a long post. Honeymoon and Karate class
Okay... how long has it been since I posted... wow. a long time.
so, I got married to Michele on Pi day.
I kept track of the honeymoon trip to Las Vegas so copy and paste...
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missed 6am flight
rebooked to 250pm next day Spring Break, best they could do.
also downgrade from 1st class on first leg.
SLD came for us.
Slept all day.
Dinner at J Alexanders. They forgot to bring us our Calimari and overcooked Michele's Steak
They re-made the steak and gave us the app and her dinner at no cost.
Make it to Vegas about 450p their time, 650 KC time
Use airport Inet to retreive instructions for shuttle to hotel.
shuttle ride makes us glad we did not rent a car.
checked in at front desk, got room 05041 (5th floor room 41)
after we check in we visit the consierge and make dinner reservations at
Samaba, the hotel's all-you-can eat Brazilian barbeque restraunt.
we weave through their atruim and casino to get to the elevators, go up to the 5th floor
and HIKE out to room 41...
when we get to our room someone eles is occupying it.
we call the front desk, they upgrade us to room 25005, stripside view.
the switch micheles key automatically, but mine dosent' work,
so we have to go to the front desk the next day to reprogram it for me.
we change out of our travel clothes, and go down to a tasty dinner, but
slightly disapointing as we were hoping for a repeat Amor and this was not as classy nor
as gourmet. we made the mistake of Each ordering an $11 Brazilian Punch, we should have split one.
It came in one of those comical 1/2 gallon martini glasses and it was a potant rum concotion.
I finished mine, Michele's finished her. Between the drink, and a pain in her jaw somehow
related to ear pressure problems on the flights, she was in an un-stellar mood, so we went
back to our room and crashed it was only 10 o'clock here, but that makes it midnight back home.
Today we got up around 9am for some nookie, then while michele showered I got to some vaccation
planning by calling the concierge, then the bell hop-
Tuseday Lunch at Todai all-you-can-eat sushi and seafood. Near Hardrock Hotel and Casino, we'll
spend some time there and see what's neat at their casino, then come back here to explore the
wildlife exibit.
Hoover Dam - Wed @ 8:30am - 5 hr tour - $90
B.M.G. confirm- 1400387 thurs @7pm $284 - at Venitian
Dinner at La Cirque inside Bellagio at 5:30pm Fri.
CDS"O" confirm- 96-2141273 Fri @7:30 $337 -at Bellagio
P&T confirm- 625444913 Sat @9p $193.60 - at Rio
hmm, about 10:30am the bathroom sinks have drainwater comming back up out of them. Hotel Engineering
is on it's way up, do we need another room? no. but thank you.
10:45a
So we took off with the impression that Todai, the all-you-can-eat sushi restraunt recomended to us,
was just out front of The Hard Rock, instead of Planet Hollywood... We hiked to Hardrock and found a
sushi joint San-Toki and wondered if that was where we were meant to go, but it was out of business-
in the same stripmall was Kaizen Sushi though. so we ate there, glad to finally eat something and to
sit in the a/c the Sushi at Kobe in KC is better though. we look around the Hard Rock for a
moment, but they don't have much in the way of attractions yet. Just a huge collection of
memoribilia and a nightclub for their hotel and casino... the other stuff is still under construction.
We caught the shuttle back to the far end of the strip, hiked up to the M&M store, 4 floors of M&M
merchandise. After hearing people talk about it, I expected more entertianment and less shopping.
Michele dutifully allowed her photo to be taken, but she was getting grumpy because she was thirsty
and tired, so we were about to move on, but she ppointed out that we were at the Coca~Cola store too,
and so we went inside, but it was obvious Michele didn't want to be there so we headed down a little
ways to McDonalds and sat and got sodas.
I went to use the restroom before we left and was surpirsed to find that you need to have a Manager
key you into the restrooms there, Inside had been tormented by a long series of vandals. looks like
locking people out isn't doing them any good.
we hike up past more casinos and the massive complex that is Ceasers Palace, while passing it we
notice Spago's is there, we had seen it on Food Network and I had been talking about it since, so we
are considering that for dinner tonight.
Right now were taking a load off in the Hotelroom. Give'n my baby's tootsies a chance to mend.
We're thinking about maybe doing dinner here shortly at one of the hotle's resturants, Kokomo's
4:30p
Dinner was most excellent, but like last night, quite expensive. We spent $103 after tax and tip.
We got a bottle of white wine for 50% off ($22 instead of $44) being the middle of the week, and
we each ordered off a menu where you pick one app, on entre and one dessert for $30. Michele had
mushroom and onion pot pie, and goat-cheese stuffed chicken. I had a crab cake and their surf &
turf. We both chose their butterscotch custard. All in all it was quite nice. Michele drank
nearly her half the bottle of wine and is feeling it, but still walking about quite well. =-)
soon we plan to catch the siren show at Tresure Island, the Bellagio fountains and the volcano here.
6:35p
well, we weren't ready to leave for the 7 o'clock Sirens show, and Michele was napping by the
time we needed to leave for the 8:30 show and had no interest in getting up, so I went down and shot
some pix of the 8pm eruption, and wondered around the casino just a bit - their little supply shop
is basically just a bigger version of their minibar. Same tiny stuffs, same huge prices. No sunscreen
though. And Michele and I could both use some before the Dam tour tomorrow. It's about 8:40 now, I'm
going to try and shoot some of the 9pm volcano through the dirty window and see how that comes out.
BTW, Jen and Kelli would hate staying here... I mean with Circ du Soluil doing the Beatles themed
show here, they have the whold place decked out with Beatles realted regailia. Even a shop selling,
among many other things, a signed guitar. Also noted that Jay Leno was playing here this weekend,
Might see if Michele is interested in seeing him.
848p
Hmm, aparentally the sink backed up again overnight... also our television will only show us the
interanal ad chanells and the chinese channels... we also got an unrequested wake up call this morning
we will discuss all of this with the front desk after we hunt up some breakfast.
6:43a
Had a dispointing breakfast at the Carnagie Deli - My massive amount of corned beef hash was greasy
and the corned beef seemed overcooked having been prepared as for a sandwich then also fried with
the hash, and though the portion was giant, the purportion was off... I kinda missed the potatoes.
