If you would've told me when I was a kid in North Carolina that by adulthood all my family's non-Christmas gatherings would take place in Las Vegas, I would've thought you were nuts. But, that happens to be the case. Every mother's day, Mom's birthday, and/or my brother's birthday, we've all gathered in Vegas. It actually has practical reasons, believe it or not. My mom still lives in NC, but she loves Vegas, and goes whenever she gets the chance. My dad lives only about a 2 hour drive from Vegas. My brother is 250 miles away and I'm only 320 miles away, so a half day drive for each of us. I arrived Friday afternoon, and spent a few hours failing to make a profit at gambling with my mother. Then my Dad, my Brother and my Sister-in-law arrived, and we hung out for a bit. My brother wound up getting a room across the street at the Fremont (Mom and I were staying at Fitzgerald's), and my Dad decided to crash with them. The next morning, while my mom camped out at the slots still some more, the rest of us walked up Fremont street to check out a custom car show they were having. This included some nicely customized PT Cruisers, which made me want to mess with mine some. Perhaps some day, assuming I even still drive a gas powered car for much longer. We all met up and headed over to the Rio for their famous Buffet, which we had gone to in October for my brother's birthday, but he missed out on because he had a dental emergency. It was still yummy. Although, buffets are pretty much wasted on me, since I can rarely stomach more than one trip through. But, brother was paying, so I indulged. Then Brandon, Maria and I went thrift shopping with my dad. Everyone found something to buy but me, which was a bummer. I found some things I was interested in, but decided they weren't worth the asking price. This included, at Goodwill of all places, a random plaster casting of what I initially thought might be the carvings from Trajan's Column, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Upon reflection, it seemed more Greek in nature. I thought long and hard about buying it. It was clearly a cast of something else, or an imitation. I decided it wasn't some rare artifact upon examining the rear and noticing through a fracture in the encasing material that it was mounted on particle board. Sunday featured a family breakfast at the Fitz buffet, then my arduous drive home. Sunday night I watched "Day Watch", sequel to surprise Russian hit, "Night Watch". For those of you that like slick special effects and epic story lines, but are tired of the repetitive tripe offered up by Hollywood, I highly recommend them both.
Being an analyst at my day job, I normally like to break everything down to math. This includes my foolproof formula for making money on slot machines. My plan requires some luck, of course. It's mainly a method of maximizing your winnings and being disciplined enough to quit while you're ahead. Well, this particular Vegas trip saw me NEVER ahead. So I had one of my rare losing trips to Vegas. Usually I break even or a little ahead, sometimes I win enough to cover gas and food, and occasionally I come home with a healthy profit.
I know I said I was going to make a photo post over the weekend, and I may still, but I wound up experimenting with something else. I made myself a shutterfly photo site. From there, if you are so inclined, you can order posters of my photos. Isn't that exciting? I don't know if I get any money from it if you do, I'm still looking into that. I may order some prints for myself. I've been meaning to make some decorations for my walls, and why not use my own photos? I'll stick the link over there on the right in place of the fotolog link I never use any more. Here's the plain 'ol link for you:
