April Randomness

So far this April has been just extremely busy. Nothing much has happened besides a lot of work. For now, all we have to offer are some photos, randomly taken over the last two weekends at our home and in our current hometown of Las Vegas.


On this note...have a great weekend, ya’ll.


Outside my workplace on a rare cloudy afternoon in Las Vegas


The Wynn Resort, seen from the backside of the Fashion Show Mall.


Inside the new wing of the Fashion Show Mall.


Shadow play and reflections on our kitchen counter.


Detail of our espresso maker.


Early morning sunshine.


My humble self at the pool area of the Bellagio, just across their fine arts gallery.


The shops inside the Bellago Hotel & Casino.


Detail of the Bellagio hotel tower to the right and the new Cosmopolitan.


The faces of a new Las Vegas emerges behind the Bellagio Villas, the towers of the Harmon and the Cosmopolitan.


The dancing water fountains of the Bellagio at dusk.



On the casino floor of the Paris-Las Vegas Resort & Casino.

Marching Out

Can you believe this is the last day of March already? Why not simply post some pictures before this month of March 2010 fades into history.

Just outside the Paris Las Vegas Resort and Casino, looking towards the new Cosmopolitan Towers which will open later this year

The Eiffel Tower at the Paris Las Vegas Resort is an exact half-size replica

The patio of the Mon Ami Gabi restaurant at the Paris Resort faces the famed Las Vegas “Strip” where diners can also watch the dancing water fountains of the Bellagio across the street

Our friend Margaret, George and I spent a lovely evening at Mon Ami Gabi to celebrate George’s birthday

We enjoyed delectable meals and were served by a very charming and quite handsome French-Canadian waiter. Le vie est belle!

Just me in our kitchen, enjoying another weekend

Time Flies

Is life just passing us by? I had not have a chance to post anything on here lately. Too much going on at work, at home and everywhere in-between. Time flies when you’re having “fun.”


However, I’m not complaining. Life is still good. Great as a matter of fact. George and I just celebrated our sixth anniversary. Time does fly when you’re having fun.


Below are additional photos from our trip to Munich. Hopefully soon, we’ll get back into more up-to-date posts.


In the meantime, don’t let time fly you by.



Delta recently acquired Northwest Airlines, along with its fleet of Boeing 747-400s. The fuselage of this B747-400 at Atlanta's Hartsfield Int.'l Airport now shows the current Delta livery. The Airbus A380 may be the world's largest passenger aircraft and it is impressive but the B747 looks just more elegant.



The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in front of the Bayerische Staatskanzlei, the Bavarian State Chancellery in Munich. We used to play a lot in this area when I was a kid growing up. This place always fascinated me even if I was too young to understand its significance back then.


Of course, now I look at this place from a completely different perspective. It is a very quiet and somber place and the clean and modern lines used for this sunken monument are conveying a certain solitude.


A mostly defunct public underpass was turned into a space for contemporary art, called the Maximilians Forum. I remember when this was built back in the late 1960s. It was rarely used by people and always felt somewhat creepy. That hasn't changed much.


Shoppers in the Maximilianstraße, a boulevard lined up with government buildings, first-class hotels, theaters, luxury stores and high-end fashion boutiques. Munich's version of a smaller scale 5th Avenue, if you will.


We are spoiled here in Las Vegas where there's an abundance of free parking all over town. No such luck in Munich. The locals in Munich either need to purchase a yearly parking permit or have to constantly feed these automated parking meters with money or a pre-paid card. They can't be missed since these automates were installed literally everywhere.


Graffiti has already been a big problem back when I was still a teenager growing up in Munich. Now it seems even worse than ever and those "artists" now don't even spare historical buildings, which still seemed to be taboo a decade ago. This picture was taken in the trendy area of Schwabing along Hohenzollernstraße and only shows a lesser impact of a far bigger problem.

Münchnerische Zufälligkeiten

Below are some random photos taken while on our vacation to Munich, Germany.

Along Ludwigstraße, near the university

Along the embankments of the river Isar

The main cathedral, Frauenkirche

Light art at the Tollwood winter festival

George always cracks up when he hears “Einfahrt,” or anything with “fahrt” in it

One of the courts of Fünf Höfe, or Five Courts, a shopping mall

Marking signs for municipal utility lines

An old lantern at St.-Anna-Platz, a square the neighborhood I grew up

Another Week...

And so another week comes slowly to a close. Once again, it has been a very busy one and didn’t leave much room for anything else but work. But next week will be a short one, due to the long Thanksgiving weekend. Come early Thursday morning, George and I will be hitting the road again and drive to Los Angeles to visit our friends Rover and Cal. We can’t wait.

Here are a few random pictures, taken over the last few weeks.

The Bellagio marquee with the new Cosmopolitan Tower in the background. The Cirque de Soleil show “O,” which is a permanent show at the Bellagio is the most amazing of all the Cirque productions on the Strip.

Here is another photo of Homer when he was visiting us back in October.

Rough ride...or just having fun with the camera.

Experimenting with light and shadow. I love high contrast photography.

The fall harvest display at the Palazzo Shops on the Strip.

On the Town

The following photos are just some random snippets from our venturing out about town on Friday and Saturday.


Rainbow Palms


Five o’clock shadow


Not quite on fire yet



The following pics show the inside and surroundings of the Mirage Hotel & Casino on the “Strip”









Here now the new Spring display inside Bellagio’s Conservatory







These are photos we took on Saturday evening on our way to the theater. We saw “The Cradle Will Rock” at UNLV’s Nevada Conservatory Theatre. It was the best performance of the season so far.



On southbound U.S. 95, approaching the Spaghetti Bowl



Driving on I-15 West, with the “Strip” hotels in the background



Just us having some fun with the camera