Sea Urchin

I was off work on Tuesday and MiamiDon came home the same day. I made reservations for a nice steakhouse over at the MGM Grand called Craftsteak. They are running a special deal for MGM Grand employees through Sept. 15th. Anyway, at the last minute, we decided to take advantage of our 2 for 1 buffet coupons over at the Red Rock. That was a mistake!! I knew there was a reason I hadn't visited any buffets the whole time I've been living out here in Vegas - yuck!!!!! The food was just so so and the people were total white trash. All of the tables around us were filled with trash because the bussers/servers couldn't keep up with the traffic flowing in and out of that place. I can't figure out why people love buffets so freakin much. There is no way in hell I could ever eat my money's worth at one of those places so I'm glad we at least got the 2 for 1 deal. So, from now on I'm totally over the buffet thing - I'm not doing it anymore.

Earlier in the week I went out with some of the girls from work for Sushi. Oh lord! I've done the sushi thing before, but I usually just stick to the safe stuff like california rolls, shrimp and vegetable tempura or whatever teriyaki dish they have. But, at this place it's $21.00 all-u-can-eat for ladies after midnight, so I decided to be a little brave and try some new stuff. I had yellowtail - it was raw - but it was pretty good. I wasn't too grossed out. So, I stepped it up and I tried the eel. Okay - not terrible. Not great - but I lived through it. The next thing they stuck in my mouth without even telling me what it was and it was NASTY!



It was called uni (short for sea urchin). Oh my god. It was yellow and slimy and gross and I'm NEVER eating it again. At least now I know what it looks like so they won't be able to force feed me that crap next time.


Well, I gotta head to work in a few minutes. I haven't played any poker at all in the past few weeks. Except of course draw poker. I hit two four of a kinds the other day at the MGM after work and I cashed out for about $90.00. I wish it was that easy when I play live.

Happy Monday

I feel like I haven't blogged in forever!! MiamiDon has been out of town all weekend - he's in St. Louis visiting family and I've just been working the past few days. I haven't even spent any time in the casino gambling because I'm trying to save.

I know that tonight was the season finale of Entourage, but I haven't gotten the chance to watch it yet. Thank god for HBO in demand. If it wasn't for channel 1, I'd miss all of my favorite HBO shows.

I had my hair done last week - I'm really liking it. I go to see my girl about every 8 - 10 weeks and she hooks me up with all kinds of different shades of red - I always like it. Here's a picture...



In case you were wondering why I moved to Las Vegas this year instead of living in beautiful sunny Florida - here's why...

KEY WEST, Fla. - A hurricane watch was issued Sunday for the Florida Keys and Gov. Jeb Bush ordered a state of emergency in anticipation of Tropical Storm Ernesto.

Ernesto, which had strengthened into a hurricane for about 10 hours, weakened back into a tropical storm with top sustained winds of 50 mph by early evening, the National Hurricane Center said.

Still, the Miami-based hurricane center said the storm could reclaim its hurricane status before reaching the southeastern coast of Cuba on Monday morning.

"It certainly looks like it's going to impact a significant portion of Florida before it's all over," said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center.

Florida has been hit by eight hurricanes in the past two years.

----------------------------

I lived in South Florida for exactly two years (the same two years they refer to above). I moved here 6 months ago after we were hit with Hurricane Wilma. We didn't have power for 13 days. I had enough!! Delray Beach was beautiful and the winters were fantastic - but hurricane season was just plain torture.

Random Photo Dump Below


Don playing at the Red Rock...



Smokkee playing at the Red Rock...



I haven't put up any pictures of my favorite supermodel lately...



The Redneck version of a beer holder...



Have a good Monday everyone!!

Gambling Weekend

I definitely can't complain about working too much. I've had the last 4 out of 5 days off from work and I'm definitely enjoying my time off. On Friday MiamiDon and I met up with Pauly over at the Red Rock for some quality gambling togetherness. I was actually running pretty hot that day too. We started off watching football and baseball in the sportsbook as I played draw poker. I was hitting some small pots and some flushes and straights with a couple of full houses thrown in there for good measure when I looked down and noticed quad 3's on my screen. I love that!!!!! I turned my initial $20.00 into $95.00 and cashed out.



