Vegas was terrific! We had a wonderful time. I think a lot of that was due to the fact that Steve finally at some point came to grips with the fact that I really don't like gambling much. So I went to the pool to swim and read, went to the spa every day, and went shopping once. Steve went down to his favorite bar and played video poker mostly. He did play some roulette, too. I played a few rounds of video poker, but I never did well.
We went to the Bellagio for brunch when we arrived on Sunday, and I highly recommend that. Tip -- sit at the bar. You get seated faster, and the bartenders fill up your drinks a lot faster and more often than the waitresses do. We walked past 50 or 60 people who were waiting for tables! While we were at the Bellagio we went to the art gallery and saw the Ansel Adams photography exhibit, which I loved. It was really interesting to see all the photos in person, and read about what he was doing when he took them. They had letters and items from his personal life, which gave you a sense of who he was beyond his photography. There was also an old camera setup of his. It was HUGE! I was amazed that he got all that out into the wilderness and made it work. He must have had quite a crew of people to haul his stuff around. There were a couple that Steve and I both liked, so I went into the gift shop to see if they had prints, but they only had postcard size of the ones we liked. I'm going to try framing those. I spent the rest of Sunday afternoon in the salon, getting my hair colored and cut. I was much happier with my hair afterward! By dinnertime, we were hungry again, so Al recommended the Italian trattoria in the MGM and off we went. Halfway through dinner, we were both trying not to fall asleep in our plates! We finally gave up and went up to the room (Steve got us a bungalow suite which is basically a room big enough for a double size bathroom, bedroom area and a sitting area) to crash for the night .. and it was only about 7 or 7:30. Yes, we felt incredibly lame, but in our defense, neither one of us slept much the night before.
Monday morning I got a manicure and pedicure at the spa. I've never had a spa experience like this one. Every spa I've been to (and yes, it's a very limited number) has been borderline uncomfortable, because I always got the feeling that the girls running the spa didn't think I ought to be there, like I wasn't the kind of person who deserved their attention. That was definitely NOT the case at the MGM spa. Everyone there was incredibly welcoming and nice, and the girls at the front desk who gave me a tour on my first day explained everything in detail. Monday I got my first-ever set of acrylic tips (very fancy looking nails I have now!), and first ever full pedicure. I discovered later that two Bailey's prior to foot treatments makes them much nicer, as I usually can't stand to have anyone touch my feet. However, I was thrilled to have nice-looking nails!
Monday afternoon Steve and I both went to the pool to go float in the lazy river (1/4 mile of "river" pool where all the jets point in the same direction to create a gentle current). It was phenomenaly hot, and there were a lot of people and kids out. It was fun, but not really relaxing as you had to pay attention in order not to run into people! We decided that mornings were probably going to be better for the pool. Monday night Steve surprised me with a limousine, and we had a lovely ride over to old Vegas where we went to the Four Queens. We had reservations at Hugo's Cellar for dinner, but we were quite early, so we played 50-cent roulette ... and I won over $100! I didn't even know the odds until the dealer handed me my first $25 chip, and Steve told me the odds were 35 to 1 to win. There was an old gentleman across the table who had a retired Marine cap on, and I bought him $25 worth of chips when he started running low. Steve thought I was odd for doing that, but the guy reminded me of Pop, and I just wanted to do something nice for him. He was really surprised, so that was fun! We ended up cashing in $150 worth of chips, which put a dent in our dinner bill. Hugo's Cellar was by far the best dinner we had in Vegas. The hostess handed me a rose when we walked in, and they seated us in a very comfortable booth. We had a wonderful bottle of wine, and they had a guy who came to make your salad tableside, with your choice of about 12 different ingredients. Steve had steak, and I had chicken with mushrooms (heartier than regular chicken marsala), and we enjoyed every bite. The service was impeccable -- the next time we get to Vegas I want to go there again! The limo ride back to the MGM was a lot of fun, as we got to see all the lights -- old Vegas as well as the strip.
