Lights Out, the party's over!

No, the title has nothing to do with the Strip going dark for an hour the other night for "Earth Hour". I was off that night and just getting out of bed to start my "day" when that happened.

Last night at work showed just how quickly this town can go dead after a very busy couple of weeks. My casino literally set records these past two weeks as far as the casino drop is concerned, and I believe I will soon be getting the best paycheck I've ever received since starting at my current place (heck, I think it might be the best since moving to Vegas!). However, the first two rounds of March Madness are over, there are no "special days" coming up such as St. Patrick's day, and last night's lack of business was eerily reminiscent of those very slow days in January. In fact, it was so damn slow last night that I actually took an hour and a half of voluntary early out (EO) for only the third time since starting dealing more than two years ago. I wasn't on the EO list, but I was working a Let-It-Ride string and the floor supervisor asked for volunteers, so it didn't take much arm-twisting to get me out of there!

However, I've had a pretty good run this past month and I'm still getting four days a week on the schedule at the moment, so it won't be complete famine for me. With a little extra income lately, Danielle and I have decided to splurge just a little and plan a couple of trips coming up here in the next couple of months. I've recieved confirmation of my days off for them and I'm pretty excited.

The first will be a quick weekend trip to the Grand Canyon (south rim) in about a month from now. I was talking to Danielle a while ago and it occurred to me that I've only driven outside of the Vegas/Henderson city limits THREE times since driving into town with Chris in January of '07! Two of those times were to visit the Hoover Dam with my parents and the other time was to check out the Lake Las Vegas area, again with my parents. So this trip to the Grand Canyon is pretty much overdue in my opinion. I've never been there and I've only seen it once from the plane, ironically on the return flight after my last trip to Ohio.

The other trip that we've planned is a trip back to Ohio during the last week of June! Yep, for those of you who remember my post about a month ago, I will be attending Comfest again for the first time in three years! Woohooo! That will pretty much take up the weekend of our week in Ohio and the rest of the time will be spent catching up with family and friends in the Columbus and Sandusky area. Oh, and I also think we'll be spending a day at Cedar Point Amusement Park, which I haven't been in since 1999! Wow, I can't believe I haven't been in the park since BEFORE Millenium Force was built!

So other than planning some trips and working, nothing much else is going on here in Sin City. Sorry for the lack of posts, but with work kicking my ass, spending time with Danielle, catching up on the DVR and Netflix movies, I haven't been very motivated to blog lately.

If there are things that any semi-regular visitors here want to know about, feel free to hit up the comments section and ask away. I've gotten so used to the glitter of Vegas at this point that I'm probably just taking everything for granted now.

My Partial March Madness Participation

My weekend is almost over and I wish it could last for another couple of days or so. The most bitter part of the last couple of days is that I, once again, had to miss the T2V Friday night party. This time it was due to illness.

The past week has been one of the toughest work-weeks since I moved to Vegas. The combination of moving to swing shift not too long ago, the impending March Madness, spring break, St. Patrick's day and a severe lack of sleep finally caught up with me on Thursday night. After getting very little sleep Thursday afternoon, I got up and joined the T2V gang over at The Hotel (Mandalay Bay) for a T2V March Madness happy hour kickoff. The drive over there would be the most recent time that I felt somewhat close to a 100%. Most of the characters were in attendance and I'm glad I was able to be there, but about an hour after getting to the suite, I developed a cough and it was downhill from there. After visiting for a couple hours, I headed down to work on what would be a pretty hellish night.

Much of the gang wrapped up their happy hour about an hour into my shift and I suddenly found myself inundated with happy T2V drunks playing at my craps table. Unfortunately, the dice went ICE cold and it wasn't much fun for a while. For those of you who didn't stick around and catch the rebound, I'm sorry I had to do my duty and reinvest your money into my company's bottom line! Fortunately though, the dice did come back around to luke-warm levels and a few T2Vers got out of there with some cash. I also REALLY appreciate you guys setting a good example by making those dealer bets for us. We dropped more tokes in that hour or two you were there than in total for the remainder of the shift!

