Get that guy a straw and a pair of balls! (Jul 21-Jul 25)

Got up at a bit early on Saturday morning (6am), to get ready to take care of some things before heading to Vegas. Had to take the dogs to the kennel, then wait for our contractor to show up to start remodeling our bathroom, then take the kid to the grandparents for the next several days. The grandparents live about 30-40 minutes away so we were done delivering our daughter and the dogs by about 10:00am and headed back to out house to get a ride from our neighbor to the airport at noon. We got to the airport at our usual early time, headed to the California Pizza Kitchen / Gordon Biersch eatery and had some pizza and beer before getting on the plane. Used some free drink passes on Southwest to continue the party and to deal with the rough flight into Vegas. It was one of the bumpiest flights we've ever had into Vegas and started to upset Emily's (AKA Em or wife) stomach.

We checked in to MGM at the airport, used the $20 trick and were upgraded immediately. We then grabbed a taxi to the hotel and went straight to our rooms. I really liked the airport check-in. After settling in to our room, we went down to gamble a bit, but MGM wasn't being nice so we headed over to NYNY, where gambling has been good recently. We met up with our favorite dealer at NYNY (Geraldine). She remembered us well and she proceeded to give us lots of money over a couple of hours. I've never had an actual casino host, just call up the casino marketing number to get good room rates, but Geraldine insisted we talk to a casino host and had the pit boss get one to come talk to us. I'm sure this was because I started using the "Jer Technique" of gambling. I tipped, and didn't stop tipping. I had a $5 chip up for the dealer on 90% of the hands, and a couple of times I covered the rest of the table. I know I was rated as a higher player than I should of been because of this. Granted, I was playing at higher levels than I normally do as I was up quite a bit, but the pit boss was quite clear I was getting rated higher than I should have. Also, I'm sure that karma was in full effect and it was contagious for our table. If you tipped, you won. If you didn't, you lost. It was sad to see the folks who never tipped loose so much.

After that session was done, it was time for our pilgrimage to the Nine Fine Irishmen bar at NYNY to listen to their house band, Ri Ra play. We really enjoy their music and the crowd and met lots of people, 2 of which we invited to our Cabana at MGM the next day. Lots of drinking that night... lots.... then back to bed. Em wasn't feeling well, a trend that continued the whole trip.

Sunday morning, after breakfast at Studio Cafe, it was cabana time. Breakfast at Studio Cafe was free because of the deal we got here on T2V. It was much better than we expected out of a 24-hour cafe. We had found out the day before that our #2 on the waiting list was going to hold up, and we had a cabana. When we got to the cabana, the pool was pretty empty and stayed that way the whole day. The weather wasn't typical July weather in Vegas and was overcast until around 2:30 or 3. But, it was nice to us, not too hot.

Our cabana host, Kristie, was great. She was worth every penny we spent. She was a true host and catered to our every need. I'd get a cabana at MGM again if she was our host. We showed up at about 11am and where there until 5pm, when the cabana closed. Some people we met the night before showed up around 1pm or so. It was easily one of the most relaxing days I've ever had in Vegas, which made it one of the most memorable. That night, we gambled for a while and then headed to the room pretty early. Em still wasn't feeling so well and I was exhausted from the late night before (we got to the room around 4am) and the extra relaxation at the pool. I've also been working way too many hours at work recently with relatively no sleep, so a long sleep night was part of our plan.

Monday morning we decided to gamble a bit more (morning usually starts at 10am or later for us while in Vegas), which wasn't a good idea. We headed down to o'sheas for some cheap gambling and ended up giving most of the NYNY money to Harrahs. that made my stomach start to hurt as well We got back to the room in the later afternoon and got ready for the night. We headed over to Mandalay Bay for some time at Red Square and to get some soup at RM bar (we like the clam chowder there.. not a traditional clam chowder, but still pretty good). We spent a couple of hours with drinks then dinner then headed back to MGM to meet up for Mike's Skyloft party. We went up to grab the booze we were bringing then gamble for about 30 minutes before the meet up.

I had to cash out some chips before meeting up, so Emily went over to the meet up bar while I went to the cashier at MGM. I had about $225 in chips, which was about $200 under what I started with for the weekend. besides the first night, it had been pretty rough. On the way to the cashier, I walked by a roulette table and was drawn towards it. I normally walk right by the tables, and did this time as well, but as I walked by the table, I saw the dealer spin the ball and the only thing that entered my head was "BLACK". For some reason, I stopped, turned back to the table and put the whole $225 on black. Yep, it hit. But, I didn't walk away. I grabbed most of my winnings, then knew that black was going to hit again, so I put $200 on black. It hit again. Luckily, I picked up the money after than and left the table. I never play roulette and normally wouldn't put that kind of money on a bet at roulette if I did play, so I was very pleased with myself. When I told Em, she was happy at the money, but none too pleased about the bet

After finding Mike's party we headed up to the skylofts. The skylofts are amazing. Mike had quite the set up there. An excellent place. You can read more about that part in his trip report (Yes, that's a link to his trip report, just click on it for more details!) We meet lots of people and enjoyed the party very much, but em's stomach was still upset so we left around 1am or so. We both didn't want to leave, but it's no fun to not feel well in Vegas, and even more so at a party in Vegas. Thanks again for the invite Mike!

