Author: Joe White

Woke up about 7, then came down and played some blackjack. The first round was incredible: I had one push, and the rest were wins! I should have just stopped then, but, alas, I did not. It was nothing but ugly from then on. Over the next four hours, I proceeded to have my worst loss *ever*. Nothing went right. I’d have 20, she’d draw a 6 card 21; I’d double down with 11 versus her 6, and I’d invariable get a 2 while she drew to 18. After brunch, drove over to the Stardust, where I played to even after a couple of hours (thought it really hurt when I had split and double to four hands and didn’t win a wn. Went on downtown to the Plaza, where I proceeded to lose some more. Headed over to Binion’s to play some Omaha, got on the list, and decided to play while waiting…bad move…lost some more. Game never developed, so drove back to Luxor. Played for over 4 hours, hovering around even for the most part, then took another dive south. When I was really starting to despair, I managed to split/double out to 7 hands and won them all!, which brought me back to even (for the session, not the day, obviously). Came back to my room to find a very nice gift basket from Chris, my Casino Host. Made the day a little better. 🙂

Had breakfast with my folks, then dropped them at the airport and then went out to Red Rock Canyon. Parked at the Calico II area, then went scrambling. got up to the top of my selected peak by 1:30, but my efforts to find an alternate way down over the next hour proved to be in vain: after 3 or 4 tries that led to sheer drop-offs, I managed to find my way up to the top of the next peak, where I happened upon 3 folks enjoying their lunch: Frank, Purepar (sorry for mangling the spelling, will fix it if you email me), and Sam. They invited me to join them, which I most happily did. Frank, who is an experienced climber, led us back down, and showed me how to do some neat basic climbing techniques. [will post pics when I get home and have my cable…sorry!]

Once back down, we parted ways and I stopped off and got some Grey Goose as a thank you for Chris and Scott for getting me the room on such short notice. Grabbed a late burger and then promptly went to bed.

[Shari, I will get all the Props up before I go to bed Monday night, I promise]
Had breakfast at the Stage Deli (props to Mark Vane for introducing me to this place on his bachelor party), then I went back to the room to research a room for the weekend while my dad went back to the trade show and my mom went to the beauty parlor. Decided to rent a car, booked it online, then took the shuttle to the airport to pick it up. Got my mom, stopped by Merrill Lynch to make the deposit I didn’t have time to make Tuesday, then went downtown to play Blackjack and see how much of what I taught my mom about basic strategy stuck. Unfortunately, not much, but she still managed to win $10.86 for our whole sojurn! I won $30 at El Cortez, then took a bath at the Plaza (which seems to happen every time). Was down quite a bit, when I got a phone call from Rob at Main Street Theatre, offering me the role of Schulz and one of the psychiatrists in Pardon My English, which I immediately accepted. Woot! This signaled a turnaround in my card luck, too, and I ended up making up almost all of my losses. We then went to Binion’s, where I went well into the black, then got another phone call, this time asking me to callbacks for Secret Garden. Woot! We came back to the hotel, met up with my dad, and walked over to Venetian for dinner at Valentino’s, which was most excellent, and then saw the Blue Man Group, which was outstanding. Walked back to Caesar’s, decided to just break down and get a room at the Luxor, and was pleasantly surprised when they offered me two free nights in a Pyramid room! A very excellent day

Flew out at Thursday 7:10am after only 3 hours of sleep. Took a cab over to Caesar’s and had a quick breakfast with my folks, then dropped my bags off in their room and we went over to the SEMA convention. It is huge: over 120,000 people pr-eregistered. Wandered around the trade show for several hours, spied all kinds of nifty and bizarre things (a 31″ SUV tire with a 25 aspect ratio???), met up with Jay Goldberg, listened to a pitch from GE Capital Services for private-branded credit cards (actually a pretty good deal), and got my dad a new domain (http://jerrycwhite.com/). My mom and I headed back to the hotel where I took a nap, then when my dad got back we went and had a wonderful dinner at Lawry’s, then went to MGM to see KA, the new one from Cirque de Soleiel, which was outstanding…the guys in the revolving cages were unbelievable. Walked back to Caesar’s, and promptly went to sleep, having spent a whole day in Vegas with placing a single bet.