Time for a new phone?

A few days ago Danielle and I took the dog on another hike. This time we tried the Arizona Hot Springs hike on the other side of the Hoover Dam in Arizona. This hike is only about a mile or so past the Liberty Bell Arch hike that we took previously, but it is nothing like the Liberty hike. The Arizona Hot Springs hike involves hiking down a long canyon until you reach the Colorado River. We then hiked about 1/2 mile south near the banks of the river looking for the hot springs, which were very elusive. Other hikers were down there as well and nobody could really find the springs. It turns out that a ladder that the park service puts there to get to the springs was not there (I guess it is being fixed), so nobody could bask in the hot springs goodness.

Unfortunately, the many pictures that I took on my camera phone seem to have a hazy fadeness to them (that's the best description I can come up with). I think the camera component of my cell phone is starting to go. Actually, that aspect is moot due to the fact that I can no longer get the memory card back into the phone itself. I think something broke up in there. Although the camera is only 1.2 megapixels, I really liked how that thing worked these past 3 years. But alas, if I can't use the memory card in it anymore, then it really seems like I have no choice but to get a new phone.

This one has lasted almost three years, so it was a good run. Within the next month or so I think I'll be getting on Verizon's web site and signing up for another two years. That, along with the online discount, should get me a really nice phone with a camera of 3.0 megapixels or better.

Have a happy New Year everyone!

The week off

I was off from work this past week while my parents were in town. We did a bunch of cool stuff, which I'll highlight here:

1. Spent a night at Danielle's parent's house while she and I cooked dinner for the folks. The menu included a "rainbow salad", french onion soup and braised balsamic chicken breast.

2. Celebrated my mom's birthday, at her request, by having dinner at Fuego Steakhouse in the Fiesta Henderson. I would not say Fuego is the best steakhouse in town, but its definitely above average and is just as good as some other, more expensive, places in town.

3. Danielle and I introduced my parents to "real" sushi at our favorite AYCE sushi place right down the road. Actually, for anyone interested, its called The Sushi Factory on Eastern just south of Horizon Ridge Parkway past the Smith's shopping center. The place is great and serves up some real fresh sushi at a reasonable (AYCE) price.

4. Met Danielle's parents for a good meal at the Mirage buffet and then saw Love, the Cirque show based on Beatles songs. It was a terrific show and I loved the sound system in that place. A weird thing happened during the show. It had to be temporarilty stopped about 3/4 through for a technical issue with a net. I've never seen something like that happen in a Cirque show before. It was impressive how the cast members got immediately back into their groove as soon as they started back up again!

5. I took my parents up to the Mount Charleston area and drove around for a while. It's the first time I've seen the area under snow! The ski slopes were very busy and there were plenty of people with their kids up there building snowmen and sledding. It was a winter wonderland in the desert!

6. We also took a drive out to the Hoover Dam to show my dad the progress with the bridge. I drove into Arizona for a few minutes and parked at the parking area for the Arizona Hot Springs hike, which I'm hoping to take tomorrow (Christmas Eve day). I planned on going today, but laziness and a severe sleep detriment finally caught up with me as I slept for over 9 hours! The hike is anywhere between 4 to 6 hours long. So with it being dark at 4:30pm these days, I'm going to have to get to bed early tonight.

7. Santa brought us gifts during the trip. Danielle and I got a really good knife set, which we've needed since I moved in. I was cutting up the onions for the French onion soup with a steak knife and put a slice into my thumb at one point. Now we have the correct tools! Danielle got an official Ohio State snuggie to wear around the condo (we have yet to turn on the heat this winter) and I got some bottles of hot sauce, a Pepperidge Farms gift box and a pair of Ohio State utility gloves that I can wear while hiking. My sister also sent me a gift certificate to Bed, Bath and Beyond. She did the same last year, which I used to buy a mini-food processor. I'm not sure what this year's purchase will be. How about an onion chopper!?

8. My parents stayed at the South Point, which I would highly recommend. My mom and I played 25cent video poker (full-pay Jacks or Better) for a couple hours on 3 separate nights. She finished about even for the trip and I was exactly $10 on the plus side. With our play, I got a meal in the cafe comped and she got $17 off our final breakfast. I've always felt that South Point does things right, but now I know for sure. The free drinks in the casino are larger than anywhere else I've noticed, the normal room was very spacious, the employee for the most part were friendly and helpful, the booze prizes in the 24 hour gift shop are good, etc.

