Spider Frenzy

I walked into the bedroom the other night to see a big black spider camping out next to the bed. The bed currently doesn't have a frame or anything, so it just sits on the ground. The spider was on the wall right next to my pillow on the bed. I thought it might have been a spider that had been previously occupying the office. I figured I better consult with P&AF over the appropriate course of action.

M: (yells toward the living room) "Come here! I think the spider from the office is in the bedroom now. How did it get in here?"

I inspect the spider further. It's black and it seems to have a big abdomen. That makes me think it might be a black widow, but it doesn't seem to have a red hourglass. And it looks like it might be a little fuzzy; black widows usually look shinier. It was obviously not the fuzzy thin-abdomened spider from the office. P&AF finally shows up, but he stands farther away rather than coming onto the bed for a close-up look at the spider.

P&AF: "Do you want me to get a glass? We could put it in a glass, and you could take it outside."

The next thing I know, Henri has jumped up on the bed and is inspecting the spider with me. She runs up to it and bats it with her paw. The spider goes flying off of the wall. This causes me to scream and jump off the bed, while P&AF just continues observing the scene from afar. The fact that the cat is playing with the spider that I'm not wholly convinced isn't a black widow freaks me out.

M: "We have to kill it right? I mean, it's not a black widow right? What do we do? Kill it? We can't let her play with it. Do black widows kill cats?"

P&AF comes up near the bed with a shoe in one hand. Henri has knocked the spider off the wall and onto the floor next to the bed.

P&AF: "So I should kill it with this, right?"

M: "Ummmm...I don't know....get the dust buster. Suck it up with that..."

P&AF: "Then what? Just pour it out into the trash? Or leave it?"

M: "I guess you could just set it on the porch. Maybe it will crawl out from there..."

P&AF runs to get the dust buster. He runs back in and turns on the dust buster, which causes Henri to bolt from the room. He vacuums up the spider, and runs out of the room at a dead sprint with the dust buster held at arms length.

I think the dust buster is still sitting on the porch just in case.

More Gym Terror

I was in the hot tub at the gym the other day, and the shower that sits behind a wall behind the hot tub turned on. And then I started hearing sort of a snuffling nose noise. And I turned around to see a guy standing in the water, rubbing his nose, and apparently trying to blow his nose into the water. It was DISGUSTING! A few minutes later the exact same sequence of events was repeated with a different guy. I just don't understand. How is it even possible that that is acceptable?

Thirsty Water Snob

I realize I don't blog enough to make this interesting for anyone. And I also realize that I blog too much about my cat.

The thing is that she has taken to drinking any glasses of water that are set within her reach in the house. I sat down to stretch out after a run with a nice glass of water from the water cooler next to me, and the next thing I knew, Henri's head was in the glass, slurping away.

She has a cat fountain too, but apparently that just isn't good enough for her anymore.

Sneezeriffic

At about three in the morning we awoke to a sneezing cat. My inclination was to kick her off the bed and lock her out of the room, but I was too lazy to get out of bed. I have to admit that I would have felt a little bad for kicking her out of the room when she was "sick" too. She was sneezing like crazy though---probably 20 or more rapid fire sneezes at a time. They were shaking the bed. This is sort of how it went...

H: "Sneeze...sneeze...sneeze...sneeze...etc."

P: "Is Henri okay? Should we do something for her?"

(More sneezing.)

M: "Like what? What are you going to do for a sneezing cat?"

P: "I don't know..."

(15 minutes go by, filled with more sneezing and some drifting in and out of sleep.)

P: "Maybe I should give her some catnip?"

M: "You think catnip is going to help the sneezing? I think it might make it worse."

(Another fifteen minutes of sneezing and half-sleeping.)

P: "Maybe I could go look something up online to fix her?"

M: "You're not going to find something online to fix a sneezing cat right now!"

(Another ten minutes of sneezing and Henri leaves the bedroom.)

P: "I'll check on her when I get up for work."

(Two minutes go by. I get up to go check on the cat.)

P: (with relief) "You're going to go check on her, right?"

M: (stumbling) "Yeah, yeah, I'll be right back."

Thankfully Henri appears to have gotten over her sneezing fit now.

