What do you think?

My horoscope today:

Taurus (April 19 - May 19)
A big decision may need to be made in your professional life, dear Taurus. You are eager to use your capacities fully and are casting about for ways to do so. If your company has a relationship with countries abroad, can you take advantage of this to expand your professional role? There is no question that you are in a phase of expansion, and that includes your confidence! Even so, keep an eye on your finances.

I broke down...but mainly out of principal

I know everyone and they're grandma has heard of MySpace. For years, I've protested getting on that site for the sheer reason that I don't like the idea of people reading about you without you knowing they're looking at your profile. Plus, I'm a firm believer that you're exposing yourself way too easily for the masses to look into your life. By no means am I an introvert or super secretive person, but I also know how some things you write/type on the internet can come back to haunt you...personally and mainly professionally.

Yes, I know it sounds hypocritical for me to say that seeing as I have a blog, but my blog is not set to be openly viewed. Only those who have the direct address can access it, meaning there's no way to just search it via a search engine or search through my blog host Blogger...thank goodness! I accidently dropped that security feature for one day, and my profile views went from 13 to 173. Wow....never gonna do that again!

Anyway, I finally broke down and set up a MySpace account Friday. My reason: anger at ridiculous parents. I heard on the news how a mother from Austin was suing MySpace because her teenage daughter was raped by someone she met on the website. I ask: When does a parent start blaming others for either neglected parenting or for their bad parenting skills altogether? Granted no girl should be forced against her will, but can a mother blame a website for her allowing her child to play on the internet unmonitored for hours on end? Is she so busy she can't check on what her child is doing every once in awhile...maybe take 5 minutes out to pull up the history of what her child's been doing on the computer? Come one, people! We're in a technologically advanced world here...this is just the new age version of teaching your kids not to open the door for strangers, not to get into cars with strangers, and not taking candy from strangers. How can you blame a website for not enforcing your authority to teach your kids these basic rules or for laziness as a parent to check on your teen? Too busy? Whatever, then you shouldn't have had kids to begin with if you couldn't make time for them. I know I don't have time for kids and that's why I make every precaution to not have any right now.

So yes, there is my rant. I enrolled on MySpace as a "stick it to the man/bad parent." I know it sounds retarded, but hey...it made me feel like I was getting back at bad parenting skills...sue me.

Finally!

Baby and I have FINALLY decided on a place to jet away for the July 4th holiday - ACAPULCO! Back in the day (I love that saying), Acapulco was supposedly "the place to be" but had suffered some downslide in tourism in the last few decades. It still ranks as a big spring break destination (as ALL Mexico cities tend to be), but seems to be picking up more general tourism steam lately from what I've been reading. So far, our flights look good (so cross your fingers for us), and I'm hoping the rain clears away by then. Yes, it's been raining like gatos y perros out there the past few days (like that spanglish?).

As I've been doing my standard OCD routine of scouring for all destination info and insider info on the location, I was able to come up with some great things. I decided not go with an all-inclusive (AI) plan as it was strongly suggested not to do one by locals, frequent visitors, and Aca aficianadoes. Apparently, unlike Cancun and Puerto Vallarta, there is more to do and see in Aca outside of your hotel/resort so hiding out at your hotel loading up on drinks and not-so-good food is a waste of your vacation. I was a little nervous about the decision not to go AI in Mexico, but the other travelers from Tripadvisor's Acapulco discussion forums were quick to ease every concern by telling me where to go and what to expect. My log-in is "travelflip" if you ever go on there.

I was told where we are staying, Emporio Hotel Acapulco, is right in the center of everything and a walk away from really good cheap restaurants and all the beachfront bars. Now that's what I want to hear! The more and more I thought about doing the AI, the more I thought it wasn't going to be the best bang for our buck seeing that one day we'd be away from the hotel at a gorgeous beach/village 30 minutes away from the hotel so that would be a waste of lunch, dinner, and drinks for the day. We're also not big drinkers except for maybe one night of our trip when it's just me and Baby (occassional beer here and there, but no typical weekends in Houston...haha), so the boozing it up wouldn't be beneficial. And I forgot to mention, we're a 50-cent and 5-minute bus ride away from the Wal-Mart there if we want to buy snacks and stuff we would actually like rather than whatever we'd be limited to at the hotel. Wal-Mart is taking over the world, I tell ya!

