Adventures in Life

We left around 3:30 p.m. from Chicago today to head to Eldorado. We arrived around 8:45. We made really good time on the trip. The first half of the ride I spent proofing a paper for my research project at school. The second half I spent driving while Gabe worked on his homework. We didn't really do much else.
I know that I have said it before (at least to some of you in person), but I really like my low vision rotation at school. It is a pretty neat feeling to take someone that has given up the hope of ever reading again and watching them read a newspaper for the first time in years. It really makes my day when it happens.

Posted by at 11:24 PM | Permalink

Today Gabe and I slept in until 11:30. We were both pretty tired from the trip. Gabe spent most of the day studying for his Monday and Tuesday exams. I cleaned and watched Nanny McPhee. I have wanted to see it for a while. It was entertaining. There is something funny that I forgot to mention. It happened in Vegas. Gabe was "studying" for his Monday and Tuesday exams while I was in classes. He said that he tried to study but he was hungry, so he went to the cafe to purchase a sandwich. Then he said that the slot machines were right there, so he put in some cash. I guess I can't complain too much, he won $200.

Posted by at 8:26 PM | Permalink

Gabe and I purchased tickets to the activities at the Luxor. We watched the IMAX movie Mystery of the Nile. Then we went on a Dracula IMAX ride. I honestly expected to be scared a little more. Search of the Obelisk was the next IMAX ride we tried. We decided to call it quits...none of the IMAX experiences were that great. We decided to try the King Tut Museum. There was a brief five minute movie introduction and then an audio tour guide. The museum would have been a good addition to the exhibit at the Field Museum. Leslie Neilson was the star for the next Luxor activity. We watched Pirates 4-D. It was cute and funny. We went for lunch in the Stratosphere Hotel's restaurant the Top of the World. Tony went with us for the view from the top. We shared a cab to the airport and arrived back in Chicago around midnight.

Posted by at 1:10 AM | Permalink

Continuing Education classes comprised the majority of my day today and yesterday. I needed 7 classes to make up for my missed clinical assignments. Today, after the classes were over Gabe and I walked down the strip and watched the water show at the Bellagio Fountain. I needed some classic Sinatra to go with it...it would have made me feel like a character from Ocean's 11. We also went to Freemont Street to "Old Vegas". This portion of Vegas reminded me of Vegas from the movies (ex. National Lampoons). The lights were amazing. I did not visit Freemont Street on my previous Vegas trip. We headed to Binions for a $5.95 sirloin with baked potato and vegetables. This is the area of Vegas to find cheap food. We ate around 1:00 a.m. which beats our previous meal time by 2 hours. The past few nights dinner was at 3:00 a.m. We watched the hourly LASER show and took a $2.00 hour long bus ride back to the hotel.

Posted by at 7:58 PM | Permalink

Yesterday evening Gabe and I arrived in Las Vegas. We arrived around 11:30 p.m. so we grabbed the rental car, checked in to the hotel (the Luxor), and went to sleep. We did pull a Rachael Ray on the plane ride to Vegas. I chatted it up with a local about places to go and places to eat. She recommended Red Rock, which made me very happy because I really wanted to go there. She also mention Binion's, a hotel in downtown Vegas, or as like to call it, Old Vegas. We drove our rental car the 20 miles to Red Rock. We went on a few trails and snapped a few shots of the scenery. Overall, getting out of the city and walking around with burros and rocks was pretty enjoyable. We tried a taco place called Del Taco. I wanted Tack Bell (no big surprise), but Gabe wanted to try something new. I had the Dan special...a taco and a burrito. Good, but not quite as good as Taco Bell. We went back to the hotel and walked along the strip. While walking along the strip we purchased tickets to Mamma Mia. The show was great. Afterward we went back to the casino. I put one dollar in a slot machine and it came out two, so I quit. I put another dollar in a slot machine and it came out a buck sixty, so I quit. I am $1.60 richer.

Posted by at 11:49 AM | Permalink

Today was fairly productive. I sent out some emails that really needed to be done. We ran a few errands here and there. We just returned from one of my favorite restaurants...Meson Sabika. It is a Spanish restaurant with very yummy mushrooms, olives, and dates wrapped in bacon, yes that is right, dates wrapped in bacon. I actually would have never tried the bacon wrapped dates but on a trip about a year ago with Tony, Maren, Travis, and Gabe, Travis really wanted to give them a try. Everyone at the table loved them. So, today we ordered food and picked it up and went to the park and ate with Gabe's dad, mom, and sister. We tried to get reservations, but the restaurant was booked for the evening. The park was really nice. If the weather had held out for us we might have explored the park a little more. Maybe Gabe and I can go back some day.

