Well, that sucks

I got a card in the mail today from jim_ghote's mother, informing me that he departed from this world on September 30th. Would explain the radio silence in the past few months.

It was fun, Jim. See you again one day.

I guess I should update this thing

It's been a busy couple of weeks down here. A lot of stuff to catch up on at work because of the year end. Had a couple of mishaps along the way, but so far everything has been seen to. (ptooey ptooey)

New Year's Eve was fantastic. Went to dinner with my mother and aunt and uncle. A cousin by another aunt and uncle was in the lobby waiting for a table to open up; foolishly he neglected to get a reservation. Despite being New Year's Eve the wait for food wasn't too long.

After dinner we made our way to the casino. My mother was concerned that she wouldn't see the ball drop in Times Square for the first time since she was a teenager, but the casino had it on a big screen in the lobby. Their machines were five minutes behind the real time so we barely caught it. I played slots and tried roulette for the first time, albeit a low-stakes version with digital screens taking the place of the usual felt table. Won a few dollars on it, but nothing significant. Pro tip: never play individual numbers. Always play the red/black and odd/even spaces or number ranges. You don't win as much but you've got a better chance at winning something.

I enjoyed roulette but the biggest victory of the night was on the slots. One of the first machines--the same one I went to my first time at the casino--gave me an even bigger payout, over a hundred dollars. Went back later in the evening and found it occupied so I tried one in the same row and won another hundred. Together my aunt, uncle, and mother lost two hundred dollars so they say that I won it off of them. My aunt's comment was that people like me make her sick. Someone's a poor loser, I think.

People say that casinos are a scam, but so far they've been very kind to me. Probably won't last but I won't complain while it does!