It was way to expensive at $16. I wish there had been a half portion then I could have been disapointed
at a lower price. Michele's eggs were fine but not special, and she wasn't thrilled with her odd
bright red "country potatoes" that came as a side. After breakfast, we waited by the wrong door for our
tour bus and missed that tour, so it's rebooked for tomorrow. so we decided to go check out the secret
garden and dolphin habitat; but they didn't open until 11. So I found a shady spot by the pool waterfall
to sit and read. Michele got bored and wondered through the tiny mall in our resort, then we went though
the little wildlife park. It's $15 per person to get in and honestly the KC Zoo gives you more bang for
your buck, but it was something to do for a bit during the day. They have Dolphins, including a baby;
and white tigers and white leapords and white lions. Apparently Sigfried and Roy are racists or something
they only seem to allow white animals in their "Secret Garden." Michele corrects me they did have one
Orange Tiger... I think his name was Token. They also had a leapord cub, very cute. I took lots of photos.
By the time we were done there we were getting hungry, so we stop by the room, then hike over to Planet
Hollywood for lunch at Todai. We got there at 2:00 and their lunch service ends at 2:30. We took a table
anyway, devoured our share of cheaply made, if not cheaply sold, sushi and other seafood. Some of the
items were tasty, but probably not $20 a head tasty. And their seaweed wrapers were crunchy like Kaizen's
were, which was a bit of a turn off, but other than that it wasn't bad, just nothing stood out as great.
We wondered through the miricle mile shops at planet Hollywood, ate ice cream at Ben and Jerry's, watched
the indoor rainstorm, grabbed the Duce (the city of Las Vegas's public buses) back towards our hotel. Our
feet hate us with the deepest of passions. Our TV is't working right so we call for help on that and the
fixit dude is here playing with it while we kick back and rest so we can stay up late enough tonight to
see some of the free things like TI's show, Bellagio's fouantains, the light show downtown and our own
volcano.
5:10p
The TV guy left for about 30 min then came back with two upper eschelon TV mechanics to troubleshoot our
paticular probalem. Apparently the TCM was set with the channel table for a -08 series television, which
use package 4 and what we have here is an -07 series which should be using package 1, the end result being
it dosen't pick up any of the digital channels (we get CNN, two chinese stations, and the internal hotel
advertisement stations) All they had to do was log into the the TCM with his laptop, and set it to download
software package 1, then reboot the TCM. Oh, Of Course! why didn't I think of that! anyway, its fixed now-
and all of that so we could check the weather channel to see how to prepare for the day.
Well, we saw TI's show, since the remake to the sirens the show is more about T&A than action and
accrobatics. That being said it was amazing how many people brought young kids to see it. Michele's stress
level was piqued by being crammed into the standing-room crowd. Then we both took the bus to Belagio and
witnessed the spectcal that is their fouantin show as it played singing in the rain and proud to be an
American. We were both quite impressed and enjoyed it.
The happy mood soon came to an end as the crosswalk infront of the Belagio is out of commission and to catch
a bus headed back to the Mirage we had to walk 2 blocks and cross the street. Walking is no longer fun. It
is a mood killer. When we got to the bus stop it was crowded. So was the bus that pulled up. So crowded in
fact, that crowding more people onto it was a very slow processes, but Michele seemed determined to get on if
they would let her because ever tortuous second on her feet made her less and less happy... loading took so
long, in fact, that the next bus caught up to us. it was mostly empty. It got mob-rushed by the crowd and
the first bus closed it's doors to passengers. we did not run to the second bus like some did, but I did make
certain Michele got on, and I followed her. Our little horde of busgoers stalled the loading of this bus
until a third came, and the Just-full-but-not-packed bus took off. We got off at the Vanitain, crossed the
street to TI and took the tram back to Mirage.
Now we rest our feet. Michele will stay here and soon I will head back to the vinitian... or more spacifically
to the walgreens next door to it, so that we can have sunscreen tomorow. we forgot to pack any. Oh, we could
buy it at the Hotel... for $13-$25 a bottle... gotta at least try to shop around. That's borderline extortion!
10:55p
Up early again today, breakfast at Cravings, the all-you-can-eat buffett at Mirage. It was actually quite good.
Still pricey at $13 a head, but a lot better than paying more than that to carnige and being disapointed.
After breakfest we went ahead and paid the exorbadnat price the hotel charges for sun screen and headed
out to the correct bus stop to wait for our tour. Two other buses from SweetTours showed up to drop off
people from the varried hotels around the strip then our coach bus arived half full and we all got on, the
tour guides name was Louie. He was informative, and funny enough that he wasn't boring... no stand up
comedian or anything, but better than a dry and bland presentation. We stoped first on the Arizona side
of the dam and took a few picts from the lookout point there, then went down to where the dam tours begin.
First you go through security, which is modled after airport security, but in many ways, stricter. You
may not bring anything with you that doesn't fit into a 12x12x8 inch area. No camera cases, backpacks,
camecorder cases, chewing gum, or liquids of any sort other than clear bottles of water, which they ask
you to drink from as you enter. Apparently a few fake bombs and an actual anthrax scare makes people edgey.
Hover Dam's tours are middle-of-the-road... starts by cramming a tiny theater so that every single seat is
filled, then you get a 10 minute film on the creation of Hoover Dam. Afterwards you are divided into groups
of exactly 40 people, cramming 20 to each of the two elevators, and you go WAY down and see the 50 foot
tunnels they used to divert the flow of the Colorado river so they could build the dam. They the elevator
goes up 35 ft in a little over 3 seconds, so you can see the generators that produce the electricity.
Then up to the little museum and the observation level. They have a second exibit that you can only see
if you went on the tour, but we didn't have time for it, nor time to really appriciate the angel memorial
erected to the 96 who died on the project. And no time for Highclimbers***? meorial either. We popped
into the giftshop to get our freebie swag and it was time to get back on the bus. The ride home took
about an hour and 45 min while Louie negotiated the crazy Las Vegas traffic stopping at every other
hotel before Mirage... Well I suppose he still had Circus-Circus to go to after us, but we were close
enough to the end of the line that the stop-and-go, bus suspension, recycled air, B-U-S environment
was starting to mess with our heads and stomaches some.
Reguardelss though we ARE glad we went, it is a very, very impressive construct. the scale of it is
simply grand. 660 Tons of concrete, more than 700 foot high, more than 600 foot thick at the base very
neat. when we got back to our room the maid was cleaning, so we waited outside and read our books
while she finished up. Michele took a bath in our whirlpool tub... she like it. I soaked my feet and
read some, now it's time to head off to the Vanitian for a gondola ride, some dinner and the blueman
group.
