Jumpin' At The Woodside

The Lounge iTunes jukebox has cracked the 1,000 songs mark! The jukebox is now busting with 1,021 songs (4.4 GB)! The other night the shuffle struck up a number I haven't heard in a long while that got me thinking about the Summer Mix 2007 . I have some ideas whirling around, just gotta see where they land.

Just wanted to add that the wines listed below are far from pricey. The most expensive wine there is the Dynamite at $13.97, although I have seen it as high as $17 at some stores. The Rosemount may be the cheapest in price, $6.97, but is always exceptional. I've seen the Rosemount as high as $10-12, but still a great bargain. Here's another one for ya... Bonny Doon Vineyards Ca' del Solo Big House Red. Although not currently on our rack, this one comes with a screw cap, which is becoming more and more acceptable. This is usually around $8-10 and a nice easy going red. I'm thinking perfect for a summer afternoon or evening, especially since I like to be a little crazy and drop an ice cube or two in my glass with this one. Salut!

No, we didn't install a keg-erator, but thought I'd keep y'all updated on what's in our fridge and on our wine rack. Beer: Harpoon IPA (MA, USA) Pilsner Urquell (Czech Republic) Victory Lager (PA, USA) Wine: Casillero del Diablo - Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 (Chile) Dynamite Vineyards - Cabernet Sauvignon North Coast 2003 (Napa, CA) Rosemount Estate - Diamond Label Shiraz 2004 (Australia) Vignobles Michel Gassier - Les Piliers Syrah 2004 (France) I know what you're thinking with that last wine selection, a Syrah from France? Yep, I thought the same thing until I tasted it - good stuff. BTW, there are only two types of wine - wines you like and wines you don't.

We got home late last night and were happily greeted by all our four-legged friends. It’s good to be home and good to have the weekend to “decompress” before heading back to work on Monday. I must still be on west coast time, because it’s after 2 p.m. ET and feels like morning to me. Our Thursday evening (Final Night) in Las Vegas consisted of taking a cab to The Venetian. We didn’t have a real plan for the evening, but figured we’d fall into a restaurant after walking around and looking at the menus. Emeril has a steakhouse there, but we had a good deal of excellent steak already for the week. We decided on Zeffirino’s, an Italian restaurant which overlooks the “canal” that winds through the shops at The Venetian . The food was excellent. I had the homemade Fettuccine Sautéed with crab meat, lobster meat and shrimp with a touch of tomato sauce, and Lago had the homemade pasta sautéed with lobster, white wine and baby shrimp in a light tomato sauce. We paired it with a Chianti Classico...

Tonight is our last night in Vegas. Still not sure about dinner plans, but we’ll be heading down to the Venetian and then make our way back down The Strip to our hotel. Last night we saw Styx as part of a special performance for Lago’s conference. Being Vegas, I suppose it was customary to have a ventriloquist open the show. I think we saw this same guy during Letterman’s Ventriloquist week. The concert was held in what may be the largest conference room I’ve ever seen. This place would rival most arenas. Styx stuck to their rock hits, but did a medley of 18 songs that included a single line from “Mr. Roboto” and a portion of “Rockin’ the Paradise” sans lyrics. Dennis DeYoung is not part of this incarnation of Styx. The guys apparently had enough of his shtick with the whole Mr. Roboto debacle, but the lineup does include original member James Young and Tommy Shaw, who joined in 1975. The bass player was a former member of The Babys and Bad English – remember John Waite? They played a...

"Just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in." After the previous night, I figured last night would consist of some dinner followed by an early bedtime. This was not to be. A couple docs who work with Lago were going to eat at the Paris buffet and then go over to the Bellagio. They wanted to tour the art gallery and the gardens there. Lago wanted to try a restaurant at the Bellagio and then meet her pals. We decided to eat at Sensi , which has a fusion of American, Mediterranean and Asian cuisine. It’s on the garden side of the Bellagio and filled with glass, metal and waterfalls. The kitchen is centered in the restaurant and surrounded by glass walls. I had the lamb chops and Lago had lobster. We paired it with the Mac Murray Ranch Pinot Noir . Everything was excellent. Lago’s pals decided to call it a night and never made it to the Bellagio. Lago was feeling wide awake and wasn’t ready to go back to the room. We went over to the New York, New York and found a cover band...

Slow getting up this morning… scratch that, slow getting up this afternoon. Last night was a late one. We started the evening by going over to the Rio. We had dinner at the Voodoo Lounge at the top of the hotel/casino on the 50th & 51st floors. A glass elevator on the front of the Rio takes you to the top. We had a drink before dinner in the bar where you can walk outside on the rooftop for amazing views of the city. After dinner, we went back down to the casino level to see Penn & Teller . I think I’ve seen most of their TV specials and it was great to see them live. Even when they’re showing you how a trick is done, like using clear plastic cups for a simple cup & balls trick, you’re still amazed at their slight of hand. We were thinking about heading back up to the Voodoo Lounge after the show, but Lago wanted to go over to The House of Blues in the Mandalay Bay for their RockStar karaoke. It’s not affiliated with the TV show on CBS, but does employ the same format of si...

