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Saturday: I was playing a slot machine at Bally's when Marisa phoned me to ask if I needed a ride to the Pre-DLV thing. I said I was planning to jump into a taxi (very short ride). It sounded like Marisa wanted some company, so I cashed out (I was slowly losing) and took a taxi down to Firefly. When I got there, there were more present, so it looked like we were off to a good start.
I didn't recognize Cynthia {blush} and I swear her hair was different from what I remember.
Disappointing turnout.
I think we had 9 in total. Last few years we always got 20-some at these.I bummed a ride to Paris and met Densie and Tony at the bar and after a few drinks we took a taxi to the theater to see RHPS.
I've seen RHPS well over 100 times now, but I still enjoy it and the local cast (Frankie's Favorite Obsession) presentation definitely had a lot more polish than most casts have. They were not using many of the classic call-back lines that were so funny and appropriate, such as:
Frank: A mental mind f*ck can be nice.
Audience: But a body f*ck is nicer!
Janet: Oh Brad! {sigh}
Audience: Oh Brad! Oh Janet! Oh sh*t!
... and the classic ...
Audience: Incest - is best - put your sister to the test.
No other DLVers that we could see were there. Huh?
Anyway, we took a taxi over to Crewsn to kind of check out the place, since we hadn't seen it yet. All of us had seen it as Keys and Zingers but never Crewsn. Crewsn is definitely a bit downscale from what Zingers was. Not as plush, but I recognized some of the furniture.
We took a taxi back to Bally's and Paris, I think.
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Sunday: I think I woke up and did the breakfast bar in the coffee shop at Bally's.
I did a power nap and recovered that afternoon.
I was hostessing the Caesars HH and din-din. We had a fairly good turnout, maybe 12 or so but not all of the same people for HH and dinner. I prefer to break up large groups when I am hostessing things like this, so we split up and used available tables. My dinner was perfectly fine, but Ginger did not enjoy hers for some reason. Caesars is one of the more spendy buffets but it is usually very good.
I bummed a ride to Crewsn, as I was supposed to hostess the "alternative" gathering, but when I arrived there was Crystal who was supposed to be hostessing the "mainstream" gathering up at PT's. Apparently that broke up early, so some of that group surfed on down to Crewsn. I mostly shot the $#!+, checked some people in, sold some limo tickets, and listened to Bob and Susan's show. Nice low-key evening.
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Monday: I took a taxi over to Studio Lites for the Open House. I don't really buy that much there, but Chris and Rick are really sweet and we always get a good gang there.
I got a ride over to Stratosphere to do LWG and it was very good. The Stratosphere Buffet is very under-rated, and it's really a good value.
Monday evening - Oh wow! That's gonna be a very hard act to follow!
I really have to say that the Artisan Welcome Celebration was the best activity of all time! We had an exceptional turnout, well over 110, but we never got an exact count since people were arriving and wandering all over the place.
The Artisan is a very classy place and really hits that "sweet spot" between comfort and mainstreamness, if that is indeed a word.
Ginger gave us a ride down to the Beauty Bar. We valet parked at El Cortez and made like we were going to the casino, but we walked out the front door and over to Beauty Bar.
I was expecting to see Densie there, but no Densie. Tony had tried to give me a call but I didn't hear it, so I finally realized I had a missed call and by that time, Densie and Tony were back at the hotel. Apparently the Karaoke machine (is Karaoke a proper noun?) would not play Densie's CDs, so she left in a huff with Tony in tow before the rest of us got there.
I had a great time! We had a smaller crowd than last year, but that's to be expected since our Welcome Celebration last year was an easy walk. LOL, the bouncer insisted on a hug when I left.
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Tuesday: I had a difficult decision to make. I wanted to do both the Shiloh Horse Rescue side trip and the Neon Boneyard, but I figured that it was a time crunch just waiting to happen, plus, I wouldn't get my power nap.
I figured that the Shiloh Ranch was something I would never do on my own, but I would probably do the Neon Museum eventually, so Shiloh was the way I went. I'm not outdoorsy at all, and I admit that I have a hard time telling a burro from a mule. I do seem to have a way with animals, so I got along with most of them. I was a bit shy about letting them eat out of my hand. I could imagine losing a finger or two.
Shiloh Ranch is a horse rescue project run by Jill Curtis and her mother. Jill is the widow of Tony Curtis (yes, *that* Tony Curtis) and this has been their pet project for some time. Over 150 horses of all ages and condition, mules, burros, and tons of dogs, at least one pig, llama and some llama-like creature which I can't remember the name of which they said to stay back from since he spits.
