The other reason why I love this place so much?  Every year there’s an awesome APA regional event that takes place in the hotel at the same time as the WPBA event.  There’s always tons of people there having a good time, playing in the mini events and just getting excited about pool.

Sarah had a good tournament here last year finishing 9th when she got knocked out of the tournament by Allison Fisher.  ESPN’s going to air the quarterfinal matches this year (along with the semis and finals), so maybe if Sarah gets on TV she’ll let me hang out in her corner.

As always, APA Nationals are a blast.  We get to see some old friends as well as make a bunch of new ones, so Nationals pretty much always turns out to be one of my favorite shows of the year.

Of course with all the work I’m putting in, there hasn’t been much time for any R&R.  Its pretty much wake up, chow on some gruel at Kady’s, guard the cues for 12 hours, hit Peppermill for dinner and go to bed.  I sure do miss the Splash Bar too.  It was always right on the way back to the room, so we could hang out after work for a bit.  Now its just slot machines that no one seems to be using.

Anyway, after I’m done here, I’ll be trying to stow away in Rowdy’s luggage for a quick trip to NYC, then its back to Colorado for the WPBA Colorado Classic.  I was hoping to see the tall lady there, but it looks like she’s not going to make it.  We’ll have to get Mike, Keven and Sarah to do a shot of Patron in her honor.

I heard some rumblings today in Casa de Rousey that Sarah might be heading to NYC next week, so I’m torn.  I want to go see the city (since I’ve never been there), but I also want to go to Las Vegas for APA Nationals.

I’m not sure how I’m going to do it, but I’m determined to go hang out at The Riv and eat one of those yummy black and white cookies.  I was watching this movie called The Prestige where Batman and Wolverine were trying to one up each other with this Teleported Man trick, so maybe I can figure that out.  Come to think of it, I’m not sure that ended so well, so maybe I shouldn’t mess with that Tesla teleportation machine.

As they say, where there’s a will, there’s a way.  I’m determined to be in two places at once, so we’ll see if I can pull it off.  See you at The Riv!

Now I’ve gotta say I wasn’t too happy about this “new addition”.  I mean there’s only one true PoolDawg after all and that’s me.  She’s been pretty cool about everything though.  She does her best not to step on my official mascot toes (which is a good thing since so many of them have been broken off) and mostly just hangs with Alexis.  Needless to say, when I asked her to lend a hand, she was all over it.

As soon as Keven put all our packages out for the truck, Francesca hopped on top of the pile keeping all those would be thieves at bay.  She stayed there until the truck came looking as ferocious as possible.

She won’t be making the trip to Vegas this year, but next year, who knows.  The kid’s sorta growing on me.

First off though, big congrats to my little buddy Ga Young Kim on winning the tournament.  She didn’t lose a match in the entire event and beat Karen Corr in the finals 7-5.

No rest for old Frank T. Dawg though.  I’m heading out to the Riv in Las Vegas for APA Nationals in a couple weeks to meet and greet with the customers, watch some sweet amateur pool and of course, say hi to my favorite bronze Crazy Girls.

Be sure to stop by the PoolDawg booth to say hi and meet the gang.