Highlights: Blackjack Comeback, Amie Chat, Fabulous Fountains
Lowlights: Indigo’s turn to get sick
Watchdog:
I was feeling much better today. We decided on Peppermill for breakfast. Unlike our last trip, this time we didn’t take a cab from Wynn.
Indigo:
When we went to bed on Day 2, I had made the comment about how I felt wonderful and was usually the one who got sick in Vegas. Guess what? That night I was the one tossing and turning and feeling like I was on a rollercoaster all night. I finally fell asleep and then woke up to very loud people. I thought to myself “I can’t believe those people are being so loud out in the hall in the middle of the night. How rude.” Then I turned over and looked at the clock and it was 9AM.
Even when we were up and ready to go, my body was still extremely weary. I wasn’t sure why as we hadn’t walked much more than 6 miles the day before.
We had put Peppermill back on our “to-do” list because we liked it so much the first time. I just love the vibe there.
The sun was finally shining today and it looked warmer outside. We could even see a few brave souls swimming in the Encore pool. The other days if we looked down we could see a few people in the hot tub and then see them dashing for warmth.
It took us a few minutes to find the exit out of Encore. We’d been leaving to go south on the strip each time through Wynn and we hadn’t exactly arrived at Encore through the front door.
Watchdog:
Our cabbie had trained us well.
Indigo:
The walk to Peppermill was nice. We did have to run the gauntlet of peddlers and trip-hawkers as we passed by the strip mall Crap Stores. Most were run of the mill, but one was actually pretty funny. Pushy but funny. His hawker cred went down in my eyes though when he tried the same lines on us the second time past him on the way back towards Encore.
At Peppermill we both ordered eggs and turkey sausage with fruit and a carafe of really good OJ. We each ordered the hot blueberry muffin instead of toast. Heavenly. I highly recommend that. My eggs were scrambled and came in a nice little dish. So did the fruit. Very nice presentation. It was all very yummy but as I was now the one sicker than a (watch) dog, I gave about ½ my meal to Watchdog. It tasted good but I had no appetite at all.
While we were there, I was looking at the restaurant layout again. I love how they use all the corner booths to maximize space. Every booth feels very intimate and yet I bet they have as many booths in there as they could fit tables. Nice.
Unfortunately by this time, I pretty much felt like one of Mikey’s horses had kicked me in the gut.
Watchdog:
The hawker’s line was “So am I the 102nd guy that’s bothered you today, or the 103rd?” Not bad. Not good enough to stop, but not bad.
After making sure that Indigo was okay to walk, we headed to the South end of the strip. We stopped in Planet Hollywood again to try to sign up for the players club. This time there were only a few people in line. I was told that their system was down so they could only offer me a temporary card for now. I did get to spin the big slot giveaway, and again came up empty.
The woman in front of me had won a deck of PH casino playing cards. I always buy decks from the gift shops of the “new” properties, as I have a friend who collects them. I stopped in the gift shop and was able to get PH and Hooters cards, so we wouldn’t have to make a special trip to get them.
Wouldn’t have to make a special trip to Hooters? Who are you, and what have you done with Watchdog?!
Mister Hand had a brief photo op with a friendly M&M outside their store. After that, we went to MGM.
Indigo:
The M&M store was packed. We didn’t even try to go inside and buy our usual bag of $9 candy.
We entered MGM near the lions. Mister Hand also managed a photo op there.
Watchdog had found a decent BJ game as we walked through MGM so I was on my own for a while. Still not feeling real well, I decided to sit and play a few slots. I put $5 in a penny Survivor slot and about 3 minutes later walked away with $115. That made me feel a bit better or at least forget about the horse that kicked me.
I looked for a monopoly game but could only find nickel ones. I wasn’t risking that kind of money! I managed to play a penny slot here and there to kill time while waiting for Watchdog.
