Saturday in Vegas....

OK, so Binh and I are on AIM trying to remember what we did. God, grad school really makes it hard to be able to blog long stories about what we did almost a month ago.

I think we started off the day fairly late by going to the McDonald's downstairs at the Plaza. We all ordered off the dollar menu because we aren't suckers. We then made our way down to the Deuce stop where we all purchased OFFICIAL Deuce passes for the day. That was where we saw the dude with the bad combover.



When we finally boarded the Deuce (if I recall correctly, people were having problems figuring out how to buy Deuce passes? I don't know. We finally told them to use cash since it was taking forever with credit cards.) it took us forever to make it to our destination. The Deuce used to be a relatively quick way to get up and down the strip, but now that they've branded it "the Deuce" more people know about it, therefore, it's more crowded. Then people insist on requesting every available stop. Anyhoo, it was taking forever, I remember Jose being really annoyed.

I think we got off at Excalibur and took the moving sidewalk to Mandalay Bay where we all made a beeline to Rumjungle where we each ordered Volcanoes.


Here are some random dipshits drinking Volcanoes. Because it's apparently not obvious, we don't know these people. I googled "rumjungle volcano" and did an image search. These are the dipshits I chose.

After the Volcanoes (I'm not sure what's in them, I know it involves several kinds of rum, a few of them being 151 proof and some sort of juice and grenadine) we went into the casino for a bit. It was there that I became a multi-hundredaire by winning $200 on the penny slots. I know, I know, I could have won 25x that had I played max bets. I was already playing max lines, isn't that high roller-y enough?



After that...hmmm....what did we do? Oh, we went to the Trop to get our free pull and coupon books...which included a free $5 bet on roulette. We all promptly lost. But it was free, so it's not like we could complain. We also got two-for-one drinks. I think Gabe didn't want his coupon, so I used it to get more beers.



We continued to work our way up the strip, stopping to see the lions at MGM (they were sleeping, yet there was still a huge crowd) and then ate at the food court next to the Coke museum. After that, we hopped on the Deuce and went to O'Shea's to see if there were any midgets running around (there weren't) and to see what the beer pong thing was. It was pretty lame, I thought people would be playing beer pong for money, but they weren't. They were just playing beer pong in the middle of a casino.

I tried my luck at that wheel of fortune game, you know, the one with the different dollar bills on it? Anyhoo, I turned my back and the lady spun it and it went like a quarter of a turn and she was all, "oh, you lose." WTD??? Jose is my witness, I was ripped off! Shortly after that, we caught the Deuce and headed back to Fremont Street so we could get in our Butt Rock clothes.

to be continued...I swear!

Here's something to tide you over.

Sorry I'm taking so long to blog about the trip

I got back from Vegas and started school the next day. And there's a lot more homework than I expected.

Here are a few highlights from 80s Workout Video Extras night:

We were mistaken for Fannypack. I thought they meant this Fannypack:

Apparently, they were referring to this Fannypack:

I guess that's fair. I don't know why I immediately thought they were talking about the singers of the hit song Cameltoe. Maybe I was feeling self-conscious about the hot pink tights and short shorts. We thought about choreographing a dance routine to be performed at the nearest lounge, but I forget why we never got around to it. Probably because we're not contestants on America's Best Dance Crew for a reason.

Our next highlight was trying to buy drinks at the bar. I'm guessing because we were dressed like fools, it gave the bartenders license to totally ignore us. We eventually got drinks after I yelled that we had been standing there for 10 minutes and were guests at the hotel. Needless to say, those a-holes did not get a tip.

We headed over to Mermaids where we knew we would be served and the waitress who got us bombed last year remembered us. Imagine that. Makin' friends! She brought us several drinks and we continued to lunge and stretch our way up and down Fremont Street posing for pictures with and for whoever wanted them.

That's all for now, I'm tired. Hopefully, I'll get to the rest of the trip sooner rather than later.

edited to add:

Oh! We lost Gabe that night! We went to cash in our nickels at Mermaids (I know, who doesn't have ticket machines these days?) and for some reason, Gabe thought we left them. He had no pockets (and therefore no phone) and had wandered over to the Third Street Stage to watch the 80s cover band which included fake Rod Stewart, Robert Plant, Stevie Wonder, Pat Benetar/Joan Jett (I like how they're interchangeable) and Ringo Starr (what?). For some reason, he thought we'd end up there, but he thought wrong. We went back to the hotel and watched from our window for him and saw him strolling down the street confidently. Way too confidently for a guy dressed like he was, but he later told us that that's really the only way to walk when everyone's staring at you and the rest of your equally hideous partners in crime aren't with you. He immediately put pants on, but stripped back down to the shorts when Jose arrived and joined in on the fun.

