I'm Dealin'

I finally got a call this morning from that off-strip place I mentioned before and set up an interview/audition for 3pm today. Actually, all of this happened yesterday (Wed.), but I'm writing this at 3am and haven't gone to bed yet. This place was actually one of the very few casinos in town that I had never set foot in before, so I got there a little early to walk around the property a little.

Around 3pm, I met the assistant shift manager for day shift and she went through all of the normal "motions", such as talking about the property a little, asking me about the games I've dealt and also asking some common interview questions. As soon as I started talking to her, I basically got the vibe that I expected to see in that I was pretty much assured of the job if I didn't do anything completely insane during the audition portion.

After the interview, she had me go tap in on a blackjack shoe game. There were only two people playing and I aced that portion of the festivities in short order. Next up was a $10 pitch game, with some decent action. One guy had $50 up every hand, and the rest were $10-$20. Nothing too much to report there either. I did pretty good on blackjack considering I don't think I've dealt it in about a month! Of course I used all of the procedures from my old job and got a "what a little wussy shuffle" comment from the boss. Apparently this place has a much more elaborate and fancy shuffle procedure for their double-deck pitch games than what I've gotten used to. After blackjack, it was off to the craps table. Again, not too much to report. I did have a guy throw in a $6 3-way red, $5 horn-hi yo and an additional $1 yo on one roll. I guess asshats are pretty much universal in the off-strip world.

The good thing about this job is that it seems like I'll be getting way more hours compared to the old job. Being at a place with great toke days didn't do me any good when I was only getting 15 hours of work during many weeks! The other thing that really impressed me was how friendly and upbeat almost every dealer and supervisor was. I've heard that the floor sups and shift bosses were pretty cool at this place, but I didn't really expect to see it at that kind of level.

The not-so-good things about the job include the longer commute, the lower toke rates, and the lower table limits which I'm sure invite flea and stroker play......especially at the dice table. I'm also going to be working swing shift for the first time since last April, so that'll take some getting used to. The shift change really does suck since the special lady I'm seeing has a pretty normal day job and we've been able to see each other fairly regularly so far in the evenings. Oh, not to get off topic, but her name is Danielle....and that's pretty much all I'll say for now on the blog. If you want any more details, give me a call. Oh, and if you're a member of the Columbus crew coming into town soon, I don't really want to start asking for days off after starting a brand new job and being out of work for 2 weeks. So let's cross our fingers and hope for the extremely unlikely chance that I won't be scheduled to work on those nights you're here. I'm not holding my breath though.

One thing that I keep forgetting is how lightning quick things happen once casino auditions are held. At Nevada Palace, I started work the very same night that I passed the audition. At my last job, it was the night after. They actually asked me today if I could come into work tonight or tomorrow night. Quick thinking provided me with the thought that I have a date on Thursday, so I politely declined and will begin work on Friday night at 7pm.

Wish me luck.

Remembering Myron Cope

Here's a little tribute for the voice of the Steelers, Myron Cope. My friend Tony brought his passing to my attention this morning. I will say that I am extremely sad to hear this news, but actually wish it affected me more, knowing that I was not privy to this man's radio calls and personality for the most part. One problem with being a die-hard Steeler fan who grew up completely within the confines of Ohio is that I was never able to be directly associated with the team as a local. In fact, I would say that Nev Chandler would probably be my all-time NFL radio announcer, even though he was the voice of the clowns in the '80s.

I do own three terrible towels though. The rare times I was able to hear a game (or post-game show) called by Myron were quite enjoyable. He had an extremely distinctive voice, always had fun with his play-by-play guy, and certainly showed an undying love for both the Steelers and the city of Pittsburgh. I just wish I had known him a little better.

Italian Spiderman

I have no context for this and have no idea what I'm watching. I just know it's hilarious!!

Weekend Update

I just saw my parents off after a full week of Vegas excitement for them. After I met back up with them on Saturday, we headed out to Lake Las Vegas since I had never been there before and wanted to check it out with them. It's not a bad little half-day trip out there for anyone wanting to escape the hustle and bustle of the Strip, etc.

The only casino out there is Casino Monte Lago. For such an upscale place (it includes the Ritz Carlton resort), I was let down by the casino. It was nice enough (and small), but the table limits were at $5 for most of the blackjack games, and the one lone craps table was NOT even open. I haven't kept up on that property very closely, but I do know its had some financial troubles in the past......and I can see why.

