It's been a while...

I'm back.

Yesterday was my first day back to work in a week and a half. I had eleven-hundred-something unread mail messages in my mail reader. Eight hundred or so were immediately trash and several more were scan-and-delete. Hot items: I'm getting a new IP phone and users are entering cents in the dollar fields even though the ".00" follows the input box. Yeah, I didn't miss much.

Except for my usual blog reads. I missed those. I'll try to catch up soon.

We took The Girl to her camp in Williamsburg on Sunday and The Boy to his on Monday. He goes to Camp Greentop, a special needs camp up in the mountains about a half-mile from Camp David. Every year I have to wear my sunglasses to hide my eyes. I always tear-up even though I know the routine, what's going to happen. There's a staff person at the end of the drive who asks your camper's name and gives you the check-in procedure sheet. They radio ahead and say who is coming. By the time you turn the corner the staff have lined the parking lot and are cheering for your camper. Every single camper. Every single year. It's moving to see so many young people who care about working at a camp for special needs kids.

Then Dan and I flew to Las Vegas. I'd never been to Vegas before and I wasn't expecting it to be that big (or hot). On a map the strip looks like a couple blocks long but those couple blocks are three miles long in reality. The hotel properties are huge and take up a lot of space. Each seem to be designed to be self-contained so you never have to leave for your dining, drinking, shopping, spa, sleeping, swimming, gambling needs. They reminded me of over-grown cruise ships.

We got a deal for a air & hotel package and stayed at the Excalibur, which is a fine hotel, but certainly not luxurious or posh. Lots of kids. I guess because it's cheap inexpensive.

Tuesday we drove to Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. The water level is, to me, astonishing low. I guess with global warming there isn't as much snow in the Rockies to melt as there used to be. We did the power plant tour and saw huge generators that supply juice to Southern California, Nevada and Arizona. Our tour guide was a squirrelly little guy with weird speech patterns. I think I heard most of what he was saying. We were told there are 4,360,000 cubic yards of concrete in the dam more than once.

We also stopped at the Lake Mead Recreation area and went swimming. I'm a beach girl, I didn't like the squooshy muddy lake floor, but I'm glad I went (it was hot).

I took $60 to the casino to play roulette and came back with $188.

Tuesday night we went to the Venetian to see The Blue Man Group. Way cool. We sat in the balcony and still managed to get pulled into the show. Well, Dan did, he was asked to throw candy into the mouth of a Blue Man, except in gestures, no words. Did I say it was way cool?

After the show we ate at Bouchon, also at the Venetian, to celebrate our anniversary. Very, very good food.

Wednesday we drove out to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area with a stop at Jack-in-the-Box for tacos and the Red Rock Resort and Casino. (Lost $14 at the roulette table.)

Wednesday night we had dinner at the Cravings buffet at the Mirage and then went to Folies Bergere at the Tropicana. (Pronounced foe-LEE bare-zhair in case you've never had French lessons as I haven't.) Folies is a typical Vegas-style show girl show with lots of feathers and skin and is the "longest running show in the US," or so they tell us. I was surprised by two things: A-cup girls can still get work in Vegas (even I'm big enough to work in Vegas!), and how fit these women are. The only way you can tell the younger ones from the older ones is how deep their smile lines are, there are no other wrinkles anywhere else on their bodies. Anywhere. Oh my goodness, they give a whole new meaning to "taut." I'm not taut enough to work in Vegas.

Thursday we flew home and had a 3-hour layover in Denver. That's what we get for the cheap tickets, I guess. On the whole, the trip was great and I had a good time hanging out with Dan without the kids. I'd go to Vegas again, I suppose. But not in July. It was much too hot. You know that blast of heat you feel when you open the oven to put in a tray of cookies dinner? Vegas in July is like living in that blast all the time.

Friday we picked up Fern at camp then attended AM's perennial Fourth-of-July party which was rained out again and had a good time anyway and since we walked over, we had to stay until the rain let up.

Saturday I sewed like crazy on the Girl Scout vests, getting them ready for the girls' trip to Savannah. Sunday Dan, Fern and I went to an Orioles game and I sewed more. I worked on and finished about 25 vests for all the girls and I'm a bit tired of seeing little round badges everywhere and that hideous green color. I'm finally done, and now I'm going to cash my checks.

Monday we sent Fern off to day camp and drove up to get Kevin at camp. He got glowing reports from the counselors and really seemed to have a great time. And yesterday was my first day back to work and that's where this post started.

I'll post pictures when I find the sync cable for my camera.