Watchdog:
“Decent” is a bit of a stretch. It was a $10 shoe game that hit soft 17s. But it was real blackjack, and least the MGM properties offer doubling after splits and late surrender on their shoe games.
My dealer’s name was Michelle, and she had been in Las Vegas since 1982. She liked it better then. There are a fair number of old timers who do prefer the days when the Mob still ran things. Me? As much as I’ve griped out blackjack conditions now, I think they’re preferable the potential consequences for being suspected of card counting then. Better for them to hit all seventeens than hit me in the face seventeen times.
Anyway, things started out well. The first shoe didn’t get high enough to raise my bets, but I was lucky enough to be up about $50. The next couple of shoes went mildly positive, and I was able to get up over $200.
There was one player at the table with me who was playing poorly but also winning. In the long run, it doesn’t matter how another person plays. Their incorrect hit or stand decisions can just as easily help you as hurt you.
But this guy found a new way to hurt other players. We both stood on stiffs with the dealer showing a six. She turned over her hole card and drew from the shoe to make 20. She then proceeded to pay off our bets. Well, this was a nice little bonus! Dealer errors can add a nice little sum to your…
“Um…” the player said as he raised his hand, as if he was in a classroom.
“Oh! I had the hands backwards in my head!” The dealer said as she took both of our money.
The only time I would do what he did would be if I was sure the pit boss was watching. It would be good camouflage. But even then, I would only do it if I was alone at the table. I said nothing, letting Mister Hand talk to him for me (in my head).
Mister Hand:
Way to go, assclown.
Watchdog
Then the relief dealer came in.
After an even shoe, she shuffled. I looked at my watch. This would be the last one I could play before meeting Indigo again. The count was moderately positive when I got a soft 18 against her 3. I doubled my $40 bet. She raised an eyebrow. It’s the correct basic strategy play even without a high count, but few players will make it.
She pulled a card from the shoe and slapped a beautiful 3 down. Gin! She turned over a 9, then drew a four, then drew a 6. Push.
Grrrr. Okay, but the count was still good. The next few hands were choppy. I was almost back to even when I had another $40 hand I doubled down on, and this time I won. There were just a few hands left in the shoe, so I went up to $50, and I put down a dollar for the dealer as well.
Ten for me, a deuce for her. I doubled down both bets. She gave me a jack for twenty. The only card I didn’t want to see in the hole was a nine. Nine? Nein!
Ja. Nine. Then a queen for 21.
On the last hand my eighteen lost to her 20. What looked like a very promising session had turned into another loss. Only $63, but annoying when I had been so close to getting even, and was now down $454. Fortunately, Indigo seemed to determine to win more in slots than I lost in blackjack, so “we” were still up for the trip.
We crossed the bridge to New York New York. I hadn’t been impressed with their blackjack games even on our last trip, so I wasn’t surprised by the lack of good ones this time. I still think their cards with apples instead of hearts are cool, though. One nice surprise was hearing 10,000 Maniacs “These Are Days” play on the intercom. This is the song that Indigo walked down the aisle to in our Vegas wedding. It brought back great memories.
From NYNY we went to Excalibur.
Indigo:
I also liked a touch screen “you are here” map at NYNY. I was feeling sick and easily impressed.
The whole casino floor of Excalibur seemed to be slightly rearranged. With that, they had finally gotten rid of those 10 year old slot machines that had “New Games” signs on them the whole 10 years.
We passed the “party pit” that’s only open on the weekends at Excalibur and it was interesting to note that their blackjacks paid off at 7/5.
We quickly went through Excalibur and up to the walkway to Luxor. Neither of us like Excalibur much. About ½ the stores at the beginning of the walkway were empty. But Krispy Kreme was still there and they’d added a Stone Cold too.
We crossed over to Luxor and headed to the walkway to Mandalay Place. At this point I was on a singular mission. I wanted to get a bubble bath bar at Lush to replace the one I’d already used. I was planning a bath for the evening.
