Friday, February 6
Up again around 7:30 - a good 4 hours of sleep for the night. Today is a big day - it's Red Rock Bowling Day! There was a big debate about golf during the whole 3 month build-up to the trip. I finally made peace with the fact that golf - in February - was not worth the effort of lugging the clubs out there for one round; pair that with the fact that this would be the first round of the year and unknowns about the weather....I decided not to bring the clubs.
But bowling - of course! That would be the athletic event for the trip for all 5 of us. This would be the third year of bowling - and it's clear, the more people that go, the merrier.
But first- morning gambling. I wasn't in the mood for much excitement, so I met Don at the Pai Gow table for about an hour. What a disaster. I think I didn't win a hand for the first 15 hands dealt. I have a $400 loss documented for $25-$50 Pai Gow. That seems implausible....
We went to breakfast at the new Pantry restaurant at the Mirage - boy, was this diner badly needed. This place is in the spot where the old Blues Bar/Country Bar was, next to the Brazilian steakhouse. That area was dead for the past 5 years. The Pantry is a 24-hour breakfast diner that serves pastries and mainly breakfast - it was packed every time we went by. The food was good, quick and about at the cost you'd expect. Not a bad alternative to the buffet.
It was also Blue Jackets day! America's favorite hockey team was at home on Friday vs. the mighty Blues. Everyone in the party got a $10 Money Line ticket at +150; the game was never in doubt as Columbus cruised to a 7-1 win.
We left for Red Rock and the lanes around 1 pm (right after another short , losing craps session...). We got out there - the lanes were completely empty. They have 60 lanes in the complex; I'd guess that maybe 4 were in use when we arrived. We started the day with vodka and gin tonics, paired teams for the first game, and we were off.
There's something distracting about bowling on lane 33 of a 60-lane complex that is empty. It's like you are bowling in a field. There's nothing around you. It's hard to get any perspective. I took my stance on the "spots" on the lane - and my first ball hit the 7 pin and that's it. Something felt off. The next ball hit the 4 and the 8. 3 pins in the first frame.
It took me 4 frames to figure out what I was doing wrong - the "spots" that I line up on were set further back than other lanes. I was starting my approach way too far back. That threw everything off, and as a result, I had 14 through 3 frames. I rallied to break 140 for the first game.
We switched teams for game 2 (and more drinks) and I started off the game on the lane. Only one problem - we were bowling on alternate lanes (frame 1 on lane 33, frame 2 on line 34). For game 2, we were supposed to start on lane 34, but I bowled on 33. I rolled 9-spare, but nothing registered.
Now what? I asked for that to count, but to no avail. Roll it again. I took the challenge. I really, really, really wanted the strike and a big F you to Wiz/Layup. Alas, I rolled 9 again. Now the pressure was on me. I had to have this spare....and I did... a 9-spare for the re-do frame. No harm done.
We rolled a 3rd game, and then a 4th -where it was Mike and I vs Wiz and Derek; we gave them 0.5 pins, and around the 7th frame it looked like the match would end in a dead even tie (where we would lose by the hook). The games went quick; I think we rolled 4 games in less than 2 hours, and had 4 strong vodka/gin drinks each. We were all feeling good after the bowling.
What's next? Of course! The always-disasterous gambling at Red Rock. This year, again, did not disappoint. We got spots at the $5 craps table -and it started going downhill right away with nobody rolling well at all. I got in trouble for urging Mike to roll when he did not want to; of course, he did a "6-7" roll costing all of us a lot of money.
Then the dice came to me for the 2nd or 3rd time. I started to warm up; I hit 2 points and some numbers during the roll; I was close to getting back to even. The next point I set was 8. I rolled a few more numbers......
You guys know how I roll the dice, right? I like - well, love! - to have the dice bounce around. My ideal roll is to roll the dice low and hard, and have them bounce all the way back so both dice are on my side of the table after hitting the far wall.
Well, I rolled a low and hard one; the dice bounced around; one was boucing near the stick man; the dice showed 8. Winner!!!
"NO ROLL" yelled the pit boss.
What? It's an 8 !
"NO ROLL. The dice went in the dish."
Huh? No, they are both right there! A 6 and a 2! 8!
"NO ROLL. A dice went in the bowl, and a dice bounced out. We don't know if that was the original dice. No roll".
What? I was dumbfounded. Should I ask for the camera?
After some discussions where someone in our group - Wiz? - confirmed the dice hit the bowl - I rolled again. You can guess what it was.
So, I was pissed, everyone was mad, and we left. A few of the group had adventures trying to cash their chips - some of them missed the "Chips Only" sign hanging from a cashier window.- and we headed back to the Mirage.
It was about 5 pm...everyone was crashing from the drinks and we were all starving. We passed so many bad fast food joints on the way home - and we were not tempted to stop..... we all agreed on BLT at the Mirage; it was easy to find a table at 5:30 pm. The service was pretty bad - we waited a good 20 minutes for our bill, and Layup was incensed. Wiz got him even more enraged by tipping 35%.
It was 7 pm; I had a full stomach and was dead. Time for sleep.....so at 7:00 pm on a Friday night, I climbed into bed intending to sleep for 12 hours......
Up again around 7:30 - a good 4 hours of sleep for the night. Today is a big day - it's Red Rock Bowling Day! There was a big debate about golf during the whole 3 month build-up to the trip. I finally made peace with the fact that golf - in February - was not worth the effort of lugging the clubs out there for one round; pair that with the fact that this would be the first round of the year and unknowns about the weather....I decided not to bring the clubs.