Mysterious Appearance

A pair of blue kiddie scissors appeared on my desk this morning. Everything else in my office appeared to be in order when I came in. But, there in the middle of my clear desk was the pair of blue round-tip scissors, proving that someone had been in my office over the weekend. I didn't see any other evidence of a craft project, like glue or little pieces of paper cut out to make a snowflake. Who knows how they ended up there? I can't imagine there were kids in my office over the weekend. Maybe someone was just randomly moving supplies from one office to another. The next thing you know I'll end up with a new stapler and no ruler...

Identity Crisis

P&AF and I had an amusing conversation during a break from work last week.

P: "So, I almost wore your boxers to work today."

M: "My boxers?"

(I am confused because I didn't even know that I really had any boxers, minus a pair of Halibutt boxers that are really more like knit shorts to me...)

P: "Yeah, I almost put your boxers on and wore them. But then I thought they looked awfully small."

M: "What boxers are you talking about?"

P: "I don't know. Your boxers. They say size 6."

(Now I'm really confused because I'm 99% sure that if I do have any boxers that he might confuse for his own, they would be size S, M, or L, not size 6.)

M: "Ummm...I don't think I have any size 6 boxers. What did they look like?"

P: "I don't know. Like boxers. Size 6...or maybe it was 36...yeah, maybe they were mine. Maybe I've gained a lot of weight and they just seemed small..."

M: "Were they the plaid boxers sitting on the basket of clean laundry?"

P: "Yeah, those boxers."

M: "Ummm...yeah, those are yours."

Loneliness Cure

Just in case you were worried about me being lonely, because maybe, just maybe the California DOT had finally forgotten about me and my law-breaking Mazda---well, don't worry! I got a new toll violation in the mail just the other day. It was good to see the old rogue subaru again. And I feel much better now that I've had a legitimate reason to visit the bay area fast trak website again....I don't think it's ever going to end. Ever.

Cricket Jailer

We have been inundated with crickets lately. At dusk, you can't walk on the sidewalk without hitting a couple, even if they just jump and bounce off your leg. I like them a lot better than cockroaches. Henri loves them. Her favorite thing to do is go out onto the balcony and chase crickets into the house. I'm not sure why they aren't as good on the balcony, but she wants them all inside. Maybe she hopes to play with them after we've gone asleep. She's at her very happiest when she has chased a half a dozen inside. She sits in the middle of the floor, gazing at all the crickets walking around her. It's like she is the cricket warden or something. Except for the part where she starts devouring them...

Germophobe

I went into the steam room at the gym yesterday. It wasn't super steamy, and it was supposed to smell like eucalyptus. I thought it smelled like dirty socks. I didn't enjoy it, and I didn't stay long. There was a little green hose attached to a water faucet in the room, and I wondered if it was used to make more steam. After leaving the steam room, I got my answer, as the guy who was in there turned on the hose and started spraying the rocks and the rest of the room down. And, as I watched, in horror, he began drinking from the little green hose. The dirty little green hose that had been laying on the dirty floor in a pool of dirty gym foot sweat in the dirty stinky sock smelling steam room.

Soapbox Negativity

I have decided that I don't understand why cheering has become so incredibly negative. Rather than focusing in the positive of our own teams, we often seem to focus on bringing the other team down. I swear it wasn't always like that, at least not to the extent it is today. Look at the following examples....

-At the UNLV/Wisconsin game this year, every single time Wisconsin did anything remotely good, a majority of the UNLV students chanted, "F*** Wisconsin, F*** Wisconsin!" The group near me continued their happy chant even after a nearby man asked them to cut it out in respect for his son.

-At the Avalanche/Kings EXHIBITION game last night, fans from both teams kept chanting, "Avalanche sucks, " or "Kings suck!"

Now, I understand there are rivalries out there that warrant a limited amount of this type of cheering. CSU/CU, Packers/Vikings (though I'm not certain I can see most Packers fans cheering that way, ) Bronco/Raiders...you know, the big ones. But seriously, why such hatred for Wisconsin from UNLV? UNR, sure, but Wisconsin??? And such hatred between the Kings and the Avalanche at an exhibition game of all things? As an Avalanche fan, I'm saving my jeers for the Red Wings. And, really, wouldn't we rather all beat a really good team, than a team that sucks?

