It’s been a quiet week since my last post. No fabulous trips to Vegas, no exciting excursions, just staying at home, catching up on a few things. I had last Friday off, so I did some of the spring cleaning list that may be completed by early winter, went to the pool and there might have been some napping in there too. On Saturday, Josh decided that we should completely redo our office, so we made a trip to Ikea that lasted at least three hours, then had to come home and remove all our junk from the office. I should say that my contents in the office takes up about 1/64 of what Josh’s takes up. I think that is considered fair, because we have the opposite situaiton in the bedroom. Except for his socks, that boy has far too many socks.

I bought my ticket to go visit Ashley in Boston in November, and I’m already starting to research the places I want to go, and most importantly eat. There’s also plenty of shopping that will need to get done.

We may or may not be going to Katy this weekend, the verdict is still out on that. I’m hoping that we get to go, I’d like to see everyone. Additionally, I’m hoping Josh might think it prudent to go check out the store where his sister works. I am not keeping my fingers crossed on that front, well, at least not the fingers on my left hand.

Andy stopped by for quick visit on Saturday. Our apartment was a disaster and Josh and I were probably pretty stinky and exhausted, but it was a nice visit all the same. I’m looking forward to seeing them in September for my visit. I certainly will have a lot of people to go see that weekend. It’s nice that everyone I know lives either in DFW or Houston. Now if I could only meet some people that live in Austin. Nothing else special is going on here, I wish there were more to report, but it seems like things are pretty quiet here for the next few weeks.

Work has been very stressful lately, but not because of lots of tax returns or anything else, just because there’s been a very stressing vibe lately. I’m hoping it passes quickly. This time of year is supposed to be extremely quiet and relaxed, there shouldn’t be all this stress!

I started the South Beach diet last week, and currently I’m on Day 10. During the first 14 days, you don’t eat any carbs, sugar or fruit. Honestly, it hasn’t been as bad as I thought it would be. I’m eating so much food all the time that I don’t really notice that I’m hungry for things. The hardest part is making dinner. For years I’ve always cooked a protein, vegetable and a starch, but now the plate looks bare without a potato or rice or something to keep the chicken company. I’m having a few strange cravings (maple syrup, german chocolate cake, long john silvers) but nothing I can’t do without. Surprisingly, I haven’t even really cheated.  My goal is to lose 20 pounds, which would put me around the same weight I was when I graduated college. However, I’d be happy with 10 or 15 as I’m not sure how my body would react to thinking it was 22 again. I’ve already lost about 5, and I’m hoping to be on good behavior until my birthday, when I have full liberty to eat whatever I want for an entire weekend (as it is my birthday weekend, and calories and carbs do not count).

Being a graduate of the KU school of behavioral modification through music program (ha), I’ve set up a reward schedule for myself. If I lose 5 pounds, I get flowers, 10 pounds for a 60 minute massage, 15 pounds for a new pair of fabulous shoes, and 20 pounds gets me a 90 minute massage and possibly another fabulous thing to be determined. Didn’t we do something like this for Dr. Johnson’s class? Somehow I don’t remember shoes and massages being involved. My how times have changed.

I’ll keep my devoted reader(s) with updates on the progress, hopefully that will make me accountable if I decided to do something dangerous like eat an apple! Oh no, fruit!!

