News From Vegas

Just an update to those who may still be checking in from time to time:

1. Work is super slow right now. The rodeo comes to town every December and dumps a good amount of cash into the local economy. But when it leaves, there's a void of about 7-10 days between the rodeo and Christmas when its dead as a doornail around here. The previous two years during this time, my parents were visiting here in Vegas. My mom's birthday is also during this time and it was nice celebrating an early Christmas with them while taking some time off work. Since they weren't in town this year, I actually worked through this time period and saw firsthand how bad things can get. To give you an idea.....tokes last Friday equaled a grand total of $58 for eight hours. Absolutely pathetic. Not only is it naturally slow, but the weather has been literally frightful lately, which also hurts business. The week of New Year's is usually pretty solid and then there's another lull during January until the Super Bowl gets here. Then it gets CRAZY during March and so forth.

2. Even though I'll be spending another Christmas Eve and Day at the casino this year, I really don't mind. That's because my "actual" Christmas will occur during the weekend of January 8th this year. My mom's side of the family always has a Christmas reunion every year. Because both Christmas and New Year's fall on the weekend this year, they are pushing the reunion back to the second Saturday of January. This kind of stinks for most since its so far removed from actual Christmas Day, but its awesome from where I stand since I can actually get that week off of work for once and not pay an arm and a leg in airfare!

The plan is to fly into Columbus on the 7th, join all the relatives for, what is essentially, a two-day reunion in Clyde, Ohio and then spend the majority of the week in Sandusky. I'm taking exactly one work-week off and only asked to be paid for three days of it. I figure the tokes will be bad that week, so I might as well eat some unpaid time off and actually use more of my vacation time when I'll be making some legitimate cash while off!

3. The short days are killing my motivation to do any hiking lately. My absolute favorite time of the day to hike is in the afternoon to early evening. Unfortunately, early evening at this point is 3pm! My work-days usually start well after 10am, so when I'm off, I usually can't drag myself out of bed early enough to drive out and get a hike in. My last hike was on the Arizona side of Hoover Dam (Liberty Arch hike that I wrote about last year). I still have yet to make it up to Red Rock.

4. As far as work goes, its becoming a grind. When I deal, its usually with a bunch of new dealers on craps where I have to turn into a babysitter for 8 hours. When I'm on the floor, its usually watching a bunch of new dealers where I have to turn into a babysitter for 8 hours! It sounds similar, but I would MUCH rather be on the floor everyday at this point. Dealing $5 blackjack and $5 craps got old a loooooong time ago!

5. If anyone reading this has ANY info on how the casinos in Ohio are progressing, please let me know. There's a very good chance that Danielle and I would like to relocate to Ohio sooner or later, and getting in at one of the new casinos in Ohio would be a convenient scenario!

This is my last day off before Christmas, so Happy Holidays everyone! Hope Santa brings you what you deserve!

Hilarious News Blooper

A friend pointed out this funny news blooper today.

At least 6 months....

...until we could make another trip back to Zion National Park. Just felt like posting this pic. Its the Kolob Canyon section of the park at sunset. Usually, to get a good view at sunset, you have to look toward the sun. In this case, the better view is to turn you back to the sun and watch it paint the sandstone cliffs!

8-Track Channel on DirecTV striked again

Discovered another good song. Enjoy.

Zion Pictures

Here's the link to my facebook album with 43 pictures of the trip to Zion last week. Enjoy!

Facebook Zion 2 Link

Pet Roll Call

Thought I'd let everyone know what the various animals look like who roam the halls of the condo on daily basis. Sadie and Calypso were with Danielle LONG before I met her. Sadie is the dog and Calypso the cat. Troy is the brand new cat that we just rescued in mid-September. He is completely black, so I guess its appropriate I introduce him on Halloween!

Here's a pic of Troy the day we brought him home. He had been stuck in the cage at the shelter for more than 3 weeks. In fact, he had been at the shelter longer than almost every other cat. We kept him in my bathroom for the first week, but the first two days pretty much saw him like this, a shell of a cat with the life sucked out of him. He's only one year old, but he didn't act like a cat at all the first couple of days.

Once he started getting some energy and acting like a cat again, I took this pic of him up on a cupboard where I don't think Calypso ever goes onto. See that his right ear has been clipped level at some point. The shelter people told us that was done by a charity group who goes out and fixes cats on the streets, clips their ears to signify that their fixed, and then lets them go.

Calypso the cat (about 9 years old) chillin' on the old cat feeder. We had to stop using that feeder when she figured out a way to make the turnstyle turn, thus gaining access to days of food all at once.

Sadie the dog. We're not sure how to describe her when people ask what breed she is. A golden mix is what I usually say, but I don't know if that's even close to accurate. She's an awesome dog!

So one day (way before we got Troy), I get up and take a shower. When I get back to the bedroom, this is what I find. I have to go to work while the pets have to toil away doing what you see here all day!

Zion here I come!

Today is my Friday. On a lark, I put myself down on the early-out list at work and I was number 4 on the list. Not even sure why I did it since hardly anyone on day shift ever gets sent home early and especially not number 4 or worse on the list!

Well, miracles happen and for the first time in over a year, I was voluntarily sent home early from work. So to celebrate the extra four hours added to my weekend, I'm now hitting the internet and booking a couple nights up north for an impromptu trip to Zion.

I think my plan is to use these next couple hours of unexpected freedom to pack, grab a bite and plan the trip. I'll most probably head up to Mesquite and stay at the Virgin River Casino tonight for about $30 total. Then head to Hurricane early tomorrow morning and check in at the Super 8 (usually around $45). From there, I'll make the last 25 minute trip to the park itself and probably get in one or two hikes, with at least one being a hike I've never done before. I also want to stop at the back-country desk at the visitor's center and inquire about two hikes I've been thinking about. One is the east rim trail and the other is the La Verkin trail in the Kolob Canyon area, both of which would take my ENTIRE Thursday to do and still leave me with the 3.5 hour drive back to Vegas. So I kind of doubt if I'll try either, but I at least want to inquire about them for future trips.

Assuming I don't do either of those back-country hikes, the hikes I want to look into this trip will be the Hidden Canyon and Angel's Landing hikes. The Narrows is also one I haven't done yet, but that's weather dependant. It involves wading through a river practically the entire hike and with the drop in temperatures lately, I'm not sure I want to risk hypothermia.

Anyway, wish me luck during the "weekend"!

$6 six and eight

Six dollars on the six and eight. Six dollars on the six and eight. Six dollars on the six and eight. Six dollars on the six and eight. Six dollars on the six and eight. Six dollars on the six and eight. Six dollars on the six and eight.

Craps is, by far, the most difficult and complicated table game to deal in the entire casino. Even the most novice player can usually tell that its a damn hard skill to master and most people don't even realize most of the complicated intricacies that go with being a dice dealer from day-to-day.

A $216 place bet on the six or eight pays $252.

I didn't have to think about that....I just know. I know because I've had to pay it before and I've remembered ever since.

Six dollars on the six and eight. Six dollars on the six and eight. Six dollars on the six and eight. Six dollars on the six and eight. Six dollars on the six and eight.

