Odds and Ends

I’ve wanted to share some additional Las Vegas stories* for some time now and figured I would throw in a few links as well. Well, now is that time.

* When I checked into my Vegas hotel, I casually handed the person at the reception desk $20 and asked if they had a complimentary upgrade. The individual said yes, moved us from the South Tower to a nicer room in the North Tower and handed us a coupon book with buy one, get one free tickets to Penn & Teller and Jubilee, two free admissions up the Eiffel Tower and more.

* I did my good deed of the month by giving the Eiffel Tower coupon to a grandmother who was taking her two grandchildren up the Vegas version of Paris monument.

* If anyone is heading to Vegas soon and would like come coupons, please let me know. Although the coupons indicate that they are non-transferable or available for resale, how would they know?

* I attended my first and last timeshare presentation. The theme: vacation or die. Basically, life is short so you should take advantage of time away with family and friends as often as possible. What better way to do this than spending $5000 a year on a timeshare? Does anyone have a timeshare and want to explain how this makes sense financially?

* The timeshare presentation and tour ended up taking three hours instead of the two that the promised. During the presentation, they also said that they would not hard-sell. Naturally, at the end of everything, they brought in the closer, Fat Tony (his name was Tony and he was larger than The Simpsons character of the same name). He did a hard-sale.

Here are a few links for your Monday:

Pictures of Long Island native and now former Pittsburgh Penguin Rob Scuderi with the Stanley Cup (PSAMP)

Behind the Steel Curtain, one of the best Steelers blogs out there, interviewed Ross Ohlendorf of the, um, Pittsburgh Pirates. I just hope that BTSC doesn't expand to interviewing fake Brian St. Pierres, write stories about California Tortilla or create a Trivia Tuesday. If they do, I'm through. (Behind the Steel Curtain)

Justin Hartwig hurt his toe. One For The Other Thumb has a lead suspect. (OFTOT)

If there is a story about Peeps, there's a good chance that I'll link to it. (DCist)


Finally, I still need to share my thoughts from the Def Leppard/Poison/Cheap Trick concert I attended last week. Look for that later this week.


* Yes, I know that I have been back from Las Vegas for about three weeks now. If you really want to read more, check out Part I and Part II of the trip.