A very Brady weekend.

So, I'm not sure if anyone else caught on TVLand the Brady Bunch weekend marathon... 2 full days of Brady glory. We must have watched 25 episodes of the Brady Bunch in the past couple days. AND, I have the rest recorded so I can watch those this week while I'm going through Brady withdrawal.

The best part of the marathon was the top 10 Brady episodes. Can you guess which made the top 10? Well, here they are, see if you agree:

10. Getting Davy Jones- you know the one where Marcia says she can get Davy Jones to perform at the prom.

9. Ghost Town USA (Part I) / Grand Canyon Or Bust (Part II) / The Brady Braves (Part III- who can forget the Grand Canyon trilogy where Bobby and Cindy get lost and meet that groovy indian boy.

8. Where There's Smoke- the one where Greg takes up smoking...

7. Confessions, Confessions- "Mom said don't play ball in the house."

6. Adios, Johnny Bravo- Greg gets signed and fame goes to his head...

5. Hawaii Bound (Part I) / Pass The Tabu (Part II) / The Tiki Caves (Part III)- When I was in Hawaii, I did in fact search for the Tiki idol. It's tabu, ya know.

4. The Personality Kid- pork chops and applesauce, anyone?

3. Her Sister's Shadow- "Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!"

2. Dough-Re-Mi- Oh yes, we CAN Make the World a Whole Lot Better

1. The Subject Was Noses- Marcia Brady with an swollen nose, it just doesn't get much better than that.

Gosh, I LOVE the Brady's.

Hot. Hot. Hot.

You know it's freaking hot and has been for weeks when you leave your air conditioned apartment and think, ah, it's really cooled down a lot out here, only to find that the temperature is 86. It's been hovering around 100 degrees off and on (more on than off) for the past several weeks, actually, almost a month. I just checked the weather and hurray! There's an end in sight. The end of this week, it's supposed to cool down to highs in the lower 80s. I CAN NOT WAIT!

Vegas, Baby, Vegas!

Last weekend, Brian and I went to Las Vegas for a quick little trip. I had never been, so it was super exciting for me and Vegas did not disappoint. We left Denver on Saturday on a 730am flight. Not quite sure what I was thinking when I decided on that flight... Oh, and also, the night before we went to see Mason Jennings perform downtown, so it's not like we got to bed early! Mason Jennings was awesome. I had never seen him in concert before, and I think it only made me like him more. Anyways, we arrive in Vegas around 830am after an uneventful flight, grab a shuttle and headed to our hotel, Caesar's Palace. I had no idea of the enormousty (is that a word??) of Las Vegas and was totally blown away by the sizes of the hotels on the strip that I could see as we were leaving the airport.

We arrived at Caesars early in the morning, so just stowed our bags at the bell desk, took a brief tour of the Caesars casino, and then headed out to walk the strip. I immediately saw Barbary Coast and was like, that's the coolest hotel here. This is when Brian was like, oh you'll love downtown... Because Barbary Coast is distinctly retro and old looking and was what I was envisioning Vegas to be. Don't get be wrong, the rest of the hotels on the strip were AMAZING, but Barbary was just so old and vintage that it made it that cool. We walked through the Bellagio to cross over the street and check out Bally's and then Paris. Paris is awesome, I totally want to stay there next time I go to Vegas, and oh yes, there will be a next time. Then, we walked through Aladdin, Excaliber, and took the tram to Mandalay Bay to have lunch at the Burger Bar, a restaurant we saw on Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels. Gotta Love Rachael Ray. But, much to our dismay, it seemed that it didn't exist any more. So, we headed back on the tram to Luxor and checked out that hotel and ate lunch there instead, at Nathan's Hot Dogs (ya know, the famous Coney Island/NY dogs). Yum. I had never had a Nathan's dog, and it was quite pleasing, I got mine with chili on top. It was sort of like a Olneyville NY System Hot Weiner (all you Rhode Islanders out there know what I'm talking about), but not AS good. Yet, better than any dog I've had in Colorado so far. So, anyways, the chili is like real chili, not like the fine meat sauce you get in Olneyville. Oh well... It was still yummy.

