On my last day in Las Vegas, I once again walked a lot - about four or five miles. I thought of something I should have bought at the Star Trek place, so I caught the monorail from Harrah’s to the Hilton. I spent forever in the gift shops again, and got what I needed.

My next stop was to be Luv-It Frozen Custard, which I’d read about somewhere or other. I had only had a muffin for breakfast and the custard shop didn’t open until 1pm, so I figured I’d get lunch on the way. It was a little confusing as I made my way back to the Strip on foot; I had figured I’d be able to get there if I just headed for the big buildings. It was extremely windy, and all day as I walked along I got dust, sand, and grit in my teeth and eyes. It wasn’t pleasant but there also wasn’t anything I could really do about it.

The only place I stopped along the way was a head shop to take a picture of the funny sign they had on display, so I ended up getting to the custard place about 40 minutes before it opened. I wasn’t the only person to arrive early - at about 5 minutes to 1:00 a guy pulled up and sat in his car waiting. Once the place opened I had to wait a bit more for the flavor of the day, but then I got my treat and headed back to the Strip.

I passed the Stratosphere but decided the rides at the top probably weren’t operating due to the high winds, so I didn’t go up. I kept walking, and I suddenly noticed that the NASCAR Café had a roller coaster in front of it - and it was operating! I had thought I’d already hit all the coasters on the Strip, but since I hadn’t been on this one I went in and paid $10 to ride. When I was done I headed right back out to the Strip and kept walking south.

I was heading for the Mirage, because I wanted to see the white tigers and the dolphin habitat. We had passed the tiger display the night before going to the Love shop, but the big cats had already been put to bed for the night. I cut through Treasure Island to get to the Mirage, and headed for the dolphin area first. Let me tell you: that is the biggest ripoff on the Strip. They had three dolphins doing tricks in a main pool for just a few minutes, and then they were put back into a small, featureless pool with underwater viewing windows. If you’re not familiar with dolphins, you might not know this, but they are extremely intelligent and require play and ways to entertain themselves. Their holding pool was 100% empty, but the permanent “smiles” on their faces fooled most visitors into thinking they were happy anyway. There were two more dolphins in a huge research pool elsewhere, but those two were just hanging out by the gate, hoping to get let through. I was so disappointed at the situation these dolphins were in that I couldn’t even look at the garden included in the $15 admission price. If you have ever seen a dolphin elsewhere, then you already know what they look like, so don’t waste your money visiting these. I’d love to do the Mirage’s $500 “trainer for a day” program and find out more about their facilities, and why they treat them the way they appear to be treating them. On my way out, I went by the tiger display, where there was a single bored-looking white tiger pacing and occasionally catching a drink.

I got back to the hotel and I was ready to relax for a couple of hours, but A’s training let out early and she came in 45 minutes after I did. We decided to have dinner at Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba, a tapas place that was recommended to me. The wait for an inside table was 30 minutes, but they had those patio warmers around the outdoor seating, so that’s where we sat, and we were plenty warm! Their specialty seems to be sangria, so we ordered half a pitcher of passionfruit sangria and some tapas. We finished the sangria pretty quickly and the waiter offered to bring us some more, so we ended up having a merry time during dinner. I took A into the Wynn on the way back so she could see their lovely bright mosaic floors. Once we were back in the hotel room, she started to pack and I started on my solemn duty of drinking up all the leftover soda and vodka - so I had a very fun last few hours in Vegas.

Our trip home today was entirely uneventful. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time, waited in the long security line, and headed for the gate. The flight itself was long with lots of turbulence, but otherwise fine.

I did a lot of walking yesterday - about six miles. I played on the computer for a while in the morning, had a way over-priced breakfast in the Grand Canal Shoppes, and then set out around 11:30 for the roller coaster at New York-New York. I got to the casino about 30 minutes later, and it’s 1.5 miles, so that’s right about average walking speed for a human.

The line for the ride was pretty short, but I was annoyed that I’d had to put everything into a locker. I was there by myself, so without my Sidekick or iPod I had nothing to do. But the line moved along pretty quickly, and I rode by myself (with nobody next to me, that is) in about the middle of the train. The coaster itself was really good, probably because I had no idea what was coming. The entrance and queue are inside, and from street level you can’t see much of the track, so it was all a surprise and I enjoyed it.

