Flying Winnebago: The blog that goes to yo-eleven!

Most Likely My Last Post

2011-02-17T01:33:00.000-08:00

Unless I have a change of heart, this may be my last post on the blog......as least for a while. For anyone still reading this blog, its obvious that it has taken a nosedive down my ladder of priorities in the past year or so. My main motivation for the longest time with the blog was to update and convey stories to both my buddies back home as well as anyone interested on the Travel 2 Vegas message board. However, I now post most of my would-be blog topics directly on the message board itself and as for my buddies back home, that's what facebook is now used for.

The blog never had a real direction. I just used it for random thoughts about whats going on for the most part. If I ever do resuscitate the blog in the future, I will try to pinpoint a definite direction for it and try to put some quality time into it on a regular basis....two things I'm unwilling to do at this time.

For the time being, I'll still keep the blog up and running just in case anyone happens to want to read some archived posts or for anyone still getting here due to a google search.

For old time's sake, here are a few links to some of my favorite posts in the past:

The story of my trek out to Vegas with Chris

Pictures of the Trek

A story of a couple road trips that involved a bigger than average burger!

A favorite post of my T2Vers......about my favorite casino game

The most difficult hike that I've accomplished so far

Most Nerdy Video EVER!!!

2011-01-31T05:09:00.000-08:00

I've always thought the Leeroy Jenkins internet viral video was probably the most nerdy thing I've ever seen. This one takes the cake though!

Random Updates

2011-01-24T02:25:00.000-08:00

1. Just saw True Grit at the Green Valley movie theater the other day. Excellent movie!!! If you haven't seen it yet, don't be turned off on the fact that its a remake. The Coen brothers rarely disappoint!

2. I finally made full-time status at work this week. It only took me 2 years and 9 months from the first date of my orientation! The big positive is that it appears that I'm staying on day shift. I would have bet the farm that they'd move me to swing shift for at least a few months or so.

The other positives is that I will have a consistent weekend every week so that I can actually plan my life more than a week in advance. Also, I will be picking up the company's health insurance. I don't think its the best in the world, but its gotta be better than the independent catastrophic insurance I'm paying for now. I do know it includes vision and dental. So hopefully I'll be visiting the dentist for the first time in 2.5 years soon and the eye doctor for the first time in FIVE years!

3. Because I know I'll have Wednesdays and Thursdays off now, I'm planning another one-night staycation downtown Vegas for next Wednesday night. It's something I do about twice a year and have a blast each time. Sometimes its a solo trip (Danielle has to work the next morning) but sometimes I get some buddies to join me. At any rate, a visit to the brewpub at Main Street Station is definitely in the cards next Wednesday night!

4. Going back to the full-time deal, its not really as awesome news as you might think. As a part-timer, I think I worked less than 40 hours maybe four total weeks last year. So the amount of hours won't really be different. However, my base pay drops down to the true minimum wage as opposed to the slightly increased part-time minimum wage. The company pays part-timers a little more per hour to "help make up for the lack of insurance"......or so they claim.

Anyway, I'll be paying less for health insurance now but will be making less per hour. I guess I also can't look past the job security aspect as well. There are SO MANY part-time dealers at my place that they'd have to layoff a HUGE amount of dealers to get close to me.

5. Pittsbugh's goin' to the Super Bowl!!!!

I hope they can get Pouncey back for the game though. Legursky didn't look too bad and I'm sure they can hammer out those snap issues during the next two weeks, but I think Pouncey is a much better run blocker. I noticed Legursky completely whiffed on a couple of blocks about 5 yards downfield. Apparently he has the athletisism to get down there quick enough, but not enough to get a good block on the inside linebackers.

I still don't think Troy was playing full tilt either. Hopefully, he'll get over what ails him. I'm not accostumed to the Steelers being the underdog in the Super Bowl, but I can completely see why they are. Looking back at the season though, it is so sweet that they have another chance in the big game when everybody pretty much counted them out before the season even started!!

6. Today, while I was floor supervisor, I saw the biggest tippers I've ever seen at a craps table at my casino! They had the dealers up for $5 on the passline with at least double odds EVERY ROLL! They bought in for about 2 grand between the three of them and played for over 4 hours. Every single time a point was hit, the dealers dropped AT LEAST $50. When it was all over, they all lost their buy-ins. However, the casino still lost money when accounting for the huge amount of green chips in the toke box. I can safely say there was at least $2500-$3000 in that box at the end of my shift! Unfortunately, since I was on the floor, I will see NONE of it. It was still great fun watching my fellow dealers drop that cash though. That's a once in a year type of situation!

News From Vegas

2010-12-22T02:04:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-09T01:55:00.000-08:00

A friend pointed out this funny news blooper today.

At least 6 months....

2010-12-03T03:28:00.000-08:00

...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

2010-11-23T05:59:00.001-08:00

Discovered another good song. Enjoy.

Zion Pictures

2010-11-02T02:27:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-31T00:11:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-10-26T17:29:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-25T01:12:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-10-05T10:28:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-19T02:37:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-15T00:59:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-05T04:35:00.001-07:00

Bryce Canyon

2010-08-30T13:26:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-22T21:55:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-16T03:02:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-07-26T01:51:00.000-07:00

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

Scrambled Eggs

2010-07-23T02:20:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-20T04:17:00.000-07:00

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????

2010-07-19T04:21:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-11T22:56:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-09T00:57:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-05T23:29:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-29T00:57:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-22T03:54:00.001-07:00

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

2010-06-14T02:19:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-06-10T02:32:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-04T00:08:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-20T15:51:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-19T04:51:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-17T01:04:00.000-07:00

A Rare Update

2010-05-03T16:08:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-04-12T01:00:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-04-09T02:34:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-04-06T02:11:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-05T15:24:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-27T03:16:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-03-13T02:00:00.001-08:00

The Madness

2010-03-11T22:21:00.000-08:00

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?

2010-02-23T03:28:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-19T20:38:00.001-08:00

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

2010-02-16T05:16:00.000-08:00

Just spacing out for a few minutes.

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

The Routine

2010-02-09T03:12:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-29T23:14:00.001-08:00

Clicks and Whistles

2010-01-20T14:30:00.001-08:00

It's all just clicks and whistles to me!

The Man Who Sold the World

2010-01-20T00:55:00.000-08:00

It's a great song. Enjoy!

The Key to the Game

2010-01-19T01:34:00.000-08:00

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

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

Doldrums

2010-01-15T13:50:00.000-08:00

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.

Big Ten is Back!

2010-01-06T03:47:00.000-08:00

Okay, so what else did I do on Tuesday night? After posting the entry below, I wandered into the living room to watch the Orange Bowl on the DVR, having successfully avoided seeing the result all night at the casino and elsewhere!

WOW! I won't make any crazy statements that overestimate the Big Ten's performance in the bowls this year, but I will say with 100% certainty that the Big Ten is back and competitive with any other conference out there! The three losses suffered by the Big Ten this year were definitely overshadowed by the four wins. Wisconsin looked very good against Miami, but the ACC was down this year, so there was still a lot to be seen. Minnesota was disappointing in their one point loss, but Northwestern pretty much shocked the nation in their 3 pt. (or one yard) loss to the SEC's Auburn. Penn State took care of LSU, who many argued should have been in a BCS bowl if not for the rules of not allowing more than two in. Of course the Buckeyes were extremely impressive against the best the PAC-10 had to offer (did I see the stats right....41 minutes of time possession???). And then the Hawkeyes, who finished SECOND in the Big Ten and needed to get in at-large controlled Georgia Tech Tuesday, only allowing 7 offensive points for the game! The only bad loss was Michigan State, who had suspended half their damn team.

For some reason though, I keep thinking back to the Northwestern game. Remember, we're talking about the perenial doormat of the conference all of the "experts" keep saying is the weakest in the country. Say is again....Northwestern almost beat the SEC's Auburn!!! It's kind of surreal, isn't it?

At any rate, it almost seemed like the Big Ten entered the bowl season this year on a mission. Only the SEC can possibly boast of two BCS wins this year if Alabama pulls off the championship. As of tonight, I'm very proud of the hard-nosed play by the midwesterners this year and expect it to show in the preseason polls for next year!

A couple other observations from the bowls. First, I'm not too happy with whoever decided that Boise St. and TCU should play each other in the Fiesta Bowl. It's almost as if the BCS committees were tired of seeing 2nd-tier conference teams beat up on the big boys every year. So they made sure it wouldn't happen again this year by pitting them against each other. The Fiesta Bowl WAS a terrific game, but I would have preferred to see something like a Boise St./Florida Sugar Bowl and a TCU/Iowa or Cincy Orange Bowl....something along those lines. Oh well, I'm just glad I got to see so many of them this year.

Mother Earth's Green Skin

2010-01-06T00:16:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, I spent some time playing video poker at South Point and then watched a $1.00 movie at Regency Theaters on the corner of Trop and Pecos. Danielle declined these activities since the casino environment isn't up her ally and the movie started at her bedtime.

South Point is still proving to me that it may be one of the only casinos in town that is still doing things right! They sent out a general mailer (not addressed to me, just to resident) that included coupons like the $15 free slot play that I used, 2-for-1 buffet, free pop and popcorn at the theater, etc. So I headed over there to use the free play and turned their $15 in free play (plus my $1 to activate it) into a cash out of $41! Total investment on my part = $1 while cash out = $40.....with $2 going to the drink lady.

