Vegas 2014

This year Dave, Adam and I stayed at the Wynn Encore and it was a blast!

 

Panoramic View.

 

The view from our room was nice!

 

Here's a Wheel Of Fortune win!

 

This was the first Vegas trip that UMass made it to the tourney so I finally got the chance to lose some money betting on UMass.

 

The last night I couldn't lose at a Black Jack table in the Encore and took $700 profit off the table.

 

Highlights of the trip included the Wynn buffet, playing $10 craps right outside our tower elevator with a couple from Vancouver, and being up $700 on the trip!

Vegas 2013

This year Dave, Vishad, Adam and I got a Suite in the Venetian with a strip view. The Venetian was nice but it is weird how you have to take an elevator to another lobby to then get in an elevator to your room.

 

Just about as soon as we put our stuff down and started walking the casino Dave found a gave giving away WILDS.

 

Good news is he won a bunch - bad news is they took his social sec # on a post-it note and have him a W2-G

 

We also found the mechanical ponies on our trip. I think our room spent 6 hours there with the same 2 other couples.

 

After "breaking" the machine 2 times each and being hand paid for all the quarters they owed us our room took out over $2,000 from this machine. We all had already won too much and while they were hand paying us we all hit the 200-1 winner.

 

Everyone won so much that we had to pose with our buckets of quarters!

 

 

On this trp we also passed a roulette table in the Mirage that was DUE!

It was so due that there is a red number off the screen. Everyone at the table was betting black. So much so that they lost their shirts and when black came up no one had money on it. After 19 spins in a row without a black it finally came up. The "dealer" said they had never seen anything like this and they were motioning to the other roullette "dealers" to check out their wheel!

 

London

Seems like forever ago but right before Anna was born I was in London for work. We were pretty busy so I didn't take many pictures but the group I was working with at the time was awesome and we had fun out a dinner and even hit up a London club.

 

 

 

 

 

Ew. Prawn pringles - and they look too much like the original.

Blogging from the Airport

From first-hand experience - here are a few things you do NOT need to take out of your bag before going through the x-ray:

iPad
Nintendo Wii
iPhone (obviously)

When my bag makes it through the x-ray I always feel like I need to grab it and get our of there before they change their mind!

TSA update: No one tried to "touch my junk" and I didn't have to go through the full body scanner!

Manny and Brady wish you a very "Manny" Christmas!

Gillette Stadium

Working on Gillette has some perks - here is my latest "business trip". Nothing better than seeing "P&Gers" trying to kick field goals in the freezing cold!

Also Joia was there!

Stadium thoughts - the filed looks smaller form the stands than it does on TV. Every seat had a great view. BUT once you are on the filed - it seems HUGE. I can't believe how far Brady can throw a football!

Also the filed goal posts are A LOT narrower in person than they look on TV.

March Madness: Vegas 2010

So the annual Vegas trip was a hit again this year. I think at my count we had ~15 total there for the group dinners and clubs so a good sized crowd this year but down from the peak of 22 a few years ago.

TV Madness:
We had a plasma TV in our room - and a TV in the mirror in our bathroom - so no excuses about missing parts of the basketball games!



Nugget Madness:
McDonald's was running a special - 50 piece McNuggets for $9.99. It's MADNESS I tell you!



Building Madness:
The $10,000,000,000.00 complex of city center is Impressive! Unfortunately it is hard to get a good image to really give you the impression of being there - but the leaning Veer buildings are awesome!



These are pictures I took:


This one (though blurry) gives the best impression of being there and seeing the buildings "lean":


Craps Madness:
We LOVE to play craps. If you've seen a craps table - it's the loud, crowded table where people are cheering (assuming the table is "hot"). I'm sure I've mentioned before the reason I love craps is that the entire table is winning and losing together - unlike blackjack where you could be winning a ton while your buddies at the table lose their shirt - a good time at the craps table is a good time for all!

Also - the craps table is run by 4 of the most experienced "dealers" at the casino - the money and bets come and go very fast - in fact you as a player have to know all the rules and what you should be paid because the dealers have so much to keep track of you have to watch for mistakes. The dealers are impressive in what they are able to handle versus what a black jack dealer has to do (which isn't much by comparison).

So it's no surprise that technology is attempting to automate many jobs - including casino dealers. We played on the world's first "Rapid Craps" table where you roll the dice live just like normal but the bets are input into video terminals. The craps table makes a lot of sense to attempt this - as 1 person could run a table instead of 4 - however it was slower than usual - but video screens don't need health care etc so I am sure it will be the wave of the future of craps.