Anyway, here are a few things I'm looking forward to:

• Pie de la Cuesta - the beach/village mentioned above
• La Quebrada - Infamous cliff diving
• A massage at the hotel spa
• Just lounging by the pool with Baby and doing nothing!!!!

I'll be sure to tell you peeps exactly how it all turns out. I'm sure I'll love it, but if I don't... I'll be sure to tell you how much I hated it. Luckily, I have a few more days to fine-tune my itinerary ;)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BIG SISTAH

Lauren's been practicing saying "Happy Birthday" all week. Although, all mom could manage out of her was "Happy Happy" it's still an awesome display.

Weekend Update

I don't think a Monday has felt this exhausting in a while. The rain isn't helping, but I can probably blame the fact that I feel like I need another 10 hours of sleep on too much of...well, everything over the weekend.

BigOil showed up on Friday raring to go. We met up with the guys at Kentucky Club and then headed to 702. Baby, Grove, Noodle, Noodle's g/f, Aussie, and Aussette were all in attendance. The following day we (sans Noodle's g/f) continued by starting out at BW3 for some World Cup action, then to Brian O's and Twelve Spot for some nostalgia. You'll never believe this...but we were actually kicked out of Twelve Spot. Alba would be so proud. Sunday ended up being a lazy day of falling in and out of sleep on the couch before taking BigOil to the airport.

It was definitely great seeing BigOil again, but I'm so glad these visits are few and far between. My poor body feels like it was beaten within an inch of it's life.

Surprise!

Luckily, NONE of the guys this pertains to (even my Baby) reads my blog - which is very good since I can talk/vent about them on this website, so I will tell my loyal readers the surprise I have in store for them. For those of you who remember BigOil (the guy who left us to go back to Ft. Lauderdale in pursuit of internet domain brokering success), I convinced him to FINALLY come back and visit us for the weekend. The guys don't know this, and this may very well backfire. I'm hoping that they don't all have distinct plans this weekend I don't know about that would prevent them from seeing BigOil during his visit. Oh, well...we'll see.

The major hurdle I'm coming across is that I need to be at two places at once. I'll be at the YPE HH around the time his flight comes in today, and can't ask anyone else to pick him up...Hellllloooo, it's a surprise, remember? I decided that I would send a car to pick him up to meet me at this HH. I guess the post after the weekend will recount some crazy stories. Stay tuned....

Break out the bubbly

Congrats to J.Smith on getting the new job in Denver!!! (insert my favorite old-school twink dance move here - the one where you have your arms raised and spinning around wildly to the the song "Ah Rin Tin Tin Tin") I can't believe you and Pocahontas will be leaving H-Town, but I wish you all the great successes in Colorado.

So does this mean one of you are going to teach me how to snowboard when I come out to visit in the winter???? If not, you can at least scout out cute instructors for me...just don't tell Baby ;)

I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. Deville...

My beautiful little niece has already mastered her "I'm the most adorable 20-month-old you've ever seen" look.

Happy Birthday, The Madame!

Today I must also send birthday wishes to The Madame!!!! She shares this wonderful birthday with my awesome pooch Duchess...The Madame can only be so proud. Hehe. If only I had taken that picture of you clawing the sands of the North Shore to place in this blog entry...

Happy Happy Birthday to My Baby

Yesterday was Baby's birthday....woohoo! Happy Birthday!!! Unfortunately over the weekend, we didn't do anything grand or spectacular...same ole shit of hanging out. No big to-do was put into motion because mainly Baby didn't want anything. Oh, well...

However, I did get Baby this fabulous white micro-terry bathrobe. He's been looking for one for quite some time, but has not been successful. With some internet savvy, I was able to track down a spa-soft robe that is a full-length version of my super soft bathrobe. It was actually less expensive than I thought I would spend, so that was a plus. And of course, Baby LOVED it! Score...one point for me!