I tried to focus on the games for a few minutes, but apparently I have A.D.D. when there are slot machines in the vicinity so I left the sportsbook in search of a Lucky Lemmings machine. I didn't have to walk far. I sat down and put in a $15.00 voucher that I never cashed in from my last trip and I was off! I hit the bonus round twice I think and my little lemming guy was scuba diving finding treasure chests and then he found a space suit and he flying around picking treasure satellites or whatever - anyway, I turned that $15 into about $45 in like 10 minutes so I cashed out.

I walked back over to the sportsbook and persuaded the guys to go play craps with me. There was only one $5.00 game running and of course it was the most crowded game. We had to stand back and wait for some people to leave. I rushed in first when I saw someone edging away from the table and I put down $100.00. I promptly lost that in about 6 minutes. Don and Pauly got spots right next to me after I plunked down my next $100.00 and we got HOT. Pauly had a great writeup about it. Apparently my cleavage was a lucky charm for the table...



I don't remember how long we played for, but I know I cashed our for about $250.00. So, I made fifty bucks and had a blast.

After craps we had dinner over at T-Bones. YUMM! That place is so freakin good. I had the lobster bisque as an appetizer and then I had the crabcake appetizer as my entree. It was definitely enough food!

I worked Saturday night - made some decent money. Nothing too exciting to report on about work except that we hired another girl. That means that there are now 2 people that have less seniority than me and I'm not the "new girl" anymore. YAY!!!!! That makes me extremely happy.

This is a picture of the belt I ordered online and I'm still waiting for it to arrive in the mail...



Yesterday I went to the Red Rock pool during the day with a few friends. It was HOT! I sat in the pool for most of the time and watched people get drunk and fall down. Apparently, the area surrounding the pool gets very slippery when wet. I really got a good laugh everytime someone fell. I actually ran into some co-workers over there because they had a cabana right next to ours. I met some strippers from Seamless and they gave me some 2 for 1 passes. Wasn't that nice? Strippers are the best and so friendly!

After laying out at the pool, I met Grubby and Pauly and Don over at the Sahara for the 7 p.m. Tournament. I lasted longer than Don and Pauly, but Grubby outlasted us all. He was three away from making the money though, so that definitely sucked.

I found my way over to the craps table after the tournament and I was sucked in once again. I was down $60.00 in a matter of minutes, but then the table got hot and I ended up cashing out for like $230.00 I think. I made about $130.00, so I re-couped my poker losses and then some. Fun day! I love days off. I'm off today too, but I go back to work tomorrow.

Thanks for the helpful suggestions regarding my picture problem. I still get error messages when I try to post pictures using blogger. So, I downloaded Photobucket using Pokerwolf's suggestion and it seems to be working - yay!!

Thursday Night Off

I was hanging out at home tonight (before work) waisting as much time as humanly possible. I was hoping for a phonecall from working telling me not to come in. They totally over-staffed us this week because of the Cisco Systems convention staying in our hotel. We have over 3000 people from Cisco staying at the MGM this week and both Monday and Tuesday nights it was crazy!!!! I loved it. There is nothing I like more than people on a "field trip" to vegas with corporate credit cards who aren't afraid to spend money!!!! Anyway, I'm sitting at home waiting for the call because I knew Cisco had an event tonight and the restaurant was probably going to be dead - but the call never came!!! I thought for sure they were going to call me off work tonight and I was really hoping they would. So, I packed my work bag and headed out the door with a sad face. I'm halfway to the strip and sitting in a tiny bit of traffic when the phone rang and my manager told me I didn't need to come in tonight. I KNEW IT!! Why can't they ever get their shit together and call me before I leave the house?? UGH! Oh well. I decided to head to the Fashion Mall since I was almost to the strip and I haven't done any quality shopping in the past few weeks. If you've been keeping up then you'll remember that the last time I was on a shopping spree at the Fashion Mall, I was very rudely called into work with NO notice on my day off and I was unable to finish shopping for a belt. BTW - I am still waiting for my knockoff to arrive in the mail.

Something is seriously wrong with my blogger because I am unable to post any pictures and this causes a huge dilemma for me. I'm the picture girl dammit!!!!!!!

Anyway, I'm happy to say that I'm off tonight and I'm off tomorrow and it's almost like a weekend - woo hoo! My first order of business for tomorrow is to get my hair done at 9:00 a.m. I'm having the color touched up and I'm getting a trim and it's VERY MUCH needed. My hair is a mess right now. Can't wait to get it done!!!!

