The beauty of the new Catalyst Bar at The Quad hotel isn’t just skin deep. There’s some specialty cocktail chops to back it up.

Although we also think it's pretty.

This blog forced itself to try some of these new signature cocktails on your behalf, because we’re self-sacrificing like that.

First up is the Jal-E-Berri, with muddled strawberries and jalapenos (don’t say we didn’t warn you), Skyy vodka, fresh lime and grapefruit juices.

"Jal" as in "jalapeno." An important detail.

Next, try the Diablo El.

Yes, after you have this one, you may be transposing your Spanish. It’s got Patron tequila, creme de cassis, fresh lime juice, ginger beer and a splash of ginger ale. Say “hola” to “Senor Buzz.”

The devil could not be reached for comment.

A fine member of Catalyst Bar’s family of tempting signature cocktails is the Strawberry Cucumber Collins, a refreshing combination of Hendrick’s gin, strawberry puree and Collins mix.

This one's particularly zippy.

The cocktail menu has an entire section devoted to “skinny” offerings, cocktails that skimp on the calories, but not on the flavor. The Skinny Margarita has Sauza tequila, fresh lime juice and Cointreau, whatever that might be.

Is this the perfect margarita? And don't you just love rhetorical questions?

Hope you’ve been pacing yourself, because our next cocktail is the Cable Car. It’s a mouthwatering confluence of Captain Morgan spiced rum, Cointreau and fresh sour.

The Cable Car is a modern take on the classic Sidecar. Which we knew off the top of our head, thanks.

Ever hear of a “Q-ini”? Of course not. Until Catalyst Bar invented them, they didn’t exist.

Q-inis are Champagne-based, and you can choose to add one of a variety of freshly-made purees: strawberry, blueberry, pineapple, mango or raspberry. This be the mango version.

Yes, "Q-ini." Just deal.

So many delicious new cocktails to help kick-start your Las Vegas adventure! Drop by the new Catalyst Bar and try some of these lusty libations for yourself.

Oh, and not for nothing, but The Lusty Libations would make a great band name.

It’s an annual tradition. Readers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal vote on their favorite things in Sin City. The results for 2013 are here.

The “Best of Las Vegas” poll runs the gamut of Las Vegas offerings, from shows to restaurants, hotels, shopping and more. There’s no “Best Las Vegas Blog” category, but do we really even need to vote on that one? Ahem.

The list of winners is too long to share here, so we’ll just mention a few from the Caesars Entertainment realm (whose blog this is).

Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars Palace was the Review-Journal’s pick for “Best Buffet (Hotel),” and Caesars Palace also won the coveted editor’s choice for “Best Strip Hotel.”

Caesars Palace was clearly very happy about its win.

Gordon Ramsay Steak at Paris Las Vegas was chosen by the editors as the city’s best steakhouse, no small feat in a town full of great ones!

The place your taste buds have inappropriate fantasies about: Gordon Ramsay Steak.

The reader’s pick for “Best Singer” on The Strip went to Donny Osmond at Flamingo Las Vegas. The editors chose Cheaza, in “Peepshow,” at Planet Hollywood.

The runaway favorite in the “Best Bargain Show” category, Mac King at Harrah’s, prevailed again this year. It’s his 416th win in a row, roughly.

Mac King's show never loses its sizzle!

VooDoo Lounge at Rio was named by the RJ’s editors as the “Best Place to View the City.” No brainer.

The “Bevertainers” (cocktail waitresses who also perform onstage) at Rio got the reader nod as the best in Las Vegas.

A Rio bevertainer in the middle of some bevertainage.

The Rio’s Penn & Teller prevailed as the best magicians in Las Vegas, according to the newspaper’s editors.

The hunks of Chippendales, also at Rio Las Vegas, won for “Best Male Strip Show,” both according to readers and the RJ’s editors.

"Chippendales, keeping T-shirt makers in business since 1979."

The Chippendales guys also snagged the honor of being the best place for a bachelorette party.

Krave at Rio won for “Best Gay/Alternative Bar,” as well as “Best Place to Dance.”

