Thanks to Dan for this one… and a little reference to a similar loss for Dan

If any of you have heard about my epic trips to Las Vegas then you’ve certainly learned of my fondness for Gilly’s. Well that has all come to a close now. I knew the New Frontier was on it’s way out, just didn’t know when. Gilly’s had some of the strongest, cheapest drinks in town along with a wonderful country music atmosphere and the ever popular “bikini bull riding”. I always found it to get raunchier each time around. It was great for cheap (relatively) entertainment. I remember once when Mason even got to be a judge… R.I.P Gilly’s

Well, Guitar Hero has finally arrived. J and I were able to thrash early.. or late as it were. Battle mode is pretty f’n cool, whether it be co-op or head to head. My band name is “Taint Ed Saint”. A little play on words. I’m whipping right through the sets on Easy. It’ll be time to up the ante soon.

The Commander’s birthday was good. It was fun to see him walking around and interacting with another child close to his age. Nice work on the party Courtney and Jason

The Dettloff’s had another fantastic Halloween party. Me, Tina, Chris, and Kathryn went as some characters from Saved By The Bell. Screech, Jesse, Zach, and Kelly respectively. The contest winner was none other than Hulk Hogan. Wonderful job done by Ped. The crew from Anchorman showed up, Fletch made an appearance, as did Steve Irwin (with sting ray intact).

Perhaps some of you have been wondering where I’ve been (on-line). Well it seems IM is no longer allowed while under “the man’s” supervision. I didn’t block you or anything. You’ll have to catch me via e-mail or SMS.

Big Monday night game too. Go Pack!

I am trying to procure myself and Tina a pair of tickets to Lambeau Field for the game on 11/11. While I can appreciate and certainly enjoy a trek to the motherland, ticket prices become more and more outrageous every day.

Brokers sell them for way to high of a price for anyone to reasonably consider buying them. I feel like they (in kahoots with the Packer organization) create a artificial perception of high demand and low supply to drive prices up. The Packers say “whoa, tickets are sold out and we have this ridiculous waiting list”, while in turn sell thousands of tickets to brokers who fetch 6x face value for these tickets. You think they ain’t working together? Just a theory, but I bet I’m not far off. Of course, the Packers get their cut while the brokers are stuck selling tickets at face or less at kickoff time. Oh well, deserves em right.

The reason I bring that up is because I was talking to Dan (if he had a blog, I would link it here) the other day about tickets to the big game as we have made the trek several times and it’s been a great time. I mentioned that I seemed to remember days in the late 80’s when tickets were pretty much given away. The reason I say this is because my dad and I went to many games. Or so it seemed. I can only imagine how it was several years earlier when GB was even worse. Probably didn’t have any blackouts though! Makes me wonder if a certain pending retirement might boost my spot in the season ticket line

I’ll try to make a long story short…

I went to get my hair cut over lunch today and my primary location was no longer!  I even looked online before I went to find something closer to work.  I didn’t find anything, nor was my location listed.  I thought nothing of it, but when I drove by the signs were gone and I didn’t have a goto.  I was pissed since I needed a haircut badly.

I got back to work and started talking to BT as I know that he cuts his own hair.  I have some experience cutting my hair back in the high school days but it  didn’t include the “fade” which is what I need now.  Any way he convinced me to go back to the home haircut and buy myself a clippers.

Well I cut my hair along with some help from LBT  Its not too bad.  I think it’ll take a few more tries to really hone in the skills, but now that I am saving myself roughly $300/year I don’t care all that much.

Final regular season game of volleyball tomorrow.  Let’s keep this shit going!  And Happy Birthday BT ! and Mom!

On a side note… When will I get back to Vegas!?

I just need to post and write a few things down, so here it goes.

1) Tina got a new car tonight. A 2004 Mitsubishi Endeavor. It’s a nice mid-sized SUV. It makes me want a new car, but I’ll wait a bit and save some more cash. Good for her!

2) If you didn’t already know I am moving on in my career. I am leaving President Homes and going to a place called Penchant Software. They are a true IT company, something I’ve always longed for. They are smaller (12 people) but with half of them being developers, it’s gotta be good. I am excited about the change and the opportunities that will arise there.

3) I swear I came up with one of the greatest ideas (albeit, it’s strictly hobby and won’t make me a millionaire). Look for announcements in the coming months. Granted when it comes to outside, DIY type endeavors, I am not the greatest with execution as I tend to have many things going on, but this one might really be fun for me too.

