A few more videos from the Bellagio Hotel:

There were several model trains running near the lobby of the Bellagio.

This video shows the water spout fountain things in the lobby.

Here's a video I made at the Bellagio Fountains in Vegas. I watched them about three times they were so cool.

I'm halfway to Las Vegas. Turns out Philadelphia has free wireless on the weekends, so I'm webcamming with Victoria before boarding. First flight was fine, though a little cramped on the legs. Had pasta for lunch, though it came with pasta salad. I'm a bit overpastaed currently.

Next week I'll be headed out to Las Vegas for the Blackboard User's Conference. I'm doing a presentation there, which should be interesting, as it's the longest presentation I've done - 50 minutes. Hopefully it will all go well.

Recently a sushi restaurant opened up near our flat, Sakushi. We've been there twice already, and it's only been open for a little over two weeks. The chef is from Japan, and the food is quite authentic. However, it's not that cheap, as is the case with most Japanese food (outside of Japan that is). The restaurant was opened by a Sheffield Hallam business student on his placement year, which is quite an achievement. I think he's trying to negotiate how to finish his degree next year, with them offering some credit for the learning he's gained setting up the restaurant. Victoria has suggested we use my paycheck to pay for the bills, and hers to constantly eat at the restaurant.

Things seem mostly set for the big vacation around Europe, so we are both looking forward to it.

Each year at work there is a couple of weeks to promote employee health and well-being in our department. You get things like free fruit, and you can sign up for workshops to do relaxing activities or get a massage. For this year I chose a new activity, mug-decorating.


I chose to do a commemorative Nanimal mug, with Bill and Strange Panda and the rest of the boys appearing on it. You can see the pencil sketch for Bill on the mug as I am painting the grass and sky first. I think my mug came out pretty well (you can see the pictures of it on their blog). While I enjoyed making the mug and doing something different, it was kind of stressful at times, since I had to concentrate a lot to get the details right and I had never done it before.