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Ivan and I went to Isla for dinner at Treasure Island on May 23rd. We started off with the Chipotle Adobo Guacamole. It has pumpkin seeds in the guacamole. It’s pretty tasty. We each got a Margarita. Ivan got the Strawberry Margarita on the rocks while I had a blended Raspberry. My drink was smooth and delicious. Ivan got his favorite dish at Isla the Chicken Breast Mole Poblano. I got the Roast Pork Pipian. My dish was alright. Ivan enjoyed his dish. We were thinking of getting dessert. But, then Ivan said he was too stuffed to eat anymore.
We went to go see Mac King for the second time at Harrah’s on May 24th. He’s a great magician. I am still amazed at how he makes goldfish appear out of nowhere. He’s very funny and entertaining. He does a lot of tricks like cutting a rope and card tricks. It’s a great afternoon show and cheap.
Ivan and me at CatHouse
Ivan and I went to eat at CatHouse at The Luxor for dinner. We got the best seat in the house. It was a booth with the closest view to the one-way mirror that contains a girl in lingerie getting ready for the night. We started off with our favorite starter the Fromage Fondue. It was delicious as usual! We had the Mini Crab cakes next. It’s three petite crab cakes with a nice sauce on top. We had some drinks. We had the Pear Martini and the best drink on the menu, the Multiple Orgasm. For the main course we shared the Brick Roasted Organic Chicken. This is a big dish with two pieces of chicken on top of farro. It was really good. We decided to get dessert. We didn’t go with our usual the always tasty Red Velvet Cake. We tried the Creme Brulee with Berries. It was really good and light. It was a great dinner at my favorite restaurant in town. The only thing that irked us.. was that the waitress added a service charge onto the bill. Ivan asked about this and she said that it was so we wouldn’t have to figure out the tip. Of course, it was 20%. What a load of crap! Ivan was mad because it was her telling him what to tip. That’s just rude.
We walked to the Caesars Palace from The Luxor. We were both a little tired.
We went to go catch Dane Cook at the Coliseum at Caesars Palace. We were a little early but decided to sit down. We each got a fruity drink. There was a host who told some jokes. He was alright. There was an opening comedian. I can’t recall his name at all. He was good. Then Dane Cook came on. He was funny, but not amazing. Ivan was so tired, he didn’t get to enjoy the show. I think I enjoyed him better the last time we saw him at the Mandalay Bay Events Center last year.
Ivan and I went to Tao Beach on May 25th to see Bad Boy Bill. But it was packed, so we couldn’t get in. We decided to chill by the Venetian pool instead. We could still hear the loud music plus it wasn’t crowded. Ivan went to get a snack for us. We shared a BBQ Chicken wrap. He also ordered some fruity smoothies.
That night, we headed to Tao for dinner. We got the Lobster Dumplings and the Stuffed Shrimp for appetizers. Both dishes were good, but the Stuffed Shrimp were just heavenly. We shared the main course the Salmon with Udon Noodles. We also got a side of Eggplant. The eggplant is so soft and has a great sauce. The salmon was very good. It was a great meal. When you eat at Tao, they stamp you and this gives you a line pass to the club. It means that you get to go in the smaller line to gain access to the nightclub. We asked to get stamped. Since we had just come from the pool, we were in casual clothes. The guy said we couldn’t be stamped now because we weren’t in dress code. Ivan brought up that this was stupid.. because we were going to head home to change and them come back to the club later. Of course, they wouldn’t let us into the club anyway wearing a t-shirt and jeans. But, it was alright since we were able to come back later with the receipt and get stamped before we headed to the nightclub.
We stopped by the V bar inside the Venetian. Unfortunately, there was a DJ event at V bar so they were charging a cover. We went to the bar at David Burke. We had a few different drinks. They were quite tasty. We headed back to the nightclub Tao to see Erick Morillo. It was crowded. They had a DJ on.. he was okay. We were just waiting for Erick Morillo to come on. He finally come out at 1:40 am. We stayed to dance for about 30 minutes. Ivan was tired and wanted to head home. It was definitely a good night with great food, drinks and dancing.
We went to the Wet Republic pool at the MGM Grand in the afternoon on May 26th. We ordered some food. Ivan got the Lobster Wrap. I got the Grilled Chicken Panini. Each dish comes with potato chips with assorted nuts. We also shared the fruit bowl with frozen yogurt. My sandwich was decent. The different fruits were pretty good. DJ Jazzy Jeff played a set. He was good, but played too much r&b for me. We swam a little and chilled on these green chairs that are in the shallow part of the pool. Roger Sanchez finally came on at 4 pm. We only stayed 15 minutes of Roger’s set. We had to go across town for a BBQ.
Ivan and I headed to my sister’s house for a Memorial Day BBQ with my whole family. We brought some Asian Veggie burgers and had those with bagels. I also had some chicken bbq, steak, salad mixed with cranberries and walnuts, and noodles. We played with the kids outside playing soccer. Then all the kids went out front to ride bikes. My nieces also had a battery powered Barbie jeep. Anissa was driving around in the jeep with Maria in the passenger seat. My brother was flying his remote-controlled airplane. We were playing the Wii. I love the tennis game. We also played boxing. It hurts a lot! Ivan enjoyed playing Dance Dance Revolution. He played Battle Mode with my sister-in-law Kara. They also had the Wii Fit. Games like Hula Hooping, Ski Jump, Heading Soccer Balls, Ski Slalom, Table Tilt and Tightrope were played. Ivan beat my brother’s high score at Hula Hooping with a score of 283 spins. I had fun spending time with my family and playing the Wii. My arms were definitely sore the next day from playing tennis, bowling and boxing.
We went with the Australian couchsurfers (Hannah and Andrew) to go see the show Folies Bergere at the Tropicana on May 27th. This is a classic showgirls show that has been running in Las Vegas for 50 years. It’s a topless show that has many girls with big feathers and dazzling costumes. The show showcases the different styles of women from the 1850’s up to present day. I didn’t think the girls were that good-looking. Their boobies were small in size.. but I guess it’s better to be perky and small in a topless show. Of course, the bigger boobs were fake. I enjoyed the Can-Can at the end.. it was a lot of fun. This was the first showgirls show I’ve ever seen. It’s a good entertaining show.
We watched one Bellagio fountain show. Then Ivan decided that we walk across the street to eat at Mon Ami Gabi at Paris. Ivan ordered the French Onion Soup. It was a big cup of soup with delicious gruyere cheese on top. We shared the Crab Cake & Gribiche Sauce. It was good. We shared the main course of Fennel & Pepper Seared Ahi Tuna Salad. I really liked the salad. I didn’t eat much of the tuna. .
Ivan, Ivan’s friend Ty and I attended the Dr. Scott Lewis show at Riviera on April 28th. Ivan and Ty went on stage to get hypnotized. Ivan was translating Martian, Riverdancing, being mean to Kelly Karl (Dr. Scott Lewis’ assistant) in the Love Connection game and dancing like a Chippendale. It’s always fun to watch Ivan when he’s hypnotized. He’s just so funny.