I thought I’d go over to the M&M’s World across the street and see about getting lunch there, but it turned out to be just a giant store. I put together a bag of M&M’s from the colormix section, but that was all I felt like getting. I had lunch at a Mexican place next door and then went back to the hotel, walking through the Aladdin’s shopping mall area. It’s too bad they are tearing it down, it’s really attractive - the interior architecture makes me think of browsing a market in Casablanca.

In the evening, we had tickets to see Zumanity, the naughty show by Cirque de Soleil. We had a hard time getting my purple corset closed because my jeans were baggy, but we managed and A laced me up. We were going to take the Deuce bus to the show but the driver went right past us, so we scrambled to get a cab instead. The show itself was Cirque’s usual type of thing, but with more boobies. I really could have done without the heterosexist commentary from the guy on the left, though. There is one male homoerotic scene, and the guy was saying “ew” to himself. The rest of the time, if the performer was male, he was saying things like “where are the chicks,” and then when they appeared he said “yeah, now we’re talking” - I swear I wanted to pop him a good one. But overall the show was very good, although our seats could have been better.

We decided to walk back, and I saw a number of women staring at my waist, heh! We stopped in at the Mirage to visit the gift shop for Cirque’s show “Love,” which is set to Beatles tunes. I didn’t find anything there for myself because the pretty stuff was so expensive, oh well.

Wednesday was a day of showmanship. I did very little in the morning, just stayed close to the hotel because I knew A’s conference would be letting out around noon. I did make it back down to the Flamingo to take pictures in the habitat, at least.

In the afternoon, we took the shuttle to the Liberace Museum, which was great. I don’t know why I find Liberace cool and Elton John annoying, but I do. The museum has a bunch of his cars and pianos in one building, and then in another building they have his costumes (including one that weighs 200 pounds ) and replicas of some of his rooms. The second building is adjacent to the original restaurant Liberace opened in the 1980s, but that wasn’t open while we were there. The costumes are just astonishing…did you know he was the first entertainer to convince the IRS to allow him to deduct the cost of his costumes when tax time rolled around? The onsite cafe wasn’t that great, but the gift shop was fun - A got this cool shirt to wear for patriotic holidays at work (and so forth); I wanted this shirt but I already bought a Hello Kitty Las Vegas shirt (at the Sanrio store in Fashion Show Mall) and I couldn’t bring myself to spend $35 on this one. I did get the World of Liberace DVD though.

I was a little cranky in the afternoon, but we went to the Bellagio for shopping. The water ballet was performing when we got there, but my camera’s batteries died again. When we were done in the Bellagio, we got a bite to eat in the food court at Caesars Palace. We took a quick nap back in the hotel room and then it was time to go see Penn & Teller! The shuttle from Harrah’s was full of people who had already started drinking, but we made it to the Rio just fine. The show was awesome. I have never seen them live before, and I still don’t think I’ve seen everything…my jaw was hanging open and I was cracking up the whole time! I noticed that Penn has got really amazing hands. He plays the double bass in the preshow band and during the show itself, and obviously he’s a magician, but his hands were just so animated. I kept expecting him to break into sign language, because his hands were always moving into different shapes and I felt like they were communicating. So when the show ended, I realized I wanted to take a picture of his hands. How weird is that? But he let me do it, and so did Teller, who actually talks to the audience after the show. Penn accused me of planning something nefarious involving Photoshop!

We had a great time last night at the Star Trek Experience! I was practically skipping through the casino of the Las Vegas Hilton, following the signs to the attraction. We bought our tickets first, and then went downstairs to Quark’s Bar to get dinner. We decided to be brave and order a full-size Warp Core Breach, which is $25 and has 10 ounces of liquor. It comes in a giant fishbowl with dry ice coming off the top! Believe it or not, we managed to finish it all by ourselves, which is more than the next table did, and they had three people working on it! Of course, I was more than a little loopy by the time we finished dinner, but it was fun. The giant drink, plus two entrees and a dessert, only came to $60 - and our table was visited by a Ferengi, a Klingon, and an Andorian. How cool is that?! I would seriously not mind going there all the time.

