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Been Through the Desert

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The first few weekends of August are ones I spent in the desert. Both were nice chances to get out of the house and have what felt like normal times, even though we absolutely are not living in normal times.

First up, Vegas! It had been just under 2 years since the last trip we took all together, including Larry, as a group of friends. I had managed to wrangle up that group back then because I knew Larry was going to be having that massive surgery back at NYC and, I guess my gut was telling me you need to do this. That was a spectacular weekend back in August 2019, and I’m glad that Larry was able to have that kind of an outing before it all got really difficult. In that trip, there was 6 of us going and then of course meeting up with Michancy.

Anyway, I’ve been missing Vegas. I am certainly my mother’s son and gambling is in my blood. So, I just finally wanted to go again. It probably wasn’t the wisest time to go with Delta variant coming on strong, but I still just wanted to go. One thing I had to do was disperse some of mom’s ashes, so that was another reason for me to go. I’m not going to drive all that way to just turn around and come home.

I booked a swanky room at the Cosmopolitan (Larry & I had stayed there when we met up with Jon & Alyssa in Vegas in 2015 and loved it). I wasn’t sure if anyone else would be up for going, but I reached out to Maj as she’s truly the only other in the friend group who likes gambling as much as I do. Turns out she was able to go so that was the group! Small but fun.

Here’s where mom’s ashes are – they are where Harv’s ashes are too, so I’m hoping this helped with her spirit.

I had decided to make this a 3-day weekend, so I left Thursday afternoon. I got to Halloran Summit around 3:30pm, and that left about another hour before I pulled into the Cosmopolitan. Even though Vegas is not a ghost town, it’s still noticeably less crowded than if I had gone two years ago, even on Thursday. Which I’m completely fine with, as I hate when it’s overly crowded, especially with covid.

The room and the view were amazing. I decided to pay good $$ for this trip, so yeah, you get a pretty great view and room. Maj had made it right around the same time as me, but she stayed at the Tropicana, which is a bit away but still sort of walkable. She made it up and we had some drinks at the Chandelier Bar first and caught up. We then took an Uber downtown to where Michancy was waiting for us at this really cool sushi restaurant. It’s the Arts district there, and it was a nice way to do things as it’s otherwise very hard to get reservations at a lot of places spur of the moment. I also got to meet Michancy’s sister, Nova, and it was just a great night to start things off. Michancy dropped Maj and I back off at the Tropicana and we walked over to New York New York as that had the more fun casino. And we had a really great time at the blackjack table! That was my only good time with blackjack that entire trip! Happily, at midnight on Thursday, Nevada instituted a mask mandate indoors, so that made me have some relief. I was actually very happy to see lots of masks up even before that, but it was reassuring to have the mandate kick in while we were there.

The next day, we wandered over to the Linq and O’Shea’s to gamble and drink, and then we had lunch at a fun pizza place (with a cute waiter) and continued to drink. There was more gambling after, and then we all got ourselves collected to have dinner at Esther’s Kitchen, which was across the street from the sushi place we ate at the night before. Delicious food and hipster vibes (Larry would’ve loved it) and then we had ourselves a table at Piranha’s, a gay bar off strip. Oh yeah, before the club, we stopped by Michancy’s apartment, and that was the first time I’ve ever actually been to her place. Any of them, lol. We then drove and parked at Cosmopolitan and then took a Lyft to Pirahna’s. Needless to say that was a blast. We got there at 9:30 (Waaaayyy early for a club) but were there till about 2:30am and it was just so nice and fun to have our own section, our own alcohol, and space to dance without being too much around others.

After recovering a bit the next day, we had reservations for brunch at Mon Ami Gabi, which is basically a tradition at this point. What was cool was that while I didn’t bother trying to get an outdoor table, or even one in the sun room, we managed to get one as the inside table we did get needed to be added to a big party, and the manager not only comped us our first round of bloody mary’s but also got a swanky table in the sun room. We also saw Spike Lee there. It was a fun day. I ended up having a reallllllll good time at the craps tables at Paris Las Vegas – one time at the glass craps table (it’s an electronic table and you bet via a personal screen) and while I had been down there I kept playing because I just didn’t care, and holy shit, this one guy started rolling and I made all my money back. Once he left and others couldn’t roll, I stopped and cashed out, and while looking for Maj, I couldn’t find her, so I decided to go and play at a real craps table again, and holy shit, I rolled really good (and I had been having spectacularly bad rolls this trip) and then this guy to my left rolled INSANELY good. I had texted Maj to get over here and she managed to ride some of that wave too. Oh, craps can be so good when the rolling is right. Yeah, I had a good gambling time this trip. I choose to believe Larry and my mom were helping nudge the dice the right way. That evening we had reservations to Water Grill, which is where we all had dinner back in August 2019 too. It’s a delicious restaurant. Anyway, that evening I kind of wound down as it got really crowded as there were a few sporting events happening that night and on Sunday. It brought everyone in, and I was just ready to be done. It was a wonderful trip with Maj and Michancy. I am really wanting to go back, lol.