Ivan and I went to Kung Fu Plaza Thai & Chinese Restaurant on April 29th. We started off with the Papaya Salad with a Hotness of level 3. The salad was a little spicy. We also got the great Fish Cakes. They tasted similar to the fish cakes at Lotus of Siam. We shared the Sweetened Green Curry with chicken. It was a good portion and had great flavor. We also ordered the Pineapple Fried Rice. Ivan and I were both so full from all the food that we didn’t get to eat much of the Pineapple Fried Rice. It tasted slightly sweet. This restaurant has good cuisine with cheap prices.
Next, we headed to the last part of the Self-Hypnosis class. During the class, people talked about their script that talked about their goal. The scripts that were read were pretty good. John Zulli also walked us through another hypnosis experience. The class was really good. I’m definitely going to try out my script and self-hypnosis to accomplish the goal of losing weight.
We went to the Morels open bar at The Palazzo on April 30th. We had some sweet Lychee Vodka drinks and watched the Sirens show at the TI from the balcony. The dress code was dressy casual, so it seemed like a different crowd than we usually see at the open bar events. We had a couple drinks and I was actually buzzed.
We walked to the Wynn to find a nice restaurant to eat at. Unfortunately, Okada was booked up and the outdoor seating at Morels was closed. So, we walked back to the Palazzo. We ate at the Grand Lux Cafe. Grand Lux is an awesome restaurant. The portions are huge and the food tastes great. We shared the appetizer Vietnamese Chicken Summer Spring Rolls. The spring rolls were very fresh. I got the Pasta with Chicken, Sun dried Tomatoes and Mushrooms for my main course. The combination of the cockscrew pasta with the chicken, mushroom, sun-dried tomatoes and parmesan cheese was delicious. Ivan ordered the Thai Chicken Pizza. I previously thought the Thai Chicken Pizza sounded odd, but it’s actually good.
Ivan and I went to see Yellow Brick Road at Boulder Station on May 2nd. This band is a Classic Rock Tribute band. That night the band was playing a Pink Floyd Tribute. The band played the whole album of Dark Side of the Moon. They did play other songs from Wish You Were Here, The Wall and Meddle. Yellow Brick Road sounded just like Pink Floyd. It was awesome! When they played Another Brick in the Wall Part 2, they brought out about nine kids to sing the “We Don’t No Education” part. Then at the end of the song, a British gentlemen in a judge outfit came to do the “How can you have any pudding, if you don’t eat your meat?” part. Other songs that they performed were One of These Days, Mother, Run Like Hell, Comfortably Numb, Welcome to the Machine and my favorite Wish You Were Here. We’re going to check them out next Friday to see their regular show.
We went to the Pinball Museum on Saturday, May 3rd. We played pinball for almost an hour. I love the games Family Guy, Wheel of Fortune, Lord of the Rings and Spiderman. I wasn’t having much luck though. I kept losing my balls rather quickly during a few games.
That night, we went to go see Penn and Teller for the second time at the Rio Hotel. The show had three new parts. I’m still amazed at their magic. It’s great that they show how some of the tricks are done. This show is funny and very entertaining.
Ivan and I went to ride the dune buggies with Sun Buggie Fun Rentals on May 4th. Ivan had a free voucher for a 2 seat buggy for an hour and a half. He told our guide that we wanted to go fast. But, for some reason our buggy was pretty slow. The guide didn’t seem to know where he was going. We were going over mostly rocky areas instead of all sand areas. I kept getting bumped up and down.. and that hurt my butt. It was alright time. We’ve had more fun on previous occasions.
For dinner, we went to Quark’s Bar and Restaurant at Las Vegas Hilton. It won an award on AOL for being one of the Most Unique Restaurants. The atmosphere is cool with the stars and Star Trek ship above the restaurant. Star Trek characters (like Quark) walk around the restaurant. They also play Star Trek episodes with English sub-titles. We both had a soup. I got the Clam Chowder which was really big. Ivan had the Grilled Chicken Khan Sandwich. I had the Photo Torpedo Sandwich (basically an Italian sandwich). Both our sandwiches came with cold pasta salad. The food was average. I’m not sure why it’s one of the most unique restaurants.
After dinner, we drove to see Second City at the Flamingo. This show does sketch comedy. Ivan heard good things about this show. It was not very funny. I laughed maybe a few times. Ivan thought it was really bad.
We went to go eat at Kung Fu Plaza Thai & Chinese Restaurant on Monday, May 5th. We had the Fish Cakes to start off with. Then we ordered the Tom Yum soup with chicken. It was just the right spiciness at a Hotness of 2. We got the Sweetened Green Curry with Chicken again to share. We love the food here. Sometimes the service is a little slow though.
That night we met Michelle at Diablo’s Cantina at Monte Carlo. We ran into my friend Alisa and her husband Jay. We had some good margaritas and a few beers. Their margaritas are really good. The bar was giving away a trip to Cabo San Lucas. Unfortunately, we didn’t win. They had a band playing that was alright. There were so many people there. Another band came on later. They were bad.. it was a heavy metal band. My cousin Charisse met us there too. It was a fun night.
I was really tired on Tuesday, May 6th. I went home to get some sleep after work. I took a long nap for a few hours. We had two French couchsurfers staying with us. They cooked us a late dinner. It was crepes with mushrooms, onions, cheese and meat. They tasted great! We had french bread and a nice salad. We also had a dessert crepe with strawberries and honey.
Ivan and I went to the second part of the Self-Hypnosis class on April 22nd. Some members of the class talked about their thoughts of the self-hypnosis exercises. I wasn’t the only one who fell asleep during the longer second part. There’s actually two ladies in the class who have never been hypnotized. Last week we were to write down a goal that we wanted to accomplish. This week our homework is to write a script (based upon our goal) that we’ll be reading to ourselves before we hypnotize ourselves. Next week, we’ll be hypnotizing ourselves in class. I have actually hypnotized myself twice before. I like learning more about it. I also like getting an idea of what to say to myself when I’m hypnotizing myself.
Ivan, me, the Manchester girls (Amy & Beth) and Michael went to Todai Sushi on Wednesday, April 23rd. We love this sushi buffet. It has a variety of fresh sushi, crab legs, noodles, shrimp tempura and desserts. We had a good time eating. The girls had never had sushi before. I ate too much as usual.
That night we went to Body English at the Hard Rock Hotel. We love Wednesdays nights at this nightclub since they play house music all night long. There was an open bar, so we got a few vodka drinks. The dance floor was actually busy early. Usually nobody starts dancing until midnight. The first DJ mixed Rocket Man. I kept picturing Stewie from Family Guy being cool saying the lyrics of Rocket Man. Next, Heidi was DJing. She’s plays some cool, unique music. We danced for awhile. I had to go home early since I had to work the next morning. I watched Family Guy when I got home and they played that episode where Stewie recites the lyrics of Rocket Man. How funny!
