Around the Strip

This past weekend was another kitchen work weekend – we drove down to the LA Ikea store last week and picked up some more cabinets, which were put together and in place this weekend. I still have to drill out the drawer fronts for handles and get those on. We decided to extend the cabinets along the whole outside wall instead of stopping where the older cabinets did. This intrudes onto the space where we have a small table, but since we widened the kitchen by three feet putting in two feet deep cabinets would still result in a wider area here. It’s an additional eight feet of cabinets and countertop, so we will have a lot of counter area for prep and working surface.

But before the cabinets went in I had to open the wall (cutting up the newly installed drywall) to install outlets above the newly expanded counter and put in some more ceiling lights to light up the new workspace. I had put in can lights with fluorescents around the kitchen for background light and can lights with led spotlights over the working surfaces. When you turn them all on it’s really bright in there! It’s much better than the old kitchen, with the large area plastic panels with long fluorescent tubes behind, which never quite seemed to light things up very well. But that big window really makes it different, with all of the light that brings in. B wants some kind of covering to close it up for privacy at night, blinds probably, but hasn’t figured out what yet.

There is a lot of construction down on the Strip, with the old Sahara being converted into a new SLS, the camels, big entrance and roller coaster are all gone. Next door the Riviera is undergoing a small (relative to the rest of the Strip) $20,000,000 renovation. The Linq project is proceeding and the FitzGerald, sorry, Bill’s Gambling Hall is now the Gansevoort. The big wheel down across from Mandalay Bay is semi officially dead with just two big posts sticking up out of the ground, more big dreams and no money. With all of the projects under way it’s about a $1,000,000,000 (one billion) dollar change to the Strip. Not as much as City Center cost, but spread around.

The Rolling Stones will be in town at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in May, with tickets going on sale on Friday at noon. Prices range from $150 to $750 plus taxes and fees. If you have bucks to burn you can get a $2100 hospitality package with merchandise and buffet before the show.

Over at Vegas Chatter they’ve declared the new sign at the Aria to be the winner in the Strip sign wars:


250 feet tall, 65 feet wide and 11 million pixels. (the tall red one is the sign). And the world’s most expensive billboard next to it has changed from advertising Elvis to advertising Zarkana, the new Cirque show at Aria. Yes, that hotel is still under litigation, with the owners wanting to blow it up and replace it while the contractor wants to be paid to fix it. Probably years more of court time and lawyers’ fees on that one.