The next day was time to head home. I’m happy to have finally been back to Vegas and visit Michancy, and I don’t appear to have caught covid during my time there, and I want to head back there again soon. It’s fun to have a gambling buddy, and Maj is exactly that. So figuring out how to go back and have the right group is paramount.

The following weekend (August 6-8), I went out to Desert Hot Springs to celebrate Stacie’s birthday. She had got an AirBnb and invited a few family and friends over to stay and have fun. Two weekends in a row was admittedly exhausting, but at least in this case, once I got there, there was very little in having to move around again. In Vegas, I routinely was hitting 15k+ steps each day. That’s insanity. Here, there was a pool, there was air conditioned great room, and that was mainly it. We drank, we danced, we hung out in the pool, we cooked meals, and it was just a really wonderful time with this group. This will likely be Stacie’s last hurrah here in California, so it was meaningful. Her plan is to eventually get to Tennessee in the next few months, and I’m excited for her.

Now it’s August 15 and I spent this weekend at home and it was glorious. I did some needed cleaning of the bathrooms, grocery shopping, catching up on The White Lotus in advance of tonight’s season finale, and got the motivation to update the blog again. 2 times in a month? Don’t call it a comeback.

just a post, pictures

Fun Times in Vegas

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This past weekend was a wonderful getaway.  Larry & I flew up on Thursday night to Las Vegas to meet up with Fran and Joel.  They were in this neck of the woods because they were headed to a conference in Phoenix this week, so why not meet up in a fun middle ground?  So of course, we were in for that!

We all stayed at the Palazzo, which was unsurprisingly fantastic.  It’s a huge hotel and has a smallish casino, to be honest.  But it was good enough as I ended up having quite a bit of luck playing there.  Well, the first night, not so much:  I decided to try Blackjack that Thursday night before going to bed and immediately lost $100.  ROUGH.  But it was on Friday when I played some craps and holy shit, I had a fantastic roll.  I was at the table by myself, which is usually a risky move, but it was $10 and sometimes it’s nice to not have the pressure of others betting on you and your roll. But that morning?  I was on fire.  I kept hitting the points and rolling 6s and 8s like crazy.  Started with $100 and walked away with $450.  That’s a nice session.    Our first activity that day was walking around the Strip in that area, as Fran hadn’t been in Vegas for over 40 years so it was worth walking her through a lot of it.   We walked south from the Palazzo, past the Venetian, Harrah’s, through Flamingo, then past Bally’s and into Paris.  We finally took a drink break at Paris and enjoyed the ambience.

View from our room in the Palazzo
Looking towards the Mirage
High Roller, Ballys, Paris and more
Larry at the Palazzo end of the Canals
Back in Venezia
Chinese New Year was upon us this weekend
In the lobby of the Palazzo
Embarking on our first walk of the Strip
The Palazzo is insanely huge
Heading south and looking towards the Mirage
Beautiful but COLD that day
It’s the Year of the Rooster
We made it to the Linq
Joel, Fran, and Larry
We found the In-N-Out
Visiting the flamingos at the Flamingo
At the fountain inside Paris
Got Joel to smile finally
Had an afternoon drink in the Paris bar area
Shocking menu

After that respite, we crossed the street over to Caesars Palace as that is definitely something that can’t be missed when looking at over-the-top splendor.  The Forum Shoppes suitably impressed them, as did the curvy escalators!  After that, it was time to walk on back to the Palazzo and past the Mirage, which we’d return to on Saturday night.

Another drink stop back at the Palazzo casino bar area, and then it was finally time to get some Roulette in!  I don’t usually play, but it was the game that Fran was up for as Jon had asked her to play some #s.  Well, crazily enough, she was able to get some wins in – hell, so did I!  The best one was 33 hit, which I had bet on, and on the next spin, it came up again.  Sweet, and I had put another dollar on there.  35-1 odds, buddy!

