Vegas Pictures

So here are most of my Vegas pictures. It's taken me this long to upload them all. I hope to give a little background on the pictures some time soon, but we've been so exhausted this week (and I'm working late again). I'm still exhausted. I can tell I'm getting older, because it takes me a lot longer to recover after an all-nighter. We stayed out all night (playing blackjack) last Friday and I'm still trying to catch up.

It's always funny...everybody gets a little concerned when the suitcases come out.

And Meme's always certain that she's going. It always makes me feel bad because she lays on the suitcase until I physically make her get off. Even when I zipped it up and sat it on the floor, she jumped on the top and laid down.

Mike's "Valentime"

Here's Mike's V-day gift. An IKEA chair that he's been lusting after for about five years. It's his TV watching chair and he's got it set up in our spare bedroom aka "the man cave."

A Day at IKEA

Originally my dad was going to come up for the weekend - to visit and to take us to IKEA in his big truck so that I could surprise Mike with his much longed for chair for Valentine's Day. But then the weatherman said snow and so he canceled. No problem. Better safe than sorry. I told Mike what I had previously planned and promised him that we'd get his chair another day when we had a way to bring it home.

Then last night, just before the "bro-date," Dad called and asked me if I had Monday off, because the snow had basically melted right away and the roads were clear. Mike has Monday off, but I don't. He'd thought about coming up Sunday afternoon and spending Monday with us, but since I had to work he wasn't sure if he'd come. I suggested that he come up Sunday morning and spend the day...then I reminded him that if he left Saturday afternoon, he could pick up Jerry's pizza (I know you don't like it, Aunt Linda, but it's our fave!) to bring up, spend the night and spend Sunday with us. He said he'd think about it. We didn't hear anything until he arrived at the front door - pizza in hand. Yummo! .

Then today we hooked up with Sarah and Lyric and had breakfast at Baker's Square before heading off to IKEA. Sarah'd never been!

Lyric brings her baby pretty much everywhere.


Shhhh! The baby's asleep.


In the truck - we're on our way to IKEA!!!
Much to my regret, I left my camera in the car when we went into IKEA. It was a lot of fun to go with Lyric. They have all the different rooms set up throughout the store and we had to stop in several different places to "play kitchen" and "play bed." Playing kitchen consisted of us going into several different display kitchens and cooking invisible dinners, eating, washing invisible dishes, warming up invisible leftovers etc. Playing bed consisted of Lyric crawling under the covers of all the different display beds and pretending to sleep.

We had lots of fun and Mike got the V-day present that he really, really wanted.

V-day, Part III

Sergio is Mike's best friend (besides myself, of course) and I often tease him about having a "man-crush" on him...or about the two of them having a "bromance." Anyway, I was extremely amused to find that before Serg arrived last night, Mike went around the apartment...lighting candles!!!! I had a really good laugh about it, as a matter of fact - and teased him about setting the mood for his "date."



I started to take pictures but had a few technical (battery) issues, which meant that only a few snaps were taken. Here's Mike preparing the game hens...

...and the homemade mashed potates being prepared.
Dinner was wonderful and we had a really good time. In fact, we had an additional unexpected visitor, who arrived about 11 p.m!

Stay tuned to find out who!

V-day, Part II

Mike and I went to pick up my Valentine's present, but it wasn't quite ready and were told that we'd have to return about 2 p.m. (By the way I'd like to thank Kelly for introducing Mike to the phrase "Valentimes"...because now he says it incessantly. Ugh.)

Anyway, couldn't pick up my gift...so we went to Benny's and had breakfast. Ok, I had breakfast and Mike had lunch. Delish. Best. Food. Ever. If you're ever near Chicago, do yourself a favor and head to the Edgebrook Coffee Shop. Seriously. Yum.

Since we had a couple of more hours to kill and a few things to pick up, Mike took me to Target. I didn't take a picture of Target because I figure you know what it looks like. We stimulated the economy a bit and then headed back here...

...to pick up my "Valentimes" present. Isn't it beautiful? I'm smitten.
Tonight we're having Sergio and his girlfriend over for dinner, so after I oohed and aahed over my new sparkly, we headed to the grocery store across the street from the coffee shop and the jewelry store. Happy foods. We got a happy cart and bought some happy stuff for dinner.
We certainly left happy, because the prices are way lower than at Dominick's! We may be happy shoppers more often. Tonight's menu, you ask? Cornish game hen, mashed potatoes with gravy, asparagus and salad. Will there be pictures? Uh...duh! You have read this blog before, right? I am a maniac about taking pictures of my food.

Stay tuned!

P.S.

I'm very excited about my new background. I know I'm a little early on the St. Patrick's Day bandwagon...but St. Pat's is my birthday and I can't help but be excited about it. Even though I'm not really excited about turning another year older. It's probably the anticipation of possible presents. I do love getting presents.

And So It Begins

And so begins the...well, let's do the math. Valentine's Day of 1996 I knew Mike but we weren't dating yet...so I guess we'd have to really start with 1997. Hrm...carry the 2...

And so begins the thirteenth Valentine's Day I have spent with this man. As you can see, he's very excited about the prospect.

Very, very excited....

But at least somebody..err...kitty...appreciates me! Mommy's awake, so it's time to make our move.

Furio always has some kisses for Mommy - but especially on Valentine's Day.

Then the petting and purring begins. This is a once a day opportunity. He is not a cuddler, but he loves getting attention in the morning.

As you can see, though, even though Mommy's the one giving the scratchies, he's Daddy's boy and he watches for any sign that Daddy's awake.

Ah, yes! At last, at last!

But Mom's pretty good at that scratching thing, too...so he magnanimously agrees to be an equal opportunity scratchee.

And then when he's had enough and all you can see is his fuzzy, brown butt as he exits.

But, at least I finally hear the shower running - which means Mike has finally decided to make his debut into the world. Time to get the party started! YaY!

A Day at the Zoo

Biscuit

Furio found this video of his girlfriend, Biscuit the Brookfield Zoo Snow Leopard, on YouTube. He's very excited to be able to show it to you. Isn't she beautiful?