tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26636329006909229912024-03-13T22:00:28.497-06:00The View From Bikini HillMy Twitter can be found @coachsmtx
~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.comBlogger663125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-82524243384176214822020-08-12T11:13:00.000-05:002020-08-12T11:37:10.384-05:00Thirty YearsGood morning everyone. It seems like a good time to fire up the blog again. Well, yesterday seemed like a good time also, since it marked thirty years since I graduate from college. In the almost YEAR that I have taken off from blogging, it seems that Blogger has decided to transition to a new format. You can switch to the new format, or in the new future, Blogger will automatically switch your blog for you. At the current time, regardless of which format I try, I'm unable to upload photos (or at least unable to figure out how). When I tried yesterday, they uploaded as link text. I tried to figure out why, got frustrated, and gave up on writing. This text looks small as I type it, and I can't figure out how to adjust that either, but I'm going to publish this anyway, and see what it looks like. In the preview window it doesn't look horrible, but we'll see...
Obviously a lot has happened in the last year, with the presence of Covid-19. The virus was a major factor in my decision to leave my sportsbook position in Biloxi, Mississippi. I just recently moved back to San Marcos, America. My reasoning was that I didn't see team sports (especially football, which I wrote the most bets on at work, and bet the most myself)having much success in the near future. If there's not going to be much football, it makes more sense for me to be in Texas than in Mississippi, or in Las Vegas, etc. I think that the NBA has the best opportunity for success, because they have the smallest number of players, or they're keeping them isolated ("The Bubble," if you will). I think that the NHL has the next best chance for success, as they have the next smallest number of athletes, and are also staying isolated. Major League Baseball, and then football are next in the pecking order, and they have more challenges because of their expanded rosters and the traveling that they are doing. The Big Ten and Pac-12 just postponed their fall sports seasons yesterday, so it appears that my decision wasn't completely without merit (for any haters out there)... Don't get me wrong, I'm whole-heartedly hoping that we find a vaccine as soon as possible, and I want to see EVERYTHING played, but it wasn't worth the gamble for me to sign a lease in Biloxi til the end of next July based on the information that I had available to me at the time.
As for myself, I'm finally getting my sleep back on a normal schedule. Just this past week, I'm finally sleeping eight hours consecutively. It rained practically the whole week that I was preparing to leave Biloxi, and I wanted to leave the yard at my rental house as short as possible, so I was trying to find spots between the rain drops where I could cut my grass. Managing my yard came in addition to packing my stuff and cleaning the house of course. On the day that I did move from Mississippi to Texas, I woke up at 1:00 a.m., finished packing and cleaning until about 8:30 a.m., returned my cable box and internet modem, turned in my house keys, and then drove over nine hours to San Marcos, where I unloaded my stuff and ate my traditional "moving pizzas..."
The pizza is about the most unhealthy thing that I've eaten recently, as I've lost about 20 pounds from my peak weight this summer, and plan on losing about another 20-25 more. Maybe by then I'll figure out this photo-posting riddle, and I'll be able to give you some comparison pictures. Other than eating smaller portions, while also eating more healthy food, I've also been spending a lot of time playing DraftKings fantasy golf, while I slowly unpack and get my sleep schedule right. Until this last week, I had won money three weeks in a row, scrambling up a bunch of different lineups of golfers, and having a few hit each time. I'm also starting to watch more NBA and NHL, as they may represent the majority of team sports that we'll have for a while. I've also continued to play a bunch of free poker on an app called 'Poker Legends' that I found early in the spring. I'm thankful to have found it, because I was watching way too much t.v. when our sportsbook closed on St. Patrick's Day. NOT that the t.v. hasn't been on while I chip away on the poker site, but at least I haven't been glued to it nonstop... : ) I'm hoping to get this apartment in order pretty soon, and then to have some job information for you. Which reminds me, I was finally able to buy the car that I had been saving up for this spring, which helps tremendously on the job front (and many other fronts). ; )
Well, I have a day full of unpacking and watching hockey games ahead of me (did you see that FIVE overtime game yesterday/last night?!). I have stated before, I LOVE playoff hockey games with multiple overtimes, where it just becomes a battle of attrition. Oh yeah, I'm also putting a few bucks each day on the fantasy hockey, just to have action. : P Have a great week, and I'll see you soon! ~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-74744255960886197602020-01-16T22:55:00.001-06:002020-01-16T22:55:38.551-06:00August 23rdWell, well, well... The last time that I saw you, it was the eve of the college football season (a pair of games on Saturday, August 24th, before the crush of games during the following week and Saturday). At the time, the possibility that I wouldn't visit with y'all again until January 16th didn't cross my mind. I apologize for the delay my friends. I tend to keep myself pretty busy during football season.<br />
<br />
So, now it's January 16th (HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!), and I'm sitting here at the keyboard playing Pearl Jam through my YouTube, with a muted tv showing the Nuggets at the Warriors sitting off to my right. To my left, we have the pair of goldfish that I got just over a year ago (that's a pretty good lifespan for any fish of mine)... Okay, it's time to catch up. Again, I'm sorry about the delay in writing. I'm quite sure that this is the longest time between posts since I started this blog a little over eight years ago (the blog turned eight on September 28th - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!) <br />
<br />
Alright. So I'm still living in Biloxi, Mississippi. I'm still working in the sportsbook, and I've now been with Caesar's Entertainment for over three years (you know, since my last blog post)... I've yet to miss a day of work, or to even be late for a shift. :D When I last saw you, the football season was just starting. Now we're down to just four teams in the NFL, and on February 3rd, I'll surely be crying, because we won't have any football again til almost September (and don't get me started on the XFL, or any other startup that you have an affinity for)... ; ) So, during football season, I work 40 hours per week, from Saturday through Wednesday this season. I work on the swing shift (which I prefer to work for several reasons - I'm a night owl, there are always games on during my shift, etc...), and after work, I normally go to another casino (I'm not allowed to bet on sports at my casino) with one of my friends/coworkers to either place bets on the next day's/week's games, or to cash winning bets that I have. Long story short, my personal football betting is pretty much like a part-time job for me during the season. I'm not trying to make excuses for why I haven't written for so long, but here I am making excuses for why I haven't written for so long... I do feel bad when I haven't posted for a while, because I have so many friends who read this blog, that it's like I'm writing a personal letter to X number of people each time that I post an entry. You know what I'm talking about. I don't ever go into this much detail about my personal life on Facebook or Twitter, because that would just be weird (plus it would be difficult to do in 160 characters on Twitter). However, I can get on here and let you know what's going on in my world (or just write about pretty much whatever I feel like talking about), and I can ramble on forever. My one guilty pleasure if I haven't written for a long period of time is that my haters and stalkers have to wait to find out what's going on in my life (ex-girlfriends, personal relationships gone bad, people who are basically just internet peeping tom's). I'm sure that you have a few in your world too... Well, I'M BACK.... Ha ha....<br />
<br />
Okay, when I last left y'all, I had just returned from a June visit to Las Vegas, which I summarized in a flurry of August posts, because I had already taken my next trip, which was to central Texas (San Antonio and San Marcos, America)... Now I've been in Biloxi for about another five months, and I've been saving up money. In the near future, I'll be looking into getting a car. I haven't had a vehicle for several years now, and frankly, I haven't really needed one. I've lived close to where I worked, I've had access to public transportation, and/or I've had friends willing to give me rides when I've needed them. I do hate putting people out (although honestly, my friends have been great, and don't make me feel like I'm imposing on them at all), and plus, I'd like to have a vehicle so I'll be able to visit Texas more easily. I take the lion's share of my paid time off (PTO) each year between the end of the NCAA Basketball Tournament and the start of football season, so I'll be seriously investigating getting a vehicle pretty soon. Since we're talking about money and time off, another thing that I'm pondering is whether or not I want to make another visit to Las Vegas again this summer. The obvious pitfalls are the money I'd have to spend, and the amount of PTO I'd have to use. Oh, if I'm visiting Las Vegas, and already paying for the round-trip flight, I'm not going for just 2 or 3 days... That's not my style. In case you weren't following the blog last year, or you don't remember, I stayed in Las Vegas for ELEVEN nights last June. :D Anyway, so there's that, and if I do go, when do I go. When is the World Series of Poker? Will Blue October be touring through Las Vegas again this summer? All important questions that have to be answered.... <br />
<br />
I left work at 11:30 last night, but I had to be up by 8:00 this morning (today is my Saturday) because I had an appointment for a haircut. What I'm trying to tell you is that my sleep was really messed up today (I normally wake up at 1:30 p.m. to be at work for a 3:30 p.m. shift). In spite of the nap that I took after I returned home today, I'm "hitting the wall" all of a sudden, but I'm going to go ahead and publish what I've written so far, because I've made promises on Facebook... : ) Barring any unforeseen circumstances (and excluding the Super Bowl and college basketball in March), you should be seeing posts from me more frequently. So to all of my friends and long-time readers, and to all of you stalkers and haters, I'll see you soon.... ; ) ~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-64757803342942745702019-08-23T15:32:00.002-05:002019-08-23T15:42:21.276-05:00"Christmas Eve"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
"I tear my heart open, I sew myself shut, my weakness is, that I care too much, and my scars remind me, that the past is real, I tear my heart open, just to feel..." -Papa Roach- (Scars)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
"That's when she said, 'I don't hate you, boy, I just want to save you, while there's still something left to save,' that's when I told her, 'I lvoe you, girl, but I'm not the answer, for the questions that you still have'..." -Rise Against- (Savior)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Good afternoon everyone. It's shocking not to see "Vegas" up there in the title of the post, isn't it? : ) I figured that I'd do some catching up on me today, and then I'd return to backtracking to write up my visit to Texas, my poker forays in Las Vegas, etc... I'm not going to make any promises, but I'm going to ATTEMPT to write at least one blog post a week once football season starts. I've written so many posts recently summarizing my trip to the desert that banging the keyboard once a week should be a breeze. We'll see.. I need to give y'all credit for showing up and reading about my visit to Las Vegas. Barring some unforeseen catastrophe (like the internet completely crashing), the views that this blog receives for August 2019 will be the most in a month for the last FIVE years (since August 2014). </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I teased my trip to Texas, and like I said, I'll write a more detailed summary in the near future. I hadn't been to the San Marcos/San Antonio area for any substantial length of time for at least five years. I left my job at the University of Texas four years ago next week, but my Montero Sport had died long before that. Since I didn't "need" a vehicle, living so close to campus, I didn't buy one (and still haven't, as I keep landing jobs in a fairly close proximity to where I live). Between that and good friends who are willing to give me a ride every once in a while (or even lend me their car), I'm just saving up my money for something nice (plus it gives me a healthy bankroll for betting football games, which we'll get to shortly)... : )</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Anyway, the Cliff Notes version of my trip to Texas is that the visit was exactly what I needed. Although I went to Las Vegas for a week and a half in June (read the last seven entries here if you want to catch up on the details of that trip), I always held out hope that I would be able to make a quick trip to Texas before football started. I have a niece and nephew who graduated from high school in June, and they are both attending college this fall. I never mailed them any congratulatory money, as I wanted to deliver it in person. My nephew skipped town to Colorado, as I had wavered on making my visit a complete surprise, and then I finally thought better of that to make sure I had a place to sleep while in Texas. However, I did get to see my niece, and gave her the "standard" uncle line, "I couldn't find an envelope or a stamp, so I decided to bring this to you myself." You're accustomed to my amazing sense of humor by now... : P Regarding my family and the people in San Marcos, everyone is cool, just like always. Like I said, I hadn't visited San Marcos, America in at least five years (WAY TOO LONG), but it didn't matter if I was seeing old friends or meeting new Bobcats - everyone was just awesome... Go figure, we didn't get a family picture at any point (although we do have a picture of Dazie here for you, because you HAVE TO take a snapshot of the cute dog), but I've got one shot with an old friend and one shot with a new friend from the 78666 here for you. </div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oFSCQoVEcf8/XWBBqBTlOTI/AAAAAAAAFP8/x5Ll8XiHQ3gMBh2j2JbKd460WvIHhjTRQCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1566588831960.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="567" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oFSCQoVEcf8/XWBBqBTlOTI/AAAAAAAAFP8/x5Ll8XiHQ3gMBh2j2JbKd460WvIHhjTRQCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1566588831960.jpg" width="299" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7bKBnDyHN_k/XWBBsnzNwXI/AAAAAAAAFQA/rlq0twznfcYxBz00W7bU1ND49JKaVToBACLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1566588838134.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="876" data-original-width="960" height="292" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7bKBnDyHN_k/XWBBsnzNwXI/AAAAAAAAFQA/rlq0twznfcYxBz00W7bU1ND49JKaVToBACLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1566588838134.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f1v_Yzxt7Qw/XWBBdsQ3nwI/AAAAAAAAFP4/JF6ux4-GE_wQrIDcmPja9FdZe0UuxRIxwCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1566588820955.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="1150" height="178" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f1v_Yzxt7Qw/XWBBdsQ3nwI/AAAAAAAAFP4/JF6ux4-GE_wQrIDcmPja9FdZe0UuxRIxwCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1566588820955.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
NOTE: I have to stop wearing my yellow Texas State shirt if there's a possibility of a photo being taken. If you follow this blog or you're part of my Facebook world, you've seen this particular shirt several times... :D<br />
<br />
Like I said, we'll have more details on this trip in the future, but for the limited amount of time that I spent in San Marcos, I had a great time. For those of you I didn't get in touch with before making my way to Texas, again, it was a short and hastily planned trip, and I absolutely plan on visiting again in the future when I have much more time to visit. I was telling people on the Square that if Texas had casinos and legal sports betting, I'd be living there in a second... : ) Oh, and the song lyrics at the top of the page are brought to you courtesy of 94.5 The Buzz, a station out of Houston that I listened to during my travels. Depending on traffic, construction, etc, the drive from Biloxi to San Marcos/San Antonio is about 9-10 hours, and you can tune in The Buzz for at least a quarter of that time due to it's signal strength on either side of Houston. Somehow I missed knowing the artists for both of these songs during their heyday, but I'm sure that I'd heard both of them, and I had the volume cranked up as I cruised along I-10...<br />
<br />
"Christmas Eve..." Believe it or not boys and girls, we have REAL FOOTBALL TOMORROW!!! The reason that I'm not working today is that my schedule is being realigned to its fall/winter version, where I work on the weekends. Most of you already know that I would rather work on the weekends if it means that I can have football. We have two college games to kick off the meaningful football tomorrow, and the fun will last until February 2nd this season, when the Super Bowl is played in Miami. Again, the poker is coming to you in a future blog entry, but with the variance that poker brings, I really like my chances better when I bet on football games right now. Lucky for me that it starts tomorrow I guess, huh? : ) If you weren't aware, we've got Florida vs. Miami from Orlando at 6:00 p.m. CST, followed by Arizona at Hawaii starting at 9:30 p.m. CST tomorrow. The schedule will start ramping up on Thursday, including Texas State at Texas A&M, and the NCAA will offer a jam-packed schedule next weekend. The first NFL game is Thursday, September 5th. <br />
<br />
That's all for now boys and girls, Due to this schedule readjustment, I only have one day off before working five more in a row, so I probably ought to get some chores done today. Have a great football weekend and I'll see you soon!<br />
