Going once, going twice

New York Based Guernsey's Auction House is here in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino to auction the personal belongings of the Jackson Family. The 2 day auction is being held inside The Joint, where more than 1,000 items are on the block.

If you are unable to attend the auction they are accepting Internet bids. You can watch the live at http://www.liveauctioneers.com/ at 1pm and at 7pm.

Now remember,these are the items that Michael Jackson tried block the sale of. His argument was that there might be some embarrassing things. Well, I'm here to tell you after viewing the items I'd be embarrassed too!! There's a bunch of old clothes and costumes up for sale that if they came out my closet GoodWill would reject them. Not to mention the gifts from other famous people that are up for sale. Now that's embarrassing I bet there won't be any autographed baseballs or jerseys in Mike's near future.



Apparently, the Jackson's never had to declutter before. They obviously haven't heard of the "if you haven't worn it in a year get rid of it rule".

Universal Express the company who owns these items will donate a portion of the proceeds to charity.

Day 5 Bellagio....

Friday night in Las Vegas, doesn't get any better (final night with family). We had a delicious dinner at Noodles in the Bellagio toured around the casino.

No visit to the Bellagio is complete without a stop in the elegant lobby. You have to admire the 2,000 blown glass flowers on the ceiling. Pretty amazing.

The Bellagio Botanical Garden and Conservatory has unique displays of plants an flowers. The current theme is Old Route 66. If you're looking for something to do between slot machines I highly recommend it (and it's free!)

Ocean's Eleven made the Bellagio Fountains famous. The fountains are another must see free show. I recommend viewing the Fountains at night for the most dramatic effect. In the evening on the weekends the Bellagio Fountains can be viewed every 15 minutes between 8:00 and 12:00pm.

Check out the Bellagio's page for more information http://bellagiolasvegas.com.

Sugar,Sugar

Day 4....

Thursday am... a trip to Little Pastry Chefs. At Little Pastry Chefs you can take your children in and buy a cake and all the fixings in this case butter cream icing, sprinkles and what masterpiece would be complete without jelly beans!

The blue and green icing also doubling as Goth lipstick for a 5 year old! The kids had a great time. My only disappointment was the lack of chef hats and aprons. I think that would have made the experience much more memorable. To check out the calendar of events go to www.LittlePastryChefs.Com

Discovery Park and a Movie

Day 3...

We found ourselves at Aliante's Discovery Park. We spent the morning with dinosaurs and their eggs, swinging on swings, climbing towers and escaping down the tunnel slides. The highlight of our day was spent in the water park; running through sprinklers, dodging water spraying palm trees and frogs.

After lunch we took in a movie Shrek The Third. Not as good as the other movies but never the less a fun "chic flick" for us.

Bonnie Springs, NV

Today is day 2 of our adventures (family in town). Today we went to Bonnie Springs. Everyone always told me how quaint it is and how much my nieces would like it.

The drive through Red Rock Canyon was beautiful as always, the anticipation grew the closer we got to Bonnie Springs. We were going to see real cowboys and ghost town. Well we arrived there paid our $20 (carload).

We made our way through the ghost town and souvenir shops only to emerge with a cowgirl hat, vest and the ever trendy black and white cow print visor. We decided to skip the show and go to the petting zoo instead.

We were greeted by a peacock which instantly sent my sister in law into a panic. She told her daughters not go near the bird because it would "peck your eyes out." It was all downhill after that, we were all to afraid to touch anything for fear of Ecoli or God knows whatever else. Fortunately, I have been carrying anti-bacterial hand spray which we all used over and over.

We got home and showered, laughed about another botched Aunt Mojay outing. It seems this excursion is right up there with the infamous Oatman, Arizona outing.

Stay tuned for more family adventures in Sin City.

Ice to meet you

Today we witnessed magician Nathan Burton in 15 tons of ice in the shape of a giant letter M.
Nathan Burton will be camped out in his ice house for 24 hours he will be joined by 96 showgirls 4 showgirls at time. Nathan will be in his palace until 10:00 am tomorrow, at which time they will use a chainsaw to remove him. This is all taking place outside of the new Planet Hollywood Casino. The M is promoting the Miracle Mile shopping area.

Get Movin' with Oscar G

This morning several hundred Las Vegans joined our beloved Mayor, Oscar Goodman for a walk. This morning's 2.5 mile walk kicked off the Mayor's Healthy Lifestyle Initiative.

Currently, Las Vegas is ranked the 42nd healthiest city to live in. ( I'm not sure about these rankings, remember just 2 weeks ago Las Vegas was the number 1 fattest city in America!)

Mayor Goodman's Healthy Lifestyle Initiative 3 point plan is to Get Smart, Get Up and Get Out. He wants to educate Las Vegans about proper diets and exercise. He wants Las Vegans to use and enojy our city's parks and recreation areas to help achieve their fitness goals.

Today's event was held at Kellog Zaher Park. The walk started at promptly at 8:00 am, before the temperature gets out of hand. The route included several water break stations for participants and their 4 legged friends as well.

To learn more about the Mayor's Initiative go to http://www.gehealthylasvegas.org/

What the hell???

Here we are saying what the hell! So what does that mean?? So what the hell are we saying?
We are saying "HELLDORADO Days"

Helldorado days celebrates our Western Heritage. You can''t beat that.

