Taken by 'Taken'

Today began, as usual, with coffee and morning TV news. Nothing much happening newswise in LV, but the weather has been spectacular with today's high hitting 76.

Helen sent me down to Bally's to play some poker. I arrived at 9:30, but the poker room only had one 1-2 No-Limit game going and there were 5 names ahead of me on the list. I gave my player's card to Tom, the room manager, and urged him to open up another game. He hemmed and hawed, but didn't take my suggestion. So I ended up waiting 45 minutes before I finally got a seat in the game.

I played for about 2 hours and ground out a profit of $60. No huge hands, never went all-in. My best hand was 3 Js which netted me a pot of about $30. Some days are like that and winning $60 at poker is still more fun that digging ditches for $60.

While I was gone, Helen read and watched her daily dose of "Desperate Housewives."

I got home at 2 p.m. because Helen and I planned to go see "Taken" at a 3:15 matinee at the Suncoast theater. We got to the casino at 2:45 and bought the tickets, which were discounted to $3 each for seniors (anyone over 60) with a players club card. While we waited to go into the theater, I tucked $5 into a 5-cent video poker machine and ran it up to $5.50. A COOL 10% profit in less than 5 minutes!!! How's that for a great investment?

The movie was a real action-thriller and Helen and I both enjoyed it. Liam Neeson plays a retired CIA operative whose 17-year-old daughter is abducted and sold into sex slavery. He bashes and smashes his way across Paris in pursuit of his daughter's abductors. Lots of maiming and misery as he tracks down the bad guys. It was a great way to spend an afternoon.

Tonight's dinner was Middle Eastern fare - pita bread, hummus, tabouli, lebne and Greek feta cheese. Tasty and filling. Now we're just relaxing at the apt. and watching some TV, but tomorrow our adventure will continue...