Tax Refund and Uncle Biden's Stimmy saved my savings account

 You know what feels all nice and satisfying?  Watching Uncle Biden's stimmy money hit my account and then doing my taxes and almost matching that number.

So, the good news is that when the tax refund hits my account in the next week or so we will have a fully funded emergency fund siting there staring at me.  Ideally we want to get this account to $20k and after these two big deposits we won't be far off.

On the poker side of life - after going through some expenses and suffering a crushing defeat my last outing, I will be sitting with about a grand in my sock-roll.

The last session was pretty brutal. 

It was full of all the standard beats that one receives while playing poker, only it was all strung together in one 2.5 hour session.  Flopped 2 pair vs flopped straight.  Flopped Set vs Flopped straight.  Flopped Set vs Turned bigger set.  Boat vs Quads.  Guy calling all his chips into the middle with a random flush draw vs your nut flush draw and winning because he caught a 3 to make a pair.  Lots of fun stuff.

And, by the end of my session I was down about $70 thanks to South Point having a promotion where they gave me money because I flopped a set with pocket 4s.  Yes, technically I didn't "win" that money  but what comes off the poker table is poker money.  It all goes to the same stinky, sweaty sock in the long run.

Today I do have a to make a trip to the store to buy some Burgers and Steaks so that I have food for the next week at work.  Since completing 75Hard I have definitely slacked off a bit and since my vacation I've really given in to temptation and need to make a change.  So, since I have gained a little bit of it back I need to take that off again and start working on my journey towards 200 pounds again.

So, that is going to involve a nice Low Carb High Protein diet that will consist of a large dose of burgers and steaks fresh off my grill!

 Honestly, over the years I have always hated cooking.  I turned to the microwave.  Over the years I have learned to love the toaster oven but nothing has truly made me enjoy cooking until I started learning the ways of the charcoal grill.

Every week it brings me great joy to spend a couple hours with my grill making food for the family.  Usually this means grilling 10+ burgers for the kids (sometimes only last for 2 days) and then some better quality burgers for myself and the wife.  Throwing a few steaks on or doing up a large batch of chicken wings.

The grill is my time of peace and relaxation, at least most of the time.  Sometime the kids love to interfere or demand my attention or just want to come out and ask a million questions.  However, it is all part of the charm of my life and I love every minute of it.

So, today I'll be shopping for some meat and potentially I'll fire up the grill today (maybe tomorrow) and take my family to Flavortown!

Outside Burgers

Yesterday the wife and I moved some more stuff to our new house (Screw you, we are really taking our time at this) and some of that stuff included the table for the backyard and the grill.

Yes, I finally have a grill at my new house.
Yes, I have been living at this house for over half a year and have not grilled.
Yes, it hurts and not in a good way.

As much as I have missed grilling (and let's face it my life is a complete busy mess where I have almost no personal time) there is one person in the house who missed me grilling more than anyone else.

This morning started like most mornings but when Jacob looked outside into the backyard and saw our grill sitting there he got really excited.
"Dad, you going to make burgers today."  I told him that I was and he immediately told me he wanted me to make "outside burgers" pointing to the grill and telling me he likes them better than the burgers I make inside.

I explained to him that we had to go shopping so that we could make burgers but that we also had to clean the grill, put the table together and finish some other stuff too so that we could make the burgers.  He immediately volunteered to go to the store with me and help me clean so we could eat burgers.

At the store he wanted to carry the meat and the buns and he bossed me around as to other things that he wanted for our meal.  He loaded all the groceries onto the conveyor belt so that we could pay for everything and when we got to the car he helped load everything into the car.

We arrived home and he immediately jumped into the back so that he could help me take the groceries into the house and when he got inside he proudly exclaimed "MOM, we brought everything home so we can make burgers."

There was so much excitement.

I informed him that we still had to clean the grill and he volunteered to help with all of that as well.  So, we got the degreaser, a bucket full of hot water and some rags and went outside.

I started off by soaking the grates in the hot water with some degreaser as Jacob decided he was going to spray the grill and start wiping it down.  We noticed that it was getting hot (no shade in the backyard at this time) so I had to tell him that I needed to get a hat.

Because dad needed a hat Jacob also needed a hat and how can I turn down my helper.

He ended up wearing one of my favorite hats but he loved it.
We both wiped the grill down.  He helped me scrub the grates and then empty the water and then scrub the grates again.  As the day was progressing I asked him if he wanted something to eat because he hadn't had anything yet and all he wanted were my grilled burgers.  So, like a little trooper he kept helping out all the while working towards his end goal of eating "outside burgers."

After the grill was cleaned to a satisfactory level we went to the garage to grab the new shop-vac and he helped me put that together.  Then he helped me use it to clean out the old charcoal dust that still existed.

Once that was complete we had to clean the parts and then put the table together.  He helped every step of the way with this as well.  He refused my offers to play with his toys or to go inside and watch TV while dad put everything together.
"It's Ok dad.  I'm a helper.  I love to help everyone!"
It is so cute.

At one point after we put the shop-vac together he proclaimed "YAY DAD, We did it.  High Five!"
We high fived.

And, at one point he told me he loved me and my heart melted again.

Finally the table is cleaned and together and the wife decides to tell me that she wants me to set up the umbrella and Jacob and I did that as well.  This is when we finally gave in and started the burger journey.

I started the charcoal and Jacob sat outside at the table to watch the coal get hotter so he could (repeatedly) tell me that they were ready to go and I needed to start cooking the burgers.

Finally the burgers are done and people are getting served and Jacob takes one small bite out of his burger (before the bun and the Heinz Ketchup) and proclaims "I love it dad, this burger is Delicious."
He then proceeded to eat two whole burgers and a little bit of chips.

Our Teen even ate 1.5 burgers and declared them delicious.  My wife enjoyed one and I ate a double (with Famous Dave's Hell-Fire Pickles) and we were all reminded how much we truly love my burgers.  I mean seriously, how many 4 year old's will tell you they'd rather you cook a burger on the grill than get McDonald's (or In-N-Out)?  Heck, my teen would rather eat my burgers than a fast food burger!  That just doesn't happen on a normal basis based on what I am told.

Today was a smashing success.  I got to spend great quality time with Jacob shopping and working and we got to end it all with burgers.
He even fetched me a beer when my first one was empty AND threw the empty bottle away for me.

I truly lead a blessed life and have an amazing family.  My children mean the world to me and Jacob is the most amazing helper most of the time.  Even though he sometimes gets annoying with his want to "help" I have to keep in mind that if I don't allow him to do it now (even when he is hindering and not actually helping) then he might not keep it up and will turn into one of those teens who doesn't ever help out around the house and then i'd totally be to blame and the one person I hate placing blame on is myself (including when I do big ass run on sentences, catch myself in the middle of it and then find way to continue doing it just to make it longer).

So yeah, I had a great day.

Also, I've decided to once again get serious about my weight-loss, or at least my self control for it.  I also decided to fire up a new blog for that instead of putting it here.

I want to maintain this blog for family and fun and separate out the other stuff.  I feel like this will help keep me motivated.

So, if any of you are interested feel free to hope over to  FatManInVegas and check it out.
I'll be doing one big post per week with details about what I ate, how I did and how I'm feeling.
Also, I've been using the phrase for a while now and really wanted an excuse to register the domain.  I don't know if it will ever turn into more than just a Fat-Man blog but it gives me another excuse to write as I am starting to get back into the habit of doing that more often.

grrouch