Cats Madness:
Since we have cats now - this slot machine caught my eye:




Bar Madness:
One of the most different things we did was go to the Minus5 bar in Mandalay Bay where it is -5 C (23 F) and they give you coats and gloves - and everything inside is made of ice from the bar to the seats to your glasses. Here are some pictures from their website since you aren't supposed to bring electronics in there:











When you are in the bar for about 40 minutes you are pretty much frozen. Our bar tender was this tiny girl who had ear-muffs, hat, huge winter gloves, and was still shivering - I think she said her shift is 7 hours - hopefully she gets some breaks to warm up.

Speaking of - when you get out of the bar you can also warm up in Vegas too...


I meant because it's hot in the desert!

I Should Be in Costa Rica

Here is a picture from last Christmas. Notice that I am asleep in a hammock with a coke in my hand. Also notice the camouflage hawaiian shirt (I actually bought it in Costa Rica the previous year). We saw the movie 4 Christmases this evening - it was entertaining - but my main takeaway was plan another trip to a warm area next Christmas.

Merry Christmas from Costa Rica!

Merry Christmas from Costa Rica!

ALCS Game 3 - Power Outage

Dave and I drove up to Cleveland Monday afternoon (1/2 day from work) only to get home at 3am to go to work the next day. We met a friend of ours from Cleveland (for those at my table at Dave and Rachel's wedding, it was our friend Tony - the fan of the Pittsburgh Indians and the Cleveland Steelers). Anyway all and all the Jake was a great place to see the game, we had a great time with Tony, and as you can see we had great tickets, 15 rows off the field. Unfortunately the sox decided to take the night off so we lost 4-2. Could have been worse.... we could have gone to game 4.

National Anthem


First Pitch

Vacation - Take #1

Well we are on vacation for the week, which means Shelby had to go to camp. Here is a letter I wrote to Shelby to make the transition easier:

Dear Shelby,
We just dropped you off to go to Camp Julie and I already miss you. When we got home the house seemed so quiet without you. Even though you never say a word I miss talking to you. Stay strong, we'll be home soon, and stay off those carbs (loaves of bread).

Love,
- Tom

P.S. - Be sure to thank Julie for taking good care of you with some licks.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Fourth!

Costa Rica in a few images

Waterfall:
If you look closely to the bottom-right you can see someone standing near the falls to get an idea of how huge this thing was.

Volcano:
This is an active volcano, during the day you can see rocks tumble down the side, at night you can see them glow and breakup falling down the side of the volcano.

Monkeys:
The rain forests are pretty amazing!

Pacific Ocean:
The Pacific Ocean made for great bogie boarding, the waves were so big that they really beat you up. If you fell off your board, you had a few seconds of being disoriented as to which way is up or down in the water.

Finally: Costa Rica

Well, it's been long enough between updates (I want to set expectations low so I can over-deliver). We spent Christmas with the in-laws in Costa Rica, here's the blog.

Fun Facts:
Costa Rica does not have a military. It's true. When I really thought about this and let it set in, it's mind-boggling coming from a US perspective. I guess they don't have anyone to attack for oil :)

There is no income tax from what I could figure from being there and a show on the Bodog.com guy who lives there. There is a 13% sales tax, tips run 10%.

Pros
Obviously the weather is beautiful. It was funny to celebrate Christmas in such a warm area. The locals celebrate with red and green fireworks! Costa Rica is becoming a big tourist destination and for good reason. They have "micro-climates" and in a relatively small area you can visit the city, a rain forest, a volcano and hot springs and the beach. And we did it all.

Highlights would be seeing rocks tumble down the volcano during the day and then seeing them glowing red and breaking up as they fell down the mountain at night. The volcano also was making an eeeeerie "'whooshing" sound, like an engine, but it really can only be described as the "breath" of the mountain. Creepy, you sure do feel small next to this powerful thing.

We also visited the pacific ocean and did some serious boogie boarding. The water is beautiful and warm. I'd guess around 75+ degrees, almost on the verge of not refreshing (which I enjoyed because I could stay in all day). Even just the 3-4 foot waves were enough to really mess you up if you wiped out.

One last pro for this entry is that in the city of San Jose you can have anything delivered. If you want McDonald's, someone shows up on a moped with your burger. AWESOME! We also had pizza hut there and both were pretty close to the U.S. Don't' eat the beef there, it's not the same and it's not good. Eat chicken.

Cons
Besides the fact that I really do appreciate all that the U.S. has to offer, there were some things in Costa Rica that would be hard to get used to. One would be that people don't flush their toilet paper. It goes in a trash can next to the toilet. needless to say in the public restrooms you really have to hold your breath. Yikes!

