Last Morning

Yep, this is it! We'll be checking out shortly and flying to Denver. There will be a one hour layover there and then the last leg home!

I'm ready for home right now. I'll post a Las Vegas wrap up blog tomorrow.

I did hit a royal flush with 2s yesterday while playing video poker at Liquidity, a really nice bar in the middle of the Luxor gaming floor! That was exciting!


-- Post From My iPhone

Last Full Day In Vegas

As we are flying back home tomorrow that makes today the last full day here. Last night eight of us went to The Social House located in Treasure Island. It was a sushi place and was amazing!

Several at our table had the prime rib. I had a couple of bites as you are encouraged to share food. It was incredible!

There were some really high winds so the pirate show was cancelled.







-- Post From My iPhone

Criss Angel

The Date and I went to see his show last night. It wasn't bad. A bit too much dancing and stuff and not enough magic for a show that is an hour and a half.

The production values were very impressive! It was worth the money! That is a stage show that would be fun to run the lights on.

It seemed pretty automatic but I'm sure there were cues like every other show out there.

I won three out of four basketball bets! It was a good day!


-- Post From My iPhone

The Drunk Rednecks

Well one of the reasons we were up so early were the drunk rednecks next door who were very loud!

The Date went to the front desk and complained and they got a warning and we got the last roomin one of the towers!

This is a $650 dollar upgrade over the duration of the trip!! Amazing!!!!

The Luxor rocks!!!!


-- Post From My iPhone

Breakfast

It's 5:39 am, 7:39 my normal time. I'm wide awake. Having breakfast. But not normal breakfast because none of that is open until 6. So it is corned beef on rye.


-- Post From My iPhone

The Room!

Finally, starving, tired of traveling, and nearly conned into a timeshare we are here!


-- Post From My iPhone

Vegas Baby!!

We're Here!!!!


-- Post From My iPhone

Phoenix

Just arrived in Phoenix and now we are going to the next gate!


-- Post From My iPhone

Done Sleeping

Decided to get up, check out, and go get breakfast! Too excited to sleep right now!


-- Post From My iPhone

Ready!

We are safely in the hotel room now and ready to get up in the morning and fly!
Excited!!!!


-- Post From My iPhone

Leaving Tonight

There is a blizzard possibly coming tomorrow which would render leaving town difficult so to avoid that and to make sure we make our 8 am flight we are leaving tonight and getting a hotel room.

I'd rather do that than risk not being able to leave from here late tonight!

Leaving Tonight!

About three A.M. this morning The Date and I will be getting up and traveling to the airport! From there we will be departing to Phoenix and then to Las Vegas!

By ten thirty tomorrow morning we will be in Las Vegas! Woohoooo!!!!

I'll be blogging during the trip as I've said before. It'll be great! Beersnob generously gave me a book to take with me; Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto by Mark Levin! After just a couple of days it is sold out around the country and the publisher has had to print more already!

That will be excellent reading material during the trip. If you can find it I strongly encourage you to get it. You'll understand how far we have strayed from our Founder's vision. How far out of control our current government is and how Obama is blatantly attempting the largest power grab since FDR.

Top Five Zombie Movies

Alright this might cause some of you zombie lovers some heartburn but if you don't like it get your own blog and post your list.

With the impending zombie holocaust of doom likely mere weeks away (I'm sure Obama could throw a couple of trillion dollars at them to spend them away, money solves every problem you know) I'm posting my favorite zombie movies.

1. Dawn of the Dead Original: What can I say that hasn't been said? Yeah it was Romero's comment on consumerism however it has some strong zombie chops. Tom Savini became a underground star in this movie! Excellent movie! Lots of fun and camp! Plenty of zombies in a setting that really appealed to some of my childhood memories!

2. Shaun of the Dead: Duh! What do you get when you add British comedy together with the American zombie concept? A darn fine movie! This movie is incredible all the way through! Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are great! An instant classic movie that you could watch anytime!

