Thursday May 25, 2006 – Compulsive Gamblers Anonymous and the Zucchini Bread Pandemic

The Brit and the Canadian are regular Texas Hold ‘Em players and had been dying to get us all together to play. When we arrived, the Brit had arranged to have an iced bucket of Keo beer, which was quickly complimented by two extra large pizzas. “C” and I had played poker before, while the German was completely clueless. Luckily the Canadian had printed out a little “what beats what” poker cheat sheet which the German constantly laughingly referenced before each bet and card turn (“C” and I did our fair share of glances too). We are definitely in a different league than the Brit, as he regularly plays with friends with anywhere from $500 - $1000 buy ins. “C” and I were even a little timid over the 20 pound buy in. Even though the Brit took both “C” and I out separately with two Celebrity Poker Showdown “all in” bets, we had about 2 ½ hours of enjoyment and are one step closer to compulsive gamblers anonymous.

On a side note, I probably deserved the loss to the Brit after somewhat being responsible for turning him into heaving mess on Wednesday. In a moment of Betty Crocker madness, I tripled a batch of zucchini bread, which was lovingly doled out to about half of Limassol (ok just the office, our neighbor, the mosaic studio, our travel agent…). All besides the Canadian were utterly shocked at the thought of combining bread and vegetables together. Long story short, what was viewed as a bread/dessert anomaly was quickly gobbled up and for the most part very well received. The Brit ended up queasy, nauseous… ( I think you follow where the … is going) and went home early to deal with the “situation.” Thankfully I didn’t cause an office wide zucchini bread pandemic, as the Brit was the sole casualty.