Chicago: More Bars in More Places

Dan, we and the bros could do that at Fogo de Chão some night.

The higher ups in my company go to Vegas on weekends alot for funsies. The owner has a private jet. We also have a project in Vegas, which is just an excuse for them to go there more often.

I think I'll be fine never going to Vegas.

Me too, but if work was going to send me there I think I'd go along with it.

Sarah, would they let you tag along for a weekend if you and Nick just hitched a ride and then did your own thing for the weekend?

I would love to go to Vegas. I have been saying this for years.

I doubt it. They did pay for that (flickr) trip above, but I don't know if I'd like Vegas without someone else's money behind me. I was inspired hearing about your visit to the outer areas though.

There are some fantastic hotel deals there in the off-seasons (October, Jan-March). Especially without gambling it could be an affordable weekend.

BUFFETS AND SUNSHINE

Yeah, if you don't have gambling problem tendencies, just budget a couple hundred or so for the blackjack table and then walk away when you're done. And get free drinks in the meantime. And then go see Elton John or some wacky shit like that.

No more vacays for me this year until Christmas in Asheville, NC. :-(
(Excited about Asheville though!)

just budget a couple hundred or so for the blackjack table
a couple HUNDRED? what planet do you live on?

why asheville, sarah? is the whole fam meeting there for some reason?

a couple hundred is chump change, for reals.

i have been to vegas precisely 3 times. twice on climbing trips to red rocks (one day in vegas proper each time) and once with parents when we flew in on the way to the grand canyon.

i had _____oom infused OJ on one of those college trips, and vegas was *_*

I kind of hate Vegas.

nb - i won approx $125 that night, walking around playing slots randomly. i was wearing hospital scrubs and a track suit top, with a recently shaved head, and was worried for a while that people were going to think i was a mental patient, since that is exactly what i looked like.

xp oh it's awful, for sure. but it's AMERICAN awful, and totally fascinating to me for that reason. i mean, it's KILLING the west.

like, i sort of understand why people get all worked up about dubai and how it's omg over the top, look at all the money and construction and weirdness and then i remember flying into vegas airport and the ensuing hitch out to the desert.

you're going by developments, then there's nothing but streetlights and sidewalk and desert, and then it's just desert. it's like someone just arbitrarily turned off the city.

If you like gambling and risk as much as Kenan says and know when to quit winners, there's always the chance of covering the cost of the trip...

xxxxpost RW OTM, in Vegas a couple hundred is nothing. A $5 blackjack table is a real find, maybe at Mandalay Bay or one of the smaller places on, like, Wednesday morning. At a place like Bellagio, $25 is prolly as low as you can go.

yes, I was in Vegas as part of a crosscountry road trip and it was like whoa where did this all come from and how is it sustaining itself? LA was kind of like that, too, actually.

I have added links to zip files of the first FF album (Fact Friction) and the follow-up Ep (Experimental Cheerleading) to the mp3 page of our website, if anyone wants to download them. If you do, please let me know if the links work or not.

i guess i am probably cheap, but that is not chump change for me

:-/

i truly genuinely cannot bear the thought of losing $200 to a casino

i realize there is a chance that i could win, but that chance is not worth more than $20 to me.

Stay out of Bellagio if you want to leave with your shirt.

xpost Vegas out of a plane window at night is wild. There's no mistaking it. There's NOTHING out there except for this one really, really bright spot.

I think I aloted $10 for myself to gamble with. I lost all of it. ha ha

I thought I would hate vegas, but it was interesting as a cultural phenomenon. I can think of a zillion other places I'd rather go though now that I've been there, done that.

A - Nick's parents moved there from DC when his dad retired. Neither of us have been there before. Since my fam doesn't have a home base, we chose Asheville this year. They'll be staying in a B&B, but our families will converge for a big Christmas Eve dinner. I'll be jumping between the two places. Then my fam will all leave on the 26th and Nick and I will spend the rest of the week hangin' with the ammercrew.

that's good, Amanda! when I was in Vegas I was driven to distraction by the thought of all the money that was going to be lost by the tourists walking around. it's the saddest place I've ever been.

it's not chump change for me either!

i have never gambled more than $40 at a casino! it's just that, as kenan says, if you go to vegas to play blackjack, THAT is your entertainment, so a few hours at a table getting lit on free drinks and maybe winning every now and then is actually worth a couple hundred for lots of people. plus, you've got to spend money to make money.

