Hippy Chick's Blog

For an early birthday present, Greg took me to the Mall of America for the Stephenie Meyer book signing of her new book, The Host. When I started reading about it, I saw that the books went on sale at 8 am, so I thought we should get to Minneapolis on Monday night. So, as soon as we were done with work, we took off for the cities. It was an uneventful trip and we were tired, so we went to bed shortly after arriving.

 

We got up at 6 am the next morning and got showered and ready to go. We got in line to buy the book at about 7:40 or 7:45. We were about halfway around the circle that the Rotunda forms, we were by the elevators. Once they started selling the books at 8, it took us about an hour to buy the books and get settled. The mall didn't open until 10, so there was really nothing for us to do but read. We didn't bring any chairs along and I thought it would be OK. I was wrong. After about an hour or two of sitting on the floor, I strongly suggested that Greg go on a hunt for one of those camping chairs. My back and butt were killing me and we still had a good 8 hours to go. He found one at Sears for $25. We weren't the only ones that did that. People either bought new ones or had someone bring them some chairs from home.

 

Once I had the chair, I was set but Greg was in and out quite a bit (big shock). I finished the book I was working on and then decided to walk the mall for myself since Greg and come back and appeared that he was ready to sit for a while. I didn't find anything to buy. The mall has changed so much that most of the stores in there are clothing stores. I don't really like shopping for clothes and since I am losing weight, I really don't want to buy a bunch of clothes now that may not fit me in a few months.

 

I sat back in line and was ready to stay there until my book was signed. At about 4 pm, the security guards came around to everyone saying they needed to get as many people in as possible, so anyone with chairs had to pack them up. Greg ran the majority of our stuff to the car then. All we had left were our two books that were to be signed, some water, and my camera. We ended up standing for the remaining 2 hours. Things were so tight it would have been difficult to move around.

 

At about 5:45, the community relations rep for Barnes and Noble came on to let everyone know the rules again and to give an introduction for Stephenie Meyer. She came on and said that she was planning on reading from the book a little and had a presentation but when she heard that we had been standing for so long, she was just going to answer some of the questions that were asked of her. She was nice and funny. It was worth the back pain. There are a lot of videos on YouTube from her Q&A. Check them out.

 

Greg had been stopped by a reporter after his book was signed so I stopped to help him out. I'm not sure where that reporter was from, but she said she stopped him because he was one of the few men in the crowd. It is true that there were only about 15 - 20 men in the crowd of many, many girls and women. We were parked on the 4th floor of the parking garage. We stopped on each floor on the way up to take pictures of the crowd and of Stephenie herself. I got several good pictures of Stephenie during her Q&A. I have them posted to the right. It was 7:45 pm when we were leaving the mall. We headed home right away. It was a long drive. We were already tired and still had over 4 hours of driving. We got home at about midnight and went right to bed.

 

All in all, it was a great time. It was good to learn that I wasn't an adult in a crowd of teenagers. There were lots of people my age and older that loved the books as much as I do. I found a few people that updated their blogs before I did. Here are some links that I found:

 

http://www.twilightlexiconblog.com/?p=899 - Blog of someone that was there. Greg and I are in that first picture of the crowd. In the second row of people, toward the right, there is a woman in a lavender shirt. To the right of her are 2 people in white shirts, one of them in a black chair. That is me in the chair and Greg to the left of me.

 

http://twilightmomsforums.unrealblogs.com/187/stephenie-meyer-at-mall-of-america-i-spy-a-twilightmom/ - TwilightMoms is a group of women that got together because of their love of the Twilight series of books. Check out their story. Good stuff.

 

http://shinyvampireclub.blogspot.com/ - There are a few pictures on this one.

This is probably my favorite Cecilia Ahern book so far. I love how she takes reality and mixes it with a little fantasy and makes it seem plausible. In this one, a woman is obsessed with finding things and people that are lost that she gets lost. She ends up in the place where all lost things and people go. She meets a lot of the people that she has been looking for. The person whose case she was just working on tries to find her. I am not going to blow the ending for anyone that wants to read this, but it is a great book.