OK, I think that's all for tonight.

so we were totally gonna blog...(UPDATED)

*(updates in italics)*

But there wasn't any free wifi anywhere, and the services you could pay for were ass rape. Plus, we're cheap, who the hell pays for internet access on vacation?

So I'm at the airport right now with a delay of I don't know how long - Southwest.com said my flight was on time right before I left my mom's hotel (she's in town with my brother). She had a show to get to at 8, so I told her to go ahead and drop me off, I have my laptop and internet, so it's no biggie. I can catch up on my gossip and finish a blog about the triiiiiiiiiip.

Bonus night: Tres Amigos!!!

Binh, Gabe and I all got in on Thursday night for extra Vegas fun. My flight landed at around 10:30 and Binh got in at about 11 and Gabe drove in from Northern California (and almost immediately said, "shit, I could have grabbed Nikki on the way"). Anyhoo, you already knew that from the first STBE weekend post.

So we get to the hotel and check in at about midnight and asked Stacy, the front desk guy if there were any free upgrade specials for birthday girls. He then said he would see what he could do and put his fingers to work and put us in a deluxe room for no extra charge. We still can't figure out what was deluxe about it, but there was a clock and a fridge. We all said we should go out and get deucefaced and our first stop was the Fiiiitz. We befriended a bartender named Emerson at the Vue Bar (with a balcony over Fremont Street). We drank footballs of beer and he gave me birthday shots for free (well, technically, not free, he told me to put a buck in the video poker machine, but it was still much less than it woul dhave cost). We worked our way back down to the Plaza and by the time we got there it was after 4am. Binh and I decided we needed food, so we got some Mickey D's - who knew they served breakfast at 4 in the morning? It would be the first of a few bad food decisions we would make over the weekend.

We made our way up to the room and Binh couldn't find the room key. We didn't want to wake Gabe (he'd gone up about an hour before us...smart guy), so we sat in the hallway eating and laughing at ourselves. Binh was mid-bite in her sausage burrito when she fell asleep in the hall. I quickly found the room key, let myself in, and told Gabe we needed to get Binh inside. We got her in and put her on Gabe's bed first, then mine. She made a noise like she was gonna barf, so we managed to lead her into the bathroom where she was later found sleeping in the bathtub. In the morning when I went to shower, there was a little pool of regurgitated sausage burrito - I know, totally gross. Binh cleaned it up while she showered (such a multi-tasker), and we started our day at about 2...it's the Vegas way.




Friday...

When we finally rolled out of the hotel room (we stayed in bed watching the 'lympics and then Days of Our Lives) we were feeling pretty bad. Binh and I decided that eating some food would make us feel better, so we walked over to Main Street Station for a cheap, but decent buffet. On the way over, I kept thinking I was gonna vomit, and was dying for some Sprite. It totally helped, btw, after I finished half of my drink, I was on the mend. The food was pretty underwhelming, which was surprising, considering how fond we've become of Main Street's buffet over the years. Anyhoo, I totally lost track of where I was going with all that Sprite business. Our plan was to hit up an all you can drink special on the Strip ($10 for all the Miller High Life - vomitous- or well drinks you can handle from 2-4pm). More on how that went in the next paragraph.

We were feeling pretty bad all day long and hoped we hadn't ruined the rest of the trip for ourselves by going overboard on the bonus night, so we decided to soldier on. After the buffet and the life-saving Sprite, we decided that we should go to the strip, so we went to the Deuce stop and as we were about to buy Deuce tickets from the Deuce machine, some lady stopped us and said she had tickets for a buck cheaper. She then pointed to some dude pushing a trash can and said he could vouch for her, and also said she would wait at the Deuce stop with us to prove the tickets were good. Gabe and I looked at each other like, "this is totally a scam", but we still bought the tickets anyway, lured in by the promise of saving a buck. As soon as the lady had her $12 (and tried to tell us we shorted her until I told her that 3 x $4 was $12), she was nowhere to be found. Methinks she and the trash can guy smoked that $12 immediately. Anyhoo, as we were boarding the Deuce, Binh pointed out that everyone else's tickets had the Deuce logo on them and ours had some American flag bullshit. So I slide my ticket and some alarm goes off and the guy tells me he has to check out my ticket. It turns out, we have to pay 50 cents every time we board the Deuce - no savings at all! So we all get on, cursing the crackhead and trash can dude and make our way to the strip. It took over an hour to get to the 'bur, since we had planned to work our way back up the strip on the way back [about an hour into the Deuce ride, Binh was like, "oh man, I need some Sprite". We decided to get off at the Bellagio since the Deuce was taking so long and figured we could hit up the tram to the Monte Carlo and make our way to the 'bur on the many trams and moving sidewalks to save time and energy. Upon entering, we found out that the tram no longer runs (for those of you familiar with it, it's the tram with the lady talking about how "only one word and one word only can describe Bellagio...peeeeeeerrrrrrrrrfect!"), so we had to hoof it down the contruction-ridden strip to the home of KD Lang....er Lance Burton, Master Magician.] Since we didn't have actual Deuce passes, we only rode to the strip and back, not wanting to suffer the humiliation of actually paying more than a day pass costs (we still came out behind - a one-way trip is $2, an all day pass is $5 - we ended up paying $5 for two rides...LAME!). Gabe and I started drinking a bit down there, figuring a hair of the dog that bit us would serve us well, but Binh was a little more reluctant than us (I guess the Sprite didn't work for her). Gabe and I had a few beers at the Trop and Binh kind of stared at hers with a look of disgust. We got back in time to greet Carrie, Mike, and Adam in the lobby where they were checking in. Then we changed into our 80s Workout Video Extras outfits and got ready for a night out on the town (where Binh eventually got over her aversion to alcohol).

