Vegas Recap

Well, you know what they say: What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!





I won't tell any of the juicy bits, but here's the news that's fit to print! :-)


We went to the Pinball Hall of Fame on Friday night! The owner was there and was gracious enough to stay open late so I could try a pin called Goin' Nuts that was recommended by one of the regulars. Apparently, there were only 13 prototypes made and it was never released. The unusual thing about it was that every play starts out as multiball! It was fun! I only had a chance to play it once because he was already staying open later than usual to let me finish that game. One of my favorite pins (and the most popular ever) is Addam's Family and they have an excellent unit there. It's in great shape and the ramps and board look and feel fabulous. I played that a lot because it is so hard to find one in good shape.

We also went to the Bodies Exhibit at the Tropicana. It wasn't quite as exciting as I hoped it would be. I didn't really have an expectation necessarily, but it just seemed really dry. The audio tour was painfully boring. I always get the audio tour because I feel like it helps deepen my understanding of whatever I'm looking at. Not the case with this exhibit. It was oodles of info, just not very interesting.

We also went for dinner at L'Atelier, a Joel Robuchon restaurant. L'Atelier is located in the MGM Grand, where we stayed. That is a whole post unto itself because there are pictures, oh yes! There are pictures...



Other than that, the only things I'll mention are that while walking through the MGM Grand, I ran into a friend from high school that I haven't seen since our reunion three summers ago! I don't know what the odds of that were, but it was really cool to see him, especially since he lives in Canada now. He works for an online poker company, so he was there for the expo they were having in conjunction with the World Series of Poker.



Oh, and my friend Gary (the one in the WSOP) and I ran into Greg Raymer, the 2004 World Series of Poker champ! He was kind enough to take a picture with both of us.

Me and Greg Raymer

Greg Raymer and Gary


That's all folks! I'm working on a post about our dinner at L'Atelier! It should be ready soon!

Playing hooky

Erin & I played hooky yesterday. We left mid-day to partake in a traditional American past time. Here, I'll give you a hint:

The view from our seats

Yes, we witnessed the Dodgers get slaughtered by the Padres. But the food and conversation was good! Plus, there's nothing like being somewhere fun when you really should be at work. Follow that up with swimming and dishing and you might have a perfect afternoon!

Also, I'll be heading out tonight right after work for Vegas and back on Monday. We'll see if I have anything post-able when I get back! 'Cause you know what they say...

Have a great weekend!!!

Know your audience

I have a shopaholic friend who is very directionally challenged. Anytime she'd come to visit my old house, I'd have to give her directions every time, even after she'd been there several times. And for the first dozen or so times, I'd have to give her directions on how to get home. Not just to get to the freeway, but how to get home once she got on the freeways. She is CONSTANTLY getting lost.

She's going to pick up her mom from LAX this morning and she needed to know how to get to the 405 from our workplace. So, I just gave her directions using malls as reference points. She never gets lost going to the mall, so I said, "Get on the 134 like you're going to the Sherman Oaks Fashion Square, pass that and the Sherman Oaks Galleria is right there at the 405. You know where that is right?"

And, of course, she did.

Vanguard account

In mid-2002, I started a Roth IRA account with Vanguard. I did some research at the time trying to decide who I should go with. I think the factors that compelled me to choose Vanguard were the low fees they have on their mutual funds, ease of opening an account and the fact that I had heard Suze Orman recommend their Total Stock Market Index fund. So, I opened it and have never looked back. It was a struggle at first to put the monthly contribution in, and then like it always seems to happen, you adjust to whatever amount of you have on hand. Now I don't even feel or notice the bi-weekly contributions that automatically come from my savings account.

Now, I'm thinking about opening a separate account for investing purposes. I've never had any investments outside of a retirement account, so this is all new territory for me. It's a little different. With the retirement account, I don't get too worried because I know I have a long time before I'll need the money, so I don't get freaked out if the market dips one day and is up the next. I usually don't even think about it. I just withhold as much as possible and I'm letting the retirement chips fall where they may!

