This Christmas week

I hope you had a nice Christmas! Ours was ok. It was not as good as it should have been. We couldn't go back to California this year, and none of our family could come out here. For one thing, it is very expensive. For another, one of our relatives that we usually stay with told us she would not be home this year, but then it turns out she changed her mind and didn't tell us. She says she just forgot, but I don't know...it sort of put a damper on our plans. It amazes me when people are so self-centered and don't realize how their actions affect others.

Anyway...then I got sick, and the cold turned into bronchitis, so that has not been fun. I was not able to do as much for Christmas as I usually do. It is annoying not to be able to sing Christmas songs, for instance. I did as much as I could, and that was probably too much. Today I am taking it easy because I want to get better. I am better, but not as much as I should be by now. I was coughing a lot yesterday. I have some medicine from the doctor. I am taking over the counter Mucinex D during the day, and a cough syrup when I sleep. That works pretty well. I am also taking an antibiotic. I think that is "Just in case", though, since my bronchitis is most likely viral, not bacterial. Hopefully it will all be gone soon! I have had bronchitis many times before, and sometimes it lasts for months. I hope this doesn't.

What did you get for Christmas? I got a set of Ginsu knives, and a new blender, and the first season of the TV show MI-5 on DVD, and the first season of My Favorite Martian, and a set of the three "That's Entertainment" movies, and a ladybug rollerbag, and some other stuff.

Tuesday I went to the doctor. She also tested my blood sugar, and it is doing very well, so that is great news. My cholesterol is a little high, 212, so I have to watch the fat more.

Wednesday I went to Target with my MIL so she could do some shopping. We went out to eat dinner at Kozy's, one of the nicest restaurants here.It was very good, as always. Kozy's is not very far from our house, so that's one reason we go there a lot.

For Christmas Eve, we did our usual buffet, even though it was just the three of us. I made some cookies, but I can't eat most of them since they have flour and sugar. I know people that I give them to, and the other two can eat them. We had mostly healthy stuff otherwise. It was very low-key.

Our tradition is to have that buffet at home, then we go out for dinner on Christmas, but here in the bible belt, especially in the smaller cities, not many places are open on either Thanksgiving or Christmas. That's one of the reasons we usual travel on Christmas. We were planning to go to Nashville, but since I got sick, we couldn't go. David wanted to see the Chargers play, too. Too bad, because it turned out to be a great game.

Thursday there was a lot of work to do, for the buffet, wrapping presents, all that last minute stuff. Friday morning we opened presents. It was ok, nothing that fun because not all of us were in the best of moods. It was as fun as it could be, let's put it that way :) Then we went to the buffet at the Chinese restaurant called Buffet City. It was pretty good, actually. We didn't know what to expect because sometimes it's good, and sometimes it's not. It tends to have more fried food than we like. The Chinese buffet we used to like went out of business, so...anyway, the only other place I could find that was open was the Ihop. The food was good, though, at the Buffet City, so I can't complain. I napped after that. I did a lot of sleeping the past few weeks.

Today I just rested. We might go to Kozy's for snacks briefly tonight. I will miss those post-Christmas sales, I guess.

Well, nothing new to report other than that. I imagine the next week will be pretty boring. Then we will take down all the decorations on January first. I'm not looking forward to that. Ugh. I have not done much work on my site the past few weeks because of being sick, so I'm going to have to start back on that. No new year's resolutions. I just need to get around to the stuff on my to do list!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

It's Christmas already!

We went to Vegas in mid-December. It was a lot of fun. I did lots of karaoke. In some ways, Vegas is not as fun for me as it used to be (New Orleans, either, for that matter) because so much of what I enjoyed there before was the food and alcohol. Food is less enjoyable when you're on such a restricted diet. I am very proud that I stuck to my diet in both places, though. If there weren't karaoke and shopping, I'm not sure if I would have a good time at all.

We stayed at Bally's on the strip. We used to stay in a different casino every time, but we have stayed at them all now except for a few very expensive places, and the ones way off the strip like Sam's Town. Staying that far away from everything else would cost us a lot in cabs. You can't really drive easily there any more. They do have shuttles, but you spend a lot of time waiting if you take those. One of these days we will stay at Venetian, Bellagio, and Wynn. Right now they are too expensive. When we go in December, it is during the really dead time, so hotels are very cheap. However, we have to pay for my MIL now, and so it does add up.