~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-73067888707092837622019-08-20T07:36:00.002-05:002019-08-20T07:36:43.478-05:00Vegas 2019: Pt. 7/The Delta NightmareGood morning everyone. I didn't intend to wake up this early and type this blog post, but 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' just started fifteen minutes ago, so I have ample background noise to get me through sharing this horrific story. When I left you yesterday, I had spent several hours betting horses at Paris with my friends (they were working, I was betting), and now it was 8:00 p.m. and time to head to the airport for my flight home. My flight wasn't leaving until 10:30 p.m., but I'm the person who always gives himself ample time in case the TSA lines are long, etc, etc... Traveling is stressful enough, and there's no need to add to it. My friend and former coworker Mike picked me up at Paris for my ride to the airport. Again, if you've been following this little vacation miniseries, I was so blessed to have friends giving me rides everywhere. Mike and I caught up and made it to the airport without a hitch. And then........<br />
<br />
Now my BELIEF was that taking the 10:30 p.m. red-eye flight nonstop from Las Vegas to Atlanta, followed by a more than three-hour layover before my connection to Gulfport, THAT would be the punishment for saving some money, the inconvenient flight times. OH BOY, was I wrong... I guess that if you're one of those "look on the brightside" people, I had seats on both airplanes and I got home safely. However.......<br />
<br />
So they announced that our flight was going to be full, yada yada yada. I didn't have a specific seat assignment (shown in my app), but I was assured that I had a seat. When it was time to board, I received my assignment, and walked to the back of the plane..., the VERY BACK of the plane. Funny thing when you're seated in the last row on this flight: your seat doesn't recline. Your seat is basically backed up against a wall, at 90 degrees, right angle style. This was awesome, since I would only be in the air for hours, from Las Vegas to Atlanta... My plan was to sleep on the airplane. You know, I hadn't been sleeping the greatest, I had a three-hour plus layover in Atlanta. Good time to catch some zzzzzz's. I closed my eyes for a little while, and then, BAMM, BAMM, BAMM!!!! GOODNESS GRACIOUS, WHAT THE ???? I was seated on aisle, and I turned to see the flight attendant wielding an ice pick, BANGING on a block of ice. Apparently Delta is squeezing every cent out of this flight, and ice cubes just aren't in the budget, so they have blocks of ice, and this poor young lady has to slay them, meaning that yours truly wasn't getting any sleep. The flight was on a modern plane (minus the ice and the non-adjustable seat), so I had a touch-screen in front of me with games that I sleepily played for most of the flight. Then we landed in Atlanta...<br />
<br />
Now the one thing that I had on my hands was time. No stress leaving the plane, I've got more than three hours to spare. Everyone exits, I look around, get the directions to my next gate, get on the tramway, and off I go. No problem. I look at the food options (it's like 6:00-something in the morning), and at the very end of the row, with no one in line yet, is an Italian place. Pizza by the slice - TOUCHDOWN!! I get my slice of pizza, grab a table near the window, and look out over the MONSTER that is the Atlanta airport. The next hour and a half was pretty peaceful, just me playing in my phone. I had my charger with me, so no issues here, just surfing the net. Then......<br />
<br />
I found out that my flight to Gulfport was going to be delayed. I've only been awake for the most part of the eighteen hours, so whatever. A little while later, we had a gate change, to another gate in the same terminal, less than a hundred yards away. Alright, our flight was delayed, so they're rearranging things, so whatever. About fifteen minutes later, they announce another gate change. and THIS change is to a gate in a different terminal. I wasn't happy... This change involved walking several hundred yards to the tramway, riding to the terminal (duh), and then walking another several hundred yards to the new gate. LOVELY...... I'll give you ONE GUESS what happened within five minutes of my arrival at the new gate. Tick tock, tick tock.... They SENT US BACK to the original gate............ I was LIVID. After making the announcement, the gentleman and lady at the counter were smiling and cracking jokes with each other, having some sort of wonderful conversation, and I was giving them a DEATH STARE across the seating area as I started hiking BACK to the tramway. The lady at the counter caught my eye, my evil eyes, and I didn't break my focus. I was composing nasty e-mails to Delta in my head (the Atlanta airport is Delta's hub), getting ready to DESTROY THEM on social media once I returned home, as I once again trekked back across the airport, and to the new gate. Just because this sundae needed a cherry on top, about fifteen minutes after returning to our original gate, they switched our gate again, to another one about a hundred yards away. And despite the extra pounds I'm carrying, I've been a lifelong athlete, but they've got elderly people, and children, hiking around the airport. It's a good look. Way to go Delta...<br />
<br />
Long story short (too late for that), the flight from Atlanta to Gulfport was fine. I got some rest, picked up my rental car with no problem (this turned out to be easier than having someone pick me up at the airport early that morning, plus I had some errands to do (grocery shopping, etc...)). When I returned my rental to the airport the next morning, my friend Don picked me up. All of that rage and anger, and my plans to light Delta up. Don talked me down from the ledge really quick. As we traveled back to Biloxi from Gulfport (a fifteen-minute drive), I bombarded my friend with the details of this travel nightmare. Don actually lived in Atlanta for several years, and with the nonchalance of a person who is checking their mailbox, or flipping a light switch, Don informed me that the Atlanta airport has always been like that. That took the hot air out of my balloon instantly, and figuring that contacting the good folks at Delta would be fruitless, I just decided that I would wait until I did my little trip write-up to vent... :D <br />
<br />
An interesting (to me) side note to this trip... After completing a pretty normal work week following this vacation, on one of my days off, I slept for SIXTEEN hours straight. I've done my share of sleeping, but even I was impressed by that. : ) I hope that all of you have a great week, and I'll see you soon. ~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-86169150246755918492019-08-19T05:05:00.001-05:002019-08-21T17:06:22.029-05:00Vegas 2019: Pt. 6/Cars & Horses & FridaysGood morning everyone. It's sure looking like this recap of my trip to Las Vegas is going to slide right into football season... : ) Honestly, I've been watching as much football as I can already, with all of the preseason games being rebroadcast on the NFL Network. Basically, it's already football season for me, aside from the amount of money that I'll be betting on the real games (right now I'm most just studying). So I'm seeing this post, and an entry about my trip home, and then a write-up that is just dedicated to poker, and that's if I'm not neglecting any odds and ends (which I surely will).<br />
<br />
I think you've figured out already that I've mixed and matched days when recounting my little Vegas Vacation (my summary hasn't been in sequential order). I'm saying that just to say that my friend Geoff didn't hang out with me every single day of my trip, although his name is popping up in pretty much every blog entry. : ) On the morning of the Blues' Stanley Cup ticket being cashed, Geoff picked me up at Harrah's, and we ventured down Flamingo Road out towards Sam's Town. Just shy of this casino in eastern Las Vegas, my friend Joey has opened up an auto shop called ATL (All Tune and Lube) Vegas. His shop is located at 4728 E. Flamingo Rd. for those of you who live in the desert and might need an oil change or some work done on your car. If you mention my name, Joey probably won't charge you more than double the normal rate for any work done on your vehicle. ; ) For those of you who have been following this blog for a while (Bikini Hill turns eight years-old next month), this is the same Joey who made weekly football picks here (along with myself and my brother Pete). I decided to stop posting the weekly picks because it started to seem like a homework assignment, having to meet the deadline every week, but Joey is still going strong. I worked with Joey at the Riviera when I dealt poker (going on fifteen years ago now), and from there, Joey went to Palace Station, working as a ticket writer in their Race & Sportsbook (speak up when this starts sounding familiar)... Geoff and I got to spend significant time with Joey when we visited, and we got to see his whole operation. If you've followed my adventures, you know that I'm good at DRIVING cars, but repairing them is a whole other world to me. It was cool to roam around in the "back of the house" and see what an auto shop looks like behind the scenes. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CTUcVzQFpNw/XVptCu9OfyI/AAAAAAAAFO4/LcQNTu9o0nw9A6Ba3QFVx_GR5vZQCfmawCEwYBhgL/s1600/FB_IMG_1566207152953-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="365" data-original-width="285" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CTUcVzQFpNw/XVptCu9OfyI/AAAAAAAAFO4/LcQNTu9o0nw9A6Ba3QFVx_GR5vZQCfmawCEwYBhgL/s320/FB_IMG_1566207152953-1.jpg" width="249" /></a></div>
<br />
Joey is the superstar pictured on the left, and if you need any work done on your car, the number to his shop is shown in the top left of the photo.<br />
<br />
<br />
Fridays. Now we're fast forwarding to my very last night in town. I had planned on being at the Ladies' No-Limit Hold 'Em event at the World Series of Poker right when it kicked off at noon, but my sleep was all out of whack (neverending story), so shortly after my alarm went off, I vetoed it and went right back to sleep. Later in the day, my friend Mike (who I met at my orientation in Las Vegas when I became a part-time employee with Caesars's) and I made plans to meet up later to go check out the WSOP and get something to eat. As any good blog writer should, I'm COMPLETELY BLANKING on his friend's name right now, but the three of us met at the Flamingo poker room (total miracle that I was able to find that, huh?), and we ventured over to the Ladies' event. Since I hit the 'publish' button earlier this morning, we"ve confirmed that Mike's friend is named Geoff (yes, the same as my friend!). I thought it might be Jeff, but I couldn't pull the trigger... :D Once we arrived, they were at the point in the tournament when players were beginning to drop like flies, fast approaching the pay bubble. Once we had roamed our way through the tables at that event, we ventured around the action in the other convention rooms (hosting the WSOP), and we collectively saw several people that we knew. Our visit was capped off by a visit to TGI Fridays at the Gold Coast Casino. Our meals were fine, but what made this visit memorable was that we were all starving, and having been slow, the restaurant had just cut a bunch of their staff. Sure enough, after you cut people, that's when you're going to get a rush... : ) Regardless, it was great hanging out with Mike and Geoff, and afterward I went straight back to my room, because I had a long day on the horizon...<br />
<br />
Now the day after the poker and Fridays was ACTUALLY Friday, which meant that it was time for me to check out from Harrah's after my mammoth eleven-day stay. The problem was, what was I going to do all day after I checked out? Check-out is at 11:00 a.m., but to make my trip cheaper, my initial flight for Biloxi wasn't leaving McCarran until 10:30 p.m. that night. I only had one carry-on bag, so it wasn't like I was lugging a bunch of bags around, but still. Long story short, I made some phone calls (Jonni) :D , and the result was that I found out that I was allowed to bet horses at one of my former properties. So I ventured to Paris, knowing that there was no conflict of interest, and after hanging out with my former coworkers for SEVERAL HOURS, I felt lucky to have lost only $20.00. : D Now this was on a Friday, and there weren't many tracks running, so I was betting on EVERYTHING, but I was only betting a few dollars at a time on everything...<br />
<br />
Alright boys and girls, that's all for today. Next time we'll talk about my LOVELY trip back to Biloxi, and then we'll summarize my poker and this trip at a future date. Have a great week everyone! <br />
~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-79929896940890808212019-08-13T08:10:00.001-05:002019-08-13T08:10:15.187-05:00Vegas 2019: Pt. 5/Blue October & The Blues"First time I've seen this band and I have to say ... VERY IMPRESSED !!! I've been going to the Brooklyn Bowl since it opened and I've seen a lot of great bands there but I don't think I've ever seen it as crowded or as enthusiastic as it was tonight. Crisp, tight, powerful set ... good show. Check out "Hate Me" and "Your Love is Like A Car Crash" for a taste on YT..." -Dennis Macklin-<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Good morning everyone. It's slowly but surely sinking in that I can't spend eleven nights in Las Vegas, and then wrap my whole trip up in two blog entries... : ) I'm still determined to summarize this trip by Christmas..., ummmm, the beginning of football season. In today's edition of 'What I Did On My Summer Vacation,' we're going to combine two completely different events because we're playing on the word 'blue...' <br />
<br />
So Blue October has been my favorite band for quite some time. I first saw them perform live about twenty years ago, and WOW... Back when I started seeing them in San Marcos, tickets were $8.00 presale and $10.00 at the door, and I have friends who have an even earlier history with the band. Actually, I've seen them perform live probably 30-40 times, and that could be a whole other blog entry in itself, but I have to FOCUS... :D Knowing that Blue October was going to be in Las Vegas on June 14th is one of the major reasons that I booked my trip when I did. I also knew that the World Series of Poker would be going on, and my friends were going to be there regardless of when I went (although I'm not going anywhere during football season or that big college basketball tournament in March, so that easily eliminates more than half of the year that I can travel and visit people...). <br />
<br />
I was content to attend the concert myself, but I was fortunate to meet my friend Dennis at the show. Dennis was a ticket writer with me in the sportsbooks of Caesar's Entertainment, and he now works for our 'hub' (the group which puts out our betting lines, among their many jobs). Usually when I attend sporting events and concerts, I prefer getting to venues really early and watching everything unfold. It's almost empty when you arrive, you get to watch the crowd file in, take in warm-ups, watch the roadies set up for the band, etc... With Blue October, you get to watch an opening act, etc... On this particular night, I wasn't feeling any of that. The last time that I saw them perform at Brooklyn Bowl, I stood outside in a really long line for over an hour, which didn't really make much sense, because I had no desire to fight for a position right by the stage (been there, done that), or to see the opening act. No offense to the opening act, but on this day, my gameplan included a pre-concert nap, a meal at Outback Steakhouse (one of seven during this trip), and then I'd casually stroll in about the time that the opening act finished. Plan worked LIKE A CHARM. : ) I told Dennis that I'd be sporting a Texas State t-shirt, and right after I cleared the last ticket checkpoint, there was Dennis. Easy peasy... Dennis had never seen Blue October in person, and it was cool to take in the show with someone who was about to be really impressed. The review at the top of this entry was written by Dennis, and he gets to see A LOT of concerts in Las Vegas, so I was really glad that he enjoyed it. We were lucky to get a really good spot where we had a wall to lean against, unobstructed view, and like I said, the band didn't disappoint. Lucky for y'all, Dennis got some great photos from the show. When I go see Blue October, my phone normally stays in my pocket, as I'm just trying to take everything in, but as I said, Dennis was a team player, so here you go... <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-guFibAqKws0/XVKphTzuEpI/AAAAAAAAFMk/sgfY_f7aXLoPiEZOoeI0GQbn1AU4OiJfgCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1565697903887.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-guFibAqKws0/XVKphTzuEpI/AAAAAAAAFMk/sgfY_f7aXLoPiEZOoeI0GQbn1AU4OiJfgCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1565697903887.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WcFYUBLHguc/XVKpl-wqbmI/AAAAAAAAFMo/deY5HRt7Wd4IU8Xt-zr9mLBPv7xMMRR_gCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1565697910235.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WcFYUBLHguc/XVKpl-wqbmI/AAAAAAAAFMo/deY5HRt7Wd4IU8Xt-zr9mLBPv7xMMRR_gCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1565697910235.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PUZcixTSMkE/XVKppgi2-oI/AAAAAAAAFMs/5TfH6rcHQlg2aDUKpGCjJu5BoyilwNIzwCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1565697916400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PUZcixTSMkE/XVKppgi2-oI/AAAAAAAAFMs/5TfH6rcHQlg2aDUKpGCjJu5BoyilwNIzwCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1565697916400.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eZMfH3Eu0s0/XVKps4hOBuI/AAAAAAAAFMw/guU9bPOjG6YReeH-kHPHXXMt0uj6kWz2wCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1565697923550.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eZMfH3Eu0s0/XVKps4hOBuI/AAAAAAAAFMw/guU9bPOjG6YReeH-kHPHXXMt0uj6kWz2wCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1565697923550.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oi1jBNKcSFg/XVKpxc0szZI/AAAAAAAAFM0/QUDUAp5OHj40z3EvaEfqU75_CtlunpVmACLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1565697929857.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oi1jBNKcSFg/XVKpxc0szZI/AAAAAAAAFM0/QUDUAp5OHj40z3EvaEfqU75_CtlunpVmACLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1565697929857.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WdB1jd9aEvc/XVKp0gwcgkI/AAAAAAAAFM4/C3s6tlby5iAeUQCsd4FTwR2gLJO6TJ2pACLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1565697934673.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WdB1jd9aEvc/XVKp0gwcgkI/AAAAAAAAFM4/C3s6tlby5iAeUQCsd4FTwR2gLJO6TJ2pACLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1565697934673.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0YLrZSnV5hU/XVKp3o3LJUI/AAAAAAAAFNA/PE0RIAzvFsk9FyTK9ZHFVU_FE2-1a5EJwCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1565697941824.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0YLrZSnV5hU/XVKp3o3LJUI/AAAAAAAAFNA/PE0RIAzvFsk9FyTK9ZHFVU_FE2-1a5EJwCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1565697941824.