The Rio and Criss Du Soleil

I am in Vegas for work purposes, I came out here with a new sales guy to walk a trade show to decide whether or not we would sign up for it next year. As much as I would love to sign up for any reason to come to Vegas, there is no way we would sign up for this show. Our offerings of CBT would get lost in the crowd, there is not enough attendance, and there are a total of 60 vendors if they are lucky. This is a very small show and would definitely not be worth the cash outlay to do it.

Even though the trade show is a bust, I am staying at the Rio for the first time. The rooms are nice enough. They are very big with a nice king-size bed, a L-shaped couch, a refrigerator, and an ok bathroom. I find it sort of odd that there is a window in the shower that looks out into the main room. I suppose one could watch TV while in the shower. However, I am too short to really look through the window, and even if I were taller, I still can't see a damn thing without my glasses. So, the window makes no sense to me. As for an all-suite hotel, the Rio is nice enough, but for the hotels that I have stayed at here, nothing compares to the Venetian. I'm hoping to make a trip and stay there for Brenda's birthday, we'll see.

I also decided to go ahead and see the one Cirque show in Vegas that I had not seen yet, Criss Angel "Believe." I didn't know what to expect, especially when the guy I came here with was able to take advantage of an e-mail special and buy a ticket at 40% off 2 hours before the show started. The show started off with a typical Cirque show with some characters going through the audience as people were being seated, then Criss Angel doing some tricks and stuff that really reminded me of his "Mindfreak" tv show. While he was doing that, I started to remember why I stopped watching "Mindfreak." He is about as narcissistic as Barry Manilow, where everything is difficult and deadly, and "I am so great" for being able to do this (whatever it may be). After about 10 minutes or so of that, it took a turn towards a Cirque show with some odd characters dancing and getting into a story. Throughout the show the story continued essentially being Criss trying to find the girl while somebody else was standing in his way of getting the girl. There were some tricks throughout, and some nice show elements. The show ended after 90 minutes with him asking if we wanted to see one more trick, then he did his disappearing trickby just throwing the sheet up, then he was gone. All in all, I would say if you have seen the other Cirque shows here, then yes, go and see that once. If you haven't seen some of the other shows, see "Love," "Ka," "Mystere," or "O" first.

Finally, it seems as though Mama Mia is no longer playing at Mandalay Bay and The Lion King will be moving in.

Huh, I don't understand how I can get onto Southwest's on-line check-in the second that I can and I end up with number 47. Hopefully I can still have a decent seat. Now I'm off to dinner at Mesa Grill and to walk around the strip for a bit.

Family, Hockey, and Obama

Ahhhhh Family, you can't change them, and you can't kill them. I'm currently dealing with some family issues, and just feel like some may not see the bigger picture of the problem. Oh well,k I'm sure eventually this will work itself out. I'm not going into any details because although only a couple of people may be reading this now, you never know, so, we'll just leave it where it is.

I'm ecstatic that the Panthers are in a playoff position. I fully blame their whole downfall on Bush (and to a lesser extent Mike Keenan). I find it amusing that the last time the Panthers made the playoffs was in the 1999-2000 season, and they have not really been in a playoff position until this year. Additionally, they were actually in 8th place yesterday, January 20, 2009, the day George Bush left office. Unfortunately, thanks to the Hurricanes playing the Penguins last night, the Panthers are back in 9th. Maybe they can pick up two points tonight against the Stars.

I was watching the Inauguration yesterday, and was very happy. I really hope Obama can finally help bring this country into the 21st century. Watching the reaction of everybody, seeing that huge crowd and understanding the historical significance of yesterday just really makes me proud to be an American. I'm still concerned about where this year will take us, and looking forward to what Obama does during his Presidency. As he said, it's up to all of us to work together, and I'm ready to help wherever I can. That is after I make sure to take care of my kids and family first.

First blog, let's see how it goes

Brenda and I went up to Orlando for the weekend, because one of my friends from work was getting married. We decided to take advantage of the situation and head to Universal. It was a nice break, because we have season passes for Disney, and wanted to test it out to see how much was there for the kids. Well, it turns out that even though they have the Seuss area in Islands of Adventure, and the Toon area in Universal, the parks are not set up for kids the way the Disney parks are.

That being said, we had an awesome time today. When I bought the tickets, I also bought the express pass, which was well worth the money paid. If you ever go to Universal buy the express pass! We were able to get on all the rides we wanted, and I think the longest we had to wait was 15 minutes. We got inside Islands of Adventue around 10:00, we got through all of the rides we wanted to there, had lunch at Margaritaville at 12:30, and we were inside Universal at 1:15, and on our way home at 4:30. So, yes, the express pass is worth it.

One thing that I am now upset about is all the times I wimped out of riding a roller-coaster in years past. I have found that when I try a coaster now, even if I am or was intimidated before, by the time I get off the ride, I am ready to go back. today was the first time I rode the Hulk, Dueling Dragons, and the Mummy. I can honestly say that all three are excellent rides, with the Hulk being the best out of the three. I really wish I didn't wimp out before, I've missed out on so much coaster time waiting for other people to return from the ride. Oh well, those times are over. As for other rides in the two parks, Spider-Man is also still a phenomenal ride, I wasn't that impressed with the Simpsons ride, Shrek was pretty good, and Poseidon's Adventure was almost a waste of time. We didn't do any water rides today, because being from South Florida, 60 degree weather is cold, and we didn't want to walk around being wet.

after the day at Universal, we think we decided we will wait a couple of more years before bringing the kids there, because once again, for their ages, Disney wins hands down. So, it looks like we will be renewing our passes there for now.

aside from that, I'm happy the Panthers won last night, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow night's game.