A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Picture Parad of our Vegas Vacation Part 3: Bette, Amazing Jonathan, and the Cutest Matzo Ball Soup Ever!

And another of my favorite shots of the hotel taken as we waited for the airport shuttle. These were the best pics I took all week!

How about some food pics? This is supposed to be, after all, a food blog but I'll be honest. We didn't eat that many upscale meals.  We had the lunch at RM Seafood and the caviar at the Bellagio but other than that we really stuck with basic food.  I allowed myself a few comfort foods I rarely allow myself to eat like a Reuben & fries, chicken pot pie, that room service bleu cheese & avocado burger, etc.  At Caesar's before Bette's show we ate at the "food court" and that was actually fun.  Gene had carved turkey and dressing and I had a side of mac & cheese. The "food court" at Caesar's ranges from a Starbucks to the carved meat place to upscale chinese to upscale subs.  The tables are nicely done and the condiment bar includes real flatware and real plates you can transfer your "fast food" meal over to.  It was very well done and exactly what I would expect from Caesar's.

After the show we stopped by the basic 24 hour cafe. I had the coolest matzo ball soup I've ever had and Gene chose a quesadilla that was very good, one of the best we've ever had. Sure, it was just a quesadill and soup but the mark of a great kitchen is to do even the basic foods very well.

Isn't the presentation fantastic?  The bowl contained the matzo ball, about 3 oz of chicken, a chunked baby carrot with the greens still attached, and the sprig of dill.  I loved the chicken broth on the side. It was a nice touch especially since I really don't like a lot of broth on my dumpling but like to spoon it separately. It's like they read my mind. LOL! Plus, it was adorable!

The quesadilla was just a basic chicken quesadilla but the remoulade on top was perfect and it had tons of flavor.  That's the kind of food that can be made very well or very badly.

Let's see....other pics of food. Oh, here's one of the morning room service carts from the Luxor. I just love room service carts. I almost judge the quality of a hotel by them. Again, something simple that can be done very poorly or very well.  The Luxor did well. Everything was presented beautifully even though it was only a caraffe of coffee and a basket of pastries most days and a choice of USA Today or the local Review Journal accompanied each tray. That's a nice touch.

Picture Parade of our Vegas Vacation Part 2: Caviar & NASCAR

On to part TWO of our Vegas picture parade. Let's start with another pic I just sort of snapped off at the Luxor's entrance while we were waiting for the airport shuttle.

You know why there's a huge light on the top of the Luxor's pyramid, right?  It's so the drunks can find their way home at night.  At least that's what I've always thought made sense...

Okay, where were we?

Ah yes, the evening at the Bellagio where we mixed the modern art exhibit, loved the Chinese New Year themed Conservatory, and ate caviar in the Petrossian Bar.  That night, like every other time we've been in Vegas since the place opened, as we walked by hearing the piano player and seeing all the lovely tables and comfy chairs, I said "I'd love to have a drink in that bar sometime." Gene replied "Tonight's the night."  Which we all know is man-speak for "Let's get her done so you can shut the hell up already."  :-)

But it turned into a wonderful experience!

This would be us with my cosmo, his sherry, and our caviar.  Boy howdy, we look happy to be there, don't we?  It's okay. You can laugh. I am.  I don't know what our deal was.  I remember it took the waitress a long time to get the shot. Maybe we were tired of smiling or something.  Don't remember.  I swear we were actually having a lovely evening sitting there chatting about nothing important, people watching, and finding out that we really like caviar.  The good stuff does live up to the hype.  And then the bill came.  Just kidding. It wasn't as bad as we thought it would be.  Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find a way to make the car payment...

The Petrossian brand can be ordered here:  Petrossian. They have several different kinds: sturgeon, salmon, pike, and tons of gift basket combinations.  Ours was the sturgeon roe, Tsar Imperial label.  Loved the mini blinis and toast points. They were so cute. Sorry no more pics than the one. I was too busy having a great time! It's a simple thing but vacation to me is about seeing new things and trying new foods. I'm sure I'm not alone out there or we wouldn't be blogging. I'm a lucky girl in that Gene is the same way so even though I make jokes I really don't have to drag him along at all. He's the one who ordered the caviar. He's the one who planned the whole vacation from picking out the room to getting show tickets.  Everybody say "Ahhhhhhhhhhh".

