Dance, Dance Little Man!

I just can't stay away from you now, HSCOOC. And in order to keep the posts alive, I figured I would share this video with all of you. Arlene showed it to me last night after BINGO and I was crying I was laughing so hard.

You can't beat this kind of happiness.

I think we should all cut-loose and let go this weekend just like this little guy does to some Florence and the Machine.

POC 29: Post a Photo From Your Childhood

POC 26: A Photo of the Last Item You Purchased

POC 8: Something you never leave home without

As I was brainstorming for this post, I turned to my friend (and conveniently, cube-mate), Erin, and said "today I have to blog about something I never leave home without." "Your iPhone." "Yeah, I know but that just seems so obvious." I thought briefly about my contacts since GOD FORBID I leave the house without those but then Erin piped up with "CANDY!"

YES! Candy! One of my true loves!

"Good call! But I don't know if I have any in my purse right now...."

Erin gave me the "Please, you always have candy in your purse" look as I picked it up to do a search.

Here is what I found.

So yes, friends, that is my idea of not having any candy in my purse. So next time we're out together and you've got a sweet tooth, I've got you covered.

Feels like Fall

As I was driving home last night, in my H&M poncho I've been dying to be able to wear - I had the windows down and the combo of being in a comfy sweater, the cool air blowing through my car and this song playing - it became official...

Fall has arrived.

Fallin' at Phoenix

Yesterday was the first day of fall. Usually, I am sad to see summer go but lately, I've been more and more into change.

I celebrated the welcoming of fall with going to see Phoenix perform at the Pearl with my darling Payton. Pie and I purchased these tickets way back in June and as we were driving to the concert last night, I turned and said 'Can you believe it's already here?!'

I caught Phoenix at The Joint back in January and I was impressed but had I only known. This was my first show at The Pearl so I never knew what all the hype was about. Tickets always seemed ridiculously overpriced for this venue but now I get it. The Pearl is, by far, the best music venue in town. In fact, next to Red Rocks in Denver, which is on a totally different level, it is the best venue I have ever visited.

Also had I known the how incredibly visually stimulating this show was set up to be, I definitely would have brought my camera along. The colors were vibrant, they did a shadow set that was reminiscent of the Beatles' Love, and then Thomas Mars sang to us in French - now that, I would have liked to catch on video. But instead, with no camera in hand, I was just left to soak all of it in and have my hands raised in the air for the entire 80 minute set.

When they closed with 1901, there was a red cord stretched over the crowd and as the spotlight came on in the middle of the theater, there was Mr. Mars himself....basking in the glory of his fans. It was a great, great show....I would definitely put it in my top 5, maybe even top 4 since we did get to hear some of their new material from their upcoming album. In the words of Pie, "Loooooovin' it!"

It did help to be there with a guy who knows how to have as much fun as yours truly. It was great to reunite with Payton after a brief summer hiatus for no other reason than just life. When I arrived to his house last night, he pulled me inside to show me his newest passion - the accordion.


Here's to a new season, new passions and new smiles.

A Reunion

Last weekend, Linzi Wickler arrived by plane from Denver, CO. I picked her up at the airport on Thursday evening, we got back to my place, popped a bottle of champagne and the fun didn't stop until she left on Monday afternoon.

That bottle of champagne led us to ladies' night at Sedona where we met up with Lobo for some cheese fondue and a few (more) glasses of wine.

Somewhere between Thursday night and Friday, we created Baby Bruce who quickly became our starlet of the weekend. It was decided that Baby Bruce would go everywhere that we did, and that we would create a life for him, much like we did for Club Monster Curtis. And let me tell you, Baby Bruce really knows how to party, as you can see from the photos throughout this post. That crazy baby.

Friday brought a (much needed) morning of sleeping in followed by some shopping at Town Square before we headed downtown to check in to our room at the El Cortez. Yes, my friends, we were staying classy Labor Day weekend. Springing for a $70 room at the EC is a lot cheaper than a DUI. After bring disgusted by our stop by in the room and figuring we should probably not head back there until we were nice and toasted and no longer cared, we headed to Downtown Cocktail Room for Globe's celebration of being named one of the Top 100 Salons by Elle Magazine. There, we met Lauren and Aunt Karen who was in town for the weekend from Arizona. We said of congratulations, took our (awesome) gift bags and headed to get some dinner before picking up Mr. Wickler from the airport.

Once we had him in tow, it was time for the reunion. For the first time in I don't know how many years, we had myself, Shelly, Lisa, Lauren and Linzi all in town. It was like junior high school all over again - except with more booze. We hit First Friday heading up and down Fremont St (and Fremont East). The night was one of those that ended with breakfast at the El Cortez.

Saturday brought some recovery time before heading over to Pep's for a reunion barbecue. She out did herself, as usual, with brats, chicken and steak with homemade Mac-n-Cheese, prosciutto wrapped melon and (brace yourself), homemade ice cream sandwiches with mint chips. Oh and lots and lots of drinks. We had Aunt Karen, Pep, Sam, Lisa, Suzanne, Lauren, Josh, Linzi, Jeffrey James and myself.

With full tummies we headed to Three Tomatoes and a Mozzarella for their late night Happy Hour. There, the reunion flourished as Clayton arrived, Woos met up and Anika and The Germ made an appearance.

My heart was so full that night.

Sunday we spent the day over at Shelly's for a barbecue complete with sangria and more catching up. The afternoon was sublime as the weather was beautiful and so was the company.

If only every weekend could be so sweet. It was simply divine to have everyone in town, in our hometown, where all of these relationships originally blossomed 15 years ago. I feel truly blessed to have so many best friends that I can call family. And that can fill my heart with an abundance of love that can be hard to find.