Best “Showgirls/Dancers in a Show” went to “Jubilee!” at Bally’s Las Vegas. The “Best Adult Show” prize went to “Absinthe” at Caesars Palace.

The editor’s selection for “Best Italian Restaurant” was Trevi, in The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. Bonus: Trevi also serves some fairly amazing cocktails. We’ve heard. Allegedly.

Bonus: There has never been a rainy day on the patio at Trevi restaurant.

From the expected to the sort-of-wacky, check out all the results for this year’s Las Vegas Review-Journal Best of Las Vegas poll.

On March 23, 2013, hotels on the Las Vegas Strip went dark as a part of the World Wildlife Fund’s Earth Hour, a global event to raise awareness about sustainability and environmental responsibility.

This blog prefers Vegas the other way, but we see what they're going for.

Las Vegas hotels went dark from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. This is the fifth year Caesars Entertainment hotels have taken part in the event.

Beyond the symbolic dimming of non-essential exterior lights and marquees each year, Earth Hour serves as an opportunity for hotels like those in the Caesars Entertainment family to share information about their ongoing sustainable business practices and environmental programs.

As much as Las Vegas prides itself on being a place for excess, resort companies in Las Vegas take seriously their programs intended to reduce water, energy and waste consumption. Many of the programs not only help save the environment, but also save the companies money, which means lower costs for guests. Everybody wins.

It looks like somebody tripped over an extension cord.

Thanks to Bryan Steffy for the Earth Hour photos.

Learn more about what hotels like Caesars Palace are doing to preserve our environment.

Few movies in recent years have gotten as much buzz in Las Vegas as “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.” The just-released comedy has some big-name talent, and takes a loving jab at Las Vegas magicians, present and past.

The film stars Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi, Olivia Wilde, Jim Carrey, James Gandolfini and others, and much of the movie was filmed on The Strip, including at Bally’s Las Vegas.

One of the key sequences in the film involves a suspended “hot box,” a clear box used in a stunt performed by the show’s central characters, Burt Wonderstone (Carell) and Anton Marvelton (Buscemi). Check it out.

We decided to track down the movie’s stunt coordinator, Alex Daniels, to ask him some annoying questions about this elaborate stunt.

Alex Daniels has been in the movie business for more than three decades, and has worked as an actor, stuntman and stunt coordinator on some classic films. One of our favorite pieces of trivia about Alex Daniels is that he choreographed the naked wrestling scene in “Borat.” So, by “classic,” we actually mean “the kind of classic that epic can only dream of being.”

The "Burt Wonderstone" stunt team. Front row, left to right are Eric Solky (Steve Carrel's stunt double), Jim Stephan, Norbert Phillips and Danny Downey (Steve Buscemi's double). In the back, Jayson Dumenigo and Alex Daniels.

Daniels says of his “Burt Wonderstone” experience, “It was the most pleasant work experience I’ve ever had, in 33 years of doing this.”

About the hot box scene that takes place in front of Bally’s, Daniels says, “The hot box scene was the biggest physical gag of the movie. Luckily, the producers gave us plenty of time to prepare and rehearse. We set up a crane and a mock-up of the hot box at the Warner Bros. studio, probably a month before we went to Vegas to shoot this sequence.”

“Gags,” by the way, are what stuntpersons call stunts. There will be a quiz.

Just another day at the office for stunt professionals and their undergarments.

“For me, I took the approach of it being a live performance,” says Daniels. “That was a key element. In other words, a lot of times when we set up aerial gags, we can set them up with the various pieces within the action, and shoot them, then cut [edit] them together. In this case, we very much wanted to make the entire sequence continuous. So, we didn’t have to stop and reset things. Having continuous action is key to comedic timing, so the actors can have the opportunity to feel the best timing for what they’re doing.”

One of the reasons the hot box sequence in “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” got so much buzz was that so many people in Las Vegas at the time got to see the scene being shot. Daniels adds, “The other thing that was unique about it was we were able to get great reactions from people on The Strip. Not just our extras, but spectators. They could watch the comedic flow and respond to the sequence in a genuine, visceral way.”

It may come as no surprise that doubles were used for the more perilous parts of the hot box stunt.