We met Emily (a French couchsurfer) and Andrea (a local couchsurfer) for the open bar event at the V bar inside The Venetian on April 25th. It was advertised as free cocktails and appetizers. But, it turns out ladies were each given one complimentary drink ticket for a Pomegranate cocktail. If you’re a lady wearing high heels, you would get an extra ticket for every inch of your shoes. We had some egg rolls and a drink. It was taking forever to get served since the bar only had three bartenders working.
We decided to head to Dos Caminos for dinner. We all had the Guacamole. It was so spicy that you couldn’t taste the ingredients as much. Ivan and I shared the Shrimp Empanadas. They were okay, nothing special. We got the great Dos Enchiladas for our main course. It was great as usual.
We all hopped into Andrea’s car to head to our condo. We had a drink and then got ready for the evening. We went to JET at The Mirage. It was really busy, so it’s good that we arrived early. We still had to wait in line for like 20 minutes. Andrea and Emily had met a guy (earlier in the day) who said he could get them in. He gave them wristbands that included free drinks until midnight. When we entered the club, a guy gave us four drink coupons. We had a bunch of drinks and danced for hours.
Ivan and I went to participate in the Freezemont Experience on April 26th. This event was being held downtown in the Fremont Street Experience. Ivan heard about this on the couchsurfing forum. Improv Everywhere has done other similiar events like Food Court Musical, No Shirts and Best Buy. Below is a video highlight of one of their events called Frozen Grand Central.
Frozen Grand Central
A group of people gathered near an area by the Golden Nugget entrance. The plan was to stop moving right after the 8:00 pm show. We were to remain frozen for 5 minutes. Ivan and I froze while holding hands. I was looking upwards at the Fremont Street Experience in wonder. I had my mouth open, which was bad cause my throat was getting dry. It wasn’t too hard not moving. People weren’t sure what was going on. We started moving after the five minutes and people started clapping for us. It was an interesting thing to do. I hope to see the video on youtube soon.
We walked to the Golden Nugget to go eat at the Italian restaurant Grotto. We each got a glass of the Riesling wine. It was really strong and tasted great. Ivan had the roasted garlic chicken pizza. I ordered the Chicken Fettuccine with mushrooms and peas. My dish was tasty with a different type of sauce. Ivan’s pizza was good.
We walked to the Neonopolis theater to go see Harold & Kumar Escape from Guatanemo Bay. The movie takes place after the first movie. Harold is still thinking about Maria. He and Kumar decide to go to Amsterdam so he can find Maria. Unfortunately, they run into trouble on the plane and they’re thought to be terrorists. Harold and Kumar get sent to Guatanemo Bay. All sorts of craziness happen and they escape jail. It’s a funny movie. It’s not as funny as the first one, but it’s still a good movie.
We went to Tao Beach with Emily and Andrea on April 27th. It’s a topless pool area for people 21 years old and older. It was a little busy. We had a frozen lemonade drink and went into the pool. They have a new stupid rule there where you can’t hold your drink in the middle of the pool. So, you can be in the pool at the side and hold your drink or outside of the pool. Emily and Andrea left early since she wanted to see the Paris and Luxor Hotel before she headed to the airport. They have a lot of reserved chairs and tables at Tao Beach. People start leaving around 4 pm and you can get a better seat. The Sunset Sessions starts around 5:30 pm and they start playing nice house music. We moved over to the big round bed area to relax. We read travel guide books and just chilled out. It was nice. The sun always makes me tired. It was annoying my eyes that day.
Later on, Ivan and I went to see the 3 Redneck Tenors at the Luxor Hotel. The show has the redneck tenors singing opera and television songs. It shows their rise to stardom. They do different shows like Wrestling, Disco, Elvis and dressing up as women. It’s a fun show filled with redneck humor and lots of great singing. At one point, they brought out the guitarist Nicholas Marks from America’s Got Talent. The end of show the cast made noises to the song Beethoven’s 5th. It was so funny.
We went to eat at Ra Sushi on April 14th with a French couchsurfer. We started off with our usual the dengaku tofu. It wasn’t as hot and tasty as it usually is. We also got the chicken yakitori for an appetizer. It was okay. We then shared two sushi different rolls. That was really good. We walked to the Venetian after dinner and ordered gelato in the Marks Square. I had the chocolate gelato. It’s so delicious.
Ivan and I went to a Self-Hypnosis class on April 15th. It was the first of three classes. It’s a class from the International Institute of Hypnosis run by Marc Savard and John Zulli. Ivan took two hypnosis courses through the hypnosis school. We saw Marc at the fair and he told us about this class. Marc introduced John Zulli to the class. Marc also talked about his wife. She had two babies under hypnosis. She didn’t feel pain but felt the pressure. She also didn’t have any pain medication when the doctor stitched her up. That’s just amazing! John Zulli taught the class. He’s a natural speaker and he’s funny as well. The class gave us background on the origins of hypnosis. We were also hypnotized as a group. This has been an interesting class so far. We even got homework. We have to write down a goal we want to accomplish. Also, we were given a CD that we have to listen to one part (or both) at least three times.
Ivan and I met my family for my Mom’s Birthday dinner at Food Express on Wednesday, April 16th. It was nice to see all my family. We had lots of good Chinese food including roast duck, sweet and sour chicken, mu shu pork, egg rolls, pot stickers, fried rice, mongolian beef, noodles and fried crab. It was funny seeing all my nieces and nephews playing with Ivan. They kept poking him and hiding. Of course, my brother and sister kept saying leave him alone, but Ivan enjoyed it. He said he was getting a nice massage.
We went to the Bare open bar event on April 17th at The Mirage Hotel. Bare is a topless pool lounge area. It’s a nice area to just relax. There’s one long rectangle pool and then a jacuzzi on the upper level. They had food from the restaurant Stack. There was vegetables with ranch, different cheeses, Chicken BBQ pizza and turkey wraps. The food was alright. We just chilled out and had some drinks.
We walked to the Bellagio. We ate a salmon sandwich and then proceeded to The Bank nightclub. This was our first time at the nightclub. There were tons of empty VIP tables around the dance floor. It was a good night with house music playing. We liked the fact that there was room to dance. Also, the line to the bathroom wasn’t that busy. We danced for a few hours and then took a taxi home.
Ivan and I went to the Bodies exhibition on April 18th. The bodies are preserved through a process called polymer preservation. The exhibit has whole body specimens and organs. It is a bit weird since it makes you see what our bodies look like inside. It’s also educational showing how complex our bodies are. It’s a good exhibit to visit, but it’s a little creepy to see.
We walked across the street to the MGM Grand to see the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The movie is about a guy named Peter. His heart is broken when his girlfriend Sarah Marshall breaks up with him. He decides to get away by taking a vacation in Hawaii, so he can forget about her. But, unfortunately he bumps into Sarah and her new boyfriend. He ends up staying at the same resort. He tries to keep busy by doing different activities. He keeps running into Sarah though. It’s a funny movie.
