Vegas was a blast. We flew down on Friday to celebrate Staci Arnone and Fred Milad’s Birthdays. We stayed at The Venetian like we always do. You can’t beat it when our Venetian Casino host, Chit, ends up comping our hotel rooms, dinners and show tickets. It makes for a good time when all you have to worry about is gambling money. Of course I love the bonus features on the penny machines. I always get excited on the big dollar machines as well.

After arriving it was time to grab something to eat and hang out. We went to the “Humpty Dumpty Bar”. I really don’t know the name of the little bar, but there was a Humpty Dumpty sculpture sitting on the wall so I will now refer to it as the “Humpty Dumpty Bar”. We ordered drinks and appetizers and that only began the evening. After hanging out for a bit we decided to celebrate Staci’s Birthday at Delmonico. We were hoping that our host server, Fiona, was working, but unfortunately she had the night off. She really does resemble Fiona from “Shrek”…..but don’t tell her I said that. We had an incredible dinner and it went great with my 1990 Gaja. Talk about great food and wine. After dinner we spent the evening playing the different penny machines. My favorites are Cleopatra, Wheel of Fortune and Ebay!!!!

On Saturday we ate breakfast at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon. If you have never had the French Toast at Bouchon you are missing out. It is the most incredible bread pudding style french toast, with warm layers of brioche, custard and apples that you will ever taste. They also have incredible pastries that you have to try at least once. Do you think I like food? I love quality tasting food. Talk about an orgasm for your mouth. Of course in Vegas we had to do some shopping. We cruised the shops in the Venetian Canals and the Palazzo. We then took a cab down to The Bellagio to see the Botanical Garden. I love plants and am always amazed at the creations that are created out of plants and plant material. Vegas always has more than enough attractions to see, and you can never fit them all in during a weekend trip, but I always love to see the plant art at the Botanical Garden.

After the Bellagio it was back to the Venetian to eat dinner. We ate at Morel, one of the new restaurants in the Palazzo side of the resort. Morel is a French style restaurants and was very good. I had one of the most incredible Wagyu steaks I have ever had. It was prepared medium rare and seasoned with only sea salt and crushed pepper, it paired excellently with our wine. After dinner we all went to see the Cirque du Soleil show ‘LOVE’ it really was a sensory overload. Check out the video of ‘LOVE’ on the Cirque Du Soleil web site. I recommend seeing one of the Cirque du Soleil shows if you are in Vegas. “O” at The Bellagio is still my favorite, but they are all incredible. There are so many incredible shows, you really should see at least one per trip. After the show we decided to head back to The Venetian and feed the machines a little more. Rick hit it big with the help of Staci’s good luck pull on a $25.00 slot machine and then we upped the ante and tried the $500 slot machine……can’t complain when you are a winner…..WINNER WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER!

The Republican Convention in Minneapolis has been interesting to watch on TV this week. Not that I choose to watch it, but more like I am forced to watch it. You see I only have basic cable so that limits the channels I can watch and when they cut my regular programming of ‘Americas Got Talent’ I was obliged to watch the Republican Convention talk about how unqualified Barack Obama is to be President. I want to know what The Republican plans are for improving the economy, ohh that is right they haven’t said. I will make my own decision about whether I think Barack Obama is qualified or not, based on what I hear him say and what I research about the two canidates. So far, I haven’t been all that impressed by the Republican Convention and the awe inspiring talks they have given.

As I sat and watched both the Republican Convention this week and the Democratic Convention last week, I wondered how they chose the cities that get to host. I wondered if it was like the Olympic bid process, did the cities have to bribe the Convention Committees in order to get the respective Convention held in their city? After watching the Daily Show with Jon Stewart I knew exaclty why The Republican Convention was held in Minneapolis. They wanted to honor their greatest Republican Senator from Idaho - Larry Craig.

One of my newest favorite blogs I read is XOXO, ASHLEE. This is a great new

blog by one of my good friends Ashlee Christofferson. She has been very diligent in blogging every day and today was without exception. She is a great writer and very witty and is probably one of the best rounded individuals I know. She does more volunteer work then anyone I know. She also does a great job with Ballet West, where she works as the Development Manager. She, along with the rest of the staff, is always throwing incredible events and has really helped Ballet West grow in the last couple of years. On top of that she knows how to have a good time outside of work and seems to have the time to do it on a regular basis. She is also one of my regular golfing buddies. We are trying to golf every Salt Lake County Golf Course at least once this year. We have a few more to go, but if I know Ashlee she will be out there in the snow getting the last course in before the year is over is she has to. Today she wrote a great blog about Friends with Benefits. Please check it out for a good laugh for the day.

Well the closets are finally in. Carriage House Cabinets did a great job in matching the vanity in the bathroom with the new closet. Now I have to go through my clothes and donate the clothes that I no longer wear. I am actually pretty good about keeping my clothing updated and not letting old clothes sit in the closet. Rick on the other hand tries to keep things for years. I just sneak in and secretly pull items out and put them in my donation pile, don’t tell him because otherwise he will never know it is missing.