At around 9pm, I headed out of South Point to get over to the cheapo theater for some viewing entertainment. $1 for the movie plus $7.75 for the nachos and Mountain Dew. Normally the movies there cost $1.50, but you can get in for just a buck on Tuesdays. I almost NEVER buy stuff at movie theater concessions, but I always try to get stuff at this place. They obviously don't make their money selling $1.50 movie tickets and I want this place to survive! I used to make it a point to actually spend $10 every time I went there since that's what a regular movie ticket goes for at the "real" theaters, but since they reduced their normal movie prices from $3 to $1.50, its actually hard to spend ten bucks now!

As for the movie, well, I got my $1 worth! It wasn't a total miss, but I won't go out of my way to watch it again. It seemed like they created a really great back story and did nothing with it. But then again....$1.

I got a message on my voicemail on the way home from the theater. Chris has worked 26 straight days at City Center and, before his current break, was watching over some guy betting three hands on blackjack at 50 grand per hand. Casinos normally call these guys wales. Maybe I'll start calling them goats.

The total profit for my night comes to $29.25, minus gas.

Just enough time to post one image........

2010-01-02T04:24:00.001-08:00

Time for a new phone?

2009-12-31T03:23:00.000-08:00

A few days ago Danielle and I took the dog on another hike. This time we tried the Arizona Hot Springs hike on the other side of the Hoover Dam in Arizona. This hike is only about a mile or so past the Liberty Bell Arch hike that we took previously, but it is nothing like the Liberty hike. The Arizona Hot Springs hike involves hiking down a long canyon until you reach the Colorado River. We then hiked about 1/2 mile south near the banks of the river looking for the hot springs, which were very elusive. Other hikers were down there as well and nobody could really find the springs. It turns out that a ladder that the park service puts there to get to the springs was not there (I guess it is being fixed), so nobody could bask in the hot springs goodness.

Unfortunately, the many pictures that I took on my camera phone seem to have a hazy fadeness to them (that's the best description I can come up with). I think the camera component of my cell phone is starting to go. Actually, that aspect is moot due to the fact that I can no longer get the memory card back into the phone itself. I think something broke up in there. Although the camera is only 1.2 megapixels, I really liked how that thing worked these past 3 years. But alas, if I can't use the memory card in it anymore, then it really seems like I have no choice but to get a new phone.

This one has lasted almost three years, so it was a good run. Within the next month or so I think I'll be getting on Verizon's web site and signing up for another two years. That, along with the online discount, should get me a really nice phone with a camera of 3.0 megapixels or better.

Have a happy New Year everyone!

The week off

2009-12-23T12:56:00.000-08:00

I was off from work this past week while my parents were in town. We did a bunch of cool stuff, which I'll highlight here:

1. Spent a night at Danielle's parent's house while she and I cooked dinner for the folks. The menu included a "rainbow salad", french onion soup and braised balsamic chicken breast.

2. Celebrated my mom's birthday, at her request, by having dinner at Fuego Steakhouse in the Fiesta Henderson. I would not say Fuego is the best steakhouse in town, but its definitely above average and is just as good as some other, more expensive, places in town.

3. Danielle and I introduced my parents to "real" sushi at our favorite AYCE sushi place right down the road. Actually, for anyone interested, its called The Sushi Factory on Eastern just south of Horizon Ridge Parkway past the Smith's shopping center. The place is great and serves up some real fresh sushi at a reasonable (AYCE) price.

4. Met Danielle's parents for a good meal at the Mirage buffet and then saw Love, the Cirque show based on Beatles songs. It was a terrific show and I loved the sound system in that place. A weird thing happened during the show. It had to be temporarilty stopped about 3/4 through for a technical issue with a net. I've never seen something like that happen in a Cirque show before. It was impressive how the cast members got immediately back into their groove as soon as they started back up again!

5. I took my parents up to the Mount Charleston area and drove around for a while. It's the first time I've seen the area under snow! The ski slopes were very busy and there were plenty of people with their kids up there building snowmen and sledding. It was a winter wonderland in the desert!

6. We also took a drive out to the Hoover Dam to show my dad the progress with the bridge. I drove into Arizona for a few minutes and parked at the parking area for the Arizona Hot Springs hike, which I'm hoping to take tomorrow (Christmas Eve day). I planned on going today, but laziness and a severe sleep detriment finally caught up with me as I slept for over 9 hours! The hike is anywhere between 4 to 6 hours long. So with it being dark at 4:30pm these days, I'm going to have to get to bed early tonight.

7. Santa brought us gifts during the trip. Danielle and I got a really good knife set, which we've needed since I moved in. I was cutting up the onions for the French onion soup with a steak knife and put a slice into my thumb at one point. Now we have the correct tools! Danielle got an official Ohio State snuggie to wear around the condo (we have yet to turn on the heat this winter) and I got some bottles of hot sauce, a Pepperidge Farms gift box and a pair of Ohio State utility gloves that I can wear while hiking. My sister also sent me a gift certificate to Bed, Bath and Beyond. She did the same last year, which I used to buy a mini-food processor. I'm not sure what this year's purchase will be. How about an onion chopper!?

8. My parents stayed at the South Point, which I would highly recommend. My mom and I played 25cent video poker (full-pay Jacks or Better) for a couple hours on 3 separate nights. She finished about even for the trip and I was exactly $10 on the plus side. With our play, I got a meal in the cafe comped and she got $17 off our final breakfast. I've always felt that South Point does things right, but now I know for sure. The free drinks in the casino are larger than anywhere else I've noticed, the normal room was very spacious, the employee for the most part were friendly and helpful, the booze prizes in the 24 hour gift shop are good, etc.

My vacation is still not over. I recieved notice today that my next day on the job isn't until Sunday, believe it or not! I already knew I'd have at least until tomorrow off, but to find out that I'm not working on Christmas is surprising. I'm almost sad to here that since I know there are plenty of people that would rather be home that day while I really have no plans on Christmas day. Oh well, I won't complain. The vacation will total 13 days in a row, which I think might be the biggest such time span since I started working at my current location!

Quick Joke

2009-12-13T23:30:00.000-08:00

I can't remember if I've ever embeded this on the blog before, so I thought I'd post it for your enjoyment. It's one of the older jokes I've heard being told by one of the best comedians of all-time. The bit at the end is pretty lame, but you can't deny the brilliance that precedes it. Sorry about the commercial at the beginning.

Chicken Wings

2009-12-04T13:15:00.001-08:00

A couple weeks ago I was having lunch at one of my favorite spots in town, Buffalo Wild Wings on Eastern. At the end of the meal, I made an impulse buy of a package of three bottles of BWW wing sauces (I went with Terriyake for Danielle and Medium and Mango Habenero for me). Since then, I've purchased chicken wings from the grocery store and have fixed them twice, with excellent results.

Thoughts:

If you buy 6 "traditional wings" from BWW, I think you pay somewhere around $5. I paid $6.91 for an entire package of wings at the store, which is 17 full wings which means I'm getting 34 "wings" (wingettes + drumettes) for less than $2 more of what I pay for 6 wings at BWW! Even considering I also pay for celery, the sauce and ranch dressing, its still super cheaper to make wings at home.

I've found cutting the wings up to be a pain in the ass. However, the video below that I found on youtube does a quick good job of explaining how to do it. The problem is that we don't have ANY good knives in this condo at all (maybe Santa will help us out with that).

The quality of the wings at BWW and from the grocery store are exactly the same in my opinion.

I've made wings twice and have also poured some medium sauce over things like hot dogs and a regular chicken sandwich and I STILL have some medium sauce left! I haven't even cracked open the mango-habenero yet!

I've noticed that the medium wing sauce becomes LESS spicy once you open it and have to refridgerate it. Therefore, I nuked a small bowl of the medium sauce for about 30 seconds before coating the wings last night, which was a very good move!

I don't own a deep fryer, which is probably the prefered way of cooking the wings up, but Danielle owns a very nice deep frying pan that I've used to pan-fry the wings in olive oil. I've been frying them for about 6-7 minutes on each side or about 13-15 minutes total. I then transfer them to a noodle strainer and let them sit in the sink for a minute or two. From there its into the big bowl where they get introduced to the sauce. Cover the bowl, shake it for about 10 seconds and you've got some awesome wings. With the exception of the pan-fry part, I think that's pretty much how their made at BWW. The one drawback is that I can only fit about half of the wings in the pan at a time. So I've been frying up Danielle's portion first, and she'll be enjoying piping hot wings while I'm still slaving away while making mine up.

I still love BWW and will go there on occasion, but I can't see myself ever ordering their traditional wings again. If anyone can tell me how to mimick their boneless wings at home, let me know. I'm aware that their boneless "wings" aren't part of the wing at all, but without a deep fryer, I doubt if I could come close to them at home.

Lake Mead Recreation Area - Liberty Bell Arch

2009-11-30T11:40:00.000-08:00

Danielle, Sadie dog and I took another hike out in the Lake Mead National Recreational Area on Sunday. This time around we drove over the Hoover Dam into Arizona and took a relatively obscure hike known as the Liberty Bell Arch hike. The reason its my impression that its obscure is due to the fact that its not really an official hike according to the park service (its not included in their brochures), the trail is DEFINITELY not officially maintained (had some rough spots), there is NO trailhead sign or any signs at all of a trail from the highway and we ran into exactly ZERO other people on the trail on a Sunday.