3D Experience

A couple weeks ago we had some really nice storms in Vegas. Tons of lightning, good thunder, and even a whole bunch of rain. It all started at about 2AM. I got up to see if I thought the storms were coming or going, because I had woken up from the lightning (I guess my blinds aren't so hot...) I decided that the storms were going, as the lightning was coming from the east, but I still opened the window and laid back down in the hopes that I'd hear thunder.
As luck would have it, the storms did come back to the west. The lightning was even close enough to where it was instantaneous thunder. At one point, I even thought a fireball was coming through the window-yes, my imagination does get the better of me a good portion of the time.
An hour or so later, P&AF's alarm went off.

P: "Mhrmphf..."

M: (thinking) "What did he say? Did he just spit on me? There is something wet on my face. It feels cold though. Not like spit."

P: "It's raining in our bedroom."

M: "What?"

P: "Yeah, it's raining in our bedroom. It's a 3D experience. You opened the window."

M: "Ummm...no...I closed it an hour ago. Turn the light on."

(Side note: We have a ceiling fan/light combo in the bedroom.)

P&AF turns the light on, and we see water streaming down from the ceiling through the ceiling fan, where it is then dispersed about the room by the fan blades.

M: "Turn it off, turn it off!"

P&AF reaches up to the cord hanging from the fan/light.
I envision a sparking electrocuting mess.

M: "No, NO, at the door, at the door."

I sat in bed with a bucket and watched lightning the rest of the morning. It was fun.
Don't worry, the HOA is fixing the roof any day now.

Liability

Spending Labor Day weekend in Manhattan Beach was great. The weather was perfect, and the water temperature was the best. I found that in my happiness in being tossed around in the waves, I would break down into fits of laughter. I figure laughter is good for you, but it does cause a bit of a problem when you keep getting hit by waves. Eventually you are bound to swallow tons of water and lose your ability to breathe. Tons of fun nonetheless. I miss the ocean!

Moving Truck Madness

As I was driving home from work today, I heard the traffic report on the radio. The dee jay reported that there was a moving truck driving the wrong way down the road near Rancho and Lake Mead. Oddly, I was headed exactly for Rancho and Lake Mead. I wondered if I should just pull over or try an alternate route; I mean, which wrong way was the moving truck going? Was he taking people out in his path? Just before the intersection in question, there was an accident; several cops were there, but I didn't see a moving truck. I still assumed that it must have been a result of the moving truck situation. So I kept driving, figuring that I was out of danger. Then I saw the flashing lights ahead of me again. As I got closer I saw a huge semi of a moving truck, crashed on the side of the road. It appeared to have been heading into an apartment complex. It ran over the curb, and it looked like it went into a tree also. Rather than driving by the mess in the death lane--the truck pretty much took out all the west bound lane of Lake Mead--I decided to bypass the whole thing on another road. Of course, I ran into another accident there anyway. Some days, I guess you can't win, but at least I didn't have to dodge the out of control moving truck after all.

Bad-Age

My arm does not like the bandage that was used to cover the tetanus shot site. I removed the bandage on Thursday night and noticed it seemed a little pink. I washed it off, and on Friday it still looked really irritated where the bandage had stuck. I basically just have a bandage imprint on my upper left arm.

As we were driving up to Mammoth Lakes, I pointed out the bandage site to P&AF.

M: "Look, it's all red and irritated where the bandage was on my shot arm."

P: "I don't see anything."

M: "You don't? Maybe it's because you have your sunglasses on."

P: "I don't know. I just see a bandage. It looks fine."

M: "Yeah, but there isn't a bandage."

