lorenius

I was at SIA last week which means I got to go see (and touch!) all the 2010 gear. Here’s 10 things I’m crushing on….

1. Ride Compact
   
2. eesa tights
   
3. Cilla B&B Tank (eggplant)
4. Burton Axel
   
5. Holden Isobel Jacket
6. B by Burton Pants
   
7. Bonfire Endless Jacket (this color is so rad)
   
8. Ride Banda (Contraband) Bindings
   
9. Grenade Hana Pro Leather Glove
10. Burton Molotov EST
    

I’m heading back to Vegas today and I figured before I do that I should recap the last time I went to Vegas. That of course was just 2 weeks ago for a work conference.

I took a 4:30pm flight that was very nice. I had an exit row window seat with extra legroom and no one sitting in the middle seat. Landed then took a cab over to the Wynn. At the checkin I mentioned my birthday was the day after and I got my room upgraded! Seems like everyone at the conference was in the (VIP) Tower Suites but they were all on single digit floors while I was on the 34th and had an awesome view.  On a side note the Wynn claims to have 60 floors but no floors start with 4.  (click photos to enlarge)

My room was awesome. It was big but not a suite. The bathroom was bigger than my bedroom at home. It had a glass shower and a huge tub with a waterfall faucet. They had every toiletry you could think of: bath salts, loofah, toothbrush, razor, lotions, etc. Oh and there was a tv too.

The first night I took a long bath and watched Privileged. I went to bed a bit before midnight. Next day I woke up a 5:30am. Killed a lot of time doing my nails and such. They had a great breakfast at the conference. Fake Tina Turner at the keynote. We had a 3 course lunch and I met other people from my company.

For dinner that night we went to Capital Grille. It was pretty good. I got a huge slice of cake with candles. Then we went over to Pure Nightclub. Turned 30 on the dance floor to a Lady Gaga song. I realized as we were leaving that it was in Caesar’s Palace. I spent my 21st birthday at Caesar’s Palace in Atlantic City.  Kinda cool.

Thursday was my birthday! I decided to skip the morning session and take a walk. Then off to more sessions/lunch/etc. We spend some time after lunch by the pool. I texted some friends back home in the 20°F weather to rub it in. I had made friends with a couple of my coworkers and we decided to go out to celebrate my birthday.

We spent a few hours at Social House eating sushi and drinking Asahi. We saw the Treasure Island (pussycat dolls) Pirate Show several times. Our waiter decided to get us some interesting sushi including: shrimp heads, baby (raw) shrimp, sea urchin. Some was weird, some was good.

Then we went walking down the strip. One of the girls hadn’t seen the Bellagio water show so we did that. More walking, etc, before returning to the Wynn and doing some gambling. I came out $8 up. I was totally beat at this point and went to bed.

Friday I got breakfast, took a nap, and checked out of my hotel. Flight home was on time and Natalie picked me up. We got some Indian food and headed home. Vegas trip over.

We had a family dinner last night and I made fajitas. I used Paula Deen’s Gold Medal Fajita recipe from Food Network and it was delicious! The key to this is really the marinade.

I mostly followed the recipe but I added at least double the garlic and replaced the onion salt with some chopped onions. I did chicken, shrimp and steak and a bunch of onions and peppers and there were no leftovers!

I had no idea cumin was used so much in Mexican cooking.

I got my annual statement from Fidelity on my IRA. From Dec 31 2007 to Dec 31 2008 I lost 25% of the value of my portfolio. That sucks. On the upside this is not so bad as I believe the market is down on average 35% for the year.

My sister Natalie gave me an awesome birthday gift. It’s a quilt with squares made by my friends and family. It’s so beautiful! Thanks for people who contributed. And those who owe me squares…you know who you are.

I had a brilliant idea the other day for a relatively simple iphone app. So I decided to download the iPhone SDK. There’s lots of apps/tools/examples/etc in it. So I got reading and trying examples and basically I still have no idea.

So I ordered a book. We’ll see.

Santa got me a new ice cream maker for Christmas. My the freezing gel disk on my old one got corroded so I threw it away. Anyway I also got the Ben & Jerry’s cookbook. My first batch had to be my favorite flavor – Mint Chip. I used the Sweet Cream base but I scalded the milk/cream so that it would cook the eggs a bit. Then I added 2 teaspoons of mint extract. I melted a cup of chocolate chips and as the ice cream was almost set I drizzled it in. I was going for the Turkey Hill style of mint chip.

The ice cream turned out really good except for one thing. I used mint extract which is combination of peppermint and spearmint. I don’t really like spearmint and it’s not the right flavor for mint chip ice cream. I also made some choux and chocolate sauce to make profiteroles. It turned out yummy!

The Merriam Webster Word of the Day is lollygag. The proper definition these days is

lollygag • \LAH-lee-gag\ • verb

: to spend time idly, aimlessly, or foolishly : dawdle

However according to their etymology lollygag used to have a much more sexual connotation. I think from now on instead of using hook up or fool around I’m going to say lollygag. Let’s bring the sexy back to this word.

Made me laugh. People with kids will probably want to watch this when the children are not around.

I have gotten terrible at updating this. Between twitter and facebook I stay pretty busy. Going to try harder though.

Back on topic. I have an idea for this year. I want to put together a family cookbook. My mom has lots of recipes in various books and in her computer and I have my own copies of some. But I think it would be great to put an actual book of our favorite recipes together and give everyone a copy. You can make amazing hardcovered books for a reasonable price on sites like blurb these days.

So the plan is when we cook these recipes we’re going to have to make sure we get some nice photos. I figure we’ll do the books for christmas so that gives us about 11 months.