On Sunday, dad stayed back at the hotel while my mom and I played tourist for a day and walked the Strip. She wanted to do some shopping at the Miracle Mile, so we parked at Planet Ho and made our way down the Strip. The one place she always wants to visit is St. Mark's Square at the Venetian for the free shows and atmosphere. When we were there, I realized I had not yet checked out the Palazzo yet. So we made the extra little walk over there. My opinion on the Palazzo is pretty much the same at the Wynn. It's a very nice place with fancy chandeliers and whatnot, but I'm not sure why I would ever want to go back. It seems like whenever a really high end place opens up on the Strip, it does a good job of being "spectacularly bland", with no big draw that would keep the common, non-gambling folk from coming back. The Bellagio has the fountains and the Conservatory which attract slack-jawed yokels. The Wynn and Palazzo don't really have that. One thing that did surprise me was the plentiful $10 and $15 blackjack tables that were around in the Palazzo. It was my understanding that the Palazzo was only going to try to attract the best of the best players. Apparently, that's not really the case.....yet.

Oh, on the walk back to Planet Hollywood, we stopped into Chris' place of employment to watch his mad dealing skills in action. We found him dealing to a couple of guys on a 3-card poker table and, much to my absolute delight, he was wearing probably the gayest dealer uniform I've ever seen in my life!!! It was almost completely white with various "poofs" and frilly little ridges, and his collar and buttons were light PINK! Awwwwww, he looked so precious!!! Hilarious. So at least I've got THAT over him. Sure he has a pretty good job dealing on the Strip and I'm up in the air going into a mediocre off-strip gig. But at least I won't be looking like Little Bunny Foo Foo prancing through the felt forest anytime soon!

As far as the job situation goes, it looks like I'll be starting at another off-strip property pretty soon. I'm just waiting for the call to come in to fill out the HR paperwork and get my schedule. It will probably turn out to be the same situation as Sunset where I'll be an extra board dealer with no real promise of hours. It also has the added detriment of having lower tokes than Sunset (about $30 per day). However, at least its something for now, and I'll still be actively looking for either a better job or a decent 2nd part-time job. It WILL be good getting back behind the felt though. It feels like its been a month, even though its only been less than 2 weeks so far. I also think I might be getting a little more hours in due to my dice dealing abilities.

Tonight will be spent over at Chris' place, playing some 5-cent craps. It will be a nice departure from Fiesta Henderson, where I've spent the better part of the week with mom and dad. Fiesta isn't a bad place, but I can only take so much of it.

Happy 100th!

Woohoo, my 100th post!

I've been crashing over at Fiesta Henderson with my folks all week, but needed to spend the night back in the man-cave due to some red tape that I need to go through at 7 freakin' am in the morning. It seems I may or may not have a lead on a dealing job, and I need to get on the computer at 7am to clean up an application that I messed up on earlier this week. If I get this one, it'll be just like Sunset (extra board with questionable hours), but at least it'll be something and will get me back behind the felt while still looking for a better one out there.

In other news, my parents and I have had a GREAT week! This is the 2nd time they've come out to visit, and it seems like the overwhelming element of their visits is very fine cuisine! I'll run down a list of where we've been so far:
- Fiesta Henderson's 24 hr. cafe -Not too shabby, believe it or not. The menu is very big, the food is decent and the service is about average.
- Pancake House at GVR - Ugh, the portions are HUGE.....and very good.
- Fuego Steakhouse at Fiesta - AWESOME! The prices are a notch below what you'd pay at the "high end" steakhouses, and the quality is just as good in my opinion. I had the veal oscar (tender veal with crab meat), dad had the prime rib and mom had the filet mignon. Her filet absolutely melted in your mouth! Highly recommended.
- Grimaldi's Pizza - I had to take them there this time. We made a trip out to New York Pizza and Pasta the last time they were in town, so I had to show them a place that actually had better pie.

Yesterday we went out to Hoover Dam. Dad didn't want to do the tour, so mom and I did. Unfortunately, we were too late to go on the fancy tour with the extra stops that just started back up since before 9/11. But we did do the smaller tour, which was still cool.

Tonight we say O at the Bellagio. Really good show. It had to be with the prices! As much as I loved this one, I still think I'd rather see Mystere if given the choice.

