January 26, 2005

Viva Las Vegas

As always, we returned bleary-eyed and exhausted from Vegas late Tuesday night. I opened my suitcase and everything smelled like an ashtray. We decided to drive over on Saturday with Mark L. and Arturo. They had a 3 night comp at Bellagio and I shudder to think how much Arturo had to lose to get that. I enjoyed the drive, even though a lot of it is through that odious wasteland of the Inland Empire.

Bellagio was packed with people, we got checked in (11th floor, lake view) and I gave my niece, Rohanna, a call over at Flamingo. She and Thomas were in town to celebrate her birthday so they wandered over and we all went to eat at Cafe Bellagio, which has good food even if it's a bit Dennys-like in appearance. Mark brought her a delicious tres leches cake from the bakery. Ro and Thomas look good...healthy. They told us they go every summer to Burning Man and they're all excited about it this year. Ro has learned to walk on stilts and now I want to do it, too. After dinner, we went with them up to NYNY because they had tickets to see Zumanity and we just wanted to go gamble there. We saw Zumanity last year and it was pretty dull. It's advertised as being very adult. They do a lot of ooohing and aaahing and talking about sex and there's lots of tits, of course, but very little else. I would say it's more naughty than provocative. We squandered a few dollars at NY then back home to crash.

Next morning Mark, Hector and I sat at a blackjack table for a while. It was fun because it was just us and the dealer was really having a good time with us. I ended up about $13 ahead. Later we stood in line at the Paris Buffet for breakfast. Then I did my usual stroll around the different casinos, sniffing about for a lucky machine. I didn't find it but I always enjoy looking at everyone. It's amazing that you can walk a few doors down the strip and it's like traveling from a metropolis to a trailer park in Alabama. At Bellagio people are looking nice, for the most part, and at Circus Circus they're wandering around in flip flops and cutoffs without all their teeth.
Rich Garitano is sort of living in Vegas now so he came over Sunday. He won some money. Late that night we had dinner at Mon Ami Gabi over at Paris. I really like that place a lot. The atmosphere is very soothing to me and I love having a steak with shoestring potatoes. Later, more gambling, home. Arturo wandered in around 2 I think. I had to sleep with earplugs because Mark snores like a cartoon character and I could hear him all night through the plugs.

Next morning, more blackjack but that dealer was a bitch so I didn't stay long. Mark, Hector and I met at the remodeled Bellagio spa in the afternoon and it was just wonderful. They have a steam room, dry sauna, 3 jacuzzis of varying temps, and a cold plunge or, rather, a cool plunge. It's very spacious with nice showers and a big lounge area. The decor is all frosted glass and muted colors. I threw open this frosted glass door thinking I was making an entrance into the steam room and it turned out to be the broom closet. Later, outside, I ran into Fred Dicarlo who was in town for some ING conference. So he came up to the room and yackety-yacked at us until he had to go to the airport. He's very funny. That night we ate at Olives, on the patio by the fountain. Wonderful atmosphere and really great food. I think I had crab. Mark and Hector were schmoozing the staff because we were thinking of throwing my birthday party there in August but that's off now.

We must've been out late the night before because it was late when we got up the next morning. We hit the road and stopped at one of those casinos at the state line for a while. We fantasized that they would have a really yummy, cheap buffet. It was cheap all right. Lots of jello salads, iceberg lettuce, gummy desserts. I lost $100 in about 20 minutes playing roulette. None of those dealers can speak English worth a goddamn. We were all so tired nobody spoke the whole way home.

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