(no subject)
well, i'm back!
vegas was a blast. it was more mellow this year - more downtime and less frantic social escapades - but it was a welcome respite from the packing and the working and the packing and the cleaning and the packing. it was interesting, actually; the vacation was too short, but i was really happy to come home. odd dichotomy in that.
so, vegas... we arrived in sin city saturday morning. we went straight to the planet hollywood (our hotel), but they didn't have a non-smoking room open, so we stashed our bags and walked across the street to the bellagio, where we ate airport food and watched takahiro play WoW. when colin got back from the gym, we all headed to the mandalay bay lobby, and hooked up with the guild crew - tanis, his brother breytak, thorrak and his girlfriend, and we met for the first time laloba, her sister shardlisi and her sister's husband korlynx. we also met aau and neeker (i think it was neeker? maybe not, correct me if i'm wrong, he didn't talk much). with tanis, brey and thor, it was a very welcome reunion, and with the rest, well it was nice to finally assign faces to names. we all ate a late lunch at the red white & blue (same place i met tanis, brey and thor for the first time), which was a lively meal to say the least. afterwards we all split up; danny and i got our room and took a nap, before we went out. i also had a bath in the very, very deep bathtub in our room, and that was lovely beyond comparison.
the nighttime activity was hanging out at THEclub, atop the very tall and very golden THEhotel, mandalay bay's newest addition. the club is basically 60+ stories above the strip, and even though the good tables require table service, we staked out our reliable corner in the back and did what we do best - laughed, talked, danced and took rather embarassing pictures of each other. not everyone from lunch went - but we met up with cerberus and moonsinda, two other WoW veterans, so the entire day had a very geeky feeling.
i was good this year - i stopped drinking before i felt ill - so i actually remember the whole evening. ^_^ we left THEclub around 2 am, and most ppl hung out in the lobby, but danny and i split. no matter how fun and geeky vegas is, if you're running on low batteries, you get exhausted fast.
we slept in, then took takahiro and colin out to lunch at the planet hollywood buffet (which i HIGHLY recommend - it deserves its stellar reviews), after which we wandered over to the paris and met up with the WoW crew, but we also met keitla and seribus! that was wonderful 'cause i talk to them a lot. ^_^ there was more wandering, but tanis was distracted by business, so danny and i ran off to have yet another nap before dinner.
dinner, as tradition dictates, was at the bellagio buffet, another amazing meal place mainly because they serve game at dinner and i love that (this year it was beef and lamb, but also quail and buffalo, and the latter two were excellent). sadly our two tables were split up, and i was at the smaller one, but we got to sit and talk with stormbolt and his father coledog; coledog is an editor for apple and i would love to pick his brain a whole lot more! tanis and breytak had to leave after an hour or so, which was sad, and then most everyone else sort of wandered off. danny and i spent at least an hour in urban outfitters, which is inside the planet hollywood shopping center; it's an odd store, a combo of eclectic clothing and random toys, gifts and household knickknacks, but we walked dinner off and found some cute stuff in the process. but then, walking started to sucks, so it was back to the hotel room and my very large, very comfy bed. i had my heart set on room service but i was just too damn full to justify the expense, so i opened my bottle of wine from the paris wine store, busted out some pretzels and watched sean of the dead on tv.
yesterday morning we slept in again - slept in properly, too. we had to be out of the room by 12 pm, so we stashed our bags yet again and went shopping at the caesar forums shops. danny found his favorite shoes in black and some new socks, and i found him a new shirt at banana republic, but just when i was getting my shopping groove on, we had to go outside (it's like walking into an oven) and walk to the bellagio, to meet up with colin, takahiro, coledog and storm for lunch at an asian noodle restaurant (best soup/broth i've had in ages). after lunch we resumed the shopping, and when we couldn't walk anymore, we said goodbye, picked up our stuff and headed to the airport.
now, last year when we flew out of vegas, the airport was a madhouse. lines of people, few/no employees, crashing computer terminals, lost luggage, missed flights... the works. this year, we left plenty of time, and when we arrived we were greeted by... that's right, an empty airport. /sigh. at least we were prepared!
vegas was amazing. of course, it can't live up to our first experience, last october; and no vegas trip ever will. that memory is magical and has been elevated to near-mythical status in my mind. even though i'm sure that trip had its ups and downs, i only recall the very best. this year, however, i got to meet lots of new people i really liked, and that was definitely ftw! i also had more me time, something i appreciated greatly.
