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The plane was an hour late, which made us 2am getting into Houston, instead of 1am as scheduled (as if that wasn't bad enough already - what was I thinking?) However, I guess 3 nights on Pacific time was enough to start to get accustomed to the later hours and it really wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be. I have had a sleeping pill and I am unwinding before I crash, and I am planning to sleep as late as I possibly can tomorrow. I may have caught Rob's cold; at least, I have been sniffling and sneezing all day - hard to know with me if it's a cold or just the usual allergic crap. (Rob had the one really bad day on Christmas Day but was better after that, so hopefully if it is a cold it will at least follow that pattern and not be a bad one.)

I have already written some stuff down about Vegas so I won't try to duplicate that; I'll just transcribe it tomorrow. And I'm certainly not messing with pictures right now. I will say that we came out moderately ahead on the gambling overall, due to the last-minute winnings, although we hadn't lost a great deal in the first place. Interestingly, my win at TI and Rob's at the airport were exactly the same number of "credits" - except I was playing on a dollar machine and Rob was playing on a 25-cent one so I won 4 times as much. We developed sort of a hit and run theory of playing the slots - play for short periods, leave before you lose too much; the minute you win anything significant (y'know, more than a couple of dollars) then cash out. Go to the next casino down the street and repeat. But I had always intended to play some higher-dollar machine before we left.

Trip report, part 1

Christmas Day, about 7pm - Hobby Airport, Houston

Rob has a cold. He is sneezing and sniffling but doesn't seem to be in distress, so at least it appears to be just a cold and not the flu. He has gone off to get Chinese food now so I reckon he's gonna live.

So far the passengers to Vegas don't look like an especially festive bunch. Maybe they will perk up when they get on the plane. (note: they never particularly did) I've been on flights to Vegas that were like a rolling party all the way. On the other hand, it might be best that people don't appear to be getting on the plane already soused. It's a long flight.

We got here really early and I am a bit worried about my car. We parked in the big garage, which better turn out to have decent security because most of our Christmas presents are in the trunk. The economy lot was full - I was not too surprised about that. We probably could've driven around and found a cheaper lot with space open but I was unmotivated.


December 26, 11pm (Pacific) – Treasure Island, Las Vegas

Wow, I am tired. But unlike the last time I spent a day walking around in Las Vegas, I still have skin on the bottom of my feet, so I guess I'm doing ok.

Let's see, the flight was a bit bumpy but otherwise ok. I had a book so I wasn't too bored. Rob mostly just sat and sniffled. When we landed he went flying off (so to speak) looking for a bathroom – that Chinese food he ate at the other airport apparently didn't agree with him. Between that and the cold he was really not in great shape by the time we got to the hotel.

I posted already about the shuttle, didn't I? About the guy at Bally's who didn't have enough money for the shuttle? I guess he did have a ticket home, he just didn't have enough to pay the shuttle fare to the airport. Honestly, even though I am not generally a gigantic do-gooder, if I had understood the situation in time, *I* would have pitched in a dollar for the poor guy. I was really just sort of astounded, though – you hear stories about people losing everything gambling but I think in my heart I didn't really think anybody could be that stupid. (Should've known better!) The shuttle bus driver told us about it after we left Bally's – we were the only passengers by that time – and he said, “I just didn't have the Christian charity in my heart to take him.” I suspect that being a shuttle bus driver in Vegas tends to make you a bit jaded, don't you?

So, TI looks about the same as the last time I was here – I mean, I wasn't ever upstairs but the casino has the same tiki-hut sort of theme going. But the rooms are very nice, actually. We are on the 22nd floor and you can still hear the traffic – but not enough to be a bother. The ice machine across the hall is a lot more distracting, really. There are a good many youngish people staying here – by which I mean twenty-somethings, not kids – so the noise level generally is a bit on the high side but it quieted down by the time we actually went to sleep, luckily. We have a view that looks past the Mirage and across toward the Rio and the mountains beyond, a flat-screen TV, a very comfortable bed and a marble-floored bathroom. And the whole wall on one side of the bedroom is mirrored. (That part I could really do without.)

Everybody's favorite show, the Sirens of TI, has been dark for over a month and they were supposed to start up again tonight – if they did there were bound to have been some awfully nipply sirens. It's cold. It's not too bad as long as the wind isn't blowing but every once in a while there's a big gust... brrr.