Greetings from Las Vegas. This is Day 9 of our trip report, covering Tuesday, April 11, 2000.
Do you detect a pattern here? Roz starts the day with her workout at Gold's
Gym. Now that they are starting to recognize her at Gold's, she was asked why
she didn't sign up on her first visit for their deal which allows a week of
visits for $35, instead of paying $10 per visit. She said no one told her about
it, so they will give her the next visit free. That will be four visits for
the $30 she's paid, not a bad deal.
I took care of a lot of our business via telephone calls throughout the morning.
I've already mentioned that Eagle Sentry is doing our home-theater installation,
but they are also doing our burglar alarm system, for which we've already been
wired. This morning I spoke with Eagle Sentry's alarm specialist, who explained
all our options to me.
The basic system is free with a three-year monitoring contract for $29.95 a
month, billed quarterly. For a one-time payment of $250, we'll also have multi-zone
motion sensors and intrusion detection on every window. Triggered alarms will
bring a hasty visit from an armed guard based in a nearby security office, once
they've verified that we didn't trigger the alarm by accident. For another one-time
payment of $85, we'll have a smoke detector that triggers a call to the fire
department, which will supplement the Del Webb-supplied smoke detectors that
do nothing more than make a loud noise.
The alarm system will be installed within 24 hours of our passing title in
June, as will activation of our phone lines.
Next call was to the local office of Liberty Mutual, our motor vehicle insurer
back home. Liberty will provide our homeowners and auto insurance out here,
so I swapped information with the Liberty representative so that he could work
with the title company to provide the necessary evidence of insurance shortly
before our closing.
Finally, I spoke with Cox Cable to learn the procedures and timing for having
our cable installed, as well as cable modem for high-speed Internet access.
But I'll also be asking the phone company about DSL availability as the time
draws closer.
Since our belongings from home will not be shipped until we're on our way here
in August, it's going to be near impossible to have Cox Cable up and running
when we close in June. Cox requires a TV to be present in the house for each
line they install. We plan to have cable running to five sets, none of which
will be with us in June. But perhaps we will acquire a new set out here so that
at least we can have cable on that set during June. This will be basic cable,
as we are DirecTV devotees who plan to have DirecTV out here also.
Leaving the vacation villa, we drove over to the office of Entertainment Publications
to buy the current Las Vegas edition of the Entertainment Book. The book cost
us only $24 with the $6 discount coupon from the Las Vegas Advisor package.
For those planning to buy a book at the Entertainment Publications' office,
it is located in an office building at 6000 So. Eastern, just north of Sunset.
It is right at the east edge of McCarran International Airport. But I was told
they are considering a move to an office on Valley View, south of where Mandalay
Bay sits. So you'll want to verify the current address if you are planning to
go there.
If the folks at Shade Tree Shelter give me permission, there's a good chance
I'll become an online vendor of the Entertainment Book as a permanent Shade
Tree fund-raiser. An additional benefit to Internet users is that I'll be able
to sell and ship any edition of the Entertainment Book for any city in the country.
After the Entertainment Publications stop, we spent the rest of the day at
Sunset Station. First we had lunch at one of our favorites, the Costa Del Sol
Oyster Bar. The pan roasts here are fantastic, with your choice of seafood enfolded
in a creamy, aromatic broth, accompanied by white rice. That's what I had, while
Roz chose the bouillabaisse. These were lunch portions at $7.99 each, and were
fabulous.
Sunset Station has a nice cinema complex, most or all with THX sound systems,
and with conversions to stadium seating in process. We were just in time for
a showing of Erin Brockovich, a really superb film. Where Julia Roberts is concerned,
can you spell O-S-C-A-R? And maybe one for Albert Finney, too.
After the movie, we converted our Boarding Station slot-club cards to the new
ones that merge usage at all Station Casinos. At first, the clerk confused us
with another couple named Berman, so she thanked us for our patience by starting
our new cards with a credit of 1,500 points each.
Finally, being too lazy to figure out a different place for dinner, we stayed
at Sunset Station for The Feast, their buffet which shares its name with the
buffets at other Station properties. Partly because I've listed all the dishes
at this buffet in the past, and partly because I wouldn't recommend that you
travel out of your way for it, I'll spare you my complete recitation of every
item offered. Among those we sampled, we liked their Chinese ribs, smoked pork
BBQ ribs, fried chicken, individually grilled small sirloins, Mexican-style
pork chop, and sugar-free cheesecake.
That's it in a nutshell. The trip is winding down, and we feel so comfortable
out here, living in the vacation villa, that we will not enjoy going back home.
But the wheels are all in motion for the big move west, and the time will pass
quickly.
End of Day 9.
--Best from David ...in Las Vegas
