My brother and I like to play the horses. Usually we'd fly out to a racetrack but this time we figured to save the airfare and just gamble at a sportsbook. So Saturday off we went to the Rio and we did decently, breaking even, hitting a few exactas. All day long our strategy of throwing out the favorite horse to focus on the rest of the field paid off. The favorite kept getting nudged out of Win and Place - nice! What did us in was we decided to go out with a bang. Three races within 3 minutes. We decided to take our profits and go for it. If we hit any of the races - steak for dinner. If we lost all three - McDonalds - but what were the odds?

Three races - three losses. Every time we picked the winner and third. Every time. But now to the point.

You go to a casino in Vegas and you're going to come out stinking like a cigarette. Showering doesn't help - the stink stays in your nose for days. I admit I was downright stupid for going into a casino with my sinus/bronchial condition. I couldn't breathe and my menthol tablets kept me going for about fifteen minutes.

So on Sunday we went back to the Rio before I had to go to the airport to return home. We had just enough time to pick some winners, except it weren't going to happen. Ten races we bet; ten races we lost. Every single race the heavy favorite won. Every.single.race. And dumb us we refused to take the clue until it was too late. It wasn't our day and until our wallet were empty did we learn the lesson. But now to the point.

Most flights these days are non-smoking. Hooray!!! Except you must realize that darn near any flight coming out of Vegas will be a smoking flight. From Vegas to Burbank is only 45 minutes but for someone like me with a nose problem it was 45 minutes of hell. The re-circulating air slowly brought out the cigarette smell from everyone's clothes, with the intensity increasing. By the time we landed, mind you only a short time after takeoff, there was a noticeable distinction in air quality.

Hey Vegas! You have a bazillion casinos being built. How about a non-smoking one - PLEASE?

Sideways
I had a chance to see this film over the weekend. Great film. As my brother put it - "It's a nice buddy film" and he's right. A simple plot with relatively simple characters, well told, well filmed, funny and painful. Recommended for having both color and sound. (I don't see many films...)

HST and Scooby Doo
Iowahawk uncovers lost Scooby Doo/Hunter S Thompson show. I've always wondered what was in those scooby snacks. Now I'll never know.