I'm officially sick of dealing dice at my current casino. The trouble with dealing craps on the Strip is that the huge majority of players on the Strip are just there to have a little fun and get as many "free" drinks from the cocktail service as they can. They're not there to actually win money! So instead of getting smart players who will press their bets either fully or a unit or two at a time on a hot roll, I'll get idiots every single day who will refuse to press their bets AT ALL, even on an hour long roll!! I'll even try to sell the players on the press sometimes and will actually hear "oh, every time I try to do that they roll a 7". Good grief. So instead of easily making a grand or more on an hour long roll, most players will be up a couple hundred, and then stick around for more free drinks and lose it all back! That's why, instead of getting presses up to a $210 place bet on the six or eight, I will get.........

Six dollars on the six and eight. Six dollars on the six and eight. Six dollars on the six and eight. Six dollars on the six and eight. Six dollars on the six and eight. Six dollars on the six and eight.

Rant over!

Vacation is Over.....back in Vegas.

Just got back into Vegas last night after a fun-filled trip to Ohio. I'm still a little groggy this morning since I'm actually awake at 9:30am Pacific time after only 3 hours of sleep due to my body still thinking its 12:30pm Ohio time! I'll run down a quick list of activities during my time off:
- Hiked Bristlecone Loop at Mt. Charleston before going to Ohio since my "weekend" just happened to occur the two days before my vacation actually started.
- Went to the Ohio State vs. Eastern Michigan game with my sister.
- Went to the Roger Waters concert in Cleveland with my friend Matt who drove up from Columbus.
- Got together with a few high school friends in Sandusky for dinner/drinks.
- Road-tripped with the Columbus Gang to Champaign for the Ohio State vs. Illinois game. It was a 3-day, 2-night stay in Illinois but still went lightning quick!
- Over the course of the trip I was able to make it to two Sandusky stapled that I NEVER miss.....Cameo Pizza downtown and Toft's Dairy on route 6. I also played a TON of Scrabble with my mom including a rare tie! We both had the same score at the end and we both had the same one unplayable letter in our rack (it was a 'u').

I did take a few pictures of the hike and I'd say about 20 pictures during the Illinios trip, but I didn't really go nuts with the pictures. Maybe I can get a few on here if I find the time during the next couple of days.

My cell phone has given me a very solid 3.5 years of service, but its time to officially retire it. It started acting a bit funny in Illinois and I've noticed the sound quality of people I talk to taking a nosedive. So I promised Danielle that at my earliest convenience I'd get online and order a new phone. With an online discount and a new 2-year contract, I should get a pretty decent phone for free.....as long as I can figure out how to activate it on my own and transfer my contact list over.

I work 1-9pm today on the floor at the casino, but I don't know ANY of my schedule after that. I'll look at it when I go in today, but I'm almost certain I'll be working 8 days in a row! It's just the oddity of taking a vacation. Hopefully I'll get good news today about a week off that I requested for January. The Christmas family reunion this year just happens to fall on the 2nd Saturday of January, so hopefully I'll be able to make it back to Ohio and celebrate Christmas for the first time since moving to Vegas. Fingers crossed!

A New Cat

Believe it or not, I have relented and have decided that a new cat to the household will be a welcome addition. We have an awesome dog and a cat already, but I don't think one more kitty will be too bad. Danielle and I will be travleing to the animal shelter around 11am Sunday to pick up the new addition, although she'll have the fun part of bringing kitty home while I have to go to work! We've got the cat's safe room all worked out. It'll be my bathroom......so we'll be sharing a bathroom for the foreseeable future until the new kitty settles in and is eventually introduced to the existing animals.

Wish us luck in our decision making!

The One-Night Stay-cation

I guess its that time of the year again. The itch to get downtown, reserve a cheap hotel room and partake in Main Street Station's finest microbrews without worrying about driving home. This time I'll have some company as I've reserved TWO hotel rooms! Yep, I have some downtown disciples joining me this time (Chris and other ex-roommates/friends). The Golden Gate Hotel/Casino is the place of choice this time at $28 per room + tax. That wasn't even the cheapest down there. I seriously could have gotten the Las Vegas Club at $19 per room of Expedia!

Anyway, just a couple quick updates for those few of you who still check in. I've had four shifts now as a floor supervisor and they've gone as smoothly as possible I guess. I was NEVER trained on how to supervise. I was just thrown into a pit on my first day and just started figuring everything out on my own for the most part. The most frustrating thing was figuring out all the computer stuff like making player's cards for people who accidentally dropped their card in the toilet and ordering fills for the tables. Rating players is actually pretty easy. The huge majority of the shift is just going from table to table collecting player's cards, entering them in, updating the racks on the table, "walking" players when they leave and VERY RARELY watching tables actively looking for weak dealers/mistakes and cheats. It's incredible how little time I actually have to watch games when I'm trying to administer to EIGHT tables. Yep, you read that correctly....EIGHT tables. The one main exception is when I'm assigned to watch a dice table for the whole shift, which has been 2 out of the 4 shifts so far. Watching the dice table can be pretty easy if the action is low, but on a jammed up dice table with 16 players and relatively weak dealers, its a chore!!! All-in-all, I'd rather be supervising than dealing. The money isn't all that good, but it takes less of a toll on you than dealing $5 blackjack for 8 hours and the money is just as good as dealing with an $80 tip day. Nothing to write home about but it pays the bills.

The other update is that my next vacation is very quickly approaching. I fly back to Columbus next Friday. The good news is that my two days off next week happen to fall on Wednesday and Thursday, so that basically extends my vacation by two days before flying to Ohio. I'm thinking a quick trip up to Zion or maybe some hiking in Mt. Charleston may be in the cards during those two days. Danielle and I bought the National Parks Annual Pass for $80 when we were at Bryce a couple weeks ago. It's actually a really good deal since the $80 fee covers BOTH of us, whether we're together or just one of us makes a solo trip to a park. Danielle has already used it once when she took a road-trip to Death Valley last week and I know I'll use it at least once or twice to go to Zion before the weather turns cold. I wouldn't mind getting back to Bryce this fall, but its almost too late at this point due to its higher elevation and colder temperatures. It can also get us into parts of Lake Mead Recreation Area where a couple hikes we haven't done are.

Just a quick shout out to Hurricane Mikey who has had some serious health issues this past week. I'm sure if you follow his blog or on T2V, you know all about this. Here's hoping for an eventual full recovery from this major surgery! Glad to hear you're still with us buddy!! I say this with only half tongue-in-cheek....if this had happened while you were still in Vegas, you seriously might not be with us right now. It sounds like those folks at Vanderbilt did a top-notch job!!!

Move Over Chuck Norris

Bryce Canyon

Just spent the last two days driving to Bryce and back. It was my first trip there. Feel free to check out a bunch of pics at the following link.

Bryce Pics

Busy Week Off

Just wanted to drop in and update how my week's gone so far. My parents are currently visiting Vegas and staying at South Point. They got in last Tuesday and will be leaving this coming Friday. I took most of that time off work (just had to work one day last Wednesday) and this past week has pretty much been a blur.

One thing of note is that I will soon be what's known as a dual-rate at work. That means that I will be both a dealer AND a floor supervisor at the casino. I'm thinking they'll probably schedule me 2 or 3 times a week on the floor, depending on who's on vacation and whatnot. Due to the lousy timing, I have to wait until after vacation before I officially get trained and I even have to use up some of my precious vacation time to attend Alcohol Awareness training to get a "Tamcard" before I can get my first scheduled floor shift. Since I don't want to wait another damn week with a full dealing schedule, that means I'm going to get that class taken care of tomorrow......which is part of my vacation AND MY BIRTHDAY!!!! Ugh!

