This week not as exciting at last week. It started out ok. Still a little sore from the kidney stone on Monday, but I have been drinking more water because of it. Weird but I actually crave water more the soft drinks now. If you could not tell from my twitter/facebook posts, I was in Las Vegas from Wednesday to Friday. Had to go for some work meeting. Came into work on Tuesday for a couple of hours as my plane was not leaving until 12:20 p.m. and I needed a ride from my dad to get there. Flight was full.
It was a smooth flight. We arrived around 1:00 p.m. Las Vegas time so I got 2 extra hours. Stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel. Room was really nice. What was a pain was the cost of internet access. $13.99 for 24 hours. For our meeting if we wanted internet access, over $700. Seriously. If you want people to use your facilities, advertise free wifi. It does not cost you anything extra. I’m sure you have the infrastructure to handle that many users. You are a casino.
For dinner we met up with my boss and went to Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill at Caesars Palace.
I usually don’t like sweet tasting sauces on my food, but this chicken was amazing. This is the sixteen spice crusted chicken in a roasted garlic-mango sauce with buttermilk chive mashed potatoes. I left that night stuffed. Also on the menu…
Kick ass whiskey and a glass of Remy Martin Louis XIII for $250.00.
Thursday was the first day of our meeting. Breakfast was not provided so I ended up getting something at the Starbucks located inside the Hard Rock Hotel. Worst decision ever. Don’t ever get a Chai Tea Latte from the Starbucks inside the Hard Rock Hotel. I warned you. Our meeting was for our ADP Clock Kaizen. We had to come up with processes that would make it easier for our employee/supervisors to manage their time in ADP EeTime. I guess I was invited to go because I have IT Payroll experience with the systems and could help explain how the systems worked. I’ll save you the boring explanation on how the entire meeting went. For dinner that night, I didn’t want to go out so I met up with our HDQ Lean Manager and the GM of our Miami kitchens. We decided to eat at Rare 120 inside the Hard Rock Hotel. This time I had the Organic Chicken two ways (pan roasted, confit in natural jus) with the mashed potato trio (lobster, truffle, rosemary-parmesan). Very delicious also. I am going to have to take Crystal to Las Vegas and make the trip to all the famous restaurants. That would be fun.
Day 2 of our meeting (Friday) was much the same as before. You would have thought that I would have gone somewhere else for a Chai Tea, but no. It was still gross the next day. And from the look of most people’s faces there, they agreed with me. Breakfast was provided this time. A hotel breakfast so nothing fancy. Now lunch was different. We had japanese food. Pot stickers, rice, beef, ribs, fried rice, etc… It was probably the best lunch provided by a hotel that I have ever had. After lunch, we were off to the airport to try and get earlier flights home. Originally I was to leave Vegas to 6:00 p.m. We were able to get an earlier flight at 3:20 p.m. but for some reason the ticket computer was trying to charge me $400 for the flight change after I already worked it out with our company travel agency. So 20 minutes of getting everything figured out, they finally printed my boarding pass. So we arrived at our gate at about 1:30 – 1:45 which means we had about 2 hours to kill. That is until the flight got delayed at DFW. It moved from 3:20 to 4:45. So with time to kill I played some slot machines and walked around the terminal.
What’s up with the turtle? Finally got home at about 10:30 Friday night. Was glad to be home and Kylie was happy to see her papa. Getting use to being on Vegas time, I had a hard time getting to sleep when I got home. 2 Days of getting use to 2 extra hours only to have it taken away will do a number on you.
Saturday was Adam’s birthday party. Nothing fancy. Just had dinner at my parents with some of our friends. Afterwards, we went to watch Noah’s band Rescue Signals play at Tree’s in Dallas. Sounded very good. We left after they played and walked down a couple of blocks to a bar and hung out for a few hours. It was there that this amazing picture was taken.
When I get a chance, I will post more pictures from that night. Then we left this bar to go back to Tree’s to see another band. That was boring so then they decided to go to yet another bar in lower greenville. I didn’t even make it inside that bar. One of those places where if you knew the guy at the door you can get in, and if you didn’t, you had to wait. 5 people from our group made it in, but Adam and I were left waiting for the door guy to let us in. After waiting there in 32 degree weather, watching other people walk in ahead of us, for 10 minutes, I was so over getting into the bar. Will never go there again. So needless to say, I was ready to go home and call it a night. We made the traditional stop at Whataburger for something to eat, and was home by 3:30 a.m.
Crew dinner was at Mel’s loft in downtown Ft. Worth. She made red beans and rice. It was so good to eat a home cooked meal after being in Vegas for 3 days. Forgot to take pictures but will try to remember next time. We watched the Grammy’s until it was time to take Kylie home for her bath and to put her to bed.
I thought maybe I can work on making my posts more interesting and easier to write by forcing myself to do this once a week. 52 posts in a year. Does not seem that hard.
It is. I’m sorry.