Well, as some of you know, I had my sweeps in my Vegas Bowling League this last weekend. For those of you who didn't know, I had bowling sweeps in Vegas with my bowling league. And It was quite an adventure.

I left work in Thursday at 3:45 PM, in anticipation of driving to Vegas with Nicole at around 5-ish. I call her and she’s stuck in traffic in Anaheim. She was planning on going to her friend Windy's before she came over to my house, but that obviously didn't work out, and she came straight to my house, and she arrived at around 6.

We had both made an MP3 CD for the trip up. We listened to her CD for most of the trip up. We weren't really paying attention to the music though. We spent most of the 3 and a half hour trip talking about off the wall subjects; All subjects are now escaping my memory.

I called Benton on the way up to see where he was. When he was just departing the city of Barstow, Nicole and I were just entering the city; which put him and Christina about twenty minutes ahead of us.

When we were about twenty miles from Vegas, we got a call from Benton telling us that he was now behind us because he needed to fill up the Civic with fuel. When we got off the off ramp at Tropicana Avenue, he was behind me... damn little civic must have been swerving in and out of traffic while I was on cruise control at 75 MPH the whole way.

We arrived at The Orleans Casino at roughly 9:30, got to our room, and to my surprise, the rooms were nice looking. Nto too shabby for a casino off the strip. We get settled in, meet Benton and Christina downstairs, and head to dinner. Nicole and I turn in at around 11:30, only because we've been up all day and drove all night.

The following day I woke up at around 8:00 AM to go play some hands of Blackjack, my favorite game. I dropped forty dollars over the time span of about two hours. Now something about me and gambling. I LOVE playing the games. It's not REALLY about the money, it's about the art of playing the game. Of course winning money would be nice, but it's not really WHY I'm playing the game. Well, when I play Blackjack, I like to have a few drinks, and the "No Alcohol before noon" rule doesn't apply in Vegas, I had five Crown and Cokes.

Feeling a little tipsy at the end of my forty dollars, I head back up to my room and wake up Nicole. she jumps in the shower while I watch TV, waiting to start the rest of the day. Benton, Christina, Nicole and myself went to the strip, and headed to O'Sheas.... GREAT PLACE TO GET DRAFT GUINNESS! Then we went to the MGM, a couple other places, and again, Nicole and I call it a night at around 12:30 AM.

I woke up at 5:00 AM to catch Blackjack. I like the early morning tables. It's not crowded, and it's a lot more my style, with the people who play just to play. Only today, I downed five Bailey's Irish Cream and coffee drinks. Good stuff. I dropped about one hundred dollars at that table. Went up to the room at about 11:00 AM, and woke up Nicole ... because I had bowling at 11:30

Christine never showed up to Vegas at all... and today, I got this letter from Benton:

Hi There:

Just wanted to say sorry for not making it to Vegas.....I had every intention of going....my sister was gonna go with me to but I was just soooo tired to make the drive just to turn right around and leave again. I didnt have a room, plus I had to be back since I had no one to take my boys for the night.....

So I'm sorry.....You can hate me if u want!

I hear we took 3rd place.....at least that is better than the last place we took last year.....did we get a trophy or anything?

Do I need to call Susan to get my money,if i even have any coming to me since i think i owed some to the league for lineage.... Maybe I will talk to Skeeter...do you happen to have his email address?

If so can u send it to me?

Take care of your self buddy....hope to see u again soon....

Christine

Figures. She never left in the first place. Why get on a Vegas League if you're not going to go to Vegas?

I've never played on heavier oil soaked lanes before, and my scores reflected as such. A 192, a 154, and a 132. I sucked. BUT I was able to win SOME of the Sweeps categories. I won forty dollars for the first card game, pulling four Kings and a Queen out of the deck. I won 3rd place side pot for the first game at twenty-five dollars. And finally, I won last place side pot for five dollars on the last game.

Kevin, Lisa, Tom, Janice, Nicole, Benton and myself went to the Sushi bar after the awards. I had a couple rolls, some Albacore and munched on some of the other peoples plates that they couldn’t finish... all while drinking a large Sapporo, and a shot of sake from Benton.

After dinner, Nicole, Benton, Kevin, Lisa and myself went to the Flamingo Casino. They had some performances in the main entryway that Lisa wanted to see. While we were there, we went to the Oxygen bar. A place where they hook you up to oxygen and basically revive you after a hard day of drinking... and it was great! They had different cents that you could breathe in, and oh man was it refreshing. It will now become a routine when I go to Vegas, to go to that oxygen bar. We went down to the Main entry to watch some aerial acrobatics and dancing that happens about 4 times a day. Interesting show. We then went to the Hard Rock Casino to meet one of Nicole's friends, Shannon.