My vacation is still not over. I recieved notice today that my next day on the job isn't until Sunday, believe it or not! I already knew I'd have at least until tomorrow off, but to find out that I'm not working on Christmas is surprising. I'm almost sad to here that since I know there are plenty of people that would rather be home that day while I really have no plans on Christmas day. Oh well, I won't complain. The vacation will total 13 days in a row, which I think might be the biggest such time span since I started working at my current location!

Quick Joke

I can't remember if I've ever embeded this on the blog before, so I thought I'd post it for your enjoyment. It's one of the older jokes I've heard being told by one of the best comedians of all-time. The bit at the end is pretty lame, but you can't deny the brilliance that precedes it. Sorry about the commercial at the beginning.

Chicken Wings

A couple weeks ago I was having lunch at one of my favorite spots in town, Buffalo Wild Wings on Eastern. At the end of the meal, I made an impulse buy of a package of three bottles of BWW wing sauces (I went with Terriyake for Danielle and Medium and Mango Habenero for me). Since then, I've purchased chicken wings from the grocery store and have fixed them twice, with excellent results.

Thoughts:

If you buy 6 "traditional wings" from BWW, I think you pay somewhere around $5. I paid $6.91 for an entire package of wings at the store, which is 17 full wings which means I'm getting 34 "wings" (wingettes + drumettes) for less than $2 more of what I pay for 6 wings at BWW! Even considering I also pay for celery, the sauce and ranch dressing, its still super cheaper to make wings at home.

I've found cutting the wings up to be a pain in the ass. However, the video below that I found on youtube does a quick good job of explaining how to do it. The problem is that we don't have ANY good knives in this condo at all (maybe Santa will help us out with that).

The quality of the wings at BWW and from the grocery store are exactly the same in my opinion.

I've made wings twice and have also poured some medium sauce over things like hot dogs and a regular chicken sandwich and I STILL have some medium sauce left! I haven't even cracked open the mango-habenero yet!

I've noticed that the medium wing sauce becomes LESS spicy once you open it and have to refridgerate it. Therefore, I nuked a small bowl of the medium sauce for about 30 seconds before coating the wings last night, which was a very good move!

I don't own a deep fryer, which is probably the prefered way of cooking the wings up, but Danielle owns a very nice deep frying pan that I've used to pan-fry the wings in olive oil. I've been frying them for about 6-7 minutes on each side or about 13-15 minutes total. I then transfer them to a noodle strainer and let them sit in the sink for a minute or two. From there its into the big bowl where they get introduced to the sauce. Cover the bowl, shake it for about 10 seconds and you've got some awesome wings. With the exception of the pan-fry part, I think that's pretty much how their made at BWW. The one drawback is that I can only fit about half of the wings in the pan at a time. So I've been frying up Danielle's portion first, and she'll be enjoying piping hot wings while I'm still slaving away while making mine up.

I still love BWW and will go there on occasion, but I can't see myself ever ordering their traditional wings again. If anyone can tell me how to mimick their boneless wings at home, let me know. I'm aware that their boneless "wings" aren't part of the wing at all, but without a deep fryer, I doubt if I could come close to them at home.

Lake Mead Recreation Area - Liberty Bell Arch

Danielle, Sadie dog and I took another hike out in the Lake Mead National Recreational Area on Sunday. This time around we drove over the Hoover Dam into Arizona and took a relatively obscure hike known as the Liberty Bell Arch hike. The reason its my impression that its obscure is due to the fact that its not really an official hike according to the park service (its not included in their brochures), the trail is DEFINITELY not officially maintained (had some rough spots), there is NO trailhead sign or any signs at all of a trail from the highway and we ran into exactly ZERO other people on the trail on a Sunday.

The trail, however, is mentioned extensively on the internet as evidenced by a simple Google or Yahoo search of 'Liberty Arch Trail/Hike'. It's trailhead is also located near a very popular (and official) Lake Mead hike called Arizona Hot Springs. In fact, due to our unfamiliarity of the trail, we accidentally started off on a different Jeep trail at the beginning which lead us over to the Hot Springs trail, only to be told by some hikers over there that we were on the wrong trail. So about 45 minutes of our day was spent getting to know a nice jeep trail between the two.

