Whine & Cheese

40 Love

If everything is on schedule, by the time this is posted we should well be on our way to Vegas.  We're taking the Cooper... and to prevent a repeat from last year... I should have had some breakfast before we left and will likely stop for a stretch and a bite to eat in Kingman... and I have packed (and likely ingested) some over-the-counter motion sickness medication.

Today is the Big Day... while that is usually just a tennis score, alas the first half of the title of this post is also my age as of 1:15am EST this morning.  Woo hoo!  [sigh!]

The second half is our entertainment for the evening... we're heading over to the Mirage (and into the former theater of Siegfried & Roy) to see Cirque du Soleil's... 

It's been a few years since our last one and our third Vegas Cirque production overall after Mystere and Zumanity (though Celine Dion's A New Day kinda counts since it was by Franco Dragone who directed Mystere and O).   The shows are always a feast for the senses (well, at least eyes and ears), so I am sure we'll enjoy this one as well.

Since better seats available, we're ended up getting tickets to second/later show of the night.  We're not night owls here... so it should be interesting.  Not that we haven't had late nights in Vegas, but it's usually spent in "zombie" mode in front of a video poker machine!

And since we're there, we made dinner reservations (online!) at Samba, a Brazilian steakhouse at The Mirage.  Believe it or not, we do have a Brazilian steakhouse just five minutes from our house.  We've been meaning to check it out for years now (loooooong-ish story better saved for another post)... so we'll see what we think of the whole all-you-can eat of various meats on a stick brought around and carved at your table... sounds very decadent, but that's Vegas!

Tomorrow is another show... it's a headliner and definitely something corny and kitsch-ier... though for some folks, I'm guessing Cirque du Soleil would qualify as corny and kitschy... stay tuned!

Thank Goodness For Comp Rates

I am in the middle of a pre-long weekend work crunch.  Clients are pretty much coming out of the proverbial woodwork and the world may just end if I am not sitting at my desk this coming Thursday and Friday and working on their market research studies.  The "panic" that ensues when I go away is pretty funny and would be funnier if I didn't have to deal with it... and Todd only has it 72 times worse!   

So my point is, you ain't getting much out of me today and tomorrow... and my planned pre-posted entries will just fill you in on this year's Vegas entertainment choices, I know you have been just breathless in anticipation.

As mentioned yesterday, Vegas ain't cheap no more.  Oh sure, there are still $2.99 steak dinners to be had if you really look around... and a midweek visit may land you a decent room rate...  but Vegas these days is more about the gourmet dining and if you're going on the weekend and staying on/near the Strip you'll be lucky to land a room rate of under $200/night.

As I have mentioned before, I have a Harrahs comp card and boy does that come in handy!   A few years back I had "platinum" status... but a combination of them re-defining (raising!) the number of points to reach that level and not playing as often as I did in the past... I dropped the one level to their lowest level of "gold."   I feared that would be the end of my good comp offers.  But alas, and thankfully, that was not the case.

When we were booking the trip, I put in the dates without any of my comp card information.  I nearly choked at the a$280/average night rate I was given for our usual haunt, the off-strip Rio Hotel & Casino.   I put in my comp card account and the rate dropped by 25%... nice, but still a tad nose-scrunching.  Finally, I put in a "month of your birthday" room offer sent to me in the mail... and BINGO... 49% off of that original non-comp card rate (basically, giving me Thursday night for "free").

Now, the tricky part is keeping it a good deal... as the sayings go... "Vegas wasn't built on winners" and "You don't get something for nothing!"

I Think We're I'm Alone Now

Todd is off in France on a business trip this week. From what he tells me it's not anything to get too excited over, believe me if he gave me the slightest indication it was I would be tagging along at some point. 

We've reached another (new?!) stage in our relationship.  I dropped him off on the airport terminal curb.  I think this may have been the first time.  But he was pretty much just checking in and then disappearing beyond the security gate, so after doing this several times, my presence doesn't seem to add much value to the experience... and besides it was 6:30 in the morning... on Saturday.

He's back next Saturday night, so not too long.  Since I spend about 80% of my weekday waking hours alone (at home, no less), it seemed that getting through this past weekend was half the proverbial battle.  I did a pretty good job of keeping myself occupied... which I will now bore entertain you with.