Lush is a store that I believe originated in the UK and sells fresh, handmade cosmetics. Mostly good smelly stuff. The store looks and smells very “hippy-like.” I love it. Here in Chicago we have some inside Macys and a couple free-standing ones in malls that I know about.
The Lush store is located directly across from the Burger Bar. I made my purchase though they didn’t have the one I want. The girl said they were selling out of everything. That’s a good thing as it’s their only store in Vegas and I want them to prosper. It’s a good company.
We continued on to Mandalay Bay and as soon as we got close I could smell it. MB is the best-smelling casino in Vegas and unlike my “Vegas smell” that I missed, MB still smelled exactly the same.
We walked around looking at the table games and Watchdog found a BJ game that he wanted to play. I walked around looking at the slots looking for something to play. I thought it odd that there were very few of the new “hot” penny slots there. I lost $20 playing on a couple games and then found one set of penny Monopoly games. The looked similar to the one I won on at Encore but were a bit different. I put in $20 and decided if I lost that I was done. I hit bonus after bonus after bonus. I was playing at lower levels so really didn’t win much. The main bonus round was really fun. You picked a train that told you how many people would arrive on your board. Then you picked 5 deeds. Those properties got hotels on them and were worth more. Then, the little people in the middle of the board one by one (except one rich couple worth 3x points) would run around the board and jump into a property or other monopoly square. You’d get the points or if they jumped on a non-property, you usually had a choice of something.
The woman next to me kept staring with her mouth open as I hit bonus after bonus. She’d been playing before me and hadn’t hit much of anything. Her husband then started watching me instead of her.
Watchdog:
Who can blame him?
Indigo:
I only went up to $73 from my $20 and then played down to $60 for an MB profit of $20.
I then wandered on down to the lobby floor of the Four Seasons just to soak it in and use their restroom.
After that, I thought my stomach could use something to help settle it. The Reading Room is still at the bottom of the escalator coming from Mandalay Place and instead of the Chocolate Swan next to it (the location next to the Burger Bar is still there) there is a Starbucks. I bought a magazine at the bookstore, ice tea and a banana at Starbucks and settled down at a table for a while.
While there, we hit the 24 hours until flight time mark with Southwest so I called my brother in IL and he checked us into our flight. Boarding passes A51-52. We would just reprint them when we got to the airport for our flight from the automatic kiosks.
I was pretty worn out then as we’d already walked over 4 miles for the day. I went and found Watchdog’s blackjack table. It looked like he was up a bit and he wanted to stay. So I took a cab back to Encore. I felt like a bit of a wuss taking a cab instead of walking because we usually only take cabs back and forth to the airport.
We had planned to go see the Twin Keys tonight as they were dark on Sunday and Monday but I didn’t think I was up to that kind of fun.
I went back to the room and took a bath and rested a bit.
Watchdog:
Yes, the 7/5 blackjack – [sarcasm]What an improvement! [/sarcasm] – was in the Dick’s Last Resort Party Pit, which was only open on certain weekend hours. Wouldn’t want to give the orphans too much gruel, you know…
We did a quick walk through Luxor – even the last time I was here, they had 8 deck shoes instead of the standard six, so I wasn’t expecting much. Mandalay Bay was pretty much my last hope.
Hope dwindled as I walked by pit after pit of the same stuff I had seen all trip. Then I noticed a low table, with one spot reserved for handicapped access. It was a shoe game, with a $10 limit…that stood on all 17s?
I was torn between sitting down immediately, and calling the National Registry of Historic Places to get it named a National Monument. In my hestitation, I counted two rounds of small cards out of the shoe. That clinched it. I joined the three players at the table.
“Do you guys want me to wait?” I asked.
“Nah, go ahead. This way we can blame you if it goes bad” replied one of the players. I used a very similar line earlier in the trip, only it was giving another player the cut card. I bought in for $200.
