Thirty Dirty Years Old

Okay... let me take a minute here and take stock of this blog. I'm writing this post on May 18, 2009, and the post relates to a weekend back in March of 2008. Once again, I'm over a year behind in posting and between work, my baby and sleep, I don't see myself having time to post anything. That said, I really can't wait to post about my son, but I'm going to make a final push here not to just fast forward to his birth because I know that if I do, I'll never get back to posting about everything I skipped over. So here we go. Expect a flurry of short and sweet posts until we get to my son's birth. Enjoy.



I can't think of a more appropriate way to celebrate Darren's 30th birthday than with a weekend of fun at Mandalay Bay in Vegas. Darren planned a four day stay from Friday through Tuesday, with different people in attendance over the entire stretch. With Ingrid prego at home, I opted for a shorter stay, arriving on Saturday and leaving on Sunday.



And let's not forget that it was also my 31st birthday so I, too, had plans to make the most of my brief stay.



Not only did Darren invite his friends to celebrate, but his entire family came along for the weekend, including my favorite family member, Mandi.



Shortly after arriving, we gathered at the buffet for an all-you-can-eat bonanza.



Darren and I thought about holding an eating contest at the buffet where we could hold a draft and select our teams from those in attendance. At least for once in his life, Frosty would be first pick. Instead, we decided to each select a representative -- the two strongest warriors, so to speak -- to battle against each other on behalf of the others. I selected Frosty and Darren selected Matt.



Surprisingly, unlike Darren in this picture, both Matt and Frosty managed to keep their food down and cleared several fully loaded plates. Even more surprising was that Matt was the victor! Damn you, Frosty.



After dinner, we headed back to our room for dessert where Christine presented us with this awesome birthday cake in the shape of a black chip. Now if we could only turn this into some real black chips we'd have ourselves a rockin' birthday party.



If there's one thing you can count on, it's that our birthday celebration always means great times. And of course no birthday celebration would be complete without embarassing t-shirts for the birthday boys...



... or without a little gayness from Darren...



... or without a little gayness from Darren in his birthday t-shirt...



... or without someone (i.e., Shawn) spilling cake on the carpet (i.e., smothering cake in someone's face and spilling it on the floor)...



... or without someone (i.e., Shawn) breaking the toilet in our room. That's right, we were toilet-less for the rest of our stay. Well, to be honest, the toilet was still used by certain people (i.e., Shawn (again) and others) as a yack pot. I'll spare you the pictures, but as you might imagine, this bowl was a disgusting soup of vomit and pee by the end of our stay.



After doing a little drinking in the room, we all headed out for some casino fun, including taking silly pictures...



... and in Hutch's case, lame pictures...



... and in Pandy's case, dirty pictures...



... and in Frosty's case, eating pictures.



Darren had planned an evening of clubbing for our birthdays, so when it came time, we all headed out to the Venetian in style.



Well maybe "in style" is a bit of an overstatement, given that this packed limo with no alcohol is far from high rollin'.



With a full moon out that night, there was no doubt Pandy would be making an appearance.



We arrived at Tao on schedule and bypassed the line that had formed to enter the club. With the large number of people in our group, we had wisely arranged for table service.



Our entire group was quickly escorted to our table, which was in a nice location, set back a bit from the dance floor to avoid drunken, sweaty bodies from encroaching on our space. Let me just say that the worst thing about table service is the required purchase of extremely overpriced alcohol...



... It is, however, also the best thing.



Jeremiah and his wife, Stephanie, also came to share their wild side. Until that night, I didn't even know Jeremiah had a wild side... but what I did know is that he has very small nipples.



As we settled in, Matt and Tracer joined the party.



It wasn't long thereafter, that another guest arrived, just as we all expected. What was that, Andy?... Is that Pandy the Dancing Queen we hear?



Uh... yes. Clearly.



As you know, once Pandy the Dancing Queen arrives, it's time for the rest of us to step aside and enjoy the show.



That's right, PDQ, the dance floor is all yours now. Light it up!



I must admit that the music in TAO was the best club music I've ever heard, and we were all loving it. Great mixes and great music selections all blasting from a great sound system. PDQ and Christine were in heaven.



PDQ even inspired Frosty and Pernie to get off their asses, which up until that point, had been glued to their seats.



And PDQ even showed his boyfriend what true love means by sharing a portion of the dance floor. Go Pernie!



In the meantime, the four coolest people in the club posed for a group shot...



... while the four cheesiest people posed for a superlame shot...



... and the two coolest people posed for a supertough shot...



... and the drunkest person posed for a dream-come-true shot, and then drunk a shot...



... and the birthday boys posed for a birthday shot. Happy birthday to us, my brother from another mother.



Hey, I have an idea. For my birthday, let's play a game of rock-paper-scissors to see who has to buy the next round of drinks, okay? Ready, go!... Uhhh, Shawn?... Hello? Something tells me Shawn's isn't going to last the entire night.

And he didn't. In fact, he only lasted about 10 more minutes. Shortly after this picture was taken, the staff told Shawn he had to wake up or leave. And after a rough trip to the bathroom, the staff escorted him out of the club. Thankfully, PDQ was kind enough to transform back to Andy and take my brother back to our room.



Fortunately, that didn't stop the rest of us from continuing to enjoy ourselves. While seeing Darren and Jeremiah with their women on the dance floor made me wish Ingrid was with me to celebrate, it made Hutch wish he had someone to celebrate with (yes, I'm mean).



Later that night, someone had the bright idea of taking the light cubes from our ice bucket and putting on an awesome light show for the birthday boy...



... whether he wanted to watch it or not.



Speaking of bright ideas and ice cubes, Jeremiah had the brilliant notion to throw ice cubes high in the air...



... and then catch them in his pants...



... and then have Darren reach in his pants to get the ice cubes, as he reached into Darren's pants to get a different kind of wet surprise.



After his skilled demonstration, I think Jeremiah felt a bit violated. Here he is trying to get his arms around how much he actually drank that night... Impossible to know.



At the same time, Christine tried her best to get her arms around Frosty... Impossible to do.



And by the end of the night, Darren got his arms around a person he truly loves... Impossible to believe.

Happy 30th Birthday, Darren.