What happens in Vegas.. (and in Prairie Farm)

Okay, enough with the calls and emails. Here's your dumb blog posting.

Between the last post and now, I've been busy. I've really had a chance to get into the full swing of the new job, and so far, it is everything I hoped it would be. Which is to say, I'm very happy with it and things are going well.

Last week I went to Las Vegas for work. I had to attend the Annual Meeting of RICA, as CHR coordinates and manages their association. This means, basically, CHR staffers do the leg work of getting the hotel contracted, lining up speakers, paying bills, ordering booklets and awards, etc - you name it, we do it. It was work, but it wasn't ALL work! :)

Thursday night I got to go out with with a couple of people from CHR: Paula from IL and Stan from TX. The ultimate goal of the night was to see Cirque du Soleil's Beatles-themed show, LOVE. But before that, we did a little sightseeing. Well, actually, I did a little sightseeing, since Paula and Stan had been to Vegas before, and I hadn't. Here's a couple of shots.

Yes, that would be yours truly in front of the fountains at Caesar's Palace.

And this would be yours truly in front of the fountains INSIDE Caesar's Palace. These are the ones that come to life and spout fire and water and steam and stuff. Pretty creepy, actually.

After the sightseeing, we headed to the Mirage and ate at STACK, which was absolutely wonderful, and the source of a couple of recent culinary experiments here at home. Then it was the show. This is a picture of me (being dumb as ever) in the hallway leading to the LOVE theater.

Isn't the floor groovy?

The show itself was AWESOME. For some clips of LOVE and to get an idea of what Cirque is like, click here. For anyone who loves Beatles music, or even knows a couple of songs from Sgt. Pepper's, this is the thing to see. Totally unbelievable, and utterly too short. I would definitely go again - there is just too much to see with one performance.

Oh, and I had a small world moment on the plane ride out to Vegas. I, luckily, was seated in an exit row with a very nice gentleman, of about late fifties, early sixties. We had an empty seat between us - again, luckily - and we both commented on it. We did the basic airplane chatter - where are you headed, what are you going to do there, where are you coming from. When we got to the last question, the gentleman said he was from Sturgeon Bay, WI. I remarked that I had an uncle from there, and that he teaches ag at one of the schools on the peninsula, and I named the school. The guy's eyes lit up and he said "D.C.? He's your uncle?! I play basketball with him during the winter. He needs to work on his jump shot." So here I was, several hundred miles away from home, talking to a guy who plays basketball with my uncle. Small world moment.

After getting back from Vegas, I embarked on a little project. Not that I need more to do, but you know. These things just sort of strike.

Project background - Our house used to belong to B's grandparents. As I've said before in previous posts, they were lovely people, but just not able in their later years to do the maintenance needed on an older farmhouse and grounds. Well, over the past three+ years of living here, B and I have been working on the farmhouse. This summer, I decided, it was time to tackle the grounds.

Here's a couple of before pictures. These are just a few of the areas.

And now, a couple of afters. Not everything is done yet, but you can kind of get the idea. The log cabin was the original house on the property, and housed 8 people at one time. It's over 150 years old, and it's starting to show its age. The wild rose bush B and I stole from a ditch near our house a couple of years ago. It's going like gangbusters now, and looks like it's been there forever.

B has been busy too. His latest project has been putting an addition on the barn. Here's a picture of the first cows in the new area.

And here's one of the many reasons we need an addition onto the barn.

Awww, isn't it cute?! One of my favorite reasons for living on a dairy farm.

So there. You all better be happy now. :) Until next time.