Viva Las Vegas

This was Kristin's third time to Vegas, but my first, so you'll hear our tales from my virgin eyes. Vegas is a strange town, there's drugs, sex, and rock and roll. Oh yea, and there's gambling too. I think there are many different ways you could see Vegas, and I'm thrilled with how we saw Vegas, plus we didn't gamble a cent. Strangely, we stayed up working 24 hours straight before our trip, because we're crazy! After a 6am flight, you might think we took a nap. Wrong. The hotel couldn't give us a room at 8am, so we freshened up in their staff bathroom and hit The Strip.

We felt like we actually stayed in MGM, as we were there 2 to 3 times a day because we had a free shuttle from our hotel to MGM. I learned there are no real attractions besides the gigantic themed monstrosities. Everybody knows of the Bellagio dancing fountains, and they didn't disappoint. We stood by the lake and watched the fountains for over an hour, and that was just the first day! The view of the entire city (and the Bellagio fountains) from the Paris Eiffel Tower is rather incredible. (Edit by KK: Also incredible, the number of callgirl cards that Dan managed to collect in 2.5 days. It's really a pretty impressive stack sitting here in our apartment.)

We saw Ka, one of those fancy Cirque du Soleil shows. Actually, it was amazing! The theater is apparently the most expensive in the world, specifically built for Ka, and the show itself was somewhat reminiscent of traditional Japanese theater. There is no spoken word in the entire show and it's a bit startling when the guys grunt at you when you hand them your ticket. Apparently people walkout because they don't like it, my guess being that they don't understand it's not a traditional Cirque show and don't pay attention to garner the nuances of the plot. We were fortunately had a nice long chat with the gift store lady, who filled us in prior to going to the show. So if you plan to go see Ka, we'll pass on the tale, or you can just buy a program.

My critique for the rest of Vegas can be summarized as follows:
MGM -lions! big lions! in the hotel! We watched them for about 45 minutes one day. They look just like James and Lily.
NY, NY - Actually enjoyable inside walking "the streets of NY." Didn't get to ride the roller coaster...next time.
Excalibar - You could skip it, except it's where Krispy Kreme is.
Luxor - The side of the pyramid is a huge ad for Absolut now, but the elevators go diagonally.
Mandalay Bay - they must pump incense or perfume in; it smelled amazing. KK's favorite.
Bellagio - Fountains! That's all really. Didn't overly love it.
Planet Hollywood - It's where we sat in the bar and watched Tech play, which ended up being very disappointing. Go-go dancers among the card tables at night. Saw Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher filming a movie.
Venetian - Please donate to the "So Dan & KK can stay here next time" fund.
Paris - Eiffel Tower is worth it. Minus the old lady next to us giving us advice on shows (thumbs up: Jubilee, the topless revue at Bally's. thumbs down: Cirque. hmmm.)
Ceasar's Palace - they have fountains and stuff. But go for Vosges chocolates!
The Mirage - ummm....we ate at the Jewish deli? Otherwise, nothing remarkable.
Treasure Island - I'll be honest, the vixen sirens vs. shipwreck pirates show sucked. It felt like a renaissance fair when you can't tell if people are pirates, or fairies, or goth, or what.
The Wynn - gorgeous, screams extravagance, and they charge you $10 just to walk in the Ferrari Maserati showroom. But gorgeous.

Putting it all out there.

So remember the other day when I told you that I got Season 4 of the West Wing for my birthday from Dan? It's now almost 4 in the morning, and I've been up watching episode after episode. In my defense, I feel like I haven't seen these episodes in a really long time. And also, if you think I'm crazy, which I kind of am, you feel free to blame, well a couple of people. First, Aaron Sorkin for being so amazing, and then blame one Kevin Patrick Romano who got me addicted to the show in the first place. And then maybe also the executive at Bravo whose idea it was to have West Wing marathon Mondays.


Anyway, since all I want to do is ramble about Zoe and Jean Paul, and Andy and Toby's baby, and Sam's running for congress I think I'm going to go to bed instead, because I suspect that if I do talk about those things, you'll just shake your head sadly and wonder if I know they're not real people. I do know, but I have to admit it's just a little disappointing.


