Cousins

  • Bday Weekend

    Went to Reno with Elway, Patchi, Zoey, & Auntie Joyce for my birthday weekend. My parents also came up separately, but they stayed at the Silver Legacy. We stayed at the Grand Sierra Resort, which is off the main "strip" (Virginia St) where all the other big casinos are at. We stayed here because they had a bunch of other stuff to do other than gamble. They had an aquatic driving range, bowling alley, big arcade, and go karts. Last time I'd been there is maybe 14 or 15 years ago when it was still the Hilton. It's essentially the same but remodeled a bit. Our room was nice. I paid a lil extra to get the nice renovated rooms. The bathroom was hella fancy, marble everything, mirrors everywhere, and had a fancy looking faucet. But for how fancy it was, they complete forgot about towel racks. There was one under the sink (why?) for face and hand towels, but every other flat wall surface high enough had mirror on it. Lol

    We really liked the place and would totally go back again. They gave us soo much comps. We didn't pay for any food there. When you first sign up for their player's card, you get at least $5 in free comps. Way & Patch got $10 each!! It was my birthday, why didn't I get more?! Then you accumulate more comps as you play slots or at the tables. And you can use the comps at their food cafe and restaurants. And then we all also got comped a free buffet. So yeah, that was pretty cool.

    Gambling-wise, I lost, as usual. I tried to get my money's worth in jack & cokes and white russians while at the tables, though. But I did win one of two sports bets. The Cleveland Indians ruined my day by beating the A's the ONLY day that I bet on the A's to win (on Saturday. The A's won on Friday and Sunday. WTF!!!) But we did win the "no grand slams" bet (both me & Way bet it). It had us stressing the entire day. Every time a team had the based loaded, we would freak out. But no one hit a grand slam, and we came up. Totally worth it.

    There also happened to be hella stuff going on at the Grand Sierra that weekend. There was a dog show, a gun convention, and the Vegas-to-Reno Race (Desert Off Road Racing) had ended on that Friday. So we saw a bunch of people with dogs, a whole bunch of racing teams, and then hella people walking around with guns (hopefully unloaded!). It was a trip. The entire hotel was booked, and this place is kind of huge. And here I thought my birthday weekend was just any old weekend.

    Sierra Bay Aqua Range

    Panoramic Night View

    I bowled with a nice couple, Royce & Tina

    Royce kicked my ass

    Tina's first time bowling. Here, she's celebrating actually hitting some pins.

    They totally didn't tell me they were going to change their names like that (you had to give your name at the front counter, so they inputted it and I gave my name first, then theirs, and I couldn't change mine after).

    To another year of Good Times!

     

  • 2013 CA State Fair

    Hadn't been to the State Fair in maybe 9-10 years. I forgot how huge Cal Expo (the venue) is. We purposely waited to go in the evening, around 6pm, when the sun had gone down a bit and wasn't too hot. Good times.

    Solano County's booth. 707!!

    Zoe looking hella serious like she's reading the State Fair Guide. Too cute.

    A's fan in the making (daddy reluctant). Gotta start when they're young.

    Weird Al in concert. There were Hella people. You can barely see him in this pic. He's onstage with his accordian.

    "The Works" funnel cake. If this were a 3D picture, that fork would totally be in your face.

    We also had deep fried nutella, which was basically like a deep fried corn dog, but instead of a hot dog inside it was nutella. It was soo nutella-y. They also had a deep fried snickers, but I couldn't partake since it has peanuts :( . We couldn't find the deep fried coke, either.

     

  • Warriors Home Opener

    Continued our annual tradition with Jaymi, except this time with her entire fam since it was Uncle's birthday. Unfortunately, the losing tradition continued also, as the Warriors lost to the Grizzlies, 104-94. At least this year it wasn't a heartbreakingly close game till the end, like it was the past couple of years. Oh well, maybe next year.

    view from seats

    The glowsticks that were giving out at the door

    Blackout during the Warriors intro, just the yellow glowsticks