Vegas Baby!

For a much needed break and seeing as I was quite overdue to a visit to Las Vegas, I conspired with my friend Val and for my birthday we went halvsies on a plane ticket for a weekend in Vegas. So this is pretty much a rundown of trip from beginning to end.

My friend Jeffrey came over to my house at like 4 am to pick me up and take me to the airport. On the way we stopped and stole a roadsign by my house for Carey cause I failed to remember that when booking th trip her birthday was the same weekend. She totally forgave me when I handed it over when I got back.

I then flew to Vegas. Val was of course late in picking me up from the airport, but luckily not too late. We then headed to his work for him to bang out some business hours before we got to partying. I continued to read my book I bought at the airport. We then dropped our crap off at his friends house and we grabbed his friend Cameron and met up with my friend April who drove in from St. George all pregnant and such to grab some grub with us. We caught up on the oh so vital goings on of peeps from high school. And went birthday present shopping for Val's dad. Val got him training wheels cause his dad had just a few days ago wrecked his motorcycle. Then April headed back home and we went and crashed back at the pad for a bit. Val then had band practice that I tagged along with. Who doesn't love their own personal concert!? Then with Cam still in tow we headed out to Val's dad's for birthday dinner. The training wheels were ever so much appreciated. We had some ever so yummy dinner provided by Val's little sister Sonja and her hubby. Then we headed back to Vegas and crashed for the night.

Day 2 we woke up and decided IHOP was an excellent plan. After some grub we hooked up with AP and headed to his parentals house for some swimming. At this point Cam thought it would be a good plan that I take a knee board to the face and received a lovely bloody lip. I was then dubbed Ashley for the remainder of the trip by AP, as thats how he introduced me to his mother and the boys all thought it was so funny it stuck. I then got the chance to display my horrendous golfing skills in a little game of hitting ping pong balls at the pool and the guys in the pool trying to catch the balls. Yeah not a whole lot of my balls made it to the water...

We then headed back to the digs to drop Val off so he could go to band practice which I opted to skip to grab some grub with AP and Cam. Mmm Thai food is dilectable! Then back to the pad to shower up and get ready to hit the Strip! So Val, Cam, AP and I hooked up with Omar

and we headed to the Vegas sign to take advantage of some photo ops.
Of course its decides to rain so we snapped a few quick shots and then decided we best be on our way when nature thought it would be a good plan to try and strike us with lightning. It hit so close that it sounded like a huge explosion. So we booked it back to the car and headed to get our grub on again. I don't recall the restuarant we went to but they served an excellent steak salad! We then headed to the Luxor but not before Omar thought it would be a good plan to throw a bottle of water at the backseaters. So I arrived with a wet top and Cam looked like he peed his pants.

So we wondered around a bit then decided to see who was playing at Wasted Space, the venue in the Luxor. So Omar, who is friends with a guy the works there, slipped the doorman $10 for each of us and we got in. And to our shock and great luck we walk in and the first line we hear is "Do you wanna die!?!" It was AWESOME! The Toadies were playing!

And if you don't know who the Toadies are, then you should remedy that right quick! They are an amazing band that has been around for a while now.

We then hit up the blackjack tables. I already know how to play blackjack, but Val taught me a little strategy. He put down $30 and walked away with $230. I believe Omar walked away with an additional $80. Not too shabby. At least it paid for the night out. I think I'm just a good luck charm. :)

Anyway at sometime in the wee hours of the morning we decided to call it a night but of course the boys had to stop off and grab some pizza and wings. I however was finding it hard to stay awake and went face first into my pillow as soon as we got back to the digs.

Then waking up sometime in the afternoon on Day 3, we gathered all the peeps minus Val, who yet again had to go to band practice despite all our pleading to ditch out. We all piled into Omar's car and grabbed some Taco Bell and headed to the Colorado River for some cliff jumping.

Well the river ended up being a little farther away then we first thought and we lost track of time and after only a couple hours of diving and swimming we had to head back so I could make my flight. Of course Cam received his kharma for the knee board incident and lost one of his shoes in the river and had to walk back to the car with only one shoe.

Well Val was going to meet us at the river and actually did so but because none of us had cell phone reception he never found us, but luckily did get the message to grab my suit case and bring it with him. So we headed straight from the river to the airport. Val arrived shortly after we did, as I was checking in. Cutting it pretty close. I had time to grab a jacket out of my suitcase but otherwise I got the great joy of flying home in a still wet swimsuit. The flight was just a little bit cold. Otherwise I arrived home safely shortly after midnight. Jeffrey took me home and I showered and went to bed to get up a few hours later and head to work. Trip totally worth it! Hence why I'm headed back in October. Yeah Buddy!

