Archives 2006

Would I see 2 Porsche SUV’s parked within 20 feet of each other in the gym’s parking lot.

I noticed last week the blog has hit the 15k mark, not bad, not bad at all.

My first weekend back after Vegas was back to normal, meaning I busted my ass.  On Saturday I worked on a list at least half a dozen items long.  After that was done we worked on this months cleaning project.  Ali made a list awhile ago of rooms and months we would do a thorough cleaning on them.  April was kitchen month. This was the last weekend we had available to do it so we cleaned it but didn’t start till 5pm Saturday.  We grumpily finished around 8 at night, both feeling very sick of the process.  Sunday morning just for good measure I cleaned the bird cage, swept and mopped the kitchen and utility room floors, dusted, swept the house and cleaned out the inside of the party van in preparation for Ali taking it to Orlando for her family next Saturday. Was I really on the Vegas strip only a week ago?  These sort of weekends make me think of how simple life could be in a condo. Of course there are a lot of things you give up in condo living as well.

Sometime on Saturday I started seeing a small black dot in my vision.  In floats around in my field of vision sort of following whatever I am looking at.  It hasn’t gone away although now it is a bit lighter and fuzzier than it was at first.

We picked up a new color laser printer this weekend for the office, an HP 2600N.  It was very cheap but came with a built in network card and does a fine job of printing.  I am going to try to sell the old Magicolor 2200 (that needs a new OPC drum) cheap in the paper.  I also finally bought a replacement for our frustrating digitial camera.  Our old one is a Canon that for some reason has a hell of a time focusing.  It requires for you to sometimes sit there 15-20 seconds while it decides what to focus on.  I am getting a Nikon Coolpix S4.  It is sweet because it is a 6 megapixel compact digital camera but it has a 10x optical zoom.   

 In my other reality, World of Warcraft, I now have four level 60 characters.  In addition I have three more characters I am working on leveling.  I have a human mage, night elf hunter and night elf druid that need to be leveled to 60.  Once that happens I think I will be done creating new characters.  However there is an expansion pack on the horizon, once that hits there will be an entire new world to explore.  Just when I thought I had a chance to escape….  Yesterday I paid someone 30 silver to show me how to get on top of the gates at Stormwind City.  It was well worth the price as I stood up there and made a spectacle at the ants beneath me, all wondering how I got up there.

I went to the ortho on Wednesday and had brackets attached to my top six teeth and a wire attached to finish up straightening those teeth.  Hopefully this will speed up the process.  The brackets themselves are clear so it sort of just looks like I have a retainer in.  If I knew conventional braces would have looked like this I would have just gone that route from the get go, it isn’t that bad.  It would have been less expensive and quicker by a bunch.

Ok for those of you that don’t want to read what is sure to be a novel, here is the quick recap:

We gambled and drank for the majority of the 4 days we were there.  We both finished up several hundred dollars and we did so playing blackjack, craps and sports betting.  Pics from the trip can be found here.

Thursday morning I crawled out of bed at 5am.  My flight was scheduled to leave at 8am so I wanted to be at the airport no later than 7am, which meant I had to be out the door at 6am.  Traffic was light and I got there in plenty of time, somewhere around 6:45 am.  I said my goodbye’s to Ali and the pooch, feeling sad to leave them behind but excited about Vegas. I hopped into the rather lengthy line at the counter.

After a brief wait I came up to the counter, the agent asked me if I heard about the delay. “Um, no I didn’t” Due to a mechanical delay the flight was now due to leave at 10:30.  Oh crap.  The good news was they bumped me to first class for the trip from Dallas to Vegas.  The bad news was I had to spend 3 and a half hours at the airport.

6 months ago they just opened this airport. It was touted as huge, modern and the answer to the future transportation needs of the area.  I don’t like it.  Yea it’s big but it is far from convenient.  The old airport had a unique, homey feel to it. The new one is cookie cutter with very little to distinguish it from any other big city airport.

So I sat down with my huge stack of magazines and started reading.  After 2 hours I had read almost all of them so I knew I would need additional material.  I looked around the book store and spotted Angels and Demons, another book by the guy that wrote DaVinci code which I loved.  It was a great move, it made my time in the air sail by.

When I chose my clothes for the trip, I gave it little thought beside I wanted it to be comfortable so I threw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, a Philadelphia Eagles t-shirt, not thinking about how my trip included a 2 hour layover in Dallas.  So as I was walking through the heart of Cowboys country I could feel many eyeballs on me.  When I stopped to grab lunch the hispanic guy behind the counter, who spoke little English pointed to my shirt, mumbled something and laughed. I just smiled.

