Reasons to Love Las Vegas

It's 65 degrees out and sunny, and we're entering our second week in November. What a good reason to love Las Vegas.

We have almost everything we need within the city limits, and everything we could possibly want that we can't find here is within a couple hours by road to California, Utah or Arizona. What a good reason to love Las Vegas.

We rang in the weekend with the grand opening of the new REI store, which has opened down the road in Summerlin (which is also where I work). We did the hardcore fan thing and arrived early so that we were rewarded with free schwag - t-shirts, water bottles and gift cards. This REI is so much closer than the one in Henderson, and we're really stoked about being within such close proximity to the free classes now. And, of course, we're already looking forward to the first garage sale at this REI. We may have to become truly hardcore fans and camp out the night before like our friends Chris and Dee did in Portland a few weeks back. What a good reason to love Las Vegas.

Yesterday afternoon we went to a choreographer's showcase at TI. The Nevada Ballet teamed up with Cirque du Soleil to put on an intimate, eclectic and wildly entertaining show. Locals came out in their Sunday finest, and I was excited to be part of this hidden corner of the city that tourists don't even know about. What a good reason to love Las Vegas.

It's getting to be off-season in the city. Locals tickets are 2-for-1 at many of the big shows. What will we see this year? It doesn't matter, really. It's just one more good reason to love Las Vegas.

Thinking of casinos, scantily clad girls and all that glitters ~
JoAnna

The Newest Member

Jo and I have been pondering the idea of a new dog to keep Butch Mbwa company for the past few weeks. We thought perhaps we would adopt from Best Friends, but they had very stringent requirements that even we did not meet. On Friday (Nevada Day = no school!) we went down to the local SPCA shelter with full intention of getting one of the many boxer or bull dog mixes they have at the shelter. As we walked through the tight corridor of kennels the cacophony of dog barks assaulted our ears. We looked around for dogs that met our criteria: 1) 7 or older 2) good with other animals and 3) not barking when every other dog was barking.
We saw a few puppy mill mommas that broke our hearts but could not live with other animals, so we had to pass on them. All the boxers or bull dogs seemed to be too big for Butch Mbwa and we worried about putting our timid Kenyan with a dog bigger than he. Then we stumbled across Bianca. Huddled in the front corner of a kennel with 3 other dogs was a small brindle chihuahua/terrier mix. She met all our criteria: She is 10, she was reportedly good with dogs and passed her cat test with flying colors, and she didn't seem to even want to bark when other dogs walked past.
We went and ran a few other errands on Friday with plans of taking Butch down yesterday to meet Bianca. On Saturday, when the two met sparks did not fly per se. This is mostly due to the fact that neither cared that the other was around. We payed our adoption fee and brought Bianca home on Saturday morning. Waiting for her at the house were her new bowl and new bed.
She is doing well, in fact she is asleep in her bed right now. She seems to be warming up to Jo and me and really seems to like going on walks.

Here are a few photos:





Bianca roaming around the living room. She likes to do laps before going to sleep.







Bianca in her bed. Notice the lovely pink blanket.










Bianca and I snuggling.