A Trip to M&M World

Today's tasks took me over to Target early to pick up a few things that we needed.

Contrary to some urban legends, Vegas is not a 24-hour town in a lot of respects. For example, the local Target doesn't open until 8 a.m. So I got over there around 8:45 a.m. and it was a great time to pick up the few things we needed.

My next task was to head down to the Strip - not specifically for gambling - but to pick up some Valentine's Day gifts for the grandchildren. Helen sent me to the ABC Store inside the Miracle Mile shopping mall at Planet Hollywood to get some chocolates. I parked at PH and walked quickly thru the mall to the ABC store and got the chocolates, then headed back to the parking structure. Didn't wager even a nickel at PH. I wanted to get all my shopping done first.

She also asked me to stop at M&M World and pick up a dispenser of M&Ms. So I drove from PH to MGM Grand and walked a short distance on the Strip to M&M World. That place is amazing!! It's four stories full of M&M stuff, ranging from candies to coffee cups to keychains. There's even a video about M&Ms and a walk-thru feature that explains how the candies are made. Whether you like plain or peanut, there's plenty of M&Ms for you to enjoy, LOL.

I took all of the purchases to the car and then settled in for some poker at MGM. There were two open seats at a $1-2 No Limit table and I picked one. Should have taken the other... For the first 20 minutes, I threw away my cards without playing. No pairs, no Aces...really card dead. Then I won a small pot when my K-Q paired a K on the flop. But I really had no luck and slowly lost my $100 buy-in.

I needed a break from poker so I walked to the MGM Sports Book to see what type of odds they had on the SuperBowl. Nothing stood out there. But I sat there, drank a coffee and relaxed for a while.

I left MGM and took a walk down the Strip, just sight seeing. It was a beautiful day, sunny and in the low 60s with a little wind. I walked south to the Tropicana, which is looking shabbier and shabbier. Seems like it will be a good candidate to be the next implosion, but with the economy as slow as it is it may be quite a while before another big casino gets built.

Eventually I decided to head back to MGM where I sat down at a Deuces Wild video poker machine to both rest a while and to try my luck. I slid in a $20 and was winning and losing when I hit 5 Fives (3 5s and 2 2s) for a nice payoff. I played a few hands and cashed out $40 - doubling my buy-in.

So between the poker and the machine, I ended up losing $80 today.

Helen just finished wrapping some Valentine's Day gifts and is now talking on the phone with her friend Gail. In a few minutes I'll pull together some dinner - a Middle East fare with hummus, tabouli, lebne, pita bread and kalamata olives.

Excitement is starting to build for the SuperBowl. Because of legal requirements, all of the casinos have to refer to it as "The Big Game" and not the SB. I'm still trying to decide exactly where to watch the game. I'm sure I'll be on the Strip where, as we like to say, the adventure continues...