i come to you today with a whole lot of vegas staring me in the face. wednesday evening is the opening volley, as i fly out with thad and ken to meet asian and parker in sin city. 5 days, 4 nights at the mgm grand while the sweet sixteen and elite eight games play out - more on that in a bit, maybe.

but back to vegas - i'm headed there again in may, courtesy of work. i'm going to attend a conference for some software that we use heavily at work, and that i am actually in charge of. and then in mid-june, one of my friends is going to play in a WSOP no-limit event, so i'll be in vegas rooting him on. so, a lot of vegas staring me in the face.

the last two 'college' vegas trips have resulted in me losing a pretty large amount of money and being entirely sick of everything by the end of the trip. the upcoming trip can not result in the same feelings, because i will be completely unhappy in may and june if that does happen. so my mantra this time is to pace myself - i don't need to see everything, nor do i need to do everything. i will be pretty f'n content if i sleep reasonable hours, watch a lot of sports, play good poker, and limit myself on the insane bets. no 'money plays' with hundred dollar bills, for example.

vegas should be a good opportunity for photography too, so expect a ton of those photos coming down the pipe. fair warning.

i've been pretty sick since last thursday. i thought i was in the clear this morning but then i took a nap and now the right side of my face has jackhammers going off or something. i think its sinus-related pain, but the pills, they do nothing. i should get in bed, but that damn nap has kept me from being sleepy.

tourney? eh. not too many exciting games, but most of the meat last year, if i recall, came up while i was in vegas, so i have hope for the 2007 tourney as a whole. no cinderellas is sad, but the vols have made the sweet 16 and have a monumental task in front of them. i think they are capable, but i don't know if i can put money on it, being as i am a bit biased. i'll go ahead and make a quick elite eight projection based on what we have now:

florida, unlv, kansas, pitt, unc, gtown, a&m, vols.

i'll try to get some wifi access on friday or saturday and post from vegas.