The night before my birthday Rei surprised me with a night at the Flamingo. It was a very nice thought, as I had actually wanted to stay on the strip during the weekend of my birthday, but it was a bit pricey. Anyhow, I was still adjusting from East coast time: I was super tired by 9pm and waking up at 5:30am. By the time he told me we were staying at a hotel, I was ready to go to sleep. LOL. I did manage to scrounge up enough energy to walk down to Cheesecake Factory at Caesar's Palace for dessert.

View of Bally's, Paris, Barbary Coast and Bellagio on Las Vegas Strip from Flamingo.

After checking out of the hotel around 9am, we went shopping for birthday party supplies. Whoo Ha! Since my birthday is on St Patrick's Day, we thought we'd decorate accordingly. Apparently everyone else decorated for the holiday, too, and bought all the green stuff before I got to it. There was nothing left. So the party would go off with no decorations. But that was OK... it just left more money for food and drink. Rei bought my cake and I bought a couple hundred dollars worth of food and beverage. Due to the invitation responses, we were expecting twenty-seven peoples, so I bought accordingly. Even though I told everone to bring their own favorite drinks, I bought enough for everyone. I wish I hadn't! Only seventeen people showed up, so we were way over-prepared. Since I couldn't bring all that food and liquor back with me, Rei ended up with a nice little present from me on my birthday......

The cake. Yum E.

I didn't mind the flakes too much, though! I got very happy after having quite a bit of whiskey and rum. So happy, in fact, that I sang lots of karaoke. There is a video somewhere of me drunkenly performing Billy Joel's Uptown Girl. I was also reminded of singing The ABC Song and some Cindi Lauper, neither of which I remember. There is also some vague memory floating around in my head of showing my piercing scar......

From left to right, Desi getting punched by Charles Anthony, Marshall, Karaoke Karsten, Ivan, Patrick, Christian and the back of Michael's head.

The key to avoiding a hangover: drink plenty of water. So I drank a liter or so of it before finally going to sleep around 3am. Despite the absence of a headache, my tummy was not pleased with all that liquor. It grumbled all the next day. I didn't do much that day except go up to Rei's friend's new house. We played foozball. I suck at foozball.

Karsten, dozing and Rei, with afro.