What did/did not work

While the 13-year old Leland checks with his 17-year old senior friend Wiz to compare notes and check whether it's "cool" to blog, I thought I'd post a list of things from Vegas this year that did and did not work.

What did work
- Not golfing first thing Thursday morning. Heck, not golfing on Thursday
- Getting in at a reasonable hour on Wednesday (say, 7 or so) instead of 11
- Shaking hands with everyone at 9:20 am wishing all a "Happy NCAA Day"
- Medium-priced dinners (Del Toro, Dos Caminos)
- Pai Gow Tiles
- Ultimate Poker
- Triple Action Blackjack (that game will keep me up nights this year as I think about that more and more)
- Blackjack Switch?!
- The Cabana (I don't care what any of you say, it's great to get away outside for a day)
- The Saturday night $25 Craps run - slowly becoming a tradition
- Most blackjack cards
- Newly-vacuumed craps tables
- Playing craps at the end of the table with the dealers on your left
- A massage. I need to have one earlier in the trip.
- Marquette stepping on the end line
- Mirage Sports Book
- The Tournament Preview that arrives on Tuesday - and the tradition of reading the book on the plane Wednesday afternoon
- The Breakfast burrito
- Eric's rule: 2 drinks for Eric = 7 drinks for Mer. I can hear Kermit complaining now, but geesh, I average maybe 1 drink a week during the year. Tops. So 2 drinks will affect me as much as 7 for a socialite like Kermit.
- The 6 am flight coming back. I recovered well from the trip. (As well as can be expected)

What did not work
- Going into the office on Wednesday and getting all stressed before vacation
- Staying at one place, gambling in another
- Having some members of our party staying at another hotel (I felt guilty not hanging out with Kermit more on the trip)
- No Women's lines.
- No TV's near the gambling areas of the Mirage
- Morel's. If we're going to do a steak dinner, then we go to S&W. Period.
- The lines at the Palazzo sports book. Awful. The clientele is terrible.
- Pai Gow Poker.
- (hoo boy) A second round of golf? Did anyone miss it?
- Downtown during the day. Wow. Depressing.
- The Sahara. Explain again why we went there? Oh yeah, the fire bet....
- Casino Royale on a Friday night. My God, I was the oldest one there (well, second oldest, as Kermit was with me....)
- The dimensions and dice at the IP
- The music in the Palazzo elevators. Did not create any sort of adrenaline rush.
- No NyQuil. Dammit Eric, pack NyQuil next year so you sleep better.
- Tom Collins. Boy, it failed me at the tables on Thursday and Friday.
- In N Out Burger. There. I said it. I'd rather have a Rally Burger any day.