Beers and Sharks and Yelling

So I realized that Uncle Joe has gotten little mention in this blog, so I think it's only fair that I post a story about him. He said something amusing yesterday. We come home, and Uncle Joe is out in the pool:

Me: How you doing?
Uncle Joe: Boy am I glad you guys are home.
Me: Aww... Did you miss us?
Uncle Joe: No, I need another beer...

We had just come back from visiting the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay, which is a pretty cool exhibit. As an MGM employee, I got a nice discount for us to go in, and it was cool to see the sharks, kimodo dragon, turtles, barracudas, etc. Apparently it's the only aquarium in North America dedicated to predatory sea creatures. For the discounted price, it was worth it, even after a long day of work.

In other news, I got to spend some time this weekend with other cousins of mine from Maryland who were visiting. We went over to another cousin's house who lives here (all these people are first cousins of my father), who cooked us a delicious BBQ. Ron and Pete and I spent some time later on in the casino, then I dropped them back off at the hotel. I had been up since 4:45am because I had worked that morning, so I was exhausted. After I got home, Kenny, Patricia, and several of Patty's friends were in the pool. They were so loud, and I was so tired. Apparently in my half-asleep state, I yelled at them to shut. I believe my exact words were, "The next person whose voice I hear is getting up at 4:45am with me tomorrow morning!" To be clear, I was, in fact, standing there, half awake, wearing only boxer shorts as I yelled this brilliant phrase. Needless to say, things quieted down. Interestingly, while my aunt and uncle upstairs couldn't hear the kids making noise, they did hear my shouting. Oh well.

More updates to come soon, I hope...

...End scene.

Well the freedom is over. It was nice to have the house to myself, though it is still nice to have people around again. The return of the family to the house didn't come without incident, of course. The family returned just hours before Patricia's graduation on Wednesday only to discover that the tickets for the graduation had gone missing. Oy. Several hours, temper tantrums, and threats to dig through garbage later, Patricia did, in fact, graduate high school with all of us there to watch. It was a pretty interesting graduation... Vegas style. The event took place at the Orleans Arena (the Orleans is a casino), which is the home to the Las Vegas Wranglers, an ECHL hockey team. Anyway, at the arena entrance, there was a promotion where you could enter to win a free car. There were also tables set up where you could buy those glow-in-the-dark spinny thingys that they sell at like, the Sesame Street Show. Only in Vegas. The annoying thing about the graduation was that all these stupid teenagers brought blow horns with them, which they blew constantly throughout the event.

Other than that, not too much has happened with the family, aside from our usual Thursday night family dinner, for which Aunt Cathy made a delicious barbequed leg of lamb with polenta and asparagus. Yum! Work ahas been pretty boring, though today was good. We visited Luxor for the morning and heard from several of their executives. They've really spiffed the place up. I also got to tour the SkyLofts at the MGM Grand, which are these awesome penthouse suites that they built on the 29th floor. They are spectacular. The three-bedroom suite is 6000 sq ft and is probably the nicest hotel product I've ever seen. Check em out here.

I also spent some time last weekend with my friend Anna, whom I know from Cornell, who was looking for a new dog. We had fun searching the SPCA and Petsmart to see about adopting a little animal. At the end of the day, when she hadn't found anything, I called Aunt Miggie and told her I was giving Anna her dog, Scottie, instead. Aunt Miggie threatened to cut off my balls if I did. Oh well.

So apparently this blog has more of a following than I thought. I hope you all are enjoying the stories though. Ultimately, I hope this blog will entice you all to come spend a serious amount of time out here. It is well worth it.

temporary freedom

Well, I have the house to myself now. Uncle Joe and company departed yesterday morning for a little vacation in California. Looks like Chris and June are going to have the pleasure of spending the next four days with my relatives. It's kind of creepy here with it being so quiet... it's just me and the dog. He follows me everywhere, it's so adorable. I think he doesn't even miss them... they'd be so insulted.

So what else has been going on? The other day I went out with Aunt Miggie, Uncle Joe, and the kids. It was fun. We stopped off at the car dealership to get aunt Miggie's car an oil change. While we were there, Aunt Miggie decided that she would like to buy one of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvette. Unfortunately, they cost lots of these, plus Aunt Miggie walks with one of these.

Work has been going well. I think we've all finally figured out what our department actually does. We're basically responsible for maintaining all the hotel rates for the hotel. We don't make any decisions per se, but we make sure that when the managers decide what the rates will be or that they will change the rates, they make it to all the channels properly. Pretty interesting stuff, to be honest. Dunno if I'd make a career out of it, but I'm learning a lot.

I actually went out with the other interns for the first time this weekend. They've been going out quite a bit, but I'm not really into the whole "going out" scene, so I've not participated too much. But this time I went. We went to a karaoke bar in a place called the Ellis Island Casino and Brewery (http://www.ellisislandcasino.com/). I guess it's more of a locals place. There's no hotel as part of the casino, though it is conveniently located in the same parking lot as a Super 8 motel... you get the idea. It's a fun place. Freshly-made micro brews only cost $1.50 for a generous pint, and they're pretty tasty to boot. The people there are kind of interesting, but whatever. A good time was had by all.

I'm sure other amusing stuff has happened, but I'll close it for now. I mentioned the other day how I like my mom's lemon merengue pie, and then Aunt Bobbi went and made one for me, so if anyone wants some pie, let me know: it's delicious. Oh and supposedly Lori has started referring to Aunt Bobbi's house as the "nursing home." It's a good name: there are two old ladies living there, and they eat their meals on little trays in front of the TV. Funny stuff.

Bye for now!