Jul 31, 2009

I had to get some hospital paperwork done today so I went to the hospital in the morning to talk to the financial office. There were only a few documents that I didn't have with me so I went and got them so my application could be filed. Now that should be taken care of.... hopefully it won't be thousands of dollars for my hospital visits..

Sam, Jeff and I went to Ocean City at night and got falafel at this place that I had no idea even existed. It was a good find and I'll have to remember where it is.

We played some games at the arcade. Jeff and I played the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game for a half hour trying to get as far as we could. It would have cost a lot if we tried to beat it.

We left and got some ice cream (with jimmies) and slowly returned to the car. I love peanut butter ice cream..

Jul 30, 2009

I was on my own for a game of disc golf today. Probably for the best since I was slower than usual.. and not very good either. I did deuce two holes though so I didn't feel that bad. I only played nine holes since it was a little boring by myself and with my handicap.

Later on, Katie and I went to Horizons in Philly for the Vegan Drinks night they were having. They had some specials; I got the spicy Thai something-or-other tacos. They were really good. I had a beer but wasn't really feeling like drinking... so we went to a bar.

I got a beer at The Abbaye and didn't really feel like drinking it. So I sat there with it for a while. It was eventually Quizzo time and we played. It was much different than the last time we went where the host was loud and Irish and really funny. This time he was pretty quiet and boring. The questions were different than we're used to (one round was solely titles of movies based in Ireland or Scotland.) We got some sweet potato fries and worked through it. Our team, Mr. Banana Grabber, didn't win anything. We probably won't go back for the game there, as the host was the big reason we wanted to go back in the first place. Good night though.

Jul 29, 2009

I took a break from doing nothing in the afternoon to go swim with Ryan at his aunt's house. It was much more refreshing than the last pool I was in at the MGM Grand. We swam for a while and then headed out to get something to eat.

Later I went to Ocean City with Shannon for ice cream. I got a peanut butter chocolate twist cone.. it's been a long time since I've had peanut butter ice cream.. so good. We went to the cd shop and a few other stores before heading back.

Jul 28, 2009

I met Katie at Moe's for lunch and tried the tacos instead of my normal burrito.. They were good but I think i'll stick the the old favorite. We hung out for a while and watched Party Down and tried to wash our cars. Later, we played Quizzo. Flanni even joined us for the game. It was another fierce competition yielding a second place finish again this week.

Jul 27, 2009

We got up at about 5:30am and packed up the rest of our stuff before grabbing a taxi to the airport. This is the view of the city from the airport. That's how close it is. No waiting, just go do it.

This is the terminal we came into as well with the slot machines and the Moe's, where I got the Baggage Handler breakfast burrito. It was good (with jalapenos of course.)

We boarded our plane and it took off shortly after the doors closed. This flight seemed much shorter than the other one so it was nice. For me anyway.

I got home and unpacked before going to have some smoothies and watch a little Party Down with Katie. I'm not happy with my hair in this picture..

Jul 26, 2009

Dave and I got up in the morning and had Chinese for breakfast before heading over to the New York New York casino. It was pretty basic, we didn't spend much time there. They manage to squeeze the entire New York skyline into a single city block, Brooklyn Bridge and all.

After stopping at a few souvenir shops we headed back to the MGM to see what Flanni was up to.

Dave wanted to check out another casino so Flanni and I got on the Deuce, the transit bus that runs up and down the strip, to check out parts of the city we hadn't seen yet.

We took the bus all the way to the north end of the strip, seeing a lot of things we wished we had known about when we first got there. We started to take it back but realized we might as well just get off and wander around the casinos in that area for a while. We checked out the Casino Royale and an Irish casino with cheap games.

We ended up at Hennesey's Tavern where the happy hour lasts a long time. We had a few cheap beers and met the nicest person on the whole trip. The bartender, Jessica, was a really friendly girl from Texas that wasn't Vegas-like at all. We were literally the only customers there but she talked to us the whole time about music and safely getting to her car after work. This was probably the second best thing on the trip next to the Blink show.

Dave met us there after a while and we headed out to check out some of the "old Vegas" on Fremont Street before catching the bus again.

We got off at the Stratosphere Tower and made our way to the top.

There was a great view of the city from the top. I didn't have my telephoto lens with me though.

I got a few decent shots but I think I would need a helicopter to get the kinds of pictures I want.

Dave got on the ride that puts you in a roller coaster car and drops you off the edge of the building. It looked fun but I wouldn't have been able to do it.

On the way back we stopped and watched the fountain show at the Bellagio. It was a cool show but, again, I wish I had a better angle on it.

It was nice to see the strip lit up at night, it's not as exciting in the daytime.

We came back to the room and packed up most of our stuff so we could leave early the next morning. It turned out to be a really good day even though we didn't have anything planned.

July 25, 2009

I had been craving a waffle and there was a relatively cheap breakfast place in our casino so we went and I got a Belgian waffle. The breakfast was actually pretty good.

After we ate, we got our swim suits on and went down to the pool. We hung out for a while but the water was warm and shallow and not really refreshing so we didn't stay for very long. No time for a tan.

