"Your Mother Was A Hamster..."

DAY THREE

Friday morning started out with an appointment at the Salon in the Paris. I got a haircut and then met up with Erin in the lobby. We enjoyed some tasty crepes at La Creperie and then sat by the pool for an hour or so.

Once cooked sufficiently, we went back upstairs and napped until Scott returned from the poker tables. Erin gave us a ride to Caesars Palace so we could stroll along the Forum Shops. Surprisingly, I didn't find anything I wanted to purchase that was anywhere NEAR my price range, so we walked back to the Paris - much relieved to arrive back in the air conditioning.

Scott and I found sandwiches for a late lunch at the Boulangerie, then rested upstairs until it was time to get ready for the evening.

Dressed in our best, we met in Gary and Carla's room before acquiring two cabs to take us to the Wynn for our evening event.

We arrived with about 10 minutes to showtime, which was just enough for a bathroom break and quick stop at the souvenir table where I purchased an official program and Killer Bunny hand puppet.

John O'Hurley stars as King Arthur in SPAMALOT - "a musical lovingly ripped off from the classic film comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail", joined by The Lady of the Lake and the Knights of the Round Table. Whether you have seen the film that inspires the musical or not, SPAMALOT is chock-full of laughs, insults and elderberries. Scott is a HUGE Monty Python fan, and the rest of us are MP appreciators at the very least, so the show brought us much enjoyment.

Just outside the Grail Theater is the restaurant Corsa. I ordered side dishes as an entree as I wasn't very hungry, and enjoyed the potatoes very much. The Broccolini was nasty. We finished off dinner sharing a Tiramisu before taking a short tour of part of the beautiful Wynn casino.

Two Pianos, Aparte?

DAY TWO

We slept in until about 9am on Thursday, and would probably have slept longer if it wasn't for being woken by Scott's mom letting us know she was on her way to the pool. We managed to throw ourselves together and stumbled down to find deck chairs. In the water we were able to withstand the blistering heat, but only for about an hour and a half. Gary came down and took us to lunch at the poolside cafe around 11:30am.

After lunch we cleaned ourselves up and braved the strip long enough to cross the street and head into the Miracle Mile shops attached to Planet Hollywood (previously the Aladdin).

The ladies enjoyed the wonders of Sephora and then Scott whooped for joy when he saw the Ben Sherman store. I bought him two pairs of shorts and some shirts as an early birthday present, we then re-joined with Carla, Kevin and Katie and had a "snack" at P.F. Changs.

We napped for a bit and then headed downstairs to Napoleon's Dueling Piano bar. The ladies had drinks while the men had cigars and then we proceeded to a late night dinner at the Boulangerie/Patisserie nearby.

"It's Like a Heat Wave, Burning in My Heart"

DAY ONE

My second (ever) trip to Las Vegas began on the morning of July 4th. We managed to pack and finish cleaning our house within about 2 hours, then threw our luggage into a taxi and headed to the airport.

Our plane from Key West to Miami was on time, and while we waited, Scott took a Dramamine and I took a Benadryl. I managed to stay awake long enough to snap some great shots of the water and then crashed for the remainder of the half-hour flight.

Touching down in Miami we were met by a bus to take us to the gate. After off-loading into the terminal, we prepared for the 3 hour layover by eating a personal Pizza Hut pizza and finding a spot to nap. As the boarding time grew closer, we collected ourselves only to be notified by the P.A. system that due to the thunderstorms in the area, the American Airlines ramp was closed.

Our original departure time was 3:30pm and we watched the announcement board change to 4:00pm with disgust and then hope, as we boarded the aircraft at about 4:30pm. Sadly, once on board we sat at the gate for about another hour, waiting for the ground crew to finish loading our luggage. Apparently the union has a rule that if there is any lightning, the ground crew is not allowed outside. Why they think lightning would strike a person as opposed to any number of the other much LARGER objects nearby is beyond me.

Touchdown at McCarren airport was about two and a half hours later than anticipated, but we managed to get our bags and a taxi to the hotel by 8:30pm, despite the 114 degree heat.

Scott's parents, sister, and brother-in-law met us at the front door of The Paris, swapped us our bags for beverages, and we made our way to our room. We took about an hour to decompress and then took off walking for The Venetian.

