Typed Words.

PHOTOS TO BE ADDED LATER WHEN THE #($% COMPUTER IS FIXED…

On Tuesday afternoon, Brian and I drove out to the Hoover Dam. I was pleasantly surprised that the Hoover Dam was only about a 30 minute drive from Las Vegas. It was quite disconcerting to drive through mountains…barren, lifeless, very rocky-red mountains. I think I am definitely an East Coast girl. I like the trees and the grass, thank you very much.

When we arrived at the Hoover Dam and it was time to decide on the type of tour (Basic, Middle, Super-Awesome Tour), Brian chose to go all out and splurged on the Super-Awesome tour. It was quite charming to see how pleased he was as we were waiting for out tour to begin. Of course he wasn’t jumping up and down and screaming in delight, but I could tell he was interested in the Dam and enthusiastic about the super cool part of the tour when we would be able to be inside the dam and view outside through the vents.

Our tour started with many people in a large group by watching a video about the dam. You know what amazed me the most about the Hoover Dam? That they finished the project TWO YEARS AHEAD OF SCHEDULE. TWO YEARS! And now it’s like pulling teeth now to get contractors to finish on time on simple projects like…hmm, I don’t know, finishing hardwood floors?! And this is with the latest technology. Geez.

Moving on…

We then went took a super fast elevator down to view the generators and shortly after that we went on our own separate tour through the tunnels where the tours originally started from when they first opened. I admired the beautiful marble on the floor…neat fact is that they decorated in a Art Deco style, so that even today it still feels contemporary. Very very cool.

We walked through the tunnel and we were able to peek out from one of the four vents in the middle of the Hoover Dam. Crossing through, there was a grate that dropped like tons and tons of feet (I was quite terrified of looking down) and I basically shut my eyes and prayed for the best as I stepped over. Thankfully that was not when our Heavenly Father aka The Big Guy Upstairs decided to end me.

I have to admit I really liked the extra part of our tour because we were also able to see their emergency exits and stairs (lots of them) and also we saw the history behind it…a behind the scenes kind of peek. From really old marks of where they found “cracks” to their fast elevators, it was rather impressive.

Unfortunately I didn’t understand all the technical aspects of the tour, but it was a lovely day for me because I was able to see how happy the trip made my husband. And it was only a 30 minute drive away.

when your computer is not messing up and spitting out viruses….that’s what mine is doing. Unfortunately. I am very upset because I have lots of photography stuff to do. Fortunately, I can still do photography stuff. It’s the internet that is upset with me and I have to say the feeling is mutual. Thankfully Brian’s computer is awesome too, so here I am.

Happiness is, however, when Brian brings me home dessert:

Sometimes when he goes out with vendors to lunch for work, he’ll surprise me and bring me home his dessert. And then I am reminded why I keep him around.

Vera Las Vegas post soon…until I figure out my #($*% computer.

It’s been an ongoing battle the last few days with Tiger. She has stopped puking excessively after we went out and bought a gel for her to eat. Unfortunately she has been living up to her reputation of being a bad bad kitty. She refuses to move after hollering, minor smacking from me, or major hollering and smacking from Brian. She just becomes a whining lump. Added that she goes up and down in the early morning hours howling and attempting to escape outside. Fun days I tell you.

Anyway, the biggest problem with me and her has been where she is sleeping. She is NOT allowed to sleep on the couches or beds. But this does not seem to deter her. When I walk up the stairs, I can hear her jump off whatever furniture she is NOT supposed to be on…except the other day when I caught her on the couch and she REFUSED to move until I picked her up and squirted her with a water bottle. Even then she just complained.

With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to show some of her recent sleeping places.

My work basket, frequently during the winter:

She knocked over the empty paper trash can and crawled inside to sleep:

On top of the vents, especially during the summer:

The tallboy drawer in one of the guest rooms. I don’t know how she gets up there. She has to jump on top of a twin bed and clear like two feet of air to reach here…hence the knocked over picture frame:

The big no-no; the couch:

The other guest room on both the bed and the nightstand. I knew she jumped on the nightstand because she knocked off one of my pictures onto the ground (missing in this photo):

The other HUGE no-no, our bed:

Brian’s chair…now I know, you are probably thinking, Vera, how can you accuse the cat of doing all these things? Well my dear blog reader, I see Feline Pine bits on each piece of furniture:

And the most recent? I just found her when I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth:

Other places have been behind the toilet (which, she doesn’t even fit into the nook), inside the bathtub, in my library basket and the top of my desk.

Cats. Bleh. But I still love them.

