Las Vegas Invitational: Day One

We are in and settled in our room here in the Orleans, and the Big Blue Mist is settling over the entire area.  I have spoken with at least 20 Kentucky fans and given high-fives and knuckles to several more.  All this way before anything has officially happened that I am aware of.

As I speak, I am sitting up in the room after struggling for over an hour with my Internet connection.  The economy is suffering here in Vegas just like everywhere else, and there are no end to the little nickle-and-dime charges we must suffer for each amenity, and Internet access in unfortunately one of them.  It seems that any more, the only thing that is free in this city is the air you breathe, and I'm not sure the $5 surcharge levied on each room per day isn't to cover just that.  But as connectivity it is an absolute necessity for both my sanity and my work for A Sea of Blue, I pay, I pay ...

At this moment, I am going down to check out the activities and I will report back later on how all that goes, along with my usual pre-game look at Kansas State.  Ken will be covering the big football game tomorrow, and I will definitely be watching and chime in on it as I can.  Right now, though, I must give my attention to my dear wife until she is happily and firmly ensconced behind some high-tech one-armed bandit.  After that, I will try to get some pictures of UK-related stuff going on here and post that up for your pleasure, as well as whatever news I can glean from around the hotel.  Most of that will be from the iPhone, so don't expect a lot of text -- hunting and pecking is painfully slow for me, unfortunately, and typos may well abound.  I ask for your forbearance for those inevitable lapses in quality.

It's exciting here, and the UK faithful are out in force, in a level you would expect.  It's one thing to hear about how well a team's fans travels, and it is quite another to witness it first hand.  I'll have more as time goes on.

While you are waiting for more from me, here are some bits and pieces that might interest you:

• How good is K-State?
• Is this the weekend we see Kevin Galloway?
• Gillispie tackles challenge
• 'Cats hope turnover trauma over

That's all for now.  Treat this as an open thread.