Mah Prezentz... Let Me Show You Them!

Wow--the gifts just keep on coming!

I'm fairly certain that the UPS man is pretty tired of coming to my house, especially after today's delivery--it's been FIVE days in a row that I've gotten packages delivered, and today I scored the mother lode. It must be the holidays--everyone is feeling so generous!

I was just chillin' in the living room this afternoon and decided to go outside and see how cold it was, and when I did, I saw another UPS delivery noticed stuck to my front door. Instead of having to go down to the office to pick them up, it said "Look on your patio". So I did, and sitting there were three large Amazon boxes addressed to your humble correspondent.

So I went back inside and opened the patio door to bring in the stuff, and two of the boxes weighed a frickin' ton. But I managed to wrestle them into the living room, thankful that the driver left them on my patio instead of making me walk down to the office and then needing to borrow a hand-truck from the maintenance guy to get them home.

Inside of the three boxes were various items, formerly on my Amazon Wish List.

First of all the, heaviest box was a 119-piece tool set. Wow--I was blown away when I opened that. Not only did it have damn near every tool I could ever imagine (drill bits, screw heads, hand tools, a level, tape measure, etc etc etc, but it also came with a nifty canvas carry bag. My deepest and most sincere thanks goes out to reader 'Lawrence' in Oregon for sending such a thoughtful and useful gift, and I also got a chuckle from the note he included. I guess he felt inspired by the Santa Claus butt-crack picture I posted a few days back.

So I sat there like a typical dude, fondling all the tools and imagining all the stuff around the house that I could break and then fix again. I was lost in my own little tool-time world for a few minutes before I realized that I still had two more boxes to open. And I didn't have to use my little two-inch pocketknife either--I now had a brand spankin' new utility knife at my disposal.

The next box was also a hefty one, and it revealed itself to be a huge 12-inch cast iron Lodge skillet. Well, I guess it's more of a frying pan--it's got the deep sides for frying chicken or even making a casserole in the oven if I wanted to. I'm guessing it's probably also bullet-proof and if I were a cartoon character, I could also use it to hit people over the head and they'd suffer no lasting damage. (Hmmm... maybe I should take it to work and try it...)

The third box had all kinds of cool stuff. Included was a cookbook, the Rock Star dvd, and a new set of dishes that matches my current set--so now we have more than four matching plates and bowls. Woot!

Those last two boxes came from my sister Cyndi, whose done a blitz of Christmas shopping this week. So I had another excuse to call and laugh it up with my Tennessee people.

Here are a couple of pictures of this week's haul:

The macro-view, almost like Christmas morning.

And here's my close-up, Mr. DeMille

Rob came out of his hole a little while later and basically freaked out when he saw all of my toys. He too was a little turned on by the tool kit and the iron skillet. The dishes and cookbook, not so much.

Anyhow, we goofed off around the house for a couple of hours before heading out to dinner at Guadalajara. I'll leave the full review to Rob, and eventually you'll want to make your way over to The Flying Winnebago to read about it and see the pictures. As of right now, it's not up yet. Instead of updating his website, he's lying on the couch reading my new 'Uncyclopedia' from ESPN, entitled 23 Ways to Get to First Base. (He thinks it's a dating handbook, so it may be awhile...)

That's about it from here, but I've got a couple more posts to put up at some point later today.

Mikey

The Four Days of Almost Christmas

Well, I'm sitting here killing time until 8:00 when we head out for dinner at Amore's, listening to my brand-new Tommy Shaw CD that arrived yesterday. Even though it's 20+ years old, it still holds up. I also got my ESPN 'Uncyclopedia' at the same time, and I spent a good portion of the afternoon stumping Rob with obscure sports trivia.

But while we were sitting there in the living room, the doorbell rang, and it was the UPS man for the fourth day in a row!

It seems that somebody else has jumped on my wish-list bandwagon and sent along a nice gift from Amazon. This time it was the person who started the Fleetwood Mac avalanche last week, so he included a tongue-in-cheek apology and a nice note. As far as the gift goes, I scored a new electric beard trimmer, which was quite thoughtful since I burned out the motor on my old one about a month ago. I've just been using scissors ever since, so I don't think I've been the most symmetrical fellow in the world these past few weeks. Luckily, everyone else has been too kind to notice.

Thanks very much, Benji--I appreciate it!

Rob, of course, gave me a look like, WTF? and all I could say was, well, five years of blogging has finally started to pay off. It's come a long way since that first year when I had 10 readers a week, and most of them shared the same last name with me.

Now I'm getting over 450 visits per day, occasional hits to the tip jar, and random gifts from my wish list. That's pretty damn cool.

Thanks for sticking with me, everyone--I'm doing my best to make it worth the click. Speaking of, I've got a casino-centric post that should go up tomorrow, maybe Thursday morning at the latest. There may be a good old-fashioned rant posted up, too.