Since I’ve been reading so much Agatha Christie lately, I thought I would start with our own mystery.

On Thursday morning, before heading out for the office, I went outside to water the plants. I noticed that our smaller lily was practically lying on the ground.

It was a bit strange, because there was no reason for it to droop so much. When I bent down to examine it, it was loosened from the ground. I patted it back into the ground and then added some water to it.

When I came home, I didn’t notice anything, but after a night out for dinner, when Brian and I went to water the plants for the evening, it was gone!

There was no trace of the lily. It was pulled straight out of the ground, with only a hole to show where the plant had been.

We walked around our front yard looking for signs of the lily.

Nothing.

Now where the heck did it go? Did a neighbor take it? But why would you pick the lily, out of all the plants to take? We have more expensive plants like hydrangeas, roses and peonies. A lily is like $5ish.

Did an animal take it? Why didn’t it take the larger lily plant then? What animal eats lilies? We don’t have any deer around here, not that I’ve ever seen.

Hmm…I need to give Hercule Poirot a call.

After we saw Mystere on Monday, I felt this crazy urge to see more Cirque shows, especially O. I heard good things about O, was close enough to booking the tickets months in advance, but I couldn’t justify the cost of the tickets for both of us (nearly $400 for excellent seats).

But once we were in Vegas, I felt like we HAD TO SEE IT OR THE WORLD WOULD END. It was quite dramatic. I really really wanted to see it. The whole concept of O and the mystery dripping water on the website was grinding on my poor little brain. When we checked out the half-price tickets, no such luck.

In fact, on Wednesday (pretty much our last day in Vegas to watch a night show), I asked Brian to stop at the half-price ticket booth no less than 3 times. He wanted to strangle me by then, I am sure. (At one point I had him drop me off the street and he would go in a circle around the strip to pick me up.) The woman told me to try again in the afternoon. Brian at this point was pretty frustrated with the constant trips, so he said we should just pay the full price for the tickets.

When we arrived at the Bellagio, there was a huge line and we heard the woman say that the tickets for O were sold out that evening. We left and I was so disappointed. I should have bought the damn tickets in advance, and who knew when the next time we would be heading back to Vegas?

Like a sad pathetic creature I asked Brian if we could go back and buy tickets for something like say, Zumanity (which was available at the half-ticket place). AND OH MY GOD, O tickets were available! We bought THE VERY LAST TICKETS for the evening. ON SALE. God loves me. Right as we were buying the tickets I began waffling (because it is still fairly expensive) but Brian told me to suck it up and live in the moment. So we did. And I am glad.

We had okay seats, but it was still a good view. But first, I know you are asking, Vera, was it worth it?

Hmm. That’s a tough call.

On one hand, I thoroughly loved it. I loved the water effects, the fire effects, the sheer talent of the acrobatics and movement of the performance.

But I think I prefer the storyline and the colors of Mystere.

In any event, I was dazzled by the diving, and how the heck do they get the stage to fill up with like 20 feet of water to mere inches of ground? And my heart leaped and I screamed a little bit during parts of their performance. I was captivated, but toward the end I was really chilled and noticed the temperature in the theater was pretty cold, so I was rather distracted.

After these two lovely performances, I think Brian and I are new Cirque Du Soleil fans. We’re still kicking ourselves for not going to see La Nouba in Orlando when we were there in 2005.

Here’s to the next show, wherever our travels may take us. But I think I would really like to see Believe next.

Well, I have always been on the epic quest to find the perfect bedspread for our bed. I am really picky. For a few years in apartment life, we had a generic striped blue blanket (my brother now uses it when we are working downstairs when he is yelling at me why the house is at 55 degrees in the middle of January…he doesn’t quite get the eco-kick we have been on.) Then I made the switch to this:

This is an older photo because you can see yucky old carpet on the floor. I thought this looked pretty good. But I wasn’t really satisfied. I always kept looking.

I know, it’s kind of bad, but I usually have no problem splurging on sheets and things for the bed to make it nice and pretty because that is where all the magic happens. LOL. Well, I have a weakness for high thread count sheets and comfy pillows and when I go into bed I expect good dreams too.

For our wedding, we registered for this:

But then I thought it was a bit too black for our furniture…it goes perfect in the guest room though.

And here are a few more that I loved, but never bought:

Brian hated this one….he said the comforter looked “dirty.” I thought it was refreshing:

This one was too flowery for the husband:

And I really really loved this one, except that it was a duvet cover, instead of a comforter:

And so, this weekend, we bought a new bedspread:

I think it is the perfect compromise. The citrus color I love, but with the simple and clean look that Brian loves. And how perfect that it matches our paint color and the prints on the wall!