Hey, the lid from the caviar and our Bette tickets. Yay!  Okay, for one, that's the only pic I have from Bette although I do have the souvenir plastic hurricane glass from the show. Duh. Stupid me was so excited to get inside the showroom I passed up the formal pics with the showgirls and then none of the photographers inside the showroom came close to our seats so we have no formal Anniversary pic. Wah.

Second thought about this pic.  The lid? I dropped it into my purse so we could remember the name of what we had.  I didn't even wipe out the couple of eggs sticking to it. Then I FORGOT I'd dropped it in there.  Here's the perfect example of the difference between good fish and bad fish. When I realized it was still there I figured the inside of my purse would stink to high heavens but it didn't. I couldn't even find the silly lid at first, and when I did, even sniffing the lid itself only gave off the faintest of "sea"-ish odor.  Now that's good fish and I'm sure what we had wasn't even the most expensive on the menu.

Picture Parade from our Vegas Vacation Part 1: Soprano's, Bellagio, and Rick Moonen

Our vacation tour via pics should begin with me snoozing my lazy butt away the first day--all day!--but what the hell, that's what vacations are for, right? Fun and rest! Well I had tons of both--one of the best vacations ever! Thank you, Geno, for planning everything and working so hard to entertain me!

Ahhhh...my artsy-fartsy shot of the pyramid. Yes, we stayed at the Luxor.  No, I didn't get any shots of our beautifully fake-Egyptian appointed suite. Well, I did but they sucked. I'm no Diedre. I won't be making my living from my photography any time soon but I did like this one. So you'll have to imagine us checking in tired and bedraggled into an 800 sq ft suite with a full living room, wet bar, separate bedroom, and bathroom as big as my bedroom at home but designed by a freaking man.  No countertop around the double sinks to lay a makeup bag out on. Grrr... But the jacuzzi made up for it.

We have a first night tradition when we get into a hotel late of simply putting on our pj's, relaxing, and ordering room service.  My first meal in Las Vegas?  A burger. But, it was a treat in that it was no ordinary burger, AND, I never eat burgers.  Okay. Rarely.  They normally don't do anything for me but it was vacation and the menu listing of add-ons intrigued me.  My burger was layered with bleu cheese and avocado. The best part?  The bleu cheese was very liberally applied to the burger so I pulled some off and let it melt down onto the garlic fries. Now THAT'S a big yum!  It's a whole new way to look at the pub-standard cheesy fries.  The kitchen also added bacon to my burger that I didn't order but like with all goog pub cheese fries, I crumbled it onto them and it was way yummy.  Worth every calorie.

For more pics, click below. Please be patient. Depending on your computer it may take a while. There are a lot of pics!

Vegas Report 5: The Amazing Jonathan, Soprano's, and The Wizard of Oz

Just in case you're not familiar, this is a clip of The Amazing Jonathan from You Tube.  He's had several Comedy Central specials which is where Gene and I first saw him.  He's 50% magician, 50% comedian, and another 100% clever potty mouth.  Gee, what a surprise that I love him.  He droppeed the F-bomb even more than Bette!

Now after seeing him live he's even more so my favorite magician!

The first bit here with the bowling ball? He did that at our show where Gene and I had front row seats. The exception is that instead of letting the ball drop and going on, he threw it backstage and then his assitant, Tonya, threw it back out at him.  He picked it up and threw it right at Gene and I sitting right there on the front row. Gene didn't even flinch but I, even though I could see it was a black balloon when it came back out, I cringed and turned and totally reacted like an idiot.  He made fun of me! He told everyone my "catlike reflexes" were useless or something like that. It was hilarious.