What's up with this JonBenet Ramsey stuff? I was REALLY excited to see that they finally made an arrest after all of these years. I was honestly thrilled for the parents because I know a lot of people think they did it - but I never bought into that theory. I think there's something else going on and I was happy to see this case put to rest. BUT NO!!!!! They have to splash this new stuff all over the news about how nothing actually fits into place and this guy very well might not be the killer after all. I mean, he said he picked the girl up from school, but it was winter vacation for christ sakes. He also said that he drugged her, but there were no drugs found in her system. I'm at a loss. All I know is that he looks like a serial killer for sure. What a weirdo!!

After shopping for a few hours, I stopped by my favorite Thai food place and got some dinner to bring home. I love thai food with a passion. I think I eat it at least twice a week if not more. Anyway, I'm seriously slacking in the 45 SNG Challenge and it ends this Sunday. So, I sat down and played two $5.00 games. The first one I played, I went out in 12th place. YUCK! The 2nd one I played is still in session. As it is now though, I'm in the money, but I'm severely short stacked and hoping to double up so I can get some more points. Okay, I got 5th place and I'm plenty happy with that. I was so short stacked so I'm just happy to have come in the money.

I'm hoping to play some live poker tomorrow. Craps would be fun too and then of course we can't leave out Lucky Lemmings - my new slot machine of choice!!

Halfway there...

Okay, 4 days down and 3 more to go until I get a day off. ONE day off - not two - just one. I'm really not complaining though. What would I be doing if I was off work? Definitely gambling and shopping. Finding new and exciting ways to spend money. Because let's face it - I love to spend money.

I decided to order a knock off belt online for the low low price of $40.00. I'm waiting for it to arrive in the mail. Here's a picture...

Nevermind - no picture at this time since blogger isn't cooperating.

I'm a tad bit worried that they were all one size fits all. I mean, how does one size fit EVERYONE????? It might be one size for plus sized women and then I'm kinda screwed. That's why I hate buying online, but it was a good deal and if it looks exactly like the picture, then I'm happy because those belts are REALLY expensive and I'm saving like $400.00.

Last night I had a table of french guys - there was four of them and they ran up a nice little $300.00 bill. They were generous enough to leave me $20.00. The night before that I had a table of people from England. I knew they were big trouble. They had a check that was $300.00 and they left me $20.00. I think that every single European person must think that $20.00 is an acceptable tip no matter what the price of the check is. The other servers tell me I was lucky to get anything at all. I guess they were right.

I think I have another 2 or 3 weeks until I'm off probation and I can't wait. As it is now, when you are in your first 90 days on the job, they can let you go for any reason under the sun or just for no reason. If they don't like your hair, your makeup, your smile - doesn't matter - they can fire you. So, I feel like I've been walking on egg shells since I got there. Once I make it though probation though, I'm golden. I get full benefits and I have a union to back me up. It's SO hard to get fired once you make it through probation. They have a point system and you are allowed to get like 10 points before they let you go and THEN, the points re-set every 6 months. It's kind of crazy. I know it frustrates the managers because I've noticed that a lot of the bussers and some of the servers have really shitty attitudes and there's nothing the managers can do about it.


Damn - this is pretty amazing....

Miracle Kitten Survives 300 Mile Trip Under Truck


(CBS4 News) IDAHO Quite a cat commotion in Idaho when an eight week old kitten is miles away from home after it had the ride of its life.

The beautiful black and white kitten, stowed away on board a truck traveling from Ashton, Idaho to Boise. But this kitty wasn’t inside the truck; she was underneath it, clutching and holding on tight to the undercarriage of the truck for the entire 333 mile journey.

Colleen Lordemann says she first spotted the kitty in Ashton, meowing loudly outside of a hotel when her dog was barking at it.

But 300 miles later, Lordemann heard the fortunate feline meowing again because when she got home, she discovered it was under the vehicle, holding on with all four paws, the entire trip.

Lordemann is calling the courageous cat, “Miracle Kitten” and plans to keep the kitten until its owner can be found.

Mr. and Mrs. Supermodel

Last night was a blast. I'm so pissed though because I have no pictures! The memory card was out of the camera while I was taking all of the pictures, so I have no photos of the Supermodel and Mrs. Supermodel. I assure you that they are a beautiful couple and they were looking very runwayish last night. We met them over at the Wynn around 7:15 just in time for the 7:30 showing of La Reve. It was an AWESOME show!!



If you are ever in town and you want to see a show, I highly recommend this one. I hope to see O over at the Bellagio sometime soon though, so we'll see which one is better.