If you've never been to Vegas, you don't realize how big it is. Not just that the buildings are big, or that everyone is "over-the-top", but that The Strip is several miles long. Just because you can see another casino/hotel from your own quite clearly, does not mean it is a ten minute walk.

We dodged slow tourists and finally arrived at our goal, only having to wait about 15 minutes for a table at the Grand Lux Cafe.

Dinner and drinks down the hatch, we walked at a much more leisurely pace back to our hotel, where I went to bed and everyone else went back downstairs with the intention to gamble, although Kevin was the only one that really managed to stay up. It was to his fortune though, as he won about $775 playing poker.

Out of The Desert

We have returned from our vacation in Las Vegas.

My brain is cooked.

I will regale you with tales of our escapades after a nap.

Let the Battle Begin.

I have a confession to make. I have been boastful. I have been downright holier-than-thou stuck up and proud of it.

Every day, customers ask for recommendations on how to combat the flea and tick infestation of the lower Keys. I dutifully tell them which products are the most popular, which sell out quickest, what the groomer recommends, but I invariably come to the end of my knowledge and admit that we "haven't had a problem" at our house with fleas or ticks at all.

About a month ago we took Buster to a local dog park and within about 5 minutes, I had about 30 flea bites on my legs. The next two weeks saw me covered in hydrocortizone cream during the day, and a baking soda & lemon juice paste in the middle of the night. I had to take Benadryl to even get to sleep.

A few days ago I started getting bites around my ankles. I was assuming this was due to the fact that I take the dog out, and there must be fleas where I walk with him.

Last night, I found a flea on the duvet. Tonight I found a flea on my arm. As we were dozing off, Buster spooning with Scott, Scott said "Buster has a tick." I was really hoping he meant that Buster had developed a head jerk or leg kick, but the truth is out... It was a real Tick. Gross.

The bastard was extricated and flushed. Buster will visit Bernadette for a dip tomorrow, and I will take advantage of my employee discount to purchase combative products.

The worst part of all is that I can no longer hold my head high and declare that we "don't have a problem with that." My naivety is crushed, much like the tick between folds of toilet paper.

Crafty!

As far back as I can remember I have loved making stuff. I was a footwear designer at an early age, manufacturing a ballet-style shoe from a single sheet of paper and about half a roll of Scotch tape.

Another step in my fashion design career was creating clothes for my Barbie dolls. The ribbed portion of a sport sock makes a lovely tube dress with holes cut in the sides for the arms. My mom was less than enchanted with the idea, primarily because they were her socks. Further exploits for the benefit of Barbie eventually became what my parents referred to as "the Pueblo Community", stacked cardboard boxes on their sides, each box a room that had been treated to my early stabs at interior design.

I stayed for days at a time with my maternal grandparents growing up, and my grandmother taught me to bake, sew, crochet and gave me many opportunities to make something out of something else. My cousin Josquin and I once created an entire "Macaroni Ranch" from uncooked noodles of all varieties. Last summer we brought the ranch down out of storage and after about 20 years, it still looked pretty good!

I always enjoyed clay, I remember sculpting a bust of my father that was about 3 inches tall and yellow. I painstakingly made his beard with the help of a thumb-tack.

During elementary school, the walls of my bedroom were papered with drawings of everything from the Portland, Oregon skyline done in Mr. Sketch to abstract portraits of imaginary characters - heads in triangle shape.

While in high school at a boarding school, my amateur sewing skills came in handy when girls wanted to make shorts from their jeans. Cut-offs were outlawed for their raggedy hems, but I was able to hem them easily.

A few years later I took up embroidery and my canvas of choice was denim. I covered the entire right leg of a pair of hand-me-downs with yarn and floss flowers and vines. A few friends would bring me a pair of jeans and some floss and I would return the jeans to them with the design of their choice (usually more flowers and vines).

I took up painting with acrylics about ten years ago and will complete a painting (usually an abstract of swirls and lines) every couple of years.

About two years ago I remembered that I had learned a method of finger-crochet sometime during my Pathfinder career, and started making scarves just in time for winter and Christmas that year. I then realized that several scarves side by side is a blanket and have since been crafting blankets with my hands.

I also dove headfirst into the scrapbooking rage and have been scrapbooking for about 5 years now.

