hand any more, and should have folded, but, mistakenly hoping to isolate AK, I raise to $100. Folds to the big blind, who re-raises all in. Early position calls all in. Caller calls all-in, with slightly more than big blind, and now I'm pot-committed and in trouble. Around the table, it's KK, AA, AJs, and my TT, no one improves, AA takes a big main pot, KK takes a big side pot for a profit, and I take the tiny $10 second side pot vs. AJs.

Later, I got out of position with top pair against a set against the same player, and decided to bluff at the pot on the river with wishful thinking that he was on a draw, and he takes $170 from me, when his smooth call of a significant bet on the flop should have set off alarm bells.

Later, I play J9s from the blind in an unraised seven-way pot. Flop comes JJ5 rainbow, I bet $5, get three callers. Turn is Q, I bet $15 (enough to chase out the backdoor flush draws) everyone folds to fellow across the table who raises to $50. Now, he bluffs a lot, but I should have read this for what it was and got away from the hand; instead, I put him all in, and lose to AJ after a blank on the river.

Another big blind hand, this time in Omaha/8, of JT86, and I get a miracle flop of Q97 rainbow, giving me, oh, twenty outs to hit a straight. I bet out, get five callers. Sure enough, the turn is T, I bet out, the low-chasers fold, one caller, and then a generally sound player raises. I have him on KJ, decide I'm drawing dead and don't want to put another $16-$24 in the pot over two rounds of betting, and fold. Turns out he had the same J8 with a flush draw. Oh well. Still probably the right decision, given the risks of redraws and drawing dead.

Tilting later that evening, I'm in middle position with one limper ahead of me. I pot-raise to $18 with A5o. Cut-off raises to $50 and has a deep stack; I put him (and correctly, I think) on a hand that has me dominated or with only one live card. I can't play this hand without hitting two pair, trip 5s, or a straight on the flop, so I correctly fold, $18 too late.

When I was short-stacked, I had a lucky hand where I raised all-in with A9s a limper slow-playing QQ and spiked an A on the flop.

I had a lucky hand where I had two players all in where I had AQ vs. TT vs. T9. On the flop, however, the case ten showed up (JT6), but I got the four-outer on the river.

I had another lucky hand where I called a regular bluffer's big under-the-gun pre-flop bet from the cut-off with JT. The flop comes AT9 two-suited, and he overbets the $40 pot all in for $105. I call immediately, quite confident from my read that he doesn't have the ace. He doesn't, but he has QT. Fortunately, the 9 pairs on the river, and we chop the pot.

In short, I was lucky to only lose $200-$300 from my mistakes. Otherwise, I played pretty well, and ended up with a profit for the night; I had a nice hand where I flopped the nut flush playing AdQd in an unraised eight-way pot from the small blind, and a lower flush put me all in thinking I was on a draw. But I have to be dissatisfied overall.

Hurricane Katrina love ends badly.

Update: more details in today's Times-Picayune, which I still mentally call the Tipsy from the days when it was the Times-Picayune States-Item.

Ten years ago, every Monday, I'd be at the Old Ebbitt Express for lunch or dinner because of their weekly pasta roma special. Do they still have it? Heck if I know—I don't work in the building any more, they only do lunches now, and I haven't had occasion to be back. This recipe, though it's from the decidedly middlebrow Rachel Ray, seems like a good approximation to what I'd order if one adds sun-dried tomatoes and then one adds parmesan and cracked black pepper after serving.

I wonder if I can talk Slim into three trips to New York to see The Coast of Utopia. Part One is in previews now.

One of the apartments destroyed by Cory Lidle's plane was owned by the woman mauled by the Macy's Cat-in-the-Hat Thanksgiving Day float.

It's distressing how many of my favorite flavors—Southern Pecan Pie, Vanilla Chocolate Chunk, Bovinity Divinity, Cool Britannia, Chocolate Raspberry Truffle, even Rainforest Crunch—are in the Ben & Jerry's Flavor Graveyard. On the other hand, I won't miss Lemon Peppermint Carob Chip, which I can't admit ever seeing.

Separately, Jon Entine on the plight of the newest Ben & Jerry's franchisees.