Going To Vegas..........again.

Yep........me and Supernurse are going to Las Vegas again.........starting the New Year right, if you ask me..........actually, this trip had been planned for months. The idea was to meet up with Supernurse's two sisters and their husbands so they could spend some time together..........good idea..........before I write any more about it, let me get a couple of things out of the way.........

For some reason the movie "Hook" was on cable the other day.........it had Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook and Robin Williams as Peter Pan. I watched a small portion of the movie and quickly came to the conclusion that Robin Williams must be related to Bono, the lead singer for U2. I did a quick search on the internet and lo and behold!, at least a few others must see things the way I do.

So you explain it......because I can't.

Today was a great day..........I thoroughly enjoyed watching my Baltimore Ravens trounce the New England Patriots and now I get to look forward to next Saturday, when hopefully........well.....we are always the underdogs.......the Ravens will trounce the Indianapolis Colts........hehehe......it should be a great game.

Also, I got yet another comment sent in to me about the Jehovah's Witnesses......this time it was from an alleged 14 yr old kid, who, of course, claims to not be a Witness..........anyway, I went ahead and okayed it for inclusion in the comments section. At the moment, I have no idea which particular blog post it was in response to, but I will dig around for it and react to it at another time.

........okay.....back to Vegas........I will be staying right across the street from the Paris Hotel & Casino..........that's the one with the Eiffel Tower..........at the Bellagio.............

..........The Bellagio is the one with the dancing fountains..........it also was the Casino that was featured in the movie remake of Ocean's Eleven. Yes, I have been there before, but I hadn't actually stayed there. This trip.........we have rooms there..........nice, eh? I will be taking lots of pictures as I enjoy all of the sights and sounds.......as well as foods.............hmmmmm.........I also plan to spend my share of time at my favorite slot machine............Invaders From The Planet Moolah!

I hope to hear a whole bunch of mooing going on.

Meanwhile, I have no plans on getting online and putting anything up on this blog until I get back. Our flight leaves on Monday and we won't be back in Baltimore again until Saturday..........I am liking this..........hehehe.

Aruba Trip Part Five

While in Aruba, each evening was spent socializing, feasting on the abundant assorted foods, more socializing,..........and then finding my way to the hotel casino. It was very convenient to have a casino on the premises of the hotel. Even though the casino was not huge in size......way smaller than what you would find in Charlestown, WVA.....but much larger than what you would find on a cruise ship. Along with slot machines, there was poker, craps, and roulette. In the casino there is a bar and each night a three-piece band would perform. They were pretty good actually............except I got tired of hearing "Sweet Caroline" every night. It seems that "Sweet Caroline" is very popular in Aruba......I do not know why that is........for all I know it could be their national anthem.......hehehe.

For some reason I did pretty good on the slot machines. Ordinarily, one would hope to maintain.....or at least be able to spend alot of time enjoying the games with only spending a minimal amount of money. If you only intend to spend 40 dollars per night and you can win enough to play for 4 or 5 hours before you ultimately lose that 40 bucks....well.....you did pretty good. Think of it as reasonable entertainment costs. The slot machines at this particular casino, though, seemed to be a bit looser than at other places that I have been. Not all of the machines were loose, but it appeared that I was fortunate enough to sit at the few that were.

It has been said to look for the slot machines located nearest to the entrances or stairs or elevators. Those are alleged to be looser so that passersby might be lured into spending some time in the casino themselves...........if they see somebody winning they will want join in. If they hear a machine making alot of noise, that does the trick as well. Obviously there is a science to the operation of a casino.....they have it all figured out. Ultimately, the odds will be that the house is hard to beat............they will get every dime that you bring and they will get every dime that you have won.........unless, of course, you are very lucky or at least are able to find a strategy that works for you. I am not so stupid that I cannot figure out that these slot machines are computerized and computers are PROGRAMMED to function in certain ways. I keep that in mind whenever I play a slot machine. While I would love to rake in a lot of cash every time I play, I am realistic and know full well that the likelihood of anyone getting rich participating in gambling of any kind is the equivalent of getting hit by a bus while selecting ground beef inside your local grocery store.

But I can safely say that I was fully entertained each night in the casino. If I lost any money, I would win it back. For some reason I was calculatingly lucky. I DID sit at the machines nearest the entrance of the casino. It was those particular machines that I was able to "maintain" and then some.

Here was one where I ended up hitting for $118.75.......not bad for a penny machine.

And there was the one slot machine that I nailed for $332.00!

This machine paid out in nickels. The machine only holds $120 worth of nickels at a time. I went way over that and could not cash out unless an attendant came and handed me the cash.

I really enjoyed the casino at the Occidental Grand hotel in Aruba :)

It was a great vacation and this was icing on the cake.

Stay tuned........more to come.