Things went well right out of the box. The shoe only ended up mildly positive, but I won a couple of $20 and $30 wagers and was up about a $100 after the first shoe. The table was very friendly. One guy was an okay player, but the other two were very bad. They passed on some good doubling opportunites, hit some stiffs they shouldn’t have, and even thought they were making a bad play when it was actually a good one (splitting 8s against a dealer’s 10.)
“I like playing the lower limit tables, because at the higher ones they yell at you if you make a mistake” said one player. One of the nice things about the counting system I use is that while others will give a slightly higher return, they are also much more complicated, and it’s harder to look like a “regular” player when you’re crunching numbers in your head. Meanwhile, I’m yelling “Picture! Picture!” while another player waits for the second card with his ace. It makes it more enjoyable, and from a social aspect, it has an advantage over poker because I’m not trying to take their money.
The okay player left and was replaced by an older player who had his wife watching. He wasn’t very good either, passing up on too many double down opportunites. The player who didn’t like being yelled at had to get back to his conference, so he left and was replaced by an attractive redhead in her thirties with a big diamond ring. She knew the least about blackjack, and tried to stand on a 14 against a nine once. She made several other bad plays, but two of them ended up saving the table. Still, she was hitting a few blackjacks and making a bit of money.
Meanwhile, I was winning slowly but steadily – so slowly I was surprised to find that I was now up over $400. One shoe started out very negative, so I took the opportunity to “use the washroom” until it was over.
When I got back, I told the dealer to give the cut card to the older man’s wife, so she wouldn’t just be an impartial observer.
“I’m not impartial! I want him to win!” she said, pointing to her husband.
“Just him? I thought you were cheering for all of us! Give me that cut card back!” I said. Everyone laughed.
I chatted a bit with the redhead, who was a Michigan native, had lived in Chicago, and was now in New York. I mentioned that my sister lived in West Bloomfield, and she said she knew the area.
The relief dealer came in and for once didn’t kill me, despite getting three blackjacks in a row at one point. It actually turned into a pretty good shoe for everyone, as she busted frequently after that.
Then George the regular dealer returned. I was still doing pretty well despite the occasional baffling plays from the others on the table. 13 against a 6? Hit me! They were working more often than they should. I’m guessing that each of the other players at the table was facing a house edge between 3.5 to 5% against them because of their poor decisions. That’s getting into 3 card poker and roulette territory. It made me even angrier that these players would have to face an additional .19% against them on a soft 17 table. It’s not like everyone’s sitting down following a basic strategy card to the hilt.
After about an hour and a half, the pit boss changed the table limit to $15, but assured each of us that we could still play $10 until we left the table or won a million dollars. The redhead didn’t understand what had happened at first, so I explained that we were being “grandfathered” in.
Speaking of extended families, it wasn’t long after that before her husband and kids showed up. Her daughter was about 3 and ran up behind her mom. She was really adorable and had her mother’s hair. She was the kind of kid you’d want to cast in the lead of Annie in another seven or eight years.
The dealer was uncomfortable, and told her about how kids couldn’t be by the games. The father wrangled the daughter back, but then her son who looked about five ran directly up next to her.
“Honey, you have to stand back.” She said.
“No! I wanna PLAY!” He said. Now the dealer was really looking uncomfortable. The father finally got them both away from the table.
“You’re not going to be able to keep them away from this place in twenty years” I said. She laughed. It was family time, so she cashed in her chips and they strolled away. She had won a little over $100.
The dealer was less amused. “They can fine the casino big bucks for that, and then we’re the ones who get yelled at for not controlling the game better” he confided to me after she had left.
The other players dropped out too, so it was just me as George brought in the fresh shoe. It started out poorly. The player at the conference came back for a few hands, but lost $100 pretty quickly.
“Hey, handsome! Welcome back!” said the (female) pit boss.
“They only call me that when I’m losing.” I joked.
