The One That Got Away...

So recently I decided that I wanted to get a pet. Well I thought of the obvious, how about a dog? The truth is, I travel too much and don't have time to properly care for a dog. So to avoid any crazy confrontations with PETA (don't want blood thrown on my white jacket while walking down the Red Carpet) I decided to go with a fish. I actually ended up getting two fish. One was a normal looking Fantail Goldfish which I named Bruce and the other was a Black Moor Goldfish which I named Jackson. Well yesterday was a rough day, I came home from work all excited to feed my fish and as soon as I walked through my bedroom door...there it is...Bruce is floating dead at the top of the water. I'm not sure exactly what happened. I never forgot to feed him, I put the drops in the water to insure it wasn't toxic and I even bought a plant to keep in the water for additional oxygen. I'm convinced that PetsMart sold me an old fish. Anyway, whatever the reason...please take a moment in silence now for Bruce.

Rest in Peace Bruce. You were a great fish.

The good thing is Jackson is still alive and well. And for everyone that is wondering, Bruce was given the proper "frontyard" burial.

Now that the bad news regarding the past week is out of the way, it's time to tell you about the good stuff. Friday night was the Advisors Excel christmas party and this year it was held at the Prairie Band Casino. The night was kicked off with about an hour of people having drinks and taking pictures. We then went to a ballroom for an amazing steak dinner. The three owners of our company spoke and then the entertainment for the night was introduced. Simon Winthrop was hired by our owners to perform for us. He is a world renowned magician and if you have never seen him then I strongly recommend it, he was amazing! You can check him out on his website, http://www.simonwinthrop.com/.

Above is a picture of Simon with Arnold Schwarzenegger. He has also performed for several presidents, the CEO of Google, Tom Cruise, Wesley Snipes, Demi Moore, Robin Williams, the Prince of somewhere in the Middle East, and Jack Nicholson to name a few.

"Unbelievable..." -Tom Cruise

"Do that again!" -Arnold Schwarzenegger

"That evening Simon Winthrop had our entire group believing he was the World's Greatest Magician" -Jermaine Dupree

Ok, that's enough pub for Simon. After he was finished the ballroom was cleared out and casino games were set up for us. Everybody gambled for the next 2 hours and for every $1000 in chips, you recieved a raffle ticket. At the end of the 2 hours you could take all of the raffle tickets that you earned and disperse them into the pot for several different prizes. There were things like an IPad, tickets to the KSU @ KU game, flat screen tv, cameras, gift cards, remote control start for your car, etc... I put all of the tickets that I won into the IPad cannister but didn't win. Oh well, it was still a blast!

Eventually we worked our way into the real casino and hit the tables. I walked directly to the Black Jack table as I usually do and after a short period was up $175. A bunch of my friends then came up to me and said that they were going to go to an after party in one of the hotel rooms. So I told them to hold on a minute, walked over to the roulette table and put my $175 on Red and it hit. So in about 30 minutes I made $350, not bad. The christmas party was a blast, not many companies throw a bash like our owners do. As we say it, "Welcome to Casino Excel!"