I'm guessing for the trip, Team Family is down about $80 or so. With my financial/job situation, I can't really justify putting up my own cash on games of chance, but I've been the ultimate railbird and have sucked some gambling money from the folks, with the understanding that any winnings will go right back to them. Mom and I have had a pretty good time on the $5 pai gow tables at Fiesta (which there are usually THREE of during swing shift). Dad usually sticks to his penny/nickel slots. Team Family also wrestled enough money away from the Bellagio earlier tonight to pay for all of the waitress tips, valet tips and beverages purchased. Not a bad night!

Oops, one more thing. If anyone ever questions the value of buying a AAA membership every year, I've got a story for you. I went to pick up my parents at the airport on Monday and parked in the short-term parking. I guess I had a ton on my mind. I got out of the car, fed the meter, and walked back to the car......only to find out that I had locked it.......with the keys in the car. Oh, and the keys were still in the ignition and the car was still running! Unbelievable! I used to keep a spare in the gas cap, but got paranoid it would get stolen that way once I moved to Vegas.

Fortunately, I had my cell phone and wallet in my pocket at the time. I got my AAA card out, made the call, and in less than 20 minutes the AAA guy pulled in and took care of the problem. My membership expires on the 28th, so guess where my first errand will be after my folks leave.

Okay, now one more thing. Our plans for the next two days before my parents leave Monday will be to head out to Lake Las Vegas on Saturday night, and do some touristy strip stuff on Sunday like visit the Venetian and St. Mark's Square. Got a date on Friday night (tonight), so the folks will have to entertain themselves at that point.

Hello Newman

What a difference a few years makes!

Here is Ryan Newman during the 2003 Daytona 500.

Here is Ryan Newman after today's Daytona 500!

Newman isn't really one of those drivers that I routinely root for. But he is a Dodge driver (along with my favorite driver, Bobby Labonte, who finished 11th today), and he is not on my short-list of NASCAR asshats. Yes, I'm looking in your general direction Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon, etc. So I didn't mind one bit seeing Ryan pull off the improbable victory today in Daytona! NASCAR and its television minions have turned a once respectable sport into an absolute commercial-fest, sometimes blessing us with a precious FOUR damn laps between commercial breaks! So it does tickle me to no end to see a driver sponsored by a competing cell phone company (Alltel) win the most important race of the year in the "NASCAR Sprint Cup" series! The only better result would have been to see Jeff Burton (AT&T) pull off the win, since I think NASCAR tried to sue that sponsor off his car last year.

Will Deal for Food....

.....or One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer!

Yep, I'm currently among the unemployed.

Gaming Layoffs

I worked on Monday and Tuesday of this week, and on Wednesday we were called into a meeting to give us our walking papers. I can't say that it came as a complete surprise, but it still sucks nonetheless. Since I no longer have to worry about weirdos showing up at my table there, I can now announce that I've been working at Sunset Station Hotel and Casino out in Henderson the past 9 1/2 months. As you can probably guess, I am none too happy with Station Casinos incorporated right now. So if you decide that your gaming dollar would be better spent elsewhere, you would not get any argument from me!

Backing up a little though, word came out about 2 weeks ago that Red Rock and Green Valley Ranch (both Station properties) laid off their extra-board dealers, so of course I was worried that it would get to Sunset sooner or later as well. There ended up being about 11 of us who got the axe, and believe it or not, almost all of them had about the same amount of time in at the property or MORE!

There are about a million pessimistic things I can say right now, but I don't feel like clogging the blog. So if there is any kind of silver lining, it is that I have dealt for only one year now and have plenty of experience with dealing to black chip action (and some pink) and have been stroked by the worst strokers in town at the craps table. If I had gotten more hours per week at Sunset, I'd be a really damn good dealer right now. Even without the hours, I'm still pretty confident in my mad skillz!

So at this point I'm back in the job hunt. At last count, there are about 16 properties in town that have a dealer position listed as open. I've already applied to about 12 of them. The final four are places that I would rather not have to step foot in and would be a last resort if a few weeks go by without a bite. I also believe I have an "in" at a place on the Strip. It's not the best place by any means with tokes being about $30 less per day than Sunset, but if I could get in there, they would put me to work (something Sunset never seemed to do) and my paycheck would actually be bigger than what I've gotten used to these past 10 months. The person I'm supposed to "see" has taken a couple unexpected days off these past 2 nights. So I've made a trip all the way down to the Strip twice for nothing.

But let's make things even more interesting. Before all of this went down, I met a nice little lady who I've been out on a couple of dates with already and we have plans to go to the Las Vegas Wranglers game tomorrow night on our third date. She "seems" okay with my situation so far, but we'll see how long she stays interested in a jobless guy. I also have to awkwardly ask her if she'll mind tagging along with me tomorrow after the game while I try to track down my elusive Strip connection.

