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lynxreignI am very tired and don’t think I’ll recover until well after this weekend. This has been an incredibly busy few months for me and I’m looking forward to having a few weekends with nothing to do. I believe it all started with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
emmalyon’s reunion in MA. The following weekend was urnesha and qahawthorne’s graduation from college in MA. The weekend after that: garrity’s move in VA. Then a weekend off that I can’t even remember followed by cell23 and chirping_monkey’s marriage.
That was the warm-up and I believe I’ve posted about all these things. Now for the new. The big week of tired came with the 10 year anniversary ofhead58 and aliwings in Vegas. This was a wonderful 4 days in Vegas with a large group of friends that I don’t get to see nearly often enough. I flew home on Thursday, dropped off Emmalyon and picked up rtrockel and drove to Columbus OH for the Origins convention. While in town, we saw neogrammarian, so the whole weekend wasn’t a geekfest of gaming. I drove home Monday and tomorrow I go to MA with Urnesha to visit artemis44, Head58, Aliwings and a host of others. I plan to spend next weekend sleeping.
We flew to Vegas Saturday morning and arrived at around 10:30 AM, if memory serves me correctly. The flight was fine, the trips to and from the airport were uneventful and we arrived at our hotel in fine spirits. Once settled into the room, I called Head58 to see what the plans were for the day. He and Aliwings were still at the airport in baggage claim. I’d thought everyone that was to be there on Saturday had already arrived, but this error stemmed from Emmalyon initially remembering our flight times incorrectly.
Once we all were checked in, we went to meet the “California Contingent” at the Spice Market; an excellent buffet at the Aladin Casino. We all ate far too much food, I finally got to meet John (Jon’s boyfriend) and was delighted to see Dee and Jon et al.
Sunday we had the wonderful Elvis wedding. Elvis was really Elvisy. He sang three songs, had “Elvis wedding vows” in addition to the regular ones and they took pictures and a video for the happy couple. Since I’d slipped Head58 the remaining cash to pay for Elvis right before we all left for the ceremony, Aliwings figured out who’d sprung this surprise on her and during the ceremony, pointed at me and said something to the effect of “I’ll get you for this.” We all got to sign the marriage certificate as witnesses and I think that was a wonderful touch. The people that run A Hollywood Wedding Chapel are great and I recommend them to anyone looking to get hitched.
That night Emmalyon and I ate a Red Square where the food was fantastic and the drinks were smooth and tasty. We each had 4 martinis and ½ a shot. Emmalyon was blasted and I was a little drunk. The dessert was quite tasty, but my Beef Stroganoff was exquisite. The décor was as though we were eating in the Summer Palace a month after it had been taken in the revolution. Luxurious draperies, chandelier, hammer & sickle over the bar, portrait of Lenin hanging and a giant Soviet Workers Poster on the wall. Emmalyon also really, really enjoyed the bartenders and our waiter.
After dinner, we all went dancing. I didn’t dance, but the others all seemed to enjoy themselves on the dance floor, especially Emmalyon who wouldn’t put her shoes back on for the security guy. She says she couldn’t hear what he was asking and she’s probably right. It was loud in there. They had women in bikinis and platform boots dancing, one at a time, on a cube. They were fairly listless too.
Emmalyon bailed on the following day’s activities, but the rest of us joined the California ones for a parting breakfast buffet at the Luxor. We spent the rest of the day wandering about, shopping and gambling. We also participated in a focus group for a tv show for CBS. It was abysmal and I sincerely hope it never sees the light of day. We all panned it. It was so bad that we didn’t even have to take into account the ½ mile walk through the casino to get to it. The rest of the group took a ride on the New York, New York rollercoaster; I wasn’t feeling very adventurous. This was, however, the casino where I discovered the game where you can bet on rolling up your D&D character. You place bets on combinations that can come up on 3 6-sided dice. It was great fun.
Matt and Jill played in a poker tournament and Matt took first place of around $4,000! He later won money in another tournament as well. Aliwings and I played in the second tournament too. I like these because you can spend $20 or so to receive $500 or so of tournament chips and play with more money. These chips aren’t good except in the tournament and if you place high enough you get a cut of the pot, but you get to play like you have money. I played blackjack for the first time at a table and that was amusing too.
We rented a car and Kevin, Head58, Emmalyon and I went to Hoover Dam. I’d been there before, but it was still great to see it again. Such a cool, art deco, engineering marvel. I went to the Diorama with Kevin & Head58. Since I’ve seen it twice now, I no longer have to go. Head58, however has only seen it once, so he has to escort a newbie next time he goes. On the way back we ate at In ‘N’ Out Burger and it was quite good, despite references to the bible on the food packaging. We went downtown on a public bus (not a casino one) and saw the downtown casinos, ate at a decent, cheap restaurant and saw the show on the canopy that covers the main strip, which was mildly amusing. On the way back, we stopped to see the Prince Cover band and Head58 said it was really good. As I don’t really like or know the-artist-once-again-known-as-Prince, I’ll take his word for it.
Other than that, the big notable was seeing Second City sketch/improv comedy. They were quite funny and responsive to the audience. We saw the outdoor pirate show at Treasure Island which was ok and showed us that the new motto for Vegas is “Leave the kids at home”. We saw ads everywhere for a topless show called “Crazy Girls” where they evidently do acrobatics and going to the show became a running gag to the point where I think I actually wanted to go. Head58 and Aliwings left Wednesday, Emmalyon and I left Thursday early and Kevin, Gail, Matt and Jill all left later.
