Weekend-O-Fun

The second weekend in August Alex and Tasha came to visit us. We had a fun-filled weekend. I should have made this post when the events were fresher in my mind, as now that I'm trying to remember what we did, I'm finding it difficult.

On Saturday we started out with lunch at Jose Pepper's. In my humble opinion, Jose Pepper's has some of the best margaritas in the area. I never eat there without having at least two margaritas to accompany my meal. From there we went up to Legends (a shopping/restaurant area up by the speedway). We stopped at Yardhouse to have a beer while we waited for our movie time to arrive. We watched The Dark Knight at the theater at Legends. It was a very cool movie. I would have to say that I like Batman Begins better though. After the movie we went to The Woodlands and bet on the dog races. I do not think I have ever done as poorly as I did that night. I don't think I won a single race. I tried looking at stats, picking the prettiest dog, deciding on my favorite name, nothing would work. Even though I didn't win, I had a great time. After the races we went back to Yardhouse to have dinner before calling it a night.

On Sunday we had lunch at Planet Sub followed by dessert at Sylas and Maddy's. I had the cappuccino chip ice cream. It was delicious. Sunday afternoon we went downtown to the Power and Light district. We bowled at Lucky Strike for a few hours. I love the atmosphere there, it is very retro. We had a drink at Ragland Road before heading to the plaza for dinner. We were hungry for Japanese steakhouse so we tried out Hibachi. It was glad that we tried it, but I probably won't go back there since there are several others that I like better. Following dinner we drove out to Cool Crest for a round of putt-putt. We got there fairly close to closing time so we were rushed. Mack's ball went off the green at one point, so he tried to chip in with his putter. His ball went completely off the course and bounced out of the parking lot so the rest of us took turns letting him use one of our balls. A few rounds later I hit my ball and it disappeared. I think it must have stuck in one of the obstacles. So then the four of us tried to use two balls. It was pretty amusing. We ended up getting rushed out since it was closing time. We weren't ready to go home yet so we went back to P&L. We had a few drinks at Gordon Biersch Brewery. I guess I should clarify that Eric, Alex, and Tasha had a few drinks, I only had one. I ordered a wheat beer. I thought it was pretty gross so it took me longer to finish my drink. That was our last stop of the day.

Monday we didn't do much since Alex and Tasha had to go home. We had a hard time deciding where to have lunch, so we ended up going to one of our usual spots Buffalo Wild Wings. After that we ran to Costco and Sam's Club to stock up on groceries and other household goods. We tried to talk Alex and Tasha into sticking around for a movie, but didn't have any luck.

Big News

After much careful consideration I have decided to go back to school full time. I gave my notice at work over a week ago. My last day at Metcalf Bank will be on August 13th. School starts on the 14th. I will be attending JCCC for as long as I can, then I will transfer to KU. I hope to be all finished within 2 years. This was a huge decision and something we have been contemplating for a long time. The timing seemed right, so I went ahead and made the plunge. Please send good thoughts our way that all goes smooth.

Vegas Baby! - Part Four

Sunday was our last full day in Vegas, "sob." We originally planned on renting a car and driving out to Hoover Dam. We didn't ever get around to going though. By the time we got up and around, it was lunch time. We decided to go to Stage Deli for lunch. Eric and I had just eaten at Stage Deli in New York and it was awesome, so we (Eric, Alex, Tasha, and me) decided to try the one at Caesar's. We walked around, took a wrong turn or two in the forum shops and eventually found the restaurant. The menu was different from the one in NYC. Our sandwiches were still delicious. They don't fool around when they put the meat on their sandwiches. After we stuffed ourselves we headed back to our casino to meet Brian and Lynnae. Eric and Alex were jonesing to get back on the Black Jack table so when they found some empty seats they jumped at them. Brian sat down with them. The three of us girls played the slot machines for a while. All the machines were doing for me was stealing my money, and I couldn't even find a cocktail waitress to get me a free drink. The other two were doing well with the slots though. I got bored of losing money and not having a beverage so I went to watch the guys play Black Jack. After a while I realized what was wrong. I hadn't had my daily mudslide yet. When Tasha and Lynnae showed up we strolled over to Fat Tuesday. With mudslide in hand, my day took a turn for the better. I eventually sat down with the boys to play Black Jack. After several hours I noticed I was still up. We had a fun table which made it even better. I dreaded each time we got a new dealer because it took them a while to warm up to us. They all eventually did though. Brian left after a while and Eric, Alex, and me played. Eventually I decided I wanted to get something to eat so Eric and I got up from the table. Alex was still winning so he didn't want to get up. Eric, Tasha, and me were watching him play, just waiting for him to call it quits. One of the dealers took a few chips from Alex's stack and had Tasha play with them. She starting winning too. So before long Eric and I sat back down to play. Finally at about 10:00 we decided to take a break and get some dinner. All four of us cashed out with way more chips than we started with. We went to La Salsa for some margaritas and chips and salsa. After dinner Eric and Alex found a new Black Jack table. This one didn't feel right to me so I didn't sit back down. My feeling was right. The two of them took a beating. All too soon I had to go upstairs to pack, as we were leaving fairly early the next morning. About the time I finished packing Eric came upstairs to our room. The next morning we all climbed in a limo for a ride to the airport. We said our goodbyes since we were flying different airlines so we had different terminals to go to. This Vegas trip was one of the most fun trips to Vegas we have ever had. I wasn't ready to come home and I'm looking forward to the next trip.

