No strings attached! Not really!

I think that 1/3 of the population in Las Vegas work as sales persons.  The other 2/3's are either unemployed or work in the casinos and resorts.  I don't know how many times we were approached by someone on the strip offering us "free shows" or "free shows and free dinners".  We're getting pretty savvy by now and know that there is nothing "free" about these offers.  They always entail a 2-3 hour time share presentation, followed by a high pressure sales pitch.  Friends of ours just love these offers.  (you know who you are...Janet and Scott/Dean and Bernice!).  For us, definitely not fun, and, in our opinion, not worth the 'prize' at the end of the day.  The dinners are always buffets (a ticket for us to hugely overeat), and the shows are what we consider to be second rate.  You never get offered tickets to headliners like Celine Dion, or Jerry Seinfeld, or Elton John.  You might get Carrot Top, or Donny and Marie.  And more likely than not, you'll get Mac King, or Matt Goss, to which you'll reply "who the heck are they"....my point EXACTLY!  Every now and then, someone gets pretty creative and we almost get 'caught'.  Like the guy handing out Ben and Jerry's 2 for 1 coupons.  Who'd have thought there'd be strings attached to that??  But our quick thinking got us out of any sales pitch.  "We're leaving in the morning", we said.  And last night at Luxor someone approached Kier as we were heading to the washroom.  "I've just got a question for you" he said and offered us a free night in the resort.  The string to that offer was that we had to pay a "refundable deposit"...how is that free??  Oh well, we got out of that too.  And I'm not sure what Kier used last night in the casino when he was approached with a sales pitch by one of the "ladies of the evening"....he never really said how he discouraged her....hmmmmm.....

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:  Perception is not always reality... I know, I know, something you'd think I would have figured out long ago...and I did really...but it was driven home when we went to see our very first show in Vegas.  Yeah, yeah, I know....we don't go to shows...but we can't say that anymore.  We saw Penn and Teller who are advertised as the "bad boys of magic".  Kier gave the tickets to me for a retirement gift.  They were the VIP seats....not sure what that entitled us to besides the free colour programs...but they were excellent seats. These guys show you how many of the tricks are performed.  It breaks the myth behind the "tricks".  An enjoyable show for sure, although it wasn't entirely what we'd expected, but good none the less.  And they got us on a couple of occasions which left us walking away saying "How did they do THAT!!". 

Penn Jillette and me

Here I am with one of the stars of the show.  This is the guy that actually talks.  Teller never says a word.  I just have one question...what's with the painted fingernail???  His....not mine...

Bye from Vegas....we'll be back home tomorrow...still with money in our pockets.  Our luck has changed a wee bit, but we're still doing okay.  We won't need to panhandle at the airport in the morning to cover our breakfast!!