Then after the show he and Tonya signed t-shirts and dvds and I got one of each (pics when I get home).  He told me the sizes of t-shirts he had and I said "Oh give me the largest you have. I have to accommodate the boobs."  He grinned and said, "Oh I bet there are a lot of men who'd be happy to accommodate your boobs for you." Ahh, I got dissed and then talked nice to and autographed tee and dvd on top of it.  Hee hee.

Afterwards we played the Soprano's penny slot again there at Planet Hollywood where we were for the show and I won another $100 and was "made" a soldier on the mini progressive jackpot three more times. Damnnit, I wanted capo or even boss for the big money!!! Hehehe.  Tony was very good to me (Tony is the wild card).

Then we came home and Gene wanted to show me the new Wizard of Oz slot which is pretty cool.  Not only does it have fun bonus games, the speakers are built into the chair and made by BOZE so the sound effects are awesome.  I won my money back with the Flying Monkey bonus (thought of Missy the whole time and how much she hates the Flying Monkeys!) and Gene won $400 between the Glinda the Good Witch wild spins and the Flying Monkeys and Emerald City bonuses. And that was on a nickel slot.

Oh, and by the way, when I can upload my pics I'll tell you about the buffet we ate at.  Yes. Buffet.  I HATE buffets because the food is always pedestrian at best and institutional at worst.  Well, not so anymore.  We ate at the Spice Market buffet in Planet Hollywood, mostly because we were running late and couldn't get in to any of the restaurants and still be on time for the show.  The Peach Glazed Duck, alone, was worth the price. I was soooo surprised at the quality of the food. More about that later when I get my pics.

Off to pack and get some sleep. Headed home tomorrow morning, y'all.

Vegas Report 4: Our Leap Day Anniversary with Bette Midler

Yesterday (Leap Day) was officially our 4th (16th) wedding anniversary. To mark it Gene bought Bette Midler tickets months ago.  Neither of us had ever been to one of her concerts but we both love her voice, her albums, movies, and basically anything she appears on, not to mention my all time favorite quote is hers:  "I wanted to leave you with the good beneath the gaudy, the saint beneath the paint, the pure little soul that lurks beyond this lurid exterior...but then again, I figured, f*** 'em if they can't take a joke."  My mantra.

Bette said in her show last night that she's evolved over the years:  30 years ago she was on drugs, now she's on medication so her new mantra with all the physicality of the show is "no seizures at Caesar's".  Time goes on and we're all getting older, eh?

To everyone who told me this would be the best show I've ever seen I have to tell you: you were absolutely unequivocably right!  How can so much energy, a voice that big, and such a tall cup of fun come out of such a teeny tiny person?  She's adorably little.  Not small in personality but definitely shorter and smaller than her Harlettes and her Vegas chorus line, the "Caesar Salads" and yet it's all about Bette every moment she's on stage.

The only way to really describe that show is that I laughed until I cried and cried until I cried.  The Delores DeLago and Sophie Tucker vignettes were gasping for breath funny while the calm ballads of The Rose, From a Distance, and When a Man Loves a Woman were incredibly moving in that way that makes you feel like you're the only one in the room with her.  Her voice is still as strong as ever and it's wonderfully chilling to hear her live in person.  No matter how great the technology gets, nothing will ever be the same as a live performance.

Sally will be amused by this count:  Bette said "f***" 7 times, "motherf***er"  3 times, "sonofabitch" 4 times, and "shit" countless times. Rock on. I loved it.

To Gene:  Best anniversary ever--thank you Baby!

To my favorite Fanilows, and you know who you are:  I still love Barry but I have to wonder--did Barry teach Bette how to put on a show like that, did Bette teach Barry, or did they learn it together growing up on stage together, so to speak?

Vegas Report 3: NASCAR and a Shout Out

We promised Gene's sister, Linda, that we'd try to get photos of the NASCAR truck parade and we did!  NASCAR's coming to Vegas so about 3:30pm this afternoon a long parade of all the semi's carrying the cars ran right down the strip. The trucks are painted to coordinate with the cars and, I admit, they were very fun to watch running back to back down the strip especialy from our room windows. The sidewalks were thick with people so we wouldn't have gotten to see much (me being so short) but from the 18th floor we had the perfect "fly over" view.  Very cool to see them stretching up and down the street.  I had no idea there would be so many!