The trail, however, is mentioned extensively on the internet as evidenced by a simple Google or Yahoo search of 'Liberty Arch Trail/Hike'. It's trailhead is also located near a very popular (and official) Lake Mead hike called Arizona Hot Springs. In fact, due to our unfamiliarity of the trail, we accidentally started off on a different Jeep trail at the beginning which lead us over to the Hot Springs trail, only to be told by some hikers over there that we were on the wrong trail. So about 45 minutes of our day was spent getting to know a nice jeep trail between the two.

This trail turned out to be probably the biggest surprise out of any hikes I've done so far. The stats of the trail are that its about a 5 mile out-and-back (2.5 miles each way) and there's only a few hundred feet in elevation change from the beginning to the end. However, as I've already mentioned, the trail itself is NOT a nice and tidy maintained trail. Its only a use-trail and there were several spots where we just had to stop for a few moments and get our bearings to make sure we were still on it. Cairns left by previous hikers also helped out. Another surprise was the total gross elevation change. There might have only been a couple hundred feet in difference from the beginning to the end, but there was way more Up and Down action during the hike that I was not anticipating. Couple that with some minor rock scrambling and you get a moderately strenuous hike! If this same hike had been at 8,000+ feet in Mount Charleston, I would have been sucking some major wind at times.

But the biggest surprise was the scenery on this hike! After thinking for a while, I'd definitely have to put this hike in my top three so far! The desert landscape along with the arch itself, an interesting mining area and the stunning views of Black Canyon and the Colorado River were just awesome! The only reason I even decided on this trail in the first place was the fact that I read that a crucial ladder on the Hot Springs trail was gone for repair. The Hot Springs hike might be our next adventure.

Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures of the hike yesterday. Enjoy.

Believe it or not, you CAN see the arch from this picture taken at the trailhead. You'd have to click on it to blow it up and look very close, but it is there in the middle of the picture (tiny).

Here's some nice scenery taken while we were on the wrong damn trail!

Danielle and the dog are descending the first part of the "correct" trail once we got back to it after 45 minutes of being lost.

There is an old WWII era mining area in the middle of this hike. Danielle and the dog are going off-trail to check things out up there. We'll get a little more mining pictures in on the way back.

This is approaching the Liberty Bell Arch. I'll get a better and closer picture of the arch on the way back when the sun is behind us.

Here are some interesting rocks. I believe this picture was taken past the arch on our way up to the Colorado River overlook (the end of the hike).

This might be my favorite picture of the hike. It's taken just a few steps before reaching the overlook. This picture is looking south with Black Canyon and the river to the right of this picture. This view is what reminds me of a smaller version of the Grand Canyon.

Here's our first look at the river. The scene in the picture above this one is off to the left.

We are now on the overlook looking down at the Colorado River 1,000 feet down. It seems like there's an optical illusion with this picture. Just to be clear, the rocks you see in the foreground on the bottom of the picture is what I'm standing on. Everything past those rocks is a 1,000 foot drop.

Just giving you a view of the cliffs on the other side of the river.

This is still on the overlook looking north. You'd have click on the picture to blow it up, but off in the distance you can see the Hoover Dam bypass bridge, which gives you some perspective of where we actually are in relation to the dam.

We're now turning back and heading back the way we came. That little squiggly line in the middle of the picture is part of our trail. That larger horizontal line way off in the distance is the highway where we are parked.

Here's a much better picture of the arch as we head in the other direction. This is about 2.5 hours before official sunset.

On the way back we doubled around a large hill to the other side of that mining area. Danielle is checking out a mine that goes about 60 feet back with some skylights, so flashlights are not needed. Normally, an abandoned mine would be completely off-limits, but in all of my reading on this hike on the internet, every person that has reported on this hike has also gone in there, so we went in too.

Looking up at a "skylight" within the mine.

For the second hike in a row I find myself walking toward the light!

Lake Mead Recreation Area - Historic Railroad Trail

2009-11-25T11:38:00.000-08:00

Last week Danielle, the dog and I made a trip out to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area for a hike along its old historic railroad trail. This is officially the first hike that I've taken since moving to Vegas that was NOT in the Mount Charleston area. It was a somewhat long, but very easy hike that started at the Lake Mead visitors area and ended on top of the Hoover Dam parking garage (no joke, the trail literally ended on the roof of the dam garage). There wasn't much elevation change to speak of since the huge majority of the trail followed an old railroad bed that was used to supply the dam while it was being built. It also went through five old railroad tunnels that had been blown through the rock. The pamphlet about the hike said that it was a 9 mile hike in total while the trailhead signs said it was a total out-and-back of 7 miles. It felt more like 7 than 9, but we're not sure. Here are some pics:

This is shortly after starting the hike looking back to the parking lot and the visitor's center.

Our first good view of Lake Mead and the marina. This view would dominate the majority of the hike.

We're approaching the first couple of tunnels.

Walking toward the light.

Another tunnel. I think this was the fifth and final tunnel because it seemed to be the longest tunnel and the only one with a curvature within the tunnel. You can't see out the other side from this perspective like you could with the other four.

This was well after the last tunnel approaching the dam.

Electrical stuff that we walked right past as we neared the dam.

Here's the end of the trail as it descends down to the roof of the dam parking garage.

There's the dam.

If you take the dam elevator down you'll find some dam stairs leading to the dam gift shop where you can buy some dam souvenirs.

The Hoover Dam bypass project bridge is coming along nicely. Honestly, that thing is almost as impressive as the dam itself!!

On the way back we took in a sampling of the local wild life.

Just some interesting rock formations along the trail.

Looking up to the Hacienda Hotel/Casino that you would pass if you drove to the dam.

Another view of the lake as the sun began to set and our hike neared completion.

Buckeye - Wisconsin Pics

2009-11-17T22:10:00.000-08:00

I've been negligent in my duties this past month ever since I got back from my trip home to Ohio. With the move into Danielle's condo and working a lot lately, I just haven't had much motivation to get on here very often. So the next few postings were all completed tonight and are basically just to get my phone purged of all of the pics on it. Before I did this, my phone's memory was completely full and I was having trouble even getting new text messages! So please enjoy some pictures from the past couple of months. The pics within this posting are all on gameday for the Ohio State vs. Wisconsin game in Columbus.

This sign was at a gas station on the way to the game! Hilarious!!!! I hope you get the reference(s).

This was the first OSU band Skull Session that I've attending in probably 14 years or so. I think the last time I was at one was when I was a student at OSU. They do some pretty cool stuff like give a performance of the half-time show and do the little ceremony of picking out the sousaphone player who will dot the 'i' later in the day.

I got a hot dog before the game and was pleasantly surprised with my choice of condiments!

I am settling into my seat. It's eight rows up behind the south endzone. I've had some great seats in the past at the Shoe, but this seat ranks right up with the best! As with any seats behind the endzone, the main drawback is trying to figure out how many yards the play has gone for. Sometimes it looks like a run is stuffed when its actually a 6 yard gain.

Pre-game ceremonies.

My view of Script Ohio. This is right before the dotting of the 'i'.

The first score of the game was a pick 6 for Ohio State. He took it to the house right in front of us!

Brutus stops by for a visit.

The final score. This was looking directly behind my seat. I guess that's the only other drawback from my seat since I did not have a good view of the scoreboard.

Jim Tressel leads 100,000 Buckeyes in the singing of Carmen Ohio.

Indiana Road Trip

2009-11-17T21:40:00.000-08:00

Our annual Ohio State road trip took us to Bloomington, Indiana this year for the OSU vs. IU game. As always, a great time was had by all. The road trips that I've participated in so far these past few years have been Illinois, Purdue, Michigan State and now Indiana. For some reason, I always think of Illinois as being the most fun. Maybe its because it was my first trip with the gang. At any rate, I wouldn't hesitate to vote for another Bloomington road trip again. The tailgate area that we picked was only about a 10 minute walk to the stadium and there was PLENTY of tailgating room to be had. Last year we were kind of isolated in the area where we ended up in East Lansing, but this year was a great spot!

Shortly after pulling into the tailgate area. It was pretty sparse at this point. You can see the stadium in the distance.

Setting up shop.

The beginning of the food train. I believe that's some pulled pork that I actually never had a chance to sample. I was getting too full with the stuff in the next couple of pics.

Michelle's famous cake!

Tailgate staples.

Here's that same picture looking toward the stadium a few hours later. It has really filled in at this point.

And here's looking in the opposite direction from the stadium.

Pre-game

This gives you a good feel as to where our seats were.

And here's a good look at the stadium pressbox. Indiana's stadium has been renovated recently and I was super impressed with it! I was actually looking forward to an oversized high school stadium like I've been told Northwestern's looks like. It was anything but!

U2

2009-11-17T21:36:00.001-08:00

Here's just a couple pics from the U2 concert we went to a few weeks ago. The stage structure was absolutely gigantic!!!!!

Hazed and confused

2009-11-17T21:27:00.000-08:00

Below are a couple of pictures that were taken from the roof of the Green Valley Ranch parking garage while the California wildfires were at full strength. It was a pretty miserable couple of weeks while all of the smoke was pouring into the valley.

