Housekeeping!

You want me fluff your pillow?

Ok, still no 'big' package from the siblings. I've been waiting around the house since Thursday (thanks for the heads up, Sherry... grrr...) for the delivery. Methinks next time I'd rather just be surprised by having no knowledge of anything being on the way, because now they've got me so anxious that I keep walking out to the front of the house every time I hear someone drive down the road. But yeah, I will let everyone know once it arrives. (Y'all ever hear of tracking numbers?)

I did, however, get yet another package delivered from my goofy friend Angy last night. Inside the box was one of the coolest gifts ever. She's a Photoshop expert, and took an old black & white print from the original Rat Pack version of Ocean's Eleven, and superimposed headshot pictures of me and all of my Travel2Vegas.com buddies standing around the pool table like Frank, Dino, Sammy, Joey, Peter, etc., then blew it up to 8x10 and framed it. Pretty cool, huh? Thanks again, Angy! You're much too kind to me.

(Jer, Ron, Bill, Sammy, Eric, Terry, Al, Mikey, Larry, Bosco, Leon, & Ross)

Also--a shout out to Scotty P from BFE Texas. Email me, if you would, so we can firm up some plans. I've got next Monday off.

Coming soon to a casino near you--Emperor's Challenge Pai Gow. I'll write more about this later, but it seems to be a cool twist on standard Pai Gow. Two big rule changes, one is very cool, one seems to be not-so-good. Once I organize my thoughts on the subject, I'll opine with my usual vigor. But my casino is the first in Nevada to offer it. Speaking of casino games, it looks like I'll be learning Three Card Poker and Deuces Wild Poker this week, too. Since they are 'Carnival' games, they don't really count as new games in the arsenal, but it's a couple more tables you might find me on in the near future.

Yesterday I had an enjoyable breakfast with longtime reader Falcon Rob from Bowling Green, Ohio. We dined at the Peppermill, and although he was feeling a little under the weather from a bad batch of midnite grub at the Barbary Coast, we still had a good time. He's considering 'making the jump' next summer like I did last year, and sought some advice. After breakfast we went back to the lounge sipping on comped cocktails, courtesy of my gal Krista, and I managed to restock my meager supply of official Peppermill stir-sticks. Since I broke my official Havana Club mojito-stirrer that I've been carrying around for the past two years, I've needed something more sanitary than my index finger to blend my rum and coke while sitting here at the desk pounding out literary genius day after day. Peppermill stir-sticks seem to do the trick.

Mikey