We're definitely late on posting pictures of our puppy, and even later on posting pictures of our condo. I don't have any pictures of our condo, but I do have pictures of the puppy. So here some are!

Murphy, pretending to be a nice, cute dog.

The truth revealed, after the jump.

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Well, Liz and I decided not to go down to Grant Park tonight.

But, pretty huge night for the country, the city, etc.

Finally we can get back to talking about things other than the election and the campaign. Moreover, we officially know the date on which there will no longer be a republican president. Hopefully in the next week or so we can all forget Palin exists. Maybe even McCain can go back to being the guy he was before he chose to run for president.

Good game, Obama, congrats.

So ummm... Who's going?

So various rejections from the powers that be here at fair Harvard have left me in limbo in terms of my plans for this summer and my senior year of college. I come seeking advice and punking out of making decisions entirely by myself.

First, the trouble of senior year: English major that I am, I applied to write a creative thesis, a play (writing plays is, by the way, one of those things I want to do with the rest of my life). No dice, says English department--lots of applicants, etc., etc. Having bummed and moped about this for a couple of days, I am now more or less recovered and pondering whether I should write a thesis at all. I could write a critical thesis (45 pages or so of literary analysis) or I could not write a thesis. Those be the options. By all accounts, writing a thesis sucks, takes a year, and dramatically limits what one can do with one's senior year. Still, quite the nifty accomplishment, something to be proud of, an excuse to dig around in dark recesses of libraries... Any suggestions from the post-collegiate crowd?

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Sorry for all the delays. I now present the final part of my trip to Vegas, with some cool pictures, I hope.

When last we saw our hero, he'd passed out after a long night of eating, drinking, and gambling with friends. Christmas day was much different.

One of the things I was most looking forward to in Vegas was finally getting out to Red Rocks, the nearby canyon area where rock climbers love to go, and people who aren't really rock climbers like to pretend they are. I'm no different from everyone else, apparently, so I wanted to go out to the canyon and pretend I knew how to climb rocks.

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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.

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I woke up on Sunday feeling great.

I've never been to a real life Vegas breakfast buffet, and I decided to fix that fast. I got to the Wynn buffet and there was about a 10 minute line. When I got to the front they told me it was in fact a Champagne Brunch ($7 extra for champagne, obviously). I didn't think this was close, since you can basically get half a glass of champagne for $7 normally, so champagne it was.

OK so technically I guess it was a brunch buffet, that I was eating at about 10am. I still don't quite understand some of the food existing at a brunch buffet, but whatever. I still ate well, in a beautiful room. I started with a bagel with cream cheese, lox, and capers, with fresh fruit, then had bbq pork bao, sweet and sour chicken with rice, an omlette with roasted potatoes, and finally a mini napoleon, a mini caramel eclair, and some cobbler. Oh, and 3 glasses of champagne. A nice 2 hour buffet to start the day!

The buffet seating area. Again, not mine.

I also learned that there is a really nice clothes shop down the hall by the buffet. One day I'll go back there, but it's just a really nice shop with good jeans, shirts, some coats and stuff like that.

I recuperated for a little while from my stupefying brunch and then headed over to the fashion show mall. I had intended to pick up a pair of non-brown pants. Then I realized that 1) I only had brown shoes with me, so what would be the point and 2) I tried on the pants I liked on the hanger and they didn't fit even though I wear a 33, and they were a 36. In fact, I couldn't even get them over my thighs. That was pretty upsetting. So instead I bought a shirt. I really like it. Those of you who were at New Year's saw it.

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Saturday

I was worried when the trip started a little roughly. I got out to the airport nice and early for my morning flight, only to be told that the flight was delayed 90 minutes due to weather. There was no weather. Not a cloud in the sky, and of course weather in Las Vegas is never an issue. I started to worry that weather was going to come out of nowhere and stick me in Chicago for the weekend. Fortunately, we boarded and started engines 90 minutes late. The pilot quickly got on the overhead and explained. "I know they said the flight was delayed by weather, but that's just what they always say. The truth is that we got in late last night and have to get a mandatory number of hours of sleep." Aaaaaand we're off.

After I landed, got my luggage, and got in a cab, I got to learn from the cabbie that while I was in the air, flights out of Chicago were grounded for weather. Yay! I guess this should have been a sign that luck was going to be on my side this trip.

I checked in at the Wynn, and checked out the view off the back of registration (which has a balcony to the fountain). I didn't get to try tipping $20 for a room upgrade since the manager was standing right behind my attendant. This depressed me because of how well it had worked out at the MGM in the summer. Fortunately, when I got up to my room, any disappointment I'd had left. While I had one of the low-end rooms for the Wynn, it matched the casino. Everything was very tasteful, comfortable, and relaxed. On entering, my room's LCD tv was playing rotating floral scenes, and light classical music was on the sound system. Not too bad. The room had 4 Warhol floral prints on the walls, each with a light fixture just for the print, and one of them was in the bathroom. I'm note a huge Warhol fan in general, but the flowers were nice.

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So a couple months ago, this post was made on twoplustwo. Summary: wealthy young poker player who is burned out but doesn't know where to go to escape the stresses of his life gets suggestions and lets the forum decide where he should vacation for a week, then posts a trip report about his experience. I thought it was really cool, and was very jealous.

The year is nearly over, and it seems like I may or may not have a pile of vacation days sitting around that expire at year end. It's the 13th now, I believe we get the 24th, 25th, 31st, and 1st off work. I have to be in Chicago on the 31st at a minimum.

So, let's do it. (Pending actual confirmation from the HR people here at work.) You guys steer, I'll go, for a minimum of 2 days, maximum of whatever. I will then blog it.

Rules:

1) I don't want to spend the whole time on airplanes. So no Alaska, Hawaii, South America, Europe, or beyond. Mexico, Canada, Continental US, Caribbean, or other areas I'm forgetting about are fair game.

2) It doesn't have to be someplace I have to fly to. Trains, automobiles, planes, all viable.

3) Suggestions should be reasonable. While cost is open, "OMG you should rent out the penthouse of the best hotel in Miami and eat sushi off of models" is out.

4) It should ideally not be something that Liz will kill me if I do without her.

If other conditions come up, I'll add them.

Suggest away!

One of the nice things about being > 25 is that renting cars is no longer a hassle. When I visited friend and my great aunt and uncle in Maui, despite my political leanings, I decided to do nature a little favor and rent something ecologically mindful. Although two rental agencies were renting out prii (which, incidentially, is the car that I wanted when I graduated -- instead, I had to settle for the civic hybrid) both were far above my price point, and furthermore, not available.

Using the internets, I found a small company named "Bio-beetle", which was featured in the New York Times. They were offering vw beetles, golfs, and rabbits, which all run on biodiesel. More importantly, the price point was within my range ($10 more than the cheapest car from the mainstream agencies). I called them up, expecting to not be able to rent a vehicle on such short notice, but they got me the hookup.

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