“Both actors were in the box when we lifted them up to the highest points, about 50 feet up,” says Daniels. “From another crane, we were able to get some great shots of the box and the actors and people on The Strip. Once we got into the more stunt-oriented part of the sequence, with the box open and people are hanging, the stunt team stepped in.”

Look at all the "hot box" jokes we're not making. We are a Las Vegas blog, so that's pretty impressive.

What might come as a surprise is that additional shots used in the hot box scene weren’t done at Bally’s, or even in Las Vegas.

Says Daniels, “We did the bulk of the sequence in front of Bally’s, then pick-up shots in another location so we could do close-ups of the actors. We actually shot in a parking lot near Dodger stadium [in Los Angeles] with a green screen for some portions.”

How is there not a "Six Degrees of Steve Buscemi"?

In another part of the scene, the actors fall onto each other from one end of the suspended broken box.

Daniels tells it this way, “We did a wonderful shot where Steve Carell’s character (Burt Wonderstone) falls onto Steve Buscemi’s (Anton Marvelton). That was done with the actors. It’s an overhead shot, and you can see Steve Carell fall onto Steve Buscemi. Steve Carell was on a wire, and he actually fell, but we stopped him just before he landed. They really got into it, and got a little banged up. They were both game for it. That scene’s a pivotal part of the movie, because that’s the catalyst of their break-up as a team.”

During filming, outside Bally's Las Vegas.

One of the world’s best-known magicians, David Copperfield, now a fixture on the Vegas Strip, was involved with the making of “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.” Daniels beams, “”I’m proud David Copperfield came out during the filming of the hot box sequence, because we’d been filming with him inside the theater at Bally’s, and he came to me and told me how great he thought it was. He said, ‘That’s real magic.’ That meant a lot.”

David Copperfield’s team also worked with Alex Daniels’ team to create an original illusion that also features prominently in the film, one involving a hangman and a body switch. Oh, just see the movie, already.

In parting, Daniels comments, “It was great being in Las Vegas. I’ve done other work there, like ‘Rush Hour 2,’ and it’s nice the producers and director (Don Scardino) understood you can’t do a movie about magic without Las Vegas. For ‘Burt Wonderstone,’ we had A-list stars, David Copperfield and we were in Las Vegas. How much better could it get?”

We had some amazing times at Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall before it closed, but Bill’s (and before that, the Barbary Coast) had seen better days, so it was high time something new took its place. It’s Las Vegas, after all.

That something new will be a boutique hotel, Gansevoort Las Vegas, a collaboration between Caesars Entertainment, New York-based luxury hotel company Gansevoort Hotel Group and Vegas nightlife wizard, Victor Drai.

Bling worthy of the epic intersection of Flamingo and Las Vegas Boulevard.

The new Gansevoort Las Vegas will open in early 2014, after a hefty $185 million renovation, and will feature 188 “Parisian apartment-style” guest rooms and 19 suites.

The hotel will also boast a redesigned lobby bar, ultra-lounge, retail outlets and 40,000 square-foot casino.

Dibs on the chair.

One of the more buzzed-about parts of the planned Gansevoort Las Vegas is the addition of Drai’s Beach Club and Nightclub, a massive, 65,000 square-foot indoor/outdoor nightclub and rooftop pool experience. The panoramic view alone should make Drai’s Beach Club a must-visit addition to the excitement of the Las Vegas Strip.

The popular After Hours by Drai club, a staple of Las Vegas nightlife for the past 15 years, is set to return, in its same location.

Please, Mr. Drai, keep the lips.

Gansevoort Las Vegas is a serious departure from Bill’s, but it seems a good fit given the ongoing re-vitalization of Center Strip, including projects such as The Linq and The Quad. This blog is always up for some Las Vegas newness!

It should be noted, as an additional perk, that when Gansevoort Las Vegas opens in 2014, it will be part of the Total Rewards loyalty program (Bill’s was not).

Read more about Gansevoort Las Vegas in USA Today.

The Quad’s renovations are in full swing, and that means some of the old things, vestiges of a bygone era, must go.

