Another beautiful day in Las Vegas with temps in the low '60s and a brilliant blue sky.

I started the day by writing a restaurant feature for the Northern Express. Before we left town, I interviewed Nabiel Musleh, the owner of Zakey, a new Middle Eastern eatery on Hammond and Three Mile. He's an energetic, outgoing guy and we'll be sure to visit Zakey when we get back to town. I encourage anyone who enjoys Middle Eastern food to support this guy's efforts to bring authentic M.E. cuisine to the TC region.

Then Helen and I went on a trip to our new favorite place - Target - where we bought a pair of plastic storage units. I think we've visited Target every day since we arrived in LV. One storage unit is a 4-drawer, another a 3-drawer, both for our closet. We also picked up a 3-foot artificial Christmas Tree that we will use for our Luther Tree for the holidays. We brought the decorations, but did not bring the tree from home.

Around noon, I went to the Red Rock Casino, the nearest to our apt, where I played some blackjack. It was an up and down session, but after about four hours I managed to squeek out a $125 profit. The casino is offering a promotion that enabled me to cash in my club points for some sweet items - a man's gray fleece jacket for me and a red fleece blanket for Helen. It was pretty cool to get cash and apparel, LOL!

On the way home from the casino, I stopped by a Middle Eastern market and picked up dinner - fresh pita bread, greek olives, hummus and lebne (a tasty, thick yogurt). We'll be enjoying that tonight and basking in the glow of our ill-gotten gains, LOL!

More tomorrow...