Anticipa - a - a - tion

Its the 1st of November and Fall has finally fallen in the Tampa Bay area.  Windy, kinda cool (for us anyway) and a tang of Autumn is in the air.  It reminds me of September in Rhode Island long ago when I was a young lad. 

The 1st of November also means that in 8 days, the Poker Queen and I will be winging our way west to the bright lights of LAS VEGAS, NEVADA!!!  Oh boy are we ready for this vacation.  6 days in Sin City, what could be better?  I've been playing a bit of poker over the last couple of months to get back into the swing of it as I hadn't played too much in the year before this.  I plan on playing a few tourneys while we're there.  I'd also like to not embarrass myself should I play some 1-2 no limit with some of those card sharps like Lightning or Vegas Rob.  There will also be copious amounts of adult beverages imbibed, food consumed and possibly a road trip somewhere to the hinterlands.  Yes it will be fun. 

We did get some good deals.  We found some really good air fares on the only airline flying direct from Tampa to Vegas - Southwest Airlines.  5 of 6 nights are comped at the Flamingo, the last night will be at the Silverton where we got a nice room deal for a Saturday night and we liked the staff there so much last time we were in town.  We've also got some retired friends joining us for a couple of days from the wilds of San Diego.  Any way you slice it, we're gonna have some fun. 

I've stayed busy some other ways.  For one I've picked up the golf clubs after an extended time off and started playing a bit.  Man do I suck.  When I first started playing golf many years ago I hit my irons really well but not my woods.  Then I started hitting the 3 and 5 wood well and just not the driver.  Now about the only club I can hit relatively well is the driver.  And I'm putting ok too.  I never was a good putter before either. 

This was a really wet summer for Florida.  We usually get some rain almost every day in the summer but normally a half hour or hour's shower.  This year we had days of rain.  It was so wet I played in a course more mud than grass one day and was cancelled out another day because some of the holes were under water.  But for the past month or so the weather has been really nice.  My cousin and brother were down here early in October and we went out to play a round.  The course was almost dried out by then.  We drank quite a bit, ate quite a bit, and stories were told of my youth that some of my in laws had never heard before.  It was a fun time.

Tonight the PQ and I are going out to dinner in early celebration of our anniversary.  The trip to Vegas is also in celebration of our anniversary.  The actual anniversary date is on Monday the 3rd but we're gonna celebrate it all month.  Hey it's 30 years.  We deserve to celebrate for a while.  Tonight we are being joined by my sister in law Becky and her husband Tod.  Today is their actual anniversary, number 28 for them.  We are going to be dining at St Pete Beach in a restaurant on top of one of the hotels.  Beautiful view of the Gulf and beaches and everything else.  The restaurant actually spins around and I made the reservation early enough so that we'll be able to watch the sunset into the Gulf.  Last of the great romantics I am. 

I actually went to this place with my cousin and his friends a few weeks ago.  I had never heard of it before and after living here all this time, there is apparently a lot I don't know about my home.  While we were at dinner last time, some moron who was sitting with his back to the windows decided to tilt back in his chair.  The feet of the chair slipped out and I'm not sure if his head or his chair hit the window behind him but the window actually shattered.  Pieces of glass went down to the ground about 12 stories below, luckily not hitting anyone.  Pieces also landed inside the restaurant, luckily not impaling the man.  He did get a decent cut to the back of his head but I'm not sure if that was from contact with window or floor.  It did lend some excitement to the evening.  At first I thought someone had gone through the window.  Now that would have been exciting.  But not necessarily in a good way. 

Well it's time to get ready for dinner.  I hope everyone is having a good weekend and if someone is gonna be in Vegas between the 9th and 15th let me know.  If not I hope you're playing poker better then I am.  In the immortal words of Marco from Tropoja "Good Luck."