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!