But bowling - of course! That would be the athletic event for the trip for all 5 of us. This would be the third year of bowling - and it's clear, the more people that go, the merrier.
But first- morning gambling. I wasn't in the mood for much excitement, so I met Don at the Pai Gow table for about an hour. What a disaster. I think I didn't win a hand for the first 15 hands dealt. I have a $400 loss documented for $25-$50 Pai Gow. That seems implausible....
We went to breakfast at the new Pantry restaurant at the Mirage - boy, was this diner badly needed. This place is in the spot where the old Blues Bar/Country Bar was, next to the Brazilian steakhouse. That area was dead for the past 5 years. The Pantry is a 24-hour breakfast diner that serves pastries and mainly breakfast - it was packed every time we went by. The food was good, quick and about at the cost you'd expect. Not a bad alternative to the buffet.
It was also Blue Jackets day! America's favorite hockey team was at home on Friday vs. the mighty Blues. Everyone in the party got a $10 Money Line ticket at +150; the game was never in doubt as Columbus cruised to a 7-1 win.
We left for Red Rock and the lanes around 1 pm (right after another short , losing craps session...). We got out there - the lanes were completely empty. They have 60 lanes in the complex; I'd guess that maybe 4 were in use when we arrived. We started the day with vodka and gin tonics, paired teams for the first game, and we were off.
There's something distracting about bowling on lane 33 of a 60-lane complex that is empty. It's like you are bowling in a field. There's nothing around you. It's hard to get any perspective. I took my stance on the "spots" on the lane - and my first ball hit the 7 pin and that's it. Something felt off. The next ball hit the 4 and the 8. 3 pins in the first frame. It took me 4 frames to figure out what I was doing wrong - the "spots" that I line up on were set further back than other lanes. I was starting my approach way too far back. That threw everything off, and as a result, I had 14 through 3 frames. I rallied to break 140 for the first game.
We switched teams for game 2 (and more drinks) and I started off the game on the lane. Only one problem - we were bowling on alternate lanes (frame 1 on lane 33, frame 2 on line 34). For game 2, we were supposed to start on lane 34, but I bowled on 33. I rolled 9-spare, but nothing registered.
Now what? I asked for that to count, but to no avail. Roll it again. I took the challenge. I really, really, really wanted the strike and a big F you to Wiz/Layup. Alas, I rolled 9 again. Now the pressure was on me. I had to have this spare....and I did... a 9-spare for the re-do frame. No harm done.
We rolled a 3rd game, and then a 4th -where it was Mike and I vs Wiz and Derek; we gave them 0.5 pins, and around the 7th frame it looked like the match would end in a dead even tie (where we would lose by the hook). The games went quick; I think we rolled 4 games in less than 2 hours, and had 4 strong vodka/gin drinks each. We were all feeling good after the bowling.
What's next? Of course! The always-disasterous gambling at Red Rock. This year, again, did not disappoint. We got spots at the $5 craps table -and it started going downhill right away with nobody rolling well at all. I got in trouble for urging Mike to roll when he did not want to; of course, he did a "6-7" roll costing all of us a lot of money.
Then the dice came to me for the 2nd or 3rd time. I started to warm up; I hit 2 points and some numbers during the roll; I was close to getting back to even. The next point I set was 8. I rolled a few more numbers......
You guys know how I roll the dice, right? I like - well, love! - to have the dice bounce around. My ideal roll is to roll the dice low and hard, and have them bounce all the way back so both dice are on my side of the table after hitting the far wall.
Well, I rolled a low and hard one; the dice bounced around; one was boucing near the stick man; the dice showed 8. Winner!!!
"NO ROLL" yelled the pit boss.
What? It's an 8 !
"NO ROLL. The dice went in the dish."
Huh? No, they are both right there! A 6 and a 2! 8!
"NO ROLL. A dice went in the bowl, and a dice bounced out. We don't know if that was the original dice. No roll".
What? I was dumbfounded. Should I ask for the camera?
After some discussions where someone in our group - Wiz? - confirmed the dice hit the bowl - I rolled again. You can guess what it was.
So, I was pissed, everyone was mad, and we left. A few of the group had adventures trying to cash their chips - some of them missed the "Chips Only" sign hanging from a cashier window.- and we headed back to the Mirage.
It was about 5 pm...everyone was crashing from the drinks and we were all starving. We passed so many bad fast food joints on the way home - and we were not tempted to stop..... we all agreed on BLT at the Mirage; it was easy to find a table at 5:30 pm. The service was pretty bad - we waited a good 20 minutes for our bill, and Layup was incensed. Wiz got him even more enraged by tipping 35%.
It was 7 pm; I had a full stomach and was dead. Time for sleep.....so at 7:00 pm on a Friday night, I climbed into bed intending to sleep for 12 hours......
1 comment:
Sounds like you had some fun - apart from losing your money. I was once asked to roll the dice at craps. I wasn't playing at the time. I just played 'lady luck'. I rolled 7 non sevens in a row ! What are the odds ? A man was betting that I wouldn't throw seven and he won on the 7th throw. He bet the same thing on my 8th throw but I threw 7.He was annoyed that I threw 7 but I couldn't keep it up forever ! I have just started a new blog this week.I write about lots of things. I haven't written about sport yet but I intend to write about my favourite sports: golf, snooker, eight ball,horse racing and Aussie Rules football. Most of my posts are light hearted, a few are a bit serious. My blog can be found if you put imaginativelicoriceallsorts as one word into Google search or in advanced search under This exact word or phrase imaginative Licorice All Sorts. Like your blog. It's entertaining, Verity
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