It occurs to me that we got back from Vegas nearly two weeks ago now. That's nuts. The sick thing is like a time warp.
Anyway, I wanted to talk briefly about the vacationing components between and after the Mix stuff. The day I got there, that Tuesday, it was still morning because of the time zone difference and the fact that the only reasonable flight I could get was earlier. That left me with a lot of time to kill.
The first annoyance was that the Venetian checked me into a dirty room. With robes flung over furniture, I was fortunate I didn't encounter naked people. So I went all the way back down and bitched, and they put me in another room, only with a better view (the first would've been the roof of the parking garage). I guess that was good enough.
I was determined to stay up as late as I could to adjust and not be up at 5am with nothing to do but gamble. I decided early on that I'd play in a poker tournament, with little expectation other than I'd have fun. Venetian's low-end tournament was $160 or something like that, which didn't seem terrible to me. It was only $70 at Caesars Palace, which was even better, and I love that place! So I registered for a 3pm tournament.
To waste time, I played a little video poker at the bar where I won big last time, and I walked away with $30.75 on $20 when it was time to play poker.
Here's the problem, is that they keep giving you drinks when you play at the bar, and the same was true for the poker tournament. It probably impaired my judgment. Our tournament was with 50 players (five tables), and they kept consolidating as the field narrowed. I managed to get about half way through the field, reaching about 6,500 in chips (you start with 2,000) at one point. I got into an all-in bidding war with this guy that kept bullshitting every hand, and I lost the only time he actually had something. That was kinda stupid, but I got to play for a little over two hours, was well watered and had a good time. I was about half-way through the field.
By the time I headed back to the Venetian, I was already starting to crash. Dammit. It was only around 6. Registration opened for Mix, so I got my lanyard and goodie bag and headed up to my room. I had room service (chicken parm) that wasn't bad, and frankly priced about the same as the restaurants anyway. Oh look, another copy of Visual Studio in the bag. I swear they're like water to Microsoft.
I headed back to the conference area for a screening of King of Kong: Fist Full of Quarters, with a Q&A session following that included the producer and the guy who has the score record, Steve Wiebe. It was definitely entertaining, though the long-haired guy just creeps me the fuck out. Wiebe's wife and kids were there too (annoyingly cute family), and when you see them you realize that he's less the freak than the other people in the movie.
Microsoft really goes all out in terms of food and refreshments, by the way. Had I not been sick, I was sure I'd gain a ton of weight. They even had all the Red Bull you could drink, which I can't, but at a typical two bucks a can, well, that's premium. For the Kong screening, they had Haggen-Dazs ice cream bars (something like 80% your daily fat), popcorn, chips, soda, Red Bull... just all out.
Already I grew jealous of other attendees, as there were a number of MacBook Airs during the screening in the room. But whatever, I found a free copy of the movie under the chair in front of me. I win!
Wednesday was pretty hard core Mix. After the last afternoon session, I went next door to Chipotle ($6 for chicken burrito) to get something I knew would be decent enough and not overpriced casino crap. It was more the convenience than anything, as I wanted to be well fed before the evening party at Tao.
As I mentioned before, Tao wasn't that much fun because I had not met any truly interesting people to that point. What's more, I couldn't even find the people I did know despite intentions to connect. What can I say, I wasn't going to be a Twitterer for the sake of the party.
Thursday was pretty hard core too, and Diana arrived around 7pm. We shared some crappy food, but overall it was just nice to be together somewhere that wasn't Cleveland. Other than some walking around, we mostly hung out in the room as she was fighting off something (which I think I got tenfold), and suffering from jet lag.
Friday the Mix sessions only went until 1 or something like that. Diana went over to Casino Royale for some craps action (I still don't understand how that game is played) and a little shopping. After Mix, we picked through a box lunch I got from the conference and then set out into the world.
I think our first mission was to scope out real lunch, so knowing there were decent and affordable choices at Caesars' food court, we went there. From there we headed down to Paris via Bally's to see what the hours were on the breakfast buffet.
Fortunately, the strip is not super crowded this time of year, so we were able to move with relative ease. The evolving skyline is crazy to see. We didn't cover that much ground, as I tend to be more activity focused than casino-hopping focused. I've still never seen the entire Bellagio fountain sequence, nor have I seen the pirate hooch show at Treasure Island. One other interesting thing to note is that the volcano is being refurbished in front of The Mirage.
We made our way back north and walked the mall in search of headache meds, and a stop in the Apple Store. Diana had not yet seen the Air up close. The mall was so not crowded, but the Apple Store was a zoo.
Next we walked through the Wynn, in part to scope out quality dinner choices. We found Corsa, an Italian place specializing in the more non-red sauce kinds of food, and got a reservation about two hours prior to the show time for Phantom, for which I bought tickets.