Random Stuff

AM is in London with Mark and their respective kids. My other walking friend, L, is in Florida on business so I have to walk alone in the mornings. It's so tempting to stay in bed but I've made it out twice this week without them. Yay me. I've taken my iPod and walked to tunes and have tried to keep up a fast pace. I think when the three of us walk together we tend to slow down a bit and it takes us more than 30 minutes to complete the circuit, but this morning on my own I noticed I finished it in just under.

One of my motivating factors to keep walking is that my weight is hovering at or above my Mendoza line. I hate that. It was below it for so long, and now, I just can't seem to get it to budge. I'm not even eating that much junk!

I've had this pain in my neck for a while and have been under the care of an ENT. I could feel a lump and he put me on antibiotics to clear up what he thought was a chronic infection in a lymph node. The lump is gong but recently the pain is up higher, right under my ear in the crook of my jaw. And it's sharper. So now I'm using Nasacort spray. The pain is better, but not perfect yet. Then just this morning, I realized something: the nose spray has steroids in it, and don't steroids have a side-effect of weight gain? Uh-huh, I thought so. So I'm trying to be at peace with my weight level for now.

If my daughter reads this, OK, she'll know the secret in advance. I upped her message allowance for her mobile line yesterday afternoon. I didn't go all out with unlimited, but I think the number will be plenty. It better be.

I got the promised sixteen Cadette Girl Scout vests delivered on Monday evening and last night I got everything ironed on in the proper places to all of them. Now I have to stitch over it all so it stays put. I got two more vests delivered last night and an email from another lady who wants to drop off her daughter's vest tonight. All these 19 vests need to be done by July 7th because all these girls are going to Savannah to the Juliette Low House. (Birthplace of the founder of the Girl Scouts, in case you didn't know.) I don't want to turn away business, but it's getting close to that point, time is getting tight.

Fern helped me out last night by getting the badges and numbers ready for me to iron on. She might be ready and willing to learn how to do the sewing. She's motivated byt the idea of me paying her to help. Two things concern me: my not-so-new-anymore, expensive sewing machine and teaching her to use it without either one of us driving the other crazy; and her attention span to finish the work she says she'll complete. Following up on a half-finished job can take as long as doing yourself in the first place.

I'll just do the nineteen vests myself, I'd be too nervous to let her learn on them. And I'm pretty sure I can get them all done in the next two weeks. Except next week the kids are going away to camp and Dan and I will be going to Vegas to get married. So I really don't have two full weeks. Yikes. Maybe I should take a picture of my sweat shop for you to see.

My Dad is having his knee replaced today. Pray the hospital food doesn't kill him.

Travel Log Part 4

Ljubljana, Slovenia (lu-blee-YAW-na) 19 March 2008
On the bus from Bled to Zagreb, Croatia

The demographic of this tour group is interesting. It's not what I expected. I'm not sure what I did expect, but this isn't it. Fern is the youngest member of the group, followed by Kevin. I'm close to being the next youngest after that. There are several people in their 30's-40's, the rest, all older. My parents would have fit in nicely with this group. I kinda expected more families with kids. We chose this trip because it coincided with spring break and the price was about the same as a cruise. And, it's someplace we've never been. Different is always good when it comes to vacations. Or so I think now.

Casino Report:

Last night was Tuesday, a quiet night for restaurants in the U.S., and it seemed quiet for Bled, too. We ate dinner at the Panorama Restaurant, with a wonderful view of the lake, and were the only diners. Fern and I had different preparations of trout, Kevin had spaghetti carbonara and Dan had seafood risotto. The casino just happened to be on the way back from dinner and I just happened to have my passport with me to get in. Dan took the kids back to the hotel and I made my detour.

Roulette is pretty much universal. American and Caribbean casinos have 0 and 00, European casinos just have 0, but the rest is about the same. I made a loop around the place to check it out and noticed one roulette table was open and there was someone there playing already. I don't like to play alone, I like the camaraderie of fellow gamblers, cheering them on for numbers hit. I payed 20 euro for a stack of chips and joined the table. This other woman make no acknowledgment of my congratulations when the ball dropped into the slot with one of her numbers. I felt slighted at first but there is a language barrier so I wasn't offended long. She lost her money soon after that so I played alone. I tend to play conservatively, I wasn't out of chips yet and I wasn't ahead, so I kept going.

The wheel was cold, I like to play the "street," one chip to cover six numbers, so my numbers would hit a round too late, or I was off by one row. I had resigned myself to be just playing to play, not to win. I started betting on red or black and hit a couple times, but still I was down. I had 4 or 5 chips left and was mentally ready to leave when a new dealer came out to my table. Then it got hot. Needless to say, I have a lot more fun when the table is hot. I got up to over 30 chips, and after a few losing bets, I cashed in, mostly because no-one else had joined my table, I was still playing alone. Maybe gambling alone is like drinking alone? But I was 10 euros, $15 ahead, not a bad little detour after dinner.