Our Saturday started with a road trip to the Fantastic Las Vegas Indoor Swap Meet, located about 2 miles west of the Strip, about 8 miles from our apartment.
This Swap Meet is a huge building divided into dozens and dozens of cubicles where vendors are peddling all sorts of, well, junky stuff - imitation Gucci bags, Sham Wows, sparkly women's clothes, low-budget t-shirts, tons of jewelry and more. We spent about an hour wandering up and down aisle after aisle, but didn't really see anything worth buying. I was a little surprised that the place didn't have any antique dealers or sports card dealers. But lots of schlocky sorts of stuff...
By the time our visit to the Swap Meet was over, it was time for lunch. We opted for some takeout burritoes from Del Taco, really tasty Mexican fast food.
After lunch we hung out at the apartment, paying bills, watching TV, and reading until I whipped up a batch of chili for dinner. It was pretty tasty and I made enough so we'll have that again tomorrow.
About 5 p.m., I headed over to the Suncoast to prepare for the 8 p.m. drawing for a trip to Hawaii to see the Pro Bowl in two weeks. I wanted to play a little blackjack before the drawing and had a nice profitable session from 5 to 7:30 when I cashed out up $91. I strolled over to the area where the drawing would be held and grabbed a seat at a .25 cent poker machine. I slid a $10 into the machine and played for about 15 minutes, cashing out $13.75 - a $3.75 profit for 15 minutes of "work." That's a rate of $14 per hour - not bad for seated, indoor work, huh?
At 8 p.m. they began drawing the names of the contest winners. The Suncoast was giving out 13 prizes - a trip to Hawaii, four cash prizes of $250 each, and fb memorabilia, including an autographed, framed Tony Romo jersey, a full-sized autographed Joe Montana helmet, a Tom Brady autographed football, an autographed Paul Horning mini-helmet and a few other footballs and mini-helmets.
I had a good spot to watch the drawings and was pretty excited when they called out "Alan Parker" as the 6th winner!
I checked in with the marketing people there and waited until they drew all 13 names. Two of the original 13 were not there, so two replacement winners were called and in about 15 minutes we had all the winners ready. There were 13 envelopes spread out on a table, each with a prize inside. Going in order of the names picked, each of us winners were allowed to go up to the table and select an envelope.
The first winner, a woman, got the Tom Brady football, the second won the Tony Romo jersey. The third winner picked envelope #9 and won the Trip to Hawaii...a little disappointing, but I was still in the running for one of the four $250 cash prizes. The fourth winner won a cash prize, as did the fifth, right ahead of me.
When my turn came, I chose envelope #5 (Helen's lucky number) and won the full-sized autographed Joe Montana Helmet. The casino placed a value of $500 on it, but that might be a little high - though the helmets alone go for well over $100 and Montana's autograph boosts the value considerably. It comes in a huge protective display case, along with a certificate of authenticity.
I'm not a huge Montana or 49ers fan, so if anyone can use this, we'll accept offers. There's always ebay, but I'd rather not deal with the shipping hassle. :)
So I'm feeling pretty lucky tonight. Helen and I celebrated with a big bowl of popcorn and now we're watching the talent competition of the Miss America Contest, which is being held here in Las Vegas at the Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino. Miss Michigan is dancing like a whirling dervish!!!
Tomorrow we'll be heading off to church early, then who knows what adventures await us...
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