Also the driving in Costa Rica is CRAZY! You really have to experience it for yourself, but basically the mountain roads have cliffs on the sides with no rails, and people are constantly trying to pass uphill. In the city there are pedestrians everywhere and there is too much to watch out for. Driving in the U.S. is a piece of cake, which is probably why we can multi-task with our beverages, cell phones, Garmins and DVD players. One other tid bit, most items in Costa Rica are 2x what they are here, so cars are really expensive, so are most electronic items etc.

Cultural Tidbit
Speaking of the crazy roads, in Costa Rica if there is a fatality on the road (most often a pedestrian being struck) they permanently paint a symbol in the road about the size of a car (the entire lane). It is a heart with a halo over it in a box, all yellow and to some degree you can get an idea for how dangerous an intersection is by the density of these symbols. If you spend some time thinking about this it is really an amazing statement of confidence and strength, here in the U.S. we would probably prefer to act like nothing has happened.

Funny Story
We went though the rainforest and saw some monkeys, poison frogs, snakes and spiders. But the best thing we saw was some large gentleman on a dirt bike peddling uphill with a desktop computer on his knee bouncing up and down.

Hall of Fame Hiccup

For those of you who have seen me play softball you know that I was on my way to the Hall of Fame, with my rare combination of hitting power and stunning good looks. However my Hall of Fame induction ceremony may have been postponed indefinitely today.

I have been sick since last Thursday, and with the impending trip to Costa Rica, I went to the doctor to get over this cold. He gave me the usual - antibiotics, a nasal pray, and told me to continue to take my decongestant. However because of the impending trip, he wanted me to get better sooner, so he said as long as I wasn't opposed to a shot, he would recommend one.

Some of you may know I am not a big fan about shots (or getting stung by a bee, it's like a flying needle). However I just wanted to get better soon so I said fine, let's do the shot thing.

When the nurse came in I was going to take off my sweater so she could reach my arm when she informed me that it was not going to be a shot in the arm. In disbelief I said "excuse me?" but alas there I was getting a shot in the butt.

Apparently it was a steroid shot, something to do with calming down inflamed nasal passages and other whos-a-ma-whats-its. I couldn't help but have some vision of Mark McGuire going through this routinely and decided that I have to give more credit to baseball players on steroids because this is not an experience I want to go through on a routine basis.

Napping at inconvenient Times

I took Meghan to the Doctor's on Monday to have her arm looked at. Meghan had hand surgery the week before to have bone from her wrist put into her finger. The cast seemed to be pinching her so we went in to have it looked at.

I drove her over at 8am and we waited about 45 mins in the waiting room as they must have been running late. When we were finally called in I went back with Meghan for moral support. They took her cast off and looked at all of the stitches, everything looked good they said. So they thought a better cast would make her hand feel better, after about 20 mins of meeting with the nurse she took us into the casting room.

The casting room was tiny, with no seat for me so I stood. After maybe 10-15 minutes I was feeling hot so I took off my jacket, then I was feeling a little light-headed s I decided to sit in the chair in the hall. I guess Meghan wasn't feeling all that well and the nurse decided to get her a sprite in case Meghan was going to pass out. On her way out the door the Nurse saw me collapsed on the floor.

Last thing I remember I was sitting in the chair, when I woke up I was on the floor with my legs propped in a chair. When I came to I was mumbling about how I was sleeping and had no idea where I was. One of the nurses took this as an opportunity to tell me how concerned she was that I was having a seizure. I on the other hand was the least bit concerned about what she was saying because I didn't really know what was going on.

Needless to say the scene looked a bit laughable as I was lying on the floor with a can of sprite and a straw next to my head so I could drink without getting up. Meanwhile patients had to walk around me to get to their appointments. At one point the doctor came out in the hallway and said "what room is this patient from" and the nurses said I wasn't a patient.

When all was said and done one-armed Meghan drove us home. When the story got out at work I have been called a "fainter" but I clearly stated that women can faint, men just take naps at inconvenient times.

Back from the Honeymoon

We are back from Aruba, which was absolutely beautiful. The weather was warm (90s or so) and sunny every day, but there is a constant wind (trade wind) which keeps it feeling a little cooler. Many people burn there because the UV index is almost always 10+ (it's 30 miles from Venezuala) and with the wind they forget how long they have been in the sun. The beach was beautiful and had a nice palapas (palm tree beach umbrella). I will post pictures soon. Aruba has beautiful white sand beaches and the food is amazing. All of the food is imported and I had the best steak from Argentina. In general the food is well above average, but a bit pricey (not too bad, worth the price for sure). Everything in Aruba is imported except for Aloe. They make their own aloe lotions. Population on the island is 71,000.

