Back To The Grind...

12/4/08

Back To The Grind...



The GF was in town for Turkey Day weekend. It was a pleasant
change of pace from fighting for chips on the green felt
battlegrounds of Vegas.

She flew in on Thursday afternoon. After I picked her up,
I headed back to my Auntie's house for more grub. Nothing
like lechon skin, stuffing, yams, lumpia on Plymouth Rock
Day. I could only take one piece of the skin that day, I
didn't know if my "online" health insurance plan would cover
any pork related issues at the local hospital.

It was great to see my girl after about almost a month of
not seeing her. I guess separation can make the heart grow
fonder. It was also a good excuse to get some off the strip
eats, that I know she would enjoy.

I also had a couple of Uncles, an Aunt and two cousins come
out from California for a couple of days as well.

On Friday, the GF and I hit up Cupcake Lane Bakery. Had
a peanut butter chocolate one and she had a red velvet
style one. Pretty good, I don't know if the $2.50 price
each was justified, but these guys must be rakin' in the
cash. I need to do some research on that business.

That night we met up at Wayne's Sushi on Sahara. It is
always a good choice and a local fave of mine. Besides
knowing the owner, like I said before, his sushi is pretty
much the bomb. His signature rolls are pretty much all
non raw - so it can appeal to the other segment of eaters.
Don't get me wrong the sashimi he gets is always pretty
fresh tasting and his poke' is really good. Everybody
seemed to enjoy the food. My relatives even got a couple
of karaoke songs in. Free entertainment, you can't beat it,
lol...

After that, we checked out Fremont Street and got heart
attack on a tray. Fried Twinkies and Oreos. So Goood,
and So Baaddd...



Saturday, my relatives left to go back to drop off my cousins
in Riverside, where they go to school. The GF and I, headed
out to Hoover Dam for their tour. We left the house around
11 am and ran into traffic just past Boulder City, which is
about 12 miles before the Dam. Dang, shoulda' known that it
would have been busy on the holiday weekend.

It took about a half hour or so, from that point, to get to
the visitor center, so it wasn't too bad. We arrived too
early for their comprehensive tour, so we decided to just
go on their Powerplant Tour only. First you sit in a
theater, which shows the history of Hoover Dam, which was
originally called Boulder Dam, before being named after
President Hoover, who signed off on creating the Dam.







Anyway, we got to see a couple of the main areas of the
Dam. We were led down into the depths of the Dam, to
a room where one of the runoff pipes was located. After
that we got to see that actual turbines that generate the
electricity from the Dam. Still looks new after about,
70 or so years. Lastly, we went thru an exhibit area and
finished a walking tour of the exterior of the Dam
ourselves. Pretty cool, stuff. I like that kinda' stuff
I guess. The GF seemed to enjoy it as well, except for
the height of the Dam, hehe...

On Sunday, we checked out Mesa Grill at Caesar's for brunch.
Pretty good food. Nothing like melted cheese and tortilla
chips for appetizer. Oh yeah the bread basket, was pretty
much a pastry basket. I don't think there was actually any
bread in it. I coulda' just had that and coffee. I had
a chicken dish with poached eggs, with hollandaise sauce.
I wish I could of finished that, it was mighty tasty.
She had a scrambled egg frittata type thing on crisp
tortillas, with Flay's signature cream fraiche sauce. That
was really good as well.

After that, it was time to check into TI for her last night
in Vegas. Nothing like being lazy for the next few hours
in a hotel room. We lagged too much to have dinner and
just got ready to go to the Christian Audigier Nightclub
downstairs. It used to be Tangerine, but I guess the Ed
Hardy dude got his own club there. It's still pretty much
the same, except with all the skull and Ed Hardy stuff
all over the place. At least there was no cover and the
DJ was playing the jams from back in the day.

After we checked out on Monday, it was time for some
soul food. We headed out to M and M Soul Food. It was
a good thing it wasn't too crowded, I was fiending for
the fried chicken. She ordered short ribs smothered in
gravy and of course I had to get the chicken. The sides
were fried okra, potato salad, collard greens, macaroni
cheese and cornbread pancakes. Goood Stuff...



We were planning to check out the Atomic Testing Museum,
after lunch - but we were both in a food coma. We just
went back to the pad for some rest, before driving her
to the airport.

She flew out later that night. She is missed, dang I'm
getting misty, lol...

Check out this photo of her friends' daughter. Chubby
cutie, hehe...



As I said, back to the grind. I went to Aliante last night,
which was just a few hours ago to check out the action. It
looks like it has been slowing down since their opening, but
I wanted to play some Limit Omaha - hopefully they got a table
going. When I got there, they had about 4 full tables goin',
it didn't look too bad. I signed up for some Limit Omaha and
Limit Holdem (both at $4/8). No action for Omaha tonight, so
I got sat down at the Limit Holdem table.

I think the strategy here is to play tight, as a lot of the
local degenerates, will call you down with second pair or
top pair when there are definite made hands on the board.
I made about $155.00 after 2.5 hours of play, I pretty much
doubled up for that short session. I was thinking of playing
longer, but the action and players were drying up. Better to
leave making a decent profit, than to play all night and be
down. I decided to hightail it out of there, right before the
big blind got back to me. Cashed out, popped a twamp on the
Pacquiao/De La Hoya fight on the 12 round draw at 15 to 1.
Hopefully it hits. I'm thinkin' there might be a part II
to their battle anyway...

I'll go back to the grind later this week anyway...