Let me say, I like the Wynn a lot. The carpeting is a little, I dunno, Playskool, but it's a nice casino with lots of nice restaurants. The people watching is interesting because they service some very high end people. People that have that much money to piss away are funny because they're so not grounded in the reality most of us share.
The interim afternoon hour or two was spent just relaxing. I think this is where my Vegas experience differs from a lot of people. I like to just take it easy an enjoy a nice hotel. I don't need to go 24/7 just because you can, and I know that's what a lot of people do there. I'm not much of a gambler (I think I spent less than a hundred bucks total), but I love comfortable hotels, good food and the shows.
Corsa was amazing. We did it right, with wine, dinner and desserts. A hundred bucks for two people, when the food is excellent, and the service is blow your mind amazing, is totally worth it. I forget now what Diana had (it was creme brulee for dessert!), but I had this baked rosemary chicken that melt in your mouth amazing. The chocolate dessert I had was also dreamy, though the espresso gelato was a bit much for me.
Phantom was technically stunning, as you'd expect, with the best chandelier gag of any permanent or traveling production. Unfortunately we had the understudies for Phantom, Christine and Carlotta. They weren't bad, they mostly just adequate. Actually, the Phantom needed some work. But it was still a great show, and for the 20 or so years it took me to see it (first time at Venetian in '06), I still feel like it's new to me.
We followed the show by obtaining more gelato, this time in a shop in the Palazzo shopping area. Diana is a still searching for what she calls "real" gelato, which has a different texture than what we kept finding. That's the burden of her having visited Italy. But I do know she's talking about, because I had what she describes at Epcot last month.
We enjoyed some people watching at that point. There was this young woman, a hostess for a restaurant there, who was getting mentally undressed time after time by passing men, and we had a discussion about what makes women attractive. Don't get me wrong, she was gorgeous, but she was the Barbie stereotype. Perfect body, blonde, tan... and totally not my thing. I'm convinced most men like the variations. I like taller or shorter, whiter or darker, red hair or darker, basically the anti-Barbie. But in Vegas, where there are a great many beautiful people, so many women try to emulate that.
Saturday started fairly early, and we had no wait to speak of at the buffet in Paris. The variety of the food is great, and they do custom omelettes and crepes. As usual, I take "all you can eat" too seriously, and usually exceed that amount. Duh.
On the way out we tossed about three bucks into one of the big Wheel of Fortune machines that appear everywhere now. I can see the appeal on them. If you get a good slot lineup and the big wheel lands on a big multiplier, you can seriously kick ass. But you know, it's a big if!
We made our way back up the strip. Runners passed us, and we encountered the "drunk bitches" (a la 40-year-old Virgin). I'm pretty sure these girls had been out since the night before, and I was amazed at just how (relatively) coherent they were. After that much sustained drinking, and when the party had obviously ended in most places, they were still going strong.
Back at The Venetian, we decided to get some pool time in. Diana lacked swimwear, so it was Wi-Fi for me and reading for her. The water was like a bath, and in retrospect I should've gone in. During this time I bought Blue Man Group tickets because the second show had cheaper seats on the lower level. I also felt like something wasn't right.
We essentially spent most of the afternoon in bed, and I could feel myself getting worse. We ventured down to Grand Lux Cafe for dinner, which was remarkably average. We also picked up the tickets.
After dinner, I started to get into the chill/sweat cycle, which was really bad news. I figured, whatever, I can make it at least through the show. Gotta make it. No refunds. I watched a lot of Discovery HD and pretended I was fine.
I felt reasonable all the way downstairs until we had been sitting in the Blue Man Theater for about 15 minutes, and 15 minutes before show time. I had a growing urge to yack. Finally, I gave in and told Diana we had to go. Watching a Barbie insist she couldn't sit in the poncho section was not entertaining enough to beat the disapproval of my innards.
I sat on a bench in the lobby, and at this point my arms and legs started to fall asleep. The fever was getting worse, and wow was I dehydrated. Diana went to find a manager to see if we could get refunds. A security guard asked if I was OK, and the first thing I did is say I was sick and not drunk. They were about ready to call an EMT, but I insisted that cold water would be a great start.
They refunded our tickets, and the show manager invited us to come back and see the show any time, on him. That was a wonderful gesture. It wasn't the reaction I expected at all.
Back in the room, Diana dosed me with some of that warm water/yellow powder junk, and I layered on the blankets and went to sleep.
Sunday was a little better, but I still felt like shit. It got to the worst point when we landed and my ears got so blocked it hurt. Then Continental took forever to get checked bags off the plane. Then we had to dig out Diana's from the snow without any significant winter gear. Fucking Cleveland weather.
So we basically lost 24 hours of our vacation to my sickness, and Diana did her best to nurse me back to health the rest of the week. She drove me to the doctor Tuesday when I was at my worst, and thank God, because my body was not going to recover on its own.
I think there's a good chance we'll return in December for one of Diana's friend's birthday, but we'll see. There are shows and attractions for us to see, and a free Blue Man showing too.
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