Mom Life in the PNW

Oktoberfest in Leavenworth, WA.

Oktoberfest in Leavenworth, WA.

This was my first year coming to Leavenworth, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I love the town, it has just the right amount of Bavarian charm to make it just as unique to Germany as possible. I wished I were able to explore the town some more but its hard to do when there are thousands of people around. I knew this place would probably be overpriced, so I wasn’t expecting anything less than that.

The entry fee for getting in on Saturday is $20. Don’t bother purchasing your entry on-line, that line had a longer wait time then just paying at the tent, and you save $2 per ticket (on line fee).

Once inside, you’ll need to immediately purchase tickets for EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING. Food, Beer, Wine, and even your beer mug if you so happen to want one. It’s $1 per ticket, and beers were 5 tickets. The largest mug there took 2 cups of beer to fill it up decently, not full to the brim, but good enough. The little wines were 5 tickets as well and they were about 5-6 ounces. They only had Zinfandel, Chardonnay, and Merlot. Some of the beers I tried were pretty mellow and I liked that because I’m not big on bitter beer.

Also if you plan on staying the night in a hotel, you probably want to start booking now!! We had to stay in Wenatchee at the Holiday Inn since it was relatively cheap and not too far away. Everything in Leavenworth was booked up of course and if it wasn’t, it was $360 per night. I don’t even pay that for Vegas hotels, so I’m not paying that here. LOL

The so-called spicy hot dog was not spicy at all and was very lackluster. It was overcooked, dried, and tasted like um nothing. One thing I wished was different about this place is that they bring in GOOD, authentic German food. Possibly have some hard cider available on tap next time too!

Expect the tents to be jam-packed during the evening when everyone shows up. This is where they keep the hot dogs, the bands, and the seating. I call this area the SardineFest.

I doubt we’ll be back for Oktoberfest anytime soon or ever for that matter, but I wouldn’t mind coming back and staying during the off-season if I can find a good Groupon deal for one of the Bavarian style hotels in actual Leavenworth.

Carnaval Court in Vegas Was Surprisingly Fun.

Carnaval Court in Vegas Was Surprisingly Fun.

When friends and I were in Vegas last month, us girls were looking for a place to dance one of the nights we would be there. We didn’t really feel like dealing with any of the insanely packed dance clubs that feature celebs and high priced covers, so someone mentioned this place. Since we were right across the street staying at the Mirage, we were down to give it a try.

I have to say this is the most fun I’ve had dancing in Vegas.

There was a live band playing which played a mixture of classic rock, mainstream rock, etc. Then around midnight, a DJ starting playing 90s rap music which brought us back to our high school days.

Not everyone was dancing, so it was a perfect sized area for those that wanted to be up by the stage.

The bartenders were entertaining with their bottle juggling and they seemed to make decently booze filled drinks, but the prices made my bunghole cringe! $16 for a long island in a small plastic cup? I think my friends vodka/cran was $13.

What I always like to do is bring a flask and fill it up in the room before I head anywhere on the strip because I’m cheap like that. Then order a coke/juice and fill it up when they’re not looking. This place is dark enough and there’s quite enough seats that you most definitely won’t be caught. Screw em for charging these inflated prices!

The DJ will often throughout the night offer up free shots from the bartenders to get the crowd lively. I opted to get a free shot, but it wasn’t worth the $5 tip that my husband left. It was like a lime margarita mix. PFFT.

Also, this place is filled with people in their late 20s-50s. A wide variety of ages can be seen here. At least the night we came.

It was kind of funny. The DJ put on a Michael Jackson song, and my husband started busting out the moon walk and you could see a flock of cougars swarm him like flies around shit. I couldn’t stop laughing, but we all had fun, so it was worth it.

Whenever I’m back in Vegas, I’ll be sure to stay at this end of the strip just so I can go back to Carnaval Court.

BTW, where’s the bathroom? You get dinged for this since you almost made me pee my pants.

The closest bathrooms are in either Harrahs or the Quad Casino, but they really need one in the venue somewhere.

If you found this review useful, cool, or funny; give me a rating on Yelp please. 🙂

Easy Options For Home Improvement Projects

Easy Options For Home Improvement Projects
When you’re enhancing a dwelling for resale, or for yourself, the selections you make can make it or break it in resale profits. This post will surely help you understand the finest options you could make and why. Get-out that pencil and paper, because you are gonna need to write this stuff down.

