Take one Lifestyle® 25 Series II home theater system, Bose of course, in a confined space (like my new living quarters), add his ‘Royal Badness’ (the King of Kewl – Prince), a bottle of Beringer White Zin – the house is clean, really…really clean – it’s almost midnight after a long weekend and tons of things to do and most of them accomplished, and I’m going to write until I fall off my chair. And add pictures. If I just stop in the middle of a sentence, you’ll know I fell off the chair.

Before I roll into the writing/picture extravaganza, this is for you KenP: I raced around my place tonight, mopping, wiping up, vacuuming, and doing the ‘tidy bowl’ thing. I recently purchased two new rugs for my entryway. When I brought them home, and removed them from their store wrapping, they had a huge, hard crease down the middle. When I laid them out on the floor, the crease remained for a few days…or at least I forgot to look at it again until I vacuumed tonight. It registered that we are like the rug. We are born yielding, open minded, soft to the world, ready to touch, learn, live, and give. We grow into hard-shelled creatures that refuse to conform. We wear our creases like a badge of honor. Until one day that badge of honor no longer matters, it’s history, and our stiff creases fade away as we realize all the things we worried about and tried to change to suit us, really don’t matter and never will. Our stiff creases smooth out and we just go with the flow. The things that are important were never a crease; they are part of being, and we never give them up but the rest of it? Damn that rug was easy to vacuum. (Well, we will all be expecting an inspirational speech now that you LIVE IN A TRAILER DOWN BY THE RIVER.)

For those of you that may never make it to Bellagio but always wondered what Bobby’s Room looked like, this is Table 10, and it is to the left when you enter the room.

This is Table 1, where the main game is always held at…and don’t we wish we had 1/10th of 1% of all the money that’s ever been at that table?

From time to time (three, I believe), Table 23 has been set up where you see the chair at the bottom right of the picture. Table 23 was moved out of the middle of the room to allow easier movement in that area. We actually run 39 tables instead of 40.

Leaving the poker room, this is a little hop to the ‘gardens’ at Bellagio. Located just off of the reservation desk, patrons of Cafe Bellagio can take a window seat and stare out into the serenity of all the freshly cut – and live – flowers, and the theme that usually changes four times a year. This theme is Chinese New Year, the year of the Dog. There is a big – ultra huge – dog that sits at one side of the entry into the gardens. Its tail wags and I believe it barks. I hate it! It’s so out of character with everything else in the Garden. I did not take a picture of the dog. Just like the 4th of July, I didn’t take a picture of the noisy, squawking, damn baby birds in a nest at the right of the entry. Those birds did not belong in that tranquil setting…neither does this dog. But what the hell do I know? On to the kewl part of the Gardens:

This tree is too incredible for words. Of course many tillandsia, bromeliads and other plants have been added to the base, branches, and roots of the tree. There is a walkway through/under parts of the tree and if you see something that resembles a clear semi circle, it is a jet of water that forms a half moon as it crosses the path. This is on the path underneath the tree:

The God of wealth and good fortune is the first thing one sees at the entrance to the Gardens. Behind the God is the tree. The tree has giant red bulbs hanging from it.

The view to the left brings this Pagoda, surrounded by bamboo, into one’s view:

Turning one’s attention to the right, if you look closely, along the edge of the water, you will spot koi…lucky, lucky, lucky!

And this one? I’m trying to figure out what my buddy, Jim AKA The Monkey, did to become famous. The Monkey Puzzle Tree!

So back to the tree. These pictures could never do it justice. One has to see it to get the full picture…pardon the pun.

This is the way the base or structure of the tree unfolds. Roots shoot down to support the tree as its growth progresses.

Well enough of the miracle of cutting up a tree and moving it to another part of the world. There’s a lot more to life than enjoying the view. There are matters of the heart. Reaching out and touching yourself so you know where you are with everything that’s going on around you…and realizing that happiness is not about being someone or having a lot of money. But if you haven’t figured that one out, you ain’t gonna get the picture.

And speaking of pictures – I love this one. Who’s lecturing whom here?

And do those shoes look damn big on that kid? He had his tennies on and had them stuck inside my tennies. Love that boy!

My week? Wednesday night I played on shift – AGAIN???? Of course. I played with Marie. Remember the Q-Q and A-A scenario? She was on my right, I was the BB, everyone folded, I said, “Remember I don’t chop blinds.”

She said, “In that case, I raise.”

I looked down to A-10. Having $4 in the pot already, I called. The Flop was all small. She bet. I folded. She showed me Q-Q. I was one Ace off of having the same hand her and I have held in the Blinds for the last two weeks in a row. Crazy!

She was on a bad run, I was in a holding pattern. Gary (her hubby) came in to pick her up and her play went all to hell as she showed him her cards and proceeded to go off of everything she had in front of her. We’ve talked about this before. I’ve told her to just play the way she would normally play. Gary plays $20-40 H at the Mirage and he’s got a set pattern. Marie is more flexible but when she has him behind her critiquing her play, she seems to feel she has to explain her play…does that make sense? Sure! Maybe you would have to be there.

One hand, I was in the SB with 2-3 of Clubs. The bet was raised and the whole table came in. So did I. Flop 10-10-2. I checked. Everyone checked to Marie. She bet, I check raised. The 5s leaned out, looked at me, I leaned out, looked at him, he folded and so did everyone to Marie. She mutter mumbled something and called. Gary was watching her play. The Turn brought an Ace. I fired. She called. The River brought a small card, I fired, she folded. As I stacked the pot, she said she had J-J, and asked if she should have called. I replied, “Yes!”

We went into a long conversation, including Gary, about the hand and if she was going to call the Turn she should have called the River, blah, blah, blah. I played the hand the only way I could to win it. If someone else at the table held J-J, they would have called and won the pot. She was trying to give me credit for having a hand…even though she said she knew the Ace didn’t help me on the Turn. Funny part of it is that I could never put her on a hand here because she never played back at me…thanks, Gary! Ain’t poker fun.

Ok, ok, ok! I’m not falling off my chair. I have almost finished the bottle of wine. Right now I’m listening to Paula Abdul rock the world. I’ll be back – just not tonight.