Needless to say, caught up on a lot of TiVo.  I've determined we watch a lot of political shows.  I still have Chris Matthews weekend show to watch... but got through Real Time with Bill Maher, McLaughlin Group, and This Week with George Snuffleupagus (our predictable nickname for the diminutive former Clinton communications director turned show host).  Otherwise, it was watching hour-long Deal or No Deal episodes in about 25 minutes... and catching up on Showtime's Californication... we decided to take that off Todd's TiVo "to do" list since we were five episodes behind (still behind on Weeds, but we've been watching that since the beginning).

Went to Petsmart and bought collars and leashes for the dogs.  I had been using slip-on leashes when transporting or walking the dogs, but ever since being traumatized by the "Sophie's Choice" decision of which dog chase after they both slipped off their collars and ran in opposite directions... I needed to do something so we didn't repeat that episode since we're boarding them again in a couple of weeks.

Yes, we have a long weekend getaway to look forward to... no surprise, it's yet another Vegas weekend.  You can pretty much set your watch calendar that we'll be headed to Sin City at some point since both of our birthdays fall around this time.  We'll be leaving on my birthday... and just in case you [gasp!] don't remember this year it's the "big one".. if you still can't figure it out, you can go find last year's "the one before the big one" post here.

I did a video poker warm-up yesterday.  My Harrahs comp points expire if I don't use my card every 6 months. While I was pretty sure I could make it to the Vegas trip (the card says the last time I used my card was March 31st), I didn't want to take the chance.  There are a lot more ways to cash-in comps in Vegas, so I like/prefer to use them there.

After a quick cup of coffee and a bite of breakfast, I headed to our local Harrahs casino for a bit of Sunday morning video poker.  It was a great time to go.  Hardly anyone there... since our Indian casinos are about 10% the size of a Vegas one, you often have to grab any empty machine you can get.  To make a long story short, I put in $60 + $15 free play comp coupon... and cashed out with $200 in about two hours.  I was up about $30 more, so I was impressed with my will-power.  But it was easier to quit, knowing Vegas is ahead.

Since I've rambled on a bit (as usual!), I save further details about the Vegas trip for another post.  We have our entertainment booked...two shows, one part "cool" and one part "corny/kitschy"... in other words, pretty typical Vegas show options.  Stay tuned...

Ho Down Up

I doubt many of you regularly surf on over to the Las Vegas newspaper's website for all the latest gossip and rumors about Sin City... so I thought I would share this picture:

The Aladdin is being reincarnated as Planet Hollywood... and I am thinking someone at the newspaper had a little too much patience waiting for the day and the hour that the new signage got just this far?

Believe it or not, the original Aladdin -- where Elvis and Priscilla were married -- was still alive (but not so well) the very first time I went to Vegas in 1992.  In what is now a Vegas tradition, it was imploded a few years later to make way for a brand new Aladdin.  But despite its stellar center Strip location, it never caught on with the public (including me).  It seems like this Planet Hollywood re-vamp has been in the works for years.  When we were there last October, the casino was a renovation was in high gear... excuse our dust?  Umm, not so sure about that. 

While I am glad to see the property make some progress, I am not so sure Planet Hollywood is much of an improvement.  The brand seems so dated... many (most?) of the restaurants in the chain have closed down... a quick trip to their website show there are 18 restaurants worldwide, only 6 of those in the U.S..

And times have certainly changed for the major original investors... Bruce and Demi have split (Ashton was 13 years old when the first restaurant opened... yikes!), Stallone is pretty much washed up, and Ah-nold has had a little shift in his career path.  Likewise, I really don't see it becoming the "it" place with the kiddies and, more importantly, young Hollywood... the competition is quite stiff to lure them away from true Vegas hip hot-spots like Hard Rock and The Palms.

My suggestion... keep the sign "as is"... it would probably draw more of a crowd!

Vegas Trilogy: Conclusion

Ok, one more post about our trip to Las Vegas and I'll promise to shut up about it.  A few times during the trip, Todd asked if I was composing blog entries in my head... most of the time I was... after doing this for awhile, it is kinda funny that you start to think about things in your life as blog-worthy or not!

