My Blog

Let me start with the notable VICTIMS:

Tommy (Me) - I got worked by the Dice game.  Enough so that I was actually amused and entertained to get verbally abused by the dealer on the Pai-Gow Poker table.

T: Man, I think I finally may win a hand!

Dealer (Ana-Marie): Really?  Wow, that is new!

Everyone on the table: (laughs)

T: Thanks Ana-Marie… there goes your tip!

Francis (Little Man) - Get off your f’en phone, & get off her nutz!  She didn’t call.  Dood was at the Pai-Gow table with me and was all wrapped up with his phone instead of his cards.

Super (Da See-Fut-Gwai: English romanization, "Butt Monster") - Refer to Tommy.

S: Man, I finally pulled out a monkey out of my ass! 

Everyone on the table: ???

S: Wait!  No!  More like a snake.  I finally pulled the snake out of my ass!

Dealer (Ana-Marie): Is it an Anaconda!?

Everyone on the table: (laughs)

Mikey - Anyone who has to eat a dead fly is a victim.

Wayne: Person who picks the lowest card has to eat the dead fly.

T: (Opens a 5 of diamonds) Oh sh*t!

M: (Opens a 4 of diamonds) Aw man!

Randall - Rumor has it that… Randall dumps $200 into a Wheel of Fortune slot machine.  Doesn’t get a single spin on the wheel.  Woman to his machine on his left gets to spin the wheel and wins $1000.  Woman to his machine on his right also get to spin the whell and wins $1000.  If that is not bad JUJU, I don’t know what is…

And now… the notable WINNERS:

Will - Fire 5!  $750 guaranteed!  Hard 6, another $200!

Savage - Survives a weekend without going to the Geary Blvd alcoholics’ retreat & is one-half of the entertainment this weekend.

Super: Hey Savage, how did you get to Samoa?

Savage: (looking perplexed and stunned that the Super would even ask such a stoopid question): I parasailed muthaf*cka!

Everyone: (laughs)

Super: Hey Savage, were there a lot of Chinese people in Somalia?

Everyone: (laughs)

Savage: (annoyed): Muthaf*cka, how da f*ck should I know?

Super: (just realizing he was totally off in locale): …

Savage: Super, do you just say sh*t just to hear yourself talk?!

Everyone: (laughs)

Dan (aka Hollywood/Pandalicious): The Panda was a good sport and has an uncanny ability to sleep on any chair he sits on.

T: Hey Hollywood!  Come on up next to the stage!

Hollywood: (proceeds up the the stage) Okay, what now?

T: Here! (hands Hollywood some dollar bills)

Hollywood: What do I do with this?

T: Here!  Just place it front of you and wait.

Hollywood: (places dollar bill on the stage).

T: (gets a face full of boobies and a bite on the neck from exotic dancer… thens fall back on the chair with arms wide open in the air).

Hollywood: (gets a face full of boobies and a bite on his shirt, but remains up).

T: Hey Panda!  You can sit down now!

Hollywood: (with a big smile on his face) Oh!

T: (laughs and rubs the Panda’s stomach): PANDALICIOUS!

The Fiend’s bachelor party starts in 4 hours…

Fortunes may be won and lost… but lives forever will be changed…!

Judge, if you ever read my blogs… there is no shoplifting in a strip club!

Spent the weekend up in Oroville with the in-laws and my folks.  Ali’s dad and his wife graciously invited the Luong’s up to their home away from home, and gave us a tour of the little town 60 miles north of Sacramento. 

Blasted by a 98 degree sun, there was little we wanted to do except to enjoy the A/C of the house and the car.  And while we did venture into town for some Chinese food and a trip to their local butcher shop (where they had USDA Prime steaks and tri-tips, and wonderfully marinated chickens), a large part of the two days was to allow the two families to bond and get to know each other better, primarily within the creature comforts of the house.