Me in front of Paris:


After our lavish lunch, ;) we walked back to Caesars and grabbed our bags and checked into our room. The room was pretty nice, in one of the older towers, so not the fanciest, but it would do. Took a nice long nap (I think I slept nearly 4 hours!!) and then got up and got ready for a night on the town. We walked down to Treasure Island to catch the Pirate Show before dinner but it was cancelled due to high winds, so we continued over to the Venetian, watched the Gondolas struggle to dock in front of the hotel because of the winds, and then when that excitement wore off, we headed inside and had dinner at the Grand Lux Cafe (Jen will be so proud!). After dinner, we walked down to the New Frontier Casino in hopes of going to Gilley's bar, a bar with a mechanical bull. But, there was a cover charge and a line and the $2 margaritas were calling us at the video poker bar, so we headed over there. After playing video poker for a while (this turned out to be my favorite form of gambling), Brian headed to the blackjack tables and I to the slots. We gambled there for a bit, got some free drinks (I love Vegas) and then left there to head back to Caesars. The walk back was quite painful, as being the dumbass I am, I wore heals that night and my feet were sooooo hurting. But so were Brian's, so I didn't feel as bad walking about .00003 miles an hour down the strip. We finally arrived at Caesars and walked in through the Forum Shops so I could ditch the shoes and barefoot it the rest of the way to the room. We stopped at a bar in Caesars, Cleopatra's Barge, for some awesomely Vegas performance and a drink, and then went to sleep.

Barbary Coast, my fave: ;)




Sunday morning, we slept in and then headed for an afternoon by the pool. The pool at Caesars is really nice and it's even nicer that there are bars next to it and waitresses coming round to your lounge chairs to server you drinks. It was hotter than heck out, and thankfully, was partly cloudy. When the sun came out from behind the clouds, it would get insanely hot and a jump in the pool became necessary. We also were able to catch the end of the World Cup final on the TV at the bar by the pool which was cool and very exciting. After several hours by the pool, some dark clouds started rolling in and it began to rain... So, we headed back to the room to get ready for another night out in Vegas.

Sunday night, we decided to eat in the hotel, so we had a very authentic Japanese dinner at a, you guessed it, Japanese restaurant in the hotel. Then we headed out and decided to go downtown to start out the night. We grabbed a cab and went downtown, starting at one end of Freemont Street. After going into several casinos down there (they are so awesomely old and glittery and retro), it was finally dark and we got to see the huge shows they put on the big TV that spans the whole Freemont Street 'ceiling'. It's hard to describe, so if you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, look at: http://www.vegasexperience.com/. The Casinos in downtown Vegas are much less extravagent, yet have such a charm to them, I couldn't resist. One casino down there even has a microbrewery, so while you're gambling, you can drink free yummy (and potent, I found out first hand) microbrews. I did some more video poker gambling down there... I was addicted because I'm not much of a gambler, and because $5 on a video poker machine would last me hours (and get me lots of free budweisers). Following our downtown experience, we went back to Caesars and had a drink at the Shadow Bar, and then off to bed.

