Finally... Some Free Time!

Hey Gang... Thanks for hangin' in there and checkin' in on me. But here it is 3:20 on Tuesday morning and I've finally got a few free moments to hit the keyboard. It's been a helluva week. First of all, I left work early, but not by choice. I was sitting there at a $10 Pai Gow table when I suddenly got sick. Not just feeling tired or worn out--I'm talking Get-the-floorman-over-here-right-now so-I-can-go-puke-in-the-garbage-can sick. And it happened twice. After the second time they told me to hit the bricks. I was a trooper and tried to tough it out after the first episode, but I lasted about 15 more minutes before I grabbed the floorperson, Denise, and had her watch my rack (It only had about $40,000 in it) while I went and hurled.

Good times.

That's about the time they told me to get out of there. But at least I didn't get any on my shirt. The true bummer of it all was that last night was 1) My 'Friday' and 2) Stephanie's birthday, so we were likely to go have a drink together (although she was partying at Jet at the Mirage and I didn't figure to hear from her until it was too late--but the opportunity was there). Even worse, another gal I know, a very attractive cocktail waitress from the Luxor came by tonight and was following me from table to table and we'd made plans to go out for a drink or two after work, provided I could get an hour of Early Out. Well, I got out, but having her see me do my best Doc Al impersonation *twice* by giving the thumbs up as I yacked into a garbage can, well, it kind of put a damper on the evening. She was kind enough to fetch me a bottle of water and give me some Altoids, and had I had any hair, I'm sure she would've been Johnny-on-the-spot and held it back for me.

She's a great gal, but I'm sure that's not how she envisioned her evening going. But that's me, always impressing the ladies...

Of course, once I got out of there, I puked once more in the parking garage, again on the way home--pulled over under a streetlight on Arroyo Grande--then in the parking lot here at home. I made it to the bathroom before it happened again, so I decided I probably could use a shower and about thirty seconds with the Listerine. Once I got out, I made it down to the jacuzzi, where I only puked once more in the bushes before relaxing in the whirlpool for a half and hour and feeling much better once I emerged.

Now I'm back at the house, with a towel laid out on the floor, lying on my tummy typing this and taking the occasional sip of a watery fountain Coke. So far, it's staying down.

I don't know what the hell got into me tonight at work, because I felt fine for the first five hours or so, then suddenly I couldn't even keep bottled water down.

But like I said, it's been a helluva week. Last Tuesday I spent the day sweating my ass off and loading junk over here to the new house. Wednesday was a blast though--it was my day off and I spent it with Hoyaheel and Dane down at the Planet Alladinwood.

When I got to their room, I was given a cocktail for one hand and a pair of binoculars for the other hand. It seems that they had a Resort Vista room on the 17th floor, overlooking the pool, and thus all of the bikinis, too. One in particular stood out--a gal in a light-blue Brazilian-style Wicked Weasel bikini that became see-through as soon as it got wet. Oh hell yeah!

Once we finally put the binoculars down, we had a great visit, catching up on all the latest news and gossip while munching on a few trays of Mexican goodies that Hoya had brought up from La Salsa Cantina. Once lunch was over, there was more gawking at the window and drinking of more cocktails. I saw an outrageously hot girl in a black bikini, and at that point we decided to head on down to the pool and get a closer look, as it's not nearly as perverted as sitting up in the hotel room looking down with binoculars.

It was hotter than hell that day, close to 110 degrees, but luckily I'd put some sunscreen on my ol' bald head. The water was nice, there were no kids, and a few minutes after I got there, the hot chick in the black bikini bumped into me and we started a pleasant conversation that lasted almost two hours. And upon closer inspection, I realized that her bikini was purple, not black. Unfortunately, even with about a fifth of coconut rum in me and bringing my 'A' game, it was not to be, as not only was she married, but she was heading back home to Colorado later that same evening.

Two ships, as they say...

Once we got tired of the sun, we headed back up to the room for more cocktails. I called Scottie (GottaVegasJones) and he came over and joined us. We had a lot of laughs and finalized our plans for the evening. Dane and Hoya were going to see 'O' at Bellagio, but Scottie, his wife Alice Lee, Reverend Dave, Falcon Rob, and I were going to a wine tasting at the Mirage. I took a quick shower there in Hoya's luxurious digs, got dressed, and a bit later Reverend Dave showed up. We stayed and visited for a bit, but before we realized it, it was 5:30 and we had to be at the Mirage a half hour later.

