There is An Arizona

Years ago there was a country song called, "There is No Arizona."  It's been a while since I've heard the song since at the time I did not like country music, but the premise is something like there is a couple and the guy decides to move to Arizona.  He plans to get settled and then have his girlfriend come out.  Only he never does ask her to come out with hin so she says there is no Arizona and it appears that he's left her. A couple of years after this song came out, my boyfriend at the time decided to move to Arizona to "find himself" so he dumped me. My mother very much enjoyed singing that song to me.  Sorry for the 800 run on sentences.
Anyway, I don't know if he found himself or not, but he moved back a few months later and got back together with his ex for a while and well, I don't really feel it's appropriate for me to post his life story on my blog, but suffice it to say though I never would have believed it at the time, his leaving led me to eventually meeting my husband (they were and still are very good friends) so I guess you could say things worked out.  If you want the full story, I'd be happy to share it with you over drinks or chocolate some night or perhaps a fruit bowl since I'm supposed to be eating healthier.  Anyway, the reason I'm telling you all this is to help explain the title of this blog post in case you don't know the song I referenced in it.  Now let's move on, shall we?  
    We did not have an early flight on Tuesday so I had time to go to the hotel gym that morning.  There was one other guy in there with me and he was talking loudly on his cell phone.  Dude (did I really just say dude), you're at a hotel, how about you go talk on the cell phone in your room not in the middle of the gym.  The gym is for working out.  End rant.
   Post workout, I got ready, then we went to the airport for our short flight to Phoenix.  Thank goodness it was a short flight.  It was the bumpiest flight I've ever been on.  They couldn't even serve the complimentary beverages.  The pilot wanted to go above the storm or via a different route, but nothing was open so my stomach and I struggled through and made it without illness.
  I neglected to say what I was doing in Arizona so just briefly, I was visiting my friend Natalie.  I've blogged about her before.  We met in college. She did a semester exchange during her junior/my freshman year.  She lived two doors down the hall from me and even though it was only a semester, we've kept in touch and she remains a good friend.    We went for a few years without seeing each other and then by a bit of coincidence I guess we saw each other several years in a row due to my visiting her, her coming to my wedding, her coming out here for her husband's high school reunion, her coming out here for a wedding, and now me (and the hubs) visiting her.   We don't have anything planned for next year, but there is a workshop I kind of want to attend in Las Vegas next summer so maybe I can detour to her place on the way home so we can keep the tradition going.  This is turning into a super long blog so let's wrap it up with:  Natalie's husband and one her sons picked us up from the airport.  We hung out for a while, then when Natalie got home, the six of us (the four adults and Natalie's two kids) went out to dinner at a place called Rustler's Rooste (I might have the name wrong since it was over two months ago).  It has nice views so that's why she picked it.  I had shrimp, which was pretty good.  After dinner, we hung out for a while catcing up.  And that was a very long blog post for what could have just as easily said:  We boared the plane to Arizona, had a bumpy flight, then hung out, and went out to dinner.  

Tourist Time

We spent Monday being tourists.  The day began with an overpriced water and muffin followed by a ride on the Hop On Hop Off bus.  We got off at the Golden Nugget/Freemont Street to poke around for just a little while.  M wanted to see it since he'd heard about it a bunch and had never been (I'd been there before).  Then we went to the Stratosphere to enjoy the view (and be amazed at the people who bungee jump off of it).  After quite a bit of time waiting for the next Hop On Hop Off bus, we finally did a complete route and then went to Wahlburgers for a late lunch/early dinner.  I had to go back to the hotel because I needed to participate in a webinar for a program I was doing in Germany (which at the rate I'm going, you'll probably read about in a blog post in Octobter).  When that was done, we went to the Bellagio to see their beautiful gardens.  Then we went to Holstein's (where I'd had the enormous turkey burger) to enjoy some grown up milkshakes.  I had the Drunken Money.  I recommend it.  M had a Campfire S'mores. I believe he enjoyed his too.  We played the slots for a little while, then it was back to the hotel to pack up because the nex day we were heading to Arizona.      