Here's the highlights of our trip. I won't bother mentioning the gambling because it's pretty much all the same, and I didn't win very often. David did ok as he usually does. I did win my sports bets, though, so that was great. I made one ten dollar bet per day, not a big spender or anything.

Monday we had a long flight, long day. We took a direct flight both ways, so there was no stopping or changing planes. It makes for a very long day, though. I didn't have much sleep the night before, and I didn't sleep on the plane, so I napped when we got there, while they went out to dinner. David likes this sushi place in Bally's that I'm not too fond of, anyway, so they went there. Later, he and I went to this great German restaurant called Hofbrau. It is a chain; they have three of them, and we have been to the other two, in Munich and Cincinnatti! They have great food, a German band playing, and lots of beer, of course. They don't do small portions, though. We left a lot of food. It is a shame, but there was no way to preserve it until we got back to our room.

We had a really nice room. We like to get a connecting room with my MIL so we can check on her easily, so we had to pay a little extra to get one, and we got a suite. It was humongous and had a little fridge and extra sink.

Anyway, Monday night after the Hofbrau we went to Ellis Island, which is right behind Bally's and has karaoke every night. He did pretty well there playing while I listened to the singers. It was really crowded, so I only got one song, but I didn't mind. I enjoyed hearing the others. There were not a lot of great singers there. Let's put it this way, probably about one in three could carry a tune! But they sang a lot of great songs I knew, so I could sing along. They had a birthday party there and lots of fun, nice people.

David goes out and plays in the casino and checks back with me occasionally, and I mostly sit by myself except for the few minutes he sits there. Toward the end of the evening, this really drunk guy came over and tried to sit in David's chair. I told him it was taken by my husband, and he acted like he didn't believe me. I mean, this guy was really really smashed, and beligerent. He argued with me about it, went away, then came back a little later and tried to take the chair again, but I held on to it and told him to back off. He was a real jerk. I was very upset by the whole incident because although there were plenty of people around, no one was really paying attention to us, and it was really loud. I didn't feel there was anyone I could ask for help if things got worse. There was only one bartender and one waitress, and they were nowhere near me, and the KJ was on the other side of the room. I tried phoning David on the cell, but it was so loud where he was, he couldn't hear me. Finally I took my stuff and went outside the karaoke bar, to the main casino. Fortunately, he was nearby. I was very upset. I can't really explain it. You had to be there. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good look at the guy, since I was trying to ignore him, so I couldn't get much help from security. Anyway, I sang my song "When Will I See You Again", and we left soon after. I hope nothing like that ever happens again. It was kind of scary. I have had drunk guys bother me before, but not like that.

We went over to the New York New York to visit his favorite Irish pub there, Nine Fine Irishmen. I got more food later at this place called America's bar and grill, something like that. They have a giant map of the US on the ceiling. It's an interesting diner and the food is pretty good. We went home after that.

Tuesday we had breakfast, we were both up pretty early. I had a pretty good breakfast at the fast food deli type place in Bally's. Then later we all went downtown for a while. They have the older, cheaper places down there. We had lunch at the Golden Gate, they have a good deli there that has great food, mostly sandwiches, hot dogs, shrimp cocktail etc. It's actually the only place worth eating downtown, IMHO. We did a little shoping down there, too. We took a nap in the afternoon. Thursday night we went to this Korean restaurant we like, Gin Seng. It is in this alleyway area near MGM Grand; there are a few restaurants there. They have great food, we always eat too much there and we are always the only non-Asian people there.

We went again over to New York New York. It was really crowded so we didn't stay long. They often have a live band there, too, singing Irish songs. They have a nice little gift shop there as well. Later we went to Bill's Gambling Hall for karaoke. There were many great singers there. It was way better than Ellis Island. I still had to wait a long time, but I did get in two songs, "Ooh Baby Baby" and I tried the Christmas song "Holly Jolly Christmas" for the first time. It was ok, but I was a little off the rhythm at the beginning. The crowd was good and didn't seem to mind. I was surprised there weren't more Christmas songs being sung.