We went to the Valley of Fire State Park with Vivi (a German couchsurfer) and a local couchsurfer Frannie and her friend Rob on April 19th. We drove around the park and stopped a couple times. It’s really beautiful out there. There are numerous big red rocks. We saw petrified wood as well. The petrified wood was just old wood in the ground.. which is really boring. Ivan and I joked that they were scared wood hehe.
We walked around and saw lots of rocks and climbed some. The weather was in the 80’s.. so it wasn’t too hot outside. We had a good day taking pictures and walking around.
Ivan, me and Vivi went to Nove Italiano for dinner at the Palms Hotel. We started off with Crudo, which is a selection of raw fish like tuna and yellowtail. The Crudo was really small with just four small pieces of fish. Next, we all shared the Chicken Pesto Pizza. It was good. Ivan and I shared the Chicken Marsala. The sauce was really good and it also contained mushrooms, shallots and lemon. The dish was really good.
Ivan, me and Vivi at the Playboy Club
We stopped by the Playboy Club to have a drink. Then, we headed up to Moon nightclub. It was packed in the club. The music was a nice mix of pop, r&b, rock and 80’s music. I still love it when the roof retracts letting in the fresh air and a view of the sky. We didn’t get to see the moon though. It was hot dancing so it’s nice when the air comes in. We had a good time dancing for a couple hours.
Ivan and I chilled by the pool at the condo on Sunday, April 20th. We did some reading and then went inside the jacuzzi. Later, I listened to the first part of the hypnosis CD. It was short and I listened to the whole thing. I decided to give the second part a go. The second part is longer at 27 minutes. I was really relaxed and fell asleep. I woke up and there was no sound playing.
We went to the Lotus of Siam with Vivi and the two Manchester couchsurfers that night. Ivan and I had the tasty Fish cakes (Tod Mun Plar) for an appetizer. Ivan ordered the Tom Yum Kai soup with chicken while I had Tom Yum Kung with shrimp. My soup was a 3 Hotness and it was spicy.. I couldn’t drink all the soup since it was burning my mouth a little. Ivan got the Musaman Curry with chicken. I had the Red Curry with chicken. My dish was a bit spicy and tasted great. The food is always delectable here. The restaurant doesn’t take reservations on the same day. It’s wise to make a reservation since it’s always busy.
On Thursday, April 3rd, we went to eat at Company American Bistro in the Luxor. We started off with the Vietnamese Summer Roll with Shrimp, Mint & Peanut Sauce. It was alright. Ivan got a banana flavored drink while I got the Company Perk. Ivan loved his drink. My drink was very good. I ordered the main course Herb-Roasted Organic Chicken. It came with sauteed mushrooms and rice. It was a big delicious dish. Ivan got the Roasted & Spiced Vegetables. He liked it a lot.
Ivan and I then went to see Carrot Top. He’s so hilarious when he pulls out the props. I think he should have done more of that. He’s still funny doing jokes. I enjoyed his show. This is a fun show that will have you laughing a lot.
Ivan and I went to go eat at Dos Caminos on April 4th. We went with two couchsurfers named Claire and Hannah. We all shared the wonderful Guacamole. I could eat their guacamole everyday. We shared the Cazuela De Queso Fundido with roasted garlic, artichoke hearts and spinach. We got the Grilled Shrimp Quesadilla again. It’s sooo delicious. This is a great restaurant with awesome atmosphere, good food and friendly staff.
We went to the Pink Taco at the Hard Rock for Cinco de Taco on Saturday, April 5th. We started off with the Guacamole. It was good, but a little salty. We each got a Sauza Margarita. The food came out very fast. Ivan had the Burrito Mojado with chicken. I ate the Chicken Tacos. My dish was good. We thought they would have more of a celebration there. But, the specials weren’t any different than the Happy Hour specials. They did have a mariachi band. Supposedly, the restaurant was going to have a pinata, but I didn’t see one.
We had time to waste before heading to my friend’s party. We went to Whole Foods and bought some healthy food. Then, we went to Green Valley Ranch Resort to play arcade games. Unfortunately, the arcade didn’t have any pinball machines.
We headed down to the street to the party at Josh’s apartment. We were the first to arrive to the party. Ivan played some Guitar Hero. He was pretty good at it for a beginner. More people began showing up. They decided to play Beer Pong with teams of two. I told Ivan he should play. It was his first time playing and he was really good. I’m so bad at beer pong. I hate having to drink the warm beer.. ewww! Michelle is always good at beer pong. She thinks she’s the beer pong champion. I only had one mixed drink with Absinthe. I knew I’d be driving home, so I didn’t want to drink much. Next, Michelle thought they should play King’s Cup. Josh was looking around his place to find a deck of cards. He couldn’t find one. He went to Walgreens to buy a deck. King’s Cup is a fun game. I didn’t play, but it was hilarious watching the game. When you draw a card, there’s a different thing you have to do. It was really crazy when people kept making up rules that everybody had to do. My favorite rule one was when you had to say penis at the end of every sentence you said. Ivan wanted to hypnotize somebody. He did hypnotize Kevin who works at the Bell Desk of the hotel I work at. He was a little drunk so certain things didn’t work. He hypnotized Dena (my sister-in-law’s sister) next. I was watching Josh and his brother Jeremy play Gears of War in the meantime. It was a fun night.
I got to sleep in on Sunday, April 6th. I love sleep. But, we do a lot of events during the week, so it seems that I’m always catching up on sleep. We were going to watch No Country for Old Men in the movie room. But, the colors on the DVD player are screwed up. So, we didn’t end up watching it there. Ivan complained about the colors (it shows too much green and reds) in December.. but obviously it’s still not working properly. Hopefully, they’ll actually fix it soon, so we can watch it later this week.
Ivan wanted to go check out Anthony Cools again. Ivan decided to go on stage. This was his third time being hypnotized. Anthony Cools is really funny. Ivan kept seeing this lady flash him when Anthony said his name. He also danced with a guy and had a fake wedding with him. Ivan’s really funny on stage. Anthony also had all the people on stage show off their sex skills with a chair. One guy kept dancing around the stage when a Tom Jones song came on like Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Anthony Cools is a good adult hypnosis show.
Ivan and I met our roommate Michael and his friend Rada at Sushi Mon on April 7th. We decided to check out the other location on West Sahara. This sushi restaurant is all you can eat for $25.95. We had so many different types of sushi. We also had some edamame and tofu. Ivan and Michael had a sake shooter. It has a raw quail egg in it and Ivan wouldn’t swallow it. I got the green tea ice cream for dessert. The sushi was good, but the other location on Maryland has better food and service.
We walked to the Paymon’s Hookah Lounge. Michael thought it was called Pokemon. Ivan agreed with him. Rada and I laughed at them. They didn’t know that Pokemon is an anime. We decided to get Caramel & Double Apple for the hookah flavors. I ordered the drink Babylon Spice. We had a good time smoking hookah and chatting.