Mt. Charleston - Stanley B Springs

2009-11-17T21:07:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago, Danielle and I took our last hike to the Mount Charleston area and hiked a fairly easy, yet not well know, trail called the Stanley B Springs trail. The hike starts out at an unmarked trailhead and follows a very well marked trail for about a mile or so until you come to the springs. You then come to a fork in the trail and you have to pick which one to follow. Once you pick one, the trail basically vanishes and you just follow your chosen gully for a while before turning back. I have no idea where each gully eventually goes, but it would seem like a cool exploration if we ever found ourselves there again with nothing else to do for the rest of the day.

As we neared the water, we realized we were not alone. Hopefully you can click on the picture to blow it up and find the deer. He's kind of hard to see, but he eyeballed us for a good 10 minutes before taking off. I'm pretty sure we were keeping him from getting a drink of water.

This is pretty much the point where we didn't have an official trail to follow.

More off-trial excursion. It wasn't too hard with the exception of a couple difficult spots.

This picture is looking directly downward at the ground. The water has cut out an interesting groove in the rocks.

There are supposed to be three abandoned mines as you follow the gully further on. This is the only one that I came to. I read previous to the hike that it is EXTREMELY dangerous to try to go in there. I wouldn't try anyway since it was full of water.

We're Smellin' Roses!!!!!!!!!

2009-11-14T23:19:00.000-08:00

National championship hopes were dashed when the Bucks went down to USC by 3. Any hope of a great season seemed unreachable after they faltered against Purdue.

But what's this?????? OHIO STATE IS GOING BACK TO THE ROSE BOWL!!!

Holy crap!

They still have Michigan to get past next week for an outright Big Ten title, but I am absolutely floored by Ohio State's perseverance these past few weeks. How many teams would have just folded under the pressure after a loss like they took in West Lafeyette? They lose their excellent starting kicker last week and Pryor, who has gotten himself banged up these past couple of weeks, has two games in a row without a turnover!

GOOD JOB BUCKEYES! Way to show all of those douchebags calling for Pryor and Tressel's heads whats up!

BEAT MICHIGAN!

Why can't SNL be like it was??

2009-11-02T13:32:00.001-08:00

The answer is simple

2009-11-02T13:25:00.001-08:00

A little weird

2009-11-02T13:19:00.000-08:00

Movin'on up!

2009-10-27T05:06:00.000-07:00

I've had the best intentions of finally making a big post that would include pictures of the trip back to Ohio, some casino stuff, my thoughts on the Buckeyes, and a whole bunch of other stuff, but between work and other things....I just haven't had the motivation.

Much of the day on Monday was spent getting ready to move again, with Tuesday being the U-haul day. It's 5am as I type this and I have to get up in about 3 hours to meet Danielle and pick up the truck. UGH! I.........HATE..........MOVING!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure I've mentioned this in the blog yet, but a long while ago Danielle and I decided to move in and we've just been waiting for my lease here at the house to run out. The time is up! Chris and my other two roommates are moving over to a different house only a block or so from here and I'm heading back to Henderson. It's actually right across the street from where Mikey and I had our apartment, so I'm obviously very familiar with the area.

Wish me luck with the U-haul and crap! Maybe I'll write something worth reading once I get settled into the new digs.

An Inglourious Closing Credit Sequence

2009-10-20T02:24:00.000-07:00

I'm usually not a fan of sitting through the entire closing credits in a movie theater, but the last major movie I saw in the theater was an exception. The song that played at the end of Inglourious Basterds was stuck in my head the rest of that day and it got back into my head somehow a couple of days ago. Ever since I've been humming it to myself constantly! Here ya go.....enjoy!!

For the Birds

2009-10-20T01:50:00.000-07:00

I really haven't much time the past week since I've worked 7 days in a row and Danielle and I went out for most of the day on Monday, but I do have enough time to embed this great clip from ESPN! I've seen animals get caught up in sports before. There was a well-placed squirrel during an Ohio State game once, a duck in the outfield at an Orioles game, and unfortuately I've seen TV replays of various animals getting obliterated by race cars. But I've never seen one participate at such a level as this pigeon!! It's hilarious!

Exhaustion

2009-10-14T09:50:00.000-07:00

I'd definitely planned on making an update by now with pictures and stories from my trip back to Ohio, but I've just been floored since going back to work on Monday. I felt fine after the flight Sunday night, but ever since then I've gotten MORE than 8 hours of sleep every night and still feel completely burnt after work. I have no idea what's going on. I had a splitting headache yesterday at work, but a couple ibruprofen cured that. I also felt a little queezy at times as well, but that only happened on the Let-It-Ride table and that happens EVERY time I'm on the Let-It-Ride table! Last night, I actually fell asleep at midnight (about 2-3 hours before my normal bed time) without turning off the lights or even brushing my teeth. I was out until about 9am!! I feel fine now, with the exception of being stuffed up. So if I do have an illness of some sort, it only seems to make an appearance at work and doesn't have any rhyme or reason with its symptoms. One thing is for sure though, I'm going to have to suck it up this week. Due to the occurence of days off from the vacation, I will now be working 7 days in a row and will only have a single day off next Monday! Ugh!! I am supposed to be in the process of moving too since our lease is up at the end of the month.

Getting all the pics off my phone, onto my computer and organized into a blog posting takes a lot of time, which I'm not up to investing in right now. I'll try to get some up sooner or later though.

One observance from yesterday's shift though. I am now certain that Let-It-Ride idiots travel in packs. I was on that table for 2 total hours yesterday and it was either stone dead, or completely packed with 7 douchebags complaining that I wasn't giving them good cards. The casino War table had overtaken my top spot of annoying games to deal, but at this point, Let-It-Ride is making a charging comeback and both of those games are neck-and-neck. Thank the casino Gods that they both aren't on the same string!

I also had a HUGE problem with the Let-It-Ride card machine yesterday. I'd say it flashed the red light about once every ten hands or so. One might think that's a good thing since I don't have to "deal" to the douchebags during that red light time. But there is a chance of breaking a player or two if I deal as fast as I can. And since we've established that they travel in packs, breaking just 2 out of 7 players could have an effect of chasing them all away. So that damn machine was doing me no favors!

Okay, back to work I go. Today I'm on craps, so I'm hoping to get out of this post-vacation funk I've been in.

Edited to Add:
Oh, I almost forgot a moment from yesterday. Three people sit down on the Let-It-Ride table. Two buy-in normally but the third guy doesn't seem to know what's going on. He finally finds his Benjamin and puts in right in front of him. I normally wait until they hand it over, but as long as I don't take it directly from their hand, I'm in the clear. So I finally bend over and pick it up, and he suddenly realizes he put the bill down and is happy to be getting chips. In the first 3 seconds of interacting with the guy I can tell he's a true winner! After getting his chips, he puts 2 red chips on the CENTER Let-It-Ride betting circle. I look at him for a second and then his friend correctly places three of his red chips across the three circles. He then says the magic words that I was anticipating....."Oh, I thought we were playing blackjack!"

Oh my god I am losing faith in the human race!!!!! I've had MANY people sit down at the War table and mistake it for a blackjack table. Somehow I just know when they are buying-in that they think its a blackjack table. Don't ask me how I know, but Chris and I know that feeling you get. You just sense it because they are overly happy to find a completely empty $5 blackjack table when all of the other tables are full and $10 tables. So when I only deal them one card and take/pay their money automatically, the familiar look of confusion sets in, even though "WAR" is plainly spelled out on the felt, on the sign and on the table minimum/maximum sign!!

BUT HOW DO YOU MISTAKE A LET-IT-RIDE TABLE FOR A BLACKJACK TABLE!!!???

There are rare times when I enjoy taking peoples money MORE than getting tips.....that was one them. Any theoretical tips that I could have received from him were far outweighed by the entertainment I got from him slowly losing his money on a game that he initially thought was blackjack and his friends trying to "teach" him the game! Since becoming a dealer, I've found there is a MUCH finer line between being an idiot and being legitimately mentally handicap. It should be illegal to let either gamble!!

Midweek Update

2009-10-07T23:00:00.001-07:00

Just letting everyone know I'm still alive and well in Ohio! I'm leaving this message at 2am thursday morning, so I still have 3 full days left in the vacation plus the travel day on Sunday. The Indiana roadtrip was a blast, per usual, and its been nice having a couple noneventful days in a row here in Sandusky.

On Friday, the plan is to head back down to Columbus and head to the game on Saturday. I caught the line on the game the other day and was SHOCKED to see Ohio State giving up 14 points!! I can understand why Wisconsin isn't a completely impressive undefeated team given its schedule and performances in a couple of those wins. But to be a two touchdown underdog as an undefeated team heading into week 6 is very surprising to me! I really hope the "experts" know something I don't!

The Plan!

2009-09-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

Danielle and I are flying to Ohio tomorrow morning. Here's the deal:

Thursday: Fly to Columbus, Ohio and eat dinner with my family at Olive Garden.

Friday: Spend all day with my parents and my sister (who has taken the day off). We don't really know what we're going to do yet. Maybe just hang around the house playing scrabble and going out to eat again. Friday night Danielle and I will be dropped off at Matt's.

Saturday: ROAD TRIP! Get up bright and early to drive in a 4 or 5 car caravan to Bloomington, Indiana for the OSU vs. Hoosier game. It's a 7pm kickoff, which will give us plenty of time to become "spirited" prior to the game!

Sunday: Drive back to Columbus and spend some more time with my family. Drive back to my parent's house in Sandusky.

