Sunday, Part A; aka “My thighs are sweaty” (7)

Jules and I met Waffles and Iakaris the next morning to go see the Ansel Adams exhibit at the Bellagio. Waffles was not happy about walking, but he was outvoted.

I know nothing about art, about photography. But there were elements of the man’s work that move me to tears, consistently. And that, I suppose, it what it’s all about.

Afterwards, the SuperModel treated us to the champagne brunch at the Bellagio Buffet. Ike is like Don and Carmen, they are just so genuinely warm and generous. If they weren’t so damn nice, you’d hate 'em *grin.

Sunday, Part B; aka “If you won a bracelet would you ever take it off?” “Only to wrap it around my penis.” (8)

After brunch we went back to the Castle where we met Don and Statik to head over to Red Rocks to hit the poker room. What a great place! Next Vegas trip, I’m staying there for sure, at least for a night. The poker room was gorgeous, and it’s nice to not have to traipse across the casino floor to get to the damn bathroom!

My play there, well it sucked huge. I can blame a headache, or any number of things, but in reality I have huge gaping holes in my play both NLHE and Limit. Time to go to school. J did well, and doubled herself up, and then took us for cocktails at the Lucky Bar. And yes I had a raspberry martini even though it was far too soon after Friday night. Why? I’m just built that way.

We decided to stay at Red Rock for dinner and hit the Salt Lick; you could smell the barbecue all over the casino. The defining life-is-good moment came as we were sitting by the windows and I watched the sun set over the mountains while listening to my friends talk about poker and watching Statik drink a Texas Hammer (scroll waaaaay down....dude you need to fix your column width!).

Sunday, Part C; aka “It won’t be the first time I’ve pumped a chest in a restauarant.” “Really? Hmm...I do believe I’m getting chest pains…” (9)

Back at the castle later I decided to head back down with my last remaining $69 US Dollars to see how quick I could lose ‘em. Sat at a crazy 1-2 limit table and laughed for an hour straight. It was one of those times when everyone is at just the right stage of inebriation that they’re fun. Two kids from the Midwest who wanted to know when last call was. (LMAO! They quickly realized how lame that was and stated that they'd come to Vegas on the short bus.) A father and son there to celebrate their birthdays, both of whom were cute as hell, and could give as well as they got. A man from S. Cali who was bound and determined to buy my Aussie Millions card protector off me. A couple on their 29th wedding anniversary. I lost my ass, but I have not laughed that much at a poker table since J and I started talking about NorthBound at Rama one day.

Monday

Woke up and packed while J played the 9am tourney at the castle. I did most of the things I wanted to do in Vegas – namely meet the bloggers and have BIG FUN. There were some things that didn’t happen. I wanted to meet my countrymen, Joanada and Brent Stacks, which didn't happen. I wanted to win enough to buy this or that when I got home, but ended up leaving Vegas with enough to buy this. And I wanted to get a tattoo while there – seemed like somehow a Vegas tat would be way cooler than a Tee Dot tat. Maybe I’ll head to Way Cool Tattoos this week and get it anyhow.

Shoutouts:

Jules - you are the best pal a former Bad Girl could ever have. And I cannot picture ever doing Vegas without you. I was trying to explain to someone the Kat + Jules effect - separately we are capable of getting into x amount of trouble each, but together is not x plus x, but x times x. I think they got it *grin.

April - This was awesome. Fabulous. Wonderful. Thanks to you, Maigrey, Linda, etc. who put so much effort into this.

The Brothers McG - thank you so much for your kind words on the loss of Grandma Rose. In the midst of the drunken blogger insanity, you remembered. Your consideration and thoughtfulness touched me greatly.

Iggy - while I know there's no way on this green earth that you've printed out my 100 things as you claimed, it was a good ego stroke to have the Blogfather himself remember bits of it. Cheers!

Carmen and Don - good lord you two, can you please stop being so damn perfect? You're making me feel inadequate!

Iakaris - Ditto.

Graham - while you weren't there, I do appreciate you listening to my late night ramblings. I'm not sure if I should be happy that you remember more of it than me, or not.

Hunny Bunny - he'll never read this but I wanted to put this out there anyway. He bought me the airfare for Vegas as a gift, before I could even tell him I wanted to go, and has been nothing but supportive of my poker habit. He knows precisely what kind of person I am and what I am capable of, and not only does he still love me anyway (if not more, as he claims), he has never once tried to change me (well maybe the house-cleaning thing, but it was a half-hearted effort on his part at best). My love, words fail to express just how much you mean to me; you are truly a prince among men.


So that's it for the WPBT Vegas. When's the next one again?
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(7) Waffles on the walk from Excalibur to Bellagio
(8) Jules asking the guys on the way to Red Rock; Iakaris replies.
(9) Iakaris talking about being a cardiologist on the way back from Red Rock. And that's my oh-so-subtle reply.