There's a First Time for Everything

The team woke up with the intension of playing our first session of basketball at UNLV. Unfortunately, Jamie was sick while George and Jake were not awake when we left (this is at noon mind you). So Me (Scott), Wes, Wald, Tom and Matty went off to the UNLV gym to play. When we arrived we parked in the covered structure, there were three options for paid parking: $1.00 for an hour, $2.00 for two hours and $3.00 for all day. We decided to go with the two hours because Wald was adamant that we wouldn't be there for more than two hours and didn't think parking enforment would be too strict during the summer. Tom meets us at the gym and makes sure we paid for the all day parking pass. When Tom finds out we only paid two dollars he responds with, "Really? You didn't want to pay a dollar for the extra 22 hours?" As we are signing up for our month long membership the lady over hears that we only paid for two hours instead of all day and advises us to pay for the all day pass. She told us the story of her boy friend's car who had unpaid parking tickets and was caught for not paying for parking at the UNLV lot. The car had two boots placed on it, then it was impounded and sold. On top of all that, he still had to pay $600 in fines. This can't be legal, but after hearing the story Wald was still willing to gamble and left it with only two hours.

After we were official members we journeyed up to the basketball courts to warm up and scout the "competition". Let's just say an early afternoon Monday at the UNLV gym was not prime time for basketball players. There was only one court running a game with about 14 people total on all four basketball courts. We had a huge size advantage, with most of the guys playing were as big as me or smaller. The one good player on the other team said it was "The Looney Tunes vs. The Monstars". When we got on we literally ran the other team off the court. The first game finished 15-5 and 13 of the points we're fast break lay-ups. The next game was a little closer at 15-12, but a lot of that had to do with the other team getting hot from three (At UNLV they play one's and two's so a three pointer counts as two. Much dufferent from UW rules of all one's). During the game we imposed our will physically against the smaller team as Wes and Tom were frequently scoring and putting people on the ground. We wanted to play a third game, but the good player left and four others followed. We decided to mix up the teams, obviously east vs. west (aka me, Wes and Wald and two randos vs. Tom, Matt and three randos). The west held it down and won but it was a very ugly game.

After we finished the third game an employee approaches Matt and asks if we go to school at UNLV. Matt lets her know that we just purchased passes for the month, but she still seemed concerned with us being there. She didn't really say anything else, but it was pretty awkward. We concluded that one of the guys told on us for ruining their game because there is no way an employee would walk up to the third floor (where the basketball courts are) and pick out five guys who probably don't go to school here. Nonetheless, it was great to play basketball for the first time in over a week.

We are heading back to Wald's truck and are a little worried because we had been at the gym for about two hours and ten minutes. On the way back we see another car that had two boots on both left tires. Luckily Wald's truck had no tickets or boots. We dodge a bullet there. Needless to say we will be spending the extra dollar from now on.

We came back to Vdara and ate the leftovers from last night's Maggiano's. We decided to meet Grue at the pool. While at the pool we meet a pro poker player from Norway who is in Vegas for three months (so we're not that ridiculous). Our first prop bet was designed and completed and another in the works. The first completed prop bet was who could hold their breath the longest under water. Wes, Tom and Matt competed and Wes won rather easily. The bet in the works is swimming the entire length of the pool under water. Jake was trying to put something together with Wes and Matt. Jake thought better than challenging Wes and decided to go after Matt. We'll keep you updated if that bet goes down.

We finally got to playing poker around 6 pm. It was not a good day for the team. Me, Wald and Jake went to the Venetain and all three of us lost. This was a monumental day as it was the first time Wald has lost on the trip. Wald is placing a little blame on me for not wanting to leave when he was up a little and most of the blame on Taters (Katie), who texted him and Wald instantly starting losing (There has been history of this). Almost everyone else played at the Bellagio (Wes, Jamie, Matt, Tom and Grue) and only Tom and Matt won. George was on his own at Aria and was winning pretty good when we left him around 2:00 am.

We are planning on playing basketball again today at UNLV and hope the games are better and people don't try to get us kicked out. Until next time.