viva las vegas

so we all survived our trip to vegas. there was perfect weather and many laughs. thanks to the guys for coming and celebrating my bachelor's party the right way. a few highlights...

- saw a guy on the vegas airport tram that i went to kindergarten with who used to pick on me during elementary school. i was staying at the Bellagio, he was staying at Harrahs - who should be making fun of who now?

- how do you turn $2 into $12 then into $43 in about 5 minutes? i still don't know, go ask mitul - the lucky bastard.

- even the bathroom at the bellagio was outstanding

- buffets rule. for seven guys who are up for 24 hours a day and are drinking, the money's worth it.

- the forum shops at Caesars will have you going in circles...literally.

- thanks to Jed for the Zombie drink at Noodles. i think it's finally wearing off...

- the most odds-defying gamble goes to Jed and RJ for hitting 18 red in a one and only roulette spin - 35 to 1 is a pretty payout

- $40 and 2.5 hours blackjack later - i give a shoutout to Bob and Sam for making it happen

- i hope Miguel, the taxi driver, had a great party at home with his LA "bitches"

- finally, if the bell hop at the bellagio has a nicer watch than i do. should i still tip him?

almost free...wahoo!..and broke...sigh...

it's almost noon now. by this time tomorrow i should be in vegas. so none of this 60 degree crap for me. oh no. we're talking 100+ degrees. i checked the forecast and everyday is almost the same. highs of around 100, lows of upper 70s, and sunny. pity i won't see the sun much. i'm quickly becoming useless here and unable to concentrate. so many loose ends to tie up though...must...hold...on...

wedding update("WU"): 2 more responses. one "yes" and one "no". the negative response comes from one of sarah's family friends so i don't think i can give them a kick in the rear. i'll save that for the first negative response from my side.

your move monkey man

it's 8:24 in the morning and i burst out of the train station like cows in a stampede. i don't even know why i'm moving so fast (i'm in no rush to get to work), but somehow i feel compelled to weave my way around the masses trying to gain a few extra feet. then all of a sudden, the herd splits up like there's an exit ramp i'm missing. meanwhile, people are cutting left and right and i can't merge into either, and i'm basically herded along until i come to the "fork" in the road. but this is one hairy fork. in fact, i'm face to face with some guy in a gorilla outfit handing out fliers. luckily for me, before i have to take one, i see a small opening to my left and i take off, monkey avoided.

so i have to ask. who the hell thought a gorilla suit would help them advertise. it's an odd balance where i'm curious to know what's on the flier, but i'm always too busy running away from the crazy monkey man standing around, and bottle-necking morning traffic, to find out. sigh. people anger me.

on a lighter note - bj turned in response card number 2 yesterday. there's no prize for second place, but i'll let him have his shout-out here.

S.T.A.T. as in short turn around time

the winner of the STAT wedding response goes to...Arvind Rao! yesterday, i received a lone response card from mr. rao saying that he's coming. bravo. i hope everyone follows in his footsteps and gets their responses out in the mail. as a reward, i'll try to buy him a drink in vegas (i hope he doesn't realize that they're free in the casinos).

speaking of vegas. i can't wait. 3 days to go. every single time i open my wallet to buy some coffee or some other benign purchase, i see my hard earned money break out into song and dance, singing a little ditty about how "what's spent in vegas stays in vegas."

updates from Guiness-land

i finally received a phone call from sarah today. everything in ireland seems to be going well and they're planning on heading off to the cliffs of morr tomorrow. the only "problem" has been the insane driving over there - narrow streets plus sheep plus horses equals near accidents and heart-stopping.

meanwhile, it's 710 here in the loop and i'll continue to plug-along at work.

whole foods...as opposed to partial ones

today is sunday, and thus my day of errands. it's rather nice out, but a little windy. i also did my grocery shopping for the week. i got some good food, but there's one thing i'm especially proud of. strawberries. i walk into whole foods and the first thing i see is a table full of them. 5 dollars for 2 pints, all of them perfect. i can't pass it up. it's 2:40 now and i've gorged myself on simply too many of the juicy red things. what was i thinking?! i think i'll go pass out now...

me, myself and i

so like sarah said, wedding invites are in the mail and you should receive those shortly. if we didn't spell your name correctly, it's probably because we don't like you. hmmm, maybe that was too harsh. how about, it's probably because we were tired and didn't care anymore.

sarah takes off for the "Land of Ire! soon, which leaves me with myself. a scary and seemingly forgotten state of being. i have a list of chores, wedding errands/planning, kung-fu hustle on dvd (finally) and vegas to keep me busy for the next 10 days. i suppose blogging will fill any voids.

on a darker note, revenge of the sith, was surprisingly good last night. granted, my expectations have fallen with each new episode, but that shouldn't take away from the fact that it flows relatively seamlessly into episode 4.

like wildfire

So the 6 of us (me, Sarah, BJ, Faisal, Mitul, and Jill) went to Wildfire tonight. First time we've all been in town, and available for months. Instead of individual meals, we got their family-style special where you get to choose 2 appetizers, 2 salads, 2 etc...for a fixed price. This was a fantastic deal and there was so much food. It's one of those, "I'll never be hungry again," kinda times. Some highlights are:

Mitul on filet mignon: "It's sooooo tender..."