This trail turned out to be probably the biggest surprise out of any hikes I've done so far. The stats of the trail are that its about a 5 mile out-and-back (2.5 miles each way) and there's only a few hundred feet in elevation change from the beginning to the end. However, as I've already mentioned, the trail itself is NOT a nice and tidy maintained trail. Its only a use-trail and there were several spots where we just had to stop for a few moments and get our bearings to make sure we were still on it. Cairns left by previous hikers also helped out. Another surprise was the total gross elevation change. There might have only been a couple hundred feet in difference from the beginning to the end, but there was way more Up and Down action during the hike that I was not anticipating. Couple that with some minor rock scrambling and you get a moderately strenuous hike! If this same hike had been at 8,000+ feet in Mount Charleston, I would have been sucking some major wind at times.

But the biggest surprise was the scenery on this hike! After thinking for a while, I'd definitely have to put this hike in my top three so far! The desert landscape along with the arch itself, an interesting mining area and the stunning views of Black Canyon and the Colorado River were just awesome! The only reason I even decided on this trail in the first place was the fact that I read that a crucial ladder on the Hot Springs trail was gone for repair. The Hot Springs hike might be our next adventure.

Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures of the hike yesterday. Enjoy.

Believe it or not, you CAN see the arch from this picture taken at the trailhead. You'd have to click on it to blow it up and look very close, but it is there in the middle of the picture (tiny).

Here's some nice scenery taken while we were on the wrong damn trail!

Danielle and the dog are descending the first part of the "correct" trail once we got back to it after 45 minutes of being lost.

There is an old WWII era mining area in the middle of this hike. Danielle and the dog are going off-trail to check things out up there. We'll get a little more mining pictures in on the way back.

This is approaching the Liberty Bell Arch. I'll get a better and closer picture of the arch on the way back when the sun is behind us.

Here are some interesting rocks. I believe this picture was taken past the arch on our way up to the Colorado River overlook (the end of the hike).

This might be my favorite picture of the hike. It's taken just a few steps before reaching the overlook. This picture is looking south with Black Canyon and the river to the right of this picture. This view is what reminds me of a smaller version of the Grand Canyon.

Here's our first look at the river. The scene in the picture above this one is off to the left.

We are now on the overlook looking down at the Colorado River 1,000 feet down. It seems like there's an optical illusion with this picture. Just to be clear, the rocks you see in the foreground on the bottom of the picture is what I'm standing on. Everything past those rocks is a 1,000 foot drop.

Just giving you a view of the cliffs on the other side of the river.

This is still on the overlook looking north. You'd have click on the picture to blow it up, but off in the distance you can see the Hoover Dam bypass bridge, which gives you some perspective of where we actually are in relation to the dam.

We're now turning back and heading back the way we came. That little squiggly line in the middle of the picture is part of our trail. That larger horizontal line way off in the distance is the highway where we are parked.

Here's a much better picture of the arch as we head in the other direction. This is about 2.5 hours before official sunset.

On the way back we doubled around a large hill to the other side of that mining area. Danielle is checking out a mine that goes about 60 feet back with some skylights, so flashlights are not needed. Normally, an abandoned mine would be completely off-limits, but in all of my reading on this hike on the internet, every person that has reported on this hike has also gone in there, so we went in too.

Looking up at a "skylight" within the mine.

For the second hike in a row I find myself walking toward the light!

Lake Mead Recreation Area - Historic Railroad Trail

Last week Danielle, the dog and I made a trip out to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area for a hike along its old historic railroad trail. This is officially the first hike that I've taken since moving to Vegas that was NOT in the Mount Charleston area. It was a somewhat long, but very easy hike that started at the Lake Mead visitors area and ended on top of the Hoover Dam parking garage (no joke, the trail literally ended on the roof of the dam garage). There wasn't much elevation change to speak of since the huge majority of the trail followed an old railroad bed that was used to supply the dam while it was being built. It also went through five old railroad tunnels that had been blown through the rock. The pamphlet about the hike said that it was a 9 mile hike in total while the trailhead signs said it was a total out-and-back of 7 miles. It felt more like 7 than 9, but we're not sure. Here are some pics:

This is shortly after starting the hike looking back to the parking lot and the visitor's center.