I think we once again went to the Irish pub after that. It was a fun evening. No drunks bothering me this time! We didn't do too much walking around this time, partly because my feet were bothering me.

Wednesday we got up later, I think? We went to the buffet at the Bellagio. I'd heard it was good, and it sure was. Delicious. It had the best salad bar I've ever seen, and the rest was great, too. They even had sugar free desserts, so that was nice. Later, for dinner, we went to the coffee shop in the Paris hotel, which is the one right next to Ballys. It was excellent. We were not that hungry after that huge lunch, but it was still really great.

I did some shopping at the mall at Planet Hollywood. My favorite chocolate store, Teuscher's, is there. It is a swiss place, not cheap, but they have the best chocolates, especially truffles. I got a few for presents and for me. They also have sugar free. I bought these nuts I really liked last time we were at PH, too.

David and I went to Harrah's for karaoke. I was supposed to meet this lady, Beth, that I know online, but she had to cancel her trip. Too bad. Anyway, the host there is really fun and makes a great night of it. It's only 6-9 which is really unusual. There is a great selection of people and songs, and I got to sing quite a lot. I did a Diana Ross song whose name escapes me, then I did a duet with the KJ, "Summer Nights, then I did another song, but I can't remember which one, LOL. Then I did "Winter Wonderland", which was fun and turned out great. It was a nice night. Vegas is very dry, and I felt a little sore in my throat, so I just assumed it was either allergies or the desert. Between those and all the smoke, it takes a toll on your voice and throat.

We were leaving pretty late on Thursday, but we checked out at 11 and had them hold our bags. We did some shopping at the mall in Paris. They have these cute little stores there. I got some beanie baby bears and some Christmas ornaments. We did some time killing as we waited to leave for our flight. We had lunch at the Irish pub, which is always really good.

Thursday after we got to the airport, my throat started hurting more. I figured out eventually that I had a cold. It was hard to tell at first. I felt pretty bad by the time we boarded the plane. My throat was killing me all day, and I didn't have enough medicine to counteract the congestion and all that. I couldn't sleep, either, again! We were all very glad when we got home, even though it was 1 am. I was not all that tired, strangly, so I did a little unpacking and laundry as I recall, and some work.

So I was sick all week. I mostly took it easy, but it's kind of hard when you can't sleep and you have all this stuff to do for the holidays. Sunday I started coughing a lot and that made it hard to sleep. The OTC medicine did not help that much, so Tuesday I went to the doctor. My cough was pretty bad by then so I kind of figured I had bronchitis, and I was right.

The doctor gave me some good stuff for my cough so I can sleep, and some antibiotics for the bronchitis. I am doing much better. I was able to finish my shopping and clean a little, at least. I haven't made any Chrismas cookies at all this year, which feels really strange. I usually make a lot and give them out. I can't even eat them myself any more.

We didn't get to our usual Friday night downtown, since I was so sick. that was very disappointing. Nor did we get to the mall on Saturday. We are doing ok now, though. Christmas should be interesting! Just the three of us. I am determined to have a festive Christmas, though. We did finish decorating the whole house, and it looks nice. I will post pics. We are having our usual Christmas Eve buffet, even though it will just be us three and we are not having anything elaborate. I bought desserts, so that sucks since I usually make tons of cookies. I have to rest a lot, though, so I can't do it all.

We had originally planned on maybe going to Nashville for Christmas, but that's out now that I am sick. Not many places are open on Christmas Day, and I don't want to cook....we are probably going to a Chinese buffet. It is that or Ihop! We went out tonight to Kozys, one of the best restaurants in town, to sort of make up for the fact that we'll have such a sucky Xmas dinner. It was very nice.

Elizabeth and I went to see Fantastic Mr. Fox before our trip to Vegas. It is rather strange but also fun, funny, and worth seeing. Very entertaining. She helped me pick up David's Christmas present, too, so that was nice. I had hoped we'd all get together, but...being sick has prevented that so far.

I hope we can go see Avatar soon!

I got a lot of nice DVD's lately. I got quite a few for my birthday, and I picked up a few today at Target, really cheap. They had many for $4. That is amazing. I wonder if it's because they think everyone wants Blu-Ray now? I have no idea.

