Best Weekend Ever 2K9

In a flash, Best Weekend Ever 2K9 has come and gone.

For those not in the know, BWE is when my group of friends get together and do our annual Fantasy Football draft.  "Mick's League of Micks" was conceived way back in the 90's, and this is going to be our 11th season.  What's really fun about the whole thing is that it's been the same group of guys for the vast majority (9 or 10) of those years, so there is a huge amount of history and legacy and bragging rights at stake.

The whole gang is as follows:

Me -- The Fightin' Birdmen
Discostup -- LT's Crackheeds
Iwan -- Crazy Canucks
Baditude -- The Rat Pack
Fwats -- Cobra Kai (formerly 1.21 Jigiwatts)
Gabe -- Los Pescaderos
Little Buhr -- The Poo Fish (formerly The Romosexuals, formerly The Brown Trout)
Norm -- The Mormon Defenders
Papa Roston -- The Gang (formerly The Over-The-Hill Gang)
Jonny G. -- The GBP

Quite an esteemed group, and includes the vast majority of my very best (and only) friends in the world.

Discostup is the Commish.  While things are run very democratically, the Commish is the overlord, breaking ties and enforcing rules as he sees fit.  He is a wise and just Commish, and we all respect and admire him and his decisions.

The official events of BWE are the draft proper, where we sit around the table and actually go in order, choosing players.  I don't think the post-draft commentary is an official event, or just considered part of the draft itself, but it takes up its own block of time.  After the draft, I like to review the teams and see who got whom, who will do well and who had a lousy draft.  But I don't have the same stamina as most of the other guys, who can spend hours upon hours pouring over each detail, discussing various picks and so forth.  "If I had taken THIS guy instead of THAT guy, how would the rest of the picks have looked?"  I just don't know enough about all the players to have an intelligent conversation about it.  But it's definitely fun to watch and listen in on.

I'm not sure what to think about my draft.  I held over LT and Peyton Manning from last year.  I drafted some Chargers (Gates, Chambers, and Chargers D) which is always fun.  We'll have to see how the season (which can't get here fast enough) develops and see how it all pans out.

The second official event is a flag football game.  I admit this event frightens me a little, simply because I'd hate to see a great day ruined by a twisted ankle or broken finger.  But every year those fears prove unfounded and it's a ton of fun, and leaves me happily sore the next day.  There was already an official movement to do another game on the Friday following Thanksgiving.

The third official event was formerly called the "rap video pool party".  This was supposed to be a pool party where the guys sat in and around the pool drinking drinks and listening to music while hot chicks in bikini's served us.  We could never find any girls willing to play the part, though, and as our lives changed, it is now called the "family friendly pool party".  This is the only mixed-gender event of the weekend, although there is an official sanctioned "spa day" for the ladies during the draft day.

Diana's parents were able to babysit on Saturday while I drafted and Diana hit the spa with some of the girls.  And on Sunday, they met me at Norm's house for the pool party.  Allison is still pretty shy around strangers, but had some fun splashing around in the pool.

This year, draft day was Saturday, followed by post-draft analysis and games late into the night.  Sunday morning was flag football, and Sunday afternoon was the pool party.  Each event was a success in its own right, and made for a great weekend.  I spent most of the weekend stuffing my face.  Good times.

And now, back to work and the grind.  Diana is doing last minute school stuff today, and her classes start tomorrow, which means Allie will be going back to Dorrie's full time again.  Rumor has it today was Discostup's first day of work.  Summer, sadly, is pretty much officially over.

Make note of this date!

Allison has been doing her first unassisted somersaults all morning.  She's also recently started hanging off stuff, supporting her entire weight by her arms.  What a big strong girl!  I'm so proud.  :)

Today is Best Day Ever, so I'm in a rush.  Details and pictures to follow.

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Home Alone

(Warning... the probably contains TMI discussing discomfort while urinating, and contains frank medical terms vis a vis "peeing" and "pooping".  Read at your own risk)

This weekend, Diana was picked up early Saturday morning by some friends, and left for a bachelorette spa weekend, not to return until Sunday.  This would be the longest time that I would be in sole charge.  It's not really that big a deal… Diana has been in sole charge for most of the summer, but it was a first for me.

