Happy Birthday, Michael. Is your wife going to bake your cake, or some of your students? Yeah, that'd be a good assignment, bake the instructor a birthday cake, LOL. Annie

Hey latecomers - I'll take all birthday wishes! I'm saving this thread, you all have me cracking up. Bunnyman I'll see if DS #2 still has the cannnoli picture on his phone. We walked to the dessert cafe before dinner to scope it out while DH was looking for parking in the very busy area.

Thanks everyone, I chuckled through all the posts! Vegas was a good diversion considering I was traveling with a picky 13YO and a Depression era survivor (think 'cheap'), LOL. That means we didn't eat out extravagantly. Come to think of it, we ate out twice - once at a local restaurant (Middle Eastern, Paymon's) and we grabbed two pizzas at Metro Pizza. Two for one so of course that lasted us...oy. Ya know, sometimes you do things for other reasons...this trip was so my dad could spend time with my kids. I really really wanted to do a Vegas buffet, the Wynn, but the lines were too long. Next time, eh? We did see two shows, Spamalot and Penn and Teller. Other things on the agenda were, as I said before, the Hoover Dam, EthelM factory (eh), the Atomic Museum, Fremont Street Experience, the water fountains at the Bellagio (I sent DH a picture of the Dale Chihuly glass ceiling, he was jealous), and we drove through Red Rock Canyon. We did make it to the top of the Stratosphere. The Pinball museum was great, the kids spent $20 over an hour of time, cheaper than gambling! Oh and I did get a little slot machine time (no tables, oh well) at the airport. I put a buck into a 5 cent slot machine and played until I won $2.50, then cashed out! The only thing I missed for ME was the International Food Market...discussion link below. Maybe Sharon will make it there in March and report back! We stayed at a great place for families, off strip: the Westgate Flamingo resort. We had a small two bedroom condo with a kitchen and washer/dryer. Location was GREAT - a Food4less market half a block away for supplies. $111/night from Expedia. Recommended!!! Here is a link that might be useful: International food market on chowhound

I had already contacted Annie via email with my birthday wishes, so I'm not Johnny-come-lately. But I still wanted to add my greetings here because even the paper covered this event! Check out the headline. Hey pal, I hope you got most of your wishes granted. Oh, but you might as well give up on your kid cleaning her room for your birthday. Being a mom of two, I know how pointless that is; opt for World Peace, it's easier. Sol