Day 1 in Vegas (Fri, Feb 25, 2011)

I met my co-workers at YVR. On our way to Vegas on a 10am flight. I was running a bit late to meet my co-workers. Lucky me, I was one of the chosen one that got randomly selected to be screened more thoroughly. I was so nervous. If you were to take my heart rate, it would've have been off the charts. They didn't ask me anything out of the ordinary. It was kind of a complicated trip because half was for business and half for pleasure. It's ok it made it in time to board my plane.

We stayed at the Luxor hotel. It is a beautiful hotel. There are two parts to the hotel: the tower and the pyramid. We were lucky enough to have rooms booked in the pyramid.
I have walked thru it in previous years. I loved the whole atmosphere of Egypt. Its all the sphinx and hieroglyphics that made the atmosphere. I have never stayed there. Our conference was at Mandalay Bay, which is the neighboring hotel. We had dinner at Tacos and Tequila in the Luxor. We were hungry and didn't want to go too far. We had some tacos and we enjoyed it.



Some of my friends from Vancouver also went to Vegas the same time we were there. A few arrived the night before us and some arrived the same night as us. We met up with my friends on Freemont St. It was all about the flashy lights, the loud music and the street entertainment on Freemont St. We were in Vegas, of course I saw Elvis..as a matter of fact, I saw two of them!



Every 15 minutes there is a light show. A few years back, the one I saw had bold graphics on gambling and it was a bit light show on showcasing Vegas. This time it was all about Kiss. Im not sure why. It was a bit entertaining.

Im not sure how KISS is related to the circus but whatever. They had carnival scenes and this was one of them.

Lastly, my Freemont experience wasn't complete without seeing Michael Jackson!

Cooking: Valentine's Dinner

http://lisahealthwellness.blogspot.com/2011/02/cooking-valentines-dinner.html

Cooking: Pork Chops and Veggies

http://lisahealthwellness.blogspot.com/2011/02/cooking-pork-chops-and-veggies.html

Cooking: Chicken and veggies

http://lisahealthwellness.blogspot.com/2011/02/cooking-chicken-and-veggies.html

Review of The Diamond

http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2011/02/diamond.html

Review of 131 Water Social House

http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2011/02/131-water-social-house.html

19 hours till....

I pick up my new car!! I'm counting down. I'm really excited. They originally told me it would take till the end of February for my car to arrive but it arrived earlier than expected.

I ordered my car on January 24. I know the date because it's on my visa slip when I paid the deposit. I bought my Mazda 3 at North Shore Auto Mall. I bought the base model with no Comfort Package, which has the air conditioning in the package. I didn't want the Comfort Package because I don't see the reason why I would need air conditioning. I am already cold all the time and I don't need to be colder in my car. In Vancouver it is only HOT a few months of the year. Why would I want to pay $1900 for something that I would be only using a few months of the year? All the salespeople tell me that it would be harder to resale my car without air conditioning. That still didn't deter me. I drove my Suzuki for 9 years without air conditioning. I never complained about not having it.

They did tell me ahead of time that I would have to wait for my car because there aren't many Mazda 3's without air conditioning. I was ok with waiting. After my parents and I decided on the car I wanted, we were ushered into Heather's office. Heather is the finance department. I guess she is the one that collects the money or how you will be paying the payments. She told me the total with all the taxes. One tax she said I had pay was the Air Levy. She said it was for air conditioners in the cars. I told her I didn't have air conditioner in my car. Then she proceeded to say that it is for all new cars. I told her I don't think it's fair for me to pay the air conditioning tax when I don't have air conditioning in my car. She basically ended it with saying that I have to pay the tax. After I left Mazda, I looked into the Air Levy. All the sites told me that it is a tax for cars with air conditioning. It is basically taxing car owners with air conditioning because it is bad for the environment. My bottom line is that if I don't have air conditioning in my car I do not want to pay that tax. Heather called me on Sunday (yesterday) to tell me that my car has arrived and asked when I want to come pick up my car. I reminded her that I didn't want to pay the Air Levy. She told me she understands my point of view but she couldn't do anything about it. I got a bit mad and reminded her that it's not fair that I pay a tax for something that I don't have. She told me to calm down and she would talk to the sales manager about it. She came back on the line and told me some good news: I wasn't going to pay for the air levy for my car. She gave me the new total for my car.

Maybe next posting will have a picture of my new car!!!!