Vegas Baby! - Part Three

Saturday marked day three of our trip. Before we left the hotel, I filled the bathtub up with ice for our drinks that went untouched the night before. We kicked off Saturday like we did the day before, with a mudslide from Fat Tuesday. From there the six of us headed south on the strip. We stopped at MGM to pick up our tickets for Kà that night. Once we had our tickets we walked across the street to NY, NY for some lunch. Before the trip I checked frommers.com for ideas for good restaurants. Jodi Maroni's Sausage Kingdom received good ratings so most of the group decided on that for lunch. I had the Hot Italian Sausage with grilled onions and bell peppers. I was quite pleased, especially with how cheap it was. Before we went further south to Mandalay Bay, I stopped at the pretzel stand to finish up my meal with a warm soft salted pretzel. It was delicious. We made a few pit stops for beverages and to play the slots on our way to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. The aquarium was something different for us to do while in Vegas. There were some neat fish and scurry-looking sharks. The sea turtles were my favorites though. I had a hard time getting any good pictures while we were there, because the fish swam by so fast. Following the aquarium we slowly made our way back to our hotel to prepare for the evening's festivities. Eric, Alex, Tasha, and myself got fixed up and loaded up with cocktails for Kà. Before we entered the theater we stopped at the concession stand inside. We each ordered one of their specialty drinks that were approximately 32 ounces and $18.00 each. Yes they were expensive, but man were they tasty. The show was absolutely amazing. To give you a little taste of what we saw, here is a link to the website, http://www.ka.com/. Once the show came to an end, we headed towards the Eiffel Tower Restaurant, where we had made reservations the day before, to meet Brian and Lynnae for dinner. The restaurant is pretty high-class and has quite a view of the strip. Our meals were wonderful. I think everyone ordered a steak, although of various sorts. We all had a great time. We were probably a little too rowdy for the rest of the crowd at the restaurant. We told the waiter that we were celebrating a birthday so at the end of dinner Tasha got a desert that had, "Happy Birthday" written in chocolate on the plate. On our way back to the hotel we paused outside for some photos beside the fountain. After we all got changed into casual clothes we were ready for a late night of gambling. The six of us got separated at some point. After a while, Eric and Alex found a craps table to play at. When almost all for their buy-in was gone a man came up to them and started to give them advice on how to bet. They followed his instructions and before they knew it, they each had a big pile of chips in front of them. I'm not sure how much time passed, but even after giving the guy several of their chips they ended up way ahead of where they started. While this was going on Tasha and I were getting really creeped out. It seemed like someone stuck a sign over our heads that said, "Weird guys, come talk to us." So, we were ready to have Eric and Alex be near us so we could be left alone. Eventually we headed back to our rooms. The girls decided to go to bed, but Eric and Alex went back downstairs to play Black Jack for a while. They played for a few hours and both went to bed up quite a bit for the day.
One more day to go.