Sitting on the deck watching Ali’s dad fire up the grill brought back fun and happy memories of old barbeques.  The smell of BBQ meat is pleasant and appealing.  I miss my annual barbeques.  It’s been two years now since I had one.  Perhaps I should do it next year.  Everyone seemed to enjoy them.  Nonetheless, I digress…

After tearing through some steaks and chicken, all of us headed to the Gold Mountain Casino (a short drive down the hill from the house).  While the place was inundated with slots and more slots, I did eventually find a seat on one of their two Pai Gow Poker tables. 

For people unfamiliar with the game of Pai Gow Poker, the game features 7 cards that are dealt with the objective of building a 5 card poker hand and a 2 card poker hand (with the obvious better/best hands being a pair).  I’ve played this game countless times because:

1. Unlike Blackjack, PGP is slow death.  The dealer has to beat your upper and lower hand to win your money.  So, obviously, there are a lot of hands that lead to pushes/draws.

2. There wasn’t a Craps table.

3. I don’t have the patience for Slots, nor do I enjoy sitting there like a dumb ape pressing a button just to watch my money dwindle away.

After 10 hands, I sat with the same money I started with… $100.  There was a $10 table minimum… which is not terribly high. 

As I forementioned, because it is rather difficult to win in PGP, the only way to really strike it big is to bet on the Fortune Bonus.  Betting on the FB is what I always make a point to do.  It cost 5 dollars, and the rewards go as high as $40,000 for a Royal Straight Flush and as low as $10 for a three of a kind.   

On a bad night, that $5 adds up (meaning you’re forfeiting your FB bet because you’re not getting at least a three of a kind, which probably means you’re going to lose most of your $10 table bets).  But Saturday night was not a bad one.  It didn’t top my best night (Straight Flush - 150 to 1 = $750). 

Ali joined me on the table and after playing three hands together, I opened up my biggest hand of the night… Four 6’s, and a pair of 10’s… worthy of 25 to 1 = $125.  Not super jackpot big, but it did pay for gas and food for my folks and wife.

Also, it is the second consecutive week that I’ve won in gambling (previous week in Tahoe for $100). 

With the Fiend’s bachelor weekend in Reno this weekend, I only hope that my string of good fortune continues. 

Some of you may laugh, but this past weekend, I went to my first concert.  Earth, Wind & Fire played Friday night at Harvey’s Outdoor Amphitheatre in South Lake Tahoe.  The Fiend, his soon-to-be wife, Ellaine, and our cousins, Tracy and Albert, were in attendance. 

For those that still haven’t gotten over the fact that I had never been to a concert, let me give you my reasons for never making the effort to go:

1. I’ve seen some concerts on DVD, and while I can’t expect the performer(s) to be flawless, I’ve found that sometimes, they don’t sound like the studio/CD version that I enjoy listening to. 

2.  There really hasn’t been anyone I like enough that is worth shelling out $60-$100 to see live.

3.  There is no guarantee that the performer(s) will sing the songs you desire to hear.

But let me stress that watching EWF perform, I’ve totally changed my perspective of concerts.  They were awesome… even after 30+ years of performing.  The sung every hit song they made popular.  From "Reasons" to "September" and one of my favorites, "After the Love Has Gone."  Those guys still got it, and it was inspiring to see them do their thing in front of a packed house.

Since we were in Lake Tahoe, after the concert, we took a stroll around the new development that encompasses the new Embassy Suites, the Marriott, and the new gondola that goes up to Heavenly Ski Resort.  Albert & Tracy, Ali, and myself shared stories about the past (including my minimum wage ventures at the Mark Hopkins InterContinental Hotel gift shop and the Delish Deli) while eating Coldstone. 

Afterwards, we ventured back into Harrah’s where I found the Fiend in action on the craps table, broken hand and all.  The Fiend signaled me to come over (with his good hand) and pointed to the gentleman playing across the craps table.  Long and behold, it was Al Michaels (Sunday Night Football announcer).  So, I plopped down and started playing just so I can write on this blog that I played craps with Al Michaels.  To keep a long story short, I hit a crucial hard 8, made the Fiend $675, and established a little spending cash for myself  ($275).  But as always, I tend to tempt fate a little (and believed that the Fiend would roll longer than 2 minutes) and was punished for it.  Still, I had a $100.  Enough to pay for gas and lunch.