The flight from Dallas to Vegas was great because I spent it in 1st class.  The seats are big and comfortable and they attend to your every need.  They immediately brought us water and then followed up with hot towels. Then they brought a full meal which I ate even though I had just eaten at the airport.  I figured if I was sitting in first class I was going to get all the perks.  It was the first of several acts of gluttony in the following days.  I capped it off by putting down 3 beers.

When I landed in Vegas I called Troy, whom had landed a couple hours prior.  He had taken one of the shuttles over to the hotel but he recommended I avoid it because he had to wait forever.  So I hopped a taxi.  I don’t know that I ever took a taxi before.  I have always been distrusting of taxi drivers.  It seems like a rip off to pay 20 bucks to go 5 miles.  So my guard was up when I hopped in the cab driven by some guy with a thick accent.  I watched the meter carefully.  When we entered town I was sure the Flamingo was the opposite direction.  The guy had asked me if I was ever in Vegas before which I took as a probe to see if I would notice if he drove me off course.  Finally I got frustrated and asked him if he was going the right way.  He said it was the next light. I realized that the Flamingo was actually in the general area he was going, however I still think he stretched it out.  With the tip I dropped him 20 bucks.

I found Keener at the bar near the sports betting area.  We checked in and headed up to the 18th floor to our room.  The room was ok, nothing fancy.  The Flamingo is huge and I found out later through Keener’s incessant watching of the Vegas history channel that it was one of the original big Vegas hotel/casinos.  After laying down a bit we decided to take a walk and look around.  The immediate feeling for me is overwhelming as you are met with the crush of humanity that is Vegas.  Fat , skinny, good looking, ugly, old and young people everywhere.  It’s like living in Sim City.  We decided to have our first meal at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville.  Ali and I ate at one in Key West, Troy never ate in one.  It was the first and last meal I paid for with my credit card.  We were entertained by guys walking around on stilts and a chick that climbed out of a volcano near the roof and slid down into a big margarita.

Right across from the restaurant was a somewhat dumping looking casino named O’Sheas.  What caught our attention was a midget dressed in a leprechaun costume in front of it with a microphone.  This little guy was not blessed with good looks but had a large voice that actually sounded impressive and professional.  He kept repeating the same basic stuff over and over.  “Free shots at the bar, every hour on the hour” “1 dollar draft’s RIGHT here, RIGHT now”  Troy and I wandered in there for no other reason than we wanted to see what the midget was talking about.  In comparison to the huge, new casinos, O’Shea’s was bare bones.  However we immediately noticed there were a lot of people having fun.  The craps table was very lively and when the top of the hour came, the midget got up on the bar, blowing a loud whistle and walked around pouring shots into people’s mouths.  It was crazy.  Little did we expect that O’Sheas would become our favorite spot of all.

Keener and I settled down at a craps table and played for awhile.  Some of craps dealers were very animated and fun, especially a black guy named Johnny.  His energy level was off the charts, you would think he drank a couple six packs of red bull.  Even if the table was on a cold streak he would keep it lively.  Keener and I both did pretty well that night.  The table was more or less full the entire time.  We took full advantage of the dollar beers and both drank our fair share.  We both had made a little bit of money.  Troy was really beat and went back to the room, I told him I would be up there shortly.  After I cashed out my 100 bucks or so of winnings I hit the bathroom before leaving.  When I got to it, I saw a few guys backed up behind a guy in a wheelchair.  I didn’t realize what the hold up was but then heard him ask for someone to push him into the bathroom.  He was a pretty heavy black guy that had some sort of speech impediment and some wild looking eyes..  I quickly assumed he wanted somone to push him in so he didn’t have to touch the wheels of his chair after they rolled through urine.  So one of the guys pushes him in, right in front of a regular urinal.  As I am waiting for a urinal to come free, I watch this guy grab the plumbing of the urinal to pull himself to his feet.  As he does this the plumbing of the urinal shifts forward suddenly but doesn’t break.  I was sure it was going to break.  I get my turn at the urinal and as I am done, the wheelchair guy is finishing up.  The guy that pushed him had quickly left already so I did the honorable thing and asked him if he wanted me to push him to the sink.  He thanked me for doing so.  After he washed his hands he asked if I could push him back out, which I did.  With the noise and his speech impediment, I had to keep my ear close to him to understand what he was saying.  I asked him where in the casino they were.  He pointed and I pushed.  We got to the spot and he said the people he was with were not there.  Great.  Well I didn’t want to abandon the guy so I asked him what he needed.  He asked me if I could push him to Paris. (the casino)  Paris was a few blocks down the strip and this guy was no lighweight and I was more than a bit drunk but I agreed anyway.  I never quite put together why he needed to be pushed as opposed to wheeling himself but hey the guy is in a wheelchair, I’m not going to ask.  Navigating down the crowded strip was a challenge.  We had to hop in the elevator as well to get across the overpasses.  As I was pushing him along he was doing a lot of talking, some of it I understood some of it I didn’t.  I did understand that he had lived in a ton of different places, at least 10.  I also think I heard him indicate that he had some sort of accident that is responsible for his condition.  His name was Jeffrey and he was 44 years old.  A bit winded, we arrived at Paris.  I asked Jeffrey where in Paris he had to go.  He said “The Cabaret” He didn’t know where it was so we asked a couple different people.  Eventually I got him back there.  It was a small area with a stage and tables.  I wheeled him in front of the stage and he said that was good.  He shook my hand and thanked me.  I was half waiting for the hidden camera crew to come out.  No camera crew, just another case of the needy finding me.  I was hoping Keener would be awake to relay the good samiritan story to, but he was passed out, fully dressed on the bed, with Larry King Live on the tv.  My first few hours in Vegas were quite memorable.  As I looked out at the window at all the glitter that lit up the darkness, I looked forward to the next 3 days.  

