Day 11
Monday December 25, 2000
MERRY CHRISTMAS
&
Happy Birthday to ME
Today is my 30th birthday

I got up early to try to catch a look at the eclipse. I saw a little of it but not too much. That turned out to be a waste of time.

When I returned to my room there was a message from my father. I called him right back and he was just calling to say Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas. I talked to him and my mother for a while and then went to breakfast.

I went to the Fresh Harvest Cafe. I had bacon and eggs. Nothing of much to note here other than this place that used to be Smokey Joe's looks a lot better now.

After breakfast I went to the slot club booth to turn in a birthday card they sent me that was good for 25,000 points. While I was there Robin, who was helping me commented on my $500 of comps that needed to be used up by the end of the year. I told her I knew about them and my host Rebecca had also told me of them when I booked the reservation for the room back in October. She told me everything they were good for. Food, rooms, bingo, bowling, and cigarettes. An additional thing the comp dollars are good for are rooms for next year. You have to book them by the end of the year but once they are booked they can be changed. She also helped me get reservations for Papamios tonight and Billy Bob's tomorrow night. I guess that since my play here won't get me comped any more that's one way to use them up.

After getting everything settled at the slot club I went to play. I started off with some triple play. I couldn't hit anything here and lost $100. I moved over to some 50-play machines. These are short pay machines but I took a shot anyway. I was down almost $200 here and was only playing 10 lines to use up my credits when what happens? Of course for the first time ever while I'm playing 50 play I'm finally dealt a 4 of a kind. Dammit! 1250 coins instead of 6250. I ended up losing the whole $200 at this machine. I then went over to blackjack. I was playing a single deck game and getting no where. I'd get up a little then be down a little. After about 2 hours I finally started getting a run going. The man on my right was doing well too but the lady on my left was getting beat up. The man decided to cash out and the run continued for me. The lady on my left was still getting beat. That's when she decided it would be a good idea to move on the other side of me in an effort to start getting my cards. This pissed me off and I've had people do this in the past. This worked out well. For me. I was still getting the good cards and she was still getting beat. I was rooting for her to lose. I don't normally do that but she deserved it since what she did was effed up as far as I was concerned. The cards started to turn so I got up and cashed out with a $500 win. Combined with the $300 loss on the machines I am now up $200 for the day. As I was leaving the bitch on my right lost all her money and was digging in her purse for more. Hopefully she went broke!

After cashing in my chips I came up to the room and was going to take a short nap but saw the room wasn't made up yet. This was odd since it was after 2pm and I had left the please clean room sign on the door. There was a gift basket on my dresser though. It was from the hosts. I'm not sure if it was for being a good player for them or if it was for my birthday since it didn't say. I did mention to my host Rebecca that I would be there for my birthday so that's probably what it's for. There was fruit, nuts, cookies and other assorted snacks and wine. I thought this was pretty cool and nice of them to do. Right now as I type this I would love to take short nap but I know as soon as lay down housekeeping will come knocking on my door.

Yup, sure as shit, 10 minutes after I lay down there's a knock at the door. It was housekeeping. I left the room and went down to the casino. I played some more of the Press Your Luck slot and lost $25 there. I actually hit the bonus round twice but that was useless as both times I got only 54 coins. Then I played some Treasure Chest VP. I hit 2 four-of-a-kinds here. On this game when you get a quad you can pick 1 of 5 treasure chests. Both of mine were for the lowest pay off of 140 coins. I cashed out of this machine up by $50 and decided to try some $1 video poker. The machine was doing ok with some smaller hits but then just died. Lost $100.

After losing at VP I tried some more blackjack. Same old shit that's been happening all trip. Losing all the double downs and pushing with 20's. Lost $300 here. It's now just about time to go have dinner. I have reservations for Papamios at 5:30.

Papamios is the Italian restaurant at Sam's Town. I tried to get reservations at Billy Bob's to have my Christmas/Birthday dinner but they were booked. Papamios is higher end Italian food. If you're looking for a meatball here this isn't the place to come. Most of the dishes were regular Italian foods with some sort of special items added to them. This isn't really my type of food but I found a dish that was my speed. When you enter you're served a loaf of bread and some oil mixture that you can dip the bread in. It looked like there was garlic and oregano in it too. I started with an appetizer of fried mozzarella. Also known as mozzarella sticks. Only these weren't sticks. They were slices of cheese breaded and fried. This was a very good appetizer. The meal also comes with soup. I had the white bean soup. For the main entree I had a dish that consisted of twin beef medallions, also known as filet mignon and came with 3 shrimp. It also came with choice of potato or pasta and vegetables. I took the garlic roasted red potatoes. The food was really great. The meat was so tender and the knife went through it like butter. The potatoes and vegetables were good as well. Since I don't really like shrimp unless they are breaded and deep-fried I passed on them. They were covered in tomato sauce though. I finished off dinner with a slice of cheesecake and coffee. Total bill came to $40. It was a good meal but just not my style. I also think $40 for 1 person to eat is a bit much but I did order just about the most expensive dinner on the menu.

I had eaten too much at dinner and needed a break so I went up to the room and rested for a while. Actually I fell asleep for over an hour. When I woke up I went down to the casino. Not feeling lucky at the tables or machines I wandered around. I ended up down in the bowling alley. While I was down there I played some video games. Yup, you read that right. What a deal this was. I played for about 1 hour and only lost $1. That's the best deal I've had all day!

Now getting a little late and needing a snack I head over to Calamity Jane’s for some ice cream. There was a long line so I found a bonus poker machine and put in a $20 bill. In a few minutes I hit a quad and cashed out up $20. Big deal, but it's a win! I went back over to the ice cream stand and the line was gone. I ordered a hot fudge sundae and a large soda. When I ordered the sundae I was informed they had no whipped cream. This is a bit odd. An ice cream shop with no friggen whipped cream for sundaes. The lady was nice about it though and gave me extra ice ream to make up for it. Now, I'm up in my room eating my sundae, drinking my soda and typing this report. In the background I have the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on. Blue Man Group will be appearing on the show tonight. I've seen them on the show before and they are kind of neat. This is actually a rerun from last year. I remember on my trip last year when I got to the Stardust watching this show. Maybe next time I come to Las Vegas I'll go see them live at the Luxor. After the Tonight Show it'll be time to call it a night. Tomorrow is my last full day.

Total win/loss for the day -$200
Total comps for the day $111