Spring Break with our BOYS!!

The first day we arrived in Houston is all we heard about was the WORLD FAMOUS RODEO. At this point we were sick of hearing about the damn rodeo and we were ready to see what all the hype was about, especially since everything else in Houston seems to be less than average. However, having worked the night before left us feeling sluggish. As our usual we were running a little late and felt like we were going to miss everything the rodeo would have to offer. But boy were we wrong. Upon arriving at the gates we came to realize that this event is more or less a fair or carnival atmosphere with copious amounts of fried meat that we couldn't have because it was Friday (Yes, we do try to follow some of the Lent ways). Sooo, we settled for a potato on a stick..you know how much we love our potatoes. Then we found the largest cone of ice cream and headed into the stadium. To our pleasant surprise what we thought was going to be an already started concert in which we would be late turned out to be a full blown rip roaring rootin tootin rodeo! WE watched bull riding, broncos bucking, carriage racing, muttin bustin, and 4H crumbsnatchers running around trying to catch calf's by there tails. Each event seemed to be better than the next and we were on the edge of our seats the entire time! Finally, something worthwhile in Houston and the main event hadn't even started!

                                                                                        The rodeo was followed by an awesome indoor fireworks show and Train came shortly after for the main concert event. Again, on the edge of our seats we belted out our favorite tunes like meet virginia and save me san francisco until our throats and others ears hurt. Then we headed home to get a good night sleep before our much needed vacation to Florida.

Happpppy St. Patrick's Day! We arose early so we could don our finest St. Patrick's Day gear and head to the airport. Beads from Mardi Gras, giant polka dot green bows, and hand crafted four leaf clover necklaces courtesy of Big Boy himself.    

 We knew it was going to be a good day when our airport courtesy taxi happened to be named PAT and gave us free courtesy coffee! We continued the good day with talk of bloody marys with our free coupons on the airplane, but to our pleasant surprise the stewardess said they were on the house because it was a holiday! The luck 'o the Irish is on our side! We landed in sunny Florida and were greeted by 3 of our favorite spring break boys. Big Boy, John Boy, and Rob were anxiously awaiting our arrival unsure of what the next few days would bring. As soon as we hit the car our responsibilities were gone and vacation mode hit us full force. As we opened the door we realized an extra passenger who was lost and then found by Big Boy had smuggled his way in...but that is a whole other story. 

We thought the boys would want to head back and continue to work on the shack they are building, but to our surprise they took us to the nearest beach. We spent the whole day lounging on the sand and walking in the water finding all different kinds of shells and sand dollars. The water was so clear and the shells were literally everywhere you looked. To cap off our first good day we had a few beers and grilled some hotdogs before heading back to our new humble abode. The next couple days are a bit of a blur. The main focus was either food or sun. 

The hotel we stayed in had complimentary breakfast and Monday through Friday an impressive spread for a managers special dinner party. So with our bodies toasted and our tummies tight you could see how we each took one of Big Boys shoulders and fell asleep on the couch every night. Each morning we arose early, ate breakfast, and drove the boys to work. Once they were settled in we drove to all the local hardware stores to pick up various items the boys requested. Most items were free with coupons, but who knew screws were so darn expensive! We got several funny looks walking the stores with our finest beachwear and when asked what we were building "a house" was the last thing these people expected to hear. The boys thought they could pull one over on us and gave us a job they thought we couldn't handle. We showed up to work in our summer wear and were handed long sleeve flannels, gloves, and socks (who knows if they were clean or not). They pointed to a room filled floor to ceiling with insulation. Jenn's fear of spiders and talk of possible snakes living in these piles of crap was not allowing for a very thrilled attitude. But, we knew we had a job to do so all garbed up we got to work picking up piece by piece and moving it neatly to another location. The whole time we were getting heckled by the boys, but it didn't stop us and we finished the job with ease. Luckily we did not get the itches; however, our lungs were feeling the sting as we both had a minor attack of the coughs. No worries we would rest it off poolside. One day, actually one hour of work can be so darn exhausting!

 We did what we know how to do best and headed to the pool to soak up some rays. Time flies when you are having fun and before we knew it was time to pick the boys up from a hard days work. Today was no ordinary day of just picking up and going home. Today's special was free fries with green ketchup yet again. Now, the day before was St.Patty's Day and free fries and green ketchup was the special at Burger King, most normal people would just get one order at one place but we are not normal and had to go to numerous burger kings and get numerous fries. The way Big Boys face lights up with free stuff is priceless. So, when we saw a commercial that stated free fries on the 18th as well we knew we had to go back. When all was said and done we had received at least 20 free fries and got scolded by the drive thru employees for taking a photo. 

