Wild Weekend in Vegas

Jen and I are honored to have been selected as Matron of Honor and Best Man for the upcoming wedding of our long-time friends Paul & Susie. As part of our 'duties' we organized the Bachelor and Bachelorette parties last weekend in Las Vegas!!

We were excited to have 9 people from Florida, along with a friend living in VA, and 6 others living in Vegas come out and celebrate with us! All the out-of-towners stayed at the Platinum Resort & Spa behind Ballys. We got two 1000+ sqft suites--one for the bachelor party and one for the bachelorette. It was really nice!

On Friday night we went out to see the hilarious musical Spamalot at the Wynn. The Vegas locals scored us great half-price tickets to the closing weekend. It was a hilarious show!! Afterwards we hug out at a pub watching college kids playing beer pong (also hilarious).

Saturday morning the girls went to the Spa while the guys bummed at the pool. We met back up for lunch at the Cheesecake factory in the Forum Shops (Ceasar's Palace). Then we headed back to get ready for our Red Carpet VIP evening!

We started the night with 'bier und brauts' at the Hofbrauhaus Bavarian Restaurant. A live band featuring accordions and drums filled the great hall as we ate and drank. Everyone enjoyed the 1-Liter beer mugs! The restaurant made dinner an event unto itself.

We split up after that so that the guys could enjoy Sapphire, the worlds largest gentlemen's club, while the girls went to see the Australian male review, The Thunder From Down Under. We all had a very good time. (Sorry, no pictures!)

For the grand finale, the two parties merged into one at the Ghost Bar at the Palms. The limos dropped us off and we walked past the line to our VIP table, complete with bottle service. The table was next to the doorway to the amazing balcony with a view of the Vegas strip--and a floor window looking straight down! We had a great time partying into the early morning hours. Some partied harder than others...

Overall we had a fantastic time and loved this once-in-a-lifetime extravagent adventure. Thanks to everyone that came out with us in Las Vegas to make this a great time for Paul & Susie!

Tim's 3-week trip begins!

Its been a while since we gave an actual update, so there may be some retroactive postings going up to fill in the gaps between... whenever and now. :-) Between the podcast, other website updates, and Twitter, sometimes I just don't feel like writing another thing! Thankfully, I have gotten some requests for updates so I know people read the blog and are interested. I'll be sure we post here more frequently!

This weekend I am in Las Vegas for a couple of Zero G flights. It is always great to see the ZG crew and hang out together! This weekend is super-cool because I got to fly from Orlando on the same flight as my friend Paul. Last night we had dinner with friends at the Bootlegger Bistro, a classic LAs Vegas eatery complete with lounge singer! This morning I'm are going out to scout locations for Paul's bachelor party in July. (Yes, Jen and Paul's fiance are both coming too!).

On Sunday I fly out to Washington DC for ISDC 2008, the annual National Space Society conference. This is especially important as our local NSS chapter is hosting ISDC 2009 in Orlando! I'll get to learn a LOT about how this conference runs (what comes up at the last minute, people's expectations, etc). Most of Wednesday will be spent talking to Congressional staffers about space issues. On Wed night, Jen will arrive!!! She's slated to be doing volunteer work at the conference.

Jen will head back home on Sunday after ISDC while I will head out to Ocean City, MD on the following Monday. I'm working as the Director of Volunteers & Training for the Ocean City Air Show June 10 & 11. On June 12, I'll finally head back home!!

I'm looking forward to this adventure, and to getting back home to see Jen & the cats at the end. Now, off to explore Vegas!

January Update

Ahh, the new year! Already a month has gone by. Hard to beleive. I think it has already lost that 'new year' smell. Perhaps that's a good thing...

We started the new year with a *BANG* out in Las Vegas with friends. We drove out to where we could see the strip and the coordinated fireworks display. It was cool, but I've seen Disney shows that were about as good. The coolest part was watching the fireworks coming off of the Stratosphere (think Seattle Sky Needle). THAT was a neat thing to see!!

Unfortunately it was disturbingly cold and dry in Las Vegas. Being there for several days led to me getting a viral infection that kept me company for most of the month.

I spent several days up in New York for Zero G flights--including a taping of Good Morning America! We did a studio tour early in the morning and I was pulled off the street to do an interview for FOX Business News. It was surreal. And COLD. Very cold. After all the Zero G fun, I got to attend a party for Virgin Galactic where they had the new models of SpaceShipTwo. It was very swanky and a great time to meet some new space friends.

While I was gone, Jack had some eye surgery and had to wear a funny collar for two weeks. Poor thing! He bathed for a whole day when he finally got the stitches out of his eye. Things seem better and he isn't sneezing nearly as much. We are watching him to see if his eye stops being so cloudy and whether it helps him see better.

After New York, I got to spend a day with Jen and the cats before heading off to a whirlwind session of annual Flight Attendant training for Zero G. We squeezed 20 hrs of training into 2 days! Early mornings and late nights helped everyone to make it to training without missing work.

More fun is ahead in February with the SEA Blitz in Washington, DC, and NGEC-2 at NASA Ames in California followed by a week long cruise in the Eastern Caribbean!