So after yesterday's "all Cooper" Vegas post, I decided to just make this a trilogy and round it out with all the things that I had yet to mention... so here we go...

We had the strangest lunch/dinner combo ever.  On the way up, we stopped at Taco Bell ... for dinner, it was something slightly more fancy... Wolfgang Puck's Spago at Caesars Palace's Forum Shops.

In between those two meals, I wasn't quite sure I was going to make it.  Now this was my birthday... so I was feeling my new age (and more!).  I had a horrible headache (felt like a steel pole going through my head at an angle just above my right eye).  I don't know if it was lack of food, lack of caffeine, car sickness, altitude change, or what... but it was so bad, I even had the dry heaves... the birthday celebration was in peril.  Thankfully it started waning at dinner... and was pretty much gone during the Elton John show.  I think that was so much of a sensory overload that my brain just was too distracted to hold onto the headache.

For yet another year, we were surprised to see the same Chippendale guy taking photos with mostly middle-aged ladies after the Masquerade in the Sky show at The Rio.  I won't re-cap the entire story about this guy (you can read last year's entry!)... but we can't believe he's still doing it!  I guess it must pay far better than I think, now that it's been three years running.  But his body is still holding up quite well... so no complaints.  We caught him with this one lady, I am guessing in her early 60s, bending over while he pretended to spank her... yowza!

Although they are popping up in other casinos, The Rio is one place where you can consistently have male cocktail waiters.  Now they have a dual-job at The Rio as "bever-entainers"... if they are not serving drinks they are up on stages throughout the casino singing or dancing.  In our regular video poker cove, we were fortunate enough to always have a male waiter serving the area.  The first night we had a particularly yummy one that had us wondering if that "slipping the room number" thing actually works... haha!

This was our first trip to Vegas since the Harrah's Corporation has taken control of most of the central Strip... they always owned Harrah's and The Rio... but have recently picked up Caesars, Flamingo, Bally's and Paris.  I don't know if this had anything to do with it... but I actually won $$$ at Caesars for the first time in the 10+ years I have been going to Vegas.  It was also nice to be able to use my player's card at all these places.  Even after getting two meals totally comped with reward credits, I still ended up with more credits than I arrived with.

Sometimes I even think I over-do it with the gambling, but then there will always be someone else who sits down next to me and makes me feel somewhat less insane.  So I was playing quarter Triple Play video poker which is one of my bigger risks when it comes to gaming... it's $3.75 a hand... and it's quite easy to play at least a dozen hands a minute.  Ok, crazy... that even I try not to think about it...  fortunately you at least "break-even" on enough hands that it is not as scary as it sounds.   

So anyhow, a very nice lady from Michigan sits down next to me... returning after getting more $$$... and starts playing 50-cent Five Play... or $12.50 a hand!  I literally lose track of the number of $100 bills she feeds into the machine, but at least $600s worth... and in about an hour!  Worse yet, she's playing Triple Double Bonus... granted it earns greater rewards for hitting big hands (four of a kind combos), but you sacrifice on more common hands... i.e. getting 10 credits for a 3-of-a-kind, instead of 15... which is one particular hand I am not willing to negotiate with (especially since that's my "break even" hand).  I feel guilty when I hit some big hands... and eventually leave and wish her luck as she still presses on.

Finally, we decided to try the Tix4Tonight booth on Thursday.  Like NYC's TKTS booth for Broadway shows... it's discounted tickets for shows for that night.  To make a long story short (and considering how long this entry is already, I think that's quite necessary), it was NOT worth the time and effort.  The shows are posted at 10:30am with tix going on sale at 11am. Most shows are the highly promoted 50% off (though fees are added on)... bigger/older shows like Cirque's Le Reve or Mystere are 20% off... and the really BIG shows are just not available.  So we killed about 2 hours... considered Le Reve, but then decided to go with the 50% off V The Ultimate Variety Show at the Aladdin (soon to be Planet Hollywood).  It was a good show (think "America's Got Talent" - magician, comedian, juggler, etc.), probably worth the discounted price... even though we were stuck in a back corner and the "theater" had the feel of watching a show out of someone's garage... but we were open to do "whatever" and that's what we got... my advice... if you really want to see a show, just pay full price and get your tickets well in advance

So I guess that's it... hopefully!   If I can't remember something by now, it's probably not worth writing about.