4:30p
We're back now from the Blue Man Group show. It really was an increadible experiance and I would
recomend it highly. It is loud, and the strobe effects can be disorienting but that does not detract
from the most excelent sensory experiance provided at the show. Unfortunately I did have to excuse
myself for an emergancy bathroom visit about 1 hr into the 1 hour and 45 minute show. No, it
couldn't wait. It had been waiting and it had to be right then. I was embarassed and frustrated,
the tickets weren't cheap and the experiance was not something I wanted to miss any of, but something
about my pizza or the crab-&-Lobster cake at Wolfgang Puck's Prestrio set me off inside. The food
was pretty good while we ate it, but service seemed unusually slow. Michele and I each ordered drinks
that we liked shared the taste if tiny app, and got pizzas which were a little herby but still pretty
good. It set us back about $90 after meal, drinks, tax and tip. But anyway, I was talking about Blueman.
It rocked. Alot. Our seats were awesome. We were in Row G sitting on one of the center isles. And row G
is perfect, since row E is that last one that comese with provided panchos to keep you safe from the
water, paint, gelitan molds, and regergitated "stay-puf" marshmellows that end out airborne during
the show. We loved it.
After the show we stopped by the Hudini magic shop and museum where Michele tollerated the droll sales
staff. We left quickly, got a little lost in the Venitian (michele indicate that a gondola ride would
not at all be enjoyable, as everyone sits and stares at you, so we skiped that.) and once we found our
way out of the resort and back to our own, we decided that it would be good to rest our feet and keep
them form getting un-useable, like they have the first several days, so were chill'n in our room for
tonight and sleeping in tomorow. Yeah it Vegas and there is a ton to do, but it's also our vacation
and some R&R is valuable too.
9:43p
We slept in today, as promised... we were both out of bed by half past noon. In all honesty, I had
spent some time up and about from just about 6am till about 7:30, and as I was getting back into
bed I roused Michele who got up for a few minutes- she got up and out of bed for the last time at
about 10:30 and I'm the lazy slouch that kept dozing for another 2 hours after that. We did lunch
at Cravings Buffet for about 36 bucks. All in all I'm not really impressed with the food they offer.
Their prime rib was a little dry and not nearly as tender as prime rib should be, their sushi selection
was poor and quality medium, their jumbo coctail shrimp had a slightly fishy flavor, their crablegs
seemed bland, flavorless. My dessert was not sweet enough to balance it's tartness, there was a chineses
noodle dish with flavors that I didn't like, we didn't like their baba ganuje either. That having been
said there was lots of food that was "good enough" like their shredded beef tacos, their pizzas, etc.
and the buffet did have a few dishes that we thought really stood out, Michele really liked their sea
bass, I found their sweet and sour pork to be very good and their mashed potatoes may have been some of
the best I've had.
After lunch we hit the fasion mall for some shopping. When Michele did some shopping a few days ago
while we were waiting for the Seceret garden to open for the day, the sales lady aparently suggested
that the Macy's in the fashion mall had a better plus size selection, so we went to check it out. Michele
found a few articles of clothing she liked, then we stopped in a fancy-gadget store for a bit, and hit
Fredrick's of Hollywood, where Michele made some little sales girl's day. Apparently they get commision
for helping customers - and Michele was having dificutly finding things in her size and sent the sales
chick in back to find some from a few certain designs, then bought nearly every color the sales gal
brought back out for Michele. 3 styles of pantys, in an array of colors plus a few bras... very happy
sales girl. Then we headed back to the Hotel, dolled up for the show tonight. Since this was to be our
most highbrow show and the fanciest dinner we had planned, I wore a suit and Michele wore the outfit she
had bought today and dug out her bling.
We walked to the Bellagio, and my new dress shoes cut into my right heel, but I endure. We pick up our
show tickets and wait for our 5:30 dinner reservation at Le Circ. Now I must admit, Le Circ is bar none
the finest dining experiance I have ever been part of. The service was impecable, the food was divine,
and we had an increadible view, as the Bellagio fountains were just outside the window at our table.
Before our meal, the chef sent us a shotglass of one of his favortie soups, on the house as a treat.
Michele's lobster salad and my scallops were excellent, we both chose the sea bass wrapped in thinly
sliced crispy potato on a bed of lanistines with a pino noir reduction, at the suggestion of the wait
staff. It left nothing to be desired. then for dessert Michele had a french dish that is a rum soaked
sponge caked floated in a strawberry soup with whipped cream atop. I had creme brule. Then they gifted
us with several small pasteries and gave Michele 2 truffles in a cute, two drawer gift box. But there is
one B.I.G. downside to having the very best food and the very best service. When it was all said and done
we walked out of that resturant $280 poorer.
After dinner was cirque du soleil's "O" which like BMG yesterday, was absolultly amazing. The stage and
the pully system are marvels in their own right and when you add the performers from Cirque, well, it is
actually awesome. Not like California surfers and football cheerleaders use the term, but in the way it
was meant. Awe-striking, Awe-inspiring, Awesome. Swimming, diving, dancing, acrobatics, katas,
contortionisim, clownery, scuba, singing, music, and some specticals that I haven't a clue how to
catagorize. It was really great.
As I wrote this entry, Michele fell asleep, I guess I can't blame her, it's about 1am back home. I'm
going to hit the restroom, grab my camera, and try to get a few more shots of the strip at night.
Tomorow well see the Rio's show in the sky, and Penn & Teller, and if we're up for it, try to do the
Freemont street experiance - it'll be our last chance before we go and people have been talking it up,
so I hope we feel up to it.
10:56p
hrmm, I guess technically I missed a day, as it is now just after midnight and I hadn't entered anything
yet. Today... or yesterday if you are going to be an ass about it, we got up around 9 or so, hit Cravings
for brunch and had a pleasent experiance - now being well aware of which of their foods I liked more than
others- we spent almost $40 there, then shopped around Ceaser's Palace and caught their animatronic
living statue show, then we grabbed a cab and headed out to the Rio where frankly we were pretty bored for
most of the day. We had hopped they had a broader array of attractions there to kill the hours, but it was
pretty much just gaming and food, and we weren't there to gamble and still had full belly's from the buffet.