63 Million Dollars Later

What's got all of Las Vegas a buzz? Is it the sale of the New Frontier? Horse drawn carriages downtown? Perhaps it's the up and coming Movin' with the Mayor walk? No, its bigger than that! Not even 7 footer Beas Hamaga can eclipse this one.

Believe it or not its the I95 /Rancho interchange! Yes it's true you can enter and exit the I95 at Rancho!! (63 million dollars later) Life is good again. Closed since January this year the Rancho short cut is now open and we are back in business. The opening ceremony was 11:00 am today.

UNLV Basketball Progarm

Could the combination of Coach Lon Kruger's recent contract extension until 2012 and the addition of Beas Hamga be just what UNLV's Basketball program needs? As a loyal Rebel fan I can't wait to find out.

7 footer Beas Hamga is coming to UNLV to play for the Rebels. The 18 year old is already thinking ahead like a franchise player...."I have the chance to have the team built around me." (sounds like an NBA player already!)

Hamga was heavily recruited by Kentucky, Iowa and Indiana but chose to come to Las Vegas.

Could Beas be UNLV's Shaq?

Just in time for Mother's Day.....

The VH1 Rock Honors are in town the show is being held at Mandalay Bay. The honorees are Genesis, ZZ Top , Heart and Ozzy Osbourne. The show will air May 24th on VH1 9pm. Ozzy Osbourne was interviewed yesterday by KOMP radio's Carlota. You can listen to it at http://www.komp.com/home.php Ozzy is of course very entertaining (what you could understand!)


Check out The VH1 game Ozzy's Bat Bite
http://http://games.vh1.com/gameinfo.php?gid=96

In honor of Mother's day here's the 1st verse from Mama I'm Coming Home

Times have changed and times are strange
Here I come, but I ain't the same
Mama, I'm coming home
Times gone by seem to be
You could have been a better friend to me
Mama, I'm coming home

From the Land of the Buffets......

Driving home today I kept thinking about how to follow up on my last post about Las Vegas being the America's fattest City. I then spotted the $6.99 all you can eat buffet billboard which gave me inspiration. I then made a stop at Walmart which confirmed we were America's fattest city.

I t made me think back to the days when I was a just a tourist here on the weekend trying to make back all the money I had lost gambling, attempting to ensure that Caesar's Palace didn't turn a profit on me. (I saw David Hasselhoff and his Ex there once)

I then came across the LVRJ's page that has this great photo of the Palms Marquee "Free Paris" first thought is free Palms party girl Paris Hilton but it is actually a promotion for the Palms new Bistro Buffet. Check out the Marquee at http://www.normclarke.com/

I guess I will still have to investigate how and why Las Vegas is America's fattest city.

Fattest City in America

This is a strange post especially as my last post was about Dunkin' Donuts.

I was watching TV tonight Extra was on and they said that Las Vegas is the fattest city in America. I got to thinking, just why are we the fattest city? How could that be? Did everyone quit smoking since the smoking ban in restaurants went into effect and now their taste buds have gone wild? Is it the endless buffets? Could it be the thousands of people who man our slot machines consider that to be their upper body work out?

I will have to investigate this further and let you know what I learn.

Time to make the donuts.....

One more great reason to live in Las Vegas, Dunkin' Donuts will be here in August. They will be opening in 62 stores through out the Vegas valley. They have good reasonable coffee and the donuts are great. Sure to be a hit with all east coast transplants.

For years starting in '82 Dunkin' Donuts had Fred the baker as there front man. He was the face of Duncan Donuts, kind of like the Maytag repairman. Two ad campaigns come to mind when I think of Fred the baker one is time to make the donuts, the other is Fred dressed as a blond woman spying on a competitor with his full mustache asking the question "like Dunkin' Donuts?" Fred of course concealing his mustache with his index finger.

Donuts are not a regular part of my diet but I will be certain to have a chocolate kreme filled donut for old times sake.

I want my...I want my... I want my MTV

More to look forward to at the Palms' new Pearl concert arena... the MTV VMA's will be hosted here in Las Vegas. The awards show will be held on September 9th. This show will be the 24th annual. The show has historically been held in New York City, twice in Miami and Los Angeles. Las Vegas will be the fourth city to host the event.

It's hard to imagine that MTV is turning 26 this August. ( I feel another rant about the 80's coming on!) Back in '81 that was the only reason to sign up for cable television.We always watched it or had it on in the background. We knew all the VJays. Hell, I even went to high school with Martha Quinn. Who could forget videos like Pat Benatar's "Love is a battlefield", Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and Madonna's "Borderline". I even had a friend who worked on a couple of MC Hammer's videos. (How cool was that.)

Whenever I channel surf it seems like the only thing on MTV is bunch of reality shows. I never see any music videos. Do bands even make them anymore for MTV?

Hoorah,Hooray its the 1st of May and smoking starts outside today!

Last November Nevada voters passed Question 5 which prohibits smoking in public places which mainly effects restaurants and taverns that serve food. Bottom line you if your serving food you can not smoke.

Many Pub owners have had to make a choice to either abide by the new law or stop serving food. There are some Pubs that are challenging the new ordinance. Business' that violate the new law face a $200 fine.

Smokers who are caught will be subjected to a $100 fine for each offense. I don't know about you but that's an awful lot of my just for a ciggy butt. I smoked for years so I understand the nicotene addiction. I think I would just step out side if I really need a drag that bad!!