3. 28 Days Later: Scary zombies! These zombies run at you! They are vicious, mean, never seem to tire, and not zombies you want running after you if you are as out of shape as I am! At least Romero's zombies I can run....well walk from and be plenty safe! Yeah they keep coming but that's alright, I'd have enough time to reload, have a cup of coffee, chat with the fellow zombie holocaust of doom survivors for a bit, take careful aim and eventually win the day. Not so much with these zombies....I hope the impending ZHD is the slow zombie variety!

4. Night of the Living Dead: Yeah it is this low because Romero himself surpassed his own creation! He invented and improved his own zombie creation! This is one fine movie though! The little girl in the basement with the spade?!?!?! Seriously?!?! Creeeppyy!!!!! If that doesn't give you nightmates about how serious the zombies are then what will?

5. Dawn of the Dead Remake: Yeah I hate remakes but this one is on par with the original. These zombies run though and are more like the 28 Days Later zombies. Fast, mean, relentless....not the zombies I want to tangle with. Sarah Polley as a bonus fellow ZHD survivor! I mean come on....if the world HAS to be repopulated....

So there are my zombie movies. Check them all out on one day for a ZHD marathon! You'll want to start boarding up your house and have an exit strategy planned to your nearest mall!

Stock up on ammo!

A Drink And Cigar

The Date and I were invited to the pub for a drink this fine evening! I'm having a Laphroaig and a Oliva Serie V cigar!


-- Post From My iPhone

Zombies Rule The World

Well not so much in reality but if you love pop culture then it is hard to discount the influence of zombies! Not the Jamaican zombies so much who are slave labor or extract vengeance for a wronged party but the crawling from the grave, eating your brains kind of Zombie that George Romero created in 1968.

After Night of the Living Dead the zombie found a home in the dark side of our psyche. It set up house with all of the furniture, big screen TV, washer and dryer, and a couch after Dawn of the Dead though.

Day of the Dead....eh. A little too serious and it missed the camp of Dawn. Dawn is probably my favorite zombie movie, the original not the strong and worthy remake.

The cast holes up in a mall, which if you will read back to my Deadmalls.com post you'll see what I'm getting at. The Battlefield mall in Springfield Missouri, to my memory and the over twenty plus years since I've been there, is similar to the Monroeville mall in Dawn. It was a great place when you were a kid. First time I had ever seen a building that big and that many people!

I nearly bought an entire X Box system just to play Dead Rising! Where you kill zombies in a mall! I love that concept! So who among you doesn't harbor a secret fantasy about someone you know who has wronged you somehow or treated you badly being turned into a zombie while a comet streaks across the sky, or a zombie plague is released and you and your friends or family are lone survivors in the new and zombie infested world?

Guilty.

I'm putting together a list of my five favorite zombie movies, I'll post it tomorrow.

Good Weekend!

It was pretty good! The weather was mild. There was a lot of activity though. I was pretty busy getting ready for my vacation!

Apparently one of the people we are going with has a connection at The Social House in Treasure Island. We are going to that on Monday night. No idea what it is but it sounded good.

I'll blog about it when I'm there! There are two people who want to give me money to play for them. I plan on texting them when I'm playing their money and letting them know how it goes. Should be fun!

I downloaded a couple of podcasts about Vegas and what games have the least amount of house edge. Craps is the one that cuts the house edge down to less than one percent if you use the free odds bet. I've played it online and on my iPhone a long time. One of my coworkers wins consistently at that one too. So I plan on doing that!

Great Cast Party!

Usually cast parties are really good! Last night was great though! There was nothing that really stood out but the mood of everyone was incredible! A lot of people hung out for most of the evening then started heading home around midnight.

I and The Date hung in there until oneish and I was getting pretty sleepy by then.

Had a wonderful time all night! Before the cast party I was at the pub and hung out with friends for a few hours, that was a blast!

It was just a great evening all around. Now I've got to get busy and get laundry done so I'll have some clothes to take with me later on this week!

Busy Day On Tap

Today is going to be filled with running errands before Vegas. Making sure my clothes are clean. Getting a key made for my mom to come feed my cats while I'm gone. Meeting a friend for his project and talking about that. Finally going to the cast party for Arsenic and Old Lace.