Because of the 3 hour time shift our internal clocks were all whacked out.  We both woke right around 5:30 am Vegas time.  We decided to grab the breakfast buffet.  The 14 dollar pricetag was a bit of sticker shock.  Vegas is supposed to have cheap food.  Because of the high price tag I found myself once again stuffing myself beyond normal capacity to get my money’s worth. We had an asian guy that attended to our table who was very attentive.  Keener only threw a buck on the table but I threw down 3 or 4 as I told Keener that he deserved it.  Keener insisited the hig price of admission meant little tip. After eating we walked out in the courtyard area of the hotel where they have live Flamingos as well as really cool African Penguins.  I took a number of pictures of them.  We then decided to go walk around some more.  On the way out we saw some guys at a craps table that obviously had been there all night.  As we walked the strip it was pleasantly devoid of the throngs of people that normally crowd the streets from 10 am on.

We wandered over to Ceasar’s Palace and found the empty sports book area.  I decided to use the bathroom there since it was cleaner than our bathroom at the Flamingo.  These big casinos are spotless. When walked into the place there was a guy out front polishing the numerous brass fixtures outside.  Then as I came back from the bathroom I saw something that blew my mind.  Two guys had just gotten finished using a floor cleaning machine.  As one guy was wrapping the cord back up, the other guy was ahead of him, CLEANING the power cord.  I couldn’t believe it.  I never did sports betting before so Keener explained the basics to me.  I walked up and placed two football bets.  One was for the Eagles to win the Super Bowl (15-1) and one for the Browns to win it all (60-1).  The Eagles were just a sentimental choice, the Browns I thought were a legitimate long shot to do it.  Every year there is a team that comes out of nowhere. If I get lucky it would be a sweet 1200 buck payout.

We decided we would take a trip down to Old Vegas.  Some people at work told me about the buses available to get around so we decided to hop on The Duece, a double decker bus that runs back and forth from the old strip to the new strip.  We hop on and go upstairs, the view is better.  Shortly after sitting down a big black girl and her friend started trying to strike up a conversation with us.  They asked us where we were staying.  Troy and I both thought we were being “worked”.  Then she asked where we were from.  I told her Florida.  The chick says “Where’s that”  I couldn’t help but laugh as I said “You know Florida, the state, the thing that hangs off the corner of the United States”  My laughter at her ignorance pissed her off.  Her and her friend moved shortly afterward.  Just as well, what a dumb ass.

We got off at our stop and were right at the entrance to Old Vegas.  It’s interesting how they covered the strip with a metallic canopy that they project laser signs onto. We saw all the old classic casinos like the Golden Nugget.  The casinos in this area had cheaper food and lower limits on their tables, definitely the spot to hang if you are in Vegas on a budget. Shortly after we started walking down the strip we had a guy swerve towards us and ask Keener if he wanted “Crack or speed…” 