Not that I am Miss HGTV professional or anything, but I think I did pretty good.

• Vera’s Awesome Spaghetti (I know, not very clever, since I already have a Vera’s Awesome Chili)
• Pioneer Woman’s Chicken Salad with homemade bread (I hope this turns out good; the bread I mean)
• Poor Man’s Gumbo
• Vera’s Awesome Pizza
• Pioneer Woman’s Chicken Soup

So far so good. The chicken salad has become a huge hit at the house. The chicken soup wasn’t cooked last week, but I have tons of homemade chicken stock now. Yummy yummy.

Okay, I have a confession to make: I have never been (and probably will never be) a Star Trek fan, but I went to the Star Trek Experience anyway. The things I do to get my husband to love me and to earn brownie points with the in-laws. Sigh.

Moving on…Brian and his family grew up watching a lot of Star Trek, but I don’t think he is as much of a fan as his father is. However, when his parents heard we were heading to Las Vegas, Brian’s dad talked about how much we NEEDED to go see the Star Trek Experience.

Being the good, obedient children that we are, we said maybe. LOL, well, we did go, but mostly because we found half-price tickets so that meant both of us would go for the price of one. My favorite kind of deal.

We walked all the way from the Bellagio to the Hilton and dear God in heaven, my poor blistered feet. I asked Brian to stop at the Fashion Mall so that I could pick up new shoes, it was so bad. Plus, I was carrying three lenses and a camera and I wanted to break down and sob…but that is yet another story.

Anyway, we finally arrived at the Hilton and Brian is whispering all these Star Trek things that I should know, but all I know about Star Trek is that Spock has pointy ears and that Captain Kirk was cute but spoke. In. Long. Pauses. (because they make fun of that in Family Guy and other similar cartoons).

I must have missed a lot because there are other aliens and such and some are good, some are bad and some are just shady.

We are waiting in line and Brian was explaining to me that there are Klingons and Borgs and such. I thought I knew enough. This blue dude walks out and is greeting everyone and when he pauses in front of me, he says, “Hello.” and makes small talk with me.

Then I said, “Are you a Klingon?”

Then I KID YOU NOT, the WHOLE CROWD that is surrounding me GASPS(!). It was probably like me asking if the sky was pink, but I just heard the horror and the gasping around me and Brian is looking at the wall pretending I don’t exist.

And apparently the “alien” I spoke to is an Andorian (you can see the guy’s photo on the website K’stran Thral), but he took it quite well until the guy in front of me shouted, “HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A KLINGON and ANDORIAN?!”

Pfft.

Trekkies, I tell you.

But overall the experience was quite amusing to me and I did get a LITTLE scared on the Borg ride because they involved the audience a bit more. I was not as impressed with the Klingon ride and especially as I would have hurled if it lasted another 30 seconds. Oh and my sunglasses that were perched on top of my head flew off and hit someone behind me. (This would not be the first or last time my sunglasses do this.)

Afterward, Brian and I walked around the shop and I took a picture with a…hang on, let me look it up…Ferengi named Rog’l. I thought he was delightful in complimenting my “bling” and what a funny laugh. I was charmed when Brian told me that they are businessmen and they laugh like that on purpose. I guess staying in character is part of the experience.

Was I amused by the show? Absolutely! Would I do it again? Probably not. But at least I earned my brownie points.

As a child I suffered horribly from adult hands pinching my fat round cheeks. They are probably still fat and round from all the pinching they have suffered. My mom is convinced the reason I have such a round face because when I was a baby I would always roll over and sleep on my back (thus preventing my face from slimming down if I slept on the side, or on my belly, much like my brother did). But pretty much I have been a bit self conscious about my big head and fat cheeks since forever.

I was quickly reminded of my memory this weekend when my 3 year old nephew grabbed my face and pinched both sides of my cheeks. I think he is currently going through the same trauma from family hands as well.

Well tonight as I was being what we call a “cling-bot,” which means that I am super baby/clingy/super-in-love/let’s be attached at the hip to Brian. This happens on a monthly basis, usually for about 3 or more days straight…ahem.

So I said, as I hugged him tightly, in my already squeaky voice, “GeGe, I want to melt into you!”

He patted me on the head and said, “No MeiMei, you can’t.”

“But whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?” I whined throwing my arms around his neck.

“Because honey, your face is too fat. It won’t fit on my face if you melt into me.”

I screamed like a deflated balloon.

Brian has read this and is protesting that he only did it because I kept saying I want to melt into him like 10 times, but I told him that I didn’t want to melt into him anymore. He laughed and flopped over to sleep on his stomach.