After dinner, we looked around in the gift shop; to my dismay I didn’t find anything there to get. So we got in line for the ride, starting with Klingon Encounter because that’s the one you’re usually told to start with. Unfortunately something went wrong with that one, so we ended up seeing Borg Invasion 4D first. It was rather disappointing - you’re given 3D glasses to wear, but they didn’t work very well for me, because I kept seeing double anyway. It was also kind of annoying that Robert Picardo was obviously reading cue cards the entire time. Once we finally made it onto Klingon Encounter, that one was much better - it’s a full-motion simulator, for one thing, and the “interaction” with the characters (Riker and Geordi, mostly) was much better.

I would be totally thrilled to have a job at the Star Trek Experience. To work in that environment every day must be awesome. I only wish I could have found a decent souvenir to take home!

Could I please have a little less frustration on this trip? This morning I got to the Tropicana with no problems by taking a bus, but then when I went to the box office with my confirmation email there was a sign saying the Titanic exhibit was closed until further notice. The woman behind the desk claimed that I was automatically refunded when the exhibit closed last Saturday, but she didn’t know when it would be reopening. She was rather rude about it - I guess she’s been dealing with this a lot.

So since I was down at that end of town, I figured I’d go on the Manhattan Express roller coaster at NY-NY. I got all the way through the casino and up to the entrance, only to find that it wouldn’t open until 11:00am. By this point I was pretty annoyed! I figured I would move my afternoon plans up and head down to the Golden Nugget to meet the deaf dealer there. I had to wander through just about every hallway at the MGM Grand to find the monorail entrance! I actually liked the $5 monorail ride, though - they have entertaining recorded commentary. So I took it to the Sahara station, and then got on a bus to the Golden Nugget ($1.25)

I had heard about the deaf dealer from a DeafNation video, which featured a guy. When I got there, I asked an idle dealer about “a deaf dealer,” and she said “oh yes, she starts at 12:00″ - and sure enough, she turned out to be female! Her game was three-card poker, and her shift apparently started with a break, so I used my Sidekick to look up the game while she was out. It looked awfully confusing so I figured I’d ask if I could just watch. She was very nice, and happy to chat with me as she worked; it was amusing to see how she communicated with the players - mostly gesturally. She did have a little “hearing impaired” sign, but one guy didn’t see it wand was confused when she didn’t respond to his question about the minimum bet; one of the other players stepped in to tell him. After a while she had me ask a player where he was from, and I interpreted a couple of questions between her and the players.

It turns out she works at the Wynn too - if only I’d known, I could have saved myself the solo trip downtown! She’ll be there tomorrow from 12-8, so I might go visit her again. She said there were about six deaf dealers in Vegas overall, including her husband (who I gathered was the guy in the DN video). When it was time for her next break, I said I’d be going, and I headed for the Downtown Transit Center to take another $2 bus back to the Strip.

Today we woke up insanely early (again) and stumbled over to Harrah’s to meet the bus for the Grand Canyon tour. We weren’t sure where in Harrah’s we were supposed to go, so we tried asking the first person we came to - a bartender. He had no idea what we were talking about, so we found the front desk and they directed us to the bus departures area.

We made a few more stops at other hotels along the Strip, and then went to the tour company’s main office. There was one idiot woman in the group who didn’t understand why she had to pay “again,” even though the manager explained several times that she had paid a deposit when she registered, and he even pointed it out to her on her confirmation printout…but she still fussed a lot and finally ended up paying the balance.

I slept a large part of the way toward the Grand Canyon. We stopped a few times, and I know the driver showed a Canyon-related movie at some point, but I pretty much missed the whole trip there, except for a brief stop at Hoover Dam. I was finally awake by the time we stopped at the National Geographic Center just outside the park, and those of us with tickets for the IMAX movie raced in to catch the showing we were scheduled for. I was not terribly impressed by it - it was an extremely broad overview of the human history of the Grand Canyon, and I had been hoping for more information about the geological history. (I later bought a book called Carving the Grand Canyon, which explains that the reason there is so little geological information available to the public is because the geologists themselves aren’t quite sure how it was formed, so they don’t share with the rest of us.)