Yeah busy day!

Tomorrow is Bristol. Great race! My favorite track!

Well I have to get going. This day isn't going to start itself!

New Blog App

I added this a new app so I'll be able to keep blogging from Las Vegas next week! I can do it via email but it doesn't format correctly. The lines are messed up and not aligned right then I have to go back in and edit it later on.

Hopefully this has fixed that problem!


-- Post From My iPhone

March Madness

Usually I'm really pumped up about this tournament. Honestly I've barely watched a game all year. There isn't a dominate team out there. The vacation anticipation in Las Vegas has kind of over shadowed the tournament this season.

It has all combined into me only filling out one bracket this season. I have Louisville going to win the championship.

No team separated itself from the pack this season. No team was number one before being knocked off only to have another number one team. It just really is hard to stay interested for me right now.

But I did fill out my bracket and I am listening to the games during the day on Sirius.
Next weekend I'll be in Vegas for the Elite Eight weekend. Now that might get me excited!

Ruin The Country For Free

Last night I emailed both of my Senators and my Representative in the House. I told them simply that I believe that if Congress is asking the citizens of this time to spend the wealth of the citizens decades from now that the least Congress can do is work for free.

There are hypocritical Senators and House members who are ruining this country by their own self interest. The AIG bonuses is the latest debacle in the early days of this administration. The bonuses are contractually obligated and were over a year ago. EVERYONE who is expressing outrage KNEW over a year ago that this was going to happen.

The fact is that this is a complicated matter. AIG is an important company that insures many pension plans of retirees along with many other important and vital interests.

Senator Chris Dodd accepted 103,000 dollars in campaign funds from AIG. This isn't that unusual except Dodd now hates these people....or does he? Just the other day he suggested taxing the bonuses of the people who received the bonus money. Yeah! Good for the little people! Right?

Not so fast.

Dodd put specific language in the STIMULUS BILL that is A LAW SIGNED BY BARACK OBAMA that stipulated that all contractual bonuses before February 11, 2009 will be honored!!

103,000 dollars bought this language and 101,000 dollars bought the President's signature on the bill. That was the second highest amount given by AIG to the campaign of Barack Obama. If you don't believe me google it. It is alright, you'll find everything I've blogged about here. Usually I put in links but sometimes you have to do your own research.

You'll be stunned at what you will find and you need to find it, you need to get mad about it. You need to understand that these people in Congress are passing laws against your best interests. They have spent more money than we have. They are drunk on power and will do anything to protect their own interests while selling you down the river.

And if you think the AIG bonuses are a big disaster wait until the news picks up on the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonuses that will be given soon by YOU the taxpayer!

That is why I contacted my representation to ask them to work for free. I am blessed to have three very good members! They are very conservative and although maybe not perfect they are far far better than the likes of Dodd, Barney Frank, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Schumer, Kennedy, McCain and a hundred others, sadly on both sides of the aisle.

I would like, no LOVE to see one of my Senators author a bill that says Congress will work for free and make sacrifices while they are asking people who aren't born yet to make sacrifices in paying this money back in taxes. I know it would get no where but wouldn't it be really great to get a full vote of Congress and see who voted to keep their very high salaries and benefits???

I ask you to contact your three Representatives and ask them to do the same thing. There is no reason they should be paid very well to ruin this country.

Two Cigar Night

First up was the Cigar International Legends: Orange Label which was made by Rocky Patel. I would have really enjoyed this one but the wrapper wasn't secure enough and started to unravel as it continued to smoke. I stuck with it for two thirds and then it really got bad and I had to put it down prematurely.

It was sad because it was a good tasting cigar. Rocky Patel has a lot of lines now and is relentless in his promotion of his brand. He really has a lot of quality in his brand and it shows. Some don't really live up to the hype though and this one was enjoyable but as I said the construction problem really diminished this great tasting cigar.

Next up was a Romeo y Julieta Regalias de Londres. I won this one in a contest and was saving it for a nice evening. It was a smaller cigar. Nearly five inches by a forty ring gauge. It was a petite cigar. Tasty as its heritage would suggest though.

