2000 Miles from Home

Sunday, June 24, 2007

What happens in Vegas, gets posted!


Jeff and I had a great time in Vegas. It was great seeing friends and hanging out in the city. On Friday, we were the first to arrive, so we hung out at our hotel (we stayed at Hooters) and went for a quick walk around MGM. That night, we met up with everyone for dinner and watched the volcano go off at the Mirage. We walked the strip for a while and hung out at Monte Carlo. A few of us decided to play in a poker tournament at the Monte Carlo Saturday morning. There were around 45 people playing total and I just happened to get second! The money I won there paid for our meals and shows for the rest of the weekend. Below is a picture of me with the chips I won!
That evening we went to dinner at the Tournament of Kings show at the Excalibur. Alex, Seth, Tim, and Ed joined us. We were seated in the Austria section and I think we had the rowdiest section of all. Sticking with the theme, there were no utensils to use for dinner, so we drank our soup and ate our broccoli, potatoes, and cornish game hen with our fingers - it was great! Below is a picture of the "stadium". We weren't allowed to take pictures during the show.

That night Jeff, Alex, and I walked the strip some more. We walked to the Bellagio to look around. It was pretty cool. Below is a picture of the lobby ceiling:

We also watched the water show a couple of times. This was one of Jeff's favorite things to watch:
On Sunday, a few of us decided to go to Circus Circus. We ended up playing a game of mini golf. It was a lot of fun and I made 3 hole-in-ones...Ed still dominated all of us! Below is a picture of Jeff, me, Ed, and Tim. Ben, Sarah, Alex, Seth, and Bob also played.
That evening Jeff and I had dinner with my cousin and then met back up with everyone to watch a Cirque du Soleil show. The show was absolutely amazing. It is too bad that we couldn't take pictures! We stayed up until after 3am. Monday morning we had breakfast at Hooters and then walked the strip one last time. Jeff and I were supposed to fly out at 8pm, but our flight was delayed and we didn't get back to Stockton until 2am. This week has been one of the longest work weeks ever!
On Tuesday and Wednesday I worked from 7:30am - 11pm!! Crazy! We had check-outs for summer session 1 and check-ins for summer session 2 this weekend. I am the GRD on-call, so I was dealing with a lot yesterday. However, we did manage to sneak away to see Evan Almighty. I really enjoyed the movie! Sorry that it took so long to post about Vegas, it has just been nuts. We fly to MN on Thursday of this week, so I have a few things to get done before going. There will probably be no posts until we get back, so have a great 4th of July everyone!

Monday, June 11, 2007

A Down and Up Weekend

It was an interesting week. I was on duty all week, so I couldn't be more than 10 minutes off campus. It was pretty quiet for the most part. I decided to go to the mall on Friday to see if I could find some fun clothes for Vegas. I wasn't in there too long, but when I went to my car there was a note attached to my windshield that read, "I left a scratch on your car...I'm real sorry...my parents have insurance." It also listed in a name and phone number. I looked around the passenger side of my car and nothing...however I was shocked when I walked around to the drivers' side. I have a pretty big scratch starting from the back drivers' side door leading all the way back to the bumper. There is some dents and other markings as well. I called my insurance company and they will take care of everything for me - as in contacting the kid and his parents, the dmv, filing paperwork, etc. I go in to the shop tomorrow for the estimate and hopefully will have it fixed by the end of the month. My guess is they will have to replace the back bumper and fender and buff the door. I will post pictures later (if I remember to take them). On Saturday, I got my fellow GRD to hold the duty phone for me so I could help Jeff and the rest of the General Mills crew set up for the Trix Run - a 5k. We got to Lodi around 5:30am! It made for a long day. Around 7am, Jeff and I decided that we would run. I told Jeff when we moved that I would run it with him, however, we stopped running after he hurt his ankle, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Here are some pictures of the day:


The Honey Nut Cheerios Bee and the Trix Rabbit made appearances and great photo opps!
Jeff finished the race in just under 23 minutes so he had plenty of time to get the camera and wait for me to finish.
The picture above is me passing the 3-mile marker. Jeff started running with me after he took the picture so I sprinted the rest of the way. My goal was to finish the race in 45 minutes, so my time of 34:30 was pretty good - especially since I have never really ran more than 2 miles before the race!
After the race, Jeff got to announce the top three finishers in each division while the mayor of Lodi handed out the medals.
It was a fun day, but I was exhausted afterwards. Toni and Drew had a BBQ that night, but I was unable to attend because I was back on duty. Jeff went and had a good time.
P.S. We'll be in Las Vegas in 4 days!!!

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Playing Catch-up

It's been a long week since I last posted. I have had to say good-bye to many of my friends from school who have graduated and moved on to bigger and better things. Jeff and I have also moved into the townhouses for the summer and move in for students was last weekend. It didn't go as smoothly as I hope, but hopefully things will be straightened out by tomorrow - fingers crossed!! Please pray that I have no students break any more windows, that there will be no tight rope walking attempts, and definitely no jumping off of the pool house roof into the pool!!
Jeff and I went to Josh and Outing's for dinner on Friday night. It was a lot of fun! We also went with them to the Twins v. As game on Saturday. I have to tell you that it was probably the most boring game that I have ever been to. I was hoping to post these great pictures of the Twins winning, but that didn't happen, so here is a couple of random picks:
Moreneau actually got on base!! Below is a picture from our seats. They weren't too bad!
The best thing about the game was the fireworks show they had after. We got to go down on the field, lay on the grass, and watch the show. It was amazing! I really don't like the picture of Jeff and I below, but it was really the only one we took!
One other pretty cool thing happened at the game - we ran into an old college friend of ours - Too Tall!!! Apparently he is going to law school in San Francisco, so that is cool. We will have to catch up with him sometime!
OK, that is all for now. I am on duty this week, so no exciting plans. However, next weekend is the trip to Vegas - can't wait to see everyone!!!