Meanwhile in Las Vegas...

...some interesting (and weird and shocking) money things courtesy of our Las Vegas news stations...

• I told you about the invasion of the grasshoppers (which is still ongoing by the way) and this clever lady had an interesting answer to the problem...she collected some up and cooked them!  I'm really picky about food, to the point that I rarely even eat meat, but in many places I've been in Asia, fried grasshoppers are a treat.
• From the Las Vegas Advisor...Vegas has some super spendy restaurant meals! SFGate.com, the San Francisco Chronicle's website, has a slideshow of the "craziest fanciest high-rollers-only meals" in Las Vegas, featuring a number of the most expensive meals at 14 restaurants. Highest priced are the 12-ounce A5 Kobe steak at Prime Steakhouse at Bellagio ($720), the seven-course Japanese A5 Wagyu dinner at Red Plate at the Cosmo ($688 per person), the Krug's Chef's Table dinner at Restaurant Guy Savoy ($650 per person), the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall Soup (Japanese abalone, sea cucumber, and other very expensive ingredients, $498) at Red Plate, and the degustation menu at Joel Robuchon ($445 per person). The list also highlights Zuma at the Cosmopolitan (premium omakase for $168), SW Steahouse at the Wynn (tomahawk chop for $130), NoMad Restaurant at Park MGM (32-ounce 80-day dry-aged rib eye, $150), Mott 32 at the Venetian (Japanese A5 Kobe beef, $148), Jean George Steakhouse at Aria (42-ounce Wagyu tomahawk, $265), Bazaar Meat at the Sahara (caviar flight, $350), Morimoto Las Vegas at MGM Grand (54-ounce tomahawk ribeye, $170), Bavette's at Park MGM (seafood tower, $210), and the comparatively wimpy 24-ounce bone-in rib eye for two, $110) at Aureole at Mandalay Bay.  A couple days later they added this: To the 14 most expensive restaurant meals in Las Vegas (see our Vegas News item from July 27), we can now add the new number one: a $1,000 filet mignon covered with gold leaf and served with caviar and Krug Grande Cuvee Brut Champagne, according to Eater Las Vegas. It's available, with 48 hours notice, at Mr Chow on the second floor of Caesars Palace, with a view of the pool area. 
• On a personal note, today I finally filed a Homestead Declaration.  I'd never heard of such a thing where we used to live but apparently it is a popular option for homeowners in Las Vegas.  For a filing fee of $40 a homeowner can file a simple form and automatically protect the equity in their home (up to $550,000) from any sort of legal judgement.  On a related note, I just got my annual property tax statement for my home.  Because of the tax cap, instead of paying around $2400 for my annual property tax bill, I only pay around $1200 because of the tax cap!  Thank goodness for the tax cap which protects homeowners from swiftly increasing property tax bills (which happens when either higher taxes are instituted and/or quickly rising home prices increase the value of your home).