First Big Road Trip

As you probably have guessed, the MINI Cooper successfully completed its first big road trip. 

A 700 mile round-trip might not sound big to some... but considering that accounts for 25%+ of the total mileage on the car thus far... now that's pretty big!

So, I think, I have finally put any lingering concerns about my Cooper's "fitness" to rest... now I admit I still packed a gallon of water and a box of protein bars "just in case"... thought that is probably a good idea, no matter what, when you are driving through the middle of nowhere.

We were pretty pleased with the gas mileage.  We managed to make the one-way trip on 3/4 a tank of gas... averaging just under 30 miles/gallon on the way to Vegas and, on the slightly more downhill journey return trip, getting up to nearly 33 mpg.  So not bad at all.

As expected, one of the most pleasant features we enjoyed on the road trip was the iPod adapter.  On past trips, I would burn a bunch of CDs to keep our ears occupied... last year, we enjoyed XM Satellite Radio in Todd's new car... so this year it was even better... our entire digitial music library at our fingertips!  I even created a special Vegas mix (you can access different iTunes playlists just by pressing the radio pre-set buttons)... so it was quite easy to have Elvis serenade us with "Viva Las Vegas" as we caught our first glimpse of the Strip on the way in.

On Saturday night we headed to Downtown to visit "old school" Vegas and Fremont Street... on the way back, I decided to take the scenic route and drive back up The Strip.  Having tired of our Vegas mix, I just hit the random on "all library"... and we got some apropos musical accompaniment...

Driving through the more unseemly "interesting" section of town we had Bruce Springsteen's "My City Of Ruins" in the background... and just as we approached the ever so slightly more glitzy part... Fergie and The Black Eyed Peas came on with "My Humps."  Quite the electic back-to-back random song selections, but no two better songs for this particular drive.

Since getting the Cooper back in March, I have been slightly surprised it hasn't drawn a bit more attention.  While a Cooper sighting here in Phoenix is fairly rare, it is not uncommon.  But we had a good laugh, when we were the first car at the intersection near the Stratosphere. 

This lady just slowed down and stared at the Cooper the entire time she was crossing the street... you would have thought we were in an alien spaceship.  I am guessing she was from somewhere where there are hardly any Coopers... she probably thought the car was just another one of those "only in Vegas" things.

It was a fun ride... and with the roof open, it was amazing to see all the neon and lights just by looking up (something I have never experienced in any of my other cars).  One time I looked through the roof and saw folks going up an escalator... pretty bizarre.  As we hit the main part of the Strip the traffic morphed into its typically crazy self... so we didn't do the entire 5 mile-ish Strip drive... halfway through I felt I had tempted fate enough with all the vehicles (plus the often not terribly sane taxis)... so we passed Caesars Palace and hung a right and headed back to the Rio.

So a fun time with MINI Cooper... with nearly 2800 miles on it now, it kinda feels like it is past being "new" ("gently used" perhaps?)... now I just have to reward it with a good washing this weekend... boy there are a lot of bugs on the open road!

Vegas Trip Report 2006

Made it back safe and sound from our long Vegas weekend on Sunday... was still pretty tired and had to play "catch up" with work yesterday... so that did not leave me any time for a rambling post about the trip... but you're in luck today... so grab a beverage of your choice, sit down and relax...

Gambling - Well after a few trips that were not terribly great in this department, I am happy to report that I took home a little more money than I left with (this is the "gambling budget"... so not factoring in food, entertainment, or tips for "free drinks").  I had a big hit pretty early and I think I managed to stay "in the black" for the rest of the weekend, though there were some rough patches.  My biggest hit was on Triple Play Double Bonus Poker... I was dealt a 4 of a kind with the kicker (3-3-3-3-2) for $600 ($200 x 3 lines).  I also hit an elusive Royal Flush on a 5-play nickel machine for $200.  The Royal still eludes me on the quarters... but it was nice to see it anyhow no matter what $$$ I was playing!  Now don't be silly and read that and think I ended up ahead by at least $800.  I came home with a bit more money... these hits only allowed me to stay ahead and counteract the very strong gravitational pull of money flying out of one's wallet in Vegas.

