Are You Ready For Some Football??

(listening to: Emergency 72, Turin Brakes)

Ok, so I just dropped Jeff off at LAX, so I guess it's time to post highlights of the Road Trip. I'll get to that in a bit.

We'll start with a recap of last weekend, a/k/a the Chicken & Waffles Fantasy Football Draft 2005.



The weekend started off great, which is to say that my car made it from Jackson to Gulfport without dying and with A/C in tact. Lenny, Harold and I met Jeff, Tommy and the Wolf at the airport and headed down to the Isle of Capri Casino, where we had miraculously scored a free room for the weekend. Unfortunately, the room had one bed. For 4 of us. Looks like we'd have some serious introspection to do.

We headed downstairs to meet up with Briley (fantasy owner and procurer of afforementioned free room) at this bar, and on the way out of the casino, the Wolf made good on his promise of putting $100 on black at the roulette table as soon as we got there. He figured it would be a good indicator of how the weekend would be. We figured he was insane. 30 seconds later, and $100 richer, the Wolf followed us outside and we made our way through what looked like the Field of Dreams (post plowing, pre-baseball diamond) to meet up with Briley, who evidently had already started submarining his chances of having a successful draft on Saturday, as he was about 10 sheets to the wind when we got there. We hung there for awhile, then went back to the boat, where the Wolf and Tommy (who have about the same level of gambling addiction) proceeded to kick off their weekend of inverse results at the blackjack tables. Harold and I decided to steer clear of the "high stakes" action and sit at the bar playing video poker, scoring a few free drinks in the process. After about 3 hours, I had broken even on my $5 investment, with a couple rounds of Budweiser to show for profit. We followed this up with (of course) a late night Waffle House appearance, where Briley paid for our food since he had won a little cash at the tables. Jeff and I hit the sack around 5:30 in the morning, leaving Tommy and the Wolf downstairs and securing ourselves either side of the king size bed in the room.

The next day we had lunch at O'Charley's on our way to Tommy's parents' house for our draft. I had the chicken tenders, in case you were wondering. Everyone else had the French Dip. I stand by my decision.

The draft went well, everyone seemed fairly pleased with their squad. Everyone also seemed fairly pleased with the fact that even though Briley picked up Peyton Manning with the first pick in the draft, after what certainly amounted to an unhealthy amount of alcohol the night before, he somehow also managed to draft the rest of the Colts team, as well as Tim Brown, who is retired. After that, we played a 7-man no-limit Texas Hold 'Em tournament, dubbed the MSOP (Mississippi Series Of Poker) by the Wolf, which Tommy won. I placed third. No money for third. Then back over to the boat so our friends could get their fix. Interestingly enough, instead of our usual late night Waffle House, that night we had late night sushi in the casino. I guess the times, they are a-changing.

Jeff and the Wolf and I hung around until Monday morning, and before we dropped Tommy off at the airport Sunday afternoon, we played another little poker match, which I won, but, alas, no bracelet, as it was not an official MSOP sponsored event.

We'll get to the Road Trip another time, maybe later today. Right now, I need to go shave this mustache.