Viva Lost Wages

Home of hookers, Elvis, quickie marriages, gambling, Wayne Newton, Siegfried & Roy, debauchery, topless chicks and flair bartending. That's right kids, Sam and I went to Vegas! Given that I have family in Vegas, I have tried to go there at least once a year, but Sam had never been (for longer than 6 hours) so it was my duty to show him My Vegas. We were to be meeting my mom in Vegas for what had become our annual Jewish Christmas trip (prior to moving to NYC), but decided that we should go in a bit early to get some of the sightseeing out of the way.



I arranged for a suite at the Venetian, which included a king-size bed, huge bathroom, living room and mini bar. Since Christmas is a pretty dead time in Vegas, I got a great deal and even decided to spring for room service, just to see what it was like. Man, I am definitely not living like the other half, but I could certainly get used to it.



Sam's friend Omar joined us for a day from LA-LA-Land, home of plastic, glitter and glitz, which was awesome because we haven't seen him (or his wife) since right after our wedding when they moved to L.A. Sam really enjoyed the added company and the two of them worked hard to create a fail-safe, never lose, Roulette method, also known as "The Ron Method". On a side note, the system/method is flawed. I much prefer the "Pick the Right Number Method", which turns a $20 bill into $200.



After 3 nights at the Venetian and 16 casinos later, mom came in town and we headed to the Sahara, which at first I dogged, but we played well there. But I doubt you guys care to hear about the casinos, right? What you're really waiting to hear about is...how we did!





Let's just say, we had a great time. We stayed too long, overstayed our Vegas welcome, but will definitely go back. I lost my ass, but I brought it to lose. Thrifty Sam lost some money, but came home with more still in the bank. My mom hit a Royal Flush on a quarter machine, which paid her $1,000 so she was the big winner of the trip. Did I mention we had a great time!?!






Highlights of the trip:

Playing (and winning) at Roulette for the first time ever!
Hearing Sam say, "I can't believe we're in Vegas!"
Catching up with Omar
Seeing mom, David, Elaine & family
Staying in a suite at the Venetian and getting room service (that should be at the top of the list)
Champagne Brunch! (Enough said!)
Watching mom blush as she got hit-on by Flair bartenders
Having Sam collect matchbooks from every casino that we went in!





Lowlights:

Did I mention that I lost my ass?!

Oh Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel...

...a holiday filled with fried potatoes and chocolate. My kind of holiday! The lovely Miss Bekah hosted a fun Chanukah party, complete with latkes, dreidels, gelt & the broken menorah standing in half a grapefruit (clever!). Getting together with my (mostly gentile) work friends to spin the dreidel is always a blast. Watching Sam, my co-worker Josh & Sarah's husband Kenneth play dreidel with a sense of real competition (they were playing for chocolate gelt) was priceless. It was so nice getting together somewhere else other than a bar or the office to relax, eat, drink and be merry. I arrived quite late (most of the festivities had ended) due to a prior commitment facilitating a bereavement group, but I still left with my gelt and latkes!



Happy Chanukah to everyone!!! (Only a few days - weeks! late)

O' Christmas Lights, O' Christmas Lights....

...so obnoxious that they stop traffic! Seriously, there was a line of cars at least three blocks long just to ogle the lovely Christmas lights that homeowners pay thousands of dollars to other people to put up. Sorry for the cynicism, but really!





Anyway, since we are now officially Brooklynites, I felt it was appropriate that we check out the huge displays in Dyker Heights. Sam and I gathered together Jen and James and set off to join in the festivities. We smartly parked three blocks from the main drag and just walked. It was amazing! Lots of inflatable decorations, tons of lights. Can you imagine the electric bills these people must have? As if having McMansions in Brooklyn where space is a premium isn't enough, they spend a year's worth of electricity to make their houses pretty for one month. And everyone was in the Christmas spirit. Especially the guy dressed as Elmo who was collecting tips for people to have their picture taken with him. And don't forget dear ol' Santa Claus that some homeowner hired to sit in front of the house and take pictures with the kiddies to the tune of "tips please!". And the lights are pretty to look at, but don't get too close. One sign on a lawn read, "Do not step on the lawn - live wires!" Scary!





