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!