Needless, to say that bag went to the seagulls in fear that they topped our order was topped with an extra ingredient of spit. It is sad to say that most of the fries went to the seagulls, minus a few for taste testing red and green ketchup...the reason being our hotel offered us not only complimentary breakfast but also a full dinner spread. breakfast was always a surprise. This for sure always made us SMILE! Every time we road the elevator down we just got "caught smiling more" 

The main course switched between egg mcmuffins, omelets, mexican burrito, scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage. However, around the outskirts of the main course was waffles, bagels, toast, yogurt, fruit, cereal, and cold and hot beverages.Our absolute favorite breakfast item was muffins. They had blueberry, mocha chocolate chip, chocolate chocolate chip and banana nut,  mmmhmmmh. One day we came down and there were no muffins!!! The muffin lady explained to us that they had forgotten to take them out of the freezer and they would be back tomorrow. With sad faces we found other things to eat and went about our day. The next morning we were pleasantly surprised that the muffin lady saved us an entire tray of the assorted muffins just for us! We are not early risers and she wanted to be sure we got all the flavors we wanted! Honestly, she was the nicest muffin maker we had ever met! Onto dinner, this is no ordinary dinner. Night one consisted of salad bar, Italian wedding soup, bread sticks, chicken cacciatore, mashed potatoes and gravy, and unlimited beer and wine. Our cheap hungry asses took full advantage of this and dug in numerous times. This meal was so good we even invited the local family that lives about 20 minutes away to join us. Before long we were all stuffed and empty glasses of beer lined the table. What can we say when its free we capitalize. The second night, again local family invited, consisted of salad bar, broccoli cheese soup with "Quakers", sauerkraut, brats, rolls, all the beer and wine you could drink, and if you stuck around to the end you were surprised with leftover chicken and dumplings. 

Management was notified on how great this food was but the disappointment of no dessert always left us craving more, hopefully there are some dessert changes the next time we visit. Fear not! We fixed our sweet tooth by heading to the cone for some of the best ice cream New Port Richey has to offer. After a couple days of this schedule you could pretty much roll us back and forth to our rooms, we would not be going hungry on this vacation. Like us our three little bears always slept right in a row dead to the world! 

The final day was in the team leaders words "rest and recoop day". We were allowed to sleep in, but sleeping in the living room allowed us a personalized alarm clock that went to the tune of "potty potty potty potty". Waking up laughing was always the best. On this final day that didn't seem to be enough so Big Boy came back after round one of breakfast completely frantic. "You guys are gonna miss breakfast they are turning all the lights off!!" So we stumbled out of bed in our jammies, staggered down the long hall, stopped at the public restrooms making sure not to look in the mirrors and headed to breakfast. The muffin maker did not let us down and saved us another tray of muffins, in which we each took about 3 for later. With a fully stuffed gut we started the day at the Greeks local hangout for some morning chatter. (Big Boys brother married greek so he is in the inner circle). Then we headed to the cooks house to check out a swarm of bees, having a professional beekeeper with us came in handy. We swung by and picked up Elanie and we got to drive in the terrorist vehicle. We thought we wanted a standard VW but now we are not so sure. This vehicle is an '89 with a working sun roof that is literally the entire back half. The seats are more comfortable than my bed, with room to stretch your legs and even a ledge to kick back and relax. We road the streets in style!

We made a quick stop at Elanie and Richeys sons, Andy's,  "laboratory" where we met their other son Alex (see photo). From here it was nearly lunch time and breakfast was starting to wear off. Richey offered us some weeds that are actually quite delectable. We munched on those for awhile as we fed the fish our leftover french fries. We must have to started to look pale because the boys offered to take us to the beach and pick us up later. How could we say no! We said our farewells to the local Floridians and told them not to worry we would be back soon, trust me they are excited to have us back! Then we headed to the airport. Rob had an earlier flight so we got dropped too. We tried to get an earlier flight, but it proved unsuccessful. See things do not always go our way! We figured it will all work out, not like we were dying to get back to Texas, we could kill some time in the airport, but honestly the only thing we found to do was eat. Hell it is the last of vacation for this week so we might as well live it up! With only 20 people on the flight into Houston we were able to spread out and realized that people don't fly into Houston much they just flee it!

15 days, 9 night of work, and we are on the road again to our next assignment! Let the countdown begin!

Fleeing Houston..going to VEGAS!

