No students in the building today = lots of productive maintenance work
I’m sort of digging the intro to iPhone development videos from the last WWDC
Swim time for both kids at Wise – nice and tropical in here
picked up new hard drive for old HSRA iMac at Best Buy – I just love that you can buy internal hard drives just down the street
On the floor at HSRA, still chasing the network gremlins
in St. Cloud picking up donated Xserves and Xserve RAIDs
have to give Apple credit for the volume of information available on the iPhone Dev Center and WWDC 2008 video sites
starting my (hopefully fruitful) journey into iPhone development tonight
A day after our return from Florida, Colleen and I took a two night trip out to Las Vegas to celebrate my 40th birthday. We stayed at the Bellagio and met our friends the Millers for dinner at the new BLT Burger restaurant, followed by the 9:30 showing of the Beatles Cirque show, LOVE. The American Kobe burger was great, especially with a vanilla shake. It was sort of weird eating where the white tigers used to lounge around…
We are huge fans of Cirque du Soleil and had high expectations for LOVE. Unfortunately, they were a little too high. If you take away the incredible music of the Beatles, you are left with a very average Cirque show. We’ve seen many of these acts before in other shows, but performed with more flair. One exception to this was the roller blade act, which was truly remarkable. It’s a shame so many of the other acts were just so-so (by Cirque standards). At least there weren’t any annoying clowns!
Despite the recession, Las Vegas is still an expensive town. While we found good deals on the hotel room and the show tickets, almost all of our meals were more than $50 for two people (even breakfast) and I still can’t believe places think they need to charge for refills on $4 sodas.
I was a little disappointed in two of my favorite travel companies – Sun Country Airlines and the Bellagio. Sun Country has added the luggage charge to the first checked bag, added fees for advance seat selection and most importantly, dropped the free cheeseburgers. I guess I’d rather have them stay in business, but they were one of the last “good guys” when it came to these nice customer-focused policies.
As for the Bellagio, I had emailed them ahead of time telling them we were coming out for a special event, but no one said or did anything until the last day. A casino loyalty program worker came up to us while playing video poker and offered to bring us reprinted cards (we had left ours at home). When he checked my ID, he wished me a belated birthday. I know they are a huge hotel run by a huge corporation, but that’s what databases are for, right?
Gambling was as fun as ever, although I ended up down about $25. I wish I could be like the guy in jeans and a T-shirt sitting at the $300 minimum blackjack table with his girlfriend, but I got nervous enough at the $5 table and quit after about 15 minutes. The poker room at the Bellagio was calling me too, but I chickened out – I think I need a few test runs at the local casinos first. Video poker was a nice substitute, though, and I actually enjoyed playing the slots this time too.
What a city…
First day back at work didn’t get me fired or beheaded, so I chalk that up as a win
Back home in Minnesota and ready to finally get 2009 started
Leaving Las Vegas
Finally put a dent in the gambling damage – won $25 with blackjack and $42 with video poker
Last day in Vegas, then back to reality
Mirage and Bellagio sports books have Wild 25-1 to win the cup (one other place was 50-1)
woo-hoo! 70% off at the Bobby Jones store in the Forum Shoppes
the Bellagio Conservatory is beautiful right now
Landed safely in Las Vegas – heading for the Bellagio
Checked in for Sun Country Vegas flight, passed thru security, watching Eagles choke
Birthday party for kid two at Grand Slam in Burnsville
Back for 2 days – Hockey Day Minnesota party at the @michaelguille house
Landed safely at MSP – first AirTran experience pretty nice
On the plane back to Minnesota
One last full day in Florida before we return to the deep freeze
It seems that a rainy, crappy day in Florida is about 100 times better than a cold, snowy day in Minnesota, eh?