I cooked supper for The Date and one young folk, after supper we sat out in the yard. It was so nice out! I had the first cigar and found its conclusion to be unsatisfying although it was off to a good start.

So it was such a beautiful night and it was great to just chill in the yard with The Date and the young folk. I went back to the humidor and dug around. I didn't want something large like a Churchill size so something smaller would fit the bill and that was the Romeo y Julieta. It turned out to be the perfect cigar for the moment!

Great night! Great cigar moment!

La Gloria Cubana Serie R Maduro

I enjoyed this cigar in a robusto size last night. It was five and a half inches by fifty four ring gauge. I had purchased some of these in a sampler last year and I've smoked quite a few. The ones I have in my humidor now have got some age on them and are really good!

The cigar produced LOTS of thick aromatic smoke. It is a hefty cigar with impeccable construction! No burn issues what so ever. The draw was easy and never clogged or choked.

The flavors were outstanding! The maduro wrapper gave its cocoa earthiness to the cigar while the filler gave some caramel and peaty flavors. I didn't pair this up with a drink and instead had water while listening to The Savage Nation.

This isn't a beginner's cigar. It is pure quality though, every La Gloria Cubana has been top notch!

Urban Decay

One thing I've always kind of had a fascination with is seeing decaying buildings and wondering what that area was like in its prime.

I used to work for a cable company in the early 90's for a couple of years. I used to travel a lot and one place I used to go to quite a bit was Shamrock Texas. Our corporate office was there. The old Route 66 goes through there. I drove down it a few times just to see what was there.

There are a lot of dilapidated gas stations, lots of motels with odd themes, lots of broken neon tubes. Lots of broken dreams. In its heyday I'm sure it was quite a site.

I found this site last night. I've been to four of the malls on this site! North Town in Springfield Missouri, Hutchinson Mall in Kansas, and Shepard and Crossroads in Oklahoma City. I happen to live in a town where a mall is dying and might make for an interesting submission.

Love the pictures on this site! I saw North Town in its prime very shortly after it was built! Went there a few times but I was pretty young! Saw Popeye there in fact in 1980 so I was ten. I also went to the Battlefield mall in Springfield a lot. It is a huge mall! When I see Dawn of the Dead it reminds me of Battlefield in fact!

All of those 1970's stores that existed back then and are gone now, it reminds me of Route 66 and a lot of the broken down buildings. I saw North Town in its prime and now it is gone I believe, if not it should be.

One of the most interesting malls on this site is Dixie Square Mall in Harvey Illinois. Here is a great site for that one individual mall too!

The Blues Brothers mall scene was shot here and it was abandoned then! It apparently is still standing.


And this one


What a great commentary on these hulking buildings of yesteryear. How things change and evolve. Places that seem like they were so busy they could never fail eventually fall into disrepair and decay. Our own mall was very busy for a few years. Eventually stores close or move. Right now even though it has three anchor stores the food court is almost vacant. A lot of the medium stores are gone or closing. It is probably 40% full. It will decay more from here even though it opened up in the early 80's. I recall that one of the first movies shown there was Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and that was 1984.

So it is roughly twenty five years old.

Blade Runner Night

Last night The Date, one of the little folk, and I went to Beersnob's house. I took my Blade Runner glasses, a half bottle of scotch, and of course the boxed set.

We had been planning on doing this long before Beersnob went to Qatar but couldn't find the time. It was a great night! It started around eight and I went home around two thirty.

We watched the version that was easiest to digest for someone who hasn't watched the movie before, the 1982 Theatrical version. It had Deckard's narration and the tacked on happy ending.

All in all everyone had a great time! The scotch is gone. Blade Runner was introduced to a new generation! Great night!

Jailbreaking

I've been considering jailbreaking my iPhone. It allows you to add a lot more apps and it really opens up a phone to fulfilling its full potential. I'd be able to theme my iPhone, get turn by turn navigation, copy and paste, use it as a video recorder, and generally customize it in many ways that Apple doesn't allow.

