Things could be better. Things could be worse.

Jan 5, 2014 We'd had a somewhat better day in Vegas, which is another way of saying we'd lost slightly less than on previous days.

We both still had some dough in our wallets, and it was time for dinner. Not wanting to brave the 9000 dB racket of the 777 Brewpub when there's a football game showing, we put a 'to go' order in at the bar. Chicken Philly with red and green peckers for the lady, and a pizza pie for moi.

I split off at the mezzanine to grab a Keno ticket while the Philly Queen took the grub upstairs.

Trying to drum up a positive attitude I said brightly to the Keno Guy, "HELLO, HOW ARE YOU?!"

Maybe it was more than brightly. Actually, I kind of ended up shouting at him, in an attempt to feign an upbeat attitude.

Keno Guy looked at me. His mouth kind of opened and closed.

"Well, I'm... hmmm." He paused. "I guess... hmmm, how am I. Not sure how to answer that. How are you?"

At this point, I knew I was in some kind of verbal exchange trouble.

"Fine."

"Yeah...."

He yawned and scratched his ribs with the erasered end of a pencil.

"Yeah, well, things could be better. Things could be worse. How am I..." He searched the ceiling of the California Keno Lounge and Senior Walker Parking Lot for answers.

I thought of asking him which part of California he was from.

"So, it depends on your... perspective?" I offered.

"Yeah! That's it. Exactly... perspective."

And really, that's what this trip has been about (much to my chagrin). How to deal with adversity, rather than hilarious drunk antics and garganticuous wins.

Yes there have been challenges, but on the other hand, we have so many blessings. Just to have the opportunity to dump thousands playing stupid computer gambling games is something not many in the world have. Just being here, enjoying the weather, being on vacation....

I have a few days left here, and we've talked about this a lot. And tonight the Quad Queen said to me, "Can we forget about the total losses and just enjoy the days we have here?"

"Yes," I'd replied. "Absolutely. Sieze the Carp! We'll forget about the money and just have fun!"

I am an excellent liar.

The pizza was really yummy and three slices went into the fridge for breakfast the next day. (Not on its own, I placed it there.)

The Chicken Queen loved her Philly, too.

777 pizza. 5 cheeses, 1 red pecker.

 For some reason, we look like big ketchup eaters. Why the discrimination against mayo? I don't know. Ranch dressing was well represented in the take-out bag, even though neither of us had salad.

It was time to face the music...

...so I blogged out yesterdays dingleberry shitball excuse for a vacation day. Meanwhile, the QQ got busy back on the triple play at Main Street. My piPhone 3.14 rang with all kinds of incoming photos of quads. She did quite well over there, being the QQ once again.

About the time she came back, I was done writing. And I had that 'feeling'. I often do this later in the evening - take a few twenties and do some flyers on dollar machines with ridiculous paytables.

The only thing is that for this trip, this approach pretty much had less than stellar results.

Still, there was a quiet excitement in my nether regions, a loinal tingling, that sickly sweet fear-excitement smell oozing from my pores, I was sure. Everywhere I walked, people backing off and put themselves between their loved ones and me, so I was pretty sure it was the fear-excitement smell.

I slipped a $20 bill into dollar Double Double Bonus. Seven hands later it was gone. I moved on.

I slipped a $20 bill into dollar Boner Deluxe. Nine hands later, it was gone. I moved on.

I slipped a $20 bill into Super Double Triple Flying Fucker Bonus. I was getting nowhere and in a minute it was gone.

Because the quads were worth so much, I tried a second $20 bill in Super Double Triple Flying Fucker Bonus. Nada.

Where was the magic?

I regrouped and changed banks of machines. I gazed longingly at the dollar bank where I'd seen a guy win a $9000 plus progressive Royal earlier. Not my time.

Deciding to play it a bit savvier, I played 50 cent Double Double. I said out loud (quietly) "show me the magic..."

And it showed me the magic! It was like something it pulled out of David Copperfield's pants!

Four Kings for $125. NICE!!! I had a chance now. I played on and worked the machine up to about $140 and then it started to plummet. When I got to around $105, I thought, well, maybe I should ease up on the volatility, and switched to dollar Bonus Poker.

Just a minute or two later I hit Aces for $400.

Finally! This was the kind of lightning strike win that has pretty much been missing this trip and has saved my degenerate bacon so many times.

Now, I know what you are thinking. Aces kicker on Double Double. It's all about perspective, and I know for a fact that the same hands would not have come up had I played a different game. I know this because Jimmy Poon knows computers and he told me so.

So I did not miss out on anything.

I got that sucker up to $600 and cashed out.

The Keno ticket was worth $6 and I skipped and whistled my way through the casino and went up to the room.

This is hard even for me to believe but I HAD A WINNING DAY.

I won $66 today. It feels like a fucking miracle. I have budget for tomorrow without the walk of shame!

Things could be better. Things could be worse.

R.F. up on the day $66
Q.Q. down on the day $365

We've done about $23,000 coin in at Cal/Main St. Station in the last 2 days.