It’s been a year since I’ve been back to Los Angeles – that’s hard for me to believe.

Well, I wanted to do an update before I headed home – I have some pictures from my Vegas birthday to put up and I knew you all wouldn’t have it if I went away for 5 days and left you with nuthin’. So below are the pics that need to be shown. Vegas was a lot of fun – of course, I didn’t leave up money, but I certainly didn’t lose it all. The one piece of gambling that I have the most regrets on was not betting the fire bet at craps one night – the guy I was next to ended up rolling all the points – which means if I had bet this bet at the beginning of his roll, I would have won 1000-1 money. Yes, $1 would have gotten me $1000. Oh well… But the trip itself was a lot of fun – Mila, Robbie and Byron all were there on Thursday night, so we had a chance to get some dinner and catch up. The next day, Mom and Harv were there and I got my first of many free breakfasts! That day though Mila and I went exploring to go see the new Red Rock Station casino out in Summerlin, which is beautiful. We hung there for a while, and then made our way back to the Strip in time to get ready for our dinner and show with Katherine. We met up with her at the Riviera for dinner at the Italian Ristorante there, which is great food. After that, we went to see La Cage at the Riviera, which is the big time Drag show in Vegas. It was awesome. The Britney Spears drag queen was amazing. I got the show’s DVD of the performance, and it pretty much captures what the show was like. Very cool. On Saturday, Mila and I again went walking around, taking in the Forum Shops at Caesar’s Palace and people-watching inside and outside the casino. We then got ourselves ready for that evening’s events, starting with the HELICOPTER RIDE over the Strip!!!!! Robbie, Byron, Mila and I were going to be joined on this by the Schofields – and it was certainly an awesome ride. See the pictures below!!! Then after that exhilarating experience, we went to the Las Vegas Hilton for Benihana’s!! Good times. On Sunday, it was off to NYNY for a ride on the Manhattan Express (Mila had 4 free tickets on the rollercoaster and she was determined to use them!) with Robbie & Byron. Mila then left for home and to hopefully not have an 8-hour commute. Byron, Robbie & I then went over to In-N-Out burgers, which they had never been to before. It was great to have one after a year, and it was fun to see someone’s reaction to their first burger here. Byron fell in love. Anyways, us three then went gambling at a few casinos, and Robbie joined me at playing craps, which he picked up very well. Fortunately for him, he’s also very lucky and got to very hot tables each time. I actually rolled quite a bit at Barbary Coast, which was cool. All in all, it was a cool vacation – I got some very nice birthday gifts (Guitar Hero II, engraved HRB cufflinks and a very sweet money clip) and it was just nice to be with some tried and true friends and family. Definitely sucked to come back, but I have great friends here too, so it’s not all bad.

In the meantime, I’ve barely been to work – seriously. I was gone for 6 days to Vegas, then worked a few days after that before we had another 3-day weekend. During that weekend I managed to get all bummed out again for stupid reasons, I finished painting my bedroom (meaning I now have only to put up the shelves and picture frames before it’s basically complete and I start working on my bathroom), and I dealt Blackjack at one of the Deuces Wild events. I love getting my gambling fix and not having to risk any of my own money.

I am excited about going home – not only to see Mom and Harv, but other friends and family I haven’t seen for pretty much a year. I’ll also get to hang out with Wendy and Jason for his birthday – he’s renting out a party bus and I’m sure it’s going to be fun, and by fun, I mean soaked in alcohol.

Well, without much further ado, here’s the pics – I’ll hopefully post some others soon upon my return from Thanksgiving. And to everyone out there, Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!

Vegas Birthday Fun, 9 – 13 Nov 06

Mila’s first surprise – She’s Engaged!!!

Byron, Mila and Robbie at Paris LV

The view from my room – there’s Caesar’s

Mila at Red Rock Station

Me too

My first attempt at self-shot

Much better

Red Rock is pretty

Me and the casino fountain

The spaceshippy bar in the middle of the casino

The inside of said bar

Me in one of the oversized Red chairs

The very cool Onyx bar

Mila in Onyx bar seating

Me talking to ol’ pal Laryssa

Mila at the oh-so-cool new Wheel of Fortune slot machines

Me at one of the Forum Shops fountains

Making funny faces at the bar outside Caesars

Mila is cross-eyed!

Amber, Loren, Robbie Mila and me await our heliflight

Thumbs up, yo!

Robbie, Mila and Byron are ready for their learjet

So are Loren and Amber

Ah – liftoff! We started at McCarran and worked our way north

There’s MGM

…Aladdin and Paris…

…you can see the Bellagio fountains warming up…

…there’s Paris and Bally’s….

….Harrah’s and the Venetian…

….Wynn….

…up at the Stratosphere…

…it’s like freakin’ CSI!….

….looking over Downtown Vegas….

…..the Fremont Street Experience….

….heading back South from Downtown Vegas…

….looking through the helicopter cockpit window…

….Circus Circus….

….view straight down the Strip….

….Wynn and Treasure Island (TI)….

…Flamingo and Caesars…

….Caesar’s Palace…

…Bellagio….

…South end of the Strip…

…approaching NY NY….

….down at NYNY levels….

….and back at the MGM Grand….

…there’s Byron and Robbie in the helicopter…

and Mila with a Byron sticking out of her head

Loren, Amber, Harv, Mom and Me at Benihana’s

Loren, Amber, Harv, Mom (Kathy), Hobie (birthday boy)

Mila, Kathryn. Bryon, Robbie 11,11,06

Me and Mila at NYNY on Sunday morning

Mila, Byron and Robbie

Byron, Robbie and Me (thumbs up!)

Robbie, Mile and Me

We finally got someone ELSE to take our picture

And a pic of NYNY from the valet pickup