A Daily Diary - "October 2010"

Entries for October 2010

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Pumpkin Carving

 SUNDAY - 10/31/2020 - HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Well, here it is, the end of another month, and what an ending it was. We got up early and packed for yet another free stay at the South Point casino. Uponour arrival we had a nice breakfast consisting of waffles, eggs and bacon in the Coronado Cafe. After Connie used up her $15 in free play, we headed over to the "M" casino to pick up their free gift of the day, two free bottles of Chilean wine. While we were there I won $100 playing poker.

At 3:30 we headed back to the South Point for a mid-afternoon appointment at their Costa del Sur Spa . This was the first time we had used the spa here and found it to be quite nice. We paid the extra money to use their "couples" area which consisted of a private lounge area, a huge whirlpool spa, sauna and steam room. After nearly two full hours of soaking and relaxing we showered and prepared ourselves for dinner at Don Vito's, their signature Italian restaurant.

Don Vito's Restaurant

Our meal at Don Vito's was excellent. They started us out with a basket of assorted breads and an absolutely devine mixture of red pepper and garlic cloves marinated in olive oil, balsamic vinegar for dipping. It was truly delicious.  Next we had Caesar salads, which we both thought we only average. We then ordered two glasses of wine to enjoy with dinner. Our entrees, on the other hand, were both very good. Connie had the Eggplant Parmesan, twice baked with Marinara Sauce, Mozzarella and Ricotta Cheeses, while I had the Veal Marsala sauteed with Shallots, Mushrooms and Marsala Wine. Both were delicious. I ordered the Vito's Coconut Sorbet that was served in a real coconut shell and topped with berries and whipped cream. What a meal! With our 2-1 coupon the whole meal was only $45.



The Letterman

 Finally to finish the evening we headed over to their showroom to see The Letterman. What a show they put on. Having not seen them for more than 40 years, we were amazed with their energy an harmony. They really know how to work and audience! One of the best little shows we've seen for only $30. Yes I had 2-1 tickets again. After a fully exhausting day, we headed to our room and bed right after the show.

SATURDAY - 10/30/2010 - Well, no luck today. We had about 75 tickets in tonight's drawings at the "M", but couldn't get one drawn. On the positive side, I picked up $150 playing in the poker room.

Mickey's Cues & Brews Pool Hall

FRIDAY - 10/29/2010 - Today was another scheduled "shooting pool" day. My neighbor Ron and I headed over to Barley's Casino for their $2.79 breakfast. Two eggs, two strips of bacon, hash brown potatoes and two pieces of toast.  Heck of a deal. We then went to Mickey's Cues & Brews for a couple of hours of eight-ball and nine-ball. I came out the winner. I then went home and picked up Connie and headed to the "M" for our last chance to earn tickets for tomorrow night's big drawings. Tonight was seafood buffet night, so we chowd down on King Crab Leggs, Mahi-mahi, stuffed pork roast and several other outstanding dishes and desserts. Connie hit a slot machine just before dinner and came out a winner for the day; I won a "splashed pot" for $250 and ended up $175 ahead for the day plus I got another 40 tickets for tomorrow's drawings.  Another fun and profitable day for the two of us. We got home late and just went to bed knowing that we would be there late tomorrow night trying to hit one of the nights 100 drawings.

THURSDAY - 10/28/2010 - First off, we headed to the RIO casino on the Strip where Connie had $10 in free slot play. She cashed out a profit of $18 and then we headed to the South Point casino to see the move "Red". As one reviewer put it, "A daffy but enjoyable action-comedy that assembles some impressive oldie firepower." We both enjoyed. We then headed over to the "M" for some more play and to earn more tickets for Saturday night's drawings. What a great stop!  I hit four sevens on the flop for a $1,000 jackpot. Connie played the whole time on the money she won at the RIO. We got home so late that we skipped dinner, watched one TV show and went to bed.

WEDNESDAY -  10/27/2010 - Starting to feel more like winter here - this morning it was 44 degrees. I got together with Ron, my downstairs neighbor, and went out and shot pool this morning. We hadn't done it in quite a while and had a good time. As he is taking some vacation time, we made plans to go again on Friday.  After I go home Connie and I decided to go see the movie "Red" and headed over to the South Point. I had coupons for two free lunch buffets. When we got to the theater to buy our tickets we were told that there were only 16 seats left in the front two rows and decided to wait until tomorrow.  We then headed over to the "M". Connie ended up winning $200 and I picked up $130 in the poker room. A good day for the two of us. Came home and had a pizza for dinner over "Survivor" and some TV shows before heading to bed.