The morning started off fine.  We headed to the Wild Animal Park, and Allie's favorite, Dino Mountain.  After the dinosaurs, we heard commotion at the nearby elephant enclosure, where we caught a glimpse of the elusive "5 legged" elephant.  Soon enough, we headed home for lunch and naptime.

About this point in time, things started heading south.  Allie was tired and cranky, and getting pretty unhappy.  In order to try to make her happier, I started doing the things she was requesting (like getting her out of her crib, sitting with her in the rocking chair, etc).  The problem, though, was that none of these requests seemed to satisfy her, and instead led to even more requests, again, none of which made her happy.  I finally came to the conclusion that I was being played for a fool, and told her in no uncertain terms that it was time for her nap, and left her to fend for herself.  Within 10 minutes she was crashed out.  Not bad.  I looked forward to a nice long nap on her part, and a happier kid when she woke up.

No such luck.  An hour later, she woke up crying and still pissed.  I tired a few tricks to get her to calm down, but when nothing work, just let her have some time to herself to cool down, which worked out well.  When she was more her normal self, we got ready to head to the park for the afternoon.  I got her up on the toilet to pee before we left, and she started crying.  This was unusual, because normally she'd to an impressive pee and be pretty proud of herself.  This time, she let out a little squirt, cried, and said "itchy!" and insisted she it was a "little pee" and she was "all done".

We headed to the park, but my mind was racing.  What if she had some infection?  This was totally unusual behavior.  She had had a slight unexplained fever on the previous Monday, but that was almost a week ago.  So after playing at the park, I took her to the bathroom there to try again, and the same episode played out.  Fuck.

Back at home, I try to inspect her parts, but she's really anxious and flinches as if she's in pain.  Sure she's got some sort of UTI, I call Diana and leave a message.  I call the doctors office, and get through to their urgent care answering service.  While I'm hold, the call waiting beeps, and then my cell phone rings.  I know it's Diana, but I don't answer because now I'm talking to the nurse.  She listens to my story (I'm disproportionately worried and anxious at this point), and wants me to try some things before I have her seen by a doctor.  She recommends a bath with baking soda, a little baby Tylenol, and to try to get Allie to pee if at all possible.

I listen to Diana's voicemail. She's calling from her friends phone, and hasn't hear MY message.  So I call her back and fill her in on the details.  We didn't think she needed to come back or anything…  She was up in Smell-A without a car, so if she wanted to come back, it would mean getting a ride with someone else.

As I'm filling up the bath, I get a call from the after hours support guys at work.  There is a problem with some software thing.  This is about the last thing I need at this point in time.  Luckily, it was something I could diagnose over the phone and no action was required.

In the bath, Allie was able to stand up and pee and with lots of coaxing, get it all out, still with lots of discomfort.

It was still about an hour before her bedtime, so we went on an adventure to the grocery store for dinner for me, some more milk, and Diana thought some cranberry juice might help, too.  In spite of all her discomfort on the toilet, aside from that, Allie is an absolute angel.  I teach her the word "adventure", and we have an "adventure" to the store.  She's dressed in her jammies, and riding in the cart pointing out balloons and watermelon and everything else she recognizes.  Such a sweetie.

After we got home, she pooped, so I changed her diaper, and noticed it was wet as well.  So that was good news.

Bedtime all goes well.  I'm still totally concerned, though, that she'll wake up crying, be burning up with a fever, and unable to pee.  I had previously talked about having friends come over that night, but cancelled those plans because I'm totally worn out.  Dinner, a little Maker's Mark, and the first half of the Chargers preseason game go down easy, and off to bed.

Allie woke up once at 10:30pm.  I gave her a little more Tylenol, and told her to lie down, and she went right back to sleep, and I didn't hear from her again until 7am.  Nice.

The morning was great.  She seemed to be feeling ok.  We went to the toilet, though, and again she was anxious and said she was all done without actually going, and wanted her diaper back.  I said "let's play a fun game!" and put her diaper in the toilet, and asked if she could pee ON her diaper.  She hopped up and unleashed a monster piss all over the diaper without any further complaint.  Good news, but what the hell?

We head to Legoland and had a great time.  Once at the park, we go to the toilet and the exact same scenario plays out.  I'm not really concerned about an infection anymore, but wondering if she has some topical abrasion or rash, or maybe just staging a little revolution against potty-training?  In any case, I get a call from my cell phone from "Home", which thankfully means that Diana is back.  We head home, and my tenure of being a single-parent is over. 

