Sorry to not have political humor; I have something in draft form, but I haven't had time to finish it. I will soon. In the future, I'll try to have guest bloggers during times like this. Also, I will be posting this weekend since they're just more work days for me. BTW, I forgot to mention that In-N-Out Burger was excellent; thanks for pointing out that they're nearby.

Anyhoo, today, it was get up and go to the conference, and, by the time I got back, it's so late that there's no time left except for drinking and gambling.

Well, not quite, actually. When I get back to my hotel, the power is out. For our little impromptu meeting, I needed my laptop, so I headed to my floor and had to find my room in pitch black, which meant letting my hand feel the walls as I walked until I reached a room number which I then had to read by touch.

When I got back to the lobby, no drinking and smoking for our meeting because they decided to stop serving drinks until the power was back (don't want drunks stumbling around in the dark) and I forgot to bring cigars.

Luckily, power comes on half-way through our meeting. Then I decided to play more of that Monopoly game. After I was up $43.85, I got tired of it; the damn thing just keeps spitting money at me. Time to play some blackjack like a big boy.

Put eighty bucks on the table (got carded), bet the minimum of five, and got two black jacks in a row. I my total jumped up and down a lot during the night (though never far below what I started with), and they kept serving me drinks until I couldn't do simple addition.

Luckily, the dealer was really nice and told me what to do... especially with the dreaded 16. She told me you either hit on a sixteen everytime or you stay everytime. I decided I'm the guy who hits everytime. I also happened to lose everytime I had a sixteen. Well, that's statistics.

I got a ton of blackjacks, and I seemed to get them everytime I got frustrated and bet more than usual. When I finished what I decided to be my last beer, it was time to end the night. So I put on the table all I was up plus forty bucks... my logic being that, even if I lost I, would still be up a couple bucks for the night from the Monopoly game. I don't know how many chips were risked, but it was a large stack.

And I got a sixteen.

Dammit. Well... I always hit on sixteen. That's what I decided earlier on, so that what I did.

And I got a four.

Yeah, baby! Doubled that stack, tipped the dealer a $25 chip, and cashed out. $165 dollars (up another $85).

Gambling results so far: Up $190.35

Since I started out only risking ten bucks of my own money (I simply didn't have it in the budget to risk more than a couple bucks gambling), I think that's pretty good.

Also, I would like to defend my frick'n retard coworkers. The Ford F150 has an exteneded bed and is longer than your average bus. And, while Dr. J has hit a curb on pretty much every turn, he has never actually hit another car or person (though he came within milimeters of a baby carriage). My other coworker, the Greek, at least bought me a shot of whiskey yesterday after the combination of his navigation and Dr. J's driving almost got me killed.

I'll close the comments to the caption contest and pick a winner when I'm less tipsy. Until later, be honorable, ronin.