Nevada Health Care

I recently saw an interactive map on MSNBC -- which I, of course, cannot find now -- to compare the health care systems in different states. Poor Nevada came in near the bottom at around 46 or something. Sadly, I have to agree. I think this is one of the worst things about living in the state of Nevada.
Today I tried to get a tetanus shot. The whole saga actually began yesterday. I called to make an appointment with my primary care physician, but I was informed that she was out of the office for several weeks. I asked if another physician, nurse, or physician's assistant could see me, and they told me to go to a Quick Care office instead.
So I went to the Quick Care office today. The people there were very, very nice. I went through the whole check-in process, but when the doctor walked in, he told me that my insurance would probably not cover the shot. I am so grateful to him for mentioning it, because from my conversation yesterday, I hadn't gathered that there would be a problem.
I called my insurance company to verify, and the conversation didn't go so well. After it was determined that I did not have a wound, she informed me that I couldn't go to Quick Care. We went around and around a little bit about what my options were as my PCP was out of town. She then stopped the conversation and asked me if the vaccination was for school. I explained that I was some 4-5 years overdue on it, but that it was also required for school.
BIG mistake! She then completely flipped on me and told me that they weren't going to cover me at my PCP's office either because they don't cover "third party examinations." Hmmmmm...so even though I need the vaccination, because someone else also requires the vaccination, they aren't paying.
Anyway, the conversation ended with her telling me to find another insurance carrier and me telling her that I'd like to. She hung up on me.
After all, I went to the county health department. It wasn't unlike the DMV, though the people were quite friendly, and I didn't wait nearly as long. It cost more that I'd hope to pay for a vaccination, given that I have a health insurance plan with quite rich benefits, on paper, but at least it's done.
And thank goodness for the doctors and nurses and staff at that Quick Care! They saved me a good chunk of change!

Drive-In Etiquette

It's a new month, so I figure I should get back to blogging a little bit more. I've been pretty lazy lately.

In the most recent issue of Sunset magazine (which I love!) they recommended that you take a trip to the drive-in here in Las Vegas. I just have to disagree on this one.

One Friday night, we decided that we should go to the drive-in. It was hot out, but we figured that sitting outside in the breeze wouldn't be so bad. We went really early (last time we tried to go, there was such a traffic jam that we missed the first 20 minutes of the movie, and just left by the time we got to the payment stand,) parked our car, and walked over to a casino for dinner.

When we came back to the drive-in, there were several cars parked right near us. It seemed like there were about two adults and twenty children, ranging from 6 months old to 17 years old. The kids were yelling and running around. We thought maybe we were at the wrong screen because the movies were "Ocean's 13" and "1408." Why would a bunch of little kids be watching those movies? Especially when the younger kids kept yelling out, "Ratatouille!!" When the movie started, they realized that they were at the wrong screen. The kids were all yelling and pointing at another screen, and the adults packed up the car so that they could get to the right movie. It was only a minor fifteen minute disturbance.

We had about 10 minutes of a pleasant, quiet movie, with a nice breeze, when up drove a huge red SUV. First the SUV decided to leave its lights on for a good 10 minutes. It only resulted in a slight glare to the screen. Then the SUV refused to turn off. Apparently they wanted the air conditioning or something. However, this blasted me with hot exhaust air, rather than the cool breeze I had been enjoying. Am I completely crazy, or is it customary to shut your car off at the drive-in? After 20 minutes of sweltering heat and exhaust fumes, we carefully rolled our own car foward out of the SUV heat blast radius. The movie was much more enjoyable after that.

I still don't think I'd venture down there again though. Just not my type of crowd, I guess.

They Were Hiding

I went to the dentist for an annual check up. After the dentist finished cleaning and examining my teeth he stated, "I couldn't find any cavities."
Not, "No cavities..." or "You didn't have any cavities..." or "There were no cavities..."
Just, he couldn't find them. I'm guessing that my teeth will just fall out by my next visit because the cavities were hidden somewhere on the underside of the teeth or something.

Reasons Not To...

...go to Target on a Saturday.

1) You may inadvertantly spend $250.00 on necessities, when you were really planning to spend $100.00. (I swear the only frivolities were a $7.00 Harry Potter book and a $3.00 tube for the pool.)
2) You may drop some band-aids on the floor, at which time it seems that your boyfriend is having a rather intense reaction to this occurence ("Ummm...Maryse...." in a concerned tone of voice,) which is, of course, when you realize that your skirt zipper has unzipped down half the side of your leg. You spend the rest of your time at Target wondering how long your undies have been exposed for.
3) After all that, you may actually forget the dental floss, calcium, and plastic wrap.

