December 2007 Archives

In the last month of 2007, I completed eight more things, bringing the grand total for the year to 55 and surpassing my goal of doing half! I had wanted to try and shove a few more things in, but I have felt pretty sick over the last couple of weeks, so I didn't get to everything I had planned. Still, I'm pretty happy with the fact that I actually completed my goal this month!!!

Here's my December:

4. Pick a hair color and stick with it
I've been a blonde the whole year...and haven't even dyed it since early August!

25. See Second City
Unless something goes terribly wrong (knockonwood) I'll be going tonight!

28. See at least 3 plays
I saw Good Boys and True this month and two plays last month!!!

30. See plenty of Opera
I saw Doctor Atomic one and a half times this month and with that I officially saw a whole lof of opera (though not nearly as much as I could have seen)

38. Watch The Science of Sleep (looks interesting)
I rented it yesterday and watched it last night. I'm not sure yet what I think about it. Honestly, I have no idea what happened and have no idea how it ended but I still thought it was interesting and amazing. But don't ask me to tell you the plot because I don't know what happened.

59. Learn google analytics
Eh, I learned it enough this year so I am officially crossing it off the list.

85. Bake once a month
This month I baked a buche de Noel and it was damn purdy.

90. Make a ginger bread house
I never said it had to be a good gingerbread house.

Stay tuned for the year-end recap and my new plan for 2008...

1. I can't believe that Alina kept the "Master" on my name that we added into her database as a joke.

My invite to her wedding was delivered to "Master Valerie Bromann"

2. I am also dissapointed that there are only two choices...

what if I want to accept with regret (because I want to marry Joe) or deline with pleasure (because I want to marry Joe)?

3. Earlier this week the receptionist at work called me and said "Jennifer Reeger is here to see you." My first thought was that she must have dialed wrong because I have never had any one there to see me and I had no appointments or anything. Then I thought about it for a while and it took me entirely too long to realize that "Jennifer Reeger" was "Jenny Johnson" who has been one of my BFFs since third grade. I am never going to get used to her new name. Her and Adam were in the area so they came to say "hi." :-) It was great seeing them too since its been forever and a day since we've gotten together!

4. Friday night I was sick so I spent the night watching "Alice Sweet Alice" which was an AMAZINGLY GOOD movie and New Years Evil which wasn't quite so amazing.

5. Last night I went out for Julie's birthday. I was getting ready and was all set to drive to the bar when Julie called and said that Dave could come pick me up. Score! That meant I could actually drink for once! And I didn't have to find parking! We headed out to The Central where we chatted, watch the game (I really don't know which one) and drank and stuff. I had a Tom Collins, a sunset martini, and a tequila sunrise. Then we headed out to Red Ivy for a bit where I had another Tom Collins. Then we called it a night and when I got home I threw up two Tom Collinses, a sunset martini, and a tequila sunrise. :-( At least I didn't puke in Dave's car. I then proceeded to pass out and fall asleep still wearing all my clothes and with the lights on. I am really not a good drunkard.

Anyways, Happy Birthday Julie!

one.
Goodbye Ghetto Garmin!

Hello, Garmin Garmin!!!!

A cookie goes to anyone who can guess what the very first thing I did was when setting it up ;-)

two.
Since I didn't go to work today, I went to see MattyK at his work so we could finish setting up my four-o-wunk for work. I brought him some coffee and leftover cake and he was afraid of it because he doesn't like mushrooms. I had to explain to him that my cake did not really contain mushrooms.

I gave him his present and he was pleasantly surprised that I picked out a tie that was not garishly bright pink and opted for one that I felt looked like something he would wear but with a touch of pink to it. It was mostly gray with little diagonal stripes of light pink, dark pink, and white. He actually at least told me that he liked it and would actually wear it. I hope he will :-)

three.
I met up with MikeyB et. al. at Lou Malnoti's even though I'd already eaten. Scotty came!!! I greeted him by jumping on him and hanging off of him for a while. Julie has a picture. MattyK did not wear his pink tie. Joe has learned that Alina is always right. David Duchovney is apparently the porn equivalent of the crypt keeper or something like that.

