Katie Über Alles

A Downswinging Degenerate's Guide to AC

It's funny how some of us bitch and moan about spending an extra $2 on coffee but will gladly shove $$$ in on a draw or bluff.  I discovered a great new "deal" in AC this past trip, so I figured I would compile a bunch of the deals I know about to share with my lucky readers.  To quote: Dawn Summers, " How are you not paying me for this!" ;)

1) McCormick and Schmick's right next to the Harrah's poker room has a 10pm-12am happy hour.  I love M+S, but I don't usually eat gourmet meals in AC.  I think I can count the number of times I have on one hand...  As far as I know, they just started doing this, but they have some great CHEAP food deals if you are a degenerate and do not eat dinner until 10pm anyways.  How's about a $4 giant, fresh-made hamburger?  This has to be one of the best deals in AC.

2) Free breakfast at Harrah's poker room.  The first time I was in the poker room at 5am and saw them wheel in a tray filled with danishes and bagels with cream cheese I thought I must be crazy.  What kind of casino gives away free stuff?  Sure enough, it's a free breakfast for their players.  It goes fast, but....free!!!

3) Red Door Spa at Harrah's.  I love Red Door Spas.  I discovered a hairdresser that I really like at the one at Harrah's (Sam).  They also have one of the nicest spa areas of any fancy spa I've ever been to (including Canyon Ranch at the Venetian).  Why is a spa listed under saving money at a casino?  Cause you can use your comps there 1:1.  You heard it here first.  I've been doing it for about a year.

4) Obv...free rooms at Harrah's midweek are the nuts.  People at the Borgata were so excited about $79 midweek poker rates...well, who needs that when you can get free rooms at Harrah's in their brand new Waterfront Tower, complete with flat screen tv, GIANT shower, and really comfy beds.  Get a player's card and start getting offers.  Seriously... I am platinum (soon to be Diamond) now, but I got offers when I was Gold too.

5) Breakfast at the deli!  This is not so much a deal as something new I discovered... The Harrah's deli now does breakfast!  Eggs, bacon, sausage, etc.  It's not on their menu board but it is on the order yourself machines.

No, Harrah's did not pay me to write this post.  I wish they had, but no...I'm just a fan.  Considering they own the majority of casino properties in AC, getting a player's card is a no brainer.  Do it.

Random trip to Gettysburg

Excuse my maudlin nature earlier in the week.  Soon after, I pulled myself out of slump with the assistance of some friends.  I was also reminded of my own catchphrase: it could always be worse.  Indeed.  I have my health; I'm smart; I have awesome family and friends... everything else is just not worth worrying about (says the natural born worrier).

So, yesterday I felt the need to get out of the house.  If you know me, you know I am prone to boredom and love to take little random trips.  I'll wake up in the morning and think "I should drive to Cleveland to go see the RNR HOF!"  It's one of my charming quirks.  ;)

Ever since Al, Jen, and Dan came to DC for poker week at the end of July, I've been thinking I should really get downtown and see the new Newseum.  I also have a list of things that have somehow eluded me seeing them in the 13+ years I've lived here.  Did I do either one of those?  No, I decided to go to Gettysburg instead.  

I'm a Civil War buff and I have been since like 8th grade (here is where Billy would sing the nerd song, LOL).  I've been to every major Civil War battlefield at least once, and a lot of Revolutionary ones too (thank you traveling to random places for work!).  The last time I was at Gettysburg was on my high school senior class trip though, so I thought I'd give it another go.  It's actually not far at all from MD...I got there in about 1.5 hours.  I packed a picnic, put my convertible roof down, and set off to PA for the day.

First off, I was surprised by how crowded it was on a random Thursday in October.  It was me and all the retirees, but I had to park in the third overflow parking lot.  They have a new visitors center which is really nice, including a new movie with Sam Waterston and Morgan Freeman and a new set up for the cyclorama, which is really amazing.

Then I picked up the self-tour audio cds and set about driving all over the battlefield.  What a great way to spend a few hours on a gorgeous fall afternoon.  Recommended.  If you do the self-drive, make sure you get out, especially at Devil's Den and Little Roundtop.  The views of the PA countryside were amazing.

Next up on my fall random trips list: Appomattox, Skyline Drive, Monticello (which amazingly I have never been to before!)

Pics from my parents' boat trip

So jealous.  It's the worst when you are invited to go somewhere for free and you can't swing it.