We got our lunches and brought them back on the bus (people who hadn’t seen the movie had a nice leisurely lunch) and then we headed a few miles down the road to the Grand Canyon National Park. Our first stop within the park was Mather Point, and I found myself actually anxious gazing out over the amazing vistas. I finally realized that the reason I was so unnerved was because I was having difficulty comprehending something on such a dramatic scale. It was foggy, so we didn’t have great colorful views - in fact, my brain kept trying to force the view into a matte painting perspective, because how could it possibly be so vast?

I stared at the Grand Canyon for a long time, and we walked along the various lookout points, and then headed to the bookstore. The line was kind of long - there were lots of tour groups everywhere we went - so we had to scramble to get back to the bus in time. Our next stop was Bright Angel Lodge, and we were surprised to find that the view there was pretty much indistinguishable from the view at Mathers Point. There was an extra feature on the landscape, the El Tovar hotel, but other than that it looked just the same. So we bought a cup of hot chocolate and sat on a bench looking around rather than taking more pictures - in fact if they were out of order, I wouldn’t be able to tell one site from another anyway!

I’m not entirely sure we got the promised three hours inside the park…I think it was more like two and a half, because next we left the park - on the way out we spotted the only wildlife we’d see, a couple of deer, which we didn’t take pictures of because, well, we have them at home! We drove to the town of Valle and got some snacks for the trip home, since there wouldn’t be any dinner provided and we wouldn’t get back until almost 10:30.

The driver showed Mission Impossible 3 on the trip back, which I hadn’t seen - he complained about having heard it 16 times already, which we figured could have been solved by bringing another movie! He had asked around on the bus if anybody had one, and of course nobody did - why would we have had a movie? As the movie ended we stopped in Kingman for a bathroom break and then headed back to Las Vegas. We were dropped off at the Mirage, which is across the street from the Venetian where we’re staying, and I took a shower and then plugged the new camera into the computer - it was very Plug and Play and I got pictures off immediately, then sat down to write this. I’m having to use dial up ($1 per call, plus BudgetDialup’s per-minute fees) to post this, so I’m not posting all the pictures right now, but you can see a few over at my Flickr feed. The rest will eventually go up in my travel gallery.

Well, we made it to Las Vegas. Unfortunately I am typing this on my Sidekick, because I forgot the Ethernet port on my computer is fussy. If I have a chance and/or can figure out where to go, I will buy an ethernet PC/MCIA card to make up for it. Fortunately the 25-ft Ethernet cable I bought was a good buy, it reaches much futher than the one they provided.

The flight was fine, except for the guy sitting behind us who reeked of weed. Then we found out he was going to the Venetian, too, and he ended up on the same shuttle bus. He turned out to be really annoying and very high, so I took his picture and put my camera back in my bag…I thought.

We were tired and not feeling well so we checked in, ate at Noodle Asia, which had pretty poor service (not enough staff), and went back to the room for a nap. Then we wanted to find some soda to keep in the room, because the tap water in the bathroom was terrible. So we got ready to go to the Fashion Show Mall, and that’s when I discovered my camera was missing. I called the agency and told them what to look for, and they said they’d call back if they found it.

I picked up an iPod sync cable at the mall, but the cheapest digital camera was $150 plus you had to buy a memory card. We ended up at a mini-mart to buy sodas (and Mike’s Hard Lemonade, which I am having now - cheaper than a drink at a bar) and got a couple of disposable cameras with flash. Then we came back to the hotel, and I bought a $50 “keychain” camera at Brookstone. I took it back to the room and discovered that its maximum resolution was 640×480, it didn’t have a rear display or flash, it only had 16MB internal memory…not good enough.

So I returned that and got my $50 back. And then I went to a shop called Photo Magic and bought a Kodak C533 and a 256MB memory card for $172. It’s a real camera…real expensive, but so much better. If my old camera is lost, then this is a good replacement. Aside from a couple of pictures at Dulles and the pothead jerk on the shuttle, I think all I lost were cat pictures - including one of Truffle with a tampon in his mouth. I’m trying to remember that at least I still have my wallet, my Sidekick, and my laptop. But I lost the camera, the cable, the memory card and spare memory card I had, and the Belkin iPod sync device that would have allowed me to store photos on my 80gb iPod.