When 7 oclock finally rolled around they had the "show in the sky" which was really just girls in teddies
dancing on parade-float style platforms suspended from the celing. For a moderate price you too can be on
one of these floats. It surpired us to see that of the for people who paid to be included in the experiance,
2 of them were adolecents (I would guess a 9 yr old boy and 4 yr old girl) I had to wonder what their
parents were thinking.
after giving up on the girly show we headed over to wait for Penn and Teller. We stopped by their gift shop
and picked up trinkets, and sat and watched a turely entertaining performance from two experts in their craft
when the show was over the two magician comics were generous enough to actually wait in the lobby and greet
each fan, sign autographs and pose for photos. If you ever come to Vegas, catch this act.
Our ticket stubbs included free dessert at Rub, the casino's BBQ joint, so we headed there for dinner and our
food and drink ran us about $65 there. It was pretty good. Not mind blowing, but certainly not dissapointing.
on our cab ride home our driver was an Ethiopian who moved to America in Aug of '69. He's been driving for 12
years in Vegas and took a couple through a drive though wedding chaple for the first time 2 wks ago. He said
they do marriges in about 4 minutes there. He told us he raised his kids in San Francisco, but when they
started acting like hood and wearing theri pants all baggy and low he packed them up and shipped them off to
Ethiopia for 4 years. When they came back they were upright young citizans, who finished college right away
and got good corperate jobs, thanking dad 'cause they woulda ended out in jail by then if he haddn't helped
to enlighten them about the oppertunities they were squandering. He also told us about how when he and his
wife were young and going to the same school in Ethiopia he used to give her rides to school on his mule.
"You know what is mule? Is like Ethiopian Lambroghini, she was very impressed." Michele said she would have
been very impressed too, then quickly followed by telling me I did not need to arange to get her mule rides.
12:21a
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Thats all I had written before we left vegas, but there is more to the story. We tipped our consierge for helping us get excellent tickets and food, got our shuttle to the air port and the perfect weather we had been experianceing all throughout our vaccation began to fail- it got a little rainy and very windy. too windy to take off. Our plane left the airport 2 hr late taking off, which means we were 2 hrs late getting into Arizona. We were only supposed to have 1 1/2 hr layover there. Our plane, and the planes of more than 100 other passengers on our flight, had left without us. A representive of American Airlines came onboard to break the news and told us all that as we deplaned we should procede to the couther at terminal (who can remember now) and we will be "taken care of" Michele and I were in the frontmost seats of first class, and kept a swift pace, and so were the first one to the counter to be "helped."
They explained that they have rebooked us for a flight the evening after next and here is a phone number you can call, they can help you book a local hotel. No, no, that's the next flight we can fit you on, you are flying during spring break, it's very busy. You can however try and fly standby, the earlier you check in the more likey you are to get a seat. We open at 4am.
This was Sunday Night.
Michele's Annual review was due on Tuseday, her company is talking lay-offs, a Tuseday night flight was crappy.
So we "slept" in the airport and checked in at 4 am.
On the frist flight to KC at 8am they had only one open seat for the 12 people trying to get to KC on standby, and they gave it to me. I told them they had to take Michele instead and she got home in time for her to go to work. I tried to get on every other flight to KC, but the airline was overbooking flights by 20% so with each flight the number of standby fliers grew instead of shrunk, and to top it off, the "rules" are that the people who couldn't get onto the flight they had booked because of overbooking have priority on standby over those who like me, missed their original flight because of something the airline had no control over, like the weather. The very last flight at 9pm that night ended out having few enough of their original passengers show up (due to 2 flights running late getting to the airport) that they were seating standby passengers. 9 of them got on the plane. I wasn't one. I had a disscussion with customer service and explained that at this point I wanted to book me on the morning flight (not the 8pm one)- I know the flight is full, but you're overbooking them anyway, so book me on it too. And furthermore, since you can check in up to 24 hrs in advance (and get an assinged seat that way) I want to go ahead and do that right now too. They did it. I had a seat on the 8:15 am flight- it was in coach, and I was on standby for 1st class if one of the passengers from up there didn't show up. I stayed in the airport another night. At some point in the night I lost my favorite ballcap - my Mpire Darkside starwars/M&M hat. Very depressing and I spent a portion of the time from 10pm to midnight harrassing security, lost and found and the janitorial staff. when I got home I e-mailed and called Security and Lost & Found again, No luck at all.
When 8:15 comes I board the plane in the first group to get on. The Plane gets nearly full and some guy gets on and comes up to where I'm sitting, looks at me. checks his ticket. checks the signage over the seats, and then tells me he's supposed to be sitting where I am. I take my ticket out of my shirt pocket and check it. I'm in the right seat, and buckled in, and intend to be an immovable force if need be, and in all fairness he did show me his ticket and it was printed for my very seat... so I sent him back up to the flight attendant to figgure out what to do about him. They had to check with the ticketing agent back at the booth, and they determined that I was in HIS seat... MY seat.... was now in first class. Acceptable. (I had paid for 1st class anyway.) The flight was uneventful. Mom picked me up and we went to lunch at Crackerbarrel - was my first time eating at one. It was alright, not excellent, but certainly not bad either.
So. That was the Honeymoon.
Michele was Flu like for the next week or so, I sorta picked it up, but not as severe and not for as long. For her, it got better, then worse on and off. Dr. said Bronchitus had set in. was not fun for her.
Got pretty angry at one of my bosses about a week ago. Dean was being a real Jackass. Don't really want to get into what it was all about, but I'm basically trying to avoid him for a while and fly low on the radar so I can't be written up for something petty. I am convinced right now that he would do it in a heartbeat if I gave him an oppertunity.
I signed up to start over in Roy Porter's Karate class. Karate I. 5:30-7:20 on M & W. When I got to the class it had been blue-noted. for those of you who have never gone to JCCC I mean they canceled it. So I went to the student center to reschedule... the only other Karate I class in the summer session was on Tues and Thurs. But at 1:30pm. Dosen't work with my Costco schedule at all. So instead I took the 7:30 - 9:20 Karate II class instead. The dude tried to tell me I couldn't because you HAVE to take them in order and without the pre-req, I don't qualify. He pulled my transcript and determined I was infact able to sign up for Karate II.
The first night of class we practiced all of the testing material from white belt through orange belt. The Geri routine still sucks. My form was unacceptably sloppy. I don't deserve my belt rank. But I knew that going in, and was prepared to start over from scratch. Roy explained that once you earn rank, you never lose it, even when you do lose the skills. Before I can test for my next rank, I will have to repeat all of my previous test to demonstrate I am at the appropriate skill level at the more basic techniques, but I am still to wear my yellowbelt, one orange tip.