Posted by at 9:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Amazon.com now sells more than 10,000 non-perishable food items. This would be great except I have to wait on the items and I will still need to go to the store for produce, dairy, and the like. I might give it a try though. If you spend $25 your order is eligible for free super-saver shipping. Gabe and I watched the Da Vinci code on Sunday. I will say that Tom Hanks' hair did not bother me as much as I thought that it might. He actually did a pretty good job as the character in the movie, but the character in the book still reminds me of a Harrison Ford. Yes, I know that Robert Langdon is the character in the movie and the book, but to me they are two separate entities. The movie left too much out and changed to much for it to be the same as the book to me. Something that really bothered me has to do with the ending, so I won't type it here and spoil the movie/book for those of you that have yet to see/read it. My one major question is where was the chemistry between Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu?

Posted by at 10:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Gabe and I went to see X-Men: The Last Stand. I must say that I was disappointed. It didn't seem to be the same as the others. Instead of an adventure this was more of a resolution. I am really surprised that they left the ending open for another movie. I feel it was just plain cheesy! The good part about it is that we went to Hollywood Boulevard (the dinner and movie place). Well, I am off to school.

Posted by at 7:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Saturday we had some friends (Andrew, Nicole, Tony, and Maren) over to watch a movie. We watched When a Stranger Calls. We spent most of the movie making fun of the characteristic "scary movie" problems. For example, why does she call the parents of the children when she should be calling the police? My favorite is why do the characters in the "scary movies" always run up the stairs when they should be running out the door? At least she wasn't big chested running in high heels through the woods. Sunday Gabe and I went to the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum. I am glad that I went to see it, but I do not think that I would go again. I was disappointed in the amount of items on display, but don't get me wrong, what they do have is nice. Maybe Gabe and I will go to Egypt someday...then I can get my fill of Egyptian artifacts. Afterwards we watched Polar Express. I was previously under the impression that it was a childrens movie. After watching it I am not quite so sure. It seemed geared more towards adults to me. My overall impression is that it was alright, but I probably will not watch it again. After that we watched Just Friends. It was pretty funny. Gabe said that he liked the Break up better. Yesterday wasn't too exciting...I got up, I went to clinic, I had dinner, I went to bed. Today I got up, I went to clinic, I am going to have dinner, and I am going to go to bed. Tomorrow I will get up, I will go to clinic, I will have dinner, and I will go to bed. You get the picture.

Posted by at 6:40 PM | Permalink

Do not read the comment in this section until you have read and completed the "Something Fun" entry. :)

Posted by at 12:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

At the end of this message, you are asked a question.
Answer it immediately. Don't stop and think about it..
Just say the first thing that pops into your mind.

This is a fun "test"... AND kind of spooky at the same time! Give it a try. Then post your answer to my site. Be sure to put if you are among the 98% or the 2%. You'll understand what that means after you finish taking the test".

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Do not go to the next calculation before you have finished the previous one.

You do not ever need to write or remember the answers, just do it using your mind.

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Once you are finished with the calculations click on the comment section. Look at the bottom line for text in all caps for your directions.

Start:

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12 + 53

75 + 26

25 + 52

63 + 32

I know! Calculations are hard work, but it's nearly over..

Come on, one more!

123 + 5

Posted by at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

Tonight Gabe and I took advantage of a great deal from MasterCard. Tickets to the movie "The Break Up", starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, are buy one get one free when you purchase tickets through Fandango using a MasterCard. It was only $10 for both of us to go and we printed our tickets out at home and didn't even have to wait in line at the theater. The movie was pretty good. It definitely had some funny parts. I will say that I didn't agree with the ending. I will leave it at that just in case you plan on watching the movie...I don't want to spoil the ending (though those of you that know me well can probably guess what happened just by the fact I wasn't too thrilled with the outcome). Well, Gabe is using the computer to look at places to live and I am slacking off and surfing the net. I actually have to be productive tomorrow...we will see how it goes.

Posted by at 11:53 PM | Permalink

Today after clinic I didn't accomplish much. Gabe and I flipped through that T.V. stations in an attempt to procrastinate even more. The only thing that we could find on the T.V. worth watching was the spelling bee finals...and that was a stretch. So, we became hooked and I found myself rooting for the girl from N.J. in the final rounds. Katie Close won by spelling the word "Ursprache" correctly. For those of you wondering, ursprache is a hypothetically reconstructed parent language. I wonder how many times the word has been googled since the end of the competition. So, yes, I did watch the spelling bee (I know it sounds sad), and I actually enjoyed it!

Posted by at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)