*********10 Stars

 

This isn't the best Princess Diaries book, but I like where she is going with the story. Mia is growing up and has adult problems, not just the problems that are in her head. I found out after reading this that there will only be one more book after this. I can't wait to see how it ends.

*******8 Stars

 

I know, high school required reading, but I never read it. This was a great book. I've seen the movies and the biggest difference between the book and the movies is that after Jo turns Laurie down and he goes away and comes back married to Amy, the movies make it seem like Jo is in love with Laurie and is hurt that he is married. In the book, she sees it as a possible missed opportunity, and kind of sad that he has grown up but she is happy that Laurie is happy. If you've never read this book, I highly recommend that you do.

********9 Stars

 

 

This is one of those books that I kept seeing everywhere and just never picked up. I had loaned some books to some ladies I work with and this one was offered as a loan. I decided to check it out. This was good. It was about an overweight woman who broke up with her boyfriend only to have him write about it in a national magazine. The article he wrote is called Good in Bed. That's where the title of the book came from. It isn't one of those slutty romance novels. After she breaks up with her boyfriend, his father dies and she goes to the funeral. She ends up having pity sex with him and winds up pregnant. She decides to keep the baby. After that, she goes down a long path to realize that her size and herself in general are OK and she doesn't need to justify anything to anyone. Great book!

********9 Stars

So, I started watching Dancing with the Stars because Penn Jillette and Monica Seles were on there. I really love Penn. After the first show, I was desperately hoping they would get kicked off first. I hate this show so much. The band is horrible. They take songs that are good and make them terrible. They should be banished to high school proms, not showcased on a highly rated television show. A DJ would be so much better. At least I could stand the music. Fortunately, I don't have to watch anymore because the two people kicked off last night were Penn Jillette and Monica Seles. I will keep an eye on who gets kicked off, but you could not pay me enough to keep watching that. It felt so good to delete the series recording off of my DVR.

I never thought books would play a big part in my life but here I am. I never leave the house without a book and am generally reading every free moment of the day. For the most part, I enjoy what I read. Here are the latest reviews of the books I have read recently:

 

Annabelle Granger is a matchmaker that took over her grandmother's matchmaking business when she passed away. Her business was mostly for seniors so there wasn't much money in it. She wanted to expand to younger and higher paying clients. That's where Heath comes in. He is a top sports agent and a very eligible bachelor. She gets a meeting with him through a friend. She charms him and he gives her one chance. She cheats a little, but he agrees to let her try to find him a wife. He insists that she be there during his meetings since she has a knack for picking up his body language and she can get rid of the women quickly if he isn't interested. After a little time, she begins falling for him. He just has to figure out who he will fall for. This is good for what it is. It's not War & Peace or Pride and Prejudice but it is a fun little book about love and romance. 6 Stars

 

This is a heart wrenching book about a girl who was basically born so she could save her sister. Her sister has leukemia and needs a lot of transfusions, stem cells, and donations. When the time comes that she needs a kidney, Anna puts her foot down and says she won't do it. She is tired of being the spare parts child. Her parents are only concerned with Kate's health and don't pay attention to Anna and her brother until they need something from her. This book has a lot of controversial subjects that could be argued forever but you never know what you would do until you are put in that position. This book had me crying to the point that I could barely see what was on the page. I won't give away the end but this is such an amazing book, everyone should read this. 9 Stars.

 

Heather Wells seems to be a magnet for murder. She is the assistant dorm advisor at a college in New York. She is a former pop princess whose mother ran off with any money she made and her father is in prison. She was dating boy band member Jordan Cartwright until she caught him with the latest pop princess. She now lives with Jordan's brother Cooper. She is in love with Cooper but he does not seem interested. Her father just got out of prison and is crashing with Cooper and Heather. This is the third book in a series. Because of all the murders in the dorm, it has been nicknamed Death Dorm. Another boss gets killed and a student is arrested for the murder. Heather again gets sucked into trying to solve the murder. She tries to get passed Cooper by dating her math teacher. She gets quite nervous because she thinks he is going to propose. I love these books because it isn't all just romance, it is drama and romance. 9 Stars.

