After the most grueling six-month stretch of my professional career, it's time for a vacation.  On Thursday morning, I board a plane in Orlando along with my girlfriend, Lisa, and my daughter, Alexandra, on our way to Honolulu, Hawaii where we'll be staying seven days on the North Shore.  It's going to be an incredible experience and I plan on using my blog to journal everything we see.

Over the past few days I've been prepping my website and gathering all of my gadgets and gear to capture our time out in the middle of the Pacific.  I've got my Flickr account, a YouTube account and a Vimeo account (better High-Def) feeding my blog with the latest pictures and videos every fifteen minutes.  I've also got my Twitter account posting the latest updates to the bubble up in the top-right corner of my site.

As for the gear I'm taking, I purchased a Canon Vixia HF10 high-definition camcorder a week ago which will be capturing moving pictures.  I've got a Flip camera for my daughter to capture the trip in her own style.  I've got my Canon 40D DSLR ready with plenty of compact flash cards.  I'll have my iPhone for web updates and quick photos on the run.  And finally, my MacBook Pro with iMovie and Aperture.

Stay tuned...

So I'm back at work today after being on vacation for a week. I guess you never get used to the first day back at work. Any time I have more than a two-day weekend, I question why I'm working in Sarasota. Once I come to the conclusion that I'm here for a paycheck, you sink right into clock watching. T-minus six hours and I can go home. I'm still on West Coast time, so I'm a bit groggy today which doesn't make it any better.

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Yesterday we decided to get out and see more of the Vegas strip.  So we started walking south.  Lisa wanted to visit Paris and ride the roller coaster at New York, New York, so we did.  While in Paris, we gambled a little.  After about an hour of playing Blackjack, Lisa was up $25 and I was down $50.  So I wasted another $50 playing craps for about 10 minutes.  After Paris, we started walking south towards New York, New York.

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So after the headaches of the first night, things have improved. Thursday morning I wrote an email to Guest Services explaining my discontent and that afternoon I received a call from one of the Hotel Managers. I have to hand it to them. I didn't think they'd respond to me, but they did and offered to make things better. I wasn't looking for anything other than just getting the room situation straight. But I did have one request and that was free WiFi access for the remainder of our stay, which she happily obliged.

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After a very long but on-time flight, we arrived in Las Vegas.  It's been quite a few years—5 exactly—since I've last been in Vegas.  Besides the major construction changes, it appears to be the same-old city.  Full of expectation, I'm sad to report that our first night here at The Mirage was miserable. 

I'm rarely critical of customer service.  For some strange reason, maybe it's the entrepreneur in me or maybe it's because I deal with "customers" daily, but I tend not to be the kind of person that routinely complains about little annoyances, but livid would be a soft term to describe my anger and dissatisfaction with The Mirage hotel last night.

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