Tonights class was sparring. I was sucking wind so bad. My kicks were slow and not always landing where I was aiming. Karma is going to hit me like a bus soon, One poor guy is fresh out of Karate I and tonight is his frist time sparring, we're going light, and my light tap to his abs landed low. Still a valid target in Karate, but for noobs we generaly only indicate groin shots, while they develop better blocking skills. Later we indicate less and stirke more to help motivate better blocking, but tonight was NOT the night for that. Then an hour later I'm sparring him again, and it happens AGAIN... the poor guy is in his 60s. he dosen't deserve this. I quit throwing roundhouses against him. I need to regain my flexablility, timing and aim. My left arm is good and bruised from lots of blocking.
My two rounds against Roy was every bit as humbling as it was supposed to be. Each time he gave me good advice when we were done. First he told me to try not to telegraph my attacks so much, I was winding up before my punches. During our second spar he asks me if I know why he keeps hitting me. "because my guard is shit?" No, well, a little, but not really. I guessed a few more times, each about spacifics on how he was defeating my guard, but what he was talking about was my range. I was too far out for most of the techniques I was throwing, and I would be much better served in close. I happen to know for fact that Roy can tear me apart in close too, but he's definantly right, I can't close the distance well enough in my attacks to really land them solidly, and Roy's kicks are king. In close, it's harder to kick me. Oh, He can do it! But it IS harder, suposedly. He said that controling the range will help me to throw effective techniques more often, and I'll waste less energy. He didn't say so, but my energy levels were piss poor tonight, so energy conservation is important to me right now. But Roy did counter by saying that while I need to conserve energy by reducing wasteful attacks, I do also need to remain in constant motion.
I wonder what Monday will hold. Wednsday I'm supposed to do my standing and moving Dachi test. I need to practice those. but tomorow is dedicated to household chores instead.
Oh yeah, I weighed in today. Drs scale said 380.0 grim, but it's a fact I have to deal with and as of today, it's a starting point. We'll see what 4 hrs of karate a week does to my waistline.
Oh, for those of you who have known Roy but haven't seen him in a while, He's still maried to his 2nd wife and is raising a toddler and an infant, both daughters. His hair is cut short, and he is wearing a BRAND NEW blackbelt. His old tattered one is being saved for his older daughter (Lillian?) when she turns 18 and earns a blackbelt. He's wearing a new one figguring tying it every day will have it worn out and beaten up by the time his second daughter (Violet) earns her blackbelt 18 years from now.
so, I got married to Michele on Pi day.
I kept track of the honeymoon trip to Las Vegas so copy and paste...
--------------------------------------------------
missed 6am flight
rebooked to 250pm next day Spring Break, best they could do.
also downgrade from 1st class on first leg.
SLD came for us.
Slept all day.
Dinner at J Alexanders. They forgot to bring us our Calimari and overcooked Michele's Steak
They re-made the steak and gave us the app and her dinner at no cost.
Make it to Vegas about 450p their time, 650 KC time
Use airport Inet to retreive instructions for shuttle to hotel.
shuttle ride makes us glad we did not rent a car.
checked in at front desk, got room 05041 (5th floor room 41)
after we check in we visit the consierge and make dinner reservations at
Samaba, the hotel's all-you-can eat Brazilian barbeque restraunt.
we weave through their atruim and casino to get to the elevators, go up to the 5th floor
and HIKE out to room 41...
when we get to our room someone eles is occupying it.
we call the front desk, they upgrade us to room 25005, stripside view.
the switch micheles key automatically, but mine dosent' work,
so we have to go to the front desk the next day to reprogram it for me.
we change out of our travel clothes, and go down to a tasty dinner, but
slightly disapointing as we were hoping for a repeat Amor and this was not as classy nor
as gourmet. we made the mistake of Each ordering an $11 Brazilian Punch, we should have split one.
It came in one of those comical 1/2 gallon martini glasses and it was a potant rum concotion.
I finished mine, Michele's finished her. Between the drink, and a pain in her jaw somehow
related to ear pressure problems on the flights, she was in an un-stellar mood, so we went
back to our room and crashed it was only 10 o'clock here, but that makes it midnight back home.
Today we got up around 9am for some nookie, then while michele showered I got to some vaccation
planning by calling the concierge, then the bell hop-
Tuseday Lunch at Todai all-you-can-eat sushi and seafood. Near Hardrock Hotel and Casino, we'll
spend some time there and see what's neat at their casino, then come back here to explore the
wildlife exibit.
Hoover Dam - Wed @ 8:30am - 5 hr tour - $90
B.M.G. confirm- 1400387 thurs @7pm $284 - at Venitian
Dinner at La Cirque inside Bellagio at 5:30pm Fri.
CDS"O" confirm- 96-2141273 Fri @7:30 $337 -at Bellagio
P&T confirm- 625444913 Sat @9p $193.60 - at Rio
hmm, about 10:30am the bathroom sinks have drainwater comming back up out of them. Hotel Engineering
is on it's way up, do we need another room? no. but thank you.
10:45a
So we took off with the impression that Todai, the all-you-can-eat sushi restraunt recomended to us,
was just out front of The Hard Rock, instead of Planet Hollywood... We hiked to Hardrock and found a
sushi joint San-Toki and wondered if that was where we were meant to go, but it was out of business-
in the same stripmall was Kaizen Sushi though. so we ate there, glad to finally eat something and to
sit in the a/c the Sushi at Kobe in KC is better though. we look around the Hard Rock for a
moment, but they don't have much in the way of attractions yet. Just a huge collection of
memoribilia and a nightclub for their hotel and casino... the other stuff is still under construction.
We caught the shuttle back to the far end of the strip, hiked up to the M&M store, 4 floors of M&M
merchandise. After hearing people talk about it, I expected more entertianment and less shopping.
Michele dutifully allowed her photo to be taken, but she was getting grumpy because she was thirsty
and tired, so we were about to move on, but she ppointed out that we were at the Coca~Cola store too,
and so we went inside, but it was obvious Michele didn't want to be there so we headed down a little
ways to McDonalds and sat and got sodas.
I went to use the restroom before we left and was surpirsed to find that you need to have a Manager
key you into the restrooms there, Inside had been tormented by a long series of vandals. looks like
locking people out isn't doing them any good.
we hike up past more casinos and the massive complex that is Ceasers Palace, while passing it we
notice Spago's is there, we had seen it on Food Network and I had been talking about it since, so we
are considering that for dinner tonight.
Right now were taking a load off in the Hotelroom. Give'n my baby's tootsies a chance to mend.
