July 13, 2007: Trip report: Vegas Day Four

Out of the room by 8 again. Went to the Big Kitchen buffet. We were there earlier than usual, so no shrimp coctail for breakfast. Only a minor setback, though. The rest was very good, and back to the room we went to pack. We packed up everything except what we were going to wear home and our swimsuits. I got done packing first, so I went ahead and changed into my suit and sat down to watch some of the good ole Las Vegas Tourism channel. As I was sitting there in my suit (the one I just bought before this trip and the one I had worn for the first time two days ago for an hour), I felt something at my back crack. I sat up a bit straighter, and the whole clasp broke and fell out from under the shirt I had on over the suit. Great, I thought. So much for lounging at the pool all morning. Determined that this would not suck the joy out of my last 3 hours in Vegas, DH and I experimented with different ways to rig the suit. First he tried tying it. No good. Then we tried using the U-shaped part of the clasp that was still intact. That seemed to be working, or at least I thought it would as long as I didn't actually try to swim. So down to the pool we went. On the way, DH suggested we stop at the store by the pool to see if there was anything we could use to fix it better. The only thing I could find was safety pins. We bought those and assured the cashier that it was OK to want to have fun at your job (apparently she'd had some problems with management), and went to find a chair. The pool wasn't crowded, so we found chairs quickly and DH set about trying to fix my suit. As soon as he touched it, the half a clasp that had been holding it decided that was it's cue to move, and the back came open. Luckily, I had forseen this and was holding the top in place. No harm done and dignity intact! YES! After a bit more trial and error, the safety pin held, and off DH went to get a pool floatie. I offered several times to let him take a turn with it, since he had gotten it for both of us, but he declined each time. I think he was too engrossed in a conversation with a guy about blackjack strategy. Spent a wonderful couple of hours at the pool, then it was time to get ready to leave. Changed clothes, checked out after reviewing our charges and having them remove the charge from the safe we never used (no medieval conniption involved, no matter what the other half may say), got outside and... by the numbers: 0 cabs, 12 people in line, 2 hours before flight departure. We waited about 30 mintues and finally off we went, learning along the way some sketchy details about the shooting at NYNY. Through security and off we went to our gate. To kill what time we had left over, DH checked every bookstore for a particular book he'd been looking for and I did something I never do: I fed the greedy little Pat Sajak and Vanna White-wielding WOF machines. This has to be some form of masochism, because I know those machines never pay out. But the guy sitting across from me at the gate had been winning, so I figured, what the heck? Plane departed on time, and we landed home in the ridiculous humidity several hours later. Interesting side note: When we reached our stopover at DFW, were hungry, but nothing looked good. We walked until we finally settled on pizza at this little place. We walked around to their seating area, and they were playing nothing but Dean Martin music. It was kind of like one more little good-bye from Vegas. Stupid, I know. But we had fun.