 

Bella is a junior in high school. Her mother has just gotten married to a baseball player and wants to travel with him so Bella makes the decision to move in with her father in the small town of Forks, WA. She isn't looking forward to her new life there but has to do it nonetheless. When she starts school, she seems to catch the attention of most people there, including a young man that everyone else seems to stay away from. She finds out that his name is Edward Cullen and most people don't think much of him. She has to sit next to him in Biology and during that class, it seems he hates her. He stays as far away from her as possible and seems extremely tense. After a few days of this, he is suddenly gone for quite a while. She tries to figure out what she may have done to cause such a reaction. Suddenly, he reappears at school and wants nothing but to spend time with Bella. She is still trying to figure out what is different about him. Someone gives her a hint and it turns out to be true. Edward and his family are vampires but not the typical kind. They are sort of "vegetarians". They do not drink human blood. They only drink the blood of animals. Edward and Bella continue to get closer and fall in love. There is an encounter with another group of vampires that do not share the same diet as the Cullen family and immediately want Bella. One of them could give it up but the other man sees a challenge and wants her no matter what the cost. The Cullens start planning on how to save her and come up with a good plan. I won't give away the ending but this is an amazing book. I read all 3 books in this series in about 1 1/2 weeks. These are more than just for teens. I am well passed my teen years and loved these books. 9 Stars.

 

This is the follow-up to Twilight. In this one, Edward feels that he is putting Bella in too much danger by being with her. He tells her that he and his family are leaving and convinces her that he does not love her and he leaves. He has also gone into her house and removed anything that he gave her or anything that might remind her of him. Bella is left heartbroken. She goes through the motions of life (school, work, friends, etc.) but never really feels any of it. One night while out with a friend, something happens that puts her in possible danger. When she is doing this, she hears Edward's voice in her head and she wants more. She goes to her friend, Jacob, and he starts working on a couple of motorcycles that she got. She thinks that if she puts herself in more danger, she will hear his voice more, which she does. This all works up to the point when she goes cliff diving alone and nearly dies. Edward hears about the cliff diving and then calls Bella's house. He asks for Bella's father and Jacob says he is at a funeral, which he is for a friend of his. Edward assumes it is Bella's funeral and decides that he is going to do what he can to kill himself, not an easy task for an immortal. Edward's sister Alice comes to Bella to tell her this. Bella and Alice jump on a plane for Italy and try to get to him before he does anything stupid. They do get to him in time and save his life but they have to do some bargaining to save Bella. This one was a little harder to read because Bella was without Edward for so much of the book and you can feel the pain that she feels through the whole thing. We also find out that Jacob is a werewolf and werewolves and vampires don't get along at all. 8 Stars.

 

Edward and Bella are back together and inseparable most of the time. She keeps sneaking away to spend time with Jacob, but other than that, she and Edward are together. Bella has an agreement with the Cullens that she will be turned into a vampire after graduation so she and Edward can be together forever. Edward would prefer that she stayed human for a little while longer so she can experience things like going to college but she won't listen. There are no specific threats toward Bella right away, but there are things that are making them all nervous. The mate of the vampire they killed in the first book is still after Bella but they cannot find any trace of her. Things start to come to a head and the werewolves and vampires make a pact to keep peace against the things coming after Bella. Jacob is in love with Bella and tries to convince her that she is in love with him. Eventually, she sees it but it is nothing compared to the force she feels with Edward. She is going to marry Edward and be turned into a vampire. The battle in this one didn't last very long but it was good. I can't wait for the next books in this series. I am so addicted to Edward and Bella's story. 9 Stars.