Monday-Friday: Not really sure what the plans are for the week. On Tuesday we have to drive Danielle back to Columbus to catch a flight back to Vegas. Her Ohio excursion won't be as long as mine since she hasn't built up any vacation time yet at work. Any time off she takes right now is unpaid. On Friday, my parents will probably take me back down to Columbus (possibly back to Matt's house) because I will be attending the OSU vs. Wisconsin game on Saturday.

Saturday: Ohio State vs. Wisconsin at the Shoe. This will be my first trip back into Ohio Stadium since before I moved to Vegas. I paid a little more than I wanted for the single ticket off ebay, but I think it'll be worth it. Matt has mentioned that his work will have an RV and big tailgate setup, so I might catch a ride down to the Stadium with him. I have been to one of their tailgates before and the only thing I remember about it is the ENORMOUS SHRIMP cocktail.......the biggest I've ever seen!

Sunday: Fly back to Vegas.

This'll be my longest trip back to Ohio and longest vacation of any kind since moving to Vegas in January of '07. I kind of like the fact that I have no hard and set plans for the entire week sandwiched in-between the Buckeye games. I'm also glad to hear the weather is a little cooler these days. In fact, the roadtrip gameday forecast at the moment is calling for a high in the mid-50's and possible rain. Wooohooooo!!!!!!

Have a good week everyone!

The twelve days of Christmas!!

2009-09-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

Well, its not Christmas but it feels like I got a Christmas present at 8pm last night. That's when I punched out of the casino to begin my TWELVE day respit from the noise of the slots, the NOISE OF THE LIVE MUSIC, the chain-smoking douchebag retard $5 blackjack minimum playing stiffs and the mysery meat surprises of the employee dining room!!!

With my work-week beginning on Fridays and ending on Thursdays, my original two days off this week were supposed to be Monday and Thursday, with Thursday (tomorrow) being my travel day back to Ohio. However, for the first (and possibly last) time in my casino history, I traded my dice shift today for a non-dice shift on Monday so that I could extend my vacation by a day. It feels pretty good to be off this morning, but I do kind of regret the trade since I was stuck on 2 god-awful $5 blackjack games Monday and the tokes that day were a pitiful $69! Oh well.

Maybe I'll post once more later tonight with my plans for the vacation, but if I don't get around to it, I'll probably be away for the next 12 days or so.

Iowa goes Plaid!!!

2009-09-28T01:58:00.000-07:00

A few thoughts on the new AP college football poll that came out on Sunday:

1. Of course Ohio State is first on my mind. #9 in the new poll. The good news is that they didn't throw ONE single passing yard in the first half Saturday and still shutout Illinois 30-0. The bad news is that they didn't throw ONE single passing yard in the first half Saturday. Prior still looks very shaky at times with some questionable decision-making and just doesn't set his feet for an accurate passing stance most of the time. It's like he HAS to always be moving while throwing even if he's out in the open and not pressured. For those of you who thought the Buckeye's chances for the national title were completely gone after losing to #3 USC, think again. There are exactly two teams right now that can control their own destiny into the championship game: Texas and an undefeated SEC team. Aside from them, there are another 15 or so teams that could possibly worm their way in someway, sometime, somehow. Ohio State is in that 15. Don't get me wrong though, if they can't reign in Prior and get a good consistent running game going, they will NOT make it through the Big Ten schedule unscathed.

By the way, WTF is going on with OSU's rankings the past two weeks?? They blowout AND shutout a Toledo team that was supposed to have an explosive offense but dropped two spots in the polls?? They then shutout Illinois and vault back to #9?? Are Toledo and Illinois really that much different???

I will be personally attending Ohio State's next two games, including the roadtrip with the gang to Bloomington this Saturday. I CAN'T WAIT!! For any Columbus buddy reading this.......I NEED A VACATION! Comfest in June wet my whistle a little bit, but this vacation will be 12 whole days away from the madness. Oops, let's get back on track!

2. Holy Crap, where did Iowa come from?!?! The last time I saw them on TV they were almost getting upset by the lower division Northern Iowa (it took TWO missed field goals). Now they've SCREAMED into the 13th spot. We'll see if they are deserving in the weeks to come. If they are, Ohio State's schedule will look even more brutal the last three games (Iowa at home, Penn St. and Michigan away).

3. Look out for Cincy! Why is nobody talking about this team??? People talk about the Big Ten's weak schedule but don't mention the fact that Cincy is the ONLY Big East team in the top 25. An undefeated season by Cincy is not unreasonable to fathom. Screw the Boise, Houston and TCU talk. A true BCS buster would be a BCS conference team going undefeated and not making it in.

HELL, how about this scenario! LSU, Kansas, Iowa, Boise, Houston, TCU and Cincy ALL go undefeated!!! I'd love to see those computers explode!

4. Is Oregon the best team in the PAC 10?? I really think they are. Their only loss so far was a close game to Boise (can't remember Boise's ranking at the time of that game, but I know they were in the top 25). So was Cal just ridiculously overrated? Was the Washington game just a one-time fluke for USC and their backup QB?

5. In my mind, the PAC 10 is a question mark....a conference that I'm still on the fence about. The ACC on the other hand, yuck! Good job to the lower ranked Virginia Tech Hokies for knocking off Miami. Now we just need William and Mary or whatever to beat the Hokies so we can officially stop talking about the ACC for good! The fact that spot #25 was given to Georgia Tech and not someone like South Carolina or Mizzou is kind of insulting.

6. I love college football!!!

Nerd Alert

2009-09-25T03:27:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I come across stuff on the internet that just floors me. I consider myself somewhat of a nerd. I have seen every episode of Star Trek Voyager multiple times, I can still recite entire Weird Al Yankovic songs after memorizing them in middle school (21 years ago), and I've actually sat and watched my roommate Chris play World of Warcraft for hours on end when we first moved to Vegas and I had NO money to go out and do anything else!

However, here are just a sampling of the countless number of internet videos that I've come across that show just how far I have to go to be considered a true nerd! Don't feel the need to watch them all the way through, but I have a feeling some of you will! This first one is short through....and it just completely boggles my mind!!!!!

Oh, a couple more things. The Angry Nerd or whatever has some language, so don't watch it at work or anything. And the Star Trek clip at the end is nerdy enough, but please click on it to go to the youtube screen so you can read all of the comments that serious geeks leave! Unbelievable!

Say hello to my big pink friend!

2009-09-21T11:29:00.000-07:00

I don't really want to get into a full on review, but here are some of the highlights of the Aussie Floyd show last night:

1. The new Joint at the Hard Rock was an excellent venue for these guys. I searched some info today and realized the capacity of the place is around 3,000, which was nearly full last night! I had my doubts due to the fact that I was able to get two seats 7 rows from the stage one week prior to the concert. Fortunately, they were able to nearly fill the place!

2. Seeing some Floyd tunes performed live for the first time, including Welcome to the Machine, Pigs, One of These Days (I'm going to cut you into little pieces), The Gunner's Dream (off Final Cut, probably the most surprising song of the night) and Astronomy Donime. Seeing Sheep live was also cool, although Roger played that on his tour a couple of years ago, so it wasn't a first live experience for me.

3. I could tell there were MANY Floyd newbies in the crowd, who I am sure were very impressed! Some douchebag kept yelling out "Play Is There Anybody Out There" the entire concert. It was obvious he wanted to hear Comfortably Numb, which he did at the end of the concert with its awesome solo. As good as that solo was, I'd have to say my main highlight of the whole night was the ending solo and sequence to Pigs!! Truly powerfull stuff!!!

4. Of course, their big pink friend shown in the picture above. I guess fans of the band call him "Skippy". I commented to Danielle before the show started that the stage still didn't look big enough for any inflatables. So it was a great surprise when they blew him up during One of These Days. Despite his size, they also made him dance up and down to the beat of the music as well! Really cool stuff!!

5. Despite the excellence of the show, there were a few VERY MINOR downers. I could have done without Run Like Hell as the encore. For some reason, that song has never sat very well with me over the years. I would have much rather heard a song like Have a Cigar or Fat Old Sun instead. The show was basically a "greatest hits" type of show and they pulled songs from the majority of Floyd's catalogue. However, a couple albums that weren't represented were Atom Heart Mother, UmmaGumma, More, and Division Bell. Also, no Echoes, which I'm aware they can play and have played in the past. Dogs was not played, but with Pigs and Sheep in the lineup, I can't complain about that!

I really hope the Aussies make Vegas a regular tour stop in years to come. Especially with the renovated Joint, I can't wait to hear them again down the road.

Very Advanced Buckeye Quiz

2009-09-20T02:57:00.000-07:00

Without looking it up, name both of the people in this picture. One of them is easy, the other will only be named by the ultimate Buckeye historians! If you don't know, scroll down some for a hint.

Okay, a hint: zone blitz!

Weekend Checklist

2009-09-20T01:22:00.000-07:00

No, NOT your weekend.....my weekend. My weekend consists of Monday and Tuesday this week, so when I go to work on Sunday (dressed in my fancy Santonio Holmes football jersey), it'll be my Friday. Got that?

It should be a fun couple of days. I was able to get an 11am-7pm shift at work on Sunday so that I can punch out and quickly hurry over to the Hard Rock Casino to see The Australian Pink Floyd Show perform again. If you remember, I saw them for the first time last November when they were on their Wall tour and I'm really looking forward to seeing them again! I think they'll be rehashing some of the hits off the Wall again, but the rest of the setlist consists of Floyd favorites such as Money, Wish You Were Here, etc. I believe they also will be playing a couple songs off the Animals album, which should be a treat!

