And the winner of the Amazon gift card is

Well I'm back from the Consumer Electronics Show, and I'm ready to start paying all the bills that are pouring in from my Vegas trip because I didn't stick with just what my work was willing to pay. I took one day of vacation and then splurged on Vegas shows and some fine dining. Yes, I had a very nice vacation, but there were some pitfalls, and I'm going to tell you about them so that you don't experience the same thing if you make it to Vegas.

My first bit of housekeeping involves giving away the $50.00 Amazon Gift Card for the tweet support I received from my friends because of this post HERE.

Random.org chooses... Sarah Ahiers Falen!

Congratulations!!!

I'll send you the gift card via email on Monday.

Okay, so the low point of my trip really was the place where I was staying, i.e., the Mirage Hotel and Casino. Right off the bat, the front desk person was snippy and could answer none of my questions about the CES shuttle service. In fact, she seemed clueless that there was even going to be a convention in town. Then in order, this is what I got (I attended the conference with friends):

1. Room lock didn't work half the time. I think there was a short in the lock so when you stuck in the magnetic key card, it just wouldn't register.
2. Room had no view. Just the roof of the casino.
3. Volcano attraction was broken and being repaired.
4. Found a bandage with dried blood on it stuck to the computer desk. That was gross.
5. Television had like 10 channels on it that showed anything other than local news. You had to pay for everything else.
6. WiFi did not work the entire first day and pretty much sucked every day after. There's no way you could stream anything. I was just lucky to get a blog post up every day last week. That was a real chore. Thing is, the technicians we spoke to by phone said the WiFi is only shared over six rooms. He had the nerve to blame other rooms for hogging the bandwidth.
7. We went to the spa and my friend Tomeka got handed a robe with human feces on it. She took a picture and we got our visit comped.
8. The buffet at the Mirage sucked. Worst buffet ever. Felt like I was eating at Chuck o' Rama. Their shrimp was old and really smelly, crab tasted bad, and the ribs were cold. Complete bullsh*t if you ask me. I teased my friends that they probably just grabbed the dead fish from the lobby fish tank and served that at the buffet.

* The Mirage did comp the spa visit and also took off the $25 a day resort fee as an apology.

Highlights:

1. The Wynn everything. We ate there at Tableau four times, ate the best dinner I've ever dined upon at Wing Lei, enjoyed the drunken noodles at Wazuzu, and with the money we saved from the spa at the Mirage, we did the spa at the Wynn. Best spa experience ever hands down. I will never visit Vegas again and NOT stay at the Wynn. Oh and did I mention that everything but the room is cheaper at the Wynn? Yeah...the Wynn is a winner. Did I mention that the Wynn is sending my friend and I some robes from the spa? They're so comfortable. Oh and they have this deluge shower that literally pours 10 gallons of water on your head a second. It's like standing under a warm waterfall.
2. The Vegas shows. We saw David Copperfield, the Jersey Boys, Absinthe, and Daniel Tosh and they were all amazing. Daniel's show is really short (like 45 minutes of standup is all). But Daniel's hilarious.
3. The best buffet in Vegas is the Wicked Spoon at the Cosmopolitan. It has fourteen flavors of gelato, a gourmet macaroni and cheese bar made right in front of you, French macarons, and just incredibly fresh cuisine including wine service at your table. Go see the Cosmopolitan...you will be blown away.
4. I chickened out on Goretorium and I consider that a highlight because I read one person's experience and said, "I have no idea what possessed me to even think I want to see this attraction." Sure, Eli Roth blew 10 million on it, but it's supposed to be incredibly scary and they plunge you into a maze that just goes wrong at every turn. Nope...I skipped that one.

AND BOOK TOUR STUFF...

Today I'm at Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog. Please go read my post if you have the time. You can find his blog HERE.

I'm also at Charity Bradford's Blog. You can find that post HERE. Please visit both if you can because then the lottery fairies will bring you millions of dollars in power-ball money*

*Disclaimer: If you believe this, you should also look into a bridge I have for sale in Iowa.