Mitul on relationships: "He did [her] then he left."

Faisal dipped cheesecake into a bowl of fudge and ate it. Then he dipped some whipped cream alone into the fudge and ate that.

Sarah and I got some au jus spilled on both of our windbreakers,
compliments of 2 different bus boys. The manager offered to pay for our dry cleaning. We just put them into the regular washer at home. Little does he know he'll still be paying...for both of our winter coats instead. bwahaha.

I think I'll roll myself into bed now.

wicked weddings work with whining

This is not so much an event, but an update. Jed and RJ have voiced(or Blogged as Ronald would say) their opinions about my absence for the week. So here I go...

Sarah and I saw the musical Wicked last night. that was just fantastic. I can't believe there are people who can sing like that. On a funny note, the guy who played the Wizard of Oz was none other than Steve, Marcy's original husband on Married with Children. If anybody is coming through the Chicago area soon, and wants to see this, let me know.

As for the wedding, we have officially received our first engagement gift. Again, if anybody is coming through the area, come over and we can drink in style with the many cups we now have.

Work has been uber-busy lately...thus the lack of posts.

Whining. This is easy. Last week I purchased Kung-Fu Hustle on dvd via EBay. After several attempts at contacting the ass, I have no responses, no DVD, and no money back. My no talent ass clown of the week award is easily awarded to a guy simply named dave.

I'm outta here.

lemmings

and i'm not talking about the furry ones that walk off cliffs. i'm talking the ones cloaked in fugly yellows greens and reds, huddled in "pits," screaming at the top of their lungs. i'm talking day traders. today the federal reserve bank raised interest rates again another 25 basis points. we all knew that was going to happen. it's the explanation and outlook from mr. greenspan that everybody dissects, overanalyzes and worships.

in the press release, the fed happened to forget the phrase "Longer-term inflation expectations remain well contained" from last time. so the market dropped immediately at the prospect of bad inflation.

then 2 hours later, the fed issued a "correction" with the line added back in and the markets went north again. you know a whole lotta lemmings bought some futures and got burned by this little oversight. tsk tsk.

on a weirder unrelated note, am i the only one who has heard about the exploding frogs in hamburg, Germany?

excuse you

it's about 1pm and i'm overdue for a break outside. granted it's May 3rd and somehow it's only 40 degrees outside. acutally, it's more like 30 in the loop, after accounting for building shade, and the sears tower wind tunnel effect. when i woke up, there was frost on the ground. that's just not right. anyway, before i head out, i need to mentally prepare myself. why? because it seems that 99% of the other people downtown do not know their "sidewalk ettiquette" as i like to refer to it. things you'd expect a person to just know instinctively are simply absent, like the looks on their faces. here are a couple examples of what i'm talking about.

-people who cut in front of you and just stop. no reason, no cares, oblivious to the hoards of others. then they turn around and act like your walking is inhibiting their ability to be lost and confused.

-when it's raining, the people anger me more than the rain. some people splash puddles like "singing in the rain." others twirl their umbrellas just because they're ADD, neurotic and to make sure you get soaked. then there are the 5 foot tall people with the 6 foot diameter golf umbrellas. it's like they're carrying a damn patio umbrella. unless you have 25 clowns huddled below you to protect from the elements, you have no business taking those things on the streets.

-smokers. they don't care about flicking ashes, blowing smoke, or tossing the butts (haha butts). but really, somehow they're always upwind and the smoke finds you. venegeful stuff. the true no talent ass clowns are those smoking cigars at 7ish in the morning. *shudder*

i could continue, but i've wasted enough time. i've polished my elbows off and will head out into the wild. wish me luck.

Can't stop the inevitable

So today is the first of May and the second time I have BBQ'd for the year. The weather has been craptastic all day - drizzling and cold and gusty. But once you get the idea of smoked sausage, veggie skewers and burgers on the brain, there's just no stopping it. So I pulled the grill around to the front of the house where it was less windy and huddled around the grill for warmth like a homeless person. Every once in a while, a gust of wind would launch a small fireball and let's just say, if i had facial hair, it might be singed right now. Anyway, I'm stuffed and will pass out soon.