I've also got to come up with some way to mess with Rob, since he's all giddy that his Ohio State Suckeyes have backed into the BCS championship game, while Arizona State stumbled into the Holiday Bowl.

Oh well, I'm sure I'll think of something. If I were more technically savvy, I'd steal his phone and re-program it to play the Michigan fight song whenever it rang.

The Foodie 'Weekend'

It looks like I'm in for a pretty damn good weekend now that I've come to the end of my workweek. First of all, it was dead slow again last night, so I got out after just a few hours. I know, I've told myself that I'm not taking early outs anymore, but, 1) we made decent money these past few weeks, so the paycheck will be a little better, and 2) I was scheduled on some truly god-awful games last night and had absolutely no desire to be there at work dealing to the bottom-feeders at the $5 blackjack tables.

So I went to bed early last night (before midnight), and now I'm wide awake--no coffee needed.

My plan for the day is to make a few posts here on the website, maybe catch up on some sleep, run a few errands, do a few chores, and then once Rob gets home, we'll catch up on our Jeopardy episodes--I think we have three or four on the DVR as I type this.

But then, later this evening, we're heading over to Amore's Pizza out on the west side to try some authentic Chicago-style deep dish pizza. Of course, I'm a true-blue koolaid-drinking fanatic when it comes to thin-crust NY-style pizza, and haven't had the thick stuff in over ten years. So it will be a nice change of pace. Rob raves about it, and has eaten there a few times over the past couple of months, so I'm going to give it a try. I'm sure it will be great, but comparing it to NY-style isn't a valid comparison. Grimaldi's is still my first love, and as good as I'm imagining Amore's will be, it would be like choosing between Shannon Elizabeth or Jaime Pressley. Both, I'm sure, are quite tasty, but I still have my favorite.

Anyhow, I think the plan is that we eat there for dinner and then head over to his old roommate's place for some 5-cent craps and cheap beer until the wee hours.

Who says you need a lot of money to have a good time in Vegas?

Tomorrow morning, I'll probably trek over to Silverado Ranch and hit the new Dunkin' Donuts for a box of 'police Wheaties'. As good as I used to think Krispy Kremes were, I think Dunkin' makes a better donut. Maybe I'll pick up a box of both (we have both outlets close by) and we'll do a side-by-side taste test. I know that DD is famous for their coffee, but I've had it before, and yeah it's better than Starbucks (actually, pretty much any coffee is better than Starbucks) but nothing comes close to the stuff I brew here at the house. Don Fransisco is the reigning champion of coffee and nothing I've tried has even challenged him for java supremacy. Not even Tim Horton, who all the Canadians rave about.

Anyhow, if Rob is up and lurking about the house in the morning, we'll have a donut taste test and post pics.

The plan for Wednesday night is to have dinner at a local Mexican joint called Guadalajara. I've never eaten there, but Rob has a gift certificate and the menu looks pretty damn good, so we're going to give that a try. As always, I'll try and post a review.

That should pretty much do it, as far as grub is concerned, for the next couple of days. Then it's back to toast and coffee in the mornings and dinner a la employee dining room. But word around the campfire is that Dougie will be in town next week, and we're shooting for a day of poker and Grimaldi's pizza while he's here.

Stay tuned.

Mikey

Since Everyone Is Curious...

Here is a picture of our cocktail waitresses' Naughty Santa outfits that I love so much:



Nice, huh?

If they sold that on Amazon, you know that shiat would already be at the top of my Wish List. (Hot brunette waitress from Ohio not included, sadly...But she's on my Wish List, too!)

Anyhow, since I can't really be sitting at my table snapping pictures while I'm working, and I don't think it'd go over too well if I put those same pictures out on the internet anyways, I found a suitable picture out in cyberspace. But I was talking to my favorite waitress last night while sitting on a dead table, and she told me about a website or two that sold these outfits, so now I can share a pic with my readers.

Actually, the ones our waitresses wear around the casino are just a touch different--the fur goes all the way around the back on top, the bustline plunges just a bit in front to show off the girls, and the hemline has a little curved 'up-cut' on the outside of the thighs to show just a bit more leg. Otherwise, they're identical to the outfits that distract me so much when I'm trying to deal a game.

Oh, and most of our waitresses don't wear the Santa hats, but they all wear high-heeled black go-go boots. Makes it tough to pay attention to what I'm doing sometimes. As far as I'm concerned, *this* is the reason that they call it 'the most wonderful time of the year'.

I was sitting in the breakroom having dinner with one of the other waitresses on Friday night, and she told me that these outfits are her money-maker. She said that every time she wears it, she makes twice as much in tips as she normally would. Of course, all I could do was sit there and stammer and try not to spill food on my shirt.

Smooth, baby. That's me.

Mikey

Best Readers Ever!

I must've been a very good boy this year, because it appears that Santa came early to Casa de Mikey. When Falcon Rob was heading out the door and rubbing it in my face that his evening was going to consist of eating Chicago deep-dish pizza at Amore's and then going to a hockey game, while I was eating leftover beans & weenies and preparing to spend the night at work, he noticed that there was a note attached to our front door from the UPS man.

