Birthday Girl

The birthday girl with her birthday "cake."

Yesterday was Ms. Lucki Duck's birthday, the big five-oh. My 30th and 40th birthdays didn't really bother me, but my 50th was different. At fifty, you can no longer assume that you have more than half your life ahead of you. It was a time time of reflection, asking yourself if you like and respect the person you have become and if not, what changes you need to make.

It was moving day for us, checking out of the Orleans at noon, with check in at three at the Encore. So we had some time to kill. The birthday girl decided she wanted to go to the Cheesecake Factory at the Forum Mall for lunch. She had some concoction called "Chinese Chicken Salad" that she said was good. I went with the soup and salad, with the soup of the day being cheese with broccoli. I'm not a big fan of broccoli, but the soup was very tasty. Ms. Lucki Duck's birthday cake was a slice of strawberry cheesecake, which she shared with me.

Mmmmmmm.

From there, we headed over to Caesars and played some Double Bonus video poker, with the birthday girl clipping them for about $50 bucks. Must be her lucki day!

We stopped at a few shops on the way out. For all you Bears fans, Dick Butkus was at Field of Dreams signing autographs (for a fee). He may be 70 years old, but he's still on tough lookin' son of a gun!

We walked over to the Mirage and donated about $20 to their casino, picked up our car, and headed over to the Encore to check in. The registration line was long, but moved rapidly, with our wait no longer than 15 minutes. Our room is way up there, 53rd floor to be exact. Wow, what a view! You can see both the golf course and the strip.



Room view of golf course.



Room view of Strip

 The room is very nice, with contemporary furnishings. It's actually more of a mini-suite, with a separate bedroom and living area. It has a full sized couch, with end tables and coffee table. Also, a work station with free internet (which is why you're getting these updates), and a bar. The bar has a full fridge of drinks and there are also snacks in the room. For a price.

A bag of potato chips? $8. Twelve ounce soft drink? $5. Want to have room service bring you a pot of coffee, which is four cups worth? $27.

I'm glad we made the trip to Walmart last Saturday.

After unpacking, we headed out to the strip, stopping for a sandwich at Ray & Joe's (or something like that), then walking thru the Wynn, Palazzo and Venetian. We came back to play at the Encore, with the birthday girl winning a little over $70 on a "Red Rooster" slot machine. It was her day! I was also a big winner, relieving $2 from the Wynn Inc coffers.

I'm sure the Wynn Board of Directors is in an emergency meeting, trying to decide how to counteract the cash-flow problems we have caused them with our big win. Perhaps they'll be able to withstand the huge loss we put on 'em, but if you own stock in the company, do you really want to take that chance? I bet the stock is dropping as you read this. SELL!

The birthday gal with some guy.

I'm hoping to get together with lightning36 today or tomorrow. I had suggested breakfast, but he said breakfast didn't fit his concept of Vegas.

Lightweight. LOL!

Till next time, win the flips.