I *REALLY* enjoyed the Shiloh Ranch!
For most of the tour I had a burro (or was he a mule?) named Charlie following me around, as well as a few dogs, one of which was a real ankle-biter.
LOL, the burro reminded me of an exchange years ago that I saw on the Tonight Show when Johnny Carson was hosting and Joan Embry was the guest, with a live burro ...
Joan: Now the burro is a member of the ass family.
Johnny: Yes, kind of like my ex in-laws.
Rosada gave me a ride there, and I offered to donate to their gas fund, but she asked me to add that to my donation to the Horse Rescue project, which I did.
We had lunch at the Gold Strike in Jean at the buffet. I had eaten there once before and remembered it as totally 144, but it was cheap and now and it was not as bad as I remembered it to be. It was very OK, but lacked the Charles Atlas Seal Of Approval.
I did a power nap that afternoon, remembering to take a double dose of Claritin, as I was sure that the trip to Shiloh would make my allergies go into overdrive. Nope, not then, that was to happen Friday.
I woke from the power nap and decided to do some power shopping over at FSM. I dropped into Bare Escentuals and the one lady there remembered me from last year. I ate dinner at the Food Court and then wandered over to the Erotic Heritage Museum which is catercorner to the mall.
The Erotic Heritage Museum was much more extensive than I had expected. Two floors with a lot of artwork and paraphernaliaand such. Quite a bit of TG related stuff. They had a few of the 70s vintage TG magazines and I asked them if they would like me to donate more, since I do have some vintage DRAG (published by Lee Brewster) and Transvestia (published by Virginia Prince) and the like.
One particular item they had, apparently as a curiosity, was a full-scale 35mm Simplex theatrical projector, very similar to one I had operated back in my college days. It looked to me to be restorable, but they said they had no plans to do so. Besides, those things need to be used in pairs, are very labor-intensive to operate, and produce a lot of heat. They do produce a brilliant and crisp image on the screen, which is something those raised on the multiplexes have absolutely no recollection of.
After the EHM, JoAnn and I rode over to Crewsn, both to do some Limo Tour business and to watch Densie and Tony do Karaoke. We were in the Soft Room and it must have looked to onlookers like we were doing a dope deal or something, counting out the Limo Tour $$$ and such.
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Wednesday: Norma, who normally is the hostess at the Harmony Nail Spa Open House, had to cancel this year, so I said I would fill in. I took a taxi down to Commercial Center and hung around and welcomed the others. I really did not expect such a spread of food! I did expect wine, but this was a full fledged meal!
I had planned to do Lunch With Ginger, but decided to eat at HNS instead and sample their various wine parings with the offerings.
I phoned Ginger and apologized for being a no-show at LWG, but she said I didn't miss much as the Harrah's Buffet, whichis usually one of the better ones, was not as good as it had been in the past.
Power nap time! That wine was a major general anesthetic!
For a few years now we've done Happy Hour prior to Milano's over at the Hard Rock, but that never really attracted much of a crowd. We used to do it at Freezone, but since they have again become restroom nazis, quite a few of our people, including me, will not go there.
This year we decided to do pre-Milano's HH at The Buffalo, which we have not visited for several years, but they were always friendly to us and did not appear to suffer from the anal-cranial inversion syndrome. It was a much better turnout than we got at Hard Rock and everybody seemed to like the place.
We wandered down to Milano's and totally took the place over. I apologized to the manager for overwhelming the place but he was not concerned and said they appreciated the business.
Milano's is one of the best kept secrets in Las Vegas. It's just a hole in the wall, or in this case a hole in the mall, but the food is excellent and you do get a lot for what you pay! They have quite a menu, not only pizza and pasta.
Anyway, we finished up at Milanos and wandered back to The Buffalo to begin the Bar Crawl. This year we tried to focus on places we didn't always hit, and our next stop was Charlie's, which was a mistake!
Let's see, how do I put this? Looking for just the right words here. Oh yes. IT WAS TOO F*CKING LOUD!
I like loud music, and for me to say it was too {expletive} loud is saying it was extremely loud. We had one drink and left, and some departed earlier for our next stop, Escape.
That was much better! Jeez! I don't know what Charlie's was trying to do, but it was obnoxiously loud and nobody was dancing so there was no point to it!