Down towards the end of the old strip we hopped into a casino.  I sat down and played some 5 dollar blackjack. Keener played with me for a bit, trying to learn the game, but got up after a bit. It was a double deck game and the cards were dealt face down.  I was more used to the big deck games that have the shoes auto-shuffled.  With this style of play, there is deck shuffling after every hand or two, it is a pain in the ass.  I was up and down, not able to get on much of a roll.  A younger guy, mid-20’s maybe, sat down to my right.  He had on a baseball hat, sunglasses, and lots of bling-bling.  He had an extremely annoying breathing condition that caused him to breath very loudly every 10 to 15 seconds.  Shortly after he sat down and older black guy sat down to my left. This guy was an experienced player who was betting 2 hands and playing at least 25 per hand.  Things started to get interesting.  The younger kid, who at some point mentioned he was Mexican, did not follow normal blackjack rules.  Blackjack is not all that complicated.  Basically you play it assuming any hidden cards the dealer has is a 10.  If the dealer is showing a 6, 5 or 4 they are very “bustable” cards and you never take a hit if you have 12 or more.  If the dealer has a 2 or 3 showing the odds are slightly less in your favor.  Well the mexican was not following any such rules, the dealer would show a 7 and the Mexican would hold on 12.  The dealer would be showing a 4 and he would hit on a 14.  He was also the first one dealt at the table which causes issues.  This is because if the player prior to you hits or stands unconventionally, it affects the cards dealt to all the players after him.  I didn’t really give a shit as I was only risking 5 bucks a hand but the black guy was dumping at least 50 a hand out there and was losing.  At first the black guy just started shaking his head when the mexican would make another bad play.  Then as it continued he started making under the breath comments.  At one point he pulled back and didn’t play a few hands as a sort of protest to the Mexican’s screwed up process.  After he got back in and continued to lose, in many cases because of the mexican’s plays, he directly started attacking the guy.  What made it worse was the mexican was winning more than he was losing by going against the book.  The black guy went into a long speech angrily explaining to the mexican how things are supposed to go and how his stupid plays were costing others money.  The mexican said he didn’t know all that much about blackjack but it was only money, it wasn’t a big deal.  He said how he was retired and money wasn’t a big deal to him. “Retired, wtf, what sort of drugs did this guy run”, I thought to myself.  As the confrontation got more and more heated, I just sat between, them, pretty much quiet, enjoying the fireworks.  The mexican would not change his style and the black guy kept getting smoked.  At one point he told the mexican that he may not have to work for his money but some of us motherfr’s did and he was making us lose it.  He said something about taking the mexican outside and taking the money out of his ass.  It was an ugly but compelling scene.  The black guy kept firing off barbs and the Mexican would occasionally answer back calmly with condescending shit that further escalated the situation.  At one point the Mexican went to use his cell phone at the table but was immediatey scolded by the dealer and all of us at the table.  You can’t use phones at them.  The mexican said “Aw man, I have three of them (cell phones)”  I was sticking around trying to get back to even but I walked away 40 bucks down.  I went over and told Keener about the situation.  As we left they were both at the table and the black guy still looked pissed as hell.  I’m not sure why he just didn’t move to another table.  That was the most anger I ever saw at a game of blackjack.

We hung around downtown a little bit and then found the bus stop to go back up to the strip.  As we stood there Keener spotted an older Asian guy that had a red headed, combination Donald Trump/Elvis comb over.  It looked extremely odd. I even took a picture of it.  The bus ride back up was frustrating.  The strip was much busier and there were many more people wanting to get on at each bus stop.  It was a very long trip back up.  We got off a bit before our stop and just walked and beat the bus easily. Keener had been winning on his Phillies bets and he placed another one before we went back up to the room for a bit.

After a brief rest we were back out on the strip and found ourselves drawn back into O’Sheas by the little midget with the big voice.  We found ourselves planted at the craps table in the front by the door.  We stayed there for hours on end, somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 or 7 hours.  My strategy since I arrived was to throw down 100 bucks and if I lost that, walk away, not chase it with more money. Obviously we were doing well.  We were there so long that we started to develop relationships and nicknames for the people that were standing at the table for a long time.  Next to me was Mr 5.  Mr 5 got his name because he constantly placed the 5 and was doing well with it.  Then we had Biggie, he was always good for making one point.  Mr Craps was a younger guy that always seemed to roll 7’s, which was ok on the first roll but killed you after that.  We got to know the craps dealers pretty well.  The table was always the most fun when Johnny was on the stick but there was the older wiser Larry and the guy with the weird name, Mekone.  Keener and I  drank a lot of dollar beers and took turns guarding each other’s chips as we did bathroom runs.  We never even ate dinner that night and both wound up a couple hundred bucks.  We collapsed into bed.

I felt like death on Saturday after waking up.  I was dehydrated and everything hurt.  Keener came to and felt much the same.  I shuffled downstairs and bought a bottle of water for myself and a bottle of OJ for Keener.  We talked of how we are doing surprisingly well with our gambling, we both were up considerably.  We took it slow getting ready and went back down to the breakfast buffet.  This time the steep price tag seemed less steep since we had a nice wad in our wallets.  This time instead of the attentive asian guy we got a hispanic woman that was much less attentive.  She brought our juice at the beginning and then never came back.  She only got a dollar from both of us.

