Checking in

..into a Mental Hospital, you ask?? Nope, not quite yet. (heh heh)

Just getting back to normal after the glitz and sparkle of Vegas. (Gawd, I love that word!) Sitting in the Vegas airport, waiting for our plane to load, Shawn went and bought me a magazine for the trip...... Caribbean Travel & Life.

One word....... Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh

One question...... When do we leave?

So we're just getting off one vacation and I'm already planning and drooling over the next one.

We'll see.

What else? Oh, Shawn's Birthday was celebrated this past weekend. Dinner with my parents on Friday night, fight night with the boys at the house on Saturday and birthday pie and presents on Sunday. His actual birthday was Monday, so he got the weekend package deal. Cole wanted to go fishing like last year, but it was a bit too cold. I just hope Shawn had a great time :)

Cole ended up getting sick Friday night and into Saturday morning. He was fine the rest of the weekend, didn't eat much but no biggie. He helped me garden Sunday afternoon and then went to the park to really wear him out! But he woke up at midnight, he had gotten sick again.

Monday was a "stay home" day. We went to see Dr. Mickey in the morning and she said that everything looked OK, that he just had a virus. He was the 3rd patient she had seen that morning with it. Bleh.

So back home we went, on the couch with some liquids and cartoons. He was asleep within a half hour.

It was a gorgeous spring day outside, so I took full advantage of it. I couldn't go to work, I couldn't go anywhere..... so I went out in the sunshine in my yard. Ahhhhhhh....... I had my coffee buzz, I was productive, I was edging, I was weeding, I was pruning, I was cleaning out by the rhodies and that's when I had my own little melt down. Coulee.

There was his little spot in our garden, under the rhodies. Little purple wildflowers growing all around him. It was surreal - 2 months ago, I was out here in February in the cold and the damp, digging a whole in the ground to place him in. Out here on my hands and knees in my snow coat with my gloves and little hand shovel digging a final resting place for him. It was therapeutic in a way - doing all the work myself, putting my sweat and many tears into his final resting place. The grey sky looming overhead and tiny sprinkles falling on my back. But it had to be done. He had served me so well and now it was my turn, it was the least I could do.

So here I am again, the same spot, but a brighter and warmer day. I still miss him terribly. This hurt has taken a long time to dissipate. I know with Spring here, I will miss him even more - he was always with me when I was gardening and doing yardwork. Always. Pest-like at times, wanting to be petted and paid attention to. And I always found the time.

Some of you may not understand, "he's just a cat" you're thinking. But think about if your Dog was gone. Coulee was my "dog".

I didn't intend for this post to be so somber, I apologize. Spring is here and I'm loving everything about it !!!!!!! Go out and smell those Lilacs!!!

Viva Las Vegas

"Slots of Fun" !!

I think that was our slogan for the whole trip. If you've been on "The Duece" and remotely paid attention, you'd know.

The Duece....... the super-slow double decker bus that stops at (practically) *every* Hotel on the strip. Which is good and bad. Bad, 'cuz it feels like an hour to get to Old Town, but great 'cuz you can get on and off 24 hours a day - whenever, wherever.

It was - in all the cliche words I could find - Amazing, Fantastic, Phenomenal, Overwhelming and Electric!!

We stayed at the Luxor which was an awesome engineering feat, considering the inside is hollow. So they have "inclinators", not elevators. (Fancy-schmancy) A little weird to get used to at first, with that side-ways motion. And when you walk out of your Hotel room, you look down into the foyer and see nothing below you - yikes!

Since it was both Shawn & my first time there, we were a little awestruck taking it all in. I think we agreed we liked Old Town better than the newer part of The Strip, but either way it was all HUGE and sparkly. (what a great word)

I loved seeing the Flamingo, the heart of Vegas where Bugsy started it all. (well, not all). Bellagio, Caesars Palace, The Eiffel Tower at Paris, The Venetian, New York New York and of course, The Luxor were all awesome to roam thru at 3:30 in the morning!!!! Yep, we did it two nights in a row - in my opinion, the BEST way to see Vegas!

There also happened to be a Champ Car race the weekend we were there and thanks to Shawn's awesome friend, Chris, we got pit-passes once again!

We saw a Magic Show with white tigers, black panthers and the coolest Transported Man trick I've ever seen!

We saw the Lions at MGM Grand, saw an Imax Lion film with an 80 foot screen, visited the sharks at Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay and I was able to pet a Ray (my favorite!) which was very soft and slimy..... and I pet a shark. Yep, all in Vegas.

My one disappointment was missing the fountains at the Bellagio......... if you know me well, you know that I was almost in tears on the Vegas Strip when I realized it was 1am and the last showing of the fountains is at Midnight..... ugh.

It just means I have to go back.