After the T2Vers left, my health just dropped exponentially and by the end of the shift, I was just one exhausted, hacking, stuffed-up feverish blob of jelly with joint pain to boot. I took my temperature when I got home and had a fever of around 101. Whether it is a bad cold or some sort of flu, its just kicked my ass since then. I did manage to get to bed around 9am Friday morning thinking I could get up around 6pm and make it to the Friday party at MGM by 7pm. The waking up part happened but the traveling to the Strip did not. I puttered around the house for a few hours, watching Ohio State lose in 2 OTs and eating a Panda Express feast that my lovely girlfriend graciously brought over. But around midnight, I was back in bed.....for another 8 hours!! That would be about 16 hours of sleep in a 22 hour period.

I woke up around 8am Saturday morning still feeling like crap, but a little better than before. So I decided that I'd suck it up and join the gang for the T2V annual poker tournament. This year's tourney was held at Binion's downtown. Once again, Dougie did a fanastic job of putting together the tournament this year. I'm sounding like a broken record each year, but he definitely deserves accolades for being the point-person for this thing each and every year. It can't be an easy job and I'm not sure if this event would exist if it wasn't for him! Danielle picked me up around 1pm and we made it down into Binions about 20 minutes before the tournament started. 38 people signed up and 33 actually made it. They paid the top five places.

If you don't remember my result from last year, feel free to go to my post last year and see my coveted prize for finishing one spot out of the money! Being the bubble boy was NOT fun at all and I hoped to do a little better this year, but it wasn't meant to be. Danielle sat behind me for most of the tournament and she can vouch for the suck-ass cards I was getting most of the time. There was ONE hand in the first hour that I held pocket sixes and flopped a boat, bet $100 into a $300 pot and had all 5 or 6 limpers fold! Drat! Before my stack got too light, I went all in with A-10 offsuit, got two callers and somehow tripled up. I made it to the final two tables, but the blinds were quickly getting to me and I had to try it again, with A-5 offsuit, which was pounded by pocket queens. I was out in 12th place, two spots from the final table, which is the first time I've missed the final table in the 3 of these I've played in. At least someone else got the nice fanny pack sent to them this year (DonD to be exact).

I'm sure Dougie will put it to a vote at some point on where to have the tourney next year, but I'd definitely give a vote to return to Binions. Their tournaments are run fantastically, all of the dealers were friendly and patient with the new players (this tourney sees a bunch of newbies play each year), and the tournament director was on top of everything the entire time! Another thing I liked was the fact that the blinds didn't raise so dramatically that it just became an all-in fest after a an hour of play....like those tournies on the Strip. This tournament lasted a total of 5 hours and although it hurt a bit to finish out of the money, at least I got some play in for my buy-in. The one and only downside was the fact that the tournament tables are all sectioned off and not near the cash games, so they weren't able to open a low-limit game for those people getting eliminated.

I took an hour nap a while ago and I still feel like my head is about to explode, but I need to try to stay awake for a few more hours so I can go to bed in the morning and get up to start my five-day work week Sunday night. It should be another very busy week.

Falcon Rob at March Madness

Okay, this post is directed only to those T2V message board members who may wander into my blog. As far as my availability goes for the Madness festivities this year, the only bad news is that I'm back on swing shift yet again during the tourney. However, there is some good news though.

The best news is that I just got my work schedule for next week and I actually have Friday AND Saturday nights off! So, for the first time ever, I may actually make an appearance at the Friday night party this year. The Saturday afternoon poker tournament is also a definite possibility (even though it occurs when I'm usually sleeping).

Members of the board who have my cell phone number are Jack21, IllMarty, Drea, Chef, Mikey, Sin, Steve B, 3-Cats, and Scott R. I know not every one of those names will be there, but I'm sure most of them will. So if I don't get any messages on what room number the MGM party will be in on Friday night, a couple of you may be getting a call.

Unfortunately, if a Madness activity occurs on ANY day when I am working, I will NOT be able to attend. So if I'm not able to come to the party on those days, perhaps the party will come to me. In other words, feel free to stop by my table at any time during your trip and say "hi". Don't feel obligated to play, but if you do, I'm sure you'll be a welcome respit from the completely trashed spring break fraternity douchebags that I've been dealing to all damn week!!