To be continued...

Iiiiiiiiiiiin the City of Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!

You know what the first siiiiiiiiiin is? The airport bars are all closed! How am I supposed to get started whilst waiting for Biiiiiiiiinh's plane to arrive?

In other news, Gabe is rolling into Vegas as we speak and will be arriving to pick me and Binh up post-haste! Ooooooow!

STBE '08!!!

Oh, don't forget to say Happy Birthday to Mike!!!

Packed and ready to go!

And as always, even though I packed the bare minimum, my bag is bursting with wigs and 80s clothes.

I hope everyone's ready for the best trip to Vegas ever!!!

PS: Dressing like red hat ladies doesn't constitute cross dressing. No one will be mistaken for an actual cross dresser. We're dressing like old ladies, not drag queens.

STBE '08 is less than a week away!!!

Hopefully, you all have your costumes ready!

Again, if you haven't checked the website or read the reminder, theme nights are: 80s Workout Video Extras, Butt Rock, and Red Hat Ladies. We will not be providing costumes, because Ginger hates packing a ton of extra luggage for everyone else! It is your responsibility to hit up the Thrift Shoppe (or its equivalent in your town - tm Binh) and put together an outfit to end all outfits!

See you all in a few days!

Right now, it's looking like Binh, Ginger, and Gabe will be in Vegas on Thursday night!!! Ow!

TWO WEEKS!!!

...from the bonus night, that is. How time has flown!

An official notice will be going out later on today, but in the event that you're reading this blog, if you haven't declared yourself one way or the other, please do so as soon as possible. We need to know if we need to get an extra room, cancel a room, and how much each person's share will be.

As always, last minute revelers are welcome, preference for a spot in the hotel rooms will go to those who have replied in advance.

Only 3 weeks to go!!!

These 4 months have just flown by! It's almost time for the best birthday party ever! If you haven't RSVP'd for the festivities, please make sure you take the time to do so soon. Jose is in and is gonna wear the hottest slinky purple leopard print dress ever for Red Hat Lady night...he's gonna be a Red Hat Slut. He said his name would be Blanche, but I misheard him and thought he said his name would be Vadge. Haha. Vadge the Red Hat Slut. Good times, good times.

Anyhoo, hope to see you in Vegas!!!

Breaking News!!!

Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim is iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!

Just kidding, she's not. That was just my way of prodding her to go on the trip. She's out. Maybe isn't the same thing as no. That is all.

theme night compromise

A compromise has been reached in the great theme night debacle of...the last two days.

We will keep the Butt Rock theme night, but Binh and Gabe will also get their wish thanks to detailed, yet vague, backstories. Binh will be the jackpot-winning WT who is a groupie of the Staly'ns (with a y! and an apostrophe!). We met her backstage after a hot giiiiiig. She brought us a keg of Bud Light because NOTHIN' quenches our thirst quite like a Bud! Gabe is a hobo we met behind "the stadium" after a hot giiiiiiiiig. We thought he'd be cool to party with, so we take him everywhere we go and never bothered to buy him new clothes because the hobo look was part of the appeal.

Binh will break into song about how Budweiser is the king of beers. Actually, she'll just be singing the song Journey sang in their famous Budweiser commercial in the 80s. Kim is currently working on a "real men of genius" song about "Mr. Hobo who hangs out with butt rock rockers guy".

Isn't compromise fun?

Trust me, these backstories will come in handy when we're being mobbed by fans.

Ambassador of the Deuce

That's Binh's new title. Just in case you were wondering why she's emailing people about STBE.

STBE theme night challenge

Binh and Gabe have challenged the wisdom of the Sugar Twins' theme night choices. Both would like to strike down Butt Rock night. Gabe wants Hobos and Binh wants WT with Money.

What's the word, thunderbirds?

Room for extra night booked

I booked a room for Thursday night. $28 including tax, we'll be at the Plaza, feel free to join us!

an extra night of BINH!!!