Anyway, as I mentioned, my parents are in town. We haven't done much of anything notable yet, except for Saturday and Sunday when Danielle, myself and my mom drove up for an impromptu visit to Zion National Park. We left early Saturday and got back into Vegas about 7pm Sunday night. My dad was not interested in going, but I'm glad my mom wanted to go. She had a very brief, but excellent time at Zion. I'm hoping I can get them both to the Grand Canyon on their next trip out here. The only major annoyance was the heat the past couple of days. I took a long cold shower when we finally got back into the condo a couple hours ago as it feels like I've been perpetually HOT for the past 48 hours! We had plenty of water on us in the park, but the heat it just getting oppressive for me lately. October and then winter can't get here fast enough!

There's not a whole lot planned for the rest of the week. Tuesday night will be spent over at Danielle's parent's house. We have a little tradition now that whenever my parents visit town, all four of the parents and Danielle and myself get together for dinner at their place in Henderson. Last time, Danielle and I cooked for them (braised balsamic chicken, a rainbow salad and french onion soup) and we'll cook again this Tuesday. However, due to a lack of time and frankly, lack of energy, I'm dumbing down the menu this time around and going for an old-fashioned bbq dinner. I have a great and easy way to cook baby back ribs in the slow-cooker and will just compliment them with some baked beans, cole slaw and corn bred muffins. It'll be pretty damn tasty with a lot less work than in the past.

Okay, better get off the blog and get started on this online portion of the tamcard class. I don't want this annoying thing hanging over my vacation any longer than it needs to be!

Mighty Wind

Not much to report. I had an illness a couple weeks ago, my parents are two days away from arriving for over a week and I'll be on vacation at the same time. Tips are disgustingly pathetic at work, so morale is in the crapper and I'm definitely approaching maximum burn-out. However, an interesting tidbit is that I'll soon be a dual-rate at work, meaning I'll be wearing the "suit" as a pit critter a couple days a week instead of dealing every day. The money won't be any/much better, but it'll be a nice break from dealing $5 blackjack for 8 hours a day.

I caught Rush at the MGM Garden Arena Saturday night. Its the second time I've seen them live and I enjoyed Saturday night's show much more than the first time I saw them about a year and a half ago. They really did kick ass! It's been a while since I've heard their Moving Pictures album (years actually) and I forgot how good it is. They played it in its entirety! Only downer is that Jerry Stiller never made an appearance in any of their video screen videos. :-)

Anyway, I rented A Mighty Wind from netflix last week and loved it. I don't think I've ever seen that movie from beginning to end. I'm seriously considering buying the soundtrack. Here's a few youtube videos to give you a taste of the original music from the movie. If you've never seen it, rent it immediately. It's a very solid flick!

Never Not Funny!

And never gets old!! Sorry for the commercial, but hulu had the best version.

Scrambled Eggs

Who would have thought scrambled eggs could be so complicated. It's something I've made probably a hundred times and apparantly I've been doing it all wrong. My ex-roomy Jeff went through culinary school and I don't know how we got around to talking about scrambled eggs last night, but it happened somehow. So he brought up the youtube video below of Gordon Ramsay making scrambled eggs and he swore by it! Well, I just tried it out and I have to admit, its my new way of making them. However, a big disclaimer in that I really don't think its for everyone. I've always prefered my eggs (whether scrambled or in omelet form) to be a little on the runny side. As you can see from the video, that's certainly the case here.

The big difference from how I, and most people, make scrambled eggs is that we whisk the eggs up before putting them in the pan. You'll see that he doesn't even heat the pan beforehand with oil or butter or anything, he just puts the butter and whole eggs in to start, and then starts stirring them over the heat.

Ignore all the stuff about mushrooms, bread, tomatoes, etc. I'm just focusing on the eggs themselves. Also, he adds something like "creme fresh" or the like at the end. Jeff informed me that sour cream would work just fine, so that's what I used. The end result is an extremely creamy and "fluffy", almost too runny but very tasty scrambled egg. The weird thing is that its not TOO runny. If you notice at the end when he pours it over the toast, it doesn't just ooze all over the plate. It still keeps its form on top of the toast.

Try it out once for yourself. Maybe you'll like it and maybe you won't.

The First Moon Landing

As today is July 20th, I thought I'd pay homage to the anniversary of the first lunar landing. Enjoy the live feed of the very first moonwalk, unedited. Disclaimer, the astronauts first words on the moon were highly edited for television, so this raw footage might not be suitable if you're at work or around children.

When will it end????

Snow. I want snow!!!! I want to have to start my car 15 minutes before driving it to de-ice it! I want to bundle up during the day and snuggle into bed at night while an arctic wind whips at the windows and blizzard conditions prevail as children everywhere excitedly anticipate a snowy escape from school! I want to have to pay for a premium car wash to make sure the rock salt is cleaned out from under my car.

What brought this on? I just got in from walking the dog at 3 o'clock in the morning. Yes, 3AM, not the afternoon. The CURRENT TEMPERATURE IS 93 degrees!!!!!!! 93 freaking degrees during the coolest part of the day! To top it off, we actually have a 25% humidity, which for the desert, is very high! I can definitely feel the humidity too.

Two more days of work, including frying my hands on the car steering wheel, walking through the blast of 140 degree hot air in the parking garage, and generally being in a sweaty, pissy mood until my first day off in 8 days on Wednesday when I'll be able to escape the heat and enjoy a day of hiking in 85 degree weather at Mount Charleston.

When Pigs Fly

In case you haven't heard, David Gilmour and Roger Waters performed together last night at a charity event in England for the first time since 2005! Wow!! I did not believe it at first, but the picture is worth a 1,000 words! Full information about the event can be found at David Gilmour's blog (posting for July 11th) at the following link:

Gilmour's Blog

Forever is a Long Time

So I just ordered stamps online at the USPS web site. I ordered 3 books of 20 forever stamps, which should probably last me about 3 years!! I didn't do this in reaction to the impending rate hike (which I think will occur next January). I just needed stamps and wanted to make sure I wouldn't have to worry about buying new ones for a very long time.

First, it was a royal pain in the ass ordering stamps from the fine folks at the United States Postal Service. I had to create passwords, security questions, lower case letter here.....upper case letter there....at least one number...etc. etc. Billing address, shipping address....HOLY SHIT! I JUST WANT TO ORDER STAMPS!!!

The oddity is that I had to pay $1.00 shipping and handling. Huh?? Couldn't they just take one damn stamp out of one of the booklets I was ordering and mail it to me that way? I'm ordering a product from the service that sends me the product and I have to pay shipping on that product?

This 20 minute ordeal is a microcosm of why the USPS is in so much financial trouble! UPS and Fedex......you have my business!

Flu Bug

I just got through a quick and brutal battle with a flu bug that I came down with last night after going to bed. I went to bed about 3 hours before my normal bedtime knowing in the back of my head that something was wrong. About 2 hours later, I was battling to get out of bed over the dog who set up shop right next to me. Here's the kicker, for dinner last night I fixed Danielle and I a gigantic Pittsburgh Primanti Brother's style sandwich, with roast beef, cole slaw, fries, provolone....the works!!!

