VEGAS, BABY!!!

KEVIN WITH HIS GIANT BEADS AT THE VENETIAN !!

Valentine's Day is my birthday, so this year my wife surprised me with a weekend in Vegas. We left friday morning and came back Sunday night and the fun almost never stopped. We had a wonderful suite at the Venetian, we saw Cirque du Soleil "O" at the Bellagio, saw Penn & Teller at the Rio, I played in a Poker tournament at the Mirage and came in second, won money playing craps, saw some other sights, Clara went shopping, and because I miss New Orleans and Mardi Gras so much, I bought the biggest pair of beads I've ever seen. They were quite the topic in the airports flying home!

As usual, on the flight out of Boston the TSA official didn't know what security level we were at and told me that the public is on a 'need to know' basis and then proceeded to give me an overly hard time. Penn & Teller have a very funny bit in their show where they purchased one of the airport metal screening devices for $4800 and they showed how they set it at different levels for different types of passengers (the one at Boston City Hall is set very low, like for first class passengers). They also showed a number of dangerous weapons you can bring through the device such as plastic 'comb/knives'. They also sold the Bill of Rights printed on a metal plate the size of a credit card to carry in your wallet. They are sold for $5 (www.securityedition.com) and I got Penn to sign mine after the show. They are avowed libertarians, and Penn is an atheist. Funny enough a Haitian cab driver the night before the show told us he doesn't like Penn because he has vanity license plates which say "NO GOD" because he is an atheist as well. My hat is off to them for being boldly patriotic and against the erosion of our civil rights during their show, a potentially bad thing for their bottom line. They are also very funny, although I was a bit disappointed they were still doing tricks I saw them do in Boston over a decade ago.

Happy Lundi Gras!