Vegas, Baby!!

 

 

Back from Vegas and tired, but happy. Darla and I both saw a HUGE change in Samantha. With Jennifer moved back to Vegas, she is happy and confident and a joy to be with. We didn't expect her to stay with us, but she really wanted to stay at Circus Circus and spent both Friday and Saturday night at the casino. She went to bed early both nights and didn't argue about watching movies or wanting to stay up. We had a great trip with Dad and Shirley and Neil and Lil and Samantha, Jennifer and McKenny.

 

Jennifer got to Vegas on Friday morning and got moved into her new apartment with Samantha. It was a good thing for Jennifer that Samantha wanted to come and stay with us as it allowed her to get everything unpacked and the rest of the things moved from her other apartment.

 

We flew in on Friday morning and met up with Neil and Lilly at the casino and brought them over to the Polo Towers to see dad and Shirley. They had no idea that Neil and Lilly were coming and as we were greeting them in the lobby, Neil and Lilly walked up and Neil said, "Boy, the people you see when you don't have a gun." They were pretty surprised. We went up to their suite and visited for a bit and then headed over to New York, New York for lunch at Gonzalez, the Mexican restaurant. From there we went to the M&M World and Shirley bought Samantha her birthday and Christmas gifts, buying her a suitcase and a shirt, some silly straws and a stuffed monkey. Darla bought her an M&M blanket for her bed.

 

Friday night we had drinks at dad and Shirley's and then we drove over to Jennifer's new apartment and had pizza with them and visited with Sam. It was there that Samantha decided that she wanted to spend the night with us. We got back to the room early and let Sam watch a movie before going to bed about 8:30. About four in the morning, our neighbors came in loud and obnoxious. They were banging around and talking loud and we called security to come over and shut them up. That was just the start of the problems with these folks.

 

We woke up about 8 on Saturday and relaxed in the room for awhile. The neighbors got up about 10 AM and started smoking in a NO SMOKING room. We had an adjoining room and the smoke was pouring into our room from under the door. We called security again and they showed up and told the neighbors that they couldn't smoke (there is a $250 cleaning charge for smoking in a no-smoking room). We heard them behind the door say, "Well, we can't smoke in front of the guard, but what they don't know won't hurt us." Darla was furious and told the front desk that they needed to either move them or us. It didn't happen. we had the cleaning staff drop off a bottle of industrial strength air freshener and stuffed a towel under the adjoining door. We met Jennifer and McKenny, and Neil and Lilly at the Black Bear Diner on Tropicana after picking up Dad and Shirley. We had a great late breakfast and then spent the day with Samantha. We went to the Adventuredome, but only had her ride one ride and promised her a chance to go on Sunday.

 

We again had drinks with Dad and Shirley and Samantha got a chance to open her gifts and then we were off to Maggiano's and dinner on the strip. It was an enjoyable evening and a great dinner. From there, we walked across the street to the Wynn complex. Neil and Lilly were able to see the Wynn properties for the first time and we walked around to the waterfall and took a few pictures. From there, we had to get Sam home and to bed and with the Adventuredome waiting for us on Sunday, Samantha wanted to stay with us again.

 

About ten o'clock, Darla smelled smoke again and commented on it and Samantha said, "So, what are you going to do about it, Grandma?" She was egging Darla on, but I think the smell was just residual. As a matter of fact, I think they had moved out of the room.

 

We got up on Sunday and Darla and Samantha got into a big discussion about God and Jesus and why Grandma was reading the Bible and doing her devotions. Samantha took a bath and Darla and Samantha kept talking and Darla asked her if she wanted to ask Jesus into her heart and she prayed and became a Christian. It was very cute and she shared the news with her Mom later that day. Darla was really jazzed about the discussion and shared the news with all of her Facebook friends.

 

We went down to breakfast and had a really crabby waitress that wouldn't let Samantha have a pancake with her meal instead of toast. We ordered a separate pancake and paid the extra, taking part of it out of the waitress's tip. From there we headed up to the Adventuredome and Jennifer and McKenny joined us after a bit. We bought Sam's wristband and she went on three or four of the kiddie rides before Jennifer and McKenny showed up. Darla and I went up and relaxed in the room and watched some football.

 

We headed over to Dad and Shirley's for drinks and appetizers and watched the Sunday night game. Jennifer had to take McKenny to the airport and get Samantha home and ready for school on Monday. Dad and Shirley and Neil and Lilly joined us and went to Sam's Town for a late dinner and a little bit of gambling.

 

Monday we met Dad and Shirley and Neil and Lilly at Black Bear Diner for a late breakfast and then Neil headed out to Paso Robles. He and Lilly are taking a ride over to Monterey where we will meet them this weekend for golf. We went over to Dad and Shirley's place and visited with them all day. We went up to the pool and enjoyed the 90 degree day poolside. Jennifer and Samantha came over and we cleaned out Dad and Shirley's pantry and loaded up Jennifer's new one.

 

Sam got a little weird when it was time to say goodbye. I think Jennifer's time in California caused Samantha to have a real problem with goodbyes. Darla thinks she has always been a little weird about saying goodbye, but I think it got worse as they had a couple of hard and sad goodbyes over time.

 

Our plane was over an hour late getting out of Vegas and we didn't get home until after 12:30 and I was exhausted all day today. This is an important week as my CEO arrives on Thursday for a visit. I ran the third quarter numbers today and we are up almost 42% in premium for the year and 35% in income year to date. I am up over 14% on my budget numbers and on track to write over $22,700,000 this year and make over $1,250,000 in profit. It is a good time to have a visit from The Man. Many of our offices really struggled this last month as we had outages and computer problems, but my office finished up 35% on the month and 15% above budget.

 

Alan flies in on Net Jets at 9:30 and leaves at 5:00 PM. Darla and I are then off to Capitola that evening for the start of our golf trip. We play Pajaro in Watsonville on Friday and then  Quail lodge Country Club on Saturday and Pasadero Country Club in Carmel on Sunday.

 

The blog will be late next week as we won't get back until late on Sunday. I hope you are all well. we had a blast with everyone this past weekend, look forward to next weekend and still later our trip to Nuevo Vallarta in December. I hear a rumor that Darryl and Cheryl may join us. I'll believe it when I see it. Ciao.