Well at 2am last night, "the works" found their way back up and out! Like most big battles with the flu, I wasn't really sure whether to sit or kneel the past 24 hours. I almost thought I had a case of food poisoning, but since Danielle is fit as a fiddle, that seems unlikely. The only reason I first questioned the flu is that I haven't had a case of it in over 3 years (since before moving to Vegas). But the symptoms fit......nausea, the squirts, joints ache, being warm (possible fever), dehydration. It hasn't been too fun.

I'm going to give work a try tomorrow though. I really can't afford to be missing too many days given how slow its been and how bad tips are these days. If I can muscle through 8 hours tomorrow, I'll have 2 days off to recoup. Wish me luck.

Oh, and to Jenn in Michigan who reads this blog every once in a while, sorry. I was supposed to meet with her and her husband tomorrow night after my 7-day stretch in the casino, but that's not going to happen. Sorry!

Summertime - Love Sculpture Version

Discovery of this song included:
1. Receiving cordless headphones from Danielle for Christmas
2. Needing something to listen to while fixing dinner
3. Turning to channel 840 (music channel) on Direct TV. It's the "8-track" channel.
4. Hearing a different song by Love Sculpture, who I had never heard before.
5. Going to youtube and doing a Love Sculpture search. The End.

Vegas Myths and Facts: Dealer's Perspective

Just a few misconceptions that I see on a daily basis while dealing. I posted this over at T2V and thought I'd put it here as well.

Myth: You're always being watched by surveillance.

Fact: This is impossible. It is true that you're always being recorded, but very rarely are you constantly being watched by a person upstairs unless you're betting very big or are giving them a reason to keep an eye on you. If you're playing the minimum on a $5 blackjack table, you are NOT being watched!!

Myth: After checking for blackjack, the dealer now knows the hole card.

Fact: If its not blackjack, the dealer has no idea what card is under there. The only exception to this is at casinos that have tables without those little mirrors so the dealer has to manually check the hole card. Otherwise, if using a mirror and it is NOT blackjack, we only see a white, blank space. This is evidenced by looking at the ten-value cards and aces. Look how close the printing on those cards gets to the side of the card itself. Now look at a 5. See how far away all printing is from the side of the card?

Myth: Dealers are experts at the games they deal.

Fact: Some dealers are complete idiots!! I know plenty of dealers that, when asked the basic strategy on a certain play, will just guess at the answer. I don't even have the basic strategy memorized. The difference between me and some other dealers is that I'll admit when I don't know the answer. Also, just because a dealer deals most games in a casino doesn't mean the dealer started with expert knowledge of those games. Dealers will come in knowing a couple core games and will then slowly learn the other games at their own pace. So a dealer who has dealt blackjack and craps for a number of years might still be brand new on roulette.

Myth: The dealer always wants you to win.

Fact: Not always......not even close. If you're a stiff (non-tipper), we definitely don't want you to win. If you are a chain-smoker, drunk douchebag, know-it-all table captain or all of the above, we don't want you to win. If you are a friendly player that will make my day better as I'm trying to make your day better, and a player who knows how to reward good service, then by all means sit down and play. We're happy to see you win!!

Myth: A dealer standing at a dead table is bored.

Fact: NOPE.....at least not entirely. In my case, I am usually in my little happy place while standing dead. This also goes back to the previous myth. Remember, even at the fancy places like Bellagio, dealers make minimum wage plus tips. So if I'm standing at a dead blackjack table watching a TV or people-watching, I'm getting paid EXACTLY THE SAME as dealing to a completely jammed-up $5 blackjack table with nothing but stiffs. Which scenario would you choose? Unfortunately, those guys (they're almost always men) who approach your dead table and say something like, "Wow, you look bored, better give you something to do" will immediately trigger my douchebag radar! These types are almost always stiffs.

Myth: Every casino dealer in Vegas makes 60+ grand a year.

Fact: NO! Believe it or not, there are many players who actually think this is true....I kid you not! The only dealers who consistently make that kind of money are those dealers at high-end places like Wynn, Bellagio, Aria, etc. ALSO, that only pertains to dealers at those places who are full-time. So as you walk through Bellagio, don't assume that each dealer you see makes 70 grand. Most of them are part-timers with zero benefits who've been on the on-call list for 2+ years waiting for a full-time spot to open. This is also true at the lower-end joints where the part-timers are making that much less.

Myth: Since dealers choose to work in casinos, they obviously don't mind smoke.

Fact: The huge majority of dealers hate cigarette/cigar smoke. In fact, the longer I work as a dealer, the more I hate the smoke. I thought I'd get used to it after a while, but that hasn't happened yet. I've heard people mention that since dealers choose to work in this environment, they have no right to complain about smoke. I always respond to that by mentioning that EVERY person reading this or playing at my table has SOMETHING they don't like about their job. I don't think I'm out-of-line in this reasoning. When I accepted the job at the university back in 2001, I knew there were certain aspects that I wasn't crazy about, but I accepted it anyway. Five years later when I resigned, I missed some things about the job, but certainly didn't miss some other BS. The same will hold true when I eventually get out of the gaming business, with smoke being right on top of the list.

Oh, by the way, its my firm belief from several years of dealing experience that overall, smokers are much bigger stiffs than non-smokers!

Myth: Dealers/Floor Sups have total mind control over cocktail waitresses.

Fact: Very rarely. If you're betting $100+ per hand, we might be able to do something for you. If you are tipping the waitress handsomely, she will probably take care of you on her own. If you are playing the minimum on a $5 blackjack table and tipping a buck (or nothing) when you do see her, don't be surprised if she makes herself scarce.

Here's the facts from my casino, which I'm assuming is standard in Vegas. The tables games dealers/supervisors and the cocktail waitresses report to completely different departments (usually Food and Beverage for the waitresses). Also, the waitresses are union employees. These two facts add up to "there's not a god-damned thing we can do to make the waitresses get here any faster!!!" I think I've mentioned here before that when a floor supervisor says he'll call to get the waitress over, many times he's just talking into the phone to nobody. So when the waitress does show up, it actually looks like he did something.

Just some thoughts on a lazy Monday afternoon. I have today and tomorrow off, with little to no discretionary spending money. :-( I'll be working 7 days in a row beginning Wednesday, which cuts right through July 4th weekend. It should be a good few days during this slow summer, but we'll probably work hard for every dollar while missing out on the festivities.

Countdown to September 2nd

This is what I just set as my compter desktop background. I'm hoping it will help pass the time between now and the opening kickoffs for college football. Now that the NHL playoffs are over and the summer doldrums are upon us, its really hard to get a sports fix. I try to follow baseball, but it doesn't do a whole lot for me. I used to be a super NASCAR geek, but I only watch about one out of every four races these days. The summer just kind of sucks all the way around. 110 degree days, not much break from the unending desert heat, no real sports action and nothing much to do aside from hiking. A visit from my parents in August will help. They'll be here for 10 days including a two-day side trip to the Grand Canyon, which my dad has never been to. Money will be pretty tight for the next couple of months as well, so I really can't justify doing a one-night vacation downtown like I like to do every once a while and its really hard to get together with the guys these days with everyone being on different shift schedules. So let the hot summer months begin, and hopefully end sooner than expected. The Buckeye road trip is the first week of October......any chance of snow that week???