Apparently, there were two boxes waiting for us to claim down at the office. So I put on some shoes and a hoodie and headed down there to see what we got, while Rob took off for an evening of buffoonery.

First bonus, both parcels were addressed to me--Heh! Not noticing the return address right away, I figured that one of them was a coffee can full of Mamasan'ts Christmas peanut butter balls. That was just a guess, but I had no idea what was in either box.

So, once I got home, I pulled out my handy dandy two-inch pocketknife which serves no other purpose than to open shipping boxes.

Holy shiat, I was shocked! I got two presents from two different loyal readers--both gifts from my Amazon Wish List. The first was that skull and crossbones beach towel that I just put up there the other day, but somebody was Johnny-on-the-spot and immediately launched it in my direction. Now I'll be the coolest guy at the hot tub! Usually, I'm the only guy at the hot tub when I go, but now my coolness is validated.

The second box, (the heavy one), blew me away. Somebody was feeling very generous and sent me the Altec-Lansing In-Motion iPod docking speakers that I've been wanting for almost a year now.

Wow.

I couldn't believe it when I opened the box, and I sat there in stunned silence for a minute or two letting it sink in. That was unbelievably nice.

There was also a nice personal note included in each package that really made my day, too.

Thank you so much, guys! Later tonight when I get home from work, I'm going to spike some eggnog and raise a glass to both of you. I hope you both have a wonderful Christmas!

Once the realization set in, it was time to get down to business. The first thing I did was put the towel in the laundry to soften it up and get rid of the 'new' smell, and then I sat down with the instruction manual for the iPod dock.

It's a pretty simple device, but it came with a box full of every known electrical adapter in the world. Seriously, I never knew how many different AC outlets there were in the world. But the best feature is that it charges my iPod while it plays, so I don't have to use the one in my truck all the time (and the one that hooks up to the computer is a pain in the ass to use, you can't just plug it and unplug it--you've got to jump through a bunch of hoops). So it's very useful. And I started listening to my all-Jimmy Buffett playlist as soon as I got it hooked up. It sounds excellent!

Even better is that it will come in handy when traveling, or whenever I'm staying down on the Strip. Back in the days when I was seeing Sticky, she'd bring hers along when she came to town, and we'd leave it on all night long, playing stuff like Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, and Sinatra for background music. Oh, and it'll also work great for Angy's party in March, since I'm collecting every cool and cheesy party song I can find between now and then.

Oh yes, there will be much disco on display.

But right now, I'm listening to my Christmas playlist and getting into a festive holiday mood. Even if there were no peanut butter balls in either box.

Thanks again, guys.

Mikey

Rainy Day Women

Happy Friday everyone! Right now, here in America's Playground where the sun always shines, it's cloudy, gray, cold, and rainy. It's the kind of day where you don't want to do anything but eat soup and grilled cheese, curl up under a blanket, and read a book. Seriously, I woke up today and thought I was back in Nashville.

Notice I said woke up today, not this morning. I was literally the last man standing on my shift last night, not punching out until sometime after 3:00 am. So by the time I got home, I was good and tired, and I slept until just after noon--awakened by the sound of the rain.

I'd had a fairly easy shift, dealing Pai Gow and blackjack all night. But I got back from break at 2:00 am, went to a table, closed it, and then they moved me to dice. The game had three players on it, but quickly went dead. And the rotation worked out that I had to go over to the 'Reserved' game and stand on it by myself for 40 minutes while everyone else got to go home a half hour early. That kinda sucked.

Anyhow, from 2:20 until 3:00, I was the lone guy standing post on that game out in no-man's-land, feeling like I was in Time Out.

With no other dealers or players to talk to, and no cocktail waitresses coming by, it's a looooong forty minutes to just have to stand there doing nothing. Luckily I'd already dropped my share of tokes earlier in the evening, so even though I wasn't making any money for us during my last hour, I'm sure I dropped more than the dealer average for the night, so I wasn't too much of a burden on my fellow dealers.

Anyhow, there's nothing much else going on around here, and the only news is that yesterday I finally got my oil changed and my tire fixed, so that little chore is behind me.

Y'all have a great weekend--hopefully we'll have some stories for you on Monday.

Mikey

Thinking Dirty Thoughts...

...about PIZZA.

Yep, here I am, lying in bed, unable to sleep, with a hard-drive full of quality pr0n, and all I can think about it how damn good dinner was a few hours ago.

Rob and I hooked up with 'Lars Vegas' over at Grimaldi's last night, and the second visit was every bit as spectacular as the first. I can still say it with supreme confidence--Grimaldi's is far and away the best pizza I've ever eaten. There just aren't enough superlatives in my thesaurus to do a decent job of relating the culinary awesomeness that we experienced.

I went with pepperoni and Italian sausage this time around, Lars had sausage and onion, and Rob went with ham and onion. All three were amazingly good.