Vegas Pictures

Here are just a few of the pictures from our weekend...







Baby in front of The Wynn Waterfalls











Here we are at The Light at Bellagio. A little tipsy, but we're still so cute...dontcha think????







This is what my black girlfriends enlightened me to as a "hot mess". That means they're so drunk that they think they're sexy hot, but are really just a mess. Fitting.

Sadness

I received an email from Pocahontas today informing me that J.Smith just received a job opportunity in Denver he couldn't refuse (wow, how The Godfather), and they will soon be relocating. How sad! How can they leave Houston?!?!?! I mean, you'd think the humidity and sweltering heat was enough to keep anyone here, right? Although I did tease Pocahontas that they will soon be the ski season hook-up of a lifetime...lol!!!

Oh, well...I guess this means it's time to plan a HUMONGOUS going away party...

Vegas Baby

Updating a Vegas trip is usually the same story over and over. The short version of ANYONE'S recap would be: posh hotel, awesome food, great nightlife partying, and loss of money. Sound about right?

As for more detail, Baby and I spent two nights at the very nice Bellagio Hotel...courtesy of my generous boss. Our whole office met for dinner the first night at Prime Steakhouse, which by the way is excellent. We started off with oysters, and I had ginger shredded tuna for an appetizer while Baby had these delecatable crab spring rolls - YUM! As we all know, I'm not that fond of beef, but I decided to try the filet mignon seeing that steaks are what they are famous for. I really can't remember what Baby had, but I know he wasn't disappointed in the least.

After dinner, the group headed for the craps tables and milled about until we all decided to call it a night around 2am. I suppose that was relatively tame for a night in Vegas.

The next day, Baby and I decided to do some unsuccessful shopping. I was reminded why I hate that I'm not 5'10" and a size 0. Damn cute clothes being made for stick figures!!! Anyway, I called it quits on the shopping so we headed for the Bellagio pool. It was super packed and hotter than Hades, but a frozen pina colada helped ease the heat.

After the pool, Baby and I leisurely got ready for our dinner reservations at Tao. The dinner was spectacular!!! The food was some of the best seafood we had ever had...and that's saying a lot! For dessert, we had...what else? Sake flights. I found a sake that was so smooth it went down like water. Good thing I don't remember the name as that could become very dangerous on my next sushi outing.

Following dinner, we headed over to The Wynn to lose more money on the tables as we waited for our 10:30pm showing of Le Reve . We stopped into one of their lounges Lure for a quick drink. It was about pretty early (9pm-ish), so there weren't very many people. To tell you the truth, it reminded me a lot of M Bar here in Houston.

Le Reve (meaning "the dream") was like nothing Baby and I had ever seen. The sets were amazing and done completely in water. My coworker didn't enjoy it as much as we did and called it "O"-Part 2, but seeing we never saw "O" it was still a great performance for us. I highly recommend seeing this if you are ever in Vegas. Tickets aren't cheap, but definitely worth every penny!

After the show, we headed back to Bellagio so that Baby could get sucked into the evil he calls 4-Card Poker. A few hands and stout drinks later, I convinced Baby to go to Light for some dancing. We had such a great time. There were strippers everywhere (according to Baby) and all kinds of craziness. Eventually, the night became morning and Baby and I headed upstairs for some shut-eye.

The next morning was slow and painful. We were able to get packed up, cashed out on my minimal winnings after betting on the Dallas v. Phoenix game, and headed to the airport.

Thank GOD we were going home... Any more than two nights of this rock'n'roll lifestyle is even too much for me to handle. How does Paris Hilton do it?!?!?!

Star sightings: The Donald, his super model wife Melania, and his six humongous bodyguards walking through The Wynn around midnight; Senator John McCain at Bellagio's crap tables

PS. Pictures to be added once I get my camera back from Baby...

Happy Birthday, Little Brother!

Woo Hoo....par-tay!