Vegas Day 3 and likely 4

Ok, today was a great day. I had great sessions at my work conference, made some great contacts, and I went to see Love by Cirque du Soleil at the Mirage.

I’ll skip the work stuff cause it’s pretty boring unless you were there.

The conference held a pre-show reception that included an unbelievable amount of more free booze and food. On top of that they had Cirque performers all over the place just kind of hanging out. It had to be the coolest little conference party I’ve ever been too. Seriously.

The best part of the day though was going to Love at the Mirage. As I write this I am listening to the soundtrack and fighting the chills as I think about it. All the music was original recordings, not sung during show and it even included lots of film footage from the actual Beatles. This was without a doubt a religious experience for me. Quite simply, the most amazing show I have ever seen in person. I love the Beatles and Cirque never fails to amaze me and this was nothing less than pure brilliance. It was so good, I seriously want to go again tomorrow before I leave. The beauty, spectacle, and sensory overload had tears in my eyes one minute and the biggest smile I could muster the next. I wish I was not by myself as I enjoyed it. Even if you just like the Beatles or Cirque, do NOT miss this show. My ticket was included in the conference, but well worth the $103 to $165 you’ll pay on your own.

Gambling Update: I actually laid some cash down today. I was watching the roulette tables and after seeing 26 folloed by 8 (wedding date and wife’s lucky number) come up on one table, I laid down $20 on the other table. 8 came up and after one more spin I walked away with $70. Not too bad… I expect it will buy whatever show ticket or other entertainment I can find tomorrow as I await my 10:00pm flight time.

Vegas Part 2

So day 2 is finally over, at least for me, and it’s only 6:34 local time. Conference work is down right exhausting and I lost my $20 gambking allotment for the day while I was eating dinner at the mexican restaurant bar. The food was great but my luck went South after going up a little bit.

The conference is ok, a bit boring, but ok. Meeting lots of Canadians. For some reason, there are LOTS of Canadians. Being a hockey fan this is nice because I can have real chats about the sport most recognized in the great white north. Canadians are cool, too. So far the highlight was getting paid $50 for lunching with a focus group and sharing my comments and views on the product we are conferencing. I would do this every day if I could.

Cirque du Soleil Love tomorrow….

Vegas…Day 1.5

I made it to Vegas for my work conference this week, here is the crappy then happy tale.

The day before my flight I learned that the bitches at Delta cancelled my nonstop flight leaving at 730pm getting in at 930pm PST. Instead I leave at 7pm(delayed to 730) and then I get to go through Atlanta. My flight from Atlanta was delayed as well which was good as we would have had about 15 minutes between flights. Originally scheduled to be in seperate terminals, but crisis averted and we parked in the same terminal. If you’ve ever been through Atlanta, you will understand. This delay from Atlanta turned my original 930pm PST nonstop arrival time to 11:30pm PST, or 2:30am EST which my body was on.

So over an hour later I finally get to my hotel only to learn they don’t have a non-smoking room for me that night but they will tomorrow. I’m so tired, I don’t care. They did put me on the 33rd floor overlooking the strip but the stink of ashtray gave me an instant headache. I don’t smoke anymore and the smell now gives me headaches. Looking over the strip is not as good as it seems as you must get the curtains just right so your room doesn’t blink and flash from other casino signs. Even with my ash stained sheets and a broken alarm clock that wouldn’t turn off because all the buttons were broke, I got to sleep in a bit.

Woke up in a grovel, still tired as hell and I had real work to do. My work went well, and I just hung out in the room until I got to pack up and go get my new room.

It was at this time, my trip started to improve. They gave me a King bed on the 6th floor which I was nervous about until the elevator doors opened to reveal a much more modernized hallway. Opening my room door found the same current and updated room complete with an alarm my iPod plugs into and clean sheets. It felt like a reward for not smoking and complaining too much about night 1.

Conference kicked off today with registration and a welcome reception sponsored by one of the boothies in the booth area. Generally these are lame, but not here. The Venetian had some of the street performers on hand and there were twice as many bars as there were booths. In between all that was food stations that included JUMBO shrimp, sushi, Italian cheese and breads, chicken satay, beef satay, lamb chops, beef carving station, root vegetable something and cod carving. These stations were also everywhere so you could not go hungry and I love me some lamb! Oh yeah, the booze was free. 6 different beers, 3 different wines, and some other booth where you could get a free Martini. I’ve never had a martini before but this pomegranite concoction was so deliciious it will definately not be my last.

