Wednesday was another very long day.

It started out at 4:52 AM when my phone went off. VigilanteGirl calling to tell me that she was in Atlanta and wanting to know where I was. I need to tell her that the next time she decides to wake me up before 5:00 in the morning I'd prefer a nudge to a phone call.

After that I couldn't get back to sleep so I went down and played video poker for a while. I'd found myself a very nice machine that kept giving me 4-of-a-kind. Five times it did this for me, and I won over $600. I would have kept playing but then this old guy sat to my right and destroyed my mojo by moving my ashtray.

Armed with my newfound wealth, I went and rented a car and started driving Southeast.

My original plan had been to just go to Hoover Dam and back, but the trip to the dam only took an hour or so so I decided to spend some time in Arizona.

At one point I saw a sign indicating that I could get to the west rim of The Grand Canyon in only a couple of hours, so that's what I decided to do. I never actually made it to the canyon - at least not to a point where I could look down into it - because all of the indians there kept telling me I needed to pay them $15 before I could move on. Since none of them would offer any kind of receipt or day pass in return I just kept turning around and trying to find another route.

Here are a buttload of pictures I took, mostly of Hoover Dam. I'll probably come back and put in some descriptions of these pics later.

Looks like my last Las Vegas entry with any substance was Tuesday evening, so I'll try to pick things up there.

Went to the MGM Grand to see this new KA show. This was my third Cirque du Soleil show, and I guess I have to say that it's my least favorite. With the exception of this one dude running around on the outside of a spinning hamster wheel thing there just weren't a lot of the stunts and acrobatics I was expecting. I'd have to say that the real star of KA was the set. The most amazing piece of machinery I've ever seen.

Once the show was over I turned my cell phone back on and found out that I'd had a call from Awesome Larry. Larry is a friend from my old Omaha days, and I'd been hoping that he was in Vegas for the BCA tournament.

Well because of a big misunderstanding - there's a Monte Carlo casino on the strip and a Monte Carlo tower in the Riviera - I didn't meet up with Larry until Thursday.

The last part of the night I spent at the ESPN Zone drinking a couple of their 24oz. mugs full of Newcastle.

Tonight was a pretty typical Rich O's night.

I had a Mad Bitch draft, and later two Smithwick's pints.

The highlight of the evening was listening to CuteBlonde completely decimate SocialistDude for several hours. Each time SocialistDude would make a point, CuteBlonde would counter and just dismantle whatever SocialistDude had just said.

It was fun listening to them because SocialistDude was not beng an asshole about his beliefs like a lot of people at Rich O's. I ended up buying them a round of beers just so I could listen some more.

CoffeeDude was there later in the night, as were ExBartender and DooRagGirl.

It was a pretty nice transition back to the real world for me.

Tomorrow night I'm going to a party at the home of RealTrainGirl and MisunderstoodGirl. The timing is a little shitty because I'd really like to see CuteBlonde again, but I'm also looking forward to seeing my lesbian girlfriends again.

I bet that last sentence really lights up the search engines.

Eleven months ago I returned from a week in Las Vegas so excited that I'm surprised I didn't piss myself. Much.

Five hours ago I returned from another week in Las Vegas and I know that I have nothing to be excited about.

This time around there was nobody who, even in my most alcohol sodden delusions, I could imaging missing me with any thought other than perhaps a passing "Hmm, I wonder where that Dave guy has been."

This time around there's nobody to come home to.

Except my cats.

They're really glad to see me.

I will post some entries about the last couple of days in Las Vegas. Maybe later tonight. Maybe tomorrow morning.

For now, it's off to Rich O's.

I'm not dead, and I'm not off stalking anyone.

What I am doing is preserving my laptop batteries as somebody stole my power cord while I was staying at Mandalay Bay.

Just to quickly answer a private message:

A link to email me is on the side of my main page. You have to change "AT" to "@" and "DOT" to "." to get it to work.

I cannot believe that I just had to explain that.

Anyway, I leave tomorrow morning. I may try to catch up on what's happened since Tuesday before I go. It all depends on (a) my alcohol intake, (b) my laptop battery level, (c) whether PigtailGirl wants to get together again, (d) if I can stay awake, and (e) whether I feel like it or not.

Either way, I'll post complete update(s) when I get home.

Well the conference is over, so my vacation is officially on!

Packed up my shit this morning and moved over to The Luxor. Kind of a small room but I'm in the pyramid and the view down is quite cool:

Tonight I get to go see KA at The MGM Grand. It should be cool.

Tomorrow I get to go driving. Just how far remains to be seen.

Yesterday was a long day.

After the last conference session I took a cab to The Freakin Frog out by UNLV. This is a bar touted on the Internet as having the best beer selection in Nevada.

I believe it. Their bottled beer list is the only one I've ever seen that rivals that of Rich O's. On tap, they only had nine or so beers, with no less than three IPAs.

My plan, going in, was to drink some beer that I hadn't had before. This plan was shattered when I saw that they had Alaskan Smoked Porter on tap. Of course I couldn't resist this, one of my favorite beers, in draft form.

While I enjoyed my porter and a cheeseburger and fries I perused the beer list - about twenty pages of beer, sorted by country of origin. I think the same list is available at their website.

My second choice was easy. A beer I hadn't had before but always wanted to try:

Alaskan Winter Ale

(bottle) A nice copper color with a decent head. Starts out a little bitter but has a sweet finish and aftertaste. Works out to be very well-balanced. Another winner from Juneau.

Making a choice, from all the beers available, for my final beer proved to be too tough of a decision for me to make. I asked the bartender (a girl that reminded me a lot of MisunderstoodGirl) to find me a good Belgian that I hadn't had before.