Tuesday we went to the pool in the morning, after we had a nice breakfast at the cafe. The pool was much better first thing in the morning -- fewer people, not as hot, and we enjoyed it more. After that I went back to the spa for a basic massage, and I decided to go a little early and check out their shower facilities (mostly because housekeeping was cleaning our room at the time). VERY NICE! I had a nice relaxing post-pool cleanup before my massage, and then a nice hot shower again after the massage (incredible massage, by the way). Apparently you are supposed to go sit in the sauna for a little while after a massage, but I didn't feel like doing that. The spa facilities are great as they have everything you need in quantity, and it's all placed right where you need it. With any spa treatment, you are allowed to come back at any point during the day and use the spa facilities, like the jacuzzi pool, sauna, whatever ... but I never made it back down to do that. The jacuzzi pool made me a bit uncomfortable on Tues as there was a particularly heavy older woman getting out as I came down the hallway, and she was absolutely stark naked. There are three other sides to the pool, all of which do not face the hallway entrance -- so she COULD have avoided showing her altogether (which was going every which way) but apparently that wasn't what she wanted to do. I had once of those shuddery "eeeuuuuuwww" moments as I tried not to go blind. We went for a short walk down the strip after I finished at the spa and had Fatburgers for lunch -- old time greasy burger joint. The milkshake was really good! Later, we got dressed and took the monorail over to Caesar's Palace to pick up our Elton John tickets and have dinner at Nero's. Caesar's is enormous, and they have a giant shopping mall also. Nero's was by far the worst dinner we had. I'll never go there again. We sat down for dinner at 5:15. I think our wine that we ordered right away finally showed up at 5:45. Dinner didn't arrive until about 6:40 -- when we had basically finished the wine. The food was good, but the service was so awful (the waiter just disappeared and I think visited our table twice in the hour we waited between wine and dinner). We told the waiter when we arrived that we were seeing Elton John for our anniversary that night, and you would have thought that would have made some difference. Obviously not. Aside from the Nero's disappointment, Elton John was fantastic! The band was incredible, Elton John was amazing, and they had all kind of fun props on stage for the various songs. THey also had a giant movie screen behind them, and they showed videos for each song, most of which were "arty" and somewhat strange (several of them had the same gay dancer who needed some serious lessons -- probably somebody's boyfriend). One of the better videos had Pam Anderson doing a poledance to "The Bitch is Back" and that was great! That was definitely Steve's favorite, even though most of the other videos had an assortment of hooters in them. Lots of fun! The two women seated on my other side recommended the spa at the Paris hotel: said it wasn't as expensive as other places and it was still really nice.
Wednesday I went back to the pool in the morning to read and swim a little, and that was nice. I met Steve at the bar and had tweo Bailey's, and then I went to the spa for their "rainforest" spa treatment. That was REALLY cool. I did the arrive early and use the facilities strategy again, and tht was nice. When it was time for my appointment, Laurie came to get me and she took me back up the main stairs, and down a separate set of stairs to a private suite that was bigger than the downstairs of my house. I walked in the main room, which had a huge jacuzzi tub on the right, and sofas and comfy furniture scattered around. The bathroom area had a sitting area, a separate room with a toilet and bidet, a separate room that was the shower (must have been at least 8x8), and off that was a steam room. I never did figure out how big that was because it was so steamy I couldn't see, but I think it was at least the size of the shower room. Laurie told me to go sit in the steam for 10 minutes, and then come out when I was ready. When I did (all wrapped up in the cushy robe they give you), she took me into the treatment room, which was about 3 times the size of all the other rooms I'd been in, there were 2 massage tables. The rainforest treatment consisted of a messy but delightfully aromatic body scrub with crushed cocoa beans, sugar, vanilla and flower oils. It was like getting a massage before a massage. When that was done, Laurie went to start the shower for me, then came back and wrapped me all up in the sheets and towels and walked me into the bathroom area. She told me to take a really good shower and come out when I was done. The shower was amazing -- it was one of those showers with multiple sprays coming from all different directions, and there were several on/off handles. The shower amenities besides the sprays were wonderful: fancy shampoos and conditioners and a couple different body washes. Once I finished that, I went back out (again wrapped in that cozy robe) and Laurie finished with a fantastic massage. The oils she used smelled much like the body scrub, just without the scrubby bits. I smelled like dessert when I got done there! It was such a treat to do that, and it made such a difference for me in terms of how relaxed I was ... all of those spa treats really helped me to unwind and recharge my batteries. I didn't realize just how run down I was until about half way through our trip.
I went shopping at the Fashion Place mall that afternoon and picked up some gifts -- especially for Kathy. Macy's was having a sale with multiple discounts, so I got her a really pretty necklace as a thank you for taking care of the kids for us. When I got back, Steve was asleep in the room, and I went down to see Al at the bar for a little while. I went up to get Steve, and we spent another hour or so talking to Al, and then AL met us for drinks over at New York New York in the 9 Fine Irishmen bar. Great place -- loved the ambience. It was fun: we had a few hors d'oeuvres, and by the time we got back to the room we were too tired to go to dinner! We packed a little, crashed, got up the next morning and finished packing. Steve went down and got breakfast at the Stage deli for us, and then we went out to wait for the airport shuttle. We got tired of waiting in the hot sun, so we ended up taking a cab (tip: it was less to take the cab to the airport than to take the shuttle). We decided that next time we would only get the shuttle from the airport to the MGM as you can check in to the hotel right in the airport by baggage, and they take care of your luggage for you. I highly recommend the JetBlue nonstop from Kennedy to Vegas. IT was a great flight both ways. You do have to eat something substantial before you fly though as they only have light snacks on board.
