MMArry Christmas Maniacs

The first full day that we were back in L.A. was Christmas Eve. I think we were both a little cranky from all the traveling, and not at all in the mood to begin packing. I won’t go into details, but suffice it to say that there wasn’t much Christmas spirit happening in our home. However, on Christmas day we rallied. Susan made an enormous and delicious holiday feast, and we enjoyed that along with wine and classic holiday films. We didn’t have a tree, or decorations, or even presents, but I think we had a merry Christmas just the same.

On the 26th we finally got around to packing, but that didn’t last long. The 27th was the night of the UFC fight card of the year! Wanderlei Silva and ‘Rampage’ Jackson proved that one or both of them is not the same fighter they were the last two times they stepped into the ring together, ending with ‘Rampage’s’ brutal knockout of Silva. Frank Mir delivered a major upset by not only out boxing Nogueira, but also serving ‘Nog’ the first knockout of his career. Lastly, the main card of the night was a bit of a disappointment to me. Forrest Griffin failed in his first title defense against Rashad Evans. Not only was I cheering for Forrest, but I feel like he got robbed. He clearly won the first two rounds in terms of landing strikes and controlling the fight. Although looking a little more winded than his opponent going into the third round, he was still leading until he accidentally slipped while throwing a kick, at which point Evans pounced on him and quickly finished him. Evans is clearly a really dangerous fighter, but I’ll need to see him pass at least one more serious test before I’m convinced that he’s great.

A few of my good friends managed to come over to watch the fights. After they finished at about 11pm, in his typical fashion, Flo came up with the crazy idea to go to Vegas. Susan had never been, and I’ve got a blog of adventures to maintain, so I said “what the heck, let’s go”!

The four of us (me, Susan, Flo, and Flo’s roommate, Yotam) embarked on the four hour drive at about 11:30pm. We hit the strip about 3:30am, and by about 4:15am Susan and I were each down about $100. Being fairly experienced blackjack players, we quickly decided to move away from that table. Flo suggested we try craps. I’d never played before, and didn’t even know how. I figured it was a good time to learn, because beginner’s luck is common in gambling. Man, was that the right choice. I still don’t really know how to play, but I just copied everything Flo did. It helped that we were at the hottest table in Vegas history! It took me all of a couple hours to win $1200.

Experience has taught me to quit while you’re ahead, which can be difficult with all the temptation in Vegas. Luckily, as Susan had never been there, we were able to have a pretty fun time just walking around the strip and checking out all the cool casino attractions. We ended up checking into a hotel room at about 11am, and getting a few hours rest. Unfortunately, we rested in shifts, so once Susan and I got up again, we had to wait for those other two drunk maniacs to sleep it off. We got back on the road to L.A. at about 11pm - 24 hours older and $1000 richer than when we left. It was a loooooooong drive back, but quite worth it.

P.S. thanks to Flo for the clever title of this entry.