Friends, I wish I could describe to you all that happened in Vegas, but there’s far too much to remember. I’m also pretty sure there are certain periods of time when I simply don’t remember everything in full detail. I think all the free cocktails will do that to you.
Thursday: Josh dropped me off at the airport in the morning, and I had plenty of time to relax before my flight. I met up with Elizabeth and Mike who had a layover from Houston, and we all boarded our flight to Vegas together. I know I really don’t love flying Southwest, but the airplane was certainly more comfortable than my flight to Charleston, the plane was thankfully larger than three seats across. We arrived in Vegas a full 50 minutes after we departed (thanks to a 2 hour time difference) and were greeted shortly thereafter by Laughlin and Rob, who arrived from Houston at the same time. We had some drama trying to collect our luggage though, and had to wait an hour for Mike and Elizabeth’s bags. We were worried they didn’t make the transfer, but it turns out that someone just forgot to drive the bag trolley to the baggage claim. Interesting.
We hopped on a shuttle bus that took us to the Paris, where we met up with Brandon, Stephane and Sara. Finally the group was complete! After a rather awkward exchange with the check in person (Just for the record, you probably don’t need to tip them) we were in our rooms. My $20 did get us a really great view of the pool and the strip, so I think it was indeed worth it. By this time, everyone was starving and needed some food. Our bodies had no idea what time it was, but they did know we were hungry. We trekked through the desert (literally) to the Venetian to eat at Mike’s recommendation the Grand Lux Café. The food was great, and it was a nice relaxing meal. We took a short tour of the Venetian hotel, which was really spectacular. The gondolas, although cheesy were pretty incredible. We walked rather briskly back to the hotel to change and had to hurry to get to MGM Grand for the Cirque du Soliel show, Ka. I’d never seen a Cirque show before, and this one was really entertaining. The performers were outstanding. The best part was when they turned the stage vertical, and these big rungs come out of what was the floor, and the performers use it as a giant Plinko board (you know, from the Price is Right). It looked like so much fun.
After the show, Brandon met up with us at MGM Grand and we took a quick tour of the hotel. Then we moved on over to New York New York to go to an Irish bar that Mike had been to before. They had a live band, and cool decorations, and fairly strong drinks. It was a good start to the evening. We had originally planned to head to Tryst at the Wynn, but we were losing members of our group left and right, and at the end of the evening, the Mikes and I were left to experience Vegas the best way they could find (I was not in a decision making capacity). That’s all I have to say about that.
Let me make a quick detour to talk about walking and the temperature in Vegas. It’s significantly hotter than you think it is. It is NOT a dry heat. Saying, “but it’s a dry heat,” does not make it any less hot. Additionally, some people might warn you that there’s a lot of walking. Take the most amount of walking you’ve ever done in your life, multiply that by 15 and factor in 110 degree heat with an addition of 3 inch heels. What do you get? Toes that are still numb and covered with blisters two days after you get back. Next time I go, I’m wearing Ugg boots and Crocs the entire time and carrying my cute shoes in a bag.
So, the Mikes and I dragged ourselves into bed at what can only be defined as the next morning.
Friday: I woke up at 830 the next morning, threw on a sundress and met the group, still bleary eyed for the Paris breakfast buffet. The buffet was awesome, and exactly what my tummy needed for a nice morning of shopping. Brandon took Elizabeth and I to the Miracle Mile shops that just opened at Planet Hollywood. I wanted to go there because they have an H&M, and a lot of other stores that are significantly more reasonably priced than the other shopping areas. I found a cute peacoat at H&M and an awesome sweater at Benetton. Now, think about that statement again. It’s August, in Las Vegas, and I bought a coat and a sweater. How practical I am!
After we were done shopping, we met the guys at the pool for a while. I didn’t stay too long, but chose to go up to the room to rest up before our big dinner. Remember how I said I tipped the check in person to get a good room with a view of the pool? That ended up being an unfortunate decision, when I realized that the loud music they play during the day at the pool would prevent me from taking a much needed nap. Grr. Nevertheless, by the time Elizabeth and I had showered, we were ready for an evening of good food and Vegas.
We ate at Craftsteak, which is one of Tom Colicchio’s restaurants (you know him as the head judge from Top Chef). The dinner was outstanding, and by far the best meal I’ve ever had. I had the braised shortribs, Brandon had the Wagyu beef filet, and we all passed around sides and shared our meals. It was the perfect evening, perfect enough that Brandon and I had to proclaim, “I have a culinary boner.” It was that good.  My dessert was vanilla bean cheesecake, which was absolutely pefect. Everything was delicious. Tom, you do not need to pack up your knives and go.
After dinner, we took headed back to Bellagio and Paris so the guys could change, and so we could see the Bellagio fountain show. We watched the show from the front, and Brandon took all of us up to his room to watch the show from the 18^th floor. It does not disappoint. We took cabs to the Palms to see where the beautiful people hung out. We all wanted to see the Playboy Club, but the $40 cover charge was a big off-putting, so we decided gambling would be a better use of our time. By that time it was getting a little late anyway, and we were all kind of in food comas from our dinner. After the Palms, we headed back to the Paris and hit the tables a bit more, and eventually turned in for bed.
Saturday: Saturday morning started out much the same way. We all had breakfast at the Paris buffet, and headed out to check out Cesar’s Palace and the forum shops. Brandon took us to a three-story watch store that had lots of things for him and Mike to drool over. I did my drooling at Cartier, Tiffany, Fred Leighton and Harry Winston. Not to mention Jimmy Choo, Manolo Blahnik and Christian Louboutin. After shopping, we walked back to Bellagio so Elizabeth and I could go to their amazing chocolate store to buy some gifts and Brandon was going to give the guys a lesson in playing craps. Elizabeth headed to the pool at Bellagio after shopping and spent the afternoon relaxing in the pool and drinking very expensive (but very tasty) frozen mojitos.
Let me take another detour here about drinking in Vegas. There’s plenty of drinking to be had, but it’s all very expensive. Even bottled water and coke are about $3.50 a bottle, and most of time I was being served Pepsi. Boo. The cocktails are outrageously expensive. While the Mikes and I were at Pure nightclub in Cesar’s we each ordered a round of drinks…three drinks were $38. Yikes! So, obviously the casinos will serve you free drinks, but the cocktail waitresses don’t come by the penny slots nearly as often as they go by the table games. So either way, you’ll be paying a lot of money to be hydrated.
We showered and got dressed, and had to say goodbye to Sara and Stephane, who not only were leaving us to go home, but were going home to California! It was a nice way to get to spend some time together. We headed to Table 10 in Palazzo. This is Emeril’s newest restaurant in Vegas. The food was good, but did not compare to dinner at Craftsteak. After dinner we took a short walk to the Wynn hotel to check out one of the most expensive properties on the strip. I thought the hotel was beautiful, and we had fun watching the guys play Craps. A game I still do not understand at all! We headed back to Paris/Bellagio after saying goodbye to Brandon. Brandon was the ultimate tour guide/table game teacher, and the trip wouldn’t have been nearly as fun without him.
We spent the rest of our evening at Napoleon’s Dueling Piano Bar, and I must say, that was my favorite part of the entire trip. Singing along to classic songs with my best friends was something I’ll never forget. Sadly, at 1am the bar shuts down, and so sadly, did our trip to Vegas.
Sunday: Sunday morning is nothing to speak of, we woke up, bleary eyed, packed our suitcases and headed to the airport to catch our flight. I got in to Austin a few minutes early, hugged Josh, and promptly fell asleep on the couch for the rest of the afternoon. I woke up just long enough to eat some Chinese food for dinner, and hug Josh again, and fall asleep.
Vegas was the perfect weekend, and not one that I’ll forget anytime soon. I know we’re all looking forward to making a trip an annual event, but I’m not sure if our wallets (or my toes) can handle it again any time soon!
I’ll write an update when I post my pictures to my Flikr account. Viva Las Vegas!

