Back To A Routine

Yesterday I meant to post to inform the masses all about the end of the trip, but all I accomplished was laundry, reading my emails, and chatting online with people. I’m nursing a sore throat, I’ve had it for over a week, but it went to the next level (phlegmy) last night. Before that, it was just a slight sore throat. I’ll be fine, I just need to take it easy. It didn’t help that I didn’t sleep much last night. But I digress.

Palm Springs=HOT! It wasn’t as bad as the time we went to the river, mostly because in Palm Springs we had shade, the pool, and air conditioned rooms. A nice town to visit, but I’d never want to live there. Sunday night we went to Las Casuelas Original to celebrate Cindy’s belated birthday. This was the most authentic mexican restaurant I’d ever been to. The decor was kind of fun, the food was pretty good, but I don’t think the waiter was thrilled to be serving a party of 12. And a party of 12 that wanted to make up their own menu items. We had a blast though, Jake took some hilarious photos. After dinner, all those under 30 walked up the main strip to find Coldstone, and try to get some ice cream. The line looked way too long to wait, so we walked back to the restaurant. The sidewalks were packed, I guess it really picks up after hours in Palm Springs. And there were all walks of life out there. Monday we spent most of the day by the pool, and I also got in two Scrabble games. I learned that Jake is an awesome Scrabble player, while Kevin was relegated to be the spell checker. Tuesday morning, we left for Vegas, saying our goodbyes to those who were still in Palm Springs (Cindy, her mom, Abbie, & Alec). Everyone else had left the night before. It was a 4 hour drive to Las Vegas, and we got settled in our hotel, The Orleans. Made me think of Glen & Diane who were just in New Orleans. We ate some lunch, walked around the hotel to see all it offered and then hopped on a shuttle to the strip. We passed the Palms and Rio which were relatively close to us. It dropped us beside Caesar’s Palace. We walked around that, then headed to the Bellagio. The Bellagio has a garden inside with a small scale fountain show. It was cute. Then we walked up the strip, as far as Excalibur, then headed to the MGM Grand. My friend Julie told me we had to visit the M&M Store, so we went there next. 4 floors of all the M&M paraphernalia you could ever want, as well as M&M’s in more colors than you’d think possible. We saw Green but we didn’t take her picture. But it was pretty funny when she started dancing to the music playing in the store. Next door to M&M World is a Coca-Cola store. This has only 2 floors open, the third holds a museum, which apparently closed in the last year or two. It was awesome. I could have bought all my Christmas gifts there. So mush cool stuff. On the second floor there are two bars one which sold almost every soda Coke offers, and the other one was selling 8 oz bottles of ice cold Coke for $1. Geoff treated us to a drink. We saved the bottles as a souvenir. The stop in this store was one of the highlights of Vegas for me. Naturally it made me think of my dad. We made our way back to the Bellagio to catch the fountain show, and found a shady spot to watch it. I wish our camera could record sound, but the video still looks cool. It was amazing. I could have stayed there forever and watched show after show. But we just watched one. We took the shuttle back to the hotel, and then cooled off in the pool. It was so hot in Vegas. trying to decide where to eat dinner, Geoff played “the Wayne card”, and we went to the buffet. “It’s what your dad would have wanted”. My dad loved buffets, it was one of his funny quirks. But it did offer us a variety of choices to eat. Following dinner we hit the casino. I played the nickel slots, and had a blast. Then we played some blackjack. Geoff got a pretty funny dealer, and there were some neat people at the table. We didn’t stay up too late, knowing we had a long drive the next day. We woke up early, grabbed some muffins from Seattle’s Best, and checked out. We left Las Vegas at 8:30am (PST), and Geoff drove, drove, drove until we reached Denver close to 9pm (MST). We were greeted by a hungry, lonely kitty cat.

So that’s mostly it. I’m sure I’ve left out some stories. Would I do Vegas again? Maybe. Had I money to burn, I would have loved to see a show. But the day we spent there was plenty. I hated that you could barely take two steps on the strip and not have someone shoving flyers in your face. The billboards were offensive. They don’t call it Sin City for nothing. It really is like Sodom & Gomorrah. I realize there is a whole other side of town that isn’t the strip, but I don’t know how people can live there.

Well, I have to go to the bank, the library, and Target, so I better get on with my day. We’re going out to Elizabeth on Sunday to Mark & Shannon’s. I ‘ll try not to get lost. I also want to try to treat Gary to a car wash for all his driving (Gary is our car). Oh yeah, and I posted some pictures from our trip.

Praise Jesus!

My work authorization came through! I will get to take a paying summer job at the museum!

While we were at Ryan’s we got to watch BBC America. Man, wish we had that channel. And I watched my first Blackadder episode. So I’ll quote that episode, Dual & Duality.

(The Prince hides behind the scullery door.)

Mrs. Miggins: Ah hello Baldrick. I’ve brought your buns. Where’s Mr. Blackadder?

Oh, not upstairs still, running around after that port-swilling,

tadpole-brained smelly-boots?

Baldrick: (carefully) I don’t know who you mean.

Mrs. Miggins: Prince George, Baldrick. His boots smell so bad a man would need to

have his nose amputated before taking them off. Well, that’s what Mr.

Blackadder says.

Baldrick: As a joke.

Mrs. Miggins: Didn’t you write a little poem about him last week?

Baldrick: No I didn’t.

Mrs. Miggins: Ooh you did:

In the Winter it’s cool,

In the Summer it’s hot,

But all the year round,

Prince George is a clot. (laughs)

Baldrick: A lovely. I said Prince George is a lovely.