I wanted to read this because I have watched several versions of movies and wanted to read the book it was based on. It was good if you can get passed the language of it. Thither and fortnight; I just don't understand it all. Let's just say I used a lot of dictionary.com while reading this. The romance is still there. That translates no matter what the language. Great book but it does take some patience. 7 stars

 

This is a book about a city girl that got married, had kids, and then moved to the suburbs. She is bored out of her mind and feeling invisible. Then a neighbor gets killed and she's the one that finds the body. Since it's a small town, the police force consists of about 3 people. The murder is not getting solved. So, she ends up looking into things on her own. I won't spoil the ending, but it is a good read. 8 stars

 

This is the second in a series of mysteries centering on Heather Wells, a former pop star whose mother stole all of her money and fled the country and her dad was in federal prison for tax evasion. Heather is now the assistant director of a dorm at New York College and living with her ex-fiance's brother. People keep dying in her dorm. This time a girl's head is found boiling in a pot on the stove. For some reason, she feels the need to get involved in solving these crimes instead of letting the police handle it, but she's good at it. There is also the hint of a romance because she is in love with Cooper, her roommate, but he doesn't know. I love Cabot's writing style. It is a quick read, but it is fun. 8 stars.

So, we went to Las Vegas for a few days. We really wanted to see Star Trek: The Experience and just experience the city. I will try to detail our time there.

 

Day 1, Thursday, 9-6

 

We had to have Matt take us to the airport and he had a class at 8:30, so we had to get up about 6 and be ready to go at about 7:30. We got to the airport at around 8 and had over 3 hours before we could board the plane. We went to the cafeteria area and had a little breakfast. By the time we were finished, the ticket counter had opened. We checked our bag and got through security and waited at the gate. It wasn’t too bad. It went faster than we thought it would. The flight was pretty bumpy, which I could have done without, but it was over soon enough. I got quite a bit of reading done. We got our bags, found our shuttle to the hotel. We stayed in Circus Circus. It was decent, but we went for inexpensive, not luxury.

 

After we dumped our bags at the hotel, we walked to the Greek Isles hotel to get tickets for the haunted tour around Vegas. It was so hot out that I had to rest a while at the Greek Isles. We walked back to our hotel and by the time we got there, I was exhausted. The heat and the walking took it out of me. We rested at the hotel until it was time to leave for the haunted tour that night. We walked back to the Greek Isles where we had to wait a while before getting to go. It lasted about 2 hours. There was lots of cool stuff in this tour, including celebrities and regular people that haunt regular places, hotels, and businesses. We visited Redd Fox’s home and were told that on several occasions, when the bus was out front, 3 of the vertical blinds would open and there was no one there. Bugsy Siegel haunts the Flamingo Hotel which he started to build. Elvis is said to haunt the Las Vegas Hilton where he spent a lot of time. He had the entire 30^th floor to live in and after his shows, he would take the freight elevator and hang out with the backstage crew until he could safely go back to his room. The creepiest thing was not a celebrity at all. We were taken to a park where 2 young brothers were killed. There is also a woman from the 1800’s who is seen sitting at a picnic table crying. We were given these metal rods, I can’t remember what they are called, but if you hold them level and move slowly around where spirits are supposed to be, sometimes they will either cross each other or they will turn outward. There were 8 people on the tour and all 8 of us had the same thing happen. We would move slowly toward where these boys have been seen and they rods would cross. We would step away and they would uncross. Everyone did this over and over again and had the same results every time. The tour guide said he has seen activity before, but rarely that strong. After the tour, we walked back to the hotel and crashed.

 

Day 2, Friday, 9-7

 

There was a comic and collectibles shop that I found on lasvegas.com that we wanted to check out. It was a few miles walk but we figured we could make it. So, we got up and walked there to try to get there when it opened at 10. It was super hot out, so I was beat by the time we got there and then, the shop wasn’t there anymore. It was closed and there was a Sci-Fi shop opening in its place, which would have been fine except it didn’t open until Monday, September 10. I was a mess, so we started back toward the Las Vegas Hilton where Star Trek: The Experience is. I was exhausted, so we stopped at a record store to try to cool off a little, but the air conditioning wasn’t great in there, so it didn’t work too well. I decided to suck it up and keep going. I had to slow it way down because the heat just zapped everything from me.

