Vegas Bachelor Weekend : Vegas baby

Ian's bachelor party was met with great enthusiasm from all and a tinge of anxiety from the bachelor himself. A British stag party, as they call it, adheres to a very different set of rules from the American version - goals are to humiliate and accost the "man of the hour" as much as possible. And that certainly happened this weekend.

While the photos were scarce (on purpose), I will say that the partcipants took Vegas to a level I was proud to be a part of. I think it was the fact that some flew 5,000 miles from the UK to celebrate and honor Sir Ian while others just needed a party weekend away from the "mundacities" of jobs, spouses/partners, pets, et al.

So one "highlight" of the weekend.

We stayed at the new tower at the Palms and spent Saturday day recovering from an all nighter at Drai's. We were poolside in our cabana pounding $10 bottles of water mixed in with brewskis and daiquiris.

The pool is a scene/experience in itself - a voyeur's dream. It's a melting pot of greased up gym metros (who lube each other up), female porn stars, pasty Asian rich kids, body builder types, overweight middle Americans seeking the Vegas experience and the rest of us.

So anyway, at one point we see a strawberry haired white guy (extremely white) wearing a neon green thonged one piece suit just like Borat's emerge from the depths of the dark and tanned crowd. A sight to be seen it was!

In an instant, he became the focal point of the entire pool. People were taking pictures with their camaras and holding their gaping mouths, in horror/laughter.

I managed to snap a quick shot off as Borat was walking into the pool.

The New Borat at the Palms










Pic from the weekend.

Spiderman III Caught In a Web

Hit the big screen last night with Ian, Manon and Yannis to see the third entree of the Spiderman franchise. It was pretty bad - terrible acting, extremely campy and way too literal in its messaging. While I do support the virtues of humility, friendship, truth and service. I don't need them to be spelled out in crayola in each scene by emotionless characters.

The best part of the evening was hitting the Fox Grill for some sangria, mini-burgs, lettuce wraps and BBQ chicken nachos. That was a great way to recover from the ten bucks I threw away at the box office.

Christmas Party 2006

Christmas and New Year's have gone by in the blink of an eye and I am already playing catch-up in 2007 on a number of fronts, including this blog. Heather and I hosted a Christmas party and we think it went quite smoothly: people sated by the apps and quenched by the alcoholic bevies.

Big props go to Yannis and Priscilla for helping us pick up and do the dishes at 3 in the morn.

Here are a couple of pics throughout the evening.

The HBS Crew



















Baura, Happy as Can Be!



















Levy's Chilling with Ian and Sara


















Hello Ladies



















Kellogg Boys



















Internatioanal Couple of the Year, Priscilla and Yannis


















Party it Up with Jenny, Nicole, and Debbie

Kids Night Out - Ian & Manon's Engagement Soiree

A QUIET DINNER AT HOME WITH FRIENDS















HARRY TOASTS THE CROWD















BERT HAMMIN' IT UP WITH HIS STORIES
















LINDSEY AND HARRY, NEWLY ENGAGED
















GYRO IS TEMPORARILY DOWN FOR COUNT ...















LET'S GET JIGGY PEOPLE















"WHO DA' MAN!?! PUNKY B LIKEY BILL."















MEAT PERFORMS PART-TIME AT CHIPPENDALE'S















GYRO, "SHALL WE DANCE MY FIGURE SKATER SVETLANA?"















SPUNKY BEING SPUNKY
















DIRK AND IT GIRL, SUNNY















HARRY AND SVETLANA IN RAVE-LIKE SYNC

























JANE SHAKES THE DERRIERE















"LOWER GYRO! POUR SOME SUGAR ON ME, IN THE NAME OF LOVE."

Pride Is Forever in Mii Form

As demonstrated here, I've been spending WAY too much time playing around with this cool flash app. But it's so much freakin' fun making these Mii's of your friends and it helps when the brain can only do some much after a long night of imbibing.

To help determine who they are, each person is linked to an NFL player that matches their style of play.

In order from right to left.......

• Row 1: Ray Lewis+Todd Heap, Jay Novacek, Matt Birk+John Gruden
  
• Row 2: Michael Strahan, Dave Meggett
  
• Row 3: Keyshawn Johnson, Mark Brunell****, Asian Pop Star+Rod Woodson
• Row 4: Brian Urlacher+Chris Cooley, Steve Largent

****Please note: Mark Brunell in his prime (i.e. Jacksonville days as Pro Bowler), not as a backup with the Redskins.

Who is Who?

After some fine dining at Hammer's posh pad - celebrating the wonderful engagement of Ian+Manon and Tim+Bridget, these crazy group of kids took Seattle's nightlife by storm. Their alter egos emerged to show Britney, Paris, and Lindsay that we, too, can party.

Row 1: Svetlana, Bill
Row 2: Bert, Sunny, Dirk Dracula
Row 3: Lindsey, Guy, Gyro
Row 4: Jane, Harry, Spunky
Row 5: Punky B, Humpty, Meat

Dudes Rafting the South & North Fork River

I finally got around to developing these pics of my rafting trip back in May. In other words, these were non-digital photos and I just didn't have a lot of opportunities to use up the old school film.

In looking at these photos, I hope you can ascertain that we had A LOT of fun. These dudes/bros go way back. Brian and Dobbs (half naked Jack Black looking character) are good friends from Encinitas. The three of us manned our high school football team's defense; leading our team to a stellar 1-9 record our senior year. It wasn't just about football, clearly.

We had our typical high school fun: the parties when parents were out of town, bonfires at the beach, the water weeny fiascoes, the toilet papering, et al. I digress.

The other dudes are Cam and Casey. Great guys who now have kids of their own (unbelievable!) and with whom, I shared some amazing years post college in Chicago and the best part here, my association with them led me to meet my wife Heather.

All of these guys mean a lot to me and I can say that all of their wives are very lucky women.