After dinner some folks headed home and some headed to a bar and Dave, Julie and I could not find the bar no matter how hard we looked for it. Eventually we found it, but Julie gave up and left. Once we got there MK, Scotty, and Karen left. That meant I spent a torturous rest of the night sipping on my bailey's and coffee with Mike and Dave. I say torturous because...
Mike told Dave about how I slept with him in Vegas but that I wouldn't cuddle with him.
They both kept trying to get me to order all of the guys in the group in terms of who I want to sleep with the most.
Dave kept singing the song Crazy Bitch about me
They figured out their plans for sleeping with women at Joe and Alina's wedding...

They did at least come up with the brilliant plan to kidnap Alina right before the wedding and send me down the aisle in a thick veil so Joe wouldn't know it was me until too late...brilliant. :-)

I hope all y'all had a very Merry Christmas/Hanukkah/Goat Day/Whatever it is you celebrate this time of year.

As Bromann Family tradition dictates, we went to see a movie this afternoon: Sweeney Todd. It was an enjoyable movie, good, but not fantastic. It also felt entirely too long when it started at 11 and we weren't going to open presents until after the movie. I also didn't like the ending even though it was appropriate but sometimes you just want everything to be happy and smiley and it's so completely not.

So once the movie was over we headed back home. Jen and Dale brought their pug Sampson. Surprisingly our dog Luke was well behaved and didn't try to kill him, except he spent the whole night trying to lick Sampson's private areas.

Then we opened presents. My mom was thrilled with the postcards and CD I got her of the Bellagio fountains and my dad liked the presents I got for him at Pottery Barn Kids and my sisters liked their books and kitchen gadgets (hand blender for Nat, tomato press for Jen) and my dog completely ignored the stuffed sushi I got him because he was too busy licking dog penis.

Presents I got included a couple of Lonely Planet guides, some Martha Stewart kitchenware (because it comes in my shade of blue), and a kickass Illini sweatshirt.

Oddest gift goes to this one that Jen gave me:

Best gift will surely be blogged about tomorrow once I get a chance to start using it.

Then my aunt came by and we ate dinner of roast beast, mashed potatoes, green beans and bacon, rolls, macaroni, and salad. Sorry, I did not take pictures. Then we ate my buche. Then that was about it.

Two hours later and my aunt is still downstairs, but I came back up to my room to play with my toys and talk to Joshua who's in Korea right now where it is morning. He is not eating bugs. :-(

I hope everyone had a wonderful day! Merry Christmas everyone!

When I was younger my dad used to tell me that Santa doesn't like milk, that he really likes Pepsi. This year he told me that Santa's on a diet and likes diet rootbeer.

Today we went to my mom's family's house for a Jewish/Polish smorgasbord of pierogis and bagels. Basically that meant me and my sisters sat in the kitchen all night talking to each other.

My cousin works for Borders and they were having a contest for selling the most gift certificates. The amount on the card though didn't matter, just how many were sold. So I ended up getting from one aunt five $5 Borders gift certificates. Brilliant.

Now I am watching Saw III which is way to disturbing to actually watch and tracking Santa on NORAD.

I was getting antsy to see Santa, so I emailed NORAD. They responded rather quickly!

Hood's reaction: 9 and 12? what is this, the sears repair man estimate?
Scott's reaction: I think they think yo'ure about 8 years old

Tomorrow I open presents which I am too excited about because Christmas turns me into a five year old and my family goes way too all out on presents. :-)

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!!!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!!

Update, 11:17pm

Update, 8:30am, Tuesday
Santa ate my cookies and drank my root beer!

