Meeting in Vegas, and Spartan Bruises

So barely recovered from the Spartan, I hopped a plane to Vegas for a work meeting. This was a nice sunset I snapped from the plane in Charlotte, NC.

And these were some precious sleeping ducklings next to the fountain at the Mirage, where my meeting was.

I didn't go see the Beatles Love concert, whatever that was... (And I didn't MEAN to look puzzled, so I may need to sign up for some Botox soon.)

but I did make a couple of friends and venture out for dinner at Giada's at the Cromwell (across from Caesar's Palace). The windows OPENED up like garage doors, and we were right on the Strip! I would definitely eat here again - the place was gorgeous, and the food was aMAZing!

Then we ventured downstairs, where we played a little video Blackjack and video poker. I was going to attempt live Blackjack, but the minimum bet on a Friday night was $15 - too rich for my blood! I won $18 here, but just kept playing it while we were talking (and enjoying the free drinks), so I was ultimately down $20.

And now you can move on, unless you're ready for some graphic hematoma pictures! That's actually a handprint on my forearm where a guy (vigorously) helped Dean haul me over the 45-degree wall I climbed with a rope. The armpit bruises are from hanging onto walls and hauling myself up over them.

And this is an extreme close-up of my poor knee, and I remember scraping it as I went over a wall, but I don't remember why it's bruised, since there really was no crawling. I didn't take a pic of the back of my leg where there's just a straight black line all the way across - I think that was from being slung over a wall before the other leg followed. Just fascinating, really. Think of all the stuff you did as a kid and never bruised up.

The saddest thing was that I've been a little proud of my leg muscles - I mean you can SEE some little muscles now, but that skin still screams 49 years old! I would look down while I was walking and see all the wrinkles on this knee, and really feel my age.

Next time I'm wearing long leggings!

I Survive a Spartan!

But actually, Dean and Drew went first, and did the Spartan Beast (14+ miles and 30+ obstacles) outside of Fort Worth, TX, on Saturday. Drew appears contemplative after slogging through a lake with fish dying from all the mud being stirred up by thousands of participants. Sad situation.

But he was happy to finish in one piece, 7 hours later. Yes, let me say that again - 7 hours of obstacles and hauling sandbags and buckets of rocks up and down the only mountain in Texas, apparently.

They got back to the hotel at 8 PM, we had a carbalicious dinner, and got up at 6:30 to do it again. Well, Drew caught a plane back to Auburn, but Dean did it again with me in the Spartan Sprint, which was about 4.5 miles and 20+ obstacles. And this would be the only picture they caught of me, in the barbed wire crawl (roll). They did not catch my final leap over the fire at 2 hours and 7 minutes, making me #19 of 48 women in my age group....or as my friend called it, the Top Twenty!

But it's okay they didn't get more pictures, because we took a selfie:

Yeah, just trust me, you're destined to see more bruises and scrapes as they appear. I even have fingerprints on my left forearm where some dude helped haul me over the final edge, after I rope-climbed up the 45-degree wall. So then we came back to Halloween, and I had the creepy mummy lit up in the window again - love this thing!

And my resident and medical student dressed up with the rest of the office....and yes, I forgot my yellow duckbill quacker.

We're all Disney characters, but there wasn't really a theme this year. (Star Wars is Disney, now, right? And the one in the middle is Tinkerbell.)

And now to leave you with my Mardi Gras dress fabric - stretch velvet in Royal Blue from fabric.com - LOVE! Look how rich!

Compare it with the $1 swatch of the stretch velvet from Mood - I'm so happy with the actual fabric being darker and richer, which is a good thing, since I bought 4 yards of it based on the reviews!

So the 4th annual GCGS&KW is set for December 17th, and I hope to have a modifed pattern for this stretch velvet by then. In the meantime, I'm off to Las Vegas for a work meeting - any suggestions for shopping? Las Vegas doesn't strike me as the mecca for home sewers and knitters, honestly, so I'm taking my split-neck sweater to work on. I did get it re-needled, but am working on the marker placement before starting up again - bleh! I need to go get another private sock lesson so I can finish the ones I started...What have you accomplished lately that made you feel great?