Vegas Baby!

Last May, I finally got a meeting in Vegas. For the past 3 years, my boss has continually scheduled and canceled meetings there due to the stigma that its a party town and most people wouldn't show up the second day of the meeting. So when I was asked to attend a meeting at the last minute I made my plans quickly and crossed my fingers.

The meeting went smoothly and everyone showed up the next day to wrap it up. The meeting ended at 2pm on a Friday and I was the only one who stayed an extra night. I mean come on it's Friday night in Vegas, you can't go straight home. I called my friend Kerri to let her know I was done with work and ready to enjoy a quick visit. Luckily it was also before the weather turned Vegas hot and was actually in the breezy 80s.
Before I left for the trip I hit up my co-worker who has always offered to get me free tickets to see Phantom at the Venetian as he knows one of the performers. He got us the hook up for great seats and a backstage tour after the show on Friday night. So my friend Kerri, picked me up at the car rental place (I was even good and returned the car a day earlier). We went back to her place that is only about 15 minutes from the strip. I got in the car and met her two newest additions to her family, Lucy and Dunkin. Two of the cutest, littlest and sweetest dogs.

Lucy is a 2 year old Puggle and has the face anyone would love.

And Dunkin is a 1 year old Dachshund/Chihuahua mix who is so sweet he is almost narcoleptic, as he instantly closes his eyes and rolls on his back when you pet him.

After loving on the dogs and taking a ton of photos of them, we went off to go see the show. We met Kerri's husband, Ron at the Venetian as it was closer to work for him and gave Kerri time to shop (within a half hour she had already bought a new pair of shoes).
We got into our seats just in time for the show to start. Now for those who have seen Phantom of the Opera, this is the abridged version. I've seen Phantom twice before and didn't notice any of the story or continuity missing in this scaled down version (the original production runs 2 1/2 hours while the Vegas production is 1 1/2 hours long). It actually seemed better as it included all the songs that make the Phantom famous. The theater was built for the show itself so there was no expenses spared in production. The famous chandelier circles over the crowd in the opening sequence and then crashes down in the middle. On the side of the theater they have box seats for a built in audience of mannequins.

After the show we waiting on the side of the stage like we were told, to meet up with Marcia who is in the production. There are a few other couples along in our tour, but it was great to go along with someone who was so friendly and knows the show inside and out. She gave us a fact sheet about the production which included the $45million budget for the show. We first went downstairs where the dressing rooms were and got to meet Tony who plays the Phantom and walk in on Andrew who plays Raul getting a haircut.

View of the theater from the stage

Kerri, Tony (aka the Phantom), myself and Ron

After the show and tour, we were starting to get a bit hungry and ending up at Gordon Biersch for some light night munchies.

After sleeping in and having a quick breakfast, Kerri and I headed off to the Luxor for the Titanic exhibit. Kerri worked her magic negotiating skills and got us an even bigger local discount. When you enter the exhibit you are giving a boarding pass with information on an actual passenger on the ship. My card was for a passenger named Mrs. Benjamin Peacock (Edith Nile). She was a mother of 2 traveling to meet up with her husband in America who had gone on ahead of her. I'm a 3rd class with unknown cabin number, so I pretty much knew right away I wasn't going to live to the end. At the end of the exhibit you can look up the name of the passenger you've been given to see if they survived or not, I did NOT. Kerri who was a 1st class cabin doctor who was traveling with her "friend" lived (no big surprise there).
As you walk through the exhibit they take you from the bottom of the ship, where my 3rd class bunk beds where, all the way to the promenade of the first class deck. They have a replication of the staircase and you get your photo taken on it (luckily no bow of the ship for people to yell I'm the king of the world on). It's pretty interesting though to see what made it after years at the bottom of the sea. In the end you see a large piece of the hull they brought up from the ocean. It's huge and it's only one small piece of the ship. It really gives you an idea of why they thought this ship would be unsinkable.