INTERESTING FACT: Downtown in the local shops you get buy all of the Aruba t-shirts and souvenirs you can imagine, the funny thing is all of these items were made in the US and imported into Aruba to sell to American tourists.

In general we saw many people from the US, the dollar is accepted everywhere and english is one of the main languages. There also were a lot of folks from Europe and S. America which made "bikini watching" on the beach interesting.

WATCH OUT: We rented a car for a day to see the island, it takes about 1 hour to drive the length of the island. We almost got in an accident because the traffic lights are amazingly short. We were 3rd or 4th at a major intersection and I just assumed it was going to stay green for us, at the last minute I saw that we were running the red light and sped up to avoid the on coming traffic. I think the lights last about 10 seconds or so. Only a few cars get through each time, but there really isn't much traffic.

BABY BEACH: You will hear a lot about baby beach but it requires a 45 min drive to discover that it is 1/2 a mile from a huge oil refinery and when we went they didn't have any bathrooms there. Baby beach is nice because the water is no more that 5 feet deep at all parts (it's like a little cove) but we enjoyed the "High Rise" hotel beaches so much it wasn't worth the hassle to rent the car and drive and be exposed to who knows what.

All in All Aruba gets a "must visit" rating. For comparison The Bahamas (Paradise Island) gets a "don't bother rating" and Hilton Head Island gets a "great to visit" rating, especially for nice beaches in the US, though the food was only OK.

That's all for now, post a comment already!!

Travel from the UK

OK, so of course I am not a HUGE fan of traveling for work, especially only a few weeks before getting married, but to wake up in the UK on Wednesday to the terror warnings was a little too much. We were scheduled to fly out the next day, 8/11, and pretty much all over the news was the fact that even though they had arrested 24 individuals, they still thought up to 40 were out there so the extreme restrictions were imposed on all travel in the UK especially to the US.

So here we are, calling our corporate safety team (who was useless). They reco'd taking a cab to Paris (likely $1,000 or more) and flying out of Paris. We felt that we'd be safest in London since they had the most strict security.

We got to the airport at 6am for our 10am flight. The Flight boarded at 12 and we sat on the tarmac until 4pm. We knew we were in trouble when they said "we are being required to stay here until all the passenger logs are transferred to and approved by the US, and now for a movie". I saw 4 movies during that trip:
1. RV
2. Stick It
3. Lucky Number Slevin (Which was my favorite!)
4. Thank Your for Smoking (Another awesome movie)

We played a game in called "find the Air Marshals" and I won because I spotted the guy next to me within minutes. For national security reasons I won't divulge my keen perceptive skills online. I then ID'd another Air Marshall by how he interacted with my guy. One of my friends ID'd a 3rd, and after we landed we found out that we actually had 4 Air Marshals in Business Class alone! (we were right on our 3 of 4). After we landed I hinted to the guy next to me that he was an Air Marshall (I figured I wouldn't blow his cover while in the air) and he was subtle but let me know I was right, so I thanked him and told him we really appreciated everything he was doing for us.

Final thoughts on London, basically all the prices for food and clothing etc in London were identical to the US but in Pounds, therefore everything costs double! I couldn't believe it and pretty soon you had to stop doing the conversions because it was depressing. Needless to say we spent a lot of money (I didn't have a dinner under $60 and they weren't fancy (and of course in the UK they weren't that good. If you haven't been, just know that they don't care as much about food and the meals are pretty poor).

Cheers.

Vegas Wedding

We just got back from Vegas for a friend's wedding. It was a blast, I was trying to think how much of it was because of the Vegas setting versus the fact that my friend is just a crack up and threw a great party. His reception included an awards ceremony complete with certificates where he basically just made fun of his friends. It was a blast, all in all the Vegas wedding was a relaxed and fun time with an intimate setting (48 people total). It was a 5 hour ceremony and reception and all in all you'd have to say it's the way to go. From what I understand the wedding chapel took care of the details saving the couple all of the hassle.

In other Vegas news, we had heard through the grapevine that Lucky's 24/7 Diner in the Hard Rock Hotel had a "Gambler's Steak and Shrimp" special for $7.77 that was NOT on the menu. And we found out.... it's true. It's not listed on the menu, and it's about 1/2 the price of all of the other entrees. Part of the appeal I think is feeling like an "insider" and getting a great deal, and this special travels via word of mouth (just like this post). My comments on the meal, you get a decent size piece of steak, 3 grilled shrimp, a potato and a salad. I thought the steak was too peppery, but it certainly was a good deal.