Since Danielle started her new job, her normal weekend days are Monday and Tuesday, so this will be an extremely rare instance where our weekend matches up. Because of this, she'll be joining me for the Aussies and we've planned a little one-night getaway up at Mount Charleston. The Resort on Mt. Charleston still has its $19.99 midweek special going, so we'll be checking into the hotel up there Monday night for a grand total of $21.89!! It's a pretty decent hotel, especially for that price, although they must be hitting up the ditz factory whenever they hire front desk personnel. Every time I go up there, the nice ladies behind the desk usually can't figure out my booking, can't figure out the damn wakeup call machine, and have once given me keys to an already occupied room!

Our plan is to wake up extremely early on Tuesday, check out of the hotel, and drive over to the South Loop Trailhead where I'll be making my second attempt at Griffith Peak. I successfully climbed to the top of the third highest mountain in southern Nevada a few weeks ago, and now Danielle won't be left out!

Building on my experience from last time, there will be a couple challenges associated with this hike. First off, I'm not in any better shape than I was last month, so Danielle will have to expect to see a pathetic blob of a boyfriend going up....especially that final 400 ft. push to the peak! I have no solution to the soreness I'm sure I'll encounter on the descent. I try to use my hiking pole, but by the end of the hike last time, my knees and ankles were hurtin' big time! The other challenge though will be the weather. I hope to get on the trail by dawn, but the temperatures up there get into the mid-40's at night, so it'll be quite cool starting off and it'll also probably be pretty chilly on the peak as well. However, the highs will be in the upper 70's on Tuesday and I remember sweatin' up a storm on my ascent last month. Taking this stuff into account on an 8 hour hike means that a BUNCH of stuff will be going in the backpack, making it all that much harder! Wish us luck.

An Argent Message to Buckeye Fans.....

2009-09-13T02:44:00.000-07:00

Hold your heads up!

It is NOT the end of the world!! It might have something to do with the fact that I was working while the game was on and I didn't get the full effect of the disappointment, but I am definitely not crying in my beer after this loss. The Bucks did way better than most of the "experts" predicted and didn't embarrass themselves like last year. After the first game against Navy, I was extremely apprehensive about the season as whole, let alone having any chance against the #3 team in the country! That has completely changed now!

Kudos to the defense for controlling the field for the most part in the second half, with the obvious exception at the end. But if the offense had just been able to capitalize on the opportunities it was presented with, the D wouldn't have had to carry the game on its back like it did! Prior had some happy feet and a few pretty bad decisions throughout the game.

Regardless, playing USC to a 3-point loss bodes well for the upcoming weeks. It's ironic that I'm much more optimistic about the rest of the season after this week's loss than I was after last week's win!!! Although watch out for Toledo next week at the "neutral site". They put an asswhippin' on Colorado Friday night!!!

I'm also cautiously optimistic that the Big Ten is becoming competitive again after the first two weeks of play. If it wasn't for Sparty taking a diarrhea dump against Central, I would have said the day was pretty damn good for the Big Ten. But with three legitimately competitive top teams this year, we officially have three more than the ACC right now. The Big 12 has turned out to be overrated and I'm not really sure what to make of the Big East. Can't really gauge them this week with Cincy beating SEMO by like 90 points and Pitt beating up on Buffalo. The SEC is still the king with Florida on top, but who knows what will happen the rest of the season. I just know that NOTHING can be counted out yet. They'd need to run the table and get some big help, but Ohio State is NOT out of the national championship hunt just yet! They do have to travel to Penn State and Michigan though, so let's not get ahead of ourselves yet. Let's just see how everything pans out in the end.

Oh, by the way, CRAP ON A STICK for Bowling Green not pulling out the win at Mizzou and James Madison not finishing the job against one of the pitiful ACC teams at their house! It was close call losses for all three of my schools Saturday!! :-(

First Reaction

2009-09-12T03:35:00.000-07:00

This is only for the Columbus gang. Since when did Jamie O'Connor take up the guitar and start touring as the lead in this band???

Bee Gees + Beatles + Pink Floyd

2009-09-12T02:27:00.000-07:00

Somebody had way too much time on their hands! Check it out.

Sad News

2009-09-10T12:39:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to acknowledge some very sad news that I received yesterday. Brandt, a guy that I dealt dice with over at Sunset Station passed away last week at the age of 37. Unfortunately, I really can't call him my friend.....more of an acquaintance. That's unfortunate because he really was an awesome guy to work with for those 7 months or so and I really wish I'd have gotten to know him better. But when Sunset decided my services were no longer needed, I pretty much lost touch with my graveyard dealing buddies over there. He was, by a wide margin, my favorite guy to deal craps with! He had a great sense of humor and I remember trading recipe ideas, science fiction theories, and stories about a guy named George....our common enemy on graveyard! It made those slow nights pass a little more quickly! I also learned a ton from him, mostly about dealing craps, but some other industry tips as well!

I haven't run into him in person in well over a year, but we've emailed each other about once every 3 months or so (mostly so I can feed my evil curiosity on the state of Station Casinos). And every once in a while he'd make an appearance on this blog with comments written under the name "Javier". You may also remember that I had his blog linked over to the right for a while until he lost interest in it. Feel free to go visit it though. The old movie reviews might give you a chuckle or two!

He was married with three kids.

TBDBITL Answer

2009-09-09T14:20:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Michele (with one L) and her friend who is an Ohio State band alumnus, here is the answer to the question I posed a few days ago about the band going all-brass!

The answer to your question, straight out of my Script Ohio yearbook: October 6, 1934, OSU vs. Indiana was the first game with only brass and percussion. I believe the switch was “cold turkey”. It became the first all-brass college band and the largest in the world (at that time, don’t know if it’s still true) However, in 1944 during World War II, numbers were down because of the war and at that time there were no women in the band, so woodwinds and even singers were recruited to fill needed positions. It is the WW II era woodwinds that we tend to see now in the Alumni band. Not sure if the next and final change to all brass (after the war, don’t know what year) allowed men to grandfather in or if the change was like the original.

Thanks a ton for the info! I guess there are still some things the internet can't answer!

Old SNL

2009-09-07T22:33:00.000-07:00

There are some memories of old TV that completely escape out of your head, until you just happen to come across them on the wonderful internet. I honestly thought I'd never see this again!

Watch The Party in Comedy | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

TBDBITL homework

2009-09-06T11:48:00.000-07:00

Really quick post before I head off to work. Whenever I attended an alumni band game at Ohio State, one thing that always caught my eye was a few old geezers in the band with woodwind instruments (flutes, clarinets, etc.). For as long as I know, the band has been a completely brass band, the largest of its kind in the world according to wiki. So you're homework assignment is to find out exactly when the OSU marching band went from accepting woodwinds to being a completely brass band. My little five minutes of searching produced no results. I'd also be interested in knowing if they made the switch cold-turkey, or did they grandfather in the woodwind members until they all eventually left. Hmmmm, I guess an even higher level question would be who, if the grandfather case is true, was the last woodwind holdouts and what instruments did they play.

Good luck!

Happy Birthday George

2009-09-06T11:25:00.000-07:00

To be honest, I haven't kept up on Roger in the past couple of years. He might have put out a single or two without me even noticing, but it seems he's gone into 3/4 retirement and the chances of a new album from him are growing very very small. When Rick died last year (wow, it's been almost a year already!!), he put out a statement on his site and after a while it just turned into an eerie satellite image. Well, at any rate, I hope he's enjoying whatever projects are taking up his time these days.

Happy Birthday Roger!

IT'S HERE!!!!!!!

2009-09-04T01:28:00.000-07:00

The bad news is that I have to work on Saturday. The good news is that the Ohio State game is a 9am pacific nationally televised kickoff and I don't have to work 'till 2pm!!! Of course, my paranoia has started bright and early this year! Navy is usually a solid team with a triple-option offense that is pretty difficult to prepare for. I know the line is like 22 points, but I remember Ohio State getting out of the blocks slowly last year against Ohio University, so I'm constantly worried about a trip-up to start the new season.

For the Columbus gang, it is now LESS THAN A MONTH until the Bloomington roadtrip!!!! I cannot wait!!!!!! Hopefully the weather will treat us a little better than it did the last time we made a trip to Indiana. For anyone who has forgotten, it was 85 frickin' degrees in the shade for the Purdue trip. I'd much rather see snow, but will be happy with lower 60's and overcast!

On another Ohio State note, I am still in need of one ticket for the Ohio State/Wisconsin game. Danielle will be with us on the trip, but she'll need to go back to Vegas before the home game the following Saturday, so I only need one ticket. I will have two Iowa tickets coming my way through the lottery, so I'd definitely be open to trading one ticket and selling the other in return for cash and one Wisconsin ticket. I just can't afford to pay the $150 per ticket which seems to be the going rate right now on ebay! :-(

Oh, and just a small shout out to Bowling Green for winning on opening night against the men of Troy. They'll be going to Missouri and playing Boise State at home, so the going will be getting tough in the next couple of weeks!

And finally, what's the deal with that complete fu**ing idiot from Oregon taking that cheap shot after the Boise game?????? It appeared the Boise State player tapped him on the shoulder and said something, but WTF!!! He responded with a right cross to his chin which, in a just world, should have landed him in jail for the rest of the weekend!!! I sincerely hope the Oregon coach will immediately eject that idiot from the team. Some deserve second chances.....that moron does not!