Tuesday was another 'chill' day for us. We did some pool time again and really enjoyed it. We never used to hit up the pools in Vegas, but we think we're going to start going to pools on every trip. It's so relaxing. It also rained a bit on Tuesday, so that probably helped us enjoy the pool a bit more. It was hot, but not nearly as hot as it normally is. The humidity was up, but still pretty low by most standards. We then headed over to see the Fab Four play at the V Theater, but didn't want to spent the money on the tickets. We weren't excited enough to see them at $60+/person. I'm sure better prices could have been found somewhere else, but we don't plan that far enough ahead. So, we decided to head back to NYNY for some more gambling, then to Nine Fine Irishmen again.

The gambling was good again and we were up very much for the trip (this was our last gambling session). We then headed over to Nine Fine to find out that our band wasn't playing. It was their dark night. We knew they had a dark night each week, but the website said it was monday night. That's wrong, it changed to tuesday night. We were pretty bummed, but decided to stay to see the Celtic Rockers play. We like them quite a bit as well, but they just aren't as good as Ri Ra.

After a bit, we found a good spot at the bar to stand and watch the band and just before they started, a couple of cute girls walked in and stood at the bar next to us. They got carded almost immediately which made them both quite happy. Over the next 2 minutes, a couple of guys came to talk to them and suddenly their accents moved from a typical non-descript accent to an over-the-top southern accent. They were pretty convincing at their southern accent so if you didn't know they came in with no accent, you'd probably believe it was real. Em and I continued to watch them interact with the guys that came up to talk to them and we couldn't stop laughing. These two girls were a laugh riot. It was a bit sad to see what we men will stoop to to get girls to talk to us. They convinced all the guys near them (about 5 or 6) to start drinking beer out of a straw as it just looks cool to drink beer out of a straw. One of the guys was drinking a soda or something, so one of the girls looks at the bartender and yells (in a super thick fake southern accent) "Can you get the guy at the end of the bar a straw to go with his soda... oh yeah, and a pair of balls?"

I was dying, as was Emily. This type of activity had been going on for quite a while when the girls turned around laughing slightly and told us in their normal voices that they were actually from Vegas and were just messin' with everyone. Em didn't hear them talk when they came in and didn't believe it when I kept telling her they were faking it so she was flabergasted when they told her this. She pulled one of the girls aside, away from all the guys, to get the skinny on what was going on. Me and the other girl just laughed and worked on her backstory. She said she was from TN but didn't even know a city besides Memphis or Nashville in TN, so I told her about the small town in TN my family was from so she could pull of the rouse a bit better if someone ever asked.

The rest of the night was more of the same, them being loud and obnoxious, using fake accents and getting guys to do stupid things, then turning around and laughing about it with Em and I. It was a bit of a Borat moment.

While it sucked that Ri Ra wasn't playing, these girls more than made up for that. They ended up being in well-connected jobs in Vegas (MGM-Mirage corporate) and we've already stayed in contact with them.

After all that fun, we headed back to our room and left pretty early the next day. Even though Emily was sick for most of the trip, she was a trooper and kept going out each night and trying to make it work. We had a great time and can't wait to head back to Vegas again. In fact, we got an email while we were in Vegas asking us to go with some friends for a Sept 1 trip... hmmmm

 

No it's not. I love seein' those f*ckers get crushed. :evillaugh I hope you get a lot of good karma coming your way.

By the way, you can usually get Fab Four tickets half price at those Tix4Tonite kiosks (and there is one right next door to MGM Grand) Maybe next time.

Sorry to hear that Emily was so sick--nothing worse than being sick in Vegas. Hope she's feeling better.

Mikey

 

nice report..hope Em is feeling better

 

Sounds like my cats. I get home from work and get greeted with a huge Y-A-W-N. So I ask them if they're just exhausted from sleeping all day long.

Sorry to not have seen you this trip - I was having the same issues Em was having and just felt like shit all day Monday.

And yeah, you definitely graduated at the top of your class in the Jer School of Tipping.

 

Nice report; sorry to hear that Em was sick. Did you get to speak to a host from NYNY or because of

 

It was nice meeting you and Emily Monday night. Sorry she wasn't feeling well. Sounds like you were both able to relax a bit and have a fun trip anyway. Great wins at the roulette table too!

I was laughing at those girls faking the accent at the bar. My friends and I do that here sometimes. It is amazing the things you can get drunk businessmen to do.

 

Hell Ken, if that's all it takes, take this as an official invite to NSF 2007

Nice write up my man, hopefully everyone will be in better health the next trip.

 

Nice report Ken! Bummed hottie Em wasn't feeling well. You two need to head out for NSF since MMV isn't going to work for you....we need to party together again!

 

I did talk to the host and the pit boss. I asked the pit boss what I was being rated at and it was above my bet amount. When we first sat down, I asked to be rated at my play and Em's play at the same time, and was told that they stopped doing that at MGM-Mirage about a month or so ago (they gave me an exact date, but I can't remember it). But, when I talked to the pit boss, he told me he was rating me at what we were both playing plus taking into consideration the tip amount. He was pretty straight forward with me about the whole thing, which surprised me a bit. But, I've never really talked to the them before, so I don't know if I should have been surprised. Or, maybe he was just blowing smoke

 

yeah, thinking seriously about a NSF trip now. We talked quite a bit about it tonight. Depends on the room rates we can get and the flights. And, we'd only go for 2 nights

 

Yeah, we knew we could get cheaper tickets somewhere, but that would have taken too much pre-thought. We are usually flying by the seat of our pants and decide to do things at the last minute. For $25-30 per person we would have seen them, but $60 seemed a bit high... I'm sure many people pay full price for that show..

 

Finally got to the report, Ken. Bummed that I missed out on the cabana on Sunday, but it was just way too hectic. And you're right: Em sure is a trooper as I wouldn't have known she was feeling bad had you not told me.

By the way, Rami and Kathryn say hi .