Well, everyone have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This week!

We went out Wednesday night. Thursday was my birthday, but we went out to dinner on Wednesday instead. The grad students were having a party that night downtown anyway, so it was more convenient since we like to go to Epiphany for dinner on my birthday. They are so nice there. I had this delicious appetizer with lettuce wrapped around pork and dipping sauces. Then I had scallops for dinner, and lastly the great chocolate mousse cake there. And wine! Plus they gave me a bottle of dessert wine since it was my birthday. Great stuff. The wine was called Bug Juice! LOL. And I got to taste another one I liked even better, called Rosa de Rosa. I am going to have to buy some of these.

Then we went over to this bar called Speakeasy, where they were having the party. Lots of nice people there, both grad students and faculty. A lot of them are on Facebook, so they wished me a happy birthday :) I got a lot of nice birthday wishes on Facebook and via email, too. It helps to make up for the fact that even some of my close friends and family members didn't bother to send me a card, or even an email....ahem.

Our friend Norm, who works with David, was singing there with his band. It's always fun to hear them. They play a lot of oldies from 60's and 70's. We had fun hanging out with everyone.

I'll admit that I really wanted to go next door to Rhythm and Brews for karaoke. :) However, I got to sing with the band, so that made up for it! Norm's wife, Karen, introduced me to the keyboard player. I mentioned that I was a singer and had been looking to find a band for a while. I was going to ask him to let me know if he found any other bands looking for a singer. Before I could get a chance, he asked me if I want to sing a song right now! I was so happy. We did Blue Bayou. It was really cool. Singing with a band is about 50 times better than karaoke. It's such a rush, a high, you can't even explain it. I was giddy the rest of the night. What a great birthday present. The band seemed to like it, so maybe I'll get lucky and they'll hear of someone else who needs a singer. The keyboard player did chat with me afterwards and asked if I would do weddings, so I told him I would do anything! I know 500 songs, can do rock, pop, showtunes, country, whatever! Backup singer, I don't care. It's so much fun.

So, it was a great night. I tried to go to bed early but it didn't work that well. I went into the campus Thursday but had only had about 3 hours sleep. I did some work on my site, had a nice conference call interview with Kevin Nealon and Fred Willard, and walked around the strip area, did some shopping. It was all good. I was so tired, just had some food and went to sleep when I got home. I haven't opened my presents yet! I slept about 7 hours so now I'm up.

I have to clean the house, so I can put up the Christmas decorations! Then I can start on my cards. So much to do! I just wish the allergies would go away. My nose is so sore and has been running so much. I suppose I could have a cold, but if I do, it's a pretty minor one.

I took lots of pictures from the past two weeks, have to take those in. One of these days I'll get a digital camera!

Have a great week...

Friday and Saturday

I stayed up late again Thursday night, just web surfing and Facebooking, etc. David and my MIL went to the WWII museum. They had a good time. He brought me back some souvenirs for my collections. We went to lunch at this place called The Gumbo Shop. I searched on the net for the best gumbo in New Orleans, and many people like this place. Well, they were wrong. All the food was mediocre, including the gumbo. Ah, well. I had some alligator sausage for appetizer, and then crawfish etouffee for the entree. I can't eat rice, too high in carbs, and fortunately they pile it all up on one side so I could avoid it. It was allright food, just not as good, nowhere close, as all the other meals we had. Apparently it's a popular tourist trap because it got very crowded.

We dropped his mom back off at the room to rest, then we went back to Bourbon Street for a while. I had wanted to check out this bar called Mimi's, that is owned by a soap actress I like, Cady McClain, but it was not in the French Quarter and we didn't feel like walking all that way.