It certainly didn't go the way I expected it to or hoped, but in retrospect, it was very educational and satisfying.  It's weird, but I could actually feel myself thinking differently, knowing that Diana wasn't around to take care of all the little things, like snacks and sunscreen and making sure we have our zoo membership cards before we leave.

I know it's not really something to brag about… as I said, Diana and other parents all over the world do this all the time every day, but I'm sure they, like me, felt encouraged and empowered the first time they did it all on their own.  That said, I'm glad Diana's home.  :)

Busy Summer

We're knee deep in the middle of a pretty busy summer.  Our Hawaii trip, followed by my Vegas trip.  Last weekend was Iwan's wedding and Dr. Dave's visit.  This weekend, Diana is going out of town for a bachelorette party.  The weekend after that is Best Weekend Ever, and soon after that, Diana goes back to school.  It's a little crazy, but in a good way.

Last weekend Dr. Dave flew into town with my nephew Ben, and it was great to see them and spend time with them both.  I took the day off of work on Friday, and joined Dave and Iwan for a round of golf at Torrey Pines.  Beautiful day for golf, and good company made for a good time.  Ben is five years old, and works at a relative hundred miles per hour compared to Allison.  She was a little taken aback by him at first, but quickly warmed up.  We still hear requests from her to see pictures of Ben, particularly pictures of Ben hiding in a couch fort I made for them.

The other big event of the weekend was Iwan's wedding.  Iwan and Sara finally had their big day in the sun, tying the knot at Seagrove Park.  Sara was beautiful in her gown, and Iwan was a stud as usual.  I had the opportunity to stand by my boy as a groomsmen, along with Discostup, Baditude, and Little Buhr.  Gabe was tapped to perform the ceremony, and did a really great job being funny, sentimental, reverent, but casual.  Diana and I really enjoyed having a friend perform our ceremony, and I hope it worked out well for them.  After the ceremony, there were pictures and a nice party at Powerhouse park.  I gave a toast that probably didn't come off as well as I would have liked, but I think was adequate and served its purpose.  All in all, a solid weekend.

This weekend, Diana is leaving for her friends bachelorette party, which means I'm In Charge.  I've been in charge before, but she's never been away for this long before (leaving Saturday morning and coming back Sunday afternoon).  I'm really looking forward to spending time together, just us.  We'll probably hit up the Wild Animal Park or Zoo or Legoland in the mornings, and maybe a quick beach trip if there's time in the afternoon.  Fun!

Allison continues to do great.  She had a recent trip to the dentist to fix up her broken tooth.  Apparently it actually cracked the tooth a little, so they needed to "seal" it to prevent any infection from getting in there.  That went well, so they went ahead and put a little cap on it to make it look like a whole tooth.  Everything went well until they started using the sander/grinder thing to shape it.  That was a no-go.  So it's not perfectly symmetrical, but nothing anyone would notice without knowing about it.  The next time she goes back, they'll give it another shot.

She's talking and playing more and more.  I asked Diana recently what the longest sentence she thinks she's heard.  It was something like "wake up morning, read dinosaur book, see girl with flower backpack."  Which meant that when she woke up the next morning, she wanted to read a specific book and see a specific picture in that book.

She also recently came up to me and said "Daddy, want some TeeeeEEEE?", raising the pitch of her voice at the end in a question.  She has a little tea set and loves sharing tea with people.  She tilts the teapot over your cup and makes a "pssssh" sound that apparently means that imaginary tea is pouring out.  Fun.  Hide and seek is a favorite.  Chase is always fun.  We went to Mike and Gwen's house one afternoon after work and jumped in their pool.  Allison was completely fired up splashing around and jumping into the pool from the edge.  She has no fear of the water, which makes pool time a lot of fun.

So, that's the latest from around here.

Coming soon:  PS3 news, Windows Home Server, NFL football, and fantasy football!

Flight or Invisibility

On the car ride home from Vegas, we filled some time by analyzing and ranking various super powers.  The powers suggested were Invisibility, Flight, Super Strength, and Short Range Teleportation.

Flight was defined as your basic "Superman" type flying around.  Top speed roughly that of a airliner.
Invisibility meant you (and your clothing and things you were carrying) could go invisible at will.
Super Strength should be pretty self explanatory.
Short Range Teleportation:  line of sight instant teleportation.