For those of you who are "in the know" as far as my work location, my schedule for the near future is:

Monday 3/16 9pm-5am dice
Tuesday 3/17 9pm-5am (Happy St. Patty's Day!)
Wednesday 3/18 9pm-5am dice
Thursday 3/19 9pm-5am dice
Friday 3/20 OFF
Saturday 3/21 OFF
Sunday 3/22 8pm-4am dice
Monday 3/23 8pm-4am dice
Tuesday 3/24 9pm-5am dice
Wednesday 3/25 8pm-4am
Thursday 3/26 9pm-5am
*if the time doesn't have the word "dice" next to it, then I could be on ANY table in the joint (except for roullette since I don't deal that).
** You can find me by my name tag, "Rob". There's one other "Rob" in there....I'm the one with brown hair. If you don't see me at any table, I'm probably on a 20 minute break.

A few rules:
- Don't make me regret being available to board members. I've never advertised my work location on the main part of the board due to the fact that I'd rather not have random psychos show up to my table that know way more about me than they should for being total strangers.
- Don't be offended if I don't remember you or your screen name. I'm terrible when it comes to remembering people on T2V because I always forget screen names/real names and I haven't been able to attend many socials in the past.
- Don't forget that you are on vacation, but I am not.......I am a local. If I'm not drinking, it's because I have to drive home. If I'm not gambling, its because I average around $80 a day in tips and I can't afford to blow through a Benjamin hittin' the tables every time I'm in a casino during off-hours.

So I hope to see many of you this weekend, either at the activities or my table. Safe travels!!!

A Sick View....

of Santonio's catch from a Steeler fan in the crowd. Pretty good seats for this guy!

Guy tries to bet weed!

Wow, here's a clip that was forwarded to me from Javier today of a guy in a casino that tries to bet his stash of weed on a blackjack table. Unbelievable. What's great is how the dealer continues to deal throughout the entire ordeal.

Donny!

If you needed any proof of Donny Osmond's mad skillz, this should prompt everyone to flock to the Flamingo asap!

European See 'n' Say

Hendertucky Food Options

If any of you happen to be reading Mikey's blog postings lately, he's talked extensively about the curiously named Omelet House in Henderson. Well, having discovered restaurant gems such as New York Pizza and Pasta, Amore's Taste of Chicago, The Sushi Factory, Grimaldi's, La Collina (now Carmines), etc. from recommendations of others, I finally decided to make the drive out to Boulder Highway and check out this much hyped (from my old roomy) diner.

The hype is officially substantiated!!!

I had what was probably the best tasting omelet (I'll just use the diner's spelling) I've had in a very long time! It came with a generous piece of banana bread, their special "breakfast spuds" and a 6-egg omelet made to perfection. The specific omelet that I chose was the "Plymouth Rock", which I admit is somewhat hippie-ish, but it was a delicious blend of jack cheese, turkey chunks, diced tomatoes and avocados. I've never even considered putting avocados in an omelet, but that was actually the highlight of the omelet! I also kicked it up a notch by dripping some hot sauce on top of it. The breakfast spuds are just a fancy way of saying seasoned potato chips, which were pretty good and the banana bread wasn't too shabby either. The really nice thing about the meal was that the total bill (I just got water) came to $9, which as Mikey has mentioned, would be doubled if you got the same meal at the Peppermill on the Strip.

The service was good and its just got that nice, down-to-earth small-town breakfast diner feel to it. I'll definitely be going back. It's too bad it doesn't open until 7am since I could see myself grabbing breakfast there after a 9pm-5am shift quite often if it opened earlier.

Oh, and I also drove further down Boulder Highway to check out that Friendly Donut Shop as well. Very good donuts, although I wasn't really blown away by it like I was the Omelet House. However, Friendly's DOES open at 4am, so if I'm bored after work some morning, I might make the drive again. We'll see. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of donuts (although the bear claw was BIGGER than my hand).

Here's the banana/nut bread as a breakfast appetizer.

This would be the 6-egg omelet in all of its glory accompanied by the breakfast spuds.

Here I am about halfway through it. Once again, avocado in an omelet seems weird, but man it was very good!

And here I have successfully dispelled the myth that the meal can not be finished in one sitting.

The English Channel

Norm Macdonald was absolutely fearless to pull this bit off during the Bob Saget roast on Comedy Central. Brass balls! For those who got it, it was, by far, the funniest of the night. For those who didn't get it, I'm sorry for you! Click on the video to go to youtube. There are two other sections of this clip.

Wot's....uh, the deal?