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n8UThGrs8vE/XVKp7A9RJxI/AAAAAAAAFNE/tGDn-OtV3o0oAO62p76xeSB_qLDnS3iBgCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1565697950595.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n8UThGrs8vE/XVKp7A9RJxI/AAAAAAAAFNE/tGDn-OtV3o0oAO62p76xeSB_qLDnS3iBgCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1565697950595.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Transitioning from Blue October to the Blues... First off, I was already going to write about this event, but since my friend Jordan was so excited about making it into a blog a few days back, I thought to myself, "Why not twice in one week?" : ) That day that I wrote about recently, when I first went to visit my friends, and the news of the Anthony Davis trade broke, etc... Well, I also learned of this event taking place a few days later. Surprisingly enough, this story hadn't hit my radar until I was in Las Vegas, talking to my friends. At some point during the hockey season, the St. Louis Blues weren't very good evidently. Now I don't usually start paying too much attention to hockey until the NCAA basketball season has come to an end, but the Blues were actually 250 to 1 to win the Stanley Cup with Caesar's at some point during the season. I don't know if they were ever a longer shot to win it all, but I know that the gentleman in the photos below bet $400 on the Blues when they were 250 to 1. 400 x 250 = ??? Anyone wanna guess? Yep, he won $100,000, plus he got his $400 back. $100,400. I seemed to have an opening in my vacation schedule, so I decided that I was going to go check it out. I was with my friend Geoff again, and after we went to see my friend Joey (who we'll talk about in a later episode), we thought that we'd catch the big payout before we went to the buffet at Paris (because heaven knows that I wasn't eating enough on this trip...). At my property here in Biloxi, we had a customer bet $7,000 on Tiger Woods to win the Master's Tournament at 14 to 1, so he won $98,000, plus got his $7,000 back, for a total of $105,000. However, I wasn't at work on either end of that fun (the bet being placed, or the cashout), so this was kinda cool to see. And hey, if it meant Jordan could make it into the blog again... : ) Here are a couple of photos with Jordan and the happy winner...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-exvM6OZMzRc/XVKrH82sjAI/AAAAAAAAFNc/ge_mi04y0GkhqOUsukh8TJO83CL5mHPZgCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1565698646312.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-exvM6OZMzRc/XVKrH82sjAI/AAAAAAAAFNc/ge_mi04y0GkhqOUsukh8TJO83CL5mHPZgCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1565698646312.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iH-ntbi4ap0/XVKrLzZ6z4I/AAAAAAAAFNg/eQg6efgqy5kh0_qqcFYab1JundQLnNnfACLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1565698655168.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iH-ntbi4ap0/XVKrLzZ6z4I/AAAAAAAAFNg/eQg6efgqy5kh0_qqcFYab1JundQLnNnfACLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1565698655168.jpg" width="177" /></a></div>
<br />
I actually have to work today myself, so I'm going back to sleep now. :D Have a great day everyone!~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-68357703693496240392019-08-11T02:44:00.001-05:002019-08-11T02:44:43.756-05:00Vegas 2019: Pt. 4/Representing Texas State Pays OffGood morning everyone. I didn't know that I would be writing again so soon, but if I'm going to finish telling you about Las Vegas, and then start telling you about San Marcos and visiting my family (with football right around the corner), the words have to start hitting the computer screen. I really intended to write more yesterday, but I "hit the wall" as far as my sleep goes. For the second night in a row, I will be awake in the middle of the night, but I will take a long early morning nap this time, waking up around noon, to get me closer to my work sleep schedule. Returning from San Antonio to Biloxi, I left at about 8:30 p.m. and reached Biloxi before 7:00 a.m., so that's the current sleep pattern that I have to break. Luckily I cut my overgrown grass this morning, as the forecast for rain did come through, and it would have been a real pain in the a** to do so after the rain. Much like last night, the NFL Network will be along for the ride as I type this entry. Honestly, in my mind, it's football season already (minus me making bets). The NFL Network replays every single preseason game, and since I was driving Thursday night, I haven't changed my channel, watching EVERY SINGLE GAME that they've been showing in my waking hours. Okay, off we go.......<br />
<br />
As my most recent stint in Las Vegas was coming to an end, I ordered a handful of Texas State shirts so that I could represent my alma mater when I was at the poker tables. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you: On this day (August 11th) "a couple of years" ago, I graduated from college. This is a photo of me during my college days, and one at my graduation...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3NjeS2F_xqo/XU--m_3kpbI/AAAAAAAAFL0/pJMgIulR7bgZLjodZr8zCbx6TkTlWChtACLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1565502428188.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="880" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3NjeS2F_xqo/XU--m_3kpbI/AAAAAAAAFL0/pJMgIulR7bgZLjodZr8zCbx6TkTlWChtACLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1565502428188.jpg" width="195" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AmvWnsN7DEE/XU--pS6GsTI/AAAAAAAAFL4/TDxqCczvWiUNohy-553QFbEXEjFyok9XwCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1565502521472.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AmvWnsN7DEE/XU--pS6GsTI/AAAAAAAAFL4/TDxqCczvWiUNohy-553QFbEXEjFyok9XwCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1565502521472.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I wonder why this is the story I chose to share with you today.... : ) Anyway, this story occurred during the wee hours of Sunday morning, in-between visiting my friends at the sportsbook, and attending the birthday party at Sunset Park (both topics that were covered in yesterday's blog post). My friend Geoff (who for working two full-time jobs during the World Series) was a great friend in helping me get around the desert during my visit, and we got the chance to hang out quite a bit, considering his work schedule. I arrived at the Rio after midnight on this Sunday morning, my first visit to the World Series of Poker during this trip. I wanted to check the scene out while things were more quiet, hoping to catch my friend during his lunch break. I also knew other people who were working the series, and I thought I might run into some of them. In addition to the well-publicized bracelet events that many of you are surely familiar with, there are also round-the-clock cash games and "daily tournaments" during the series, so there's never really a complete shutdown of action while the WSOP is running. As luck would have it, Geoff was going to forego his full lunch break and seek an EO (early out) since things weren't hectic at the Rio on this particular night. He told me that he would give me a ride back to the Strip if this happened, so I was watching some poker near his work area when this occurred.......<br />
<br />
I was on the rail (there was literally a small wall in this case) of a high limit PLO (Pot Limit Omaha) cash game, wearing one of my Texas State t-shirts. There were MANY black ($100) and green ($25) chips on the table. FYI, these are much higher stakes than any games that I play in. The player who was the most talkative was really giving a hard time to the player that I was standing right behind on the rail. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, other than to say that the words "sister" and "whore" were used in the same sentence, when referencing the player's family. Now the guy that I was behind was REALLY calm and collected, at one point replying, "Hey, she's got to live her own life..." After a while, the guy who was doing all of the chirping suddenly exclaims, "HEY, TEXAS STATE!" I instantly responded, because..., DUH, we know he's talking to me. Then the guy goes on, AGAIN targeting the player sitting in front of me: "Hey, did you know that he was cut from the gymnastics team at Texas State in 2003?" The table starts laughing, and the player in front of me replies, "You know, that's the funniest thing you've said all day..." And then every few hands, the chatty player resumed his conversation with me. "Where is Tecas State?" I told him, "It's between San Antonio and Austin, a half-hour between each, in San Marcos." After a few more Texas State and San Marcos-related questions, he asks if I play poker. I respond that I do, but for MUCH smaller stakes. Then he asks if I'm up for the trip, and I respond, "Yup, a little." I even used a hand-gesture to explain this, like the team needs an inch for a first down.... "How much?" I finally tell him that I'm up just over 100 bucks. THEN he reaches down, grabs a black chip from his stack, and TOSSES IT ACROSS THE TABLE towards me! He must have been throwing into the air-conditioning, as the chip falls short, hitting the other side of the short wall, before falling to the floor. I was that close to 100 dollars. But wait. A player on my side of the table picked up the chip, and handed it to me. Then the player who tossed the chip, knowing that it had hit the wall, asked where it was (I believe he had gotten into a hand). I showed him that I was holding the chip, and at that moment, one of the floor people came over, to take the chip from me. Seeing this, the player said, "NO, NO, let him keep it." The floor walked away, and I kind of sheepishly shrugged, like, "Are you sure?" I guess since I had been watching the game for about half an hour, he thought that I was down on my luck. I actually enjoy watching people play poker, whether I have money or not, which I did in this case. I watched the game for a few more minutes, and then Geoff finished his shift and motioned for me that it was time to go. And that's how I left the Rio a hundred dollars richer....<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-95qg4SsbrlE/XU_G94TB88I/AAAAAAAAFME/MH5xzkTXdt4S9ygf0AQ-mezsv3HZAALugCLcBGAs/s1600/20190616_191247-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1425" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-95qg4SsbrlE/XU_G94TB88I/AAAAAAAAFME/MH5xzkTXdt4S9ygf0AQ-mezsv3HZAALugCLcBGAs/s320/20190616_191247-1.jpg" width="285" /></a></div>
<br />
That's all for tonight, but I'll have another installment for you soon. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-61618422880423929722019-08-10T03:16:00.001-05:002019-08-10T03:16:25.609-05:00Vegas 2019: Pt. 3/This Is the Best Day of My Life!Good morning everyone. I've got myself in the position where I still have a lot to tell you about my trip to Las Vegas, and I also just returned from my first visit to Central Texas in over five years. That being said, the NFL's preseason schedule is in full swing, and the college football season begins two weeks from today (with a handful of games). I'm telling you all that just to let you know that this blog post is going to be a little longer than normal. I don't want to shortchange you on my trip to Las Vegas, but I also don't envision myself writing the seven-to-eight post series that I had originally planned on. If football gets into full swing and I have a logjam of events that I've yet to write about, who knows what will happen... : ) I recently upgraded my cable service to include the NFL Network, so I have some sweet, sweet preseason football to accompany me while I write tonight... : )<br />
<br />
When we last visited, I had arrived in Las Vegas, and I had eaten a BUNCH of fried food while watching the replay of that night's NBA Finals game (the Warriors won, but Durant came back and seriously injured himself). During the next few days, I had planned treading pretty lightly, as I had errands to do ahead of seeing my favorite band, Blue October, perform at the Brooklyn Bowl on Friday (my flight arrived late on Monday night, and the fried food bonanza was being consumed early Tuesday morning). I also wanted to play twelve hours of poker at the Flamingo by Friday so that I would be eligible for their freeroll tournament in the morning. So I had three days to shake my jet lag, play my twelve hours, and do errands. My errands included shopping for the room (I needed to buy some snacks for an eleven night stay), getting a haircut (at the inexpensive place I went to for the past two years in Vegas prior to moving), and buying my Blue October ticket. All of these things went as planned, no problems. Okay, well ONE PROBLEM. During my first or second day in town, I was walking through the Linq. I was entering fron the north side, coming from Harrah's, and there was enough foot traffic that we had a line of people entering the casino, and a line exiting. After I had entered the building, a guy from the oncoming line turned his head to the left, facing me, when he proceeded to...., SNEEZE ON ME!! I don't know about you, but having taught and coached for nine years, dealt poker, worked in sportsbooks (i.e., having been in the close vicinity of people), I have been coughed and sneezed on before, and then just KNOWN that I was going to get sick (which I did). This was one of those instances, and with my crazy Las Vegas sleep schedule (I usually tend to get sick when I'm tired, immune system is weaker, etc....), I just knew at that moment... I really wasn't affected until the second part of my stay, and because I was disciplined and made myself stay in my hotel room a lot longer than I would have liked considering that I was on vacation, I shook the bug and I was fine by the time that I flew back to Biloxi.<br />
<br />
For now we're going to skip my poker playing and the Blue October concert, and fast forward to Saturday, when I first went to visit my friends and former coworkers. I waited until the weekend to start seeing people because that's when the sportsbooks schedule more workers due to having more business. I didn't get to see everyone that I know, but considering the number of friends that entails, having worked at three different books, I did see most everybody. Saturday was the first of three different times that I went to the books, and I spent several hours there between those days, as reconnecting was as much a part of the trip as anything else. Friends, concert, World Series of Poker, playing poker... It's a pretty good reason to spend eleven days in Las Vegas. : ) While I was at Bally's on Saturday, the news of the Anthony Davis trade broke, and we had just been talking about the Lakers five minutes earlier. I will go on the record right now and say that I don't think the Lakers will be the team on the court that is favored to win the NBA title. There are several older players on this team, and many that already have an injury history, but it should be interesting to watch (after football of course)... : D <br />
<br />
After I made my way to Paris (when I worked in Las Vegas, I could be scheduled at Bally's, Paris, or Planet Hollywood), I saw another friend and coworker (Jordan) who was throwing a birthday party for her daughter the next day at Sunset Park (a little south of the Strip). I was invited (see, I have friends), and I went with my friend Geoff (the same Geoff that picked me up at the airport). He worked at the World Series of Poker, and I have a whole other story about visiting him that Saturday night/Sunday morning, but we'll save that for later...<br />
<br />
So now it's Sunday and we're at the birthday party. Sunset Park turned out to be HUGE compared to my expectations, there was a nice breeze, and it was a very pleasant birthday party on a Sunday afternoon. There were several pizzas, and after having already eaten $100 in Outback gift cards during the week, I only had two slices, but that's also a story for another day... : ) Jordan's daughters are young, which is relevant to the story I'm about to tell you. The girls had a blast, playing with the birthday gifts, eating, taking a trip over to the water park, etc... (in case you're not familiar with the concept of birthday parties)... :P ANYWAY, the party was coming to an end, and Jordan was helping others load up their car (chairs, etc...). The girls were on the grass in front of me and Geoff playing with what is basically a souped-up Etch-A-Sketch, and Geoff and myself were standing behind them. This is important to the story, because what happened next, it's not like our heroine was doing something for attention, or an audience, because she didn't know that anyone was watching her. So the girls are playing, and suddenly the older sister stands up, extends her arms and looks up to the sky, Shawshank Redemption style, and EXCLAIMS, "THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!" I started laughing and turned to Geoff, asking, "Did you see that?!" The best part is that it wasn't even her birthday, but her little sister's... : D I'm not crazy about using children's names in the blog, and I didn't think they were necessary to tell the story, so I hope that wasn't too confusing. Here's a photo from the birthday party...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8EnX-DFI_Bs/XU58SI_U-AI/AAAAAAAAFKs/xfDU8tVZU1YmyT9PQomIwD-pJzOfYnFdwCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1565423109079.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8EnX-DFI_Bs/XU58SI_U-AI/AAAAAAAAFKs/xfDU8tVZU1YmyT9PQomIwD-pJzOfYnFdwCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1565423109079.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
My initial thought looking at this photo is that I own a combination of at least TEN Texas State t-shirts and jerseys, but every time that I end up in a photo, I always seem to be wearing this yellow shirt... That is something that I'll have to remedy. <br />
<br />
I'm going to give up for now (I'm starting to yawn again, and it's 3:15 a.m.), but I'll see you soon!<br />
~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-24665509106688874112019-07-23T00:09:00.000-05:002019-08-10T01:56:10.690-05:00Vegas 2019: Pt. 2/TakeoffThe last time that we visited, I was getting ready to go to Las Vegas. My ride to the Gulfport/Biloxi airport was my friend Nick. Nick was also a valuable source of information seeing that I had not flown for several years. The last time that I was in the friendly skies, downloading your boarding passes to the app on your smartphone was not a thing. Nick also assured me that the size of my carry-on bag was fine. Helpful Travel Tip: If you do not have to check any of your luggage, bringing just a carry-on bag saves you a lot of time after arriving at your destination, since you get to skip the carousel. It also eliminates the chance that the airline will lose your luggage. It also eliminates baggage fees, if your chosen airline charges you for the privilege of bringing some things with you. : ) Okay, so my friend Nick dropped me off, and the cool thing about flying out of a small airport - there was NO LINE for the TSA security check. ZERO. NONE. As I was being processed by the four TSA agents who were working, one of the men said that I looked familiar. I told him where I worked, and then he asked me what I did. I then told him that I work in the sportsbook, and he lit up, and said that's where he knew me from. At work my hair is gelled and combed back, and in real life I'm wearing a ballcap about 100% of the time, so I've got one of those Clark Kent/Superman things going. ;) <br />