And I will show my ignorance as a Jew - I couldn't for the life of me figure out why all of the Baby Jesus' (Jesi?) were missing in all of the nativities. My gentile friends clued me in that it was because Jesus wasn't born until Christmas (Duh!) I totally meant to return on Christmas to see if he had reappeared. I just figured that there was a rash of baby Jesus burglaries in the neighborhood. It could happen. Anyway, please enjoy all of the light displays. At least it was confined to one neighborhood - you could really go blind from all of the lights!

Tour of Brooklyn

Ever since receiving my new camera last night, all I want to do is take pictures. I can't tell you how many of almost the exact same picture we have of the cats. There are at least 15 pictures of just Sam. Today was a beautiful day in Brooklyn, filled with sunshine and warmth. I figured it would be a great opportunity to take pictures of our quaint little neighborhood, complete with shots of our favorite places. Sam was a bit annoyed as I stopped several times along our walk to the grocery store, but I loved every bit of it.

Besides, lots of people have Christmas decorations up and there is a feeling of holiday cheer all around.


The Famous Photographer with her faithful sidekick, Sam I Am


Christmas tree on the roof across the street from us


One of the snowflakes that light up the night


The Taqueria - best burritos in town


A throng of people outside of the bank


Christmas trees for sale at a church


Street vendors


Decorations on our street


Our favorite B67 bus heading down 7th Ave.

Tonight we're heading out to look at Christmas lights with James and Jen - lots of pictures to come.

My Husband is Awesome!!!!!

As many times as I have called my husband un-romantic and unable to pull off surprises, he really got me tonight! In the past my husband has been concerned that he wouldn't be able to get me a gift that I would approve of. And to his credit, he has given me a couple of gifts that I was not a huge fan of! Anyway, enough of the negative gift-giving abilities of Sammy, I should tell you of the amazing gift that I received tonight. Even though my 30th birthday is 3 weeks away, Sam wanted to make sure that I was able to enjoy my new gift on our trip next week.

I present to you a 2-D version of the best gift ever!! A new camera! A Canon PowerShot SD600 Digital Elph!!!



The best part - well, it's three-fold.

1. I was completely surprised!
2. It wasn't a hand-me-down gift!
3. This is the best gift that I have ever received (2nd only to my engagement ring).

It's exactly what I wanted and never imagined that he would get me.

Once we charged the battery, I couldn't wait to get started snapping pictures. Behold a few pics of the family:







Sam, Blue and Lucky! This camera rocks!

My husband is awesome!!! He's the best husband in the world! Stay tuned for many many pictures from our Vegas trip next week!! (Sorry for all the exclamation points - I'm just sooo damn excited!!!)

Happy Birthday Mom & Dad (Nov. 25th)

Okay, so I can't even post the birthday greeting on time. I suck at getting cards and gifts delivered on time as well! Oh well...that's what I get for being a procrastinator.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Mom & Dad! I know that you both had a nice birthday (aside from Grandma going into the hospital) and hopefully next year we'll be spending it together. Many more happy, healthy birthdays.

Since I posted a picture of my parents from their anniversary greeting, I thought I would post this really cute picture of my mom and I from when Sam and I went home last month.

Thanksgiving Part 2

Following a $5 cab ride, we arrived at our second destination - Mark & Jessica's for a Thanksgiving Dinner/Jessica's Birthday Celebration. What a great night! Mark and Jessica cooked quite the feast - which wasn't ready when we got there, so we were able to recover from the first Thanksgiving before we stuffed ourselves again. Donita made 2 pumpkin pies while Darin helped Mark with the turkey. Sam and I just watched.


Mark & the turkey

When things got a little smokey thanks to something falling off the yams into the oven and subsequently burning, Jessica took care of getting rid of the smoke by dancing on a chair waving a towel around.


Jessica's towel dance

The birthday princess was in rare form and had much delight in ordering us, her servants, around for the night. The feast was super yummy and the company was great. Unfortunately, we had to make it an early night because I actually had to work the day after Thanksgiving! Bummer...


