I got there last Sunday and attended a Pink Elephant ITIL conference at the Bellagio. ITIL stands for the Information Technology Infrastructure Library and is a set of best practices that my team at work uses to implement processes for the IT department. I learned a lot about the framework, leadership, team dynamics and most importantly that every person there has struggled with the aches and pains of implementing processes that aren't well received in the world of IT. The conference's theme was "Another Brick in the Wall" and was centered around Pink Floyd. I heard the song Comfortably Numb way too many times and found the chairs we sat in during the sessions comfortably numbing! Overall the conference was very encouraging and extremely informational and the Bellagio is an amazing hotel! I'm pretty sure that the bathroom in our room was as big as our bedroom!
Now, on the fun parts! I sat at the same video poker machine the first couple of nights I was there. It was a nice break from the information overload of the conference! I actually did well these first couple of nights too! Left the machine after breaking even and a couple of hours of fun! Jim came later in the week and since he is a huge Pink Floyd fan I was able to get him into the closing night's Pink Floyd tribute band concert. He loved it! After that we decided to go play and as usual, our intention was to play a few games and go to bed at a decent hour...didn't happen! That night we played black jack until the early morning and when we left the table I left $10 richer than when I sat down! We were at a really fun table full of really fun people! I sat next to a guy from New Jersey who does my same job and was also there for the conference. I think we probably sat there and played for more than 4 hours! If you've ever been to Vegas and you enjoy gambling you know this is very easy to do! You completely lose all sense of time!
On Friday night we went to the Venetian for a belated Valentine's dinner at Mario Batali's restaurant B&B Ristorante. When we got there we were taken to a very quaint table located in what looked like a wine cellar.
After looking at the wine menu and flat out laughing at the prices we estimated that we were probably surrounded by about a million dollars worth of wine and the space wasn't huge! After speaking with our venetian waiter, a waiter who knew a lot about the SEC (he thinks McFaden will play for the Cowboys...yuck!) and the Sommelier we settled on a bottle of wine that didn't break our bank and was actually very good! Of course I can't remember the name of it...even after googling what I think it might have been! The menu of this restaurant allowed for appetizers, first course, second course, third course with side dishes and finally dessert. Not too uncommon...we actually consider ourselves somewhat foodies and were looking forward to trying new things...however, this menu was quite interesting. We only made it through the appetizer and first course and what we ordered was outstanding!!!!!! We had the goat cheese truffles and calamari and seppi fritti for an appetizer and I had the homemade orecchiete with sweet sauage and rapini and Jim had the spaghettini with spicy budding chives, sweet garlic and one-pound lobster for our first courses. Had we made it to the other courses I'm sure the barbecued squab, fennel dusted sweetbread or, branzino would have been wonderful (that is if I knew what any of them were! I do know that sweetbread has nothing to do with bread!). I'm still kicking myself for not ordering the Duck Egg with Guanciale and Truffle Vinaigrette or Lamb's Brain "Francobolli" with Lemon and Sage for my appetizer and first course! Time warp back to Junior High and I'll say "NOT"! Again, we consider ourselves foodies and we love good food and wine but this was a bit much for us! However, like I said what we ordered was outstanding so maybe next time we should branch out...maybe. Here is a link to the menu. If any of you are braver than us let me know what you might have ordered...
http://www.venetian.com/venetianeng/Assets/Files/BB_Menu.pdf
After dinner we went to see Cirque Du Soleil Love. This was an awesome show and I recommend it to everyone! The artists are phenomenal and the costumes have to been seen to be believed! There really aren't many words to describe it...at least none I have time to think of. It really was unbelievable to see the acrobatics, props and the way they used actual recordings of the Beatles talking and such was amazing!
We got back yesterday and while we had a wonderful time I'm glad to be home!
Oh, and I bought a few books that I can't wait to read...one of them that I actually already read is called "The Dog Poop Initiative" by Kirk Weisler. This is a very funny book with a very good lesson that inspires action, commitment, community and change! I encourage any of you who work in an office...or anywhere for that matter to read it and share it with your co-workers! Having said that I also think that someday when we have a family I will read this to our kiddos to teach them a valuable lesson! Check it out for yourself!
http://dogpoopinitiative.com/
