Well for those of you that have been to Vegas with us or have read some of our other posts, you undoubtedly know that “The Wheel of Fortune” is my favorite slot machine.   This was my first and everlasting mechanical crush.  I think this is mainly the case because it was the first machine that I ever played and on the about the 3 spin I had hit a crazy jackpot and won over $450.  It would also mark one of the last times that we ever went to the Luxor and certainly one of the last times we ever won anything from there.  But that’s another story.

While on our last trip to Vegas a few weeks ago I did something that I never thought I would do, I turned my back on “The Wheel of Fortune” just for a minute. Don and I had about 15 minutes to spare before playing in one of our poker tournaments and I decided I wanted to play the slots for a bit.  If you have been to Harrah’s before you know that the $1 “Wheel of Fortune” can be found on the back wall by the poker room. As Don and I headed towards the wheel I decide I wanted to try a new slot.  I told Don I wanted to try a new slot and ask him to find me one with good odds. Of course he looked at me puzzled; I think he was more shocked than anything, but after a few moments he did find me a machine. It was $1 Red, White, and Blue machine with a 10x multiplier, so I sat down with $100.  After the first $50 I starting wondering if this was a good idea, it was kind of boring because there was no wheel bonus spin to look forward to spinning. I continued to play through the last $50. I get down to my last few spins and I hit a ridiculous 10x payout. It was craziness, I had already written that hundo off as a lost cause, but instead I ended up winning $400.  I do have to admit that “Wheel of Fortune” is still my favorite; I mean nothing beats the bonus “Spin”.  However trying a new machine every once in a while is fun and can pay off.  The payout from the slot was just the beginning of me pimping Harrah’s that day.  Read about that poker tournament and you will see what I am talking about.

One of best things about Lori is that she is willing to try things that she didn’t think that she would like.  Over the years that willingness has included things like eating pancakes, playing blackjack and poker, and eating Chinese food.  She actually likes Chinese food (much to her own surprise I think) and will suggest eating it from time to time.

Well on Sunday night of last trip, she wanted some Chinese.  Well seeing how we were staying at Paris I knew that we could walk next door to Planet Hollywood for some PF Chang’s.  Now my grandmother who is a first generation Chinese American from mainland China actually hates PF Chang’s.  She lives in Chinatown in Boston and basically thinks that any place that doesn’t give you orange slices at the end of the meal is clearly worthless.  However, Lori and I’s tastes are less discerning so head over.

There are a ton of people waiting so we just say first available and of course that lands us in their outside seating area.  Now it is 9pm Vegas time and it’s like 92 degrees out (down from the 112 degrees early in the day) so it’s safe to say that it’s not “comfortable” dining, but we manage.

During the meal I notice 4 people walking up and down the strip with what appears to be large boards on their backs.  It turns out they are human billboards for the Hooters casino around the corner. I couldn’t get my camera out in time for a decent shot, but I did find one from the LA Times Vegas blog.

Each sign was showing a slightly different ad, but all of the people wearing them looked the same, beat down tired.  I can’t imagine how long their shifts were, but the fact that its 9pm and still hot out and they are lugging what appears to be a very heavy digital sign on their back can’t be a good thing.

Outside of the random assortment 20 of so immigrants lined up side by side passing out pornographic playing cards, I have to say that this is the most unique people centric Vegas advertising yet.  No “flick, flick, flick” necessary.

Getting to the airport is normally key in Atlanta. There are always some sort of random delay that crops up. Phantom accidents on I-85, extremely slow security lines, random aircraft issues. We have seen it all on our trips out to Vegas over the years so we get to the airport with a couple of hours to spare.

Well it turns out that we really didn’t need to get there so early as we were bumped from US Airways to Airtran as our original flight was delayed coming in and of course we would have missed our connector.

The Pros: A new direct flight, crappy pretzels, and more drinks than you know what to do with.

The Cons: We found out that our bags “could” make it to Vegas as Airtran’s baggage system is a manual one. Excellent.

So we are waiting for another couple of hours to take off and Lori noticed something on the Runway. There is a sign that is hanging underneath the Jetway. You can see it more clearly in the second photo, but yeah it’s clear that no one reads those signs until there is a reason to.

Thank goodness there was no reason. We got on our plane with no further observations other than the fact that CNN would not actually proclaim Michael Jackson dead, but only in a coma. More on that to come as well.

Well I have to say that it’s been awhile. The first half of the year has been brutal economically for just about everyone.  I have been personally working like a mad man to make sure that my little company weathers the storm, and we have.  I am sure that I must look like I needed a vacation because that’s exactly what Lori surprised me with last Friday; a trip to our home away from home, Las Vegas.

Now I have been really too busy to think about it since it was a surprise and all.  However I am ready for some fun and relaxation.

The WSOP will be going on so I am sure that we will be checking that out as well as doing our normal thing; Blackjack, Poker, and of course Johnnie Walker.

More updates to come, but I can’t help feeling especially grateful to be getting away to our happy place.  Joy has indeed returned to Mudville as the mighty Casey plans on hitting it out of the park!

I had a few friends that went to the Microsoft conference called MIX09 last month.  It’s held at the Venetian and this year it was during March Madness as well.  Basically it’s a conference that puts a lot of Web designers and programmers together to talk about great design and the future of the Web.

It’s a pretty interesting conference that is in it’s 4th year.  The production level is amazing, and normally you don’t get to see what goes into the whole thing. 

Well here is a pretty neat timelaspe video that shows just want it takes to make something like this happen. Just click the player below: