"What Happens in Vegas" Day 2

Our second day in Las Vegas was full of walking. We got to sleep in a little bit, which was nice. Little did we know at the time, but our little legs needed every minute of rest they got.

Our goal today was to hit the Fashion Show Mall and see as many of the hotel/casinos as we could. Our first stop was the Fashion Show Mall. The mall was located at the other end of the strip, so we took the tram and monorail and got as far as we could without walking. We were all starving by that point so we had a very early lunch (10:30a) of KFC inside the mall's foodcourt. I don't think it was our intention, but we ate super cheap on this vacation. I think my KFC lunch cost me less than $4. Ironically enough the gelato that we got at the stand outside the mall cost more than that. Ridiculous! We split one scoop three ways and that one scoop was almost $5. You would have thought we'd been eating off of golden spoons.... well atleast nickel anyway.

We shopped for a bit, not really finding too much, but enjoying being in the air-conditioned mall. We headed over to Starbucks after that. I'd been wanting coffee ever since I woke up, and couldn't wait any longer. We sipped our drinks (well Hol and I did. Lisa's not a coffee drinker) and then headed off in search of the umbrellas. A friend of ours had just been in Vegas a couple of weeks prior to our trip and she said there were colorful umbrellas suspended in the air in one of the hotels. Well, it took us awhile to find it, but we finally did. After taking a gazillion pictures outside of the Wynn's beautiful waterfall and flowers we wandered into the Palazzo where the umbrellas were. To say we were fascinated would be an understatement. We were borderline obsessed.






This day seemed to be very warm so we tried to escape into the a/c as often as possible. We hopped over to the Mirage next. They have a Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden exhibit with dolphins and lions/tigers. You have to walk through the whole hotel/casino it seemed until you go to the exhibit, but it sounded like something we would like to do to waste an hour or so. The shade made it nice to be outside. Between me and Hol we probably took a bazillion pictures of the dolphins and lions/tigers. I love animals though, so it wasn't hard for me to keep snapping away.






Also inside the Mirage is the Terry Fator store. This is where you can buy a souvenir from his show. We browsed there for awhile and then we decided we needed a rest, so we sat down and people watched, looked at pictures, and texted friends. What did we do before texting? This I do not know...

After our little break we decided to head on over to Caesar's Palace. They have several fountain/statue shows so we thought we'd catch a few on our way through to the Cheescake Factory. Word of advice: Do not stop at the first fountain show! [Mainly the one pictured]Most boring 5 minutes of my life! I thought there was going to be a cool light show or something on the ceiling because thunder kept sounding, but nothing ever happened. The statues talked a little, the guy on the throne drank our of his wine glass (which in actuality, had it been filled with wine would have spilled all down the front of him), and I lost 5 precious minutes of my life. So sad....

We arrived at Cheesecake factory and were quickly escorted to our seats. I was pretty hungry, since we had such an early lunch, so I was ready for some pizza. Little did I know that we would have the bossiest waiter in all the restaraunt. Will, that was his name, seemed friendly enough in the beginning. He chatted with us about our visit to Las Vegas, and asked if we got past security to get in [President Obama was there, you know?]. However, as soon as we started to order he went into bossy mode. Everything we tried to order he gave us this look like we were children and stupid children at that, and would presume to tell us we didn't want that. Well, Will, what do I want? Tell me... I don't want a yummy cheese and tomato pizza? I don't want a yummy salad for the side? I don't, huh? Fascinating, because I thought, you know, I was the one making decisions for myself. Hmm... good to know that's not the case. In all honesty he was right about the salad part. It was way ginormous, but the pizza was really good and I probably could have eaten the whole thing. Instead Lisa and I split (from orders of Will) and Holli had some sandwich he made her order. He also custom ordered her sandwich because the original would have been too much for her. He would know...

After eating we left as quickly as possible. For one, to get away from Will, and two to get away from where President Obama was. I didn't want to be trapped in Caesar's Palace with absurdly boring fountain shows and bossy Will. We did make a quick pit-stop in F.A.O. Schwartz though.

We headed back to the Mirage to pick up our Terry Fator tickets at the ticket counter, and then decided to rest again. From all that I've shared it doesn't seem like we walked very much, but oh did we ever. We walked over 25,000 steps! [Lisa wore a pedometer this day. I don't want to mislead you into thinking that I counted every step we took. That would be plain insanity!] Apparently that translates over into 12.16 miles, and we burned 700 calories. No wonder Lisa had blisters on her feet from her sandals. Thank God for skecher's, that's all I have to say.

We waited around a bit and then finally it was time for the show to start. If you have not seen Terry Fator I recommend you do. He'll be in Vegas for somewhere around 4 1/2 years, so if you're ever out that way you should catch a show. I've seen his act twice. Very good both times. He also lets you take pictures and a little bit of video. Now who else is going to let you do that? Super nice guy!

We pretty much called it a night after that. We found our way to the beloved Monorail and made the trek through MGM to the tram. There was talks of Krispy Kreme, but that idea was nixed when Lisa thought we might miss the tram and she didn't want to walk anymore. Can't blame her [12.16 miles people!].

Until..............................

P.S.-- Sorry these pictures are absolutely messed up, but I'm too tired to fix them right now.

"What Happens in Vegas" Day 1

I was so glad when I got my work schedule switched to Sunday day instead of night. That meant I could get a full night's rest before leaving. Glorious sleep!

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 2:20p, so we didn't have to be to the airport until noon. It was weird to be there so late in the day. There were tons of people there in line waiting to get their tickets and have their baggage checked. I prefer to fly in the early morning so there are less people to contend with.

We were more than happy to be going someplace sunny and warm because it was cool and rainy here at home. Good riddance rain! Sunny Las Vegas here we come!

The plane ride out of town was a little turbulant while we were trying to navigate through the storm patterns. The motion was making me very sleepy. I wasn't used to the whole day schedule thing. The flight was close to three hours, so we all got some good reading time in. We had a funny little man sitting behind us who talked the whole flight. The lady sitting next to him kept sneezing [allergy season] and he said, "You got the swine flu?" Haha... we started chuckling in our seats. The rest of the flight was rather uneventful and we actually arrived 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

We got into the airport and found the luggage carrousel rather quickly, claimed our bags, and headed outside to the shuttle. Our first experience with Las Vegas heat. It was glorious! Of course nothing can start off easy. We got in the huge shuttle line, and apparently what we had printed out for our tickets wasn't our actual ticket, so we had to go to the ticket counter and deal with the lovely woman behind the counter. She was absolutely thrilled to help us and cleared up the speed bump right away with a smile on her face the entire time (.

We finally got on the shuttle, but the driver said there were only two seats left in back and one up front. We quickly deciphered that the "one in the front" was in fact the passenger seat. Holli got the privilege of sitting shotgun. Meanwhile, Lisa and I were crammed into the back of the shuttle with a bunch of other people. Funny enough, there was an extra seat in the back with us, but some guy was hogging it with his carry on. Rude! Lisa was sitting next to two little kids who were rattling on about all the different hotels and things to do. How is it possible that a 10 year old boy knows more about this place than I do? As we stopped at all the different hotels to drop people off Lisa and I were texting Holli in the front seat. We were laughing at something and the guy next to me asked, "Where are you guys from?". We told him and then I asked where he was from. "Meen-a-sota", he replied. To which Lisa responded, "Well I can tell." We talked a little bit more and he said he was there for a friends wedding, and we said we were just there for vacation. Once the bus was pretty much cleared out we could hear Holli talking to the driver and telling him where we lived. So our Minnesota friend piped up and said "Oh so then you know [this place]?" I was kind of surprised, but said yes. He went on to explain that he is a pilot and has been in our area before. Ah, it all makes sense now.

In the very short amount of time that our shuttle traveled from the airport to the hotels on the strip I had my fill of seeing the word "peep" on billboards, taxi cabs, and buildings. That was just the beginning of it...

We finally got to our hotel, THE hotel at Mandalay Bay. It was very nice. We got up to our suite, and let's just say it was very nice. A sitting area, two queen sized beds in the bedroom, 2 bathrooms... It was "sweet" (pardon the intentional pun).

Shortly after arriving we headed off to the tram that was at our hotel. It connected to the neighboring hotel (the Luxor) and the next hotel (Excalibar). It was kind of like a "Jump ahead 2 spaces" in a game, except this game was the game of saving our feet from mutilation. So we got off the tram at Excalibar and took a jaunt over a bridge, down a broken escalator, up a broken escalator, and through MGM Grande to the monorail.

Ok, one second on the monorail. Fan-tastic invention. Best $28 I ever spent in my entire life! You think I'm exaggerating, but until you've been there you just don't understand.

Ok, so we rode the monorail (God's gift to Las Vegasans) to Harrah's Hotel. From there we walked over to the Venetian. Very beautiful old looking building. Best part about it... the moving sidewalks. :) We had an agenda for that night-- The wax museum, dinner, and Wayne Brady show.

Madame Toussad's Wax Museum was very cool (and creepy at times). We were greeted by Whoopi Goldberg and Luciano Pavaratti. Some of the wax figures looked life-like and others didn't so much.

There is a "Scream" portion to the wax museum which is (we assumed) a scary haunted house type thing. We decided to bypass that area. Well, loe and behold right as we are passing by the doors to enter the scary area a man comes out of the bathroom across the hall. It about scared the livin' daylights out of me and Lisa. Hol had already walked by, but oh my word Lisa and I will forever be haunted by the scary man coming out of the bathroom. I'm not sure if he was being intentionally creepy or if that was just the way he was, but with the full "scary-man" makeup on it sure did what it was intended- Scare the poo out of us! Let's just say I almost let some profanities slip from my lips. Scary! [I was going to post a picture or the link to the video on the website, but frankly it scares me just thinking about it, so scout it out on your own if you want be freaked.]

Once we were done posing with the Waxies we headed off to dinner. We didn't do anything too exciting, we just went to the Venetian's food court and ate at Bella Panini. Surprisingly enough, none of us had a panini. We all had wraps. I had a California wrap and it was dee-lish! We were going to eat at Johnny Rocket's but I absolutely refuse to pay $12 for a burger and milkshake. Unless that beef and that milk came from a golden cow, it wasn't worth that much.

After dinner we headed over to the theatre for our first show--Wayne Brady. I have to admit I wasn't overly enthused about this show. I figured that it would be a little raunchy, but was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. Well, when we finally got in the theatre the girl directing people to their seats said, "These tickets are all the way at the top. I'm not going to sit you there. How about I give you these three seats in the second row here?" Well, we were a little suspicious. How was it that easy to move seats? Were going to turn into some horrible joke or part of the show later in the night? We were kind of freaked there for a bit, but then we noticed that she moved about 4 other people around as well. How can they do that? Didn't anyone purchase those better seats? You would think so, but we never got booted out, so she must have magical seat moving abilities. The show ended up not being too bad. It of course had some raunch to it, but we laughed quite a bit, and he even sang some of his own songs off of his new album that were quite good.

After the show we hung around outside to catch the volcano erupting at the Mirage. It was pretty neat, but a one time only kind of thing. No need to see it more than that. We headed back to the hotel. The bad news is that the tram was closed, so we had to walk the whole way instead of taking the tram past those last two hotels. The upside is we never would have encountered the night life with those lovely Las Vegas people. They were all so informative. Apparently word on the street is that "Cocaine is bad man." Glad we could get that cleared up.

We got back to the hotel at around 1130p, got ready for bed and settled in for a few hours of sleep before we were going to get up and start the second day. Overall it was a good first day (once we got adjusted to the culture shock... and heat... and walking) :).

Day 2...coming up next....

Until........................

Final Preparations...

Well, I am semi-packed and fairly ready to go for vacation. I switched my work schedule around for tomorrow so I work 7a-7p instead of at 7p. I hope I don't regret that. I hate waking up early. Plus it's been about a month since I've been on days. I hope I didn't forget everything already.

Well, I finally got around to watching the Bachelorette this evening. It was my incentive to pack. I had to keep pausing to write down things so I could tell Hol about it later, but half the time I just texted her anyway. [-Eww to the foot guy! -Bilbro? Seriously?! -Break Dancing Instructor? I didn't know there was such a thing -Jill is adorable. The MTM move just about pushed me over the edge on her adorable factor -Oh Wes, he wrote her a song -Poor Dave with the blanking when he first met her! -Can't read the rest of my notes. haha]
I like Kiptyn (she was the one that sought him out.. I liked that) and I was liking Jake at the beginning, but was on the fence by the end. Haven't made anymore definitive choices yet, but I'm sure next week with only 20 guys will be easier.
It pretty much took me the whole 2 hours to pack and organize my things. I hate packing. I put it off as long as possible. I had a very detailed list this time around though, so I felt like I could be more last minute than usual. Anything to reason away my procrastination, right?