What she came back with, after a couple of suggestions for beer that I'd already had in the past, was a Belgian from Canada that I've seen at Rich O's but never ordered:

Unibroue La Fin Du Monde

(bottle) A very fizzy mouthfeel. Hint of apples - common in Belgians. Quite good, could use more flavor and less fizz.

After I took a cab back to the world, er, the strip, I was supposed to go see Zumanity at New York New York. At least that's what I thought. It turned out that I'd purchased a ticket for the April 24th show, not the May 16th show. Why did I do this? I blame the fact that I bought the ticket on April 12th when I was quite distracted by other events.

So I didn't get to see the show. What I ended up doing was hanging out at The ESPN Zone drinking Newcastles with some girls from Portland Maine who were drinking some foofoo drinks. I was wearing my Great Lost Bear shirt so that's how I was able to infiltrate their little group.

At one point everybody wanted to go up to Fremont Street. Well, everybody except me. I wanted to take one or more of the lovelies back to my room. But of course I'm much too shy too ever actually suggest such a thing, so I went to Fremont Street with them. I switched to Diet Coke while the girls somehow managed to keep drinking. We formed a sort of structural support, where I ended up walking and standing with all three girls putting almost all of their weight on me. I'm sure we were quite a sight, and I'm also sure that I got a few jealous looks from guys in the crowd.

As it turned out, nothing happened except for some nice kisses that I got for being such a sweet guy. I spent the night with them in their room and then came back here to Mandalay Bay this morning.

Now I have to check out of here and go check in to The Luxor.

I recently wrote that I thought I'd figured out who was being so hateful to me last Fall. I wrote that I'd decided to forgive that person.

Now I've got this theory rattling around in my head that, if true, means that I not only should forgive her, I actually owe her a big debt of gratitude.

Not gratitude for being such a bitch in the Fall, as that was really uncalled-for, but for finally helping to put a stop to the bullshit that's been going on ever since.

For finally explaining that which was apparently invisible, or at least irrelevant.

Empathy is a hard thing to teach. I hope the lesson sticks.

Or, I could be just as wrong about this as I've been about everything else.

Like I said the other day, I'm in my own little world here.

And in my little world, I may have found myself an ally, or at least a sympathizer.

Last night I went over to The Monte Carlo's brewpub. The place was, like all Las Vegas establishments, beautifully decorated and laid-out. Unfortunately all the money they've obviously thrown into the place hasn't made it to the beer. I only tried two that, going by their styles, might appeal to me. They didn't.

Monte Carlo Silver State Stout

(draft) Very thin flavor and mouthfeel. Definitely drinkable, but so is water.

Monte Carlo High Roller Red

(draft) Quite disgusting. Has that tingly mouthfeel that I detest in lagers. I was surprised to find it in this, ostensibly an ale. This is a beer trying to appeal to the swill drinking masses and the good beer drinkers at the same time. It fails at both.

When I left The Monte Carlo I took a cab to The Rio and went to The Tilted Kilt.

While there I had a Newcastle and a couple of Rogue Dead Guy Ales.

It was pretty cool to be back at The Tilted Kilt though. I wish some of the people I've gotten to know over the years had been working. I'm told that I should come back Tuesday.

Today I kinda impressed myself.

I walked from The Stratosphere to Mandalay Bay, a distance of approximately 664,323.4 miles.

I'd never been to The Stratosphere before. I was pretty impressed with all the restaurants and shit they have there. I guess because they're so far out of the way that they pretty much have to be able to provide for their guests.

Walking up to the thing is pretty impressive. I mean, you know it's tall, but you might not know that it's fucking tall. Don't feel bad. It's a fine line between the two.

Down there somewhere is the place I stood when I took the first picture.

Here are some people that may be about to die. Or at least buy some new underwear.

The elevator operator was telling me that when they first opened up this ride they had problems with it. I asked if he meant that it was flinging people to their deaths and he said no just with the wind, where the whole thing would shut down and leave people hanging there.

Anyway, once I left The Stratosphere I waked down to The Riviera. The BCA tournament is going on and I thought I'd look to see if anyone I knew was there. I did see a couple of people from Louisville, but nobody from Omaha or Seattle or New Orleans or Memphis. I plan to go back sometime this week, and I also called a couple of people to see if anyone I knew was at the tournament.

After The Rio I walked to Wynn's new place and checked it out. Pretty cool, but so crowded that I didn't stick around for very long.

When I left Wynn's I walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked to New York New York and went into this place called Nine Fine Irishmen for lunch and some beers.

A pretty beautiful place. I took other pictures but they're all shaky and unviewable, like this one:

I've been thinking about putting a bar in my basement. I don't I could pull something like this off though, what with 7-foot ceilings and all.

Kinsale Irish Lager

(draft) Nowhere on the tap did it have the word lager. That's false advertising as far as I'm concerned, but so is the lack of the phrase watery baby bunny piss. This just might give a Stella a run for its money as the weakest non-American lager in the world.

To wash the taste of that stuff out of my mouth I had a Smithwick's with my lunch, then had another beer that was new to me.

Ballingarry Warehouse Stout

(draft) Lacing doesn't even begin to describe the foam that clung to my glass. A very nice stout - reminded me a lot of Murphy's. There was just a hint of chocolate, but nothing overpowering or pretentious at all. Yummy.

One more thing. The other day I saw a living creature draw its last breath and fall over dead. I thought I'd seen everything after that, but I was wrong. Here's how my fish 'n' chips came packaged:

The server told me to just dump the contents of this paper cone onto the plate. I did, but I really felt like I was desecrating a work of art when I did it.

The meal was delicious though.