That evening we had dinner at the Lavo Italian restaurant in the Palazzo, which was pretty great.  Joel’s boss and wife were also meeting us there for dinner.  The food was great, but I ended up unable to finish off my veal parmesan as it was ginormous.  But very good!

On Saturday morning, we awoke and instead of having breakfast again at the Grand Lux Cafe, we found Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bistro – quite a trek to find, but sooo damn good.  It’s a French restaurant and oh man, their weekend menu is delicious.  I ended up getting one of the specials, chicken with waffles, and it was fantastic.  Perfectly cooked chicken…bacon in the waffles….delicious.

After breakfast, that day’s walking adventure was to take the Monorail down to the MGM Grand so we could then not only see that but also see the New York New York casino.  We had to show them the fun theming there, even if it is kind of lame.  We then walked through the Excalibur and into the Luxor, where we had another drink break.  It was a lot of fun to stop there as they were playing music videos and all of them were just a blast to watch.  Larry & I could have probably hung out there, drank, and watched videos all afternoon!  We did then check out Mandalay Bay before catching a cab back to the hotel in order to get some rest.

We still had a fun night ahead, as we had gotten tickets to see the Beatles’ LOVE show at the Mirage!  Yay!  Michancy also joined us, so it was a blast.  I was excited to see it again (yes, again, I know) as for its 10th anniversary, they changed it up a little.  After having seen it, I think I preferred the original version to the tweaks that were implemented.  It’s not a giant overhaul by any means, but there did seem to be additions and removals that changed the overall excitement, maybe?  Regardless, still a great show and the newbies all loved it.  After the show, we then headed back to the Canal Shoppes and got dinner at Sushi Samba, which is quite an experience.  Really good food in a fun atmosphere.  Michancy suggested keeping going, but both Larry & I were done at that point, so we walked her to her car and then headed back to the hotel.

Over to Caesars next
They had some pretty spectacular decorations too
Angry Dragon
The path in the Venetian to get to Bouchon was over the top
At our table in Bouchon
I got the chicken and waffles – it was heaven
After a monorail ride to MGM, we walked to NYNY
A beautiful day and a bit warmer than the day before
At the Brooklyn Bridge!
At night, we headed to the Mirage to catch LOVE
Michancy joined us!
Michancy and me
Not ready
Ready!
So great to see this again – although it has been changed for its 10th anniversary
The entry is very funky

And then it was Sunday and time to go home.  We actually did have a good bit of fun in the morning, as we had breakfast at the Grand Lux again (their beignets were so good and their French Toast is insanely thick) and then after getting packed, we killed some more time at the casino, with Fran able to play roulette for a while longer and I went over and played craps again.  It was great as I was able to win some money – although not as much as some guys who were playing one of the particular-table bets I’d not seen before – Repeater bets, in which if you roll two 2s or three 3s or four 4s etc before 7-ing out, you get insane paydays.  It’s of course bigger at the 6 and 8 (120-1), but the 2/12 is still 50-1 I think, and it just goes up.  For those rolls in which craps numbers get rolled a lot, which sometimes happen, these bets are ridiculous.  One of the guys at the table literally won $1000 on those bets alone.  But I know full well that those are sucker bets too, as those great rolls don’t come all that often!

Anyway, it was wonderful to see Fran and Joel even if for a little while.  They drove off to Phoenix while Larry & I took our brief Southwest flight home.  I freakin’ love flying to Vegas now – so much less stressful.

on life, pictures

The One Where I Won

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We made it back to Las Vegas in under 3 months, which is a bit surprising nowadays.  It was a lot of fun though, even if we ended up back there in the midst of 105-degree temperatures.  There’s lots of pictures below but I’ll get right to the point of my headline:

I made money through gambling this trip!!!

Yep – on the third day we were there (Sunday), my luck kicked in first thing that morning during breakfast.  I always play Keno at that time as it’s a cheap gamble and while I rarely ever even win my money back, it’s something to pass the time.  WELL.  This time I played 3 games at $3 a pop using almost entirely random patterns to pick my 10 #s, and on the second game, BAM!  I was able to get 7 of the 10 #s I picked!  That’s $450!  (If it had been 8 #s, it would’ve been $3000….can’t even imagine that).

