I've been planning this for a long time. I'm feeling a bit more ambitious this time and will be attempting a planted AND warm water aquarium!

Last week I went to Big Al's to buy gravel. I ended up buying FloraBase substrate and a whole bunch of plants as well! There was a sale on and some other guy bought a lot of plants and I thought I might as well get some too.

I bought 3 bunches of Java ferns, 1 hygrophilia polysperma, and 2 plants I can't identify maybe some type of Vallisneria or Lilaeopsis macloviana and Limnophila aquatica or Cabomba caroliniana. I hope it is not the latter because that is hard to grow! I shouldn't buy plants that aren't labeled. I asked the store person but he didn't know either! X( But I bought it anyways because it is a pretty plant. XD

I didn't have anything to attach the Java Ferns to so I just kinda left them floating about in the center of the aquarium. But today my dad help me find his BC Jade from his old aquarium. He used to have a 55 gallon aquarium at the old house. We can still see the indentation the weight of the water made on the floor!

It was my first day of work today! And I have my own little cubicle. I just got shown around the office and now I'm learning Flex. Looking at demo apps and following the tutorials online. I think Flex is very neat. It let's you do a lot with little coding. I like it.

Sat Dec 23
We left Vancouver for Las Vegas late last night (we took off at 8:15 and landed at 10:28) and took a shuttle to Alamo to rent a van. There were only two vans left and we ended up picking a teal Dodge Crystler over a silver one. This year we stayed at the Aladdin Hotel which is just next to Paris. They are doing some construction so there was a discount or something. I think they are building and extension and some towers.

Our room as down the hall from Uncle Adrian's not like last time where we were neighbours. Karen got some tape from Auntie Maria to tape our dad's mouth shut. It supposedly stops him from snoring. Karen is really sensitive to noises and can't sleep with Ba's loud snoring. It doesn't stop his snoring completely but it does muffle some of the sound. But apparently during the night the tape fell off and Karen left to sleep in the bathroom! But by that time early birds started taking showers and the plumbing was terrible so there was a lot of noise of water rushing through the pipes! Poor Karen.

Like last year we got up at 8 to go to the M&M store (AGAIN! Karen's obsessed!). But before we left Karen had to put all her dimes and nickels (she had a lot) into the vending machine just outside our room so that she could get quarters back! Heehee I thought it was ingenious...for the first few dimes and nickels. Then I just got impatient of waiting for 10 minutes! >:(

When we finally got out of the hotel (taking the FRONT exit this time) we stopped by some sovenier stores to look around. We ended up buying postcards and keychains. Karen gave the poor lady all her change and rolls of pennies. lol

The M&M store was decorated in a Christmas theme this year. Last year it was Star Wars. We watched the 3D show again then Karen bought SO MUCH STUFF! 60 Dollars worth of stuff. It was at least 60 since if we buy $30 worth we get a 0.5 pound of M&Ms for free and we paid separately to get two bags! She's still sore about not buying enough to get the free plushie last year. xD

This time we went over to the Coca Cola store to look around. But then we were out of time so ran back to the Aladdin to meet our parents and Auntie and Uncle. But as usual Aunt Maria wasn't ready! We found this sign on the door:

When everyone finally got ready we headed to the Spice Market Buffet in the hotel after waiting around indecisively. Heheh while in the line we had our eyes on some Strawberry tarts in the dessert section and when we were seated we made a beeline towards them. Food was ok but we took a lot of crackers (for later!) heheh. I didn't eat too much lox or smoked salmon this time. I was sick of it from last time! That's what I get for being greedy!

After lunch, we headed out to the van only to find that the steering wheel fluid had all drained onto the ground! So we couldn't go anywhere while we waited around for the adults to phone Alamo and complain. After 3 hours we finally got our replacement but by that time it was too late to do very much so we headed out to Macy's to do some shopping! I love Macy's. XD

We then watched Sirens of Treasure Island. "Ahoy!" "Who are you calling a hoy?" HEEHEE! It was a funny show. I liked it. I wouldn't mind watching it again but I would like to be in the middle. We arrived late so we were in the back to the side. I couldn't really see the men's pirate ship.

Then we had wonton noodles for dinner and went to bed.

Sun Dec 24
We woke up early again but as before Auntie Maria wasn't ready so we took Ba to the Bellagio to look at the Christmas decorations. Nothing spectacular; it was almost the same as last year.

For lunch we all drove to the Wynn but the line was MILES long so we left and ended up at Monte Carlo were there was no line. I like to eat the mashed potatoes. Mmmm.

After that Uncle Adrian dropped us off at the Mirage with Ba and we when to Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden! We saw Bottlenose Dolphins, white lions, white tigers, leopards and regular tigers. I could stay there forever. Those cats were so beautiful!

We wanted to catch the moving statues at the Forum Shops but we were too late! It's a maze in there! Too many shops! And they make you walk ALL around you can't even cut across to get to where you want.

Since we didn't get to watch the show we went across the street to Harrah's to ask where the trollies were except the stupid people didn't know anything and not even what Circus Circus was! We asked a dealer but he didn't know anything so he called over his floor manager but he didn't know what we were talking about either! He thought we were speaking in some foreign language. CIRCUS CIRCUS! Stupid! He said do you speak Cantonese? And we were like uh my dad does and Ba said English is fine. We FINALLY got directed to the loading bay where buses were and found the Strip Trolley but they had raised the price by $1.50! So we paid $19 in total.

