Zachary

The band

The other band

Cooking stuff (temporarily inactive...)

 
For our 2 year anniversary, we flew off to Las Vegas for a few days. We went mid-week to save on plane and room prices. Gambling was cheaper too since the casinos were slow. We stayed at Treasure Island hotel which has grown up a bit since I last saw it. Much more "adult"... TI (as they like to call it now) had the neatest bar called Kahunaville. Wednesday night they had a band, and Thursday night it was karaoke, but that wasn't the neat part. The bartenders were right out of a movie, juggling bottles and shakers, pouring 5 drinks at a time, slinging bottle openers around like guns, rolling glasses down their arms...holy cow! Neat stuff!! TI also has a street side show that I'm sure is worth watching. It was cancelled the two nights we tried to see it. :-( Overall though, a fun hotel.

The highlights of our trip include seeing the Cirque du Solei show, which was, of course fantastic (though not as good as La Nouba). We followed up the show with an expensive, very excellent, steak dinner in our hotel. We did lots of window shopping at the upscale malls, walked around many of the casinos, including the new Paris (mmmm, good crepes). Hard Rock turned out to be one of our favorite hotels. Comfortable, not too big, cool black jack dealers, fun atmosphere - seemed to cater to the 30-something crowd. The Stratosphere was hands down, the worst hotel. Another night we had a fabulous Italian dinner at the Mirage - soooo good. And the last big highlight: I played poker! Texas hold 'em 3/6, meaning the first two betting rounds are $3 and the last two betting rounds are $6. Fixed, low, betting makes the whole thing less intimidating. I was a bit nervous, especially when I had a hand worth playing, but after a couple hours I calmed down and made less mistakes. I only lost $40 bucks - not bad for a few hours of play. And the highlight for J.T., was passing through the Bellagio on our way out to find a handful of professional poker players in the poker room. J.T. is always watching the poker shows and tournaments on TV and it was a real treat to see TJ and the Professor in action at the same table. We wanted to get an autograph or two but had to catch our plane instead. Maybe next time!
posted by hbt at 8:51 PM

 
Last Sunday was Easter. A time for good food with the family. J.T.'s mom brought us an Easter basket, and bunny ears for the both of us. I didn't realize how much I swung my arms in the space over my head until I had something to knock off. In the spirit, we both wore our ears throughout the celebrating and have cute pictures to prove it. In turn, we also gave out gifts. Each place setting at the table had a dressed up bear or bunny sitting on it, guarding the napkin. Mine was dressed as a strawberry (naturally), Grandma got the banana dressed bear - there was a grape, pineapple, apple and watermelon too, and they all smelled like their respective fruit. So cute!! Since there were only 6 fruit animals, I had to get an extra animal for J.T. which was a bear in a black sheep's costume. :-)

J.T.'s mom also brought hard boiled eggs and an egg decorating kit. What fun! Everyone dipped at least one egg, including both grandmothers. And you thought egg decorating was just for kids. Hah! Naturally, this provided an opportunity to reminisce about Easters spent at Grandma's. I'm an only child, and on that side of the family, I'm an only grandchild. Sometimes you have to entertain yourself... Eggs were hidden, and found, and hidden, and found, and hidden, and found, ... until the grown-ups were tired of hiding them or the eggs fell apart. I don't even remember decorating the eggs. Just finding them over and over and over. I always did love hide and seek.

The rest of the day was spent sitting on the covered patio blowing bubbles in the spring breeze, chatting in the kitchen, and later watching the King's obliterate the Lakers.
posted by hbt at 2:34 PM

 
Next Tuesday is our 2 year anniversary. We've almost been married as long as we've dated. :) Way back when I was engaged, my coworkers took me out to lunch to wish me well with the wedding. As part of the entertainment, everyone was given a slip of paper to write some words of advice for the soon-to-be-married. Nearly everyone at the table was married so the advice was, well, special. Sounds corny, but I really appreciated it. One I wanted to take to heart was "always get away for your anniversary, even if you just go away for the weekend". What better time to put life on hold so you can honor your special relationship?

Last year we drove to San Francisco for the weekend. We had a fantastic time. This year, we're flying to Las Vegas to hang out for a few days. We booked early so the price wasn't too bad. We have reservations for the Mystere show by Cirque du Soleil, but are otherwise winging it for the trip. We'll probably walk around and see what's new since last time, check out some clubs, do a little gambling, and eat at some fancy restaurant.
posted by hbt at 12:44 AM