Our first good view of Lake Mead and the marina. This view would dominate the majority of the hike.

We're approaching the first couple of tunnels.

Walking toward the light.

Another tunnel. I think this was the fifth and final tunnel because it seemed to be the longest tunnel and the only one with a curvature within the tunnel. You can't see out the other side from this perspective like you could with the other four.

This was well after the last tunnel approaching the dam.

Electrical stuff that we walked right past as we neared the dam.

Here's the end of the trail as it descends down to the roof of the dam parking garage.

There's the dam.

If you take the dam elevator down you'll find some dam stairs leading to the dam gift shop where you can buy some dam souvenirs.

The Hoover Dam bypass project bridge is coming along nicely. Honestly, that thing is almost as impressive as the dam itself!!

On the way back we took in a sampling of the local wild life.

Just some interesting rock formations along the trail.

Looking up to the Hacienda Hotel/Casino that you would pass if you drove to the dam.

Another view of the lake as the sun began to set and our hike neared completion.

Buckeye - Wisconsin Pics

I've been negligent in my duties this past month ever since I got back from my trip home to Ohio. With the move into Danielle's condo and working a lot lately, I just haven't had much motivation to get on here very often. So the next few postings were all completed tonight and are basically just to get my phone purged of all of the pics on it. Before I did this, my phone's memory was completely full and I was having trouble even getting new text messages! So please enjoy some pictures from the past couple of months. The pics within this posting are all on gameday for the Ohio State vs. Wisconsin game in Columbus.

This sign was at a gas station on the way to the game! Hilarious!!!! I hope you get the reference(s).

This was the first OSU band Skull Session that I've attending in probably 14 years or so. I think the last time I was at one was when I was a student at OSU. They do some pretty cool stuff like give a performance of the half-time show and do the little ceremony of picking out the sousaphone player who will dot the 'i' later in the day.

I got a hot dog before the game and was pleasantly surprised with my choice of condiments!

I am settling into my seat. It's eight rows up behind the south endzone. I've had some great seats in the past at the Shoe, but this seat ranks right up with the best! As with any seats behind the endzone, the main drawback is trying to figure out how many yards the play has gone for. Sometimes it looks like a run is stuffed when its actually a 6 yard gain.

Pre-game ceremonies.

My view of Script Ohio. This is right before the dotting of the 'i'.

The first score of the game was a pick 6 for Ohio State. He took it to the house right in front of us!

Brutus stops by for a visit.

The final score. This was looking directly behind my seat. I guess that's the only other drawback from my seat since I did not have a good view of the scoreboard.

Jim Tressel leads 100,000 Buckeyes in the singing of Carmen Ohio.

Indiana Road Trip

Our annual Ohio State road trip took us to Bloomington, Indiana this year for the OSU vs. IU game. As always, a great time was had by all. The road trips that I've participated in so far these past few years have been Illinois, Purdue, Michigan State and now Indiana. For some reason, I always think of Illinois as being the most fun. Maybe its because it was my first trip with the gang. At any rate, I wouldn't hesitate to vote for another Bloomington road trip again. The tailgate area that we picked was only about a 10 minute walk to the stadium and there was PLENTY of tailgating room to be had. Last year we were kind of isolated in the area where we ended up in East Lansing, but this year was a great spot!

Shortly after pulling into the tailgate area. It was pretty sparse at this point. You can see the stadium in the distance.

Setting up shop.

The beginning of the food train. I believe that's some pulled pork that I actually never had a chance to sample. I was getting too full with the stuff in the next couple of pics.

Michelle's famous cake!

Tailgate staples.

Here's that same picture looking toward the stadium a few hours later. It has really filled in at this point.

And here's looking in the opposite direction from the stadium.

Pre-game

This gives you a good feel as to where our seats were.

And here's a good look at the stadium pressbox. Indiana's stadium has been renovated recently and I was super impressed with it! I was actually looking forward to an oversized high school stadium like I've been told Northwestern's looks like. It was anything but!