When my ADD kicks in, I switch projects, which generally results in 4 or 5 ongoing projects around the house at once. At the moment I have 3 different scrapbooks started, a blanket in the works and a pair of shorts that I'm getting ready to embroider.

I'm a Lame-O

A friend of mine has started a blog. I commend him on his ambition to blog daily. I suspect that he is more focused with his "free" time than I am, seeing as my posting is becoming fewer and farther between.

If anyone is wondering (I know you aren't, just play along anyway) here is a rundown of how I spend my time...

5 Days a week I work 8 hours at The Pampered Pet, a local pet store here in Key West. Work at a pet store entails organization, cleaning, stocking, re-stocking, re-organizing, answering questions, catching fish, turtles, mice, birds and rats for sale, feeding and watering, cashiering, making signs, taking messages and special orders and a lot of running back and forth. My usual shift is from noon to close. I usually wake up around 10:30am and manage to get to sleep by about 1am. Between coming home from work and going to bed I often update the web page for the store, uploading pictures and information for new arrivals. (Pampered Pet Web Page)

The two days I don't work (usually Wednesday and Sunday) I usually sleep in until around noon, then try and spend time outside for awhile before catching up on laundry and miscellaneous house cleaning. More often than not I spend a few hours online every day, splitting my time between a forum that I administrate (BW Refugees), checking my email, checking my Myspace accounts (Personal, Music, Senior Class), catching up on the Young and the Restless since I never have time to watch it, reading various other blogs (Jim, Jake, Defective Yeti), updating my family website, updating our wedding website, and now Catster accounts for my three cats (Chou, Minx and Maui).

We are also home to a Boxer (Buster) that needs love, attention, food, water and walking, a Hamster (Tempura) that requires a cage cleaning once a week, a Betta (Won-Ton) that gets fed daily and a water change once a week, and several outdoor plants that need watering and dead-heading.

This week two baby raccoons took up residence on the porch, one of them is blind. Scott says I am running a furry soup kitchen.

Clearly, I am ready for a vacation, which I will be getting in just a few days, as I get to travel to Las Vegas with Scott for a family vacation.

Did I mention I'm planning a wedding that's taking place in 294 days?

ACK.

Not All Appetizers Are For Eating

I never had a Hamster when I was growing up. I had cats, and in 8th grade I got a dog that ended up being my mom's when I went to boarding school, but I never had a Hamster.

Working at a pet store has brought me new respect for many types of animals. I never thought that birds were anything special until I met a baby Macaw about two months old. I've also learned a lot about many types of fish, reptiles and rodents.

Something I learned about hamsters is that there are many varieties, and they don't all get along. One of the hamsters that arrived in our store is a solitary type and couldn't be kept in the habitat with the other hamsters. I watched this hamster climb the sides of the small bird cage she was in and admired her acrobatic abilities. Every night when I was doing my closing duties I would take her from her cage and carry her around with me.

Finally I decided that this hamster needed to join our menagerie and I brought her home. Scott's statement (after commenting on my insanity) was "We already have a Betta named Won-Ton, is this ANOTHER appetizer for the cats?"

It therefore pleases me to introduce the newest member of our family: Tempura the Hamster.

7 Months.

I arrived in Key West on September 18, 2006. In these last seven months I have become accustomed to living on a tropical island.

In some ways, Key West reminds me of the island of Maui. Similar weather and wildlife, but not as many volcanoes. The local wildlife is primarily chickens, which are protected.

We have settled into somewhat of a routine, spending the majority of our time together on weekends. The marina in downtown Key West is our favorite place to walk, and we often start the journey with a meal or drinks at Dante's or Pepe's, make a stop at Kermit's Key Lime Pie Shoppe, and end up by A&B Lobster House or even Island Dogs on Front street.

We make it to church up the Keys about 3 times a month and like to hit the beach at Bahia Honda in the afternoon.

The best Thai restaurant is on Key Largo and the best Grilled Cheese sandwich is at Bobalu's Southern Cafe.

We have been honored to have guests in the last few months, the first being my cousin Giselle, followed by Kirk and Denny the following week and Scott's parents a few weeks ago. We really enjoy showing off our favorite spots in the Lower Keys and finally purchased dining room chairs so we were able to make dinner a few times with Gary and Carla.

