Category: Diary (Page 18 of 38)

This evening was the night of the Bonnie Raitt & Lyle Lovett concert at the Aladdin. We’d seen an advertisement in the local paper that if you bought tickets, at the same time you could get a discount coupon from the box office for dinner at the Aladdin Buffet. Sounds good – except that we already had our tickets, and they hadn’t given us a coupon.

Lisa rang the box office who said that they had no knowledge of such a deal, but after she faxed them the clipping, they said that if we showed up and presented our tickets and the ad, we’d get a coupon.

So, at around 5:00 we drove down to the ‘strip and parked at the Aladdin, and walked through the Desert Passage shops to the Performing Arts Theater box office. On presenting our tickets and the newspaper advertisement clipping, the clerk rummaged around and handed us coupon. Hooray!

As we were walking towards the buffet, my wife (the one *with* the brain) noticed that the expiry date on the coupon was August 31! A quick 180 and back to the box office, whereupon they discover that they don’t have any un-expired discount coupons. Instead they give us a “free meal” coupon, which worked for us!

There are some very nice aspects of the Aladdin Buffet. They have things like baklava and dolma, and a lamb stew that is to die for, and other buffets on the strip don’t have them. The whole middle-eastern theme of the Aladdin works well if you like that kind of food, which we do.

The Aladdin is really the nicest hotel/casino on the strip, I think, and it is a shame that the customer-friendly aspects of it are working against it. They are still seriously bankrupt, no-one really knows for how long it will continue to operate in its current form.

After dinner we had some time before the concert, so we wandered around the Desert Passage and Lisa pulled me into a place called “Tolstoy’s Instruments of distinction”  (http://store.wellsfargoestore.com/tolstoys) which is mostly stupid clocks and other tchochkadik stuff, but this time they also had some curious balancing toys, many with a nautical theme. These things rock back and forth with various inertially-powered moving parts, and one of them – a whale – looked quite appealing. We’ve been looking for something to break up the white monotony of our bathroom walls, and this blue grey whale chap looked like just the thing. When we found out they were all on sale, we made the decision without much contemplation.

I jogged out to the car and put the whale into the trunk of the car and met Lisa at the doors to the Theater, in plenty of time.

A quick trip to Home Depot and we got ourselves some sheets of pegboard to put up in the garage – to hang tools on! Fun fun fun.

A number of guests have mentioned that the light in our guest room in the early morning is quite bright and wakes them up prematurely.

We have heard you, and erected a curtain that you can pull across.

The title of today’s entry will make no sense unless you know Leunig (http://www.curlyflat.net/).

Everything happened at once. Lisa was on the phone to a work associate, then the other line rang. It was Toni-from-across-the-road. Before I could understand what she was saying, someone began knocking at the front door.

“That’ll be Linda,” said Toni on the phone. “She’s in trouble – it’s Alex – he’s stabbed himself or something. She needs help!”

It took me a while to remember that Alex is a cat. A a graceful and beautiful Abyssinian with a penchant for getting into trouble.

“Ok, I’m going,” I said, and put the phone down. “I’m going out,” I yelled to Lisa. “Emergency!”

It was indeed Linda at the door, looking flustered. “He’s under the bed, stuck!” she said, as we trotted across the road to Toni-and-Linda’s house.

Her bedroom was a mess, with bedclothes and matress tossed aside, bed askew. “He’s under that far corner,” wailed Linda. “Should we lift the bed up?”

“Hang on, let me take a look,” I said, flopping down between the far wall and the bed. I peered under the spring box. There was Alex, looking very uncomfortable. He had all four legs on the ground, but part of him was stretched up like silly putty and tangled in one of the mattress springs. I guessed it was *possible* that he was just caught, but the tension seemed to indicate an impalement. I felt with my fingers amongst the coils of the spring, speaking softly to Alex to calm him down. “Hey, Alex, you have had some fun here. Now you’re in a fix. Let’s see how much trouble you got yourself into…” He was purring madly but it was from stress and confusion, not contentment.

Sure enough, I felt the sharp end of the spring, and a flap of Alex’s skin well and truly hooked on it.

“Let me think for a bit,” I said to Linda, who, pumped with adrenalin, was ready to flip the heavy bed over to rescue her cat. “It looks as though he crawled up and over one of the slats here, and hooked himself on this end of the spring. If we could push him back over the slat, he might slip loose, but Alex isn’t going to co-operate and we might make his injury worse. The spring is fastened to the slat with a couple of u-shaped staples… Can you bring me a large, flat bladed screwdriver?”

Linda came back in a few seconds with the tool. My plan was to pop the staple off the slat, freeing one end of the spring, which could then be twisted around on its axis, un-hooking Alex in the process.

The staple was tight, and so was the space in which I had to work, but moving the bed at this point was really going to hurt Alex. At one point the screwdriver slipped and made a noise, and Alex freaked and tried to run away, scrabbling at the carpet and stretching his, er, connection with the bed in a way that didn’t look good. I grabbed him and settled him down, before returning my attention to the staple.