Monday morning, we slept in, got packed up, and checked out of the hotel. With our flight not leaving Vegas until nearly midnight, we stowed our bags and began another marathon walk down the strip to grab some lunch at a New Orleans restaurant in the shops at Aladdin. The entire reason we went there was because they had a lunch special of 25 cent martinis. Can you believe that?? And, the restaurant was pretty fancy and even better was that the food was REALLY good! We got a three course dinner, including beignets, turtle soup, and drank 4 25 cent martinis and had a great time there! After making fun of the lady at the table next to us when she got up and felt all sloshed, we got up from our table and I was feeling exactly the same way! I had a lemon drop martini, a couple chocolate martinis (SOO good), and another lemon drop-like martini with Blue Curacao in it. After lunch, we walked around a bit more, checked out the moving statues in Caesars, drank a refreshing frozen Hurricane, and then stopped in Barbary Coast to watch (and bet on) the Home Run Derby. I decided the very first day in Vegas that I loved the Sports books in all of the hotels. I think Caesar's Sports Book was my fave, but Barbary Coast was less intimidating, so we hung out in there for a while. After watching the majority of the Derby, we headed for dinner at... Burger Bar! Brian saw in a magazine that it DID still exist and was at Mandalay Bay, but in the shopping/mall area of it, not in the actual casino. We arrived there and dined on Kobe beef burgers with bleu cheese and yummy sweet potato fries. It was all very tasty and being that it was accompanied by microbrews, was all the more delicious. Following dinner, we walked back to Caesars, stopping at the Bellagio for a couple of their amazing fountain shows, then grabbing our bags and heading to the airport for our midnight departure.

The entire weekend was so much fun and it was awesome to finally get to Vegas!

Looking down the strip in one direction:


And the other:

Dirty Hippies at Red Rocks

On the fourth of July, after surviving the hangover from hell, we went to Red Rocks to tailgate and see Blues Traveler perform. We got to Red Rocks early enough to get into the prized parking lot super close to the entrance, dined on KFC (there's a fire ban so no grilling), dranks some beers, and people watched. The people watching was awesome. Lots of hippies. Lots of them. Hippies selling chocolate (which steve informed us was really chocolate infused with shrooms), hippies selling glass pipes, and the latest (or at least new to me) fad for hippies is to hula hoop. The hula hooping ran rampant in the parking lot. I had no idea of this phenomenom and that hippies loved to hula hoop so much. And let me say they hula hoop quite well. I had no idea there would be so many hippies at a Blues Traveler concert, but I guess it makes sense since it's a jam band and in that was is Phish-esque. Steve is a huge Phish fan so he knew the type of crowd quite well and taught us about all of the code words and whatnot. It was quite an educational concert experience.

Danielle and I tailgating:


We finally go into the ampitheater, grab a beer, our seats, and start watching the opening band. Johnny Lang?? I can't remember, except I do remember not really caring for him much. As his set is about to end, it starts to rain. Then it starts to POUR. THEN... I'm almost certain it was hailing. Or at least sleeting. We all huddled under the blanket I brought, of course still getting soaked and waited for Blues Traveler to come on.

Danielle and I under the blanket during the storm:


The rain finally ended, Blues Traveler came on and we enjoyed the concert. After the first intermission (yes, they took a break, something I was not too familiar with, but apparently is the status quo at jam band shows), we walked to the edge of the theater and got to watch nearly a dozen area firework shows. Red Rocks is sort of in the foothills, so higher than the Denver metro area, so we could see out to all the Denver/burbs shows, it was really awesome. We ended up leaving the show a little early still a little soggy from the storm earlier in the night.

Rockies and Fireworks

On the 3rd of July, Brian, his brother (Steve), Danielle, and I went to the Colorado Rockies game to watch them play and then afterwards see the fireworks. The game was lots of fun and the fireworks were even better. They had such a fantastic fireworks show, I was really impressed and surprised at how good it was. We had excellent seats for viewing the fireworks (though if we would have gotten Rock Pile seats we would have gotten to move down to the field for the fireworks show) and drank lots of beer and have a great time.

Danielle and I at the Rockies Game:


Brian and I at the Game:


After the game and fireworks, we headed over the LoDo where we saw the Real World house (they are filming in Denver now) and went to a cowboy bar of some sort that was surprisingly popular. Danielle knew the bartender so we got in free and then got one too many free drinks there. How do I know I had one too many free drinks?? Oh yes, because the next morning I was writhing in hangover pain and thought I was going to die.