as for danny... well, he's still playing my nintendo DS. enough said. ^_^
love kittie
p.s. lara seems to have adjusted while we were gone, and she's been *very* vocal upon our return home. she's currently at the foot of the bed. it's warm upstairs so she sprawls a lot, something i find very entertaining
vegas was a blast. it was more mellow this year - more downtime and less frantic social escapades - but it was a welcome respite from the packing and the working and the packing and the cleaning and the packing. it was interesting, actually; the vacation was too short, but i was really happy to come home. odd dichotomy in that.
so, vegas... we arrived in sin city saturday morning. we went straight to the planet hollywood (our hotel), but they didn't have a non-smoking room open, so we stashed our bags and walked across the street to the bellagio, where we ate airport food and watched takahiro play WoW. when colin got back from the gym, we all headed to the mandalay bay lobby, and hooked up with the guild crew - tanis, his brother breytak, thorrak and his girlfriend, and we met for the first time laloba, her sister shardlisi and her sister's husband korlynx. we also met aau and neeker (i think it was neeker? maybe not, correct me if i'm wrong, he didn't talk much). with tanis, brey and thor, it was a very welcome reunion, and with the rest, well it was nice to finally assign faces to names. we all ate a late lunch at the red white & blue (same place i met tanis, brey and thor for the first time), which was a lively meal to say the least. afterwards we all split up; danny and i got our room and took a nap, before we went out. i also had a bath in the very, very deep bathtub in our room, and that was lovely beyond comparison.
the nighttime activity was hanging out at THEclub, atop the very tall and very golden THEhotel, mandalay bay's newest addition. the club is basically 60+ stories above the strip, and even though the good tables require table service, we staked out our reliable corner in the back and did what we do best - laughed, talked, danced and took rather embarassing pictures of each other. not everyone from lunch went - but we met up with cerberus and moonsinda, two other WoW veterans, so the entire day had a very geeky feeling.
i was good this year - i stopped drinking before i felt ill - so i actually remember the whole evening. ^_^ we left THEclub around 2 am, and most ppl hung out in the lobby, but danny and i split. no matter how fun and geeky vegas is, if you're running on low batteries, you get exhausted fast.
we slept in, then took takahiro and colin out to lunch at the planet hollywood buffet (which i HIGHLY recommend - it deserves its stellar reviews), after which we wandered over to the paris and met up with the WoW crew, but we also met keitla and seribus! that was wonderful 'cause i talk to them a lot. ^_^ there was more wandering, but tanis was distracted by business, so danny and i ran off to have yet another nap before dinner.
dinner, as tradition dictates, was at the bellagio buffet, another amazing meal place mainly because they serve game at dinner and i love that (this year it was beef and lamb, but also quail and buffalo, and the latter two were excellent). sadly our two tables were split up, and i was at the smaller one, but we got to sit and talk with stormbolt and his father coledog; coledog is an editor for apple and i would love to pick his brain a whole lot more! tanis and breytak had to leave after an hour or so, which was sad, and then most everyone else sort of wandered off. danny and i spent at least an hour in urban outfitters, which is inside the planet hollywood shopping center; it's an odd store, a combo of eclectic clothing and random toys, gifts and household knickknacks, but we walked dinner off and found some cute stuff in the process. but then, walking started to sucks, so it was back to the hotel room and my very large, very comfy bed. i had my heart set on room service but i was just too damn full to justify the expense, so i opened my bottle of wine from the paris wine store, busted out some pretzels and watched sean of the dead on tv.
yesterday morning we slept in again - slept in properly, too. we had to be out of the room by 12 pm, so we stashed our bags yet again and went shopping at the caesar forums shops. danny found his favorite shoes in black and some new socks, and i found him a new shirt at banana republic, but just when i was getting my shopping groove on, we had to go outside (it's like walking into an oven) and walk to the bellagio, to meet up with colin, takahiro, coledog and storm for lunch at an asian noodle restaurant (best soup/broth i've had in ages). after lunch we resumed the shopping, and when we couldn't walk anymore, we said goodbye, picked up our stuff and headed to the airport.
now, last year when we flew out of vegas, the airport was a madhouse. lines of people, few/no employees, crashing computer terminals, lost luggage, missed flights... the works. this year, we left plenty of time, and when we arrived we were greeted by... that's right, an empty airport. /sigh. at least we were prepared!
vegas was amazing. of course, it can't live up to our first experience, last october; and no vegas trip ever will. that memory is magical and has been elevated to near-mythical status in my mind. even though i'm sure that trip had its ups and downs, i only recall the very best. this year, however, i got to meet lots of new people i really liked, and that was definitely ftw! i also had more me time, something i appreciated greatly.
as for danny... well, he's still playing my nintendo DS. enough said. ^_^
love kittie
p.s. lara seems to have adjusted while we were gone, and she's been *very* vocal upon our return home. she's currently at the foot of the bed. it's warm upstairs so she sprawls a lot, something i find very entertaining