Vegas, baby, Vegas...

I wonder how many times that subject line had been used...

Sorry for the lack of posts, again. I have been working really late nights recently on an on-line game that Powerhouse is doing. Hopefully, I will get to post the link to it in the next couple of days. I am really pleased with the way that it has turned out, but it has not left a lot of time for working on anything else. But I have not had much of a chance to keep up with the blog...

However, weekend before last I went to Burbank, CA for a business meeting...and then Mandy and I took advantage of the weekend to take our first trip to Las Vegas.

We stayed at the Monte Carlo, next door to New York, New York (above).

I'm not going to lie and say I was a big fan of Las Vegas. But, while we were there, we had the opportunity to go to UFC 62, which was an absolute thrill for us. I have been an MMA fan for a long time, going back to UFC I. MMA has really evolved into a sport since then, despite its reputation...although if you watch "Ultimate Fighter" on Spike TV and saw the recent Edwin DeWees and Gideon Ray blood bath you may not believe me. Over the past year or so, Mandy had started getting into the sport, too.

We went to the weigh-ins on Friday, which was a blast.

The main fight we wanted to see was Forrest Griffin v. Stephan Bonnar. We really like both of these guys, but Mandy is a big Stephan Bonnar fan.

While we were there, we went to several parties that were tied to the fights. At Mandalay Bay we went to a Matt Hughes sponsored party at the Rum Jungle. I got a chance to see Pat Miletich again. I'll probably post more about this later.

The fights themselves were great, lots of action and we had a great time. Afterwards, Mandy and I tried to get in the Forrest Griffin after party at Mix at the top of the casino. We did the wait in line behind velvet ropes thing for the first time in my life. It was pretty surreal, folks with head-sets picked who was cool enough to get in. It was not something I normally do, but we figured while in Vegas...

We got in, and sawJoe Rogan and Forrest Griffin outside of the bar, when we were leaving.

Earlier in the weekend, at the Rum Jungle party, Mandy and I met a nice couple from Arizona. We had a great time talking to them and we talked about catching up with them after the fights. Unfortunately, I left my phone and (their number) in our camera bag, which we had to check for the fight. We ran into the couple the next morning. They told us they went to the Mix party too, and stayed there late into the evening on the patio with Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar. We were bummed because we thought it would be cool to meet Bonnar. We were pretty disappointed that we had missed out.

Oddly enough, just as we were about to leave for the airport, we bumped into Bonnar in the casino. Despite having a broken hand, he was nice enough to take a picture with Mandy:

All in all, it was a pretty fun weekend.