Good Grief!

I had very unrealistic expectations coming home from vacation. I thought work would've calmed down & things would be getting back to normal. Not so much. I only worked 4 hours of overtime last week so that's a good thing. I had to work late Friday & when I got home we went to eat at VooDoo BBQ. Those BBQ nachos are just too good. I even had a Dr. Pepper. Our church fair was this weekend so we went to hang out there for a bit. Our friends that recently moved to Texas were there. It was nice to visit with them, along with some other friends we hadn't seen in awhile. There was a band too. Saturday morning I ran in the 2 mi. Fun Run. It was COLD. Low 50's. Plenty cold for me. If I had it my way  it wouldn't ever get any colder than that. My official time was 20:37 but seeing as how this is to raise money for the school & not a high dollar production that time may be official but it's not accurate. There were about 10 million kids running & they all wanted to be in the front. I gladly took a place way in the back. There's something to be said for starting in the back & actually passing people. The starting line was also the finish so needless to say since I was in the back some time passed before I actually got to the starting point. I think I did it in 19: something. Either way I was happy. I never run 10 min. miles & I beat my friend.  I brought a couple of the neighbor kids for donuts & then I went home.

Saturday evening after Mass we went & ate Mexican & went back to the fair. The Michael Foster Project was playing at the fair. They're a great local band. It was really cold so there wasn't a big crowd.

Sunday I had lunch with Wendy, Vicki & Allison for my birthday. (It was yesterday). We ate at Chimes & it was delish as usual! I ended up going for a run Sunday evening because I decided I didn't want to get up so early & run when it was 40 degrees on my birthday.

Then it was Monday & back to work. It's not fun working on your birthday. There was a full moon last night & that really explains a lot about my day. I talked to some real winners. One being the guy that said "Can you email that to me? I'm in the tub?". Sure.

I think I've mentioned before that my boss is Dean Blanchard & my hubs is Dean Blanchard. Not the same person. Yes, it's weird, I know. When I got home from work yesterday "my Dean" told me there was a message on the machine. It was a lady complaining about her newspaper delivery. This has happened before. People get mad, they know the Circulation Director is Dean & they look him up in the phone book. The only thing is "Boss Dean" doesn't live in Baton Rouge so they never get him, they get us. It's like I can't get away from the crazies! sigh.

For my birthday we went to dinner at Stroube's. It's a steak restaurant.
The wine was fabulous!
I finally got the wedge salad I've been craving since Vegas! Why is it that a head of iceberg lettuce chopped in half with some blue cheese on it is sooooo good??? I don't get it but I love it! This one was especially good. The steak I ordered? Not so much. First off it was undercooked. I didn't send it back because naturally there wasn't a waiter to be seen & when I first cut into it I didn't think it was too bad. It was after the blood started running across the plate that I was done. Dean ate it & I ate the asparagus & truffle risotto that was amazing.

Work is crazy today thanks to that lovely hurricane Sandy. Seriously, even when the hurricane isn't in our area it causes problems. We have a call center in New Hampshire that we've been using & their main office is in New York which is apparently where the phone lines are routed through. Know what that means? No phone lines. Know what that means? All the calls come to good old Baton Rouge. Know that that means? The call volume is too much & I have to answer customer service calls. UGHHHHH!! It also means I'll probably be here late AGAIN! By the time this is over I may be able to buy those Louboutins & not feel guilty!!!

Toodles! 

The Last Day.......

Thursday was our last day in Vegas. What a bummer. I wasn't ready to get back to the real world! Allison & Joey went on a tour of Hoover Dam. We did that last time so we skipped it.

I love Caesars!!

We had lunch!

I enjoyed having wine with lunch.

They brought a variety of bread. It was really good!

I love a wedge salad! I've been craving one since we got home & I had 2 while we were there.

I had the Greek pizza. DELISH. The Tzatziki sauce was AMAZEBALLS!!! It hurt my heart that I was so full I couldn't finish & I had to leave a couple of pieces so I didn't have to carry it around Vegas.

Dean took my picture after my little shopping trip at Michael's. Believe me, I was MUCH happier than I look in this picture.
I got some sunnies!

The Uptown Astor Shoulder Bag. I own him! Yes, I said him. This bag is much too fabulous to be just an it.

With the shoulder strap. It looks like a different bag! The shoulder strap can be removed too. The light is funky in this pic but the studs & chain strap are this gorgeous chocolaty rose gold metal.

The only gambling we did was Dean placed a bet on the LSU game.

