Round 2

It's finally over. I never have to drive up to Texas Station ever again! Until the next time, I mean.

I woke up nice and early on Sunday morning after getting a good solid eight hours of deep sleep, and enjoyed a leisurely pot of coffee to start my day. I puttered around for a bit, but then decided to get some breakfast before heading back up to N. Las Vegas.

I ended up at the Omelet House again, sitting at one of Marcie's tables, reading the Sunday paper and sipping on hot cocoa. I had a really good breakfast this time around--it was the flapjack special--two huge pancakes, a sausage patty, and two eggs for like eight bucks. And it was too much food for me to finish. I also got to visit, flirt with, and overtip my fave waitress, so my day was off to a good start.

Traffic was fairly non-existent on a Sunday morning, so I got to the casino pretty early. I found a nice comfy chair outside the ballroom, zipped up my fleece jacket, put on my sunglasses, tucked my hands in my pockets, and dozed off for a few minutes until people I know started showing up. A couple of the gals insisted that I go in early with them, but I didn't want to. But I did, which was a brilliant move because there was already an Early Out sign up list on the registration table, and the three of us were some of the first ones on it! Woot! And it filled up in a hurry.

Day 2 went very smoothly, because we all knew what to expect, as did the players. It kicked off at noon, the same time as the Cards/Eagles game, but they had the playoffs on huge projection screens in the corners of the ballroom. So I was able to keep one eye on the game and one eye on The Game.

I ended up dealing three downs before they started running short on tables, so I got to pull the ripcord after just three hours.

Since the tourney was still going on when I left, I had no idea what we'd make for tips. But the director said they'd be delivered to our home poker rooms by Monday night. I guess I'll be happy with anything over sixty bucks for the 12 downs I did. Can't really expect much more than that.

I didn't hang around and socialize with everyone--as soon as I was able, I hit the road. I wanted to come home and watch the game on my own TV. And I had those Hickory Farms goodies to dig into. Of course, I didn't remember it until I was sitting at the stoplight a mile from the house, so I popped into the convenience store and overpaid for a mini-box of Club crackers.

I got home just in time for the fourth quarter, so I grabbed a Coke and put my Gerber knife to use slicing up some beef stick and apple-pie cheddar. It was damn tasty, although I ran out of sweet-hot mustard a little sooner than I should've.

But damn--the Arizona Cardinals in the Super Bowl. Seriously--who saw that coming? I wish I had a time machine so I could go back to August and bet on them to win the NFC championship. At like 200-1! Hell, just two weeks ago they were still 50-1 to go to the Super Bowl!

I've been accused of being an Arizona Cardinals fan many times in the past, and yes, I will admit that I even had season tickets for a few years back when I lived in Phoenix (they were cheap, as you can imagine). But honestly, I've *never* been a Cards fan. I had the tickets just because I liked seeing other teams. And of course I've always liked the Steelers and believe that they'll probably win the whole enchilada. And you must admit, it's hard not to root for such underdogs. But damn, seeing the Cardinals win that game, I swear I peeked out the window this afternoon just to check and see if the Four Horsemen were saddling up...

Anyhow, I made it through the first quarter of the Steelers game before dozing off again, but I woke up a few times on and off throughout the game. I finally woke up for good just before Palomalu got his taint (touchdown after interception). I saw that my phone had been ringing while I was asleep, but luckily none of the calls were from work.

One of the calls was from my sister Cyndi, so I called her back. It turns out that she's decided to come out for March Madness, and wanted the exact dates so she could book a plane ticket. That'll be great to have her here again. Now I've got to work on getting Reverend Dave out here, too. If Amy and Scottie would show up, it would be epic. Between all my goofy friends and siblings, I'd probably die of laughter by the end of the week.

Oh well, we'll see--we've still got two months left to twist arms.

Anyhow, that's all for today. I've got the day off tomorrow, so I'll get some sleep, do some reading and chores, and then I may go and see that new Daniel Craig movie. Gotta love seeing a film with lots of Nazis getting machine-gunned, don't ya think?

Even better, I won't have to drive to North Vegas to see it, either.

Mikey