Red Hookers

So over the most of the summer I was on a softball team as I mentioned before. Dubbed the Red Hookers cause we were sponsored by Red Hook beer. It was so much fun just to be able to get out and be active every week as I've been less than stellar in that aspect in quite a few years. Mostly I played out in right field but was also thrown in as catcher and first base as needed. I was talked into being on the team by my roomie Soren and his friend Matt. I'm glad I caved and joined cause it was a great time and the team was full of awesome people. Forget that I ended up tearing my meniscus in both knees. Most weeks we would go back to the rooftop of the condo building in Seattle, where most our teammated lived, for chill time and bbqs. Way nice view that overlooked Lake Union to one side and the Spaceneedle to the other. Our team was actually quite good too. We made it to the playoffs and ended up taking 4th in the league! Woohoo! Can't wait for next year!

The Red Hookers

Throwing up some gang signs...

The Roommate

I-DA-HOE

And we win...

Spring Fever

So spring finally seems to be wanting to arrive. Its about time too cause I am so sick of the cold and being couped up. So Soren made me go running with him a couple weeks ago and surprisingly I have tried to keep it up and have been running a circuit of 2.5 miles around my neighborhood. The first time I ran it by myself I think I ended up going about 3 miles cause I kept getting lost in my neighborhood. I know. I am awesome. But in my defense the neighborhood does wrap around a golf course and makes it all twisty and turny and you end up having intersections of 160th Ave and 160th Pl. Not cool. But then this week I'm taking a little break from the running cause it decided to rain again and it would have been more like takin a swim. Not to mention like a cool person I pulled my groin muscle doing a cartwheel. Not cartwheels, but cartwheel...as in one. Special.

I'm way excited for the summer too! More sun please. And with summer comes softball season. So I'm all certified to umpire and whatnot but I'm not sure I really want to now. Soren and his friend Matt talked me into joining their softball team. We are the Red Hookers. Hehe. Yeah we are sponsered by Red Hook beer. Everyone has nicknames and what not for their shirts. Most the guys picked names from Will Farrell movies and what not. Soren is Night Hawk and Matt is Dragon. And since I am from Idaho and the boys decided I must know everything about potatoes. (They even put me in charge of cooking them for a bbq we had. I however had to call my madre for directions on how to bake a potato. Hehe). So they tried to name me Spuds. I nixed that one real quick like. There for ending me up with the name I-da-hoe. Eh. It works. So we've had practice a few times and the team has some fun peoples. Not the greatest talent pool, but at least I can hold my own. Especially for not playing in many many years. Hey at least it gave me an excuse to finally buy my own glove. GI Joes is going out of business so they had a nice sale and I was forced to go drop a chunk of change on some gear! Weeooh.

Yay for summer and here's to a nice new tan!

And This Makes 13 Moves

So after almost a year of living with my coworkers mom, I decided it was move or pull out all my hair. Just tired of not having enough space, especially of my own. So I went and looked at a place this last Saturday and decided it was perfect and will now be moving across the valley into a new house. It's owned by a guy named Soren, who seems like a really chill guy. I will pretty much be renting his basement, so now I will have my room, my own bathroom and my own living area. I will have to share his kitchen but like I said he is cool so it will be nice to have someone to talk to that is a little bit closer to my age. Not to mention the sweet setup of his massive big screen tv! Oh and the added bonus that the laundry room is right next to my bathroom so I wont have to venture thru anyone's room anymore to do my laundry. Sad to say but laundering has severly lacked because I try to avoid being home as much as possible. Which really isn't fair to Atlas at all. So this is great for him now too cause he will have run of the basement when I am not home instead of the tiny room he is locked up in currently while I'm not home. So all he gets to do is sleep and eat and that just makes for one pudgy kitty. Plus Soren has a cute chocolate lab name Godiva that Atlas will have to play with now! I think he has really missed Takoda since we moved out of my coworkers place. The only thing I'm not excited for is the actual moving of all my crap. Sadly my kitchen will remain boxed up but at least I get my table, chairs and couch back!

On another note, I will also be starting yet another job this year, since I have to get his debt paid off somehow. So I just started the process of getting certified to be a softball umpire for King county. I think it will be a great thing since I have a lot of time I need to fill to keep my mind occupied and off of other things...Plus most of the friends I have made here are all moving on to other things in their lives and will be moving away and what not. Which is good for them, but I will miss them lots. Plus I will be making at least $25 a game, since I think I will stick with slow pitch until I get more comfortable with the rules. So that will make for three jobs this year! Woohoo! All the other people training are these old men that seem like pretty big crack ups so I am way excited and think it will be a great experience!

Then this week end I am headed back to Vancouver to visit the Parental units cause its an extended weekend and Tonya's B-day today. And Tonya is going to be my hot valentines date, since I am severly lacking in that department. We are going out for sushi! Mmmm! I know you are jealous! K so this is a pretty massive blog, but I guess pretty overdue seeing as the last one I posted was in December. Oh well. One day shortly I will have myself laptop and wont have to do these at work anymore...shhhh dont tell!