Year 3 - Day 153 - June 1

We were supposed to go to the food truck gathering in Hamden tonight. I was really excited that it was happening on a day I could go! However, the weather didn't cooperate. When we saw the giant storms that were headed our way, we decided not to drive to the city. Turns out we probably made the right choice. It was still a bummer. Instead, in between storms, we grabbed dinner at Red Robin. We used to go there all the time, but we hadn't been in awhile. I have been on a "medicine holiday" (Well, medicine and doctors in general - nothing that makes alcohol illegal!) for the last several weeks, and so I've tried a few different drinks. This one was just like a Sonic Cherry Limeade, but it had some kind of alcohol in it. It was good, but I could have 6 at Sonic for the same price, so I'll stick with my Sonic. :)

Year 3 - Day 97 - April 6

Another great day. We started our day by walking north to the Venetian/Palazzo complex to hunt down the Emeril sports bar. We found it and watched Orioles Opening Day from these couches:

The whole restaurant/bar is made of couches and coffee tables. Well, the main area. There are also tables, cubbies, and private areas that you can grab. Lots of TVs and lots of sports. Of course since it's an Emeril restaurant, it's New Orleans themed bar food. We had a giant pretzel that was pretty good.

After the Orioles won, we headed ALL THE WAY down the street to Mandalay Bay. We were assisted by the Belliago -> Monte Carlo and Excalibur -> Mandalay Bay trams and took a break at the pub in Monte Carlo. Every resort is pretty cool, but there are definite class differences. We felt really poor at some of the places. :) 

I talked Mike into one last happy hour at Sugar Factory. This time I had another smores and he tried a Cinnamon Toast Crunch. 

They actually put cinnamon toast crunch IN the drink just floating there. Then you can eat it just like you would in a bowl of cereal. Hilarious. Only in Vegas!

Another thing that can only be found in Vegas is an old school video game place. We found a place to use our quarters. (Because none of the slot machines take them!!) Mike played Dig Dug for awhile:

While he did that, I lost money playing Centipede. Then, he beat me in Tetris. Talk about embarrassing. That's one of the only games I'm any good at! It was a lot harder to play with a joystick. That's my excuse. ;)

Year 3 - Day 95 - April 4

This morning, the 4 of us crammed into my dad's tiny car and headed to the Hoover Dam. It was really cool to see. Of course we have no pictures of the whole thing, since we were standing on it. But it was impressive. We also had lunch at a little brewery in the nearby town. (Great fries. Wow.)

Then we did some more exploring. We realized that the casino bar side of Sugar Factory has BOGO drinks during happy hour. Of course that meant I could finally justify trying something!

I had a smores martini. It was so good. It didn't even taste like alcohol! They used chocolate milk or something along those lines as the base, but then added chocolate vodka, vanilla vodka (I think) and toasted marshmallow stuff too. Plus real marshmallows on top! Oh, and did you know that to make the cool swirls in the martini glass, the secret is to keep the chocolate sauce really cold so that it doesn't run? Mike's drink was a root beer float with no root beer and no ice cream. It had rock candy flavored vodka, root beer flavored vodka and ice cream vodka. It's crazy. Neither of us ever gets fancy drinks, but this stuff was too crazy to pass up. What was REALLY crazy was the fishbowl of a drink that the girl next to us got! I wish I took a picture!

Finally, to finish off the night we went to Spago for dinner. We happened to walk by Max Brenners, so I had to get a cup of hot chocolate to go. Their Italian hot chocolate is to die for. It's seriously like a melted Hershey bar!

I hope you're not counting my calories through these pictures. I'm not. :) Plus, we're walking miles a day, so that helps. ;)

Day 250 - September 7

My mother speaks of moments where she absolutely must have liquid or else she will perish in that very instant.  It makes me look forward to getting older...but then again, she lives in the desert so maybe that plays a role.

I opened up the fridge this weekend to discover that my husband suffers from the same symptoms - but from the looks of the shelf, his "need-to-drink-this-instant" cravings must demand options.  3 flavors of Gatorade, 3 flavors of Snapple tea, and 5 flavors of beer right there, ready to grab at any moment!