<br />
I flew American Airlines on both flights to Las Vegas, and people would LOVE traveling that much more if their trips went as my smoothly as my trip to the desert. First, I would highly recommend flying into and out of small airports if you can afford it. As I said in my last post, I booked so far in advance that my flights were pretty inexpensive, which offset the costs of leaving and returning to Gulfport/Biloxi. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kyCsdU_xl9k/XTaQQVI1XlI/AAAAAAAAFFc/9615m7GvYeQwpLEVDzkuNrgWSEqaYry9wCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1563856792188.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1108" height="207" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kyCsdU_xl9k/XTaQQVI1XlI/AAAAAAAAFFc/9615m7GvYeQwpLEVDzkuNrgWSEqaYry9wCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1563856792188.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Look at that peaceful airport! The plane was probably the smallest that I've ever flown on. The left side of the plane had single seats (every seat was a window seat). The right side of the plane had two seats (an aisle seat and a window seat). My table tray was broken and safety-taped to the back of the seat in front of me. That table tray was the EXTENT of my problems on my trip to Las Vegas. Very smooth flight. Before takeoff, I had posted that photo above on Facebook. When I landed at the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) airport, I had a message waiting for me. My friend Geoff asked me if I needed a ride when I landed in Las Vegas. There is so much transportation to the Strip from McCarran International in Vegas that I had never worried about finding a ride, but HECK YEAH, I'll gladly take a ride to the Strip. As my vacation approached, the most worrisome aspect was making my connecting flight at DFW, because the airport is simply HUGE, and I had just a little more than an hour til takeoff after arriving from Gulfport. However, once I exited my initial flight, all of the gate information and the airport tramways (skylinks) at DFW were well-labeled, and I reached my connecting flight in plenty of time. Unlike my first flight, this plane was BIG, and modern, with headphones being passed out for the video screen in front of you, on which you could play music, or watch a movie, etc... I thought that I would sleep most of the way to Las Vegas, but I ended up watching about half of the movie 'Glass' once I realized that sleep simply wasn't going to happen. Geoff has been to McCarran in Las Vegas several times, and finding him after I arrived was simple. Geoff zipped me to Harrah's while giving me a flawless update on that night's Warriors/Raptors game. This was the game where Durant came back and REALLY screwed up his health, yet the Warriors pulled out a victory. Oh yeah. Another factor in my flights to Las Vegas being so cheap was the times that I chose to fly. I didn't leave Gulfport until about 7:30 p.m., and I didn't arrive in Las Vegas until almost midnight (and that's WITH the two hours in time that you gain by flying west), so yep, I completely missed Durant's return to the Warriors lineup. However, I know that Geoff's recap of the game was flawless, because I watched the replay of it once I arrived at Harrah's, eating the first of what would be SEVERAL healthy meals during this trip...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-101KAacjOts/XTaVgzkE2uI/AAAAAAAAFFo/W8YCAABVPeYmclSA1WmjdU8CsamiD8uBACLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1563858178326.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="1137" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-101KAacjOts/XTaVgzkE2uI/AAAAAAAAFFo/W8YCAABVPeYmclSA1WmjdU8CsamiD8uBACLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1563858178326.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Just note that a hidden layer of french fries is underneath all of the fried food that you can actually see pictured on top right there. : ) This is a good time to give a shout out to the food court at Harrah's, which was open til 3:00 a.m. nightly, and had a pretty good selection of items to choose from (I had several). That's all for now, but I'll start hitting you with some of the highlights of my trip the next time that I see you. Have a great week everyone!~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-17765100337473066672019-06-24T05:07:00.000-05:002019-08-10T01:55:25.388-05:00Vegas 2019: Pt. 1/PregameWOW. Over three months since the last time that I posted. Let's see if this thing still works... The last time that we visited, the madness of March was almost upon us. Now it's June 24th, and the first pair of games of the college FOOTBALL season are two months from today. Turning back time to February 19th, I had recently found out that Blue October (my favorite band) was going to be performing at Brooklyn Bowl in Las Vegas on June 14th. Oddly enough, I hadn't really thought about taking any vacation days up to this point. I arrived here in Biloxi on July 31st last year, and the only PTO (paid time off) that I had used was for EO's (early outs) on days that work was slow. Coming from Las Vegas, I'm accustomed to not asking for time off during football season, and the Super Bowl had wrapped up only a couple of weeks prior to this day. Blue October. Now I've only seen them perform live like thirty-something times (ballpark). Following the band's concert tour website over the years, I had noticed that they normally perform at the Hard Rock here in Biloxi once a year (which hasn't happened yet, and isn't scheduled to happen - and the current tour schedule runs through November 17th). Guess what? The World Series of Poker is in full swing in Las Vegas in June. June also tends to be a really slow time of the year in sportsbooks, making it easier to get time off (as things turned out, my flights to Vegas took place during the next-to-last game of the NBA Finals, and there was only one game left in the Stanley Cup Final after I arrived in Las Vegas). I also have several friends that I wanted to touch base with, all of whom I hadn't seen for over ten months (by the time that June would roll around).<br />
<br />
Back to February 19th. So on the 19th, I asked if I could get a couple of weeks off in June. I was told to fill out the forms and that they would be faxed down to Human Resources. : ) So I requested to be off from June 9th-23rd. Next, I started working with my "travel agent" Brandi, pricing hotel rooms. : ) A perk to working for Caesar's Entertainment: if you stay at one of the company's properties, not only is your hotel room discounted, but your resort fees are also waived. This is a HUGE perk if you're staying at a company property on the Las Vegas Strip. After previewing things with Brandi, I made my final decisions at home later that night. I used Expedia for my flights, and found round-trip tickets from Gulfport (fifteen minutes from Biloxi) to Las Vegas for under $400. It's cheaper to fly out of New Orleans, but the Big Easy is also an hour and a half drive from here. I was thrilled that the tickets were as cheap as they were, but I was booking four months in advance. Also, I had to fly at some weird times, and I had some interesting connections (which we'll get to later). I also finalized my hotel plans. I booked a room at Harrah's for eleven nights, and it cost me less than $500 (yes, you read that right). Now that everything was booked, all I had to do was WAIT..... <br />
<br />
Okay boys and girls, that's the end of Part 1, but we'll continue the next time that I see you. Back to the present, it's June 24th, and someone has to cut their neglected yard at sunrise (when it's coolest). That will also allow someone to take a nap before they have to go back to work for the first time in about two and a half weeks....... : ( Til next time, live your best life!~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-49610917428277046282019-03-13T19:34:00.004-06:002019-03-13T20:54:43.150-06:00Calm Before The StormGood evening everyone. I'm right smack dab in the middle of doing chores, so this seems like the perfect time to procrastinate. This is probably going to be my last best opportunity to shoot a few written words in your direction before the NCAA Tournament gets underway, the "calm before the storm" if you will. I ripped off that phrase from it's creator (whoever that is) sometime back, but now it's been swiped from me. Whenever we're slow at work before a big sporting event (Super Bowl, NCAA Tournament, you get the idea, etc...), I'll casually let the words, "This is the calm before the storm" roll from my lips in my acquired southern drawl... Then in the past few weeks, Gaming Today not only reported on a writer at a sportsbook in Nevada using the phrase, but GT actually made the phrase THE HEADLINE of that edition! The nerve...<br />
<br />
So yes, anyway, I'm cleaning up my clothes and my house in preparation of taking bets on and watching a lot of basketball during the remainder of March. The "madness" unofficially kicked off last night when the #1 team in the nation (DEBATABLE) Gonzaga lost by 13 in the finals of the West Coast Conference Tournament, sending Saint Mary's to the big dance with an automatic bid. I'd argue that the West Coast Conference is college basketball's answer to the AFC East, but we have all month to fight about basketball. :D YouTube. While we're talking about doing chores, I think that using YouTube as a jukebox is about as underrated as the concept of taking naps. In the corner of the room, I have the Louisville/Notre Dame game muted as I play tune after tune through my computer. I highly recommend this if you have never tried it. YouTube isn't even paying me for the plug... <br />
<br />
Back to the tournament and the ensuing calamity (I don't want to use the word "madness" too many times, since the NCAA evidently owns the word), I took a moment to reflect recently, and I reminded myself how lucky I am that my current job is watching sports t.v. That's not all of it obviously, but basically, if you break it down, I'm watching sports on television for a living. That probably explains why in almost thirty-one months with Caesars Entertainment, I've yet to miss a day of work, or even come in late. :D "Watch sports on t.v., and talk about the games with people? What time do I have to show up? :D In all honesty, next week is a big favorite to be the most stressful that my job will be until football starts again. Starting with my brother Pete, and ending with my friend and book manager Rob, I could thank a lot of people for their assistance and patience as they taught me the ropes of doing the other things that we do (besides watching t.v.), as I sit here typing on the Mississippi Gulf Coast anticipating some exciting basketball over the next several weeks.<br />
<br />
As for a big bunch of the other people in-between, it's only three months until June, and my flights have been confirmed for my excursion to the desert. I actually received an e-mail today (this is completely true, I am not making this up), and two of my flights have been completely changed (in addition to one totally different airplane), and I now have to be prepared to depart from the Gulfport/Biloxi airport TWO MINUTES EARLIER! *gasp* I either arrive in Las Vegas a minute earlier or later also, I don't remember which... <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KJX6pPq0TDw/XImnpuQLazI/AAAAAAAAEpI/LRmfo3rxjE86H6bGBWADgt91gveDnZR3wCLcBGAs/s1600/20190313_195423.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KJX6pPq0TDw/XImnpuQLazI/AAAAAAAAEpI/LRmfo3rxjE86H6bGBWADgt91gveDnZR3wCLcBGAs/s320/20190313_195423.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
This seems like a good time to take a random timeout. I was about to explain how after my trip to Las Vegas, I would probably start looking to buy a vehicle when I return to Mississippi, and I'm also going to be in the marker for an aquarium so I can own some more fish, so you get this... I bought seven new goldfish about three months ago, and these turned out to be the two "lucky" ones. (Seven, it's a gambling/casino thing - lucky number seven...). ANYWAY, the fish are nameless, and the one in the front likes to chase the other around the fish bowl. I did answer an open solicitation on Facebook yesterday about naming a pet. A former coworker of mine asked for suggestions about naming a new gecko. Well, it was actually a vote on two pre-chosen names, but my write-in vote was Gordon. Gordon Gecko... If you don't get it, you're going to have to look it up, because I'm not going to explain it. I've seen a few geckos around my house, and if I ever have the urge to catch one, Gordon will be his/her name, it's a lock. <br />
<br />
Anyway, since my job at the University of Texas, where my Montero Sport died, I have never looked into acquiring a new vehicle. While living in Austin, I had a place on West Campus about fifteen minutes from work (this will be a recurring theme), and my job on the Forty Acres gave me free access to the city bus system, so I didn't really need a car. Then I moved back to my hometown (we're not going to get into all of that), and then I moved to Las Vegas, and then I moved to Biloxi. In every situation, I could walk to work, and I have a friend who lets me use his car about once a month to go buy groceries, so I really haven't had the pressing need for a vehicle. (In Las Vegas, my friend Joey would take me to shop about once a month, and here in Mississippi, my friend Nick doesn't have the same patience to watch me shop for an hour, but he's kind enough to lend me his car keys...). :D So my number one plan (Plan A), is to win enough money in Las Vegas to pay for a new vehicle. That would be ideal... If that doesn't work, I'll need to save some more money (Plan B). After I return from the desert, I will have been at this property for almost a year, and with Caesars for almost three years, so that should show some job stability, yada, yada. I won't tell the new car people that I watch t.v. for a living... ;) <br />
<br />
So, I told you that to tell you this. Despite my advantageous new location geographically (I am about an 8 1/2 hour drive from San Marcos, America, I am within a dozen hours of each of my parents, and really close to a lot of neat things that are just a short drive (a few hours), I should probably get a car again. With the new four-day schedule that I'm working (I'm now working four 10-hour days as opposed to five 8-hour shifts, in case you missed our last episode), I could theoretically miss four days of work (paid time off), and take a ten-day trip somewhere. I haven't been to San Marcos in quite some time, so that's probably at the top of my list. NOTE: San Marcos also means Austin/San Antonio, since they're all located in the same convenient corridor. San Antonio to Austin is just an hour (well, with zero traffic), and San Marcos is located in-between the two. <br />
<br />
Back to gambling, although I love to play poker (yet, ironically, have yet to visit a Gulf Coast poker room since I've arrived), I think that you have more edges betting sports than you do playing cards (well, that I have more edges betting sports) :D, but I will definitely be playing some poker while in Las Vegas, since I'll be staying right on the Strip, AND the World Series of Poker will be taking place at the Rio, which brings a lot more poker players and money to town. Another thing that I won't be telling the new car people is how much time and effort will be spent preparing to bet the 2019 football season, but that's another post for another day... ;) <br />
<br />
Alright gang, I've spent enough time chatting with you (and ignoring my chores), so I'm going to get back to it. Enjoy the college basketball for the rest of the month, and I'll talk to you soon...<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-73855489419615290852019-02-23T01:21:00.000-06:002019-02-23T01:21:40.246-06:00Lots of NewsGood morning everyone. If you were able to decode that title, you've already figured out that there's a lot going on in my universe down here in Biloxi, Mississippi. I've now been here on the Gulf Coast just shy of seven months. Working in a sportsbook, it's rare to take many days off of work during football season, and for the third year in row, I didn't. That left me in the same position that I've been in the last two years (wait for it, wait for it...).... So I was in the position of choosing how I was going to use some PTO (Paid Time Off) days. I am long overdue for a visit to San Marcos, America, and I now live just an 8 1/2 hour drive away after my most recent move from Las Vegas to Mississippi. So now that I've thrown that out there, that is not where I recently dedicated a chunk of my PTO hours. Another option that I had was the "staycation." This would no doubt include doing some housework, going to Shuckers games, playing poker, sleeping more, etc... Didn't choose that. Guess what I did choose......<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2erFuT4UkFk/XHDocfq0JrI/AAAAAAAAEmo/HZRBgqbQk9ca013_S3qs9hI47VETdwdBQCLcBGAs/s1600/shutterstock_497449381.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="1000" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2erFuT4UkFk/XHDocfq0JrI/AAAAAAAAEmo/HZRBgqbQk9ca013_S3qs9hI47VETdwdBQCLcBGAs/s320/shutterstock_497449381.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
WOOHOO!!!! I've never been to Las Vegas before.... :D A key factor in this choice was being able to take off two weeks of work in a row. Sportsbook are slower in the summer, so this was possible. My thinking is, if I'm going to have to pay for round-trip airfare, I want to stay in the desert as long as possible. I can't understand how people who have to travel any substantial distance can just visit Vegas for two or three days, though I'm guessing it probably goes back to that's the longest that they can afford to be away from home. Well, your friend Coach just booked a June vacation for ELEVEN nights on the Las Vegas Strip. :D Is it a coincidence that the World Series of Poker will be taking place during my visit? Is it a coincidence that my favorite band will be playing in town during my visit? Actually, I probably have less "partying" planned for anyone you know that visits the desert, especially for this amount of time. I probably do have more time visiting friends planned that anyone you know that visits Las Vegas though. For the two years that I worked in Vegas before moving here in August, I was working for three Strip properties concurrently, so that's a lot of people to touch base with right off the bat. And then there's those people that I know in the poker world, and then there's the World Series, and then there's the Blue October concert. You're right, eleven days probably isn't enough, but I'll make the best of it. :)<br />
