I don't want to move Beni's cool post too far down the front page, so most of this will be after the jump.

Having gotten in super late on Sunday, I woke up pretty late on Monday, the day of Christmas Eve. I was feeling a bit like crap, so I investigated prices at the spa. Not only were the prices absurd, but there weren't any availabilities for the rest of the time I was in Vegas. Mostly this was because of abbreviated hours for Christmas on the next two days. Bah.

Follow up:

I went in to the Ferrari dealership at the Wynn and walked around, saw the cool cars, sat in a couple cool cars, and was blown away by the claim that the Wynn dealership sells a Ferrari a day. Unfortunately they didn't let me take pictures. Fortunately I got in before they closed the shop for the holidays, reopening effectively as I left, 2 days later. Neat thing about the shop: Entrance was free when I was at the Wynn on its opening weekend, but because of the festivities there was a huuuuuuge line. Now it's something like $10 to go in, unless you have proof of owning a Ferrari. In which case it's free.

I looked at the poker waiting list, and the tables, and decided to put my name on a list and go get lunch. I've gotta say, those $10 sandwiches are good. I went back to the poker room and fooled around a little bit, making some money and doing some stupid things. I got a text while I was playing from my friend Craig saying that he'd had a cancellation for his dinner party, and that he'd like if I could go along. Before I could respond, I got a text from a pair of my Canadian Jewish friends saying that they were wondering if I could come to dinner. I guess a great thing about being a Canadian Jew is that you can take vacations wherever you want on Christmas. I decided to go to dinner with Craig, my friend Alan, and their girlfriends, and meet up with the Canadians for drinks after dinner.

I decided to kill some time walking around the Wynn, and trying to snap some decent pictures.

The Wynn Fountan, from Parasol Up

The Entranceway at the Wynn

Parasol Up and Parasol Down are two bars facing the Wynn fountain, separated by a curved escalator. These pictures are um... wow I suck at taking pictures.

We went over to Lawry's for Christmas dinner. (And yes, I know it's weak sauce to go someplace I could go to in Chicago, but the other party was going to N9NE...) It was really pleasant. There were carolers, and we got them to sing a handful of songs for us. One of the carolers was really not feeling it, but the other three were really impressive.

Dinner was great, though everyone else ordered really light steaks! Like, the "English" cut. Boooo. And no Jackie's Chocolate Bag! I think we were all pretty stuffed at the end of the meal, but still. Boo. (This boo applies to me as well. The four of them headed back to Alan's place, and I headed back to the Wynn to meet up with Z, J, and another friend, let's call him P.

I apparently got there first, so I got a drink, and headed over to the blackjack table. Oh blackjack. Worst. Game. Ever. And that's partially because it's so much fun! I was playing blackjack with an auto shuffler. This means there's like 8 decks, and they deal about 40 cards out of the machine before putting those cards back in the machine, which constantly shuffles the cards it holds. Auto shuffle blackjack is entirely unbeatable. Fortunately for me, I know this, and basically play for the excitement. I only play blackjack if I know I can take it like entertainment. So I found a chair at the handicap accessible table (yes, normal sized chairs instead of tall stools!!!), got a couple hundred dollars of chips, and started doing great stuff like splitting 10s, doubling down at all the wrong times, and having a good time. I made the cost of dinner back, and got a call saying my friends had arrived.

We had a good time talking about random stuff - stocks, poker, Canada, Chicago, Vegas, women, etc. But mostly we made fun of P, who is 23ish, and was seeeeriously chatting up this woman at the bar who was a minimum of 38. This was most funny because he had just finished telling us how bad he felt because he'd just found out that the girl he had hit on the night before at a bowling alley was 16. He found out she was 16 from her myspace page. LOL! An impressive age range, and I salute him for that.

The Canadians had to go so they could get one last poker session in before they had an early flight the next day, and P had to get home to start prepping for his parents coming in to town, so around 1am I was left alone again. So... Back to the blackjack table! I played two spots at the blackjack table this time, until I gave up my second spot for some random Asian guy and his girlfriend. I tried to get the floor to let me play at the spot reserved for a handicapped player, but instead they sold me the right to play that spot, and stopped letting me play my original spot. Damn, hoodwinked by the floor! Shortly after the table got a good laugh from watching me pay $20 not get to play two spots, I quit, and was shocked to find myself up about $1000. Boom! Steve Wynn pays my bills.

Finally satisfied that my day should be over, I headed upstairs to my wonderful view:

My view, at night!

And of course, my wonderful blackout curtains.

A thing I found out the next day - I had assumed that because the building looks mirrored, the windows are just mirrored, so no one can ever see in. Because of this, I did things like, stand around in my towel (or less) enjoying the view for long periods of time. The next night when I went out to dinner, and looked back at the Wynn, I realized I could see straight in to any room with a light in it. Oops.

But I didn't know that yet, so I just enjoyed my view, then headed to sleep.