We actually had one absolutely perfect day in Vegas that we’ll remember until that brain tumor spreads out of control.
In the morning I got up early and managed to take a bunch of photos outside our casino. Bird flew right to myfeet, which others have commented often look like breadcrumbs, and I managed to get a lot of good footage of uncaged exotic birds, the two most spectacular being Flamingos and Penguins!
We headed off to the show, and Tamara decided she wanted to go to the Creative Labs booth, the makers of soundcards. While there, a number of booth babes came over and posed for a number of photos!
We got to hear an audio demonstration by their highest end sound card, which has the capability to create the perfect illusion of full surround sound from simple stereo music, enriching the sound and cleaning it up.
While we were waiting in line, Tamara got an email saying she’d just won a 2.5 Gigabyte USB portable hard drive. We could claim at any time.
Prior to this, we’d been at a vendor that gave us custom pens with our names carved in them. So this was a step up in the prize world.
After the demo, which left us jaw dropping impressed, we were directed to a wheel of fortune where the booth babe would spin for the prize. The oriental man in front of me won the Grand Prize, the very sound card we were just listening to. It was a huge wheel with only one spot, and apparently, this little event didn’t happen all that often. If I had been one position forward in line, it would have been mine. At best I expected a t-shirt, at worse another pen or keychain.
After making ahuge production for this guy, it was my turn.
I told the booth babe that it’d be really nice if she got me a Grand Prize, too. She smiled and said “sure…” and spun. Round and round, and then to her shock and amazement, it landed –a second time in a row– on the grand prize. No one was expecting that, and they congratulated me, and handed me the high end sound card.
Tamara was behind me, and again I turned to the booth babe and said, “she’s with me, it’d be nice if you could give her one, too.” The booth babe spun, and round the wheel went violently. Then it slowed, the crowed went silent, and suddenly explictives were flying from the crowd.
Tamara has just won the grand prize, and the show table was empty. The booth manager was pissed. Not at us, but at the booth babe. He thought she was not spinning the wheel correctly or something. He went into a back room, cut open a cardboard box, and pulled out a high end sound card and handed it to Tamara. Not so much fan fair this time, she was ushered off.
I looked at the manager and said, “thanks, much appreciated, I’ll stop doing that now…” and I made a waving pass over the wheel and no one won after that.
As we were leaving the convention center, I was approached by the Washington Post to take a photo for their business section. We did that, and decided to have some lunch.
Tamara collected her hard drive and we started walking over to the Star Trek Hilton.
As we did, we were asked if we’d like to take a quick survey of the show — for which we’d be paid $10 in cash. Each.
I completed my survey first and used the opportunity to collect Vegas Stripper Cards from seedy vendors to compensate for Tamara’s prior rule bending.
With cash in hand, we went to the Star Trek section of the hotel and had lunch in Quarks. As we finished our meal, a Klingon babe came over and sat down with us. We chatted, and I took more photos.
Speaking of Klingon babe’s, you remember that Lt. Worf had a Klingon girlfriend for a while. That actress was there, and I got to chat with her about behind the scenes stuff and acting, rather than Star Trek lore stuff. It seems that actors are often sleep deprived by difficult studio schedules, and treating the whole thing like a job, don’t really pay all that much attention about the big picture. For this reason alone, Wil Wheaton rapidly ascended my respect ladder as favorite Star Trek actors who are geek friendly.
We bought a photo, took an autograph, and I took some pictures. It was fairly clear that she really didn’t want to be there, and she was polite about getting us to move on without the slightest hint of being rude, even with no one else being around. As an aside, she did have Tamara show her how to do the famous Tamara hair style.
We took in the Star Trek experience show, and the new Borg Invasion show. Then, as an added treat, we actually got to take the Back Stage tour, revealing how the transporter room sequence on the ride worked, as well as got to be in the simulator room while real guests rode it, oblivious to our presence.
We took the monorail back and had dinner at New York New York, where it was one of the nicest, romantic dinners I’ve had with Tamara in a while, good steak, and a waitress who gave us near perfect service with a friendly and fun personality.
On the walk back to our hotel, we collected even more cards and visited a number of stores and casinos. The weather was perfect, and so was the day.