Our last stop was The Artisan Hotel. It’s a small hotel on West Sahara. It’s a cool place. The lobby has a lot of artwork everywhere even on the ceiling. There’s also statues, a suit of armour and a baby grand piano. We went to the bar area to have some drinks. Ivan had a Kashmir. I ordered a great tasting Black Orchid. Ivan played some tunes on the piano and then we headed home.
We went to Table 10 at the Palazzo on Tuesday, April 8th. This is a new restaurant by Emeril Lagasse. Ivan had an Absinthe Sour. It had tons of fresh blueberries in it. It still had that licorice taste but not as strong. I had the Metropoli-10 drink. My drink had a nice mild taste. We shared the appetizer Miso Marinated Blackened Cod. It was very tender. On top of the cod, there’s clear noodles and a vegetable salad. There’s a tasty sauce that the cod sits in. We had the Grouper for our main dish. It contains onions, peas, Yukon Potatoes and a mushroom sauce. The Grouper was plain in taste. It tasted great with the potatoes and the mushroom sauce. The potatoes were so good. We actually had room to order dessert. We were undecided between the Banana Split and the Almost Flourless Bourbon Chocolate Cake. Our server recommended the Banana Split. I’m so glad we ordered it. It is a delicious re-creation of the original Banana Split. The dish has a big scoop of chocolate ice cream in the middle topped with cubes of pineapple and topped with marshmallow fluff. It sits on top of strawberry sauce. Around the ice cream there’s four slices of banana spring rolls. The banana spring rolls are crunchy. It’s so great all mixed together!
Ivan and I went to the Mandalay Bay Pool on March 27th. We ate at the grill there. Then we went into the wave pool. Next, we swam around in the lazy river. We headed back to our seats and laid out. We read some magazines. I was reading The God Delusion. I was really tired and fell asleep.
We stopped by Border Grill for dinner. This restaurant has a patio area that faces the pool. We sat upstairs on the balcony. We started off with Plantain Empanadas which are always great. We tried the Aztec Avocado Ceviche. It had a great fresh flavor to it. I ordered the Kobe Beef tacos. Ivan had the Portabello Mushroom Mulitas. My dish was good.
We woke up early on Friday, March 28th. We were going on the Funniest Dam Tour. This is a funny tour that takes you on a tour of Hoover Dam. Our tour guide Joni was really funny. She made fun of everybody on the bus and told us lots of jokes. She’s very knowledgeable about the Hoover Dam and Las Vegas. Joni gave us funny glasses to wear when Security came onto the bus.
Here’s me and Ivan wearing our glasses.
We took the tour of the Hoover Dam and learned more about the dam. We met Joni to walk across the top of the dam and hear more about the dam.
Everybody went on the bus and we drove to a hotel in Boulder City. One part of the group went to see the museum while the others got to each lunch. So, we looked at the museum and waited to eat lunch. Finally, we sat down to eat.. we both had the Chicken Parmesan sandwich. I had onion rings while Ivan got the potato wedges. The sandwich was nothing special.. but we were both starving, so we both wolfed it down. I liked the onion rings though. We headed back to the bus and drove to the Ethel M Chocolate Factory & Cactus Garden. The part where they make the chocolate wasn’t in operation. Our guide said it was because they were getting new equipment to make the chocolate faster. We walked through and got our dark chocolate truffle sample. Ivan and I walked through the Cactus Garden. It was a fun tour.
That evening, we went to the Red Rock Hotel to see Earth, Wind and Fire outside at the pool area. We decided to have dinner at the cafe. I had a great Tuscan Chicken Salad. We went out to the concert. Ivan loves 70’s music and enjoyed the show.
Ivan and I went to the Amusement Showcase International at the Las Vegas Convention Center on March 29th. It’s a convention that’s filled with video arcade games, photo booths and touch screen jukeboxes. We played lots of games, pinball and took silly photos. It was cool playing the new pinball machines Shrek and Indiana Jones. Ivan and I like playing the racing games to see who wins. We played Nascar and Wacky Races.
We went to the Grand Lux Cafe at the Palazzo with the Swedish couchsurfers for dinner. Ivan and I shared the Chicken Lettuce Wraps. They’re so tasty! My main course was the BBQ Chicken Pizza. It’s a good pizza. The crust was delicious. Ivan had the Polynesian Salad. He said it was okay.
Later, we went to the Palms Hotel to see the movie 21. This movie is based on a book. It’s about a couple college students who count cards in Las Vegas and earn a bunch of money. The main character Ben Campbell is trying to earn $300,000 so he can attend Harvard University. I thought the movie was okay. I was hoping it would have more action. Ivan thought it wasn’t good. I really like the song Young Folks by Peter Bjorn and John that is on the 21 soundtrack.
On Sunday, March 30th, we relaxed most of the day. That night, Ivan and I went to see the Chippendales with the Swedish couchsurfers who were staying with us. I’ve never attended a male revue show. The Chippendale men do a lot of dances with pelvic thrusts and wear different costumes. I can’t believe that at one point… they have their backs to the audience and rip off their underwear.. you see their private parts.. really just a shadow of it (since the lights go out right away). All the women in the audience were going crazy. I found it a bit amusing. The men are very muscular and only a few are good looking. The guys take up a few girls on the stage. It’s a good show.. not my type of thing though. Single women are sure to enjoy this show for the dancing and the eye candy.
We went to the CatHouse at the Luxor on March 31st with the Swedish couchsurfers and a couchsurfing couple from New Zealand who are teaching in Japan. We ordered the Fromage Fondue to start off with. We both love the fondue. Ivan kept recommending it to the couchsurfers. Ivan and I shared the Potato Leek Soup with Maine Lobster. I really enjoyed the creamy soup. Ivan and I both had our favorite drink the Multiple Orgasm. Our main course was the Brick Organic Chicken. It was really good. The service is usually really good. The service was bad.. I think since the restaurant was really packed. Afterwards, we went to the loungerie for Madame Monday. There was actually a lot of people there. The music was great with a good mix of different types of music. The club offers free champagne to women on Mondays. We had so much fun dancing the night away.
Tuesday night, we took a nap to catch up on sleep. We stopped by the Circus Circus to play some pinball and video games.
We went to the British Foods store on April 2nd. I bought some toffee for my friend Cory. He claims English toffee is better than American toffee. Ivan bought some Heinz baked beans and some chocolate bars. The store has a variety of items including frozen items, chocolate, teas and souvenir items from England.
Next, we went to the British pub Crown & Anchor. Ivan and I decided to order some dinner. I had the Chicken Curry over rice. Ivan got the Fish & Chips. Both dishes were quite tasty.
Ivan had a Kronenberg which is from Germany. I had the Wyder’s Raspberry Cider. The cider had a great taste. We went to go play darts. Ivan had a Stella Artois and I ordered a Magners Cider. Ivan won the first round and I won the second one. It’s a nice pub with good food and a nice selection of beers. Ivan bought the Daily Mail. It’s contains the same stories, but the newspaper is printed in America.