Fuck Soccer

That's pretty much all I have to say. Every four years I have to put up with this shit! This time around is 100x worse due to every damn dealer in the joint going ape-shit over this idiotic "sport"! Thank the sporting gods that the Stanley Cup was won in game 6, because there would have been an all-out battle between every other dealer in the casino and myself (with three other dealers who are hockey fans) fighting over the one TV in the breakroom Friday.

Andrew Ladd of the Chicago Blackhawks played in the Stanley Cup finals with a broken shoulder and torn ligaments. Meanwhile, every soccer player that slightly sprains his ankle goes down like he's shot and they have to cart his sorry ass off the field in a stretcher.

Fuck Soccer!

Three out of the first four games on the opening day of the World Cup were ties! Ties!!! This is supposed to be the most elite tournament for the sport, and you're allowing ties!! Play the damn game until someone wins!

Fuck Soccer!

I tried to watch whatever game was on in the breakroom yesterday and only made it about 5 minutes in before having to flee in disgust. It wasn't just the lousy product on the field, apparently the stadium was being invaded by locusts or something because there was this constant noise, a neverending drone, that I guess is supposed to turn-off anyone even remotely interested in the game.

Fuck Soccer Locusts!

I was finally able to watch some Sportscenter at the tail end of one of my breaks today hoping to get up-to-date on what's happening in the college football conference situations. NOPE, more fucking soccer highlights and commentary!

Okay, rant over. Sorry for the language. Please return to your normal internet viewing schedule. Expect another similar rant in approximately four years.

Can't take the heat!

Desperate times call for desperate measures. On Monday I ordered an item online that I didn't think I'd ever buy. As you can see from the picture, its a very weird-ass looking tie thingy that you velcro around your neck after soaking it in water. I guess its got some crazy material in there that acts with the water and keeps it hydrated for a few hours while slowly evaporating the water and cooling down the person wearing it. I got it (I actually bought two) in the mail today, got it wet, and it does seem to keep the water for a pretty long time.

The advertisement from the company selling it states that its "low profile and perfect to wear under uniforms", so I figured it would be perfect. However, I'm thinking that the "uniforms" it was referring to were maybe construction worker uniforms, etc. It seems just a tad too bulky to get under my t-shirt and what's basically a golf-shirt type uniform that I wear to the casino.

I HAD to try something though. This past week has seen temperatures around 110 degrees every damn day and the casino is basically a sauna! The retards who run the place absolutely refuse to close the freakin' doors and the air handling system is old to begin with. It just can't keep up with the heat, and as a matter of fact, actually BLOWS HOT AIR about 1/3 of the time making it AT LEAST as hot as the actual temperature outside. I honestly have no freakin' idea why any tourist would actually play in those conditions. Yet, everyday, they do for some unknown reason.

The daytime high tomorrow is supposed to be 98, so I'm definitely going to give this thing a try. I really don't care how utterly ridiculous it might make me look. When its this hot, work is NOT a way to get tips or earn a wage. Work is merely 8 hours of tolerance before escaping back to the lukewarm, yet cooler condo!

Zion

Feel free to check out some of my Zion pics at my facebook album. The link is:

Zion Pics

Unlike other times when I've posted individual hike reports with pictures and whatnot, I'll just let everyone go to the facebook link and enjoy the pics. It's just taking me WAY too much time to get those pictures uploaded, onto facebook, T2V posting, etc. Since we hiked a total of 6 trails during our 3 days up there, I don't think I have the patience to post an individual blog posting for each and every trail we did. Sorry.

Here's just a few pics to wet your whistle and hopefully encourage you to hit the facebook link above.

Blown a Gasket

Okay, so my day today on Thursday isn't what I expected. My plan was to get the car to the shop at 7am so it could be done in time to drive to the ear doctor by 10:30am. The "low coolant" light flashed the other day and I discovered that my coolant was running low (and was dirty). So I took it in today to have the battery replaced and to get a coolant flush. Well, much to my dismay, when I went to pick it up at 10am, I found out I had a blown head gasket! Ugh!!!!

So a service guy drove me to the doctor and I immediately decided to call in sick to work on my way to the doctor. I still think I might have been able to get shuttled to work and only miss about an hour, but I was in no mood to go to work anyway!

I'm actually in a decent mood though all things considered. The doctored cleared a TON of wax out of both of my ears and they feel like they're brand new at this point. I had NO IDEA AT ALL how bad it was. Honestly, the sound of the keyboard keys being typed sound different, the cell phone ring scared the crap out of me earlier because it was so loud, even the sound of my own voice sounds way different! It makes me wonder just how long this has been going on. It couldn't have been a matter of months, but years!

So even though I'm out a bunch of money for the car repair, we're still planning on heading up to Mesquite tonight after Danielle gets home from work. Wish us luck.

Burnt

The title says it all. If my mind hasn't turned to complete mush, I believe the past 4 weeks have been 6-day work weeks, which means I've had 4 days off in the past month!

Here's a couple signs that I know I've been burned out for a while. First, I've been very hesitant to pick up extra shifts. I don't really know why its so hard for me to turn down shifts, but I think ever since I was abused at Sunset Station for 9 months while only getting 2 or 3 shifts a week, turning down ANY shift now seems like craziness! Last week I voluntarily worked an extra day ONLY because the time of the shift was acceptable AND it was a shift at the better sister property to my casino.

The other two signs of burn-out are that I'm no longer really excited to go in on dice days AND I'm completely sick and tired of explaining how to play craps to newby players. Honestly folks, why do brand new players insist on coming to me every single day (is it because I'm the only one who looks like English is my first and only language) and asking how to play the game???? One thing about brand new players is that the overwhelming majority of them are TERRIBLE tippers, so it honestly is NOT worth my time and effort to teach them to the best of my ability if their only intention is to buy-in for a measly $20 to "try out their new activity", ignore most of what I try to teach, lose their buy-in in 5 minutes and leave without any tip at all. After about a dozen of those types of interactions per week, I just don't care if you know the game or not. Play or don't, just don't waste my time! At this point I've given myself a rule-of-thumb: try to help out new players with helping them get proper odds and make proper bets ONCE, but if they chooose to ignore me or are too stupid to use applied learning, I'll become a robot and book whatever bet they want. Gone are the days of reminding every damn player on my side of the table to make their odds bet even on the 5 and 9 to save them a whole 50 cents worth of breakage!

Past the normal rant stuff though, I've also been stressed out this past week due to a medical ailment. It seems for the past 6 months or so, wax has been building up in both of my ears and I've had issues with my ears being clogged, on and off, for a while now. Well, last week I finally decided to try to do something about it and I bought some over-the-counter wax removal medicine. After the third attempt (which was last Thursday night) to use the stuff, it COMPLETELY clogged up my left ear and did not help my right ear in the slightest. So I bit the bullet on Monday and went in to see my regular doctor, who basically looked at my ears for 2 seconds and comfirmed my left ear is completely blocked (about 1/3 of the canal is full of wax). So Thursday I have an appointment with an ear/nose/throat specialist to have both my ears cleaned, hopefully taking car of that impacted wax in my left ear for good!

