Mortaine’s Blog

I came home with $142 of gambling money left (my “winnings” in the sense that I only lost $200 of the $350 I came with). I spent $108 on the glass pen and inks, but I’m hesitant to include that, since it was a purchase I chose to make for myself and not really all that related to the iPod or anything else.

Anyway, I’m either at 550-ish or 450ish depending on how you look at it. I’m going to place the order this week.

OK, I’ve decided to go to the STC Region 8 Conference this year, July 25-27. To cut down on the travel costs, I’m looking for crash space. Do I know anyone in Davis, California, who would be willing to host me for 3, possibly 4 nights (I’ll probably arrive on the 24th and leave the morning of the 28th, depending on my schedule)?

I’m going to be volunteering to help with the Conference, though in what capacity, I don’t yet know.

Anyway, if anyone thinks they can put me up for a couple of nights, let me know. If things get too hairy or uncomfortable during our visit, I can always go to a hotel; I’m just trying to cut the expense, since I’ll probably not be getting paid for the days I’ll be gone from work.

Thanks in advance!

The beautiful, expensive glass pen that I bought at the Venetian is now a beautiful piece of garbage– it broke on the flight home. Stupid fucking TSA that won’t let me bring fragile pointy things on a flight. Stupid fucking TSA for handling my bag with all the grace and gentleness of a butcher.

Fuckers. I hate the TSA.

Yesterday was terrific. We spent the day together; John didn’t go to the convention, just hung out with me. We went over to the Tropicana and the MGM Grand, and the New York New York– all of which are in the same corner on the Strip. The New York New York is where we had lunch, and better luck at the tables, if I recall correctly. But at the MGM Grand, we got our picture taken with a lion cub (awww!) It’s really precious– I’m thinking of making a frame for it, rather than just buying one.

We went to the Wayne Grady performance last night– that was a total blast. However, when leaving the theater, they funnelled all of us out through the narrowest corridor in the hotel– and not into the lobby. Granted, the lobby was busy, but that’s no reason to force a thousand people into claustrophobia and what had to be a fire hazard. Gah.

When we got back to our hotel last night, it was midnight, but I was still totally ramped up. We went down to the casino, but John was totally pooped, and he wanted to go to bed. So we did, and I ended up more tired than I’d thought, I guess, because I fell asleep right away.

First, AmericaWest is still the suckiest airline to fly to or from Las Vegas, especially on a Sunday night. The Las Vegas airport had so many things broken with it– an escalator that didn’t go up, a check-in kiosk in which 2 of the 6 stations were out of order, plus a flight of stairs that was mysteriously blocked off, with no explanation. The flight was full and delayed by about an hour, then when we finally landed, there was another plane at our gate, and Oakland airport is the worst-labelled airport I’ve ever been to– it was hard to find out which baggage carousel our luggage would come out. There was one carousel running when we got there, but the LED sign above it (you know, the kind that can be programmed on the fly) did not even have the flight information for the bags that were on it– so we spent about 10 minutes standing next to it, wondering if these were our bags or not.

Got home. Things here are normal. I’m watching Friends from Thursday night. John has already gone to bed, and I’m heading that way after posting this finishing the show. I have a bunch of things to put out on the curb tomorrow morning for pickup by United Cerebal Palsey. (That’s mostly a reminder for myself, by the way, so I don’t forget to put them out in the morning).