Goodbye World

So, the picture has nothing to do with this post... It's just one we took while we were at the Outdoor Swap Mart this weekend. I don't like calling it Swap Mart; I think it should be call Swap Meet but everyone in Phoenix seems to think otherwise. While there, we tried on these really nice hats, but decided not to buy them. Thanks, Tom, for the picture! I think my favorite part is our expressions...we clearly didn't communicate the mood of the photo to one another :).

Anyway, on to the subject of this post, which kind of has a double meaning...

First, we're heading out on an adventure through Southern Arizona for the holiday weekend. Shane won't share too many details, but I think we're staying in Bisbee all weekend and visiting other places (like Tombstone, Kartchner's Caverns, and possibly Mexico) while we're there. It should be fun to get away for a while.

The second part isn't so exciting... My "busy season" starts in a week, right after Labor Day. That means I'm back to 50-hour work weeks so I may neglect the blog for a while (which, I know, is simply devastating to my many loyal readers...). Luckily, I think my Vegas trips are done so I only have Albuquerque and a brief stint somewhere in Colorado to look forward to. So, goodbye world! I'll see you in February (or March...)!

Casinos...

So, I need to take a moment to vent about casinos...I'm in Vegas right now, auditing one of the casinos on the Strip.

I've had my fair share of casinos lately. Every morning, evening, and around lunch time we get the pleasure of walking through the casino to get to our car. Also, anytime I have to use the bathroom, I have to go back down to the casino floor. Then, last night, we wandered through Planet Hollywood, Paris, and Bally's looking for a place to eat dinner.

Luckily, we're staying in a hotel off the strip that doesn't have a casino in it and I'm quite relieved.

I just don't get it... I see all of these people just sitting at slot machines, smoking their cigarettes. I really don't see the fun in it. Nowadays, instead of pulling the arm on the machine you just push a button and instead of hearing all the coins clink out of the machine, your points get racked up on your card. Honestly, it looks quite boring to me, just pushing a button over and over again watching your money disappear.

Anyway, those are my ramblings for now. I hope I survive all the smoke I'm inhaling...

A lesson on listening to the doctor...

So this is how Shane's arm has looked for the past three days...


And this is Shane, knowing that he should've listened to the nice nurses that said he shouldn't take part in overly physical activities shortly after giving blood...


I got a call from the Wednesday basketball crew asking me to come pick up my husband. No one told me what was wrong, just that he was "ready to come home." So I hurried to the church to find him with a HUGE reddish/purple lump on his arm. Our neighbor, who is a very kind nurse, looked at it and gave us some tips on how to deal with it. Now it's a matter of waiting out the bruise...

Shane spent the day today trying to convince people that I stabbed him with a fork. Sadly, some people thought he was telling the truth. What does that say about me???

Happy Birthday!

So, Shane's birthday was on Tuesday... I didn't forget (we had a party for him last Saturday), but I never got around to posting about it, so here's a few pictures and some video from the event. The party was mostly just family and one family friend. It was a good day! (P.S. the video is from our regular camera because our video camera battery was completely dead, so sorry for the pixelation...)