As this is new territory, it's a little scary! I don't really want to invest in anything too risky because I'm not sure when I'll need this money back. I could use it as a down payment on a house, but that's not something I'm considering at the moment. But it's a possibility, so I don't necessarily want to invest in something and then pull it out as the market's going down in two years.

So here's the plan: I called Vanguard today and spoke with a rep. She emailed me a link to a questionnaire that I will fill out with all my particulars - when I want to retire, how much I make, how much I save, what's it invested in, when do I need my money back, etc. Once they get that, they'll contact me to set-up a phone interview and then we can decide what would be the best way for me to invest my money. I'm willing to go through the process and see what they suggest. This should be interesting!

I could just put the money in an online savings account and earn just over 5%, but I'm hoping I'll be able to do better than that. Ideally, that is my goal.

Orange County Fair 2006

Ahhhhh, summertime! It is one of my favorite times of the year! Why? Because it means that it's time for my yearly trek to the Orange County Fair! Today was the hottest day of the year, so of course (!), that's the day I decided to go with Erin in tow!

We headed down a little later than we expected, but still managed to do a quick stop at Chick-Fil-A for a couple of their delicious chicken biscuits! When we arrived, we decided to save $5 by taking advantage of the free parking. So, we parked in the AAA lot and shuttled over to the fair.

The first stop inside was the livestock and farming section. We saw cute, cute, cute piglets! There were three pens of piglets. One pen had 6 day old piglets and another had 8 day old piglets! (I'll have to add pictures when I get home.)

Then we headed over for the flower competition. The flower was the theme of this year's fair and they had a small building that had arrangements and bouquets of flower entries. Some were really cool. At the back of the building, there was a vendor, Kate Chu, who makes art of from pressed flowers. Some of her pieces were amazing!! I bought a small piece to put on my nightstand. I love it.

We started to get hungry after perusing the marketplace area for a while, and Erin declared that we must have a turkey leg. Well, on our way, we passed the face painting booth. I had warned Erin that I would be getting my face painted, as I do every year. Every year, they get the same face painter and she is amazing. Here is what she painted on my face in less than 2 minutes.
We made our way to the smoked turkey leg booth and bought one to share ($8.75). I have never bought one at a fair, so this was a first for me! Exciting! See how excited I look!?

We then went over to the Plaza Stage and watched the Peking Acrobats. Their show was good. We also watched the Aga-Boom clown show. That was a lot of fun and somewhat air conditioned which was a big plus.

For our dessert, we settled on a deep fried Twinkie with raspberry sauce and a deep fried Oreo. Both were good, but I think the deep fried Twinkie was a little better. Deep fried Twinkie
Deep fried Oreos

Krispy Kreme Chicken Sandwich
I picked out what I'm trying next year though! It's a chicken sandwich with honey of a Krispy Kreme donut. That sounds disgustingly decadent! I think I have to try one just to see how it tastes!!

We did some more shopping and then headed out! It was a long day! Over 10 hours of fair fun!! The great thing was that while it was 90 degrees in Burbank at night, I was actually getting chilly at the fair because it's so close to the ocean. I think I might have to try the LA County Fair, although I'm already feeling like I won't get my money's worth at $15 per ticket!! The OC Fair is a bargain at $8! However, the LA County fair is promoting its fair food already in this press release! I think I'll have to try the pork chop on a stick!

Traffic blows!

Last night, a friend and I headed up to an L.A. suburb to play some games. According to Yahoo! Maps, it should take 31 minutes without any traffic. So I figured that with the traffic multiplier (x2) it should take us 62 minutes or so.