We drove to the Hooters Hotel to see Bobby Slayton. We were early for the show, so we went to the Tropicana Hotel to play video games in the arcade. We saw Bobby Slayton before. Ivan got free tickets, so we decided to go again. He’s very funny. He did have a bunch of new material and some old jokes. It was a good show.. but I did it enjoy it more the first time.
We stopped by to eat at 24/Seven Cafe at the Palms Hotel on Thursday, March 22nd. We shared the Kung Pao Chicken and an Asian Chicken Salad. They both tasted really good. Next, we went to see the movie Funny Games. It’s a thriller. A family is tortured by two gentlemen who make them do disturbing things in order to stay alive. It’s a messed up movie. It was very tense throughout the movie since you weren’t sure what could happen next. If you want to see a twisted thriller.. go watch it.
On March 21st, we had two Austrian couchsurfers staying with us. We took Julie and Kathy to Dos Caminos in the Palazzo. We all shared the Guacamole. It’s certainly the best guacamole I’ve ever had. It’s has fresh ingredients and it’s just so creamy. Mmmm! Ivan and I shared the Cazuela De Queso Fundido with Roasted garlic, artichoke hearts and spinach. You just pile the fundido onto a tortilla and eat it. It’s quite good. Then we had the Roasted Plantain Empanadas. It was tasty. We had two red Sangrias. We shared the Grilled Shrimp Quesadilla. This dish had shrimp, cheese, and spices on a tortilla. It was fried.. wow, it was a delicious entree. The girls went to see La Reve. Ivan and I chilled at Blush inside the Wynn. It was an open bar event for an hour so we had a few drinks. It was nice since they weren’t being strict about people sitting at the VIP tables. We met the girls after their show. We stopped by Diablo’s Cantina at Monte Carlo. We met my cousin Charisse and her friends there. We had a Strawberry Margarita. There’s a balcony on the second floor of Diablo’s. There’s a dancing area and lots of couches to sit at. You can also sit at the bar. It’s really loud here. They play mostly r&b, rap and pop. I don’t really enjoy all the music. The margaritas are really good at Diablo’s.
We went to the pool in the afternoon on Saturday, March 22nd. We swam a bit and then laid out by the pool. It was a little chilly at times since there was a breeze. There was a lot of people at the pool. The jacuzzi was packed. There was only a few people actually in the big pool.
That night, Ivan and I went to Trattoria del Lupo at the Mandalay Bay. The appetizer dish we had was the Roasted Peppers and White Anchovies. It comes with bruschetta and you put the red and yellow peppers and anchovies on top. I don’t like anchovies.. but it’s great with only the peppers. We shared a Marinara Pizza. This had a nice marinara sauce with cheese. We also had another dish the Atlantic Salmon. The salmon was perfectly cooked. I loved it since it was crunchy on top. It was accompanied by spinach and roasted potatoes.
After dinner, we headed to the Events Center to see Fergie. She sang a few of her songs, some Black Eyed Peas songs and a bunch of covers. She sings alright.. but she still looks like a man to me. We left early to head to karaoke.
We met Michelle and Clark and their friends at Kelley’s Pub. Ivan sang “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” with Michelle and Joel. It was quite funny. My friend Alisa came too. Karaoke is always fun. We have some drinks, sing, and laugh. Ivan and I went up to sing “How Much is that Doggy” in the Window? Ivan sang while I did the barking sounds. I didn’t want to do it at first.. but it was actually fun doing the dog sounds. I like listening to people sing.. it’s always funny when they can’t sing. I hate hearing the country music. I just make funny faces during the country songs. Ivan was getting tired so we were going to leave. I told the host Lesley that we would be making an exit. She said we could sing our last song next if we wanted. So, we decided to sing. We sang Sonny and Cher’s I Got You Babe. But, Ivan did the Cher part and I did Sonny’s.
Ivan got me a lovely edible fruit basket yesterday. It’s from Edible Arrangements. The basket is filled with strawberries, chocolate covered strawberries, heart-shaped and flower-shaped pineapples, grapes and cantaloupe balls. The fruits are really fresh and delicious. It’s such a kewl gift! It’s healthy and looks good.
Ivan has a friend he met through one of his hypnosis classes that gives massages. She incorporates hypnosis during the massage session. I had an awesome 90 minute hypnotic massage yesterday after work. I felt so great. This morning, my shoulders are sore. I must carry a lot of stress there since it was worked out a lot in that area. It was definitely a great new experience getting a massage that involved hypnosis.
Last night, Ivan and I went to Dick’s Last Resort at Excalibur with the four couchsurfer girls who are staying with us. This restaurant is known for being rude to you. I like when they make the hats with the insults written on them. Ivan asked straight away if we were going to get hats and the waiter said no. He kept saying no. We thought he was being rude. Ivan questioned him about why. He said that nobody felt like making hats. Good thing they have an area with old hats with great rude sayings on them. Ivan went through them and got us each a hat. The food is average bar food. It’s a fun place where you can throw balled-up napkins at other patrons, get insulted by the staff and donate your bra to the huge bra collection over the bar.
We headed to Body English at the Hard Rock Hotel after dinner. Somehow we got in with a group of guys who were talking to the girls. Ivan had free passes. Body English has great Wednesday nights since it’s house music all night and open bar from 10:30 – 11:30 am. The music was great with music from the 80’s and 90’s. Ivan and I had fun dancing. I didn’t see the girls dancing. The two German girls decided to go to LAX at the Luxor. I had a great day after work.. thanks to Ivan!
I’m behind on events again. Here’s updates on the last two weeks.
Ivan and I went on January 22nd on the Vegas Mob Tour. It’s a bus tour from the Greek Isles Hotel. The tour guide is dressed like a gangster in a pinstriped suit. At the beginning, we watched a short film and then we were off on the tour. The tour took us around Las Vegas and shows where murders and different activities have happened.We learned a lot of information about Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, Tony Spilotro and Frank Rosenthal. The tour guide is very friendly and loves telling stories about the mob. This was a great enjoyable tour.
We went to see V The Ultimate Variety Show at the Miracle Mile Shops on January 23rd. There’s a variety of acts at V. Wally Eastwood is a fast juggler. He’s really good. I love when he juggles and plays the piano. The next act was The Crazy Gouchos who are the fastest balls in the West. They spin around balls that are attached to strings. They’re also very funny as well. Doug de Forest plays the drums loudly during the show. Aerial Expressions are acrobatic artists. But, there was something wrong so we only saw a few minutes of their act. Jason Byrne is a magician who makes birds appear out of thin air. I’m not sure how they just appear out of nowhere. Joe Trammel is known as The TV Guy. He impersonates a variety of celebrities and singers with some inventive props. This is a great show with something for everybody.
We both wanted to check out the new restaurant Koi at the Planet Hollywood. The restaurant has some unique decor. We started off with “Creamy” Rock Shrimp and a spicy tuna roll. It was alright. I had the Grilled Tiger Prawns for my main course. It was a small dish which came with mushrooms and five shrimps on top. The sad part was our appetizer was bigger than my main dish. It was good, but it was the smallest main course I’ve ever had in a restaurant. Ivan had the Miso Bronzed Black Cod. He said it was tender and tasty, but it was rather small. It was a restaurant with expensive average food.
