A Hot Topless Beaker

Day 3 Part 1 Thurs May 30, 2024 

Poor fucking Wizard. Booted from the Dirty Castle. Maybe I can book the cottage?

Day 3 is in some ways my favorite day of a Las Vegas vacation. The stress, exertion and fatigue of the run up to the trip and travel day is over, and I've gotten enough rest over the first two nights to totally enjoy the day. And, there are plenty of days left to go so I'm not even thinking about any sort of a mental countdown to having to go home, which usually starts after I hid the midway point.

Am I overthinking this? As I've mentioned before, I spent a lot of time calculating whether or not I overthink things, and there is a 91.03817% chance that I do.

I was trying to stay on Eastern time this trip and woke up even earlier than yesterday, around 4:00 am. It was a good night, except for a round of loud car noise somewhere in there that woke me. It'll be earplugs tonight.

My plan originally was to bus it downtown again, but I was feeling 'unsure' and decided to stay closer to the room and give MGM a good gamble to keep the comps coming, hopefully. I'm never going to make even Pearl at the rate I'm going, but over the years, no matter what's happened, the room comps have been steady, with some fluctuations in the number of nights, and the amount of freeplay and resort credit. Lately Luxhole and Dickscalibur have been pretty much a lock at 4 nights anytime.

But I'm really liking Park MGM with one exception. I'm finding it hard to find anything to eat. There's nothing resembling a coffee shop as far as I can tell. Side Betty is open 24 hours but the menu is not inspiring - it's the usual wing / onion rings / burger / nachos crap. There are three choices for breakfast - a breakfast sandwich, a different breakfast sandwich, and a breakfast burrito, which is a rolled up breakfast sandwich.

I'd have to make an exception for Best Friend, which looks really interesting, but hasn't been open so far, at least whenever I've walked by.

The travel kettle, or Portable Beaker as it's labeled, has performed beautifully so far. I'm going to have to come up with a Flusheresque name for it if this keeps up.

It came with a sheet of instructions and admonitions, which I laughed off. How hard can it be to use a kettle with one on/off button? Well, there is one quirk that I figured out the hard way.

The kettle has a top that screws on. I wasn't sure why it even needed a top, but I suppose you could heat water and leave it hot in there for some amount of time, like a thermos. There is a little vent hole in the top, fit with a little silicone plug. There are all sorts of safety preconditions and cautions around this, which I laughed off, because I know better.

I found with the top off, and water filled to the MAX line inside the Beaker, it's pretty splashy when the water hits a hard boil. OK, top needed maybe.

For my second cup, I boiled up the Beaker with the top on. Stupidly, I forgot the warning in the instructions that I'd read six months ago about leaving the little vent cover open. It was securely sealed.

The boiling happened, the Beaker shut itself off (GOOD GIRL, BEAKER!) and I opened the little silicone plug, causing a mini-explosion of superheated steam and boiling hot water all over the wall. BAM! Fortunately, my hand didn't catch any of the dangerous expulsion.

Point taken - don't boil water in a sealed Beaker and then open it. Make sure the little plug is open.

Why didn't they warn me??? They did?
Oh. Nevermind.

Next foible was trying to pour the hot water from the Beaker with the top still on, through the little vent hole. Nope, doesn't work, hot water everywhere.

The coffee was great, buoyed by some creamers I'd snagged. I had two cups, the blueberry muffin I'd procured from Bellagio, and some Emergency Mixed Nuts. Breakfast - done.

And of course, while eating, did my Wordle, other internet stops, and then blogged the previous day's adventures. I reckon I'll continue in this fashion so that I have a shot of remembering what all happened - leaving it till I return home is a recipe for writing disaster.

The gambling results yesterday weren't great. I still had some hope that maybe my Keno ticket would pay off, but despite me watching it like a hawk, the games ran out and I never hit a 5/5. So my hundred dollar ticket will be worth probably $20 or less when I cash it in. Bastards!

My innards finally settled down and I headed down to the casino. I'd do some gambling and find breakfast (which would actually be my lunch). I thought maybe NYNY would have some good options, so I headed straight there.

Except I spotted my lucky BUFFFFALLLLLO! machine, the "can't lose voodoo mojo special".

Once again, it came through!

I had a good lil' ole play, and cashed out some profit. Then I headed straight to NYNY.

Except while walking there, I thought of the Pyramid Cafe in Luxor. You can get breakfast there, so I headed straight to Luxor.

Except I had to go through Excalibur first.

The demolishing of the Tropicana is in full wrecking ball swing. I didn't linger outside, thinking about the asbestos probably flying through the air with all the dust they were making.

It makes me very sad to see this icon go, particularly because of the plan to put a stupid stadium there. South strip is going to be impossible between gamedays at the football stadium, the arena, and the baseball stadium.

So, I headed into Excalibur, heading straight to the Pyramid Cafe in Luxor.

Except I suddenly remembered that Excrapular has a buffet, which is perfect for breakfast.

They had some kiosks for doing room charges, and six tries over two different machines all failed.

22% tip on a buffet. Bunchoffuckingbullshit.

It was a good thing that the machine failed, because the $32 buffet, if charged to my room, would put me over my resort credit and I'd have to pay the difference out of pocket. Meanwhile, I had more than enough comp dollars on my account to cover the buffet. I'd use the remaining $25 resort credit for tomorrow's breakfast, for which I'd go straight to NYNY.

That sorted, I kept it pretty simple. A really beautiful veggie and cheese omelette, some very tasty breakfast potatoes smothered in Country Throw-up Gravy from the generous #CTUG vat, and two fairly pedestrian sausage links. Served unlinked. Oh yes, and three deserts. Half a glass of milk.

Sorry, there's no way I'm tipping restaurant-sized tips at a buffet where I get my own food, my own drinks, and the staff might get around to removing empty plates from my table. Enough about out of control tipping expectations.

Next stop Luxor, for real this time. I snapped a few pics of some of the areas I talk about in the Vintage Trip Report from 1997.

Where the talking camels used to be, on the other side of the walkway.

Where the safety deposit boxes used to be (and probably still are).

Where the waterfall used to be, and the Quiet Area machines.

I do not understand how these places are managed. Honestly every time I visit Luxor, there are fewer machines than the time before.

The latest victims are my (and Keno Kid and Kandi's) favorite Keno machines. Gone from the wall, gone completely, for inexplicable reasons.

Every time I visit, something I loved about the place is missing.

There are still a few Game Kings in the area, but not many with Keno on them. I did find one and played through $100. Oddly, I have yet to hit a 5 out of 5 on any kind of Keno.

No matter. I walked on, perusing machines and reminiscing about the Quad Queen and our adventures here.

I spotted an Invaders from the Planet Moohlah slot, which is always fun, right? $100 later I'd been anally probed. Not one bonus round.

Then I spotted some Bufffffffallllllllllo! Ascension games. This way leads to madness, I knew, and played anyway.

This game is more fixed than a stuffed toy claw crane game at Chuck E. Cheese and I can't get enough of it. Those columns grow until they are just one hit shy of an Incredible Amazing Bufffffffffalllllllllo! Steampeed. Or even better, the middle SUPER Incredible Amazing Buffffffffalllllllllo! Steampeed! Or the free games with a possible 125x multiplier!

Before I knew it, my day was in big trouble.