Dad with some crazy huge fish.  I'm excited to go fishing when I go home in July.

Mom at the helm.

The captain looks like he's in the process of giving an order.

Salmon that my dad caught.  This is what makes me super jealous.  You don't know good until you've eaten fresh salmon.

Grilling giant oysters.  Again, jealousy.

In which my love for Harrah's grows

I'm headed out to Vegas for a week this summer with Keenan and Nelly and can hardly wait.  Eventhough all three of us are on a shorter leash than normal this summer, money-wise, I know we're still gonna have a good time.  All three of us are the kind to make our own party wherever we go.  And since at least two of us are insomniac vampires, Vegas, a true 24/7 city, is teh awesome.

Anyways, a little while back I was pricing out airfare.  We're gonna be in the craziness from June 26-July 1.  But airfare and flight times on the 26th sucked.  A lot.  So I investigated my options.  I could save a boatload of money, leave at a better time, and fly on my preferred airline (which means free upgrades to first class) if I left a day before everyone else.  So guess what I did?  Damn skippy, I booked a flight for the 25th.

But now the dilemma of where to stay that wouldn't wipe out my airline savings?  At first I just contemplated playing in a poker room somewhere until my partners-in-degeneracy arrived.  But that could be a risky strategy given that I'm on a budget and have adopted a new style of bankroll management this summer while I try to actually pay some bills with my pokering monies.  And the fact that I'd have to hang at the casino for a good 24 hours before anyone showed up...maybe even longer until we got our swanky suite at the Palazzo.  Doable, but I'd prefer not to.

I've been looking around and the best I could find anywhere was $130 at MGM (poker room rate, which would mean I would have to play 4 hours there.  Likely not a problem, but...  not the best deal).  Decided to call up Harrah's and give them my number to see if they could hook me up.  And not only did they hook me up, they hooked me up in style.

So on the night of the 25th, I'll be staying at the Rio...at a very discounted rate.  Huzzah! 

Roadtrips, family, etc.

I've mentioned that I'm thinking about road tripping out to the west coast this summer to see some friends out there and on the way.  Road trips have always been a big part of my life, especially in the summers. 

E.g.: 

• reminiscing about some of the road trips of my youth
• a roadtrip I took up to MA for my friend John's wedding
  
• a research roadtrip I took around the state of Illinois a few years ago
• brainstorming for a roadtrip that never happened
• and the description of what we did instead: driving from LA to Vegas and back
• several roadtrips undertaken before I had a blog (or a car for that matter), including an unauthorized one to West Palm Beach, FL (lots of good stories came out of that one)

At any rate, it's pretty obvious I like to drive.  It clears my head.  And I could use some head clearing.

So I've been thinking about what route I would take, how many days I can realistically be on the road, etc, etc. and was reminded of my uncle's website detailing his year-long roadtrip all around the US, New Zealand, and Australia (if you ever get bored, definitely check his website out...lots of interesting stories).  Can you tell road tripping and wanderlust runs in my family?

And while checking out his website, I came across this memorial to my paternal grandpa (scroll down to where it says "Donald J. Leu  (1923 - 2002)" and read on).  Figured I'd link to it in honor of Memorial Day (no, my grandpa didn't die in combat, but he was a veteran, and he's now dead). This is my grandpa who instilled a love of cards in me, as there was not much else to do on his boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean besides read, play cards, and stare at the sea.

Philly

Had a good impromptu trip to Philly last night with Anne.  I met up with her at our hotel and then we cabbed over to Tattooed Mom, a really awesome bar with friendly people and great ambiance.  It reminded me a lot of a coffee shop on Syracuse's campus that I used to hang out at in high school when we were not in the mood to hang out in someone's basement or the local diners...lots of couches and comfy places to just chill and have a beer.  Anne also introduced me to blueberry flavored vodka, which is definitely something I'm going to have to pick up the next time I'm at a liquor store.  I bet it would be really good with Red Bull.

After we closed down the bar, we had an interesting walk back to our hotel which included conversations with three random groups of people...something that probably would not happen in DC...unless you were on the last metro train home. 

When we finally woke up and checked out around noon, we headed to a brick-oven pizza place around the corner and had some really great pizza.  In my opinion, good pizza starts with a good crust, and the crust on this pizza was perfect.  Crispy and chewy all at once.  As we people watched and ate our pizza, I was again reminded of how un-city like DC is in so many respects.  It's hard to find good pizza around here and there certainly aren't any Mom and Pop pizza places where you could show up on a Sunday after a night of drinking.