We went to this bar Called Razoo, and they have karaoke from noon until sometime later, when they bring in a live band. It is pretty empty during the day, so that's probably why they have karaoke, to try to bring people in. They had a pretty small song list but it skewed toward the past two decades of pop and rock music, so there were only a few songs I knew. It was really dead. I sang two songs, then we left. We were probably there about an hour; they play filler music in-between, which I'm pretty used to. A lot of the bars in town sell 3-for-1 drinks during the week, so if you order a beer, you get 3. If you order a mixed drink, or even a soda, you get a humongous glass. I wonder why people drink too much in New Orleans? :)

We went to a couple of other bars and then to a few shops on Royal Street, where they have lots of stores and art galleries. They have a store there that sells autographed items. It's too expensive to shop in, since the items go for at least hundreds of dollars, but it's always fun to browse there. I would have loved to have some of their stuff. They had a framed collage of photos from Gone With the Wind and all the autographs from the major actors. It went for around $8,000 or something like that. They had another one like that for Star Wars. They also had autographed guitars, books, albums, etc. from just about everyone. One photo collage had all the James Bond actors and all their autographs, that was cool. Wish I had that much money to waste on these things.

We had to stop in the praline store, of course. There are many there. Those are always good, even though I can't eat much of one at once.

We stopped in this other bar, where these two guys had this old bull dog. It was so cute, and a really sweet dog. We saw lots of dogs while we there, and they were all friendly and cute.

We had a nap. Later, we went to this great French restaurant called Antoine's for dinner. It is the place where Oysters Rockefeller was invented. The food is always outstanding there ( as well it should be for the price). They have been there, in the same family, since the 1800's. I had speckled trout, grilled, with a crawfish sauce, and chocolate mousse. It was all delicious.

It got busier every day we were there. Friday was by far the busiest. They had some football fans in town for two different games. Every place was very crowded with lots of drunk people. It was more fun on Wed. and Thurs. nights than on Friday. We went to Cat's Meow, but this time it was already packed with people. I did get to sing and didn't have to wait too long. Cat's Meow is a tourist place so it is more about entertaining people than singing, so not as many singers go there as drunken tourists. They play songs in between the singers and the KJ sings along with them and gets the crowd revved up. Anyway, we sat in an outdoor courtyard area while I waited to sing. I did Its Raining Men, which always a crowd pleaser, and it went over very well. I didn't sing it that well, but it was ok. They loved it. I got a lot of high fives.

I got another DVD, too. The KJ from the previous night was there, very drunk. When he saw me waiting for my DVD, he recognized me, and opened his arms for a hug, so I hugged him. Then he kissed me on the head! LOL! That was funny.

We went around to various other bars, having drinks, etc. Karaoke Saloon was less crowded but still much more so than previous nights. I had to wait a long time to sing, but it was fun. A group of three couples sitting nearby were very drunk and friendly, chatted with us. We had a good time. I didn't drink, but it was fun anyway. They have the woman that come around with little tubes of liquor and try to get you to drink, then if you buy one, they pour it into your mouth while they hold it in their mouth, very sexual of course. Odd thing...they kept trying to get me to buy one, and I kept explaining that I couldn't have them because they all had tons of sugar.

We stopped by Lüke again, had some more pâté and some other stuff. Good place. I tried to get some water out of the hotel's soda machine, but they were out, so I went to the bar. All they had was this expensive Voss water. It's $4 per bottle, huge bottles that are made out of glass. Then when I got up to the room, we couldn't open them! I finally just now opened them here at home. Nothing like paying that much for water and then having drink tap water, yuck.

I stayed up late again, working on my site and catching up on email. We had such a good time. I hated leaving. We left around 10 am. I slept in the car most of the way. We stopped at some local burger chain in Mississippi called Ward's. It was nothing special. Then more napping after we got home. Then back to our usual routine, we went out to Kozy's for dinner.

Now I am doing laundry, unpacking, etc. All that boring stuff! :) I have to start cleaning the house so I can put up all the Christmas decorations. I also have to get my cards and presents ready to mail. I have been having fun doing a lot of shopping online. I bought quite a few low carb gluten free mixes and cookies etc. for the holidays. I have to start baking cookies, too, for people we give them to.

This Thursday is my birthday...I don't know yet what we're doing. Our friend Utz's birthday is Saturday. I ordered some GF sugar free chocolate cupcakes but not sure if they will get here in time.

I think we are still going to Vegas around the 13th, not sure yet.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and weekend!

Second day of our trip to New Orleans

I stayed up way too late last night... sometimes my allergies are really bad and keep me up. They sure did last night. I went to bed around 5 am. We had our Thanksgiving reservations at 11 am, so it was very hard to get up at 10:15 and get ready. Ugh.