New Machines - There are always new machines in Vegas.  I usually avoid the traditional slot machines, but had to give a couple of them a try.  If you've ever been to Sin City, you know the mantra of "Wheel! Of! Fortune!" is hard to get out of your head... but there's a new WoF monstrosity of a machine, Wheel of Fortune Special Edition Super Spin... up to 9 players (with loveseats, to allow your honey to join you) surround the big wheel.  It was quite the attention-getter, but no luck for us.  15 minutes, 1 spin of the wheel, and $40 was about all the gaming excitement we could handle. 

Next up was Deal or No Deal ... or as I would refer to it the machine for the remainder of the weekend... No Deal or No Deal.  Todd managed to get to a couple of bonus rounds, but it was several $20 bills with nary a bonus round, so that left me just a tad bitter about this slot version of the popular TV game show. 

Finally, back to video poker I tried out the World Series of Poker machine.  This is a traditional video poker game with a 2-card bonus feature.  If you are dealt Jacks or Better with those two cards you go to the bonus round.  There you "play" Texas Hold 'Em .... you are given two cards with 2 "re-deals" keeping the hand that you think will hold up against of video competitor when the 5-community cards are dealt.  Honestly, I didn't get what was going on... and wasn't thrilled with the $$ investment required for each hand... but I hit the bonus round and won 750 quarters (that's $187.50!).  It was one of the very few times I exhibited any degree of will power... I hit the "cash out" button and walked away... not bad for 20 minutes work!

Elton John - My big birthday celebration was to see Elton John's The Red Piano show at the Colisseum at Caesars Palace.  The show was really great.  Elton played all of his greatest hits (though, after making mention of it, we did miss hearing "Take Me To the Pilot")... but it was still pretty special to hear "Tiny Dancer" and "Your Song" with the living legend just a few hundred feet in front of you!  As you would expect it was quite the spectacle... with the show utilizing the huge video screen that is usually home to Celine Dion's A New Day show.  But I had a surprising reaction during the show... enough with the tits!  The female mammaries were regularly on display in the videos and even if a humongous inflatable version.  I know Vegas is all about T&A.  But, of all places, I wasn't expecting it at the Elton show!

Red Rock Casino - This is the newest casino in town... but I am guessing most out-of-town visitors probably will never see it... since it is 10 miles or so off the Strip.  It is part of the Station casino family which tends to cater to the locals.  It was very, very snazzy... much like its sister casino Green Valley Ranch.  Granted my positive thoughts about Red Rock might be a tad rose-colored... this is where I hit the nickel Royal Flush and also snagged another $200 worth of video poker winnings. A nice recovery aftera a particularly rough morning and afternoon of VP.  We also had a nice dinner at Salt Lick BBQ.

Well, I am likely taxing one's attention span to go on any further... so I may return with more Vegas tales at some point...

Is There A Career Path for A Chippendale Wannabe?

A little more Vegas talk!   As I may have mentioned in the past, the Rio is a pretty nice place to stay at in Las Vegas if you don't mind being a bit off the Strip.  The standard rooms are huge and most rooms have great views of the Strip.  While T&A dominates a lot of the Sin City scene, the Rio definitely pays some attention to the ladies... and thus, and probably not intentionally, to gay men.

First off, the Rio is one of the few Vegas casinos that have male cocktail staff (though this seems to be catching on elsewhere). Well, they are not technically cocktail waiters and waitresses... but "bever-tainers"...  since the person who brings you a drink will periodically climb onto one of dozens small stages sprinkled throughout the casino and sing or dance.  Well, the gals sing or dance, I have just seen the guys sing.  So that's fun.  Granted the male "bever-tainers" are not as provocatively dressed as their female counterparts, but they do wear short capped sleeve shirts and fitted pants.... and many of them do set off my gaydar alarm (as do the male dancers who take part in the Masquerade in the Sky show).

The Rio is also the Vegas home of the Chippendales.  So it is just impossible to avoid posters (such as the one I am showing above) all over the place - the casino, the lobby, elevators, etc.

In order to promote the Chippendales show, after the Masquerade in the Sky show... a Chippendale (or two!) comes out and takes pictures with the guests.  Now these are not the actual Chippendales from the show ... since the Masquerade show goes on all day long, the "real" Chippendales are probably at home sleeping, at the gym, or trying to score some steroids on some street corner.  But the guys available for photos, are just some young-ish guys dressed in the traditional Chippendale uniform -- you know, the tight black pants and a bow tie w/ no shirt.