Kathy and the kids did fine all week, other than Jake refusing to eat anything healthy. He ended up getting sick, and he'd been more of a pain in the butt than she expected (due to his eating crap all week). I had a long talk with him about that and I think he will be better next time. I decided I'll do the Jewish mother thing and remind him of this experience at least once a week until Kathy comes back for another visit (hopefully Christmas, if Jerome is still in Iraq). We'll see. Things on the home front are deteriorating rapidly in terms of M.I.L.'s stage 4 progression and other in-law difficulties that have been brewing for the last couple years. I think this family is headed for at least one nuclear meltdown, if not several.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Mama Ball Says
Happy Independence Day! Freedom means a lot more to me this year -- and like Forrest says, "That's all I have to say about that."
We took the kids to the annual Salute to Veterans, which was moved from the high school to Havemeyer Field behind town hall this year (due to the new artificial turf on the football field). Steve went and parked his truck behind town hall very early in the morning to get us a good spot, and then we drove over with the kids right before it got started. We were in a spot where we could see virtually all of the lower field, where the military demonstration, but we couldn't see the speeches or singing or giant flag on the upper field. Two F-18s did a couple fly-overs. This year's demo was a "take out the terrorists" one: four guys on patrol get targeted by two shooters in a beat-up van, so they start firing back, then the Humvee shows up with the big gun on top and the huge chopper shows up to strafe the field. All fake bullets but very loud explosions and flybys with the chopper. Sadie was freaked out by the noise, but Jake hung in there until the end, when they set off four REALLY loud charges on the field -- that's when he got a little scared. They both took long naps after that experience! We avoided the town fireworks that night -- maybe next year we will do that.
The neighbors south of Chris's place set off a lot of fireworks last night, which also freaked out Sadie, so she spent the entire night in the middle of our bed. Jake liked them, though, because he could see them out his window. We're going to watch the D.C. fireworks on TV tonight, and maybe some of the Macy's ones also.
My glasses bit the dust yesterday morning, so after we dropped Sadie off at daycare Jake and I went up to Opticare in Norwalk to get new ones. Unfortunately they can't guarantee that I will have have the new ones before we leave for Vegas! I should have asked for a pair of contacts then and there, but I didn't even think about it since I haven't worn them for the last few years. I'm calling tomorrow to see if they will give me a pair and a spare for my trip, just to be sure. I still have my prescription sunglasses, so driving isn't a problem -- just wearing them inside is annoying. I can still perch what's left of my regular glasses on my nose, as long as I don't move around too much (otherwise they start sliding and it screws up my vision). Works for reading and this, but not much else.
Kathy called last night and miraculously she is still looking forward to coming and playing with the kids. We have visitors set up: Mal on Sunday, U.J. after work on Monday, Wayne bringing pizza onTuesday, and she thought all that was pretty good.
Shopping tomorrow, cleaning service here on Thursday, packing Friday -- and taking the kids to see "Cars" again Friday afternoon with Joanne, Owen and Charlotte.
I can't wait to get to Vegas. I have a couple hours booked at the salon on Sunday afternoon to get the works -- color, cut, style etc. I have an appointment to get a really good manicure (tips!), some kind of "rainforest" package that takes a couple hours including a massage, and Steve wanted a couples massage, so that's another day. He wants a pedicure, but I think we will try to schedule that once we get there -- maybe he can get that done when I'm getting the manicure. We have tickets to see Elton John, and a couple really nice dinners planned. Other than that, Steve wants to gamble, and I will either shop or go out to the pool to swim and or read. I think what I am looking forward to the most is just having a short reprieve from the constant demands of the kids. I love them, but that part is extremely wearing sometimes, especially when I feel like I just can't get ANYTHING done for all the interruptions. I think I have less patience for that after this last year of work. I really hate the fact that my job stress affected my family life so much -- and still does. I'm hoping this vacation will restore some of my reserves of patience.
We took the kids to the annual Salute to Veterans, which was moved from the high school to Havemeyer Field behind town hall this year (due to the new artificial turf on the football field). Steve went and parked his truck behind town hall very early in the morning to get us a good spot, and then we drove over with the kids right before it got started. We were in a spot where we could see virtually all of the lower field, where the military demonstration, but we couldn't see the speeches or singing or giant flag on the upper field. Two F-18s did a couple fly-overs. This year's demo was a "take out the terrorists" one: four guys on patrol get targeted by two shooters in a beat-up van, so they start firing back, then the Humvee shows up with the big gun on top and the huge chopper shows up to strafe the field. All fake bullets but very loud explosions and flybys with the chopper. Sadie was freaked out by the noise, but Jake hung in there until the end, when they set off four REALLY loud charges on the field -- that's when he got a little scared. They both took long naps after that experience! We avoided the town fireworks that night -- maybe next year we will do that.