<br />
Not only was I able to get two weeks off in a row from work, but now my schedule has just been switched to where I'm working later shifts (which are my preference, being the night owl that I am). Actually, there is NO WAY that I'd be typing for you right now if I was still on the schedule that I had worked since arriving here, because I'd be soundly sleeping preceding a 5:30 a.m. alarm for a 7:30 a.m. shift. (The time is currently 12:44 a.m. in Biloxi...). Now I will be waking up at 12:30 p.m. for a 2:30 p.m. shift. Ahhhhhh... :D I will also be switching to working 4 10-hour shifts, as opposed to 5 8-hour stints, which is also to my liking. While each one of my work days will be a bit longer, I will have an extra day off each week to do things like......<br />
<br />
BATTLE MY YARD... WHOA!! One of the pluses to living in Biloxi over Las Vegas is that housing is cheaper. I am currently renting a small two-bedroom house here on the Gulf Coast for $675.00 a month. When you find that deal in Vegas, please let me know. Something that comes with a house that doesn't come with an apartment is yardwork. So I'll be honest at this point, and let you know that today's fun was all work that I brought on myself. The basic responsibility with renting this house is that I'm supposed to take care of the yard. I spent an hour cutting the grass yesterday. Fine. But SOMEBODY decided that I should dig up dirt around the edges of the house, and plant varioius herbs, flowers, and berries. So your somebody spent another two hours outside doing yardwork today, which was promptly followed by that same somebody taking a three-hour nap... :D If ANYTHING actually grows (except for weeds, because I seem to be able to grow those with no effort at all), then maybe I'll post some photos for you here on the blog. <br />
<br />
Back to working later shifts, something that will change is the 2:00 a.m. train. Well, the train schedule probably isn't going to change, but how I deal with the train blasting its horn at 2:00 in the morning will be different. Before, that train was either waking me up 3 1/2 or 5 1/2 hours before I needed to get up for work (depending on if it was the weekend or a weekday). Now, that 2:00 a.m. train will remind me that I need to start thinking about getting to bed pretty soon so that I can wake up on time for work later that day. Have I ever mentioned that the train tracks run right behind my house, and that they are REALLY CLOSE? <br />
<br />
And now back to the yardwork. I was able to do yardwork today, and right now it's still 70 degrees here in Biloxi, at 1:00 a.m. This was Las Vegas yesterday...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QzAAX3owt6I/XHDxi-mhOaI/AAAAAAAAEm0/cHDT797aepMKsYWC_gUw3eltbtFBQND7gCLcBGAs/s1600/5a6be36e-7bbf-4197-82e2-769095329d1a-smallScale_flake1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="311" data-original-width="415" height="239" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QzAAX3owt6I/XHDxi-mhOaI/AAAAAAAAEm0/cHDT797aepMKsYWC_gUw3eltbtFBQND7gCLcBGAs/s320/5a6be36e-7bbf-4197-82e2-769095329d1a-smallScale_flake1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I guess that I picked the right winter to not be in Las Vegas. BRRRRRR.... Anyway, it's getting warmer here, I cut some grass and planted some seeds, and now I'm gearing up for the NCAA Tournament, which is right around the corner. Yes, it's less than a week til March, for those of you keeping score at home. The aforementioned Biloxi Shuckers will be starting their baseball season down here right about the time that the NCAA Tournament comes to an end, and then it will be time for baseball, swimming, poker, and yes, more yardwork... :)<br />
<br />
This old man should really be getting ready to call it a night now, but for my friends in the desert, I should be bothering y'all sometime in the middle of June. Have a great week everyone, and I'll see you soon!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-33824601005516163712019-01-19T21:13:00.000-06:002019-01-19T21:13:27.629-06:00This Football Stuff Is Just About Over...Good evening everyone. Unusual to catch me here typing on a Saturday night, but I'm just resting before what promises to be a very eventful day at work tomorrow. There are just four teams alive in the race for the Super Bowl trophy, and that number will be cut down to two after the Saints host the Rams and the Patriots visit the Chiefs. For those of you who haven't visited in a while, I'm taking sports bets on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and as luck would have it, the majority of people here seem to be Saints fans... : D Our sportsbook will open at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, and the Saints game (the first game of the day) doesn't kick off until just after 2:00 p.m., so I'm curious as to how fast/slow the betting crowd will congregate for the games. Two weeks from Monday I will begin my annual depression as the football season will have just ended, and I'll have to wait until almost September for the colleges to tee it up again. *SIGH* As a consolation prize, I will begin playing poker again once the football season has concluded, so there's that. Today I received my fifth copy of Card Player Magazine since I began my subscription, so I've been studying up a bit, seeing what the cool kids currently think about the crazy game of Texas Hold 'Em. <br />
<br />
At this point I'm going to transition into a paragraph where poker is the main theme, because that footbally/poker paragraph was starting to get pretty lengthy. Great thing about writing your own blog by the way, is that you can make up words, type run-on sentences, use ellipses until the cows come home, and no one can do anything about it... ;) Okay, poker. Although I'm not in Las Vegas anymore, there is some poker action to be had here. Being the responsible person that I am :) , I've held off on playing poker during football season. I have to wake up at 5:30 a.m. on the weekends to get to work on time, which is not optimal for late Friday or Saturday night poker sessions (although I'm sure I could've snuck a few in, and probably will in the future). Also, I have an alarming amount of my bankroll that goes toward football betting during this time of year (WHO KNEW?!). :D Honestly, I'm betting a lot less now, just because the games this weekend are so tough, there aren't as many to wager on, and I'll be plenty occupied with work. (Lucky for me, there is a two-week break after tomorrow's games before the Super Bowl, so I'll have PLENTY of time to place a TRUCKLOAD of prop bets). Did you notice how I stuck to poker in this paragraph, leaving football in the previous one??? Back to poker, the Imperial Palace hosted a World Series Circuit Event here in Biloxi in the past few months, and the Beau Rivage recently hosted a tournament series of their own very recently. Long story short, I looked at my Bravo Live poker app. on a WEEKDAY during the Beau Rivage series, and they had EIGHT games running in the middle of the day, while I was eating lunch, so there is some poker to be found here. The funny thing here is that Biloxi is relatively small compared to Las Vegas (with only three poker rooms - Imperial Palace, Beau Rivage, Golden Nugget), so I'm sure that in no time at all, I'm going to get comments like, "Oh, I know you. You work in the sportsbook at Harrah's..." Fun times ahead... ;) I plan to keep wearing my ENDLESS collection of Texas State gear to the tables also, so if I'm not already bookmarked in people's heads, it's gonna happen real fast... (You know, something other than, "Wow, that guy is an AWFUL poker player!"). <br />
<br />
One of the reasons that I'm writing for you tonight - sheer guilt. About three weeks back, my brother mentioned to me that he was playing daily fantasy sports on Draftkings. (Yep, this is the same brother that turned me on to poker also, in case you were wondering...). I quickly did some research, and realized that DFS (Daily Fantasy Sports) are legal in Mississippi. DFS were specifically shot down in Las Vegas (the state of Nevada), so I had pretty much forgot all about them. Well, needless to say, with my addictive personality (is that a thing?), I have been a participant in DFS contests on Draftkings practically every day since Pete mentioned it. The entries to contests run as low at .10 cents, so don't worry too much. I can lose much more at a poker table or on a football game, TRUST ME... :D So, anyway, I'll enter my group of contests for each day, and then I'll monitor my computer to see how my teams are performing (underperforming, not performing at all, getting curb stomped), but yet, I have no time to write. LOL Draftkings is great for me because I'm more comfortable betting chunks of money on football than on any other sport, and the majority of football games are played on the weekend. I'm not inclined to go to a casino every day to make bets on basketball, hockey, or baseball games, so DFS is a cheap way to have some action and stay informed on the games.<br />
<br />
And in the event that I don't want to be a total degenerate, the aforementioned baseball season is just around the corner. Biloxi has a AA minor-league team called the Shuckers, and I live about a mile from the ballpark. NEEDLESS to say, I will be attending several Shuckers games this season. I don't know if you've ever seen the movie 'Bull Durham' (and if you haven't, watch it), but it resulted in me wanting to someday live near a minor league baseball park, where the price of admission is nominal, pretty much every seat is a great seat, and the atmosphere is just phenomenal. Speaking to that festive atmosphere, the teams in the Southern League are the Shuckers, the Jumbo Shrimp, the Biscuits, the Blue Wahoos, the Smokies, the Lookouts, the Braves, the Barons, and the Generals. You can't make this stuff up. Well, I could, but I'm not this time... ;) I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it here, but growing up, I would've picked 'Professional Baseball Player' as my preferred career choice. Anywho, the spring and summer seem to hold some promise, despite the lack of football. <br />
<br />
I'm going to sign off for now, but I hope that y'all enjoy your football tomorrow, and I'll be back to write some more for you real soon... ~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-10351795908187864412019-01-06T12:48:00.000-06:002019-01-06T12:48:11.215-06:00Happy New Year Hello everyone. I just wanted to stop in and say hi to those of you who have been checking in. I'm still alive and well and plan on writing a full blog entry here in the next few days. In the meantime, enjoy your football and have an outstanding 2019!~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-78385306266030829482018-11-13T04:05:00.001-06:002018-11-13T04:05:20.978-06:003:30 In The MorningGood morning everyone. It's 3:30 in the morning (I bet you already guessed that) and I shouldn't be awake right now, but I went to bed at like 8-something and I'm awake, so here I am. I just changed my Facebook and Twitter cover and profile photos and couldn't think of any other ways to kill time, soooo again, here I am... : ) It appears that it's been just over a month since I last typed for you (the dedicated blogger that I am), so you are in for the extra treat that this post was completely unplanned, and there is no script or notes (which is pretty much the definition of completely unplanned)... <br />
<br />
Let me start off by saying that it's hard to believe that it's just over a week until Thanksgiving. In case you're wondering (because I'm sure you are), your NFL lineup on Turkey Day features Bears @ Lions, followed by Redskins @ Cowboys, with Falcons @ Saints for the nightcap. Thanksgiving is on the 22nd this year, which seems a bit early, but my calendar says so, and my calendar is usually pretty trustworthy. Today marks one month since I turned 50 years old, and time still doesn't appear to be slowing down at all. We're already at the point in the college football season where the major conferences are on the verge of hosting their championship games, and the bowl season will start in just over a month. If my math is correct, 42 days from today will be Christmas Eve, which means that 2019 is about 50 days away... #wheeeeeeeee <br />
<br />
In one of the major upsets of all time, I still haven't played any poker since moving to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Off the top of my head, I can't remember the last time that I did sit at a poker table, and my best guess was that it happened in late July or early August. In all honesty, I normally do play less poker during football season, and this fall I moved across the country and started a new job on top of it. I do have three poker rooms to choose from here in Biloxi, and they're all in the vicinity of about a mile from where I live. #locationlocationlocation Just this week, I actually subscribed to Card Player Magazine, which costs about $40.00 a year in the United States, in case any of you are interested. I was picking them up at the Bellagio in Las Vegas for no charge, but none of the rooms here seem to carry them. Similar to Las Vegas, the predominant games in the poker rooms here are 1/2, 1/3 and 2/5 no-limit, and 4-8 limit. The casinos with rooms here are the Beau Rivage (MGM), the Imperial Palace (not Caesar's affiliated), and the Golden Nugget. I'm sure that I'll eventually stumble into one of the poker rooms here, and I'll bore you to death with the details when I do.<br />
<br />
We've had a light but steady rain here for a while now, but it's only rained a handful of times since the beginning of September. Ha. That's in contrast to the month of August, when it seemingly rained every day, and I believed that water falling from the sky was the only weather that Biloxi ever got. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Lf81QLEhTlQ/W-qf2uzwsFI/AAAAAAAAEQY/Hzk1EF0S9TsGVT4Faaflux_iXNCSDELQwCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1542102754385.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="1137" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Lf81QLEhTlQ/W-qf2uzwsFI/AAAAAAAAEQY/Hzk1EF0S9TsGVT4Faaflux_iXNCSDELQwCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1542102754385.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I innocently snapped and posted this photo during lunch yesterday, and as my break progressed, dark clouds slowly but surely rolled in from the west (the direction that we're facing here). By the time I returned to work, it was raining, and it continued for pretty much the rest of the day. The rain was so prevalent in August that I've brought an umbrella to work with me every single day since I purchased it. I purchased the umbrella after arriving here in Mississippi. It rained so infrequently when I lived in Las Vegas that I didn't even own an umbrella in the desert. : ) Neither here nor there, but this is my view at lunch every day, this shot having been taken from my seat in the employee dining room. : D Speaking of weather, the temperatures took a quick dip down into the 40's recently, which prompted me to search for my gloves. I thought this was a bit early to be chilly, but I noticed yesterday during lunch that Las Vegas is under a freeze warning tonight, so I guess that Thanksgiving and Christmas really are approaching fast.<br />
<br />
I'm gonna let you go for now and get a few more hours of sleep before I get ready for work (I seriously fell asleep at like 9:00 last night). Have a great week and MAYBE I'll see y'all again before Thanksgiving... : )~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-4756894491678434782018-10-10T21:39:00.000-05:002018-10-10T21:39:17.023-05:00Turning FiftyGood evening everyone. I'll let you know up front that this post is not one that I have an outline for, and that all of it is just going to be from the hip. This entry is being typed in the spirit of, "Well, if I don't make a post tonight, it's not going to happen for at least another week, because it's my birthday week..." : ) It's hard for me to believe that I'm turning 50 on Saturday. Fifty. FIFTY YEARS OLD... Honestly, when I was younger, I couldn't imagine even being 30. Going to college, getting a degree, getting a real job, etc, etc, etc... :) As I sit here and reflect back for a second, it's hard to believe how much life I've packed into 50 years. It's not often that I sit still and reflect, believe it or not (which is probably why you don't get more blog entries)... ;) I was an "Air Force brat" when I was younger, and moving several times prepared me well for what was ahead. I've graduated from high school, from college, went back to college to get a teaching certification, taught and coached high school for nine years, worked another three years for the University of Texas at Austin (in voice and data cabling, a field that I had zero experience in prior to stepping foot on the campus of UT), worked a couple of years in bars on the Square in San Marcos, I've managed a swimming pool, I was a customer service manager at WalMart, and I was a poker dealer on the Las Vegas Strip... (Deep breath, deep breath...). I was also a chip runner at the World Series of Poker, and I wrote race and sports bets on the Vegas Strip. These are just AMONG the many jobs that I have held, leading up to my current job, which is writing sports bets on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I'm hoping to post more original photos (photos actually shot by me) of the area in the future, but I've led a pretty laid back (LAZY) existence since arriving here in Biloxi.<br />
<br />
I've been here in Mississippi for just over seventy days, and the VAST MAJORITY of my weekends have been comprised of catching up on rest. :) My "weekends" in the near future are about to change, as I have been off on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but that's going to switch to Thursdays and Fridays. I just received my schedule for next week (Thanks Nick), and although I have to work tomorrow, the Friday thing takes effect this Friday. That means that I have a one-day "work-week" tomorrow, and then I'm off on Friday, before resuming a full work-week. After work tomorrow, I receive an early birthday present (other than being off on Friday) in the form of my alma mater playing a televised home game. The Texas State Bobcats will be hosting Georgia Southern tomorrow night on ESPNU. The "home game" part of that is KEY, because I get to see San Marcos and Bobcat Stadium while taking in the game. As I said, I only confirmed moments ago that I'll be off this Friday, so I don't even have to "sleep fast" after watching the game tomorrow night. Back to being lazy, I've had a pretty normal night's sleep the last two evenings (albeit going to bed a little later than normal), and then I've put a big exclamation point on top of it by taking roughly five-hour naps the last two afternoons... So yeah, I'll probably be watching this whole Warriors/Lakers preseason game, because I feel confident that I'll be able to function on seven hours of sleep at work tomorrow... :P <br />
<br />