Hood didn't agree with my choice of diet root beer:
me: my sister says that you are the one who lies and that you are probably jewish
Hood: the PROOF that you're the jewish one is this idea that santa would go on a diet
Hood: every american knows that santa is supposed to be fat
Hood: in fact, you're probably muslim

but Santa drank it all!

1. Cake
Unlike a certain Mr. Tyler Florence on a certain episode of Iron Chef America, MY Buche de Noel turned out swimmingly. My buche (a traditional French "yule log" cake) actually turned out really well and, I say, redeemed me from last week's baking disaster. I slaved away on this puppy (please note, the cake contains no fluffy animals) all day, and really was afraid that it would completely fall apart. I also had no faith in the meringue mushrooms but the way they came together was uberawesome. I am very proud of my yule log. Check it out:

2. Presents
Between one tissue paper, two wrapping papers, two bows, four tags, four gift bags, and five ribbons, I managed to not wrap any of my gifts exactly the same!

presents for friends

presents for family

Finally got and got a chance to edit the video from rafting way back when in October. I'm the small one in the back in pink (at least, for the first part of the video I am) :-(

it may take a bit of time before it will start to play.

And here's a pic of us too!

"Act 2 is everything you hate about opera: it's too long and you won't understand any of it."
- Director librettist Peter Sellars on Doctor Atomic

Last night Alina and I went to see...

Doctor Atomic at Lyric. I finally got to see Act 2!

After a quick dinner at the Corner Bakery we headed off to the theatre an hour early to catch the director/librettist Peter Sellars give a lecture. I'm glad we caught it because he is an excellent speaker who was very passionate and was very good at defending his work without being defensive. He even flat out told us that the second act was too long and confusing But then went on to justify it (and the fact that the last twenty minutes before the bomb drops takes 40 minutes to portray) without calling us a bunch of idiots for not understanding. I liked that.

The opera was very different, but very interesting. A lot of the libretto wasn't actually written, it was taken from actual conversations and the writings of Oppenheimer's favorite poets (Donne and Baudelaire) and the Bhagavad-Gita (which Oppenheimer had studied) and, according to the director, some of it was taken from classified documents that only very recently became unclassified. Visually and vocally the production was really powerful and beautiful. I wasn't impressed with all of the choreography, but, since I used to dance, opera choreography doesn't usually impress me. But really, opera is all about the voices.

Despite the fact that there was no singing, my favorite part was actually the last few minutes of the performance. It was very subtle, but extremely powerful and suspenseful. Everyone filled the stage, lying in the trenches, slowly staring out, waiting. And the music did all the work.

1. My gingerbread house is still in one piece! I decided against decorating though. Why decorate a crappy house with candy when you can just eat the candy?

2. Over the last 2 weeks I have fallen asleep almost every night with the tv and lights on at a pretty early hour.

3. Work holiday parties are always fun. Free wine and food (who can resist eggnog cheesecake bites on a stick), gossiping with coworkers, finding out who else is obsessed with the Hills, finding out who's going to get the drunkest...

4. Oh. My. God.

I think I am in contention for the worst gingerbread house ever made.

See, I lack the two qualities necessary to succeed in the gingerbread world: patience and precision. My dough was too crumbly. I didn't bother to try to make even, straight pieces. I didn't bother trying to make a slanted roof. I burnt the gingerbread. The icing was too runny.

The melted Jolly Rancher windows came out surprisingly nicely.

Trying to put it together I just kind of held the pieces in place and dumped as much frosting as possible over it in hopes that something would stick.

I just spent my entire day on this damn thing because the weather is too crappy to go anywhere and someone cancelled the ski trip I was supposed to be on right now.

If it survives until tomorrow I might try to decorate. Might.

Stay tuned for gingerbread watch 2007...

1. I don't know whether I am disappointed or relieved about that photo.

2. The other day I saw the fattest squirrel ever. It looked like a fuzzy ball with a tail. I wish I had had my camera.

3. Last night I stopped by a party at a coworker's condo. It was seriously the most amazing condo ever: a ubercool lofty condo right overlooking the Chicago River and the city. I am in love with it. He had good food too. And a chocolate fountain, although I don't think he keeps that up year round.