The neighbors south of Chris's place set off a lot of fireworks last night, which also freaked out Sadie, so she spent the entire night in the middle of our bed. Jake liked them, though, because he could see them out his window. We're going to watch the D.C. fireworks on TV tonight, and maybe some of the Macy's ones also.
My glasses bit the dust yesterday morning, so after we dropped Sadie off at daycare Jake and I went up to Opticare in Norwalk to get new ones. Unfortunately they can't guarantee that I will have have the new ones before we leave for Vegas! I should have asked for a pair of contacts then and there, but I didn't even think about it since I haven't worn them for the last few years. I'm calling tomorrow to see if they will give me a pair and a spare for my trip, just to be sure. I still have my prescription sunglasses, so driving isn't a problem -- just wearing them inside is annoying. I can still perch what's left of my regular glasses on my nose, as long as I don't move around too much (otherwise they start sliding and it screws up my vision). Works for reading and this, but not much else.
Kathy called last night and miraculously she is still looking forward to coming and playing with the kids. We have visitors set up: Mal on Sunday, U.J. after work on Monday, Wayne bringing pizza onTuesday, and she thought all that was pretty good.
Shopping tomorrow, cleaning service here on Thursday, packing Friday -- and taking the kids to see "Cars" again Friday afternoon with Joanne, Owen and Charlotte.
I can't wait to get to Vegas. I have a couple hours booked at the salon on Sunday afternoon to get the works -- color, cut, style etc. I have an appointment to get a really good manicure (tips!), some kind of "rainforest" package that takes a couple hours including a massage, and Steve wanted a couples massage, so that's another day. He wants a pedicure, but I think we will try to schedule that once we get there -- maybe he can get that done when I'm getting the manicure. We have tickets to see Elton John, and a couple really nice dinners planned. Other than that, Steve wants to gamble, and I will either shop or go out to the pool to swim and or read. I think what I am looking forward to the most is just having a short reprieve from the constant demands of the kids. I love them, but that part is extremely wearing sometimes, especially when I feel like I just can't get ANYTHING done for all the interruptions. I think I have less patience for that after this last year of work. I really hate the fact that my job stress affected my family life so much -- and still does. I'm hoping this vacation will restore some of my reserves of patience.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Mama Ball Says
Good grief. You'd think I fell down a hole or something. The last several weeks have been quite the rollercoaster ride around here. Made it through both CMS and EMS retirement parties, hung in till the end of the year (barely) and collected my shit and got the hell out of Dodge. I don't remember ever having been so worn down at the end of a year. I really felt like I'd been put through the meat grinder, and it was damned easy for me to walk out of there. The only difficult part was saying goodbye to Nic and Freya, but even that wasn't so bad because I know those friendships will last. I felt like a fifty pound wet blanket was lifted off my shoulders when I drove away. I know there is a lot to do over at EMS, but I feel like it is going to be a good challenge, and I am making plans for changes with Carm.
First off is the July book orders, which I've been adding to online. It's really nice to be able to manage that from home, and be able to hop online and add a book I've just read about to the order. Next up will be furniture rearranging and book weeding, but that's not happening until after the asbestos abatemant is finished over there (and Sherry finally abandons the space). I'm actually looking forward to that very much. Steve agreed to look at the plans for the library space and recommend changes, and tell me more about the kinds of changes I have been thinking about -- like how expensive those would likely be, how much time they would take etc.
Sadie goes back to daycare this week, and I am looking forward to having some good one-on-one time with Jake to do things with him. Steve actually agreed to have a cleaning service come and tackle the archaeological dig that is our house this coming week. Hopefully they will find our living room and kitchen somewhere in here. Kathy arrives this coming Saturday, and we leave a week from today for four days in Vegas. I still have to go do a little shopping for me, too, before we leave! Jake starts camp down at the beach the Monday after we get back, so that should be fun for him.
First off is the July book orders, which I've been adding to online. It's really nice to be able to manage that from home, and be able to hop online and add a book I've just read about to the order. Next up will be furniture rearranging and book weeding, but that's not happening until after the asbestos abatemant is finished over there (and Sherry finally abandons the space). I'm actually looking forward to that very much. Steve agreed to look at the plans for the library space and recommend changes, and tell me more about the kinds of changes I have been thinking about -- like how expensive those would likely be, how much time they would take etc.
Sadie goes back to daycare this week, and I am looking forward to having some good one-on-one time with Jake to do things with him. Steve actually agreed to have a cleaning service come and tackle the archaeological dig that is our house this coming week. Hopefully they will find our living room and kitchen somewhere in here. Kathy arrives this coming Saturday, and we leave a week from today for four days in Vegas. I still have to go do a little shopping for me, too, before we leave! Jake starts camp down at the beach the Monday after we get back, so that should be fun for him.
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