We're thinking about maybe doing dinner here shortly at one of the hotle's resturants, Kokomo's
4:30p
Dinner was most excellent, but like last night, quite expensive. We spent $103 after tax and tip.
We got a bottle of white wine for 50% off ($22 instead of $44) being the middle of the week, and
we each ordered off a menu where you pick one app, on entre and one dessert for $30. Michele had
mushroom and onion pot pie, and goat-cheese stuffed chicken. I had a crab cake and their surf &
turf. We both chose their butterscotch custard. All in all it was quite nice. Michele drank
nearly her half the bottle of wine and is feeling it, but still walking about quite well. =-)
soon we plan to catch the siren show at Tresure Island, the Bellagio fountains and the volcano here.
6:35p
well, we weren't ready to leave for the 7 o'clock Sirens show, and Michele was napping by the
time we needed to leave for the 8:30 show and had no interest in getting up, so I went down and shot
some pix of the 8pm eruption, and wondered around the casino just a bit - their little supply shop
is basically just a bigger version of their minibar. Same tiny stuffs, same huge prices. No sunscreen
though. And Michele and I could both use some before the Dam tour tomorrow. It's about 8:40 now, I'm
going to try and shoot some of the 9pm volcano through the dirty window and see how that comes out.
BTW, Jen and Kelli would hate staying here... I mean with Circ du Soluil doing the Beatles themed
show here, they have the whold place decked out with Beatles realted regailia. Even a shop selling,
among many other things, a signed guitar. Also noted that Jay Leno was playing here this weekend,
Might see if Michele is interested in seeing him.
848p
Hmm, aparentally the sink backed up again overnight... also our television will only show us the
interanal ad chanells and the chinese channels... we also got an unrequested wake up call this morning
we will discuss all of this with the front desk after we hunt up some breakfast.
6:43a
Had a dispointing breakfast at the Carnagie Deli - My massive amount of corned beef hash was greasy
and the corned beef seemed overcooked having been prepared as for a sandwich then also fried with
the hash, and though the portion was giant, the purportion was off... I kinda missed the potatoes.
It was way to expensive at $16. I wish there had been a half portion then I could have been disapointed
at a lower price. Michele's eggs were fine but not special, and she wasn't thrilled with her odd
bright red "country potatoes" that came as a side. After breakfast, we waited by the wrong door for our
tour bus and missed that tour, so it's rebooked for tomorrow. so we decided to go check out the secret
garden and dolphin habitat; but they didn't open until 11. So I found a shady spot by the pool waterfall
to sit and read. Michele got bored and wondered through the tiny mall in our resort, then we went though
the little wildlife park. It's $15 per person to get in and honestly the KC Zoo gives you more bang for
your buck, but it was something to do for a bit during the day. They have Dolphins, including a baby;
and white tigers and white leapords and white lions. Apparently Sigfried and Roy are racists or something
they only seem to allow white animals in their "Secret Garden." Michele corrects me they did have one
Orange Tiger... I think his name was Token. They also had a leapord cub, very cute. I took lots of photos.
By the time we were done there we were getting hungry, so we stop by the room, then hike over to Planet
Hollywood for lunch at Todai. We got there at 2:00 and their lunch service ends at 2:30. We took a table
anyway, devoured our share of cheaply made, if not cheaply sold, sushi and other seafood. Some of the
items were tasty, but probably not $20 a head tasty. And their seaweed wrapers were crunchy like Kaizen's
were, which was a bit of a turn off, but other than that it wasn't bad, just nothing stood out as great.
We wondered through the miricle mile shops at planet Hollywood, ate ice cream at Ben and Jerry's, watched
the indoor rainstorm, grabbed the Duce (the city of Las Vegas's public buses) back towards our hotel. Our
feet hate us with the deepest of passions. Our TV is't working right so we call for help on that and the
fixit dude is here playing with it while we kick back and rest so we can stay up late enough tonight to
see some of the free things like TI's show, Bellagio's fouantains, the light show downtown and our own
volcano.
5:10p
The TV guy left for about 30 min then came back with two upper eschelon TV mechanics to troubleshoot our
paticular probalem. Apparently the TCM was set with the channel table for a -08 series television, which
use package 4 and what we have here is an -07 series which should be using package 1, the end result being
it dosen't pick up any of the digital channels (we get CNN, two chinese stations, and the internal hotel
advertisement stations) All they had to do was log into the the TCM with his laptop, and set it to download
software package 1, then reboot the TCM. Oh, Of Course! why didn't I think of that! anyway, its fixed now-
and all of that so we could check the weather channel to see how to prepare for the day.
Well, we saw TI's show, since the remake to the sirens the show is more about T&A than action and
accrobatics. That being said it was amazing how many people brought young kids to see it. Michele's stress
level was piqued by being crammed into the standing-room crowd. Then we both took the bus to Belagio and
witnessed the spectcal that is their fouantin show as it played singing in the rain and proud to be an
American. We were both quite impressed and enjoyed it.
The happy mood soon came to an end as the crosswalk infront of the Belagio is out of commission and to catch
a bus headed back to the Mirage we had to walk 2 blocks and cross the street. Walking is no longer fun. It
is a mood killer. When we got to the bus stop it was crowded. So was the bus that pulled up. So crowded in
fact, that crowding more people onto it was a very slow processes, but Michele seemed determined to get on if
they would let her because ever tortuous second on her feet made her less and less happy... loading took so
long, in fact, that the next bus caught up to us. it was mostly empty. It got mob-rushed by the crowd and
the first bus closed it's doors to passengers. we did not run to the second bus like some did, but I did make
certain Michele got on, and I followed her. Our little horde of busgoers stalled the loading of this bus
until a third came, and the Just-full-but-not-packed bus took off. We got off at the Vanitain, crossed the
street to TI and took the tram back to Mirage.
Now we rest our feet. Michele will stay here and soon I will head back to the vinitian... or more spacifically
to the walgreens next door to it, so that we can have sunscreen tomorow. we forgot to pack any. Oh, we could
buy it at the Hotel... for $13-$25 a bottle... gotta at least try to shop around. That's borderline extortion!
10:55p
Up early again today, breakfast at Cravings, the all-you-can-eat buffett at Mirage. It was actually quite good.
Still pricey at $13 a head, but a lot better than paying more than that to carnige and being disapointed.