Tomorrow (Sunday) is Nikki and Ted's one year anniversary. Talk about time flying.

Ode to Meghan

So today, I had 8 conduct hearings with students. Yes, eight. After work, Dan and I went to Costco to buy supplies to make a spaghetti dinner for 15 people on Sunday. My staff is coming over to celebrate November birthdays (we do this once a month, clearly). So, my brain is a little jumbled. Having to deal with the crazies at Costco will do that to you.

Today Dan and I decided that we should do a whole post that talks about the amazing wonderfulness of one Meghan Housley. I mean, clearly she's pretty awesome, but so is everyone who we know and love and reads this blog. However, Meghan has exceeded you in awesomeness, at least today, because we have noticed that Meghan leaves a fun comment on almost everyone of our posts. Therefore, she is our favorite person of the day.

Also, she totally just finished the written part of her comps. She's a machine. As Ro would say, "Strong!"

Our favorite memories with Meghan.
Kristin: To set the tone, we were in high school, and Meghan was dating Mike Deal. While he was really good looking and had amazing hair, he was a little lacking in the personality department. (Clearly, an upgrade when she started dating our very own Josh.) Anyway, we decided to go to Gonzaga for a band concert (or something...was it a band concert?) and Mike, ever the helpful boyfriend, wrote the directions down for us. So, Meghan was the driver, and I was the navigator, except that in high school, neither of us had spent a lot of time navigating DC, especially at night. So, clearly things did not go as planned. Not that the directions were particularly helpful either...there was something about one street "jogging" onto the next...which I'm still confused about. Needless to say, we never got to the band concert. Although we did drive the wrong way down a one way street, which was frightening, and drive through some areas that I totally thought we were going to get car jacked in, which was even more frightening, and basically freaked ourselves out. We eventually found a police officer who helped get headed back in the right direction (suburbia!) but it was kind of a long night. We were more than a little embarassed about it, and promised to not talk about it for a long time. To anyone. Ah, good thing I have a blog now ;)

Dan: When Meghan finally admitted she was dating Josh! Really, during the New Year's party when she wouldn't tell anyone who she was seeing, but I guessed Josh. She'll argue that I guessed pretty much every guy that I knew had ever talked to her, but still, I had guessed Josh! Though, she couldn't bring herself to admit I was right until way after.

To continue the ode - you, loyal blog readers, now leave a comment about how awesome Meghan is or your favorite memory of her.
(And if you leave comments on other posts, one day, there could be an ode to YOU!)

Yes yes I know, we suck at life.

So yesterday we didn't post. In our defense, we felt like crap. I think we should get an A for effort, and chalk it up to the sheer exhaustion of simply trying to post everyday for the past few days. Ugh, our lives are SO difficult. I mean, you really just wouldn't understand. *sigh*

So, I guess I could catch you up on my birthday, since it is still my birthday month and all. And while we don't celebrate the whole month (I'm working that angle though) we definitely celebrated for at least a week. So, really, going to Las Vegas was kind of a birthday present, but it was also for Dan since he'd never been and the trip in itself is a whole other post, but we did have a really good time and we saw Ka, one of the Cirque du Soleil shows that is out there (the one at MGM).

After we got back though, on my actual birthday, we went out to dinner with some of my friends from the summer I spent here. Chris was actually visiting for the week, so that was nice timing, Tiffany drove up just to have dinner with me (cutest.thing.ever.) and we managed to drag Suraj away from his books to go out for just a couple of hours. Dinner was lovely, you know how I love to eat. Tiff also told me she was bringing a present - and she got here and handed me a big box that looked like it was from Dunkin Donuts and says "I got you creme puffs." And in my mind, I'm going...thanks? what the crap? There were a DOZEN of the things and they were humongous. I was more than a little doubtful.