They Jumped The Fence

Last night we were going for a late evening swim before bed. It was a little after nine, and it seemed like the perfect night for it. As we were swimming around, a security guard and a couple began a conversation outside of the pool. The security guard was coming up to make sure the gate to the pool was closed.

Security Guard: "Oh, I'm just checking to make sure the gate is closed."

Woman: "Well, they might have left it open so they can get out. They might not have a key. Who knows how they got in there anyway."

Security Guard: "I'm just checking the gate for now."

Woman: "They can only be there until a certain time anyway, shouldn't they be out of there?"

Security Guard: "No, they have until ten."

It's one of those conversations that I wish I had on video tape. Not because it is all that funny by itself, but just because it would illuminate the circumstances a little bit. First, there really isn't a reason why anyone would ever sneak into that pool. It is a gated community, and then the pool has a gate too. Not to mention that if you're going to sneak into a pool, why not choose a special pool with a waterfall or a diving board or something. Our pool is nice, but it's just a little rectangle. Go sneak into the Flamingo or something. Second, when the lady was complaining that we were in the pool too late, we weren't even doing anything. We weren't talking, we weren't splashing, we were not being anymore noisy than the couple pulling their suitcases along the sidewalk. I couldn't figure out how our presence in the pool was really affecting the couple.

Get Up On It

We went to the park on Friday night after a failed attempt at going to the drive-in. There was a couple there with three dogs. It was an odd mix of dogs. They had a big black dog that looked like a lab, a small black dog that looked like a weiner dog, and a floofy white dog like a shih tzu. The funniest thing was that they had a stroller for the shih tzu. They kept trying to get the dog into the stroller to push it around, and the dog kept jumping out. Then the big black dog just refused to stand up at all. The woman was trying lift him up from the middle, and he just went limp and kept laying there. I wish I had a little video of it. Maybe he liked the way the cool grass felt or something.

Celebrate!

VBG and I turned 27 recently, and VBG threw a huge party for our birthdays. It was super. I drank Medio y Medio, and spent the night dancing under the disco ball. At one point, I went into the other room to get some food. A guy in the room stopped me and said, "Wait a minute...if you're in here, then who's dancing???" An excellent way to turn 27, I must say.
Thanks VBG!

Kindergarten Failure

I had a funny little conversation with a 10 year-old this weekend.

10yrs: "I'm in fourth grade, but really I should be in fifth grade."

M: "Really? What happened? Why are you in fourth grade then?"

10yrs (resignedly): "I had to do kindergarten twice."

M (trying to be reassuring): "Oh, I think I know someone else who had to do that."

10yrs: "It's not a good thing you know."

Wind Gusts

As I walked into work this morning, it was so windy that my eyelids kept lifting off the surface of my eyes.

Segway Slalom

So first let me say that my all-time favorite episode of Arrested Development was the time that Job was at the construction site with his segway. He got caught on a little mound of dirt, and for some reason I couldn't stop laughing at it.
Today we took a walk around the Peccole Ranch walking/exercise path. We saw some ducks, and I decided that we should sit down to watch them for awhile. The weather was gorgeous, and I think ducks are nice.
As we were sitting there, this guy on a segway started barrelling up the sidewalk. He looked very similar to Bernie in Weekend at Bernies, with gray hair combed back, wearing sunglasses. He was weaving around on his segway as if he was downhilling skiing a slalom course. His knees were bent, and he really appeared to be concentrating on it all. The next thing I knew, he ran off the sidewalk, looking mad crazy, onto the grass towards the ducks. At the last minute, he veered to miss the ducks, and they didn't even flinch.
We just looked at each other and started laughing as the segway guy drove off.

Rumors

P&AF and I took a little vacation last week. On the Friday night of our vacation we decided that we wanted to have a fish fry for dinner. We only had a couple options for restaurants for the night, as we were in the mountains with little development around us. We're actually not certain that fish fries on Friday nights exist anywhere outside of the midwest, but we figured we'd give it a shot. When we got back from hiking and snowboarding for the day, we stopped by the lodge to see what was for dinner. We walked in and talked to the hostess.

Hostess: "Would you like a table?"

