Vegas Vacation 2012

For the first time in many years, Rob and I had a chance to go on vacation together. What better place to celebrate his birthday than Las Vegas!! It is one of our favorite places. Since I have so many Delta miles from travel last year, we booked through Delta Vacations. We got upgraded seats on direct round-trip flights to Vegas and due to my medallion status, we were able to skip the lines for airport security and boarding. We got a great deal for the Paris Hotel, which is directly across from the Bellagio fountains in the center of the strip. Since the booking was only for a standard room, we tried the "complementary upgrade" trick (in which you pass a $20 or $50 in between your licence and credit card to the check-in person) and it worked!! We got a "complementary upgrade" to the 21st floor facing the Paris tower and the Bellagio fountains. It ended up being one of the coolest parts of the vacation - we could watch the fountains from our room any time we wanted!

We did a TON of walking as usual. We strolled through the Bellagio conservatory to see the 2012 Chinese new year "Year of the Dragon" display. We did a Venetian gondola ride and we were serenaded - I highly recommend it! We watched the Mirage volcano, the Sirens of Ti show (which is admittedly not as good in the cooler months than the summer) and we went to Fremont street to watch the light show. Fremont street is so full of lights it is like DAY in the middle of the night. And there's great people-watching there. It was just plain awesome. Rob has always wanted to see David Copperfield and I have never been to a magic show, so we got tickets and that was fun too - he's very entertaining. He made a car appear on the stage right before our eyes! A big highlight for me was learning how to play Craps. I watched Rob the first day then decided to try it on the night of the show. I was there for 3 hours and was up $150, then we cashed out and went to the show. It was so much fun that we went back to the Craps table after the show - and ended up losing it all!! I'm not disappointed though, it was all money from our change bin we've collected for this very purpose. It was fun to learn and I'll definitely play next time.

Here is a link to our 2012 Vegas photo album! http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamers818/sets/72157629177315376/

I want to draw a cat for you!!

Last month, Rob and I were watching "Shark Tank" on ABC - where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a panel of investors. Steve Gladin pitched his idea for www.iwanttodrawacatforyou.com, where people submit their cat drawing idea and he draws it, sends it to you and posts a copy on his website - all for $9.95! He was funded by Mark Cubin and since then the website has exploded! When we watched the show, Rob and I were hysterical. Steve did a song and dance - it was exciting to watch him get funded by Mark! Rob turned to me immediately and said "Buy a drawing from that guy." So we went to his site and submitted our idea.

Onyx and Tabby have now been living with Sheena for about 6 months. Tabby sometimes shows signs of possibly becoming friends in the future - maybe just to mess with Sheena? And I have given up the idea of Onyx and Sheena ever cuddling. Although the spitting and hissing has toned down, Onyx has made it clear she is not interested in any kind of friendship. Tabby is known as "The Striped Fury" due to her unwillingness to let us sleep through the night and constantly causing trouble climbing on counters and messing with the dog. Onyx is known as "The Black Devil" because although she is sweet and cute on the outside, she is a viscious mouse killer on the inside. When we rented the log cabin in NH, she hunted down 2 mice and left them as presents for me at the bottom of the stairs. And anyone who has met Sheena knows how sweet she is. We have been so lucky to have her. She loves us and the kitties and it pains us to see her wimper and whine when the cats look at her threateningly.

Therefore, what better representation of our wonderful pets than to have Steve draw us a picture of Tabby and Onyx (one with a bat, one with a torch) running after our sweet dog? The drawing is already posted and we can't wait to get the original in the mail and frame it! Go to his website to have him draw a cat for YOU!

http://iwanttodrawacatforyou.com/?p=7289

Visit to the Philippines

This year I had the pleasure of visiting the Philippines for 1 week. I went to Muntinlupa City, which is just south of Manila on the island of Luzon. I travelled there for work so I didn’t have the opportunity to see very much, but my co-worker Jeever took me on a drive one afternoon to a town called Tagaytay City. Tagaytay City is on the top of a large hill (approximately 2400 ft). On the way to Tagaytay, we passed pineapple plantations, Jeepneys (more on that later) full of people, rows and rows of fruit stands and a motorcycle with a sidecar filled to the brim with bananas. Tagaytay is somewhat economically depressed, but people there make their living off of fruit crops, hand-crafted wooden furnature and selling Philippino coffee. Amazingly, there is a Starbucks built right at the top point in Tagaytay. After getting our coffees, I followed Jeever to the back, where there was an outdoor sitting area and a panoramic view of the Taal Volcano. We were offered a boat ride across the lake to the volcano crater (1500 PhPs for our group, or a special price of 4500 PhPs for our group in which the seller would make 1500 and my friend Jeever would make 1500 – how nice!) We declined, but I don’t blame the guy for trying. On the way back from Starbucks, we stopped at a fruit stand where I bought a bundle of mangosteens. A mangosteen has a semi-hard purple shell. When you press on the sides, it pops open so you can pick out white pods of sweet/tangy fruit. It tasted a lot like a sweet plum – in pod form!

Although I didn’t go to downtown Manila, I was told the traffic is much like the traffic in Bangkok. In the Philippines, people can catch rides in Jeepneys. Jeepneys are adapted from US military jeeps which were left in the Philippines after WWII. They transformed them into jeep-like buses and they’re used to transport people, produce, and livestock. They’re painted bright and shiny colors and sometimes I saw people hanging off the back! Overall the traffic was not bad in Muntinlupa. In fact, it was a better commute than I have at home! It was not completely safe for me to roam around by myself (mostly because I am about a foot taller than everyone else and I stick out like a sore thumb as a western woman). People thought I was a movie star. I hear there are famous resorts on other parts of the island. If I ever come back for longer than a week, I will bring Rob and we’ll go to a beach resort! All in all, it was a nice trip – a good break from the overcast, cold winter at home. There’s nothing like a little sunshine and warmth in January!!

Here is a link to my Philippines photo album on Flickrr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamers818/sets/72157629160631207/