Vegas - Day 2

Sunday in Vegas. We have this fantastic room so it seemed appropriate to sleep in. I don't think we actually got out of the room until at least noon. The plan for today is to check out the south side of the strip. The first of the oldies but goodies is the Excalibur. It is funny because I remember this hotel being a lot "cooler" when I was here 11 years ago. It is starting to get pretty old and run down. King Arther needs to come out of his state room and get the kingdom back in shape. Next was the Luxor. I've always liked the pyramid shape of this hotel. Maybe it is the logical side of me that likes how uniform it is. The Luxor is pretty run down though too... Smokey and dark on the inside. Finally on the end of the strip we got to see the new Mandalay Bay. They have one of the best pool areas in vegas featuring a wave pool. Unfortunately, it is for hotel guests only. Oddly enough, we ran into an old friend that Jennifer and I used to play soccer with. He was here to get out of the Seattle overcast funk as well.... it would be interesting to know where most of the guests in Vegas come from. I bet bad weather in Seattle is very good for the casinos.

Before making our way back we checked out the Lions lying around at the MGM Grand, and I had a chance to eat a Nathan's hot dog from New York, New York. (not sure what the big deal is... other than the $5 cost for a cheapo hot dog) Maybe it is different in the actual New York, but I doubt it because the hotel is EXACTLY like New York. (sarcasm)

We made the long walk back up and finally returned to our hotal at Vdara. The air is so fresh! When you open the door it is really amazing how fresh and clean the air is. We must get used to the light smoke in the casino air and the hazyness of Las Vegas.

For dinner, we went to an Italian restaurant near our hotel which was reasonably good. Afterwards we walked up and saw the Mirage volcano blow and meandered back down to see the Bellagio fountain show a few times. The Mirage was surprisingly good! 15-20 foot high flame fireballs with steam, fountains and explosions. Quite fun. And of course, the Bellagio fountains were great too. They run them every 15 minutes to a different song. Jennifer thinks they are the most romantic thing in Vegas.

Anyways, our evening was pretty low key. We decided to have one night without a show and it was very relaxing. For tomorrow, we are looking forward to some pool time and seeing Phantom at the Venitian.

Vegas - Day 1

We woke up this morning hungry and decided to try out a Vegas buffet right way. One of the best in town is at the Paris hotel which is right across the street so we made the hike over there with 30 minutes before the breakfast buffet switched to the lunch buffet. (and $10 more per person) Unfortunately, the line took longer than anticipated and we got pushed into the lunch buffet. Arrggg! The buffet food was ok. I think our experience was spoiled by recently going to Salty's - the best buffet in Seattle.

Anyways, stuffed and a little discouraged, we went over to one of those 1/2 price ticket stands just to see what was available and ended up buying tickets to see Cirque du Solei - Mystere. Pretty great way to buy tickets if you are flexible. We chose the late showing so we used up the rest of the day just walking around checking out the different hotels. The show was well worth the wait. The acrobats are amazing!! This show was the first one in Vegas so we are thinking about seeing another one before we leave. We'd really like to see "O" but tickets are $150 each and since it is the most popular show on the strip, they rarely get tickets at the 1/2 price ticket stands.

Anyways we are tired and our feet our sore so off to bed. Side note... we have to move the clocks forward on hour tonight losing an hour on our vacation...?? Boy that was poor planning. !

Vegas Arrival

We arrived in Vegas last night right on time with a pretty uneventful flight. Southwest is serving these crackers which taste pretty good and have a funny name. After landing, we jumped on a shuttle (surprisingly easy to do) and checked in at our hotel. Unfortunately, they didn't have any rooms that faced the Bellagio fountains since we checked in so late, but nevertheless our room is still incredible!! This hotel is so great because it is all non-smoking and was just built less than a year ago. Even though it was 11 pm, we decided to go out and see what was happening on the strip. We saw the Bellagio fountains which were very cool and then walked along the street. As you would expect the streets are filled with people at 11:30 at night who are very loud and obnoxious but we got used to it. By far, the funniest thing we have seen are these souvenier drink guitars that are served by the Hard Rock cafe. It is a full sized guitar that has a straw coming out of it. I can't imagine how much it might cost but it sure was funny to see people walking around drinking from their guitars.