“I think that’s why she said it to me!” He grinned. He was a hospital administrator who must have been older than he looked. He had education and executive skills that I will never have. It was a good reminder of something Doyle Brunson said about bad players. He was talking about poker, but it could easily apply to blackjack players, too:
QUOTE
I’ve been at a poker table overflowing with doctors and lawyers and college professors. Some of them play well, some play badly, and some don’t care…
“What an idiot!” a player once whispered to me, nodding to a doctor across the poker table. “He doesn’t know enough to throw away a pair of 6s against an obvious flush.”
Two hours later that same player suffered a chest pain and immediately sought the doctor’s advice. Is this normal? How can you tell it’s not a heart attack?
He wanted to know everything, and the doctor answered calmly and professionally. It turned out to be nothing, and here are some words the doctor never said: “You’re an idiot. You can’t even tell heartburn from a heart attack!”
(From Poker Wisdom of a Champion)“What an idiot!” a player once whispered to me, nodding to a doctor across the poker table. “He doesn’t know enough to throw away a pair of 6s against an obvious flush.”
Two hours later that same player suffered a chest pain and immediately sought the doctor’s advice. Is this normal? How can you tell it’s not a heart attack?
He wanted to know everything, and the doctor answered calmly and professionally. It turned out to be nothing, and here are some words the doctor never said: “You’re an idiot. You can’t even tell heartburn from a heart attack!”
It’s why I never make fun of another player’s play, whether it’s blackjack or poker.
Anyway, after the admin lost his money, it was back to heads up with George. And although I had given back enough to only be up $300, the count was getting good. I was able to jack my bets up to $70. It wasn’t all smooth, but I won a few more big bets than I lost. After tips, I was now up $513 for the session.
“George, I think you just got me even for the trip.” I handed him a last toke. I was actually leaving up $59 for the trip. Back in black, baby. “It was a pleasure playing with you.”
“Thank you sir. Good luck.” George replied. I cashed out and almost skipped to Bellagio, while Mister Hand said “Gracias” to every porn slapper he took a card from.
Indigo:
He must have really been practicing his bilingual skills. He came home with a double deck of porn cards.
Watchdog:
Amie was standing at her empty $300 minimum table at the high roller area when I entered. We tried to catch each other up on the past 3.5 years as best as we could.
She told me that she had moved in with her church pastor, who was 75 and had some health problems that required some assisted living. She’s also very active in her church’s children’s programs. When I asked if she was teaching Sunday School, she said it was similar, but because so many members of their congregation worked different shifts, they had those kinds of programs spread throughout the week so everyone who wanted to could attend them. It was an interesting slice of residential Vegas that I hadn’t thought of. She really enjoys teaching the kids and seems very happy with her life.
She also laughed when I told her about the 6/5 shoe games limiting entry. “Yeah, the card counters are gonna get right on those games!”
She agreed with me that if you’re playing at a high enough level to be rated, you should be getting the good table rules, especially with how bad most people play. “Yesterday I had a guy betting a thousand dollars a hand. He stands on a soft 16! I said ‘Are you sure you don’t want a card?’ But he said ‘No, I’ll stay.’ And I can’t really do any more for him.” She shook her head sadly.
“You should have told him the truth – that you’re the best dealer in Vegas.” She smiled and shook her head modestly. “Aw, no, I’m not the best.” “Well, you’re the best I’ve ever played with.” I said. And it’s the truth. I feel very lucky that I got to play with her when she was still doing $10 tables back in 2000, because she’s a bit out of my price range at this table minimum.
At that point, a high roller sat down. “She is really good.” He agreed.
“Well, I wasn’t too good to you this morning, I’m afraid.” Amie said.
“A little choppy?” I said. They both laughed. “Yeah, a little choppy.”
“Well, you have to get to work, and since I can’t play with you, take two reds for yourself.” I said, putting $10 on the table.