4. This morning I finished all of my Christmas shopping.

5. I found the most awesome dress ever that I plan to wear to Joe and Alina's wedding!

6. Tonight I went to see Good Boys and True at Steppenwolf. It was a pretty good show, but not spectacular. And I never think anything ever has a good ending.

7. At the show there was a guy in front of me wearing a pink button down, but I am pretty sure he was there with his boyfriend.

8. The Steppenwolf garage is my newest enemy. Damn, tight driveway sharp cornered concrete monstrosity. :-( It wrecked my car :-( There is a big gash in the side of it now. This makes me sad :-(

Last night I went to Caribou to meet with my financial advisor. He wanted to go over my investments and I wanted help setting up my 401(k). I determined last night that I have the worst financial advisor ever. Yeah, so this is what transpired...

1. He was twenty minutes late.


2. He tried to pass off 2% as skim.


3. He ate food that fell on the floor.


4. He forgot to bring my file, so we couldn't even discuss finances.


5. He screwed up my 401(k) form because doesn't read directions.


6. He played with a toy car all night.


7. He criticized my clothing choices and said that none of my colors matched.


8. Finally, he invited me back to his bedroom because he wanted to "show me something."

But...now how will I ever know if Oppenheimer was successful at detonating the atomic bomb?

I got a chance to catch the first act of Doctor Atomic today. Hopefully I will soon get to see the entire thing and find out how it all ends (hehe), but alas I had way too much work to stay for Act II.

Doctor Atomic is an opera portraying the time just before the first atomic bomb is detonated. It was...interesting. It's kind of hard to get used to because it is a modern opera sung in English. So wile basically any mundane daily dialogue might sound beautiful and interesting in say Italian, in English it just sounds mundane. But it was still really fascinating to watch.

Plus, now I have a good idea of what Scotty does in the physics lab all day!
According to the opera, physicists...

- Sing about formulas and nuclear energy.
- Mime putting chemicals into bottles.
- Dancedancedance.
- Ignore their women for their science.

Scott, am I right?!?!?!

1. Buying underwear is fun
I always love when I can go to Victoria's Secret and get way more than I intended for less than I expected to pay. Between the 3 for $25 underwear (individually priced at $14-$16), the buy $75 and get $15 off special (I threw in a $10 massage oil at the last minute to make my total exactly $75...anyone want to help me use it up???) and the $10 off coupons they keep sending to my dad...I ended up with a bra, three pairs of underwear, and a massage oil for just a little over what a bra costs. Sorry boys...no pics this time, but maybe if you're nice and ask I'll send you some...or show you in person...as long as I get use out of that message oil. ;-)



2. Joe and Alina's shower is fun

Last night was Joe and Alina's Stock the Bar wedding shower. It was a co-ed wedding shower where we were supposed to bring alcohol instead of things like toasters. Joe and Alina got lots of wine and spirits. I got them a bottle of Muscat, a box of Godiva liqueur truffles, and some cute sparkly wine charms. Joe was thoroughly confused by the wine charms...he assumed they were earrings (if you do not know, wine charms and little things you clip onto the stem of wine glasses, everyone gets a different one so you can then tell apart whose glass is whose.)
We partook in some yummy Portillos catering and yummier chocolate cake. We had a lovely conversation about "cake." I learned that I am probably the only girly-girl traditionalist of th bunch because I thoroughly intend to change my name when I get married and I have been reading wedding magazines since I was ten.
The shower was superfun and I hope Alina and Joe got really drunk afterward :-)
PICTURES HERE!



3. Taking self portraits is fun.




3. Almost crashing your car is not fun
So, I have never before lost complete control of my car. Last night I lost control twice within a two-block radius of my house and it was one of the scariest moments of my life. Luckily at the time I was going slowly and then going even slower to try to turn, but then all of a sudden my car just got a mind of its own and slid all the way to the other side of the block until it crashed into the curb. The first time it started twisting a bit and I was very scared because I came very close to ramming a stop sign. The second time it luckily slid the opposite way of the parked cars and instead just jammed up against the curb and wouldn't really move. The road was just completely ice and I had no control over anything. I had to call my dad to walk to my car at 2 in the morning and drive it the rest of the way because my leg was shaking and I was crying too much to do anything. Luckily me and black pickle are OK.

p.s. Usually if people are insistent that they need to talk to you at 2:30 in the morning it's for a reason such as they just almost crashed their car and were feeling pretty frazzled and needed to talk to someone.

p.p.s. Why is it that the people who you normally expect to treat you like shit are the only ones to understand that and are there for you?

1. Please do not say that you're not really that picky about what you are looking for in a person you'd date when you do not want to date the person you are talking to.



2. Why does everything go wrong at 4:59? At approximately 4:59 on Monday our website crashed. Turned out to be a blown power circuit at the hosting facility. This meant I stayed at work until after six when it went back up. I actually don't mind the staying late...I honestly didn't want to leave if I knew there was a problem. That felt good to know I do care so much. What I hated was that I was helpless and couldn't do anything about it except to wait around for the design company to get it back up. I just hate feeling helpless.

On top of that my plane had landed late and so I didn't get to bed until 3am the night before, I forgot to bring my key/bathroom key so avoided coffee/coke/my intense caffeine addiction all day so as to not have to bother anyone for a bathroom key and be let back into the office, and when I finally broke down to get a Coke at 5:45, the machine ate my dollar. Needless to say I was tired and grumpy at this point.

During this time MattyK asked me to go get financial coffee, but I asked him if it would be OK to just go get friend coffee. I know he hates putting aside work time for play time, but I was in a bad mood and just wanted to chillax and talk. Luckily he agreed so we met at Starbucks. I showed him all my Vegas pics and he laughed at the pinkness of my computer (I'd forgotten that he's never actually seen it). It was a good night of just talking and drinking coffee because we haven't really just hung out together in a long long while now and I miss that. Hopefully he'll put aside some work time to chill with me more often :-)

An amusing quote from Matt: Maybe I'm vehicularly gay.



3. a 2am phone conversation
Him: Did you just call?
Me: Yes.
Him: Did you hang up on me?
Me: Yes.
Him: Wait, you know I answered and you hung up on me?
Me: I heard you answer but I was already in the process of closing the phone.
Him: And you didn't call me back?
Me: I didn't want to call you because I don't want to call you too much.
Him: Well, that is good. But this time you actually had something to talk about.



4. Last night I went out with Joshua to the gym. I wore a shirt that said "Official Fan of the World Hamburger Eating Championship" and watched food network (I did debate watching MTV's Return to Fat Camp though) while on the treadmill. I'm what you might call ironic.



5. Microsoft Word is weird. I did a spell check it decided that "Joe came..." was not correct and decided that maybe I meant "Joe camel..."



6. Blake Lewis's album is out! Dare I say that this will be the first American Idol CD I ever purchase??? Heather and I should have a dance party.



7. Humble Bob posted some of my pics. (see also: thoughts and pictures) He rocks!



8. Reason #5,689,890 that I should not be allowed to shop alone: Pink Illini Jersey! p.s. I also found the mecca for pink ties ;-) Just sayin.



9. Despite the fact that I already owned it on DVD from the first time it came out, I bought the new box set of My So Called Life because that show was so quintessentially me. Honestly I don't think I would have ever been so adamant about dying my hair if it wasn't for Angela Chase. But you know you're getting older when you feel more and more sorry for Brian Krakow. Honestly though, I am still searching for my Jordan Catalano.



10. I've posted a few entries over at Silly America. You should read them, and subscribe to the RSS feed!

28. See at least 3 plays
When did I get so laxidasical about theatre? It took me eleven months, but in November I saw House's "The Nutcracker" and "The Sparrow." Two down, one to go.

