Emergency water repair

Even before the sun was up Thursday village crews had our street blocked off to fix a water main break. Andy and I both had time to take showers but then was water was shut off.

I called off of work (woke up sick in the middle of the night and still felt a little wobbly in the morning) so I was able to monitor the situation between naps. This water shut-off notice said they estimated the work would happen between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Here they were at 3 p.m., still working in temps around 20. By 6 p.m. our water was back on but the street remained closed. Today's high temperature is expected to be -1 but maybe they have more work to do?

L is settling in

L said W fell down the stairs while they were moving in Monday. He hurt his leg so he called off of work Tuesday (went back Wednesday) but kept doing things to help them get settled. Here he is with the coffee table he put together - at least he didn't hurt his hands in the fall.

Then the new "roomies" drive to Ikea, I suppose to buy some more things for W to put together. Good thing he's handy.

L and T had the former apartment all cleaned out and sent me a video of their final walk-through. It looked pretty good so hopefully they'll get some of their security deposit back. She said it was a little sad to move out of her first Florida home even though she's still in the same complex. She even waved goodbye. We weren't able (nor planning) to help her move but we did pay for the after-the-move pizza.

Soup warms the soul

It's been a cold week. Andy came home early one night, said we should make soup and I said, be my guest. He made chicken soup ... with rotini, of course.

Moving day for L

Monday was the day L and T moved into a new, three-bedroom apartment in their same complex. They're still on the third floor though, but in a different building.

L's BF W is also moving in. Not sure what's going on in this picture. Maybe W is praying the move goes well? As for T, it's his typical flipping-off-the-camera pose lol.

It looks quite a bit larger than her previous apartment.

Red Rock Canyon

In search of a reasonably priced breakfast on the Strip, Andy and I ended up at Denny's. It had a full bar. We stuck with coffee.

We stopped in at Casino Royale. I played $20 on slots and cashed out when I was ahead. They advertise your first $20 is on them and I had a player card but we couldn't get it to load the $20 for me. Maybe because technically I was ahead?

After breakfast we checked out of our room and drove to Red Rock Canyon. The drive was pretty.

Lots of Joshua trees, which were neat to see.

Don't feed the burros or horses.

Good view of some red rocks.

Pretty scenery.

It was very bright.

We still had a couple of hours to kill so we stopped at Station Casino, where we were lured in with $1.99 margaritas. They were very sweet. We didn't gambe but we watched football. Then it was time to head to the airport, return the car and catch our 5:15 p.m. flight -- during the Bears vs. Rams game in the divisional playoff. I grabbed a couple of matchbooks they had sitting out. Smoking is allowed indoors everywhere in Vegas and some of those people were smoking stinky things.

Zac Brown concert at the Sphere

It was by chance Andy was listening to the radio and heard that the Zac Brown Band was having a residency at the Sphere in Vegas ... and that the final concert date was on his birthday. We saw them in July at the John Deere Classic but that was a short concert so we thought it would be fun to see the band again, a d experience the Sphere.

Pre-concert pboto in the Sphere lobby.

This screen was up before the concert. The storm slowly rolled in and when the concert started the door got large and ooened up.

The visuals were amazing. Sometimes whatever was happening on stage shown on the screen and incorporated into the visiuals.

These may just look like pictures but if you look at the bottom of each one you'll see the band.

A kaliedescope.

This was "Knee Deep," which he sang with Jimmy Buffet. They showed pictures of many artist collaborations he has had.

A tribute to Buffet with the parrot hat on the left chair.

Water fun with "Toes."

"Chicken Fried" where he brings a vet on stage for the patriotic part.

The end. My takeaways - he has very white teeth (veneers?), lots of tattoos and is in really good shape. It was a good show, but I have to agree with online reviews that the beginning seemed a little dark and demonic.

Andy’s birthday

First things first - we had to go find coffee Saturday morning since there's no coffee maker in our room and Andy's still salty about how much he paid for coffee on the Strip when he was visiting with his golf buddies. We ended up at a cute but really slow McDonald's.

Coffee in hand, we drove around. See the snow on the mountain?

We ended up on Fremont Street, the old downtown area where the casinos have the cool, old neon lights.

You never know what tou'll see in Vegas.

Maybe?

For lunch, we went to Evel Pie. The interior was decorated with all Evel Knievel including a pinball machine, helmets and a bicycle.

Look at Andy willing to take a picture with the birthday candles I brought along. The pizza was good ...

and the beer we chose was brewed in Las Vegas (Big Dog Brewery) and came in colorful cans. Different designs even though the beer was the same.

Words of wisdom?

Going to Vegas

Andy and I flew to Vegas on Friday for his birthday weekend. We started with a light lunch at O'Hare's United Club. It wasn't a fantastic lunch but good enough. The brownies were tasty.

We landed, rented a car (a Buick Encore just like I have at home) and drove to Treasure Island where we're staying, mostly because parking is free.

A city of sensory overload.

Our room is on the fifth floor.

We walked through some casinos (already won a bit of money) and wandered into some shops. We found a Honolulu Cookies store and ate some samples.

This is funny.

This was the view from outside of the Sphere (advertising the Wizard of Oz movie being shown there) while we were waiting to cross the street for dinner...

at Battista's Hole in the Wall Italian restaurant.

Another view of the Sphere. This one looks like stained glass.

Quite an interesting restaurant.

Including the menu just to show the prices in 2026. It's always interesting to look at prices in old restaurant and grocery ads, so here's my contribution.

I had the Chicken Parmesan and Andy had the veal version. Dinner came with salad or soup, garlic bread and all the house wine we could drink.

This cappuccino was included too. Tasted like hot chocolate. We were stuffed.