We got there just under the wire and snagged a primo table for the wine tasting. Everyone eventually showed up and we got down to business, sampling wines from Central Washington. I wasn't very impressed, although there was a very good Riesling offered. But unlike the South African tasting last month, I wasn't scrambling to write down all my favorites. These were all good, but nothing really stood out.

I think the highlight of the wine tasting was the cheese tray, as there was some sort of high-powered Gorgonzola cheese that while tasty in it's own sort of way, it gave me the kind of jolt that drinking balsamic vinegar straight from the teat would do to you. As Reverend Dave put it "I've never had cheese that cleared my sinuses before...."

Anyhow, once a couple of hours had passed and we all had a good wine buzz going, we decided to have dinner downtown at Binion's Ranch Steakhouse. It's always been a favorite, and this time didn't disappoint, either. I had some more of their fantastic French Onion Soup (best I've found in Vegas), and the table shared a couple of orders of crab-stuffed mushroom caps. For dinner I had a Ribeye with garlic-mashed potatoes and green beans. And we can't forget the wonderful warm bread and butter they keep you loaded up with, either. It was a great meal, made even better at the conclusion when Scottie insisted on paying the tab for the entire party.

Wow. Talk about a generous offer. Thanks again, Scottie!

After dinner we were all struggling with food comas, but we made our way up and down Fremont Street seeing the sights--Reverend Dave hadn't been to Vegas since 1993, so he had some catching up to do. We made him take a trip on the Grain Train, also, and since he wasn't driving, he was cool with it. The worst part was enduring the smell at La Bayou while waiting in line, but we survived.

Once all of the sights were seen, we headed over to the Plaza for a little bit of gambling.

All I can say is that it was so ugly that it was comical. The moment we shifted to the Dark Side on the dice table, granny with the dice couldn't miss--she hit everything and wiped us out. Scottie and Rob played a bit more, while Reverend Dave and I took seats in the Omaha Lounge while smoking and people-watching.

Eventually, we started to hit the wall, and decided to call it a night. We said goodbye to everyone, and we hit the road for that long drive out to Lake Las Vegas. I made it home about five minutes before Rob did, and he had gone back up to his old place in North Vegas, loaded up his car with more stuff, and then drove back to our new house in Henderson. Suffice it to say, Lake Las Vegas is a geographical oddity--45 minutes from everywhere.

Thursday was a sleep-in day, but once we got up, Rob and I decided to go shopping. Living in such a nice place has motivated us to get better stuff ASAP and Rob wanted to step up first and get a new TV. A wide-screen LCD HD TV. I graciously offered the use of my truck and we spent a few hours browsing around at Best Buy, Circuit City, and the like. After a pretty good lunch at the Macaroni Grill, we decided to go with a 32-incher we saw at Best Buy. So back we went, bought it, along with a entertainment center and some networking gear so Rob can get online with my old Compaq, and we came back to the house with a truckload of new electronic gear. I took a quick nap while he wrestled with the entertainment center, as I had to work that night.

The next day, I moved another load over in the morning, ran my errands, and then spent the balance of the afternoon hooking up the new tv, the surround sound, dvd player, and cable box. Of course at that point we realized that we didn't have an HD cable box, so I got to spend a couple of hours in line down at the Cox office changing it out. After we got it all hooked up we found that 1) We still need some sort of digital audio cable to connect the cable box to the receiver and 2) the cable outlet in the living room doesn't work--no signal whatsoever. So we've been without TV for the entire week, but the Cable Guy is coming by sometime after 8:00 this morning to fix our outlets. So hopefully by tonight we can be watching Deadliest Catch in High Def and 6.1 surround sound (Do they even offer it??).

Also, a generous benefactor and regular reader of this site stepped up to send me my first housewarming gift, which also happened to be my first piece of mail--The Indiana Jones Trilogy on widescreen DVD. Hell yeah--can't wait to watch that again.

But the plan for today is to get a little sleep, get the cable and surround sound system all hooked up properly, and maybe move the rest of the big stuff over from the old house. I should be completely out of there by Wednesday night, and next Tuesday will be my first *true* day off where I haven't had to be anywhere or do anything in a month. I can't wait!

Mikey out.