After the show we went over to Tao at the Ventian for a really really good meal. Yummmm - I love Asian food and this place is so HOT.



Everyone in that place was good looking I swear! The service was excellent and I didn't find it to be too pricey. I had a great time. Can't wait til supermodel comes back into town!!

I have to work for the next 7 days straight with no days off - so I don't suppose I'll have much to blog about. I'll try to come up with something though.

Belt Dilemma

Yesterday was my day off. I got up and took a leisurely drive over to the Fashion Mall to do some shopping. I was feeling pretty good and I've been working a lot lately so I felt like I was in good shape (moneywise) to do some shopping and not feel any guilt. My main goal was to find a new pair of closed toed shoes for the cocktailing outfit that I sometimes have to wear and I also wanted to get a belt. Not just any belt, a Kippy belt. I'll get to that later. Anyway, I was walking in and out of stores and all of a sudden I felt poor. I always forget how freakin expensive the stores are out here in Vegas. I mean, do I really want to spend $150 on a pair of shoes that I'm only going to be wearing to work? Not really. If I was wearing the cocktailing outfit every night, then I would do it, but I'm wearing it once a week or twice a month. My dilemma is that they have to be comfortable shoes because when I do wear them, I'll be on my feet for several hours a time and as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. So, I finally broke down and paid $70.00 for a pair at Nine West - I'll be wearing them tonight actually.

My next goal was to find a belt. The one I REALLY want and the one that started this obsession in my head is over at the MGM. I kept seeing it in the window of this boutique and finally I went in to check out the price - imagine my shock when I saw that it was $445.00. For a belt!!!!!! Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful belt, but can I really pay that much money for a belt? Here - I'll show you a picture...




This isn't the exact belt, but it's very similar. The one I want isn't quite so over the top, but you get the idea. They use real pony hair and swarovski crystals and that's why they are so expensive.

I decided that my biggest goal yesterday was to find one that I love for a cheaper price. The best I could do was find one that I like A LOT for $300.00 over at Bebe. I think $300.00 is still a lot of money for a belt. I'm so torn.

My work called me at 4 p.m. in the middle of my shopping spree and asked me to come in. UGH!!!! The last thing I wanted to do was go to work on my day off, but since I'm still on probation, I figured it would look really good if I went in. I'm glad I did too cause we were busy and I made lots of money. In fact, I've made so much in the past few days, that I am seriously thinking about going ahead and buying one of these belts.

Okay, enough about shopping. I have one day off (tomorrow) and that's it for the next 9 days. I guess I'm going to be busy. Tomorrow I'm going to see La Reve at the Wynn with Supermodel and Mrs. Supermodel and MiamiDon. Should be FUN! I'm looking forward to it.

This Week's Agenda

There's a new bar/restaurant that opened right by my house - it's literally within walking distance and it's called P.T.'s. I guess they are located all over Las Vegas, but I just walked into this one for the first time about 2 weeks ago (it happened to be the first night they were open) and I just happened to get off work and wanted something to eat. I sat at the bar and waited for my food and played a little draw poker. Good stuff! I hit a 4 of a kind and I was happy and I cashed out for about $45.00. The next time I went in there my machine was taken so I sat down at a different one and proceeded to hit a few flushes, some full houses and then another four of a kind. This time I cashed out for about $60.00 and called it a night. Last night I went in again and hit the motherload. First I got a four of a kind with 8's and then I hit 4 aces!!!!!! Woo hoo!! You get 400 credits when you hit four aces and I only bought in for $20.00 I cashed out for about $150.00 and called it a night. I'm loving this new place. Food's not bad either. I know that my winning streak probably won't last, but for now I'm going to bask in the glow.

I'm looking forward to another episode of Entourage



tonight. Apparently the guys are going to be in Sin City! I can't wait. Maybe I'll run into them at the casino. ha ha

Of course we can't forget about the E True Hollywood Story. Tonight's subject is Kelly Ripa...



I love her and Regis! They are such a good team and they crack me up.

Last but not least, Days of our Lives is heating up! I'm looking forward to this week in Reality T.V. and Soaps. Ahhh - what an exciting life I lead.

Poker at the Red Rock

I've just been working a lot so I haven't had much time to post. I did manage a trip to the Red Rock Casino on Tuesday with MiamiDon and Smokkee - it was a great time. First off, we went to Cabo, it's a Mexican Restaurant inside the casino. It's not bad, but Diego is much much better.