Well, I'm not sure I'll be able to blog before the trip, but I will try to write down or live blog the interesting "can't forget" kind of things. I'm sure we'll have fun stories when we get back, and of course lots of pictures.

Until...........

Idol-centric

**Originally started May 18th**
It's happened. I'm one of those people. I'm the person who only blogs bimonthly (err...atleast close to it). I'm saddened. It's not like I wanted to stop blogging. I didn't want to run out of stories. I didn't want to become boring. Work and sleeping have consumed my life, and when I'm not doing one of those I'm trying to spend time with family and friends and prepare for vacation. I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but there seems to be no time for blogging in that agenda. I will try harder, but just in case, don't set your expectations too high. I wouldn't want to disappoint any further.


Ok, now that the melodrama and excuses are behind us let's talk Idol. Oh my word! Who would have ever though that little newlywed Kris Allen would have made it to not only the final three but the final TWO! I'm so happy! Attention: This blog does not show favortism to any specific Idol, much to the like as I do not have a biased opinion of any movie, tv show, or book that I encounter..... (except for the fact that it does and I do).

**Updated on May 19th**
Ok, so I started this post the other day and didn't get a chance to finish it. I worked last night so I had to tape the Bachelorette. I'm on call tonight, but so far have not been called in (knocvk on wood). I got to watch the American Idol finale between Adam and Kris and am thrilled that I can now sit here and vote. Of course I'm also waiting to see if I get a call from work so it gets a little tricky with my voting constantly. I must tell you that typing one-handed while voting with the other is hard work. I have to pause typing with my right hand when I redial with my left. So confusing for my head, and my hands.
What was up with that song that Kara co-wrote for the winner? In my opinion it was "foh-gettable" (in the words of Simon Cowell) Why in the world would they write that song if it wasn't suitable for one or both of the idols? I think that whole concept is so stupid. More often than not one person will do way better with the song, and it's not to the fault of the other person. It is because the song choice was unsuitable for both vocal ranges and/or singing styles. How annoying was it that after Kris sang they made comments the song was too high for him? Well, that's not his fault! Oh, Idol-powers-that-be, please here my plea... Stop making these contestants/hopeful artists sing retarded songs that 89% of the time do not coincide with the kind of artist they want to be or properly suit their styles.
I could also go into the whole wardrobe beef I have, but we'll save that for another time. I'm still haunted by the first outfit Adam wore tonight. *shudder*

Well, I reailze this entire post consisted of American Idol, but it's really the only thing I've had time for this week so far. Later I will be watching the Bachelorette, and I'm sure that will be great fun. I briefly got to watch part of it in the breakroom at work last night, and let's just say I saw the end where the one guy kicked a water bottle off of another guy's head. "I can kick really high." Ooookkkaaay..... This season should be interesting...

Until..................

You can now officially call me "Nurse"...

Well, I'm on my own now. No more orientation. I am the nurse. You go through 2 years of them telling you that you will soon be "the nurse". Well, now it's finally true. No one else to fall back on. Of course there are always people around to help if you need it, but you are it now. I got my first admission on my second night alone and it was wild to be talking to these parents about their baby and I was the one breaking down the situation for them. I thought I'd feel overwhelmed and stupid, but honestly, they don't want all the scientific medical jargon. They want to know that their baby is being taken care of and they need the simplistic things explained. That...I can do.
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So, did everyone watch American Idol tonight? I can't believe it's the final 3 already. I gotta say... I love Kris. I love his sound and I would for sure buy his album today.

Speaking of tv, who was crying at Grey's Anatomy last week? I sure was. I tell ya... I'm not sure what it is, but that show gets to me every week. I'll definitely be tuning in Thursday for the 2-hour season finale.

Now I'm watching the Biggest Loser Season Finale. I honestly don't watch this much tv normally. :)
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Vegas is inching closer. Two more weeks and we will be in the scorching heat of Nevada. Can't wait!

Until....................................

Blonde with Red highlights...

Yes, I know... I thought I'd squeak in one more posting for April.

