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Happy 2009!

The short version of the past few weeks (months) - because I definitely don't have the energy to recap in detail:

October = work.  Still getting the office organized.

November = More of the same.  Trip to Minnesota for Thanksgiving.  Visited my grandma in the nursing home.

Monday after Thanksgiving - grandma died.  That was pretty rough.  Another trip to Minnesota the next weekend.

The rest of December was kind of a blur.  Work has gotten out-of-control cuckoo bananas crazy, and we have a trial coming up in March that will probably make my head explode.  I also feel like we haven't stayed in one place for more than a day in ... well, forever.  We were in Minnesota again for Christmas, then back to Milwaukee on the 26th for a rehearsal dinner, wedding in Milwaukee on the 27th, and Christmas with Paul's family on the 27th.  Then back to Chicago for 2.5 days of insane working madness, then back to Milwaukee for New Year's Eve, then back to Chicago on New Year's Day.

Which brings me to the actual fun thing I have to post about - Vegas, baby!

Paul and I took a belated honeymoon trip to Vegas, leaving on January 2 and getting back this past Tuesday night.  We had a great time!

Day 1:  Got up ridiculously early and made it to Midway by about 7:00 a.m.  Got to Vegas around 11:00 a.m. local time; got our rental car, rested at our hotel for awhile (MGM Grand), took a short walk on the Strip, dinner at Harley Davidson Cafe, then sweet, sweet sleep.

Day 2:  Wandered around the Strip most of the day.  Paul doubled his money and then some at a Blackjack table in about 5 minutes.  "Shopped" at the Bellagio and Caesar's Palace ("shopped" because we're talking every designer known to man, so we definitely couldn't really "buy" anything.  I did get a cute clutch at Marc Jacobs for like $16, though!).  MET PETE ROSE totally randomly in a sports memorabilia shop where he was signing things; got a pic with him and a signed copy of his book for Paul's dad.  Nice guy!  After shopping, we watched some football at an outdoor bar while sipping delicious Bailey's coffee drinks.  Had dinner at the Tropicana buffet.  Saw the David Copperfield show, which was pretty amazing.

Day 3:  Hoover Dam!  We had a beautiful drive out there, and the tour was actually pretty interesting.  We were there right around sunset, too, so it was extra gorgeous.  That's basically all we did that day - we ended up ordering a pizza from room service and watching a movie after dinner.

Day 4:  We drove out to Red Rock Canyon in the morning, which was awesome.  They have a 3-mile-long "scenic drive" that has a bunch of places where you can pull off to take pictures, climb on rocks, etc.  It was all gorgeous.  Afterward, we headed to the Luxor and walked through the TItanic exhibit, which was also awesome.  I can't believe how thorough it was - there were so many personal artifacts, unbroken china, jewelry, and that kind of thing.  Pretty amazing.  They also have a gigantic piece of the ship itself, which was pretty mindblowing (just that piece alone weighs something like 16 tons).  We stopped for dinner at the Burger Bar, where we had probably the best burgers of all time - kobe beef with cheddar on a sesame seed bun.  Perfection.  If only kobe weren't so absurdly expensive ...

Day 5:  Breakfast at the hotel, then tooling around the Strip some more.  We had lots of recommendations to go to the Wynn, which we did - and yes, it was totally gorgeous.  The shopping there is probably the most ridiculous I saw the whole trip - including a Rolex store (with $85,000 watches in the window), a Ferrari gear store, and some absurd jewelry store that had several 20+ carat rings in the window.  We very nearly lost our rental car in the underground ramp there, but finally found it and then headed down the Strip to some of the older casinos.  We went into Circus Circus for a bit (quite a contrast to the newer hotels), then it was time to head to the airport.  We had an uneventful flight back, and returned to Chicago around 11:00 p.m. local time.  And, I'd like to point out that our El trip from the airport to our apartment was approximately half as long as our flight from Vegas to Chicago.

So ... now you're basically caught up.  I would apologize for the hiatus, but I have felt like I have not sat down at all in the past few months ... hopefully now things will cool off for awhile.  I definitely do not plan on leaving the greater Chicagoland area for quite some time.

Oh, and Vegas pictures are here if you're interested.