Oh and I must mention... So, Steve (Brian's brother) is from NYC and just couldn't imagine why anyone would want to live in Colorado (especially those 'weirdos' who live up in the mountains). He thought it was pretty boring with not much to do and full of hicks and serial killers (those are the ones living out in the middle of nowhere or in the mountains). So I thought it quite funny that the one night we go out downtown, we take him to a bar with line dancing and people in cowboy hats. Way to prove him wrong. ;)

Casa Bonita

Okay, so, I haven't blogged in a LONG time. I have lots to catch up on, so I am going to try to relive the past few week's momentous events and write about them now (finally!)

First things first... This is going way back to the beginning of July. Brian's brother came into town, and what other way to welcome one to Colorado than with a visit to the legendary Casa Bonita. I was especially excited, as I had never been there, though have seen the South Park episode that showcased the place. How can I sum up Casa Bonita?? Well, think like a Chuck E. Cheese but more of a restaurant than an arcade, terrible food, tons of kids running around, and Mexican themed.

Casa Bonita as seen on South Park:


We arrive at Casa Bonita and step within it's hallowed walls and into a long winding line reminiscient of a line for a giant roller coaster. With children outnumbering the adults and signs on the wall displaying the 'gourmet' Mexican food and taglines such as "Eat so Mucho, Peso Little," I knew this was going to be an experience I'd not soon forget. We finally get up to the part where you order your food (all you can eat Beef Deluxe dinner for $10.98!), then you continue down the line, grab a tray and collect your food cafeteria style. You wind down a curving hall to the hostess desk and then truly enter the Casa Bonita. The interior is decked out with 'authentic' mexican stylings, lush tropical pools with cliff divers (yes, cliff divers), and strolling mariachi bands (though I never saw them actually move, let alone stroll). We are seated and begin feasting on our first (and last) portion of beef tacos, enchiladas, rice, and beans. After finishing one beef enchilada, I was thinking, hmmm... this isn't so great, but I continued on with the beef taco and then finally gave up, yet not soon enough, as the rest of the night my tummy was not so great. (okay, have I mentioned that Casa Bonita is not necessarily known for the greatest food??). Anyways, we finish our meal off with the sopapillas, which were most definitely the highlight of the dinner- fried pieces of dough doused in honey, you just can't go wrong with that. After eating, we stroll the insides of Casa Bonita watching the cliff divers, a shootout between the sheriff and Black Bart (who was not black at all), a pirate hosting a pinata whacking party for the young'uns, and even saw Black Bart's cave. Now, I must mention that on the back of the menu, it boasted "dancing monkeys in costume". I was eagerly waiting to see these dancing monkeys, but then my dreams were shattered when Brian explained to me that the dancing monkeys in costume were actually the dude dressed up as a gorilla running around the restaurant while we were eating. I thought it was horribly deceptive advertising, as I truly did expect (and really wanted) to see real-live monkeys in costume dancing around the restaurant. Oh well, what can you do.... Despite the terrible food, Casa Bonita is an experience that must be had by all. I can't wait to have kids so I can frequent this joint a whole bunch more!

The Real Casa Bonita:

You can check it out at: http://www.casabonitadenver.com/

I loathe Mondays

And not because of the obvious. No, Mondays in my world mean landscaping day at my apartment complex. This means, I awake to weed-wackers, leaf blowers, and lawnmowers. Well, that's not entirely true, I usually wake to trains going by at 515am. That's what really gets me up. But anyways, the landscapers usually come around 8am and begin their trimming and cutting and cleaning-up. So, there is an area in front of my building that is about 10 feet of grass from the building to the curb, and runs the length of the building. Not much grass to cut, a few trees and shrubs to trim, but really not more than an hour's worth of work.

Yet, the weedwacking, mowing, and trimming continues till noon. Then it stops. I think, ah, finally, they are done. No... apparently they just stopped to eat lunch. The noise restarts around 1245 and continues not for a couple more hours, but pretty much till 430 or 5 pm. I have no idea what they do, but they are landscaping in front of my apartment for 8 hours EVERY week. It drives me insane because the walls are thin here and I have to listen to the machinery going ALL day long.

Sorry, just had to vent about that...