 

We got to the Hilton and bought the tickets for the package we wanted. It was sort of the full experience. It included tickets to the rides, a behind the scenes tour, a meal at the restaurant Quark’s, photos taken on the bridge and in a Borg regeneration chamber, and free gifts from the gift shop. Since I was so hot and sweaty, we decided to get food so I had time to cool off. Part of our package was free pilsner glasses from the restaurant. They brought us those and we decided to get the other free gifts and have Greg run them over to our hotel so we didn’t have to carry them around. So, Greg left me with some cash to play the slots while he ran over there. I started by taking some pictures around Star Trek: The Experience. It really is amazing there. I will post some pictures that will show that.

 

Then, I sat down at a Twilight Zone penny slot machine and put in $1. After playing for a little while, I was over $1. Then, I hit something that got $10. That put me over $11 total. I continued to play until I was down to $10 even and I cashed out. I then took another dollar and played a Star Wars penny slot machine. This one was not so good to me. I lost that dollar pretty quickly, but that’s OK. I was bored with slot machines, so I started looking around some of the shops in the Hilton. That’s some neat stuff, but it was kinda spendy. Then, I just sat on a bench waiting for Greg.

 

He got back and we decided to go through the Behind the Scenes tour first. This was pretty cool. They let you in on some secrets that you wouldn’t know otherwise. We then went through the Borg 4D ride. While we were waiting, there were 3 Borg statues behind glass. One of their heads moved. He kept looking at me and it was freaking me out. Then, we went on the ride. It was a great ride, can’t say much about it, but it was fun. We then went to get our photos taken. On the bridge, we could be in each other’s pictures, we had one with Greg in the Captain’s chair and I was in Counselor Troi’s chair and another with me in the Captain’s chair and Greg in Commander Riker’s chair. We then each got one taken in the Borg regeneration chamber. That room is cool because they have 2 Borg statues on each side of the one you stand in, but they also have sound effects going the whole time. This is an actual set piece from the movies. Very cool. We then went through the museum and took some pictures there. They have some very cool stuff in there. The pictures should show that as well. We then went on the Klingon Encounter ride. This is awesome because you get to go on a transporter ride. I don’t know what Dr. McCoy was complaining about all those years. It was pretty cool. We then went through the gift shop and spent some money. We were in geek heaven, how could we not? We then went to the Rio to get our tickets for Penn & Teller the next night. We then went to our hotel.

 

Star Trek: The Experience is great. If it was just a restaurant, a couple of rides, and some decorations, it wouldn’t be as cool. They have actors walking around made up as some of the aliens. They have a Borg, an Andorian, a couple of Klingons, and a Ferengi. Not the nicest species. We didn’t experience this, but we were told that if you antagonize them, they will not be nice about it. If you ask them, they will allow you to take pictures of them and with them. The Ferengi was funny while we were eating. He thanked Greg and I for not sharing. Then, he was barely looking over a glass partition looking at a table of ladies. They started laughing because they were kind of startled. I don’t know what was said, but he started snarling at them and walked away. I had my own startling experience. We were eating and I suddenly heard something behind me. I glanced around and there was a Borg standing behind me scanning the area. It kind of scared me. Even if you only sort of enjoy some of the Star Trek shows, I think you’ll have a great time here. You just have to let yourself get into it and you’ll love it.

 

Day 3, Saturday, 9-8

 

We had found an outlet mall on the lasvegas.com site and thought it might be interesting. We got ready to go and when we were ready to go, there was still about an hour before the mall opened, so we went downstairs and played some penny slots. All Greg had were $5 bills and couldn’t figure out the bill breaker machine, so we each put in $5 and just said we’d watch what we spent. My machine didn’t seem to like me being under $5. If I went under, it would give me 40 points to push me over $5 again. I was getting bored, but Greg was still going. Once I hit $4 left, I cashed out. Greg on the other hand, blew all $5 one penny at a time. When I cashed out, Greg only had about 30 cents left. He didn’t have the luck on his side. He also doesn’t know when to call it a day on a machine. All in all, we ended up with 25 cents more than we spent gambling. So, technically, we made money gambling in Vegas.