Ah love, true love.

Continuing on my epic on Vegas…hotels! I wish I could properly word the glitz and glamor from the first sight of the crazy crazy amount of lights (I wonder how many lightbulbs they go through in a week? Might have to ask my father-in-law about this, since he loves lights…he’ll probably explain a good deal about whether or not they are bulbs, and the history of the lights too).

But I suppose Vegas wouldn’t be Vegas without the hotels. The theming, the ding ding ding of their slot machines or how they go all out in making sure you know you are in a decadent place.

Hotels We Visited:

• Bellagio: By far my favorite hotel in Las Vegas. While there was not an obvious theme to me, other than, “hey lookeehere, I’m a pretty and fancy hotel with a pretty name!” I think we stopped at the hotel every day of our visit (except the last day when Brian glared at me (probably because his legs were sore) and said, “Vera, I have had enough of the Bellagio! There are other hotels in Vegas you know.”) but it was quite a lovely layout and I loved their fancy jellyfish umbrella looking glass ceiling in the lobby and the way they laid out the casino…but we didn’t gamble in there for some reason.

Caesars Palace: My oh my, how different this Caesars is from Atlantic City (at least in my memory). I was blown away by the Forum shops inside the hotel, specifically how it seemed like we were walking around outside when we were inside. The high ceilings were painted a lovely shade of blue with yummy clouds and it was like strolling through Rome, or at least how I imagine Rome to be, but Brian liked to remind me how the real Rome is better.
• Las Vegas Hilton: Okay, I totally went to see the Star Trek experience with Brian because I know my father-in-law would have been severely disappointed if we didn’t do it. I’ll blog about that experience later, but my overall impression of the hotel is…not much. It was off the strip and quite a walk, but there was a cool Elvis statue that I totally did not get photographed with! ::sob::
• The Venetian:This is how I imagine Venice to be…minus the slots machines…and clean water probably. But the idea. Much like The Forum Shops at Caesars, The Venetian also had an indoor/outdoor mall thing going on and they also had gondola rides. We considered riding them, but looking at the prices and the short time on the gondola didn’t seem worth it. I loved the paintings on the ceiling, but again Brian said, “The real ones in Italy are better.” Ugh, will he ever take me to Italy?!
• Treasure Island: Yo ho ho, it’s a pirate’s life for me…in Vegas. Well, this hotel was themed around, what else? A little bit of pirate fun! I actually liked this hotel and casino (we played some blackjack there) and it seemed like a good fit for us to spend some of our hard-earned and hard-lost money. Not too flashy, and not outdated either.
• MGM Grand: All I can say is, “OH THE LIONS!” The lobby of this hotel was huge and it is at the end of the strip. I loved spending some time watching the Lions frolicking around (and I think I won some $$ at the slot machine here). They are just like big cats! So cute! So cuddly! …well, maybe not so cuddly but I could see the same playfulness as my Tiger when they chased after balls and toys (enormous cat toys). What a cool job to have…play with lions…until they get mad…and eat you.
• Circus Circus: Wow…it was quite a sight to drive down the strip the first evening to see a crazy scary glowing clown waving at you to come in and spend money. We totally did spend money here. I lost money in Blackjack, but Brian won it back for me. The dealer took one look at me when I sat down and said, “How old are you?!” And this is quite funny because the day before I couldn’t remember my age…I must have hesitated and took a while to answer (26…dude, that is sad, I just used a calculator to figure it out) then she demanded to see my id. But anyway, it’s a bit dated hotel and I heard that they were going to demolish it soon.
• Excalibur: I really enjoyed the naming of the stores in the Excalibur (Dragon’s Lair, etc.)…even though we didn’t shop here. The hotel seemed a little dated, but I think similar to Circus Circus there was more of a family appeal than at the other hotels. I loved the view in the evening of the hotel…so bright and colorful and majestic.
• Luxor: Brian’s favorite hotel to visit. Shaped like a pyramid and all. I think it would be neat to stay in the hotel one day and overlook the crowd. We did get a little mixed up and turned around passing through, but it was really neat to see how as you look up from the ground floor you can see all the hotel rooms surrounding the casino/main floor.
• Mandalay Bay: A lovely hotel that we quickly passed through. I was exhausted by this time and as we sipped our iced coffees I found this neat projector of Mandalay Bay Aquarium that moved as I moved…pretty cool:

Whew. Would you believe this took me this many days to get it all together to write this down? I’ll probably edit these a bit more when I get around to scrapbooking it, but for now, at least the meat of the text is here.