The crust--perfect. Who knew that something so simple could be so wonderful? The sauce--if tomatoes have feelings, the ones that get sent to the Ragu jars have *got* to be bitterly jealous. Only the best and brightest land on a Grimaldi's pie. The cheese--Oh dear God if you've never had fresh-made buffalo mozzarella, you have no idea what you're missing. The slightly smoky/buttery combination is a taste you simply have to experience at some point before you depart this mortal coil, especially when it's paired up with such heavenly ingredients as we were privy to.

Did I mention the fresh basil?

I could go on and on, but I'm sure I sound like a huge enough dork already.

I think Rob summed it up best, about three hours after we'd finished dinner, when he verbalized what we were all still thinking about. Twelve inch pie, Sixteen inch pie, Eighteen incher--it doesn't matter how big of a pizza they set in front of me. I will eat the whole thing!

And he was right. I killed that entire sixteen incher in front of me like a hungry shark tearing into a fur seal, and stopped just short of licking the pan.

Grimaldi's is that good. I'm not exaggerating one bit.

Once we ran out of pizza and settled the tab, we headed off to relax with fine cigars and adult beverages. We ended up out on the back patio at Chilly Palmer's, enjoying the outdoor fireplace and space heaters that took the edge off of the cold night. Lars worked on emptying their stocks of good single-barrel Scotch, Rob kept the bartender busy making Black & Tans, and I made sure that none of the rum they had on hand would go stale. We also smoked six cigars between us, one of mine being a Cuban Monte Cristo that put a smile on my face that lasted longer than the one I was sporting that night I spent a half-hour in the VIP room at the Palamino Club with that smokin' hot Asian gal.

Basically, me and my boys were living the Good Life, if only for a few hours.

Good food, good booze, good company, and good conversation--it just doesn't get much better than that. And it was just what I needed. It felt like I'd crammed a weeks vacation into just a few hours.

I can't wait to do it again.

The plans have been laid. The next time around will feature rib eyes on the grill, more cigars from that Worker's Paradise just south of Key West, and a bottle of Scotch that's old enough to vote.

Some days it's good to be Mikey. This was one of those days.

Hump Day Afternoon

It's 4:20 here on a chilly Vegas afternoon, and I'm not doing much but lying in bed under my sleeping bag, wearing a flannel shirt for warmth. Rob and I are seeing how long we can go without turning on the heat. Not that we can't afford it, we just don't want to pay for heat. It's the principle of the thing, living in the desert and all. He's not cold at all, in fact, days like today are considered balmy spring days back in Ohio, so he's fine. But my thin desert blood has turned me into a puss.

I ended up going out to Ellis Island after all last night. About a half hour after I posted that last update, my phone rang and it was reader Chris, also known as PHU-KNA over on T2V (and I just figured out what that meant after two years...) Anyhow, he was still up for getting together, so around 6:15 or so last night I headed towards the Strip. I got about halfway there before I realized that I'd hit the trifecta of absentmindedness by driving off and leaving my camera, cigars, and POV coupon for an hours worth of free beers sitting on the counter. Doh!

I got there first, and was starving, so I grabbed two slices of pepperoni from the Metro outlet there by the bar, and ordered what was easily the worst microbrew I've ever had. It took me about four sips to figure out that it was probably the most bitter Amber I'd ever tasted. Yuck. So I went with a glass of the home-brewed root beer instead. That was a little better.

I ended up running into a co-worker who was also there on her night off, so I was talking to her when Chris and his buddy Jay showed up. We then headed to the bar for a couple hours of cocktails and storytelling, staying just until they started up with the Karaoke. I was ready to head home, but they wanted to get some dinner, and insisted that I join them for some BBQ. I hadn't eaten there in over two years, but damn, those ribs were still fantastic. The corn on the cob was excellent, the beans kinda blah, and the coleslaw was about average. But the ribs--damn, I ate an entire rack!

We sat there eating and laughing it up till after 11:00 pm, and they invited me to join them downtown, but I'm trying to be good and not spend my limited funds frivolously, so as much as it pained me, I declined. But damn, I could've used a night of drunken downtown buffoonery... Instead, I headed back to my house and daydreamed about the epic three-hour craps roll that broke the house at Binion's that I was sure I was missing out on, and went to bed shortly thereafter. I still had a great time, I just didn't pull an all-nighter, that's all.

Today, I did nothing productive. I didn't go to the bank, didn't run any errands, didn't answer any emails, didn't do laundry, nothing. I was a complete bum.

And I loved every minute of it.

I've got to hop in the shower in a bit and get ready to go out again tonight. I'm meeting up with 'Lars Vegas' for dinner over at Grimaldi's (and as soon as I mentioned that to Rob, he was like HELL YEAH I'M GOING!), and then afterwards we're gonna hole up somewhere for drinks and cigars for the rest of the evening. I know that my favorite watering hole has a back patio with a fireplace, so we'll probably end up there.

Y'all have a good one. Catch ya tomorrow.