Shannon reminded me of a younger version of my first step-mother. She came in with a very VERY short black dress. And it was then that we were about to head off to Club Paradise... when Nicole had remembered that she had forgotten her ID. Shannon and Nicole run back to the hotel to get it, while Benton, Kevin, Lisa and I head to the club.

The first few girls on stage weren't really my type... until "Charlie" came out (NO not Charles, my Best Friend/Brother). Oh... My... GOD. This woman is unbelievably beautiful (why do I get the feeling that I'll be heard about this from Nicole later on?). And to make matters even worse, "Charlie" was in front of me most of the time on stage. Her seductive eyes, and her beautiful features.... not to mention that she must have had an overdrive of Pheromones running.... because I've never been effected like that from a stripper before. Lisa, Kevin and Benton were all saying "Evin, She Likes you!" I'm thinking, "No shit!"

Nicole showed up about ten minutes after "Charlie" had got off stage. We sat there till about 10:00 PM, and head back to the hotel.

We went to sleep and woke up in time to leave the casino at 7:00 AM. I was in Riverside by the time Benton was leaving the Casino, so I gave him a friendly warning of the really bad winds through the Desert.

Nicole went to work at noon, and I went to sleep, not to wake up till morning.

I don’t Think Benton or Christine will be bowling with the league anymore. Christine doesn’t seem to WANT to do it anymore, and Benton is not really liking the administration of the league. But I don’t care, I like this league enough to come back next season.

This entry is from the damn blog. Posted by evin at 3:02 PM

You know, I should really set aside some time to really write in this thing a lot more. I mean really, it's not htat hard to make a few simple posts in my blog, when I can make over one hundred posts throughout my forums combined.

I wanted to play a little Half-Life 2 tonight. I wanted to be reminded of why I love videogames so much... and it did it. I played "Dark Energy", just to be reminded of the amazing graphics that made me fall in love with this particular game. Some say that "Ravenholm" has better graphic eye candy, but something about the Citadel makes it more apealing to me.

On the way home to PLAY HL2, Some tailgating SOB in a Nissan Truck damn near ran into me and was just flat out pissing me off. I had to get away from this guy in fear that he would hit me. So I pulled into the opposite lane and low-behold, he starts reving at me at the stop sign. I ignore this, but I do give the Stang a little gas. I hear him popping gears and backfiring like a mofo... then he gets stuck behind a truck and a couple hondas.. so he starts weaving in and out... idiot. Luckily, I'm still doing the speed limit and a couple cars get behind me, locking hte Nissan, all pissed off and at least 5 cars back.

All I wanted to do today was get home and do some laundry for this weekend. I'm heading up to Vegas with Nicole for my Sweeps tournament. I beleive that we took second place, but I cant be sure. That alone is pretty sad, seeing how we held first place for 9 weeks straight. That upset me a little, but hey, it's all for fun.

I took care of my car a little bit this last weekend. I changed the oil, checked all fluids and all the normal crap, but I still wasn't able to fix my gas tank. I'll have to fix that when I get back. Kinda sucks, but I didnt have time to drop my entire gas tank Sunday in between checking my brakes the oil, and still getting to bowling by 5:00 PM.

Work is going great. I'm always busy, and I've found time to listen to the Harry Potter Audio books that I've saved for a chance htat I could listen to them.

Wow, this post was all over the place. Sorry about that everyone. When I get back, I promise a much more on target entry.

This entry is from the damn blog. Posted by evin at 10:03 PM

Holly crap, I feel terrible. My nose is running, I'm completly out of energy, I have what feels like a fever, I have a headache, and generally, my trash is completly filled of tissues... well, they're really napkins that I found in the kitchen, but it's all the same... I'm sick as hell.

I was scheduled to go see Nicole tonight, but after a 15 minute conversation, we decided that it would be best if I didnt get everyone I knew sick as well. So I'm on my way home at 4:00PM today. I didnt take a lunch because I was to physically weak to get my ass out of my chair. The run acrosst he street to my car will be fun. :(

I hate cancelling on Nicole. I've only done it a couple times and only when I cant do anything about it, but Damn it, I hate hearing her dissapointment over the phone; it makes me sad as hell to hear her sad. But I just hope that she knows that I hate to cancel a date with her.

We were supposed to go see "No Duh" tonight, since it's Heather's (Spen) Birthday down in Hermosa beach. Damn it! Why the hell did I have to get sick? Who around here has been sick? No one! Chris, the owner of www.quicklistauctions.com was sick like two weeks ago, but hell, I should have caught it a week ago... not now! What the hell?

