Wook's Place

Vegas!

Arrived in Vegas today, after a somewhat ugly trip out here. For reasons explained elsewhere, I flew Frontier Airlines thru Denver (150 minute layover too) to get here. This means that I had shitty seats (2E, a middle seat, and 4F a window) with zero legroom. I was not in a good mood when I landed.

Then Hertz didn't give me a SUV with a Neverlost in it. So they gave me a different one that had a NeverLost that didn't come on. Then they gave me a Tahoe, which is bigger than I'd really like, but I was past being THAT picky by that time.

It turns out that on 4 day weekends like the Thanksgiving, all the Californians drive to Vegas. So even though the city isn't any busier than it normally is, The Strip is even worse than normal, if that is possible. It took a very long time to get to my hotel on that road.

Then at the hotel, my room smelled really bad. When I got to it, the door was proppped open with the deadbolt, for somereason. I'm unsure what the smell was, and I'd really rather not speculate. When housekeeping came up to investigate and spray deoderizer on everything, they removed some unidetifiable article of clothing from under the drapes. After that, the smell dissapated before I got all my luggage up to the room. A happy ending to a bad start.

But I am here. I plan to start having fun as soon as I get unwound from the trip out here. We see Le Femme at the MGM Grand tonight, and I'm not sure what is planned for dinner. But it should be fun.

tRIP: Friday Night Festivities

Friday night was a good night, after my travails in getting to Vegas were all over, even though it ended early. I was up at 3:30 AM Vegas time (6:30 in NYC), so lasting until midnight was about right.

I ran around and picked up all the tickets for all the shows for the weekend, the only real work I did all weekend. Then we saw Le Femme at MGM Grand. I had a burger at Fatburger. After loosing some at craps, I turned in.

All in all, a good day.

Saturday is Henry Rawlins for me, and Avenue Q for the rest of them. And Emeril's after for dinner.

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Thursday evening, before the show, I was going to catch up with Dave, Haley, and Marc for dinner. They were at a place in the Monte Carlo. But I realized I had to run around at get at least the tickets for Le Femme that night (pick up tickets an hour prior to the show) and Avenue Q (pick up tickets 24 hours before the show). So I went to the Wynne Resort, then the MGM Grand (where I also got my Ka tickets for the following Friday). Then, since I'd missed dinner with the crowd, I went across to NY NY for the Zumanity tickets, and then over to Mandalay Bay (after getting lost in Excalibur) to get Henry Rawlins tickets.

I then walked back to the MGM Grand (after getting lost AGAIN in Excalibur) to meet up with the crowd.

I enjoyed Le Femme, even having seen it before. Even though it hasn't changed much. It was the same as it was last time, though there were a few different acts. I suspect that some of the acts have specific performers that do them, so as the performers move from Paris to Vegas and back, some of the acts change too. We didn't see the "I'm a Good Girl" act that we saw the first time I saw it, but it was on the DVD I bought of the Crazy Horse (Paris) show with the same lady that performed it in Vegas the first time we saw it.

On the way back to the Monte Carlo, I had a burger at Fatburger. I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast in LaGardia. Across the street from the Monte Carlo, it is a "real burger place", unlike say, McDonalds, and more like In-N-Out Burger, though grubbier. It was really, really, good.

There was an abortive movement to go to Olympic Gardens, a classy strip club with a male show for the ladies to enjoy upstairs. But we did play some craps, before I pooped out and turned in for the night.

The Toilet Seat Rule: Broken!

At on point in Vegas this weekend, Haley came back from a ladies room with a smirk on her face. Seems she had gone in there, and went into a stall that she'd had to wait for be vacated, to find the toilet seat up.

Just one of those Things That Make You Go "Hmmmmmm".

Visiting A Pinball Machine

I hate slot machines.

The casinos scatter them around by the hundreds. No human interaction, just sit and push buttons hoping that this one will give you a jackpot. And people make fun of me for playing computer games. At least I'm having fun with other humans.

And if the Wheel of Fortune slots weren't bad enough, now there is a Star Wars slot machine. <shudder>

My other problem with slots is the noise factor. Las Vegas is supposed to be erotic, adventurous, and glitzy. It is not supposed to sound like a bad pinball machine. I can deal with the thronging millions, with the advertisements covering everything. I dislike the sounds of slots. I could stand this place for more than 3 days at a time if not for the fucking slots.

Yes, you guessed it. I've been 24 hours now, and I'm already tired of it. Good thing I'm having a blast otherwise.

tRIP: Saturday Festivities

Saturday I slept in, which felt wonderful.

After getting moving, I met up with The Crew at Mon Ami Gabi, which is the sidewalk cafe at Paris. Dave and Marc seem to like to sit outdoors by the sidewalk, and watch the crowd go by. There were 10 of us, so we had to sit at 2 tables. Eating outside is nice, but not when it is so windy your drink keeps getting blown over. One table of us moved inside, the other didn't seem to have a problem.

The plan was to see our respective shows, and then meet for dinner at Emeril's. I've seen the Broadway version of Avenue Q very recently, and I really wanted to see Henry Rollins talking show in person once, and he was only playing once at House of Blues in Mandalay Bay. So I sold my ticket to Avenue Q to Hilly, and went to see Henry.