Again we wandered down the strip and found ourselves in another low end casino called Casino Royale.  They had 3 dollar craps tables, something we had not seen up to this point.  They also had some 5 dollar blackjack tables which I sat down at while Keener later went over to the craps table.  I realized after I sat down that I was at a SINGLE deck blackjack table.  Oh what a pain in the ass.  Again it was face down dealing (to thwart card counting)  Well I threw down my 100 and had at it.  The table was cold.  Quite a few people came and went.  Some were interesting.  Two older guys sat down.  The one was quite the story teller.  He was complaining how people are so cheap today.  He said he remembered when people would tip the dealer after every hand almost.  Shortly after he said this I tipped the dealer (he never did)  He then said that if he couldn’t score some good luck maybe he could at least get a 30 year old girlfriend, which drew laughs from the table.  Then he started back on the cheap tipping today.  He told us how he used to deliver pizza’s in Chicago 50 years ago.  Typically when he delivered a pizza he would get a $1.50 tip (lot of money 50 years ago)  He continued to say how today he delivers pizza once again.  He said many people will only give him a dollar tip.  When they do this he often will just tell them to keep the dollar in a sarcastic manner.  He said his boss gets pissed at him for doing this but he doesn’t give a shit.  He wanted to call out these people as being cheap asses.  His luck ran dry after awhile and he moved on as well.   I could hear by the yelling from Keener’s craps table which up to that point had been graveyard silent, a good sign, especially since he was rolling.  I was having a hard go of it at blackjack and was down to my last 20 bucks more than once.  I wasn’t having much fun losing and a couple times I threw what chips I had left in on  a single large bet, half hoping I would bust out but both times I won.  After my second big bet got me back to 55 bucks I cashed out, feeling lucky to walk out only 45 down.  The Casino Royale was a 180 from the atmosphere at O’Sheas.  Most of the dealers look run down and old.  Keener commented that Casino Royale is where all the old dealers go to die.   Keener was also almost down to nothing but got hot rolling and got back to even.  We felt lucky to get out of there but I talked of stopping back later to do some 3 dollar craps.

We decided to go to the Stratosphere hotel, I had been there before but Keener never was.  We started walking towards it, initially having some slight ideas about walking the entire distance.  On the way we swung into the Wynn to take a look.  The inside of that place was beautiful.  We checked out the sports betting area and were amazed.  It was luxurious.  The waitress came around and asked if we wanted drinks and Keener said yea.  She asked if we had a drink ticket which we didn’t.  We didn’t even know what it was.  Keener went up to the window and saw that if you placed a bet for 100 bucks or more you got a drink ticket.  F that.  We kept walking and came across an exotic car rental place.  They had a 68 GTO Convertible for rent, damn what a cool idea.  The walking was wearing us out so we decided to relent and hop back on the crowded Duece.

The Strat is an impressive structure, 1100 + feet high.  You have to buy a ticket to get to the top.  Troy and I had some good luck when a girl came up to us in line and asked if we wanted free tickets.  She got them for staying at the Strat but she didn’t want to wait in line to go up.  I offered to pay her for them but she said they didn’t cost her anything so to not worry about it.  Wow, how nice of her, thanks.  The line to go up was very, very long.  To make matters worse we wound up behind 3 indian looking guys, at least one of whom had nasty, nasty BO. It was rather annoying.  The reason the line goes so slow is they take each group and take their picture before going up.  When we finally reached the front, we opted out of the picture, we told the woman we weren’t a couple and didn’t want a pic.  After a bit we convinced her and were allowed to pass without the photo.

We had a bit of good fortune when the stinky guys got in a different elevator than us.  The view up top was impressive as I remembered before.  I was hungry so I grabbed food at the snack stand.  Keener used the telescope to try to spot the Hoover Dam but had no luck in seeing it.  He had no interest in doing the rides on the top of the Strat, wimp.  I called Ali from the top, just for fun.

The ride back from the Strat was miserable.  We hopped the Deuce again but now it was packed.  The bus was driven by some chubby woman who seemed to get off by seeing how many people she could cram onto her bus.  It was ridiculous, we were ass to face jammed in downstairs and she would stop and jam more in.  It was really annoying.  Again we got off early, unable to take it any longer.  Walking was faster.  After an outfit change we were back at where else, O’Sheas.

Again we were there for the rest of the night.  There were some different dealers at the craps table that night, including a chubby, funny kid named TJ.  A lot of the same cast was there including Mr 5, Mr Craps, Biggie and a girl named Michelle.  However our luck that night was not as good. After awhile my 100 bucks disappeared after being up and down for a long time.  Keener still was holding on.  I decided I wasn’t going to miss dinner again so I walked to the back and had a Burger King feast while Keener carried on.  I came back up front after awhile and Keener was still going strong however I found out he threw another 100 down.  By the time he busted that , he was down about 240 for the day and I was down about 140. (although our prior winnings had us ahead)  We still had a lot of fun although losing definitely took let some steam out of the fun balloon.  Once again Keener drank his dinner.  He went to sleep cursing the fact that he wore sneakers instead of his pimpin shoes to O’Sheas.