On a different subject, a quick shout out to Corbin who made Gene promise to call his cell anytime we got a big winning slot so he could "hear the ka-ching and live vicariously" through us.  Yep, we call him and he giggles.  Makes the wins even more fun.

In local Vegas news happening while we're here, go to the G's Spot blog to hear about RICIN Found in Local Hotel Room(!!!!) and HEP C Outbreak from Local Endoscopy Clinic.

(I'll be posting all of our pics when we get home--I don't have capability of uploading them to this laptop.)

Vegas Adventures Report 2: Conservatory, Cavier, & Cashing Out

I was soo lazy again today.  Having stayed up last night until 4am...I didn't get up until 2PM...but Gene was fine. When I woke up I found a room service table...and then called him on the cell to find that he'd been downstairs playing poker. We were both doing what we wanted to do on vacation. Rock on.

So once I was awake..about 6pm..we went to get a snack and then spent the evening at the Bellagio.  Our intent, first, was to hit the Gallery of Fine Arts but we missed the closing by about 20 minutes. No matter.  The conservatory, decorated gorgeously in Chinese New Year fell next on the list.  I have pics and will upload them when I get home but it was one of my favorite displays of all the times we've been there.  I loved the huge red lanterns hanging from the ceilings like bubbles caught in the air and the ground areas  were all lawned over in azaleas, bamboo, and a ton of different species of orchids.  I thought of my Nannie and how much she would enjoy all the orchids, blooms of every color and marking. Just beautiful!

After The Conservatory and on the way around the corner, I said as I always do "I want to have a martini in that bar sometime", meaning the Petrossian bar in the open mouth of the casino where they have high tea in the afternoon and a pianist in the evenings. I like the layout (Click here for a pic: Pretossian Bar) and the looks.  My fellow RT friends who went to conference and joined me for the Ansel Adams exhibit in '06 when we went to conference may remember me gushing about it then.  Or not. Gene remembers it, though, because I say "I want to have a drink there" every damn time I pass the place.

Tonight was the night.  And yes, it was everything I wanted it to be: lovely music, cushy seats, a wonderful bar menu.  If you go to the link above, we sat at the rail at the table just behind the piano bench. It was the perfect place to people watch.  Cheerily, I ordered my martini and Gene ordered what I thought was one of his favorite Ports only to find out later was a sherry--yum!, by the way.  And then I heard him order what I thought at first was a joke:  caviar.  Hmmmm...okay.

I've only had caviar one time before. That's one of those intimidating things that I've always been curious about but never really had the opportunity to eat.  The ONE time I've ever been close was at an upscale function when I worked at what was the best hotel in Springfield at the time: University Plaza Hotel. Don't know if it still is or not but when I worked there all of the high dollar upscale functions were held there, being owned by local entrepeneur John Q. Hammons.

Whatever that function was that I don't remember who it was now, at the end of the function there were leftover canapes, some being small steamed red potatoes with creme fraiche, herbs, and caviar.  Quite frankly it was salty, slimey, and nasty.  So when Gene ordered caviar, at first I was both thinking "waste of money" and intimidated sitting in the middle of the Bellagio in a bar full of high dollar jewelry and cocktails wondering if I could fake knowing what the hell and how the hell to eat it properly.

I'm not particularly shy anymore but those are the moments in life when, in spite of the "what the hell it's our anniversary week" grin on Gene's face when I suddenly feel once again like the little poor girl from the wrong side of the tracks in a very small Midwest town but I caught the "what the hell it's our anniversary and there's always room in life to do something new" spirit and looked forward to at least knowing that we'd tried it.

Verdict?  That stuff I ate at the hotel was shit, that's what.  What we had tonight wasn't the highest dollar caviar available but it was damn good.  Not salty. Not slimey at all. It was buttery and creamy with a faint salmon taste, like having a much more delicate bagel and lox taste.  Sort of. It's the best comparison I can come up with at the moment.  I found that it was also addictive in the way sushi is addictive. The more I ate the more I enjoyed it and I'm still thinking about it, wanting more.