Well, factor in Friday night traffic (x2), going through the only freeway access to head up to northern Cali for the weekend (+50%), plus a brush fire along the side of the road (40 min according to freeway sign), and you get slightly over 2 hours! Let's see... 31 x 2 = 62 plus 50% (31) = 93 + 40 = 133 minutes. Sounds about right! And that was with having an alternative route of a sort for the last 10-15 minutes. If we didn't have that and had to stay of the jammed up 5, it could've EASILY been another 30-45 minutes! Yikes! Only in L.A., right?

Are Mensans any smarter than regular people?

The party that I went to last Saturday was thrown by a Mensan and her non-Mensan roommate. Going off of total stereotypes, you'd think the Mensans would be more intellectual than regular people. However, the bunch I met did decidedly NOT fall into the "more intellectual" category. Most of them had been barhopping since 1 PM (and it was about 11 PM when they showed up), half of them got high and the main topic of conversation was sex, in all its various forms!

While I was there, I was asked a couple times if I was in Mensa and when I said, "No..." they'd say, "You should join!" I think it may have crossed my mind at some point briefly in the past, but I think I always thought, why would I do that? Just to let people know how "smart" I am? "Hey, look at me! I'm in Mensa!" ?

Although, I think my friend who invited me to the party has a good point. He likes hanging out and talking with "smart" people. Even if it's about sex and stuff like that. And this is a good social group for him. They do lots of restaurant/bar events and take little trips together. In that respect, I think it might be fun! It would broaden my potential friend base.

I told him that being smart is NOT everything. I've met plenty of "smart" people who aren't GOOD people. Everyone has something different to offer. To go off the topic a bit... this is one of my pet peeves. Parents who want their kids to be "smart," but don't instill any character or discipline in them. Being smart is not everything, but sometimes it seems like parents are willing to excuse bad behavior because their kid is a straight A student. Like that matters?! OK, done with that.

If I were to join Mensa, it would just mean I would have more people to draw from to hang out with. It's pretty cheap to take the test, so maybe I'll just try it. I don't even know that I would pass. I think I would, but who knows?

Las Vegas - Here I come!

I have quite a few trips on deck this year and the first one is happening next weekend! I considered driving and even posted an ad on Craigslist to see if there was anyone who wanted to carpool with me to Vegas, but after not getting much of a response, I was ready to give up because the tickets on Southwest were $180! Well, I checked today and they had lowered their prices so I got a ticket for $108 including all the taxes and fees! Cool!!

I'm leaving Thursday right after work and coming in on Monday morning and walking to work. I work less than one mile from the airport, so I won't even have to pay for parking. More money for craps! :-P

"Ratio" Party

After games on Saturday, I went to a party. I wasn't sure I wanted to even GO to the party because the person who invited me called the hostess to see if it was OK to bring a girl. He had to check to make sure the # of guys vs. girls was OK. After hearing him ask about that, I started to have my doubts about whether or not I should even go! Who asks about the guy to girl ratio when asking to bring a guest to a party?? Someone suggested maybe it was a key party (which it wasn't! Thank goodness!). The invitor then asked me if I consider that when inviting people for my parties and I said, "No, I don't! I just invite whoever I want to come and then whoever shows up is it!" Later I started wondering if I should keep that in mind... I will have to consider that for the next party.

Chicken Biscuits

One of my highlights this past weekend was going to Chick-Fil-A with Erin on our way down to the Long Beach games day. If you've never been there, which I surprisingly had not been there, all they serve are chicken items. They have side dishes, but no burgers or anything.

I ended up ordering a chicken biscuit (only available during breakfast hours of 9 AM - 10:30 AM), chicken sandwich (bread, chicken, butter and a couple pickle slices) and chicken nuggets (actual chicken cut into bite-sized pieces), cole slaw, waffle fries and the best part! Sweet tea! Which is exactly what it's called, tea that's been sweetened. It's fabulously sweet. I bought a large sweet tea with my food and then bought a gallon of it to take home.

The highlight though (food-wise) was the chicken biscuit. It was delicious! We are definitely hitting the Chick-Fil-A on our way down to the OC Fair this Saturday.

Chicken Biscuit