On a side note, we also saw Jerome Bettis, Charles Barkley, and Ray Allen.  "The Bus" saw EWF.  Charles and Ray were trying to look cool in front of a DJ table on stage about 30 feet from where Al Michaels, the Fiend, and I were playing the dice game.  They were all there for the American Century Golf Tournament.

The next day, we went to Albert & Tracy’s uncle’s house.  Nothing, except for lotsa, lotsa yummy food, lotsa laughs, a cool down in their pool, and even fitted in some shut-eye. 

A terrific weekend indeed…   

6/23/07 - I’ve officially entered my 4th decade of life. Ali planned a cool pizza and ice cream party at the condo and bowling afterwards. Most of the characters were there, in good spirits. It was a lotta fun and a good way to officially start off my adulthood with something juvenile such as a meal fit for 7 year olds.

Doris and Rob also got me a cool gift/game (it’s some electric shock game that requires 4 players holding on to metal joysticks. The last person to press the button on the joystick when the light turns from red to green gets shocked). After numbing our hands and arms, we proceeded to the bowling alley where Judge again demonstrated that he is a good bowler, only not during league (when it counts).

6/30/07 - Went to a high school friend’s wedding (Kitty). As always, it is nice seeing all my high school friends. Despite a windy day, the couple (Ktty and Michael) were in great spirits and seemed to enjoy their wedding very much. One of the highlights: I was quite impressed with Michael’s seranading his new wife.

7/1/07 - Terry and Siu’s Baby Shower BBQ. It was a very windy day in San Bruno. Despite almost getting blown away by the gust, all of us managed to have a good time. On a sidenote: Greg (Ali’s older brother) talked to me about how to handle and get his younger brother, Grantland, who is bowling with me in the Summer Season, to improve. He told me that he doesn’t handle criticism that well and that my competitive intensity may actually hurt his game. I had very little to say except that I refuse to change my method or delivery. What I was actually thinking was: Dood’s eighteen years old! Do you want me to change his diapers and wipe his ass too? He can handle it! Nothing like a little ‘tough love’ and a "kick in the pants" to help the boy become a man. The whole time, all that kept reiterating in the corner in my mind was what Frank said, "They’re just children!"

7/3/07 - 7/6/07 - Drove down to Los Angeles with my wife. Went to Disneyland on the 4th. Funny, but my wife and I agreed that the park seemed a lot bigger when we were younger. We were able to pretty much run through the park in 4 hours. The next day, we went to the Century City Mall and got lunch. There was a new, and quite big, AMC cineplex there, so we decided to watch Transformers.

Overall review of the movie:

Acting: B- (too many humans, tried to be too comical at some points)

Plot: C- (the original story, if you ever watched the cartoon, was a lot more intriguing. But I guess this works for a 2.5 hour movie).

Visuals: A- (robots looked great, but they could of slowed down the transformations a few times and made them less complex. I always liked the fact that I could recognize what the robots would transform to even when they were in robot form. In the movie, however, I had no clue what Megatron would transform into at all when he is introduced in his robot form).

Overall: B- (check it out. But the original cartoon movie in 1986 was a lot better. Also, the orginal storyline in the cartoons was more appealing. Last complaint: Too much human air-time. Would of loved to see more robot interaction, especially between Starscream and Megatron).

7/7/07 - Went to Gloria and Neals’ wedding at Embassy in Burlingame. The weather couldn’t have been better. The wedding was a lot of fun. The couple looked fantastic and were smiling throughout the day. One of the highlights: Personally, I enjoyed their "Shoe Game". It allowed their guests to know a little more about them, while at the same time, provided a light-hearted spirit to the party. Congratulations to them both.