“Now, you don’t have to do that!” she said. I had to insist more than once before she’d put it in the toke box. I told her we were hoping we could come back in the summer, so I’d see her again soon. In her own way, she makes me as proud as those Cirque members.
As I was leaving the casino, I actually noticed a $25 double deck stand on all 17s game. I was tempted. But I thought that if I lost, it would feel worse than winning would feel good. It hadn’t been easy getting out of the red, so I decided it could wait until another trip when I was better capitalized.
Just before I got to Bellagio, they were just finishing up my favorite fountain show, Time to Say Goodbye. D’oh! Now when I was leaving, they were playing one of Indigo’s favorites, Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the U.S.A. I called her cell phone but the voice mail picked up. I said “This is a poor substitute, but it’s better than nothing!” and held the phone against one of the speakers on the railing.
I got back to Encore. After resting my feet for a bit, we were ready to go back and watch the Fountain shows together.
Indigo:
I didn’t get his call because for some reason the only place my phone goes into “roaming” across the whole country was in the bathroom at Encore.
I was in the tub still.
Watchdog made it back to the room. We threw around ideas of what to do for a while. I still wasn’t feeling that great so the Twin Keys were out for me. I wasn’t hungry at all even though I’d hardly eaten all day. But I didn’t want to miss the Bellagio fountains.
We walked back to Bellagio. We watched two songs will standing on the Strip side of the lake. Hoedown and Your Song. I used my small camera to record both and the recordings turned out much better than I thought they would.
It was getting cold so we walked around to the top of the lake near the lobby entrance and watched One from A Chorus Line. It’s one of my favorites and was a show I saw with my father numerous times so I got a little misty. In a good way. I’m really glad I made the effort to go out and see the fountains before going home.
We went inside Bellagio and decided to get something to eat. We went back through the Conservatory to the Bellagio Café. There were just a couple of people ahead of us but the hostess kept apologizing profusely for the wait.
We had thought about going to Fix. MMMMMMMMM that donut dessert with the dipping sauce is one of the best desserts ever. But when we walked by Fix the day before I had thought they’d installed a water wall in the back. This wasn’t the case. Water was pouring into the restaurant through the ceiling. Right onto the tables where they sat us last time – you know the ones not visible to the front and right by the kitchen? The workers were wearing ponchos and moving around frantically.
The hostess told us that the Café had been busier than usual for a Tuesday because Fix was still closed. However, we were seated quickly and ordered. I only ordered a bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup and Watchdog ordered Eggs Benedict but substituted turkey for the Canadian bacon. The waitress seemed quite interested in this combination of substitution. Watchdog also ordered OJ. He had to ask for it several times before it arrived ½ way through our meal.
I’m sure the soup was great. It really had no taste at all to me and finally gave most of it to Watchdog.
From here we decided to grab a cab back to Encore – ok, we had him take us back to Wynn – we just thought it might be less complicated. I hadn’t felt good all day and still managed to walk almost 5 miles. Watchdog went more than 8 for the day.
Watchdog:
Two women next to us at the fountain show were thrilled that “Your Song” was played. They both knew it by heart and were singing along with Sir Elton. It was fun.
Yes, the chicken soup was good.
While waiting for our cab, Indigo overheard the women in front of us tell the doorman that they had wanted to be taken to the Palazzo, but were instead dropped off at Bellagio – where they were staying. It seems our cabbie was now on a different shift. I was a little surprised that not many people were tipping him. When I gave him a dollar, he opened the front door and adjusted the seat so I would have more leg room in the back. Very nice touch.
I took a last look for a “perfect” blackjack game, because that’s what it was going to take for me to play again. It didn’t exist – at least not at Wynn or Encore – so I went up to the room and fell asleep. In the black, baby.
DAY FOUR
Highlights: Buffet less filling, tastes great, giggling kids at airport
Lowlights: Leaving Las Vegas.