An entirely new casino area has opened at The Quad, in the space formerly occupied by O’Sheas, so the hotel’s old casino area has been closed, walled off, and begins its own journey toward rebirth.

Check out those exposed security catwalks from a time when Las Vegas casino security was done old-school.

A distinctive symbol of the The Quad’s former identity were the dragons. The dragons came down recently, and we got one last photo of these once-imposing beasts before to their departure.

After three decades standing watch, it was time for the dragons to be retired.

As we tend to do sometimes, we got a little choked up seeing these iconic symbols being removed, so we sort of had to touch one. As we were doing that, we noticed a clump of paper wedged into the dragon, so we did what any self-respecting Las Vegas blog would do, we sort of kicked at it. Hello, it’s called “investigative journalism.”

The paper fell loose, and it was a newspaper. Yellowed. Brittle. Sort of gross. So, we naturally embraced this piece of Las Vegas history, cradled it to our bosom and took it home to photograph it.

Told you it was kind of gross.

Come to find out, the newspaper was from (wait for it) Feb. 5, 1979. We are no math expert, but we believe that’s more than 30 years ago. The former iteration of The Quad got its Asian theme in Nov. 1979, by the way.

Trust us, if we'd used Photoshop to doctor this, the year would have been 1812 or something.

There’s no way to know why the newspaper was wedged into that particular part of the dragon, between the dragon and the casino ceiling, or who put it there. Perhaps a construction worker installing the dragons?

What we know is it’s the sports section of The Milwaukee Journal. While tattered, the newspaper still shows a snapshot of the days when The Quad got its last new name.

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, the pages we discovered in The Quad’s now-retired dragon can be viewed online in the archives of The Milwaukee Journal.

The original.

One story mentioned Danny Ongais, the only Native Hawaiian to ever compete in the Indianapolis 500. See the Ongais story here.

We just touched racing history. In a completely appropriate manner, of course.

Another story talks about George Bamberger, a former ball player and then-manager of the Milwaukee Brewers. Read more.

Oh, great, now we're craving one of those delicious Bambergers from BurGR.

And this blog’s favorite article in the sports section of The Milwaukee Journal on Feb. 5, 1979?

This one, of course.

We are who we are.

Now’s a great time to swing by The Quad to see all the Vegas newness. No dragons, they also didn’t have dealertainers in 1979.

The Quad, early 2013.

While Las Vegas is constantly moving forward, we also like to remember our storied past, no matter how, in ways seemingly miraculous or mundane, we might be reminded of it.

This blog loves it some free Sin City, and now you can enter to win a Nobu Hotel Caesars Palace prize package worth, conservatively speaking, “an amount this blog isn’t taking the time to determine, because we don’t love doing math, but it’s a lot.”

If you like jumping ahead, learn more about Nobu Hotel Caesars Palace, or just enter the sweepstakes, already.

Nobu Hotel has 181 rooms, because 181 looks like "8" (a lucky number in Japan) pressed between two chopsticks. Unless we're completely making that up.

Prizes in the giveaway include round trip airfare for two to Las Vegas (April 26-28, 2013), a two-night stay at the new Nobu Hotel Caesars Palace, a $250 dining credit at Nobu Restaurant and admission to an exclusive Grand Opening party for Nobu Hotel on April 27, 2013.

It’s free to enter, so just visit the official Nobu Hotel sweepstakes page on Facebook.

If you win, this blog will happily take the Nobu Restaurant visit off your hands. We're thoughtful like that.

Nobu Hotel is a boutique hotel-within-a-hotel that’s a collaboration between Caesars Palace and Nobu Hospitality partners Chef Nobu Matsuhisa, Robert De Niro (yes, that one) and Meir Teper.

Although the Nobu Hotel only recently opened, it was named one of the “Hottest New Hotels” by CNN Travel. Take a look.

Insert gratuitous photo of a young woman serving cocktails at Nobu Restaurant here. Because we can.

Just one entry to the sweepstakes is permitted, so make sure your fingers are crossed when you enter. We also suggest entering at 8:08 a.m. or p.m., because we weren’t kidding about “8″ being a lucky number in Japan.