Mikey

PS--Happy Birthday to Cyndi!

PPS -- Thanks to Tony from Ohio, I now have an mp3 copy of that 'Sara' song on my hard drive. Awesome.

Reason #572 Why I Love Having a Laptop

... Because when I get tired of sitting at my desk staring at the same spot on the wall, I can unplug the thing and go lay on my bed and still use the internet. Yep, we have a secure wireless network here at the house, too, so in addition to *not* having to run a blue ethernet cable down the hallway to Rob's room, I can be a lazy bum and blog from my unmade bed. It's my day off, after six long days of being in the casino, so I feel justified. And I also have an optical mouse, so I don't need a flat surface or a mousepad--I can just run it across my comforter and it works just fine.

Man, it's been a long time since the days of AOL keywords and a 28.8 modem.

So, what's new today?

Well, in addition to being my day off, I'm having a great day. I found some extra cash in my tip jar (thanks much, whoever you anonymous donors are), and while I was going through the mail I got a check from 'Shareowner Services' for eighty bucks. It seems that Station Casinos has now gone private, and all outstanding stock was sold at the offering price of $90 per share last month. I had a fractional share due to a bunch of dividend reinvestment from a few years back just sitting in an account that I'd forgotten about. I thought the letter was just more junk mail/corporate propaganda, and it's been sitting on my desk unopened for two weeks. So it was a nice surprise.

Of course, not all is sunshine and balloons here at Casa de Mikey. I was rudely awakened at 8:00 by what I thought was a Mexican with a leaf blower right outside my window. But the thing didn't change pitch or switch off for three frickin' hours! It was just a loud constant drone, like an airplane engine. I finally gave up on trying to sleep and took out the trash just to see what the hell was going on. I guess that somebody nearby had moved out, and they parked a truck with a huge industrial steam cleaner right outside of my door. Apparently, their carpets were pretty shiatty, because they ran that thing all morning long.

What was even worse is that our internet service was also down this morning, and I got to spend a half hour or so talking to the robot that does tech support at Cox. It finally started working, but damn, it's never a quick call to the cable company.

Once that ordeal was over and the steam cleaner finally got shut down, I decided to make a pot of coffee and cook some breakfast. I made southern-style biscuits and gravy, and I have to say, this was easily my best batch ever! The gravy turned out perfect--and it didn't get all thick and gooey as it sat in the pan. I think the secret was mixing the flour and milk separately before adding it to the sausage and melted butter. And I added about a quarter cup of water to the mix and that made all the difference--it didn't harden up like tile grout when I was done. Good stuff!

Word around the campfire is that I'm supposed to meet one of my readers over at Ellis Island today for a few drinks and maybe a cigar. Unfortunately, he has my number but I don't have his. So I have no idea when or even if we're going to meet up--we haven't touched base in a week. And I hate sitting around waiting, because I know how it goes when people come to Vegas. Plans get made, but Vegas sometimes gets in the way and the best laid plans go out the window. Since I haven't heard anything by now, I'm guessing that I'm probably not gonna be sampling the smoky ambiance of Ellis Island today, after all.

Tomorrow night, however, is gonna be a good one. Dinner at Grimaldi's, followed by cigars and booze. Can't beat that.

Mikey

Quick Housekeeping

1. It's NOT that horrendous Fleetwood Mac song. PLEASE quit suggesting it. I appreciate the help, but I've got it now, you can stop sending emails. Except for you, Tony--if you have an mp3 copy of the Bill Champlin version, send it!

2. Cici -- email me. I cannot find your addy.

3. I thought that adding a bit of Ketel One to my Crystal Lite Rasberry koolaid might make it taste better. Not so. Now it just tastes like medicine.

4. Damn I don't want to go to work tonight.

5. Dougie -- nothing in my mailbox yet.

6. Amy -- tell your admins to start allowing stuff from cox.net. That's my outgoing mail server, not a pr0n site. Every email I send you bounces back saying 'client host rejected'.

7. I seem to have angered the Ohio State clowns fans. I awoke from my afternoon nap to find my bedroom door had been covered with a huge scarlet flag. Luckily whoever hung it there took it down, or else I was going to fashion it into a new contour rug for the base of my toilet.

Mikey

Victory!

I've looked all over the internet for a suitable photo of Johnny Drama standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon with his arms raised above his head and shouting Victory! at the top of his lungs, but sadly, I have come up short...

But it won't temper my suddenly good mood. As I was updating the post below (Thanks again, one and all, except for you, 'Benji'. Fleetwood Mac? Are you kidding me?), I was going to end it with some snarky remark about how I'm gonna have to sell a kidney or something to afford that cd, along with Tommy Shaw's Girls With Guns, and Doyle Bramhall's Birds Nest On The Ground, both of which are rarities that I've been looking for for years.

Just as I was trying to link to Amazon's page with the Tommy Shaw album (which at last look, the only jackass in the world with a copy to sell had priced it somewhere north of $150, having been out of print since, oh, 1986 or so), I noticed that it was finally re-released less than a week ago!

