Las Vegas Heat & Great Eats, 2006
Jul 06 '06
The Bottom Line If you are reading this, you'll probably want to make sure and check out the next M&G in your area.
First off, for those that don't remember me, my name is Richard, otherwise known as ramsfan, and I am the big and hairy Other Half of better known & looking reviewer, Kcfoxy. I have been an Epinions.com member since the early days of 1999.
She told me there was going to be a Meet and Greet in Las Vegas sometime in June 2006. My first reaction was "why?" since Summertime is about the last time of year you'd want to visit Sin City. The high desert heat packs a real punch and June 17th turned out to be something like 106 by noon.
We were going to meet at The House of Blues at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, located on the far south side of the Las Vegas Strip. Casey checked out the restaurants there, and found one in our price range, The Burger Bar, so I went off for an Angus Beef Burger-rare-while she fed the slots at the Casino on the first floor near the HOB. We got there about 3 hours before the action started.
There was a little area roped off for us overlooking the main part of the HOB restaurant. It reminded me of Planet Hollywood with some spooky voodoo stuff, guitars and lots of noise. We met a couple of the staff, Christal and Joel, and got our name badges. I was wearing a white replica St. Louis Rams jersey over my regular tee shirt and jeans, in case someone couldn't read my tag.
There were a couple small bar tables, a small bar and buffet table setup and 3 to 4 square tables that sat 4. Casey and Pam-Mrsfitts, found each other, I said "Hi" and made for the buffet line, since I used to be a Cook and the open bar wasn't that important to me. They did have plenty of cold O'Doul's though-very nice!
We were supposed to have some hot snacks but instead it looked like a full meal, chicken and rice, baked fish, mixed veggies, tossed salad with croutons, mashed potatoes, a carving station of prime rib and hot apple cobbler with vanilla ice cream if you wanted it. The carving station guy was cool, and gave me a good 3/4" slab instead of the 1/4" portion control pieces he was slicing for everybody else.
I sat down and ate, nodding hello to Amy, who was in Books like Casey, and meeting her friend, (blonde lady with glasses?), then Steve, from Los Angeles where I'm originally from, lugging a professional looking camera. I'd been hearing about Pam and Steve before, they were like old friends getting together again with my Lady.
I hit the buffet for seconds and thirds, the food was very good and plentiful. I did notice that most people seemed to be drinking rather than eating. They were gathered in small groups of 2-4 people, slightly more women that men and 2 of the Epinions staff were very cute and wore mini skirts.
Ouch! Kcfoxy is typing this while I dictate it and said I'm not supposed to say anything about the white panties.
I am going to tell you about the bartender, though. He was mixing up a special blue drink, an Epi-tini or something, and the gals were sucking them down and hanging out close to the bar, laughing with a bald-headed guy with glasses who looked like another writer.
Another blonde-not the tall, friendly and very attractive, (ouch!), one (Kris?) that won the iPod, but another one with a pony tail, was drooling and said she just had to meet that dark-haired bartender. Being from LA, I'm not shy, so I cruised on over to let him know this lady was interested in him.
"Thanks Dude. That's good to know." I was curious to know if they ever hooked up. He seemed down to earth and cool, but Casey started saying goodbyes right before 7, when the M&G ended, so I guess we'll never know.
I took some pictures of Casey and Pam and Casey and Steve, and there's probably a couple of me you'll see, too. 6'3" and pretty hard to miss, but being one of the few sober ones in the bunch, I got to sit toward the back and just observe. When we compared notes later, like the next morning, there was a lot of little things I saw that my Better Half didn't, between her poor eyesight and the Bailey's she was sipping on.
I met another couple from Southern California, and was surprised that some people actually came from Texas and even the East Coast. I think we were next to the only ones here for the first time, never making it to the 3 California gatherings before.
We did meet some Epinions writers way back in 2001, but that was at a private get together in San Jose, nothing official like this one. At some point people that Casey pointed out were from eBay, Shopping.com and Ubid did join the party, with my estimate being 25-30 people all together.
On the ride back to our downtown hotel, I was asked how I liked the Meet & Greet. "It was very nice, the food was great, a good open bar and the people were friendly even if I didn't know who they were." Of course I told the true writer of our family that she/they were all Geeks and Nerds, same as our first get together-all chatting on and on about Epinions.
Me? I drive an 18 wheeler up and down the state of California, sometimes into Reno or Arizona. I'm an ex-jock with P.E. being my favorite subject in high school and junior high. The Sporting News and Victoria Secret catalogs being the extent of my reading material. Not that I'm knocking these gatherings-lots of hugging, smiling, partying and putting a name to a face. I'm getting up there in years, but I still like to party!
It turned out about the way I'd expect it too-people that seemed like they'd met before hanging out together again, with some mingling more than others. I'd say I came mostly for Casey's benefit, since she loves Epinions.com and eBay, really loves Las Vegas, and tending to be both a hermit, (on the computer or reading if not cooking, working or sleeping), and very shy. So it was good to see people weren't acting snobby or full of themselves.
We were given those M&M shaped Epi dolls-as many as we wanted, big beach towels with Epinions' logo and some great M&G screen-printed tee shirts, and treated very well. With a 54" chest, I have to thank Garrett and the Customer Care gang for making sure I got the really big size I needed.
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Epinions.com ID:
ramsfan
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Member: Richard Horner
Location: Left Coast
Reviews written: 57
Trusted by: 41 members
About Me:
Long-haul trucker, former cook, and all-around nice guy.
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