30. See plenty of Opera
So I missed Caesar :-( But I saw Die Frau :-) Four hours of opera is definitely plenty of opera :-) But I know I will see one more this year!

65. Finish my masters
Donedonedonedonedone...I hope. I don't technically have my diploma. But I got a B+ in my last class!!! Totally awesome grade for hardly putting forth much effort!

79. Go to Las Vegas
Been there, done that, will certainly do it again...

83. Knock off at least a few of the following Illinois Attractions:
     j. The Golden Pyrimid House
Aint it purdy?

85. Bake once a month
This month I baked an apple tart.

Pop Quiz: Alina's plane leaves at 7:30am. Val's plane leaves at 8:40am. Who arrives at the airport first?
If you guessed Alina, you are sadly mistaken and do not know me at all...

Friday
After arriving at the airport ridiculously early, going through Southwest's new seating procedure (which is the most basic thing in the world, but, apparently, impossible for most others to understand), and sleeping through much of my flight, I arrived in the fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada to...rain? It rains in Vegas? Apparently Vegas doesn't know this fact either because it seems to break when it rains: the escalators all stop working, the porn guys stop coming out, employees go outside to sweep the water from the streets...sillyVegas.

I met up with John and Alina and headed to the hotel, the MGM Grand, where we checked in and waited in our room for Mike who was driving in now that he lives oh so close in California. Once he arrived we headed downstairs, found that the lions were not going to be out (I demand my money back), ate sammiches at 'wichcraft (yummy steak, egg, and oyster mushroom sammich), and waited for Alina and Mike to get married. Joe's plane hadn't arrived yet, so she had to take what she could get...

Then it was on to gambling! Alina and I played penny slots while waiting for JoeJoe to arrive. Penny slots is one of those games that you just desperately want to lose but can't. It takes forever to lose a dollar. Alina managed to only gamble $2 the entire weekend and retained every cent.

Joe came and he and the boys hit the tables. I played $20 at the roulette table but soon after everyone at the table left and it was just me. That makes for very boring gambling because it goes way to fast and there is no interaction. I was prepared to leave anyways, but played one more and won $54. :-) My lucky number 13 and its corners helps me every time!

I told Joe that I was up fifty and he thought "so what" because he assumed that when I said fifty that I meant cents. And he did an awesomely amusing double take when he saw that I had actual chips :-)

After gambling a bit and drinking a bit we headed across the street (leaving MGM for the first time since arriving) to New York, New York. We settled on a dinner at a Mexican place: Gonzalez Y Gonzalez in the heart of NYC where I got me a soso chimichanga. And then it was off to the show!

We went to see Zumanity...the sensual side of Cirque. We decided on the show because I had never seen Cirque du Soleil and Alina had seen many but not this one. It was kind of more a Cirque du Soleil burlesque show. While sitting and waiting for the show to begin, some of the actors started going around looking all hot and kind of flashing people and such and then there was a little pre performance.

I think my favorite act was the first one, which had two naked women swimming in a giant fishbowl. Yes, that was my favorite. The tricks they did though were phenomenal and really unique, like nothing I have ever seen. It was at the same time so graceful and dance like and, yes, a little erotic. It was beautiful though. The rest of the show was neat too. I am just glad I was not pulled up on stage though. It was more like a burlesque show than what I'd think a typical cirque show would be. It was mostly just individual acts mixed with comedic filler and singing. But it was very amazingly good and a fun show.

After the show we hit the streets and everyone made me get a giant margarita. I ordered a strawberry one and asked for it to be in a pink glass. If I was going to be forced into caring around and drinking a margarita as big as me, it was going to be pink damnit.

We walked the strip with drinks that trailed down to my knees. Surprisingly I was the only one who didn't think it was a bad idea to sip the "free extra tequila shot" that they poured on top directly from the top of the drink. How am I the only one who can take her tequila straight???