But that's not all!!! My parents are flying into town on Monday, and will be here for a whole week! I'm putting them up at Fiesta Henderson, which I really think they'll enjoy. It does annoy me a little that they're staying at Fiesta (a Station property), but their comfort and enjoyment is more important than the qualms I have with my former employer. THANK GOD I talked them out of booking at Sunset, which was their original plan.

Although the fact that I'm not working will free up time for me to spend with them, I'll also be in the middle of a job search. Also, to be quite honest, my parents were really the only two people out of ALL of my friends and family who didn't really understand why I moved to Vegas to deal. So I'll have to be very proactive in explaining to them that this current situation will NOT suddenly make me want to move back to Ohio for some reason (can you tell I have yet to tell them).

So wish me luck. With my parents in town, etc., don't expect a ton of blog posts for the next week or so. I will try to stop in a keep y'all updated though.

Lack of Posts

Hey everyone. Sorry for the lack of posts this past week. The stress level related to my work situation is hovering around a 9 out of 10 lately, so I've had some other things on my mind besides how to fill up a blog post every other day. I wish I could give some details on what's going on, but things should become a little more clear soon, so I'll write something up at that point.

Jazzguy, I'll be happy to post some more craps talk when I get around to it. Just remember though that any kind of "strategy" that wavers from my Craps 101 post will have a higher house edge (with the small exception of doing exactly what my Craps 101 post says, but on the dark side instead of the passline).

No Action!!

ALL BETS ARE OFF!!!

Spy Satellite to be Shot Down

Mandles

Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that this wasn't a real product. It SHOULD be!! They'd make a mint!

Life Immitating Parody

Below I have listed off some news headlines. Some are from cnn.com and some are from the Onion. See if you can guess from which web site each came from (answers in comments section).

1. World Leaders Gather to Roast Mahmoud Ahmedinejad

2. U.S. Intelligence: Nukehavistan May Have Nuclear Weapons

3. Man Hid Wife's Body in Drum for 23 Years

4. Shuttle Arrives with Pricey, Late Lab

5. Report: Al-Qaeda Allegedly Engaging in Telemarketing

6. Crowded Out of Half my Airline Seat

7. Baghdad Dogs Follow Dead Soldier to U.S.

8. Man Sentenced to 18 Years in 'Steak Sauce' Trial

9. Senate Meets at Coffee Shop to Brainstorm Legislation

10. Facebook Helps Old MySpace Friends Get Back in Touch

Rosebud Frozen Peas

Yet another clip that will have Matt (and myself) rolling every time we see it. The Critic was one of the most underrated shows in my opinion! Of course, this clip will be even funnier if you have seen the movie Citizen Kane AND are aware of the problems Orson Wells fell into later in his life.

Comb the desert! (Spaceballs)

Okay, for those of you who do NOT get the reference to that great youtube clip with the soldiers in the Iraqi desert, here is the origin (and I've reposted the remake directly below). I figured I'd give it some play since Spaceballs gave me the inspiration for my blog title. I know Matt loved the clip, and it's even got my roommate routinely saying the nice four-word sentence over and over again! One more piece of nerd silliness. For those of you who have watched Star Trek Voyager, the "we ain't found s**t" guy in Spaceballs is actor Tim Russ, who played Tuvoc on Voyager!

Comb the desert revisited

Work

Some of you have commented about the post Mikey left on his blog on Friday. Just to give you a quick update, I have been on the short end of the stick at work lately as hours are hard to come by and I really don't know when I'll be offered a full-time position. The good news is that my parents will be in town for a full week beginning February 18th and I have a bunch of friends showing up in town in March. So if I start getting more hours at work, that's fine. If not, then I'll have plenty of off-time to spend with mom/dad and the Columbus crew. More than likely, I'll be looking for a 2nd part-time job around the time my friends are leaving town and will probably be working two jobs until a full-time position comes open. As for the 2nd job, I do have an "in" at a place on the Strip, which would make for a decent secondary job (and would also possibly reunite me with Chris...its been 10 months since we worked a dice table together and it would be awesome if it could happen again!).

Speaking of work though, I did work 8 full hours on the dice table today from 12-8pm, and I'll give you an idea of the "typical" bets that were up in the middle while I was on stick most of the day:

$5 horn-high yo, $5 boxcar straight up, 2-way five and nine for $10 total, $5 hard four hop, $5 hard ten hop, all-day hardways for $5 each....and that was just ONE person!

