Gold, Lobsters & Brothels Anyone?

I bet you didn't know I was a Gold Miner did you? Well here is proof!

Okay okay I'm not a real gold miner, I'm just an accountant-wanna-be-miner. But I do work for a gold mine and this week I was able to take a little business trip to Nevada to go on a mine tour. It was fricken awesome, I really want to be an underground miner now.

Forget about crunching numbers, I want to crunch rocks!

Before entering an underground mine, everyone has to have their brass. Why you ask? To identify your burned remains when the mine catches on fire and you are left there to be burned alive! Brass does not melt in fire so you always have 2 identifying brass pieces, one to keep on your body and one to put on the brass board so that they can keep track of every person who has dared to enter the mine.


So here is our group of nerdy accountants trying to squish into this tiny elevator shaft to travel 1000 feet underground. Good thing I didn't forget my deodorant that day, too bad I couldn't say the same for the others!



First place we visited was Fragal Rock! Yes it does exist!


See?


This picture isn't easy to see but I guess it is an example of how dark and scary it is underground!



Especially if you turn the corner and one of these is coming right at you!




The underground is full of extremes, in some areas you are freezing your tail off then a couple seconds later you are sweating to death! In some places it was pitch black and you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, but in other places it was as bright as day.

After the underground, we went to see the open pit. Wow, it was huge!



I couldn't believe the size of the equipment they use! Pretty amazing huh?



Before I could take one for a test drive I had to make sure it lived up to my standards.





This is when we were down in the pit, I thought the shovel on the right was big until I saw it next to the red one! This is probably something you have to see in person, the pictures don't do justice to the size of these monsters!

They had to kick us out of the pit for the daily blast. Everyday they blow up another level of the mine to access more ore. See those perfect looking ridges in the pit? Those are created by strategically placing the explosives so that when the blast is over, you are left with a perfect ridge. All this is done in the computer first so they can analyse the area and make sure the blast will do exactly what they need it to.

So here we are waiting for the blast.



I am so mad that I didn't get a good picture of the blast because it was huge! All I have is this wussy picture of a little bit of smoke long after the blast.

I was so tired and worn out by the time we left the mine and all I did was walk around, I can't imagine how the miners feel after they've worked all day! After we got back to our hotel, we had just enough time to shower and clean up to go to dinner.

In Elko Nevada, the only place you need to eat is here:

I've never heard of basque food until I took my first trip to Nevada. I'm not too familiar with the background of these restaurants but I know it is where the sheep herders live which is why most of the food is prepared family style.

If you like lobster then you have to eat at The Star! Best lobster ever, even better than the lobster I had in Boston! Crazy, I know but I think it's the way they cook it. Delish!

And what else is Elko known for? Well the brothel houses of course! Just next to the Star are these two brothel houses that we absolutely had to get pictures of. Me from Utah, and the others from Toronto have never seen anything like it. We couldn't help but be curious!




There was this guy standing outside Sue's Fantasy Club and when he found out that most of us were from Toronto and had never seen brothels houses, he invited us in for a tour. Yes, I took a tour of a Brothel house! It was so weird because they were giving us a tour of the place like it was no big deal, just like giving a tour of their house or something.




Well we stayed just long enough to snap a couple of pics to prove to the folks back home that we actually stepped inside, then we ran like hell away from there!

Funny there was an article in the newspaper about the brothel houses in Nevada because they are the only ones in the US that aren't suffering from rising gas prices. Most brothel houses rely on travelers for their business so the higher the gas prices get, the lower their clientele gets. But this is not the case for the Elko brothels, why? Because most their business comes from the miners.

Go figure!

Our Sweet Bain

Last Thursday Alex and I found out that our sweet Bain was dying. For those of you who do not know Bain he is one of our dogs, he is a Mastiff.




Alex works with his dad Terry at his Vet Hospital and Alex had been taking Bain to work with him everday for about 2 weeks because Bain had a problem with his back legs. He is quite a big dog and very clumsy so we thought he had just sprained his ankle, but he started losing weight fast and was having a hard time walking.



Alex called me at work on Thursday to tell me we needed to discuss Bain's condition and that he wanted me to go to the Animal Clinic to talk with him. So I left work right away, somehow I already knew what he was going to tell me, but I didn't want to believe it. It was a very hard drive for me.

