Snow in Vegas

Here are some pictures of the Great Las Vegas Snowstory of '08. Compared to the kinds of storms I experienced in New Hampshire this really wasn't a lot of snow, but keep in mind, THIS IS VEGAS!!

This poor tree eventually collapsed under the weight of the snow:

Poker

Last night I participated in the infamous 3-6 mixed game at Imperial Palace with Las Vegas Michael and others from AllVegasPoker.com. Somehow I ended up drinking about 4 vodka tonics and 2 Jagger bombs. I hadn't planned on drinking any Jagger bombs and in fact I've never even had one before, but somebody at the table (I think Cindy) ordered them and so I really had no choice. My opinion -- it tastes like Red Bull. You don't taste the alcohol at all. It would be pretty easy to drink quite a few and not even realize you are getting drunk, but of course that is probably the point. I ended up losing $220 in the 6 or 7 hours that I played the game. There are so many crazy games that I am not very good at, in particular Badugi and Baduci. I really have to think about what is a good hand, what cards to discard, when the fold, etc etc. Sometimes I would figure out which card to discard but accidentally throw away the wrong one. I guess the alcohol can be blamed for some of that. Anyway, I had a good time, and my losses were offset a little by the $120 I won in about a half hour playing 1-2 NL while waiting to get seated in the mixed game.

Another one turns 30.....

I don't think I know anybody who is still in their 20's anymore. Well Cat's 30th birthday party was a huge success. The only thing missing was LeRoy walking around asking people if they wanted to do shots. Sadly I took very few pictures, but here are a few that I have...

Here's Bertha and the legs of some unknown people. As you can see Bertha was the life of the party:

Cat and some friends. She is so popular that I can't even keep track of who all her friends are:

Here's Dan before he got drunk and started throwing up on my mom's tomato plants:

This is me the next day between trips to the bathroom to throw up:

Cat with some of the abundant Chargers swag she got. Go LT.

Jersey Boys and a $1000 win at the Wynn

Cherise finally got her free tickets to see Jersey Boys at the Palazzo (pictured above), so we went last Saturday after having dinner at California Pizza Kitchen at the Mirage. I didn't have very high expectations going into the show and was actually fully expecting to fall asleep. I wanted to get coffee to keep me awake but instead I had wine at dinner and then we got more wine at the show before it started ($9 per glass or something ridiculous like that). Probably not too smart, but it turned out to not matter because the show was great and I didn't come close to falling asleep once. The show basically tells the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.... how the group came to be, how they broke up, all of the inner turmoil that went on in the band, etc.. I had no idea there was so much drama in that band but they could easily make a VH1 Behind the Music about them. The songs were good for the most part. The audience was into the show and there was a wide range of people, both young and old. I think the show might appeal more to people of our parent's generation but I still enjoyed it...

After this we went across the street to the Wynn to play some penny slots and get mojitos. Really the only reason to play at the Wynn is to get the mojitos..... other than the Bellagio I don't think there are too many casinos that comp them. I don't know how it happened but somehow I dropped $140 on a penny slot while Cherise was still on her original $10. I sometimes think I'm the unluckiest person in the world. Who else can lose $140 on a penny slot in under an hour. I'm also pretty stubborn because after we left those machines I decided to put another $100 into a triple play video poker machine just to lose it all or at least win my money back. I wouldn't have really cared if I lost that $100, I was more pissed about losing all that money on a penny slot. Anyway, it's funny how gambling works because one minute you can be the unluckiest person in the world and the next you are the luckiest. On like my 3rd or 4th hand on this machine I got dealt four cards to a royal flush. Since it was a triple play machine this meant that I would have 3 shots at hitting the royal. Sure enough I got dealt the Jack of spades on the 2nd hand which was good for a cool $1000! I was in shock for a minute and then elated. Not only had a I wiped out my losses on the penny machine but this gave me an overall profit of almost $900.

'Twas a good night.

more graph humor and song chart memes

My second time ever....

At a concert that is. Cherise got us tickets to see COLDPLAY on Saturday night at MGM. The concert rocked! The crowd was really into it and they played all of the songs I wanted to hear. It said the start time was 8:00 but they didn't end up going on until about 10:00 because there were two opening acts. The first was a DJ who spun while some crazy hypnotic animation appeared on a big screen. I found it entertaining for a while but it went on too long. I have no idea who the next band was cuz they never introduced themselves. Funny thing is we only saw the first song and spent the rest of their set standing in line to but a t-shirt. What a mess that was. There were like 60 people in line and only two workers to help them. When people finally got to the front they took forever to decide which freakin' shirt or shirts they wanted. Coldplay played for about two hours.... they finished up with Fix You and then did one encore.

Anyway, I've been to two concerts now and I've liked both of them. No idea when my next one will be... probably in a couple years. Before the show we had dinner at a sushi place not far from my house. It was good although I've had better sushi..... I did like the saki which we ordered a small one of. I ended up drinking half of it myself and we had to leave the rest because Cherise did not like it. I guess it is an acquired taste.....

Party time!

I had Mandy, Spencer, Kiefer, and Cherise over for dinner on Friday to celebrate Mandy's birthday. A good time was had. I made pasta and Cherise made a cake. We played some Wii, mainly bowling and tennis. Mandy has never played before but somehow managed to bowl over 200 on her first game and completely own Spencer. I then owned Spencer at tennis but the game was cut short because next thing we knew Cherise and Mandy were lighting the birthday cake and starting to sing. I guess I didn't realize how much I had to drink because after the birthday cake we brought out Dance Dance Revolution and it was all kinda a blur from there. My only regret is I still have that nasty little bottle of Patron in the fridge which I couldn't get anybody to drink.

Mandy bowling

Kiefer

I've been sick the last couple of days. I am feeling a lot better tonight but yesterday I was pretty much bed-ridden the whole day. I know it wasn't the drinking because I was perfectly fine on Saturday. My only guess is it was something I ate at the Silverton buffet on Saturday night. Maybe the stuffed crabs or shrimp cocktail? It all tasted fine, so who knows.