In the cool shade of the banana tree

It's been a few weeks since the last update so I'll fill you in on what's been happening: Owens moves out of his parent's house and my first trip to Atlantic City.

Owens' new house
After a long stint at his parent's house, Owens decided to move out and into this old house in Manassas. It seemed simple enough but nothing he does is simple. First off, the house was in terrible condition. The whole house was filthy, smelly, and probably hadn't been painted in over 20 years.

He takes it upon himself to clean the place up. Mike spends the first two weeks of February cleaning and painting. Luckily, his family and friends chipped and he was able to move in. [I spent a lovely Saturday night painting the trim in the living room, damn I'm a good friend.] Otherwise, I think he would still be hard at it. I'll get some pictures of the before and after just to show how bad the place looked.

Well, we get him moved in and of course what else do you do when you move in. What else do you do but throw a party? We snagged a keg after driving to every grocery store in the Hole. [Note: If you didn't know, Manassas isn't a party town.] The usual characters show up for the party: Joe the Jew, Zazz, Marcus, KT, Traci, Jill, Paradise, Emmy, the Brothers Owens (Tom and Jeff) and a few others.

Granted this wasn't a big party but a keg more than makes up for it. Sadly, we didn't finish the keg off, but that doesn't mean we didn't try. I woke up the next morning feeling like I got hit by a bus. The beer was flowing like water and apparently I thought I was stranded in the Sahara in dire thirst.

The Atlantic City trip
So last Saturday, Tim, Casey, and 7 other guys went to AC. We wanted to send our buddy Mike off on a high note before he left for the army. What better way than gambling in a casino and watching women dance naked for dollar bills.

The evening starts on a high note, Tim and I went to the Wild Wild West casino and got in on a hot craps table. [Which is a lot for me since I'm not much of a gambler.] A guy to our right was placing all kinds of bets: hard 6s, 8s, the Horn, 6, 8, 9 , 10. The guy was making a killing. Tim and I saw him pocket like $1500 and then just made other bets with his profits. Talk about a hot hand in a dice game. Well we had to meet the other guys so we cashed out. I ended up $60 and I think Tim was about even.

We head back to the Sands to meet the rest of the group and head to the strip club. Talk about a sketchy place. Its one of those BYOB joints that has a bar strategically located right beside it. [I'd imagine the owners of each establishment are pretty good buddies.] Anyways, we wait in line for about 20 minutes and finally head in.

It has all the characteristics of your typical strip joint: dim lighting, half naked women, and shitloads of drunken guys flinging dollar bills. At first, it doesn't seem to be that great of place, the girl dancing wasn't too attractive and probably wasn't in the best of shape, but what do you expect when you are in dirty ass Jersey.

Oh, Fee, you're trying to live a life
That's completely free.
You're racing with the wind
You're flirting with death
So have a cup of coffee
And catch your breath

BTW - for those that didn't notice, the countdown to the OBB3 is now located under the About Me section.