07/08/10: If I told you...

...that I was back...

...would you believe me?

I know...I wouldn't either.  :)

I meant to be taking pictures all through Las Vegas for y'all...and I got this one...

Taken when we arrived...at the airport...waiting for our "shuttle".

So last week was a whirlwind of getting ready for the trip.  That and now my boss/supervisor/manager (all of the above, not one or the other) have decided I'm "worthy" and they blessed me with a ton of work.  So my work days may now be tied up with work.  ARGH!

I can't complain about that, seriously, though.  I'm glad I earned myself some highly valued credibility with passing that "Turkey Shoot".  It's about danged time!  It's a hard industry to work in...you don't become valuable without a huge fight...

Anywho...my days were busy and my nights even busier.  Why is it so hard to go on vacation?  Clean the house...pack...laundry...sort out restaurant.com certificates...make dinner reservations for the hard to get into restaurants...set up massages...make sure finances are set up "properly"...we were lucky last week to be crawling into bed by 1am...and back up at 6 to be sure to get to work "on time" so that I could bust my bum...and turn my work over to someone else while I was gone.

It seriously paid off, though.  We had an amazing trip to Vegas - even though we ended up "down".  I am so relaxed and had such a great time that I can't believe that a measure of a successful trip to Vegas is how much money you come home with.  I took what I wanted to spend and I enjoyed spending it!

We got to the airport and called our shuttle service to ensure they were on their way.  Our shuttle turned out to be a limo.  Ok....

We get to the hotel - we stayed at Mandalay Bay.  We asked for an upgrade.  We were upgraded to a suite at "The Hotel".  Our suite was phenomenal and it worked out perfectly for our trip!  I generally get up before my hubby and I could wander out to the "living room" where I could watch tv and stare at the strip until he crawled out of bed and we moved on with our day.  Absolute leisure without ruining his desire to sleep!!!!

We had gone online last week on one of those crazy busy evenings and found certificates through restaurant.com for 6 restaurants at Mandalay Bay.  We bought $300.00 worth of certificates for $30.00.  We had certificates for:

Aureole (the restaurant with the 42 foot wine tower that the girls rappel or ascend for wine)

The Mix (restaurant at the top of "The Hotel" - 62nd floor - with amazing views)

The Cafe (a "basic" place for breakfast or lunch)

Raffles (a basic place that's 24 hours)

Mizuya (a sushi bar)

The Noodle House (really a Chinese restaurant that also has lots of noodle dish or soup options)

All the certificates really worked out well and you can't beat the price.  Restaurant.com is almost always (from what I understand now) selling their half price certificates with an 80% savings if you can find the code word of the day or week.  And if you sign up - they'll send you the code each time a new one comes out!  Aureole and The Mix were both upscale dining and we wouldn't have done two in one trip if it weren't for those certificates....and you can get multiple denominations...

So we are checked in to our suite...and we hit the casino for some gambling.  We had fun with it...

Thursday we got ourselves up, went to The Cafe for breakfast.  T'was good stuff and I ate what I ate.  Then we hit the strip and stopped for some gambling at Excaliber (lost too much money in fifteen minutes) and then over to MGM Grand where we got some of it back.  Walked further up the strip and ultimately headed over to the Rio for their seafood buffet.  We asked when we were paying if I could have the childrens price due to the Lap-Band and they just wanted to see the card that I got for registering as the proud owner of a Lap-Band.  That made it $24 as opposed to $38.  And good thing - cause it was just one little plate that I ate.

We got back to Mandalay Bay eventually and played for a little while with the money we had won back at MGM Grand but when that was gone, we called it an early night instead of tapping into the next days' gambling money.

Friday...ate at Raffles - I had something entirely too spicy and so didn't eat much of it at all.  From there we got ourselves massages.  It's funny.  My hubby and I always get couples massages nowadays and either he has the fantastic massage or I do - but it does not ever seem to be both of us!  Mine was the fantastic one this time!  Perfect, actually!  His...well...I don't think he's ever been as disappointed with a massage.  Grrr.

From there we got ourselves sushi for lunch at Mizuya and then wandered upstairs to get slathered up with sunscreen and headed out to the wave pool and the lazy river and relaxed in one of Vegas' best pools. 