Until I ate one. People, these are some of the best things I have ever eaten. They're from a place called Beard Papa's and they are going to slowly dominate the world. Get excited for something else on the "To do while visiting KK" list, because this will happen.

The next night, which was Friday, Dan did the whole romantic boyfriend type thing. Awww. He went out and strung our whole apartment up with Christmas lights, aiming for that scene from the West Wing where Josh decorates his apartment with lights to make it look like Tahiti for Amy(is this ringing a bell for anyone?) Anyway, I love that scene and so he decorated and made a "tropical" themed dinner for me and then gave me Season 4 of the West Wing as a gift. Don't you love it when themes all come together like that? It was lovely - you should all congratulate him on doing so well :) The only downside was the next morning when I got out of bed ass early to feed the kitties, some of the lights had fallen down, and it looked like I was being trapped in a Christmas lights net of some kind, which was alarming because I didn't have my contacts in. (And this, my friends, is how you overshare in a blog).

The next day, Saturday, I had to chaperone an event in SF, which entailed me simply being in the city in case something went wrong, and so Dan and I wandered about, did some shopping and then ate at a yummy new Thai place that I'm pretty sure if we had tried to go to a couple of hours later, we wouldn't have been nearly cool enough to get into.

And now you're thinking, a couple of dinners out, a romantic night in, yay for your birthday, shut the hell up about it already. But, sadly for you, no. There was more. I'm sure that we have raved to most of you about restaurant week in DC - where restaurants sign up to participate and they serve a 3 course menu for $30, or a 3 course lunch for $20. Well, my friends, I found out (through the millions of blogs that I now regularly read) that the East Bay (which yes, is where Berkeley is) had a restuarant week of it's very own! And of course, it was the week directly after my birthday. So, we had a few more birthday dinners out. Three to be exact. (Truth be told, we had reservations at 4, but cancelled one due to the illness).

So, we got to try three new places - one at the local snooty hotel/resort which is actually pretty famous (The Claremont Hotel. Fun fact - the Cal football team stays here the night before games so they can "focus.") One that is supposed to be one of the best restaurants in the area and another that I simply kind of stumbled upon.

Honestly, our favorite was, of course, the one that I just happened upon - they were so nice and the restaurant was lively but not obnoxious and the food was pretty darn amazing. The snooty restuarant lived up to it's snooty reputation, but it wasn't offputting or anything. The hotel that it's located in has spectacular views of SF and the bay, so that was a nice bonus.

And of course, the other was basically a horrid experience. The server was rude because we ordered the restaurant week menu (which I can kind of understand because it's cheaper, less tip, etc.) and the plates that we were served were basically less than half of the portion if the dish had been ordered off the regular menu. We could tell because we could see full sized dishes being run around and served all around us. I was so annoyed. I mean, if you're the restaurant manager and you commit to doing this promotional week that is supposed to actually bring in business, you need to just do it and not half ass the whole thing. Instead of getting to sample their food at a discount and be eager to go back, I've basically told everyone I know to not go there instead. Ooooo so there! Power to the people! Damn the man! Or...something. I was just upset that we even spent some of our time and money there.

The best part about most of these nice dinners is that we take the bus to get there. Nothing classier than that my friends.

So that's basically the recap of my birthday. Thank you to those who sent cards and gifts (Missy even sent our kitties gifts and they LOVE them. Wow.) and called and facebooked and the like. I appreciate all the love. I am feeling old, yes, but I'm trying to focus on the fact that many of you will be even older much before me. :)

Fo real, sorry about not posting yesterday, I know you just live and breathe by what we post here! We will keep aiming to post every day for the rest of this month. And, we've made a plan for this weekend to kick start the "do something cool" over the weekend campaign, so hopefully we'll have something fun to write about instead of restaurants that you really could care less about.

Walk 2

This is actually our third walking tour, but it's number 2 in the book. We're rebels going out of order, like George Lucas and Star Wars. (A terrible analogy for humor, but I love people who get it.) Our tour took us on top of one of the 42 hills in San Francisco, and we managed to catch the start of the sunset.

