I Hope you enjoy it.
If you need a refresher here’s a link to Part One.
** This is a bit longer than normal so it may take a moment to start to play. **
More big news to report.
Today is Ted’s Birthday!
He’s succeeded in not dying in the past 365 days.
Although Ted stopped aging roughly 10 years ago, (do in large part to his work at The Meade Institute for Deep Thinking) accidents do happen… and Ted has avoided them for yet another year.
Happy Birthday Ted!
Now get back to the Institute and get working on another no-age pill for me.
Ok everyone… I know it’s been a long time between updates here.
Sorry.
There’s been a lot going on. Most of which I shouldn’t talk about here, but trust me it’s been crazy.
So I owe you all State Fair Vlog Part two…
And I have a bunch of vlogs in my head that have yet to have been made as well.
I will eventually do that… fear not.
But I had to break the silence here today.
Jana and I are celebrating our anniversary today!
TWO YEARS MARRIED!
It’s a big day indeed.
‘Course… we’ve had a puppy for 3.
A house for 4
But those types of anniversaries don’t count as much for some reason.
Two years and she hasn’t killed me in my sleep.
Though, being a nurse, she has informed me once or twice that she knows exactly how to do it without leaving a trace.
I’m sure she was kidding.
Well actually… I’m sure she probably could pull it off so I guess she wasn’t.
But I’m sure she never would.
Not after the huge two year anniversary diamond I’ve just decided to get.
Ok wow.
Things are busy busy.
Not much time to Blog… but here goes.
Today I want to tell you all a little story.
My grandfather passed away this past weekend.
I’m not going to dwell on it here on the site, but I thought I’d share a little story about him.
A humble little tribute I suppose, but that much at least must be done.
Everything else can wait for a future Blog.
When I was young we would celebrate Christmas on my Mom’s side of the family at Grandma & Grandpa’s house.
It was a quaint little house.
I always liked it there.
As soon as you entered the back door (as we always did) you were faced with a decision. Up the steep flight of stairs to the kitchen, or down the stairs to the basement.
I liked the basement. It was very large, had a shower, a walk-in closet that held all sorts of canned goods. And there were about a million forgotten things in there. As a kid it was like exploring a ship wreck. You never knew if you would find the special little nick knack that would end up being infinitely valuable. (perhaps in a sentimental sense only… but valuable none the less)
And of course the basement was always nice and cool. At least 10 degrees cooler.
Regardless of how wonderful the basement was… we always chose to go up to the kitchen, and enter the house. (basement exploring would have to wait until after we’ve said hello).
There was always a candy dish in the living room.
It was full of “grandma candy”. But when you are a kid and the only candy around is “grandma candy”… that’ll do.
Just off the living room was a little room housing a piano and a guitar.
Sometimes I’d ask grandpa to play the guitar a bit, and sit amazed at how effortlessly he made music.
(Mostly though I’d just sit back there and mess around on the piano until Mom and Dad couldn’t take it any longer.)
Christmas there was pretty low key.
Which was nice.
But every now and then someone would get a hall tree as a present! My grandpa was incredible with building things, and wood working in general. It was always so cool to see someone get an item he made.
The thing is…
First Ted got one.
Then Reagan.
It didn’t take long to figure out that the hall tree, as great as it was, was a right of passage.
It signified that you were one of the big kids now. And that you should expect the future Christmas presents to reflect that.
In other words… there wouldn’t be as many.
And the ones you got would be more appropriate for older kids.
Clothes.
5 bucks.
Nothing at all.
Still I wanted that hall tree like you wouldn’t believe!!
He always put something on the bottom to mark the hall tree as yours when you got it.
I was so happy the year I got my hall tree!!
It was unreal how excited I was. Of course I had to play it down… I was a big kid now after all.
That’s the kind of man he was. He could pull off something so everyday and yet so special that a kid at Christmas was glad to get the signal that sweaters would replace baseball gloves.
Wow.
I still have that hall tree.
Still use it too.
I imagine I always will.
After all… it’s got my name on the bottom.
Everett Tarr, my Grandpa, will be missed.
As much as possible we will miss him with smiles.
He gave us enough to last.
Well it’s Wednesday.
I’m very tired at the moment.
Yesterday Jana and I went to Rochester.
(Ted and Dave were also there)
Mom was having surgery and we wanted to be around if needed.