The whole trip just kept getting better each day.  Friday night we went to Aureole and apparently the General Manager  thought we were "somebody".  He checked on us multiple times, gave us coupons for free stuff, gave us his business card and said if we needed anything to call him directly on his cell.

We have no idea what we did to get that treatment but it sure made the experience that much better!

Then Friday night we finally hit the blackjack tables.  And we made back all that we'd lost Weds night and Thurs!

We were up until after 4am Friday night so we slept forever on Sat and skipped breakfast.  Eventually wandered down for lunch and ate at The Cafe.  I, again, had the spiciest thing ever - even my hubby who loves spice couldn't eat it.  So that was sent back and I, luckily, was allowed to order something else.  Saturday afternoon we hit the blackjack tables again and went down a bit.  Then it was time for dinner at The Mix.  We were a tad disappointed in that restaurant.  It didn't seem to be about the food or the ambience but rather it was a place to be seen.  That's not necessarily our cup of tea...

From dinner we headed over to the MGM Grand to see Ka (Cirque de Soleil).  That show really is about the stage.  Not nearly as acrobatic or gymastic as we'd hoped for.  Good show...but we'd say see something else first...

Then back to Mandalay Bay for more gambling.  This time we stayed up all night.  Crawled into bed just in time to watch the sun rise through our floor to ceiling windows facing east.  With the sun firmly up, the drapes were pulled and we were out!!

Sunday we slept not nearly as late as I would have guessed we would have and wandered down to the Strip to pick up some souvenirs.  Ate lunch on the strip then wandered back to Mandalay Bay.  Gambled away our time - we ended up losing...but we had a ton of fun losing it!  Dinner was at the Noodle House and it was fantastic.  Went upstairs to make sure we were packed and then back down to finish our gambling.  Around 11 I said I was done and my hubby took the rest of the money and played for another hour or two.

And then way too suddenly Monday morning the alarm was going off.  Our flight was at 9:30 so our "shuttle" was picking us up at 8.  We got checked out and our bill settled and went out on the floor to play my favorite slot machine one last time.  I turned 40 into 100 in about 5 minutes so that was fun!  Always good to leave a good taste in your mouth when you're leaving Vegas!  Course, I had a good taste, anyway, so that was just icing, as far as I'm concerned!

Got home and now it's back to normal life.  I will be around now, I promise.  Not going anywhere for over a month...have no classes coming up...I'll be here.

I will say, about the eating in Vegas, it worked out well - but I couldn't eat.  Food would go in...and then sit.  By the time it would start to move down, my plate would be cold and I'd be bored/frustrated/fed up...so I didn't eat well.  I did, however, lose weight.  My newest low today has me squarely in the 2-teens.  Hopefully starting up my weight lifting again this week can really get the scale moving again.

The other thing I'll say is that my main incision is now infected.  Well.  It has been.  Somewhere around the end of May it started to reopen.  Yes, it was closed, looked good - I'd started putting on my silicon gel for the scar treatment...and then one day, in May, after spending the day in the pool, a little red dot appeared.  And the red dot has just continued to grow.  At my fill in June (June 15) my RNP told me to start using the Hibiclense again as well as Neosporin.  The Neosporin gave me an allergic reaction so I switched to peroxide at night with the Hibiclense in my shower in the morning.  It didn't really grow much but it didn't go away, either.  Until Vegas.  With the dryness there, it did grow as it dried out more and more.  So I had an appt for a fill on Tues of this week - although I didn't want a fill cause I can't eat! - I did want this looked at again.

They have me on antibiotics now.  And it's definitely starting to look better.  They also wanted me back next week to have an appt with my surgeon.  I was told to stop using the Hibiclense as well as the peroxide.  They also took a culture to verify what kind of bacteria we are dealing with.  They told me to call by tomorrow if it was looking worse or the same...but it really is looking better today...

I hope this continues to improve!  It's scary, I can say that - I just keep having thoughts of what if this is that skin-eating bug?  But I am going with it is improving...so whatever it is...the Clindamycin is working on it!

And that's all I've got!

I'm back.  I promise.  Now I just gotta try to catch up again!