Celebrated 30th birthdays with my college/high school buddies this year. First was in Austin in April, next was St. Louis for Memorial Day, last was mine in July. Everybody managed to get laid (varying degrees of unexpectedness) for their birthdays, which was cool.

Went to New Orleans in June with my sister, came in on a Saturday and left Monday late afternoon. It was the weekend of the creole tomato, Louisiana seafood, and zydeco music festivals, so lots of locals were out eating, drinking, and dancing. It was a ton of fun, got to see the Quarter when it's not ridiculously packed, saw the devastation of the (lower) ninth ward, ate a ton of good food (props to MiLa), bonded with my sister.

Then a couple weeks later I went out to Las Vegas for the July 4th weekend again with my sister, and my brother joined us this time. We did a ton of stuff and had a great time. Got out there Wednesday night (late), drove out to the Grand Canyon Thursday (hiked out on the Cedar Ridge trail a bit). We gambled Friday afternoon with some of my sister's friend's friends, and went clubbing with them that night. It always pays off to work the quiet girls.

Which reminds me of a question I wanted to ask. If you're banging some chick and she asks what you want or "like to do", am I supposed to have some sort of ready answer? Because honestly, playing with tits and fucking is pretty hard to beat as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway back to Vegas, Saturday we spent the afternoon at the pool and went out and did more gambling that night, after the buffet at the Bellagio for dinner. Craps is definitely my game. If you can find a hot table - it's the one where people are cheering, clapping, high-fiving, etc, you can make some real money. A drunk guy celebrating something can be pretty lucky too. Avoid Indian (Asian) at any cost, or at least, bet don't pass. But do so quietly. Betting don't pass can bring down some bad luck on the whole table. All these things I learned and a few lucky hands of blackjack made me about $100 over the weekend, not bad considering I wasn't expecting to win anything. Sunday we drove out to the Hoover Dam, came back and ate dinner at Lotus of Siam (slightly disappointing - execution was off), then went to see Cirque de Soleil's  Mystere at Treasure Island. That was pretty awesome, definitely worth the ticket price. Afterwards I made some money playing craps and then we called it a night. Monday we were flying back, but before that we drove out to the Gun store and everybody shot automatic weapons at their indoor range. My brother and I shot a SAW, a 2 second burst rifle, and an M9 semiautomatic. My sister shot a 12 gauge and an AK47 :)

Found out a week ago last Wednesday my mom had cancer. I guess they caught it early because it affected her like menstrual stuff. So she had surgery Wednesday, hysterectomy and such, and we think they got everything out. She's at home now (goes back to find out for sure today if they got it all) and doing alright. That was a pretty miserable week though. I was really scared. I definitely need my mom.

So I've been working out like an animal lately, two days of olympic lifts and two days powerlifting a week, sometimes rock climbing or other exercise on Saturdays. I have a total crush on this girl at the gym that I've gone rock climbing with, but I'm totally inept at like conveying that to her. She probably thinks I'm not even interested. Anyway I've gotten tons stronger and I even look it these days. My deadlift is up to 405 for 5, squat is 275. 

I've also been eating really good lately, and drinking a lot of sake. One of the foodies I know is a sake sommelier (possibly the only one in Texas right now) and he's held some sake tastings. Plus I've been going out to eat with chowhounds and other foodies, as well as just driving myself around to various restaurants, dives, and farmer's markets.

I checked out "The Impressionists" exhibit at the Kimbell art museum in Fort Worth Friday, I highly recommend that to anybody nearby.

Work still sucks, I'm bored today, hence the diary. Next week I go to Sanibel Island for our yearly family vacation, moved from the Outer Banks of the 3 years prior.

oh yea, Intervention is definitely the best show on TV right now :D