We checked out the new Planet Hollywood casino which replaced the Aladdin and looks like a crappy giant billboard from the outside. The way I see it there are two types of Vegas hotels: the shiny fancy purdy ones (see: Bellagio, Wynn) and the over-the-top themed ones (see: Excalibur, Treasure Island, New York, New York). This fit neither and wasn't even Planet Hollywoodesque. It was just kind of there. Inside though it had one of the best redeeming qualities of any hotel on the strip. There were certain sections deemed "pleasure pits" that had go-go dancers in the gaming area. Now, I know you're all thinking Val this is the second time you've said that the naked women are your favorite thing. But fear not my friends, what made these Pleasure Pits so awesome was that the game tables were PINK! :-)

After a bit of gaming and trying and failing to chug down the remaining margarita, we headed back to the MGM and called it our first night in Vegas.




Saturday
Saturday we all dragged ourselves out of bed and headed downstairs to the Stage Deli for some yummy sammiches. I had a brisket on sourdough and i was indeed yummy. Then we hit the strip again for a walking tour of the wondrous city. We stopped at Bellagio to check out the new garden setup...unfortunately it was still under construction. It was all decked out for Christmas with penguins and trees and reindeer. We went in search of a restaurant for dinner because I was determined to go to a fancyshamancy place and thought I knew just the one, so we found it and made reservations. John and Mike headed back to MGM to watch some sports so Alina and Joe and I went off to explore.

We found the new Trump hotel, which is just a big golden phallus. We walked through Wynn because I think it's pretty. They replaced the floating flower balls that usually hang from the sparkle trees with sparkle balls for the holiday. And they had PINK poinsettias :-) We went through the Venetian and watched the gondolas go by. We stopped at the creperie in Paris to share a crepe (delicious!)

After our snack we headed back to MGM for sports and gambling then back to the Bellagio for dinner. We ate at Todd English's Olives because all I really wanted to do in Vegas was eat at a celebrity chef's restaurant. We had an amazing view with the Eiffel Tower right out the window and the spectacular fountains going off right outside.

They start you off with some olives and two different olive spreads. I'm not a big fan of olives but the spreads were just very salty and I like salt. I decided that if I was going to do this, might as well do it right, so I ordered myself a $42 kobe hanger steak with foie gras mushroom sauce, polenta, and a crispy mushroom frisee salad. It was the most delectable steak I've ever had. The mushrooms in the salad were breaded with a crunchy texture and the steak was so tender and the sauce was thick and delicious. Mmmmm. Sorry, I was not able to get a good picture (there is still one crappy one).

I also shared a bottle of Syrah with Joe and Alina and it was tasty as well.

The waiter asked if we wanted to see the dessert menu and almost thought we said "No" so we had to yell at him...as I said, if I'm going all out, I'm going all out. I split two desserts with Alina and Joe: a creme brulee and a chocolate volcano cake with a hot fudgy center. Drool.

After paying my $80 tab Alina and I headed off to the Rio for show #2: Penn & Teller. Damn you people because now when I saw them all I could think of was KennyK and ScottyMcHotty and how they would look awesome if they went as them for Halloween. :-(

The show rocked. Especially when they showed you how they did the tricks. Like they did that cup thing where the balls magically appear under the cups...and then they did it again using clear plastic cups. Of course, even though they explained it it still made no sense and they still kind of magically appeared :-)

They did a knife trick where they brought someone in from the audience blindfolded them and pretended to throw knives at them. They actually did this same trick at cirque as well. So, even if I knew it was a trick, I still could imagine that if I was brought on stage I would be crying and screaming so loudly they'd hear me three casinos over.

I think the best quote of the night though was just before juggling broken bottles Penn, explaining on the level of injury it might cause said "I won't be rushed to the hospital or anything. I'm not Roy."

