Still Around ...

First up: No news from the perinatologist about the amniocentesis today. I figure the results are just taking longer to get back than she initially expected; so I'm not going to stress about things.

Second up: I haven't been posting much lately because I've been being overworked doing the onsite newspaper at a trade show out in Las Vegas since Saturday. (Our Japanese salesguy, who brought me a nice little bottle of saké as a thank you for getting him some information prior to the show, might mention the word 過労死.)

Not too much to really say: I'm staying at the Sahara, which is an upgrade from my usual digs at Circus Circus (a.k.a., "The Clown Hospital"), but it's still obviously an older property that's seen better days; and I'm on the night shift, which means working from about 11 a.m. to 3 a.m., depending upon whether I go the printer on a given night or not.

On Saturday (after the sales meetings were over), I snuck away to Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton. It's featuring a new "4D" Borg Invasion ride that was pretty good. The live action bits were decently done (although some of the actors were a bit lackluster) and the special effects were mostly cool, but the Klingon Encounter ride was bit more exciting, I felt. It also sucks that they combined the tickets so you cannot decide to do just one of the rides; you have to pay for both, even if you only want to do one.

This morning, I woke up early so that I could visit the Southern Nevada Zoological Botanical Park. It is a ways away from The Strip (I took a cab there and a CAT bus back) and on the small side, but interesting.

It's a completely private zoo and parts of it look like a road-side attraction, but obviously something good is going on here. On the scary side, there is a huge bird collection, including lots of free-roaming Indian peafowl and a wide variety of chickens (plus pigeons that seem to be squatting in the zoo), and most of the enclosures are chain-link fences and on the small side.

However, they do have some enclosures that look newer and more naturalistic (the otters and tortoises, for example), and I didn't see any major examples of stereotypy. They are working with the San Diego Zoo, so their programs must be up to snuff, and the keeper I talked to seemed really energetic. Plus they have the largest fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox) enclosure in North America, although the pair is not on display yet.

I'm sure there's more to blog about (including the monorail), but we're still working right now and I'm due to take the red-eye home tomorrow, so I'll blog it then ...

[ADDENDUM: Oh, not that I have to mention it, but it really sucks to be sitting here at the eastern edge of the Pacific time zone while waiting for the amnio results.]