 

Then, it was time to grab a cab and head to the Las Vegas Outlet Mall. They had all sorts of different stores, but we didn’t spend a lot of money there. The best thing about this mall was that it had a Disney Outlet Store. This is where they send the stuff that was exclusive to the Disney theme parks when it has been around for a while. This was a cool store. We found a few cool things there. There was a Fedex Kinkos out there too, so we decided to ship our purchases home because we knew we’d be close after the stuff we bought at Star Trek: The Experience. This would just give us a few less things to worry about packing. Then, we walked back to the main entrance of the mall to catch a cab to the MGM Grand hotel.

 

At the MGM Grand, we ate in one of their restaurants. Then, we checked out a little of the Lion Habitat. Just walking into the entrance, there were 2 lions lying on top of the clear hallway coming in. That was a really weird thing to see. We then went out and continued to walk up the strip. We stopped into one souvenir shop and kept going until we hit the Bellagio Hotel and the Dancing Fountains. I had started not feeling so well shortly after leaving the MGM Grand and thought I would be OK. We caught the last few minutes of the Dancing Fountain show that was going on, but not much. Once it was over, they announced that it would be about 20 minutes until the next show started. I knew I couldn’t make it that long and I didn’t want to go into the hotel to get sick, so I asked Greg if we could go back to our hotel. He wasn’t thrilled about it, but we went. Since I was hanging out at the hotel, he decided to head back to the Hilton. On Friday, we saw that someone from Star Trek: The Original Series was going to be there signing autographs, Beverly Washburn. She was also in Shane, Old Yeller, Spider Baby, The Lone Ranger, and Superman and the Mole-Men. Greg said that since there was no one else around, he got to stand and talk to her for several minutes. He got autographs for both of us and headed back in a much better mood than when he left. We relaxed for a while and then got ready to go to Penn and Teller.

 

At 7:30 we went to get a cab and head to the Rio Hotel. We wandered around looking for the Penn and Teller Theater. After a while, we found it, but there was a gate up, so we couldn’t go in and we couldn’t look at their gift shop. So, we went back out to the casino and found some more penny slots. I played $1 for a while and got bored so I went and watched Greg. He played $1 on one machine, got sick of it and moved to a different machine. He cashed out with $1.50.

 

Then, we went searching for water. We were both really thirsty, but couldn’t find a shop open. Finally, we went to the bar and asked if they had bottled water. They did! Yay! 8 oz. water for $3. We were going to make that last for a while.

 

When we headed back toward the Penn & Teller Theater, we saw that they were just letting people in. We first got our books that came with the tickets we purchased. Then we found our seats. We were in the 4^th row off to the side. There was a guy playing piano and Penn was playing the stand up bass. They were pretty good. We thought for a long time that the guy playing piano was Teller but then looked through the book and found that he was listed in there. The show was amazing. There are too many things that they did that boggled my mind to go into too much detail, but just know that if you are ever in Las Vegas this show is well worth the price of admission. It is not just a magic show, it is really funny too. After the show, Penn and Teller were out signing autographs and taking pictures with people. We didn’t have a camera, but we both got autographs. They were great!!

 

After the show, we got in line to get a cab and headed back to our hotel. Once at the hotel, we had to get our stuff packed and get ready to go because our shuttle was going to be there to get us at 3 in the morning. Our flight was at 6:25. We got all of our stuff together and tried to get a little bit of sleep. It didn’t work because we were afraid the alarm wouldn’t work. We had set it on the first day and it didn’t go off. So the few hours that we might have gotten to sleep were spent tossing and turning and watching the clock.

