Weekend Update

Hey gang... As much as I'd like to update more this week, time is of the essence, and I'm a little short of essence.

Instead of going to school today, I got some sleep and once I got going I went out to do my usual Friday errands. One of the things I had to do was go over to Fry's Electronics and do a little shopping, because a generous benefactor has offered to help defray the costs of new laptop computer, under the condition that I actually use it to blog more often.

So I had to go and do some looking. I was mainly window shopping and browsing, because while I have a small list of required features, I didn't want to get some poor sales associate worked up into a frenzy. It was interesting, and I found lots of good stuff, although I'm guessing that what I want is going to be more expensive than first imagined.

After hanging out a bit in the computer department, I took a stroll down Apple Avenue looking for iPod accessories. I had my hands on some Altech Lansing In-Motion portable black iPod speakers that I've wanted for some time, but the $129 price tag kept them safely there on the shelf. Instead I picked up a DC car charger so I can use it in the truck without wearing my battery down.

Once I had that in my hand, it was off to stroll around looking for any other goodies I could find. Looking for some software to transfer video and pictures to my iPod while still avoiding iTunes, I asked the nice salesman if there was any such thing available. Of course there was, but when I told him that my computer runs Windows Millenium, he damn near laughed me out of the department.

Thank you Bill Gates for foisting such a shitty, and unsupported, operating system on us.

So I bought a twin-pack of canned air instead and have since blasted enough crumbs out of my keyboard to make a chicken fried steak.

Anyhow, once my shopping was finished, I spent 18 minutes just trying to get out of the parking lot. Yep, there's construction happening all over Las Vegas Boulevard South, and with no traffic light there at the Fry's exit, traffic leaving the place is gridlocked all around the property and I felt like the dude on Office Space getting outpaced by the old man with the walker.

Once I reached escape velocity from the gravitational pull of the Fry's parking lot, I headed over to my neighborhood and picked up some pants at the alteration shop, grabbed a ten-pack of McNuggets with hot mustard sauce, and finally made it home. I was hoping to get a nap in before work, but Sticky talked me into playing in a poker tournament and at this very moment we're on a break, and I made it to the final table. Unfortunately, with seven players left, I'm the short stack and probably won't be around much longer.

Shifting gears, I know I've been bitching about work a lot lately, but it's been justified. Like last night for instance. It felt like I was shaming someone into leaving a tip. I just had dealt a player three big bonus hands on that Ultimate Holdem game, putting her up a quick $300 with no toke love coming my way, and she then asked me for change to tip the waitress. Then she had the gall to say "I guess the cocktail waitresses make a lot more money than you dealers do, huh?".

So I responded with Well yeah, when people tip them for bringing say, an iced tea, instead of tipping the dealer for laying out three full houses in a row, yeah, it would seem that they *do* make a little more money...

She didn't say a word after that, but left a brotha $24 when she finally left the table... And I felt kinda dirty after that. Later on, however, she ended up at my table again and was laughing and yucking it up like she was having a great time and that I was her favorite dealer. But she gave me no love.

And then, whatever geniuses were in charge decided to deep clean all the tile in the bar last night starting at midnight, so with all of the ammonia poured all over the floor, the entire pit smelled like a giant litterbox. That was nice, and it had the bonus side effect of driving players away from the tables. I dunno, I'm not in charge, but it seems to me that perhaps it'd be a better idea to wait until after the Super Bowl weekend to do the deep scrubbing. And maybe wait until around 3am on a Tuesday, also. But those decisions are above my pay grade.

In the meantime, I've put in a couple of applications for those poker dealing jobs we found the other day, and I'm hoping to be peeing in a cup for legitimate reasons very soon, and not just because I don't feel like walking to the bathroom. I think I'll wait until I find a poker job before I start looking for a different pit/dice job, just because although I'm *extremely* dissatisfied with my current job, it's still a decent enough one to keep until something better comes along.

Maybe the best of both worlds would be to find a part-time poker job that nets me about $500 per week while I stay at my current casino, able to take early outs whenever the hell the mood strikes. And it's been striking a lot lately, although I haven't taken advantage of it the past few nights.

Anyhow. I'm now busted out of my tournament, just shy of placing in the money. I could tell you a bad beat story or two, but you've heard 'em before. Let's just say if they quit putting cards out after the turn, I'd be a millionaire by now.

More this weekend.

Mikey