I think I aloted $10 for myself to gamble with. I lost all of it. ha ha
I also meant to mention that I think I'm prone to addictive behaviors, which is why I've avoided smoking/gambling/drugs like the plague.

I am a bummer and no fun at all, I know. I don't get gambling.

HEY GUYS $200 TOTALLY IS CHUMP CHANGE FOR ME

Give me some of that.

oh it's awful, for sure. but it's AMERICAN awful, and totally fascinating to me for that reason.

Ding ding ding.

How many pop punk bands do you guys think have existed with the name "Chump Change"? Like 40? 70?

Chump, Change (Your Ways)

xpost to hs - I don't get being a problematic gambler, I don't get that at all. But games are fun.

And yeah, that $200 is just part of your vacation budget, no different than setting that amount aside for a dreamt-of meal at a fancy restaurant or whatnot. Of course it's not nothing!

No, I am totally with you, Horseshoe! It just seems sad and depressing and awful. I have no urge to go there if I have to spend my own money -- Sarah's way of seeing it makes a lot of sense to me. I think I would like to see it for like 1 hour and then go somewhere else.

but if you eat a meal, you get to eat a meal! if you gamble you get nothing!

powering vegas is destroying the west's rivers

xp i mean you are all otm. just because i think it's fascinating doesn't mean i don't wish that someone would just go ahead and carpet bomb the whole thing. and hit the hoover dam while they're in the area.

awesome site:

http://www.cheapovegas.com

if you gamble you get nothing!

You get to play a game and sit in a weird, weird place! Your results may vary, obv.

gotta know when to hold 'em
know when to fold 'em

i like the sunshine and buffets. eazy has sold me on vegas.

toby wants to go to the grand canyon. this might be a stupid question, but is it doable year round? or does it actually get cold/snowy in winter?

gambling to "get" money ---> addiction and sorrow
gambling to pass the time, get drinks and chit chat with your tablemates ---> can be fun, but only if the stakes are low (for me)

xp grand canyon in the winter is fully snowy

i mean, at the rim. i think there's something like a 25 degree temp differential between the rim and the base, if not more. but i visited in the spring with my parents, and there was snow on the ground, and it was about 40 degrees up top. you have to remember, it's at 5000-6000 ft (?) or something, and in the desert. that equals cold.

gambling to pass the time, get drinks and chit chat with your tablemates
see, this appeals to me zero

i would rather be at moody's playing cribbage.

i mean, horshoe and gambling not-getters: why do you think men have poker night??? to make a little extra spending money?

$9 pitcher + games + tablemates who have been preapproved by me = much much more appealing.

i understand how someone would find vegas appealing, i guess, it's just that it sounds like an awful, depressing nightmarish waste of time for me. poker night makes a lot more sense than vegas.

(I'm not really arguing with anyone here--there's nothing arguable it seems. there's something aesthetic about the experience of gambling that I've never experienced, I guess.)

Chicago Fire v. Club Deportivo Social y Cultural Cruz Azul
10/10 7:30 PM

Lots of tix still available, looks like.

http://chicago.fire.mlsnet.com/news/team_news.jsp?ymd=20070914&content_id=117203&vkey=pr_chf&fext=.jsp&team=t100

(if anyone's interested)

yeah, of course, rw. I know. it's that aesthetic thing that's unavailable to me.

it's basically the same as sitting around and playing cribbage or whatever with your pals, except with the added dick-measuring of who is able to place large bets, and who walks away with everyone else's money

xp and yeah, vegas /= poker night, for many people, but then again going to vegas with your pals is basically poker night on coke, and with more strippers

(many many xposts)

I'd go to Vegas just to see the insanity, probably wouldn't gamble much if at all, probably wouldn't go back unless someone else was paying for it.