After the exhibit we headed over to the Bellagio as my friend Shelly was there a week before and said they had a really cool Bugs Life exhibit in the atrium. It was incredible the life-like bugs made out of plants. I think I took about 100 photos within half hour. It was like a real scene out of the movie and you felt like you were in their world.

Chocolate store next to atrium

The view from the front desk check-in

After exhausting all the pictures I could think of, we wandered into the surrounding stores. This time I was the one shopping. We went into the Chihuly store after I ooh and ahh over the ceiling piece he did and browsed all the books and posters. I first saw his work on an HGTV special in which he was doing a swimming pool piece for someone with a lot of money many years ago and have always been interested in his work. A few years ago I got a chance to see his work up close at the exhibit in SF. It was just incredible to see these large pieces of glass look so delicate and wonder how many piece they broke before ending up with the exhibit of the Mille Forest or Glass Boat (see my flickr page for photos from that exhibit) . I purchased a poster that I already had a spot in the house in mind for and found out that Chihuly himself was due to be in the store signing books that day, only to call in sick. I told the sales people I was disappointed to have missed and hope to catch him another time. I'm sure they passed on my message to him...

Chihuly ceiling at the Bellagio

Kerri and I headed back to her place for a great bbq dinner before my time in Vegas quickly came to an end. I'll just have to return now when the weather cools down and I can spend more time with my friend and take more photos of her new little additions to the family.

King Tut and The Japanese Tea Garden

I know the title of this blog sounds like a bad D-list movie, but it was actually a great day in the SF city in late March. My best friend Sarah gave me 2 tickets to go see the King Tut exhibit at the De Young for my birthday back in October. We had gone to the exhibit a few years back in LA (a long action packed weekend that was). So I decided I should take my niece, Jasmine to see it as she just finished learning about the culture in school. Now everyone knows you can't go anywhere with Jasmine without her mom, Fonda, so her and our mom also tagged along, as I took a day off from work to avoid the crowds.
I don't have any photos from the actual exhibit as they don't allow photos of course. But for anyone who hasn't had the opportunity and it comes to a town near you, I highly recommend going to see it. I remember as I kid looking through the book of Pharos from when my parents (and I guess me too) went to it in LA in the 70s, when I was too young to remember. But I remember be fascinated by this strange world and not believing these people actually existed. I was attending a private Christian school at the time, so I never learned about this fascinating world that lived and worshiped the sun gods.
The extensive array of more than 130 extraordinary artifacts from the tomb of Tutankhamun and other ancient Egyptian sites features 50 of Tutankhamun's burial objects, including his royal diadem and one of the four gold and precious stone inlaid canopic coffinettes that contained his mummified internal organs. (ok I stole that from the website) and doesn't include many of the items shown in the original 1970s exhibit. It was amazing to see all that gold and ivory artifacts that existed back then and was included in the Boy King's tomb (sorry Jason, he is the original boy king). I couldn't imagine the excitement of finding all these gems hidden in the tomb. It was narrated by Omar Sharif, who has the perfect voice over for this world. You get to see items they packed in his tomb and others for them to take to their next life, such as games to play, mirror and makeup and riches beyond imagination.
In the last gallery (there are 11) you get to view five actual pieces found wrapped in linens with the mummified King Tut'6 layer coffin. It's on a grand scale that couldn't be imagined by today's standards at all.
At the end, you of course are lead into the gift shop where you can buy anything you can think of putting an Egyptian spin. I thought Jasmine and Fonda did a great King Tut impression.
Afterward we decided to head over to the Japanese Tea Garden. Of course it was another perfect day to visit one of my favorite spots in the city. The flowers were in bloom and the sky was overcast, making for perfect photography of this serene sight. I did think it's odd that they don't take atm or credit cards for the entry fee, but you can use them to purchase tea or soda inside. We scrapped together enough money to get us all in and then we wondered the grounds until it was closing. We hit NO traffic coming or going and had a relatively fight-free day between Fonda and Jasmine. Below are some of photos from the Japanese Tea Garden

