Solarquest

So my wife, brother and I have been rocking out Solarquest recently.

What is Solarquest, you ask? Well, read here. It's basically Monopoly in outer space, with the properties being moons of the nine planets of the solar system, or the planets themselves (although, this may been rendered slighly obsolete recently, as apparently Pluto is no longer a planet.)

In any case, it is a fun game and definitely worth playing if you have never done so. It is much more complicated than Monopoly, though you have the freedom to "wheel and deal" the way you do with Monopoly, but with more options.

Here are Walt Clyde's mother and brother thinking of their next move in our most recent game.

New Year's Eve in Atlantic City

Yesterday was New Year's Eve. Happy 2008, everybody!

So my wife and I went to Atlantic City to see Elvis Costello perform at the House of Blues. He put on a good show, as we knew he would.

I looked into getting a hotel room in Atlantic City. Holy crap. Not only was it nearly impossible to get a room, but the rooms that were available were ridiculously overpriced. Supply and demand, I suppose. Most rooms at casinos ranged from $600/$700 up to almost $1000 for one night. Even the cheap places that are not even on the island, like roadside motels that are more suitable for, say, bringing a prostitute to, were in the $200 - $300 range for one night. It was amazing.

Incase you haven't been there in a while, Atlantic City has really changed its image. It has become upscale. Despite the Tropicana probably going under soon, it is doing very well with its new series of upscale shops and restaurants. I have walked on "The Walk" - smart move, by the way, by the casinos - fellas, you can gamble and your wife can, ahhh..., keep herself busy with the shops! It gets even ritzier. The clubs in Atlantic City have become a huge draw for the single crowd. Most of the casinos have posh, ultra-hip night clubs these days.






My brother, after seeing the outside look like this, and the inside of the Tropicana look like this after being away for some time, said something like, "I'm kind of sad. Whatever happened to the run-down, seedy town I remember? It's like when Vinny O's was renovated."





My wife and I went in for New Years Eve two years ago with no specific agenda, and people were dressed to the nines. It really was something. We strolled from casino to casino, having drinks and meeting random people, as is pretty common when everybody has had a few drinks.

We learned to not wait until too late in the evening to park at a casino parking deck, because when you leave at 2 in the morning you will wait for an hour or two just to get your car out of the parking deck. We did better this year and found a public lot on the street.


We split up. I played cards while she shopped, we had dinner together, and eventually saw Elvis.

I wasn't the only Teaneck clown in the casinos. Amazingly, this was early in the evening and both of the boys did well.















To summarize: If you're looking for a good time next New Years, you can do a lot worse than Atlantic City.