Another guy routinely had either a $6, $12, $15 or $30 three-way six and/or eight going on just about every roll, and the rest of the table (about 5 to a side) had various hardways, reds and c&e bets up at various times.

I was working with a brand new boxman (who did an AWESOME job), a great dealer, an above-average dealer,......and a new guy who just joined us from a different casino who was "deer in the headlights guy" for most of the day. The only silver lining about the day was that, most of the time, the strokers had us up on their hop bets, so we did drop a good amount of cash into the toke box....sometimes $60 at a time. And I get to do it all over again on Saturday, 12-8pm!

Just a note to any craps players who may be reading this. If you ever have a $5 horn-high yo bet, and a three (ace-deuce) hits thus winning you money on that bet, AND the dealers still tell you to DROP THEM $14 to keep all your bets up......you sir/maam are a degenerate in need of serious help!!!

An Email from God

Playing Video Poker with the Emporer

Today is the Best Day

Women Change Your Life

Too Many Decisions

These were just a few favorites taken from spamusement.com

Blown Away

That's the Dale Chihuli blown glass display on the ceiling of the Bellagio's front desk lobby. What I'm having a problem with is finding out exactly what that display is worth! I've heard that's it pushes a million big ones, but can't find anything on the internet to confirm that. I've posted this question on T2V, but would anyone out there in blog land know?

A Cut Above

I haven't really thought about much stuff to write about this week, so I thought I might as well just try to gross everyone out (well, everyone except Jack21). This happened about 4 months after moving here to Vegas while I was still in the old apartment with Chris. It's what happened when my foot had a minor disagreement with the edge of a top of a can of soup. The garbage bag had been taken out of its container in preparation for its trip out to the bin, but I forgot it was there and stepped on it as I rounded the corner into the kitchen. So far, this was the only night that I've had to call off work since my dealing career began. I'm sure stitches were probably in order, but I toughed it out and just had it bandaged for a while until it finally closed and stopped seeping on its own. It's NOT fun being on your feet for an 8 hour shift with something like that though!

Fading into Internet Obscurity

Have you ever searched for yourself on the internet? I have, for no real reason other than curiosity. When I was working at the university back in Ohio, I had a small "about me" page on our department's web site. Therefore, I think my name (first,last) was #8 on the first page of a Yahoo search at that point.

I just tried to google search myself again, and I gave up on page 40! Yes, I am still in cyberland because a mention of me in attendance at a committee meeting was found in the search results by just adding one additional word. However, my name only no longer registers a result.

I did find a couple things that were interesting though. Some people out there who share my exact first and last name include a congressman, a former Minnesota Twins prospect and a registered sex offender in Florida (no, they're not all the same person).

Another thing I discovered is this blog's prominence within a google search. Try it. Type "flying winnebago" into a google search and see how far down the list I show up! Believe it or not, more than a few random people have discovered and visited this blog by typing those two search words into google. This is according to sitemeter.

Speaking of sitemeter information, I've started making a rough list of countries where visitors hail from, and weird referrals from search engine results. A sample of countries include USA, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, England and Portugal. A couple odd referrals include google searches for:

"Kroger Brand Detergent"
"Cartman-Colorado Winnebago"
"Hoover Dam Bypass Pictures"
"Road Trip to PNC Park"

And the creepiest of all, "Kentucky Fried Movie Shower Scene". I don't really want to know what exactly that guy was looking for, but I can guess it probably occurred at 3am in his parent's basement!

I'll probably keep you updated on this list every now and again. Nothing much exciting is happening here in Vegas-land. My nice night out last night consisted of a solo trip to the Las Vegas Wrangler's minor league hockey game. Wranglers were down 3-0, but scored 3 goals in the 3rd period and won it in a shootout! Goals 2 and 3 were scored SIX SECONDS apart!! It was the quickest goal I've ever seen! Clean faceoff win, quick pass, quick shot, GOAL! Tied up!

I will be having visitors in the next couple of months, which I'm excited about. My parents fly into town in 2 weeks, and will be spending an entire week here. Some friends from back in Columbus will be a making a whirlwind 4-day, 3-night trip for the first weekend of March Madness, and then the T2V crew arrives after that, with all the festivities in which that entails!! So I should have some pretty decent blog fodder in the next few weeks.