vegas, baby, vegas.

spent saturday morning celebrating my nephew dean's 4th birthday. he had a party at my brother's backyard, rocketship themed and even included an air jump for the kids (but big enough for the big kids like me to take over later hehe). hey, i got a good workout from jumping. midway through the party, mike, romy and i started talking about las vegas and how it'd be fun to pick up and just go for the night. it was one of those "are we really going to do it" moments until we convinced romy's mom (who's visiting from ohio) to come with us. she said yes and at 7:30 pm saturday night, we were on our way to sin city. our friends robyn and stinky had a room at the flamingo and they said we were welcome to crash overnight. it was a pretty smooth ride on the way there, with a couple of stops for gas. i took over the wheel in baker (home of the world's largest thermometer hehe) and almost left romy's mom behind. see, i was pumping gas while the rest of them went inside for soda and to go to the restroom. i was last to go. when i came back to the car, i thought everyone was waiting for me so i started to drive off. romy thought "oh he's pulling closer to the restroom so my mom won't have to walk very far" while i'm already looking for the freeway. he realized it and said, wait...for MY MOM! lol i seriously thought she was already in the truck with us. anyway, i went between 90 and 100 (seems fast but this part's mostly uphill) and arrived shortly after 11. gambled, had a few drinks, walked around and had really really late breakfast at the tropicana cafe.
didn't go to bed until 5 am, then woke up around 10, got ready and went to the stratosphere for brunch. ok, it's vegas so the randoms and the freaks are expected. well, our table was next to a family of 8 (even though they sat at a table for 4) who gave new meaning to the word "eurotrash." they piled food on their plates and would take maybe three bites, then go back and get some more. they ashed their cigarrettes on their plates even though ashtrays are provided. i could tell by the look of their server that this was one of the most disgusting tables she ever had to look after. oh, the kicker was one of the women was scooping cereal out of the buffet with a lit cigarrette in her hand. so. gross. anyway, we managed to finish our brunch and head back to the hotel to pack up our stuff. all in all, it was a really fun spur of the moment trip.