Later that day, we went to Margaritaville Casino to gamble for reals, and while my mom and Larry played more Blackjack, I was ready for some action at the craps tables (I always have to be clever when I write about “craps”, as I shudder to get taken out of context by saying I went to play craps and it sounds like scat humor).   After an hour and a half or so, I wasn’t really up or down, but then a woman came up with a bridal party or something, and it was clear it was her first time rolling the dice ever.  It was one of those times where beginner’s luck / lady’s luck was fully in play.  Not only did she get 4 separate points (amongst many repeats) to activate the Fire Bet which I was on for a buck, I had gone full-in with my odds bets, taking maximum, once the table was on fire.  I ended up having $600 in my rack.  It was awesome.

Finally, that evening after taking a gambling break, I was at the Flamingo Craps tables and after a few hours, walked away with $200.  So yeah, that was a very satisfying gambling day to have and one for the record books, at least with regards to my usual gambling success!

Alright, here are the pics from the trip – including the drive up, the drinking with Michancy, riding the High Roller during the day, heading to MGM Grand for David Copperfield, and taking a stroll around that part of the Strip just for a nice way to spend the day without the threat of losing money!

Day 1 – Friday, July 25, 2014

Driving Up and Arrival:

The World’s Largest Thermometer in Baker is working again
Joan taking a well-deserved break in Baker
The dramatic valley as you approach State Line
State Line is way up there in the distance
View from our room on the 22nd floor in the Flamingo this trip
Great view of the High Roller
The quite-busy Flamingo pool
Nellis AFB in the distance
Arrival at the Linq

Margaritaville Dinner, Pub Crawling with Michancy

Margaritaville for our first dinner
Meeting Michancy at the newest Scottish bar that opened on the Linq
I could be drunk
High Roller and Linq at night
Back at the Boulevard Cocktail Company for some drinks and music

Day 2 – Saturday, July 26, 2014

Daytime Ride on the High Roller

Continue reading The One Where I Won →

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This Trip to Vegas

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May 2, 2014 – Friday

This Trip to Vegas…. we (Larry, me and Mom) had a pretty easy drive from LA to Vegas.  Almost surprisingly so.  The weather was hot that first day or so, but when you’re mostly indoors, it’s all good.

Picked mom up
About to have lunch at Arby’s in Baker
Joan and Kathy
At our Baker standard stop
Joan lookin’ fine

This Trip to Vegas….O’Sheas was open again!  It’s not the same as it was, but it is still quite a lot of fun and has that same sense of college fun.  I think we ended up gambling mostly either there or at Margaritaville this time.  On the first day, we even made friends who crowned me with a sombrero after thinking I’d said my name was Kobe.  Michancy joined the three of us for dinner at the Margaritaville restaurant where we hoped to load up on food to prevent getting too drunk….

First view of the High Roller upon arrival
using the panorama function of my iPhone
Drinking at the Yardhouse while waiting for our room
So glad you’re back, old friend
I made friends at the Blackjack table and got a sombrero for my troubles
View from our room in the Flamingo
Dinner at Margaritaville
Larry and Michancy
The 3 of us

This Trip to Vegas…. the Linq opened up, as mentioned indirectly above, which is a pretty awesome area containing all sorts of great restaurants, bars, and the piece de resistance, the High Roller, Continue reading This Trip to Vegas →

just a post, on life, pictures, pop culture

I’m Searching for a River…

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My dear friend VerNonica Dorothy Penny Andersen would instantly know what I’m talking about. But having seen the name I just typed for her, she would also instantly dropkick me to the ground too.

So yes, the “I’m Searching for a River” story. It’s an oldie from my high school days. Back in those golden days of yore, Roni and I would hang out quite a bit, especially with her family, who were just very cool people that exposed me to a lot of interesting Southern California stuff, mainly the awesomeness of the Sunset Strip, Hollywood, UCLA (I can’t deny that Roni’s mom’s absolute love of UCLA was a huge factor in my desire to go there), Malibu, Palm Springs, Tower Records, seeing movies properly, LaserDiscs (and ultimately to DVD)… it was a great time to be alive. That sounds silly, I know, but my last two years of high school were a LOT of fun. Anyways, that was just setup to this story – one day we were driving around when this groovy song came on over the radio, with a really nice beat and this great female voice singing about true love, and she kept singing that “Rivvveehhhh, I’m searchin’ for a Rivvvvehhhh, someone to set my heart free…..Riveh! IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII am searchin’ for a Rivvehhhhhh…..” Yes, I was totally in tune with this great R&B-flavored song and totally understood the metaphor of looking for a river and how that could be interpreted as love….. and Yes, I was a total retard who apparently needed to get his hearing checked! Because of course I’m referring to the song called “Real Love” by Mary J. Blige. And the song suddenly made so much more sense when Roni explained what the actual lyrics were…of course after she finally stopped laughing at me.