4) I’m really hoping to hit the powerball tomorrow night. That will negate #2 and leave me plenty of time and yearning for #3, as well as facilitate #1. Sounds like a win win win.

5) Speaking of wins, I am looking forward to volleyball playoffs which being this Thursday. Hopefully we can do some damage. Problem is two of our players are gone the second week… Hutch? You around? We need you and a girl

6) Oh yeah, I’m pumped about my first ever Fantasy Football money league. It’s a keeper league, I guess I walked into an open spot. I am lucky enough (hopefully) to keep Joseph Addai and Ocho Cinco, along with getting the third pick in the draft. Hopefully LJ comes to his senses, I’d hate to have to pick Frank Gore or Sean Alexander.

7) I’ve enjoyed watching the Brewers and Cubs battle it out in the NL Central this second half of the season, but mark my words, St. Louis will win the division.

In closing… Go Pack Go!

Well the time has come and gone.  I am now a married man and have enjoyed everyone minute of it so far.  Thanks Tina!

The wedding went off without a hitch.  I was a bit nervous beforehand but once we got into the ceremony it was all good.  Thanks to everyone for making the trek and showing your support.  I’d also like to thank my parents, Tina’s parents, the bridal party, and since they are my boys I’ll name my party, Jason M (best man), Dan F, Chris A, Carl G, Jason S, and Ben K.

The reception was great.  Although it went quite fast.  Thanks to J again for a great speech.  I couldn’t even foul him up with the “go sign”.

Now for the honeymoon…. I surprised lbt  (a lot of good that tinagillen.com domain does now, eh?) with a trip to Maui.  I told her when we got back to the hotel after the reception.  She was quite excited (which I was expecting).

We flew out on Monday morning.  After a flight to Seattle, a layover spent at the bar, and finally landing in Maui we were relieved, tired, and excited all at the same time.  We picked up our rental car which was a mustang convertible.  By the time we were driving to Kaanapali it was dark.  Maui isn’t the best place to drive on unfamiliar roads at night, but we made it to the hotel.  After checking in we took a little walk on the beach.  I could tell this was gonna be good.

We woke up quite early the next morning and took another walk along the beach.  Tuesday was recovery and relaxation day.  We hung out at the beach.  The first two days the surf was extremely active (although the red flags were up all week).  The Pacific is much more powerful than any other ocean I have set foot in.  I was quite surprised and a bit itimidated at first.

The next day we went to the shops and boardwalk in Lahaina.  Since I left my sunglasses at home this was an order of business.  We walked into a Sunglass Hut and the sales guy got me into a pair of Maui Jim’s.  If you know me and how often I buy new sunglasses you might be saying “WTF?, You’re a moron”.  Perhaps.. only time will tell.  We also caught the fireworks in Lahaina.  They shot them from a barge out in the ocean and they were quite magnificent.  I have some time lapse videos that I’ll try and get posted.

Blah.. I am worn out..  I’ll continue in an updated post but I’ve got stuff to do now.  Later.

I survived and it turned out to be a success. I even managed to gamble $0.00. w00t!

Thursday — After an early flight and a screwdriver on the plane, and several attempted conversations with Mason about why he wasn’t at the airport for our flight we landed without incident. We get to McCarren and I get ahold of Mason who has left me a message. Turns out (and this isn’t the first time) he misread his itinerary and had to catch a standby at 4:00. God bless Airport check-in. If there is ever a time you need to make a choice between hotels, pick one with airport check-in. What took 15 minutes at the airport would have been probably 45 minutes to 1 hour at the hotel and that’s the last thing a guy wants to do when he arrives in Vegas. Dan, Jason, and I hopped up to our room at the Flamingo, put on more appropriate Vegas attire (shorts and a t-shirt). Then we started walking and hit every beer special we could find $1 taps at O’Sheas and a sweet deal at some convenience store $1.99 24 oz Bud Lights. We walked and walked and walked. Made it from the Flamingo down to the Stratosphere. Once we got there we stood and looked at each other and in a Forrest Gump moment we turned around and walked the other way back to the Flamingo for some eats. As we waited for Mason, Dan went to play poker and J and I started to get into the drinking. We witnessed a very drunk vegas local piss himself at Caesar’s and manage to be escorted out by security and his drunk buddy. Mason finally arrives and we head off to Gilley’s for some bikini bull-riding which is always a hoot. Of course the amateur’s have no chance of winning as they bring in the ringers for the $500 prize.

