Penultimate Day in Vegas

When I volunteered at the KSER radio station my community broadcasting mentor, Public Affairs Director Ed Bremer, liked to remind people about the penultimate day of the pledge drive. So here it is, the penultimate day of our birthday celebration trip to Las Vegas!

It was a little rough for Mom this morning but after a little rest (and a good streak of gambling), she was back to her old self. This is the day that almost everyone else is leaving so we had breakfast with many of them.

L to R: Tomiko, Val, Karen, David, Justine, Mom, Ursula, Curt, & Aunty Florence.

I had the Philippine Breakfast, which doesn't look like this when it first arrives at your table. As usual, I started eating eat and Curtis had to remind me to take a photo before it was all gone.


And as usual, Mom gave the kids spending money for their trip back home.

L to R: Justine, Ursula, & Mom.

Mom went to gamble after breakfast, too. And was doing even better than before breakfast. I missed seeing her winning hands, but here is the payout on them.


Here's some info on one of cousin Tomiko's recent shows. She's got a couple shows up right now and has been flying around the country doing the installations as well as artist's receptions, so it was a pleasant surprise to have her be with us for Mom's birthday celebration. Check out her website for more information about her work; click on the News tab to find out if she has a show near you!


We ate dinner with Mona & Mike, they're here until Tuesday. I had the chicken adobo. They must have a Filipino cook or a recipe from a Filipino cook, it was pretty good.


It turns out Mike & Curt are die-hard Steelers fans, they have set up a tentative date - when the Steelers play in the Super Bowl they'll be in the stands together rooting for their team. We also found out that Mike has a 1951 Vincent motorcycle, but they had never heard the song "1952 Vincent Black Lightning", so I introduced them to it. I knew about the song from listening to KSER!

Mom, Dad, & Curt will gamble until 12 midnight. While I was there Mom hit a flush, then minutes later Dad hit a straight flush. Here's the difference in payout between those 2 hands; if either had hit the royal flush the payout would have been even larger.

Mom's flush.

Dad's straight flush.

This is our last night, tomorrow we fly back home. Our flight is at 11 am, which means our staging time is 7:30 am and our bag pull time is 5:30 am. Which means the suitcases that will be checked baggage must be packed before we go to bed for pick-up beginning at 5:30 am. I started packing Mom & Dad's suitcase when Mom was taking a nap before dinner. Hopefully she won't unpack it when she gets back from gambling so that she can check that everything has been packed. Because of the dementia she did that 3 times when we were leaving. I had to close up the suitcase and move it out of her room in order to get her to stop unpacking it; I won't have that option here.

Good Night!