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 almost never go out during the week, but last night we went to see The Beaux’ Stratagem at the Lansburgh Theater. It was the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s annual non-Shakespeare play; this one was written by George Farquhar in the early 18th century. It was really quite funny, I had a great time - the actress playing Kate Sullen really stole the show with her delivery of the character’s many one-liners. Unfortunately the accents were all over the map; the play took place in Staffordshire and there were characters who were from London, but the actors were all using different accents that I don’t think were from anywhere in particular. The one fight scene was pretty wimpy, but it’s really supposed to be a comedy and I certainly did laugh the whole time. The tickets were only $12.50 including the service charge, so it was well worth it!

Yesterday was almost a complete waste for me. I had taken a sleep aid the night before, and although I was able to get up, I felt slow all day. We went to see the Royal Shakespeare Company’s performance of The Canterbury Tales at the Kennedy Center, because it was A’s parents’ 40th anniversary. Unfortunately I dozed off twice! (Possibly due to the “Cherry Blossom” drink I had beforehand, which involved Black Cherry vodka among other things.) I did manage to stay awake for most of it, and it was quite amusing. After the performance we took the metro back to Vienna, and I went home to get the cake while A and her sister went with their parents back to their house. The glaze had unfortunately made a bit of a mess in the fridge, but I cleaned it up and went over to my in-laws’ house where we all had a piece of cake. I wasn’t very careful this weekend and I think I gained a couple of pounds, bah.

I’m still sleepy, I think…

I have just ordered three tickets to see the Moscow Cats Theatre! These are real domestic cats that do tricks - I think we shall take pictures and show them to our cats and demand similar performances! (By the way, if you look at that site, click the non-animated version…unless you like nausea.) It’s at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, and we are going to the next-to-last show - Thursday, December 29th, at 3:30pm. We have seats that are front row center - Row A, Section 2, Seats 109-110! It was rather expensive but I’m looking forward to the show.

Just a quick update as I ride along the NJ Turnpike with A behind the wheel. (It’s a quick update because I’ve already made myself carsick by readng my email on my Sidekick.) Anyway, I just wanted to say that Spamalot was great. Hank Azaria was not there, but I was mostly excited to see Tim Curry anyway. Tim Curry, sweet transvestite, live! He does seem to be showing his age though - he was a bit stiff and didn’t participate in the cavorting all over the stage that the other actors did. I’m not sure which song was my favorite, but probably it would have to be the one about the Jews. Whee!