We hung around Escape for a while to recover our hearing and then headed down to Crewsn to meet up with the Classy To Sassy gang.
I think we were kinda late to CTS, and I expected some there to be in more exotic outfits, but I really didn't see anything extreme at all.
We had a few more drinks there. Some apparently went over to Krave, but I stayed at Crewsn, having had more loud music that evening than I could ever stand plus Krave has a cover.
Densie, Tony, and I went to Bally's where I was staying and we played for a while and had a few more free drinks, which was the last thing I should have had! I eventually staggered up to the room, I think, I know I woke up there the next morning.
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Thursday: I didn't feel like any more beer! (I wonder why?)
I think I did the breakfast bar at Bally's.
It was cold and windy! Definite Bad Hair Day!
I took a taxi over to the Artisan for the Volunteers And Prospective Volunteers Social. I was the first one there and I kinda wanted something to drink, but did not want beer yet, so I ordered a glass of "some kind of red house wine" and was somewhat surprised at the $12 price tag! Jeez! I nursed that one glass for an hour or so!
JoAnn was to be there to do some cheerleading, but she totally spaced it off, so I kind of hostessed it. We had quite a few of our more active volunteers plus a few new ones who appeared to be very enthusiastic. We had several good ideas for things to come, many of which I'm sure will appear on next year's DLV schedule.
We went to the restaurant and some did lunch. I was not very hungry at all, so I just had one more glass of wine which was much cheaper in the restaurant for some reason.
I got a ride back to the hotel from Jane, and I thought I was going to be blown into Utah from the wind!
Power nap time!
I came back to life and thought I was going to be unfashionably early for Trevi, but there were others there before me.
Trevi is always a great meal. I for one appreciate the fact that they will serve a group such as us from the full menu and allow separate checks. I know the service is a bit slower that way, but I think it's a realistic compromise.
The Limo Tour has been one of my all-time favorites throughout the history of DLV. This year it was cold and windy! I wish I had taken a jacket. The warmest item I had was a hoodie sweater and that really wasn't all that warm. I survived, however, and had a great time on the tour, even though I stayed in the car at the Paris stop and consumed the beverages.
At the Four Queens I pulled out $1 and started futzing around on a video poker machine. By when it was time to load up, that had grown to $11. Yeah, it ended up in the driver's tip envelope. Chris, who was our driver, was fantastic!
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Wow, Friday already.
I went back to the room to clean up and to try to find something warmer, which I didn't, and wandered off in the direction of the Charles Bar. It was COLD crossing the pedestrian bridge over LVB.
Charles was glad to see us. I had a few drinks after increasing the limit on the Visa card. Charles makes a mean drink and is very personable, but the Bellagio ain't cheap! I got out of there when I realized that if I had one more drink I would have to be carried out.
I woke up in time to do Lunch With Ginger at the Paris Buffet, which I have to say was the best lunch of this trip. Paris Buffet costs a bit more than most, but it is very good and well worth it. What really surprised me was that the line was tolerably short! I've never seen it when the line did not extend out of the queue and into the hallway.
Power nap! ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz!
I was told that we were not going to be getting the "Gazebo Room" at Bahama Breeze this year, so when I arrived I parked myself at the main bar, ordered a drink, and waited for others. Then I was told by somebody (who??) "we're over there ..." while pointing to the Gazebo Room! Yes!
We had a great turnout at Bahama Breeze, and we were in the room with kind of a steel drum "Jamaaacaaa Monn" entertainer who had quite a few dancing.
Although I do like the food at BB, I was not hungry having pigged out for lunch at the Paris Buffet, so I hung around, had a few drinks, and socialized. We had over 100 in attendance, but I could never get an accurate count.
Last stop! Cabaret Lounge at Paris.
We had a few people in the lounge, but I planted myself in a very conspicuous seat at a table outside the lounge to snag those in our group wandering by and directing them to where the group was. Quite honestly, it was almost difficult to tell who was with our group and who was not. The gang blended very well into the overall mix of people that evening.
Fortunately they did have a band. I had stopped in there on a Friday last July and was kind of disappointed that they had only a deejay.
The band was good, but it wasn't the same group which had been playing there.
We had quite a few of our group out on the dance floor and several hung around until all hours.
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Wow what a week! I have to say that DLV 2011 was the most fun of any I've attended so far. Thanks again to all who organized and participated for making the event what it was!
Then I went to the Classy to Sassy night at Crewsn.
