Vegas pics part two

Here are some random picture of the Strip. They aren't THAT good (except for the one of Excaliber, which came out awesome), but let's face it--ANY pic of the Strip lit up at night is going to be a good one, even the blurry ones.

(And, like any post with multiple pictures, there are some spacing issues in these 2 posts, but this is about as good as it's going to get.)

Vegas pics part one

Here are some pics of Dave and I when we went to fancy dinner at Gallagher's (in New York, NY - Las Vegas).

And here's one at a photo booth earlier in the day.

I'm married!!!!

I'm just messin' with ya...we didn't really elope. We DID have a great time in Vegas, though.

Where did I leave off? I believe it was Wednesday some time. We went to the live stage version of The Price is Right, which was just like being at an actual taping but without the Bob Barker and audience members were able to play along at their seats. It was a blast, but neither of us won anything--or even made it to Contestant's Row, dammit. After that, we visited some of the other casinos, rode a roller coaster at the New York casino and just had a blast. (I collected matchbooks from each casino we went to; I still have some in Dave's suitcase but over the course of our visit, we went to MGM Grand--aka our "home casino"; Bally's; Mirage; Harrah's; Flamingo; Caeser's Palace; Paris-Las Vegas and New York, NY-Las Vegas....holy crap. As I type this list, I realize that we did pretty damn good. If you've never been there, there's a monorail that you can take from casino to casino, which makes getting around VERY easy.)

Thursday, we went to the Mirage for Sigfried and Roy's Secret Garden/Dolphin Habitat. I have to say, dolphin-wise, the Dolphin Research Center was actually better, but this place was cool, too. It had an underwater viewing area, so that was something I've never seen before--at the DRC, once they go back underwater, they're out of sight. The Garden had lions, tigers, leopards, etc. It was here that we had the distinction of getting marked/sprayed by a tiger. Pretty gross, eh? Yeah, I know you're jealous.

That evening, we got all duded up and went out to a fancy dinner. We got pictures taken; I'll get them scanned and posted ASAP. I wore a DRESS, even. A black one.

After dinner, we went back to the tables one last time. (I should mention that during any "down time" this week, if we weren't our sightseeing or eating or sleeping, we were probably at the tables.) In the end (of course) we lost, but damn, did we have some more "Vegas moments," including me going "all in" a few times to keep us alive --and even winning and doubling our stacks a few times. He later said that seeing me catch his eye across the table and pushing all my chips into the circle was "sexy as hell," LOL. Doing so bought us some more time, but in the end, we walked away down about $600 (the money we won back that morning). I had hesitated about going, thinking maybe we should quit while we were ahead, but Dave said he had put a certain amount aside for this trip and we were less than 1/3 through it. On the way home, he told me that leaving Vegas "only" down $600 made it a VERY successful trip for him ("I gambled with the same $600 for 5 days without hitting the ATM once! That's a great trip!"), and that all in all, this was the best trip to Vegas he has ever had.

Before going back to our room, we went down to the Strip and took in the absolutely breathtaking view of it lit of at night. It's a view I'll never forget. (We took pictures on his digital camera, which I'll also post as soon as he downloads them.)

We got back at almost 1 am due to some flight delays; we walked out of the airport and straight into Tropical Storm Barry. Yeah, welcome home. (Still, as all you Weather Channel enthusiasts know, we DESPERATELY need the rain.)

All things considered (including our midnight-on-Thursday fight about room-service chicken strips), one of the best times of my life.

I'm in Vegas!

Oh my goodness, it is AWESOME here. I sent a first-day update to some people, but we got here about noon local time (it's now 9 pm, making it midnight for our body clocks). We have an AMAZING suite in the MGM (technically the Signature, but part of MGM); we've played some blackjack and slots; spent time at the Lazy River and, of course, have worked up a decent buzz. We just got back to our room for the first time since nightfall and the view is incredible.

More highlights for this week will include a dolphin show and the Price is Right, Vegas-style. He's also taking me to a fancy dinner (I had to buy a DRESS, even)--then again, at these prices, every meal we've had today meets my definition of "fancy."

I'm blissfully in love; he did point out a wedding chapel as we walked by but I really don't think we'll give in to the urge while we're here. Then again, with me, you never can tell. =-)

Update

Here's the highlights of the past few days:
1) Finished my first year of teaching. Today was the last day with the kids. Didn't get teary till 2:37 (SO CLOSE), when Nathanial gave me a sweet parting speech about how "strong" I was because "my last teacher would run out of the room crying when we were loud, and we weren't really even that bad, but the kids here are WAY worse and you can like calm us down and you don't cry and run out of the room, so you're like strong and stuff." (The speech was sweeter than that, but that was the funny part.)
2) Tuesday: packed everything I owned in preparation for my upcoming move (sadly, this only took about an hour and a half).
3) Wednesday: moved the vast majority of my possessions in Dave's truck, my Escort and Joelle's Taurus (wait, it's not a Taurus, but it's a Ford SOMETHING, kind of like a Taurus). Also sadly, this only took one trip. Unloaded everything into my new SECOND STORY condo, went out to dinner with Joelle and Dave and my new roommate Brad, then went to Dave's to spend the night--I didn't want to deal with unpacking.
4) Came home after school to unpack and get settled. Only took a couple of hours. =-) I'm pretty much settled now, except for a few random boxes that, most likely, will stay packed till I move AGAIN.
5) Signed my official offer letter for the next school year. Still not completely sure that I'm going back, but it's good to know that I have a definite job lined up if nothing else comes through.
6) Got my classroom pretty much packed up and even got my boxes moved down to my new room (took advantage of the free labor, aka my students). Friday, I'm going to help Joelle pack up her room and then spend the rest of the afternoon on the mountains of paperwork necessary to "officially" close out the school year. My grades and report cards are already done, thank God. Actually, it's amazing that I've gotten as much done as I have, considering everything I had going on this week. I learned the true meaning of "time management" the last few days, that's for sure.
7) By this time tomorrow, I will have NOTHING TO DO but get ready for Vegas, whoo hoo!!!! We leave at 6 on Monday morning.

I'M DONE WITH MY FIRST YEAR OF TEACHING!!!!!!!!