TUESDAY - 10/26/2010 - Got up this morning and decided to go to Mimi's Cafe and use one of our free breakfast coupons. Mimi's is located only a few miles from us and is one of our favorites for breakfast. I had the crab cakes benedicts with hollandaise and home fries; Connie had the spinach & cheddar cheese quiche with fruit and home fries. After breakfast we headed to the "M". We were both surprised to learn that we had won money in their FREE football pool. You can get up to 11 free picks each week in the weekly football pool. Connie tied with 32 others for 2nd place, winning $108, just one team off of winning 1st place which paid out $855 this week. I finished tied with 44 others for third place, for only $6. First place outright can be up to $5,000.  Not bad for free entries each week.

MONDAY - 10/25/2010 - Sunday we sat around and watched movies and TV shows most of the day. Today, my neighbor friend Jim and I decided to go play poker on the Strip today. We ended up at Mandalay Bay Casino where the poker room was offering $1,000 for any flopped four of a kind. We played for 10 hours but were unable to flop a four of a kind. However, Jim was extremely lucky and ended up winning over $850 for the day. I lost $75 for the day. For dinner we ate at the Border Grill restaurant for which I had a 2-1 coupon. WOW!, what a meal. This is the first time either of us had eaten here and both thought it was excellent. I can't wait to take Connie and go back. Check out my review here ... Border Grill.

The Las Vegas Youth Orchestras

SATURDAY - 10/23/2010 - I played on the computer most of the morning while Connie read. Had sandwiches for lunch over a TV show before heading to the Henderson Pavilion to see a concert by the Las Vegas Youth Orchestras. There were performances by four different orchestras of varying age groups. The Las Vegas Youth Orchestras consists of four separate ensembles based upon age (from eight to eighteen) and playing ability. It is a diverse group comprised of over 300 students from the Las Vegas valley, and is an after-school program which serves the youth in Southern Nevada. Students are admitted by annual audition. Most students have five to eight years of musical experience and receive private instruction. They were all quite good and made for a very enjoyable afternoon for only $5 each. After the concert we went home and had dinner over a couple of TV shows before heading over to the "M" Casino for their Saturday night drawings. Didn't hit any of the drawings, however, Connie made a couple of dollars and I won $100 for the night in the poker room.

FRIDAY- 10/22/2010 - Yesterday, after playing at the "M"in the afternoon, we met Jim Herring on the Strip at the Luxor Cafe for long, relaxing, conversational dinner. After dinner he decided to play some more slots and we headed home. There were still some late afternoon showers. Today we drove to Jim's house on the other side of town and picked him up for his return trip home. On the way to the airport we went back home and I cooked breakfast.  Hot cinnamon buns, scrambled eggs with pepper, onion and cheese, bacon and coffee. After dropping him off at the airport we headed over to the "M" for a little play before coming back home. On the way home we stopped at Burger King and used the last of my 2-1 coupons and had their chicken sandwich meal for dinner. We watched some prerecorded TV shows, had pumpkin pie for desert and headed off to bed, at least Connie did. I stayed up and worked on a bluetooth connection problem I was having on my computer.

WEDNESDAY - 10/20/2010 - We couldn't believe it. The rain, thunder and lightening from yesterday continued throughout the night and well into the morning. It then rained off and on all day. We haven't seen this much rain in quite a long time. We got anywhere from .5 to .85 inches. Seeing that our average annual rainfall is around 4 inches per year, that was quite a bit. We went over to the "M" and had the lunch buffet and played for a few hours before heading home to watch some TV.  I made a big fresh salad for dinner, watched some shows and went to bed.

