A clear day

Today is one of those clear days in the Las Vegas Valley. You know - you look out your window and can actually see the mountains. I hate those days that it is so hazy that you can't see the mountains. All that particulate matter in the air just can't be healthy...

Rainy Monday

Today is one of those rare rainy days in Vegas. A two hour thunderstorm last night was pleasant. I'm surprised the dogs didn't go completely crazy during the storm itself. Poor Thorndyke had to go out and he won't go in the rain.

Weekend was a little crazy. Friday was a great double-date with our new friends Mike and Kara. Dinner at the Elephant Bar and then we saw Superbad. So funny. It wasn't on our list to see, and not sure if it was worth the $10 a ticket, but we enjoyed ourselves. Plus, it gave us the ability to visit Green Valley Ranch, one of our favorite locals casinos.

Saturday, Keds and I slept in until 9 a.m.! That's huge for us. So relaxing. We started looking at new office furniture for both of us. We are definitely going to use the Ethan Allen Design Service - especially to put some sort of theme to the casita. Dad and I were able to hang two of three kitchen valences which make the room look a little softer, a little more finished. Saturday night was UFC at Lloyd and Teri's.

Sunday, we were out of the house early and were able to run a few errands and pay a visit to the new Best Buy that opened up around the corner. That'll be dangerous. My Mom, Lora and Madison came over, and we spent a nice afternoon in our pool. Madison was extremely cute and definitely didn't want to get out of the pool. If you'd like a more in-depth recap, check out Lora's blog here. We closed out the evening with our neighbors the Bowens. It was a little bit of a cluster - Casey ended up writing a contract for a new home and Jennifer got tied up showing their rental property. If you know anyone looking for a new home in the Aliante area, it's a great house. It wasn't built as a rental, and since they both worked for Pulte when it was built, there are some nice custom features. We ended up having a nice evening, even if it was a bit rushed.

So here we are on Monday. The skies are clearing. Keds is off to LA tomorrow and Wednesday to finish up some stuff on her Mom's house and then we are looking ahead to our Interior Design appointment on Thursday and straight into Labor Day weekend!

PS - Someone is back in blog-land. Click here to find out who!

Friday Findings

So I just got back from seeing my doctor. I love my doctor. Uber-thorough and someone who clearly keeps tabs on his patients. Because of two meds that I am on, I need to go in 3 times a year so he can check liver and kidney function. It only sort of sucks because I have to fast ahead of the appointment. Keds is doctor shopping since she'll have to stop seeing her SMA "Dial a Doctor" when she finally comes off Cobra.

So today, we truck down to his office at Vegas Valley and Maryland Pkwy. My appointment was at 10:30. I got called back around 10:45 or so. He comes in around 11 a.m. and then sees me (I was the first patient of the day). I go to the nurse to schedule my annual in four months. I ask about blood work and she said the lab is closed! So I fasted and schlepped down to Sunrise Hospital for no apparent reason! Oh well...at least my annual got scheduled.

In other news, I got my second replacement American Express card in a month. All because of two stupid airline tickets that someone in Jamaica booked. These aren't mine to pay, and I wish that the Customer Service agents would have told me to submit this as fraud versus a dispute. I could have saved a lot of time and aggravation. Besides, it's like $1000 on that card.

Another weekend home. That's exciting. My Dad and I are going to install the valences Maureen made for us a few months ago.

We bought new living room furniture this week. We debated between good quality/pay a little more or less expensive, but maybe some cool features.

We ended up (don't laugh) buying Ethan Allen. It wasn't that much more expensive than RC Willey or Wickes Furniture (we won't buy from Walker again), and it looked substantially better made. Plus, you get their design consultant service for FREE! That's so freakin' awesome. She came out, brought samples of each of the lines we were looking at, measured the room and the pieces that are staying and will put together a floor plan for our review. She even measured out the casita so that we can put that room together as well. I only agreed to get the furniture begrudgingly, but I see the need. Now that we have committed, I'm looking forward to having it come in!

Sunday, we have Lora and Madison coming over to go swimming that should be fun!

Still seepy

I hate my job. And my animals. Not really, but both kept me from sleeping in this weekend. On Saturday, it was my job. My phone rang around 7 a.m. (after a lovely wrong number at 6:30 a.m.) to let me know phone lines were down. After making a bunch of phone calls, the issue was resolved. But the damage was done. Keds and I were up.