After a minute, the staple eased out, and rotating the spring had the desired effect, as Alex popped free and darted for the door before I could even get myself upright.

After a frantic chase around the house, Alex was cornered and we checked out the damage. Yup, he’s got a couple of holes in his side, and will definitely need the attention of a professional.

I returned to our house and went back to work. More on the story of Alex as it develops.

Alex Update
The following day

Toni called in last night to report on Alex’s progress. He had a five-inch gash in his side, some muscle damage, no harm done to any internal organs. He’s sedated and at the vets. The vet said that as he doesn’t have stripes, probably when the stiches heal and are taken out, we won’t be able to see the scar.

He is a crazy cat. We’re so glad he doesn’t live with us.

This morning I had my associate review. This is an Acme administrative bureaucracy thing, it’s supposed to happen every year. It’s where you get to fill out an online self-rating system, pick three other associates that you work with to rate you, and then your leader (manager in acme-speak) rates you also. Then you get *this* meeting which involves the leader, yourself, and the party political officer, I mean Associate Developer (or A.D.) going through the ratings talking about where they don’t measure up or diverge from each other.

I have nothing to worry about, they’re quite happy with my job performance, etc. Of course this doesn’t mean anything in today’s economic climate. In two months there could be a financial crisis of some kind that would require another cut in the payroll, and a good review doesn’t make me any more confident that I would make the cut. All it would take is a *rumour* that Acme was being investigated for accounting irregularities…

Enough about work. During the afternoon Derek and I drove Teresa to the airport for her flight back to the East coast, while Lisa covered for me back in the office. It’s been great having her with us, no matter how short the time. Derek leaves in a couple of days, it’s back-to-school time all over.

I think we all slept in this morning. I doped myself on allergy pills left over from the spider bite prescription (I stopped taking them for *that*, they didn’t do any good) and covered myself in a soothing pink lotion that apparently works for sunburn, insect bites, etc. Although not totally effective, the perfumed smell was bearable and it got me through the day ok.

I can’t remember what we had for dinner – did we fire up the grill? I think so.

We woke up early, which initially seemed like a good idea, given that we were going to be driving back to Las Vegas in the afternoon. Maximize the time we have in the company of the rest of the family, right?

Breakfast turned into an extended affair as people came out at various times during the morning. We got to look at some photos of Anna when she was young, and some of us worked on finalizing the list of Wedding Invitations. Derek and Teresa and I were interested in another swim before we left San Diego, so plans for a lunch out were scrapped (We were still full of breakfast! Thanks Judy for the excellent cinnamon roll thingy.) and the kids and I swam in the pool for an hour or so while the others talked wedding stuff and looked at photos. (I think.)

Now is a good point to say an extra Thanks! to Judy and Marshall, we had a great time over those couple of days, thanks to your generous hospitality.

10 minutes in to the drive home I kind of insisted that we stop off at the Carvin showroom so that I could play a particular guitar through an amp, and ask some more questions about various construction options.

And then, yeah, I couldn’t help it, I ordered a guitar. Delivery time estimated 4-5 weeks. Arggh, it’s going to be a long wait.

Driving back East to Vegas, it was pretty uneventful, except I missed the last Barstow exit and we had to do a kind of weird loop through the back roads of Barstow. Found a place to eat dinner in a Sizzler. Adequate food, nothing special.

It was totally dark when we stopped at Primm for a toilet+caffeine stop, this time I decided to try a Tazo Citrus from Starbucks. (Teresa had had one on the way to San Diego and generously allowed me a taste and I decided that the next opportunity I had I’d give it a try.)

However much we might distrust Starbucks’ coffeeshop globalization campaign, they do push good stuff. Tazo Citrus…. mmmm. Say no to the obligatory offer of “cream” on the top though.

On the way from Primm to Vegas, I broke out in an itchy rash, all over. Argh! Sunburn? Allergic to Tazo Citrus? (please, No!). In the orange shadowy glow of the road lights, I could practically *see* raised bumps breaking out on my forearms.

Driving North into the Las Vegas valley on I-15, we passed a big billboard on behalf of the Hilton, announcing “YES 2002 Aug 24-25”. Two nights, and we’ve got tickets for tomorrow night’s show, heh heh.

We arrived home with no complications other than my dermatological insanity.

After the spider bite fiasco, I really wasn’t keen on itchy rashes. Could this be heat rash? Did I get too much sun while in the pool that morning? As yet, no answer to this question.

After a refreshing night’s sleep, we awoke to a deserted house, fresh coffee perking away, and a pile of bagels next to the toaster. All right!

Eventually the rest of the household emerged, rubbing sleep from their eyes in some cases, or running off to work in a business-like fashion in the case of Marshall.

We had very leisurely morning discussing what we would do with the rest of the day. Eventually we settled on: Visiting Fry’s Electronics; a drive out to Coronado Beach for a swim; then back for showers and a change of clothes before going out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant of some repute in the Old Town area of San Diego.

