New Year In Vegas

I'll be ringing in the New Year in Las Vegas, followed by a friend's wedding a day later. Here's to wishing everyone a safe and happy new year!

Santa Drives a Truck

I saw Santa driving on the freeway. What happened to his reindeer?
I guess he finally got with the times.

2007 Company Xmas Party

Get convinced to go last minute

Show up stag

Free drinks from the bar courtesy of knowing the bartender

Dance my a** off

Make the party awesome by starting dancing circle and conga line

Leave with two girls

'Nuff Said

Useless/Useful Technology - Hydracoach

You guys remember how much I dug my CamelBak water bottle for staying hydrated. Well I decided to take it a step further after I came across the Hydracoach. This new water bottle actually keeps track of how much water you drink and will show the percentage you've drank towards your daily goal (recommended is half your body weight in ounces). My recommended daily water consumption is 70oz and I have been able to meet that each day, I keep mine at work and have been averaging about 10oz of water per hour, during the workday. Sorry Camelbak, you've been replaced!

Remainder Of My Canada Trip

Remember how I left off my last post at, "...and of course more bar hopping." Did we ever.

So we started off the night with dinner at a really good Thai place. Then made our way to The Morrisey, a bar that was recommended to us by a young lady at the airport cafe. I must say, it had a really cool "pub" atmosphere. Dim lighting, padded walls, chairs around a fireplace and a good amount of people. A couple hours, several beers, and quite a few text messages later (text messages are free in Canada) we're ready to check out some place new.
I whip out a dollar bill (which sadly, is worth less in Canadian these days) to fold into one of my famous dollar shirts as part of the tip, when someone at the table next to us asks where I got the "American money". I tell him we're from California and he tells me he's from the States as well, (Alabama to be exact, [insert gun rack joke here]) and his friend was Canadian. So he offers to buy us fellow Americans another round, and who are we to say no, that would just be "unpatriotic".

I was already feeling pretty good, then a beer or two later and I'm feeling really good. But we still wanna check out some other bars, so they offer to be our tour guides and take us to another bar we should check out. So we walk down to the area called "Yaletown" and hop in another bar, which I can't recall the name of. This one has a TV on the wall and let's you play the video game Guitar Hero. So we have a seat and order a pitcher while his friend goes up to play GH but ends up losing. haha

At this point things are definitely starting to get fuzzy, after finishing the pitcher we decide to crawl to yet another bar. It's all bits and pieces from there. I remember being at the bar, my friend Mikael talking to some snowboard instructors and trying to pawn off the rest of his pitcher of beer. Then waking up back at the apartment, in bed, in my sleep attire.

Not quite sure how we got home, but after careful scientific research, I think we walked.

Needless to say, we were still feeling a little tipsy that morning. We ended up waking up at 10:30am so my friend missed his early flight back, but he's a pilot for Skywest so he can easily reschedule another jumpseat. But it was a new day, and I was suppose to meet my other Canadian friend, Samantha at 12:45 for some Greek food. We got ready, braved the cold and met up with Sam at Stepho's (great place) for a fun filled lunch where we learned about Loonies and Toonies, I'm not kidding. Needless to say we drank plenty of water while we were at Stepho's.

After lunch Mikael got ready and left for his flight. I relaxed (recovered) for a while. Later on Laura and I went out for some Chinese food. And while we were eating at this nice restaurant, I see something fly by out of the corner of my eye. I think nothing of it, then 5 minutes later I see it again. Yep, it was a mouse. I thought it was funny more than anything, I really wasn't worried about anything being unsanitary. I can understand a mouse would make a home inside a restaurant when the outside is FREEZING. So I discretely tell the manager when he walks by and the manager tells me in his best Asian 'accent', "That mouse give me headache" and shows me how everything is very clean, which I agree with him, then he put out some glue traps.

I am so glad I stayed that extra day because as it turns out, it was perfect timing. My last day in Vancouver was their first day of snowfall for the year, so I got to experience it and then be on my merry way home to warm California just in the nick of time.

The ride to the airport was pretty fun, their bus system rocks. Everything went smoothly getting to my flight and I even got to fly back in first class. The 2 and 1/2 hour flight seemed quick since I was seated next to an IT professional so we just talked tech the whole time, although I was getting kinda tired of it near the end.

I can't wait to go back....in the spring or summer that is.