Sunday was our last full day in Vegas.  I woke up feeling less hammered than the day before but still far less than 100%.  For breakfast that day I thought we could save money going to a cafe I saw that advertised a 9.95 special.  Of course I soon discovered that the special did not include things like coffee and juice so we wound up spending more than we did at the buffet. Ugh.  We didn’t have any real firm plans for Sunday besides more gambling.  Keener wanted to place another sports bet.  He had won 2 of the 3 he placed and wanted to step it up for the final day.  I had been looking for a decent souveneir for Ali since I had been there but had no luck so that was one of my goals.

Troy mentioned he would like to find a good place to just chill and watch the Phils game.  We went into 2 or 3 different casinos but didn’t stick in any.  None of them had the game on.  I remember thinking how no matter where we went, every corner of every casino had somebody in it doing something.  The energy and activity level of Vegas was wearing me out, by this time I was somewhat glad I would be shoving off for home the next day. It just drains you.

We decided to go back into Casino Royale for 3 dollar craps.  The lower table limit was appealing since we both took a hit the day before.  Again the atmosphere in the place sucked but we bellied up to the rail anyway.  Early on in the trip, Keener told me about a movie he saw called The Cooler.  A cooler is a guy the casino sends in to cool off a hot table.  Since he told me that, we were constantly noticing things the casinos were doing to cool us off like switching stickmen mid-roll, counting chips, inspecting dice and just generally doing whatever they can to slow down the game.  Well the old farts that ran the table at the Casino Royale were constantly cooling.  They worked sooooo slow. I also noticed that the 3 dollar table had the catch of paying lesser odds than the 10 dollar table at O’Sheas.  To make things worse we had a loud mouth geek come in to our right.  He was trying to impress his girlfriend with his craps knowledge but all he managed to do was impress on Keener and I how much of an asshole he was.  The table was ice cold.  We came in right after the roll next to us.  We went halfway around the table without a point being made.  Then the dice came to the big dork.  He does some stupid ritual and then launches the dice.  He tosses them at least 5 to 6 feet above the table, they bounce off the table.  Dice going off the table is never a good thing.  It seems a 7 always comes up afterwards.  They retrieve the dice and give them to the dick.  Again, a mile high toss and off the table. WTF, everyone is grumbling.  2 more times the guy bounces the dice off the table.  At this point the dealers explicitly tell him to throw the dice lower.  He manages to keep the dice on the table and promptly rolls a 7.  We lose again.  F’in idiot.  Finally the dice get to me.  I get on a hot streak and make several points which digs us out of the hole.  Keener did a decent job rolling and we walked away slightly ahead.  We bolted out of that shithole, feeling quite lucky to wind up even after us both being down to our last 10.  I told Keener my biggest regret was the big dork was making money on my rolls.

We ate lunch at the “food court” in the back of O’Sheas.  I decided to eat somewhat healthy since the past few days were filled with eating junk, so I went to Subways.  For some reason they were very poorly stocked as the first 3 selections I asked for they were out of.  So I saw the person before me was able to get a cheesesteak sub so I just said f it, give me one of those.  As Keener and I sat there we reflected over our trip that was soon to end.  It went pretty much as planned with the exception that we actual have been successful gamblers.  I converted Keener over from a slots player in Green Bay and he hasn’t looked back.

We wound spending our last gambling session where else, O’shea’s.  The familiar sound of the repetitive pitch by the midget had become almost soothing at this point.  Even the annoying whistle he blows as he gave out free shots on the bar had lost some of it’s shrillness.  I decided to hit the back craps table at O’Sheas, hoping to reverse the bad luck from the prior night.  The table was packed and there were tons of chips on it meaning someone had been doing quite well.  There were some different dealers working it and they were on the slow side, almost as slow as the Casino Royale crypt crew.  My luck was bad again to start, shortly after I arrived it started to cool.  Keener showed up later and participated in the freefall.  This time none of our familiar faces were there, no Mr 5, Craps or Biggie.  Luckily TJ showed up to keep things fun and we started getting chummy with Brian, the dealer from Hungary.  At one point I was down to my last 10 bucks again (from the 100 I threw out).  The dice came to me and the magic started.  I had a run that was similar to when I caught fire in Green Bay.  I was rolling and rolling.  I actually cashed in the fire bet for people that bet it, meaning I made 4 different points without crapping out.  In total I think I made 5 points before finally rolling a seven.  My hot run turned my 10 bucks to 150 or more.  So when it came to Keener’s turn I sat aside my original 100 and bet real heavy on Keener.  I knew it would be the end of my gambling so why not risk it.  Keener came through a couple times before crapping out.  Our hot run left me at 200 bucks.  What a great way to finish.  I roughly added and figured I came out between 400 and 500 ahead for the trip. 