Anyhow, last week we noticed the same exact Chippendale out on the casino floor that we had seen just about a year ago.  Yes, we remember him.  If you are looking for a visual... think of the sterotypical Chippendale body (though, a bit slimmer than those in the above pic), with a face that could hypothetically be Bradley Cooper's 22-23-ish year old brother.  I tried to find an actual picture of this guy on the Web (I know, feel really sorry for me) - but had no luck.  You'd think a guy who spends his day getting photographed would have at least one pic on the Internet... oh well!

But I digress (yet again!)... we wondered what the heck this guy's goal in life is?!  His only purpose in life or his chosen current career path is to look pretty (something that I certainly can not relate to).  I am guessing he can't dance and therefore is on not on his way to the "big show" (and he would probably need to bulk up even more if the Chips in the ads are any indication)... and after some brief observation, I am guessing his IQ bubbles up to something just higher than baboon... though his Zoolander-like camera "poses" may knock off a few points. 

But it just amazed us, that he is still doing this a year later... and probably longer than that!  It seems like it would be the type of "job" that would have a lot of turnover. The pay can't be that great and I would imagine taking pictures with randome women gets old after awhile, especially ones who I am guessing fall ever-so slightly out of his personal preference level. (On a sidenote, I think it would be hilarious to see what would happen if a guy goes up to get a pic taken with one of the Chips... it certainly won't be me... I haven't reached that level of Vegas drunkeness or debauchery quite yet.)

Now, by all means he is a terribly fine physical specimen... but, now seeing him for a second (or third or fourth... fourteeth?!) time we thought there may have been some shadow type body makeup to emphasize the "cuts" on his upper body.

Now I could be all wrong about this guy's intelligence, but I still wonder what he'll be doing 10 or 20 years down the road... makes me think of one of my favorite Judge Judy-isms...

Beauty fades, dumb is forever.

Vegas Shows: Struggles & Shake-Ups

Obviously we did not book the most popular shows in Vegas this most recent trip. 

As you know, our Gladys Knight show was cancelled last week.  Innocently, I thought the star of the show might just be suffering from a head cold, but when Jeff called to book show tickets for later this month and was informed that this Saturday night would be the last show!   I scoured the Internet looking for news about this, but only came up with this link which mentions a big shake-up in shows at the Harrah's properties.  The article mentions the official closing of the Queen inspired musical "We Will Rock You" at Paris... and notes shows like Gladys, Clint Holmes (Harrah's), Scintas (Rio), and Jubilee (Ballys) are all on the chopping block.   So I am now really disappointed we didn't see Gladys... glad that we did see her last year... and hope she'll find a new well-deserved Vegas showroom!

And likewise, it appears Avenue Q is struggling at Wynn Las Vegas.  This gossip column from the LV-Review Journal quotes Wynn as allegedly saying he "made a mistake" about the show.  Wynn is bringing in a new marketing executive with hopes to boost its run in Las Vegas.  There was a pretty good crowd for our Saturday night early performance of the show... but apparently they are only regularly selling half the 1,200 seat house and have not even opened the balcony.   So the show might just be singing one of its signature tunes "It Sucks To Be Me" or perhaps the show is only "For Now?"

Vegas Weekend Review

Yes, we live to tell!  So welcome to yet another Vegas weekend review... we had a great time... even more so since this time our room and some meals were taken care of thanks to this being a "business trip" as well as some comps of my own.

The 5-hour drive up to Vegas was a particular pleasure this time... though I probably shouldn't be letting the proverbial cat of the bag, Todd got a new car a few week ago (yes, he beat me to it!) ... and let's just say it is swwweeeeet!  It is what they call in the biz a "luxury" vehicle, so we had a lot of fun with all the bells and whistles (satellite radio, voice activated navigation system)... and we certainly liked its "giddy-up"... it tackled the elevation changes without a hiccup and it was a whole lot of fun using those passing lanes to get by the slower traffic.

Todd was quite the trooper the entire weekend... he had a pretty nasty head/chest cold the entire time... and Vegas is not quite the ideal place to be not feeling all too well.