After lunch we headed over to the poker room and put our names on the 1-2 NL list. There were about 6 people ahead of me, so I thought this might be a perfect time to scan the slot floor for a new machine. A while back when I was talking with Grubby, he mentioned that I might want to give Lucky Lemmings a try. I've already seen every bonus screen known to mankind over on Mr. Cashman and Lil Lucy, so I agreed that it's time to try something new. Lucy and Cashman have somewhat turned against me as of late. It seems that everytime I try to find a Lucky Lemmings though, someone is playing on it already. This time was no exception, but I marked the spot in my head and decided that I'd take a break from poker sometime later in the evening and head back over to Lemmings to give it a whirl.

I played pretty well over at the NL tables. At first I was seated at the same table as Don, but after eyeing the MONSTER stack at the other end of the table for about a half hour and after watching him call EVERY pre-flop raise EVERY single hand, I decided I didn't like this table. Yeah yeah, most people would have been salivating for that stack at the other end, but I found it intimidating, so I moved. It was a good move for me. My next table was very timid and folded to most continuation bets, and that's how I like it. So, I played for about 8 hours and I ended up winning $30.00. At one point I was down over $200.00, so I was pleased with my ability to stay patient and I was happy that I grinded back up.

I had a very FUN table too. I had a guy in Seat 2 that was calling me Bebe all night (I'm sure most of you can guess why). He actually was talking a lot of shit (in a nice way) to all of the players and brought a lot of energy to the table.

At one point I walked away for a few minutes and tested out the Lucky Lemmings machine. LOVED IT! I love that damn machine. I think I have a new favorite penny slot. I won $70.00 over there. I forgot to cash the ticket, so I'm still walking around with it in my purse. I have one from the Rio too that I need to cash in. Anwyay, the bonus rounds on Lemmings were hitting all over the place and I was very pleased with it.

Back on the work front, one girl got fired and another girl quit. The girl that quit was a cocktail waitress, so I'll be cocktailing over in the bar for a while - fun fun (not really). I have to go get one of those uniforms today actually. They hired a new girl and she started last night - so I am now officially NOT the new girl anymore - YAY!!!!! I'm so excited about that!!!!!

I was all set to post some pictures from the our poker session at the Red Rock the other day, but of course blogger is not cooperating, so no pictures today. Have a good weekend!!

Sunday with Smokkee and Tina Part II

So, I guess I'll finish this post today since blogger would only allow me to post 3 pictures yesterday. In fact, I think that everytime I create a new post, I'm only allowed to post 3 pictures and that's it. Why is that? Does anyone know how I can change that?

At any rate, on with the story. So, we get to the Sahara Tournament and there are quite a few players milling around - 180 players to be exact. Smokkee and I signed up immediately and we asked for different tables. MiamiDon came in a few minutes later to sign up and there was a line already. He's pretty sad about having to wait...



But, luckily he met some really cool guys while he was waiting in line as you can see here...



So, we played for a while and we all made it through the first break. I actually started out a bit aggressive, which is unusual for me, but it worked in my favor and I took an early chip lead at my table. Unfortunately, I picked a bad spot to go all-in with AQ and ran up against pocket kings. I flopped an Ace, but he flopped a King, so it was all over for me. Smokkee lasted the longest, but none of us came in the money. I had a good time though. All of the dealers at the Sahara are pretty cool and I was chit chatty with everyone at my table.

This was another one of the cool dealers...




After I busted out of the Tourney, I headed over to the penny slots and played Jackpot Party. Super Jackpot Party is my machine of choice, but it's a newer slot and they don't have it at the Sahara. So, anyway, I made about $30 playing Jackpot Party, so that was kind of fun. I hit the bonus round 3 times! Not too shabby.

Don and Ray...



After the Sahara, we went back over to the MGM and I guess it was about 11 p.m. or something like that and the poker room was PACKED!!!!! We put our names on the list, but after about a half hour, I was done. I realized how tired I was and I knew there was no way I was going to pull out a marathon session. I couldn't concentrate. So, we called it a night and headed home.

Today is my day off. Don is about to head down to the strip and pick up Ray and the 3 of us are heading out to the Red Rock for some live poker action. I'm gonna put a keno ticket in using my dad's numbers too. He had good luck with the keno at Red Rock last time he was here. I'm looking forward to it. More pictures to come!!