I can't tell you how maddening it is to suddenly lose most of your hearing while working in a casino. On non-dice days its not so bad because most of your communication is the kind of banter between dealer and player that is not really essential to the job. But on dice days, its EXTREMELY difficult due to needing to communicate with both the players AND the other dealers/box man. Late bets by the players, "call" bets, normal bets like "34 inside" or "27 across", etc. all take on an extra bit of complexity when you can barely make out what they are saying. On Tuesday, I caught myself guessing a lot and pressing people's bets on instinct as opposed to actually hearing them tell me to press. It never really came back to bite me, but it sure will be nice to put this behind me once and for all Thursday.

So the light is finally approaching. By Thursday night, I should be hearing okay and finishing up the last shift in the casino until next Tuesday. Danielle and I are leaving Vegas Thursday night after my shift to go to Mesquite, then on to Zion National Park Friday-Sunday. I took off an extra day next Monday just for good measure. NONE of these days are paid (I asked them to be unpaid as to save up vacation for later in the year), so I guess its a good thing I've worked so much these past couple of months.

I'm thinking the next time I update the blog will be with details about how the hiking went at Zion.

Man on the Silver Mountain

A Rare Update

Just a few updates since I last checked in for anyone still reading. The work schedule has been pretty interesting/crazy lately. So here's what's happening. Apparently a relatively new big wig has decided that as many tables as possible should be open at my joint at all hours of the day. The three biggest impacts this has on my dealing schedule are:

1. It looks like I may be averaging 11 days per pay period for a while. The way it seems they are working things is that the part-time employees (me) are getting 6-day work weeks when the full-timers are working 5, and then its reversed the following week with the full-timers getting 6 and the part-timers getting 5. For good or bad, it seems like the days of me sweating out getting 3 days per week are a distant memory! I think they are still hiring some more dealers to possibly try to bring everyone down to 5-day work weeks (casinos still HATE paying overtime), but I hope they don't hire too many dealers in case this experiment doesn't work out.

2. With all of the extra tables being open, they are now staggering the shift starts during day shift to include shifts that begin at 10am, 11am, 12noon, 1pm and 2pm. Guess who seems to be getting the 2pm-10pm shifts on every damn weekend? Yep, me and a consistent portion of the part-timers. Since the "normal" swing shift dealer comes in at 8pm, I can now claim that I'm 25% swing shift, which I guess gets me into some kind of club! This might sound insane, but the thought has actually crossed my mind a couple times lately of maybe transferring to graveyard. I don't think ANY graveyard dealers are working past 12noon, which means a consistent graveyard shift would be 4am-12noon, which is more like a day shift then the 2pm-10pm "day shift". There is much more down time on graveyard as well, which I don't really think I'd mind at this point. Truthfully though, I don't think I'm really serious about this thought for various reasons.

3. Unfortunately, it seems all of these extra dealers and tables being open isn't bringing in the action that would be hoped for and our tips are going down because of it. The main irritant is that during the week, any blackjack table that sits dead for a little while will automatically become a $5 table, which absolutely sucks. $5 tables are a lot of work for no payoff, except to just put your time in and get out of there 8 hours later. One thing I do have to admit though is that even though the tips are going down, they really aren't plummeting....they're just kind of easing down a little. This means that the extra days I'm getting coupled with the fact that I have less free time to spend $ means my bank account is growing noticeably these past couple of months. In fact, the 2-week paycheck that included the normally slow 2 weeks surrounding tax time actually covered an entire month's of expenses with a couple hundred left over!

Other updates include my plan to go to a couple concerts in the approaching months. I just purchased 2 tickets (Danielle and myself) for the Rush concert that will happen at MGM on August 14th. I'm planning on TWO Roger Waters concerts in the fall, one while in Ohio in Cleveland and the other on black Friday at the MGM. In relation to the huge amount of shifts that are being doled out, I've decided that my policy of trying to keep zero points on my attendance sheet will be going out the window. I've been at my current casino for over two years now and I've only called in "sick" once, which occurred when we were being kicked out of our rental house two summers ago due to foreclosure. So instead of asking for those concert dates off, I've decided that I don't want the casino scheduler to decide if I go or not, and will call in sick on those days if I can't find someone to switch. I know I've earned a little evilness associated with the call-in policy!

At any rate, today is my one day off for the week. Last night/this morning, I didn't go to bed but headed down to the strip to meet up with my old roommate Chris after his shift ended at 3am. We just hung out at Ellis Island playing 5-cent video poker for about 4 hours, catching up and having a few laughs. Oh, we also received probably the worst service by a waitress at the cafe that I've seen in a very very long time! I think our tip was something like 9%, and I really think that was being a little generous in hind site! After the many hours of entertainment, I think I walked out of there about $25 lighter in the wallet, which isn't bad at all. The one bad moment came when we exited the casino at 7:30am and had to deal with that annoying bright orb in the sky on the way home. Damn, I do NOT miss swing shift!

So after what amounted to a 4-hour nap, I'm awake updating the blog and waiting for Danielle to get home. Hopefully she remembered to eat light during the day because we have some plans for All-You-Can-Eat Sushi tonight!!!!!!! Woohooo!!

Roger Waters - The Wall - Live!

Stay tuned for further updates, but it looks like Roger is coming to Vegas on November 26th! Already planning my sick day! It would be too risky asking for the day off since its the day after Thanksgiving. If I'm denied, it would cost me "double points" to call in sick.

Two Ohio dates as well, with the first one being tantalizingly close to my trip home for the Ohio State road trip to Illinois! For a big Pink Floyd fan, this is pretty much as big as it gets!

More information TBA!

What to do on a day off?

Here's how the scheduling at work goes. My work-week starts on Friday and ends on Thursday. A couple days into each week (meaning Saturday), the new schedule for the following week is posted. Therefore, last Saturday I received the schedule for the week starting on Friday the 9th (which is today I guess, but since I haven't gone to bed yet it's still my Thursday night).

Well, I just finished up another 6-day work week and I already know this upcoming week will be 6 days! Here's the thing, Friday (today) is my ONE day off of the work-week. So after my day off, I know I'll be working 6 days in a row ending Thursday, and I have yet to get my schedule for next week yet. Let's say, by some horrific set of circumstances, that I will be scheduled for 6 days next week. Let's also say, by some even more HORRIFIC set of circumstances, those 6 days are the first 6 days of the week (Friday-Wed.) That would mean that it is actually possible that Friday the 9th would be my last day off until Thursday, April 22nd! Pray to the casino gods that it isn't so!

Okay, let's do some deep breathing exercises for a minute. First off, I HAVE to keep reminding myself that this is a good problem to have. The unemployment rate in Clark County is still well above 10%, and here I am complaining about working too much! Second, the chances of that scenario actually playing out are pretty slim. All of these 6-day weeks lately have actually been a 5-day scheduled work-week with one day added on by my shift boss after asking my permission first. The other big plus to these extra days have been that almost all of them were on the dice table, so its not like I've been given up days off to toil on War or Let-It-Ride all shift long.

However, the fact still remains that the above scenario IS technically possible. About 2 weeks ago a little form was made available to all dealers that if you turned in, would recognize you as someone willing to work 6-day weeks. In other words, your actual typed out schedule would have 6 working days. Obviously, I would be insane to fill out such a form. The way its been working is that I'm getting six days by my own decision, not tied-in with the official schedule. I also think that form was meant mainly for swing shift, which sees the heaviest action of the three shifts.

