Well hello again! I know it has been awhile, maybe about 6 weeks since my last post. We are safely "settled" into our house in Cincinnati; the boys are in school and doing fairly well. Our stuff is still on a boat from China and should be in Houston soon; hope we can get it by the end of the month.
We got our stuff out of storage and - wow! - all sorts of miscellaneous crap was found. We set up our craps table right away; I dealt for the 3 boys that night. By the end of the night, they were pressing their 6's and 8's and yelling at each other for sevening-out. They will be ready for Vegas in 10+ years!
Everyone is still getting adjusted to life back in the US; it took me a week to realize that I could buy anything I wanted at Target and not have to worry about fitting it in a suitcase. The boys are watching TV and memorizing every commercial that comes on. Martin will be a voice-over announcer when he grows up, as he is quoting every commercial out there.
Life is peaceful at the moment; the kids are not in many after school activities so our weekends are still fairly free and they are coming home on the bus at normal time. This will all change in March when they start spring sports/activities. We actually went to a movie this weekend - I took F & W to "Project Almanac" on Sunday afternoon (to kill time until the Super Bowl). Hoo boy. That whole movie was filmed from a camera phone perspective (a la Blair Witch). After an hour, I had to step out. I was physically sick - I felt like I was going to throw up with all of the movement of the camera. I don't do spinny rides well at amusement park, and watching this movie was like a 2 hour ride on the tilt-a-whirl. Ugh.
I don't want to spent too much time of the SuperBowl, except:
1. If the Browns ever get there, they will certainly lose it in the way that the Seahawks just did. And, if the Browns were in the Pats's shoes, they would drop the interception.
2. Deflate-gate: this is a serious charge that needs to be investigated. The non-elite teams (and fans of those teams) need to make sure that all 32 teams are playing on a level playing field.
I wish the investigation was completed by the Super Bowl. If it turns out the Pats were innocent, then the game was unfairly tarnished; and if it is found the Pats did cheat - a big if - then a disqualification would be the correct penalty. Now there is no way to punish them in an appropriate manner if - and again, a big if - if it was found they cheated.
Now on the Vegas! Vegas is this week; for many reasons, the trip has been moved up to February for this year. I'm sure we will go back to Championship weekend in March next year.
10 random thoughts about Vegas 2015:
1. Only 5 of us on the trip this year; I'm thinking we should use this trip as a convention for all the Golf Side Pool members out there. I think we should invite all 18 for 2016.
2. No golf this trip - which will be different. This means I need to find other activities to eat away some time and get me away from the tables; we've got bowling scheduled and probably 2 afternoons at the spa will happen.
3. Over/under on the number of hours all 5 of us are at the UTH table? I say 20.
4. I won't be jet lagged (I hope) this year! Could I actually get some decent sleep? I'm packing my gallon of ZzzzzQuil. Maybe I can go to bed before 1 am some nights......
5. I feel like my schedule won't be packed, like it was from 2011-14. We had to do the Target run, two golf rounds, 3 dinners...plus my non-existent sleeping schedule; it seemed I didn't have much time to relax. Now, I think there will be plenty of downtime and nap time available.
6. Still trying to figure out my betting/session strategy for each game. It's good to have an idea on how to bet -and how much - for each session. For examples, craps...if it's is a $15 table, what will I bet on for each roller? This should be known ahead of time and memorized so that I can fall back on it when we are all drunk Friday night ready to show the world we can roll. (hint: we can't).
7. Please drag me away from the baccarat tables.....
8. Can we gamble at more than one casino this year? Would love to head to the Aria at some point.....
9. In order, I'm excited about.....
a. UTH with the group
b. Craps with everyone
c. The occasional salon session
d. One salon roulette session
e. Drinking Don's drink in the Salon (the Hearth drink)
f. Grand Mariner Cinquinteniare
g. Grand Mariner at the Baccarrat table (um, see #7 above.)
10. I've never had a winning trip in Craps over the last 7 years... maybe this is the year to break that streak.......
We got our stuff out of storage and - wow! - all sorts of miscellaneous crap was found. We set up our craps table right away; I dealt for the 3 boys that night. By the end of the night, they were pressing their 6's and 8's and yelling at each other for sevening-out. They will be ready for Vegas in 10+ years!
Everyone is still getting adjusted to life back in the US; it took me a week to realize that I could buy anything I wanted at Target and not have to worry about fitting it in a suitcase. The boys are watching TV and memorizing every commercial that comes on. Martin will be a voice-over announcer when he grows up, as he is quoting every commercial out there.
Life is peaceful at the moment; the kids are not in many after school activities so our weekends are still fairly free and they are coming home on the bus at normal time. This will all change in March when they start spring sports/activities. We actually went to a movie this weekend - I took F & W to "Project Almanac" on Sunday afternoon (to kill time until the Super Bowl). Hoo boy. That whole movie was filmed from a camera phone perspective (a la Blair Witch). After an hour, I had to step out. I was physically sick - I felt like I was going to throw up with all of the movement of the camera. I don't do spinny rides well at amusement park, and watching this movie was like a 2 hour ride on the tilt-a-whirl. Ugh.
I don't want to spent too much time of the SuperBowl, except:
1. If the Browns ever get there, they will certainly lose it in the way that the Seahawks just did. And, if the Browns were in the Pats's shoes, they would drop the interception.
2. Deflate-gate: this is a serious charge that needs to be investigated. The non-elite teams (and fans of those teams) need to make sure that all 32 teams are playing on a level playing field.
I wish the investigation was completed by the Super Bowl. If it turns out the Pats were innocent, then the game was unfairly tarnished; and if it is found the Pats did cheat - a big if - then a disqualification would be the correct penalty. Now there is no way to punish them in an appropriate manner if - and again, a big if - if it was found they cheated.
Now on the Vegas! Vegas is this week; for many reasons, the trip has been moved up to February for this year. I'm sure we will go back to Championship weekend in March next year.
10 random thoughts about Vegas 2015:
1. Only 5 of us on the trip this year; I'm thinking we should use this trip as a convention for all the Golf Side Pool members out there. I think we should invite all 18 for 2016.
2. No golf this trip - which will be different. This means I need to find other activities to eat away some time and get me away from the tables; we've got bowling scheduled and probably 2 afternoons at the spa will happen.
3. Over/under on the number of hours all 5 of us are at the UTH table? I say 20.
4. I won't be jet lagged (I hope) this year! Could I actually get some decent sleep? I'm packing my gallon of ZzzzzQuil. Maybe I can go to bed before 1 am some nights......
5. I feel like my schedule won't be packed, like it was from 2011-14. We had to do the Target run, two golf rounds, 3 dinners...plus my non-existent sleeping schedule; it seemed I didn't have much time to relax. Now, I think there will be plenty of downtime and nap time available.
6. Still trying to figure out my betting/session strategy for each game. It's good to have an idea on how to bet -and how much - for each session. For examples, craps...if it's is a $15 table, what will I bet on for each roller? This should be known ahead of time and memorized so that I can fall back on it when we are all drunk Friday night ready to show the world we can roll. (hint: we can't).
7. Please drag me away from the baccarat tables.....
8. Can we gamble at more than one casino this year? Would love to head to the Aria at some point.....
9. In order, I'm excited about.....
a. UTH with the group
b. Craps with everyone
c. The occasional salon session
d. One salon roulette session
e. Drinking Don's drink in the Salon (the Hearth drink)
f. Grand Mariner Cinquinteniare
g. Grand Mariner at the Baccarrat table (um, see #7 above.)
10. I've never had a winning trip in Craps over the last 7 years... maybe this is the year to break that streak.......