I’ll update later with my trip to Origins, my 4th of July excursion and more detail about the various happenings in Vegas. Sorry this was so scattered, but I wanted to get it down before it started to fade.
emmalyon’s reunion in MA. The following weekend was urnesha and qahawthorne’s graduation from college in MA. The weekend after that: garrity’s move in VA. Then a weekend off that I can’t even remember followed by cell23 and chirping_monkey’s marriage.That was the warm-up and I believe I’ve posted about all these things. Now for the new. The big week of tired came with the 10 year anniversary of
head58 and aliwings in Vegas. This was a wonderful 4 days in Vegas with a large group of friends that I don’t get to see nearly often enough. I flew home on Thursday, dropped off Emmalyon and picked up rtrockel and drove to Columbus OH for the Origins convention. While in town, we saw neogrammarian, so the whole weekend wasn’t a geekfest of gaming. I drove home Monday and tomorrow I go to MA with Urnesha to visit artemis44, Head58, Aliwings and a host of others. I plan to spend next weekend sleeping.We flew to Vegas Saturday morning and arrived at around 10:30 AM, if memory serves me correctly. The flight was fine, the trips to and from the airport were uneventful and we arrived at our hotel in fine spirits. Once settled into the room, I called Head58 to see what the plans were for the day. He and Aliwings were still at the airport in baggage claim. I’d thought everyone that was to be there on Saturday had already arrived, but this error stemmed from Emmalyon initially remembering our flight times incorrectly.
Once we all were checked in, we went to meet the “California Contingent” at the Spice Market; an excellent buffet at the Aladin Casino. We all ate far too much food, I finally got to meet John (Jon’s boyfriend) and was delighted to see Dee and Jon et al.
Sunday we had the wonderful Elvis wedding. Elvis was really Elvisy. He sang three songs, had “Elvis wedding vows” in addition to the regular ones and they took pictures and a video for the happy couple. Since I’d slipped Head58 the remaining cash to pay for Elvis right before we all left for the ceremony, Aliwings figured out who’d sprung this surprise on her and during the ceremony, pointed at me and said something to the effect of “I’ll get you for this.” We all got to sign the marriage certificate as witnesses and I think that was a wonderful touch. The people that run A Hollywood Wedding Chapel are great and I recommend them to anyone looking to get hitched.
That night Emmalyon and I ate a Red Square where the food was fantastic and the drinks were smooth and tasty. We each had 4 martinis and ½ a shot. Emmalyon was blasted and I was a little drunk. The dessert was quite tasty, but my Beef Stroganoff was exquisite. The décor was as though we were eating in the Summer Palace a month after it had been taken in the revolution. Luxurious draperies, chandelier, hammer & sickle over the bar, portrait of Lenin hanging and a giant Soviet Workers Poster on the wall. Emmalyon also really, really enjoyed the bartenders and our waiter.
After dinner, we all went dancing. I didn’t dance, but the others all seemed to enjoy themselves on the dance floor, especially Emmalyon who wouldn’t put her shoes back on for the security guy. She says she couldn’t hear what he was asking and she’s probably right. It was loud in there. They had women in bikinis and platform boots dancing, one at a time, on a cube. They were fairly listless too.
Emmalyon bailed on the following day’s activities, but the rest of us joined the California ones for a parting breakfast buffet at the Luxor. We spent the rest of the day wandering about, shopping and gambling. We also participated in a focus group for a tv show for CBS. It was abysmal and I sincerely hope it never sees the light of day. We all panned it. It was so bad that we didn’t even have to take into account the ½ mile walk through the casino to get to it. The rest of the group took a ride on the New York, New York rollercoaster; I wasn’t feeling very adventurous. This was, however, the casino where I discovered the game where you can bet on rolling up your D&D character. You place bets on combinations that can come up on 3 6-sided dice. It was great fun.
Matt and Jill played in a poker tournament and Matt took first place of around $4,000! He later won money in another tournament as well. Aliwings and I played in the second tournament too. I like these because you can spend $20 or so to receive $500 or so of tournament chips and play with more money. These chips aren’t good except in the tournament and if you place high enough you get a cut of the pot, but you get to play like you have money. I played blackjack for the first time at a table and that was amusing too.
We rented a car and Kevin, Head58, Emmalyon and I went to Hoover Dam. I’d been there before, but it was still great to see it again. Such a cool, art deco, engineering marvel. I went to the Diorama with Kevin & Head58. Since I’ve seen it twice now, I no longer have to go. Head58, however has only seen it once, so he has to escort a newbie next time he goes. On the way back we ate at In ‘N’ Out Burger and it was quite good, despite references to the bible on the food packaging. We went downtown on a public bus (not a casino one) and saw the downtown casinos, ate at a decent, cheap restaurant and saw the show on the canopy that covers the main strip, which was mildly amusing. On the way back, we stopped to see the Prince Cover band and Head58 said it was really good. As I don’t really like or know the-artist-once-again-known-as-Prince, I’ll take his word for it.
Other than that, the big notable was seeing Second City sketch/improv comedy. They were quite funny and responsive to the audience. We saw the outdoor pirate show at Treasure Island which was ok and showed us that the new motto for Vegas is “Leave the kids at home”. We saw ads everywhere for a topless show called “Crazy Girls” where they evidently do acrobatics and going to the show became a running gag to the point where I think I actually wanted to go. Head58 and Aliwings left Wednesday, Emmalyon and I left Thursday early and Kevin, Gail, Matt and Jill all left later.
I’ll update later with my trip to Origins, my 4th of July excursion and more detail about the various happenings in Vegas. Sorry this was so scattered, but I wanted to get it down before it started to fade.
