1200 Miles West

The #1 pick in the Indigio Fantasy Football Draft was LaDainian Tomlinson, selected by my office mate Henry Fieger. I had the #3 pick. After Jamie selected Peyton Manning, I was on the clock. Visions of picking the player that everyone knew had broken his leg on the last week of pre-season clouded my judgement and I skipped the consensus number two choice and selected Larry Johnson from KC.

Oh well, ten more rounds would follow.

My next pick was selected simply based on positioning in my Fantasy Football Magazine that I had bought a few weeks ago and obviously did not reflect the latest injury reports, leading to my irrational fears that I would be the last to know that the obvious pick I gleefully selected was lying in the hospital with a broken neck… I selected some running back named Brown from Miami.

#3 Chad Johnson - Bengals
#4 Lee Evans - Buffalo Bills
#5 Jon Kitna - From YOUR Detroit Lions!!!!!! Kitna will throw for 5000 yards, throw 30 touchdowns and throw 45 interceptions…
#6 Terry Glenn - Dallas
#7 Defense - Denver. Might as well have something to cheer for while watching the local games.
#8 Tatum Bell - From YOUR Detroit Lions!!!!! With KJ hurt he should perform well for the first few weeks.
#9 Joe Horn - Atlanta. With Joey Harrington firing strikes (not…), how could this be a bad pick?
#10 Olindo Mare - New Orleans. A turd on some boards, I simply picked him because I wanted to have someone to root for during Thursday night’s opening game. We are heading up to BW3 to watch the game with our new found friends from our blind date.
#11 Brady Quinn - Cleveland. Erin made me pick him.

After driving past this place a handful of times on our way to the freeway, I finally asked Mike to stop so that I could take a picture. As I snapped the photo I thought about Amy and Scott’s bathroom remodel and wondered what they ended up doing with their clawfoot tub.

If it hasn’t already been hauled away or sold to the highest bidder, there still some hope that one day it will end up in someones yard as a “Mary in the Half Shell”.

We returned from Vegas this morning and after arriving at the apartment we both crashed, taking a four hour nap! It was a quick trip, but we made the most of our limited time. Here are some of the highlights:

A Rocky Start
Our 6:30 pm flight left on time and actually arrived 15 minutes early. We quickly exited the plane and having brought only carry ons, we grabbed a cab and were off to the Excalibur. We used HotWire.com to book the hotel, so this wasn’t necessarily our first choice for hotel accommodations, but the central location and price were exactly what we were looking for.

During the check in process we learned that the hotel was experiencing issues with the room keys, so they sent us up to our room and indicated that security would be by to let us in. After about 10 minutes Mike headed down to the desk to see what the hold up was. He returned with three keys, none of which worked. So, he headed down again…three more keys and we still haven’t gained access to where we will be sleeping. Mike was starting to get frustrated and so was I, so he called and spoke to a manager and they told us to come back down to the registration desk and they would move us to an upgraded room in a different tower. Thankfully the new keys worked, we quickly changed and were out the door as the slots were calling our name.

The temperature was out of control!
When we arrived the flight crew indicated that it was 103 degrees and that was at 9:30pm. I’m not sure that we witnessed a temp below three digits and while the air was dry, it was HOT HOT HOT!

The Big Apple
My favorite casino has to be New York New York. We spent a good majority of our time there and part of the reason was because Elvis was good to me. My Mom has also had good luck on the Elvis machines, so maybe that’s the connection. Regardless, Mike and I would definitely stay at NY NY next time we’re in Vegas as we truly enjoyed the atmosphere and the location.

Wild Cherry Slot Machines Mike’s favorite slot was located at the MGM Grand - go figure as the casino bears his initials. I also think that he liked playing the machine as it didn’t necessary pay out, but it did allow you to play on $20 for a extended period of time. Just when you thought you were done, you’d hit for 30 or 40 quarters, which let you keep plugging along.

We also used the MGM as one of our key starting and stopping points as the Monorail stopped there and it was just a brisk walk (in the 100 degree heat) across the street to our hotel. What more could you ask for?

Fremont Street
On Sunday night we headed downtown to experience the light show. We grabbed a cab and within 10 minutes we were hoofing it down Fremont Street. We hadn’t eaten dinner yet, so we checked out each of the casinos looking for something that sparked out fancy…okay as you know I’m the picky one and I couldn’t find anything that sounded good, so after the light show we hopped in another cab and headed to the Stratosphere to find food. Ultimately we should have probably just eaten downtown…I’ll try to remember that next time. (This picture was taken via Mike’s cell phone - sorry about the quality!)

Exercise and Lack of Sleep
We tried to balance our walks with the amount of sleep we were getting, but unfortunately it didn’t happen. We hit EVERY major casino on the strip except for Paris. We didn’t necessarily gamble in each casino, but we probably did get a drink. We had to do something to keep cool.

Did We Win?
While we only donated to the fine Vegas establishments, we had a great time and look forward to our next trip out there!

P.s. Mike didn’t really bet our down payment on red…but you already knew that!

We got in the car this morning and headed out to see what progress they’ve made on our new house. We were starting to wonder as they called Thursday and let us know that our closing would be delayed by 3 days due to a small water leak that occurred when they were installing the pedestal sink in the downstairs power room and a cracked in the master bathroom granite counter top. So as of today, we’re scheduled to take close and take possession of the house on the morning of the 14th.

As we toured the house we were able to see the carpet color now that it’s installed. We knew it was going to be a shade of brown, but since the house was started before we signed the purchase agreement all the colors were already picked out. The good news is that we like the color and it should work well with our existing furniture.

For those of you who know me well, I’m not much of a cook. It’s not because I can’t cook, I just don’t really enjoy doing it. Well, after we move in that may change! Our new kitchen is ABSOLUTELY gorgeous. The fridge has a water/ice dispenser, which may not seem like a big deal…but to someone who has NEVER had one before, I’m definitely looking forward to this.

We have 12 months to finish our landscaping, but looking at the backyard we may need to call in a professional landscape designer to help us out as we’ll be working with a clean slate and Mike’s planning on working in a garden train, so we look forward to working on the final product together!