I should have asked how long Mr. Rollins would talk, turned out to be two and a half hours, which meant my 7:30 show lasted until 10:00, an hour later than the reservation for dinner. I got there just as they were closing.

Emeril's does a really nice surf and turf. It was very yummy.

After dinner, we went to Olympic Gardens, a large strip club kind of at the far end of the strip. It is one of the classier places, supposedly, but I found it to be just an uncomfortable, badly-maintained, place with naked women in it shaking down desperate, frustrated, chumps for far more money than the whole experience is really worth.

The draw of the Olympic Gardens is that it has male strippers upstairs, dancing for the women. Dave, Haley, Hilly (who is also Dave, btw), Chris, Mike, and Sue, all went upstairs. But I didn't really have anyone to impress by staying up there, and I long since got tired of being at strip clubs to watch other patrons react. So I hung out downstairs. They had a great time upstairs. I'm surprised they stayed downstairs once they realized the female strippers were mostly second string. This is not a busy time of year for the strip clubs, it seems.

Surprise, surprise, I had a great time. I wasn't expecting to. I ended up attracting strippers, who would sit and talk. I fell in love (briefly) with one stripper that turned out to be a total geek. I knew this when she told me her name was (I think) "Shara, which means leprosy in Hebrew". She had earlier told me she "was a trouper". Not a normal M.O. for a stripper. She was also into The Sims, World of Warcraft, and assorted Anime.

After Olympic Gardens we played some more craps, then turned in for the night at like 3 AM.

tRIP: Sunday Night Festivities

For lunch, the earliest I could get moving, I met up with the two Daves at the ESPN Zone in New York, New York, a quick walk across the street from the Monte Carlo. DaveO ordered me a huge burger, which arrived shortly after I did. It was pretty good, but I was full all the rest of the day.

From there, I went back to my room, then got the vehicle out of valet and went searching for a Sprint store to get a charger for my phone. I'd left my charger in the hotel in Milwaukee, and my phone was slowly running out of juice. I did last until Sunday night from being fully charged Friday morning though. I was impressed, the extendo-life battery was worth the price, for this, since I was using it a lot to meet up with the rest of the crowd.

Zumanity was a late show, so we did dinner early. We met at the Wine Cellar in the Rio hotel. Marc and Leslie gave me some gifts, a book on scotch, and a bottle of scotch. A 41 year old bottle of Glenburgie. Yum. And we sat around for a while chatting and having a good time hanging out for a bit before dinner. Dinner was in the Rio also, at an indian place called Gaylord. It was good, I had chicken vindaloo, which is what I mostly get at indian places.

Zumanity itself was good, though not up to the amazing standards of other Cirque du Soleil shows. Maybe I'm just an old perv and not easily shocked or something, but Zumanity was mostly just a typical show they do, acrobatics mostly, with nudity. No unifying story, as in some of the other, and nothing overtly sexual. The nudity in Le Femme was of much higher quality, not that I didn't appreciate some of the ladies in Zumanity too.

Oh well. It was still fun.

tRIP: Monday Night Festivities

Dave and Haley left to go home today, as did most of their friends (Dave and Chris, Mike and Sue). Michaela and Bruce left yesterday, on Sunday night, after dinner. It was good to see everybody. The crowd still here is Marc and Leslie, Oliver and Marika. And me, of course. Today is my birthday.

Before those leaving left, we all got together in The Cafe at Bellagio for breakfast/brunch/lunch/whatever. I like eating there, though it is mostly just slightly better than most other such places at every other hotel. There is a monorail over from the Monte Carlo, which makes it almost easy to get over there.

A good time was had by all, and food was eaten. Life was good.

After, I went and had a massage in the Spa, again. I had one on Saturday I forgot to mention. The therapist mentioned "this game I like to play", and when I probed, it turned out to be World of Warcraft again. He'd also played Everquest extensively. This is the second time this trip I've run into a hardcore gamer.

Odd thing is, turns out Marika and Oliver are also into WoW too, something I'd learned at breakfast. I'm curious how this is getting around, or how I run into these people and pull it out of them.

Prior to dinner, we met at the Stratosphere, and went up to the observation deck to look around. It was full on night, and the lights of the strip were beautiful in the dark. We did not do the rides. It has been cold in Vegas, even for this time of year, and 1300+ feet up it was that much colder outside. The rides where out.

Next, we had dinner at the Sahara, in their Mexican restaurant, Paco's. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. It was food.

The Sahara has a place in the history of Vegas. Johnny Carson used to do standup there on his time off from the Tonight Show. These days, it is at the wrong end of the strip, with nothing really to recommend it. The Stratosphere is 2 blocks farther out on the strip, but it is, well, the Stratosphere and worth going to for that reason alone. The Sahara seems run down, and tired, in comparison to the hotels at the other end of the strip. On the other hand, it is probably pretty cheap.

The only part of it that doesn't seem run down, was the NASCAR restaurant. We didn't even realize it was part of the Sahara until we had to walk thru it to get to the show later. We should have eaten there, it was dead.

The show was The Amazing Johnathan. He's done a show for Comedy Central. And he did pretty much that exact same act for us tonight as well. I couldn't point out anything new or different in it. It was fun to see, but all in all, there are better ways to spend your time, if you aren't really into his humor. I wasn't really, but I did have a good time.