He won!

Dean & I walked over to Margaritaville for a drink. I had a rum runner.

Andrea & Andrew made it! Remember when I said Allison was the funniest person I know besides her little sister? Meet Andrea, Allison's little sister! Her & hubs Andrew live in L.A. now. California not Louisiana. They drove over to meet us. We met at Margaritaville while we waited for Allison & Joey to get back.

Our next stop was The Chandelier Bar at the Cosmopolitan.

At the Cosmopolitan you have to drink a Cosmo!!

Yes, I had on pants. I don't know why this picture came out like this.

Back in the room for a quick "Midnight Flight to Malibu" & to change before our last show. We had to change quickly because we needed to get back to Michael's before he closed.
I'd seen these earlier & decided I needed them & so did the girls. We each got a pair. The flip flop part is gold.
The last show! Once we were seated, the Usher came back & told us "we're not full tonight if you'd like to move closer". I was all over that because we were on the very top row. They weren't bad seats but of course we'd move closer if we could.

He switched out our tickets.

That's the stage & the "Million Dollar Piano". I was about to have a heart attack when I saw where the new seats were.

This was the end of the show. I LOVED THE PINK SO MUCH!! When he came out at the beginning he had on a gold jacket like this one but it didn't photograph well at all. That was the only disappointment. I ALWAYS bring a camera to concerts but I thought for sure there would be no picture taking because a lot of the other shows we've gone to have been that way. Not Elton! You could take all the pics you wanted but no videos. I was so mad that I didn't have my good camera.

After the show which was FABULOUS (I highly recommend going to see him if you have the opportunity), we met up with the rest of the group & went to Numb for a daiquiri. I got the Naked Colada. It was so good. The cups are these cool hologram type things.

We watched the fountains at the Bellagio one last time. I love those things. We made a quick stop at the hotel so I could change out of my dress & heels.

I needed to change because we were making the trek down to so we could go to Minus 5 in Monte Carlo. Have y'all heard of it? We saw it on the travel channel. EVERYTHING is made of ice. The benches, the tables, the glasses you drink out of, EVERYTHING. They provide the coats, gloves & boots (for a charge, it is Vegas after all). We went in & had a drink. It was fun. So different than anything we've ever seen. Next time we said we're going to splurge & get the fur coats!

Friday morning it was time to go home.

I was excited when I found out the limo was picking us up to bring us back to the airport. We had such an awesome trip! There's so much to do in Vegas that this trip was entirely different from our first trip & there are still things we didn't have time to do!

Toodles!

Vegas Part 3

We started Wednesday off with the breakfast buffet at MGM. The food was delish! There was breakfast food & salads, fried shrimp, etc. I had a breakfast flauta that was really good. Then there was dessert.

I mentioned that I had chips & dip for breakfast Monday. That was the beginning of weird breakfast. After eating my breakfast I had chocolate cheesecake that was really good, pistachio gelato - OMG sooooo good!! Then there was a very dry scone that I didn't eat. My 13 yr. old neighbor's scones are way better.

After breakfast we went to TV City. It's an area in MGM where they bring you to watch a show that is in production to see what you think about it. They told us that they screened Partners (my new fave show this season) so we were hoping for something great. Sadly, we didn't get it. We're not supposed to give any details so I'll just say that it was military & a little interesting but not enough to watch every week. After that we did the CSI Experience. There was a crime scene that you looked at & took notes & then went through all the steps like they do on CSI. It wasn't  exactly what I thought it was going to be but it was fun. We went to the Venetian & to the wax museum.

This pic of Allison cracks me up!

My boy Snoop!

After the wax museum it was time to shop! We went to the shops at the Palazzo. I've been saying for awhile that I was buying something good while we were in Vegas. Our anniversary & my birthday is in October & I've worked a ton of Overtime. The shopping in Vegas is second to none if you're interested in designer stores.  I don't generally shop at places like that but when in Vegas!!!

We got a little something at Michael Kors! It's a wristlet for your iPhone & there's room for credit cards. Perfect for when you don't feel like carrying a bag. It's purple & as salesman Drew told us, is made from a new material that is water resistant! We loved salesman Drew. He was the gay BFF I've always wanted!

A little Tory Burch! Part of the proceeds go to breast cancer research.  How could I not buy it?? I'm giving to charity!