Friday — After one heck of a first night (including many red bull vodkas) I had to play it easy the next morning. We spent a fair amount of time lounging by the pool. Had a few girly drinks. This is when the day turned sour for Chad. I was hungry and went a grabbed a sandwich.  I am convinced that sandwich gave me problems the rest of the day.  The nightlife including a trip to the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay for the Spazmatics.  Once again, I enjoyed their show.

Saturday — It took awhile to recover.  A good buffet downtown at the Main Street Station and some meandering downtown in and out of the Formula 1 series car race and I started getting a bit tired.  We almost witnessed a serious crash.  On this particular straight-away stretch I would guess the F1’s were probably pushing 175mph.. maybe even close to pushing 200mph.  For whatever reason there were some speed bumps in the road (probably there naturally since it was a street race).  For the most part the drivers did a fine job navigate around them to avoid jumping.  One car hit it a little close and almost planted the nose of the car right into the sidewall.  Needless to say there was a loud “ohhh” from the crowd.  After getting back to the hotel, we found ourselves at IP’s Embers for a nice steak meal to set the night out right.  We hit the Piano Bar at Harrah’s.  These guys were ok.  I’ve seen better.  Some chowder head was dropping cash for songs like it was his job.  Oh well.  Once again we hit Gilly’s for a little more entertainment and cheap”er” drinks.  After Gilly’s it was off the the Famous Glitter Gulch.  62 Girls were on show, or so they say.  I ended up with a few lap dances… but honestly the best part about the place is the bathroom attendant.  He’s an older African American gentlemen and he’ll gladly offer you his opinion on anything you ask him.  I’ve heard him say some crazy shit.   We finally got to bed at 7AM and a few drunken phone calls and SMS’s later.

Sunday — It was a doozy.  Tired and worn out from the weekend we lounged by the pool while waiting for our later flight.  The cab ride to the airport was a nightmare.  We were almost nailed by a speeding car.  I don’t think our cabbie was paying attention.. and she may have been a little sauced.  A bumpy plane ride home made it tough to catch up on any sleep.

All in all it was successful and thanks to everyone who came.  For those of you who didn’t you missed out on a good one.  Now I am sick and trying to recover.  Whew this was a long one. Hopefully you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Well the time has finally arrived and me and the boys are leaving for Vegas in just over 12 hours. I think I’ve got everything covered. Sunblock, the appropriate travel medications, a charged camera battery, an (almost) full ipod, swim trunks, and a reservation at the Flamingo in Las Vegas.

The weekend weather report looks fabulous (high 80s) and it’ll be nice to get out of this 30 degree weather for a few days. I decided it would be a good idea to have a few red bulls tonight. We’ll see how good of an idea that is at 5AM tomorrow. Anywho, I am pumped and ready for this one. I’ve got a couple loose ends to tie up tonight, finalize the suitcase, and get some shut-eye for a real barn burner.

Beware of drunken phone calls and text messages.
I hope to report back on Monday.

Jason , Dan, and Mason.. I’ll see you on the other side.

Over and out!

I stumbled upon an entertaining flash “tutuorial” about Learning to Dance with Napoleon Dynamite. It was entertaining not because I hadn’t ever seen the movie or revel in his sweet dancing moves, but I never knew there were names for all of his moves.  I bring this up because Vegas is a mere week away and when Jason and I drink and end up in strange bars with thumping music, we tend to pull out some of the classics… i.e. “The Lawnmower”, “The Shopping Cart”, “The Bus Driver”, “The Chainsaw”, etc.  Well now I can add an entire new set of moves.  Watch out, I’ll be studying this intently. You can bet they’ll be out at the wedding too.

The first snow of the season is hitting us hard. It looks like a doozy outside and I don’t really even know what the end result is supposed to be… other than clogged freeways and plenty-o-accidents during the normal commute hours.

Now that the holiday season is upon us, it is nice to actually get some snow to get into the mood a little more.

I got a strange message from Jason the other day. It seems Tina was caught at the bowling alley with another dude. Don’t worry, I’ve got my eyes peeled. I knew the Wii extended beyond the doors of my household. On a side note, I have really been impressed with the Wii so far. The new forecast channel is neat and I have a feeling once Opera comes out tomorrow I can spend even more time dilly dallying around.

Got a Wii? Share your Wii number with me (just drop me an email or throw it in a comment). I’d love to have a huge parade one of these days.
Happy Holidays everyone. Be safe.