Welp, Houston has been pretty status quo for the past couple weeks. MD Anderson would like us to resign for an additional 13 weeks..i think we would go crazy, even the thought of this motivated us to find a new job ASAP. In the process of talking to our recruiter, negotiations, and what seems like non-stop amounts of work (ie. three days a week) we get a call from fellow travelers we met in Cali. There birthdays both happen to be in March and they are planning a Vegas Bash and for some reason wanted us to join. Mind you our one and only adventure in the past was a pleasant camping trip with the Boy Scouts (refer back to the previous blog to see how well that turned out!) Hayley basically said you girls are crazy it will be a good time! Soooo, we did a lil research booked a flight and asked our managers to switch work days due to "something that just came up", it worked like a charm..Vegas here we come! While we were in the process of booking we also scheduled flights for a few days in Florida just for fun..clicker happy on a flight server really got the best of us!

We started running errands immediately and bought one of each travel sized item in the store..never know what you might need in Vegas. We also planned ahead and scheduled to park near Hobby airport for the low fee of $20. This required a printer which we don't have, the library was closed, and the front desk were bitches so we had to go to FedEx..damn. Anyways, after a long day of running around Jenn decided to check into the flights we needed and to her surprise it was not Hobby we were flying out of but a different one on the other side of town. It was  a close call and our discount parking is now 40 minutes away.. No worries it all worked out and we got that switched to our upcoming Florida trip.

With our heart rate returning to normal we realized we had to get ready for our very first DOUBLE DATE! Now, many of you may be thinking this is gonna be a disaster but we were wined, dined, and screwdrivered. (Get your minds out of the gutter that is a special drink "frozen screwdrivers"). We said our farewells and headed home to get some rest for our early flight. Sara overslept and forgot her ATM card..great start to the AM, but after that it was smooth sailing...

The airport for us is always a real treat, this day was no different. We came across these bins and spent some time trying to reenact the scenes, while line behind us grew longer and longer. Whaaat we were having fun and were in no rush!

As we waited for the plane to arrive we scoped out some of the fine specimens we would be spending the next three hours in close quarters with. There was a chance we would be bumped to first class but we had to settle for the EXIT row instead... if all fails just save yourself and jump (thats what we heard as they told us the great importance of our row). Some stuartist need to take a class on being nice and friendly... Being that we were in a row of three we had a seat mate.. Sara on the end Jenn in the middle and a male version of Pochahontas snagged the window seat. Luckily neither one of us made comments about this man until a couple days later... we coulda made a scene. 

We arrive in Vegas head to the Flamingo, the oldest casino on the strip, and are checked in by possibly the oldest employee on the strip, Larry Lee Light the "triple L". Triple L has game and played us like a fiddle..before you knew it we were upgrading rooms..his charm and age got the best of us! We counted our losses and headed immediately to the pool for some much missed sun. Now usually we take a loooong nap but today we had work to do. Recently, we accepted a job in Sarasota Florida and decided we needed to find a beach home. Negotiations were already in the works with Jim 5f5in 120lbs but he stands his ground and wouldn't budge...again we counted our loses and agreed to the Island Breeze Cottage on Siesta Keys. We told Jim we couldn't get back to him for a couple days because we had no Internet. He was feeling pretty bad for us until we told him that our company pays for our housing and we are currently vacationing in Vegas and too cheap to own smartphones. Jim retired from Verizon so our "DS -like" phones will cause him to shit. With the work out of the way it was time for the Vegas vacation to begin. 

The Birthday girls were arriving early the next day so we decorated the room and anxiously awaited their arrival. We spent the first couple hours with cool cocktails on lawn chairs at the pool just catching up. Before long we realized we were starving and needed a massive amount of food. Hash House a GO-GO here we come! This place has the LARGEST portions of the most random shit ever...and it is soooo delectable. The next string of photos shows chicken and waffles, Eggs Benedict, and Pork Tenderloin and then their demise..WE WERE HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPOS! Please don't judge...

At this point the girls were exhausted from working the night before and now completely stuffed to d=food coma status, so they headed back to take a lil nap. We headed to the strip for some slushesAMF" which basically stands for "You will die tonight". For us though it had the opposite effect and we were lasted all night! While the bartender is putting on drink making show we hear snickers behind us and come to find out people were making bets of our future hours. Intrigued by this interesting trio we became close friends, convinced them to get the same thing we got, and snapped some quick photos. 

As we are all talking and sipping our still full drinks we look over at fire chief and realize hers AMF is coming close to E...Our jaws were dropped as we stared and she just replied "What? It's a drink. You drink it". She really is our hero. We parted ways and we know how our night ended but we are not so sure what happened to them. We made one more pit stop for mixers and headed back to wake up the sleeping babies and get ready for the night. However, this was a harder task than we thought and we fell asleep too! We woke up to greet our final guest, Alicia (Hayleys college friend from Alabama). Basically Hayley told Alicia "Now we have had our fair share of crazy times, but these girls we are meeting are even more crazy then us!". We took that as a very nice compliment...let the night begin!