Fry’s Electronics one of a chain of stores, sort of like Costco for geeks. Imagine Radioshack or David Reids only in bulk supermarket form. We got the cables we needed for our new SubWoofer, and a couple of cool music DVD’s too. The others found stuff they wanted too, including a Dance Dance Revolution pad for the Playstation. (I could try and explain that last one, but I think I’ll leave it to experts, and merely say that if you think of Whack-a-Mole with boots and a dance track, you’ll have a pretty complete image.) Anna is a whiz at DDR.

It was fun driving around the freeways of San Diego, particularly with Anna in the passenger seat next to me doing the navigating.

Coronado beach is pretty neat looking, and on this Friday afternoon it wasn’t crowded at all. (Check out http://travel.discovery.com/convergence/beachweek2001/americasbest/coronado.html.)

The Sun was warm, the sea playful, and the breeze obligingly refreshing.

The drive back seemed to co-incide with rush hour, but thanks to Anna’s expert directions, we arrived back at the house in good time.

After showers and a change of clothes, it was back on the road to Casa del Pico for dinner. (See http://www.bazaardelmundo.com/dining/pico.html.) Josh, Anna and myself went with Judy, while L, Derek, and Teresa went with Marshall. That way there was no chance of my getting lost driving around in San Diego, and besides, it meant that if I wanted to have one of their famous margaritas, I could do so with impunity as I would not be driving.

Judy dropped Josh and myself off with directions to the restaurant, while she continued on to find a car park. The restaurant was inside a kind of village courtyard, among a whole bunch of other eateries and craft shops. The bad news: the queue for tables at Casa Del Pico stretched right through the courtyard and out the other archway! The good news: the food smells were great, and we had lots to look at, and anyway, I always enjoy an opportunity to talk to Josh. We inched slowly forward, while other people swapped in and out of their placeholder positions in the queue.

After about 20 minutes, Marshall and L showed up with D&T in tow, but still no sign of Judy and Anna. It was another 20 minutes before they showed up, and while Josh, Marshall, and I held our places in the queue, the others went shopping. The courtyard area was crowded with people, and there was a mariachi band playing somewhere nearby.

Eventually a couple of tables opened up close by, and all eight of us were seated. Was the food worth the wait? I think I would answer a qualified yes. I enjoyed the food a lot, and the experience was good, but I’d still try and hit an off-peak time if I were to go back there. Good company makes a lot of things worthwhile…  Oh, and I can now see why Casa Del Pico may have been rated “the best margarita in San Diego”.

Full of energy (not!) we got up at 5:30am, threw our overnight bags in the car, and drove South on I-15 towards San Diego. The idea was to beat the sun up (which we didn’t quite manage to do) and leave the Vegas valley before it got hot (which we succeeded in doing).

We stopped for breakfast at Barstow at Chrissy’s Cafe, which L and I remembered stopping at for dinner a year or so ago back when we drove our car from San Francisco, full of house contents, and a desire to get to our new house in Las Vegas.

The pancakes were not quite as good as I remembered them.

There was not much to see on the way South, just desert, and road works, and minor towns.

We took a pit stop in a town called Perris, and I know we then nulled out the benefit of the pit stop by walking back to the car via Starbucks and getting coffee.

We drove into the outskirts of San Diego at about 12:00, but before arriving at Marshall & Judy’s place we had a very important stop to make: The Carvin guitar factory and showroom. Derek and Teresa and Lisa were very patient while I wandered about trying out different guitars and looking at all the other items in the showroom. Yum.

I can’t remember where we stopped for lunch – I think it was a Hawaian-themed burger joint up the road from Carvin.

We pulled in to Judy and Marshall’s driveway at about 1:30pm, and pretty much flopped for the rest of the day. Some of us went swimming, some of us took naps… I seem to remember a game of Poker that broke out late afternoon and continued until the sun went down.

I was pretty tired after all the driving, and the rest of the evening is a bit of a blur… I remember meeting Anna’s brother Arthur (well, for the second time anyway) and a fantastic dinner arranged by Judy, we ate around the table… at some point we begged tiredness and fell asleep relatively quickly in the very comfortable guest room.

My arm is definitely healing now – those antibiotic pills must be working. The allergy ones seemed to have no effect.

The new speakers arrive today. I had some trouble connecting the sub-woofer correctly, mainly because we have some in-wall wiring that wasn’t quite compatible without an adapter, but after a quick phone conversation with the support technician, all was fixed and a quick blast of the THX Test program on the “Close Encounters” DVD proved it was working.

In the evening we drove out to McCarren and picked up Derek and Teresa, who looked great. We tried to eat dinner at PF Changs, as per usual, but they were very busy, so we instead drove around the corner to the Aladdin, and ate at the Todai Seafood Buffet. It was good, but a little expensive, and really better if you like seafood (duh!) If you have a birthdays you can go free, which is great for birthday parties. 10 days earlier would have been ideal…

After dinner we shopped at the Gap, they had a sale on and Derek and I found some cool monochromatic T-shirts…