Autumn Cleaning!!! I spent most of Monday working and repairing the computer’s registry keys! I ran a scan and the software found over 700 errors! [Mostly Active X, some shared DLL files and useless extension files] And I chose to check each one individually to make sure that they were no longer needed. You know how it is. When the program says it’s invalid or no longer useful, I have to question that. Make sure myself. I also made a complete backup of the system before I began doing the clean up…just in case! So, naturally, it took most of my morning and part of the afternoon. But I feel better to do it that way. My choice, I’m not complaining mind you, I just have a bit more confidence doing it that way. After that was done, I then downloaded and installed the new version of Firefox; Firefox 3.0.4. I personally wouldn’t use anything but! Firefox in my opinion is so much ‘friendlier’ and useful. Internet Explorer on the other hand is just too susceptible to viruses and spyware where Firefox and the wonderful ad-ons keeps my computer a bit more ‘protected’. When that was complete, I did an upgrade on my virus program and my Windows Defender for Vista. I think I did well. Especially after cleaning out the registry!! The computer now runs so much faster! It’s amazing to think that in less than a year there were so many useless things uploaded and no longer used. LOL Now it’s getting all my graphic files from the many folders all burned on to a new disk. I have hundreds of those also. :::sigh::: But, none-the-less, it’s fun in a way, I learn a lot. I’m a ‘hands on kinda gal’ where if I do something like this physically, the mental takes hold and I can remember a lot of what I do. [Oh, of course, I've had my share of Senior Moments also, but hey....twenty five years ago my kids, if they could see me now, wouldn't believe this old lady could actually do and comprehend all this.]
I’m also a bit busy with my ‘giveaway’ project, so I may be hidden from view a lot in the next few days. 
)
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Heads or Tails this week: Share an Autumn memory
WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS, stays in Vegas.
LAS VEGAS BABY!!!
One Autumn, still in Colorado, we got a heavy, early snow. I wasn’t ready for it. Luckily, we had a long weekend planned in Las Vegas. It was a whirlwind trip. Flew in to Vegas on a Friday night…spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday and flew home on Monday which was a holiday.
I can still see the most awesome sight ever. I love flying into a city at night! And Las Wages Vegas was something to behold.
We had reservations at MGM. And at the airport, after claiming our luggage we had a hotel shuttle bus ride through all the lights…down [yuk!] Wayne Newton Blvd! Over to the green building. With a huge colassal gold lion to greet us! By the time we were under the hotel’s canopy it has started raining so I opted to take a photo of the main doors the next morning…. Now, granted, it’s a city of ‘sin’ and gambling. But the two of us had other plans. We actually didn’t want to gamble much…we did try the slot machines in all the casinos, but we wanted to actually just walk the strip…check out all the hotels, eat and dine and buy gifts. We were already married, so we didn’t need to find one of the infamous wedding chapels you read about.
And we wanted to rent a car for a day and go to the west…to the mountains and check out the little backwoods town of Pahrump, Nevada. We heard there were properties cheap…and perhaps we might buy something there for our retirement! No way…what a joke. It was like taking a wrong turn…and you came out on a road to nowhere and there are people, or should I say ‘clans’…we felt so out of place while looking at homes with a realtor. Nope…not for us. We got back in the car and headed back to the ‘mountain pass’ that heads back into Vegas, only to stop at a winery. Ya, a winery… in the middle of the desert. Amazing. We tasted some wine, bought a bottle to take back with us for that evening after dinner.
Without a doubt, we had to find the Hard Rock Cafe!! I used to make sure I got a t-shirt. It all began back when I entered the very 1st one I ever saw in Honolulu. Then, had to get them everywhere I went that had one in the city. [that came to a screeching halt tho because of the expense...I did end up with Vegas, San Antonio, Washington D.C., Honolulu, Los Angeles, and Aspen, Colorado tho!] We took a cab on the first afternoon to find it.
After we realized it was within walking distance from MGM, we opted to take a moonlight stroll there for the evening!Other than the ‘street walkers’ it was a pleasant walk. And we, of course, weren’t the only ones with the same idea. There were several enjoying the starlit, cool, evening and the city’s lights. It was awesome.
The next day, more walking…we checked out all the hotels in and around our MGM area. The Luxor, the Caesar’s Palace, Excalibur…they were beginning to build the NY NY at the time we were there in a huge vacant lot. Bought some souvenirs for the family and ourselves…gambled a bit in the slots and had a very enjoyable weekend.
Bud [in left photo] and I [in the horse carriage on the right photo] in front of the Excalibur Hotel
Back to the MGM…it’s one awesome hotel. The reason I liked it so much was the fact that Gone With the Wind was all around me in the hallways…they had memoribilia and paintings and carpeting to match the movie’s set and portraits of the stars in character! Down on the main floor with the gambling tables and buffet was Wizard of OZ…I got the Tin Man to pose with me for a picture…
On the day we were to leave to catch the plane back to Denver, we had to go back into the MGM courtyard. Behind the hotel is a huge shopping district. A small village if you will…where there are specialty shops. I spent way too much money. But, I couldn’t go home without it. And you know, I’ve never worn it! It’s been hanging on my bedroom wall ever since….
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We left this behind that afternoon…a beautiful sunset. Only to get back home to Denver with snow flurries!!!
