Gettin' Back to My Roots!

Hey gang! The 24-hour countdown is on until I leave Vegas. It'll be so nice to have a vacation away from here--I really haven't had one at all in the past five years. In fact, I've only been away longer than three days one time since I got here. But I've got a whole week back east ahead of me, and I can't wait to get on that plane first thing tomorrow morning.

Almost all my chores are done. I think I have one more load of laundry to do, and this afternoon I'm gonna head to the bank. But then, all I have to do is pack my suitcase and set my alarm clock.

Once I arrive on Saturday afternoon, I'm gonna motor on down to Cyndi and Tim's place, and the rest of the family and a few friends are gathering for a bonfire and BBQ. That'll carry through to the wee hours, and after that, I'm in full-on relaxation mode for the rest of the week, except for one stretch where I'll be doing a job interview. But then it's back to the nest for the balance of the trip. I don't think that there are any formal plans made except one night is Amy's birthday, so we're doing dinner, and then one other night my siblings have a long night of drinking and buffoonery planned.

Speaking of the family, on Wednesday I got to spend the day with my cousin Danny who I hadn't seen since 1978. I drove down to Harrah's and met him and his wife KJ, and then we headed off to the Peppermill for breakfast. Oh yeah, they liked it a lot. After breakfast, we headed back to the fireside lounge and just sat and visited for almost three hours, catching up on thirty years worth of family stories. And we had an absolute blast! I was nervous at first, but we clicked like we'd been friends our entire life, and it was just a fantastic visit.

Eventually, he had to go to a meeting, so KJ and I took off for the Paris and took a ride up to the top of the Eiffel tower. We stayed up there for almost an hour taking pictures, and while we were up there we got to see a couple of fountain shows at the Bellagio. Very nice. I'd steal some of her photos from her Facebook page and show them off here, but she hasn't posted them yet...

After we left the Paris, we just headed back up to their room and met up with Danny, and we sat around for another couple of hours having a glass of wine and looking at pictures. By then, I was exhausted, so we said our goodbyes, promising to get together again very soon (I think they might be coming on the family cruise this fall, if everything works out). I came back to the house and was passed out in bed by 10:00 pm.

Thursday was kind of a wasted day for me--since I'd gotten hardly any sleep in the previous two days, all I did was snooze and clear stuff off of my DVR, and then snooze some more. I think I'm finally all caught up, but I know I'm gonna lose a few hours once I get to Tennessee and start goofing off with all the siblings.

Anyhow, that's all the news from here--I'm gonna take a few days away from posting. I *hope* to put something up on Monday afternoon, but I'm not sure what my travel plans are mid-week, so it's all up in the air. But until then, y'all have a great weekend!

Mikey