The flight was uneventful, other than the stop in Lubbock to pack the plane to capacity. I think it was rather cool and fitting that wireless access at McCarron Airport is free. Must be the equivalent of the legendary free cab ride my grandpa always said the casinos granted you after you lost your shirt. José is looking well. His friend Herman is here…along with his father. Our room at the Luxor is pretty decent. It’s not as hard to find as my last one at the Aladdin but the casino still makes you go around in circles despite the grid pattern in the carpeting. The other elements of the trip were off to a disappointing start; the sad-sack cab driver who didn’t know the difference between Astronomy and Astrology and the lame waiter at an Asian noodle house for lunch. Thankfully, the lady who waited on us at Cheesecake Factory rocked to negate initial lameness.
On the hockey front, Vegas seems to agree that my Flyers are favored to win the Cup because they have the lowest odds at all the decent sportsbooks (Caesar’s Palace has 3-1, Mandalay Bay 5-1).
Whenever I get together with Jose on a trip, we always end up coining a theme, an ongoing joke you could say. For the Silder wedding, it was “Oosh! My face!” from a PSA at his job telling people to wear their seat belts; “I see you have overalls. I have overalls too” in a Butt-Head voice for New Year’s 1997; and the one for my wedding in 2003 escapes me. Since Jose saw Wedding Crashers, we’re going with the Vince Vaughn comment about women with those tatoos over the smalls of their backs. Unlike the movie’s protaganists, we’re not here to pick up women, we’re just playing a game called bullseye spotting. After the tatoo is spotted, then we rate how trashy it looks. I wish I were also faster with my camera, I would have some great entries to give my wife for her hall of shame. Yes, I’m 50 pounds overweight, but I have the brains to not advertise my midriff flabalanching out for the world to know I have pony keg and not a six pack.
Most of us with tatoos on the small of our backs, especially those who got them at 17 like me, wish we hadn’t. If I would have known the connotations of it, I wouldn’t have put it there for all the bread in Russia. Maybe for all the tea in China, but not for the bread in Russia.
I’ve been saying it for 10 years, a great future investment will be tatoo removal businesses.