While I tried on the fabulous Louboutins Dean & Joey sat at a bar & drank beer. I didn't buy them but I realllly wanted them. See those behind my head? $3800 & a chick who I would guess was in her 20's waltzed in picked them up, told the saleslady her size & bought them like it was nothing. WOW! While I was trying on shoes & Allison was trying to convince me to buy them, Dean & Joey were drinking a beer in the bar by the store. When we finished with the Louboutin's Dean showed us these things.

They had them in Margarita & Cosmo flavors. We chose Cosmo & they were sooooo good. It's an adult Popsicle! Allison & I are even on the SnoBar Facebook page because the marketing guy just happened to be in the bar & saw us buy it & he wanted to take our pic.

Another stop on our list was Holsteins for a Bam-Boozled shake. SOOOOOO GOOD!!! We  were all getting hungry by this point so we had some fries to go with our shakes.

They hit the spot!

My shake was the Drunken Monkey. It was Reese's, banana, Malt & Frangelico. It was really good.

Wednesday night was Tony-n-Tina's Wedding. Funniest show ever! It was a big Italian wedding with a pregnant bridesmaid, a drunk Priest, crazy parents, a skank ho step mom. SOOOO funny! It was just like being at a wedding & reception. There was food & cake & dancing. One of the groomsmen pulled me onto the dance floor & spun me all over the place & dipped me. OMG. The wedding singer got in Allison's face & she sang part of Sweet Caroline. 
Dean got a hard hat & put on the stage to help with the YMCA. It was hysterical! The food was good too. The only disappointment & I know everyone doesn't feel the same as me is that the wedding cake didn't have butter cream icing. It was that whipped crap. BLECH! There's no point eating cake if it doesn't have butter cream.

After the wedding we attempted to have drinks at Rhumbar but there was 1 bartender & a party of 30 so we moved on. We watched the Volcano at Mirage. It's always cool looking.
That day when we got back to our room at 6:00 to change for the wedding our room hadn't been cleaned. The cleaning ladies were still in the hall so we hung out in Allison & Joey's room while we waited. Well, the ladies disappeared & our room still wasn't cleaned. We got ready for the wedding & called housekeeping. They gave us a line about how they were still cleaning but they'd send someone up. When we got back everything was clean & we had turn down service with chocolate by the bed.

The slippers were a nice touch but I think they were a men's size 14 judging by how they swallowed my feet!

 

Only one more day!!!
Toodles!

Vegas - Part 2

Tuesday we went to downtown to the Mob Museum. This was so interesting! It's in the old courthouse where some of the mobsters were actually tried.
I learned a few things - When you're in a lineup those lines actually measure you! I had no idea. We also learned that all the counterfit bags, accessories & shoes are all mob businesses. No more fakes for us!

The gun vibrates like a real gun does. Well, I guess. I've never shot a machine gun.

When Dean pulled the lever the light flashed & it made a noise like an electric chair.

Lunch at Triple Georges was so good!
Allison had sage fried chicken that she said was amazing!

I had baked ziti. It was delicious. Dean had bacon wrapped meat loaf.

We walked around Old Vegas for a little bit. We had green tea at Starbucks. Old Vegas isn't my fave. Allison announced that she was ready to get back to the "smell good part of Vegas". HAHAHA! If you've never been, several of the really nice casinos smell WONDERFUL!! EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. we walked through Aria, Allison commented on how good it smelled. I just saw that you can actually buy scent sticks from the website. I also just discovered that you can buy pillows like the ones in the room. I will own one soon!

Our next stop was the Fashion Show Mall. This was a waste of time. It was just a regular mall like you have in every city in America. It's fine if you want to do regular shopping. I wanted to shop at places I couldn't shop at home. We did check out Sak's & Neiman's. I was disappointed in Neiman's. Just not what I expected.

Next we went to Parasol Up, which is a cute bar inside the Venetian.

We had a delicious drink!

Me & my friend Missy. She just happened to be in Vegas the same time we were. I haven't seen her in awhile so it was good to catch up.
I mentioned in yesterday's post about the size of Allison's bladder. This led us on a tour of the many bathrooms in Vegas. This one was in Venetian. It was one of the cooler ones.

The group at Carlos & Charlie's. We ordered drinks & had no idea they were in these cups. So fun!

Love the fountains at the Bellagio. I think we saw them 3 different times.

We saw Zumanity which is a Cirque show & then had pizza at New York, New York. It was sooo good. While we were eating we were right across from the Piano bar so we could see & hear everything going on there. That was fun too.

All of these pics were from my iPhone so they're not the greatest quality.

Part 3 coming up!!!

Toodles!