Plenty of holes left in the desert

That's always the running joke around Vegas...that there are still plenty of places to bury a body. No matter what we can't seem to get away from the mob jokes.

But keeping that in mind (ha), this weekend we loaded up the girls in the truck and headed out to the desert. This is about 20 miles outside of Vegas, on the outskirts of a SMALL town called Jean, which is just east of the California border. Ken and Carl are helping a friend with a short indie movie and this spot was just perfect for what they needed, and I thought the girls could use a day out.

Isn't this just gorgeous?? Don't get me wrong, I love green and trees and all that too, but there's just something so majestic about the open barrenness of a desert.

The girls (who were tied to the trailer hitch of the truck so as not to wander off and aggrivate any snakes or coyotes) watched the boys wander off.

The movie is set in the old west and they needed a spot to show a body burried in the desert. Looks perfect to me.

The girls seemed to love being outside. Plenty of new smells and dirt to roll around in. I took them for several short walks (I wasn't looking to aggrivate any snakes either) and they totally loved it. Sunshine especially has always loved the sun. She knows exactly what time every window in the house gets direct rays and you can find her there like clockwork.

They both passed out on the way home and slept the majority of the night. Now I know what to do when they're all amped up and running around the house like wild horses. A trip to the desert!

Where did "three sheets to the wind" come from?

The phrase, which has come to refer to a completely inebriated person, derives from sailing - but not from the sails, as one might think. In the early 1800's, chains were used to regulate the angle of the sails, and these were called sheets. When the sheets were loose, the boat would become unstable and tipsy, thereby resembling a drunk person.

Where did the weekend go?

Thursday was a LOONG day. I got in the office around 9:30, and was getting quite abit of misc paper work done when we had an unexpected visitor. It was a gentleman who, well, I had met but Nicole had never met. Back story - her late husband (my late boss) was dating a woman, P, for 4 years (before he met Nicole). P was married to JK. John, Nicole's husband, new she was married, as did everyone, but everyone, and I do mean everyone, also knew she was also dating John. Well, P died, a year later John and Nicole get married. End of story. Well, until yesterday. JK comes walking into the office and wants to offer his condolences to Nicole on John's passing. Huh? We were both in shock. Surely this man knew that John had been having an affair with his wife for almost 4 years. And he wants to come in and offer his condolences to John's widow? It was definately a wtf moment. The husband of John's mistress comes in to offer the widow of the man that was sleeping with his wife condolences??? Definately threw both of us for a loop. Margaritas for lunch were a must. We went to Ricardo's, our regular lunch spot. Great nacho's and great margaritas.

That night I started training at the second job. It's not that hard, alot of cash handling and checking in an out the staff. I worked 5 hours thursday, 8 friday, and 5 saturday, all training. I think i've got it all down, but i'm still want one more night before i'm totally left on my own. I've worked for myself for so long, i'm not used to asking anyone how to do something, so once i'm on my own I want to make sure that I can do it. So I have a break until thursday night, when I have to work 8:30 pm to 5:30 am. It's a pretty crazy scheduale, considering i'm working all day doing the property management thing, but I was quite proud of myself for handeling it so well. I wasn't that tired and didn't loose my momentum all weekend. Normally i'm one of those people who likes to sleep for 8-10 hours a day, and don't you dare do anything to ruin that routine. But I did ok. I know it's eventually going to wear on me, but hopefully this won't be for a long time period.

Sunday I slept til noon, went and did a little shopping, came home and baked a ham (new glaze with maple syrup, dijon mustard, and a dash of crushed cloves... yummy!), and cleaned up the house. That night after dinner we watched "Flags of our fathers". It was a good movie, the cinematography was amazing, but I found it slightly depressing. It was so sad how they, especially the Indian Ira, was totally manipulated by the government, using them to sell war bonds. Yes, it was for a good cause, but they really didn't care about them as people. Plus the movie was a tad bit on the slow side. Not sure why. We're gonna watch "Letters from Iwo Jima" next weekend. The cool part of this is, at least I think for Ken, is seeing all the history and getting a sense of what his mother saw as a kid. She was 5 and in Okinawa when the nuclear bombs were dropped and she remembers seeing the blast in the sky. I think in a wierd way it helps him to either understand better or get a better sense of his parents history. His dad is American, a marine, and his mom Japanese, born and raised on Okinawa til she was in her twenties and married his dad. So in these films he's seeing both sides. Of course his dad didn't fight in this war, he was only 5 himself, but he was a marine for 20 years, serving 4 tours in Vietnam, and I think this gives him a sense of his father.

Today was a pretty good day too. Had a facial at 10. My face is still breaking out something awful. I know i'm not drinking enough water these days. Especially this weekend, I lived on sweet tea. And then tonight I had a massage. Just needed to relax. This week is going to be just as nuts as last, but i'm feeling more positive about everything. Maybe it was just pms hitting early. Damn hormones.