The Skywalk at Grand Canyon West

TUESDAY - 10/19/2010 - OMG! What a day we've had. After a mid-morning call from our friend, Jim Herring, it was decided to travel to the Grand Canyon Skywalk at the western end of the Grand Canyon. The Skywalk at Grand Canyon West is a unique glass-bottomed cantilever observation deck that spans 70 feet over the canyon's rim. Though evening thunderstorms were predicted, the weather when we departed around 10:30 am was quite nice. We stopped at Hemingway Park in Boulder City on the way and Jim got some pictures of the big horn sheep that were grazing in the park. Getting across the Hoover Dam went without event, however, once on the Arizona side we ended up stuck in a construction induced traffic jam that delayed us by more than an hour and a half. We literally didn't move for more than an hour. Unbelievable!

View of the Skywalk

After pulling off the main road we stopped at the nearly nonexistent town of Dolan Springs for a quick lunch consisting of a hamburger, fries and onion rings, we went another 20 miles, only to be surprised to find that the road went from pavement to dirt. For the next 14 miles we didn't go much faster than 15 mph. The last 6 miles was paved and ended beside a runway and parking lot next to a building where you had to purchase a $40 bus ticket to just get to the canyon's edge. Once we boarded the bus and got to the site of the Skywalk you had to pay another $30 dollars walk out onto the Skywalk itself; no cameras allowed. If you wanted a picture a Hualapai Tribe photographer would take pictures that you could buy afterwards for $30 each. All in all I thought it was kind of a rip-off. Jim bought the walk out - I refused. By the time we got there, due to all the delays, the rain clouds quickly caught up, blocking the sun and preventing any good (colorful) pictures. Before we finished there were lightening strikes all around us.

The ride home proved even more unbelievable. The portion of the dirt road was in much worse shape than it was on the way in due to the heavy rains. It was 6:00pm by the time we hit the main road and headed north to Vegas and assumed that they would be done with road construction for the day. WRONG! About 12 miles South of the dam we came to a dead stop, where we sat for more than two hours moving only a few hundred feet at a time. The lightening displays we observed for the entire time were just awesome. I can't remember the last time that I saw so much lightening last for so long. When we finally got moving they actually routed us over the new bridge at the dam which wasn't even suppose to open until some time in November. We got home about 9:30. A ridiculously long, and seemingly unnecessary, long day! To top things off, Jim, who had another 35 miles to go to get to his house in North Las Vegas, called to let us know that he ended up stuck twice on the 215 due to some overpass construction and then a car accident. What a day! Click here to view a slide show - Grand Canyon West - Skywalk 

Eagle Rock (located on the left side of the picture)(Click to Enlarge)

Red Rock Casino

MONDAY - 10/18/2010 - Our friend Jim Herring arrived yesterday after a long two-day drive from Kansas. He bought a car and drove it out so he wouldn't have to rent a car every time he came. We decided to meet him for dinner at Red Rock Casino over in Summerlin, about halfway for both of us. Connie and I left early and played until 6:00, our scheduled dinner meeting time.  Connie won $5 playing slots and I picked up $70 in the poker room.  We decided to eat at the buffet and enjoyed a nice long meal and conversation. It was good to see Jim again and "catch up". We agreed to get in touch the next day and maybe go to the Grand Canyon Skywalk. It was after 8:00 pm by the time we said our good byes and both headed home.

Double click picture  to view full size

SATURDAY - 10/16/2010 - I got up this morning and drove over to the Hoover Dam to walk the new arch span bridge, the longest in North America. More than 30,000 people were projected to attend so I left at 6:00 AM and headed out to the Hacienda Casino to get in line. I was on the first bus which drove us to the Arizona side of the bridge, from where we had to walk more than 2,000 feet to get to the Nevada side.  I had a great time and got lots of pictures of the dam. Click here to view PDF write up and slide show - Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge.



Big Horn Sheep in Hemingway Park

On the way home I stopped in Boulder City and visited Hemenway Park to see the big horn sheep. This is the third or fourth time I've been here to see these fascinating animals. There had to be at least 35-40 of them roaming throughout the park. I was able to get to within 6-8 feet of them and got some great pictures. Slide show to come later.

Conservatory at Bellagio

THURSDAY - 10/14/2010 - I spent most of the morningr playing around on the computer and working on some pictures while Connie read. I made some sandwiches for lunch which we ate while watching some prerecorded TV shows. We then showered and dressed and headed to the "M" where Connie had $10 in free slot play. After a few hours of playing at the "M" we headed to the strip where Connie had another $10 in free slot play at the RIO. We then stopped at the Bellagio to see the Fall display in the conservatory.

