PinSanity - Las Vegas Sept. 6th-8th, 2005

This year was the first year of Pinsanity, and yes it was just like the name said it was! Pins Pins and MORE Pins! Sadly, the annual tradition of the Pindex event is over, but there just had to be an event in Las Vegas, thus PinSanity was born. I've been to Vegas the last 4 years and each year it just get's better! This year the party started early with Michelle and Jim Hulin hosting a wonderful Party at their new Las Vegas home, what a party! They were great hosts, plenty of food and drink and Michelle had a fun & successful raffle & auction to benefit the Red Cross to help victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans just a few weeks before. Thanks for a great time guys! Then on Tuesday afternoon a very good friend of mine, Steve Manriquez, of Sin City itself had a few of his friends over to his house for food, drink and fun before the actual event festivities itself started. The Party at the Hard Rock Cafe started about 5:00 with people waiting in line for their goodies, then taking advantage of the great appetizer buffet the Hard Rock provided...of course while I took advantage of my drink tickets ;-))) On to Wednesday, the trading hall at the Tropicana opened early with people from all over the world with their trading bags ready to go. I was an observer (and partier!) this year, but was amazing to see all the different pins that people had! Wednesday evening after dinner with my friend David, we headed to a really cool Martini Bar called the Red Square where we met up with Frito Linda and Mario, Suzanne, Nancy D, Tony A, Cecilia and her friend Tasha. It was alot of fun, the top of the bar was like a frosted ice and the martini's were quite stong (& very tasty!) The bartender was awesome, he could make up to 12 martini's in the shakers, line up martini glasses and the pour them all together - everyone was taking pictures, it was so neat! Of course Dukie and the other pengi's took this as a perfect opportunity to ice skate on top of the ice bar...hehe. Thursday am, WAY too early, we were in line for the Pin Breakfast at the Cafe. They had several different pins and of course an event shot glass (like I would have got up that early if they didn't have the shot glass!) and the breakfast was quite good this year. After everyone was broke and stuffed, we headed back to the trading hall. I hung out with some friends before it was time to head to the airport to come home.

Another GREAT year, thanks to ALL that made it possible and thanks to all my friends (Steve, Willie, Suzanne, David, Linda, Virgil, etc) for always making it a fun trip for me, your the best...and to someone else, let's just say #4 next year ;-)

Me & my buddy Virgil

Me & Steve Manriquez - what a sweetie!

Me & my new buddy Brian Holt

Me with my 3 buddies - Davidrod (L), Willie (R) and my Dos Equis beer ;-)

Me, Steve M & that CRAZY Suzanne Nordmann (Heyyyyyyyyyy!)