Jiggity jig. Fifteen days in Las Vegas, and now we're home again. It was a marathon of a trip. Casinos: 13 (Rio, New York New York, Gold Coast, Riviera, Bally's, Green Valley Ranch, Harrah's, Caesar's Palace, Bellagio, MGM Grand, Binion's, Golden Nugget, Wynn) Shows: 6 (Rita Rudner, Penn and Teller, Lewis Black, Show in the Sky, Bellagio Fountains, Freemont Street Experience) National treasures: 3 (Hoover Dam, Joshua Tree Forest, Grand Canyon) Celebrities: 10 (Doyle Brunson, TJ Cloutier, Chris Ferguson, Joe Hachem, Scotty Nguyen, Johnny Chan, Robert Varkonyi, Kathy Liebert, Juha Helppi, Dan Harrington) Poker tournaments lost: 2 Harrah's "Total Rewards" points earned: 15 I think my favorite casino was Caesar's Palace. Josh liked the Wynn and the Bellagio. We both thought the Rio was quite comfortable, and even though it is not on the strip, the shuttles to Harrah's properties on the strip were quite convenient. Of the newer casinos, neither New York New York nor Bally's impressed me much. The Riviera, though, was the least impressive--nearly to the point of being scary. I think my favorite show was Rita Rudner. Lewis Black was good, and would have been better if he had toned down the foul language a bit. I'm not a prude about swearing, and I knew that seeing Lewis Black would involve hearing the F-word multiple times, but HOLY. SHIT. Every other word out of his mouth was some form of the word. To the point where it really detracted from the show. Remember the Smurfs, and how they'd randomly replace words with "smurf" and "smurfing"? "Papa Smurf smurfed Brainy's smurf," has no meaning if not deeply embedded in context. The same problem arises when every third word replaced by an expletive. I was disappointed by the Fremont Street Experience and Penn and Teller. P&T were funny, but their magic sucked. Except for their famous "biting the bullet" routine, their tricks weren't much of illusions. Cards slipped into sleeves, coins slipped out of them, it was all pretty easy to see. The juggling and fire-eating were performed well, but those things have never really impressed me. Unless you know poker, you may look at my list of celebrities and wonder who the hell they are. Doyle Brunson is, of course, the father of professional poker. He's won 10 WSOP bracelets (all events, not just the championship). So has Johnny Chan. Scotty Nguyen has 4 bracelets. As we passed him in the hall, he turned and gave me a big smile. I still haven't figured what that was about. Varkonyi, Liebert, and Helppi are Interpoker's pros (that's the site from which Josh won the trip). TJ Cloutier, a true gambler, is a big name in poker, and a bigger name in losing at craps. We saw him several times at the craps tables at the Rio, and once hanging around outside the buffet, apparently waiting for someone to buy him food. Anyway, we're home again, we've checked on the garden (which is doing fine), gone through the mail (nothing interesting), bought groceries, today we go to pick up the cat, and tomorrow it's back to work.