Monday, August 28, 2006

Jackpot weekend

Vegas was a blast!!! It was definitely a birthday to remember. The Wynn is beautiful, and the rooms are very nice - a little larger than the average hotel room in Vegas. Via the offer we received, we had a meal allowance each day we were there, so we took the opportunity to try a different restaurant each day.

Our first dinner was at Daniel Boulud. Folks, unless you're a vegatarian, I highly suggest the short ribs. I don't think I've had short ribs that good in my entire life. My husband ordered it, actually. I had the salmon - which was also fabulous. But that short rib... oh my.

Tableau was our second dinner. The service there was excellent - thanks Joe! I had a wonderful Lobster with marscapone tortellini appetizer. I never order roasted chicken usually, but for some reason that night - I did. And it was marvellous. I ate every little bit.

For our third day, since we already covered the Terrace Cafe and the Buffet, we decided to try the Country Club. It overlooks the private golf course and magnificent waterfall at the 18th hole (I believe it's the 18th hole). Service was not good. The waitress took our order and we didn't see our food for over 30 minutes. We told the busboy and he came back with a complimentary order of french fries and chips, and the news that our food would be ready soon. The waitress then came by and said that it would be about 5 minutes, and told us to be patient. WHAT? No apologies, and we're told to be patient? Terrible.

A few minutes later, the maitre'd came by and we told him what was going on - he immediate went into the kitchen and within a minute, came back with our food. All we order was a burger, and steak and eggs. Yeah. 40 minutes for that - and it was not all that. But as we finished our meal, the maitre'd came back with a huge apology and told us the meal was on the house. Doesn't make up for it, but at least he apologized and recognized the problem - which is what we were looking for.

That night, MY BIRTHDAY NIGHT (whoo hoo!), we went to Corsa Cucina. Service there was also excellent. The waiters were very attentive and enjoyed talking with us about the different restaurants. I had a delicious meatball appetizer and the tenderloin of beef. It was sooooooo good. Unfortunately, I had too much meatball and calamari (don't bother with the calamari), and a 'tiramisu' cocktail before my entree came, so I was full. I actually couldn't finish my meal. I hate wasting food. And, as it was my birthday, I was told by my husband that I had to order dessert. Fine. So, I ordered these crepes (suggested by one of our waiters) to share. And after the candle blowing I just stuffed myself - they were delicious.

As another birthday treat for myself, I wanted to go to Tryst - the nightclub at the Wynn. I've always wanted to go dancing with my husband - but we've always ended up chosing slot machines over the music. This time, armed with free passes from our slot host, we bypassed the ridiculous line (I have never seen a line that long at 10:30pm for a club - never) and made our way down the dark velvet walled corridor and was greeted with a view of a flowing waterfall. It was beautful. I was way too full to drink any more - but I danced and danced and danced until my feet couldn't take it anymore.

It was a fabulous weekend! And the best part, I actually came back with what I brought to play with, plus a little more. What a birthday gift from the hotel! Anytime I come back with any of what I brought, I consider myself a winner. But this time, I definitely won the jackpot.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Excited for Vegas

Only three days until we're on our way to Vegas! I don't know how hot it is there right now, and I really don't want to know. We're probably going to go from airport to hotel, and then stay indoors for the four days we're there. We'll be staying at the Wynn this trip.

I'm in dire need for this vacation. Yes, we did get away for the rafting trip, but this will be in a nice clean hotel. No bugs, dirt, grass, or sleeping on air mattresses in a tent. Nope, we're going to be in a nice luxury hotel with great restaurants, nice down pillows, and hopefully, we'll get to bring home a nice big momento of the trip - something with a lot of zeros at the end. We all have to dream, right?

My birthday is this weekend, so I'm thinking of splurging and treating myself to a nice spa treatment at the hotel. Haven't decided on exactly what though. I don't do massages, so it will have to be a facial or something like that.

Trying to get all the last minute things settled. Have to bring Monte for a nice stay at grandma's. I've done the laundry. Hemmed my new pants (yep, still remember my sewing class lessons). Need to get a hair cut - I'm hoping to get an appointment for tomorrow evening. Just need to remember to check-in online Wednesday night - hopefully it will save us a little time at the airport.

I wonder with this heightened security, if they'll let me take my knitting on board the plane? We're already planning to check-in our bags, but I have to do something on the plane. I'm usually too impatient to read or sleep... I'll have to check on that too.

