Las Vegas

Well I haven't written in a long long time, lots of work. The Bears lost the Superbowl, I don't want to talk about it. Afterwards though at 5 am I flew to Las Vegas to set up for a convention. For the last couple of months I have been working really hard manufacturing some huge displays for a flooring company. It is very time consuming because there are massive metal displays that nobody has made before, so I need to not only figure out the best way to make them but at the same time show everyone else how to make them.

Las Vegas was cool I have not been there since Al and Shea's 21st birthday years ago. I was lucky enough to stay at the newest hotel on the strip this time, the Wynn. This hotel was no joke, it was huge and portrayed itself well, as being one of the nicest on the strip. It had all the normal casino amenities, but then added in a few things that made you realize you were in an expensive hotel. Things such as the Ferrari dealership right near the front, the three Italian named stores right in view of the entrance, stores so fancy that when you walked in they ask for your financial statements and all the stores have the guys in black suits guarding the doors. What was also nice was the layout some casinos just blast you with lights and noise but this one was... well obviously not subtle, but not at all annoying. As you walked into the registration area they had a nice little outdoor patio that looked out at a man made waterfall and lake, at night the lake would light up with all different colors. I didn't really have time to enjoy the casino though once I got to my hotel room I was off to the convention center across the street. Here is where most of my time would be spent.

For the next several hours Chris, my customer, and I were setting up displays for the Surfaces Show, a convention showing off any product that covers a surfaces, in our case wood flooring. When I walked into this place I could not believe how big it was, the ceilings was as high as the United Centers and the overall space was probably 500,000 square feet. The booth or area that we were to be setting up our product in was something like 5,000 square feet. The space next to us for another flooring company was 10,000 ft. These things were massive, one booth had several rooms and even stairs going up to a second level. All the stuff for these booths were being made as we stood there. People were erecting lighting systems, huge plasma screen TVs, anything to get people to come to there spot was being done. We even saw people walking a group of attractive women through there booth who would later be the ones working the space in some what scandeles outfits.

After the first day we were still not done but we had to eat. Also we were waiting on the other display people to move some equipment around so we could work. You would think this would be a good thing that I got to leave a couple hours early the first day, but I was stressing out so much about something going wrong the next day that I couldn't bring myself to go crazy in the casinos, plus its weird being in Vegas all by yourself, it makes you feel depressed. I did gamble but very minimally on the first day. Sat at the bar and played the slots while I had a drink then went looking for food.

The next day went really well and I got everything set up, luckily before I had to leave, my plane flight was for early afternoon. Before I left though I told Chris I needed to quickly stop and give the casino some of my money so we sat down at a roulette table and 5 minutes later, literally, maybe even less I lost $40, so not bad, but I wish I could have spent a little more time. I did place a bet on the Bears to win the Super Bowl for next year, 8-1 odds, not bad. They have the Chargers winning it all, ha, not without any coaches. Well works been slowing sort of, so I will start to try and write more often.

more pics here