Let's assume the above nightmare scenario does play out though. I have a day off later today after waking up......what to do? It's fun to think about in theory, but I can already tell you it won't be anything spectacular. I've developed a hell of a cough the last couple of days and I've also developed a very nagging discomfort/pain in my right shoulder lately that seems to flair up mainly when I'm dealing to chain-smoking drunk-ass douchebags. This pain almost ALWAYS goes away on days off or when I'm having a good day at work. So yes, you heard me, I officially have an allergy to chain-smoking drunk-ass douchebags that manifests itself acutely in my damn right shoulder! My point is that with some physical maladies afoot, I will be sleeping in as long as I can stand it in the morning, which might mean until well after 12noon.

The second thing on my to-do list for my day off is S-U-S-H-I. I cannot wait until Danielle and I go out to dinner tomorrow night to our favorite sushi restaurant down the street! It's been forever since I've been able to cook Danielle dinner, which was the original plan for tomorrow night. But with my one day off of the week (and maybe for 12 f*****g days), I would like to be the one being served, not the other way around.

This posting actually took a crazy turn since I started writing. My original idea was to list all of the normal things I like doing on my days off in Vegas, maybe writing some reviews of my favorite eateries, provide links to my favorite spots, etc. Oh well, I guess I can just list them quickly and perhaps revisit them at a later date (April 22nd for example).

Stuff to do on a day off in Vegas (other than laundry and grocery shopping):
-New York Pizza and Pasta
-Amore's Taste of Chicago Pizza
-The Sushi Factory East - Henderson
-Tropicana $1.50 movie theater
-Pinball Museum and Hall of Fame
-Full pay 5cent Video Poker at Arizona Charlies (haven't done that in a while)
-One-night vacation downtown Fremont Street (seems like a twice a year thing)
-Hiking

Hiking is a great way to spend a day off. Unfortunately, its almost impossible to spend ONE day off hiking. With only one day off a week, I still have to make sure the normal stuff gets done like laundry, bills, shopping, etc. So an all-day activity like hiking seems out of the question right now. Plus, hiking is best saved for those weeks when I have two days off in a row, since I can hike the first day and recover the second. Two days off in a row seems like a completely crazy concept right now! I really do need to get at least a couple hikes under my belt before Zion in May though, since the hikes we plan on taking up there will probably kick my sorry ass.

Okay, this has been a pretty long post. I guess it better be though, there's a chance I might not check back in for TWO WEEKS! Wish me luck!

Edited to add: Just got my schedule on Saturday and I am working the first five days next week. Next day off is 10 days from now. Ugh.

Party is officially over!

Remember two posts ago when I claimed to bring home the largest paycheck in my life. I still believe that's true (just got deposited last Thursday). Unfortunately, the party's over. I AM working another 6-day week this week, but that's only because one of the main dice dealers at work got suspended last week and they needed me to fill in some extra dice shifts. That part about tips being over $100 every day sure was great, but we EARNED EVERY PENNY, and now burn-out has set in. This past week we've only seen tips in the $70 range, even though the place is still almost as busy as in week's past. Last Friday was only $78, one of the worst Friday's I've ever seen at my current joint, and with tax time rolling in, it may get even worse!

So at this point I'm just counting the days until my 4-day weekend with Danielle (starting a mind boggling 6 weeks from now on May 21st) and our long weekend trip to Zion. Until then, I guess I just need to motivate myself to make the donuts every day!

Floyd meets Tap

I ran into this amazing gem on youtube today and had to share! From what I can gather, its a performance of Spinal Tap from the early '90s. I think there's a total of THREE bass players in the band, and if you look closely, David Gilmour is one of them!!! In fact, he actually has a bass solo at 1:50!!

A blur

I've just gotten through working 16 out of the last 18 days. I'm pretty much in a haze and the days just seem to run into each other at this point. Many times in the last couple weeks I've had to look at my watch.....not to see what time it was, just to figure out the day and date!

I'm scheduled to be off and Saturday and Sunday, but there's always that ever present possibility that they could call me in Saturday morning (I think Sunday is pretty safe).

On a very good note, I may be receiving my biggest paycheck in my life. I mean that literally! I've worked 6-day work-weeks the last two weeks. So a whole 16 hours of my base paycheck will be time and a half. However, the biggest news is that out of those 16 days, a whole 15 of them saw tips in the $100+ range, with St. Patrick's day being the biggest by far!

If they call me in for Saturday, I guess I'll go in. I'm going to head to bed in a little while just in case the call does come. However, I'm secretly hoping it doesn't. I really do need a couple days in a row to chill out and recharge!

One great thing about working so much, it prevents me from spending money! The only real money I've used to stimulate the economy in the past two weeks was a night out last Friday night when a couple of friends were in town from Columbus. $50 was spent gambling at El Cortez and buying drinks at Main Street Station. So with a HUGE paycheck coming up next Thursday and not much on the credit cards this statement, I will be treating Danielle and myself to some sushi and Sunday. We're also planning on doing the $1.50 theater on Saturday and maybe follow that up with some pinball! Not exactly breaking the bank there either!

and the Madness begins!

The Madness

If you are still checking into this blog every once in a while, God bless you! I haven't had much of anything to write about lately, and haven't done any entries since the Olympics for crying out loud!

Here's the deal at work in the casino. The first part of this year was barren, both in money and shifts. It took until the last week of February to get a 5-day work-week, and I think there have been more 3-day weeks than 4-day weeks. Tips have pretty much been terrible the first 6 weeks of the year.

Enter the madness.

Last week began the college Spring Break season. Now college spring breakers are NOT known for their bountiful tips. However, many people ask me how we make money this time of year. The answer is simple: volume!

The national rodeo in December, NASCAR weekend, and college spring break are all the same. As a group, they just don't tip. But what little amount of tips we can grind out from all of them, they add up just by pure volume! The drawback, of course, is that we work our asses off for every dollar we make! And day shift isn't even immune. Usually, the drunk-ass-doucebags don't really present themselves until only an hour or two before we leave, leaving swing shift to clean up the mess and drop the majority of the tokes! But this time of the year we see spring break clash with St. Patrick's Day which coincides with March Madness. Talk about a perfect storm!

The tokes this past week or two have been incredible. Normally, we can expect about $60-$70 in tips during the middle of the week. An $85 Wednesday is considered a windfall! Yesterday (Wednesday the 10th) we made $104! We were in the $90s the two previous days and I made $146 on Sunday to get my week started right! For the first time EVER at my current casino, I am coming extremely close to accumulating $1000 in tips alone for the 2-week pay period. Chump change to the Bellagios and Wynns of the world, but pure gold to us!

If you recall, I was forced to swing shift at this time last year and toiled away on the foresaken shift for about 2 months. Not so this year! I'm still solidly on day shift, and I just finished off a 5-day week. Guess what, tomorrow starts the next work-week and I'm on the schedule for SIX days! Casinos HATE HATE HATE paying overtime, but they're trying to open as many tables as possible these days, and the struggling part-timers are having a feeding frenzy on all of these open shifts! We all know that we need to make as much money as possible during March and April. Once June gets here, the shifts dry up and its back to 3-day weeks!

Danielle predicted burnout, and I tend to agree. Right now I'm in the middle of working 11 out of 12 days, and that streak will probably go further depending on next week's schedule (comes out Saturday). I'm assuming I'll be working throughout the first two rounds of the basketball tournament, which means I'll be working, at least, 14 out of 15 days! The T2V Message Board buffoonery is probably completely out of the question, unless they all show up at my table next week!

