Las Vegas, Day Awesome
So I've got a pretty good story to tell you, about yesterday. And by yesterday, I mean Sunday, not the technical 'yesterday.'

Most of the afternoon (you know, after we woke up) was spent walking along the Strip (the road with most major casinos). I don't think anything exciting happened then. The only thing pseudo-noteworthy is that I went to a mall. I got a small handheld cheese grated (I've checked at least half a dozen stores for them back on the Gulf Coast) and a wire cooling rack, plus I made a trip to the Gap.

The place, for which we had made dinner reservations, had a dress code, and jeans were unacceptable. To be honest, I just packed crappy clothes that I thought would be good for heat and sweating. I also packed a pair of jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, since the Grand Canyon was supposed to be cold at night. So at the Gap, I bought a $30 pair of grey slacks (originally $60), plus two polo-like shirts, $10 each, marked down from $30. One of them is orange, because I miss the days of when I was an orange-wearer.

We got dinner at Nobhill, a restaurant in the hotel where we're staying (MGM Grand), which specializes in 'traditional San Francisco flavors,' whatever that is. It was an excellent meal, though (I want to have like, ten thousand of foie gras' babies. Go liver!).

Anyway, after dinner I started playing Pai Gow, which my brother got me into. It's a good game because of its relaxed pace and the tendency for pushes. Unfortunately, at the end of the night, I was down $200. It's been a difficult time trying to convince myself not to try to win it back (I'd come back from worse, before losing again), but that $200 bought me a good time for many, many hours. And I certainly don't visit Vegas very often.

So let me get to the story part of things. There's just one aspect of the game that I should explain first. Pai Gow basically involves poker hands, and aside from your main bet, there's an opportunity to make a "bonus" bet. If this bet is at least $5, it's called an "envy bonus." It means taht if someone else on the table gets a really good hand, you can get "envy" bonus money for it. So back to the story part, my brother and I were down to out final bets. I'd kept a $100 chip in my pocket, so I wouldn't spend it. So we placed our bets, which included the envy bonus bet. After a really poor hand, we both lost, and we got up from the table. A good twenty or thirty feet later, we were still lamenting our luck.

"Wait, wait!" That was the voice of our dealer. We went back tot he table, where we saw that someone had been dealt a straight flush. No joke. As a result, my brother and I won $20 a-piece. Yes, after we had walked away from the table!

We both put our new chips onto the table, where we decided to play another hand. The $20 got me half an hour of more entertainment. My brother parlayed his into $200 (he was still down for the night). It would've been nice to recover some of my losses, but $200 was a small price for an awesome Vegas experience and tale, on my first trip, no less.

Today (really Monday), I spent a few hours at the pool, taking prohibitive action against a farmer's tan. I think my nipples might even be a little darker. I also had some mango-flavored drink, with rum in it. My pulse ended up around 130bpm. Also, for a full ten minutes, as I tried to walk back to my room, I had trouble seeing, as my entire field of vision was washed out as if I'd been staring at the sun. Yeah, I think I'll be making a trip to an allergist. Sure, I'm not dead or anything, but maybe I've got a mild allergy. It would explain things.

Most of my day was shot, as I tried to nap away my misery. But I eventually got up for dinner, and we watched Cirque du Soleil's "Mystère." It was pretty awesome. Also, I'm pretty convinced that given the chance, everyone would sleep with a gymnast. Yes, even you. I was trying to figure out why, during the show. Aside from the obvious physical fitness, they're also incredibly flexible and agile. And they appear to have an extraordinary sense of balance, and just a full understanding of how their body operates. Yeah, that'd be some pretty sweet bedroom (or circus tent) action.

I also learned the clowns aren't so scary, if you change their clothes. At tonight's show, there was a guy who was doing very clown-like things (physical humor, lots of audience interaction), but he was quite amusing, and he was not at all terrifying. Hypothesis? It was because he was wearing a tux, in place of the more traditional garb.

Well, at least I'm not at work. We head to Grand Canyon tomorrow.
- posted by roger @ 12:51 AM