Well…..a lot of time has passed since my last post but not a lot has happened. A little time in Vegas, a little time sick in bed

We got done moving me up to LA. All my stuff that isn’t going to China is in storage and everything else is here in Santa Monica. My parents were a great help and made the day a pain instead of utter hell. I woke up at 530am, showered, drove to the airport, got weather, preflighted, pulled the plane out, and took off at 7am with Kevin Lovell for Santa Monica (KSMO). The weather was IFR so we punched through a small cloud layer to sunny skies on top. At Santa Monica, there was another low cloud layer and we shot the full VOR-A approach landing just before 8am. Kevin got his first real taste of IFR flying and loved it. We pulled up to the typhoon restaurant and picked up my dad (who was waiting) without ever stopping the engine. As Kevin taxied back to the runway, I got an IFR clearance home and we took right off. We landed back in San Diego (KMYF) just after 9am, put the plane away, and took off around 930am.

It was then back to the apartment. While we were flying, my mom picked up a U-Haul that was waiting for us when we got back. We loaded everything into the truck, loaded my car, and finished cleaning the apartment. My dad took off in the u-haul for LA, my mom dropped me off at the airport and I flew the Mooney up to LA while she drove my car.

In Santa Monica, we unloaded my car at dad’s house and got everything out of the truck that wasn’t going to storage. We then headed over to the storage unit (which just happened to be the perfect size) and loaded it up, and finally returned to my dad’s house around 8pm for pizza and much needed sleep.

The next day, we returned the U-Haul around 8am, then the limo came to the house at 9am to pick dad, my step mom Krista, my 3 month old brother Michael, and the nanny Ginger up for Vegas. Here is a picture of my dad loading their HEAP of luggage into their limo:

They of course were running late and didn’t depart until I did at around 11am. I headed down to Supermarine, preflighted the plane, and took off from Santa Monica for North Las Vegas (VGT). There was a slight marine layer so I picked up an IFR clearance and punched through the clouds to sunny skies on top and started my climb to 11,500 feet. During climb, my first failure of the day occurred. My iPod died and despite my best efforts, failed to restart. DOH!

The flight was great….beautiful clear skies, no turbulence, and almost no traffic the entire away. I landed in Las Vegas and the Rio had a limo waiting for me on the tarmac to take me to the hotel. This was really good because my cell phone had died–failure number 2 of the day. I quickly put the plane to bed and hopped in the limo as it was 100000 degrees on the ramp. When I got to the palazzo, Paul and Lee were already there, with about 14 tons of booze for the draft. For those of you that don’t know, this was the weekend of my dad’s fantasy football draft–aka 12 out of shape brokers drinking, smoking cigars, and picking some of the most finely tuned athletes for their fantasy teams. The three of us had lunch, and played some black jack while we waited for my dad to show up. Their limo finally arrived 3 hours later (god I love being able to fly my own plane ):

They unloaded their stuff into their room and the baby/nanny room and we hit the craps tables after a few pictures in our palazzo:

We had a good little session and everyone was up when we came back to the room for the order selection. All the brokers took turns picking from 12 cards labeled 1 through 12 to determine the draft order. We had s0me drinks and antipasti in the room and then a group of us headed down to Antonio’s–an Italian restaurant at the Rio. There were about 10 of us so we got our own room. I ordered the wine for the table (like usual)–a nice pinot noir followed by one of my favorite Brunello di Montalcinos. For dinner, I had an insalata caprese (mozzarella, tomato, and basil salad) followed by a vitello pizzaiollo (breaded veal over angel hear under melted mozzarella and tomato sauce). The dinner went well, but the craps session afterwards was HORRIFIC. We lost a ton before we went back to the room to meet my sister Rachel and her boyfriend Scott who got in late from Chicago (around 1130pm). Due to the big loss, we decided to call it an early night.

The next day was rather sedate. We had a family breakfast down at the cafe. Then I had a 90 minute massage followed by a steam / jacuzzi in the spa. I returned to the suite to find the guys into the draft big time. Pizza / drinks at the draft for a few hours. Then a short quick losing craps session followed by dinner at Antonio’s (again) with the family, my dad’s new partner Ron, and his wife. I had the same Brunello, another caprese, and a plate of hot antipasti. Afterwards, we got killed again at craps, dad and Krista went home, and Rachel, Scott, and I went across the street to play some low-limit black jack since Rachel really didn’t know how to play. We got cleaned out at black jack and went to bed.

Sunday morning we ordered a great breakfast into the room with the family, Ron, and his wife. We then took some photos in the suite of my 3 month old brother Mikey and us:
Michael, Rachel, and Me:

Michael smiling:

We then went for a quick swim in our private pool and had room service bring us lunch poolside:

Then it was off to a concert. Our neighbor across the street, Gordon Devol, is a singer. Music runs in the family and his sister, Luana DeVol, is a world famous opera singer. Every year, their family has a concert where everyone eats, drinks, and performs for fun. We were lucky enough to be invited. The singing was amazing and the atmosphere was unmatched. Even dad, Krista, and Rachel all took turns playing the piano. Here is a cute picture of Mikey and Krista in the elevator on the way to the limo:

After dinner, we went to Caesar’s Palace where there are more craps tables so that we could all play together undisturbed. We had a terrible session and were almost bust until Rachel took hold of the dice and threw them for about 30 minutes and brought us WAY up. The cool thing was that she was throwing a TON of doubles and all our hardway bets were paying off . Typical virgin-shooter luck I guess

When we got back from Caesars, the adults went to bed and we headed up to the 51st floor of the Rio to see the strip from the voodoo lounge. The view was awesome, but we didn’t stay long and went back to the room to watch DVDs.

Monday morning, we did breakfast in the room again before Rachel and Scott had to leave. Afterwards, Dad, Krista, and I decided to take Mikey in the pool for a quick swim:

Afterwards, they wanted to leave before 11am, but didn’t get on the road until 2pm. I had a nice long shower, lunch in the room, and then left at 215pm. The flight home was great. When I got to Santa Monica, supermarine was PACKED! There were more jets there than I have ever seen….guess the holiday weekend really jams it up. I finally parked the plane and got my car and was home around 5pm. The limo hit traffic BIG TIME and didn’t get back till nearly 10pm! (once again….I LOVE FLYING MY OWN PLANE!!!!!!)

Tuesday, I woke up VERY sick. I guess 4 days in smokey Las Vegas, drinking tons and not sleeping will do it. The crappy thing is that I NEED to study for the LSAT. I have been sick for the last few days and keep hoping that I will wake up better and can get back to studying

Until then,
I’ll be in bed