Big, big sighs of relief as the tradeshow started. All the catalogs I had been working up the over the last couple months turned out amazingly well. Union’s matte cover and UV spots are fucking amazing. Coal’s embossed cover and vibrant color swatches are fucking awesome. Grenade’s wraparound flap cover and overall line strength looks amazing. Couldn’t be more proud of the all the teams I am involved with. Even happier those books are done. Phew. Great, great momentum, all across the boards.

Spent the first couple nights with Rose at the Hard Rock. Great cots. Same old bunch of shit.

Had a big night out on the town with one Ricky Melnik. The 2am-8am shift. Thanks for the memories, Rick, thanks for the memories.

Dad made it out here in one piece. It’s been great to show him all the new work and cool shit and introduce him to all my friends, clients and colleagues in the industry. He’s been a big hit. We rounded out night one with a hearty dinner at Batista’s Hole in the Wall Italian restaurante and then seeing Social Distortion at the Hard Rock. Mike Ness has still got it. The best thing to come out of that goddamned Orange County of California.

Day two with dad went off without a hitch. Well, I lost him once, but, shit, he wasn’t too hard to find, considering the crowds he seems to attract.

Our big night out consisted of catching the Penn & Teller show over at the Rio, then, sharing a lavish latenight meal at In-n-Out burger off Tropicana and I-15. A perfect night out. Just me and dad, hanging out.

Penn & Teller were great. They called out Vegas, talked some shit, pulled some dirty magic tricks and overall, were very, very entertaining. Slight-of-hand tricks, on a big, big, witty scale. Cool shit. On the way out of the theater we got to meet both Penn and Teller. Teller was small and gracious, posing for shots and signing shit. Penn was big and booming and had big, meaty hands. He called me, “Boss” as I leaned in and said, “What a bunch of bullshit. Thanks!” He gave me an evil laugh.

All these years I’ve been coming to Vegas and haven’t seen one of the cheesy shows. This losing streak came to an end tonight with our big night out. Good shit.