Our server, Hilda, was a lot of fun and very helpful.  When she brought it out she showed the basket of toast points and blinis, and the condiments of creme fraiche, minced chives, and red onion. She asked if we needed anything else. We laughed and said "We don't know. We've never had this before." You know how some servers get off on being snotty? She wasn't at all.  She, already knowing it was our anniversay, said, "What a great way to celebrate--trying new things!" She told us that everyone, like with most things, eat caviar differently: some naked by the spoon, some on the toast or blini only, and some with all the accoutrments.  We tried them all. Gene preferred just the toast points with a little onion and I liked the blinis and with a dab of creme fraiche.

And after that adventure? We went back to the Luxor with a detour to the giant Wheel of Fortune machine before heading home for the night.  Wheel of Fortune sucks at the moment, and that's all I have to say about that.

Vegas Report 1: Soprano's, Sharks, and Sushi

First, I didn't write anything about Monday because, quite frankly, I didn't do sh** and it was wonderful.  I slept all day.  Literally. Gene said he moved around in the bedroom several times, showered, answered calls in the suite living room three times and none of it even made me twitch so he figured I needed sleep more than anything else.  He was right.  I needed down time.  Okay, maybe it's only me but I'm guessing there are lots of you out there like me that the best thing about vacation is leaving the to-do list at home.  Each time I go on vacation I promise myself that when I go home I'll learn to turn my brain off at some point each day and just "be".  Never happens.

But maybe that's exactly the point of vacation, to remind us to just "be" for a while even if living in the moment means laying in bed for 12 hours, and not in the fun way, and then staying in your pajamas all evening while ordering a huge burger and fries so juicy, so delicious, so filled with fat that you spend an hour in the bathroom paying the price for having eaten (most) of it.  Gee, is that to filed under too much information?  Probably, but I'm not familiar with the laptop keyboard and I can't find the delete button.  :-)

Today. Tuesday. Today was filled with fun.  We were both up by fairly early and ready to hit the town. Okay, "hit the town" as defined by geeky, history museum-loving, National Geographic-reading middle-agers who wouldn't recognize "wild" if it walked up and offered us a ride.

First stop: Mandalay Bay which is really just a nice walk through shop-lined hallways from our hotel, the Luxor next door.   Our goal destination being Shark Reef, still one of our favorite Vegas attractions and one of the most affordable for families.  We went the first year it opened, several years ago at $13.00, and even now the price has only gone up to $15.95.  We both think it's a great value.  When we get home, I'll upload the video I took of sitting in the bubble tube watching sharks swim overhead and of the divers in chain mail cleaning the windows and rocks. I love that the shark pools can be viewed from different angles and heights; I especially love the sunken boat scene where they even play audio with creaks and groans as if it's the shipwreck's timbers shifting in the water. 

In the meantime click here for the web site and info:  Shark Reef

It takes at least a couple of hours to really go through the reef so after that we were ready for lunch.  We talked about eating at the Burger Bar which we'd seen featured in one of Giada's getaway shows but that felt too heavy and we talked about The Noodle Shop but that wasn't "it" either so we settled on Rick Moonen's RM Seafood in the walkway between the two hotels, on the Mandalay Bay side.  There are two dining rooms to the restaurant, the evening formal room, and the casual day room.  Sushi felt perfect for lunch and they served that and more.

Again, I'll upload pics when I get home but I have to say that the best thing about the sushi was that it made us appreciate the sushi chefs at our favorite little sushi bar, Umi, at home.  The sushi was okay, but just okay, and the presentation was boring, as in NO presentation, which sucked for the price.  However,  the soup we ordered as a starter was fantastic! I wish now I'd just had soup and salad instead of the sushi.  It was a beautiful red curry/coconut soup with shrimp stock and slivers of onions and potatoes.  I would go back just for that soup.

