Picture(s) A Day – 19 February 2010

I’d like to start off this post by thanking everyone for their support in the past week along with their continued understanding when I’m slow to post during times like these.  Today (20 February 2010) was largely spent resting up after a stressful week.  Aside from that, I helped out Ulises with some technical issues relating to firearms (he’s got computers down and he’s a great tech at work ) and he was kind enough to buy dinner at IHOP as a way of paying me back.  It was greatly appreciated, but entirely unnecessary – I’m doing what I can to help out a friend

The pics here are actually from Friday night.  Yep, Kyleigh, Anthony, and I headed down to Mr. Lucky’s for dinner   What’s more, Kyleigh just got her first car and decided that she should drive for a change which worked out great for me – I got to just relax and give directions

19 February 2010 - The appetizer - super jumbo shrimp with Ketel One cocktail sauce

19 February 2010 - Kyleigh and Anthony's fajita dinner

19 February 2010 - My 'Three Sevens" special - steak, shrimp, fries, and salad for $7.77

19 February 2010 - Dessert - We shared a hot fudge sundae 8)

With no warning whatsoever, Anthony insisted on buying dinner for which I was very thankful   I always look forward to nights like these – good friends, good food, and good fun in Las Vegas of all places – it just don’t get much better than that

19 February 2010 - Close-up of the waterfall wall at City Center

19 February 2010 - The waterfall wall at City Center in full flow

19 February 2010 - The waterfall wall at City Center surging

After dinner we found our way to City Center which is a group of hotels, shops, and condos which collectively cost over $9,000,000,000 (yes, that’s NINE BILLION DOLLARS!!!).  I wish I could live there, but I haven’t worked hard enough yet.  Truly, we were all impressed with the new place – it wasn’t just like all the other places with the decorations and theme which was refreshing.

But City Center was impressive for far more than that – I have to say that I felt like I was treated as a high value customer even though they didn’t know whether I’d spend any money there.  From the free valet parking (yes, we left a tip – I used to do that job once upon a time ) which was done with impeccable professionalism to the people whose job it was merely to stand in the cold night air in finely pressed suits and to open the doors for people, the place made me feel like they wanted me there.  That’s becoming more rare these days and I applaud City Center for going the extra mile to exceed my expectations

Times like last night go a long way to reminding me that I have an incredibly great life.  Really, I can’t say enough just how awesome it is that even during the current recession I can go out to a fine meal with good friends and then go to a place like City Center where I feel like I’ve been transported into a book or movie about The Roaring Twenties that’s been updated to modern times in which we’re the lead characters.  Las Vegas, the entertainment capitol of the world, is our playground.  There’s no place quite like it and it’s ours.  Millions of people pay thousands of dollars to travel to Las Vegas.  They pay hundreds of dollars per night to stay in a hotel here.  My friends and I only have to drive about 30 minutes to be in the middle of all that.  If we save up just a bit, we can enjoy some of the best restaurants, the best shows, and the best of just about everything else to be found anywhere in the world.  We’re some of the lucky ones – we’ve got Vegas and we’ve got each other, and we’ve got good friends!

I’ve gotta go now – it’s getting late and I still have some preparations to make for Uli and my trip to a remote desert location tomorrow morning for the purpose of practicing modern martial arts with some of our own tools as well as with tools which belong to someone else which would normally be denied to average Citizens by the Federal Government.  I’ll let you think about what that might mean for now, but I will say that there’s going to be video and pictures, and lots of fun

Have a great Sunday everyone