So back to life being pretty chill on the Mississippi Gulf Coast right now, my big chore for the remainder of this week is placing my bets before this weekend's football games. :) My birthday is on Saturday, which falls on the 'Monday' of my work-week if you've been keeping score at home, but I love my job and being around the football, so like I just mentioned, getting my bets in is my chore in the next few days. My "earlier than the Bobcats playing a televised home game in San Marcos birthday present" was the Red Sox beating the Yankees 3-1 in the American League Divisional Series. I wish that they'd restrict the baseball games to days other than the weekend right now, but I'm sure that I'm in the minority there, so that's something else that I'll have to find time to watch this weekend... :) <br />
<br />
As I close out this post, I want to thank all of you who I've met along the way. Included in all of the schooling and the work history that I mentioned above, I've been extremely fortunate to meet a lot of really neat people. Thanks my being my friend, and thanks for tuning into the blog. Enjoy my birthday weekend, and I'll see you again real soon (just not before next week)... ;)<br />
<br />
<br />
~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-7358443528776990822018-09-28T21:18:00.001-05:002018-09-28T21:18:03.219-05:00Birthdays & Fights & StuffGood evening everyone. It's very unusual to catch me writing a blog entry on a Friday night (or at all some would say), but I feel compelled to type tonight because this is my blog's 7th birthday (at this point I wish I could type in "Congratulations" Facebook-style, and have the word turn red, with a bunch of balloons being released into the blogosphere, but alas...). This is my original blog, whose given name was 'The View From Bikini Hill' (some of you have been following along since then, right?), but I have retained 'Bikini Hill' and changed the rest of the name to better reflect several moves that I have made. After accepting a job offer on July 20th, and leaving Las Vegas with all of my stuff packed in an SUV on July 30th, I feel like I'm almost within grasp of getting a handle back on my life. Writing an entry on a Friday night when I have to wake up at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday morning isn't ideal, but hey, it's my blog's SEVENTH BIRTHDAY!!! (Cue the Facebook 'Congratulations' and balloons again)... I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention that my twin niece and nephew have a birthday today. Well, since they're older than this blog, one MIGHT SAY that I stole their birthday for my blog, but that would be pure conjecture and hearsay, I'm sure. ;) Happy Birthday Nikole and Dillon!!!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WGeiSyDlhsM/W67LZzHTnAI/AAAAAAAAEFk/6b68LBLs7SwesDq3lW6l8TEnVxHdFzYaQCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1538143676435.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WGeiSyDlhsM/W67LZzHTnAI/AAAAAAAAEFk/6b68LBLs7SwesDq3lW6l8TEnVxHdFzYaQCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1538143676435.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f4n6O9wndZc/W67Le9tOriI/AAAAAAAAEFo/-4Q-uuDhKzEuwWHZbSgJeu0k8B1GD6i-ACLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1538143651582.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f4n6O9wndZc/W67Le9tOriI/AAAAAAAAEFo/-4Q-uuDhKzEuwWHZbSgJeu0k8B1GD6i-ACLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1538143651582.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TLNraIMTrZ8/W67NypMRyAI/AAAAAAAAEF8/OyO6O8uDspAF-bkGgobVZ_UQB-g7dJocQCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1538182196146.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="1137" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TLNraIMTrZ8/W67NypMRyAI/AAAAAAAAEF8/OyO6O8uDspAF-bkGgobVZ_UQB-g7dJocQCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1538182196146.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
One of these photos is present-day (I'll let you guess). I had several pictures to choose from, but I like the contrast in this shot. "I'll look at the camera and smile" vs. "I'm going to take a bite of this and totally cool kid you..." Again, Happy Birthday Superstars! <br />
<br />
<br />
Speaking of superstars, if I was kind and considerate, and I had any respect for doing things in a timely manner, I would have posted this next photo about a month ago. My friend and former softball player Leanne had another fight on Labor Day Weekend, and who knows, she may be World Champion by now. :) I already had an outline written for my previous blog entry, which I published on September 6th, so I didn't include Leanne's fight, which took place on September 2nd (good plan, I know). I was 100% sure (lol) that I'd write tonight's post sooner, and then life got in the way, and guess what? LEANNE WON HER FIGHT!!!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GUpA30mVMKs/W67N3EyomaI/AAAAAAAAEGA/LdnzefED2yUKBQeH1Wg9JLTrqwwxPgzowCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1536000653353.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1438" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GUpA30mVMKs/W67N3EyomaI/AAAAAAAAEGA/LdnzefED2yUKBQeH1Wg9JLTrqwwxPgzowCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1536000653353.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Is this a great photo or what?! Leanne is the superstar throwing the punch, if you hadn't guessed. From where I'm sitting, the ABSOLUTE BEST THING about this fight was that she had friends who RECORDED this, and I was able to watch Leanne's whole fight on Facebook. Okay, I guess that Leanne winning the fight would have to run a really close second, but I was THRILLED that I got to view the whole fight. Leanne decided to become a professional fighter and bodybuilder after I moved away from Central Texas, so I take what I can get... ;) Congratulations Leanne, and I'm sorry that this took so long. :) SO proud of you!!! :D<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xG3aA1DVl1o/W67WyP0P9nI/AAAAAAAAEGM/nSitm0G71FM6NZmKNOadrek-BTh_G38dgCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1538184657179.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xG3aA1DVl1o/W67WyP0P9nI/AAAAAAAAEGM/nSitm0G71FM6NZmKNOadrek-BTh_G38dgCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1538184657179.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-36Szw1ZpGgE/W67W02Ls6-I/AAAAAAAAEGQ/mFQ44LikSXUgbyuBMMWm9IuBKYU5a-AiwCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1538184683719.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1349" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-36Szw1ZpGgE/W67W02Ls6-I/AAAAAAAAEGQ/mFQ44LikSXUgbyuBMMWm9IuBKYU5a-AiwCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1538184683719.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Now I'm just gonna freelance, since I don't have an outline for tonight. :) I have had 'Leanne' written on a piece of paper for almost four weeks, and then I realized that I HAD to write an entry tonight once I remembered that today is the blog's birthday. So I heard some of you ask a little while ago, "Why in the hell are you waking up at 5:30 a.m. Coach?" When I moved from Las Vegas to Biloxi, my life changed in a lot of ways. Most of you are familiar with Las Vegas to some extent: Casinos, nightlife, lots of people, desert, HOT... Biloxi, Mississippi has hot, but we also have WATER, life is more laid back here on the Gulf Coast, you RARELY find a traffic jam, and our casinos don't dominate the skyline. Another difference: When I worked for our company in Las Vegas, I was the "closer" in the sportsbook. This meant that I'd normally sleep til noon or 1:00 P.M., and my shift at work would begin at 2 or 3 p.m. Here, I am the "opener." For several weeks now, I have set my alarms for 7:30 a.m. to begin work at 9:30 a.m. on the weekdays, and have woke up at 5:30 A.M. to clock-in at 7:30 a.m. on the weekend (football season, ya know?)... As with everything in life, you can always find positives and negatives in every situation (well, I guess allegedly). I'm going to point out a really funny positive first, and then we'll backtrack. I live fairly close to the casino, and my walk to work is pretty pleasant. On the first Saturday morning that I was scheduled to be at work by 7:30, I had a very difficult time sleeping. This was like trying to sleep on Christmas Eve. We had a full weekend of football ahead of us, and because I woke up before my alarms went off, I also left for work while it was still dark outside. It was dark outside, and there are several trees strewn along my walk to work. Evidently bugs like hanging out around trees. Guess what likes bugs??? BATS!!! I'm pretty sure that if you go find any bat literature, it will say that bats don't attack humans, and that they're awesome because they eat bugs, etc, etc..., but I'll tell ya, when those LIGHTNING QUICK FLYING RATS are SWOOPING DOWN for the low-flying bugs, you start ducking down and crouching like an idiot who thinks that's gonna do any good if they're targeting you... :) So yeah, not having to walk home at night and having to dodge bats the whole way home is probably a positive.<br />
<br />
What else is different, and positive??? A positive to making this transfer to Mississippi is that for basically the same amount in monthly rent and bills, I'm now living in a house as opposed to a weekly/monthly apartment complex. If you've been to Las Vegas (or several other cities across our nation), I was living in a Siegel Suites in the desert. The price was right (the place was furnished, all bills were included), but I wasn't in the best of neighborhoods. I was watching t.v. here a few nights ago, and when I heard a siren, I soon realized that it was part of the t.v. show. In Las Vegas, the siren was ALWAYS outside, about 100% of the time (you know, that 'always' that is like 99.9999972% of the time). I miss my three-minute, door-to-door walk to McDonald's, but that's also probably another positive of living here... :D As I glance over to the t.v., one negative of living in the Central Time Zone and waking up early is that I can't watch very many Pac-12 (late) college football games. The Pac-12 is like the Big 12 in that teams habitually go up and down the field and score for days, but it's getting hard for this old man to operate on 5-6 hours of sleep. I would love to get into better shape and have more energy, but I am already thinking about eating a big plate of spaghetti after I publish this post... ;) Currently UCLA 10 Colorado 7, if you're wondering... <br />
<br />
Like I said, I feel like I'm within inches of being adjusted to this cross-country move, having caught up on missed sleep and gotten my sleep right with my new schedule, adjusted to my new casino, and also to my new living environment, mastered the art of the run-on sentence, and I think that I'll be able to get some positive things done in my life soon, which includes writing more for y'all. <br />
<br />
I'm going to end right here, with the hope that I'll see you again on Tuesday or Wednesday. Those have been my days off, and I'm almost to the point where I feel confident that I'll be able to carve some time out for you on one of those days (or I may see you four months from now)... ;) Have a great weekend and I'll see you soon!<br />
<br />
<br />~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-67983398367729897522018-09-06T22:25:00.001-05:002018-09-06T22:25:17.970-05:00"DEUCE!!!"Good evening everyone. It's very strange to find me writing on the opening night of the NFL season, but I have a feeling that if I don't type this entry right now, you won't see it for at least another week. I only say that because I wrote an outline for this post a week ago, and well, you know the rest (I didn't type a word)... For all the times that I haven't written for a while, and I really had no excuse, well, I've been extremely busy this time around. I was offered my new job here in Biloxi, MS on July 20th, and I made all of the arrangements to move and left Las Vegas driving an SUV with all of my belongings on July 30th. Since that time I found a place to live, attended orientation and training for my new job, and we opened our new sportsbook at Harrah's Gulf Coast. During the training/opening the new book stretch, I worked 14 out of 15 days at one point. We actually did open the new sportsbook on August 20th though, and here's a little proof... <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sgnZpVzFaU4/W4d56A2a6II/AAAAAAAAD4w/24UqvW8CrzIWDKv--Bv7eYAU1D8eSYswgCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1535603478728.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sgnZpVzFaU4/W4d56A2a6II/AAAAAAAAD4w/24UqvW8CrzIWDKv--Bv7eYAU1D8eSYswgCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1535603478728.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Rob, Nick, Brandi, Re, Big Crave, and several others who I can't tag to this blog entry on Facebook can thank me for making them a little more famous, including this Deuce McAllister guy. Actually, Deuce has already paved his way to fame, having played football for both Ole Miss and the New Orleans Saints. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Zys4mjEbntU/W5Hi7RIXkWI/AAAAAAAAD9I/IeCt8oCgvVc2jlRGwHv25ASTMv4Y-BhDACLcBGAs/s1600/040517_mcallister.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="262" data-original-width="195" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Zys4mjEbntU/W5Hi7RIXkWI/AAAAAAAAD9I/IeCt8oCgvVc2jlRGwHv25ASTMv4Y-BhDACLcBGAs/s1600/040517_mcallister.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tqBeBdGcU-w/W5Hi-XjxRTI/AAAAAAAAD9M/OvbNA7Rwv88kOjx6GAfV9phMPUwNT2OgQCLcBGAs/s1600/deuce-mcallister-no-saints-running-back-2001-2008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="477" data-original-width="600" height="254" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tqBeBdGcU-w/W5Hi-XjxRTI/AAAAAAAAD9M/OvbNA7Rwv88kOjx6GAfV9phMPUwNT2OgQCLcBGAs/s320/deuce-mcallister-no-saints-running-back-2001-2008.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I don't have details about what Deuce is doing in his retirement, but on August 20th he was kind enough to come to the property and help us open our new sportsbook. One of the more memorable moments of the day occurred when Deuce came behind the counter to shake everyone's hand and pose for our group photo (above), and Re welcomed him with a "DEUCE!!!" Deuce and certain unnamed blog writers (among others) appreciated Re's enthusiasm, and it was really special for our book to usher in this new era of sports betting in Mississippi with an athlete who was born and raised in Mississippi, who played for Ole Miss, and then went on to play for the Saints (who are undoubtedly Mississippi's favorite NFL team). I remember watching Deuce play running back for the Rebels and the Saints, and what surprised me the most about meeting him was how tall he is. When I watched him play on t.v., especially in the NFL, I wouldn't have been surprised if I was taller than Deuce, because the big bodies in the NFL tend to make those around them look small. Well, I just did the official Google check, and Deuce is 6' 1", while Coach is 6' nothing... Deuce was really down to earth, and I hope that he is fully enjoying his retirement. This is a photo of Deuce posing with his first bet... <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-drDS7Yd3JyU/W4d6AMFdRCI/AAAAAAAAD40/IMPqD35o7dYlpiER5HsmJNoHk5SGS1U0QCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180820_135217.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1196" data-original-width="1600" height="239" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-drDS7Yd3JyU/W4d6AMFdRCI/AAAAAAAAD40/IMPqD35o7dYlpiER5HsmJNoHk5SGS1U0QCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20180820_135217.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I don't know where Frank was for our group photo, but now he's behind my shoulder in this picture, getting famous also... :) Thanks again to Rob for bringing me down to Mississippi, where later than sooner (because it's football season) I'll be able to enjoy the fruits of living closer to Texas... :) <br />
<br />
Back to all of my possessions that were packed for the move in the SUV, here is a quick photo of my ballcap collection. I later realized that I omitted a few...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LQtne2aVC0E/W4d6GTa9ciI/AAAAAAAAD44/NB2PudV-Yygl472RRxXotDsoHSKmpSCnwCLcBGAs/s1600/20180812_180953-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1013" data-original-width="1600" height="202" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LQtne2aVC0E/W4d6GTa9ciI/AAAAAAAAD44/NB2PudV-Yygl472RRxXotDsoHSKmpSCnwCLcBGAs/s320/20180812_180953-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Nick is another of my friends and coworkers who also made the move here from Las Vegas, and he has been dragging me kicking and screaming to dine at SEVERAL of the local dining establishments in the Biloxi area, including Sal & Mookie's, Whataburger, and Stacked (who I'm recognizing in the photo below). This is a picture of 'Seafood Fries.' Enlarge this one and look closely. This is french fries that are covered with shrimp and crawfish, among other awesome things. If I ever cash a football bet, I may one day return... ;)<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OYwTH1_CSrU/W4d6MKd7V0I/AAAAAAAAD5A/qLDvhqY9GN8kTjBgJLjDgHzx3zjm8hjqQCLcBGAs/s1600/20180816_184007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OYwTH1_CSrU/W4d6MKd7V0I/AAAAAAAAD5A/qLDvhqY9GN8kTjBgJLjDgHzx3zjm8hjqQCLcBGAs/s320/20180816_184007.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
This is a bacon, egg, potato (from the leftover fries), and cheese burrito that I made for myself, just to prove that I don't go out to eat all the time. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W0-TyURaGyg/W4d6Rk8dQhI/AAAAAAAAD5I/i-wKn_hTwJUtv1oPClJV229yMpdy-C7mwCLcBGAs/s1600/20180817_185722.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W0-TyURaGyg/W4d6Rk8dQhI/AAAAAAAAD5I/i-wKn_hTwJUtv1oPClJV229yMpdy-C7mwCLcBGAs/s320/20180817_185722.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I actually RARELY eat out alone, which I why Nick makes a great scapegoat. As a stranger in this new land, Nick, Rob, and Brandi have been a tremendous help in giving me rides to help me find my new home, fill my new home with stuff, and provide the transportation needed to make losing sports bets. Thank y'all, I appreciate it! In other news, I'm optimistic that I'll cash my first winning ticket(s) betting sports in Mississippi at the end of this weekend. <br />
<br />
While I wasn't writing, one more thing happened that I haven't blogged about yet. My favorite basketball player retired very recently. I was a big Michael Jordan fan when I was younger, but he didn't play for my Spurs. My first glimpse of Manu Ginobili was watching him play for Argentina in the 2002 Summer Olympics. When the commentators mentioned that Manu was a Spurs draft pick as he led Argentina that summer, my reaction was, "We're getting THAT GUY?!" I was instantly a fan, It's rare to see a player with Manu's talent, energy, and selflessness, and I hope that he also enjoys his retirement.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WqzB96IYKfk/W4d6U0UkehI/AAAAAAAAD5M/msTTjzHeaa0zl3Q19R81DaXtdSvH3NkoACLcBGAs/s1600/09manu05win.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="342" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WqzB96IYKfk/W4d6U0UkehI/AAAAAAAAD5M/msTTjzHeaa0zl3Q19R81DaXtdSvH3NkoACLcBGAs/s320/09manu05win.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>