Making a Decision

Well, I went for the interview last night. I got the job. All I have to do is go get my sherrif's card and go in tonite to start my paperwork/training. But after all of that, i'm just not sure if it's something I wanna do. I really want the job, only for the extra money. But Ken is very upset about it (where the job is). He doesn't like me being in that environment, and I can't blame him for that. So this morning i'm sitting here trying to decide what to do. I have a big personal/business move i'm planning and I want to be prepared if that goes sour, but I also want the time to prepare for it, which I won't have if I take the job. I'm trying to think positive, that everything is going to work out fine, but i'm a bit of a worry wort at heart so i'm also planning on the negative. Or planning for the negative. I'm so confused. I almost feel like I should flip a coin. Take the second job, put the money in savings for our house in August, or in case things go wonky at work, or focus on work and do what it is that I really want to do. Ugh... I hate being a grown-up sometimes.

Doing my part

I have decided to do my part in stimulating the economy. Yes, that is my excuse for shopping. I just can't seem to help myself these days.

I just bought this from The Sak. Isn't is just too cute? I just love their bags. I have almost gotten over my dooney obsession and have moved onto these bags. Almost. Not quite tho... i'm still jonesin for this one...

or this one. I can't decide which one I like better. Not that i'll be buying either one any time soon. The bag from The Sak was my last little splurge for a while. We're hoping to be able to buy a house in August, and with the state of the economy the way it is, you pretty much have 20% down, which in Las Vegas is quite a hefty sum. So we're scrimpin and saving. I've even been contemplating taking on a second, weekend only, job.... just to build up the savings account a bit. I know i'm gonna be dog tired all the time, but I figure I better do it now before we have kids and i'm not as flexible with time, not to mention have more expendable energy.

10 ways to creep out a roommate

Okay, I stole these off of my sisters page on Facebook. I thought they were absolutely hilarious.

10) Collect potatoes. Paint faces on them and give them names. Name one after your roommate. Separate your roommate's potato from the others. Wait a few days, and then bake your roommate's potato and eat it. Explain to your roommate, ''He just didn't belong.''

9) Move everything to one side of the room. Ask your roommate if he knows how much an elephant weighs, and look at the floor on the empty side of the room with concern.

8) Draw a tiny black line on your nose. Make it bigger every day. Look at it and say, ''The hair, it's growing. Growing!''

7) Buy some knives. Sharpen them every night. While you're doing so, look at your roommate and mutter, ''Soon, soon....''

6) Collect hundreds of pens and pile them on one side of the room. Keep one pencil on the other side of the room. Laugh at the pencil.

5) Tell your roommate, ''I've got an important message for you.'' Then pretend to faint. When you recover, say you can't remember what the message was. Later on, say, ''Oh, yeah, I remember!'' Pretend to faint again. Keep this up for several weeks.

4) While your roommate is out, glue your shoes to the ceiling. When your roommate walks in, sit on the floor, hold your head, and moan.

3) Make a sandwich. Don't eat it, leave it on the floor. Ignore the sandwich. Wait until your roommate gets rid of it, and then say, ''Hey, where the heck is my sandwich!?'' Complain loudly that you are hungry.

2) Every time your roommate walks in yell, ''Hooray! You're back!'' as loud as you can and dance around the room for five minutes. Afterwards, keep looking at your watch and saying, ''Shouldn't you be going somewhere?''

1) Talk back to your Rice Krispies. All of a sudden, act offended, throw the bowl on the floor and kick it. Refuse to clean it up, explaining, ''No, I want to watch them suffer.'''

Having a roomate at such a mature age (ha!) has led to a resurgance of practical jokes. Most of them have been me being the pranker and Carl being the prankee. I took a bath in the hall bathroom one night (his bathroom) and left my copy of "Twilight" in there. Later, finding it on the counter, started complaining about what if someone had found it in there, what would they think of him.How the book was for prepubescent little girls. So after he went to work that night, I left a copy of this on the back of the toilet.

Don't mess with a pro.

Classes and old friends

I can't believe how sporadic i've been blogging lately. I feel like I haven't had a free moment in ages, to sit and write or even just browse thru everyone else's blogs and see what all has been going on. But I am bound and determined to get back into a routine, to get on some sort of scheduale, to get organized. Now that it's starting to get warmer I think it's do-able. For some reason when it's cold outside, I get totally lazy. (yes, i'm going to blame it on the weather).

Today I went to a class regarding tenants and foreclosures. Very interesting stuff. Not much I didn't already know, in regards to what the laws and responsibilities were, but the application of those laws was a bit new. Plus, I ran into an old friend that I haven't seen in 6 years. I knew she was in real estate but there's like what 5000 of us here, if not more in the Vegas Valley? So I figured it was just a matter of time before we ran into each other. Very cool. And the timing of it was very cool. I have some personal plans in the work, just things to set into motion, and I was beginning to get worried but today I saw several signs that everything is going to work out just fine.

I love seeing the signs. Sometimes we just get so busy that they pass or by, or even worse, we choose not to see them. Two in one day tho, totally awesome. I try to see not only the ones that confirm that i'm on the right path, but that I might be on the wrong path, or headed that way. Those are always the hardest to see, mostly because I hate to admit I might be wrong.