Us: "No, we were just checking out what was on the dinner menu. Do you have a fish fry tonight?"

Hostess: (Uncertain.) "Fish fry? No, we don't have a fish fry."

Us: "Oh, okay. We just thought we'd check."

Hostess: "No, we've never had a fish fry."

We were walking towards the door at that point. And just then another guy turned around from the bar. He grinned expectantly at the waitress..."You guys have a fish fry???"

In Bad Taste

P&AF and I are working on our St. Patrick's Day feast in the kitchen.

P&AF: "I can't get this horrible taste out of my mouth."

M: "Really? What is it?"

P&AF: "Well, remember when you were eating that granola bar on the couch?"

M: "Yeah..."

P&AF: "I grabbed a piece of the granola bar that I thought fell onto the couch."

M: "Uuuhhhh..."

P&AF: "It was a piece of cat litter."

M: "Oh---that's disgusting. Take a shot of 151. (Assuming he wouldn't actually randomly take a shot of the 151.) That will get rid of it."

I turn around a minute later to see P&AF downing a shot of 151 over the sink with no chaser or anything. He immediately begins to gag/cough uncontrollably.

M: (Frantically.) "I didn't actually think you'd do it. Have some 7-Up. Are you okay???"

The rest of the night P&AF complained of a sore throat and the lingering taste of 151 in everything he ate.

Pony Time

We went to rent a movie at the red box last night. I was feeling a little depressed because we were having to reject a counter offer that a seller had made on a house we were trying to buy. It was the cutest little perfect house too. Anyway, next to the red box was one of those claw machines where you try to win a stuffed animal. I saw a yellow pony in it.
Me: "I want that pony."
I put a dollar in the machine (it was 50 cents per claw grab.) And, of course, I did not get the pony in my two tries. This was to be expected, because I can't think of ever seeing somebody win something. If I have it was maybe twice or something.
So P&AF decides that he wants to try also.
P&AF: "I'm going for Pumbah."
I was a little dejected at that...wasn't he supposed to try to win my prize??? Anyway, he went for Pumbah and missed.
On his next try he went for the pony after all.
And got it! So I am now the proud owner of a butterscotch pony.
After that I had another dollar, so I figured I better try to win Pumbah. On my first try the claw picked it up, and then dropped it in an alternate location. I almost felt like a hero there for a minute. Unfortunately, I was not able to give the favor back and win a prize for P&AF though.
P&AF then told me on the way out of the store that he pretty much always wins something if he puts in more than a dollar. Strange...

Tangerine Dreams

We went out to Tangerine at TI a couple weeks ago. FW&BF was in town with a group of gorgeous gals, so P&AF and I met up with them there. I had never been to Tangerine before, although I always thought it looked cool from the outside. It seemed like it would be cool to watch the TI water/fireworks show from the Tangerine outdoor section. I can't say that I was as impressed with Tangerine as I thought I would be though. It was tiny, and I wasn't a huge fan of the DJ. It was also really amusing that periodically they have little burlesque shows in there. Out comes a little band, and a lady does a little striptease. Very interesting. Right before one of those shows started, a couple walked in who appeared to be completely lost. Possibly they were confused by the "Tangerine-Bar and Lounge" Label. Anyway, they were an elderly couple (think matching windbreaker suits on a guided walking tour of the San Antonio Riverwalk,) and they looked about as comfortable as a Vikings fan who just walked into a bar in Wisconsin on Sunday. Later on in the evening we left the lounge, and sat just outside the exit to re-group. As we were sitting there, out walked a very drunken man, who managed to projectile vomit while walking. Vegas really is particularly amazing for those vomiting in public places moments. Anyway, the bouncers immediately got to work on cleaning things up. Someone from our group decided to start up a little conversation with the man who appeared to be (or at least acted like) the lead bouncer.

Our Group: "Nice. That must be a fun part of your job."
Bouncer: "Yeah. It's pretty standard."
Our Group: "Gross."
Bouncer: "That's not even the bad part of the job. The crack addicts are the worst."
(He points to what appears to be scarring from a human bite on his hand.)
Our Group: "Ummm..okay..."