After stuffing my face with free lamb chops and reaching my control limit in boozing, it was time to walk next door to the Wynn for Spamalot. First of all, the Wynn is amaing. It was clean, smelled nice and everywhere you look it’s beauty was nothing short of spectacular. I never want to be there by myself and not with my wife again.

Now comes Spamalot. As a monty python fan of many years I was highly anticipating this show and it delivered in a big way. John O’Hurley was the lead and he was perfect for the role. To think of Clay Aiken doing the same in NY is impossible to me. The show was histerical, extremely well produced and performed and I could easily see it again. If you are a fan of the knights who say ni or your mother smells of elderberries, do not miss this show.

OK, off to bed for a full day of conferencing.

Gambling tally: $0 won from $0 played. I’m actually not much interested right now. I will play a little eventually but just didn’t feel like it today. I did lose my father in law’s $20 but he instrcted me to play 4 pulls on a $5 slot and after less than a minute it was gone. Sorry!

Saturday

No catchy title or even catchy content. It’s just a normal Saturday and nothing exciting is happening today but lots on the docket for tomorrow. It’s mothers day and all the ladies are going shopping while the guys go play some golf. Then I will get on a plane for the week in Vegas at a conference for work. Honestly, it’s work so there isn’t much about it to look forward to except the 2 shows I am going to while there. However, I’ll be by myself in Vegas and how much fun can that be?

More posts next week from my hotel room to keep my sanity I’m sure!

No Muddy for my Buddy

Unfortunately last night I tweaked my calf pretty good playing hockey and there will be no way I could compete in a 7 mile endurance race I haven’t trained for. Sorry to mu Buddy in the previous pics but I guess maybe I saved our lives. There’s always next year…

Muddy Buddy Follow Up

Here is my running partner at her training finest…

2 for Tuesday part 2

Ok, so I promised 2 in the title but that doesn’t mean I have that much to say. My head is swimmy as I am detoxing from my daytime meds and I won’t have a refill until Thursday afternoon. So you’ll have to excuse any rambling. I was thinking I might do a new music post as new music is released on Tuesday but this weeks offerings are not at all impressive. I like Gavin DeGraw, but I’ll wait for the stripped version as that was better the last time he released a record. So far, this one is not as impressive. New music from Augustana came out last week, and the previews on iTunes sound great but I haven’t bought it yet. Yes, I do buy music.

My almost 4 year old is now finally fully potty trained. She decided a week ago to start and I would say she has earned a grade of an A in the process. No mishaps, backwards progress or anything else. Just perfection. Now our two year old desperately wants to join the potty party and Mrs. Hockeyman will have a GREAT story about just how desperate. I won’t steal that from you dear so you better deliver the goods.

OK, off to bed with my laptop setup next to my bed so I can watch the Mets play the Dodgers in LA.

2 for Tuesday part 1

So Saturday marks the day I will try to kill myself. I am entered in an endurance race I have trained for by drinking lots of Bud Light instead of Budweiser, fried anything, cheeseburgers, pizza, and various other goodies. Excercise never exceed my normal game of hockey once per week. I guess there will be no shame in a DNF or a 4 hour finish time as my “buddy” has trained equally as hard. We will be a humorous sight as we pass out in the Florida heat and humidity wearing our Team Inappropriate shirts.

Muddy Buddy

Manic Monday

Insert catchy Bangles secondary hit from the 80’s…

I dunno if this is a real blog thing. Seems every day has a catchy phrase and theme attached to it. I’ll go with this and you can find the existing graphic that goes with it. I figured out why Monday’s are crazy for everyone and it’s because we blow off everything on Friday. It could also because we do so much laziness on the weekend or exhausting fun stuff but I’m sticking with the blow off day.

I imagine I’ll be bloggging more next week as I’ll be flying solo in Vegas all week without a penny to pinch or gamble away. I’ll grab $10, sit at the nickel slots and drink the free booze so my posts may actually make some sense under the influence. I am going to see Spamalot and Love and will write about it. I love Monty Python and I love the Beatles even more so we’ll see how they stack up to my expectations.

Adios Amigos!

One More Thing…

I don’t give a flying FUCK where Matt Lauer will be tomorrow or any day for that matter.