X and Os to each and every one of you. Let's do it again soon.

A Handful of Happy

At work, we are currently in the depths of a special project that M&M'S World hired us for. The short of it is, they are launching the My M&M'S Experience, where you can make personalized M&M'S right there on site. For example, if you wanted to make me a bagful of M&M'S that read I Love HSCOOC, you could do so there. This is the first machine of its kind, as prior to this week, you could only get these M&M'S online. Soooo we've decided to make a gigantic Welcome to Las Vegas sign made out entirely out of M&M'S. And by we, I mean my friend Gabe that we ended up hiring for the project.

We are aiming to break a Guinness World Record here, people. We are talking 50,000 M&M'S, 100 lbs, and 5 x 7 feet of delicious glory. We are unveiling it Wednesday morning on the Strip at 10 a.m. in case you want to roll your happy butt down there to see this masterpiece in person.

Otherwise, I will be sure to post photos of the sign on here.

The whole point of this is, for the past 30 days or so, I've been talking M&M'S all day, every day and the temptation has just been bubbling inside of me. On Thursday, we went down for a walk-through for the unveil and I got a trip to the wonder that is the M&M'S Wall. Peanut, Pretzel (my new personal favorite), Peanut Butter, Classic. Basically, I've had a tummy ache ever since and a smile on my face.

HSCOOC: Breaking News

Yup, you read it right, kids. Facebook was all-a-buzz this weekend with 41 likes and comments for the updated status of Katie Knoch now being listed as "in a relationship".

You know who else likes it? Me.

The Moment I Wanted an iPhone 4

So the iPhone 4 comes out but I am the girl that just upgraded to the 3Gs over Christmas so you may have heard me say "Oh whatever. I don't like the squared edges." or "It feels heavier..." or "Yeah, cool that it has a flash and video chat but I just don't know if it's worth it...."

And then I was at lunch with my cousin, Andy, who always has the hot shit. He knew the way to sell me.

"Alright, Kate, check this out." He hands me the phone and I see myself and, as you can tell from the below, it takes me a minute before I realize what's happening.

My own PHOTOBOOTH?

Sold.

The Rainy Days Ain't So Bad When You're the King

I am currently sitting in the Denver International Airport, awaiting my plane to arrive to jet me back to Vegas.

I've been in Denver for the past week and although the whole trip has been something to remember - we certainly saved the best for last with the Kings of Leon show. Last night ended up being one of those nights that the Wicklers and I will look back upon when we are 80, reminiscing about the time we saw the Kings of Leon, drenched in rain and how it truly was a once in a lifetime experience. The show was held at Comfort Dental Amphitheatre (worst name ever - used to be Fidler's Green for those of you familiar with the area.) The weather all week had been gorgeous - actually, a little hot for the Denver area (I kept hearing I "brought the heat") - but still, sunny, with maybe a shower in the afternoon to cool everything off but that was about all to report.

Until last night, around 7 p.m....right when we were arriving to the show......there was a slight sprinkle, Linzi turned and asked me, "think we should grab these umbrellas?" "Na, I am sure they would just be more of a hassle." Well, kids, you know what is a real hassle? Torrential downpour. Yup, by the time we were through the gates, we were desperately running around trying to find a poncho or three.

After about 15 minutes, we were soaked through and through. And then I just decided to embrace it. With a 24 ounce Miller Light in my hand and two of my best friends by my side, about to see my favorite band in the whole world....I just decided that this was livin'.

It ended up being one of the best nights of my life. What an experience, to see the Kings, under a summer rainstorm in the middle of Denver, CO. Along with their nearly two hour set, came thunder and lightning. The photo above is a view from the show (obv). We perched ourselves at the top of the hill and had the most amazing view of the show with the city lights and mountains in the background.

We all know my love for KOL, so as you can imagine, I was having the time of my life - smiling and singing and dancing the night away.

Thank you, Denver, for a night I will never forget.

The Greatest Place on the Planet

"You know what we should do sometime? We should go check out the Pinball Hall of Fame."

I have said that exact sentence too many times to count but last week, I made it happen. Payton's little sister was in town so we were in search of something "kid friendly" in Vegas - we'd already seen Toy Story 3 so.....

Oh! Oh! Pinball! We could totally take her to pinball!

So we went, on a Monday evening, around 9 p.m. I walked in with $12 in my wallet and walked out with ZERO but a whole lotta fun happened in between. I beat the Meyers there and found myself wandering up and down the aisles, having childhood flashbacks (I specifically remember spending hours playing the Simpson's Pinball Party at every arcade in my younger years). I was just dying to stop to put quarters in almost every machine that I passed. The only thing I could think was why I had wasted so much of my life not being here.

Not only is the place a photographer's dream come true but they have popcorn. And orange sodas.

The place is 10,000 square feet of machines dating back to the 50s through the 90s (which, from what I understand, is when the pinball craze died out). There are 152+ games, all costing $25-$1. The best part? The place is a non-profit, donating all of their excess revenue to non-denominational charities.

Some of the machines have a little piece of (hand-written) paper with the game's history on it. As I was playing a machine from 1957, I just thought about how romantic it was to think of a cute little couple in the 50's playing this same game while out on their second date.

And then I also spent a lot of time thinking about how I would just have to take my dad, Mr. Carl Knoch, here the next time he is in town. This place would be a dream come true for him. Star Trek, Star Wars, Rocky and Bullwinkle.....now if they only served Old Fashions and played Elton John.

We spent a good two hours there, and the only reason I left is because I ran out of quarters. Otherwise, I'd still be there right now.

My face was as lit up as those machines the entire time we were there and I plan on going back again and again.....but this time, with a full $20.