The strip at night is such an awesome sight, so we meandered around for bit just taking it all in. However, we were itching to get to the craps/crabs table and once we were there it was hard to peel us away. Casino Royale happens to have our favorite table so it was no surprise that when we walked through the doors we were asked to join the table... they wanted some good mojo to turn the luck around.

Going around the table we had:

1.An African American from the "neighborhood" who kept flashing gang signs at us and told us a Cleveland Indians hat meant you were in a gang. Sara said she also wore an Indians hat and was from the "West side" gang...instant friends. 

2. The culprit who asked us to join the table and made us each blow on his dice. He also bet on our favorite numbers and helped us out when we got confused.

3. Young married man who slid his wife some chips so she would go away and play somewhere else.

4. The fellow Texan.

5. Half-way through the game a creepy Ohion showed up and got the dice pusher "Annette with the mullet" pissed at us for making F#$% Michigan comments. (Her hometown)

6-8 To far away to fully meet but very interesting set of people none the less. 

So, we played with this group for hours. Jenn made them a lot of money as she rolled for so long, but you had to take an occasional dice in the face.. Rollin winners ain't easy! Our friends kept checking in on us so eventually we had to rap it up and head out. As we were snapping several pictures up and down the strip we had a challenge to make a pyramid. A lot harder than one might think in dresses, but we got the task done. We headed to the next best casino "Wild Bills". Hidden in the far back corner is margaritas that are to die for! A couple stragglers followed us here and we just couldn't shake them. The bartender "J Money" as we called him kept feeding us 'ritas until half the group grew tired. 

For real something in those slushes made us invincible! As they were heading out we met a couple middle aged men who rode the elevator with us at 6AM when we finally stumbled home..what are the odds it was like being caught sneaking in late at night by your dad. 

After Bill's we headed to the MGM to get a photo for Jenn's cousin Casey of the Lion...now we did not realize how far this was and we also still had some stragglers with us. We apparently made an impression and they were "SOOOOO glad to had met us". They only told us this about 100 times. WE almost convinced them to leave us alone, but then through front glass doors was the glowing orange HOOTERS sign. We could not resist our love for food and our mouths were watering as we pictured orange sloppy wings. So we headed out for our second double date. Realizing the real restaurant was closed we had to settle for second best, which took us sitting down, getting up and then going back knowing we wouldn't be able to sleep without some type of food. The nice gentlemen from the booth next to us handed us over an appetizer wing to taste test what this place had to offer. It was good, but we still had a couple questions. Jenn ordered 10wings but wanted to know if they had orange sauce that drips down your fingers and you have to lick it off. The waiter was not amused said no and placed our order. Now the stragglers didn't order anything so Jenn  and Sara dug right in and enjoyed their wings without the slightest insecurities or manners. Killed our meal in record time licked our lips and hitched us a cab home (the only way to loose the stragglers). At this point the girls had been home for a couple hours so we gave ourselves a pep talk to stay quiet and go right to bed...but we still were not tired. As we approached our door we lost it because the girls left the door open for us! 

We giggled our way to bed at 6am and set our alarms for 9am because good seats at the pool are priceless. No one joined us at the pool and lucky for them they missed the wind storm. Being our last night we soaked up the last rays we could and headed out to try and figure out a show to see that evening. Holding our dresses down with one hand we braved the winds, put on our own peep shows here and there, and purchased tix to Le Reve a cirque de soleil. Then we did the unthinkable. We primped and pampered ourselves until we looked like two classy looking broads. We looked so nice we even tricked ourselves! 

The show was absolutely breath taking! a real spectacular performance! 5 stars and two thumbs way up from the travel nurses. However, we don't recommend going on 2 hour sleep because as Jenn found out it can be a very expensive nap! HA After the show we were craving some margaritas so we headed to Bill's, but JMoney was not working and was replaced with a less then stellar ginger. The crowd for the evening was also one that lacked something to be desired. Creepy 60+ers with googling eyes at a few nicely dressed ladies. To entertain ourselves we made a game of it and picked two of these men and asked the other who they would choose..again hours of entertainment with so many interesting birds in this world. We called it a night and headed home the next day. :( 

As we were riding the final escalator up to the car we were saddened that another trip had come to an end. The conversation went a little like this,

Sara: Man two whole weeks of work

Jenn: 6 whole nights wasted

Sara: This is gonna suck

Jenn: But then we get to go to the Houston Rodeo 

Sara: And then we fly out on Saturday morning to Florida

Jenn: Yea and we can check out another Houston Airport!

Basically we are more interested in how quick we can flee Houston...sad but true!