Veg Post

Almost a month ago (I know), we headed to Vegas for my cousin's 21st bday with the girls of the family.  I feel like I was just there for my 21st.  It's only been about 8 years.  Yikes!

When I think about Vegas, I think about sun, drinks, and roulette.  When we got there, it was 55 degrees and rainy.  Ew. 

But here's how we arrived in Vegas...

After we headed to our hotel to drop off our bags, we stopped at a slot machine and then went straight to the Bingo parlor.  If you've never played Bingo in Vegas, please do so ASAP.  It's one of my favorite things to do.  Partly because of the people watching, fanny packs, and lucky trolls, but also because of the free drinks and the evil looks we always get.  Bingo regulars are not fond of new comers who find the whole thing absolutely hilarious. 



Gma won $400!





Mom and I

Mother of bday girl, Bday girl & Gma

The aftermath....

We ended up playing 3 rounds of Bingo with some gambling in between before we headed back to the hotel to eat pizza and get ready.  My aunt found out that Bridget was wearing a sequin dress and ended up buying sequin dresses in different colors for everyone else.  So here's what you get on your 21st when you go out with my family....

Getting carded.  Ignore the super creeper in the back.

Where else can you play beer pong in sparkly dresses besides Vegas?

Bridget and I ended up beating a team of boys who were distraught about it.  Don't mess with Kansas girls.

 The next day it was a lot warmer out and we all headed to the pool and shopping.  We stayed at the Flamingo and they have an amazing pool!  Highly recommended.

Here's the wasted couple in front of us.  Well, I'm not even sure they were a couple... the wasted make out partners in front of us.  That is a bucket on his head and she is straddling him, in case you can't get a good look.



Bar outside our hotel



This was taken after my aunt kept yelling, 'get a picture with the big balls!!'

$1 Margs



Some roulette at O'Shays.  Please notice our chips in front of us...we were all doing very well



Thanks to this that kept hitting!



Wedding chapel.  I swear it was the same one on Friends.





Martini bar at our hotel after a long day of walking around



Out for the last night... wish we would have had one more day/night.  Always such a fun trip with the girls I love!!

Muah!

Shake It Like A Salt Shaker

Hello, It's May.  Just realized that I only blogged once in April.  Oops! 

My excuse is that April was busy.  I went to Hutch for Easter, Vegas for my cousin's birthday, and Chicago for my friend's bachlorette party.  That's a lot of traveling in one month. 

So I have lots of pictures and stories to share. 

I'll start with Easter and my adventure.  Hutch is crazy, they have things like the Cosmosphere and the Underground Salt Museum.  I've been to the Cosmosphere multiple times, but I've wanted to check out this underground museum for a long time.  Knowing my husband wouldn't go with me because he is a scaredy cat, the opportunity had never come up.  Until my awesome father-in-law asked me if I wanted to go.  Um, yesss!! 

Apparently salt mines have a certain temp/humidity that prevents things from deteriorating.  The awesome part was that nothing that goes down comes back up.  So there was lots of trash from 50-60 years ago that looked new.  They also store famous/important material in the salt mine for safe keeping.  I'll get to that later...

We had to wear hard hats and emergency air packets.  I think this would be the point Tony would have turned around :) 
I think they are stylish...

Here's the pics I took from underground:

Guy from dirty jobs - the salt mine was on the show.

Trash pile from 1945.  Lots of coke bottles and cigarette boxes.

 The coolest part of the whole thing was seeing the memorabilia from movies.

Fighting gloves from Ali

Men in Black glasses - worn by Tommy Lee Jones

Men in Black guns - used by Will Smith

Original Batman Costume - worn by George Clooney

Mr. Freeze Costume -

Superman Costume-

Wonka bars from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Fighting Shield from Troy- used by Brad Pitt

An original newspaper from the day President Lincoln was assasinated

Dorothy II from Twister

All of the original film reels from most of the movies made

Loved every minute of it.  And loved getting to share it with someone so special.

P.S. they do wedding receptions down there... how hilarious is that? 

'everyone strap on your hard hat for the macarana...' 

Show Some Love

Today is national Hug Your Dog Day...

As if Margo doesn't get enough love from us already, she'll be getting a little more today.

Go hug your dog/dogs/neighbors dog.

'Be the person your dog thinks you are'

Attention!!!

We had a crazy thing happen in our household yesterday...


Tony left his flipflops out in our bedroom.

I came home to one sitting on the living room rug.

IT HAD NOT BEEN EATEN.

Someone please return my dog.



.

Heartbroken

I am hesitant to write about this, but maybe it will help me vent, as if Gina and I's emails haven't helped enough. 

Yes, Frank Martin is gone.

Yes, I'm mad, sad, disappointed, pissed, and every other emotion possible.

KU goes to the Final 4 and we lose our coach.  Worst season ever.  I'm really hoping my friends that live in Manhattan will take my advise and egg the shit out of Frank and/or Currie's house/car/driveway/yard/family.

