February 16, 2004
Veni, Vidi, Vegasentry,
I'm back at home now. It's nice.
I did a two-day trip to Boston, flying out on Wednesday and flying back Thursday afternoon, and then Sandra and I piled the kids in the minivan and went to Vegas for the weekend. I came, I saw, I vacationed.
My gambling record remains perfect. In the five times I've visited Vegas, I've put exactly ZERO money into gambling of any sort (unless you count eating at a buffet on the advice of a friend, or whipping around on the west frontage road behind the Luxor in hopes that it'll be the fastest way to get back onto Tropicana). Why no gambling for me? Well, aside from the fact that the church I belong to frowns on it, I feel strongly that if you try to get something for nothing you are almost infinitely more likely to end up getting nothing for something.
In other, completely unrelated news, my stock portfolio is worth twice what it was just 3 months ago. Woo hoo! Free Lunch!
The trip to Vegas was for a friend's wedding. My buddy Richard (pictured here in a group photo from Comic-Con 2003) got married to a really dynamic lady named Christina. The wedding was lovely, although there were moments of unplanned comedy... the screeching gate below us during the vows... the noise of the drill moments later... then the whup-whupping of a low-flying helicopter. I was waiting for gunfire, as that seemed to be the only way to bring the acoustic distractions to any sort of a believable climax.
They got married on Valentine's Day, which is a horrible, horrible time to try to get around in Vegas because apparently Las Vegas is the wedding capitol of the world, and V-day is the most popular day to do get capitally married. Still, the event was lovely, the bride was beautiful, the groom was dashing, and the food was head, shoulders, knees and toes above the food I'm used to at even the classiest Mormon wedding receptions I've attended (except for the grilled squash, which had me giggling because it smelled like somebody had left a candle burning inside a pumpkin.) All-in-all, it was very romantic, and I'm super happy that we went.
My wife and I (who got married in August in Oakland a little more than 10 years ago) decided that we'd pick up a show together -- it was the first real "date" we'd had on Valentine's Day since before we were married. So we splurged and bought Blue Man Group tickets.
You might be questioning my wisdom -- between the babysitting, the dinner, and the tickets I dropped over $225 on a woman who, if memory serves, was PERFECTLY HAPPY to get a McGriddle Sandwich from me for our tenth wedding anniversary. Could I have gotten away with spending less? Frankly, I'm trying not to think about it.