The giveaway ends on March 26, 2013. Good luck!

Just about everyone has visited Sugar Factory at Paris Las Vegas. The food and cocktails are great, and the sweets are even better.

The next time you stop by, look up. The Paris has some incredibly detailed statues on its facade, including one that seems especially appropriate in a spot up above the Sugar Factory.

Told you it would be useless.

No, that’s not a typo, it’s just an odd coincidence. This statue is that of Suger, a French abbot who was instrumental in the development of the Gothic style of architecture. More here.

Apparently, being a French abbot didn’t pay particularly well, because Suger could only afford one name, but he was nevertheless an important historical figure, now immortalized at Paris Las Vegas.

Bonus Suger trivia: Suger’s closest friend in school later became King Louis VI. It’s good to know people in high places.

So, the next time you’re strolling The Strip with your Sugar Factory Couture Pop, look up and give a lick in honor of Suger. Because now you know somebody in a high place, too.

Location-based app Foursquare has shared its “Best of” rankings, and Margaritaville at Flamingo Las Vegas has been named the top American restaurant in Sin City.

Check it out, then check-in on Foursquare.

Foursquare bases its “Best of Foursquare” ratings on user tips and comments, likes and overall popularity.

Margaritaville scored an impressive 9.2 on a scale of one to 10, the highest of any restaurant in Foursquare’s American cuisine category.

Margaritaville. It's not just the food.

Also among the “Best of” stand-outs is the Eiffel Tower ride at Paris Las Vegas. Foursquare users consider this ride to the top of the tower one of the “Top Things to Do” in the city. The Garden of the Gods Pool Oasis at Caesars Palace ranked fifth in the “Great Outdoors” category.

In the “Best of Casinos” category, Caesars Palace was among the hotels which ranked highest.

The classic showgirl production Jubilee! at Bally’s Las Vegas and adult carnival Absinthe at Caesars Palace are among the highest-ranked shows in the “Performing Arts” category.

Some "What the hell?" from "Absinthe." Hint: There's a lot of it.

See all the rankings on the official Best of Foursquare, Las Vegas page, and make sure to check in using Foursquare at all your favorite Vegas hotels.

Foursquare badges are fun to collect, and Foursquare check-in offers, things like 2-for-1 drinks or other perks, are a great way to squeeze the most from your Vegas visit.

It seems like only yesterday (because it was yesterday) we were peeking our head in at The Quad’s new casino area, and there was so much to be done! The dealertainer tables were being assembled. The shelves at the new “Q” Wine & Spirits store were yet to be filled. The roulette wheels were being leveled. And the shiny, new Catalyst Bar at The Quad was still dry. (Insert retroactive sad face here.)

Today, seemingly miraculously, The Quad’s casino floor is bustling with guests, the liquor store has opened, hooch is flowing at the Catalyst Bar and there are two new entrances into the joint. What a difference a day makes!

One of the two new ways to access the fun, just across from Margaritaville at Flamingo.

The hotel’s dealertainers (blackjack dealers who also perform onstage) are already settled into their new digs.

The dealertainers didn't skip a beat. See what we did there?

The two new entrances should make getting into The Quad easier than it’s been for the last few months due to renovations. Now, guests can enter adjacent to the hotel’s porte-cochère (see below), as well as on the other end of the casino (across from Margaritaville at the Flamingo, mentioned previously).

This work-in-progress entrance is near the porte-cochère, and not too far from Carnaval Court at Harrah's Las Vegas.

Here’s a video highlighting some of the changes to The Quad.

For guests who frequented O’Sheas back in the day, these will be familiar stomping grounds, as much of the expanded casino sits where O’Sheas used to be.

Tons of new tables and machines. These are happy times for this blog.

There’s a lot to take in, but all of it’s good!

We're pretty sure this is new, too. Who can keep track?

And perhaps the crown jewel of the newly-unveiled casino at The Quad is the Catalyst Bar, sure to be a popular launching pad for any number of Vegas adventures as word spreads about this dramatic new addition to the Vegas nightlife scene.

For the foreseeable future, if you can't easily reach this blog, this is where we are.

