When last we left our heroes, they had just ditched their kids in favor of an excess-filled extended weekend in Vegas -- Las Vegas.

Kristi and Kate, the K&K Connection, came over shortly after we dropped the pups off at the vet clinic. Since it was, aftterall, Beer Thursday, we each had a Newcastle Brown Ale before the taxi arrived to whisk us off to the Humphrey Terminal of the Minneapolis St Paul International Airport.

We arrived at the airport a full 2 hours early for boarding. We proceeded to Wait! Wait! Wait! in line to check in for the flight. Once we got our boarding passes and our bags, which we were hoping we could keep as carryons but couldn't, we headed for the security checkpoint. Every single time I go through one of these, my belt sets the metal detector off. Yet I never remember to take the stupid thing off, resulting in my tripping the detector again this time. So I had to go to the Next Level of Airport Security, the wand-guy. Meanwhile, Lins had been selected for a random search of her baggage and her person. The wand-guy instructed me to stand with my arms straight out, so I did. He wanded me. My left pocket went off -- chewing gum. Damn. Then he patted down my person (with my permission, of course!), wanded my feet and that was that. All four of us were through security -- with about 2 hours to kill.

What to do, what to do... "Hey, look! An airport bar!" Oh yes, Beer Thursday continued in all it's glory. We all hated having to pay for our liquor, though. If only it were... free... (this, friends, is foreshadowing) We were each just liquored enough to fly by the time we had to board Champion Air Flight 520.

Once it became acceptable, we were able to flip on our glorious new Palm DVD Player. We decided on Clerks for our in-flight entertainment. Clerks is a movie based on dialogue. It's pretty important to be able to hear what the actors are saying. That being said, the volume on the Palm DVD player only went to 10, which, sadly, was barely barely audible over the din of the passengers, the adjacent drunken frat boys and the plane itself. Struggling to hear a movie and follow what's going on really sucks, so we decided to switch to regular CDs for our in-flight entertainment. We popped in a CD -- you can actually hear it! Yay! So the player just sucks for DVDs. Let's see -- a $500 CD Player with a supposedly color screen that doesn't play DVDs worth a shit. Hmmm... not my idea of a good deal. Fight Club, btw, was black and white, too. Oy.

The flight took forever and ever and ever. Long flight. The insufferable frat boys droning on and on about "wanting to nail Courtney Cox" and "how good of a flick 3000 Miles to Graceland was" didn't really help matters any. 3 hours later, we arrived in Fabulous Las Vegas. Oh yeah.

We proceeded to Wait! Wait! Wait! for our baggage in the baggage claim -- damn them for not letting us carry everything on -- for at least an hour. Once our bags finally came through, I snatched them up and we went off to find a taxi to take us to our ho-tel.

Once at the Imperial Palace, we were lucky enough to Wait! Wait! Wait! (a theme?) for 45 minutes to check in. There was a huge line of people in front of us, and we just beat about 40 other people in, too. At the IP, there are 20 something windows marked "check in", but friends, there were 2 and sometimes 3 clerks working these windows. 17 windows lay fallow, taunting us with what could have been.

Finally we got checked in and unpacked and headed off to the strip to find some food and drink. Yes. Food. And Drink. We ended up at the Alladin hotel and decided on PF Chang's, a friggin chain restaurant. I know, I know. Lame. It was actually cool, though. However, there was an hour long Wait! Wait! Wait! to get in. So we wandered around the Alladin casino, dumping money into the slot machines. Fun times. I found a bar and noticed that they had (theme alert!) Newcastle Brown Ale on tap. I promptly ordered one. Of course, I had to pay for it. Damn. Shortly thereafter, we realized that if you sat at a slot machine for long enough, a waitress would approach you and you could get drinks for *ding* (say it with me!) Freeeeeee! Treeeemendous. Newcastle quickly became the official Beer of Eric's Vegas Vacation.

Dinner was pretty good, then we all left to further explore the strip and find more Free Drinks. Explore, we did. Drink free, oh yes, we did. Friends, the coolest thing about Vegas is the free drinks. The fact that they have Newcastle on tap or they'll give you a bottle just further justifies the cost of coming here. Hell yes.

We ended up at the Bellagio for most of the night. Great casino. Spacious (this is important), cool, great ambience and... I won money here. The Wheel of Fortune Slot Machines, friends, are quite possibly the greatest gambling invention in the history of mankind. It's quite possible. Basically, the machines are set up like a regular slot machine. You play one line. It's more or less 75 cents per play. If the third reel comes up with the "SPIN" icon, you get to "spin" the wheel. The wheel has a ton of numbers, ranging from 20 to 500 and a 1000 is on the wheel just to tease you. I hit the spin icon, which is pretty rare, like 8 times in a sitting. I ended up cashing in $114. Boom. I'm up about $80 at that point and between Lins and I, we are pretty close to even, if not a little up.

Vegas is fun. Free drinks, the money flows like the River Styx and there's a ton of cool shit to do.

More later...
Eric