I'm A Self-Made Man

I started with nothing.....and I still have most of it left.

Most Likely My Last Post

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!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hilarious News Blooper

A friend pointed out this funny news blooper today.

At least 6 months....

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

8-Track Channel on DirecTV striked again

Discovered another good song. Enjoy.

Zion Pictures

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

Facebook Zion 2 Link

Pet Roll Call

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

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

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

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

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

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

Zion here I come!

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

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

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

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

Anyway, wish me luck during the "weekend"!

$6 six and eight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rant over!

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

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

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

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

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

A New Cat

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

Wish us luck in our decision making!

The One-Night Stay-cation

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

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

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

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

Move Over Chuck Norris

Bryce Canyon

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

Bryce Pics

Busy Week Off

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

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

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

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

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

Mighty Wind

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

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

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

Never Not Funny!

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