First day in Vegas and meeting someone from history

This is a photo I took flying somewhere over Colorado.Amazing views from my window. I think I'll always have to fly during the day from now on.

I'm here in Vegas!
I arrived yesterday at 11:20PT. In the past, I've taken the late flight that arrives at 11pm. This time I thought I would take the early flight and have a whole day. The weather in Toronto was miserable...cold, rainy, foggy. The flight was delayed at take off by about 15min but we still arrived early. The weather was perfect the whole way. Since I'm a single woman ( I just assume most single women do this.) while I'm waiting at the Gate, I check out all the passengers. Usually zeroing in on any attractive men travelling alone. Is it too much to ask that one of these men could be sitting beside me on my flight? I think not.
Anyway, when I got on board I see an older man...old late 60's, he looks like an aging hippy/classic rock enthusiast sitting in 5c. (I'm in 5a) The seat between us is empty. Mildly disappointed I put my ipod on an proceed to go to sleep. After a couple of hours, I wake up. We are somewhere over the Dakotas. "Jerry" starts chatting to me. Just conversation. As the conversation keeps going, he mentions performing at Woodstock with Janis Joplin and performing in Toronto on a "Train" tour before Janis died. How the Toronto fans were just terrible because they didn't want to pay the $18 for the show and were hopping the fences to try and watch for free. He even shows me a picture of Janis he has in his wallet. Wow. Drumming with Billy Idol in Toronto at the ACC. Playing with Brian Wilson. He's singing a lot of the vocals because Brian's voice is just shot from booze and cigarettes. He tells me he's been living in Vegas for 10 years now. He's performing with a singer named Michelle at the Tropicana. He was quite a character. He talked to me about music and different shows I should check out while I'm here. Which acts are worth seeing and who is just so terrible it's funny.
It was quite entertaining. I felt like I was getting an inside perspective.
The view from my window was spectacular. I normally don't get to see the mountains in Colorado or the desert leading up to Vegas because I'm travelling at night. This time the weather was calm and gorgeously sunny. I took a few shots that I'll post later.

Jhanine picked me up and we had lunch. I was starving (I hadn't eaten in 7 hours). Then we relaxed at home, talked, napped. We met her friends Sherri and Dave and their daughter Shoshanna who live next door for a pool date. Apparently tonight we are having dinner at a country club with Tim (Jhanine's lawyer friend). Dinner out is already more than I had expected from this trip. (Normally we don't go out for dinner) It should be lovely.

Crazy Weekend

This weekend was absolutely crazy. I spent so little time at home and got so little sleep. I'm exhausted.

Friday morning I woke up very early...around 4:45am. I only got 4 1/2 hours sleep :( With memories of watching Charles and Diana's wedding when I was 11, how could I not watch William and Kate's. It was really lovely. They both were so sweet and obviously in love. She was absolutely gorgeous.

At 9:30am I raced out of the house to meet Alain, Dave and Garson at the Direct Energy Centre at the CNE to take part in the UFC Fan Expo. It was cool to see some of my favourite fighters and really get to see them up close. Everyone seemed so pumped and excited for the first UFC fight ever in Toronto and the Fan Expo. It really was a celebration of the sport and the fans who love it. A real love fest.

Enjoying the Expo with Dave, Garson and Alain.

5 of the 7 current belt holders. GSP and Jose Aldo had to go prepare for their weigh in.
Georges St. Pierre...one of the best bodies in Sport.

GSP! GSP! GSP!
This the beautiful Arianny Celeste. One of the UFC Ring girls.

Gar, rather than wait to get Arianny's autograph and a real picture with her, he prefers to look like her stalker. Ah...Love.

After the Expo, I immediately rushed over to Diana's to celebrate my cousin Jenny's 25th birthday. Diana did a great job with Lasagna and Pavlova. The babies were too cute and we had a great time just hanging out. I didn't get home until 2am.

Jenny, the birthday girl with her boyfriend Justin.

Samara helping Aunt Jenny blow out her birthday candles.

As soon as I got up on Saturday, I jumped into the shower and rushed to Bayview Village to get my haircut. It had been 4 months and my hair was looking too long and scraggly. As soon as I was done, I went to Sooky's place to meet up for lunch. We went to Reliable Fish and Chips. I had wanted to try it for a long time. It was pretty good. Diana and baby Marley joined us for lunch and we made our way to the Shops at Don Mills to do a little shopping. It was such a beautiful day. It was perfect to walk around and enjoy the outdoor mall as well as the sun and warmth. We made a stop at McEwan's for macarons and chocolate brownies and eclairs. Yum. We had a quick dinner at Linda. The food was good but Marley was too fussy and squawky to enjoy the meal comfortably. We said our goodbyes and I dashed to Willie Stout's to watch UFC129.

There I met up with Garson, Vivian, Nelson, Ron and Nick. The whole spectacle was quite impressive. The fights were all pretty good, except GSP's bout with Jake Shields...a bit boring. Jose Aldo and Mark Hominuk's won fight of the night and deservedly so...it was crazy! I've never seen a bump on the head like Mark's. It was the size of a baseball! (Absolutely no exaggeration...grotesque, just doesn't quite cover it.) Once I got home, I watched the post fight interviews and commentary. By the time I got to sleep it must have been 3am.

Sunday I woke up around 10am. After a little emailing, I made my Pavlova for our WS Book Club meeting that night at Maureen's. It was a lovely evening with wonderful company and delicious food. Maureen made Chicken Cacciatore that I got to take home for lunch the next day. It was still delicious. Now I'm really ready for a nap...

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Yummy!
Does anyone have room for dessert?

On a post note...a lot of people have been asking how my mom is after her fall. She got the cast put on and on Wednesday she went to see the specialist. He checked out the x-ray and removed her cast to examine her foot thoroughly. He told her that he didn't think it was broken, and if she doesn't feel any better in a week's time then to come back to see him...our medical system at work. Suffice it to say, my mom is ecstatic that she doesn't have to lug the heavy plaster cast. She's that much closer to the golf course. :P