Ahh... so where to begin... I guess I will name the topic and just babble on a bit....

GAMBLING
Not a bad place to start, since that is one of the primary reasons to go to Vegas in the first place!  Well, let's just say I got off to a disastrous start.  We arrived Thursday afternoon and by Friday night my entire weekend budget was almost blown (and it was a considerable amount even for me).  The best I could do was break-even (which I know qualifies as "winning")... but it was all pretty darn frustrating.  When the guy next to me hit two "bonus" 4-of-a-kinds in about 10 minutes time on video poker, I was just about ready to strangle him.  Alas, Saturday afternoon arrived and my patience (and serious cash burning) finally paid off... I hit "4 Aces with a 3 kicker" on Double Double Bonus Poker... I would tell you how much this was (believe me it was quite good), but it is pretty embarassing that this didn't even get me back to even (let alone "in the black") for the entire trip... but I am still thankful that a truly disastrous gambling trek was avoided thanks to that particular hit.

WYNN LAS VEGAS
Since we go to Vegas pretty regularly, there is really not much left to see that is "new."  The last two trips, we had my parents and an out-of-town friend to drag around and show off the wonders of Vegas... but this time, it was just the two of us... so there were a couple of times where we were a bit befuddled about what to do... especially when it was best to stop gambling to stop the $$$ bleeding.

On Saturday, we did however to see something for the first time... Wynn Las Vegas, which opened its doors earlier this year.  As expected, it is a very schm-ancy place and quite reminiscent of Bellagio (Wynn's original billion-dollar baby and now owned by MGM-Mirage).  A sizable "mountain" hides the hotel from the strip and the mature landscaping looks like it has been there for decades... and the waterfall and mini-lake on the interior side is really quite striking.  The hotel/casino was impressive at every turn (the urinal "privacy" dividers were marble!) and it was just immaculate (a cleaning woman was literally buffing the video poker machine while I was playing on it).  But as the say, Vegas wasn't built on winners and I never had the feeling that this would be a place where you would... well "win" (ah, the irony of this particular resort's name!)... and walking past a  $300 minimum blackjack table did nothing to change my mind either!   So it was a nice place to visit, but I don't think we'll be back unless it is to see a show.

NO-SHOW/SHOW
And speaking of shows, we had some disappointing news waiting for us when we got back to the room on Thursday night.  The Flamingo called us (no wonder they ask where you are staying!) and left a message that the Gladys Knight show was canceled for Friday night due to "unforeseen circumstances."  So that sucked, but at least we had seen her show already.  Just have to chalk it up to some bad luck/timing... so the show does not go on without the star (Celine has been known to cancel a show or two).

But we had another show booked for Saturday night... Avenue Q over at Wynn.  Alas, another mild disappointment as John Tartaglia (re-creating his Tony-nominated lead role) was not on stage for our performance.  The show plays twice night and based on the Playbill I am guessing there are two complete casts (and after seeing the show, I realize how rigorous it is for the 6 performers... I can't imagine them able to do it twice nightly 5 nights a week!).  We ended up with an understudy as Princeton/Rod and much to his credit he (Steven Booth) was wonderful (just shows you how much talent it takes just to even be an understudy!).  Kudos to Brynn O'Malley, who was just delight as the female lead in the roles of Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut!

Umm... yes, if you haven't figured out by that character name... Ave Q is a bit of an off-color and not terribly politically correct little musical... think of it as Sesame Street for adults (the performers are not only singer and actors but puppeteers).  But it was totally an enjoyable and delightful evening of theater.  I will probably have to download the cast recording on iTunes so I can listen to such classics as "It Sucks To Be Me" and "Everyone's a Little Racist" whenever I want to... one of the biggest roars from the audience occurred in the closing number "For Now" where the characters take on a life philosophy that no matter what trouble and challenges lie in your way "it's only for now"... they shouted out different things that are "only for now" and one of them was George Bush... very funny!   But I would definitely recommend the show if you are in Vegas or NYC... though there are certainly a lot of competition on the 'see a show' front in both cities!

Well, I have rambled on enough ... so I am sure there will still be a stray story or two (or three!) ahead... but I have taxed your attention span probably long enough!