Why am I telling you this? Because the last few weeks have made me realize that I am certainly looking for more than just flings and such. If you can’t deal with these things, then feel free to go to the next paragraph. I’m obviously not going to get into graphic detail here, but I’ve just realized that I really do want to be in a relationship. Dating gets old and I really don’t think I have the patience to keep going on first dates. There have been a few things that have happened in the past month that have made me really think about who I am and what I am looking for and what I am expecting from others. There’s one guy who doesn’t have the time of day for me and is pretty much way more horrible than I am at communicating yet for some stupid reason I can’t get over him. Then there’s another who is just a great guy but I really just want to have him as a good friend as I really need those as well as a relationship, and frankly, having good friends is almost more important to me than the other stuff. I don’t know, just writing this still makes me realize how confused in the head I am about things. I’m worse than a girl I think. I think I know what I want but let’s be honest, I think I’m also quite clueless still when it comes to this stuff. I’ve obviously omitted a lot of the details here, especially with regards to the guy who is worse at communicating than I am. That whole experience has left me seriously messed in the head as I have no idea what is going on with him. Okay, I’m rambling. But this has been some of the stuff that has taken up quite a bit of my free time (the little I have) and has left me feeling kinda apathetic about the whole dating thing.

As promised, no more talk about my personal life. How about some pictures from my iPhone?

Jan 08 / Dec 07 – Random pics from my iPhone

A pic of an NYC sunrise while riding the ferry to work
View outside the EC office
No more Rockefeller Tree! That puppy is LUMBER now. Couldn’t believe this was gone overnight
My feet while waiting for the ferry to take me home.
Here’s a pic from Port Imperial.
My keyboard at work. I told you these were random pics, right?
Closeup of what used to be a majestic tree in the middle of NYC
While waiting for a bus on 34th St, here’s the coolly lit Empire State Building
And me!

Random thoughts on other things that have been going on in the past two weeks:

  • I saw Cloverfield this past weekend with Greg. AWESOME. I definitely enjoyed it more knowing where all that stuff actually was and having been to most of those places myself. Great disaster/monster movie that ended just as it should have. Lily Lives!
  • I also got drunk this past weekend after Cloverfield and after getting home. Ugh. Not a good idea to start with Beer and completely ignore the sage advice: “Liquor before Beer never Fear; Beer Before Liquor Never Sicker” I tend to get goofy, horny, and stupid all rolled up in one obnoxious package and I say and do things I really have no business doing. It’s certainly fun to be drunk but not fun to pay the price the next morning. Luckily no puking, just discomfort and realization.
  • Watched the movie ‘Once’ on DVD. Great boy-meets-girl-he-can’t-have-but-they-have-an-incredible-connection movie with amazing songs sung by the two main characters. It’s termed a musical but it’s definitely a different take on a musical. The songs (not ‘musical’-y, very much a folk/rock feel to them) are so beautiful and the final scene of the movie brings tears to your eyes due to a combination of the song that is playing (Falling Slowly, a genius song I must say) and the last lingering gaze we have of one of the stars. Go rent it.
  • Also saw ‘Million Dollar Baby’ a few weeks back and man that was depressing.
  • Work has been cool. I’m definitely doing pretty well there and am known as the King of Reports. Well, maybe not, but that’s the title I’ve given myself so I’m cool with it.
  • Shelly has returned and it’s so nice to have her back. Just having someone to talk to at the end of the day is such a nice thing. Especially after the month before with having no one to talk to!
  • I went to Mohegan Sun this past weekend because I could no longer keep away from the tables. It’s an amazingly huge casino and while I of course didn’t win money at craps, I was glad to have at least gotten to play. Next time though I need to spend the night as going up and back in the same day is 5 hours of driving and I was frickin’ exhausted by the time I got back.

Other than that, just a lot of me me me in terms of what’s been occupying my time. Hope you’re all doing well and I will probably not be updating till I get back from COLORADO!!!!!! Yay – I’m going back to go to SnoFest and to see all my wonderful friends!!!! I can’t wait!!!!!!!!!!!