29. With Mike Stefanidis - The Four Queens, May 30-31, 1992

• We played craps almost exclusively, 'cause, you know, we did so well last trip. Well, neither one of us did well this time; in fact, Mike got hammered, losing upwards of $2,000.00.

• One bright moment for Mike: We ate lunch at The Four Queens coffee shop, and he played a 20-spot keno ticket for $5.00. Eleven of his numbers came up, so he won $200.00.

• Clayton and Ron were in Vegas for an art convention, so we met them for dinner at the Las Vegas Hilton on Saturday night.

• Mike and I were playing at Caesars Palace, and I turned to him and mentioned that the guy throwing the dice looked like Burl Ives. A couple of people around us heard what I said and started to laugh. Well, the guy got on a really hot roll, and eventually we all started cheering, "Come on, Burl! Roll numbers, Burl!" Finally after he hit a point of ten, I turned to everybody and sang, "Silver and gold, silver and gold!"

28. With Mike Stefanidis - Primadonna, May 2-3, 1992

• On Saturday afternoon (May 2) Mike and I decided we wanted to drive to Vegas that night. However, we had already been given some free field-level tickets to the Padre game, so we wouldn't be able to leave until the game was over. We figured we'd leave for Vegas at about 11:00 p.m., get there at about 4:00 a.m., play all day, and then leave for home at about 6:00 p.m., although we weren't sure what we were going to do about sleep.

  The Padre game ended fairly early; I drove home to change and then met Mike at his house. We did in fact leave right at 11:00, and I suggested that we each try to sleep some in the car. Well, of course that didn't work. Then by about the time we got to Barstow, Mike suggested that we stop and sleep at Whiskey Pete's for about five hours, then head on to Vegas. So, that's what we did, although we actually stayed at the hotel across from Whiskey Pete's, Primadonna (now Primm Valley). We checked in at about 3:00 a.m. and slept till 8:30 a.m. Good thing, too, because otherwise we would have been exhausted by Sunday night.

• Actually, we didn't sleep all the way through, because at 6:30 a.m., the hotel fire alarm went off. It was a terrible piercing noise that actually hurt our ears. We started to get dressed, but after about five minutes it stopped. We never did find out why it went off.

• We played craps almost exclusively the whole time we were there (until about 7:00 p.m.). Mike and I won over $1,000.00 between us, thanks in a large part to buying the ten; it was incredible how many times it hit.