 

Day 4, Sunday, 9-10

 

We got up at 2 to get dressed and make sure we had everything together. We were in the lobby at about 2:30 waiting for the shuttle. At about 10 minutes before 3 we went outside where the shuttle would be picking us up. There was a group of people sitting out there already. Greg says one of them was Flavor Flav, but I didn’t see him. That guy and another guy left on one of those little motorcycles (crotch rocket). The shuttle was about 25 minutes late because it had other people to pick up from other hotels. It doesn’t matter; we got to the airport in plenty of time. The airport ticket counters didn’t open until 4 and we were probably 20 minutes early and just got to stand in line waiting for it to open. We got through security and found our gate. Greg grabbed some Cinnabon for breakfast and we grabbed a newspaper. Otherwise, we just had to wait for the flight to start boarding. What was weird is someone kept coming over the intercom and telling jokes like if you have lost $5000 with a yellow rubber band around it, we found the rubber band and stuff like that. That catches you off guard at that odd hour of the morning.

 

Greg and I both tried to sleep on the flight back, but were unsuccessful. Greg kept waking himself up. I kept waking up because of noise around me. Every time I was almost asleep, a door would slam or someone would close an overhead compartment. Even with my ipod, I couldn’t drown it out. Plus it was super cold. It was so cold that I had to buy a blanket to cover up. The great part of the flight was that I kind of overcame the fears I had of flying. On the flight out there, Greg was next to the window and he was feeling claustrophobic, so I offered to sit next to the window on the way back. I watched us take off and once I figured out that I wasn’t going to be able to sleep, I left the shade open and watched the flight. There were quite a few clouds, so there wasn’t much to see. I wanted to see us fly through the clouds and that was awesome. Then, I was fixated on the farmland and the little houses and stuff like that. Then, when we came closer to the city, I was trying to figure out where we were. I found that and before I knew it, we were right over the runway. It was really cool.

 

We arrived to the airport early but there was another plane at our gate, so we sat on the runway for about 25 minutes waiting for this plane to move. As soon as we landed, I had texted Matt to let him know we were early. Even though our plane landed 20 minutes early, we got off the plane about 10 minutes late. Matt and Crystal were waiting for us. We loaded our carry on stuff into his car and went back in to wait for our bag. The temperature was about half of what it was in Vegas. If was only about 52 and we were used to temps over 100. It was chilly. We got home and showed Matt and Crystal the stuff we bought. Once they left, we crashed for a while. We were exhausted. Thus ends my epic tale of our trip to Las Vegas.

 

Random Observation: I enjoy people watching. One thing that I noticed is lots and lots of women running around the city in high heels. Running around a casino is one thing, but walking down the strip is another thing. I wore tennis shoes the whole time and my feet and legs were a mess. I have blisters on blisters and my legs are so stiff and sore it isn’t even funny. I know I weigh more than most of the women in Vegas but I saw some larger women wearing them too. In my opinion, they should only be worn for very special occasions, not every day. 

So I finished the new Harry Potter book last night. I stayed up way too late doing it, but it was worth it. There are no spoilers here. I don't want to do that to anyone who may want to read it. I will say that this is a fitting end to an amazing series of books. This was a series of books that I thought was for kids. I kept hearing about it and how awesome it was. Then, my mom and brother read them and loved them. I had to see what this was all about. I borrowed my brothers books, that was when the first four were out. I was hooked by the first chapter of the first book. This book is probably my favorite. I wish I would have had the time and patience to just sit and read it straight through without stopping, but I didn't. Instead it took 4 days, which is fast for me. There was no good stopping point. When a chapter ended, it was usually on some kind of a cliff hanger, so I wanted to keep reading to see what happened next. I highly recommend this book as well as the rest of the series. What else could get millions of people (not just kids) to sit down in the middle of the summer and read a 750 page book. Not just read the book, but be excited about the book. That is a miracle. I know J. K. Rowling probably has more money than God and the Queen put together, but she deserves every penny she has made on this series. I can't say enough good things about this, so I'll just stop now by saying how much I loved it.

 

*********10 Stars