I have made the trip to the west coast twice; once with Scott in December for Christmas and then again alone in early March to sing back-up for Megan's CD release concert and finish recording my first song.

We made some friendships initially that have kind of fizzled out over the last few months, but friendships we felt were pretty shallow to begin with have proven themselves much stronger.

I have changed jobs and am now really enjoying my time at work daily and having a wonderful time working with the wide variety of creatures at the store. I am excited to be learning about many different animals and their environments, and testing myself on my knowledge of freshwater and saltwater fish.

Scott and I's relationship has only become stronger in the last seven months. When we moved here to Florida, we had only ever spent about 14 days together and that was spread out over 5 months. Our drive from Washington to Florida was the longest consecutive time we had spent together up until that point and was a real test of our friendship as well as our relationship (and our tolerance of felines). Since our engagement in December we have been steadily growing together and enjoying our family of animals.

And most importantly, the cats don't hide on top of the refrigerator from the dog anymore.

Fun With Birds

Working at the pet store has given me the opportunity to learn about a lot of animals I knew nothing about.

This is Bam-Bam... a Blue and Gold Macaw, of the parrot family. To his left is an African Grey Timneh, also a parrot. They are both about 14 weeks old and came to the store at a few weeks old when they still looked like a cross between a porcupine and a plucked chicken.

Another of the baby birds was a Green-Cheeked Conure. I called him Squik and tried not to get too attached, but he was a character and easy to love. He went to a wonderful home last week and I miss him dancing around in front of the door of his cage lecturing me to let him out to play. I don't miss him climbing up onto my head and pooping on my back.

The next day my other favorite animal - a white chinchilla - went to a great home. I am very happy for him, especially considering that he used to escape out of his cage every night at the store and would run rampant until we could extricate him from under the shelves of pine bedding.

This week we welcomed more baby birds, a few Conures, two more African Greys and an Umbrella Cockatoo.

Pet Food Update

Please go to Menu Foods website for their press release info: http://www.menufoods.com/recall/index.html

Also, please go to Science Diet's website to see info on the type of dry cat food that has been recalled. http://www.hillspet.com/menu_foods/md_Recall_03302007_en_US.htm

CNN Is Retarded.

The recent crisis over contaminated pet food has been a big pain to our store, and all stores across the country.

It was confirmed by ALL of our suppliers immediately following the initial debacle that the DRY FOOD IS FINE. It is made by a different manufacturer than the canned/pouched food (Menu Foods, Inc.).

This week CNN and several other news programs aired footage of a camera sweeping the shelves of a pet store and included dry food in that footage. DUMB-ASSES. The dry food is NOT contaminated.

After several concerned calls and visits from our patrons, I myself have spoken with our suppliers AGAIN and confirmed this.

I don't watch CNN anyway, but I'm certainly not going to start. Another good reason for that is that since I live in Florida, I get all the Anna Nicole news I need on local television. Gag.

Chinchilla Loving Rock Star

My new job is going very well. I am working full time at a local pet store in Key West and really enjoying the animals and my coworkers. I'm learning a lot about all our animals every day and tempted constantly to take home a Chinchilla or the female yellow lab currently in the store.

We dealt quickly with the national recall of some canned/pouched foods and all our animals are safe.

This past week I spent 8 days in Portland, Oregon. I was flown out courtesy of Kevin Brusett to sing backup for Megan's CD release concert.

I arrived on Tuesday afternoon in Portland and was fortunate to spend the afternoon being pampered at The Colour Authority before celebrating Lou's birthday with dinner and a cake from Jaciva's. Two of Lou's sisters and some other of his extended family joined us and we had a very enjoyable dinner.

Wednesday I finished the first song for my album. Jared and I spent time at The Pulpit with Jim Walker getting the electric guitar tracks done. The finished product turned out GREAT.

Rehearsals for the concert were Wednesday night and Friday night, so I interspersed them with visiting with lots of friends and my mom. We got some wedding stuff accomplished, I tried on the dress I love on Monday and Mom bought it for me! She also took Monica, Connor and I to lunch afterward at Claim Jumper, which is a fantastic restaurant, and we then proceeded to Piece Of Cake in Milwaukie to taste wedding cake flavors.