Christy Knife and Stadium Mustard!

2009-08-29T03:41:00.000-07:00

I wanted to give a quick rundown of the nice goodies that I got on my birthday last week. First off, my parents sent me a check with specific instructions to use the money for a free sushi dinner. Nice!!!! Also, Danielle bought me dinner at Grimaldi's Pizza the other night AND also bought me a very nice pocketknife by way of the Christy Company in Fremont, Ohio. The story is that I received one of those pocketknives as a tip while working at a country club about 15 years ago. It was on my keychain ever since until two months ago when I completely forgot about it while going through security at the airport and had to throw it away. So now I have a brand new one, which I hope lasts longer than 15 years!!

But, of course, the best treat of all was what Danielle's parents got me. They gave me several free movie tickets AND a six-pack of authentic Cleveland Stadium Mustard!!! Woohooo!!!! One of the bottles is already hiding in Danielle's fridge, which she has used a couple of times and I'm hoping her parents accept one bottle back for their troubles (hopefully turning them into fans as well).

All-in-all, it was a really great birthday, despite having to work all day on the actual day.

Oh, in case you are interested in checking out that really nice Christy pocketknife, feel free to check out their web site at http://www.christycompany.net/.

The order form is a PDF file at this site.

They are a very small family-run company out of Fremont, Ohio and I don't think they even have web orders. But Danielle said that she called in her order and received literally the most outstanding and friendly customer service imaginable! She also got a free nice pairing knife with what appears to be the same blade as the pocketknife!

Griffith Peak - Mount Charleston

2009-08-29T02:14:00.000-07:00

Mummy Mountain as seen from the top of Griffith Peak.

As I've already commented on the T2V site, Wednesday saw my most aggressive hike yet up in the Mount Charleston area. I started off on the South Loop trailhead at 6:30am enroute to Griffith Peak, which is the 3rd highest peak in Southern Nevada. It's 4.5 miles up and 4.5 miles back with a 3400 ft. elevation change up to its 11,060 ft. peak! It took me 4 hours to get up there, 3.5 getting back with 1 hour spent lounging around in the coolness of the peak (probably high 50's on the peak).

On Tuesday night, I left work and drove directly up to The Resort on Mt. Charleston, using the hotel's current $19.99 per night special midweek! The hotel is very nice, but I can see why they're basically giving rooms away. The night that I spent there I saw a couple having drinks in the bar and one guy in the lobby working on his laptop. From the number of cars in the parking lot I got the feeling that I was one of maybe 10 people staying at the hotel that night! It was just deathly silent like a perfect backdrop to The Shining 2 if such a movie would ever be made.

Anyway, I'd definitely recommend the hotel for anyone wishing to get away from the glitz of the city for a night.....especially for $20 a night. There isn't really much to do up there at night, but even taking a walk outside and actually being able to SEE STARS in the night sky is a novelty for anyone who lives in Vegas!

The next morning my wake-up call got me up at 4:50am sharp! I took a shower and ate the breakfast that I had packed into the room fridge the night before including a banana, two bagels with cream cheese, some yogurt and a bottle of chocolate millk! Mmmmmmmm!! That ended up being the only real food I'd eat in the next 10 hours!

Like I said, I got onto the trail by 6:30am, which was about 20 minutes later than I wanted since the sun crested the mountains around 6:08 that morning. It was pretty damn cold out but I only went with shorts and two t-shirts. Trust me, as out of shape as I am, the workout up 3,000 freakin' feet more than made up for the cooler temps starting out. I made the first 2 miles in a little more than an hour, which was way faster than expected. However, the two miles after that became an ordeal. Switchback city!!!!! Once I got to the top of the ridge looking up at the peak, I rested for a bit and ate about 10 little pretzels, which would be the only food I'd eat the entire hike!! I did drink a whole bottle of Poweraide though, so I think that really helped put stuff back into me that I'd been sweating out the previous 3.5 hours. After the rest, I made the final push up the rest of the 400 feet to the peak, which was a BITCH!!!!! Go about 30 feet and stop while gasping for air for 2 minutes! Go another 30 feet...commence with the gasping!! It was unbelievable. The cold was getting to me and I could tell the air was getting a little thinner! So I put my windbreaker on, took my time and finally made it. It was a pathetic scene at the end though. It was so bad that I rounded a little corner, actually saw the ammo box there about 20 feet in front of me signifying the actual peak, and I STILL couldn't walk that last 20 feet without resting for another minute!

Once I finally got to the peak, I wandered around for a while (trying to get rid of a case of the hiccups) and took a bunch of pictures. The pics of the immediate surrounding mountains came out fine, but the haziness was pretty bad in the lower valleys so you won't be seeing any pics of Lake Mead, Vegas, Pahrump, Death Valley, etc. Someone had just changed out the log book in the ammo box the day before, so I had the honor of being the very first entry into the new log book! Woohoo!

The hike back down to the car was also pretty brutal. I never ever got winded at all, but some of the muscles you use when inching down really steep grades start to scream at you after a couple of miles! I sit here really early Saturday and I'm still feeling the burn in my lower calf muscles and feet!

So here are some pictures.

See that peak up there that is a little more barren than its surroundings? That's Griffith Peak. You can't see the peak at the beginning of the hike, so this was my first site of it. Actually, all pics of the peak were actually taken during my descent, which is why the sun is so high in the sky in those pics. I was too out of breath most of the time on the way up to worry about picture taking and I also needed to save my phone's battery.

Here's a view of the peak as the trail kind of goes around the west side of the peak. Look at the steep grade right in front of me. That's what I've been climbing for the past 3 hours at this point!! Thank god for switchbacks!

Another look at the peak, probably about 10 minutes or so before getting to the top of the ridge.

Okay, here's I've made a turn to the east and am officially on the Harris Springs Trail (also called the Griffith Peak trail). This is looking up at the final 400 ft. push to the top. If you look very closely at the trail, it forks off with the regular trail going right and the left fork going straight to the top using a use-trail.

I'm sure I'm out of breath and with hiccups while taking this picture of the lonely ammo box at the peak. In a couple months or so, this box will surely be covered with snow!

This is looking back west from the peak. I've drawn a little orange dot near the center of the pic signifying where the picture two above was taken. This gives you a good look at the final elevation change. From that pic above, it is deceptively steep! See that barren peak off in the distance, that's Charleston Peak. Many people hike to Charleston as a day hike. I honestly don't think I'm capable of that at this point!

This is looking down Kyle Canyon. The hotel where I stayed is down there where you see roads. I saw Griffith from the hotel's parking lot that morning and it was surreal thinking I was on the peak less than five hours later.

Mummy Mountain dominates this picture with Cockscomb Ridge below it.

The Downtown Experience...take 2.

2009-08-20T23:27:00.000-07:00

I don't really have much time to blog tonight, but I wanted to fill you in on my little excursion on Monday. Monday was the first of a two-day weekend, which seems to be an oddity these days. There are a TON of dealers taking vacations at work these days, which means I've been getting 5-day work weeks like crazy and will be getting another one next week. The downside is that all of these vacationing dealers have varying off-days and they just plug the part-timers like me into the holes on what seems like a completely random basis. So one week I might have Thursday and Monday off and the next week I might have Sunday and Wednesday off.

Anyway, Monday was a VERY busy and tiring day. Here's what I did:

- Hiked the first two miles out and back on the South Loop trail in Mt. Charleston. It was a good hike and it probably contained the steepest ascents/descents out of ANY hike we've done so far. I've got a taste of the trail now and I've told Danielle that I fully intend to conquer Griffith Peak using that trail by the end of summer. That hike would be about 10 miles out and back with an over 3,000 ft. elevation change, getting to over 11,000 ft. on the peak itself. I'll keep you updated if we try it.

- Went out for sushi with Danielle after the hike. That's becoming a tradition at this point. Of course sushi and hiking go hand-in-hand.

- Went downtown and checked into BOTH hotel rooms that I reserved at the Golden Gate Casino/Hotel. Later on, my three roommates joined me downtown. Both rooms with tax included were $43 total!! They're basically just giving rooms away midweek downtown these days. Fremont Street becomes a virtual ghost town around 12:30am after the last laser light show. The recession is in full strength down there.

- Drank a lot of beer! That included Main Street Station's current brewmaster's special of Mango Cream Ale. It if VERY good stuff. The trick to their fruity specialty beers is that they all taste like regular great microbrew when you first sip it, and then the fruity aroma and subtle aftertaste makes its presence known about 3 seconds after drinking it.

- After getting up Tuesday morning and checking out of the hotel, I drove down to Boulder Highway (Hendertucky) and ate my weight in omellet at the Omelet House! I had the "Plymouth Rock", which had smoked diced turkey and guacamole and I added diced tomatoes for good measure. It was awesome!

Sorry I don't have any pictures. Just not enough time tonight.

Gone Drinkin'......

2009-08-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

......will be back on Wednesday!!

Rental Preparedness

2009-08-13T22:18:00.000-07:00

My roommates Chris and Jeff went on a road trip to California during the past couple of days. Jeff brought home many pictures, but the one I found the most interesting was the one he took of something in the trunk of their rental car. Here it is:

It's a picture of the contraption that you can use to get out of the trunk in the all-to-common case of being trapped in there. Instead of instructions, it just has that picture. So I guess if you are ever trapped in the trunk of your rental car, the instructions would be this:

1. Pop the trunk.
2. FLEE FOR LIFE!!!

Authentic Cleveland Stadium Mustard!!!