This post will be a bit of a hodge podge, but what's new?
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I ran to Schnucks to get a bag of ice yesterday for my mom. Forget the fact that I could have gone to the gas station that was less than a mile away from my house as opposed to the 5 I drove to Schnucks. I went in, grabbed my bag of ice and got in the "20 items or less" aisle. As I stood there behind 3 people my gaze naturally fell on the woman in front of me in line. I glanced in her cart and easily saw more than 20 items. That's so annoying! It's an express lane for a reason people! The boy/man in front of her had a donut and a drink, so he was clearly in the 20 items or less range. I had a bag of ice, and the two people that got in line behind me had a half dozen items each. I'm not sure if the lady could feel our eyes boring holes in the back of her head for daring to get in the express lane with more than the allotted items, but she glanced around a couple times and then took off toward the frozen foods. It was a little odd, but atleast she got out of line. Ha! Victory! Then as I waited for the boy/man's donut and drink to be rung up the two people behind me in line also took off. It wasn't like they were headed to another check out lane either. They were headed in the opposite direction. I have no idea what happened. It was weird.
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I've taken up running. Well, sort of. I'm working my self up to it. I don't run for very long, so I would hardly call it "running" I run for like .45 miles. I'm a baby runner. I'm determined to get fit and lose weight for vacation which is at the end of May. I surely can do some improving by then. :) I have a killer blister on my right heel though. I bought new shoes while out running errands yesterday and I should have worn taller socks with them the first time. I got done running and my heel had broken open and I bled all over the heel of my new shoes! Ahh! Thankfully some water and Bath & Body soap got it right out. Phew!
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As I was roaming around walmart today I was in the hair product aisle when I overheard an 80 year old (I'm guessing here) woman and a middle aged man talking about hair color. The woman was wearing a ratty old grey sweater and her hair was grey and silver and looked like it hadn't been combed yet today. The man however was dressed to the nines. He had on a pinstripe suit and a matching fedora. I was puzzled by the pair. Then the man started talking about which hair color he was thinking. "Maybe I'll dye it all blonde and do red highlights. Or I could just color the tips red." Old woman: "You're gonna color your hair red?" I didn't want to know anymore than that, and the speculations could go on forever, so I politely moved past them and acted like I'd never encountered them at all.
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I'm now back to my beloved night shift. :) My first night was Monday, and it was crazy from the very minute I walked in. I was surprisingly not tired at all until right at 7a. It was quite different than day shift, so I have 5 more shifts to get acclimated before I'm on my own. Eek! Scary!
Until....................................

When it Rains, It Floods...

Yes, that's right. Our house has flooded.

My dad went down to investigate the hot water heater on Sunday night, because my mom wasn't getting even remotely warm water for her bath. What did he find? The water had risen so high it had burnt out the pilot light in the water heater.

After sucking 100+ gallons of water up and 3 hours later the situation was looking grim. He had to turn the water off, but he didn't think that it was our problem. He thought it was the city. Right-o he was. He was forced to take a personal day from work on Monday so he could stay home and keep cleaning out the mud and water drenched items that we had been storing in our basement.

Thankfully several people from our church came to help in the effort and mom and Holli took off early from work. I was at work until almost 8 o'clock, so once I finally got home the disaster was managed.

The girls stayed the night on "Rain Duty". They were both up every half hour to make sure it wasn't raining. I was exhausted from my lack of sleep the night before and a full day at work, so once I was out that was the end of it. I didn't hear much again until almost 6am when Lisa came into my room so mom could let the dog out of her pen.

There were only minor sprinkles today, so we didn't have to take anymore drastic efforts to keep water out. The sink hole hasn't gotten any bigger...oh yea, did I forget to mention we have a sink hole in the front yard? There is currently a construction easel looking thing (for lack of a better word) over it so no one walks into it and we have spray paint lines and flags all over our yard and street. I can only imagine what it will all look like once the city comes out to fix it. Hopefully it's soon since Sun-Tues is expected to have rain.

Well, now you know what we've been up to. I've been working mostly. I go to nights next week. I can't believe it's almost May. The weather sure doesn't feel like it. I guess April showers bring May flowers.... Stupid saying... More like April showers bring sink holes and mud into your basement to muck up all your treasured items in storage. *sigh*...

Until.........................