I can't wait!!! I can hear those beautiful slot machine dinging sounds now! Hopefully, I'll get to hear that music on my own machine this weekend!

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Long time no update

It's been a busy week. But now I finally have a little time to update my blog again.

Our annual white water rafting trip was last weekend. We drove up there Friday afternoon and set up camp. One by one our friends showed and we claimed our little camp circle of tents. I don't know exactly what the temperature was, but I was HOT! After setting up our tent, I felt like jumping into the river.

Early rise on Saturday morning, with a filling breakfast of yummy blueberry pancakes, eggs and sausages. An hour van ride later, we had our lifevests and helmets on, and we set our boat onto the ice cold water of the Middle Fork American River.

We had 11 people, so we had two boats that day. Mike "Bulldog", one of our guides from last year, led the way with boat 1. We were in boat two with a new guide to the company, Garoth. He's a cutie - and lucky for us, a very good guide. He was safe, yet let us have fun as well. We had three vetrans and two newbies on our boat - so he did his best to accomodate both. Did I mention he's Australian? Yes, 5 hours of listening to that wonderful accent. He told of lots of funny stories and some not so funny river experience ones. Really puts into perspective that it's still something dangeous and you have to have some personal responsibility for your safety.

Anyway, we got back to camp around 4pm - and just lazed around. Garoth came and hung out for a little bit before he headed up to the kitchen to help out with dinner service. It was a Luau weekend, so many folks were dressed in something 'tropical'.

After dinner, a couple of guides came down to hang out. We had a lot of 'booze' so they knew where to go. Of all people, this guide that I've had a crush on was finally back, after three years. He's married now, but still 'oh so cute'. I had to do all I could to stop acting like a giddy fool in front of him and Garoth. Funny. And there was my hubby. ;)

It was a great weekend. Even though I say I HATE camping, every year, I always have a lot of fun on these trips. It's a time when a groups of very different people, who normally wouldn't hang out together, share an awesome experience and make more friends. We called ourselves the 'Brat Pack' and even identified several characters from The Breakfast Club. Of course, I was the self proclaimed "Princess". Hee hee... But we had the Brain, the Jock, the Athlete, the Basketcase, and the Criminal... I think we identified a Principal too, but I forgot who that was.

I didn't bring my camera this time to the rafting, but I do plan to order a couple shots of us going down the Middle Fork. Here's a quicky screenshot of the thumbnails - so it's pretty poor quality, but you get the gist of what was going on... This was the Tunnel Chute.


Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Joyous News!

My roommate from college, E, called me last night. She and her hubby were supposed to join us for rafting this weekend. Well, he's coming, but she can't. Why? She's pregnant!!!

While I'm disappointed I won't get to see her this weekend, I couldn't be more thrilled for them. She's one of my most favorite people in the world and I am just so happy for them. I wish I could fly down to Oxnard right now and give her a huge hug.

We had a marathon three hour phone conversation last night. I maxed out the battery on two phones. We finally hung up after I had to switch to the third phone (funny).

We've been through soooooo much together over the years. We were bridesmaids in each other's weddings. And this is just the icing on the cake. She's one of those friends that, even though we don't see each other all the time, we're totally caught up on everything going on and we always just pick where we left off when we do talk to each other. It's wonderful. I keep trying to convince her and her husband to move to San Francisco.

Congratulations E and R!

More baby hats and booties on the way!!!

Saturday, August 05, 2006

In love again...

Tonight, my hubby and I did a very rare thing. We actually went out to see a movie. I plunked down $20 and in return received our two tickets. No change. Yep, that's why we don't go out to movies that often anymore.

As huge of a Superman fan that I am, I'm amazed that it took this long before we actually went out to see
Superman Returns. Yes, I was very skeptical that they would destroy the legacy of Christopher Reeve as my beloved super hero, but you know what? I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It was intense and there were a few things I didn't expect. I believe that the director, Bryan Singer, tried to make this a 2.5 hour tribute to original movie from 1978. And all I can say is BRAVO!



There were so many references from the first movie - it was great. The original theme music really tied the movies together for me, and the usage of the Marlon Brando dialog was fantastic. The picture of Glenn Ford as Jonathan Kent on the piano as Martha Kent was quoting him, wonderful.