An update to the oil spill. It's still a mess and the fights go back and forth about who is to blame. Long story short, don't eat seafood from San Francisco for the next 10 years.

To the West. Golden Gate Bridge and Lombard street is the 3rd major street from the left. We could see the glare of sun off the windshields as they weaved back and forth down the hill.



To the East. Bay Bridge and Ferry Building.



Amidst a garden in Telegraph Hill where there are no streets, yet there are meters. Kristin is lucky she didn't get a parking ticket.



It's a walking tour of stairs; tada... the next picture is of stairs. They actually lead up to Jack Early Park which apparently is difficult for locals to find. Clearly, we found it.



We miss everyone, and you miss us too right? Post a comment to let us know!

Getting in under the wire!

Yes yes I know, it's almost 3 AM in DC, well too bad! It's not midnight here yet, so I've still got some time to write today. No use not living up to the goal only three days in. Today is/was Veteran's Day, as I'm sure many of you know, so I had today off, which was lovely. Dan and I decided to do another city walk from our book (Walk 2, since you all care).

Besides the fact that we are kinda sorta still sick, and that SF is a city of hills which makes for lots of winded-ness while walking, the walk was lovely. It was another really nice day. I was actually mentioning to Dan that even though we complain that SF is colder than Southern California and windy and foggy and ugh, I bet today while we were walking around in the sun and it was about 65 degrees that it was still warmer than many of you are experiencing now.

So, our walk today took us through North Beach, which is the primarily Italian area in SF, and up and down and all around Telegraph Hill, which is where Coit Tower was built and where we walked some when Rosa was here (see previous posts, and pictures of parrots). We actually saw the supposed "oldest Italian restaurant in America" and the last operational barrel-malting factory west of the Mississippi (which is now condos). We went to Jack Early park, which is this really nice little enclave in a residential neighborhood, up where the views are gorgeous, and which will now be on the "A" tour for anyone who comes to visit. We went through a lot of green spaces and quaint neighborhood parks, saw some AMAZING homes (and by amazing I mean ridiculously huge and expensive) and Dan wants you know that he really enjoyed it.

Also, the highlight of the day, which was not on the walking tour, was a Verizon store where they arranged for Dan to get a new phone, for free! And he kind of picked up a nice blond lady while waiting in line. Huzzah.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow, since we're almost out of time, and hey, another day of material. We got caught up with watching two episodes of "Heroes" since we've been home - does anyone else watch it? The story lines are just a little ridiculous. And Kristen Bell's character is freaking me out.

Keeping the ball rolling with old photos:

Not getting better.

Hello world, here I am two days in a row. And for the second day in a row, I am sick. Well, this is actually the fourth day for me of not feeling so hot. Unfortunately, now Dan is getting sick too. While this is not unexpected, it really blows when both people in a couple are sick because no one can take care of anyone. Who knows, our cats may not eat for days. Plus, Dan is kind of a whiner when he's sick. Maybe even more than me.


We did both go to the football game yesterday, and it was a great game. It almost made us forget that we were soaked to the skin because we were sitting in rain. Happily, it wasn't very cold, but it did rain consistently the entire time we were there. We left with about 3 minutes left in the game because I was pretty much done with sitting there being wet while feeling like crap. Additionally, Dan had realized that his jacket was not so much waterproof, which did not fare well for his phone that he had brought to the game. Last night and much of today has been spent on the phone (my phone) with Verizon trying to figure out if there is a way to fix it. Luckily, it is still under warranty, so at least we have that going for us.


Also, I don't know if anyone has had the pleasure/sat through the torture of a game at which the USC marching band is present. They played after EVERY down. They played during punt returns. They played during TV timeouts. I mean, I get it that they're a very good band, and I enjoyed their musicality and their show at halftime but sweet mother of God, we didn't come to the stadium to hear you play the same 10 seconds of songs over and over. So, USC band, unless you start playing "Tusk" at the games WITH all the members of Fleetwood Mac present, I implore you to shut the hell up and let us watch football.


Nice to get that off my chest.


Just for fun picture 2: