Today I spent a few hours working at /usr/lib inside the Emergency Arts building in downtown Las Vegas. The place always has some great artwork painted on the walls.

Last night we went to The Joint and got to hang out in a suite with an open bar and see Gins ‘n Roses perform. We weren’t expecting much after hearing bad reviews of the LA show and the last time we saw Axl perform, he was terrible. But this was way different. Axl sounded great, as did the rest of the band. I would have to place this in the top 10 live performances I have ever seen.

Although her birthday was a few weeks ago, today we drove out to California to celebrate my niece’s 16th birthday. She had a big party with swing dancing followed by a dj and more dancing.

We had a great time and it was awesome to see this girl who used to be so shy has broken out of that shell.

Happy birthday, Shayne! We love you!

Tonight we went to see the 25th anniversary concert of Les Miserables. It was filmed live at O2 arena and shown for one night only in nearly 500 theaters around the country.

The concert was awesome, the singers are fantastic and really, the only flaw was the sound system at the theater wasn’t very good. I would think the folks from Fathom Events (the group that puts these events on) would contract with the theaters to make sure the audience gets the best possible experience. Considering this is a one night event, it should be made as great as possible.

I don’t want to end on a sour note because it really was an excellent event and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

When we landed in MN on Friday night, they were still waiting for the first snowfall of the season… Saturday morning we woke up to this.

Seriously, you could have waited a few more days…

I got invited out to Lucky Bar at Red Rock casino tonight for a few drinks and an interview. I always seem to think that a drive to Red Rock from my house is going to be 40+ minutes. I am not sure if it was the holiday or what, but it took only 20-ish minutes to get there. I wish I would remember that more often as Red Rock is a pretty nice place to hang out.

Thanks to Sean (@libationblog) for the invite! Let’s do that again some time!

Last weekend we stayed at Palace Station to be close to the action during WordCamp, a conference that we organized. Even though i would have rather had a South facing room to see the Vegas strip, the view from the 17th floor was pretty nice.

Last night we went to our friends’ Halloween party. They go completely over the top decorating their house and backyard. The night was a bit chilly, but was made much better by the two fire pits made out of washing machine drums.

I have been waiting a long time to see these guys in concert again. My first time was over 20 years ago!

The new singer is a perfect fit for the band. He sounds great and interacts well with the audience.

Great show!