Everything went well and Mom is doing fine. So even though I’m back at work, and worn out from the driving… It’s a great day here!
We may head back to Rochester in the coming week or so for up to a week.
That way Dad can go to work, and there will be some back up there to help out. Mom isn’t going to feel up to doing much.
Tonight I have a thing with my co-workers to say goodbye to two team members who are moving on, and leaving the company.
It’s a shame to see them go.
Two very valuable people who (whether they know it or not) taught me a great deal. I’ll be sad to see them go.
Tonight I think to celebrate how well Mom is doing I’ll sit up in the office, watch 24, have a cigar, futz around on the computer, and get to bed early.
Sounds divine!
Ok ok ok.. it’s been awhile … so sue me.
I’ve been really busy and all that jazz.
I haven’t even been checking the sites I usually frequent.
I’ll try to catch you all up but let me say this right away:
The Colts really let me down last night. It’s one thing to have a good game and not win.. but we didn’t even do that. Oh well.. .a good season I suppose.
Anyway…
Vegas was figgin’ awesome!
Jana and I went down on December 30th and I had a BLAST!
I don’t think I really realized how great a time I had until I was home. Jana was worried because we didn’t have a lot of money to throw around the slot machines, but we still managed to have a good time. I REALLY enjoyed seeing Vegas.
I’m glad we went when we did too. I had to stay in Vegas longer than Jana because I had to work at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) for work. I didn’t want my first experience in Vegas to be work.
New years eve was wild. They close down the strip to traffic and 400,000+ people just walked down the middle of the strip drinking and screaming. It was like Purdue’s Grand Prix but on a larger scale.
Jana and I were staying at the stratosphere at the time, which is at the far end of the strip, and we had walked all the way to other end to take part in the festivities. After seeing the Luxor and MGM we headed back to the middle of it all and at 11:00 we were at the Bellagio enjoying the atmosphere and excitement of the city as midnight approached.
Here’s a map to help you visualize it.
Then it hit us.
We were exhausted. We’d been walking for days (we didn’t know about the monorail at this point) and we were far from home. The road was closed down, and even if a cab COULD get to us they’d have 400,000 fares at 12:01.
We decided we’d better start looking for a way home.
We asked a nice looking young lady at the bell desk of the Bellagio if she could give us any strategy on getting back to the stratosphere… or maybe getting a cab.
Here’s what she should have said:
“Sure just walk right over there to the Excalibur. You can catch a Tram to the Mandalay Bay, and from there you can take the monorail all the way to the Sahrah which is right across the street from your hotel.”
But this must have been her first week as a Vegas hotel staff employee cause she had no idea how to help us.
We walked around, trying to figure out how to get to a road that may have a cab, not knowing there were monorail stops all around us.
Thank GOD a bellman at the MGM clued us in.
We were back at the Stratosphere in time for Jana to get changed, me to play a few slots, and get outside for the count down.
We were underneath the stratosphere spire when the new year came and an awe inspiring collection of fireworks launched from the top of it. We may not have been hanging out with the high rollers at the Bellagio but it was a pretty impressive site. And when it was done we could go gamble knowing that we were only an elevator ride away from bed.
Here’s a picture I tried to capture with my mobile phone.
Not a great shot… lousy phone camera, at night, moving target.. but here you go none the less.
I had some great cigars while I was there, two of which were on my “one day I’m gonna try one of those” list. The Padron Anniversary Maduro, and a Rocky Patel 1997 vintage. Both very nice. (the PAM was the clear winner between the two of course)
As far as gambling goes…I did pretty well on the penny slots and actually made some money. (well enough to balance out our loses for the most part)
I also got to play some poker, which was a requirement for me being in Vegas. And I did ok! Jana and I sat down at a low limit table. ($1-$2 Holdem) We each took $100 bucks to the table and I left with at least $150. So I can honestly say I’ve never lost money playing poker in Vegas. 
We played at the Luxor.
Pretty easy game… perhaps I should have moved up to 2-4.
The Luxor was my favorite of the casinos to hang out in.
But I really wouldn’t want to stay there. it is though one cool looking place.
We’ll that’s about it for now…
But here’s one more cool Vegas site: the man made volcano.
(again it’s a cell phone picture, but you get the idea. Very impressive in real life)
