Not a lot going on this week. I spent a couple evenings in Blackhawk and did quite well at poker, making up for some poor results in the last several trips I’d taken up there.

Laura and I watched Oldboy the other night. Having seen the final installment in that trilogy, I knew we were in for a treat. Definitely a solid, solid piece of filmmaking.

Tonight? Off to see Surrogates!

Laura and I share birthdays nine days apart in September. She turned 30 a few days ago, and to celebrate, we spent 3 full days in Vegas. Her brother Stephen and his girlfriend Lynn also went.

It was a pretty great time. We arrived around 10pm Sunday evening, ended up walking around the city enjoying the beautiful air and generally hilarious crowds milling around. Stephen and Lynn didn’t arrive until Monday morning, so we saved the majority of our gambling for later in the trip.

Our stay at the Imperial Palace was not our first time there, but we did discover some new things on this trip. There’s a 24-hour Asian restaurant which serves some really exotic shit, but also some good fried rice and dumpling soup. It was a nice way to fill up at 4am.

We stayed up too late on Sunday night/Monday morning, but whatever — that’s why we take repeat trips to Vegas.

Stephen/Lynn arrived Monday morning, and we met up with them early afternoon. Nothing extraordinary that day, but we did re-visit Samba, a Brazilian steakhouse at the Mirage. It was pretty good, and of course, filling.

Monday felt sort of like a ‘rest’ day, as Laura’s birthday was Tuesday. We went to bed relatively early to prepare.

Tuesday, we had each had a massage scheduled for 1pm. The hotel was running a $75 special. Laura had called it in, and when they asked if I cared if the therapist was male or female, I said I didn’t care. I am quite comfortable with my heterosexuality, and didn’t think it mattered.

So, of course I get lined up with a dude. The guy’s a borderline nutcase. He explains how that day may be his last day working at the hotel, how he only had two clients that day, how business was so bad, blah blah blah. It was awkward. About the only thing that was good was he didn’t do anything weird with his hands. I did my best to relax and enjoy it, and it wasn’t completely terrible, but next time, I’ll be asking for a woman.

Tuesday night, Eric was in town for the evening, and joined us for dinner at Nine Fine Irishmen, Laura’s favorite. It was a delicious meal, on top of a really nice experience sitting outdoors on the patio. Next up was Ka, the cirque de soleil at MGM. We’d seen a few others and decided we may as well see them all, so this one was next on the list.

The show was pretty good, although by midway I was pretty drunk and was probably going to be entertained by the vast majority of events going on in the city. Nonetheless, everyone else liked it and we had a great time. Given me and Laura’s heavily intoxicated state, we decided to randomly gamble on various machines and table games throughout the MGM. We finally settled at Crazy Four Poker for a few hours, and managed to only lose a few hundred, which isn’t bad.

Wednesday was supposed to be my last day, as I had a 7:30pm flight. We spent most of the afternoon playing poker, and Laura had a pretty bad hangover.

I get to the gate about an hour before my flight departs and within a few minutes, it’s announced that my flight is canceled. I have two options: take the 11:30pm flight or take the first one in the morning. Laura’s staying through Thursday, as she was supposed to play in a free slot tournament that day.

(The Venetian wouldn’t let her register for some reason, so that never happened).

I decided to stay the night since Laura already had the room booked. I meet back with everyone at the Venetian, and we decide on video poker. Within about an hour, I win $4,000 on a royal flush. Pretty hilarious way to cap off a pretty great trip.

The weekend prior we celebrated my 32nd birthday. We ate at a local Moroccan restaurant, and ate with our hands some really delicious food. After, we went to the DU film center to see Dead Sno, a film featuring Nazi zombies. It was quite entertaining, and possibly more enjoyable than Inglorious Basterds.

All in all, the last 10 days were pretty fucking great.

Not far from my new residence is Lakeside amusement park. It’s a little over 100 years old. I’d always heard about the park, not thinking much about it due to its reputation for being old and run down or whatever people like to say.

Last night, Adam, Laura and a handful of other folks joined us for a jaunt to Lakeside. We didn’t even know they had a special running this weekend, and it was extremely cheap to ride everything, almost half price.

The place is definitely old, and reminds me a lot of Omaha’s (now-defunct) Peony Park. But it’s not a total shithole as some people around town have led me to believe.

The kids definitely had a great time, even if their biggest source of fun was the Tilt-a-Whirl. Adam rode that about five times.

The wooden coaster, which apparently wasn’t supposed to be open this season, was pretty fun too. Not the biggest coaster in the world, but it had a few fun drops and turns.

I was most impressed by how friendly the staff was. I must be used to the state fair carnies that are generally grimy, shady characters operating all of the amusement rides, because most of the folks I encountered last night were courteous and seemed happy to be there.

It was a pretty great way to spend $10 for each of us to have 3+ hours of fun on a beautiful Friday evening. I’m bringing the camera next time.