Jasmine, Fonda and myself in front of the Tea Garden

Beautiful blooms that greet you at the entrance

Fonda thought I should do my backyard like this

Recreated a photo of mom and Jasmine taken 4 years before


Another family photo recreation

A view from the top

Last week I got to finally get out of the Seattle airport and actually get to the tourist spots that I've always wanted to. We had a meeting in Bellevue and needed to arrive the night before, so I decided to take advantage of the 8 hours I had in my PTO and take the day to see the sights of Seattle. I've been through the airport many of times, but this was the first time I've seen it from the ground.
I rented a car and turned down the GPS thinking I have it on my phone and plenty of maps (bad idea). First, I got lost just in the rental car parking lot, as they just generally point you up a floor and then when I got on the right floor of the garage, I didn't find the Avis section. Then once in the car I followed another rental car and somehow missed the exit sign from the garage and ended up in the section where they wash the rental cars and had to pull a U-turn while several other lost rentals followed me around. Once out of the parking garage it got much easier.

Famous Pike Place Market

I made it downtown quickly, luckily it was a drizzly Tuesday afternoon, so not a lot of traffic. I guess I didn't realize Seattle was a bit hilly, luckily I had an automatic and made my way down to the Pike Place Market. I found parking pretty easy for only $4 an hour. Now I've only seen Pike's Place on TV and you know when you see something or a celebrity in reality and you think Oh really that's it, well that was my thought. First I thought it was like Pier 39 and right on the water, it's not. It's actually elevated as Seattle is a bit more hilly than I thought. Another similarity to San Francisco is that the market is filled with lots of over priced vendors hawking their goods, from of course fish to olive oil and candles. Unfortunately as it was the middle of the week there wasn't much activity going on and they weren't throwing fish around so I only ended up staying for a half hour, before heading over to the Space Needle.

Famous Pike Place Fish
(where they usually are throwing the fish, but not today)

I found my way to the Needle as luckily it's an easy landmark. Again it wasn't crowded at all and I was the only one in the elevator to the top. I'm sure if it wasn't overcast and drizzly the view would have been a lot better, but again I only there about half hour. I did go out into the rain to get better pictures than all those standing inside the glass and taking family photos from the inside. I'm just glad it wasn't really windy as I don't think I would like to be up that high with strong winds. And not to sound like I didn't enjoy the view or anything, but I think the one in Vegas might have a better view, at least at night. But it was worth seeing and would do it again on a sunnier day.

Space Needle (like you really needed that caption)
View of Downtown Seattle
View of Bellevue across the water

View from the bottom

The Music Experience at the Needle Park

Monorail to the Space Needle

After that I decided to drive to a little park I read about online that gives great views of the downtown and Space Needle. So I found what I thought was an easy route to Kerry Park, but no this is where that GPS would have come in handy as I spent 40 minutes driving in the wrong direction, down dead end streets and probably causing many people to curse my driving as I would stop in the middle of a green light to try to find out where the hell I was. And then again when I finally did find the park, a little disappointed with the view as the overcast skies covered up the pretty snow covered mountains in the back and made everything look gray. But I was happy I actually found it as I would have wondered what I missed out if I didn't.

Views from Kerry Park

Luckily from the park it was easy to find my way into Bellevue as I knew now what streets to avoid. The next day all my sight seeing paid off as I knew all the trivia questions that were given at the meeting. I also got a compliment from the locals for being able to find Kerry Park.
I definitely think I could enjoy Seattle more if I had a navigator and it wasn't so dreary (but than again it is Seattle). Maybe I'll try going back during summer and see it all in it's splendor and maybe even buy a cup of Starbucks from the first one off Pike Place (that was on the quiz).