We discussed the various pros and cons of each.  Flight was certainly a fan favorite in our car.

At some point, Baditude brought up an NPR segment he'd heard where a guy uses this discussion of super powers as an ice breaker, as well as a kind of personality litmus test.   However, he limited the discussion between only Flight and Invisibility.   I listened to this segment yesterday and was fascinated.

What's interesting about the question "Which would you choose, Flight or Invisibility?" is that almost everyone will have a pretty quick answer.  It's something that pretty much everyone has already thought about to some degree or another.  These powers are very different, it's fun to wonder what they may suggest about the person who chooses them.

At first blush, Flight is very mythic and heroic.  It's bold and brash, with nothing to hide.  People have always been fascinated with flight, and it's easy to see how fun and convenient and liberating it would be.  I've always gazed up at birds and wondered what it would feel like to soar around.  Who hasn't?

Invisibility, on the other hand, feels much more dark and skulking.  Almost by definition, the things you'd do while invisible are not things that would normally be permitted otherwise.  Invisibility tends one towards things like spying, sneaking into restricted areas, eavesdropping, and stealing.

As one interviewee on the radio segment said, choosing invisibility means you want to "eavesdrop, steal, and watch celebrities having sex."  Another person suggested that deep down in their secret hearts, MOST people would choose invisibility if they really told you the truth.  But realizing how bad it might come off, choose flight instead.

In looking at my own daydreams in retrospect, I've certainly wished for both at various times.  If asked now, I'd probably say "Flight".  But I'd have to say that throughout my life, I've probably daydreamed more about Invisibility than Flight.  I'm not particularly proud of this.

Upon further reflection, though, I think it fits in with my personality.  I've always been interested in information, and information that I'm not supposed to know is very tempting.  I've always liked security concepts like passwords and locks, and how to get around them.  I think that is a pretty common theme amongst techno-hacker types, a group I'm only loosely affiliated with.  I don't gossip much, but I love hearing "dirt".  I frequently wonder what goes on behind closed doors and wish I could be a fly on various walls.

In another vein, I've never liked the feeling that I'm "missing out" on things.  If my friends are gathered together and I have to leave early for some reason, I'll frequently ask later "So, what happened after I left?"  Invisibility wouldn't really help with this, but it's another indication of Wanting to Know What's Going On.

It doesn't really apply anymore, but as a hormonal teenager, I naturally wondered about girls and stuff.  I remember trips to the airport as a teenage boy, driving by "Dirty Dan's" strip club.  It looked so forbidden and filthy but enticing all the same.  I always wondered what went on in there.  (Would Teenage Adam believe me if I told him strip clubs are not nearly as exciting as they sound?  Probably not… :)

So it's an interesting question, Flight or Invisibility.  I think I'm going to keep it in my back pocket for small talk situations.  I've polled some co-workers, and it always leads to a very healthy, interesting discussion.  One woman admitted she kind of feels invisible already… that she could go into a room and no one would even know she was there, so flight was a no-brainer.  Kind of a revealing answer from such a simple question.

What about you?

Vegas Weekend

This weekend was Iwan's bachelor party in Vegas.

I flew out on a 1:45 pm flight on the day of my red-eye arrival from Hawaii, so I was still in kind of a fog.  Iwan and others were planning on golfing that afternoon, but I decided that with no sleep the night before, a round of golf would absolutely kill my chances of being able to hang out past 8pm.  Instead, I took a nice nap in the hotel and did a little exploring on my own.

By dinner time, the rest of the party had trickled in, and the whole group was all finally together:  Iwan, Adam, Baditude, Discostup, Gabe, Little Buhr, Ben, Nate, and Little Jay.  An official wrecking crew.  We headed out to dinner at the Burger Bar in Mandalay Bay, where I enjoyed the absolute best hamburger I've ever had in my entire life.  I raved about it then and I'll rave about it still.  So good.  The way the place works is you build a burger from all the various components, choosing bun, meat, cheese, and toppings all a la carte.  I had an onion bun, with Black Angus beef, cheddar cheese, peppered bacon, and some leftover caramelized onions off Gabe's plate.  Doesn't sound like too much, I guess, but it was delish.