On Sunday, it was the bloody dogs. Keds is getting better at telling Thorndyke no, because letting him out is a waste of time if Rosebud doesn't have to go out. But he gets all yippy and barky.

Other than this, it was an OK weekend. Helped Teri in her classroom, did a LOT of furniture shopping and had dinner with my folks last night. The weekend didn't turn out the way we want, but it was OK.

It was just hard this weekend. It's hard to believe it's been a year of the events of a year ago August. Keds definitely was struggling with it for most of the weekend. She will always miss her Mom, but it's just a matter of can she move on. I think she's getting there. I just wish I could fix things for her...

I survived

I know - I'm a big wuss. I've put off going to the dentist since 1995. I went briefly in 2005 for a cleaning, but that dentist had me getting like 8 fillings or something insane and was charging me an arm and a leg. I chickened out and never got them taken care of.

Even this year, Keds (who rumor has it may be blogging again soon - she's redone her formatting) made me an appointment that I had rescheduled not once but three times. They only found 3 cavities - all on the same side of my mouth. But cavities mean the drill. Drilling teeth hurt - and I don't trust Novocaine. But given that Newman had to endure a double hip replacement with nothing more than a local, I figured I could suck it up and survive it.

We got there, I was led back to the impending chair-o-doom. Clearly nervous the hygienist tried her best to assure me things would be OK. Then the dentist came in and tried to reassure me. What I will say about the dentist in Green Valley was at least he had TV screens to entertain me. First, the initial numbing gel. After a little bit came the Novocaine. My bottom gums didn't feel too numb when he came back to check on me, so he gave me a little more. Then came the drilling. After a few minutes, Keds came back to check on me and she stayed the rest of the time.
I think I was in the chair for less than an hour, and I survived. I'm not going to let this go on too long again. I can't freakin' stand the dentist.

Showtime Rules!

One of our favorite shows is back! Weeds' season premiere was last night on Showtime and boy was it a hoot and a half! For those of you that have never seen it, it's about a suburban LA widow (Mary-Louise Parker) who needs to find a way to support herself and her two kids following her husband's sudden death. So to support herself, she turns her side job selling, well, weed, into her full time gig. With her mooching brother in law, her accountant (Kevin Nealon) and her freinemy Celia (Elizabeth Perkins), it is just one of our very favorite shows.

When we last left our heroine Nancy (Parker), she was staring down about half a dozen guns (and not small ones at that), her FBI Agent "husband of convenience" had just been killed by a bunch of angry Armenians, her eldest was on the verge of being arrested and her youngest had run off with Uncle Andy's girlfriend. But she was still able to hold on to her cell phone and Diet Coke.

I won't go into a plot summary (you can find a good one on TVGuide.com this morning), but we'll see as the various plot elements from last season are coming together we'll see how they effect the direction of this season.

We also watched the premiere of Californication. David Duchovny in his first series-starring gig post-X-Files. We are going to reserve judgment on this one. His character is a little too morally depraved for Keds' taste I think. He's clearing trying to replace his ex-girlfriend with a series of clearly loose women in Hollywood. I'll give it four episodes before deciding if it stays on DVR or not.

But seriously, check out Weeds. It's good stuff (pun intended).

Weekend Update

Ahhhh....The first of at least two weekends at home. We'll chalk it up to an adjustment weekend. We got some shopping done for me and Keds helped Teri build up her work wardrobe. Saturday night we had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. Paymon's Mediterranean Restaurant on Sahara. Sunday was a relaxing day with church, breakfast with the folks, some quality pool time and dinner with friends.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all peaches and cream this weekend. The biggest struggle that Keds and I are going to face in her transition into "sabbatical" is that her expectations of the weekend and my expectation of the weekend are going to have undergo some serious discussion. I'm sure we'll work through it, it just isn't something we even thought would be an issue.

This is going to be a tough week, for reasons many of your should know. We'll get through it, but I'm sure there will be plenty of tears along the way.

What am I packing for?

Here it is Thursday, and we aren't going anywhere this weekend or next. Quite the foreign concept. You mean we are actually be in town this weekend? Whatever will we do with ourselves? Part of me just wants to stay home and do nothing. The other part says we should do something fun and get out of the house.

I know something for sure - I am going to log some serious pool time this weekend.