After pizza, Anne took me to Monk's, a bar known for it's Belgian beers, and I had a pint of their own Belgian sour ale which was really unlike anything I'd ever tasted before.  Kinda sweet and sour beer.  Interesting.  After that, we called it a day.  I ended up getting home around 3, popping in a few of the dvds I had from Netflix, and getting some school work done. 

One of my friends from college is from Philly and he is always talking off someone's ear about how great his hometown is.  Every time I go to Philly I am reminded that he is right.

What does it mean to be British?

A great article for any Anglophile on how the Brits are trying to institutionalize a British identity can be found here.  Scholars of identity politics might also be interested.

Vacation 2008

Anyone who knows me knows I love to travel.  Jeff is not so much into the spontaneous thing, but a few years ago I did convince him to go to London with me on a few days notice, so he is working on it.  ;)

School has limited my ability to travel last minute during the off-season (i.e. the time when you can get good deals), and next summer I am probably going to be in Michigan for a large part of the summer  (a month or two) for a summer statistics program, so even my downtime is limited.  On top of that, I'm planning to take my primary field comprehensive exam in August, just before school starts.  We did just decide on what to do for our 2008 summer vacation though - we're going on another cruise!

We're booked right now into a cabin with a balcony (splurge) on Adventure of the Seas, leaving from San Juan, PR (some place I've always wanted to see) and stopping at Aruba, Curacao, St. Maarten, and St. Thomas.  The ship looks awesome and it's a full 7 day cruise.  I'm very excited.  My passport expires in April - must remember to renew it soon.

Mike and Mircalla's wedding wrap up

Got into the Oakland airport just before midnight Thursday night.  Jeff was already out here for a conference so he picked me up and we went to the hotel.

Next morning I get a call from Jordan, asking if we want to meet up with him and Aaron to get some food and romp around the city.  We get ready and decide to meet them in the Haight for burritos at Zona Rosa and a trip to Amoeba Records.  After Aaron and I went through Amoeba pulling stuff out of bins that the other person had never heard of before and boring Jordan and Jeff, we headed to a few used clothing stores and had fun making fun of some of the stuff we found.  Jeff wasn't feeling well so he took a cab back to the hotel.  Jordan, Aaron, and I drove to the beach and then went to the Golden Gate Park to check out the Japanese Tea Gardens.

After running back to the hotel to change for the wedding, we headed to the Presidio, where the wedding was.  It was a nice ceremony and I got to catch up with old friends who were rumoured to be there (Vinnie, Doug, and Sara - all former P+Vers - aka people who lived on the same floor as Mircalla, Aaron, Jordan, and me freshman year).  Sara had her 8 month old with her (1 of 2!) and she was super mommy - glass of wine in one hand, baby in the other.  Gretchen and Lisa, two of mine and Mircalla's sorority sisters, were at our table as well.  It seemed like people hadn't really changed that much except for Sara and Doug who are now very much parents.  Vinnie was wearing a fabulous green suit, with white and blue polka dotted shirt and a white tie.  He had apparently moved out to SF that day - still had all his stuff in his car. (!)

The reception was at a really nice yacht club overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.  And even though we were all at the stereotypically rowdy college table, we got a great location with a fabulous view at our table.  Food was also great - burritos and Anchor Steam at the bar (East coasters might be thinking - "burritos?  at a wedding?"  but if you are thinking this, you have likely never had a California burrito and you also probably do not know Mircalla).  Jordan was worried there would be no dancing, but I knew Mircalla's wedding would have to have dancing...and sure enough there was.  The college table and the Vegas girls all got rowdy on the dance floor.

Right before the last dance, Jeff came back from taking Aaron and Sara back to their hotels, and we headed out ourselves.  Some 8 year old kid followed me out of the reception, and when we got to our car he said: "Mommy what are you doing?"  Uhhhhhhh?  I guess it's a good party when someone else's child follows you out thinking you are their mother.  :)

I sadly left my camera in our hotel room, so you all will have to wait for pictures.  Leilani promised to send some.

A Few Pics from Vegas

At a bar before we hit Pollyesters.

Dinner at Craftsteak - yummy.

Me, Mircalla, and Lisa

Before hitting the town.