Vegas 2008

End of the year vegas trip. Fun fun. But 4 days and 3 nights is a just a little much. We stayed at Bally's "free" but with our combined losses, we could have stayed somewhere MUCH MUCH better. Oh well... you only live once! We saw Hefner's girls, Pete Rose signing autographs (but all alone which was sad), watched Lakers lose two days in a row (lucky I didn't bet money on them), watched crazy great ending to the Giants game, and ate really well as usual. No buffet this time... I think buffets are overrated.

Waiting for others to arrive in Vegas betting and watching sports. Cavs were 2 point underdog against Denver... so I bet on the Cavs... Cavs wins 105-88. Should have bet more...

Prettiest Dealer in Vegas! At Pussycat lounge At Caesar's Palace.

Fountain covered with berries

The guys. (not sure what timmy is doing)

Judy with goldfish.

The rich couple

The gang

Yummy! Delmonico's Bone-in Rib Eye!

Figuring out how much to gamble away... Naa... just paying for food.

Cathouse at Luxor. Burlesque themed club.

Jeff found money! 1¢...

Facebook Girls

Was discussing with rosa how shallow guys are.... and yes I do agree guys are shallow. Currently I only have 274 friends on facebook. Out of 274, 146 are female (53%). (So I counted up all my friends on Facebook that are girls (married or unmarried, has boyfriend doesn't have girl friend didn't matter... but didn't count relatives (3) since that would have been weird) Total: 143. And then counted which ones I think are cute/pretty = 77 

77/143 = 53%! What do the numbers mean? Not sure... But it goes to show I still have too much time on my hands...

Knoll Life Chair!

Finally! After 8 weeks of waiting, I finally got my Knoll Life Chair. Using my moyashimon as a model...

Dark olive seat and avocado mesh in the back... now I need a nice table... sigh. The magnetic lumbar support comes on and off which is a little cheezy. I prefer to sit without it.

Crowded!

Times Square, couple weekends before Christmas at Toys R US. - zero sign of recession. Never been in a more crowded place in my life! It was just a mob of people shuffling in a clockwise manner. Everyone shouting "excuse me!" even though there was no place to get out of he way. Zero spirit of giving and joy. Ok, maybe it wasn't the most crowded... couple years ago, we went to see Kobayashi on Fourth of July. Almost died. People were panicking and it was like 95˚ with NY humidity. Shopping is so much more tiring than running. It's all the standing around in one place, fighting the people, and all the brain work that goes into deciding what you should get/don't get. My friends and family actually don't give gifts to each other... birthday, hoidays, etc... been  pretty much like that for the past 10 years or so? How strange...

Stimulating the economy... or nike

Nike ear warmer thingy and jacket resistant to snow and rain! I've never joined a gym in my life... I wonder if nike makes a device where your throat doesn't hurt from breathing in 32˚ below air.

Airline mess

So I booked my flight with United Airlines from Burbank to LA on the 12/21... 1 stop at SF which is fine to save an additional 150 bucks. (total $400.. pretty cheap for christmas time) Then I get an email back in early october saying my flight's been cancelled. So I called and changed it to 12/20 (saturday)

But this week we finally started planning on vegas trip. And since some people were going to be there on friday (12/19), I called United to see if I can fly into vegas and how much the change would be. They said an additional $750 dollars! (I can hear the united airlines lady sorta laughing to herself cuz she knew it was ridiculous). So i decided just to drive to vegas from LA.

But this morning, bmao said there are cheap flights to vegas from LA. (like 59 bucks... but after taxes more like 90) So not thinking enough, I booked a flight from Burbank to Vegas.  Not bad right? Well, then I thought to myself... NY---> SF---> LA----> Vegas on 12/20 night... seems dumb. So I checked Virgin for a flight from JFK to vegas on the 12/19 and it was only $159! I called United to cancel my flight to LA... and said "sure, we'll refund you 200 bucks... but there's a $150 change fee... so you get $50 bucks voucher." I asked why the change to cancel a flight was so expensive. They said it's because I got an internet deal so it affects the other ticket price. So I said "then, what if I cancel the roundtrip ticket?" They said I would still get charged $150. SO DUMB. So I just cancelled the flight to LA.

And then I had to cancel my Southwest flight to vegas, and at least that was a non refundable, but  transferrable flight. As long as I use it within a year. I asked "what if I don't use it within the year?" Then the black lady said "Then you lose it". Booked flight on Virgin... JFK--->Vegas. The end.

Moral of the story: Get transferrable tickets or have a clear plan in advance. And don't fly with United.

2k9

So I'm playing my Lakers against the hated Celtics (physical therapy paul). 2 days ago, I beat him by 20 points, and this time it was a much closer game. (6).  And then I was replaying the end of the game, and looked over to my bench. Fricken Josh Powell isn't paying attention to the game. Took a screenshot:

A closer look

Domokun...

I first saw domokun like in... 2003 or 4? Was watching Michelle Kwon skate in Japan on TV, and when she finished her performance, people started throwin domokun dolls on the ice rink. She picked up one and was carrying it during the interview. I was like "I need to have one!" (domokun, not michelle kwan) 

Visiting the NHK station... where Domokun is the mascot.

My latest domos: a cube domo and domo keychain after climbing Mt. Fuji.

Then Domo somehow became the official mascot for Target during Halloween which was bizzare.

 Now this! Domo is high fashion?!...

Domo is all growns up. Maybe time for me to let him go.