Catch-up

A lot has happened since I last updated. Thought I'd do one catch-up blog. Halloween passed pretty insignificantly. However, work did want us all to dress up for the holiday. Halloween is actually a pretty big deal at US Airways; there is a costume contest employees can enter, the officers dress up and put on a Halloween show, and there is a employee children's trick or treat throughout the building. I'm not very creative and stress about Halloween costumes, which translates to I rarely dress up for Halloween. My boss had a few easy, creative ideas. I took one of them and was "tickled pink." I wore all pink, and had a pink feather boa for "tickling." Here are some pics of my department dressed up.

We recently took a trip to Las Vegas! I had never been there before, but Todd has been there quite a few times. We flew out of PHX on a Friday afternoon at 5:5opm. It was a short 30 min flight! I was amazed at how quick it went! We landed in LAS and waited in the corrals for a taxi. We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott a couple of blocks off the strip, with Todd's Marriott discount. They did have a shuttle that would take us to the Mandalay. But once dropped off, there was a lot of walking to do! We spent a good amount of money on taxis that weekend. My first trip to Vegas was ok. We started the trip in the hole with regards to sleep. We both couldn't sleep the night before we left. But it was because we had received news about our house and were too excited to sleep. Going to Vegas already exhausted is probably not the best use of time. Either way, Friday night we spent at the "Burger Bar" at the Mandalay. That place offered a unique selection of beers and awesome burgers, custom made. Todd's brother was in Vegas that weekend because one of his friends was turning 40, and a few of this friends were also there for a tennis tournament. I got to meet all of them and they were a ton of fun. We didn't make it past 11pm that night - again the exhaustion!

Saturday we got up early and headed to a Las Vegas Iowa bar to watch the Iowa game. The bar had its own room set-up for Iowa fans. The bar apparently wasn't very good luck, because Iowa lost :( Todd showed me around most of the strip all afternoon. We did a lot of walking and saw a lot of casinos. We headed back to the hotel to take a nap and then got up to get ready for a night out. Flights back to PHX were very full, so we originally planned to stay up all night and take the early morning flight at 6:45am back. We first went on a search for a nice dinner. Most places were a 3 hour wait! We were too hungry to wait, so we wondered all around the strip to find somewhere to get us in. We ended up at a Seafood place in Caesar's Palace. We ended up spending way too much on dinner, but it was so good!! I ordered Filet Mignon and Lobster, Todd ordered KC strip. We also had to try the oysters - YUM!

I saw people walking around Vegas with these monster drinks, and I wanted one. Todd found a stand that sold them - yard long daiquiri's. However, i highly caution these drinks. I downed most of it in an hour. And was pretty sick afterwards. I didn't feel sick from whatever alcohol was in them; I felt sick from all the sugar in them! Ick. However, I kept the "cup" for future use :)

After wandering around for awhile and eating a huge dinner, we were exhausted even more than before. We changed plans and decided to go back and sleep, and abort the early morning flight idea. We instead got up at a normal time (8am) and searched for open flights that would get us back home. It didn't look good. We decided to try a route from Vegas to San Diego, and then San Diego back to Phoenix. We got on that flight without any problems. Its a good thing I booked that as back-up, because I asked the direct flights at the gate, and they were overbooked by 15 or more! So off to San Diego we went. It was a short 50 min flight and then I "stepped foot" in California for the first time ever. Although at work, they say it doesn't count as being somewhere if you never leave the airport. We had a layover, so we sat down at the San Diego California Pizza Kitchen and had beer and pizza for a couple hours, then hopped on a HUGE jet back to Phoenix. Another 60 min flight and we were back home. It was kinda nice making two small flights with a relaxing break in between.

All in all, a fun trip, but I hope to get some Vegas style dancing in next time!

The Oysters - sooooooo yummy!

Filet Mignon and Lobster - also unbelievably yummy

Me with my "yard-long" mango daiquiri

Us before going out Saturday night.

This weekend I tried Nascar for the first time. I don't have any pics, but it was a good time. I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't think I would like it. But I would describe it as a huge non-stop tailgate with little portable houses (RVs). I think I'm a fan - but that doesn't necessarily mean I want to go to a race. Yet.