The rest of the evening was filled with raucous frivolity which shall not be recounted here.

Saturday, after a quick breakfast, we headed down to the pool (we were staying at Treasure Island), which was quite a scene.  It wasn't too far into the day until the pool was packed with bodies, drinking and dancing and having fun.  There was a DJ playing music and doing a hit-and-miss job of getting the crowd fired up.  We had rented a cabana, which meant we had a nice shady spot to hang out and people watch.  Drinks were consumed, relaxation was enjoyed, fantasy football was discussed, and pictures were taken.  Good times. 

In the middle of the afternoon, I signed up and played in a $65 poker tournament.  I was hanging in there for an hour or so, but the blinds started rising and my chips started fading.  The last hand, I was dealt QQ.  I raised, and there was one caller.  The flop came 6-7-8.  There was a bet, I raised, and was called.  The turn came 9.  There was a check, and I pushed all in, and was called without hesitation.  He flips up A-10, for a straight.  Bummer.  It was fun, though, and I enjoyed the company at the table.

Returning to the cabana, we decided we were hungry, so Baditude and I cabbed it out to Capriotti's and picked up some sammiches.  I split a Bobbie (light mayo) with Gabe, yielding an easy tie for first for best meal of the trip.  The Bobbie is turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce in their delicious fresh bread.  Very good drinking or hangover food.

That night, we headed downtown for a nicer dinner at the steakhouse on top of Binion's, which was decent but a bit overpriced for the food, in my opinion.  Dinner was followed by gambling downstairs, where we absolutely dominated a craps table.  I haven't traditionally been a craps fan, but had a ball taking money left and right.  It was awesome.

Here follows the extend of my gambling:
Friday evening:  While walking around waiting for the golfers to be done, I lost $40 in various slot machines.  I've had good luck at slots before, but not that night.

Saturday day:  Gabe brought a sheet of paper from the sportsbook detailing various baseball bets.  I don't know anything about baseball, but parleyed the top three favorites to all win outright (Red Sox, Rays, and Cards).   I bet $20, and all three teams won, winning me $41.  The poker tournament was -$65.

Saturday evening:  As people were getting ready, we started meeting up in the bar downstairs.  Makers Mark in hand, I wandered over to the craps table to watch and remember how to play.  It looked easy enough, so I got $20 in chips (at a $10 table).  I put $10 on the pass line, and the mark was set.  I backed it with $10 odds, and the mark was hit.  Get paid $22 or something like that.

Saturday night:  $5 craps at Binions.  I got $100 in chips, and never went below that.  At some point, I was up about $70, but then went down almost to even.  I then started winning a bit more, and decided that if I got up above $100 that I'd quit.  That happened, and I put a big handful of chips in my pocket, leaving only a few more to play with (enough for one bet and 5x odds).  Then Baditude started rolling.  He'd set the mark, and I'd back my single bet with 5x odds.  Then he'd hit the mark, and I'd get paid with two $5 chips and a $25 chip, which would go straight in my pocket.  That repeated a few times before he stopped rolling.  I run away to the cashier with my pile of chips, and cashed out for $325.  Sweet.

-40
-65
+41
+22
+225
====
$183

That profit from gambling did a pretty nice job covering all the other incidental expenses from the trip (cab rides, meals, drinks, etc), and is by far the best luck I've ever had.  So that was pretty fun.

Sunday was up and out.  I drove home with Iwan and Mick and Baditude, which was fun.  Got home just in time to see Allison in the bath and help put her to bed, which was great.

All in all, a great weekend.  Congrats to my boy Iwan, and I was happy to be a part of sending him on his way to the other side.

Anniversary...

In other news, it was seven brief years ago that Diana and I were married.  It's really fun to sit and reflect on the life that we have created together (both figuratively and literally in Allison's case).  It doesn't seem like that much time has passed, but I think we look so young and fresh in our wedding pictures compared to now.  :)

I wouldn't change a thing in these past years, and I look forward to many more happy memories to come.

Hawaii Recap

After quite a whirlwind, I'm finally back to work and hopefully back to a nice, regular routine.  But it's time for a little recap, for memories sake.

Travelling with Allison generally went really, really well.  Better than I expected, actually.  The process all started in the weeks prior to the trip.  We have a video called "Shae by Air" that chronicles a little girl flying with her Mommy, and tells of all the things a kid should expect while flying (waiting in line, not kicking the chairs in front of you, ears popping, etc).  We'd been watching this pretty often with Allie, and it seems to have paid off, as she was uniformly well behaved on the flights.

