Viva Las Vegas

I was originally planning on posting our activities live each day however I ran into a problem shortly after arriving in Vegas. The first problem wasn't connectivity, the hotel offers wireless service, however they want $12 / day. Ouch, I think after paying $200 / night for a room a little wireless service should be on their end. I just couldn't justify paying $60 for the week in wireless. I mean that is what I pay for my cable and cable modem for the month at home.

Well no worries I had a backup plan. The conference I attend offers free wireless along with about two dozen machines to use. That was actually what I used last year for my online fix. However what I had not anticipated was the fact that the conference more than doubled in size. The wireless was up and running full time but apparently 8000 people trying to use it at once made it almost impossible to get an IP Address, and the lines for the wired computers where just too long for me. So all in all I really didn't sign on much that week other than with my cell phone :(

So with that said, let me tell you about what we did in Vegas... Oh wait am I allowed to tell you guys about this :)

Monday started way too early. Our flight out was at 6am which meant waking up at 3 in the morning to get to the airport by 4:30. The nice part with leaving this early was that we arrived in Vegas by 9 in the morning leaving us plenty of time to check into Mandalay Bay and see a bit of the strip. Shannon and I walked for what seemed like quite of few miles up and down the strip before heading back to the hotel to get off our feet. As we where relaxing our neighbors called, who also happened to be in Vegas as well. We decided to meet up for dinner that evening at Treasure Island. It was fun to meet up with them, though kind of funny to realize I spent more time with them in Vegas than I have with them living next door to us. Around 10pm we got a call from our cousin's Tess and Cori who finally arrived in Vegas, taking a later flight then us. We decided since we where on the other side of the strip that we would just meet up tomorrow instead.

Tuesday was the first day of the SQL Server conference. It never ceases to amaze me the shear size of these casinos. The conference area must be almost a mile from my room, and that is not an exaggeration! The size of the conference area was is insane. I believe they could probably host close to 60,000 people in that area alone. Heading to the opening keynote speech I happen to notice a camera and lights setup in the main area and in front of the camera is Greg Proops from "Who's Line Is It Anyways?". My first thought was of you Shaun ;) I decided to wait until he finished his current interview and then walked up to Greg and introduced myself and told him I enjoying seeing him on Who's Line. We chatted for a minute or two and he asked me if I wanted to do an interview. I said what the hell, and he went into asking me a number of Microsoft related questions like "What do I think about Bill touring around with Bono? What can M$ do better, etc etc". After the interview I signed my life away and went to my sessions for the day. That evening we got together with our cousins Tess and Cori and checked out the strip and caught a bite to eat for dinner.

Wednesday my day was filled with more of the SQL Server conference. While the conference itself was very informative, I could have done without one of the speakers having the weather widget reporting 85 degrees and sunny. The nice part is even though it is dark by the time I got left the conference the weather was still nice enough for wearing shorts. One cool thing about the conference was that during one of my sessions I was able to correct the instructor on a typo in his script he was using for his demo. This actually earned me a free signed copy of his book "Inside SQL Server 2005 Tools" which was just released. The highlight of Wednesday was definitely going to "O" at the Bellagio. I have yet to attend a Cirque du Soleil that was not absolutely amazing. Taking Shannon's lead, I wont say much about the show other than it was worth every penny and their stage setup is amazing, you must see it to believe it!

Thursday Shannon and I had decided while in Vegas to purchase tickets for KÀ at the MGM Grand. I had actually attended this show last year but found it so incredible that I didn't hesitate to spend the money to see it again. I know a number of people where talking about what Cirque in town is the best. Last year I would have said in a heart beat that it was KÀ, now after seeing O as well I don't know that one can say that any Cirque show is better than another. There are 5 cirque shows running in Vegas full time (KÀ, O, Zumanity, Love, and Mystère), and after attending two of the five I can easily say both are absolutely unique in their own ways. KÀ like O has an indescribable stage which is so unique in it's simplicity yet at the same time it is so versatile, allowing it to be transformed into so many unimaginable landscapes depending on the current scene's needs. On the note of comparison between the two shows one thing I can say is that the story was much clearer to follow in KÀ than it was with O.

Friday was a killer, our flight was at 7am and since we had used a shuttle service they pick the time to leave which meant 4:45 am. Yikes well at least in our own time zone 4am means 6am :) The flight back was pretty good until we closed in on Chicago, the weather was overcast and just a drizzly day. Unfortunately the low visibility must have backed up the airport because we circled for close to a half hour the whole time in steady turbulence. Between the two of us, I really do enjoy flying however the constant turbulence was starting to really turn my stomach. I think what made it worse was that we where flying in the fog which made visibility impossible, looking out the window all you where able to see was white, even our wings where not viewable. Eventually we did land without any problems other than a severely upset stomach. I was actually quite surprised to find that that with Madison being hit by a snowstorm / freezing rain that our flight from Chicago to Madison wasn't delayed or cancelled. We arrived in Madison without much trouble, of course the first thing I notice coming from 80 degree weather was the fact that my breath was steaming up the air and the wind had quite a bite to it. By the time we picked up the dog and kids it was already after 8 in the evening and we where both ready to crash for the evening.

