myVegas Baby! Day 1: Mandalay Bay

As we usually do, we took US Airways Flight 1797 from PHL to LAS Sunday morning. And as usual we got to LAS about half an hour early. That turned out to be a good thing because there was a lengthy line at Budget car rental. There were no lines at the other rental agencies so that's a lesson learned: pay a few bucks more and skip the 45 minute line.

Our first hotel this trip was Mandalay Bay a short drive up Las Vegas Boulevard. We turn the car over to the valet and head to check-in where, miraculously, our room is ready. Very nice room as you can see. The "playpen couch" (yes, that's what Mandalay Bay calls the odd square couch partly visible in the foreground) is sort of odd. The backs at the seating corners are too low to be comfortable for reading and get in the way of other activities.

The bathroom is plenty large with a double vanity, shower, and spa tub. The toilet has it's own little room, complete with telephone.

The spa tub easily fits two somewhat chubby middle aged folks like ourselves. It takes about 8 minutes to fill, so factor that into your planning.

Still being on Philadelphia time we were pretty hungry so we wandered around Mandalay Bay looking for something light. Lo and behold! Red Square had just opened for Happy Hour!

Smoked Salmon "Pizza"

Siberian "Nachos"

Most of the small plates were $9, bottled beer $4, and cocktails $6. We polished off the two plates above with a couple beers - just enough to make it to our 7:00 dinner reservation. (And yes, the place is really dark and I was "that guy" who fired off the flash.)

The Steakhouse at Camelot

Sunday dinner was the first of our myVegas food rewards: a $150 credit at Excalibur's Steakhouse at Camelot. The picture makes it look pretty snazzy, but it's definitely not a fancy place.


Service was very good and the meat arrived as ordered. The sides were just OK - there's not much you can do to screw up asparagus but why would you slice the mushrooms?  Since the beef is roughly on par with what you can get at any large grocery store (USDA "choice" according to the menu) and the atmosphere is "family" this isn't a place I'd seek out a second time.

As we left the restaurant we decided to hang out in the casino a while - after all, we were using a couple thousand dollars worth of comps. I must say, the contrast between Mandalay Bay's casino and the Excalibur was night and day. Mandalay Bay was quiet, with an empty feeling. Excalibur was packed with people having a good time. So we gambled a while, lost about $80 and were ready to head off to bed (still on Philadelphia time).

On the way out, we came across the first of a number of Viva myVegas QR codes on a sign outside Dick's Last Resort restaurant. These codes are scattered around several of the MGM resorts International casinos. You scan 'em with the the iOS Viva My Vegas app to wine small prizes, mostly game chips for the myVegas Facebook game.

Coming Soon: Day 2 Mandalay Bay, Bellagio Buffet, and Love!

MyVegas Baby! Part 1

It's gonna be free baby! (almost)

So late last year we took a short vacation in Las Vegas and got some free food courtesy a Facebook game called myVegas. We got more free stuff this time... a lot more. Here's how it went down:

November 2012

We get back from our vacation and Beth signs up for Facebook and starts playing myVegas. We both become daily players to maximize the number of "loyalty points" (the myVegas equivalent of cash) we'd be able to accumulate.

December 2012

Over the holiday break (I had to use up a week of vacation time) I get bored and buy some chips with real money. $39 worth. You can play for free - there's no requirement to spend money. This would have an interesting side effect a soon.

January 2013

By the 15th (remember the date) I've accumulated enough loyalty points to purchase three nights in a Mirage Tower Suite. I "purchase" them (in the form of two rewards: a 2 night and a 1 night stay) using up almost all my accumulated loyalty points and we begin to plan our vacation. Our usual trip runs five nights, so we want two more nights.

February 2013

I finally accumulate enough points to purchase two nights in a Mandalay Bay Spa Suite and do so. Meanwhile MGM Resorts International has realized people have become myVegas maniacs and they begin to make it more difficult to accumulate chips to play the games.

March 2013

Bad News: myVegas makes it even harder to accumulate chips to play the games and announces that for all reward purchases made after January 15 players will only be able to redeem three in any 30 day period. Good News: I can purchase 2 more since I bought my first 2 before the the deadline.

By now Beth has a ton of loyalty points saved up and we decide she'll purchase food. We buy $150 steak house meals at Tender in the Luxor and The Steakhouse at Camelot in Excalibur. I use some of my accumulated points to buy two passes to the Bellagio lunch buffet.

Then:

myVegas introduces another new twist on the game. If you've purchased chips, you can redeem not three but as many as ten rewards in any 30 day period. Now I have two more rewards instead of one and we buy Beth $5 worth of chips so she can purchase two more rewards.

I use my accumulated loyalty points to buy 2 $170.50 tickets to the Cirque du Soleil show Love. I still have one more reward to purchase and Beth has two. I book our hotel reservations by the old fashioned telephone method.

April 2013

We wrap up our reward purchases. Beth buys a $50 dining credit at Nine Fine Irishmen in New York New York and we each buy High Tea (technically afternoon tea, but they didn't ask me when they named it) at the Petrossian Bar in Bellagio. I make restaurant reservations and we're all set.

At this point we've purchased:

3 nights at Mirage	$945
2 nights at Mandalay Bay	$366
2 Steakhouse Dinners	$300
Bellagio High Tea (2)	$70
Dinner at Nine Fine Irishmen	$50
Bellagio Lunch Buffet for 2	$43
2 Tickets to Love	$341
Total	$2115

All for a grand total of $45 in actual money ($39 and $5 chip purchases) and maybe an hour total each day playing the myVegas game.

Coming Soon:

We go to Las Vegas! Cheap Flights! Gambling!  Food! Shows! (and a small bummer)

Gardening 2013 - Getting Ready

It's getting to be gardening season again! We started some seeds a couple weeks ago including San Marzano tomatoes, Lombardo Peppers, and of course more Violetta Lunga eggplant. We also extended the drip system to the front bed and added a timer so I don't have to remember to turn the water on and off.

This year, we're trying a "new" planting method: gutters. For about $20 we bought a 10 foot piece of aluminum gutter, hangers, a pair of end caps and some zip ties. It's pretty easy to put together. I drilled 1/4 inch holes in the bottom a foot apart for drainage and every two feet to give me a place to pass the zip ties through:

In normal use you'd nail the gutter through the back of the hanger. Obviously I couldn't nail into the pipe supporting the fence so I used zip ties to hang the gutter. Even so, you you still need the hangers to support the weight of the soil and plants.

As you can see from the pictures, the fence pipe is on our side of the fence so I had to add several shims, made from a piece of scrap flooring left over from our kitchen remodel. It keeps the gutter relatively level.

Watering the new "bed" is simple if you have a drip system already installed nearby.

Connect to existing drip system

A 1/4 inch tube runs up to the gutter and a length of drip tubing stretches the length. It's planted with an assortment lettuces and radishes.

Drip Line

The timer is a simple "two dial" battery powered unit. As you can see below, installation is about as easy as can be: faucet -> pressure reducer -> timer -> supply line.

To operate it, you set the time of day on the left hand clock and the time you want the first watering to occur on the right and clock. The left hand dial sets the watering interval (in this case 8 hours) and the right hand dial sets the length of the watering (30 minutes here). There's a protective cover for the control head as well.

The only thing actually planted at this point are the cippolini onions in the front bed.You can see the drip system supply line in the background. When the ground starts to dry out a little I'll install the actual drip lines. There's a little space on the left that will probably get some cima di rapa later this afternoon.