And to top it all off, I've come down with a case of the casino funk again, just like during this time last year. Casino funk is basically a cold, but it just NEVER goes away! I can almost expect to suffer from it for the next month or so, on and off. Most dealers know exactly what I'm talking about. It's not the kind of cold that kicks your ass and causes you to miss work. But I just always have a nagging scratchy throat, sinus issues, muscle aches, etc. When you're working almost every single day and exposing yourself to unkempt douchebags and their nasty smoke, its very hard to completely recover from a case of casino funk.

So wish me luck these next few weeks. Danielle and I are trying to plan a four-day weekend away from the madness in mid-May. Our plan is to go up to Zion National Park in Utah and do some hiking.

Perfect Commercial?

I noticed that AT&T commercial during the Olympics about a week ago and it kind of blows me away. It's one of the better commercials I've seen in a very long time. Actually, I remember the last television commercial that really got to me before this one. It was the NHL Stanley Cup commercial last year during the hockey playoffs:



So here's the brilliant AT&T commercial just in case you haven't seen it:


I had only heard about Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" a little over a year ago, but had completely forgotten about it until I saw the commercial. It's a terrific song, yet I had remembered reading on wiki that the lyrics to the song were basically about his heroin addiction, which seems a little odd that it would be integrated into an Olympics commercial. Nevertheless, most people are unaware of the meaning to the lyrics and I'm glad a whole bunch of people are now introduced to, or reminded of, this great song. Here it is in full:

BBBQ

Just thought I'd let everyone know what I made for dinner on Friday night. Ribs courtesy of the crock pot, cole slaw, baked beans and cornbread muffins. Good stuff! Enjoy looking at it!!!

Celestial

Just spacing out for a few minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYRwpG0ZYR4

The Routine

Anything worth updating from the Vegas scene these days would be done in rant-form. Things aren't too bad at the moment, but there certainly hasn't been anything worth keeping everyone informed of for quite some time! I'm still getting 3-4 days a week at the casino, I watch the favorite shows every night after work, I check my email and do the internet routine every day, and I have been playing some full-pay video poker a little bit here and there with subpar results.

I made it back to the $1.50 movie theater again last night to re-watch Fantastic Mr. Fox. It was a very good movie the first time we saw it, and was entertaining enough for $1.50 the second time through.

Before going to the movie, I decided to make a trek out to Boulder Highway and check out Arizona Charlie's Boulder Casino. If you remember WAY back, I think I put up a list of all of the "major" casinos that I have not yet visited here in Vegas. AZ Charlie's Boulder was one of them. The reason I made the trip out there is that they have a bank of 5-cent video poker machines that are Jacks-or-Better at a full-pay 9/6 payout. In reality it's only about 99.54% payout, but with any comps that come back to you, it's basically playing an even money gamble just as long as you play perfect strategy (which is what my cheat sheet is for). AZ Charlies is pretty much what I expected it to be. It's not a bad place to visit, but I wouldn't want to work there! There's the normal Boulder Highway riff-raff lurking around, some really decent food specials in the cafe, and 24 BINGO! Yep, if you get that itch to play bingo at 4am, you know where to go!

However, it certainly didn't feel like I was playing an even money game while there. The video poker was BRUTAL last night. I did play for a number of hours, but I managed to drop $80 while playing maximum credit at the nickel level, meaning I was betting a measly 25 cents each "spin", and STILL managed to lose $80. Not fun!! I'm not swearing off video poker just yet, but it better start showing its "full-pay" reputation or I just might resort to gambling in the $1 "back alley" craps at 3am near the back service door of the Western Casino downtown!

Oh, just in case you want to know my DVR and TV watching habits, I currently have the following shows set to record on the DVR every time they air:

-Lost
-Pawn Stars
-Suze Orman
-Star Trek Next Generation
-Star Trek Voyager (currently not being broadcast by any of the 300 DirectTV channels)
-MASH
-The Office
-Family Guy
-How the Earth Was Made (a cool series, I think on the History Channel)

I guess one more update that I can give is that my cell phone has magically accepted the memory card again. I thought the port where the card fits in was broken, but I guess it wasn't since it works now. The jury is still out on if the camera part of the phone is still up to snuff, but I'll take some more photos of a hike I'll be taking on Wednesday (going to do the Liberty Bell one again with some work friends) and see if the camera is good to go. If not, then I'll revisit the thought of buying a new one. If so, I'm going to milk this old Samsung until it completely falls apart!

Happy Tuesday everyone.

College Football Cheer

Clicks and Whistles

It's all just clicks and whistles to me!

The Man Who Sold the World

It's a great song. Enjoy!

The Key to the Game

Richard Alpert is an android on the ABC show "Lost".

Final Season Of 'Lost' Promises To Make Fans More Annoying Than Ever

Doldrums

Since its been nine days since my last post, I thought I'd get on here and start talking about something......ANYTHING! The problem is that nothing much is happening. January is a very slow month at the casino and it doesn't really start picking up until March Madness arrives. I've only gotten 3 days at work the first two weeks of the new year and the only reason I have 4 on the schedule next week is due to MLK day weekend.

I was thinking about taking another one-night vacation downtown but thought better of it. Even though its a fairly cheap way to get away for a night (not to mention the delicious micro-brews at Main Street Station), it'll still cost some money, especially if I plan on doing some gaming activities. The one thing I hate about this time of the year is that all of the Christmas bills, my life insurance annual bill and my semi-annual car insurance bill all come at the same damn time. I pay off the 6-month car insurance coverage at once because it saves me about $50 overall. To make matters worse, I can expect to shell out another $200 or so to re-register my car and get the smog check done again. For those of you who don't know, Nevada does not have state income tax, but it seems they get it all back when you have to register your car. The price is outrageous compared to Ohio and and other states.

So late December through January is pretty much the only time of the year when I spend more money than I make, which I hate but know I can't do much about. The result is that I've been getting more days off lately but can't really justify doing anything fun with them due to the lack of income. Thus.....no real exciting posts on here. And of course the irony is that when I'm pulling in some pretty good paychecks in March and April, I won't have any time or energy to do anything with them!

Speaking of no time and energy, Chris (my former roommate and the guy I moved out here with) got a sweet new job at City Center as a full-time floor supervisor. At first I wasn't sure it would be a good move because most new mega-resorts overhire and lay off a bunch of people on the 89th day (last day of probationary period). However, Chris texted me the other day and told me he has worked 33 out of the first 35 days and that he can't expect to get a normal "weekend" of two days off in a row until mid-April! So I think he's pretty safe. Plus, he is just RAKING IN THE CASH by working all of those hours. I honestly wouldn't want a job at the level that he's found himself at, but I wouldn't mind finding something in-between where I'm at now and where he's at. He texted me again at some point and told me he was watching a table where some guy was playing 50 grand per hand on a blackjack table with THREE hands at a time! So I'm assuming they've got him back in the high limit room, or at that play, maybe some table hidden on a different floor somewhere for the whale! It's almost like they're letting him sink or swim.

Okay, enough rambling. I'll update the blog on any hikes I happen to take, but without a new phone it'll be difficult to get any pics up. Wish me luck on picking out a new one, it's been three years since I last renewed a contract.