See, I'm a huge, huge, HUGE fan of Superman. I've watched the first movie a bizillion times and can recite every phrase and I know a lot of the details of the film. I've already warned my husband that when we become billionaires, I'm buying that statue of Superman from the Sharper Image store. I won't mind shelling out the $5000 for it.

My Superman is Christopher Reeve's Superman. But this movie was well done and I think Christopher would have been very proud that his legacy of this superhero lives on. I just hope they don't botch the sequels.

Friday, August 04, 2006

More projects

During the week or so, I discovered that Comcast OnDemand had a list of Hitchcock movies. Most of which I had never seen. They're free movies, and I'm a semi-Hitchcock fan. These are my favorite movies of his: Psycho, Dial M for Murder, and Rear Window. These are genious.

I've seen several others that I think are ok, but are not my favorite. Rebecca, Marnie, The Birds, and Vertigo. I figured, since they're available, I should give them a shot..

So, every day, I've tried to watch a movie or as much as I can of one (OnDemand lets you pick up where you left off - wonderful feature). Anyway, I've watched the following so far in the past two weeks. Sad to say, I didn't enjoy most of them.

Frenzy (hated it)
Rope (boring)
Notorious (was good after the first 30 minutes)
Shadow of a Doubt (boring, but I like Joseph Cotton)
The Paradine Case (boring - though Gregory Peck is gorgeous - I never realized that)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (frustrating)
The Lady Vanishes (frustrating)
Spellbound (frustrating - but, it had Gregory Peck)


I checked out IMDB, this list of movies isn't even half of what Hitchcock actually released. But the way it's going, I may just stop after I get through the few left on Comcast. I thought I would at least like most of them - but it's very disappointing to discover I really don't.

Good thing is that during these movie runs, I've been knitting away. I'm almost finished putting together my little Kitty project that I started in Tahoe a few weeks ago.



I just have to sew on the other ear and the tail, and then attached her to the cushion. Oh, and sew on a face (kind of important). This little missy is going to be a birthday gift for my friend in November.


The other projects that I finished just last night and today are the Umbilical Cord hats from Stitch N' Bitch, for the new twins, Kayden and Connor. These turned out really well - and they were quick projects. I like that.



I wanted to make two different colored hats, but the purple one is a little lighter than I'd like since I mixed in the white. Oh well.

My next projects are matching booties for the hats.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Ouch

I call this latest picture of Monte, Death Grip.



Dang! Must hurt being his favorite toy.

Whole lotta shakin'

Well, my goal to live out the two years in my current home without feeling an earthquake was squashed last night. A little after 8p, while my hubby and I were watching TV, I felt the rumble. It was such a low, deep groan, it was surreal. And then it hit. Our plant looked like I had grabbed it by the stem shaking it. It was a pretty hard jolt.

I was like, "EARTHQUAKE!!!" I think my outburst scared Monte more than the quake itself. Actually, our little fur ball was in a deep sleep until I yelled out and grabbed hold of him. Hey, he was sitting closer to me than my husband - so I grabbed the cat first.

Anyway, our building swayed for a while - it felt more than the 10 seconds it really was. But if you think about it, 10 seconds is a pretty long time.

It turned out to be a 4.4 quake. My husband says these smaller earthquakes are good. That means the ground keeps trying to settle itself. It's better than us staying still and building up pressure - and then get a big earthquake. Yeah, yeah, yeah - an earthquake is an earthquake. And I don't like any of them. But I guess if I had to choose, I'd rather a bunch of small ones than one big one.

Oh, and did I ever mention that our building is on landfill. Yeah... not so comforting.

On another note, I've actually been keeping up with a pretty good workout schedule. Well, it's not a good schedule, but I am working out. Almost every week day, and even on weekend day, I'll go to the gym and walk for 30 minutes to an hour. For various reasons, I can't really do a full on run, so I do a fast walk. It's a sweaty walk that gets the heartrate up, so I'm satisfied.

The thing that helps is that each treadmill has a TV hooked up to it. I get so bored when I'm just listening to music that even a 20 minute walk seems like forever. The TV is the key. Yep, so last night, I walked an hour while watching Project Runway. Of course, the new episode started at 10pm, so I basically I didn't end up going to bed until midnight. So, no, it's not an ideal workout schedule. I'm exhausted now, but I'm working out!