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July 10, 2014 - 10:36 p.m.
"dam it feels good" or "tight focus group"

Hey Journal!!

Our first full day in Vegas was certainly full and a lot of fun! I know it's a little early to be calling it a night in such a wild city but we've been up all day and are all exhausted!

We got up this morning at 8:00am. We had planned to get up at 9:00 and since we got to bed early last night, we figured that would be fine... but my alarm went off at 8:00 because that's my normal alarm for work...and I didn't realize it! So, we all started to get ready and then suddenly realized we were running an hour ahead of schedule!

It turned out to be a good thing, though because I had some unexpected stuff to do, and the timing for the rest of the day worked out really well!

I spent the first 45 minutes trying to receive and then sign and return a fax from Bank of America. It turns out one of the papers we sent them was "incomplete" and they wanted us to elaborate on something regarding our credit. Unfortunately, not being at home presented a little problem! Conveniently, and a little strangely, our hotel room has a fax machine, and we are permitted to fax free of charge!

Once that we all cleared up, Dan and Re were almost ready, and I just put on my shorts and shirt, and off we went.

We were headed to the Hoover Dam and our first stop was IHOP for breakfast. It was very good, and really hit the spot.

When we left, it was POURING outside! It only rained for about 10 minutes, and then the day was beautiful and HOT. On the way to the Hoover Dam we had to make a call to our insurance company to get a quote for house insurance. Apparently, according to BOA, we need that right away to move to the next step of the loan. That took almost the whole trip.

We stopped at the Lake Mead overlook and it was pretty cool. It was HOT as could be outside... the car said it was 99 degrees! After that, we continued to the dam.

It's so cool, and so amazing that this giant structure was built in the middle of the desert and so long ago when it clearly must have been so much harder to do! We made our way across the dam to Arizona! We spent some time taking pictures and savoring the excitement of standing on the line and being in two states at the same time! :)

We went down to the visitor's center afterwards, but we decided not to go inside. We headed back to the car, and then pumped the AC! We were all sweating like crazy after that.

There was a Dairy Queen that we passed along the way and we stopped to partake. I got a Mint "Royal Shake." It was excellent.

We tried to stop at the pawn store from Pawn Stars, but there was a HUGE line outside, so we may try again another day.

When we got back to the hotel, our first stop was to get Re checked in for her Teachers Pay Teachers conference. We went to the convention center and she got her nametag and a tote bag with a water bottle and a bumper sticker! Next, we came up to our room for a bit. Our next scheduled activity was at 3:15. We had gotten picked yesterday to come be part of a focus group about a new TV show. We planned to leave here at 2:30 to walk there, but actually left a few minutes early. (It's a good thing we did, because it took us a while to get there, and we arrived only 2 minutes early!)

The walk down the strip was fun and we stopped along the way to check out a few things.

The focus group was really interesting. It was all about a new CW TV show called "The Flash." They showed us several posters/billboards to advertise the show and asked us questions about all of them. There were about 10 people in the room and they were all nice. The three of us discussed afterwards, and decided that Mike, who sat across from me, was our favorite. He was from Boston. Our second favorite... well, according to Dan and I, was the one sitting next to Re. He kept saying the word "tight" as in, "that show is tight."

Anyway, some posters had weird pictures of the main character, some were mysterious, some were more telling, and there were a few different taglines on time. It's so wild that some people spent a long time making these posters and then they're put in front of us to decide which is the best one! I'm gonna have to keep an eye out this fall when they go up and see which one they actually use! Meanwhile, although I would probably not have any interest in the show otherwise, I think I HAVE to watch it now to see what it's like.

When the focus group was over, we got in line to collect our $75! WAHOO! The best odds in Vegas!

While we were still in the MGM, we filled up our Fat Tuesday cups with some GREAT frozen drinks! This time I mixed Electric Lemonade with Strawberry and it was excellent. I liked it even better than the one I got yesterday!

We crossed the street and headed back towards our hotel, stopping along the way to do a little gambling! We played some more Wonka slots, and I LOVE that game! The clips they chose from the movie are amazing and work perfectly. If only they had known when they made this movie that so many years later it would be a video slot machine in Las Vegas!

We watched another fountain show at the Bellagio.... this one set to Viva, Las Vegas! Then we went into the Bellagio and checked out the "garden" area, where we met a man who we nicknamed "Jack Daniels." He struck up a conversation with us because Dan was dancing to the strange music! Re later went back to him to ask him what song was playing! It was crazy.

Then we headed over to Caesars Palace and found a place to eat dinner. We ate at Gordon Ramsey's Pub restaurant. We sat in these large, comfortable chairs and all three of us ordered the Chicken Pot Pie. It was a small pie for $23, but for some reason it was super-filling! I thoroughly enjoyed!

Next, we continued walking and eventually wound up back here at our hotel. Dan played a little video blackjack and lost miserably. It was so stupid, though, because the woman on the machine was soooooo annoying with the things she said.

We came back to the room after that and I took a shower. Then Re took a shower. Dan went out for a walk and when I got out of the shower, I headed down to meet him. He was playing some blackjack at a table, and he was UP $185! WAHOO!! That really helped out our winnings for the day!

Overall, today, we are up $150. Combined with yesterday, we are up $175. And that doesn't take into account the $150 we go from the focus group!! VEGAS BABY!

Now we are back at the room and, as I mentioned, EXHAUSTED.

Tomorrow, Re's conference starts at 7am, so she's got to get up at 6. Dan and I plan to sleep later and then get up and go in the pool! :)

Should be fun! Until tomorrow...

Goodnight. :)