Yesterday, Lago returned from her first day of the conference and we went out to dinner at Smith & Wollensky’s, one of our all-time favs. The S&W here is just down the strip from the MGM Grand. The food was excellent as always, and we think it even tops Morton’s, another fav. We had the Clos Du Val Cabernet, as we often do, but this time we had the 2001, which I don’t think we’ve had before. Wa-owh! Was that good!!! The Strip was crowded last night following the NBA All-Star game, but it was good to see the police out in force with the huge crowd. We never did catch a glimpse of anyone famous, as far as we knew, and I imagine most are headed out of town today. Not much on tap for today. I took a walk over to the Mandalay Bay this morning, where Lago’s conference is taking place, and picked up a coffee on the way back. Tonight we’re venturing out to the Rio to see Penn & Teller. Hopefully we can get a taxi as it’s supposed to rain here later this evening. There was a taxi sh...

Yesterday we walked down to the Bellagio and Caesars Palace. We were planning on returning to the room before meeting Dave and fam for dinner, but after walking through Caesars we stumbled upon Planet Hollywood where Dave planned to meet us. Lago wanted to do some shopping so we decided to spend the whole afternoon over there. After lunch, Lago went off to her shopping and I played some video poker while waiting. I really didn’t think she would take almost two hours, but she loves to shop. I didn’t do too bad especially for playing that long. I only lost $6. I’m a high roller yo – that’s right I throw down at the 25-cent machines, that’s how I roll dawg! It was great to see Dave and his fam and we had a good dinner catching up on old times. We stopped at the Bellagio fountains on our way back to the hotel. That’s Brad Pitt on the left ( photo below ), but he was feeling shy. I know what you’re thinking, yep Angelina took the pict! That’s her M&M bag on the railing. She loves those ...

The only thing I’ve found humbling about turning 40 – statements such as the following… It’s been 20 years since I was in Las Vegas. Or, a couple years ago noting that it had been 20 years since I first saw U2. You think that’s bad? Twice since we’ve been here I referred to my iPod as my Walkman. Boy-o-boy, pack my bags and send me to the nanny home! As you can tell we made it here. Our flight was delayed three hours and it was about 3 or 4 a.m. PT when we checked into the hotel. We slept in yesterday, but it was kind of a fog and I still felt tired all day. Today, feeling back to normal after getting some regular allotted sleep. Yesterday afternoon we walked over to the MGM Grand and had lunch at Emeril’s Fish House. Very good! Thanks for the recommendation ol’ Lazy Acres. We plan on returning for dinner before we leave. We had dinner last night here at our hotel in the Luxor Steakhouse. It was very good and we had a bottle of 1999 Saintsbury Reserve Pinot Noir – wow was that good, wi...

The Ultimate Shuffle This weekend I converted Lago’s old computer into an iTunes jukebox for the Lounge. Not only was it an “old computer” sitting in the closet not being used, I mean it was running Windows 98 with a 16 GB hard drive, 95 MB RAM and a 600 Mhz processor. Can you believe they make video iPods with 80 GB drives! First, I pulled all Lago’s old files onto a CD and then I upgraded the operating system to Windows XP (iTunes will not run on Windows 98). Next, I downloaded and installed all the Windows updates from the last 4-5 years, about 20 of them. The copy of Windows XP was a version I had gotten back in 2001 for my old computer, which is now defunct. Once all the updates were done I installed the latest version of iTunes. Although I doubt I needed it, I also installed an old version of Roxio Easy Media Creator. And as far as programs go, that was it. Next I needed to load the iTunes music. I had to do this via CD instead of DVD since Lago’s old computer can only read CDs. ...

*** UPDATE - 11:15 a.m. Full on rain now. Let's hope it doesn't freeze too much. *** *** UPDATE - 9:30 a.m. Just when I thought it had switched over to rain & sleet, and the snow in the driveway had turned to a clear slush, it just switched back to a heavy wet snow. *** 8:02 a.m. - We finally got snow this morning. They're calling for 1-3 inches here in the city before it changes over to sleet and freezing rain this afternoon and then all rain this evening. I just got word they closed our office this morning. The snow is really coming down and sticking to the road. Lago left for work very early, but she has her 4x4 truck. Hopefully by the time she gets home the snow should be gone. I heard from my big sister Donna that she and George should arrive around noon today. They're stopping in on their way down south. We're supposed to go out to dinner tonight, but we'll see what the conditions are like. For those of you up north, looks like the "weather" ...