"Greetings from Sin City"

Vegas Electric © 2008 Robert Sommers

Leslie and I got back from Vegas last night at about 1:30 in the morning. We were trapped in a traffic jam at the Venetian Parking Garage for over an hour and missed our scheduled flight to Ontario. We were on the 12th floor and descended every single level down at about a twenty minute clip. Totally exhausted today and ready to beat it home for a nap.

This was the twice yearly fashion week extravaganza for my wife, with me along as the cute arm piece. The place as usual, was teeming with gorgeous models and a generous helping of skin. The wackiness of previous years had been mellowed a little, thankfully a few less tattoos and mohawks. The preening hipster men in the biz are kind of nauseating for me, as well as the gangster thugs with the large sunglasses. Leslie managed to secure a palatial penthouse suite at the Palms, an incredible room, with views to Utah and beyond.

The Palms is a strange hotel, with an average age demographic of about 20 and many of the kids seeming to play parts that they had maybe recently viewed on reality television. I played at my favorite Casino, the Venetian and was frankly, on fire. I killed just about every hand the first day, and any machine I gently caressed gladly surrendered its earthly treasure. I can humbly attest that I may have one of the highest winning percentages there over the years of any gambler. I am solely a blackjack player and am often asked how I do it and its not really counting, its just the vibes, man. An older Jewish guy from Oceanside with a prosthetic leg, Lenny Silverman and I, sat, laughed and bs'd our way to some decent sized stacks and I left about 5 g's ahead.

Les and I found a pretty incredible restaurant that I had researched on the internet for dinner. Rosemary's is located about 5 miles out on Sahara and Cimmaron and was fantastic. I am going to blog about it on the Fallbrook Gastronomic blog. Phenomenal twice baked parmesan souffle. Outrageous meal, mostly locals. Honed staff.

We got back to the Palms and watched the Kennedy's speak at the convention and I fell out. Speaking of politics, I wore my Obama pin for the whole show and had great response, even from people you would never expect. Methinks people are ready for a change.

Yesterday I escorted my wife to the WIN show and then decided to revisit the scene of the crime at the Venetian. Bad decision. I found a dealer, Andrea, who decided it was her mission to teach me proper Blackjack strategy. After being trained by my father, one of the greatest players in the world, thirty years ago, I neither sought or welcomed her input which not only put me in a foul mood but eventually robbed about half my stack. I extricated myself from this harpies clutches just in time to almost redeem myself, ending up down about 8 somoleans from the previous days high. Whew! When you are in a hole its usually a good idea to stop digging but I thought that I might get back by way of China or something...

Ended up glad to be home in the middle of night, glad to be met by my loving dogs. I have come to the office today able to stare at some bills but without the requisite strength to actually pay any of them.

Speaking for my wife, I want to extend our thanks and appreciation for all the responses and condolences to her father's passing. It means a lot.

Adieu.