Tomorrow we are going to the Grand Canyon, so I had to get a good camera. But I still can’t believe the old one is really lost and gone. I am hoping it will turn up when we leave at least. I can’t believe somebody might have taken it. I’m sad about it, like you wouldn’t believe. And of course I blame myself…the last I saw it was on the shuttle, so obviously I left it there. Sigh.

I am presently sitting at gate C17 at Dulles, waiting to get on the plane! We board in 10 minutes or so, so I’ll probably be writing this for a while.

The one really important thing I forgot was my iPod sync cable. I am thinking maybe I will find one in Las Vegas (there’s a mall on the strip, I think), sync my iPod so I can get my podcasts and watch the episode of CSI that I missed but have in iPod format, and then return the cable. I also forgot the travel guides I have, but presumably I can get that stuff online.

I had no problems going through security; while we were sitting at the gate I filled my med box. I was surprised that I didn’t have to turn on my laptop, I just sent it through the scanner in its own tray. I am so excited that I can’t even think what else to say, so I am just going to post this and wait to board.

Well, I have finally heard something from the Hearing Undergraduate (HUG) program at Gallaudet! Yesterday I was super excited, but today I am kind of more muted. The good news is that I did make it through the first round of cuts. Because the number of slots for hearing students is so small (only 5% of the student body), they go through the paperwork and cut people. Then the remaining get invited for interviews, and after that they pick who they’re actually going to offer admission to. So making it through the first round is a good thing, and the few people who’ve heard me talk about this say they think I’ll get all the way through with no problem.

The part that made me more muted today is that they goofed when they told us the interview dates. Yesterday I was told it would be March 20-21, for both admissions interviews and the Sign Communication Proficiency Interview (SCPI), which basically tests “can you communicate in ASL, or not?” I replied immediately when I got the e-mail, said I was still interested, and subtly suggested that perhaps my RID certification would waive the need for the SCPI - I’m a certified interpreter, do I really need to prove that I can sign? The admissions guy said he’d check into it and let me know; I’m hoping they’ll waive the SCPI because it will save time, and also save me the $150 fee. But unfortunately…the dates were wrong. He meant to say February 20-21, when I am supposed to be in Las Vegas.

So I promptly e-mailed back and said I would be out of town from Feb 14-24, and could they please schedule me outside of those dates? I drove home and got progressively worked up on the way, until I felt like I was going to be sick. When I finally got home, I pulled up my e-mail, and he hadn’t responded. He sent out the correction at 4:50pm and I replied at 4:58, so he had probably already gone home. And then I proceeded to have a panic attack because I thought I was going to have to choose between Las Vegas and Gallaudet. I was totally flipping out by the time A got home, but she was able to calm me down. She said they would probably be flexible, but if not we would just change the dates, I could go for part of it, and then fly home for the interview, and she would fly home when her conference was over (it ends Feb 21st).

So, hopefully they will be flexible. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it yet here, but attending Gallaudet has been a lifelong dream. Seriously, since I was a little kid, I have wanted to go to Gallaudet. I used to say I’d be a janitor, I’d work in the cafeteria, I’d do anything just to be on campus. Then they implemented the HUG program in 2001, and now I’m applying to it! So I really would be living my dream…making my dreams come true…if I went to Gallaudet. I hope they’ll be flexible with the schedule!

• My custom earphone kit came today; I had a problem with it and it didn’t come out quite the way I expected. They don’t take returns, but I e-mailed and let them know what happened and they’re going to replace it! I’ll reserve my review for then.
• I finally heard back from the farm about my Cat’s Meow piece. Turns out they are interested after all! I think all three of mine already have homes, but when I get them I will send pictures and they can order more of their own if they like.
• Yesterday I signed up for this tour of the Grand Canyon for next month when we’re in Las Vegas. It was about $220 for two people. I realized I never got a confirmation e-mail, so I went back to the site…and it now says $190 for two people. I signed up last night! I eventually did get the confirmation e-mail and it has the $220 price, so I am going to call them tomorrow and ask about it. There are plenty of other tour operators, if they won’t give me the lower price I might ask for a refund - then again, there’s a $25 cancellation fee, and that’s the difference anyway. We’ll see what happens when I call.