We stopped by the Hilton to look the Star Trek Gift Shop. xD Karen bought the little Klingon plushie keychain that she wanted to get. Now the Trip and T'Pol dolls have 3 children! Heehee! But apparently a Tom and B'Elanna doll will come soon to take away the klingon man. XD

Stopping at the Hilton proved to be a big mistake as the Trolley did come at all. We waited like an hour before walking to the Stratosphere to take a look. We took the wrong way and ended up circling the building in the outskirts of the strip. Freaky. Good thing we weren't mugged! When we got to an entrance to the Stratosphere there was nothing there but we saw the trolley leave us behind. X( So we waiting 15 more minutes to take the next trolley to Circus Circus.

Circus Circus is just like PNE except smokier. *Cough cough* The games were cheaper though and Ba played a game; one of those rolling ball horse races. And he lost. LOL he wasn't very good at all. We watched a 15 minute acrobatic show. The lady was making her debut swinging around in rings up high. Karen was disappointed being not able to play any games since she wouldn't be able to bring any of her prizes home with her. xD

After that we headed back to the hotel. Ma couldn't come back yet because we took all the keycards! But we found out that they were out in the street. Santa Clause was driving down the strip giving out presents! Ma said Auntie Maria went crazy and yelling to get the dog plushies and ran out into the street to get them too! She wanted the get one for each of us but everyone else was too afraid to get one. Mrs Clause recognized her and didn't want to give her another one. But she said it was for her other daughter. And Santa said ok. Heehee.

Mon Dec 25
On Christmas morning, we flew to LA. The wind was with us so we were 20 minutes early. We rented another van then went back to the airport to wait for Francis and Krystal to arrive from San Fran and John to pick them up. There was a lot of miscommunication going around on where we were supposed to meet each other and we ended up driving 'round and 'round the airport. Eventually we found each other and John took us to McDonald's for lunch. We all had Filet-O-Fish without the tartar sauce. Mmmm.

Karen and I sat with Francis and Krystal and caught up. We haven't seen them in two or more years. More for Karen since she never went to San Fran with Ma and me.

After lunch we followed John back to Aunt Martha's house and said hello to everybody then we went to our hotel the Quality Inn. It was a seedy gaudy pink and greenish place, much like the setting for My Name is Earl and where MURDERS happen! LOL. Our room was kind of damp and smelly so we turned the fan on full blast! So after we dumped all our luggage in the rooms we went out to the Zen Buffet for dinner with the entire family plus some other people we don't know. Naturally, there was nothing to eat.

Tues Dec 26
Boxing Day! Too bad we weren't in Canada to enjoy it. *grumble* Nobody seems to know what Boxing Day is in the US! Why it is only the single most enjoyable awesome day in the whole entire year! I can't BELIEVE that Francis and Krystal have NEVER heard of it!

Last night Karen ditched me to sleep with Krystal. The OTHER woman. XD She can't sleep with Ba snoring so I got the entire bed to myself. I think I slept better than when she's in bed with me. One of the other nights she punched me in the eye while she was sleeping! "Accidentally". Puh.

Anyways us kids and Ba woke up at 7am for the free breakfast (I love free breakfast!). We had to wait forever for Aunt Maria so we hung out in Francis and Krystal's room. We were watching Back to the Future and Karen was playing on Francis' Nintendo DS.

We went to a Dim Sum place for lunch for Uncle Anthony's birthday then went shopping at Macy's again! lol. We picked up a lot of shirts because it was super discounted plus on top of the discounts we have a traveler's discount!

For dinner we went to Tofu House. I love it! All that tofu! So delicious. I was so full afterwards. They also had an ice cream machine where you can get little tiny cups of ice cream. heheh.

Wed Dec 27
Yay! Today we went to Universal Studios! Aunt Maria got 50% discount for four people and $10 off for the rest of us. So it was like $51 for our family. I think I would like to be a part time travel agent! HAHAHA! We went on the Studio Tour first and it was really interesting. They had added new stuff since the last time we went, like the Fast and the Furious cars.

Next we went on the Back to the Future ride. Ma has bad memories of this but we dragged her along anyways. We sat in the front of the car this time because I wanted to know what the Doc was saying on the little screen. lol.

It was kinda cold so Ma and Ba went back to the van to get jackets and the rest of us went on the Mummy ride. Heehe they could have went on with us but Ma hates rollar coasters so avoided this one at all costs. Heehee. Before the ride there props and stuff and spooky voices whispering. Then there was that hole in the wall. Francis put is hand in it and it sucked up his arm! AHHH! I wanted to know how it felt but he wouldn't tell me and I was too scared. Hahahha. We also pushed Francis to touch the cursed book. hehehe. He touched it twice and a spooky voice said something about doom and stuff. I told him to touch it again so he gets uncursed. LOL. Karen and I sat in the middle seats with Francis and Krystal sandwiching us while Meighen, Aunt Maria and Uncle Adrian sat in the back. All of us were screaming and screaming but it was very scary just projects pictures or something. Hahah it was so fun.


To be continued...