Where am I? What Day is it?

Nothing like a week in Las Vegas to really screw up the body's internal clock. Add to that the end of daylight's savings time and two time zones, and I am a wreck! Everything that we did seemed about three hours off of "normal" to me. The first night we were there, I woke up at 3AM... my body thought it was 6AM, my usual wake-up time. I managed to sleep another hour... At 4AM, I was WIDE awake and Sparkle was not pleased. She MADE me go back to sleep for another hour after that. At 9AM, I was starving and ready for lunch. By 8PM that night as we were meeting a friend for dinner and drinks, I was ready to pass out from being so tired! It was WAY past my bedtime!

We got a lot of work done at the show. Three days of walking on concrete in dress shoes was near torture. We did get a couple of workouts in, though. Tuesday and Thursday mornings we got up and went for a run up and down the Strip. I was amazed at how many other people were out running! Nothing like a couple lungs full of carbon monoxide to get the blood flowing in the morning.

Some highlights of the trip:

1. Dinner at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill. Sparkle's friend Matt, has a friend CJ who is the Director of IT for Caesar's. He took us out for dinner (and to some clubs after). I ordered the fish. It was a WHOLE fish, eyes, tail, mouth, the whole carcass. It was great though. Sparkle was not pleased that I wanted the fish to look at her the whole dinner...

2. Following dinner, we went to the Palms to the Ghost Bar (as seen on MTV's the Real World Las Vegas) on the roof. Awesome view of the whole city. Saw Hulk Hogan in the lobby. CJ had us on "the List" so we got to march past all the "little people" waiting in line and just head right up. Had to tip the bathroom attendant. I hate that. But, it could be worse... you could have a job that involved hagning out in the bathroom all night handing out paper towels...

3. Fremont Street. We went to watch the light show and arrived a little early so we headed into the casino to play some penny slots. Sparkle and I lost our dollar quickly, but CJ very quickly got into the bonus round and converted his twenty into $212! Sparkle MADE him cash out at that point (she went so far as to hit the "Cash Out" button against his wishes).

4. I made $20 on the penny slots!

5. Ninety-nine cent Coors Light bottles at the Westward Ho casino, just a block from the CrapDust (StarDust) where we stayed.

6. Dinner at Mon Ami Gabi at Paris. I had the fish again. So good! Dessert was so good too, but I'd eaten too much of the fish and appetizers...

7. Speed-mingling (Hermannizing) with Rick at the SEMA banquet cocktail hour. Meet 300 people in a matter of minutes. I don't know how he does it...

8. Blues Brothers at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay. They were just as good as they were last year and the beer was just as free as it was last year, too! But, again, the stupid bathroom attendant thing... I can get my own paper towels, thanks!

9. Walking up the strip from one end all the way to the other end. I think we hit at least 30% of the casinos on the trip, either to get a drink or use the bathroom or play some penny slots or just check out some cars. It was a LONG trip, but WAY cheaper than a taxi and we got to see...

10. Drag-racing on the Strip!! Might have been one of the last things I thought I would have seen at 3 in the morning. The cops shut down one side of the road and two rice burners tore down the road. Too bad one blew up at the start of the second run... smoke everywhere!

Anyways, it was a great trip and now that I am starting to get back on the right sleep schedule, I am almost ready to start the big training program! But tonight I have one last thing to do! We are heading to Cedar Falls to see Dierks Bentley! Steve and Tina's friend Vanessa hooked us up with Meet and Greet passes. Satisfied Sid's brother and sister-in-law will be hosting us for the night. Should be a great night! Although if I'm not careful, I may lose my voice again!