Anyways, we are heading off this morning to go stuff ourselves at the buffet in the Paris hotel. I'm hoping to post at least once a day so keep checking back in if you want to follow! Viva Las Vegas!!

Google Birthday Calendar

I'm really liking how Google seems to be building tools that better organize contact information. The latest one that I recently discovered was the ability to show the birthdays of all your Google contacts in your Google calendar.
Kinda cool.

The option is within the Google calendar settings -> Calendars tab -> "Browse Interesting Calendars..." link

Sounders Wedding

Well I was kinda leaving my blog alone for awhile because I didn't think anybody was reading it anyways, but I seem to be getting SOME feedback from people about not posting anything in awhile, so here is an update.

Wedding:
Jennifer and I are busy trying to get everything planned out for the wedding. I'll jump on the realization bandwagon like everybody else and say that wedding planning is a lot of work! It is coming along nicely but I do miss my free time. Currently we are working on getting the details regarding the actual ceremony worked out and next on the list is finding a ring. (Although Jennifer won't let me get a Tattoo ring, I'm thinking Platinum is almost as permanent)

Seattle Sounders:
Gotta love Seattle's new major league soccer team. They have 3 shutouts and are generally kicking some butt at every game. Fans are crazy and it has become a whole lot of fun to attend the games. Now if I can just get Jennifer to change the wedding colors to Sounders colors...

That is pretty much my life besides work right now. Of course, I always have another computer tip for anybody / nobody that cares. Here you go:

Wake your computer with the Escape key:
A lot of people are used to pushing the space bar when trying to wake their computer or clicking the mouse. You might not want to do that for one main reason: Space bar can be used to click OK on confirmation dialogs. With the screensaver on, you have no idea what you are selecting "OK" to. This can be a problem if:

• A program deleted a file and was asking you to confirm
• A virus tried to access a restricted setting and windows was prompting you to confirm
• Text is selected on the screen and any keyboard key will replace the text.
  

Although none of these things are very likely, it doesnt take much work either to get in the habit of hitting Escape instead of any other key.

Anyways, thats the latest.

How to disable that annoying PC speaker beep

I've had the pleasant experience more than once where I'm sitting in a meeting quietly using my computer (with my sound muted) and there will be a windows warning that pops up causing a "Beep" sound on my computer. The sound doesn't come from my speakers, but from the speaker on the motherboard itself.
Definitely annoying and I wonder why Microsoft didn't disable this sound as well when you hit mute, but here is how you do it:

1. Right-click on "Computer" or "My Computer" from the start menu and select "Manage"
2. From the left bar, find the "Device Manager" node and select it.
3. From the top menu bar, select "View" and then "Show hidden devices". This will cause a new node named "Non-Plug and Play Drivers" to be displayed in the main area.
4. Expand the new node "Non-Plug and Play Drivers"
5. Right-click on the node named "Beep" and select "Properties"
6. Select the "Driver" tab and change the Startup Type to be "Disabled"
7. Click OK.
   

Mint.com

Loving this new website mint.com. Mint.com is an online application that manages your various accounts. (mortgage, checking, credit cards) It is a lot like the old Microsoft Money application but has a few key distinctions which makes it better if you ask me:

• Adding new accounts is easy
• Not as many options as MS Money but makes it easier to use. (if you ask me, money does a good job of providing an option for everything.... problem is that makes things overly complicated and confusing)
• Always online.

Here are the reason's why I love mint.com

• "Transaction's" view which shows transactions across all the accounts you have.
  
• Each transaction is automatically categorized. (I always hated categorizing everything in MS money just so I could see what I have been spending in each area) MS money does this but it isnt quite as dynamic as mint.com is.
  
• A focus on money categorizations rather than accounts. If you think about it, who cares about the accounts you have? What you really care about is: Where is my cash? Where are my investments? Where are my debts?

Of course, the downside is you have to trust Mint.com with all of your account info and passwords. Overall a really slick and well thought out application. As far as usability of website and design goes it definitely is up there with some of the newer and better website designs I've seen.