<br />
Thank you for patiently awaiting this blog entry. It's my intention that you'll see me again very soon. Have a great opening weekend of NFL football everyone! ~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-26083539567451115582018-08-12T13:08:00.000-05:002018-08-12T13:08:03.816-05:00Pins On StringsGood afternoon everyone. There is no reason why I should be writing this right now, and my best explanation is that I get to procrastinate from finishing my unpacking (and let's not lie to ourselves, that's not happening anytime soon anyway)... You see, tomorrow I am scheduled to have my cable and internet hooked up, and I can type SO MUCH FASTER on my desktop keyboard than I can on this phone. So yeah, we'll go with procrastinating. Speaking of procrastinating, you'll be happy to know that after having been in a big Tupperware-like plastic container for the last 33 months, my desktop does still work, and while having no connection to the internet, I've been using it to play solataire and free cell to avoid unpacking... :D For you curious types, I've been using a tablet and wifi at my last two residences, and thus the desktop was packed away...<br />
<br />
After some late night unpacking and time killing Thursday night, I woke up to a couple of very pleasant surprises on Friday. This photo was in the very first status that appeared on my facebook Friday morning..<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9QJcoq55zpc/W3BnM1DuQnI/AAAAAAAADzk/UU1HIXwpW_sT78iFv-NeJ1uvB7hf5R8xgCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1533914277230.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1060" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9QJcoq55zpc/W3BnM1DuQnI/AAAAAAAADzk/UU1HIXwpW_sT78iFv-NeJ1uvB7hf5R8xgCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1533914277230.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
<br />
And this photo was in the very next status...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FL4pxZ913ow/W3BnQKnpUYI/AAAAAAAADzo/o0Ok3UpYRHwvMsBjtMt-G2HH9UIHhCsjwCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1533914303349.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FL4pxZ913ow/W3BnQKnpUYI/AAAAAAAADzo/o0Ok3UpYRHwvMsBjtMt-G2HH9UIHhCsjwCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1533914303349.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<br />
My eyes shot to my calendar after seeing the second picture, when I realized that these two superstars missed sharing the anniversary of my college graduation by one day. Bianca and Alexia are a couple of San Marcos "kids" (remember, I'm 100 years old, so they're kids...) who graduated from my alma mater on Friday, both earning their degrees while working their way through school. What a great way to wake up on Friday, and then I found this photo later on...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xImvCzX-v2c/W3BnUBa_78I/AAAAAAAADzs/sdm_yKpteVwlm_CtXx1T77JXi9HF-sdwwCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1534092862524.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xImvCzX-v2c/W3BnUBa_78I/AAAAAAAADzs/sdm_yKpteVwlm_CtXx1T77JXi9HF-sdwwCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1534092862524.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
Now while Nicole and Taylor aren't from San Marcos (they're from San Antonio and New Braunfels, respectively, but nobody's perfect), these two cool kids both received their MBA's over the weekend after working their way through school. Congratulations to all four of these superstars on becoming Bobcat Alumni! I'm really proud of y'all...<br />
<br />
And then there's this guy...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pi54tw_LsK8/W3BnXxq9J6I/AAAAAAAADzw/g1Mjbc8p3VkU2a799ONoQTUFjdHUK5mfwCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1534092917970.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1475" data-original-width="1222" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pi54tw_LsK8/W3BnXxq9J6I/AAAAAAAADzw/g1Mjbc8p3VkU2a799ONoQTUFjdHUK5mfwCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1534092917970.jpg" width="265" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
TWENTY-EIGHT years ago yesterday, I received my B.B.A. from what was then Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University). If you've followed my blog or known me for any length of time, you know that my degree has allowed me to pursue several very interesting and fulfilling job opportunities. Before this football season begins, I'll be taking sports bets in a state that had never had legal sports betting prior to this summer. Anyway, I got to celebrate my 28th anniversary last night by eating pizza and bowling with some of my new coworkers. And for those of you who are jealous of my glamorous lifestyle (driving across the country nonstop, playing solataire, eating pizza, bowling, etc...), know that I will be back at work FULL-TIME starting on Tuesday... :) Back to the bowling. First, I'm disappointed to say that I only bowled a 245 (that would be a 100, followed by a 145)... First time that I bowled in about twenty months, so sue me. Second, Brandi, one of the cool kids from here in Mississippi, won the first game that we played. This blog is the only concrete record of her victory, and if it comes up at work, I'll be like, "Brandi? Win? I don't think she even showed up. Did anyone see her???" Nice game Brandi... ;) Third, and this was interesting, the pins at the bowling alley are attached to strings. Like I said, I'm 100 years old, but I've never seen this before. So on the alleys that I'm used to, you knock down some pins (theoretically Nick) :) , this machine comes down and sweeps them away, and then the standing ones are reset. Here at Big Play in Biloxi, the pins all dance on their strings like marionette puppets, but the pins were reset to the right spot everytime. Pins on strings... :)</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Okay, that's enough for now, but I'll definitely have more for you soon. The desktop keyboard simplifies things tremendously, so I really have no excuses... Have a great week and I'll see you soon! </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-74642977086467609452018-08-05T12:07:00.000-05:002018-08-05T12:07:05.755-05:00Welcome To Mississippi Good morning/afternoon everyone, depending on which part of the country/world you're in. I'll probably end up posting this at about noon central time, give or take. So, it's been a while (over two months), and a lot has happened. My only internet access at the moment is on my phone, so forgive me if any of the formatting on this entry ends up looking out of whack when you read it...<br />
<br />
When I last left you, the World Series of Poker was about to begin, and I was getting ready to play a lot of poker, which I did for about a month. I met my friend Brian for breakfast on the morning of the Casino Employee's Event at the Hash House at the Rio, and then I proceeded to rail several friends who were playing in the event for hours that day. For the next month, I played A LOT of poker (mostly at the Flamingo), but that's not all that was happening...<br />
<br />
New Jersey won their Supreme Court case, which means that individual states now have the right to determine whether or not to offer sports betting to their residents. Mississippi was one of the early states out of the gate, and one of my then-supervisors expressed interest in managing a sportsbook here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Nothing was happening immediately because sportsbooks still had to be set up in Mississippi's casinos, sportsbook managers (and then staffs) had to be hired, etc, etc..., so after initially doing some research on Mississippi (and moving back closer to Texas), I resumed my poker-playing summer. Then, once my friend Rob (now sportsbook manager) was hired in Mississippi, I expressed my interest in a possible transfer from Las Vegas, and began doing a lot more serious research about moving to the Magnolia State. At this point, my friend needed to move his family south, find a place to live, begin working at our new casino, etc, so interviewing for a job was still several weeks out...<br />
<br />
NOTE: In my defense, this is why I haven't written a blog entry in more than two months, because I didn't know what was going to be happening in my world. Long story short, I was offered the opportunity to transfer, and very soon I'll be taking bets at Harrah's Gulf Coast. Of course this meant moving from Las Vegas to Biloxi, Mississippi. On Monday morning, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. Vegas time to finish packing and cleaning my apartment. At a little after 9:00 a.m., I was able to load everything I was moving to Biloxi in LESS THAN AN HOUR thanks to a HUGE ASSIST from my "pit crew." My brother, his wife, my nephew, and my friend Geoff had me packed up and leaving Las Vegas by 10:00 a.m. <br />
<br />
Before you judge me for what I'm about to type, know that I had slept for 14 of the 28 hours before waking up at 4:30 a.m... My plan was to drive from Las Vegas to Biloxi nonstop. For those of you who have followed my previous exploits, you know that this goal was within my reach. Soooo, I left Las Vegas at about 10:00 a.m. PST (noon CST), and I arrived safely in Biloxi at 5:30 p.m. CST, about 29 1/2 hours later, having been awake for about 35 straight hours. I don't know if I should tell y'all about the part where I unnecessarily added more than an hour to my drive by taking a wrong turn into New Orleans, and then having to come back north through Slidell, Louisiana before reaching Biloxi. Nah, I'll leave that out... :) Thanks again to all of you facebook friends who shared my journey with me and supported me with yoour 'likes' and your witty comments. For those of you not linked to me on facebook, I drive with my phone off, but update my status/location when I stop every 2-3 hours to get gas/food/use the restroom, etc... <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k5tUisN9lTw/W2craseoK-I/AAAAAAAADx0/pEeUTt9LfTcLBn8z4NHgCmDZRB-Pcc-JwCLcBGAs/s1600/20180801_161450.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k5tUisN9lTw/W2craseoK-I/AAAAAAAADx0/pEeUTt9LfTcLBn8z4NHgCmDZRB-Pcc-JwCLcBGAs/s320/20180801_161450.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lGpdkTvz5gU/W2crfvdoIkI/AAAAAAAADx4/DIZEPzS-qOgtlqu_NwTgX3EI-VZ5SNi9gCLcBGAs/s1600/20180802_162922.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lGpdkTvz5gU/W2crfvdoIkI/AAAAAAAADx4/DIZEPzS-qOgtlqu_NwTgX3EI-VZ5SNi9gCLcBGAs/s320/20180802_162922.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d_GrNYqXOTM/W2crj8s354I/AAAAAAAADx8/arZLiJyF2Q4PDDxpIGbIDpfvhws8GXxVQCLcBGAs/s1600/20180802_162929.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d_GrNYqXOTM/W2crj8s354I/AAAAAAAADx8/arZLiJyF2Q4PDDxpIGbIDpfvhws8GXxVQCLcBGAs/s320/20180802_162929.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-c8vXQM8KcpM/W2crn-WIADI/AAAAAAAADyA/P9VhlhWWUNQiGckUDGwc3cY_p-trWtMlQCLcBGAs/s1600/20180804_190554.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-c8vXQM8KcpM/W2crn-WIADI/AAAAAAAADyA/P9VhlhWWUNQiGckUDGwc3cY_p-trWtMlQCLcBGAs/s320/20180804_190554.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Yes, for my clever friends that like making witty comments about food, there has been some dining involved on this adventure. :) The first three photos are from the buffet at our Harrah's Gulf Coast property, where I stayed for the first three nights after arriving in town, and the last is from Sal & Mookie's, a very popular pizza joint (45-minute wait last night) here in Biloxi. My friend Nick (who also transferred here from Las Vegas) treated me to the pizza last night. <br />
<br />
That's all I'm gonna write for now, because I could go on for hours, but I've got PLENTY of unpacking to do. However, there will be much more to talk about in the future, for sure. This little blog did go over 130,000 pageviews today, and in case you haven't noticed, she's been renamed, again... ;) Have a great week, and I'll see you soon...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-klXO7-KpKhk/W2cuZqj1XfI/AAAAAAAADyY/UyO2tJfq3vMy6cuQWHcWNdI1HDjlLJtIgCLcBGAs/s1600/20180731_173821.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-klXO7-KpKhk/W2cuZqj1XfI/AAAAAAAADyY/UyO2tJfq3vMy6cuQWHcWNdI1HDjlLJtIgCLcBGAs/s320/20180731_173821.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-23odJ2M5DxM/W2culWMKRII/AAAAAAAADyc/61Iw_ZaX1ogI-XJgpbDH39sb0r5M1uY2gCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1532698083775.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="530" data-original-width="960" height="176" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-23odJ2M5DxM/W2culWMKRII/AAAAAAAADyc/61Iw_ZaX1ogI-XJgpbDH39sb0r5M1uY2gCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1532698083775.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-34017399841502544472018-05-23T06:53:00.000-05:002018-05-23T06:53:14.507-05:00A Fleury Of ActivityGood morning everyone. Here I am again, writing when you least expect it. It's pathetic how little I've written recently, considering how busy I expect to be over the next two months, but let's get started. Las Vegas had the pleasure of hosting the honeymoon of my sister and her husband recently, and although Whitney and T.C. weren't in town very long, they got their money's worth. Catching a show featuring one of her former students at the Flamingo, a picture with the iconic Las Vegas sign, a 24-hour Caesar's buffet pass, a stroll down The Linq Promenade, and this visit to Beer Park at Paris are among the boxes they checked in their whirlwind visit to the desert... (Coach pictured far left, happy couple lined up on the right... :) )<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--PimvlSplfI/WwU9Z0q5tsI/AAAAAAAADg0/d2vJwM2ctXo4n-JnyDLFfzsMoUjqU7VuQCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1527069104646.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--PimvlSplfI/WwU9Z0q5tsI/AAAAAAAADg0/d2vJwM2ctXo4n-JnyDLFfzsMoUjqU7VuQCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1527069104646.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I should also mention the three hundred dollars that Whitney won in less than an hour playing three card poker while T.C. and myself were checking out the Flamingo's poker room... :) Knowing my love for all things Texas State (and, by the way, we're all Bobcats), T.C. and Whitney sent me a nice gift which I received recently.... :D</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Pnbg9PkmwH0/WwU9g9KjdEI/AAAAAAAADg4/nOuUBj8bDtM4JDvTzxuclaErotnQmujpgCLcBGAs/s1600/20180515_085722-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1226" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Pnbg9PkmwH0/WwU9g9KjdEI/AAAAAAAADg4/nOuUBj8bDtM4JDvTzxuclaErotnQmujpgCLcBGAs/s320/20180515_085722-1.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
<br />
It was great catching up with the happy couple, especially since it was their first trip to Las Vegas, and hopefully they'll make many more in the future... Speaking of trips to Las Vegas, it was exactly two years ago today that I returned to the desert. After leaving northern New Hampshire at 5:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon, followed by one Saturday overnight stay in Des Moines, Iowa, I pulled up to my brother's house at 7:20 a.m. on Monday monring. Yes, I was a driving machine... :) After Carmen and Pete were kind enough to put me up for about a month while I resettled in the desert (found a place to live, applied for jobs, etc...), I'm happy to say that I've been working for Caesar's Entertainment for going on two years now.<br />
<br />
With my feet back firmly underneath me, I'm looking forward to a summer filled with poker. We're a couple of days from Memorial Day Weekend, which means that Las Vegas will be crawling with poker players for the next two months, with the World Series of Poker returning to the Rio early next week. I'm estimating (conservatively) that I'll play 20-25 times over the next eight weeks. <br />
<br />
In my last month of non-writing, I haven't told y'all the story of one of my most recent excursions to the poker tables, where I ended up costing myself about 175 dollars. I was playing 1/2 no-limit at the Flamingo, and in early position, I folded pocket 3's to a raise of 11. I believe that four players went to the flop for 11 each, and the flop came... 9 3 3.... So as I pondered the quad three's that I folded, I watched three players check, followed by a bet of 60. The three checkers (including the pre-flop raiser) proceeded to fold, leaving me to assess the damage. Excluding the casino's take (the rake and jackpot drops), I lost 44 dollars (11 x 4) from the money put in before the flop. Then I lost the 60 bet after the flop, plus the 30ish I'm assuming I would have won from that same bettor when I eventually got all of my chips in. I only had about 90 when the hand started. I also would have won a 50 dollar bonus from the casino for hitting four-of-a-kind. So yeah, I lost about 175 dollars for folding quads. WHEEEEEEE....... <br />
<br />
Back to the present, one of my friends and former athletes has a fight coming up Friday night in Dallas for anyone who might be spending Memorial Day Weekend up in the Metroplex. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i8y1DepSVpQ/WwU9pUZmwYI/AAAAAAAADg8/BnIX04gBIxoa9d5VeNXUhXHPQGFsPlPlQCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1527067774898.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="678" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i8y1DepSVpQ/WwU9pUZmwYI/AAAAAAAADg8/BnIX04gBIxoa9d5VeNXUhXHPQGFsPlPlQCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1527067774898.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
That's a pretty cool photo of Leanne (sorry, the Lioness) if I say so myself. :) Have a great fight Leanne! Poker, UFC, and.... hockey??? Yes, there's a new hockey team in town, and if you haven't heard yet, the expansion Vegas Golden Knights are headed to the... STANLEY CUP FINAL... Anchored between the pipes by Marc-Andre Fleury, the fledgling Knights have defied all odds, and will begin playing for the Stanley Cup on Monday...</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MA61EGCP7vw/WwU9tuYHI_I/AAAAAAAADhE/O-B_bokJEToiSawEnZMSJZ_T-SUmLnISACLcBGAs/s1600/i.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="729" data-original-width="1296" height="180" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MA61EGCP7vw/WwU9tuYHI_I/AAAAAAAADhE/O-B_bokJEToiSawEnZMSJZ_T-SUmLnISACLcBGAs/s320/i.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
In the midst of all of this excitement, I will also be heading over to Brooklyn Bowl in the middle of June for a Blue October concert. Fun times in the desert... :) Have a great summer and MAYBE I'll write again sometime before football season... :D~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-53794567440970434202018-04-17T06:56:00.004-05:002018-04-17T09:11:20.716-05:00Damn You, Molly Bloom"It didn’t matter who his opponent was, he outplayed them every time..." -Molly Bloom- (Molly's Game)<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