After breakfest we went ahead and paid the exorbadnat price the hotel charges for sun screen and headed
out to the correct bus stop to wait for our tour. Two other buses from SweetTours showed up to drop off
people from the varried hotels around the strip then our coach bus arived half full and we all got on, the
tour guides name was Louie. He was informative, and funny enough that he wasn't boring... no stand up
comedian or anything, but better than a dry and bland presentation. We stoped first on the Arizona side
of the dam and took a few picts from the lookout point there, then went down to where the dam tours begin.
First you go through security, which is modled after airport security, but in many ways, stricter. You
may not bring anything with you that doesn't fit into a 12x12x8 inch area. No camera cases, backpacks,
camecorder cases, chewing gum, or liquids of any sort other than clear bottles of water, which they ask
you to drink from as you enter. Apparently a few fake bombs and an actual anthrax scare makes people edgey.
Hover Dam's tours are middle-of-the-road... starts by cramming a tiny theater so that every single seat is
filled, then you get a 10 minute film on the creation of Hoover Dam. Afterwards you are divided into groups
of exactly 40 people, cramming 20 to each of the two elevators, and you go WAY down and see the 50 foot
tunnels they used to divert the flow of the Colorado river so they could build the dam. They the elevator
goes up 35 ft in a little over 3 seconds, so you can see the generators that produce the electricity.
Then up to the little museum and the observation level. They have a second exibit that you can only see
if you went on the tour, but we didn't have time for it, nor time to really appriciate the angel memorial
erected to the 96 who died on the project. And no time for Highclimbers***? meorial either. We popped
into the giftshop to get our freebie swag and it was time to get back on the bus. The ride home took
about an hour and 45 min while Louie negotiated the crazy Las Vegas traffic stopping at every other
hotel before Mirage... Well I suppose he still had Circus-Circus to go to after us, but we were close
enough to the end of the line that the stop-and-go, bus suspension, recycled air, B-U-S environment
was starting to mess with our heads and stomaches some.
Reguardelss though we ARE glad we went, it is a very, very impressive construct. the scale of it is
simply grand. 660 Tons of concrete, more than 700 foot high, more than 600 foot thick at the base very
neat. when we got back to our room the maid was cleaning, so we waited outside and read our books
while she finished up. Michele took a bath in our whirlpool tub... she like it. I soaked my feet and
read some, now it's time to head off to the Vanitian for a gondola ride, some dinner and the blueman
group.
4:30p
We're back now from the Blue Man Group show. It really was an increadible experiance and I would
recomend it highly. It is loud, and the strobe effects can be disorienting but that does not detract
from the most excelent sensory experiance provided at the show. Unfortunately I did have to excuse
myself for an emergancy bathroom visit about 1 hr into the 1 hour and 45 minute show. No, it
couldn't wait. It had been waiting and it had to be right then. I was embarassed and frustrated,
the tickets weren't cheap and the experiance was not something I wanted to miss any of, but something
about my pizza or the crab-&-Lobster cake at Wolfgang Puck's Prestrio set me off inside. The food
was pretty good while we ate it, but service seemed unusually slow. Michele and I each ordered drinks
that we liked shared the taste if tiny app, and got pizzas which were a little herby but still pretty
good. It set us back about $90 after meal, drinks, tax and tip. But anyway, I was talking about Blueman.
It rocked. Alot. Our seats were awesome. We were in Row G sitting on one of the center isles. And row G
is perfect, since row E is that last one that comese with provided panchos to keep you safe from the
water, paint, gelitan molds, and regergitated "stay-puf" marshmellows that end out airborne during
the show. We loved it.
After the show we stopped by the Hudini magic shop and museum where Michele tollerated the droll sales
staff. We left quickly, got a little lost in the Venitian (michele indicate that a gondola ride would
not at all be enjoyable, as everyone sits and stares at you, so we skiped that.) and once we found our
way out of the resort and back to our own, we decided that it would be good to rest our feet and keep
them form getting un-useable, like they have the first several days, so were chill'n in our room for
tonight and sleeping in tomorow. Yeah it Vegas and there is a ton to do, but it's also our vacation
and some R&R is valuable too.
9:43p
We slept in today, as promised... we were both out of bed by half past noon. In all honesty, I had
spent some time up and about from just about 6am till about 7:30, and as I was getting back into
bed I roused Michele who got up for a few minutes- she got up and out of bed for the last time at
about 10:30 and I'm the lazy slouch that kept dozing for another 2 hours after that. We did lunch
at Cravings Buffet for about 36 bucks. All in all I'm not really impressed with the food they offer.
Their prime rib was a little dry and not nearly as tender as prime rib should be, their sushi selection
was poor and quality medium, their jumbo coctail shrimp had a slightly fishy flavor, their crablegs
seemed bland, flavorless. My dessert was not sweet enough to balance it's tartness, there was a chineses
noodle dish with flavors that I didn't like, we didn't like their baba ganuje either. That having been
said there was lots of food that was "good enough" like their shredded beef tacos, their pizzas, etc.
and the buffet did have a few dishes that we thought really stood out, Michele really liked their sea
bass, I found their sweet and sour pork to be very good and their mashed potatoes may have been some of
the best I've had.
After lunch we hit the fasion mall for some shopping. When Michele did some shopping a few days ago
while we were waiting for the Seceret garden to open for the day, the sales lady aparently suggested
that the Macy's in the fashion mall had a better plus size selection, so we went to check it out. Michele
found a few articles of clothing she liked, then we stopped in a fancy-gadget store for a bit, and hit
Fredrick's of Hollywood, where Michele made some little sales girl's day. Apparently they get commision
for helping customers - and Michele was having dificutly finding things in her size and sent the sales
chick in back to find some from a few certain designs, then bought nearly every color the sales gal
brought back out for Michele. 3 styles of pantys, in an array of colors plus a few bras... very happy
sales girl. Then we headed back to the Hotel, dolled up for the show tonight. Since this was to be our
most highbrow show and the fanciest dinner we had planned, I wore a suit and Michele wore the outfit she
had bought today and dug out her bling.
We walked to the Bellagio, and my new dress shoes cut into my right heel, but I endure. We pick up our
show tickets and wait for our 5:30 dinner reservation at Le Circ. Now I must admit, Le Circ is bar none
the finest dining experiance I have ever been part of. The service was impecable, the food was divine,
and we had an increadible view, as the Bellagio fountains were just outside the window at our table.
Before our meal, the chef sent us a shotglass of one of his favortie soups, on the house as a treat.
