Thoughtful...

Our weather is finally starting to cool down a bit in the evenings and so tonight I thought I would take a walk through the neighborhood. The sun was just setting and it was beautiful. Pink, purple, yellow, orange....peaceful. It fills me. There is a retirement community in the northern part of my neighborhood. This neighborhood...where I walk ...is the same neighborhood that both my grandparents on my mother's side and father's side used to own homes. I visited this neighborhood as a child and as a teenager. This is now my neighborhood...it's strange sometimes...to think...
I see kitchen windows lit in some of these homes, and I remember my grandparents...being in their kitchens...you know...a grandma and grandpa kitchen. You know that smell? Not a bad smell but that smell that always reminds you of your grandparents and lets you know that you are in a special place. I remember as a child traveling out here to Arizona to visit them. My one grandpa was tall with big feet. I remember his clothes...his face...his voice. When we would arrive he would open the door which was in their car port and led right into their little kitchen and say, Well lookey what the cat dragged in. They came out when my brother was born and he was busy doing projects around the house. Even bought the dogs, flea collars. My grandma told me once that I could catch a jackrabbit if I could get salt on it's tail. It got me out of the house and allowed the grown ups to visit, I'm sure. I never did catch one. Fresh squeezed orange juice in little green juice glasses. Grapefruit and grapefruit spoons. I remember sitting in her little t.v. room with her and her describing to me how she was filled with the spirit as she watched General Conference on t.v. Hiding her pills in her grapefruit. Watching her wiggle her fingers at the little puppies we had at the time. My other grandpa....I can still hear him whistling in the bathroom as he shaved. His mustache tickled when he kissed me. He'd come out after getting ready and rub his soft face against my cheek so that I could smell his aftershave. When I smell that smell....I still look around sometimes. His laugh. Dancing. The way he treated my grandmother....so sweet. My grandmother....classy lady. Always dressed so pretty. Her wigs! They were gorgeous on her but I did have a nightmare about them one time. Cooking. Grandma cookies. Sweet tooth...just like me. Dentures. Social butterfly. The hostess with the mostest. I miss them. I'm blessed to have known them. Families are blessings.

Weekend in VEGAS!

Thanks to the stimulus checks we got this year, my roommate and I decided to go to Vegas! I've never been. I've had a couple of trips planned with friends in the past but something always came up and it never worked out. This was my birthday present this year! Part of the whole experience for me was staying in a really nice hotel...something I've never done. We stayed at the Venetian. Here's a picture of the lobby of the Venetian.

We went to Madame Tussuad's (Wax Museum) ...another little something I've always wanted to do. Here are just a few of the many pictures I took there.
Can you see the resemblance between Cameron and I?

Stevie and I are going on the road together! Al Roker stopped Lesli for a quick interview as Larry King waited for his turn.

and so many more...

We saw the very interesting, bizarre, but very entertaining Cirque Du Soleil "O"

The show was at the Bellagio, so when we came out of the hotel, the 'Fountain' show was about to start. Pretty cool! Of course this picture doesn't actually capture how cool it was.We took taxi's to the different hotels and that was part of the whole fun experience. We went to the Dolphin Habitat at Treasure Island. There was a baby dolphin just born that morning. Cute. We also saw the White Tigers and Lions. All of the lights and people, and fun hotel lobbies made the whole thing feel kind of like Disneyland. It's a great place to 'people watch' too. I know that's a stretch...considering it's VEGAS. It was just a fun weekend to get away and do something different.

Oh...and we did waste a ton of food. The first night there I ordered a chicken pot pie. I know...a pot pie? It sounded good at the time. Anyway, this was my pot pie... It was HUGE! It's not like you can get a doggie bag either. Where are you going to keep it? Lesli made me feel better by telling me that she saw an episode of 'Dirty Jobs' that told about a Pig Farm in Nevada that got all of their 'slop' from the left over food at the hotels in Vegas. I felt a little better knowing it was "for the pigs". I just had to keep telling myself that.

See...people can enjoy Vegas without drinking, gambling or going to strip clubs!

Good Times!