Vegas Baby! - Part Two

Friday was an awesome day! We stayed up pretty late the night before so Eric and I slept most of the morning. We started the day out the way I wish I could start everyday. With a mudslide from Fat Tuesday. One of the coolest parts of the trip was the discovery that we had a Fat Tuesday in the shops attached to our hotel. Score! Drinks in hand, we wandered around the Miracle Mile browsing in windows and trying to find a good place to have some lunch. It was hard to get the 6 of us to agree on something. We also had to finish our drinks before we could go into any of the restaurants, so we walked around for a while. We first decided on Blondie's (a Sports Bar and Grill). After we got sat down and started looking over the menu we decided this was not what we were looking for. I think what turned me off was that they almost sat at us at a table that had the Broncos and Raiders logos on it. That's a sure way to make me lose my appetite. Actually that's impossible, who am I kidding? We instead decided to try Cheeseburger Las Vegas, right across the corridor. It turns out, that might not have been the best idea. Most of us had burgers, we shared a few baskets of fries, and everyone had another drink. Cheeseburger consists of mainly Hawaiian style burgers. Most of their locations are in Hawaii. In my opinion, definitely not the best burger I ever had. Jiffy Burger would put these burgers to shame. After lunch we headed north on the strip. We made a stop at O'Shay's for a little gambling and a drink. (We were in Vegas after all.) O'Shay's was not what we were looking for so we went further north and stopped at Carnival Court. Carnival Court was a blast. The area is outside and completely covered by a tent of some sort. There is a huge circle bar in the middle with a few small bars on the sides. Towards the front there is a stage that had a band performing. We found a table and hung out watching the band and the talented bartenders for a few hours. The band got the crowd involved and did some skits. A older man from the crowd danced almost the entire time we were there. I wish I could describe his dancing. It was too funny. One of the bartenders who works there is ranked #1 in the U. S. This guy is talented. The best part was when for various occasions, "Free Shots!," was hollered. All you were to do was tip the bartender who was standing on the bar and pouring the shot from the bottle directly into your mouth. One of the times Eric went up, he "accidentally" gave the bartender a $10 bill. The guy put a bib on Eric and poured for what seemed like minutes. Eric actually had to tell him that he had enough before the guy stopped. It was awesome. At one point the band started a train collecting tips throughout the crowd. One of the people in the train line had Brian join them. Eventually even though we were still having a great time we decided we were ready to move on. The next stop was Casino Royale. The guys had hopes to find some cheap Craps tables, but didn't have much luck. So we loaded up on drinks since they offered $1 frozen margarita and $1 Michelobs. We made our way up to Wynn and walked inside since Eric and I hadn't seen the inside yet. After Wynn we decided to go across the street for a quick shopping spree in what I think is called, Fashion Show. I didn't end up buying anything so it wasn't much of a spree for me. By this time we were ready to head back to the hotel to freshen up and see about dinner. Everyone changed into nice clothes and we ate dinner in the Casino at P. F. Chang's Chinese Bistro. We had a nice semi-circle booth to ourselves. We ordered tons of delicious food. Following dinner everyone walked across the street to watch the fountains at the Bellagio. After a show or two, Brian and Lynnae called it a night and went back to their room. Eric, Alex, Tasha, and myself decided it would be a good idea to walk a little south to get some more beers from the store we had bought them from the night before. Our purchase consisted of 12 Bud Light Limes and 4 Kahlua Mudslides. We decided to go to our room this time. We filled the sink with ice and put some of our drinks in to keep them nice and cool. Since our room had 2 queen beds each couple took a bed and we decided to watch a little TV while we relaxed a bit. The problem was, we got too relaxed. Everyone fell asleep within probably 5 minutes. We didn't end up opening a single drink. After I don't know how long, I woke up to find Alex and Tasha went back to their room to go to bed. Eric and I turned off the lights and crashed until morning.

More to come...

Vegas Baby! - Part One

Eric and I just got back from an awesome trip to Vegas last weekend. We arrived in Vegas on Thursday night and came home on Monday. The reason for the trip was to help Tasha celebrate her 21st birthday. Eric and I met the rest of our group; Alex, Tasha, Brian, and Lynnae in Vegas. We flew out from KC, while everyone else left from Denver.

Eric and I were afraid we were going to miss our flight. We decided to run a few errands Thursday afternoon before we left. While we were out, we ran into a little car trouble. I was waiting in the car for Eric, and instead of turning it on I just turned the key enough for the radio and air to come on. When Eric came back out we discovered I killed the battery. Oops! We made a desperate call to our friend Mike, who was stuck in traffic, to come give us a jump start. He saved us, but we were still incredibly short on time. We hadn't even packed or taken the dogs to the kennel. We had planned on leaving the house close to the time that we finally made it back to the house. While I packed our bags, Eric dropped the kids off at the kennel. We made it to the airport right at 30 minutes before our flight was to leave. Eric dropped me at the terminal with the bags so we could get checked in. In order for him not to get left behind he had to park in what he calls "Rock Star Parking." Instead of paying $5.50 a day in economy, we paid I think $18.00 a day. The good news is after all of that we were able to make our flight.

We arrived in Vegas later than expected because KC was experiencing some nasty storms and we had to fly way north to avoid the storm. We hopped on a shuttle bus after we retrieved our bags and found our way to our hotel. This trip we stayed at Planet Hollywood. We were both pleased with the hotel. It was a great location, nice room, and had an excellent view. All the rooms have a different movie theme. Ours was Rainman. Planet Hollywood sits across the street from the Bellagio, so we were able to watch the fountains from our room several times. Planet Hollywood is directly beside Paris, so we also had a great view of the Eiffel Tower as well.

We didn't do much the first night. We didn't meet up with Brian and Lynnae until the next day because we took so long to get there, they ended up falling asleep. After settling in and getting cleaned up, Eric, Alex, Tasha, and myself made our way to MGM so I could get a mudslide from Fat Tuesday. Much to my dismay, they were closed. Eric and I were starving so we jotted across the street to NY, NY for a slice. NY, NY has an excellent pizza place in the casino that we eat at every trip to Vegas. After that we headed back towards the hotel but made a pit-stop on the way. We have found that beer is much cheaper if it is purchased at a convenience store instead of the bars/casinos. We picked up a six-pack of Bud Light Lime and strolled back to the hotel. We decided to hang out in the younger Martin's room to lay back and visit. After we polished off the beer everyone was pretty sleepy since it was around 3:00am Vegas time. Eric and I headed down the hall to our room and crashed for the evening.

To be continued...

My New Toy

So, I got my new toy ordered today. It's an Epiphone Les Paul - Silverburst. It's gorgeous, and should pair nicely with my new Crate amp.

--Eric