We had a great time hitting the bars and the casinos. The beer started flowing before we left Thursday morning. A typical Vegas day was to go to bed at 8 am, wake up around noon, walk down to the pool and lounge. Order a couple of buckets of beer at the pool to shake off the night before. Go back to the room and shower and then start hitting it hard again around 2 pm. We got to enjoy some of the seedy side of Vegas - from the dives, to the hooker chatting us up at the hotel bar, the strip clubs and Jamie hooking up with the stripper. He’s single, he’s allowed. To the 60 year old swinger trying to pick me up at the Frontier, and believe me, that grandma was not some hotty like the old chick in Grumpy Old Men. What can you say, Vegas is great. It’s a great place for the guys to go to decompress and have good clean fun. However, this is my third year in a row going there, so I think next year we might head back to Fantasy Fest in Key West. It will have been 4 years since I’ve been to Fantasy Fest, so I think it’s time to go back. Good clean fun!

My buddy Jamie called me about going to Vegas the first weekend in November, so we started researching fares and hotels. Our friend Ed wound up booking our trip on Expedia and we stayed at the Internationally Renowned Imperial Palace. We actually stayed there two years ago, so we were familiar with the hotel and location. The hotel is not one of the eye popping resorts like Bellagio, Caesars Palace, or the Mirage. However, it is a great location - center strip with a monorail stop - and usually one of the cheapest hotels on the strip. Just our kind of place! Standards go down the drain when I roll with these guys. Side note to the married guys, the cheaper you make the trip sound, the easier it is to sell to the wife.

We had a good crew - there were five of us sharing the room. Three of the guys are guys that I went to high school with, so we’ve known each other for quite some time. We had a great time doing Vegas on the cheap! We hit dive bars and casinos on the strip and off. Places like Slots-O-Fun on the Strip and Ellis Island Casino and Brewery located at the Super 8 motel on Koval Lane. They still have the $4.95 steak dinner and it was good! You might ask yourself why go the dive route? Well, free booze doesn’t flow like it used to in Vegas, unless you are at a less than glamorous place. So, if you want to play roulette for $15 minimum and $8 for a Miller Lite, go to Bellagio. If you want to get loaded, and my buddies are professionals at that, go play the nickel video poker or $1 roulette at one of the above mentioned places.

Well guys, it’s that time of year again, time to start thinking about Christmas shopping for that special lady in your life. Recently, my wife has hinted that she would like some jewelry with a nice diamond in it. Well, I’ve been searching the web to learn about diamonds and found this great site that is easy to use. It’s abazias.com, and they specializes in diamonds. The last time I bought a diamond, it was from a pawn shop, and I was going to ask my wife to marry me, so I had the diamond put into a setting and made into an engagement ring. Needless to say, I don’t know a lot about them, but I know what I like.

I found the educational information about diamonds very helpful. When you are spending money on good stuff, you want to know what you are buying. They’re also a wholesaler of diamonds and they have some great prices on their site. I’ve learned that discount diamonds are ok, as long as you know what to look for.

Wife here, aka Colleen. Today is Jim’s 37th birthday! Happy Birthday baby!

Here’s the update you’ve all been waiting for…the Vegas trip.

Every year, I take a “guys trip.” I usually do it with a couple of guys I’ve known for quite a long time, 20+ years. We’ve gone on some pretty cool trips in the past. This year, we went to Las Vegas, which we also did 2 years ago.

First a little background on the current guys trip arrangement, and how to score it for the married dudes. The key to every successful marriage is compromise, also known as negotiation. A couple of years ago, my wife wanted to get a mini daschund - we had previously had one as a pet. Now, we already have one dog (a chocolate lab) and she wanted to add another to our family, so we struck a deal. For every year that we own the dog, I get to go to Mardi Gras that year. Unfortunately for me, Mardi Gras falls during a very hectic time of year for my job, so I haven’t gone yet. But what I do is substitute a different location where some debauchery can take place. Good clean fun. And nothing says good clean fun like Las Vegas!

Well I know it’s been a while since my last post, so much has been going on. First let’s talk about those Tampa Bay Lightning and the winning streak they are on. The completed a four game road trip winning 7 of 8 points. They came home to face the division leading Atlanta Thrashers and dominated the game. John Tortorella made some line changes, putting Vincent Lecavalier and Marty St. Louis on the same line and moving Nikita Alexeev from the checking line up to Vinny and Marty’s line. Also, Torts went with Johan Holmquist in goal and caught a hot goalie. The blue is coming around and they stopped turning it over in the neutral zone. Also, it looks like I might enjoy eating some crow with my early season criticism of Lecavalier. He’s on a scoring streak and is proving me right on one of my statements, as goes Vinny, so will the Lightning. I would still like to see him shoot more, but hey, the guy can stick handle in a phone booth…..

Next up, my Vegas trip.

I’ve been getting a lot of people here who are interested in knowing if Vincent Lecavalier is single or married. It’s the most popular search string in the site stats. Vinnie Lecavalier is not married, but he does have a girlfriend or two, one of whom is my wife.