After reading quite a bit about jailbreaking it appears that the risk is small and the benefits are many. I'd have to download a couple of files to change out my firmware version with. Use a jailbreaking program, and then it is done!

It seems simple enough, just not sure I really want to do it or not.

Yesterday was payday and I've got money set aside for Vegas! That is going to be so much fun! I've got all of my bills paid up in advance to the point where my next paycheck is free! Woohooo!

FRIDAY!!!!

I'm so excited! I was really dragging yesterday by the time to go home. Getting woke up that early just kills your day when you really didn't intend to get up then.

Had a great supper last night. Introduced Ikiru to some young folk, they were probably a bit too young for the depth of that movie as they nodded off towards the end.

I feel pretty good this morning. Got plenty of sleep I believe and wasn't disturbed at all. If I weren't taking a lot of time off in a couple of weeks I would likely call in today and enjoy a three day weekend but I want to conserve my time right now.

Four AM

So I'm sound asleep. Sleeping very well in fact! The phone starts ringing in my living room....

By the tenth ring I figure they aren't hanging up so I get up walk into the living room and turn on the light...it stops ringing!

I'm awake now. I try to go back to bed and think about all the things I would talk to Thomas Jefferson about before he wrote the Constitution to prevent modern liberalism or the neomarxist ideas of Obama today. As sweet as that would be it is unlikely we will ever have that kind of theoretical technology.

I think about what my iPhone will be like in ten years and what kind of technology I'll be a big fan of by then. Of course I'd like something implanted in my arm so I could be connected all the time but I doubt if that is a mere ten years away and that is something that would lend itself to a more youthful practice such as a tribal arm band tattoo when you are eighteen that you regret by the time you are nineteen.

Naturally technology will grow and expand and get better and faster. In fact my town will finally get 3G this coming Spring! I've only been paying for the additional speed now for a while and not been able to take advantage of it. Now I finally will! More towers will be going up and I'll get better broadband speeds on my iPhone!

It's good!

Closer To Vegas

And the days are getting longer. In seventeen days The Date and I will be stepping foot in Las Vegas. The following day my friends will be arriving! The next three days will be filled with lots of everything!

Then the trip home on the thirty first. Can't wait! It'll be a blast! The whole thing!

I'm specifically looking forward to good food, lots of fun, some scotch I haven't tried yet, and a couple of premium cigars!

Day Two

Of losing an hour of sleep. I'm a bit more surly, I'm in need of coffee and I don't say that often. Probably going to get a 5-Hour Energy shot too....

Ate too much lasagna last night. It sure was good though! Stouffer's is bad about cheese though so you always want to purchase a bag of shredded Italian cheeses and put it on top of your meal.

I like normal human time...is it too much to ask to keep it that way?

Yaaawwwnnnnn

Sheesh it's early...

Had a bad fantasy NASCAR day yesterday. I went from third to tenth. Good news is that I'm only a handful of points out of third again. Less than fifty out of second, which isn't a lot in this game. They can be made up quickly.

I had Kyle Busch, Mayfield, Hamlin, and Bobby Labonte who had a bad race. In fact they all had bad races or I wouldn't have wound up losing spots. It's a long season and I've got time to make the climb to number one.

Bristol is the next race in two weeks and it is my favorite. They follow that up with Martinsville. I'll be in Vegas when Martinsville is going on!

My Yearly Rant

Yep it is that time of year when we are forced to get up an hour earlier. I can't tell you how much I despise Daylight Saving Time. I feel so much better when I get up at the normal time and not an hour earlier.

I feel better during the day, I sleep better, I just feel better all the way around. Yeah maybe the extra hour of daylight is nice but I enjoy my sleep too.

What is a bit worse is that this year it lasts longer than it ever has. I don't believe that it stops this time until November....sheesh.....NOVEMBER!

Can't do anything about it now so here we go...

King Of My Yard

I got off an hour early from work yesterday. The weather was very nice, a little breezy but very very nice. I was finished with everything at work and people were leaving left and right.