Well the big Vegas trip is just a week away! I have all my clothes picked out (even though that’s not going to stop me from shopping tomorrow) and I’m somewhat prepared for the heat, since it’s been 100+ here for the last forever. Of course, everyone is going to say, “But it’s a dry heat…” and I’m going to roll my eyes. I’m getting my hair done tomorrow, and I will resist the temptation to cut it all off. I keep telling myself that at some point I’ll want to have long hair for my wedding so I can put it up. Now all I need is someone to tell me when exactly that will be, so I can have a set date to cut it all off! Plus, Josh seems to really enjoy my hair long. I think it’s that caveman instinct that evolultion never fully resolved in the male sex.

My parents are coming to visit on Sunday for a short visit. I always try to find new and exciting places to take them for lunch and new places to go see. However, with as hot as it’s been lately it’s hard to do anything too outdoorsy. I think my dad and Josh might go geocaching and my mom and I will go do something together. As usual, I have to spend my evening tonight cleaning the apartment to get it ready for their scrutiny, but it could use a good cleaning anyway.

In other news, I’m also going to be planning a trip to see Andy and Angela in Keller in September, and to see Ashley in Boston in November. I’m just hoping I can get up to Boston before it get too cold, because I don’t have most of my cold weather Kansas gear anymore. It will be nice to get a chance to visit her up there, I’ve never been to Boston so I’d be excited to see some of the places I’ve heard so much about.

So with our Vegas trip quickly approaching, I’m already planning out trip next year. My vote is to do a 5 day Carnival cruise out of Galveston. That would involve a lot less planning, mass emails and making reservations on my credit card than Vegas. Plus, for the amount that we paid for hotel/airfare, we could certainly have a pretty nice time on a cruise. Plus, since most of us still live around Houston, it’d be pretty convenient. But, we’ll wait to see how next week goes before I get ahead of myself. As long as I don’t forget the red folder with all the information in it, we’ll be okay. I’m so excited to be able to kick back and relax for a while. Charleston was a great vacation, but I’m never one to turn down a trip to anywhere!