The thing about New Orleans is that there are more tall buildings than you expect, which block the sunlight and create wind tunnels. So even though it was nice in the sun, it was very cool otherwise. David, his mom and I went to lunch at Red Fish Grill, a restaurant here that we like a lot. They had a nice Thanksgiving buffet. It was delicious, not cheap....great quality, although I would have preferred a little more variety. They had all the usual Thanksgiving stuff, plus fish, salad, etc. I mostly had turkey, salad, and vegetables. I still somehow felt stuffed afterwards!

We went over to the Harrah's casino afterwards, and I won some money on slots, so that was fun. Nice to pay for the dinner! LOL!!

Then we had naps.... then it was dinner time, so went to the first restaurant we found open, one called Bourbon House. I was surprised we could get in without a reservation, but we did. They just had appetizers, and I had a nice fish entree. It was very good and just the right amount of food. It was not as cold as earlier, even though the sun was down.

We took my MIL back to her room, then I got ready to go out. I put my contacts in because I don't like doing karaoke with my glasses on if I can help it. We went out about 8 pm. First we went to Cat's Meow, which is the big, famous, popular tourist karaoke bar on Bourbon Street. There weren't too many people there yet. The KJ's there are always fun, they sing, dance, make jokes, really play everything up for the crowd. Tourist karaoke is very different from regular neighborhood karaoke. It's all about performing and making things entertaining for the crowd so that they stay and drink. With regular karaoke you usually have mostly singers in the audience, so it's very different. The KJ's are not always so entertaining or so professional.

Cat's Meow is fun but they have a limited song list. They mostly have fun, lively, fast songs. They always play filler songs in-between the singers, and sometimes the KJ sings with those. I find this kind of thing really annoying most of the time, but it's just something you have to put up with at Cat's Meow. I got to sing pretty quickly, though. There weren't too many singers. Everyone was pretty good, though, I have to say. There was no one I felt that was tone deaf like at the place the night before.

I did "Natural Woman" by Aretha Franklin, and that went over well. I asked the KJ to do "Don't go Breakin' My Heart" with me. He had an assistant who showed up, so he had him do the duet with me. That guy was good, too, but too laid back...songs need passion. Anyway, I got a DVD recording of the two songs, so we'll see. I can't watch it until we get back since my DVD player on my laptop is broken.

We went to song other bars, had more drinks etc. We went back to the place from last night, The Karaoke Saloon. It was slightly more lively. I wanted to do "Fame" but they said they didn't have it, so I did "This One's For the Girls" by Martina Mcbride. The crowd there was not as fun as at Cat's Meow. You need a good crowd who will applaud and yell, and hopefully come up and tell you that you were great :)

Later I did "Magic Man" and it was pretty good. The people that work there are nice and try really hard...it's just a little more laid back than Cat's Meow. I hope they last because it's good for the area to have more than just one karaoke bar.

They do have karaoke in the suburbs like Kenner and Metairie but we would have to drive there. There is one more place on Bourbon Street that has karaoke, Razoo. They apparently have it during the day, starting at noon, which is very weird. I will have to check it out tomorrow.

One problem with drinking, which I shouldn't have been doing anyway because I'm diabetic and take a lot of medication (ahem!), is that it makes you hungry. I was doing so well...then we stopped and got pizza. Oh, we played some other poker video games and did pretty well, too. They have them in the bars here.

We stupidly decided, hey, let's have more food and more alcohol, so we went over to the Hilton's bar near our hotel, called Lüke. It's a German and French place, really good. I just got some take out of pâté and this dessert that I thought was going to be a mousse but it was more like chocolate cake...it was black forester, my favorite. However, it was more icing than cake, so that was wonderful. You just can't beat the food here. Back on my diet tomorrow!

Anyway, we had a great day, lots of fun. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, too!

PS I forgot that David's work computer has a DVD player, so I watched my DVD. It was ok. Not the best sound system! I look a lot better now that I lost weight last year...more to lose, though! I am tired of being the fat girl singers! :) Good motivation, videotape yourself so you can see what you look like!