Loyalty my ass. 

Bitter much? Maybe.  But I'm also still bitter about buying a Huggieville shirt for the game before Huggins left us.  Then I was happy with Frank.  Will that happen again?  I hope so.

What I don't appreciate, is Frank
1.) leaving 
2.) most likely taking players with him
and
3.) stirring up talk about how Currie is impossible to work for (even if it's true)

None of those help us out what.so.ever.  Oh and let's add in him not even having the decency to tell the team in person.  Selfish.

I also just learned yesterday that S. Carolina is in the SEC.  Get Real.  I am so over the SEC. 

My purple work clothes are currently being retired to the side of my closet until we have some closure on the situation that is disastrous.  And the picture of Tony, Frank and I on my desk has turned into a dart board with my thumb tacks.

I may or may not have tweeted Frank to #suckagamecock

Don't even get me started on that mascot.  Emily googled it and informed me that it is an actual bird, not a made up fairy, like a jayhawk.

Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps

I've had a few requests for this recipe.  Overall I thought it was very good, and Tony loved it.  Who knew??

I got the original recipe from Pioneer Woman's blog. 

Here's a little fun story to go with it.  I ran to the grocery store over lunch to pick up the ingredients.  I could not find tofu for the life of me.  As I'm checking out - please keep in mind that I choose my cashiers very carefully based on how speedy they look - I asked the guy if they carry it.  He calls another worker over to go grab it while he checks me out.  Here's how our convo went...

Cashier- 'why do you want tofu?  You look like a sensible gal.'

Me - I'm trying out a new recipe and I've never bought it before which I why I couldn't find it.

C - Well, it's not real food.

(I'm just staring at him)
C- anything with soy in it isn't real food. It's a form of birth control....

Me - (confused effing look on my face, then the lady brings it to me and I set it on the belt)

He goes on for about 10 minutes telling me about why it's bad, how it's made, where it's from. Meanwhile, the people in line behind me start leaving!! He would NOT shut up. Then he wrote a website down on my receipt so I could go online and read about it.  Yes sir, I'll get right on that.

C- well I hope your meal is good... if you come back sometime we can discuss it more.

Um, I can promise you the next time I go to Walmart, I'm using the self checkout....


If you are still interested in the recipe, here it is.  And don't go to the neighborhood market to buy your tofu.


Ingredients


2 teaspoons Peanut Or Olive Oil

1 package (about 12-14 Oz. Size) Firm Tofu

1 1/2 Cups Frozen Corn Kernels

1/4 teaspoon Chili Powder (more To Taste)

1/4 cup Soy Sauce

Red Pepper Flakes (I used a lot, it needed some heat!)

Romaine Lettuce Hearts

2 whole Avocados, Sliced

1 teaspoon Balsamic Vinegar (optional)

Preparation Instructions

Heat oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Throw in the tofu, then break it up into very small pieces. Cook tofu for several minutes, until much of the liquid cooks off and tofu starts to turn golden.

Throw corn in with the tofu. Cook for a few minutes. 
Add chili powder and soy sauce, then cook until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Turn off heat and stir in balsamic if using.

Pile mixture into romaine hearts, then add slices of avocado. Fold up and chow down!

Roasted Cabbage

I made a new side dish last night.  Straight from Pinterest.  Well, I adapted it a little. 

I can tell you that I will be making it a lot.  It was super easy and my husband loved it.  Win-Win. 

Here's the recipe:
1 head of cabbage - cut into wedges (big or small)
Olive Oil
Lemon Juice
S + P
Balsalmic Vinegar (optional)

Preheat oven to 400.  Drizzle olive oil on rimmed baking sheet, arrange wedges, drizzle wedges with a little more olive oil and lemon juice.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake for about 40 minutes. 
After they were done, I drizzled balsalmic vinegar over them b/c I love it.  I bet if I would have reduced it, it would have been even better. 

Yum!!!  Tony said he didn't know cabbage could taste that good.  I'm not sure he's ever had cabbage, but it exceeded his expectations which is a plus.  I fed him tofu lettuce wraps last week, and he liked those too.  It's fun changing his mind about certain foods... we're still working on mushrooms. 

Spelling Bee

I actually consider myself a good speller.  I also get annoyed when people use bad punctuation, but that's not today's topic. 

Saying this, there are a few words that I always spell wrong.  Most of the time I google them to get the right spelling if I don't have access to spell check. 

The main one is definitely. 

I have no idea why this is so hard for me.  Seriously.  I have been known to spell it definatly, definitly, definately, etc. 

Gina saved my life today by teaching me a trick.  Definitely.  The last part is spelled like Italy, but with an E. 

Genius!  Now I can go about my day.  But not without first pointing out the fact that Gin made this up last week.  Apparently neither of us won the spelling bee in grade school....