Megan's concert went very well, she was backed by Tim Ellis on 2nd guitar, TJ Arko on drums, Mike Lee on bass, and myself as backup vocalist. The audience packed the venue and screamed enthusiasm between each song. Megan's writing style is very honest and has an easy flow to it, without being at all trite or predictable. I really enjoyed learning and performing her music.

The current extra-curricular activity is preparing the household for Scott's parents visit on Saturday. Buster enjoyed a trip to Bernadette the Groomer today and smells very good. He wasn't too sure about the cleaning out of the ears, but didn't mind having his toenails trimmed at all. The cats won't be subjected to the same treatment, but we ARE trying to keep them from anointing the couch with more fur than necessary.

B.Y.O.T.

One of the first things we did after arriving in Key West was buy plants. We started with a beautiful Yellow Hibiscus tree, two pink Mandevilla and two "house" plants. One house plant has been outside for the last 3 months, and the other is dead - both due to Minx thinking they were her own private salad.

A few weeks later I decided to try my hand at container gardening for actual edibles. I had purchased a tomato growing kit for $1 at Target several months before I moved, and decided it was time to try it out. The kit included a 2-inch clay pot, some soil and some seeds. My first attempt is now 4 feet high, has several flowers and even 1 baby tomato growing.

At that same time I started seeds for lettuce. They have since grown up and been eaten.

We also purchased baby plants for oregano, basil, jalapenos, early girl tomatoes, rosemary, cilantro, italian parsley and catnip. We can't use the basil and oregano fast enough, but are enjoying cooking with fresh herbs. Scott made homemade cornbread last week with one of the first jalapenos.

The picture above is the first early girl tomato and we are anxiously awaiting it's maturation!

Life Is Rough

The weather in Key West since we returned from our Christmas vacation has been the coldest I've felt yet. The skies are often grey and it drizzles now and then.

Last Thursday was an exception. Sunny and around 80. Donna, Ray and I stopped on the way back to the office to have lunch at a pub on the Boca Chica Naval Base.

The view is beautiful and I enjoyed my grilled cheese sandwich in serenity.

I feel like I work with a Bunch of Animals.

I started a 2nd job this last week at a local pet store helping out in the office. I'm having a lot of fun and getting a few extra hours in which helps since my main job was cut to 30 hours right after Christmas. On Friday when I went into the office at the pet store, I got to hang out with a beautiful red and blue parrot named Abigail.

We spent the last two days madly cleaning our condo as the realtor had an open house today for a couple of hours. Our condo is for sale and if it sells and the new owner does not want to rent it out, we will have 30 days to move. Fortunately for us, there were no offers today.

Adventures in Doggiesitting

This is Niko. He is a baby boxer, about 4 months old. He and Buster have been buddies for a couple of months and we had the privilege of keeping him overnight while his "parents" went to Miami.

Niko has learned to sit and shake, and is working on mastering stay and lie down. He is also learning to master his bladder, which we discovered when he anointed Buster's bed as we were getting ready to go to sleep.

Our three cats didn't mind him much until he decided to chase them up the stairs, but we had foreseen this problem and put up a baby-gate so the cats could get a reprieve from his desperate requests to play with him.

Buster was very patient, even let Niko bite his ears and steal his chew toys, but was more than a little bit relieved when it was time for Niko to go home.

Website for Details

http://www.ewedding.com/v20/main.php?a=scottylovesreese

Important Stuff

A year from now we will either be married or living in the Northwest.

Let the saving begin!

Since You Asked...

What we DO know:
We are planning to get married in the Portland metro area, either this fall or the following spring. It will likely be an indoor wedding as Portland weather is not reliable enough to schedule outdoors.

Kevin Brusett will do the officiating, Monica Elie is the Matron of Honor. Scott is working on getting his attendant list finalized.

I'm compiling a guest list and it's looking bigger every moment! We're hoping to get a rough number of guests so we know how big of a venue we will need, so we can figure out a rough budget and then how long it will take to save up for it.

I've picked out a frontronner in the dress department and we've narrowed down styles for Scott. I'd like the colors to be white, deep dark red, and a deep dark orange.

What we DON'T know:
Date & Venue

I'll update as we know more...