We left O’Sheas and decided to celebrate our good fortune by going out for a nice dinner, only Keener’s second dinner of the trip.  We went to an Outback that was nestled above the Casino Royale and had a good celebratory dinner. Before dinner I finally found a souveneir for Ali.  We had walked by a place where they sold pearls several times that I entertained stopping at.  I finally did and picked out a pair of Tahitian Black Pearl earrings. This type of pearl takes seven to ten years to form.  I wasn’t 100% sure Ali would like them as much as I did but I didn’t want to get her something junky.  I was able to pay for them cash and still have plenty of money to get home.  I figured it was the least I could do for Ali trusting me in Vegas.  On the way back from dinner Keener got his picture taken with Elvis, it was a great shot. 

It felt a bit weird walking past O’Sheas for the last time.  It was strange that with all the glitz and glamour in Vegas, we decided to camp out that this little corner casino for most of the time.  We got back to the room at a decent hour and got all packed up for our early departures out.  We had a great time in Vegas but it was time to go home.  Keener liked it enough to realisitically consider the merits of living in the area.  I slept like hell that night, probably because I was paranoid about sleeping past my 4am alarm.  Everytime I woke up I would look out the wide open window at the never ending activity right outside. 

I got up on time and after some brief prep was ready to go.  Keener left a bit later than me.  As I was walking down the hall I was passed by 4 very drunk young girls that were just getting in.  One of them saw my big bag and said drunkenly “Sir, are you going golfing?” I said “No, I think it is bedtime for you guys”  She called me “Sir”, cripes I am old.

Again I took the taxi, this time it was a white guy that was nice.  He was a lifetime Vegas resident and talked my ear off.  The fare was cheaper this time, $10.45.  I gave the guy 17 bucks but got the vibe that he thought that was a lame tip.  50% tip not good enough? F that.  The security screening line was backed up incredibly long, filled with people that looked like zombies just like me.  They only had one security gate open which was ridiculous.  They don’t open the other ones till 5am.  After waiting about 15 minutes, 5am came and they opened 4 more gates.  I couldn’t believe when I found my seat on the plane to Dallas I was behind no other than Mr 5, Biggie and Mr Craps.  Talk about ironic.  They were on their way back to NY. 

The time in the air and waiting on my layover flew by as I was buried in Angels & Demons.  During my downtime in Vegas I was reading it as well.  It was hard to believe but it was better than DaVinci code.  The lady next to me tried to strike up some conversation but I gave her a terse reply and went right back to reading, it was that good.  Shortly before I touched down in Florida I finished it up.  Wow this would make a GREAT movie.  Once again the author shows the ugly side of religion and specifically the Catholic church.  I’m sure Bible thumpers hate these books but anyone else, they are a must read.

I was picked up by Ali and Nicki.  It was only 4 days but it still was very exciting to see them.  The glitz, glamour, gambling and drinking certainly was a lot of fun but there is something to be said for laying in your own bed with your wife and the dog in the middle.  It’s a different kind of fun.

Yea I’m back from Vegas but I came back feeling drained and ill so I don’t have the energy to begin to describe all the stuff that went down and it WAS a lot.  The cliff notes version is Keener and I did great at gambling, both coming home with several hundred in our pockets and not having to have lay out the credit card to pay for anything, it all came out of winnings.  Hopefully tomorrow I will feel like going into detail.

I taped the new Ten Commandments tv movie.  I am a fan of the original, not because I am in any way religious, rather it is a great story with great acting.  I expected now, 40 years later they would be able to do even better.  How wrong I was.  This movie was 4 hours of garbage.  If I was connected with creating this movie in anyway I would be embarrassed.  The acting was comical, the early story line deviates greatly from the original flick and it is rushed along like it was a half hour sitcom.  I can’t verbally describe just how bad this movie was.  Charlton Heston could have done a better job TODAY than the guy they cast as Moses.  It was very disappointing but I had to watch to the bitter end just because of a car wreck, gotta watch mentality I suppose.  If you too Tivo’d it, delete it now.

You know you are getting old when your breakfast cereal is named “Smart Start” , the music station you listen to most often is “The Big 80’s” and the prophecy your mom told you years ago about how you too will become overly gassy when you get older has come true.