2009-08-13T01:31:00.001-07:00

Danielle now knows that if she asks me a question, she mustard be prepared for the answer! My birthday is in 10 days and she told me recently that her parents have requested ideas on what to get me for my birthday. At first, I didn't really have an answer for her. Then, something happened a couple of days ago. I ran out of mustard!!!

One very common shared experience of someone who lives/grew up in the northern Ohio region was that of going to an Indians game in the old Municipal Stadium and chowing down on a dog or two smothered with Authentic Cleveland Stadium Mustard! If you don't know what I'm talking about, that's a shame! The stuff is fantastic!

Here is the entire list of its very complicated ingredients:

-Water
-Vinegar
-Mustard Seed
-Salt
-Red Pepper

Yep, that's it! That's the entire list of ingredients! I have no idea how something that tasty can have so simple of ingredients but can also NOT be duplicated (I'm looking in your general direction Mr. Bertman).

Well, one thing that I forgot to mention concerning our trip to Ohio in late June was that I actually picked up a bottle of the stuff at a grocery store in Columbus. Danielle sent me in to get her some ice cream and I came out with her ice cream.....and a 12oz bottle of Stadium Mustard that I just happened to see on the shelf. I think it had been about three years or so since I tasted it, so imagine my glee as I walked past it and made the most obvious impulse buy ever!

So a little less than six weeks later...poof! All gone! The last of it was used to top off a couple Hebrew Nationals tucked in some Wonder wheat buns and doused with warm sauerkraut. Now I just have a lousy boring bottle of French's yellow mustard in the fridge to cover all of my mustard needs! So hopefully the mustard fairy will soon be putting some bottles of mustard under my pillow. If not, I'll just have to stow away a couple more bottles on my next trip home in October!

Oh, by the way, apparently Stadium Mustard has its own myspace page!

Stadium Mustard's Myspace page.

And its been on three Space Shuttle missions as well!

Stadium Mustard in space.

A previous post exception!

2009-08-10T04:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, here's a caveat to the previous post. As soon as I leave a long rant like that about the conditions at work, the exact opposite happens on Sunday. First, the big drawback is that I only dropped a grand total of $19 in tips the entire shift. But now to the good stuff....

My string was comprised of 3-card poker, Let-It-Ride and $10 blackjack. I only had ONE smoker the entire shift and I busted him out in about 20 minutes. He wasn't a bad guy, but his smoke was going right past my face and into the face of another player who was visibly annoyed, so it was nice seeing him leave. I spent a total of 2 hours on the Let-It-Ride table and only had ONE player the entire time! Woohoo! She played for 25 minutes and left. I had some fun players on the blackjack table my first session there and then it was empty almost the entire second session. BONUS....the second session was when the Hall of Fame game was on the TV's directly above the blackjack table! Woohoo again! And to cap it all off, my last 40 minutes on the 3-card table turned into 22 minutes because for some reason, the swing shift boss closed my table down. I'm guessing a bunch of swing shifters called in sick and he needed to consolidate strings. So that meant I got an 18 minute early push that I was not expecting. Also, I don't think the tokes will be too bad because the casino was fairly busy all day (except for my tables). To cap it all off, Chris and I commuted and he was driving.

So I guess it is possible to have a pretty good day at work! :-)

5-day work week!

2009-08-09T01:47:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd share a little oddity at work these days. The oddity would be my 4th 5-day work-week in a row!!! I'm sure some of you forget that I am still part-time at the casino where I currently work and will remain part-time for a very long while. However, I have not been getting "part-time" hours lately. In fact, I think this marks the first time I've had an entire four week period of ALL 5-day work weeks since I can remember.

The good news is that the Nevada minimum wage increased not too long ago, so my base pay is better meaning that all of these extra hours I'm getting mean a little more. The bad news is that the tokes at work keep going down and down and it seems there's no end in site. I think its been about 3 weeks since we had a $100+ toke day and mid-70 toke days during the middle of the week are now commonplace. I'm not complaining too much since I know we are still in the middle of the recession and the unemployment rate in Clark County is over 12% now. But it is getting a little annoying dealing to tables full of $5 minimum blackjack and craps players with very little to show for it! A $70 toke day due to very low volume of players and a lot of serene standing around isn't too bad. A $70 toke day dealing to jam-packed $5 blackjack tables and those absolute retards at the Casino War table is NOT worth it!

Oh, that reminds me, I have officially replaced Casino War at the top of my list of games that I HATE dealing, which now narrowly edges out Let-It-Ride. Mississippi Stud would probably be a close third if I dealt it more often, but its over in a pit that is populated by dealers who get the "good shifts", so I'm not over there very often. In case you don't know, Mississippi Stud is basically Let-It-Ride in reverse. It's a terrible game with a very high house edge! And to finish off the top four games that suck, I have to add the Big Six Wheel in there now. Most dealers hate dealing the Big Six Wheel because of the game itself, but I actually didn't mind it very much until recently. The reason is that they had the table off on its own as a little "island table" with no supervisors in site and, most importantly, it was faced directly toward the outside door. So whenever I'd be placed on the Big Wheel, I'd basically just stand around people-watching as wave upon wave of an eclectic mix of tourists walked by on the Strip. However, now they've moved the table so that it faces into the casino. Ironically, it now directly faces the War table. So no more people-watching for me whenever I'm on that table. Booooo!

One big annoying factor of my work-weeks have been the days-off! Sometimes I'll have two days off in a row for my weekend. However, this week I have the first day and last day off of the work-week. That meant I worked a few days in a row, had Friday as a lone day off, I'll work the next five in a row (Saturday-Wed) and then have the last day of the work-week off (Thursday). Then I'll work another 3 days after that before finally getting a two-day weekend! I gotta tell you that whenever I have a lone day off like that, it feels like I have NO days off at all! That one day just flies by (usually taken up by doing tasks like laundry, etc.) and then its right back to work!

Don't get me wrong. The opposite would be worse. I remember weeks while at Sunset Station where I'd work only 2 days during the week, and the a**holes would send me home early most of the time as well. So I guess complaining about more hours may be a little silly seeing as how thousands of Las Vegans are out everyday looking for jobs that just aren't there!

Getting back to the fuller schedule though. You may ask yourself why I'm getting more hours when we're in a recession and business has stagnated. The main reasons in my opinion are:
1. It's the summer and a lot of dealers are using vacation time. That means I'm working a lot of hours that would normally go to those on vacation. That also means the people on vacation get their cut of the daily tokes, which is a small reason why the tokes are low.
2. The Strip is just absolutely FULL of very cheap hotel rates right now. It's really not hard at all to find a $35 room on the Strip mid-week and its not too expensive on the weekends either. Unfortunately, that means Vegas is successfully drawing in very cheap crowds these days who populate the bottom of the casino food-chain. These people are getting great room rates at higher end properties but then walking to my casino for the cheap gaming. This is substantiating Chris and my theory that people have been getting dumber and dumber in the past year. I know that's not really true, but the people that are now drawn to Vegas are dumber, on average, than those of the past. Trust me, I know that sounds bad to say, but I am seeing it occur before my very eyes on a daily basis. More and more people are splitting tens on blackjack, playing like crazy on the War table (because it involves NO thought AT ALL), buying in for $30 on a $10 minimum table and expecting it to last a long time, throwing dice off the craps table EVERY OTHER DAMN ROLL, etc. I could go on, but please trust me, the casinos have to be surviving rather well on stupid gamblers these days.

The biggest drawback to having more dumb gamblers in are the fact that they generally don't win and thus, don't tip. I also think there are so many first-time gamblers in the casinos these days that even if they do win, they don't realize that dealers work for tips and don't even think about tipping.

I had a guy at the craps table betting the hardways for the dealer today. He would throw in our bets and say "hardways for the table". That's really not a very good way of booking a dealer bet, but we knew what he meant so we thanked him and put up our bets. When the guy next to him heard him say that, he ALSO threw in $4 and said the exact same thing, "hardways for the table". In hindsite, it was clear that he just wanted the hardways and just mimicked what he heard the other guy saying, not knowing in the slightest that these were dealer bets. So of course, a hard eight rolls, we pay ourselves $20 (because there were $2 on it for us, one from each guy) and the second guy wonders where the hell his money is for the hard eight. It's wasn't fun explaining to him that he made dealer bets and it REALLY WASN'T FUN when the pit boss told us to take $10 out of our payout and pay the player instead. Sure, this one instance isn't that big of deal, but eight hours of trying to babysit new players is getting a little old.

Alright, enough rambling, it's 2:30am which is my bed time. Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their nice two-day weekend!! :-)

Wii

2009-08-06T01:27:00.000-07:00

Danielle is thinking about getting a Wii. We'll see if this affects her decision or not.

Edited to Add: It appears this is my 300th post! Not a very exciting milestone I know.

Funniest clip in ever!

2009-08-05T04:36:00.000-07:00

My roommate Chris and I can't stop laughing at this clip!! The "in ever" part has made it into our daily vocabulary! That freakin' stoplight hasn't been green in ever!!

And it reminds me of this video, which I think I've embedded here before but it deserves a second viewing. This wouldn't happen in ever Jerry....in ever!!