"I felt like a fly on the wall in a top-secret, masters-of-the-universe club..." -Molly Bloom- (Molly's Game)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
"And, for all the negative stigmas, gamblers seem to have an endless reserve of hope and optimism. They all believe they can make something out of nothing..." -Molly Bloom- (Molly's Game)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
Good morning everyone. My sleep patterns over the last week-plus have been horrendous, so it should come as no surprise to you that I'm writing a blog entry at about 4:00 a.m. PST today. I'n sure that your surprise is that I'm actually going to post something for the second time in a week... :) So back to my irregular sleep. First, it seemed that the universe was conspiring against me getting any sleep last week. In this instance, 'the universe' being defined as anybody out to make a ridiculous amount of noise at my apartment complex. Some "temporary" residents were here (enough that I saw them leaving together the next morning in a van), and they were loud, and I was trying to sleep... A few mornings later (and by the way, I was sleeping til 1:00 p.m. because I didn't work until 3:00 p.m.), it seemed like they were completely filling an empty unit with furniture, because a loaded dolly kept RUMBLING past my apartment, and it sounded like a FREIGHT TRAIN, every..., single..., time... Okay, so that's the sleeplessness that I'm blaming on random people. Next, I'm specifically blaming Molly Bloom. I could blame myself for buying Molly's book, but I wouldn't want to lose any sleep over it........ ANYWAY, Molly used to run an underground poker game for some of the rich and famous people in Hollywood (actors, athletes, other celebrities, wealthy businessmen, etc...), and she wrote a book about it. 'Molly's Game' has been well-received, and has also been into a movie. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mjtaWNVuKJA/WtXQVsxMPjI/AAAAAAAADdA/QIi_r_CrrZAYBrY0_g642AtE22TI1Sv0wCLcBGAs/s1600/original_poster_large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1185" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mjtaWNVuKJA/WtXQVsxMPjI/AAAAAAAADdA/QIi_r_CrrZAYBrY0_g642AtE22TI1Sv0wCLcBGAs/s320/original_poster_large.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br />
Well, yours truly thought that it would be a good idea to start reading Molly's book right before going to bed every night. A poker junkie, already countng down the days until this summer's World Series of Poker hits town, thinking that Molly's stories of poker and money and her part in all of this would somehow soothe and calm me, and help me get to sleep faster at night... WRONG... :) Needless to say, I finally figured out that I shouldn't try reading this book right before going to bed, but I highly recommend 'Molly's Game' for any of you who are looking for a very interesting read. I have also heard great things about the movie also...<br />
<br />
In totally unrelated news, I woke up for no reason EARLY yesterday morning, my first of three days off. When I'm awake at 6:00 a.m. PST, I tune into the NBC Sports Network and the 'Dan Patrick Show.' Normally I'm upset to be awake that early and find that the show is not on, due to DP being on vacation, or something else bumping the broadcast temporarily, but yesterday was Patriots Day in New England, and the Boston Marathon is traditionally run on that Monday. Back in my youth, I previously completed three marathons, so this 26.2 mile challenge peaks my interest... <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sXUDQ-sbQEI/WtXdJdhynkI/AAAAAAAADdo/EP8hu_HGn98PPTU7OHQSQ309Dq-AXtrPACLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1523888399204.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="576" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sXUDQ-sbQEI/WtXdJdhynkI/AAAAAAAADdo/EP8hu_HGn98PPTU7OHQSQ309Dq-AXtrPACLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1523888399204.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I was IMMEDIATELY sucked in further when I learned that the temperature was 39 degrees, with rain, and wind gusts of up to 25-30 miles per hour. Hey, I wasn't running... :D So I settled in, and was able to enjoy watching Des Linden become the first American woman to win the Boston Marathon since 1985. After posting an update on Facebook, I learned that one of my former athletes is a big fan of Linden's, so thanks to Jenn, you get to see these photos that I took as the race concluded...<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jZH75Bf0kFw/WtXQxoqMP7I/AAAAAAAADdE/hGjM3TYyPOgxd7oMCu298aj6HTKf46TZACLcBGAs/s1600/20180416_085809.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jZH75Bf0kFw/WtXQxoqMP7I/AAAAAAAADdE/hGjM3TYyPOgxd7oMCu298aj6HTKf46TZACLcBGAs/s320/20180416_085809.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a5Y6wYNI97Q/WtXRDHQ8NQI/AAAAAAAADdM/pIRepENGun0pxu7N1_9YdteenE-IAe6jgCLcBGAs/s1600/20180416_091036.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a5Y6wYNI97Q/WtXRDHQ8NQI/AAAAAAAADdM/pIRepENGun0pxu7N1_9YdteenE-IAe6jgCLcBGAs/s320/20180416_091036.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t0zLecf1GEE/WtXRmKB5hhI/AAAAAAAADdY/E0_yx_0lA_kkNo7s09t4DvDbe5TsogXYgCLcBGAs/s1600/20180416_091043.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t0zLecf1GEE/WtXRmKB5hhI/AAAAAAAADdY/E0_yx_0lA_kkNo7s09t4DvDbe5TsogXYgCLcBGAs/s320/20180416_091043.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<br />
One point of intrigue in both the women's and men's races is that runners who broke away and led for long stretches of each event were not the eventual winners. <br />
<br />
So, now that I've finished my "monthly" blog post, I have tons of chores awaiting me in the next two days. Wash, a haircut, shopping, continuous and endless apartment cleaning, finishing Molly's book... :) The one big obstacle that has been erased from last week is having to do my taxes. Since my coveted WSOP and the extra poker action that it brings to town are about 42 days out (not that I'm counting), I should probably get to it. Have a great week and I'll see you soon! </div>
~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-83668041720162858352018-04-12T03:15:00.001-05:002018-04-12T03:15:48.582-05:00April ShowersGood morning everyone. As Aprl has arrived, I hope that y'all are ready for the change in seasons, and I hope that everybody has filed their tax returns. Unlike you procrastinators, my return has been filed for.... HOURS... If you haven't filed yet, why are you reading this right now? :) As always, it has taken me longer to return here than I had anticipated, and maybe all of my life stories and musings are going to have to wait until I'm retired, when the highlight of my day will be sitting down at my desk (which I don't possess yet) with a cup of coffee (which I also don't have currently) and tapping away at a keyboard. But since I am here right now, keeping up my torrid pace of posting almost once per month in 2018, let's get you caught up on life in Las Vegas. Fortunately for everyone, there isn't anything to distract me on t.v., so this post should go up pretty fast. I watched the crew of Apollo 13 safely splash down AGAIN about twenty minutes ago if that's any indication, and this was preceded by watching the U.S. beat the Russians at Lake Placid AGAIN back in 1980... <br />
<br />
Anyway, it's April here in the desert, and we've been showered with sunny weather in the 80's. The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament and all of the action that it brings to Las Vegas has come and gone. Next up for us are the NHL and NBA Playoffs, baseball, and the Kentucky Derby early next month. As things begin to slow down a bit at work, this will be offset in my life by more poker, especially once the World Series begins at the end of May. I have continued to represent Texas State and San Marcos with my Bobcat tees and Rattler card protectors at the poker tables, and I have recently added a little more to that arsenal....<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6lCPbBZpw08/Ws8MU5uDoUI/AAAAAAAADaw/_q1A1t-VbcMBFM5qYFJZhOIHXIJsQ5RjgCLcBGAs/s1600/FB_IMG_1523518371628.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="1236" height="124" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6lCPbBZpw08/Ws8MU5uDoUI/AAAAAAAADaw/_q1A1t-VbcMBFM5qYFJZhOIHXIJsQ5RjgCLcBGAs/s320/FB_IMG_1523518371628.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
These ballcaps are destined to spend more than their fair share of time at the Rio and other poker settings througout Las Vegas this summer. Having a job obviously removes the pressure of me "needing" to win at poker, and this has made the game very enjoyable for me as of late, as I can choose to play when it's convenient, and I don't feel it necessary to play in bad games (against nine other local poker players for example)...<br />
<br />
I'm going to let you go for now as I have a poker book (SHOCKER) that I want to begin reading before I go to bed tonight, but hopefully I'll see you soon. Within a month anyway, right??? :) Have a great weekend everyone!~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-32493756255372535182018-03-02T09:22:00.001-06:002018-03-02T09:52:00.309-06:00For A Limited TimeGood morning everyone. A funny (not really funny) thing has been happening with me this past week, where I wake up for no reason at about 6:00 a.m., and I'm WIDE AWAKE. To compound matters on weekdays, my favorite sports talk show ('The Dan Patrick Show'), airs live from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. locally on the NBC Sports Network, and I'm EASILY hooked into watching all three hours. Depending on the day of the week, my alarms are normally set to wake up for work between 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., so this "funny thing" has made life a little interesting. Anyway, since I was up (again), I decided to write a blog entry for you. <br />
<br />
For those of you who happen to stop by here on a regular basis (whenever I feel motivated to write), this will definitely be the post that pushes the blog's total view count over 125,000. I remember when I started this blog, and searched Google and Yahoo for information pertaining to writing blogs, and read that "personal" blogs (blogs about someone's life experiences, etc..) weren't very successful, and I find that pretty amusing now. For any of you who know how often I wrote (3 to 4 times per week) when I began this blog (September 28, 2011), and how little I've written by comparison since, the reach of this blog could be exponentially bigger right now. LAZY... Well, life gets in the way sometimes, but I'm writing now, so.... Thanks again to those of you who take the time to stop in and check out my ramblings. :)<br />
<br />
I'm interested to see how much (when) I'll be writing here the rest of the month. Oh, by the way, welcome to March. Life at work (and in the sports world) really amps up this month. In college basketball, the conference tournaments are taking place over the next two weekends, and we'll have the official NCAA Tournament brackets available to us on Sunday, March 11th. The four days of the tourney from March 15th-18th are an event here in Las Vegas, and the amount of betting on games during these four days rivals the amount wagered on the Super Bowl. This weekend there is a NASCAR event here in Las Vegas. Also heating up right now are the stretch runs leading to the NBA and NHL playoffs, which begin in mid-April. Las Vegas also has a playoff-bound NHL team now (the Golden Knights), which adds a little to that. Throw the impending start of the Major League Baseball season into the mix, and there is A LOT going on... :) Due to this sports calendar (and my wonderful sleep habits), I'm putting my poker on the back burner until activity in the sports world calms down a bit.<br />
<br />
As I referenced in my last entry, I've been listening to a lot of stand-up comedy on my lunch breaks at work, and I've been posting a lot of my favorite material to my Facebook and Twitter accounts. It's very easy to be negative and pick fights in today's world (especially with the explosion of social media), and I just want to throw a few laughs in the mix. Since you stopped by today, I thought I'd share a bit of this humor with you...<br />
<br />
<br />
"If you were to second guess your decision to book time at a Native American community, that would be a reservation reservation reservation..." -Brian Regan-<br />
<br />
"Have you ever asked somebody something so profoundly stupid to them that they have to physically regroup before they answer your question???" -Tom Segura-<br />
<br />
"A fish tank is not a pet. It's a t.v. that you've gotta feed..." -John Caparulo-<br />
<br />
"I order a club sandwich all the time and I'm not even a member. I don't know how I get away with it..." -Mitch Hedberg-<br />
<br />
"I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, 'Where's the self-help section?' She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose..." -George Carlin-<br />
<br />
"You've got bad eating habits if you use a grocery cart in 7-Eleven..." -Dennis Miller-<br />
<br />
"Let's go to Brunch. What a great idea! Why would you want to sleep in on a Sunday when you can go pay $18 for eggs???" -Bill Burr-<br />
<br />
"I'm not a big animal person. Some animals I hate. Uh. Bats. I think bats are disgusting. I hate bats. I hate rats with leather wings. Have you ever seen one? They look around. It's like somebody. They have a face. It's disgusting. Hate bats. Oh I am sure there's a whole thing, "Did you know that bats make all the french toast in the world?" Whatever. I don't care..." -Louis CK-<br />
<br />
"Craft beer snobbery has now surpassed both wine and soccer snobbery..." -Paulie Pabst-<br />
<br />
"You ever talk about a movie with someone that read the book? They're always so condescending...<br />
'Ah, the book was much better than the movie.'<br />
Oh really? What I enjoyed about the movie: no reading..." -Jim Gaffigan-<br />
<br />
"I'm not sure how many problems I have because math is one of them..." -via Laura Spencer-<br />
<br />
"Because the best things in life should be never-ending, for a limited time..." -Olive Garden Commercial-<br />
<br />
"I always wonder what a bird is thinking standing in a cage. “Alright, thank you! I have been blessed with the gift of flight. I know how to fly, and I am standing on a STICK!” -Brian Regan-<br />
<br />
<br />
I have found that the stand-ups make it a little easier for me to get through the rest of the workday (plus I end up sharing their material with my coworkers)... :) I was pretty proud of myself for picking up on the Olive Garden line, and that's why today's post is titled what it is. I hope that y'all have a great weekend and I'll see you soon!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2663632900690922991.post-21072721686225993492018-02-20T08:37:00.002-06:002018-02-20T08:49:41.216-06:00Lots Of OlympicsGood morning everyone, and while I'm at it, Happy New Year! As I lay here watching Switzerland and Germany skating to a current 1-1 tie in the 2nd period in men's hockey, I realize that I haven't posted here since December 16th of LAST YEAR.... (Oops). The focus of that post was my Bobcat and Rattler poker gear, and to be honest, I haven't played much poker since 2018 started either. I'm not going to try to convince you that I've been too busy to EVER stop my life for a minute and write something here, but my work life did get busier since my last entry here with the onset of the college football bowl games and the NFL playoffs, which culminated in that little event that we call the Super Bowl... Uncharacteristically for me, I'm not writing from any notes this time, so let's see where we go...<br />
<br />
Las Vegas. I'm still living in the desert, and I've been back for about 21 months now. I've been working at my current job in the sportsbook for about 18 months. After giving up a full-time job with benefits at the University of Texas at Austin to move 2,000 miles back to my hometown for a girl (and to say that things didn't work out as I expected would be the understatement of forever), I'm glad to say that I've bounced back (because that's what I do)... ;) Like I said, I haven't played much more poker than I've spent time writing blog posts, although after working on New Year's Eve, I did ring in 2018 by playing poker at the Flamingo until after sunrise... :) I still enjoy playing poker, but since it's my job that enables me to pay the bills (to live), I try to get the necessary amount of rest required when things like the Super Bowl come up... :)<br />
<br />
Twitter. I have been spending a little time on Twitter, because that's a place that I can easily visit during my lunch breaks at work. It's a little bit easier for me to put together a tweet than a blog entry. Funny Twitter story... Lately I've been listening to a lot of stand-up comedy during my lunch breaks on Pandora Radio (Pandora may get its own little paragraph here). Anyway, I've been quoting some of my favorite lines from the comedians to my Twitter and Facebook accounts. One joke that I tweeted from Brian Regan (FUNNY guy) was 'liked' by Brian on Twitter. The result of him 'liking' my tweet was an increase in views for that tweet to the tune of about 8,500 impressions. Good stuff... :) <br />
<br />
Pandora. I originally started listening to Pandora (with earphones) at the poker tables a few months ago so that I could relax and focus better. It's amazing how much the earphones help drown out the extraneous noise in the casino. Then I decided to listen to Pandora during lunch also, because I had been reconnecting with a lot of old music that I enjoyed while playing poker. Something possessed me to click on the comedy stations within the past month, and I have to admit that hearing the jokes makes the rest of the workday a little easier. I end up telling my coworkers the best jokes that I heard on my lunch break... ;) <br />
<br />
The Olympics. Switzerland and Germany are heading to overtime tied 1-1, in case you were wondering... I usually work til 10:00 or 11:00 at night, and I've watched A LOT of Olympic coverage after work because the NBC umbrella of networks has done a great job of broadcasting around-the-clock. I've watched more women's hockey and curling than I ever imagined possible, that's for sure... :) By the way, the Germans just defeated the Swiss in overtime, 2-1. <br />
<br />
124,532. Despite my writing hiatus, you awesome people have continued to find my little blog, and we're on the precipice of 125,000 views. That's pretty impressive considering that I almost NEVER write. Hopefully I'll do better in the future. I have no shortage of stories to tell, that's for sure... :) <br />
<br />
I'm going to leave you now so that I can start my chores for the day, but I hope that all of you have a great week!~Coachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00063024399528751971noreply@blogger.com0