The morning of the flight, Diana went in an gently woke Allie up at like 3:50am for a 4am departure time.  We basically had no idea what to expect.  She might not even wake up, but we'd have to load her into the car asleep.  She might wake up totally pissed off, and we'd have to fight to get her loaded up.  Instead, she woke up with "Pink toothbrush in suitcase!  Go airport!  See airplanes!"  She was pumped.

We hit all our marks with regard to getting into the car, dropping off luggage, Diana, and Allie.  I then parked the car in long term parking and took the shuttle back to meet them.  Everything was going according to schedule until the curbside checkin guy saw that we had paper tickets.  These were provided to us via Diana's dad's frequent flyer miles, and were the old-school style booklet tickets, not your usual e-ticket.  For whatever reason, we couldn't check in with those at the curb, so needed to wait in a line inside.  We eventually got it sorted out, but we were glad to have planned for some cushion time at the airport.

Fast forward to our return trip.  It was a red-eye, so we're checking in around 7:30pm, past Allie's bedtime.  While in line, we discover that we don't have our paper tickets anywhere.  With an electronic ticket, you simply give your last name and show some ID and you're all set.  With paper tickets, if we can't find 'em, we're either buying new tickets or doing paperwork and paying a fee to replace them.  So I rush on the shuttle to the rental car return, and thankfully find the tickets in the car.

So, the moral of the story is that paper tickets suck.  Avoid them if you can.  (They WERE provided to us free-of-charge, so I'm certainly not complaining about THESE paper tickets… just paper tickets in general.  :)

The flight home was rough.  Allie was tired, which resulted in generally happy, almost manic behavior.  Not a bad thing, but with two REALLY tired parents, it was a little rough keeping up with her.  The plan was for her to sleep in her carseat on the plane.  It all looked like it was going to work out until the TVs came on.  The flight had TVs down the center aisle of the plane, and Allie basically couldn't look away.  With the rest of the plane dark, she TV lights were like spotlights shining down on us.   She stared and stared, and if we tried to block her view, she really complained.  She finally closed her eyes, but woke up an hour later and basically sat glued to the TVs the entire flight.  I generally can't sleep on planes, and Diana spent most of the time trying to get Allie to sleep.  We finally made it to SF, and took turns keeping up with Allison, on one hour of sleep, running and laughing and playing in the airport.  The plane trip from SF to SD was fine, and finally in the car and home, totally zonked.

My worst fear was screaming, struggling to get out of her seat and run around, and none of that came to pass.  There were a few tears once or twice, but in general, very smooth travelling.

The house and property in Kauai was amazing.  One main house for Baba and Yaya.  One medium house (just a big bedroom and attached bathroom) for us, and a little screened in single room bedroom for Diana's sister.

Mornings were up with the sun and heading out to the beach for some snorkeling and hanging out.  Allie spent a lot of time in the shallow water with Diana's infinitely patient mom.  They had a great time splashing in the water and playing around.  The rest of us snorkeled and sat on the beach and read books, etc.  Then back to the house for lunch, naps, and generally more hanging out in the afternoon.  Very familial and cozy and comfortable.  Good times.  I played 10 total games of Babel against Diana's dad.  He beat me 7 out of 10 times, but it was a lot of fun.  One evening, we played a round of the family edition of Cranium that they had in the house.  Diana and I went around the board almost twice before the other team (Diana's parents and sister) made it around once.  We're a pretty good team in that game.

Allie did great on the trip, and had lots of fun playing with everyone.  She certainly wasn't starved for attention with so many doting relatives around.  She generally napped and slept well, though she would wake up sometimes at night a little freaked out, maybe not knowing where she was.  There were little streams running through the property, and she had a great time throwing sticks and leaves and watching them float away like little boats.  There was also a mangy cat that hung around, and she'd present the cat with leaves, sticks, flowers, and anything else she thought the cat might like.  If the cat moved away, she'd pick up whatever it left behind and trail after it.

We got home at around 10am.  After a brief nap and packing, I headed back to the airport for a 1:45pm flight to Vegas for Iwan's bachelor party, to be discussed in a future post.