After the show Alina called Joe who said they were headed to the Venetian. So off we went to the Venetian. When we got there, we saw that Joe had tried calling and that they went to O'Shea's to play beer pong instead. Which was way closer to where we started. :-( Needless to say , we were pissed. Now I am definitely one to see both sides of most arguments. I agree that they did try to call us to tell us several times. I was pretty upset though that they did not do the polite thing of staying where they told us they'd be until either we arrived or they were able to get in touch with us. What fueled the fire even more was that minutes after we got to O'Shea's, John announced that they were done there and we were heading to the Venetian...

So I was pretty pissed because I thought it was rude of them to not be where they said they'd be and to leave without actually getting in touch with us. But at the same time, I do understand that they (and by they I will mean Joe) at least tried to tell us. Alina on the other hand is a bit more stubborn than I am...and when you pair that with John, you're not going anywhere for a while. They argued for a bit, resulting in this conversation between me and Mike as we sat there watching:
Mike: This will be a while. Let's just go in the back and make out.
Me: OK!
Mike: After all, love solves everything.
Me: Wait wait wait. Don't bring love into this.

We walked through the Venetian and the Wynne again...

John: Mike, look this is your first time in the Bellagio.
Me: Did you just say Bellagio?
John: No Val, this is the Venetian.

Me: Those two drunk are like if Bert and Ernie grew up and got wasted. Except slightly less gay.
Alina: Slightly.

Me: Mike, will you buy me that dress?
Mike: Only if you sleep with me.
Me: Yes! Totally worth it for three seconds of work.

That plus Johns drunken ramblings, John and Mike completely failing at picking up women, Mike's trying to get me to make out with him the whole night, and John trying to throw me in the waterfall pretty much sums up our time there...

We cabbed it back to MGM where Alina retired and the rest of us gambled. I finally got to play the pony game I'd been dying to play. It's this really old game from the 70s or something with a race track. There are five plastic ponies that race in a circle. Odds are given and you place quarter bets on the horses you think will come in first and second. It actually isn't hard to win at because if you for the most part stick to 3-1 odds ones you're most likely to win and will make your money back. I, however, managed to make $26 by betting on a horse combo with 104-1 odds!!! :-) I also like the machine because it is so old that it actually clinks out quarters :-)

I decided then to walk away so that I'd finish with a profit of about $50 in all. Not bad for really only playing roulette once and the ponies once :)




Sunday
Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel and headed to downtown Vegas to the Golden Gate for $6.95 prime rib and $1.99 shrimp cocktail. Mmmmm. Counter balances the $42 steak :-) John left earlier, so it was just Mike, Joe, Alina, and me.
Downtown Vegas is not nearly as fun during the day because none of the lights are on :-(

Back at MGM the boys wanted to watch the Bears game and Alina wanted to chill. So I headed to Bellagio myself to catch a "Oh, Holy Night" fountain show. The show was beautiful as always and amazing because there were a ton of tricks where the fountain reached heights well above the height of the hotel. Then I browsed through the garden that was now fully open, grabbed some Jean Philippe pastries, and headed out to catch another fountain show before going back to the hotel.

Alina and I got some Starbucks and ate the Jean Philippe tiramisu and pumpkin cheesecake, which each cost about as much as the prime rib I'd had for lunch :-) Then we joined the boys for the final ten minutes of the game to watch the Bears lose :-(

Mike headed back home to California and Joe and Alina and I headed off to the airport. We sat around for a while because we ended up leaving even before the time I wanted to leave at :-) Then it was the plane ride home where Alina taught me the real rules of Sudoku which made the game so much easier to play (I thought you just went up and down/side to side, I didn't realize the boxes counted too) and we snacked on snack packs.

And thus ended my fourth trip to Vegas in four years and the only time I have ever made any money gambling!
Can't wait 'til next year!




MORE PHOTOS HERE!!!
p.s. sorry about the millions of spelling mistakes in the picture captions. I did it late at night with little light in my cramped seat on the plane. Maybe I will fix them later...