Wild Wisconsin Weekend

We made a trip up to Green Bay this weekend for Zoe's dance recital. The recital was fun to watch, as usual. Zoe was in a lot of routines, and looked very cute in her various costumes. Once again, Kevin did a dance routine with her, this time to "You're The One That I Want" from "Grease". But the biggest surprise was a country music tap dance number that featured several dancers' moms, and Zoe's mom Karen was up there dancing.

















Beware, boring blackjack blogging below.
We spent Friday night at the Radisson that is connected to the Oneida casino, and so I had a chance to play a little blackjack. I looked around for a poker room, but didn't see one, so I settled for a double deck blackjack game. I bought in with 20 bets, and proceeded to start losing right from the start. I promised myself that I'd quit if I got down 10 bets. I never got down that far, but I stayed negative for a really long time. Then things turned around and a couple of fortunate splits and doubles got me up into the black. So now instead of a loss limit, I started thinking about a win goal. I set my sights on an 8 bet win, and when I was up 7 bets, I gave serious thought to stopping then. I don't know how many times I've come within 1 bet of my goal, only to have my luck turn south again. But I stuck another bet out there, and as luck would have it, I got a double down hand. Now I'm facing either being up 9 bets, or falling back to only 5 up. I stuck to my basic strategy and it paid off when I won the hand. I should have said "Yippee, I'm up one more bet than I was hoping for!", but the gambler in me said "Play it, and either go home with 10 or the 8 you were hoping for." I lost that hand, but held firm and walked out smiling with an 8 bet win.

Standby, silly slot story soon.
I don't usually play slots, but on my way out of the casino, I passed a bank of Wheel of Fortune machines, and decided to risk $10 on a chance at a life changing progressive win. These machines were $1 machines however, and to qualify for the progressive, or even a bonus spin, you have to play 3 coins, so $10 was only going to buy about 3 spins. I decided not to play those machines, but having already mentally committed myself to losing the $10, I headed over to a bank of 25¢ Wheel of Fortune machines where I could at least get about 13 (how's that for a lucky number) chances to win big. I put in my $10, and started hitting the Max Bet button. Every spin was coming up nothing. Not even a little teaser win. I was down to 4 quarters when the next spin came up with a bonus wheel spin. My bonus spin paid 40 quarters, which put me right back where I started. I thought briefly about cashing out with my break-even slot experience, but gamblers don't play to break even. I hit max bet again, and got another bonus wheel spin. The bonus wheel started clicking around as I hit the spin button, and started to slow as it approached the coveted 1000 coin space. I knew it was just a tease, and that it was going to stop on one of the neighboring 25 or 40 coin wins. I think my mouth literally dropped open when it stopped on 1000 and the machine began its applause and music routine. At that minute, I had no idea how much 1000 quarters was, but I knew I didn't need to try for any more. I hit the cashout button and took home a tidy $250 slot win!