Western Veterinary Conference

I took a free block for the past two weeks so that I could go to the Western Veterinary Conference in Las Vegas.  I won a scholarship to go, so it wasn’t on a complete whim, but on the whole the experience felt a lot more like vacation than work.  

I arrived in Vegas at midnight on a Saturday after almost nine (yes, NINE) hours of sitting at the Ithaca airport waiting for the weather to clear so our little prop-plane connection flight to Philly could get in and out.  Needless to say, walking into The Excalibur (which looked a lot more like “THE EXCALIBUR!!!!) after traveling all day and just wanting to fall into bed was a little overwhelming…and I remembered why I drink when I’m in Vegas.

The majestic Excalibur hotel and casino

 I’d last been to Vegas in 2007 for Vegoose, a music festival on Halloween weekend, and I promised myself I wouldn’t come back for at least ten years.  So much for that. 

The Conference hosted two breakfasts for the scholarship winners (one student from each vet school in North America) at the Four Seasons hotel, which amounted to the two fanciest breakfasts I’ve eaten since starting vet school.  I think I singlehandedly took down an entire harvest of strawberries between those two mornings.  

Being Vegas, it was nearly impossible to do anything without walking through four casinos to get where you’re going, but I managed to navigate both the quickest indoor route (for those cold mornings) from Exalibur, through the Luxor, into Mandalay Bay and to the Mandalay Bay conference center, as well as the most outdoor, least casino-filled route out the service entrance to the Mandalay Bay Shark Reef and along the strip all the way to the back entrance outside Tower II of the Excalibur (for the beautiful sunny afternoons when I needed to waste time).

I did actually do a few useful, veterinary-related activities between catching Cirque du Soliel and wandering the strip watching the Bellagio fountain and the sad midwesterners camped out at the slots.  I went to an afternoon of lectures on anesthesia in exotics and zoo animals, learned about dog behavior from Sophia Yin, practiced reading thoracic radiographs, and was one of about twenty to make it through a whole afternoon on camelid medicine with Dr. Meredyth Jones (I was in good company—Mary Smith was another audience member, after finishing giving her own afternoon of small ruminant talks).

On the last day I ditched the conference, rented a car, and headed for the desert.  After an unsuccessful attempt to stop at In-N-Out for breakfast (who says you can’t eat hamburgers before 10 am), I drove out to the Hoover Dam and walked across the new Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge that spans the Colorado just downstream of the dam.  Some might call the Hoover Dam a marvel of modern (or, 20^th century) engineering, but I just found it vaguely depressing, especially looking down at the tiny muddy stream—once the Colorado River—that flows out from the power plant downstream of the dam.  I decided not to take the dam tour, in favor of heading out to the north side of Lake Mead and hiking in the sun-baked Martian Mojave.  With the 127 Days trailer looping in my head, I hiked up an old wash into a small canyon, heading for hills on the distant horizon, and hoping that I’d get back to my car with both my arms still on. 

Hiking in a canyon near Lake Mead

Fortunately, I made it back to Ithaca with all limbs intact, and not having gambled away my next years tuition money.  The conference was great, and Cornell wrote up a little press release about it here: http://web.vet.cornell.edu/news/Lashnits.cfm.  Now if only I got to be on working vacation for the rest of the year….

The Ithaca Eating Project

I've been complaining lately that there aren't any good restaurants in Ithaca.  After driving around for a little while doing errands today, I realized that there are a lot of restaurants that I've never even heard of, much less been to, here in town.  I got on the interwebz when I got home, and discovered....161 restaurants currently in Ithaca, to be exact (and not counting McDonalds, Subway and the like).  I also came upon this website, www.eatingithaca.com, and they're in the midst of eating at every restaurant in Ithaca from A to Z.  They're also chatting with chefs and a little distracted by other foodie-related things, but I like the eating part, so I'm in.  After two and a half years here, I've eaten at 42 of the 161 restaurants here....and I have about a year to finish 119 more!  Wish me luck (and a gym membership)!

For a list of the restaurants, and where I've been, check out the google doc: The Ithaca Eating Project spreadsheet

And, since it's completely non-veterinary related, I'm taking the posting about this new project (undoubtedly more interesting than my day-to-day activities at the vet school), and moving them to a neighboring blog.  Go to The Ithaca Eating Project blog if you're interested....in seeing me stuff my face.