Oh, and let’s not forget one of the more miraculous aspects of today’s new offerings. Yesterday, the “Q” Wine & Spirits store was looking a wee light on the actual wines and spirits.

There's a chance this blog wept openly upon seeing this.

Fear not, however. There are some things Vegas does very, very well.

Here’s the same store today!

This Las Vegas blog does not use the term "miracle" lightly.

According to the hotel’s Director of Retail, Keith Burns, the overnight transformation of the “Q” Wine & Spirits store (which sits just across from the dealertainer area, and just inside the porte-cochère-adjacent entrance) was months in the making. Each area of the store’s space was mapped out, down to the smallest detail, so once the space was ready to be filled, the glorious bottles of liquid joy could be stocked quickly and with precision.

Even the treats are part of the plan (see below). One side salty. One side sweet. We have no idea why we’re so fascinated by all of this other than to say a blog cannot live by craps alone.

One of each of anything edible, thanks.

So, you may want to check out the newly-expanded casino at The Quad for yourself. From the liquor store to the new dealertainer pit and the Catalyst Bar, there’s sure to be something to catch your fancy. Whatever a fancy might actually be.

We may never leave our chair. They sort of caught our fancy, too.

Find out more about The Quad.

We know The Quad hasn’t officially debuted its new casino area and Catalyst Bar yet, but who can wait?

We popped in for a sneak peek, and honestly, our mouth’s still agape. Which, admittedly, is not a great look for us, but we digress.

The finishing touches are being put on the Catalyst Bar. Do people still say "holy smokes"?

The Catalyst Bar is the centerpiece of The Quad’s expanded casino area, and we can’t wait to have our first cocktail at this impressive bar.

We apologize for thinking the renderings might have been a little full of themselves. They sort of nailed it.

There are lots of new flourishes in the renovated casino. We especially like the fancy light fixtures.

The Quad is definitely discovering its vibe.

The expanded casino will be the new location for The Quad’s dealertainers, blackjack dealers who also perform as music’s greatest stars. Or they’re performers who deal blackjack. We can never keep that straight.

One of the tables in the dealertainer pit gets it assembly on.

During our visit, we got to see a funky tool being used to level one of the new roulette wheels. This tri-point level (called an AccuLevel) sits in the groove where the ball circles the wheel before dropping into the numbered slots. A perfectly level wheel ensures the game’s fair for players and the casino.

We have no idea why we find all this so fascinating. We just do.

There’s something exciting about new table games. What’s not to love about the arm rests on the new craps tables at The Quad, pictured below?

What an amazing rack. We should probably leave it at that.

Another new addition to The Quad is the “Q” Wine & Spirits store. The shelves will soon be filled with a few of our favorite things, including, but not limited to, wine and spirits.

At least we think this is the "Q" Wine & Spirits store. The sign was still in the works.

Unrelated to anything, look what we found in the hotel’s gift shop, nearby. This blog’s other favorite things!

Insert gratuitous photo of Quad candy here.

There’s a lot to take in at The Quad, so plan to spend some time checking out the new casino area, the new Catalyst Bar, the new porte-cochère, the new Registration and Total Rewards desks, and much more.

Although The Quad officially became The Quad in December 2012, only today did the hotel get its “Q.”

In linguistic circles, the letter "q" is known as a "voiceless uvular stop." Which sounds hot, if you ask us.

The hotel’s new sign has been going up for the last couple of weeks (each letter in the sign is 16 feet tall, so installation takes some time), and just hours ago, the “Q” logo was being affixed. The “Q” will have the ability to change colors once it’s fully operational.

Using our girthiest lens, we were able to get all up in the business of The Quad’s new “Q.” If you look closely, you can see the inner workings of the sign, also known as the “electronic stuff we can’t identify because this blog is clueless about that kind of thing.”

This sign needs to get hooked up. Not unusual in Vegas.

We can’t wait to see this bad boy all lit up and glowy, and we’re happy to see The Quad finally wearing its official nametag.

Today's job we do not want. Aieee.

Find out more about all the magical things happening at The Quad.

