Update -- Las Vegas Style

So, I was off for a few days there. Nicole had to go to a seminar/training for the new security features in Timberline 3.5 in Last Vegas. (Which is kind of fun, because they just released 3.6, but whatever.) And because I'm such a good friend and so dedicated to systems security (uh-huh) I went along with her.

With my former employer Bechtel picking up the tab (thanks Riley), we drove up Wednesday after work. Fun with the mp3 players and Nicole's bladder of doom ensued. (I love Nicole, I really, really do. She just has a bladder the size of a lima bean. But that's okay because she drove almost the entire trip.) I always recommend going over Hoover Dam as late in the evening as possible to avoid traffic, and because it's really pretty with the lights and stuff. (Although it makes the Transformers jokes a little less relevant, especially when the other peeps in the car haven't seen Transformers. Oh no, Megatron's about to find the All-Spark!!! Yeah, that part of the movie takes place in the daytime.)

We stayed at the Luxor, which was fun. I've always wanted to stay in the pyramid, which was the original intention, but we got a free upgrade to the bigger tower rooms. Twist, twist, ow, ow, okay. Very nice bathroom, wonderful bathtub, beds were crap. View was crap. Oh well, you do not go to Vegas for the view from your hotel room. Kind of freaky though... Carrot Top is now doing a show at Luxor - a REALLY scary picture of him adorns too many spaces at the Luxor. He looks like a really demented Ronald McDonald on acid. It's scary. Small children may be scarred for life if they see that. I mean really, it's BAD. Rush Limbaugh bad.

Vegas keeps getting more and more expensive every time I go. I'm going to have to find me a sugar daddy to pay for all of my excursions. We didn't do much in the way of paid entertainment... we ate, we gambled a bit (the monopoly games have become bastards), and we wandered. And we wandered. And we wandered. I stopped walking much some years ago after my hips and knees got all cranky and arthritic and started grinding on me, so walking from the Luxor to and around Mandalay Bay back to Luxor down to New York across to MGM Grand up all four floors of the M&M store across to the CVS Pharmacy into Caesars Forum Shops over to Belagio into the flower gardens down all the way to Treasure Island and back to the Mirage has left me a bit the worse for wear. I'm still a bit gimpy, actually. Moral of the story... Dr. Scholls is our friend. As are taxi cabs.

On the way back saw the dam (and the bypass bridge project) in broad daylight. (Mr. President, can we have some stimulus over here please?) I swear, that thing will never get done. And home again home again jiggity jog. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. But what happens in Vegas does not stay in Vegas, or I would have been able to walk this weekend. So with that in mind....

Hey Nicole, you wanna go party with Rob and shit?

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Now playing: Elvis Presley - Viva Las Vegas
via FoxyTunes