What a week. Gambling, boozing, strippers, rock and roll, and a ton of work! Oh yeah, that's normal. The only difference is I did it in two cities.

For those of you wondering why i've been ignoring the e-mails, here's a rundown:

Last Wednesday- Korn at The Joint. These guys play to 15,000 a night, and at HR they played to 2,000. last time I saw them this intimate was Harlem's Appolo, and that wasn't this good. Great show, and the wife and I slummed at the Wild West afterwards and actually won. Nice dive -- beats the Klondike

Thursday- Interview with Disturbed, then a Disturbed concert at The Joint. I have a few probelms with them as people, and their music never moved me, but a BRILLIANT rock and roll concert. They've bene opening arenas for Korn. They deserve to be headlining. After Disturbed Mrs Al and I had 8 hours to kill before our flight to San Fran. So we drank and gambled. I lost, she won. 3 hours at a $10 table and we were even. Off to the Double Down for video poker. I'm told we visited the Free Zone (a cool gay bar) but I don't remember). Cashed out of Double Down when the bartender told us we had 90 minutes to our flight. I somehow had a 4-of-a-kind on the machine and left a winner. Drunkenly frightened everyone on the flight. Arrived in San Fran at 9:00 AM and my parents tried to speak to me -- bad idea.

Friday -- Sleep, family dinner, sleep

Saturday-- Sleep family, Fake-Thanksgiving with my brother, parents, and friends, and LARRY FLYNT'S HUSTLER CLUB. Girls cover their nipples and they take the beer out of your hand at 2:00 AM. My lovely Mrs did buy a $10 lap dance to support Toys For Tots. And one stripper wanted to sleep with me if I was in a band. My wife told her I wasn't, so she gave me her number to pass on to any rock stars looking for a San Francisco groupie.

Sunday -- Met John Yee. traded some stuff, bought another chip, traded my Disturbed/Hard Rock dinner pass for an old HR chip i wanted. More family- this time in Marin County.

Monday-- Drunk at HR SF, flight home, realized the car was still at HR Vegas. Might as well play blackjack. $5 table, I win, the wife loses, she gets wasted on Jagermeister and ruins my winning streak.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday -- work non-stop with a broken work e-mail account and without time to answer any personal e-mail.

Now it's off to the Palms to see if there's a 2-4 Hold 'Em game.

If you've written to me I will write back. if you've sent me something for Chase, he's inthe act of writing Thanks You notes. Miss you all, but I'm bet you're glad to have had some peace and quiet without me for a week.