This one was only 858 lbs

It was very nicely done and even had a glass greenhouse in the middle filled with dozens of orchards. They had 4 huge pumpkins - one weighed over 1,080 lbs. Next we went to Ellis Island where I had $10 in free slot play and ate a late dinner in their very popular BBQ restaurant. We both had a full rack of baby back ribs with corn on the cob, baked beans, coleslaw and garlic bread. We had forgotten how good the ribs here were. We had to wait over an hour for a table and by the time we left the wait was 2-1/2 hours. Using one of our LVA coupons the whole dinner was only $9.99, not counting tip. Came home exhaused and went right to bed.

WEDNESDAY - 10/13/2010 - The weather was just beautiful this morning, however we were disappointed to find out that the pool was closed. I decided to do some much needed cleaning in the kitchen. I cleaned all the cabinet doors, counter tops, washed and waxed the kitchen floor, and then vacuumed the deck. After lunch and a TV show, we showered and headed to the library and then to the SouthPoint Casino to see the movie Secretariat. We thought the movie was very good - click the title to read our review. Saw a movie, ate a large popcorn and had two hot fudge sundaes for $10. Gotta love this place. Did some grocery shopping on the way home, watched some prerecorded TV shows and headed to bed.

Outside Spa at SouthPoint Casino

MONDAY - 10/11/2010 - Slept like babies - didn't guet up until after 8:00 am - we never sleep that late. We splurged and had Seattle's Finest Coffees and blueberry muffins in the room before donning our suits and heading outside to the spa and pool. We just love the outside spa here. The weather was absolutely beautiful, upper 70's and not a cloud in the sky. I bought two newspapers and Connie read her book. It was so nice that we were almost late checking out of the room. After checkout, we both played for a short while. I made $10 in the poker room while Connie played $15 in free slot play. We then headed over to the "M" so Connie could play her free slot play there. I made another $10 in the poker room, Connie broke even. We then came home and unpacked, read emails, read, and updated some stuff on the computer.  I made us a late lunch which we watched over our Netflix movie that has sat on the coffee table for the past week. Maintenance finally showed up and replaced the leaking garbage disposal under the kitchen sink. It was good to get the kitched back - we had 'stuff' from under the sink everywhere. Watched some prerecorded TV shows and went to bed early.

Ralphie May

SUNDAY - 10/10/2010 - Today was a full day! I stopped by the Southpoint Casino on my way to the "M" for breakfast (at 6:00am) to check-in for our free night's stay, only to be told that they couldn't check me in yet because they were full and didn't have an empty room to check my credit card against. Are they kidding? They have 2,163 rooms there. Met up with three of my poker buddies for breakfast at the new Hash House A-Go-Go at the "M". We were not impressed. It took them 48 minutes to serve us our breakfast. This is the second time I've eaten here and had a bad experience and probably won't go back again. We then went to the poker room and played for 10 hours trying to hit one of their hourly $1,000 cash drawings.  I had more than 150 tickets in the drum but couldn't get lucky, though one of my friends with whom I had breakfast, hit the 5:15pm drawing for a thousand dollars. I then went home and picked up Connie and headed to the Southpoint for our free night's stay, dinner and a show. After check-in, we had Chinese in the Coronado Cafe and then headed over to the showroom the see the comedian, Ralphie May. Though a little raunchy, he was very funny. Louie Anderson, another of our favorites was in the audience and we got to talk with him after the show. We finally hit the sack after the show. It had been a long day!

My Friend Nick at the No-limit Table

SATURDAY - 10/09/2010 - Spent most of the last three days playng poker at the "M". Today I washed the car and got a much needed haircut first thing in the morning before heading back to the "M" to earn more tickets for Sunday's $1,000 drawings in the poker room. Came home and picked up Connie and had a 2-1 Whopper meal at Burger King before heading back to the "M" for Saturday night's 100 cash drawings. They had drawings every 15 minutes from 8:00 to 11:30. We had over 200 tickets in the drum, but didn't get lucky this week - nothing!  I won $45 after nearly 14 hours of play in the poker room. We got home about midnight and went right to bed.

FRIDAY - - 10/08/2010 - Found out that the garbage disposal under the kitchen sink has been leaking for the last couple of days. After pulling everything out and drying it off, I called property maintenance who came over to look at the problem. They have to order a new disposal unit. Couldn't believe they didn't have such an item on hand in case of emergencies. After dealing with this we headed over to the "M" for breakfast at the new Hash House A-Go-Go, that openened yesterday. We were not overly impressed. Too expensive, the music was terrible, and the service not all that good. Connie lost at slots, I lost at poker, however, I made enough at slots to provide us with a win for the day. Came home and threw a frozen dinner in the skillet and watched a few TV shows before retiring for the evening

Pool Reflections

WEDNESDAY - 10/06/2010 - Temperatures got down to the 50's last night and was only in the mid 60's when we got up. Much too cool to go to the pool. We got up early today so we could head over to the house of our friend, Jim Herring, in North Las Vegas. He hasn't been able to get in touch with the person that is suppose to be keeping an eye on his house and was getting worried.  From my peak into a couple of the windows, everything appeared to be OK. We stopped at Santa Fe Station on the way over and had a 2-1 breakfast buffet. After checking in on Jim's house we headed back to the "M" to play and collect more tickets for the upcoming drawings. I now have more than 150 tickets for the two drawings. I picked up another $150 in the poker room, but Connie had a loosing day at slots. Came home and put a couple of turkey pot pies in the oven for dinner and watched some TV shows before heading off to bed.

TUESDAY - 10/05/2010 - Pretty much the same as the last several days. Went to play at the "M". Shared a grilled chicken Caesar salad for lunch. I made $280 at poker and Connie picked up $30 for the day at slots. Had left over soup for dinner and hot fudge sundies for desert. Watched TV and went to bed.

Me

MONDAY - 10/04/2010 - We spent most of the day yesterday playing at the "M". We both made a few dollars, and I collected a bunch of tickets for the upcoming drawings. Today, after sleeping in until after 8:00, something that we almost never do, I had a breakfast of cereal with strawberries and Connie had glazed donuts. The morning was quite overcast and we actually received some rain for a change. We then showered and again headed to the "M". We had two free buffets for lunch, and then played some more before calling it a day and heading home. Connie made $40 and I lost $100 in poker room. I made a broccoli and cheddar cheese soup for dinner, watched some prerecorded TV shows and went to bed.

SATURDAY - 10/02/2010 - Because the "M" Poker Room is having some special jackpot opportunities over the next 10 days, it looks like I will be spending a lot of time there earning tickets for their big drawing on October 10th.  On the 10th the poker room will drawing tickets out of a drum every hour for $1,000 cash. In addition, the casino has a special promotion every Saturday in October with numerous cash drawings each Saturday night for a car and money. I can earn a ticket for every hour of play until Sunday, October 10th for the poker drawing and two tickets for every hour of play for the casino's Saturday night drawings plus Connie can earn tickets for playing slots. 

I played in the poker room all day and came home at dinner time and picked up Connie for tonight's casino drawing to see if we could get lucky.  I had a ticket drawn at 10:00 pm for $150 and Connie had one drawn for $100 at the next to the last drawing at 11:15 pm plus Connie won $100 playing slots for the night. $350 for the two of us; not a bad night!

Latest CD - Soulchestral Groove

FRIDAY - 10/01/2010 - Another new month and 2010 is 75% gone. Where does the time go. After a week of unusually hot temperatures (over 100-degrees) for this time of year, today we had some rain, something we haven't seen for many months. I spent most of the day playing at the "M" trying to hit some of their special poker room promotions. Connie stayed home and read and watched some prerecorded movies. After finishing our takeout of the other day for dinner, we headed to the Henderson Events Plaza in downtown Henderson for a free concert by the gifted violinist Karen Briggs. Probably her most famous performance was with Yanni Live at the Acropolis in 1994, a performance that we have watched at least four times. I have embeded clips from that performance below. About all we can say is that she is unbelievable. Her fingers move up and down the violin like the legs of a speedy sand crab racing with the ebb tide. The excellent accompaniment backing her up, who are also on her new CD, keyboardist/arranger, Brandon Coleman, Bassist, Cornelius Mims (Euge Groove) and Percussionist, Munyungo Jackson (Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder), are also stars in their own right. It was a performance we will both cherish and remember for some time to come. If you haven't heard her before, take the time to listen to the clip below.

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