If you place new cupboards in your house, your kitchen will glow with elegance and design. New cupboards show all your relatives and buddies that the kitchen is really a specialist area for cooking and amusement. You’ll find cupboards in light wood stains and dark wood stains, providing you the capacity to personalize your kitchen to your own particular preferences.  A simple and economical means to spruce up your own house is by painting the inside. To estimate the quantity of paint you’ll require, you must compute the square-footage of the walls. Simply multiply the span of the wall by its own height. One gallon of paint will cover about 350 square feet. Keep in your mind that you’ll need two coats of paint, based on what colour you’re painting over.

Interior Painting in Phoenix AZ

Update the existing inside look of your entire home or office with interior painting services from Joseph’s Coat Painting. We take our time at each step of the painting process, to provide you with a perfectly rendered paint job. It takes the time we provide to make sure your walls have a smooth, clean finish.

No company is as careful as Joseph’s Coat Painting when it comes to finishing doors, closets, ceilings or baseboards. Our paint company is in no hurry when it comes to pre-painting preparations. Before any paint touches your walls we:
 

 Repair any drywall imperfections.
 Clean the area to be painting.
 Apply primer and stain blockers as needed.

Our paint company provides the total residential painting package. From painting a single accent wall to changing the entire color scheme of your home, our experienced painting crew is ready to apply the colors you desire to your home or office.

Our paint company provides the total residential painting package. From painting a single accent wall to changing the entire color scheme of your home, our experienced painting crew is ready to apply the colors you desire to your home or office.

Avoid creating costly renovations according to individual preferences. Investing $1,000 a tile in your toilet may appear like a great strategy but the chances are if you ultimately sell, you won’t recoup that cash. In case the change isn’t something which could be valued by somebody besides you, consider doing something different.  When doing home improvement jobs around kitchens with gas stoves, gas fire-places, or gas water heaters, it’s quite crucial that you switch off the gas supply line. This may avoid any likelihood of harm or death due to gas escapes, which may result in suffocation or creating fatal gas explosions.

Consider adding additional insulation during the next job. Put weatherstripping on all of your doors and windows. Your cooling and heats will function more economically if you’re able to reduce the outdoor air that enters your house. Additionally, you will find yourself saving a lot of cash on your next power bill.  A fantastic home improvement suggestion would be to contact local repair services and shop around to discover the top bargain. By looking around, you’ll have more of an understanding of who you’re employing, and also you’ll be highly inclined to get the perfect man for the occupation. This is often a fantastic method to ensure you are getting quality work done.

Increase kitchen cupboard space for storage. Utilize a turntable inside a cupboard for smaller things for example spice jars. In bigger cabinets, use shelf dividers to double the storage space. Stack things on top of one another, for example canned or boxed foods products. Install flooring to ceiling pantry cupboards. The main tip? Eliminate whatever you may not want or use, for example old appliances or tableware. Any food which you really do not mean to eat, particularly canned things, could be contributed to the local food bank.

About the author: 

Fill out our online form or call our painting company in Phoenix, Arizona, and let our commercial and residential painting experts upgrade the internal appearance of your home or office. We offer interior painting in Phoenix, and we also proudly serve customers in Scottsdale, Gilbert, Chandler, Glendale, Peoria, Sun City, Mesa, Tempe, and Anthem, Arizona.

MyVegas Redemption Review: Mirage Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas

MyVegas Redemption Review: Mirage Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas
I played MyVegas enough to snag this awesome Tower Suite Room in the Mirage Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas for 1 night. I can’t remember how many loyalty points it took, but it is no longer available for purchase and has been that way for 6 months or more. I doubt they have any plans on bringing it back since it was so easy to achieve, which makes them lose out on a crap ton of money since everyone was going for that free room reward.

Once you purchase a reward, you have 90 days to book it before it will expire, and yes, you will lose your reward along with your points you used to redeem it. So make sure you have a date planned and get it booked within 90 days. Now, that doesn’t mean the trip needs to be within 90 days. You can book it as far out as 6 months, maybe even more. Once you receive the email for your redemption process, call the number, give them your Mlife number and confirmation code number and they will get the room reserved as easy as that. They may ask you for a credit card. I’ve only had 2 do it to me, and the other never did. To me, I don’t see why they need it, when you’ll be giving it to the front desk check-in clerk at the time of arrival anyways. If you’re not okay with giving them your credit card number over the phone, just hang up and call again and you’ll get a different operator.