Book Review

Ok, I know it's been awhile since I wrote on my blog. What can I say I got lazy, haven't been cooking, taking photos or anything much but spending my weekends on the couch watching a lot of CSI and Law & Order marathons (thank god there is only about 100,000 different episodes for me to watch). Also with the weather being rather gloomy for the past month, it's been part of the reason I've spent the last month or so on the couch. And of course the only weekend we seemed to have gotten any decent weather I spent it pulling the 1/4 acre of weeds that have appeared on my yard over winter and suffering from sore hamstrings and back muscles.
But I have kept up with my reading. As usual the gift card I got for Christmas didn't even last a full week in my wallet. I promptly went to Borders and roamed the aisles for about an hour trying to decide which books where worthy of my gift card. I finally settled on one that I've been wondering about for a while and one I've come across in a magazine as a suggestion.

Let's first review the Happiness Project. It was coming up on the New Year, a good time for reflection and new attitudes. I saw several reviews in a couple magazines about this book and then did a bit more reviews searching on Amazon. There were mixed feelings on the book, some thought it was genius, others thought it was to simple and obvious. I tend to agree with the latter. It's not that the book wasn't a quick read, but it wasn't something that was going to rock my world and make me think how can I be more happy. I think most of you who know me would already agree I'm a happy person (some would say too happy), but hey there is always room for improvement and there are always aspects of my life I would wish to improve. I looked at this book as an inspiration to make me come up with my own list and find ways to be "happier".
Now the book is a quick easy read, maybe because sometimes I found myself skipping ahead avoiding the pages filled from her blog. If I wanted to see what was on her blog and what people responded to I would just read her blog and not buy a book. She divided the book into 12 Chapters, one for each month of the year with a new set of goals to becoming happier. Most of these goals seemed fairly obvious and actually quite boring. Example: First Chapter January - Boost Energy. Her goals to do this go to sleep earlier, exercise better, toss, restore, organize, tackle a nagging task and act more energetic. Hummm, that seems simple enough and not something I should pay $19.99 for.
I think this book might be more useful to someone who is maybe say a mother of young children and working who need to find time to step back and take care of themselves. But for me I found the ideas nothing new, but the overall message was good. I mean who doesn't want to be happier?

Ok, next book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I've seen this book more than I can count in Borders and have been drawn to it, but since I try not to read a lot of fiction unless it's been recommended or passed on by someone else. But I figured this was a gift card to me to buy something I probably wouldn't normally buy myself so I figured why not, it's gotten a lot of good hype and looks interesting. If I'm going to read fiction it's usually a mystery book (I guess that is the same with TV shows; Lost, CSI, Law & Order seeing a pattern here...)
Before even getting into the book I read that the author Stieg Larson had passed away shortly after finishing the 3rd novel in the series (oh I LOVE series), so this intrigues me even more.
The book starts a bit slow with a lot of information regarding Swedish money. Now I don't really know why it does, but once you get passed it the book picks up pace. It quickly jumps back and forth between two characters who will eventually get intertwined in the story. Now I won't give away anything in the book itself in terms of the story, but I stayed up many nights pass my usual hour read in bed to see what would happen in the next chapter. Then somewhere along the second half of the book it takes a very dark turn I wasn't expecting. I know mysteries usually are very dark at some point, but this book took it to a different level. All the sudden I felt a bit like I was seeing the movie Hard Candy in my head while I read (now if you haven't seen the movie, it's a very, very dark, sick movie with quite the twist).
After this one particular chapter it's obvious this isn't your normal hunt down a killer from the past story. It had some really good twist in the book, but it was sort of hard to get pass all the incest, torture, rape and murder of young girls. In the end I felt a little dirty for even finishing the book. It's definitely one that stays with you after you put it down, especially if you are trying to go to sleep right after it. But I think the thing that disturbed me most was the brief excerpt to the next book in the series, The Girl Who Plays With Fire. Again it opens with the kidnap and torture of a young girl of 13. Now I see where he is trying to create this character Lisabeth Salander, but I'm not sure I want to read another book with the rape, torture and murder of young girls.
So reader be warned and I'll be spending my next gift card on a couple of lighter subjects that I picked out while searching for these books: Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog and the Recipe Club.