Today we're off to Las Vegas... pictures from the cell phone will be here. Other pictures will be put on here in a gigantic blog post once we get back. Feelin' calm and casual, ready and sparkly, happy and silly. :) Days and days of time to play, time to hang out with Kenny and Mom and Pops and Mark and goofy Las Vegas types we meet along the way. Going to see the Amazing Jonathan one of the nights, at the Sahara. Geocaching some caches I found located on the strip. An aquarium with a shark is on the list of plans as well. Mostly, though, walking around and checking out everything... EVERYTHING! :) Temps will be in the low 70s during the day, 50s or so at night. Suitcase has been packed since Saturday... I've been ready for a trip of this kind for years! Will miss the kids, longest we've been away from them, but I think the phone and computer laptop will help to bridge the miles and make it easy. Got a few things to finish up this morning before we leave later on today. It's a very pretty autumn morning... I'm going to walk around the yard and hug all the trees before I go, because I will kinda miss the pussy willow and the holly tree and the flaming red leafy bush out front. By the time we get back home, that red leafy bush most likely will have dropped all of its leaves on the front lawn.

I got an email from a band in Vegas... might go check them out, they play out at clubs a lot. Got a lot of information and ideas from people who have been to Vegas... my brother in law was super helpful last night, letting us know what to avoid, like Comp packages where they try to sell you timeshares for a 'few hours of your time' and in return give you tickets to shows and money for gambling, but there's all kinds of hitches in it, and the hours spent saying 'no' is upwards of four hours or more. Might be great for a couple actually considering a timeshare in Vegas, but if you're not, it's not worth the hassle.

When we get back home, we're taking the kids to see the Chicken Little movie, which they keep asking us when we can go, as well as a trip to the Museum of Natural History, which just got in two baby Diamondback Terrapins (turtles). The museum letter has a picture of these little guys, and they are so cute! I'm looking forward to that as much as I'm looking forward to Vegas! :)

I'm off to start the mornin' cleanup and to putter around the yard... :)

I just re-read my previous post... I was feeling tired and out of it. No shock, I guess, that I did catch that flu and spent the past few days combatting it. Today I'm sore all over, and my head feels heavy, but I am up and showered and going to head out anyways. Won't shake hands, won't give hugs... I'm a walking virus. A walking virus with too much to do to be sick, but I think I can trick this sickness into thinking it's no match for the hyperactive chick-with-a-mission and work to do.

Even though this hyperactive chick-with-a-mission feels pretty dang un-hyper and in need of a nap at 7:45 a.m. ARGH! My right arm is killing me, too. My neck and upper back as well. Feels like something ran over me. This stinks, but I'd rather be sick this week than when we go to Vegas.

I also have a pimple on my chin that looks like Krakatoa! Speaking of which, we watched 'The Wave That Shook The World' last night, and it was awesome. If you want a good dvd to watch, this one is IT. Very informational and interesting. The kids loved it. Explained how and why the tsunami of 2004 happened, with an incredible timeline. Most of the footage I'd seen already online, but the scientific data was mindblowing. They watched the other dvd I got, too, Modern Marvels, The Cape Cod Canal, which my grandmother told me about some months ago. Both dvds can be ordered online; I suggest half.com for both, although I only found one of them on that site and had to order the other one from the main website for it. Worth the money, though.

Man, I wish I could stay home and just watch both dvds again. :/ Ah well... I'm going to take it a bit easy this weekend, even though both days have plans and things I gotta do, will make sure to hit bed early both tonight and tomorrow night.

Feelin' like poop stinks.

Placed fifth at the Scrabble tournament over the weekend. Kenny didn't do too well, but he was sick with some flu the whole time, and kept getting phonecalls from work. So many people I know have this cold/flu that is going around... some kind of sinus thing, really knocks you on your ass. Kenny was in bed at four p.m. yesterday afternoon, just watching movies and trying to rest off the illness. Chicken soup and grilled cheese, lots of liquids, and he's taking Tylenol for the fevers he got with it yesterday, as well as Nyquil. So far, nobody else in the house seems to be catching it, thank gosh! I've gone around each day with Lysol and given door knobs a quick spray. He seems to be feeling a little better today. Lasted about a week for him, some people have had a similiar virus for over 2 weeks, from what I've read in the news, so perhaps he just doesn't have the harsher strain going around.

Today I'm off to the office, a few stores, and then home to work on some paperwork and do a load of laundry. Feel a bit tired today, but I think it's because of the phonecall yesterday with the news that things have gotten a little bit out of sorts again. Hoping to see what I can do later on today to help things smooth out as much as possible. My brain is tired today, but my heart is wide awake. By this afternoon, hopefully I'll have thought up something to help the situation. Driving around always wakes up my mind.

We're heading to Las Vegas in under two weeks now... very, very, very happy and excited for the trip. Kenny's got work conferences during the day, but we'll have time to play throughout the visit. 4 days and 6 nights with Kenny in a place as interesting as Vegas is... hanging out with the inlaws while there, as they are flying up from Florida to meet us in Vegas. And... Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings and Marvin the Martian finally get to meet in person! :) After knowing somebody for 3 or 4 years, it's going to be amazing to be speaking with each other without the use of a keyboard or telephone. I love meeting people from online. Always have, always will. Brings alive the human element of out here... most call offline meetings 'irl', in real life, but it's my belief that everything out here is just a real as the person behind each monitor, and meeting people from online just solidifies my view of how alive cyberspace is with realness and life.

I'm going to toss on some makeup here and start my day... and down another cup of coffee to jog my head a bit more. Can't seem to get the gears going today ... will have to put on some music to help rev it up a bit.

almost forgot... had a great Halloween. We had a power outage for an hour, which made it all the more spooky. Kids got tons and tons of candy, and we ended up with a bunch more kids here than expected, but it went along very happily. I was pretty hot apple cider rummed up, in my goofy clown outfit. :)

Haven't had much time for online stuff lately, but in a few weeks things will get that winter-time calm atmosphere going and I'll have some days to catch up on my writing and playing. :)

So much more to write but gotta get going to get on with my day here...