That was pretty much it for Tangerine. I don't think I'd pay to go there. Though I still think it might be fun to watch the pirate show from the balcony one day.

You Decide

I think I went to the concert that is the Yin to the Yang of the Justin Timberlake concert. On Valentine's Day I went to the Fusion concert at the Aladdin. The concert featured Girl Talk, Spank Rock, Lupe Fiasco, Gnarls Barkley, and Kanye West. Mainly we wanted to see Kanye West. So, Girl Talk and Spank Rock. You should try to find video footage of these two bands because it is pretty incredible.
We showed up to the concert while Girl Talk was playing. The stage was complete disorder. There were random people everywhere, dressed in random costumes...a glitzy cheerleader, someone wearing peach leggings and a green shirt. When I was kid, we were visiting Kansas, and on the Spanish television station, they were showing wrestling. It was really crazy wrestling though. There were the regular-type wrestlers in the ring, but then there were also tons of little guys in ewok type suits running around. That is what Girl Talk reminded me of. No one was dancing in sync. They all appeared to be dancing to different songs. The highlight of the night became the fact that during every pause the rest of the night (for stage changes, etc.) Girl Talk played more music. It was unbelievable.
There also are not really words for Spank Rock. Maybe their name is enough. I must say that I have never seen an outfit quite like the one that one of the lead rappers was donning. He was wearing gray leggings (yes, leggings on a man during a concert,) with high top sneakers. The velcro strap on his sneaker was undone and flopping around. He proceeded to take his clothes off during the show. He also periodically laid down in a sort of "come hither" pose in the center of the stage. Their show was ended when they appeared to get into some sort of fight. Gray leggings lost his shoes, was dragged across the stage by his leg by the other guy, and then stomped off the stage in what appeared to be anger.
As for Lupe Fiasco and Gnarls Barkley, they were fine; had they not been crippled by the insanely long stage changes and distortion, I may even have really enjoyed them.
And, I did really like Kanye West. The rest of the experience was probably worth it for that.
But seriously-worst concert ever...

JT

I highly recommend seeing the Justin Timberlake FutureSex/LoveShow. P&AF and I went to see it at the MGM a couple weeks ago. It was one of the best shows I've ever been to. Pink was excellent too. I'm usually not a very starstruck sort of person, but at the beginning of the Justin Timberlake show, I was freaking out. They had up all these large translucent screens, and I could see people standing behind them.
M: (jumping up and down) "I see him! I see him! He looks good! I see him!"
P&AF: "No you don't. You see a big black man."
M: "No I see him, right there."
P&AF: "No, that's a big black man."
M: "Oh..."
P&AF: "I see him."
M: "You SEE HIM???"
(pause)
M: (jumping up and down again) "I see him too! He's coming up out of the middle! I see him!"
Anyway, the show ended up just as great. And I was nearly as excited when Timbaland showed up-unexpectedly to me. So you should go see it if you can. The dancing was awesome, the stage was awesome, and Justin Timberlake is just so darned cute.

Cherry Hazards

We went to Cherry again last weekend.
During the night, I left the dance floor to use the restroom. I hadn't been in there at Cherry before. I walked in, and was surrounded by mirrors. All of the stalls were mirrored. I looked down the hallway of stalls, and saw a girl walking back towards me. So I stopped to let her walk by. And she stopped too. I wondered what she was doing for a minute, and then realized that she was me. I turned around and tried to find my way into a stall. This proved too difficult for me also, and the restroom attendant had to take pity on me by opening a stall door and ushering me in. I felt pretty darned smooth.
Towards the end of the night, we all were standing by a wall because the music had switched over from hip-hop to trans. I hate house music, so that was about the end of it for me. P&AF decided that was the perfect time to pick me up and throw me over his shoulder. He also decided that it would be good to twirl me around in this position. It may have been a good idea, but unfortunately, during the twirl, he smashed my head into the wall. He put me down, and I just kept yelling, "Ow, ow, ow, my ear, my ear," and laughing.
That was the end of the night.

Snow Advisory

We have a snow advisory today in Vegas. I drove home in some snow flurries. They did not stick to the ground. We are also going to the UNLV/Michigan hockey game tonight. It's almost like a normal winter...