$11.99 Baby! Oh. Hell. Yeah.

I've been trying to get my hands on that CD for at least 15 years, when it mysteriously disappeared from my collection back in college. And only two songs from the album ever made it to the file-sharing sites, leaving me frustrated for years in my search.

But like another great 80's band so eloquently put it, the search is over...

I immediately put that bad boy in my shopping cart, and then hit my wishlist for one more item that would break the $25 barrier and earn me free Super Saver shipping, and it's on the way! Woot! (Along with ESPN's 'Uncyclopedia'--25 Ways to Get to First Base).

So it's one down, two to go. I'm sure at some point I'll get a copy of that 'Sara' song, and that Doyle Bramhall CD seems to be easy enough to find on the used market. My original copy got stolen by our lead singer back when I was in a band ten years ago. There is an absolutely kick-ass blues version cover of Johnny Nash's I Can See Clearly Now on it that we considered doing, and our frontman 'borrowed' my CD to learn the song and never returned it.

Bastard.

Oh well, I'm not too bitter. I feel like Mel Fisher the day he finally found the wreck of the Atocha. Except on a much smaller scale.

Mikey

Musical Bleg [UPDATED]

I have worn out all my resources and the internet has come up empty for me in the past week. I've checked every lyric finder site I could find, and even researching the Billboard Top 100 lists from the early 80's doesn't help.

Here is my dilemma:

There was a nice slow romantic ballad that got a bit of airplay in late 1982 that I cannot find *anywhere*. I'm fairly sure that the name of it was 'Sara' or 'Sarah', but searching for it only finds that god-awful song by Jefferson Starship or 'Sarah Smile' by Hall & Oats. That's not what I'm looking for.

Anyhow, I'm almost certain that the name of the song is some variation of the name Sarah, because in addition to the radio play it got, I also heard it at church dances that I'd go to as a teen, and I remember playing it on the jukebox at Big Cheese Pizza back in Harvester, Missouri 25 years ago.

The hook goes something like this... (from memory)

How could I let you go?

I'm willing to give it all

I'll gather the tears from all of the years and catch them whenever they fall...

Does anyone have any idea about the artist or name of the song? My collection of music acquired by purely legitimate means will remain incomplete until I find this song. And it means a lot to me--it got me a kiss on New Years Eve from a chick I was totally hot for back in high school.

The girl is long gone, but the song remains. Somewhere out there.

Mikey

***UPDATE***

Wow! You guys are great. It was Bill Champlin's version of Sara, which seems to be unheard of out there in the digital world. Of course it's on a rare import CD, and unless I create an Ebay account, bid, and win, I'm gonna have to cough up some substantial scratch for it. Sadly, it hasn't made it to Limewire... At least I know what I'm looking for now. Thanks guys! You're the greatest!

Monday Morning Apathy

Hey gang.

Here it is the end of a long holiday weekend, and I've got a few stories to tell, but the mechanism that moves them from my brain to the keyboard doesn't seem to be working too well this morning. Every Sunday night I think to myself that I've got to post some good stuff for first thing in the morning because that's when I get the most traffic, but it's just not working for me today.

Sorry 'bout that.

I guess I could toss up a few bullet points of random thought, and then maybe later, or even tomorrow, return to my normal wordiness.

• Six night in a row at the casino. Ugh. Nobody is looking forward to Tuesday morning more than I am.
• Big money all weekend, until last night. It was a tomb. We closed five games before 8 pm--that has never happened before. I dealt eight hands of Pai Gow before getting sent home.
  
• I am 0-for-3 in attempts to get my oil changed this past weekend.
• I got a bunch of pics from Reverend Dave from the cruise. There were only a few pictures of the 'fellas', and they were quite tame. No trip report though, and now that a month has passed, I'm guessing that it ain't gonna happen.
• The first time all season I bet on the Patriots, and it's the first time all season they failed to cover. One more reason to hate them, I suppose. I hate the Eagles even more, but how great was it to see Tom Brady getting creamed and then trying to pull himself up off the turf like an 80-year old man getting out of bed...
• Write it down--Mizzou will lose to Oklahoma next weekend, just to piss me off by putting Ohio State in the national championship game. Rob will be insufferable if that happens. And it will. It's just my luck. I'm fairly certain that the walls of hell are painted scarlet and gray. And Satan wears a sweater vest.
• I ate some real Chinese food this weekend. Not the stuff from the Takie Outie. It was... interesting.
• Good lord this Vanilla/Rum coffee creamer tastes like ass. I thought it would be better.
  
• The Trans-Siberian Orchestra's rendition of Wizards in Winter is one of the coolest tunes relating to That Winter Holiday Whose Name Cannot Be Spoken In Public, Especially In TV Commercials And Corporate Communications.
• It's somewhat ironic that I bitch about $3-per gallon gas, when I just paid $5 for a can of compressed air.
• I had a musical epiphany this weekend. I realized that instrumental Jazz is cool as hell. But as soon as somebody starts singing along, I think I'd rather listen to silverware caught in the garbage disposal.