My cats were going to be out of food shortly so I had to get kitty food on the way home. I decided to treat myself at Buffalo Wild Wings as I had stuck to my low sodium diet all week long and in the process saved lots of Vegas money. I was due to have some wild wings! And The Date had put a roast in my fridge to put in the crock pot before going to bed so I needed some potatoes to go with.

So I clocked out and went to accomplish everything I needed to do. Going by the vet to get food, then down the street to get my wild wings and fries, then across the street to get potatoes to crock pot! I was home by four!

Eating and savoring my spicy garlic wings was a great topper for the day but I thought I could improve the day after that! So I went to my humidor and pulled out a cigar that didn't have a band for a reason. Got my lawn chair and my Palio cutter and Ronson lighter and went outside. Hitting the Wunder Radio program on my trusty iPhone I found the Jerry Doyle show and listened to that while sitting in my own yard which I own. I surveyed my trees and my grass (and my weeds), though it isn't much it is mine.

That is what America is about. Having your own yard and enjoying as you please. American Dream baby!

Real Hope And Change

Once a former Taliban leader in the backwater part of Afghanistan now an iPhone addict and proponent of change. No surprisingly I'm not talking about our communist in chief, I'm talking about Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaeef. The iPhone addict who repented in US custody and reconciled with the Afghan government.

While Obama plays the Dow Jones Limbo with my retirement and seeing how low it can make it go, Zaeef is a ushering in a new age of technological enlightenment of in one of the harshest places on Earth and notoriously third world Afghanistan.

Real hope and genuine change in a good direction. I'll paraphrase from the article that the young Afghans aren't interested in the circle of war and are engaging with the rest of the world now.

They are seeing that they are part of a larger community and don't have to be content with killing their neighbor over a thousand year beef because they are bored on Friday night. They can now access My Space and play Mafia Wars like me! And if any of you newly enlightened Afghans would join my Mafia, I'd appreciate it! As for you Mullah Zaeef I'd be proud to call you an iPhone brother as well (even though we have differences in some areas) and kudos for bringing your country into the 21st Century!

The water is warm and we have cookies!

About Six O'Clock

Last night I decided to give my evening ritual the right of way and proceeded to my humidor to pick out a relaxing cigar.

I decided that the Oliva Serie V Especial would do. I purchased a box of ten a couple of weeks ago on sale on the forum I frequent. Instead of scotch tonight I chose Jameson Irish Whiskey. I prepared the drink, took my cigar to my bedroom and opened up the window.

With my trusty iPhone in hand I quickly fired up Wunder Radio and tonight chose The Savage Nation to listen to. I clipped the cigar as Michael Savage was defining Neo-Marxism and how it applies to our President.

The pre draw of the Serie V was perfect. The construction of the cigar was solid. This is a great looking cigar! I hit my lighter and thick clouds billowed out of my window. So thick I was wondering if a patrolling cop would think I was hitting a bong or if I would have a chance to explain my cigar hobby before getting tazered. The situation never arose as no passing police cruiser appeared.

This is the was to relax for me. It was probably warm enough last night to sit outside and enjoy my cigar but I opted for my bedroom instead. Tonight perhaps?

My sinus infection is going away although slowly. I could taste more flavors with this wonderful cigar than the Cusano 18 but not as much as I've had in the past with the Serie V. It was a full bodied cigar. Not for a beginner at all. I have eight more left and that will be just perfect for this Summer!

Cusano 18 Toro

Last night I decided to have a scotch and a cigar. I looked into my humidor and selected the Cusano 18 year old Toro. I've heard about this cigar but this was my first one. The tobacco is fermented and aged for 18 years ensuring a very smooth cigar.

It had a Connecticut wrapper which generally means it isn't a full flavored cigar, which it wasn't. In fact I believe I shouldn't have had a cigar because I found it lacking and that was likely due to my sinus infection. I could barely taste it at all. I'm sure that if I were feeling good then it would have been a more flavorful smoke.

Being a toro it was about six and a half inches and a fifty ring gauge. It was a big cigar and it took over an hour to finish it. That part was fine. It was great unwinding time.