Binh's booked for Thursday night! That's right, an extra night of Binh in Vegas! Ow!!!!!

get your own stbe.org email address!!!

If you go to 3 STBEs, we'll give you your own stbe.org email address, because you have proven that you are a true ambassador to the annual Sugar Twins Birthday Extravaganza!!!

Binh and Gabe just received their email addresses, you know you're jelliss!!!

Extra night of fun, anyone?

Ginger booked her cheap flights (thanks to Southwest Ding!) and will be arriving on Thursday night (the 21st). She's also booking a room for that night at the Plaza (or perhaps somewhere else, to mix it up, she's open to suggestions and has already looked around - Binion's is $32, Vegas Club is $27, the Plaza is $29), so anyone who wants to come early, feel free to email her and join the fun. As you know, the super official email is ginger@stbe.org.

Jose is 99% in, so that's already two party people hitting the town to celebrate Mike's birthday for him while he enjoys a quiet night at home!!! Think of how cheap we can make that room! We're already at $15 a person!

Site updated!

Mike and I spent some time on the website and added a few new pages and better navigation. Enjoy!

We also chose our theme nights, and if you're totally opposed to any of them, feel free to email us and complain. These complaints may or may not fall on deaf ears (or blind eyes, since it'll be an email).

Hotel rooms are BOOKED!

We found a great rate online and checked to see what the rate was through the hotel itself, and it was the same, but with the added bonuses of not having to pay a broker fee and more flexibility with regard to cancellation.

Total cost based on 4 people per room is $35 including tax!!!

Oh, and we will be staying at the beautimous Plaza Hotel & Casino in fabulous downtown Las Vegas!

!!!BREAKING NEWS!!!
Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinh is iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!!!!!!!!!

Hotel info is up

The hotel page has been updated - reviews of a few hotels are up along with current pricing info. Please feel free to email us or leave comments if you'd like to suggest a cheap hotel (that isn't the El _ortez) or have some sort of inside track on hotel discounts.

Our totally official emails are ginger@stbe.org and mike@stbe.org. We can also be reached at sugartwiiiins@stbe.org.

hotel search and stbe.org

Well, the website is up and running (stbe.org). There's now a hotels page, which will probably be updated by this weekend. On it will be reviews of the hotels we're considering, and the current rates for those hotels.

Not an exciting update, but and update nonetheless!

hotelscorp.com bait and switch

OK, so I'm new to this blogging thing, so sorry that the picture isn't big enough to see clearly. It's a screenshot from hotelscorp.com, which purports to offer a room at the Plaza for $87.69 including tax for a 3 night stay. The first two nights would be billed at a rate of $30 each, while the third night would be $19. Sounds like a great deal, right? So I called the number the other day to go ahead and book a room, who can beat those rates on a weekend in August? The catch is that you have to go to a timeshare presentation. The other catch? There are no timeshare presentations available that weekend, so you have to pay the higher rate!

Someone tell me again how this is legal? They lure you in with this ridiculously low price (which I believed because I've gotten some ridiculously low prices before). So now I'm wondering if I can call and force them into honoring that price...I'll keep you updated.

In the meantime, please be on the lookout for cheap rooms ($40 a night and under) for August 22-25. Whoever finds the cheapest rooms will get a prize on arrival to whichever fabulous Las Vegas resort we choose to host the 8th Annual STBE.

Update: I called and asked if they had problems running a bait & switch in the hopes of getting booked at the super low rate, but no dice. Ah well, so much for demanding satisfaction from crooks. He said they can't control the fact that there aren't presentations, so I told him they should stop advertising that price if they can't offer it. I asked him to pass that information on to his boss, which I doubt will happen.

The moral of the story? Don't book with hotelscorp. If you google hotelscorp.com, there are a few entries calling it a scam, which is totally true.

STBE theme night voting...UPDATE

In voting for greatest hits:

Butt Rock - 2 votes
Hobos (old-timey bums) - 1 vote
Old People - 1 vote

Suggested themes:

Celebrity Impersonators (suggested by 2 people)
Homestar Runner
Scouts (think Wilderness Girls from Troop Beverly Hills)
Mime Time
Everybody dress like somebody else who is coming (I think this one is getting the axe - we might think it was funny, but no one else will know we're doing a theme night)
Polygamists (in prairie clothes)
80s Workout Video Extras

Test

Clearly, I'm bored.

Until the STBE website is up and running, this will be the place (along with the evite, of course) for updates and info on STBE '08. Feel free to post stories about our past Vegas adventures, and also, if you find a super-cheap hotel (that isn't the El _ortez) please pass that info on, as well.

Of course, this will keep going after the STBE is over, after all, once this STBE ends, we'll begin planning for the next one!