Recent Happenings - February 26, 2015 Edition

This edition of Recent Happenings brings you lots of exciting and not-so-exciting developments on the home front!

Dog(s)
As you know, we brought our goldendoodle Gus home last August. He is now a big soon-to-be nine month old puppy. We decided to add a second dog to our family, but we wanted to adopt this time.

I steal socks. It's my thing.

We scoured the web for a few weeks, and finally, found this little guy in Santa Fe. Carson says hi! He is a miniature poodle mix and around 2 years old (according to the shelter) although I think he is more like a year old. 

Gus and Carson are totally adorable together but can play a little rough. In fact, they managed to pull my laptop off the dining room table, which completely destroyed my harddrive. This is why this week's post has been delayed. Thank goodness for Dropbox and Mozy! Saviors! Although it's going to be another 18 hours until my restore is completed!

But I still love them.

House
In addition to having a broken laptop, our water heater decided to crap out on us for the second time since we moved into our house in June.

We were without hot water for two days and finally got to take hot showers last night! Did I mention that we have also been experiencing below average temperatures this week? Cold shower + cold in general = really cold!

New water heater

Besides that, the money pit new house has not been undergoing much work as of late. It still needs a lot of work - master bathroom, living room and kitchen. Plus, miscellaneous items that haven't been completed. I think we will restart on our renovation projects come summertime.

DC
I found myself in DC for part of last week. 28 hours to be exact. Chinese New Year was celebrated last Thursday. Happy Year of the Sheep!

It was so cold while I was in town that I didn't do anything besides go to the office and then hide in my hotel. I hit up the treadmill, and then to get into the spirit of Chinese New Year, I ordered delivery and watched The Housewives of Beverly Hills in my pajamas! Woohoo! 

While I was in town, I also was able try a couple of cold-pressed juices from JRINK Juicery. I had the Pick Me Up (beet, carrot, orange and apple) for breakfast and the Fuel Me Up (pear, kale, cucumber, romaine and lemon) for an afternoon snack. They were both yum!

Running
Running has taken a little bit of a back burner of late due to some ongoing medical challenges. A few weeks ago, I went on a registration kick and signed up for some spring races. I am glad that I stopped because I'm not sure that I will be able to train or run much. I was planning to register for a fall half marathon, but I'm not sure if that is going to happen.

Of the ones that I did sign up for, hopefully, I will at least be able to walk them. For now, I am going to try to kick up my yoga consistency instead.

Happy Thursday, friends!

Valentine's Weekend in Las Vegas

Hope you all had a fantastic Valentine's Day and for those of you who are single, a happy Singles Awareness Day!

Raisin Bread and I spent two lovely days in Sin City. It had been a very long time, over 5 years, since we last visited Las Vegas and there have been lots of changes! 

We left Albuquerque early on Valentine's morning and had a beautiful view of the Grand Canyon and the mountains on our approach to Vegas.

After dropping off our luggage, we spent the morning at the Bellagio. This is one of my favorite hotels because it is so classic and doesn't seem to have aged much. Many of the hotels along The Strip were decked out for the upcoming Chinese New Year, which made our weekend away even more festive. 

I have always loved visiting the Chihuly piece, Fiori Di Como, in the lobby of the Bellagio. Back in the day, I didn't even know who Chihuly was and still was impressed by it!

Dale Chihuly's Fiori Di Como

We were a little early for our breakfast double date with my sister and brother-in-law so we headed to the Conservatory, which was also decorated for Chinese New Year and celebrating the Year of the Ram/Sheep/Goat.

For breakfast, we headed to Jean Philippe Patisserie. 

The entrance to the patisserie had a wild chocolate fountain. Looks so yummy!

As with most things in Vegas, there was somewhat of a wait to place our order and get our food. Raisin Bread ordered the salmon crepe.

I had a nutella and strawberry crepe. It was really delicious and made a sweet start to our weekend.

After breakfast, we visited the Gallery of Fine Art to see the Faberge Revealed exhibit.

The exhibit consisted of four of the famous Easter eggs as well as an assortment of brooches, pendants, parasol handles and picture frames. Seeing the eggs in person always amazes me because of their intricacy and beauty. 