Princess Jessica


The feast!

The tryptophan finally kicked in and we lost a few troopers to naps and I had to practically roll Sam down the stairs and into a cab to head back to Brooklyn.


Darin giving in to a nap

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am so Thankful for good friends, great family, wonderful food and readily available taxis in NYC!

Thanksgiving Part 1 - A bit overdue...

I know, I know, I was supposed to post this stuff weeks ago, but I got busy. Life got in the way. Anyway, a little recap of our Thanksgiving! This is the first Thanksgiving that I haven't spent with my parents. It's interesting though, that Sam and I have never spent Thanksgiving with his parents! Weird! Anyway, back to what I was supposed to be posting about.


Moselle, Ezra and Maya with Maya's B-day cake


Shari, Jay & Joshua

Sam and I were so popular this year that we were invited to 4 Thanksgivings! Unfortunately, we were only able to attend two, didn't want to be incredibly overstuffed! The first was with Sam's NYC (and Boston) family. We met the family at the downstairs of a shul that was rented in the lower east side. Once we opened the door, we knew we were in the right place. The sounds of children screaming and running was the main thing that could be heard. Six little cousins, all under the age of 10 were galloping around the room, chasing each other and spilling lots and lots of water!


Steven, Miriam & Shoshana


Moselle

The food was good and the company was even better. It's unfortunate that we live so close to family and only get together once a year. One of these days we're gonna get the grand tour of Boston from either Shari and Jay or Steven and Miriam.


Joshua attacking the camera (prior to the bump on the head)


Uncle George & Aunt Janet

Sam and I came armed with pictures of Yael to give out. After the recaps of every family, it was time to go. As Steven mentioned, "Once a kid's bleeding, it's time to pack it in". Silly as that sounds, it actually happened. Joshua, the youngest of the cousins had a nasty bump on his head and Shoshana was busted her lip and bled all over daddy Steven's shirt. It was definitely time to go before anyone else got hurt...


Maya & Tova

On to Thanksgiving Part 2!

The Whirlwind Baby Tour

After waiting at JFK for what seemed like forever (okay, it was just a 3-hour delay in my flight), I finally arrived in Houston at 2:00 am Tuesday November 14th. Tuesday was spent getting to know little Yael and spending time with the exhausted Mommy, Brenda. Yael is so quiet. She's not temperamental and doesn't mind who's holding her. She barely cries except when hungry or dirty. She appears very content. We can't figure out who she looks like, but she's definitely a cutie.




Me and Yael (Yael and Me/I?)

After another half day in Houston, it was off to Austin. Short lived Houston trip, right? Exactly! Wednesday night we hung out with my folks. Thursday was spent sleeping in and working out followed by a trip to Apple with Sam to visit all of the people that we wouldn't have time to see after business hours. We spent Thursday evening watching Big Joe play softball and then crashed with Shelly, Joe and the Dingus. Friday was spent shopping and relaxing. Exhausted yet?


Shelly & Big Joe

Saturday, Sam and I, along with my parents drove to Houston by way of Bryan to visit Amanda, Chris and baby Rhylan. What can I say about Rhylan? Man, that girl has some hair!! She's almost 3 months old and has the cutest smile. Another content baby. Sam and I loved holding her, feeding her and watching Amanda and Chris be amazing parents. I always knew they had it in them! After playing with Rhylan for a couple of hours, we headed to Houston for dinner and a chance for Barb and Bob to see baby Yael! Both were a bit scared to hold the itsy bitsy baby, but they did a great job.


Smilin' Rhylan


Me with Amanda, Chris & Rhylan


My parents and Yael

Our trip ended on Sunday morning with a trip to the airport at 5:00 am. This trip definitely made us want to have kids, not that we didn't want to before. It's so nice to be able to see babies when they're so small. Uncle Sam loved spending time with Yoni who became his shadow for most of the time we were in Houston.


Sam teaching Yoni to drive

Now onto Thanksgiving...