it's 55 and rainy here. it has been since last friday, and will be until this upcoming monday. last weekend i was in clear blue skies and 65-90 degree weather, depending on the time of day. also, everyone was happy and not miserable. and i didn't have a schedule.

i really, really like las vegas.

as i mentioned earlier, i went with jen and geoff to the city of "sin", getting in around 1 on saturday and leaving around 2 on monday. our first stop once we met up at the airport was a trip to the in-n-out over near the strip, where i devoured a double double with fries, jen had two grilled cheeses off the hidden menu, and geoff killed off a 4x4 like it was nothing. then we took a cab over to our hotel and checked in.

we stayed at the paris. i didn't care for it much after the first trip to vegas, but i liked it a lot more this time around. last time we only walked through once, very late at night, and we also tried to go to the buffet there on the first day but the line was too long. seeing it during the day was nicer, and it seemed busier and classier this time around. it is definitely in the top-half of hotels on the strip.

jen and i did get the buffet this time. it was, as thad's friend predicted, incredible.

we spent most of our gambling time in three casinos - the golden nugget, binions, and the paris. the first place we gambled was downtown, as the limits were sure to be low. we found $10 blackjack at the golden nugget, where both geoff and i won a little but jen did not play. then we went over to binions and found $3 blackjack. i won a little over $200 at this table, including one hand where i had $50 on the table because of splits and double-downs (and because i bet more than $3 on the hand). it was pretty freakin fun. geoff did well here and i think jen won a little too, so everyone was happy. of course, we all ended up down, mostly thanks to a blackjack dealer at the paris named monica. everyone avoid her like the plague.

i tried to teach geoff craps on sunday morning. we had a brilliant plan of going to bed around 10 and waking up at 5 or so. this basically kept us on eastern/central time and also helped us avoid all the major crowds and high limits. it was a good, good plan.

anyways, sunday morning at like 6, geoff and i went to find some low-limit blackjack in the paris. we found a few tables with both $5 and $10 limits, but they were full. i saw a craps table that was wide open, and geoff suggested that i teach him craps. he understands the game now, but i lost $100 in about 15 minutes. that was all the craps i played on the trip.

while blackjack with geoff and jen was a ton of fun, the most fun i had gambling had to have been on sundays NFL games. i picked 5 games, and ended up getting only 2 of them and thus lost something like $11. geoff lost $2 with a 2-2 record, i think. however, we had a ton of fun doing it. these are the teams i bet on - packers -3 against the saints, dolphins +3 against the bills, texans -3 against the titans, bucs -3.5 against the jets, and browns -3 against the bears.

so, packers game was in the bag real, real early. texans was out of hand pretty damn early as well. i had almost given up on the dolphins bet, and the bucs looked real bad, and the browns looked like they'd be lucky to push my -3 bet. then a magical stretch hit where the bucs kicked a field goal with 5 minutes left in the game, making a TB defensive stop and a TB TD a somewhat reasonable scenario for that game to cover for me. then the dolphins, who had been stringing me around all day with their long drives ending in interceptions, scored a td and brought their game to 17-14, giving me at least a push there. then the browns scored a td on a beautiful 33 yard pass, giving me a push there as the browns were up 13-10. then the browns got a turnover about 3 plays later, the dolphins got a stop and the ball back, then the browns scored a td to seal the game and give me an almost definite win on that bet, and the dolphins made a couple of nice passes and were down at the bills 30 with like 3 minutes left. all that happened in a 10 minute span where geoff and i were high-fiving and generally going nuts. it was a wild, wild time. of course the browns went on to cover, but the dolphins had yet ANOTHER turnover (this one a somewhat questionable fumble that couldn't be overturned) and the bucs, of course, sucked. so i ended up 2-3. but damn, it was so much fun.

i didn't even mention the crazy parlay bet geoff and i both made on saturday. we both took OSU -4, we both picked one hockey game (i picked the penguins moneyline), and we both bet on baseball games (both took padres, i took braves he took stros). of course, i went 0-4 on this silly, silly parlay bet. geoff went 2-2, but one loss ends the day on a parlay, so records didn't matter. sports betting is so much fun.

ok, that's the end of the gambling portion. i'm sure i'm missing some fun stuff, but man alive the food was amazing and it needs to be discussed.

we decided to go to a nice place on saturday night, and the nice place ended up being nero's, the steakhouse in caesar's palace. holy. crap. this food was incredible. we were seated immediately at 8:30 on a saturday night, which is good for future reference. i had filet, jen had a crazy tomato salad and gnocchi, and geoff had the strip. all were amazing. the sides were also incredible, as geoff had mashed potatoes, i got forest mushrooms, and we split the best onion strings ever - they tasted just like kc masterpiece bbq potato chips, except onion-y. mmm. my mouth is watering right now thinking about them. so, nero's is incredible.

of course, we had two in-n-out meals, one on the way in that i mentioned, and one at 10:45am on monday on the way out. since we were on eastern/central time, eating a burger at 10:45am was not a problem at all.

i already mentioned the amazing buffet at the paris... we also hit up the crepe/breakfast place in the bellagio on monday. i got a crazy meal crepe with ham and swiss and mushrooms and an egg. jen and geoff both got pastries. the orange juice there is easily the best juice i have had in years. the crepe was amazing. apparently the croissants were good too, but i didn't investigate too much.

so i've mentioned all these great meals, but i haven't even hit the best meal of the trip. the place was the burger bar in mandalay place. it was an adventure to get there, so i'll get into that first. we were up at the wynn, and mandalay bay is pretty much at the opposite end of the strip from the wynn. we decided to take the monorail down to the mgm grand, then go across the street to excalibur, and while not actually stepping into excalibur, take the monorail from there over to mandalay bay. so this portion of the trip went fine, except the wynn shuttle to the monorail seems to really take you to the middle of nowhere. don't worry, the monorail is close enough. anyways, there was a ton of walking at this point, and jen was getting tired and all three of us were freaking starving. we got to mandalay bay and walked around for about 30 minutes, going by all the restaurants in the main part of the place, until finally we gave in, exhausted and starving, and went to the front desk and asked for directions. the lady there smugly told me (i swear, smugly) that the burger bar did exist but was in fact in mandalay place, the shopping mall between mandalay bay and the luxor. we got there in about 2 minutes. anyways, the build up is key, because we've been anticipating burger-licious burgers for about 1 hour since we actually started being very hungry. so maybe thats why this was the best meal ever. or maybe it was the food.

so the burger bar is a build-a-burger type place, with the starting meats being kind of fun. there's your standard burger, a veggie burger, lamb or fish, but then the jackpot - kobe beef. geoff stated from the beginning - "when am i gonna have something like this again?"

kobe beef makes the most incredible burger EVER. there are not words for how good this meat is. everyone who likes a burger should try it. geoff is almost certainly getting 6 lbs of kobe ground beef shipped to him. after one burger. so that should tell you something. also, i almost got a second one. man... man.

i should get some of that kobe beef.

anyways, that was by far the biggest highlight. after having that burger, having other food seemed trite and silly. i dunno. i can't do it justice. if you like burgers, try one. i know, i know, it's like a $20 burger or something silly like that. but you will not regret it for a second.

so that was vegas.

i was getting sick on the tail end of the trip and i ended up taking tuesday off because i wasn't feeling well. when i went outside to get a little lunch, the gray clouds were there and it felt like christmas had just ended and this was the let down. or even as if i wasn't at home, but i was visiting some other, strange place temporarily before i returned to vegas.

i love vegas.