Possibly the best way to squeeze the most from your Las Vegas visit is to get a steal on a hotel room. You need a home base for your Sin City misadventures, so why not grab the best deal possible?

There’s a sale going on at all Caesars Entertainment hotels in Las Vegas, and across the country, with savings up to 25% off your room. Get 25% off at Bally’s, Rio Las Vegas and The Quad, and 15% off at Caesars Palace, Flamingo, Paris, Harrah’s and Planet Hollywood.

Get you some.

Throw a dart, get a deal. Wading pond not included.

Other cities also have Caesars Entertainment hotels, although why would you go anywhere else but Vegas? While this blog doesn’t necessarily condone it, you can also find room deals in Atlantic City, Reno and Lake Tahoe, Tunica and even Horseshoe Bossier City, which we were unable to locate on a map, but we are a Las Vegas blog, not a cartographer.

This semi-annual sale ends March 10, 2013, so don’t miss out. Go book a room, already. And ask if you’ll have a bidet. Those are like having dancing fountains right in your room.

Every day seems to bring changes to the center of the Las Vegas Strip, and The Linq project, a multi-million dollar shopping and entertainment district, is taking shape in dramatic fashion.

Seemingly overnight, the site of the now-closed O’Sheas casino has an eye-catching new facade.

Can we have loved O'Sheas and still love this? We're thinking "yes."

As you get closer, you can see some of the design flourishes, including glass and other features. This area will be the new threshold to The Linq, full of dining, shopping and entertainment options. See some initial tenants of The Linq.

When did all this happen? Possibly yesterday. It's Las Vegas magic.

Not far away, there’s more huge news from the construction site of The Linq’s record-breaking High Roller observation wheel.

The final leg segment of the High Roller (the sixth) was recently put into place, at a mind-boggling 250 feet up, or nearly half the wheel’s ultimate height of 550 feet. We are a Las Vegas blog, not a mathematician.

See the speck atop the leg at the right? That's a dude. Seriously.

This blog was there to grab some exclusive video at the exact moment the final leg segment was being hoisted into place. Oh, yes, there was some hoisting. We would’ve helped, but we’re nursing a craps injury.

Yes, the little “ants” at the top of the legs are human beings. Getting up to the connection point involved climbing ladders inside the legs. Please add this to the list of jobs this blog will never do in a bajillion years. Workers will use a construction elevator from this point on.

Soon after the installation of the final leg segment was complete, the High Roller’s “pants” were put into place. The so-called “pants” connect the legs.

If you don't like that we call them "pants," get your own blog.

The blue scaffolding is temporary. And those slabs of wood hanging from ropes are temporary work platforms. See why we don’t want that job?

This photo makes us woozy. Excited, but woozy.

Next, the wheel’s support leg (we call it the “kickstand”) goes up. Then the wheel itself will start taking shape, including its passenger “pods,” which will each hold 40 riders.

We would like to take a moment to thank all the smart people involved in making this miracle of engineering a reality because this blog's brain hurts just thinking about it.

There’s more fun to come! This is going to be the best 2013 ever.

What could possibly be better than Sports Illustrated swimsuit models in bikinis? How about Sports Illustrated swimsuit models projected, in 3-D, on the side of a massive Las Vegas hotel tower? Wish granted.

On Feb. 13, 2013, Caesars Palace will host a massive publicity event at its Garden of the Gods pool in honor of Sports Illustrated magazine’s 50th annual swimsuit issue.

In Las Vegas, size matters.

The hotel’s Octavius Tower will serve as a giant projection screen as state-of-the-art projectors, advanced 3-D technology and custom animation show off this year’s crop of stunning swimsuits on a scale only Vegas could pull off. So to speak.

Kate Upton snags the cover for the second year in a row.

The event is open to the public, and will be preceded with a glitzy red carpet. Sports Illustrated models and Las Vegas entertainers are slated to attend. The annual swimsuit issue hits stands today, Feb. 12. Not that this blog circles that date with a giant, red Magic Marker or anything.

Doors open for the 3-D presentation at Garden of the Gods pool at Caesars Palace at 7:15 p.m., so arrive early to get the best viewing spot. Specifically, standing next to wherever this blog is going to be.