Welcome back. I was in Vegas for the first part of last week to catch the World Series of Poker among other things. My brother took a separate flight out of SFO and I took the flight out of San Jose. He was supposed to get in 15 minutes earlier than I was, but while my flight was 10 minutes early, his was 90 minutes late. So I watched the same 5-minute commercial in baggage claim multiple times waiting for the plane to land. The slot machines standing next to me didn't really entice me that much.

We stayed at the Aladdin, which is transforming into the Planet Hollywood Hotel. So each of the rooms had a middle eastern theme which clashed with prints of Hollywood movies. Our room had posters of 12 Monkeys, Gone with the Wind, and Basic Instinct 2 (???). But the weirdest part of the room was the prop of a gorilla mask from the movie Congo, which came out in the 1990's. So while 5 out of the 6 people in our party enjoyed having the mask, only one person did not and as a result, was not part of the picture above.

Not much to be said about the food. The Bellagio buffet was worse than last time. Maybe it was because it was a weekday and not a weekend. Might as well have gone out with the lunch crew at work...Jenn called about lunch and I guess I neglected to tell her I was in Vegas. Whoops...sorry! However, the Mirage buffet was just as good as I remembered. This weekend 9 years ago was the first time the family went to Vegas and my grandparents came along. They'd been there before and told us all about it. My grandpa is a man of few words but when the topic of dinner came up, he said we're going to the Mirage buffet. We said fine. We were standing in line when suddenly my grandpa said, "over here...prime rib #1." He said that quite a few times and that line stuck with us, because honestly, it was pretty good. Today, the prime rib is still just as good, plus they remodeled the place.

Lost about $60 gambling. Not too bad, considering it takes less than a few hours to make it back by working. The last blackjack dealer I had actually grew up in Sunnyvale, living on Fair Oaks and El Camino. So we talked about that while she was taking my bankroll $10-20 at a time. I did manage to make $3 on video poker in the airport before my plane departed. At the WSOP, saw a lot of poker celebrities. Phil Hellmuth Jr., Robert Varkonyi, Joe Hachem, Johnny Chan, Jennifer Harman among others. Minh Ly seemed to be following us...we saw him in 3 separate locations during our stay. They played down to 27. We were there when 32 and 31 were knocked out. Don't know if the camera angles were good but we were right behind the guy who was knocked out in 32nd, so look out for me on TV! Only disappointing part of the trip was that I didn't have time for Star Trek: The Experience. Last rumor from a few months ago was that it was slated to close. The Hilton folks deny it, but last year, it was starting to look a bit old. At the very least, it needs an expensive makeover. I'm relieved that I made it out of the airport before all the drama in the UK. Remember, no liquids...if you do have liquid explosives, please make sure you have it with your checked baggage and not your carry-on bags. =)

Random question...if you order nachos with various toppings like beans and beef, etc. but no cheese, are they still considered nachos? I would think they'd be just plain tortilla chips with various toppings.

Nancy had a second interview at Applied Materials but she was eventually rejected. Better luck tomorrow. It's a good experience for her. I think she has a vastly different picture of the real world than the rest of us do.

At work, we went to Marie Callender's for lunch on Friday. First thing I noticed was that they don't serve Boston Cream pie anymore. What the f---? That was my favorite. Is it some kind of secret item now? Then we were seated and waiting when this out-of-town gentleman walked in and was offered a booth. He sat down and then the booth caved in, sending him to the floor while making a really huge scene. Not wanting to stare, I looked the other direction while he was yelling at the waiter. All of us played it cool except for JaSondra, who could keep it under control for all of 2 seconds, even saying "don't laugh" right before she burst out laughing.

On Saturday, it was my cousin Sarah's birthday and it was a princess theme. They had costumes and stuff for the little ones, but for my niece, they gave her a wig. Oh, to have hair, since she still barely has any.

Yesterday was the company picnic in Santa Cruz. I kinda overslept but I still managed to get there before 10. No traffic that way. Even saw Hi-Mey there, who didn't tell me he knew one of the employees' daughters. After killing in air hockey, it was time to eat. At the end of the meal, I was taking a big bite of ice cream when Ginny called out my name. I had won a raffle prize and cheers went into the air. That's pretty rare...calling my name and cheers at the same time. I figured out I won free laser tag, something that was already free a couple of hours earlier...big whoop. Saw a few ppl there including Steve and his girlfriend. Seems nice enough and acts like me in that she's pretty quiet. Not much has changed since I was there last (6...7 years ago?). The best is always the haunted house because you'll always have one kid crying his eyes out not wanting to hop onto the car. Today's kid was a doozy. He held onto the bars outside the haunted house really tight while screaming until his face turned red. It took about 3 relatives to pry him off and out into the open.

Funtimes.