When I arrived at the clinic, I was a wreck. I saw Alex's face and I fell apart. Cris was there and she came in and hugged me and told me she was sorry but at this point I still didn't know what was wrong with Bain, I just wanted to talk to Terry so he could tell me what was going on.

Terry told me that our poor Bain had torn both his ACLs which was why he was walking incorrectly and dragging his feet on the cement causing his nails to bleed. Bain's bad back was the issue from the start, he had some deteriorated lumbar vertebrae in his lower back which was causing him pain. Bain had lost almost 30 pounds it seemed overnight! His muscles were deteriorating and he could not use his back legs.

Terry is the best Vet in Utah so I trust his opinion and he said basically Bain's condition would not get better. Alex and his father both agreed that there was no way he would live through any surgery because he had a gentic disease that was making him too weak. They explained that with all their experience with situations like this that it was worse to put the dog through so much torture just so we can keep him alive a little bit longer.


The following pictures are from the day Bain died, he was so skinny!


Finally I understood exactly what the consequences were and realized that Bain was in so much pain that he could never have a happy and pain free life. So the outcome of all that had happened was that Bain had to be put to sleep.

I told Alex that I wanted Bain to come back home to die with us by his side instead of at the hospital. So we brought Bain home with us and we were able to spend the last 45 minutes of his life together. Terry was kind enough to leave the hospital to put Bain to sleep in our backyard, Bain's favorite place.




I can't help but think if there was anything I could do to prevent this from happening, but Terry assured us that this was inevitable and that Bain couldn't have asked for a better life than what we were able to give him the last 2 & 1/2 years. So I can only be grateful for the time that we had with him and move on. I know this may seem very dramatic for some who do not understand how close you can become to a pet and how they can change your life, but they can and Bain did.

So You Think You Can Dance!

Can I just say WOW!?

Andrea, Talisia and I went to the So You Think You Can Dance concert last night and it was so much fun! It was crazy to see the dancers in person, seeing them on TV does not do them justice! Our voices are all raspy today from screaming so loud last night.

Lindee,
At your request, I humped Will for you. It was a tough favor for me to even consider but I did it just for you. Why? Because I know you would do the same for me, that's what sisters are for, right?

Look at him:

WILL. IS. AMAZING. He's got MAD skills!

Okay, pick your jaw up from the ground and wipe the drool from your chin because I have a lot more where that came from.

After the opening number, Twitch took over the microphone to start the show off. The first thing he did was raise his right arm putting his four fingers on top of his shoulder to form the now famous "4 Real" sign. And of course we returned the favor.

Talisia and Andrea with much respect.

"Twitchington" escaping from jail.

I loved this dance with Joshua and Katee. Katee is my favorite female dancer from the show; she is so amazing because she doesn't just go through the motions of the dance, she feels the dance and portrays this to the audience. You can't keep your eyes off of her when she is on stage.


Now, here is my favorite male dancer from the show, Mark. I know this picture may look a little weird but this stance is my favorite, it is just SO Mark. He is quirky and weird and crazy and pretty much the coolest dancer on the planet.


Here he is with Courtney just finishing their very raw dance to "The Garden" choreographed by Sonja. Her dances were crazy, just how I like em!

See, we liked it! The girl sitting in front of us hated our guts! You could tell she was annoyed with us yelling and jumping and throwing our bras onto the stage while proclaiming our love and devotion to Mark! Okay, maybe just the jumping and yelling part.


Fine Lindee, here is more Will:

Sorry Jessica's head is cut off, but who cares right? :o)

Yep, we got to see that all in person!

I LOVE BOLLYWOOD!

Intermission.

Remember this one? This one here? Where Katee and Twitch make out on stage? Nice!



How amazing are Tabatha and Napoleon? Love this choreography, love this song, love these dancers! I love Chelsea, she is "4 Real"!

Another favorite of mine from Tabitha and Napoleon.

Twitch and Comfort tearin it up.

Now this is my ALL TIME FAVORITE dance, Will and Katee's pas de deux choreographed by Desmond Richardson. I don't know if it is my love for ballet or if it is just because everything about this dance was amazing, but I'm in love with it. I could watch it over and over again all day. Although I wouldn't be able to sit still and I would dance around the house and try to get Albert to be my dance partner in the pas de deux, for some reason I don't think Al would go for that!


By the end of the show, we were exhausted! All the screaming and throwing of body parts did us in!

I think Annie approved!