Food, Cars, Views, and Booze

I was just rereading the title of this blog post and panicking because booze and cars do not go together. I don't want you to start thinking poorly of me.   Fear not, there was NO drinking and driving involved.  Okay now that we've gotten the disclaimer out of the way, let's move on.  My in-laws gave us a gift certificate to a buffet in Vegas for an Easter present.  We decided to use it on Sunday morning.  Good decision!  The food was delicious, but we ate too much.  It was at Casear's Palace and there was breakfast food--red velvet pancakes were yummy, mimosas, seafood, meat (no thanks), pizza, desserts, Chinese food--you get the idea, there was a LOT of food.  And we enjoyed it, perhaps too much because we were stuffed afterwards.  We waddled out of the hotel to a taxi and took the taxi to a place called the Shelby Museum.  It's a car museum.  I'm not into cars at all, but my better half is and you know once in a while I have to be a good wife and let him do what he wants ha ha.  It wasn't terrible for me or anything, I'm just not a car person.  When we were done there, we went back to The Strip and got tickets for a comedy show for that night.  Then we went to High Rollers, which is basically a big ferris wheel with nice views of The Strip.  We walked around a bit and then went to Senor Frogs for an hour of open bar (and some snacks).  We enjoyed that ha ha.  After that, we went back to the hotel to chill and nap for a bit.  Later that night, we went to a comedy show.  It was good, it wasn't a comedian I had ever heard of, but he was funny (as were most of the opening acts).  

April Vacation Day 1

Hello!  I'm only working part time this week so in theory at least, I should be able to do some blog catch up.  When we last "spoke," it was around Easter.  About a week after Easter, I had a week off and my husband and I went to Las Vegas and Arizona for a week.  So let's pick up from there.

April 22nd--5 am came mighty quickly for me.  My husband got up even earlier than that, but he gets up earlier than that for work every day anyway.  I struggle with my work day 6:30 wake up call.  Anyway, we took the bus to the airport at 6:00, then boarded our plane shortly before 9.  After a layover in Denver, we arrived in Las Vegas.  The airport there is a hoot, there are slot machines and advertisements for liquor stores--I think that was the first sign I saw in the baggage claim area.  We soon grabbed our luggage, boarded a shuttle to our hotel, checked in, and took a few minutes to get settled.  Then it was off to explore a bit and pick up our tickets for "Recyled Percussion."  By the time we got our tickets, we only had an hour until show time so we wandered around the Miracle Mile Shops for a bit and then headed to the show.  I really enjoyed the show.  It was fun and funny.  We had dinner after the show--I had an enormous turkey burger and didn't have room for a fun drink (we did end up getting fun drinks later in the week, but you'll see that in a future blog).  We did a little gambling and then went back to the room because we were exhausted.  I crashed for the night, but the hubs went out exploring for a little while longer.  It's a rare occurence when he stays up later than me, but he did that night.

St. Patrick's Day and Easter

Every year I host a St. Patrick's Day party, actually, I host two; one for my friends on Friday or Saturday night and then one for my family on Sunday.  This year I started the party at 5:00 since so many of my friends have children.  The kids were all gone at 9 and I thought it must have been 11, turns out it was only 9.  Clearly, I'm getting old.  The adults without children stayed 'til nearly midnight and it was a good time.  Per usual I made too much food.  I was going to post pics of it when I realized I didn't take a single picture!  Nor did I take any pictures the next day at my family party, so you'll just have to take my word when I say we had lots of festive stuff--green veggies, fruit arranged like a a rainbow, St. Pat's trifle, potato skins, green cupcakes, shamrock cookies for the kids to decorate, green punch, and potato soup.


I did a little better with the Easter picture taking.  In fact, I'm writing this blog on Easter, but it won't post for a few days since I also need to finish blogging about my cruise!  Easter morning, we got up at  8 and somehow got ready and made it to church by 8:50 and actually got seats (church was at 9), then home to cook/prep and get ready for everyone coming for brunch at noon. By some miracle, it was gorgeous outside today.  Some years we've had to hide eggs for the nephews in the snow, but not this year.   I made deviled eggs, monkey bread, fruit salad, salad, pancakes, rolls (well, I bought the rolls, just had to bake them) and scrambled eggs.  Other people brought:  mashed potatoes and coffee cake.  Every year my mom makes a bunny cake, but she mixed it up this year  and made a sheep cake (it was a little smaller than the bunny cake so I guess that's good, less leftover.  It was good, even though the bunny was a tradition for so long.)  I also made an Easter trifle.    Hope you had a nice Easter!

Random Stuff from Last Summer

Not too long after I went to that football game, I posted about, I went to Maine for a wedding.   Actually, it was the day after the game so please enjoy some pictures from that.

Aroud that time there was a visit to Portsmouth, NH too so enjoy some pics from that as well.

Hey look at that, shortly before this summer, I'm finally caught up on last summer ha ha

1st Football Game

I'm not a football fan, but I somehow let my husband talk me into going to a Patriots pre-season football game.  The idea of sitting outside in January watching a sport I do not enjoy does not appeal to me, but sitting outside in the summer when it's warm watching a game, that I can deal with.  So I did.  I still don't fully understand football, but we had a good time.  And now I can say I've been to a Patriots game.  (And yes, I am really writing about something that happened months ago NOW because I'm so behind in blog land.)