Ivan and I went to the opening night of the show Toxic Audio at Planet Hollywood on January 26th. This is a group of 5 people where they sing a cappella and make all the sounds to make songs. The group contains two ladies and three guys. They create great harmonies along with all the drums and bass. It’s amazing how talented they are. It’s a show you must go experience! I loved when they did Mahna Mahna. I thoroughly enjoyed this show. It was so entertaining and funny.
We planned to go ride dune buggies with Sun Buggy Fun Rentals on January 27th. It was raining in the morning. So, I wasn’t sure if it was still on. There was some confusion that it was canceled. But, it was actually canceled in their location in California. We went out to the Nellis location out by the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Usually, there’s more guys than girls. It was actually four other couples. We thought riding in the packed sand would be faster. But, it was a little slower than normal. It was still a lot of fun. I love going fast and speeding down the high dunes. It’s a little scary and usually makes me a big nauseous. I still enjoy every second of it!
That night we went to see La Reve at Wynn. We went with our roommate Michael and two German couchsurfers. This show is amazing. It’s about a series of dreams. This is mostly performed in the round pool of water in the middle of the theater. It has acrobatics and cool synchronized swimming. We were seated in the front row so it was great seeing everything up close. It’s a show that has lots of interesting and weird things going on. I would recommend this show if you want a unique show.
We went to watch KA at MGM Grand on January 28th. The theater is pretty big. On the sides, there’s three levels where cast members run around, spin and jump off to the next level. This Cirque du Soleil show actually has a plot unlike the other shows in town. It’s about two Imperial twins (a boy and a girl) and their adventures. The boy twin is captured by the enemy. The show has acrobatics, martial arts, and pryotechnics. They do have an expressive rotating stage where they fight and climb up the platform. I wasn’t impressed with this show. I was a bit confused on the storyline. It really wasn’t that interesting to me. I don’t think they should have tried to tell a story. It’s my least favorite out of all the Cirque du Soleil shows I’ve seen in Las Vegas.
Ivan and I went to see Variety Live! Direct from the London Palladium at the Suncoast on January 31st. We were both excited to see this since it would feature a variety of acts. We were seated at a great location, front row a little off center. It started off with Dan Dunn’s Paintjam. He is a guy who creates art live. It’s crazy because it doesn’t look like anything when he’s creating it. But, then near the end.. you see who he’s painting. He did Ray Charles and Elvis Presley. Next, we saw magician and comedian Jeff Hobson. We’ve seen him before at Little Legends. He is very funny. I like when he does the egg trick that some how disappears from a bag and then reappears later. He even makes an audience member make the egg appear from the bag. Then, there was Wolfgang who does some tricks on a spinning wheel. Another act was Kris Kremo who’s a juggler. He juggles balls, hats, and boxes. The act we both wanted to see was ventriloquist Paul Zerdin who’s from England. He had Sam who’s very cute and funny. He even had Sam move by himself at the end singing a song. I wanted to see more of Paul Zerdin since he’s so good. The last act was Soul Mystique – Australian quick costume changers. Wow, they were amazing! I don’t know how they change those costumes so fast. This was exciting to see up close.. but I’m still baffled at how they do this. It was an awesome show. I wish they had more shows like this coming to Vegas.
We only had a small snack before the Variety show. So, we were still hungry after the show. I had noticed The Melting Pot when we were driving to the Suncoast. I heard a lot of good things about The Melting Pot. They serve fondue with different foods and also desserts. We weren’t sure if they were open or not. We went there at around 9:30 pm. The restaurant closes at 10 pm. Ivan asked the hostess if we could still be seated. She said it was available only for desserts. Ivan said no that we’d like to eat some cheese fondue. She said she’d ask if it was still possible. We were seated after the hostess came back. We ordered the Traditional Swiss Cheese Fondue. It came with a vegetable cup which contains carrots, celery and cauliflower, a bread bowl with rye, french and pumpernickel and apple slices. It was delicious. We had an awesome server. I don’t remember his name. But, he was very friendly and cool. Ivan had a lot of fun since he hypnotized me right there in the restaurant. I thought our waiter was Morrissey, George W. Bush and Homer Simpson. The funniest part was when I thought our waiter and the bartender were Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. We had a great a Dark Chocolate Fondue for dessert. It came with strawberries, cheesecake, Rice Krispies, bananas, marshmallows, brownies and pound cake. Wow, that was heavenly! It gave me a sugar rush right to my head. I enjoyed my experience at Melting Pot. It’s a restaurant with great food, but a little pricey.
Ivan and I went to Todai Sushi & Seafood Buffet at Miracle Mile Shops on February 1st. We love this place. They offer great fresh sushi and sashimi. The buffet also has crab legs, tempura shrimp, crab puffs, chicken teriyaki, fried rice and more. They also have a dessert area with little small cakes and cookies. You can also get a crepe made for you with your choice of toppings. This is a great restaurant to have tons of great sushi.
I’m just a bit behind. So, here is the last two weeks’ events. Enjoy!
Ivan and I went to Satay again on January 7th. We got the same appetizers as usual, the Chicken Satay and Rotai Canai. I can’t get enough of that Rotai Canai! Ivan thinks Satay has the best Chicken Satay. Ivan had Mee Goreng. I had the Penang Asam Laksa for the main course. It was a spicy soup with noodles. I’ve never had soup for a meal. It was pretty good. After dinner, we went to go watch the movie Juno. It’s about a teenager named Juno who gets pregnant. She decides to give the baby up for adoption. She finds a loving couple who will adopt her baby. There’s a few things that happen as the story progresses. There’s a bunch of funny moments.. but at times it was rather slow. Ellen Page who plays Juno is the star of the movie. She plays Juno as a strong teenage girl. She becomes friends with Mark, the husband who will be adopting her baby. It shows her relationship with her boyfriend Paulie, played by Michael Cera. It’s a strange story that shows that life sometimes has it’s surprises. It was an interesting, different story that was a little funny.
Ivan and I went to Hawaiian Tropic Zone at Miracle Mile Shops on December 10. It was for an open bar event. There were tasty appetizers going around. They have a dancing area above the bar where the girls dance. At the beginning, the drinks were good. We were really hungry so we decided to eat in the restaurant. We waited 20 minutes and nobody even acknowledged us. Ivan was fed up and went to tell the waitress. A manager came over and said she would find out who our server is. She took our order for the appetizers, which we got the Chicken Lollipops. Finally, our server came over and took our order. The food wasn’t anything spectacular. I guess the only good part was that the meal was free. We went back to the bar after dinner to get a drink. At the end the drinks were so strong, to me it was undrinkable.
