...doesn't stay in Vegas very long!

For those who have asked...

Our little hiccup may have involved one of these....


And maybe one of these...
I told you it was just a little hiccup.

What happens in Vegas...

I've been on a little blog hiatus because I took a trip to Las Vegas this week for a WPPI trade show. I didn't really want to go by myself, so I took my sister Robin with me. We started our trip at about 4 am on Wednesday and got home on Thursday just after midnight. I guess it was officially Friday by that time, but either way, it was really late.

Once we got to the Paris Hotel (where the trade show was being held) we went around and found all the vendors I was interested in seeing (new processing labs, places that make albums, framing companies, and online proofing). That took us about 3 or 4 hours (there were a lot of vendors there, and some didn't know how to be quick with their presentation), and once we were done we did some shopping. I think the most amazing thing about shopping in Las Vegas is that most of the shopping areas are underground, or at least they have no windows, but you don't know it because everywhere looks like you're outside.

We found a perfect thank you gift for our friends Mike & Michelle (who generously let us use their timeshare for the night we were down there), and then headed off to drive down the strip and see what was there. We ended up going to the M&M's store (4 stories of chocolatey goodness), saw some lions at the MGM Grand, and then checked in at the resort we were staying at (thank you again to our friends, it was beautiful).

We checked in here, and mostly lounged around for the rest of the day, in & out of the 3 pools or the lazy river, or any of the spas.

After some much needed rest, we went out on Thursday morning to do some more shopping, this time at the Forum Shops at Caeser's. Robin got to see her first FAO Schwartz store (more to be posted later), and we saw a really cool aquarium there.

After looking around at a bunch of shops and having fun at FAO, we went to the Bellagio. We'd planned on seeing it the night before, but it didn't happen because we were way too tired from doing so much all day (on 3 hours of sleep each).

The Bellagio has a conservatory in the main area of the hotel where there are fresh flowers and beautiful displays. Then we stopped to watch the show at the fountain. The whole thing is pretty amazing. The water fountain is choreographed to music, and as the water shoots up, there is so much pressure it almost sounds like a helicopter. This picture doesn't do it justice, but I'd have to get a really expensive, super wide angle lens to really show what we saw. And since that won't happen for a while, you'll have to pretend like you can see 3 times as much fountain in this picture!

Robin took some video on one of the cameras and we'll see if you can watch it here...



After the Bellagio, we got in the car, and headed toward home. We only had one little hiccup while we were in Vegas, but what happens there, stays there... unless you're really close friends or family, and then you already know!

I will have to make sure to post more about the trip. The drive and FAO deserve their own posts, but right now, I'm still recovering my sleep!

Long time, no blog

I've been a bit busy the last few days with various things that may or may not have been interesting... mostly they weren't. But since I've decided to sit still for a moment, here are the after pictures from our construction project for my birthday. I did get to have the cabinets and microwave hung, just like I asked for on my crazy list.

Before my mom & dad came to help with our project, Will and I decided we'd try to rip the cabinets out on our own... This is as far as we got.

You may notice the only difference from the before picture is the fact that everything is out of the cabinet, we've taken the doors off, and the trim around the doors is off. These were probably the original cabinets from the 40's, and they were built like a rock. The shelf in the middle of the cabinet is actually held in by about 10 nails on each end... it made for an interesting start to our demo.

Once my Dad got there with his fancy tools, we were able to get it off the wall and found that the original color of the kitchen was very close to split pea soup.

And there was a vast difference in the thickness of the wall where the cabinets were due to 60+ years of paint and grime in the kitchen.

You'll notice Will is using a razor knife to try and even it out before we used mud to smooth it all out.

In the end, we got the microwave and new cabinets hung, and I only have a bit of painting left to do...

Okay maybe more than a little bit of painting, but at least my kitchen is functional again, and I have a lot more counter space!