I think that's about all for now.

Mikey

Drawing A Blank

Hey gang! I hope you all have recovered from your food comas and such and are enjoying the long weekend. Me? Well, I had the same response yesterday when people asked me if I had a good Thanksgiving...

Well, I'm stuck here at the casino dealing to all these degenerates, how good could it be?

Ah well, it's the life I've chosen, for now. Weekends and holidays no longer belong to me. Actually, it wasn't that bad. We were busy, we seem to be making decent money this weekend, and aside from ASU completely shiatting the bed against USC, it was a pretty good day. Rose bowl? Forget it--somebody else from the Pac-10 will have to do the dirty work and beat down those dorks from Columbus.

I feel like I should have a whole bunch of stuff to write about today, but I'm kind of at a loss. It's a boring day so far, but then again, all I've done is download a little bit of Christmas music, browse around on Amazon, and drink a pot of coffee. That new vanilla/rum creamer isn't nearly as good as I'd hoped. Once I finish of this last cup and motivate myself enough to put on shoes, I've got to go and get the truck taken care of.

It needs an oil change, badly--I think I'm almost 1500 miles past due. Oh, and for being a year-and-a-half old, the truck just hit the 10,000 mile mark this past week. Not bad, but I guess the miles really don't add up when it's just 6 miles to work, and I don't really go anywhere else except to school three times a week. Also, I noticed that I had a slow leak in one of my tires a few weeks back, but I topped the air off and it was fine, but last night it was down again and I saw that there is a screw embedded in the high part of the tread, so it must be just barely breaking through and causing a bit of air to escape, so I've got to get that fixed today too. Shouldn't be a problem, though. We got a load of coupons in our weekly junk mail, and a place over off of Eastern and 215 is offering a $13 oil change and free flat repair, so that's where I'm headed.

And in case anyone is interested, a gallon of gas here in America's Playground now goes for $3.11, which means that it cost me $62 to fill up last night. Most expensive tank ever. Damn--it didn't seem like it was that long ago that it only cost me $25 to fill up my old Z or my other Nissan trucks. Then last year, fifty bucks would do it. Now it's starting to sting a little. I'm just glad I don't have a 60-mile daily commute like I've had for most of the past ten years.

Mikey

Happy Thanksgiving!

Why are you sitting there on the computer? Get up, go to the kitchen and see if your mom needs help. Or better yet, go outside and join in the neighborhood touch football game!

Just do something Thanksgiving-related, even if it means gorging yourself on brown food and sleeping through three football games.

But at some point today, raise a glass of the good stuff and remember just how very lucky you are.

Mikey

Brisk!

I just got back from the holiday shopping trip to WalMart, and I've got to tell you, it's downright chilly outside! And wouldn't you know the first song that came on the radio when I got in the truck was 'Wheel in the Sky' by Journey.

Winter is here, again, oh lord...

Steve Perry is right--it's cold out there. Well, at least to me and my thin desert blood.

I was watching the weather forecast last week and they said that we'd get a huge arctic blast of cold air starting today, and man, they weren't lying. First of all, it's quite breezy outside, and it's a cold north wind. On the other hand, it's blown all the haze and dust out of the valley, the sky is crystal-blue, and if it weren't for the mountains, you'd be able to see a hundred miles. Aside from being a little too cool outside, it is an absolutely *gorgeous* day. It makes me wish that I had a nice quality digital SLR camera, and I'd spend the day at the top of the Eiffel Tower taking pictures all up and down the strip, and then head out to the high ground in Henderson and take pictures of the valley. It's amazing outside--it was almost the same feeling I got the first time I put on prescription glasses. Whoa! Everything is so clear!

As far as my shopping trip went, it was fun to see all the picketers out front huddling up in a circle with their flannel jackets and Elmer Fudd hats. The only thing they needed to complete the picture would've been a 55-gallon drum with a fire going.

As expected, it was a total zoo at the grocery store, although everyone was displaying good manners. Of course, being WalMart, they only had two checkout lines going. But I didn't have to wait long, and I got some good stuff--pumpkin pie scented candles, egg nog, and my latest discovery, vanilla-rum flavored coffee creamer. Oh yeah, like I was going to pass that up. The rest of my afternoon is mine to rest up for the long weekend ahead of me.

Y'all have a great Thanksgiving!

Mikey

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

One Born Every Minute

Working in a casino, the level of stupidity I see on display every day is not only amazing, but a never-ending source of amusement for me. I swear, I don't understand how some people made it so far in life being so dumb. And what's worse, how they amassed enough money to piss away so much by just being plain ignorant. It's one concept that I have a hard time wrapping my head around--how can somebody so dumb have so much disposable income? It's a paradox I witness every day, and it vexes me to no end.