Our next stop was The Fashionistas show at The Harmon Theater in the Planet Hollywood. It’s a story about a young woman named Jesse who gets involved in a love triangle with her boss Helena and fashion designer Antonio. Thank goodness the show tells you the basic plot at the beginning. The story is told through dance and music. The soundtrack has some good songs from Tool, Evanescence, Lords of Acid, Led Zeppelin and Madonna. Both of us were lost throughout most of this show. They do add some different elements to the show. Jesse makes a DVD and puts Easter Eggs in it so Antonio can enjoy it. He comes across one that has different fetishes like Boobs or Feet. The choreography was really weak. The outfits were very strange. I’m so glad that this show was free. This show just leaves you confused. It’s definitely the worst show I’ve seen in Las Vegas.
Later in the evening, Ivan and I went to Ivan Kane’s Forty Deuce located in Mandalay Bay. This is a bar that has burlesque dancing. The first song was The Wall. It starts off with helicopter noises. The four ladies came done in a rope from a hole the ceiling. The ladies dance around to the music. They really know how to dance. It was cool when they grabbed onto the pearl curtain behind the stage and hung on.. and they were also hanging from the pipes near the ceiling. I was just amazed at the choreography. It was so much better than the dancing at The Fashionistas show. This was a great show. It’s a definite must-see if you’re ever in Las Vegas.
We went to check out CatHouse at the Luxor on January 11th. It’s a new restaurant and nightclub that recently opened up. The decor was inspired by a European bordello. When you come in, you walk down a curved flight of stairs. You’ll notice numerous erotic photographs on the walls. They have a separate room for dancing. We had a lot of fun dancing for a little while. We went to the restaurant since we had a reservation. We were seated in a booth.. which has nice seats and it’s kind of private. It has curtains on the sides and a cool chandelier. It’s a great cozy spot. We were also seated by the mirror that turns on occasionally. A lady will be behind the mirror… we can see in but she can’t see out. She slowly gets ready trying to pick a hot lingerie outfit.. and she always puts on her makeup. For appetizers, we got the fondue. I’ve never had fondue before. It was a creamy dipping sauce. The dish came with four different things to dip. My favorites were the apples and the walnut bread which has chocolate in it.. wow, it was addicting! I had the linguine with mushrooms and pancetta.. it was very tasty but a bit salty. For dessert, we decided to try the the red velvet cake. It came in two little slices. There was peanut brittle around the cakes. Oh my goodness, the velvet cake is heavenly. It’s not too sweet and goes perfectly with the honeycomb.
Ivan and I went to go watch The Ronn Lucas Show at the Luxor on January 13th. Ronn is a ventriloquist. He has a few different characters including a teenage dragon named Scorch, Buffalo Billy and a punk named Chuck. I really liked Billy. He’s just so funny. Ronn is great at not moving his lips. He can even throw his voice over a feet away. There’s a funny bit he does where he puts a mask over the mouth of somebody from the audience. He then makes the mouth move and makes them say funny things. This show a funny afternoon show that’s reasonably priced.
We ate in the Cafe area on January 14th at Postrio located in the St. Marks Square at the Venetian. I had the House Made Pepperoni pizza. It was really good. It had pepperoni, tomatoes, basil and thin slices of parmesan cheese on top. The pepperonis were sliced very thin and were crunchy. I love Wolfgang Puck’s pizza. They’re just delicious! It’s a great quality pizza when the whole pizza is good including the crust.
Ivan and I went to Tamba open bar event with two Australian couchsurfers and their friends on January 16th. The drinks that were being served were pretty tasty. The event had some nice dance music playing. Unfortunately, there was no appetizers going around so we wanted to order some food. I told the server that I wanted the Karahi Chicken Curry. He recommended that I get the Chicken Tikka Masala Curry instead. I also ordered the garlic naan bread. Ivan had the Chicken Dhan Saag Curry dish. The Australian girls ordered the Chicken Pakora. It’s white meat chicken fried in a batter. It was good. I’m so glad I changed my order. I think I thanked our server twice for telling me about the dish. It was simply delicious. It had a perfect mixture of flavors. The curry was great in rice and also as a dipping sauce. We kept dipping the naan bread into the sauce. I really can’t wait to go back to eat the Chicken Tikka Masala Curry again.
I invited some friends over to play board games on January 18th. Ivan, Michelle and I went to Wal-Mart to go buy some games. I bought Cranium Wow and Uno. Karen came over to play. We cooked up some mozzarella sticks, beef & cheese taquitos and chicken fries. We played Cranium Wow. It’s so much fun! It has a variety of things you do like guessing definitions of words, sculpting an object, charades and drawing with your eyes closed. Michelle and Karen teamed up against Ivan and me. Michelle and Karen were pretty good and won. Later, we had three teams when Michael and his friends Eric and Dallas joined us. Unfortunately, Ivan and I came dead last in the second game. I’m not much of a artist. I should practice hehe. After playing Cranium Wow, Ivan wanted to hypnotize Karen. It seemed like she was going under pretty well. I think what took her out of it was a sound from the laptop. It’s really hard for me to watch since Ivan has hypnotized me numerous times. I get so tired and I just want to close my eyes and go under. I was trying to just listen and not watch but that didn’t work. Ivan was trying to make Karen go deeper into hypnosis. I know he noticed that I kept closing my eyes. So, he hypnotized me and Michelle as well. Ivan’s really quite good at hypnotizing people. He made us dance around to win the disco championship. At one point, I was a crying baby and my two babysitters were trying to make me stop crying. Ivan made us think that we were stuck to each other by super glue. Ivan made us think that every time he said CUT, we would get a cut on our face. Of course, Ivan was prepared with a stack of band-aids. I know we looked rather crazy with so many band-aids on our faces. Ivan also made us speak Martian. Michelle and I were having a great conversation in Martian. Ivan tried out past life on Karen. He asked her who she was. She stated that she was a housewife in the 1800’s from London. She was speaking in a British accent. She didn’t have a clue to where she was. Ivan showed her a cellular phone and she had no clue what it was. I asked her how she got around London. She said that she goes by horse and carriage. Ivan asked her what food she cooked. She said meats or vegetables. He said do you cook it in a microwave. She said what’s that. I asked her what she wore. She said dresses. She looked down at the clothes she was wearing and didn’t understand why she was wearing them. At the end, Ivan put in Karen’s head that she would think the Valet guy or girl would be a long lost friend. We proceeded down to the lobby to retrieve the girls’ cars. Karen swore that she recognized the Valet guy. She didn’t know how she knew him but she did. He was dumbfounded. He said that he was from back East. She said you moved and then you came back. Ivan finally told the poor Valet guy that she was just hypnotized. He didn’t seem to believe it though. Ivan told Karen that her body would be hard as steel. He moved her body letting her fall. Sure enough, she was flat as a board as she fell backwards. The Valet guy still wasn’t convinced. Ivan then told her that she worked at Valet and that the Valet guy was the imposter and had stolen her clothes. She went to confront him and said why are you wearing my clothes. Ivan also made Karen’s feet stick to the ground. She couldn’t move her feet at all. She kept trying as hard as she could. She fell over on her butt.. but her feet were still firmly planted on the ground. I think the Valet guy believed it at this point. I’m definitely a firm believer that hypnosis works.