Watchdog:
That morning, I went to place a couple of bets for Indigo at the sports book. On the way, I talked to my dad. I had already placed the bets he requested: $20 across the board on the top five Big East teams to win the NCAA tournament. “I just think it’s such a tough conference that the winner’s gonna be some team out of there.” I got UConn at 9/2, Pitt at 6/1, Louisville at 10/1, and Marquette and Syracuse at 40/1.
Indigo wanted $10 on Louisville and Pitt. Unfortunately the odds on Pitt had dropped to 4/1 – probably in part due to their impressive win at UConn. I made the wagers and came back to the room. We decided to do the Wynn buffet one more time.
This time I ate more sparingly. Really. Just some more fish. And salmon benedict. And chicken chow mein. And blueberry pancakes. And wheat bread French toast. (See? Healthy!) And scrambled eggs. I even passed on the dessert.
Indigo:
Actually I ate his scrambled eggs. I had only taken one smaller plate of bland breakfast items and was still hungry. YAY! I was hungry. I still stuck with just that one plate after not eating much the day before. Though I did then commit a “crime” and take a banana with me out of the buffet.
Checkout wasn’t until noon and I wanted to rest a bit before we gave up the room. It was 10AM then. So I told Watchdog I was going back to nap for an hour. I did however stop to lose $10 in the Dirty Harry penny slots on the way. All-in-all though I ended the trip up $660 from my penny slot play.
Watchdog:
We did the express checkout and then did our traditional final wager: $3 on Megabucks. Mister Hand was not a winner. We did a second $3 on Wynn’s penny slot Megabucks, and won nothing. Indigo wasn’t kidding about my bad slot mojo.
We had a couple of hours to kill, but the choice was checking our bags or just hanging out at Encore. We chose the later and had a couple of diet cokes and fries at the sports book bar. While we watched TV, I saw one of the stranger commercials I’ve ever seen. It was for one of the foreign soccer leagues. I couldn’t hear the audio, but the commercial had all these weird marionette puppets that looked like they were doing a news broadcast. The title was Special 1 TV : Setanta Sports. It was like if Sportscenter was hosted by those old Thunderbirds kid’s show. I just found a link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TOh3WlXJg0
Anyway, it was time to get to the airport. Our cabbie actually took us to the right airline and everything.
Indigo:
There were quite a few babies and toddlers in the waiting area. We’ve had good luck with children on most of our plane trips. This time was no exception. One little boy about 11 months old was being pushed slalom style through the number pillars at the Southwest gates. Another little girl about 2 was giggling up a storm.
This time the Southwest agents lined us up in numerical order. In Chicago they had just taken all of A 1-30 (which included Watchdog with his A30 boarding pass) and A 31-60 (which included me with my A31 pass). We took almost the same identical seats as we had on the way there.
The plane was leaving ½ hour late but the Captain informed us that there were 100 mph winds pushing us home and we would make up all the time. Trip only took 3 hours 5 minutes. Trip there took 4 hours.
The family with the 2 year old took the seats directly behind us. Sitting near small children when you don’t have any of your own can be a problem if the child doesn’t travel well. This little girl giggled the whole way home. There’s not much better sound than a happy child.
We landed at 10:35 and were home by 11:20.
The cats acted mad but soon were happy to see us.
Mister Hand:
I counted all the winnings and future bets one last time.
Watchdog:
It was too long between trips, but even with us both getting sick, it was well worth the wait. We’ve already started making our “to-do” lists for the next trip – which we will not wait 3.5 years to take.
Mister Hand:
Find my brilliant full pictorial, as well as a few boring shots without me, here:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8QatmLhy3ZsYY
it took all the fun out of the game. In essence it became work between the focus and concern when a pit boss would come stand next to me when I spread 3X on a damn $5 game. I had to switch to VP and I rarely play BJ any longer.
However, we were at MB and our hotel was Encore when the 24 hour buzzer went off on my alarm. I wanted a coveted A ticket and they're harder to get now. 