I'm sorry Nicole. I'll make it up to you somehow.

Alright, I'm closing up shop. DAMN IT!

This entry is from the damn blog. Posted by evin at 3:55 PM

Wow, what a week this has been. It has been so busy, that I've barely had any time to myself. So let's start with the night of the last post.

Nicole took me on a date. That's right, she took me out. Quite a nice change to be wined and dined. And on top of it, I felt like I was on top of the world because of how well my afternoon turned out.

A long time ago, I noticed a Go-Cart track along the 405 Freeway. I had mentioned to Nicole that I had wanted to go there one day to see what it was all about. she didn't forget I said that too.

She had called me earlier that day and asked me if I had any clue what we were going to do... I jokingly said "Are we going to play on go-carts?" This took her by surprise but she kept it a secret and said "No, something else." Hey, as long as I didn’t have to do anything, then I'm all for it.

After she cleverly bought me some Guinness and gave me one, I had to work on my blog a little, but quickly we rushed out the door.

So, she takes me into her car and says, "Now Don't think about where we're going, I want it to be a surprise." And twenty minutes later, we arrive at Go Kart World. I'm instantly all gitty and excited. I love go-carts. I love driving fast, drifting around corners, and passing as many people as I can.

Nicole buys six race tokens, three for each of us, and we head off to the Super Track. The longest track that they have, and naturally, the one that caught most of my attention.

We get in line, the first of about 10 other racers in line, so we get our pick of cars. And, naturally, I got the only green colored Go-Cart, Number 8. Nicole got a reddish orange, number 13 I think. We line up at the starting line with two other racers. We're at the front, power braking, trying to intimidate everyone else.

We take off... staggered. The track attendant let me go last of course, but I didn’t let myself get discouraged. I was going to win this race damn it.

I pass Nicole on the second turn. She slowed down for the corner, and I took the outside at full speed, throwing my cart into a drift, I control it and come out in front. I'm thinking, "Yes, only two more to go." And I had in the back of my mind that I was released about 15 seconds after the first two, but I didn’t care, I was going to win this race.

I passed up the second place guy on about the third lap, after passing about six other carts. They had been released later than I, so I didn’t count them against my overall place.

I had found the lead guy on my last lap, about 3 corners away from the finish line; and he wanted it as bad as I did. Only one thing separated us mentally... I had overthrown the apostle of hell earlier that day, and no one could beat me today. The first two corners, he knew that I was trying to pass, so he cut me off just before the apex of the corner, causing my car to slow down. On the last corner though, he messed up and hit his brake, and allowed me to fly right past him. As I couldn't hold it back, I did the most evil laugh as I passed him... and finished first.

Victory.

Our next race that Nicole and I went to was called the Turbo Track. It was just Nicole and I, so this was more of a personal track for just the two of us.

She takes off in front of me, mostly because her car was at the starting line, while mine was further back. But by the first corner, I was already in front of her. And wow, the differences in the track. These particular cars had stickier tires. I couldn't drift at all, instead, it hooked up like nothing I ever felt before. And it was because of this, that I didn't use the brake at all the entire time.

Wanting to play with Nicole a little, I slowed down and waited for her, but she never took the lead to my disappointment. She just didn't step on the gas hard enough. Though later she told me that she was kind of afraid to. So I decide this is a good time to really see what I can do. By lap 6, I was about 10' behind her and the race had finished. One more lap and I would have lapped her.

Victory.

With our last tokens, we head over to the Slick Track. And thinking that I kicked ass in GT Rally races and NFS:U2, I thought that I would rock at this. In addition to my Mustang experiences with drifting, I went in a little cocky... and that was a mistake. GO-KARTS NO NOT EQUAL CARS. Everything I did was a mistake. I spun out three or four times with about ten other people on the track. I sucked at this track, but I was still having fun none the less. By the time I had gotten the hang of it, the race was over.

I bit my tongue and didn’t yell at myself for being such an ass. Instead, Nicole and I were all smiles and filled with excitement.

We get into her car and take off to dinner. Only Nicole is driving all slow and strange because she had gotten used to the driving characteristics of the Go-Karts. Let's just say that it was an interesting trip to Chili's.

I get an Electric Lemonade and a Chicken and Shrimp Fajita, while Nicole, being the good diet girl she is, has a chicken salad.

That will conclude the date as far as I'm going to blog about. The rest will be buried with me ;).

This entry is from the damn blog. Posted by evin at 4:31 PM