All in all I think we both had a great time in Vegas, it was nice to get away from the kids for a few days and just be able to relax and enjoy each other company.

The ten things I hated about Vegas......

Chris and I had a great time in Vegas over all. I had my hair tinted red and had a wonderful experience in the hair salon. It was well worth the amount I paid for it. My days were spent with my younger cousin wondering the strip, shopping, and spending time relaxing in the hotel. In the evenings we watched a number of stellar shows, both free and ticketed. Ka was a great experience, and O was wonderful. I won't say much about the shows because I don't want to spoil it but if you ever get the chance go to one or both.

Even though I had a good time on the trip, I had to make a top ten of things I hated about Vegas. There were a number of things that made this trip annoying and I just thought I would share those since I am sure Chris will just rave about the vacation

10) Flying- I hate flying. Well let me fix that statement, I hate falling. I probably could get over flying if it wasn't for the turbulence. This past trip just further confirmed my hatred of it when the plane free fell for what seemed like an eternity to me ( it was probably only a split second).

9) Pool being closed- I was looking forward to leaving the prewinter weather of Wisconsin and being able to sit in the pool and swim in the seventies and eighties in Vegas. That dream was squashed when the pool was closed the entire time. Apparently, it was "too cold" to have the pool open.

8) Stupid blond women- Half of the Tourist female population is blond there. I have nothing against blonds, considering my hair color is often that way by choice, but some of these women are the ones who give blonds a bad name. Scratch that they give women a bad name in general.

7)Price of everything- Vegas must have figured out a long time ago if they double or triple the price of everything people will still pay it. It was painful to see the bottle of water in our room marked at $4.95. No thank you, I think I will just get a cup and drink the water from the facet. The bright mark on this is there are people selling water on the street for normal prices. You go water peddlers!!!! Show it to the man!!!

6) Drunk people in High heels/ too much alcohol- Ok I don't hate the drunk women in high heels that is just funny, but I do hate drunk people in general. I just don't see the point in it. I never have and never will understand getting drunk to the point you make poor decisions, and have to deal with a terrible hang over the next day.

5) Traffic- By the end of the week my legs were sore from walking up and down the strip so I started to take the bus. I swear it took five times as long to get anywhere riding the bus as it would have walking.

4) Smog- We had an awesome window facing the strip I would wake up every morning and open up the drapes and look upon the yellow tint of Smog/ pollution over the distant mountains. All I can think is if the mob, the smoke, the traffic, and the excessive drinking won't kill you this miasma will.

3)Smoking- As some of you may or may not know smoking is almost non existent in and around the surrounding areas of Madison. It is not that people don't smoke, they do, it is just that you can't smoke in public places any more. I was shocked when I saw people smoking in the hotels, around the shops, and in restaurants, all within the hotels ceilings. I had to remind myself that I was spoiled by living somewhere that is not allowed anymore. It is so strange to be asked if you want smoking or non smoking when you go into a restaraunt. I can not count the number of times my cousin and I were looking around the hotel shops when someone would light up the first thing that popped into my mind was "you can't do that"

2) Porn peddlers- I need to explain something about myself so this makes sense. I have a very large personal bubble. I don't like people near me, so crowds drive me nuts in general. If I know you and like you feel free to invade my space but if you are a complete stranger you may loose an arm if you come to close. My issue with the porn peddlers is not that they are promoting porn ( I understand they do this to make a little money) it is that they like to step right in next to you and hand you this stuff. GET OUT OF MY BUBBLE!!!!!

1)Rude people at the shows- The shows we went to were wonderful. I can't even begin to explain them because they were so intense. But I can complain about the people who sat next to us during KA. First off they came in late so they had to disturb everyone to get settled in. Then they chose to make comments through the first half of the show. Finally and the most grieves this is their cell phone rang in the middle of the show, and instead of turning it off they let it ring and then checked their email. WHAT PART OF NO CELL PHONES DON'T YOU PEOPLE UNDERSTAND?????

So that was my top ten.

Another Year of the Hodag

Last night was Halloween and Jasmine's second year of going trick or treating. We started the afternoon out by going to the local Downtown trick or treat event where local businesses where handing out candy to the kids. I don't think we realized how much candy we compiled until I emptied her pumpkin and two of my pockets.

One of the most entertaining moments of the night was when we let Jasmine start handing out candy. I wasn't sure how this would go at first but after one round Jasmine would run to the window and sit watching for people to come to the door. As soon as she saw anyone even on the street she would yell "Someone is coming" run around the day bed and to the door and whip it open in excitement. It had to be one of the cutest moments of the night. The other thing I learned was that I need to hand her the amount of candy she is to hand out. After the first person received about half a bag of candy I realized that we would shortly run out if I let her keep grabbing the candy herself :)

All and all I think she had a great time and now keeps asking me when we are going trick or treating again! Check out the rest of the pictures here