Sin City

sunday - arrived in the late morning and rented our car. a pearl white dodge magnum (base model). I love it. not only does it look cool, its got more than enough room for us.... both people space and cargo space. after we got our car we drove to the strip and ended up at the new york new york and ate at one of the time square restaurants. after that we checked into our room and rested pretty much the rest of the afternoon. we ate at quarks, the star trek themed restaurant here at the hilton

monday - we got a late start cuz our rental had some issues starting up in the morning.... realizing it had been labeled as having battery issues we took it back to the rental place, we exchanged it for a smilar (upgraded) model and went to grab some food. from there we checked out another spot that supposedly has discount tickets, and we got tickets to the 2 star trek themed attractions here. we returned to our hotel to enjoy those things. we left afterwards to check out all the free stuff on the strip. saw the Sirens show at Treasure Island, which was prolly the closest you can get to an actual Vegas style show for free. very flashy with pyrotechnics and a sinking ship. after that we walked inside and ate at some place that was about to give out free drinks. little did wer know. man it was loud. after that we went nextdoor and watched the volcano at mirage explode. then we walked across the street to enjoy a couple shows of the Bellagio's fountain. awesome.

tuesday - i woke early again. decided to go for a swim. ended up getting sunscreen in my eyes and spent a majority of the time with my eyes closed. after that we headed back to the strip to check out other during the day type stuff. we went by the mirage and had planned to go see seigfreid and roys secret garden and dolphin habbitat, but once they realized it wasn't free, we left. I forget what exactly where we went from there, but we ended up back at our rooms and we watched some of the aviator.... but left halfway through for fremont street, the old strip. after driving around in circles looking for parking we got to the old strip, which is now no longer open to vehicles and is covered with a huge canopy that makes up the worlds largest video screen. this is the fremont street experience. which is an hourly show that plays various sequences including music. its actually quite good. we saw 2 shows. when we returned to the hotel there was a gift waiting for us. it was awesome.

wednesday - another early day. we were planning to go to hoover dam. I recomended we go early since it can potentially be even hotter there than in las vegas. what I didn't consider is how dead tired I would be when I arrived. our tour came to a stop before it began when the elevators stopped working before we could go down and see the generators, so we skipped to the observation deck. we basicaly left after that (we did watch a presentation about the states the river flows through.... but I fell asleep through it so... yeah. we ate at some pizza place in boulder and returned to the hotel. we watched the rest of the aviator and then went to eat at the NASCAR Cafe at the Sahara. after that it was back to the strip to catch the Bellagio again. I finally got pics and my brother filmed 2 shows. it was quite good. again.

thursday - this was pretty much gona be our last chance to do anything, since we would be leaving friday. we planned to go to the secret garden today, but first went to the stratosphere for breakfast... basically because it was the cheapest buffet we could find and was serving breakfast until late. it wasn't too bad. after eating and haning out a bit we had to go back to the hotel and grab my camera and stuff, but we decided to go to the worlds largest souveneir shop first. most of the stuff there was crap. did very little shopping there. once we were finally done it was pretty much too late to get our camera stuff for the garden, so we went to another shopping destination. after that we decided to cruise the strip again, catching basically the whole thing in night guise. I also took some still shots which I've posted online of various stuff around the city.

friday - our last day in sin city. our last chance to visit the secret garden and dolphin habbitat at the mirage. and finally we got around to it. and for me, it was so totally worth it. they had like 6 dolphins that I saw and I'm sure more that we were able to get pretty damn close to. they don't have scheduled shows, the trainers just come out and play with them once in a while... its so cool. beyond that was the secret garden where all the big cats are. they had a BUNCH of white tigers and one royal white (no stripes) tiger out at the time. they have 44 tigers in all. they also had a few white lions, a black panther a snow leopard and a tai elephant with a pet turnkey. yes that's right. after hanging out there for a while we wandered around a bit before finally returning our rental and heading to the airport. our flight was delayed. we didn't get into oakland until 1030ish. didn't get home till like 12. the end.

its now wednesday june 29 and I just got outa the shower to find a comment had been left by carinne (who I didn't even know still read this!) this entry has been sitting on my sidekick for over a week now. I think I can finally post it. and so now here I stand, in my bathrobe finishing off the entry before forwarding it to my blog. phew. more to come I promise! I'm not giving up on you guys!

Leaving On A Jet Plane

so..... here I am at gate 24 at Oakland international airport. and..... as exciting as it is, I'm bored enough to blog. yup. its currently 6:40 in the morning. and I don't know why I'm so damn awake. I've been up for the past hor and a half or so. good. times. we spent last night in some crappy hotel that was way too stuffy. but at least it was near a Denny's where we had dessert. milkshakes. they were ok.
thankfuly I have my trusty ipod with me (along with earbuds from Lyla.... ty again!) so I don't have to actually converse with my family. and I am being reminded of a bit by George Carlin. as the lady on the PA system talks about Pre-Boarding.... which makes no sense since one cannot board the plane before one boards the plane. or how I'd prefer not to get on the plane, as there would likely be a lot less wind IN the plane. anyways, its a grea bit on airline and airport..... stuff. and I am now on the plane. and we're in the air @ 7:17 anywho. the view sucks, I'm right over the wing. and I really have to pee. see you in vegas!

Move On

a couple weeks ago i lost the keys for work. my boss had the whole office rekeyed, at which point he showed me the invoice.... i guess just so i know how much i cost him. whatever. tuesday, when i went in, the key for the door that passes between the office and the back storage shed wasnt where it normally is kept. assuming it was being used by someone else i went about my business. when i finally wrapped up around 7 ish i went back to lock up... and the door was still unlokced and the key still not in place. so i left a voice mail with my boss' assistant.

today when i came in my boss walked out from the back area as i checked my voicemail and called me away. he then questioned me about the key in his office (having never cosed the door i might add) i told him my account and that i remember locking up on friday (which i am almost possitive about) so anyways, he asks to see my office keys, and when i hand them to him he proceeds to rip them off, literally he grabbed the office keys in one hand and mine in the other and just yanked them off the ring, destroying the chep crappy ring they came with. he then handed me my letter of termination and last paycheck. explaining that i hadnt improved in my ability to do my job, despite him telling me to do so. thing is, he expected me to do something i just couldnt do, and that was to do stuff around the office that he wanted done.... without him actually asking me to. not that my day wasnt already packed with normal daily tasks and random jobs from the agents.... he wanted me to somehow read his mind and do what he noticed needed to be done. what was so difficult about leaving me a voicemail or a note like EVERYONE else??

whatever. its over. i have free time and a lack of income. great. i plan to enjoy myself now, having been freed from all forms of daily obligation. i was planning on leaving after this summer anyway, so its no huge loss. but i sure felt like shit during the day. and my mom lecturing me on work ethics didnt help at all. couldnt she just pretend to be on my side? even if she really wasnt, just to make me feel better? instead she gave me a lecture, drilled me with questions and topped it off with the task of sweeping and mopping. needless to say, i felt like dissapearing.

aaanyways, im better now. i just wanted to put this up here, both to document what happened and so i wont have to rehash the damn story over and over.

special thanks to lyla and rene for randomly calling me and making me feel better.

there was osmething else i wanted to mention, but it escapes me, so.... i will leave you with that.