Kickstarting the Holiday Weekend

Ah, sometimes there's nothing better first thing in the morning than to smell the aroma of a fresh pot of coffee and hear that tell-tale gurgling noise that says "Hey jackass, get out of bed, your coffee is ready!". Such is the wonder of having a coffeemaker with a self-timer.

Yep, it's gonna be a good day.

Yesterday wasn't bad at all, either. I met up with Eddie B and Regina for lunch around one o'clock over at the Venetian, and we ate at the Grand Lux Cafe. It was excellent, as usual, and of course we started out with my my favorite item on the menu, the Asian Nachos, as an appetizer. I was talking up the steak sandwich I'd eaten there a couple of weeks ago when 'Drew' was in town, so Eddie got that and raved about it. Regina got an order of fish and chips that would've fed all three of us, and I was defeated by the Grand Lux Burger Melt. What is that, you ask?

Well, it's a huge burger served on grilled Parmesan bread with grilled onions, Thousand Island dressing, and too much cheese. It was easily the greasiest juiciest burger I've ever eaten. The first bite sprayed my shirt down, making it look like I drew a map of the Hawaiian islands across my chest. From then on, I held my napkin up under my chin to eat it. I may have looked like a complete dork, but at least I wasn't covered in grease once I finally gave up.

Oh, and that sandwich completely kicked my ass--I could only finish half of it, and about half of the fries. (I took the rest home in a to-go box and ate it for dinner last night). But we sat around talking and catching up for so long that we decided to finally order dessert, too, even with all the leftovers sitting on the table. We got a slice of carrot cake and an order of banana cream pie. Both were excellent, and even between the three of us, we couldn't finish them off. Nobody will ever go hungry at the Grand Lux.

After we finished eating once and for all, we just sat and digested visited for another half an hour or so, trying to plan our next get-together. I'd been thinking of heading back down to Phoenix sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but that's such a hectic time for everyone that I've pretty much shelved the idea until after the holidays. Eddie brought up the idea that we need to track down Derek, kidnap Ed W, and have the four of us get together out here in Vegas just like old times--with no wives, girlfriends, work commitments, or outside distractions--just the four of us tearing it up like we did in the old days. That sounded like a good idea in theory, but I'm skeptical that we could pull it off in practice. We'll see. But it gives me something to shoot for next year, though, along with finally going on another cruise.

Our lunch visit ended far too quickly, but we were all pretty tired, and I could tell they wanted to get a nap in before getting dressed and going to see Phantom later that night, so we said our goodbyes and I headed for home.

It was about that time that the side effects of my lunch kicked in. It was damn tasty, but holy shiat, did it ever kick my ass. Not only did I suddenly feel like crap, it gave me the worst gas you could possibly imagine! Seriously, I drove home with the window down so as not to choke on my own fumes. And it didn't help, four hours later when I ate the other half of it for dinner. I had to light up a bunch of scented candles to counter the effects of that deadly sandwich.

Later that evening I was in the T2V chatroom with some of the other buffoons, and I told Doc Al that I felt gassy and bloated, and smelled like I'd been eating boiled eggs and drinking dark beer all afternoon. He said that I shouldn't worry, and that I'd just described half the population of Wisconsin at any given time, and that it would be over soon enough. It's good to have a doctor handy, because he was right. I feel much better today. But I'm not the least bit hungry. And as good as that sandwich was, I'll probably never order one again unless I'm scheduled to work on the dice table later that night, because it would be great to clear a table with some noxious ass-gas, since the old codgers that come in there every night do the same thing to us, and we have to stand there and take it. It would be nice to be able to turn the tables on them, so to speak.

Aren't you glad that you clicked over here this morning? Heh.

Anyhow.

Being that it's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I'm sure everyone is getting lots of work done in their respective offices. I remember back when I used to sit behind a desk, today was a day for potlucks and goofing off, followed by the bonus of scooting out a couple of hours early. The only downer for me, working in the brokerage industry, was that the stock market is open on Friday, so most of the time I had to work the day after Thanksgiving instead of hanging out on the couch watching college football. (No, I'd never go shopping that day--are you crazy?). So I'd never get the four-day weekend anyways, unless I won the vacation-day lottery. Now that I work for a casino, all holidays and weekends and whatnot are no longer mine to do with as I please. I'm a slave to the neon gods.

But at least I'll be able to watch some football during the day.

Oh, and speaking of Thanksgiving, my FedEx package arrived yesterday--no holiday goodies, but there was a pretty funny card and a giftcard for WallyWorld included. My instructions were to use it to get a bunch of stuff to cook a Thanksgiving feast, but I since I have to work that night, I'll be eating at the employee dining room. (They actually put out a pretty nice spread for us there on the holidays). So I may use it to get a few football-time munchies, and they also sell beer at WalMart, so I got that going for me, which is nice. But I think I'll use the rest of it for stuff that I hate paying for, like Gillette Mach 3 Turbo razor blades, which cost a fortune and help pay the salaries of those bastards who play for the Patriots.

I guess I should probably put some pants on and go hit the store, if I'm gonna do it. Because it's only gonna get worse as the day goes on.

Mikey