Got in late last night. Mark’s plane was delayed an hour so I sat and read and watched the crowds. We took a cab to the Flamingo and were put in a huge suite for the night, because they didn’t have anything else available. We walked around a bit and played blackjack at O’Shea’s until 3:30am (Vegas time).

Slept in today. Laid out at the beach. Ezra came in around noon. We ate some buffet, then walked over to Caesar’s Palace to get a new basketball (mine’s flat). We found out there’s a court at Bally’s, so we’ll try to play there tomorrow.

After Caesar’s we secured some seats at the sportsbook and dug in for the games. Mark sweet-talked some old lady from Knoxville into giving us three seats, then some crazy Tampa Bay Lightning fan practically sat in Mark’s lap to get a few of the hockey game. (Mark won some money on the Lightning game, so it worked out).

Two early games were close. Kansas eked out a win over Southern Illinois and Texas A&M lost by one to Memphis. Then Pitt stunk up the place against UCLA (never bet on Pitt again!) and Ohio St. somehow overcame a 20-point deficit beat Tennessee by one.

Now we’re back up in the room. I’m exactly even so far. Ezra and Mark are “napping.” I’m skeptical that they’ll rally. It might be safest to just sit and read - instead of playing blackjack, but we’ll see.

Just went out without the boys. Played some $5 blackjack at O’Shea’s. Lost $30 - could’ve been worse. Learning how to just walk away from a bad table.

Slept in a bit this morning, then headed downstairs with Ezra to find Mark. Couldn’t find him at the pool, and the sun wasn’t hot yet, so we ventured over to O’Shea’s for early morning blackjack. We didn’t last long, but didn’t lose too much. Then it was off to the pool for a little while. We had a 10:30 reservation to play basketball at Bally’s, but after a looooong walk, the court was lame - no nets, bent rims and one rim was about 8’; so we dunked and left. Tried to play on the executive court at the Flamingo, but they wouldn’t let us play for insurance reasons.

Soooo, it was back to Faiman Court at UNLV. Some “spirited” competition ended with Mark’s first win in the modern era. Stopped briefly at the UNLV store, then back for showers and games.

Florida beat Butler early and Georgetown eked out a win over Vanderbilt (which screwed our bets). The late games turned out much better with Oregon beating UNLV and UNC coming from sixteen down to beat USC. After that we headed over to PF Chang’s in the Aladdin for something to eat. Our luck ran out quickly in O’Shea’s as we sat for under an hour and got awful cards. We then played a quick game of pool and now we’re back at the room.

Strangely enough I woke up first this morning and did some reading. Then we spent some more time at the pool. Though I figured we’d get booted fairly quickly, we decided to try and play on the Flamingo’s forbidden court. Got in three solid games of “21” without incident.

Games were earlier today, so we came upstairs, showered and went back down to grab seats.

My betting day ended early with a loss on Memphis over Ohio St. I decided to hang onto my money for Kansas/UCLA (which, of course, the other guys won). Then we made our annual pilgrimage to Caesar’s Palace and the Cheesecake Factory for a nice dinner and great conversation. Ezra told us he and Greta are thinking about adopting an Ethiopian baby, so we talked a lot about adoption and parenting. The conversation was so good we decided to continue it over coffee back at the Flamingo. We tailed Ezra over to the Barbary Coast as he played some blackjack and then showed me the basics of craps (despite some stupendously rude casino workers).

Tomorrow we pack up, check out and catch the final two games before heading home. It’s been a lot of fun - always is with these guys, despite the usual results at the tables and sportsbook.

I miss the girls terribly and am looking forward to being home.