Gene noticed that Rick Moonen himself came into the restaurant while we were eating the starters--he recognized the chef from his picture on the menu outside the restaurant. He dared me to go introduce myself and tell him I'd be blogging him but I admit I chickened out.  Then after being disappointed in the sushi I'm kind of glad I don't feel obligated to lie.

The plan for after lunch?  A window shopping stroll back to our hotel and...(whispering) a nap.  It sounds so decadent! It's vacation, we're allowed.  Right?  But on the way to the room, we ended doing a little slot play. My husband plays poker and often wins but I rarely gamble at all. Occasionally I'll shove $10 in a penny or nickle slot machine but it's more about trying to get the bonus rounds, which are like playing video games, than trying to win money.

But guess who has a new slot machine?  The Soprano's! Well, somehow that $20.00 bill found its way out of my pocket and into that machine so I could sing along to the theme music and watch pictures of Tony and the boys pop up on the reels.  Yep.  I admit I fully expected this story to end as "and then I lost my money and walked away" but today was not that day. Today, not  only did I win over $100.00 (on a penny slot!), I won the small progressive twice so was twice "made" as a Soprano family soldier.  Yep. Uh huh. I have pics of that too. Apparently now the casinos don't care if you take pics on the floor. The cocktail waitress even took one for us sitting at the machines.

We laughed about that all the way back to our napping place.

After the napping event and the breakfast for dinner event, of which I took no pics because I'm pretty sure you know what scrambled eggs and wheat toast look like.... we headed over to the Tropicana to see the BODIES The Exhibition, the one where they've dissected and preserved real bodies so you can see all the insides under your outside. 

Wow.  No, really.  I mean it. WOW~! 

The minute you get a chance, run, do not walk to this exhibit. It is incredible. We stayed for hours reading every word at each display and talking about how all the pieces and parts fit together.  Granted, I remembered much more about the workings and names of the pieces and parts in the chest, since that's what I work with, but at least all the names still sounded familiar from Letty's Anatomy class.

As Gene studied one of the hearts, smartass that he is, he asked "And which one of those veins did Dr. Caesar put a stent in after my heart attack?"  Hehehe. Such a funny boy.  But me also being a smartass, I showed him exactly which ARTERY it was and gave him the name: LAD.  Hehehe.  Yes, that was a sarcastic hehehe, not an I'm laughing hehehe.

The exhibit really was incredible.  It was especially cool for me to see all the anatomy after being out of school and working for a while.  It's one thing to see it on paper and in pics, or even in a lab, but so many things make much more sense after you've been working for real with it all for a while.

Click here for more info: BODIES The Exhibition

By that time, it was actually getting late so we ran the strip just to look at the lights and see the new construction before coming home.  Gene's already in bed and I'll say good night. Good night.

I'm On Vacation...

We're on va-CA-tion! 

We're leaving this afternoon to go to Vegas for our 4th (married on Leap Day so it's really 16th) anniversary. From the clipart, can you tell where we're staying?  The Luxor Hotel in some kind of suite that Gene said is a big surprise. Hmmm...something to look forward to!

And for our actual Anniversary on the 19th we'll be sitting about mid-room at  Caesar's Palace to see the Divine Miss M's new show. That's right--Bette Midler.  We've never seen her in concert so we're both very excited!

We're taking the laptop so I'll be blogging from Vegas but I won't be able to upload my camera photos until we get home...off to finish packing.

Viva Las Vegas!

And finally...my trip and food report on last week's respiratory convention trip to Las Vegas. The respiratory convention and presentations parts were fabulous, the food part..eh, not so fabulous but it's not Vegas's fault. I let my system get all out of whack from the beginning and ended up eating mostly Pepcid all week. Oh well. Such is life. Great way to stay on a diet.

We all managed to get through our presentations with no one wetting themselves or dropping to the floor into the fetal position--hey, don't laugh. We, being all newbie therapists, were terrified of embarrassing ourselves or our program directors.  But everyone did great. I'm so proud of my class. Not only are they good people, they're a smart group of people with basically even more b***s than brains when the need arises. :-)

Our program directors told us later that they were told that we held our own against therapists who've been presenting projects for years.  That's the biggest compliment we could have gotten--we fit in!