Opened up WunderRadio on my iPhone and found the Mark Levin show and listened, smoked, and had a drink of scotch. The perfect way to unwind.

Experiment With Peppermint Oil

So yesterday I had bad sinus pain all day. I took off of work early just so I could go get some medicine or something to relieve the pressure. Note I did go to work with intense sinus pain, got to my vehicle. Started it and noticed that the alternator wasn't charging. I turned it off and opened the hood. Sure enough the belt had broken.

So in twenty degree weather I made the decision to fix it. I knew that when I had my belts replaced a while back that I kept the old ones as one of them was pretty new. I located that belt and with numbing fingers went to work. It is very easy to fix these problems. No more than a few minutes to change an alternator out even. However with the temperature and intense sinus pain it wasn't pleasant.

A couple of minutes later I got the old belt off and the new-er belt on and tightened. Charging nicely I went to work, a little later than usual but I did go because I'm saving my leave for my Vegas vacation at the end of this month!

Generally miserable I soldier on through the day thinking about what I could get to fix my sinus pain. I remember that peppermint oil in boiling water is supposed to be good! As I stated earlier I took off an hour early to figure out what to do about the throbbing pain in my head. I go by a health food store and pick up a bottle of oil and some pills that are supposed to be good for pain.

I pop a couple of the pills on the drive home and sniff the peppermint oil which seems to have an immediate effect. So I arrive, jump out of the nicely charging vehicle now and go inside. I don't do anything else but put on a pot of water and drop a few drops in it. Steam starts to waft over the pot and I put a towel over my head and breathe deep.

Didn't notice anything really. So I added a few more drops! WOW! That might have been too many as it was now burning my eyes and throat! Ok so that was probably too much for such a small pot of water!

Better idea! A hot bath! Yeah that will do nicely! So I run a hot bath and throw a few drops in. That really didn't seem like enough, this was super concentrated something or other. It should be stronger.

A couple more dashes into the water. I look at the bottle and it seems to be at the same level as it was. So a couple of harder shakes and that seems to lower the level a bit! Now we are talking!

I get into the hot water and it appears that I had stepped into the Arctic! I wanted to jump out of the water! It was plenty hot enough but the oil might have been a little bit stronger than I had anticipated! My back, back of my arms, legs, and other areas were now immersed in a giant, bathtub sized Eskimo Pie/Klondike Bar combo!

Uncomfortable wasn't exactly the term but it did take my attention off of my sinuses! Yeah maybe intense burning might be the exact word I'd use instead of uncomfortable. This was one of the most bizarre and yet unusual feelings I've ever had! Not enjoyable by any means. Again I soldiered on thinking that maybe I should have read the bottle and how next time I will read anything about said product before throwing a few dashes and a few more into a hot tub of water.

I can only stand a few minutes before I'm done with this! Hot and cold all at the same time...if I were a stoner this would have blown my mind!

Jumping out of the water I found out that despite having a electric heater going on in the bathroom and it being pretty warm I was suddenly very cold!!!! This was a dumb idea but my sinus pain was gone and I was breathing freely!

So in the future and for those of you out there who wish to try this, READ THE BOTTLE! If you don't think you have enough...GET IN FIRST AND ADD SOME LATER!!!!

Third Place

In my Cigar Asylum fantasy NASCAR league I'm now third place out of seventeen. Started off badly with Daytona and was fourteenth. The past two weeks I've won with the highest score for the week and that has pushed me to third and closing in on one and two!

Winner gets thirty five premium cigars! Can't beat that! There are also prizes for the Spring leader and Summer leader!

This is a long season so many many things can happen but I'm off to a good start so far!

Cast Party Goodness!

Want to know the real reason I like to get involved in the local theatre? It is for the cast parties afterward!

After all of the work that goes into putting a show on you just want to blow off steam and enjoy yourself! They are always blowouts and some of the best times you could enjoy with friends!

You always meet new people and enjoy the long time friends all at the same time....with great food and alcohol! Events that turn into stories for future cast parties happen at every event!

Yes I love my friends!