We went to Ellis Island for dinner since we heard they had good specials. Dave and Flanni got the steak special for 6.99. They got a steak, mashed potatoes and green beans with a draft beer of their choice. My salad cost the same price but I had to get my beer separately... anyway, the beer was really good. They brew it there which is cool. Dave and Flanni left to go to the Aerosmith concert that I wasn't attending because of the seating and my leg. I stayed and had a few more of the really good, really cheap beers and then I walked back to the hotel.

I had a pretty uneventful night at the room by myself. I had another beer or two and spent most of the time online or texting people before I went to bed at midnight.. I mean it was 3am at home... I never really adjusted to Pacific Standard Time..

July 24, 2009

We woke up to the interesting, but not bright and shiny, Vegas strip and took a walk. It was more of a slow hobble for me, but we wandered down to Paris casino where we first realized that everything was very expensive here. It wasn't as exciting as it might have been for someone that has never been to Atlantic City but it was still an interesting town.

We ended up at the Fatburger where they did have veggie burgers. It was really good surprisingly. After we at we went back to our casino and hung out for a little while in the room.

We headed to the Hard Rock casino to get some dinner at the Pink Taco before the show. They have really good food, Mexican of course, and salsa. I got a burrito that I couldn't finish and pink lemonade that I shouldn't have drank because it just made me really thirsty.

We got into the Joint before anyone started and saw a joke performance by a rapper and then Chester French. They weren't bad but I wasn't into them for this show. Motion City Soundtrack came out and played an awesome set and got the crowd revved up for Blink. Then, the time had come for Blink-182! They came out to Dumpweed and killed it.

They played a great mix of songs, not too many from older CDs but every song was tight and they were hilarious between songs. It was the show we all wanted, the Blink we all know and love. Totally worth going to Vegas just to see them and one of the best concerts I've been to even though I was stuck standing in one place with a leg brace on. They closed with Dammit, as always, and Mark sang "The show is over now, please stop clapping now, goodnight the show is over now..." So great.

Jul 23, 2009

I went to the doctor in the morning where I was told to walk on my leg instead of staying off of it and that I would start physical therapy when I got back from my trip. Much better sounding than anything I had heard so far. I went home and packed for the trip which took about ten minutes and Ryan came over to play Nintendo for a while before we left. We got dropped off at the airport and got into the terminal early so we sat in the handicapped seats to wait.

They let me board the flight with the first class people because of my injury but it was just a nuisance because I had to stand up as everyone else in the plane got on so they didn't trip over my leg. Our plane took forever to take off because we were in line behind so many other planes but we finally got in the air. I read a lot of House of Leaves on the flight and tried to sleep a bit; no luck.

After what seemed like much longer than a five hour flight, we landed in Las Vegas. I walked out into a terminal filled with slot machines. We got in line for a taxi that took us to the MGM Grand where we were staying. After checking in and meeting drunk girls that locked themselves out of their room and had fired automatic weapons earlier in the day (they showed us pictures,) we got up to our room and got to bed for the night.

Jul 22, 2009

It was another pretty bland day until I went out to Atlantic City at night for food at a place that wasn't as good as I thought it would be from the description but still decent. They brew their own beer so I had some of that and it was good. After eating we went to Firewaters.

I tried a few new beers like Golden Monkey. The music wasn't even terrible there for once. After a few beers we headed out of the bar and back to the car.

Before heading home we stopped at Sunset Beach (long after the sun had set of course.) I couldn't really walk anywhere but after sitting there for a while we headed home.

Jul 21, 2009

I spent the day inside, of course, finishing King Dork. Good book. Chuck picked me up to go to Quizzo where we met Sam and Jeff. We weren't doing too well in the beginning but the last two rounds put us way ahead and we ended up in second! Good thing we know a lot of state capitals.

That's about all I did. Awesome.

Jul 20, 2009

I was tired of being inside so I decided to go down to the beach in Sea Isle and read for a while. it was hard to get comfortable there but I didn't really come prepared. I spent most of the rest of the day reading King Dork. It's going fast.

Jul 19, 2009

I spent most of the day sitting in a chair reading, as has become the norm since I hurt myself. Later, Chuck and Diebra came over, we picked up beer and pizza and watched some movies. We started with Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, which was a funny movie and we finished with Slumdog Millionaire.

I had a good time, good pizza, good beer and it was good to have some people to hang out with for a while too.

Jul 18, 2009

I went to Moe's for lunch with my mom. I had a bunch of leftovers. It was her first time there but I could tell that it won't be her last.

She came grocery shopping with me since it would be funny to try to operate a cart with crutches. I got some veggies and easy-to-make dinners since I spend all my time at my house.

Tracy invited me out to go to Philly with them so I went. We went to Eulogy, a pretty sweet little bar with a whole mess of microbrews and imports. Oh and don't forget the really good frites. We spent a few hours upstairs drinking new beer and laughing at the cougar fight at the table next to us. The one lady thought it was "The Prince and the Popper" and they were arguing about it, asking us for the popper.. er, proper title.

It was a fun night out of the house. It's funny that simply leaving my house is enough to make me (relatively) happy now.