Now, I also had a 2-night room reward for the Deluxe King at Mirage through MyVegas. Our whole plan was to try and get the tower suite for all 3 nights that we would be there. It was close to our anniversary, but we never did any $20 or $50 trick to get an upgrade for free. The guy at check-in said excuse me, but I’ll have to go make a call behind closed doors. After about 5+ minutes, he comes back and says we can give you the room 2 extra nights for $100 per night. I figured it would be $50 extra per night, but my husband wanted the room, so he gave in and said yes, we’ll take it. Much to my surprise, the extra $200 was well worth it. This room is the nicest and biggest room I have ever stayed in period. It’s 1200 sq feet, which is bigger than most apartments and some houses!! I wished my downstairs area was as big as this place was.

It was really great to have a big area since we were there with some friends. We can’t very well mingle in a deluxe king room and drink booze before heading out to the strip comfortably. I didn’t take pics of the separate bathroom, but it had a bidet in it. And you bet your sweet ass I used it! I had never seen or used one before, so I had to give it a whirl.

The beds were comfortable, maybe a little too plush for my husband, but he likes his beds firm.

Having a separate powder area for us girls to get ready was nice. Although, we kind of blocked the bathroom, since it’s RIGHT THERE.

The bathtub was big enough for my husband and me to sit in it together. There’s never big enough tubs for us both to sit comfortably. I wanted to take it home with me!!

The couch was not at all comfortable. It’s not cushiony at all and was more like sitting on boards. I guess that wasn’t too much of a deal breaker because we weren’t there to sit on the couch. We mainly hung out by the wet bar and when we weren’t there, we were out on the strip.

The water pressure was also great. There’s one thing I’ve noticed about Las Vegas hotels, and that seems to be the weak water pressure in most hotels. Not so at the Mirage! I can actually get the soap off my body and out of my hair without staying in there for 30 minutes.

Overall, the MyVegas redemption was an easy process. And getting the tower suite for $200 all 3 nights came out to about $66.66 per night, which is one hell of a deal! This room normally goes for $400 per night. Now when I go back to Vegas, I am going to be comparing all of my future rooms to this one and I have a feeling it won’t even be in the same ballpark.

Thank you to MyVegas and Mirage for making our stay pleasant!

Delicious Smoked Salmon Recipe

Delicious Smoked Salmon Recipe

My husband and I’s nephew had been out salmon fishing a lot lately, so he offered to give us a whole salmon since he had about 20lbs stored in the freezer. I absolutely love salmon, especially when it’s done right. Recently we bought the Texas traeger grill at Costco for $870, so we’ve been doing a lot of different things on it since summer, I mean we have to get our moneys worth right?

Anyways, we decided to try one of the traeger recipes, and I must say it was pretty damn tasty. I paired it with chipotle bacon mashed potatoes and a spinach salad with mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, carrots, and cucumbers. YUM!!

Delicious Smoked Salmon Recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 1 Cup Brown Sugar
  • 1 TBSP Black Pepper
  • 1/2 Cup Coarse Salt
  • 1 Cup Vodka
  • 1-1/2 to 2 Lbs. Salmon (Preferably Wild Caught)

Preparation:

Place the Salmon in a large resealable bag. Pour vodka into bag and massage the bag until the salmon is immersed. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours. Mix dry ingredients and apply to salmon. Refrigerate for 2-4 hours. Rinse the cure and dry with paper towels. Set Traeger/other to smoke with lid open until fire is established. Smoke salmon for 30 minutes (Skin-Side down). Increase to 225°F-230°F. Cook salmon for 45 min-1 hour. Refrigerate until serving time.

Review:

It was a little bit salty, so I think it could have probably used a little less salt, maybe 1/3 cup instead of 1/2 a cup. Other than that, it was perfect. It had that smokey flavor you want, with a hint of sweetness from the brown sugar. The vodka will pretty much evaporate, but I think it’s there to help lessen the profound taste of fish you get from salmon. We’ll do this again, but as I mentioned above, less salt.


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