Viva!

Las Vegas! Ah, Jet Blue, the only way to travel. A flight so nice sets a good tone for the entire weekend that follows.

Touchdown 11pm Wednesday, let the insomnia begin. Wednesday night set the tone for my whole weekend. From the losses in gambling to the gluttony of Dennys and the late night wanderings. I was reminded of a valuable lesson i shoud have learned long ago. When playing "Let It Ride", if you don't win big in the first dozen hands or so, just walk away, otherwise it will take all your money. Unfornatually i didn't even learn this lesson on Wednesday, it took me until Friday to give up on "Let It Ride" and most other gambling attempts. I should have known my luck could be cursed after we checked into room 666 at the Imperial Palace (of course it didn't effect my roommates so much, so I probably just owed Vegas karma for my previous winning adventures).

Much of thursday was spent wandering the Strip. With stops at the immense m&m store and a variaty of casinos (visited most everything from Treasure Island through Mandalay Bay at some point). The cursed desert sun gave me a wonderful sunburn, even in november my pasty flesh is no match for the southern sun. But at least the weather was beautiful for the duration. The m&m store is a huge tourist trap, with 4 floors of merchandise (all i could think of was the Mel Brooks scene in Spaceballs, "Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money... is made"), but still you can't help yourself from spending a little money on some cutsy m&m action figure or souvenir. Went clubbin thursday night in the Mirage, Paul Okenfold played some good stuff, and the atmosphere was nice, however many of the other guests were definately trying to hard to prove something with their attire. This was the first of many major hits to the credit card. To escape my sleep deprived funk i drank $14 Red Bull and Vodkas all night ($8 for the vodka, $6 for the redbull), thought it was a ripoff, but apparently it is the norm in all the casino clubs.

Speaking of casino clubs, while much of the group was sipping expensive vodkas and drinking martinies at Red Square in Mandalay Bay, the birthday boy and i were having a blast next store with rum and cokes at Rum Jungle. This place took the club scene to levels I had never before witnessed. Not only where their gogo dancers dancing in cages, they had acrobats swing on trapezes and hanging from ropes over the bar. Quite a sight to behold, unfornatually the 30 minute wait to use the bathroom knocked the overall atmosphere of the place. The most rediculous part was that the bathroom had a separate line for the VIP section guests, who didn't have to wait at all, and made things even worse for us commoners. The evening was saved by closing the 9 Fine Irishmen bar in New York New York. Awsome band, as always, and fun crowd. I must reccomend this place if you can't get into NY,NY's piano bar, this is a fantastic alternative.

We slowed things down a little on Saturday, the whole group made it out to chill at a bar and watch the Ohio State v. Michigan football spectacular. Saturday night was spent at a comedy show, part of Cesars Palace Comedy Festival. We attended a midnight show featuring Brian Posehn, Zach Galifianakis, and Sarah Silverman (aka Sarah Silverman and her magical friends Weirdo and Beardo). Even got to see celebrities like Jay More and Fred Willard in the audience. The show was awsome, with Zach Galifianakis stealing the show of course. You can check out some of his bits on YouTube, but for true comedy see Out Cold, where he has some of the best "laugh out loud" scenes around.

I spent a little more money gambling and wandering on Sunday before catching an 11pm red-eye flight back to Dulles. Upon arriving home at 8am i took a quick 5 hour nap at home and went into work for a full day afterward. I hope to someday readjust to a normal east coast time schedule...

Happy Turkey Day to all!!

Only in DC

One of the great DC living experiences takes place on election night. Where else do bars offer competing happy hours and expect a full house on a Tuesday night, all just to watch election returns. Many DC area residents work in government and try to ignore politics on a daily basis, however election night is different. A significant change in government can result in changes of the work life of many of us locals (democrats usually give bigger raises to civilian government employees :-). If you missed out on it this year, I must insist that you hit up a great election night party in two years time, it will be huge. And lets hope for a big raise this year...

The most wonderful time of the year...

Ah Halloween, that once yearly celebration of imagination. What's there not to love, the candy, the costumes, the parties.

Spent my Halloween weekend hitting up a gigantic hair 80s cover band at the Clarendon Grill on Friday night. I really enjoy the Grill, especially the super short and affordable cab ride home when I don't feel like walking in my ridiculous "Atomic Wedgie" costume. Saturday was spent with the massive "Nightmare on M Street" downtown bar crawl. We luckily made it out early and had some good times before the inevitable, massive crowd push. Was a great time for costume observations. Not sure what was up with all the adult Rainbow Bright costumes, but it appears the costume companies are getting caught up with the huge 80s nostalgia obsession of my 20 somethings generation. My other random costume observation is that, in my opinion, the Borat movie owes much of its success to the free publicity by one in twenty costumed people portraying the high-fiving Borat.

Halloween night itself was spent being much more mature. Hanging out at my friends Capital Hill place handing out candy to all costumed kiddies was plenty entertaining. The weather couldn't have been better and we hung at the outside patio sipping beers while waiting for the kids (their Trick'or'Treat escorts were often jealous :-). Can't wait till next year, I'm already plotting a costume.