I can’t believe how the technical staff for American Idol can not get the damn sound mix right for the singers.  The music totally drowns out the singers.  The sound quality is terrible.  I don’t recall them having this problem in the past.  It really makes it tough to get a good sense of the performances.

 Tomorrow at this time I should be on a plane, on my way to Vegas.  I’ll miss Ali and the pooch for sure but I am looking forward to having a great time stepping out of the little box that is my normal day to day life.  I don’t think I will even miss playing WoW. 

I forgot to mention that Ali and I got on the local news again. Well, the back of our heads did.  My mom spotted the back of our heads running away in the pack in some video the local news shot on a piece about the race.  We tivo’d it and saw it for ourselves.

Saturday we had another 5k.  This one was different, it’s called the Beach Bum.  It’s named this because you actually run on the beach.  Ali volunteered to help with race registration so we had to get there extra early.  Nothing like waking up at 5am on your day off.  We never ran on sand before.  We assumed it would be more difficult since sand is uneven, soft and filled with land mines.  It was much harder than imagined. The race started at 7:30.  Unfortunately low tide was at 4:30 am and by race time, the strip of packed sand was ridiculously thin, less than 5 feet at many spots.  A few hundred yards in we came to the first of several huge man made rock formations that extend out into the water.  We had to carefully make our way over it, trying to avoid falling.  When we came to the second rock obstacle our luck ran out.  Ali tripped and fell.  She scraped up her knee, banged her hand and stubbed three of her toes.  I asked her if she was ok and she said she was, so we continued.  However glancing over at her shortly afterward I saw she was crying a bit.  She said her toes really hurt.  I told her if it really hurts she should stop but she said she would keep going.

 The run was pretty miserable.  The small strip of packed sand was getting smaller by the minute and you found yourself weaving back and forth up onto the loose, soft sand to avoid the waves that were rolling in.  The sand that was packed was at a pretty steep angle, a disaster for runners like me with suspect knees.  The tight quarters got worse once the lead runners hit the turnaround and headed back.  Many people wound up with wet, sandy sneakers. including us.

Running across constantly changing terrain really sucked your energy quickly.  Ali started slowing down.  Several times I stopped and let her catch up.  Then with about .7 miles to go, I told Ali I was going to take off which she said was fine.  She later said my stopping and looking back at her was annoying anyway.  So I turned on the gas, what I had left anyway.  I probably passed 15 people or so in that period, even so my finishing time was close to 32 minutes.  I waited at the finish for Ali who came in a couple minutes later.  I cheered her on as she pushed for the finish.  I wish I had a camera, just as she was coming in, a dolphin behind her jumped totally out of the water, a good six feet in the air.  It would have made an awesome picture.

 Ali crossed in 33 something, a very slow time for her, but it is reasonable considering the conditions the run was held in.  I felt like I was just beat up.  My legs and knees were hurting and areas that I’m not used to hurting, did, because of the unorthodox manner I had to run.  Ali got a pleasant surprise when she found out she got second in her age group which had 9 people in it.  It was her first top 3 finish and she was very excited.  I was very proud of her as she accepted her 2nd place sand rake. 🙂  It was definitely the hardest 5k we ever ran.  Hard enough that I don’t know that I would run it next year, my joints still feel like shit today.

The rest of the weekend was low key.  We planted a bunch of trees that we started from seed and were sitting in pots on tables around the pool.  I’m hoping they take root and do well.  there is something rewarding about growing something from seed.

I am getting quite frustrated with the company that is supposed to rebuild our pool cage.  I called twice last week and left messages, asking for an updated eta for the installation.  I received no reply.  We sent this guy 4600 up front and will be paying 17k plus for the job and he can’t find 30 seconds to return my call?  That is bullshit.

On Sunday we had what I would call an extremely lazy day.  Other than an hour or so of housework I did nothing but play WoW and watch some tv.  It’s one of those things that sounds good before you do it but after you have a full day of being a bum, you feel like a bum, at least I do.

 Saturday Night we watched the new King Kong movie.  It had many peaks and valley’s.  The special effects were great in some spots, cheesy in others.  There was a bit too much of people getting killed in a gruesome manner, even for me.  I don’t need to see people eaten by huge bugs and worms.  The connection between Kong and the woman was touching.  Jack Black’s character in the movie is a grade A-1 asshole. Overall I would give the movie a C+ to B-.  It’s a full 3 hours long.

I leave for Vegas Thursday morning.  I’m looking forward to it.  I know the 4 days after my arrival will be filled with things that I will remember forever, good or bad.

One month into my creatine supplementation program and I put up a 265 bench press, a 20lb increase in my max.  It went up pretty easily, 270 is definitely around the corner.

I want to see how this all works , it looks like I can upload pics much easier