09-08-2008, 09:44 AM
Did you ever see the Buffy the Vampire episode where Mr. Boreanaz gives up his soul at the back of the casino? He loses his will and basically hangs out in the casino for the rest of the episode. I'm thinking that episode was more documentary than fiction. I think I see these people everywhere in the casinos. I fear looking in the mirror to find one more. Okay maybe I'm still burnt out from my Vegas trip.
The Queen and I went to Vegas for PhotoshopWorld. It was held at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and it was at the opposite end of the spectrum from inexpensive. It's a beautiful hotel but it is, as a member of the doormouse society always points out, just a shinier mousetrap. They were nice enough to pump fragrance into the air but underneath it all was a pall of cigarette smoke. I must be losing my tolerance for smoke. The place had tons of expensive restaurants including a House of Blues. We did have a really good meal at Noodles which did chinese food.
The only day I really saw Las Vegas and mostly that was just the strip was on Wednesday when we arrived. The Queen and I went to the Mirage so I could have CPK for lunch. It seems the Strip keeps getting longer. In my mind Ceasar's used to be just down the street from the Tropicana . Now it's about a million miles away. We walked. The heat was just getting started. Next door to the Bellagio, they are building a massive new complex to separate suckers from their money. I mean they are building a fabulous new city within the city. It's twice as tall as the surrounding structures and comprised at least ten distinct different buildings. Hurry now while you can still buy space within the mousetrap.
We saw the M&M shop. For a minute I feared that the M&M shop didn't actually sell M&M's but I eventually found them on the third floor of the shop. There were five floors in all. Who loves M&M's that much?
Rather than walk back from the Venetian which is opposite the Mirage and which also pumps fragrance into the air, we took the new monorail back to the MGM. this also had the added benefit of keeping us from getting a thousand cards advertising a girl in twenty minutes to your hotel room. I don't know why they were giving me the cards. I had a girl with me? We also got to avoid the nice man who wanted us to hear the presentations on new condos in Vegas. The Planet Hollywood guy wanted to give us $400 for two hours of our time. Later when we were donating our money at the BlackJack table, The Queen and I found out the $400 was only to be used in the casino and you only got to bet with it once.
After that, I didn't have time to go any further than the Luxor which is joined to the Mandalay Bay by a series of very expensive stores. I was going to buy this skull covered shirt until I found out it cost $3500. I wasn't winning that much. Oh, I wasn't winning at all. Regardless, I spent the rest of the weekend at the convention. I did see lots of ads for the coming up Janet Jackson and NKOTB concerts.
Next time, I will know to stay at the Luxor and just walk across the bridge to the MB. It will probably save me a mint. I refuse to stay at the Excalibur although the tram does go there. Excalibur bad.
I never did make it down to our old stomping grounds. I didn't look up the Peppermill casino. I didn't go to the space where Legbone broke his back flying above a jet engine. I didn't find any 99cent shrimp cocktails. I did see the spot where DM performed a little first aid on a man who cracked his skull open on the sidewalk. The Mirage Volcano is under repair. The river inside the Luxor is gone. The Wizard of Oz no longer exists inside the MGM grand.
But I did my part by losing enough to build a small hotel.
The Queen and I went to Vegas for PhotoshopWorld. It was held at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and it was at the opposite end of the spectrum from inexpensive. It's a beautiful hotel but it is, as a member of the doormouse society always points out, just a shinier mousetrap. They were nice enough to pump fragrance into the air but underneath it all was a pall of cigarette smoke. I must be losing my tolerance for smoke. The place had tons of expensive restaurants including a House of Blues. We did have a really good meal at Noodles which did chinese food.
The only day I really saw Las Vegas and mostly that was just the strip was on Wednesday when we arrived. The Queen and I went to the Mirage so I could have CPK for lunch. It seems the Strip keeps getting longer. In my mind Ceasar's used to be just down the street from the Tropicana . Now it's about a million miles away. We walked. The heat was just getting started. Next door to the Bellagio, they are building a massive new complex to separate suckers from their money. I mean they are building a fabulous new city within the city. It's twice as tall as the surrounding structures and comprised at least ten distinct different buildings. Hurry now while you can still buy space within the mousetrap.
We saw the M&M shop. For a minute I feared that the M&M shop didn't actually sell M&M's but I eventually found them on the third floor of the shop. There were five floors in all. Who loves M&M's that much?
Rather than walk back from the Venetian which is opposite the Mirage and which also pumps fragrance into the air, we took the new monorail back to the MGM. this also had the added benefit of keeping us from getting a thousand cards advertising a girl in twenty minutes to your hotel room. I don't know why they were giving me the cards. I had a girl with me? We also got to avoid the nice man who wanted us to hear the presentations on new condos in Vegas. The Planet Hollywood guy wanted to give us $400 for two hours of our time. Later when we were donating our money at the BlackJack table, The Queen and I found out the $400 was only to be used in the casino and you only got to bet with it once.
After that, I didn't have time to go any further than the Luxor which is joined to the Mandalay Bay by a series of very expensive stores. I was going to buy this skull covered shirt until I found out it cost $3500. I wasn't winning that much. Oh, I wasn't winning at all. Regardless, I spent the rest of the weekend at the convention. I did see lots of ads for the coming up Janet Jackson and NKOTB concerts.
Next time, I will know to stay at the Luxor and just walk across the bridge to the MB. It will probably save me a mint. I refuse to stay at the Excalibur although the tram does go there. Excalibur bad.
I never did make it down to our old stomping grounds. I didn't look up the Peppermill casino. I didn't go to the space where Legbone broke his back flying above a jet engine. I didn't find any 99cent shrimp cocktails. I did see the spot where DM performed a little first aid on a man who cracked his skull open on the sidewalk. The Mirage Volcano is under repair. The river inside the Luxor is gone. The Wizard of Oz no longer exists inside the MGM grand.
But I did my part by losing enough to build a small hotel.
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit
hock: 