The brother-in-law wanted to see the Penske Wynn Ferrari Maserati showroom at the Wynn Las Vegas, so we hopped a cab and journeyed down the Strip.

The Wynn was also decked out for Chinese New Year.

It was soon lunch time! Vegas = buffets so we hit up the Bacchanal Buffet at Caeser's Palace. I was pretty happy with the selection at this buffet, and only wish I could have stuffed myself more!

My first plate consisted of king crab legs, crawfish and rock crab claws. I also had a fresh carrot juice, oyster shooter and a bloody mary.

For my second plate, I filled up on sushi, charcuterie and roasted carrots, kale and brussels sprouts. Finally, for dessert, I had a pistachio tart, black sesame gelato, almond jelly and a red velvet cupcake. So yummy, but so stuffed.

Cupcake display at Bacchanal Buffet

It was about time for us to finally check in to our hotel, where we took a nice nap and got freshened up for our evening out on the town.

We all reconvened at Planet Hollywood for dinner at Gordon Ramsey Burgr. Las Vegas is teeming with celebrity chef restaurants, and I was happy to finally be able to try one of Gordon Ramsey's.

The outside of the restaurant has this really cool fire window display. 

To start, the table shared an order of the Honey-Pig Bao Buns - roasted pork belly, cucumber radish, cilantro and honey-hoisin sauce. 

Raisin Bread and I weren't exactly starving, so we opted to share a burger. We selected the Britannia, which had English sharp cheddar, mango chutney and arugula. I was unsure about this combination, but it wound up being a really tasty burger. 

We also shared an order of the sweet potato fries, which was accompanied by vanilla powdered sugar and honey jalapeno mayo. Not the best sweet potato fries I've ever had. 

After dinner, we walked down The Strip towards The Mirage for Raisin Bread's Valentine's surprise. Just as we were passing by the Bellagio, the Fountain Show began. I know it's cheesy but the water show makes me happy.

Oh hello, Eiffel Tower!

For Valentine's Day, I got Raisin Bread tickets to The Beatles LOVE, a Cirque du Soleil show. 

This was our third time seeing a Cirque du Soleil show, and as far as they go, this one was okay. There was a lot more dancing and less crazy feats of physicality. It was a fun show still and there were two parts that were truly imaginative.

After the show, my feet were killing me, so we had to go back to the hotel to change. Then we headed back out to visit The Linq and search for some dessert.

The Linq's High Roller

We settled on an old favorite: Sprinkles Cupcakes! We each picked a cupcake and brought them back to the hotel to enjoy in bed. I had the Black & White and the hubs had a Vanilla.

The next morning, Raisin Bread and I took a little running tour of The Strip. We headed south from our hotel and ran past Paris Las Vegas.

We saw the shops of ARIA. 

Waited at a stop light with Elmo and Cookie Monster.

Saw the sights of New York New York.

We turned around after passing the MGM Grand and headed back to our hotel. In total, we made it 2.8 miles.

For brunch, we had buffet #2: Wicked Spoon at The Cosmopolitan.

Of the two buffets, I preferred Bacchanal. Here is a sampling of what I tried: bone marrow, pork belly, sushi, mac and cheese, prime rib, beet salad, thai tea gelato, chocolate molten cake and chocolate covered strawberries.

We didn't have much planned for lunch, so we went with the sister and bro-in-law to the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop from the tv show Pawn Stars. We don't have cable so I have only seen this show a few random times.  

Before we said good-bye to the sister and brother-in-law, we visited one last place. We went to the Paris Las Vegas to go up the Eiffel Tower. I remember now that I had actually been up it before, but I still enjoyed the view from up there. The sky was so clear!

Our visit to Las Vegas ended with dinner at Mon Ami Gabi, also at the Paris Las Vegas. We weren't terribly hungry again, so we wound up sticking with only entrees. 

I had the Sunday special: beef wellington. I wish I had ordered something lighter because it was a tad too much food and a tad too rich.

We browsed around some more before heading to the airport. Here I am pretending to drink out of one of those ridiculous cups!

 I had a fun and romantic weekend. It was nice spending time with the husband and seeing my family members! Until next time, Vegas! Not sure when that will be!