But nobody ever went broke underestimating the judgment of the American consumer, and I've discovered the latest goofy gadget designed to separate a man from his cash.

It's called the Golf Ball Sweet-Spot Finder, and it's seriously one of the dumbest gizmos that the Sharper Image has ever foisted upon folks who have more dollars than sense. I know that's a bold statement, and normally I only browse the Sharper Image catalog while on a cross-country flight, chuckling to myself that somebody would spend good money on a towel warmer or an electronic dog dish. But this particular abomination caused me to spend a good three minutes of my life muttering What the F*ck? to the television set.

Apparently, for the bargain price of just thirty five bucks, you can have a device that finds the so-called 'sweet spot' on a golf ball (Because that fifty-dollar box of Titleist Pro V1's is just chock full of inconsistencies!). Then you put the old Sharpie magic marker in the hole, hit the button, and it will spin and mark the ball, indicating where you should hit it. Seriously. Notice how the line shows you to hit it right in the middle. Well, duh. I don't need no electronic doo-hicky to tell me to aim for the center of mass when I'm teeing up. It's like putting a big neon sign above the hoop in basketball, with an arrow pointing down saying SHOOT IT HERE!

What made it sound even stupider was the fact that they featured this on that show called Gear! on the MOJO channel (Finding the coolest toys that both the indoor technophile and the outdoors adventurer crave!). The host was actually trying to sell the thing as the greatest golf gadget ever devised, and he 'demonstrated' it by using it to draw the line on the golf ball, then teeing up, and taking a swing. And no, they didn't show the flight of the ball, so for all we know he shanked it onto somebody's back porch and broke a window.

I'm convinced!

I don't know why this struck me as completely stupid, but golfers, as a whole, seem to be the most gullible when it comes to paying for expensive gadgets that will supposedly improve their game. Have you seen all the goofy shiat they market to golfers? Somebody's buying it.

I haven't picked up a set of clubs in over five years, but that's only because I sucked, I knew I sucked, and I didn't feel like putting up with the lifetime expense of only getting marginally better and being forever frustrated. A bunch of expensive gadgets wasn't going to cure my slice, and drawing a line around the circumference of a golf ball won't make you the next Tiger Woods, either. You still have to get that driver to behave.

Mikey

Mother Nature - 1, Neon - 0

Good morning from Las Vegas! I got a good eight hours of sleep last night, and it looks like it's going to be a great day here in America's playground. Eddie B is in town, and I'm off to have lunch with him and his bride Regina this afternoon--they're here celebrating their second anniversary, and word around the campfire is that I've also got some sort of surprise package arriving today that needs to be signed for, which I'm looking forward to. I just hope it's not a frozen turkey or something like that.

I was thinking that it might've been some of Mamasan's peanut butter balls (tis the season!) or maybe some of Cyndi's famous chocolate chip cookies, but I'm told it's not edible. I'm hoping that doesn't eliminate the possibility of a bottle of fine rum or a box of cigars, because, technically, you don't eat either one. Oh well, I'm guessing it's probably a bunch of pictures and other such goodies from the Caribbean.

In the meantime, I've made myself a pot of coffee and I'm thinking of curling up with a good book for a few hours and taking full advantage of my day off before heading back down to the Strip. I've got no plans for the rest of the day, and nothing on the agenda is clamoring for my attention except that big pile of laundry on the floor in my closet. Nobody is at school this week because of the holidays, so I don't need to go down there and deal to an empty table, either.

Doing nothing seems to pretty much be my only option today. Bummer.

Mikey

Further Evidence

Yes, I am a complete idiot.

Monday night is usually my 'Friday' night--the end of my workweek, and a night so slow in the casino that it just drags on and on. I hate being there.

So, at 5:45 pm, my alarm went off, I got up from my nap, took a shower, got dressed, and drove on down to the casino. Instead of checking the toke book, road map, and sign-in sheets, I just went back to my locker got dressed, and stopped in the employee dining room for a bowl of rice and some diet Pepsi.

When it was time to start my shift, I followed the rest of the herd out to pit to sign in and find out what tables I'd be stuck on for the night. Unfortunately, I didn't see my name on the road map. Maybe I was going to dice? So I went to that pit, checked the podium there, and didn't see my name on any of the games.

After drawing a blank there, I went to the main pit to talk to the shift bosses, telling them I didn't have a table. Then I learned that I wasn't supposed to be at work on Monday night. Yep, it's a holiday week, and I'm working Wednesday night instead (it should be crazy-busy that night). And I just completely spaced it. Yeah, the schedule book was even showing me having Monday and Tuesday off, and it was also highlighted in bright florescent yellow highlighter so I couldn't miss it.

Doh!

So, I went back to my locker, changed back into my street clothes, and hit the door. Of course I was pissed that I went in to work without knowing it, because now my weekend is halfway over and I feel like I missed a day of it. But I'll make more money on Wednesday, and it'll be much busier.

But that still doesn't change the fact that I'm a dumbass.

Mikey