Third Time's the Charm

This weekend Hubby and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary! It was the most relaxed we've had yet! The first year we were in Iraq, enjoying sneaking into each other's room because there is no mixed company allowed in OIF, regardless of marital status. For year two we spent all weekend painting and took about an hour to eat steak and veggies Hubby cooked up and, although they were delish, it was certainly not relaxed.

So this year was a welcomed change, one that will hopefully continue. In the spirit of our third anniversary our plans took three tries to get right. First Hubby planned to spoil us with a couples' massage at Lake Las Vegas followed by dinner in one of the swanky hotels on the lake (the lake is siphoned off from Lake Meade and makes for a resort area). Unfortunately there were no reservations to be had.

From there I took the baton and attempted to make reservations at Mesa Grill in Caesar's Palace which is one of the Bobby Flay restaurants (of the Foodnetwork). No reservation available, but we were thinking that with an early dinner, a large bar (we assumed), and a recession we'd have no problem getting in. WRONG! We made the trip down to The Strip, but no luck with dinner. The bar area to our surprise was small and packed. I'm not going to question that we're in a recession but there were a fair amount of people at Caesar's doing their best to get us out of the economic slow down judged by the number of people I had to brush in order to work our way through the casino.

So after an entire 30 minutes on The Strip Hubby came up with what was hopefully the "third time's the charm". We headed back up to Spectacular North Las Vegas (if Las Vegas is Fabulous, can't we be Spectacular?) and the new Aliante Casino to eat in their nice restaurant, Market Sea and Land. The idea worked and we did enjoy an excellent dinner in a quiet restaurant.


Action photo of tuna steak along with a heaping portion of asparagus and potatoes aus gratin.


Look how good I am only having butternut squash soup and salad....


....the only reason to eat soup and salad is to save room for dessert! Apple and cherry crisp!


Originally the hostess seated us in a nice romantic area in the restaurant, but after passing the UFC 95 being broadcast in the bar, we decided nothing could go better with a nice meal than knockout blows and choke outs! A brief bit about UFC and Las Vegas...UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championships) is owned by the Fertitta brothers (who hale from Boston) who also own the Station Casinos (one of which we were in at this time). The UFC considers Las Vegas its home (per Dana White, the president, also from Boston). UFC is normally available only through pay-per-view ($50), but since this UFC was held in England and happened at about 12pm our time they broadcast it for free on tape delay at 7pm our time. So you see, it really was appropriate that we watch the fights during our dinner!


The very stuffed and happy couple.

The results from last blog? Unexplained crying by a landslide was the stressor of choice with babies. I agree whole heartedly with this one, I just hope our little one keeps these to a minimum.

This week, what is your opinion on UFC? From what I can tell so far, not many people are neutral on this sport, they either think it's great to watch or find it appalling.