A few pics of the conference (Las Vegas Convention Center)...

The official opening of the 52nd American Association for Respiratory Care conference.  In the upper left hand corner are about five of my classmates and our program director. 

Group pic of all but three of us immediately following our presentations:

Yours truly, along with Doug our program director, and Rachel:

The whole thing was an incredible opportunity to speak and be published by the national association.  I'm still flutterbugged every time I think about it.  Once in a lifetime. Or not if I work hard.  I'm now very pumped up about research, seeing respiratory care in the big picture, and about writing more and publishing within the field, whether that's research or articles for general consumer magazines. One of my big goals for 2007 is to publish more respiratory articles in general magazines. I have one credit for an article about asthma for a children's magazine but I'd like to expand that into the adult market for more in-depth pieces.

And now for the just for fun pics...us in front of our black hummer limo we took from the airport to the MGM, running the strip and hanging out of the sunroof snapping pics along the way--of course:

And a bunch of us in front of the Christmas tree in the Conservatory of the Bellagio:

Sorry to disappoint but no beefcake photos of Dr. Respiratory Love, Chris, from the trip although I do have this one of him being...well..basically himself:

And this one of him trying on the jacket I bought at the d.fine men's store in the Bellagio for Gene's Christmas:

Great jacket, eh?  It's crushed suede and looked even better in person.  Chris wanted to be put into Gene's will to inherit it but, unfortunately, Gene's arms are longer than Chris's and the jacket had to be returned. Bummer. Now Gene gets a dvd for Christmas instead.

Now, we're up to food stories. Let's see...what happens when you get completely out of your sleeping and eating routine to the point where you're walking around scoping out where the nearest bathrooms are in case the sudden urge to upchuck hits you. And gee, that's even without the stereotypical aid of cocktails.

I would have loved to have eaten at Joel Robuchon at the Mansion (since we were staying right there at the MGM) or even at L'Atelier, or heck, even Emeril's or Pearl, and that's just in our own hotel.  But it didn't happen. Between my stomach being upset almost constantly the entire time we were there and the fact that this particular trip wasn't a high dollar budget affair, I was lucky to suck down a boring piece of cheese pizza once in a while or even enjoy the $50 Benihana meal. But let's be honest, Benihana was fun but not because of the food. I can get the same japanese hibachi meal here in town for the half the price. It was fun to be out with my friends:

(Chris, me, Mechelle, Rachel)

(Trish and Aaron)

Another night we investigated the mythical cheap Las Vegas Prime rib dinner--and found it!--for $6.95 at (Bart Simpson would be so proud) The Dam Restaurant inside the Hooter's Casino across the street from the MGM:

They said the prime rib was okay, not bad or great, but worth the $6.95 (not sure what that means exactly but you can figure it out for yourself).  I, being sick (have I whined that enough yet?) to my stomach choked down some of the worst chicken noodle soup I've ever tasted in my life. I didn't even take a photo to remember that nightmare by. Just in the big questions of the universe way--how in the hell do you screw up chicken noodle soup? I would never have guessed that was even possible but let me assure you from personal knowledge, not only is it possible, it's scarier than any novel Stephen King ever wrote.

But we did have some good Dam Nachos delivered to our table by our personable waiter, Trevor:

But let's not pretend I didn't overcome my queasy stomach to imbibe a little either. Immediately following our convention presentations, Rachel and I and others from our group ran to the Star Trek themed restaurant inside the Hilton to share yummy appetizers and the goldfish bowl-sized Borg's Sphere, which is basically a Long Island Tea with some kind of green something and dry ice to make it bubble over.  There, we basically recapped the last few hours and let our adrenaline run out all over the table and each other.  Hopefully we were fun without being too obnoxious to our fellow patrons.

With my sincerest apologies to my homeboys Joel Robuchon, Bradley Ogden, Wolfgang Puck, Thomas Keller, and Emeril, I have to admit that my favorite meal in Vegas was at Quark's.  You'll have to forgive me if I say it was "out of this world".