Michele's lobster salad and my scallops were excellent, we both chose the sea bass wrapped in thinly
sliced crispy potato on a bed of lanistines with a pino noir reduction, at the suggestion of the wait
staff. It left nothing to be desired. then for dessert Michele had a french dish that is a rum soaked
sponge caked floated in a strawberry soup with whipped cream atop. I had creme brule. Then they gifted
us with several small pasteries and gave Michele 2 truffles in a cute, two drawer gift box. But there is
one B.I.G. downside to having the very best food and the very best service. When it was all said and done
we walked out of that resturant $280 poorer.
After dinner was cirque du soleil's "O" which like BMG yesterday, was absolultly amazing. The stage and
the pully system are marvels in their own right and when you add the performers from Cirque, well, it is
actually awesome. Not like California surfers and football cheerleaders use the term, but in the way it
was meant. Awe-striking, Awe-inspiring, Awesome. Swimming, diving, dancing, acrobatics, katas,
contortionisim, clownery, scuba, singing, music, and some specticals that I haven't a clue how to
catagorize. It was really great.
As I wrote this entry, Michele fell asleep, I guess I can't blame her, it's about 1am back home. I'm
going to hit the restroom, grab my camera, and try to get a few more shots of the strip at night.
Tomorow well see the Rio's show in the sky, and Penn & Teller, and if we're up for it, try to do the
Freemont street experiance - it'll be our last chance before we go and people have been talking it up,
so I hope we feel up to it.
10:56p
hrmm, I guess technically I missed a day, as it is now just after midnight and I hadn't entered anything
yet. Today... or yesterday if you are going to be an ass about it, we got up around 9 or so, hit Cravings
for brunch and had a pleasent experiance - now being well aware of which of their foods I liked more than
others- we spent almost $40 there, then shopped around Ceaser's Palace and caught their animatronic
living statue show, then we grabbed a cab and headed out to the Rio where frankly we were pretty bored for
most of the day. We had hopped they had a broader array of attractions there to kill the hours, but it was
pretty much just gaming and food, and we weren't there to gamble and still had full belly's from the buffet.
When 7 oclock finally rolled around they had the "show in the sky" which was really just girls in teddies
dancing on parade-float style platforms suspended from the celing. For a moderate price you too can be on
one of these floats. It surpired us to see that of the for people who paid to be included in the experiance,
2 of them were adolecents (I would guess a 9 yr old boy and 4 yr old girl) I had to wonder what their
parents were thinking.
after giving up on the girly show we headed over to wait for Penn and Teller. We stopped by their gift shop
and picked up trinkets, and sat and watched a turely entertaining performance from two experts in their craft
when the show was over the two magician comics were generous enough to actually wait in the lobby and greet
each fan, sign autographs and pose for photos. If you ever come to Vegas, catch this act.
Our ticket stubbs included free dessert at Rub, the casino's BBQ joint, so we headed there for dinner and our
food and drink ran us about $65 there. It was pretty good. Not mind blowing, but certainly not dissapointing.
on our cab ride home our driver was an Ethiopian who moved to America in Aug of '69. He's been driving for 12
years in Vegas and took a couple through a drive though wedding chaple for the first time 2 wks ago. He said
they do marriges in about 4 minutes there. He told us he raised his kids in San Francisco, but when they
started acting like hood and wearing theri pants all baggy and low he packed them up and shipped them off to
Ethiopia for 4 years. When they came back they were upright young citizans, who finished college right away
and got good corperate jobs, thanking dad 'cause they woulda ended out in jail by then if he haddn't helped
to enlighten them about the oppertunities they were squandering. He also told us about how when he and his
wife were young and going to the same school in Ethiopia he used to give her rides to school on his mule.
"You know what is mule? Is like Ethiopian Lambroghini, she was very impressed." Michele said she would have
been very impressed too, then quickly followed by telling me I did not need to arange to get her mule rides.
12:21a
--------------------------
Thats all I had written before we left vegas, but there is more to the story. We tipped our consierge for helping us get excellent tickets and food, got our shuttle to the air port and the perfect weather we had been experianceing all throughout our vaccation began to fail- it got a little rainy and very windy. too windy to take off. Our plane left the airport 2 hr late taking off, which means we were 2 hrs late getting into Arizona. We were only supposed to have 1 1/2 hr layover there. Our plane, and the planes of more than 100 other passengers on our flight, had left without us. A representive of American Airlines came onboard to break the news and told us all that as we deplaned we should procede to the couther at terminal (who can remember now) and we will be "taken care of" Michele and I were in the frontmost seats of first class, and kept a swift pace, and so were the first one to the counter to be "helped."
They explained that they have rebooked us for a flight the evening after next and here is a phone number you can call, they can help you book a local hotel. No, no, that's the next flight we can fit you on, you are flying during spring break, it's very busy. You can however try and fly standby, the earlier you check in the more likey you are to get a seat. We open at 4am.
This was Sunday Night.
Michele's Annual review was due on Tuseday, her company is talking lay-offs, a Tuseday night flight was crappy.
So we "slept" in the airport and checked in at 4 am.
On the frist flight to KC at 8am they had only one open seat for the 12 people trying to get to KC on standby, and they gave it to me. I told them they had to take Michele instead and she got home in time for her to go to work. I tried to get on every other flight to KC, but the airline was overbooking flights by 20% so with each flight the number of standby fliers grew instead of shrunk, and to top it off, the "rules" are that the people who couldn't get onto the flight they had booked because of overbooking have priority on standby over those who like me, missed their original flight because of something the airline had no control over, like the weather. The very last flight at 9pm that night ended out having few enough of their original passengers show up (due to 2 flights running late getting to the airport) that they were seating standby passengers. 9 of them got on the plane. I wasn't one. I had a disscussion with customer service and explained that at this point I wanted to book me on the morning flight (not the 8pm one)- I know the flight is full, but you're overbooking them anyway, so book me on it too. And furthermore, since you can check in up to 24 hrs in advance (and get an assinged seat that way) I want to go ahead and do that right now too. They did it. I had a seat on the 8:15 am flight- it was in coach, and I was on standby for 1st class if one of the passengers from up there didn't show up. I stayed in the airport another night. At some point in the night I lost my favorite ballcap - my Mpire Darkside starwars/M&M hat. Very depressing and I spent a portion of the time from 10pm to midnight harrassing security, lost and found and the janitorial staff. when I got home I e-mailed and called Security and Lost & Found again, No luck at all.
When 8:15 comes I board the plane in the first group to get on. The Plane gets nearly full and some guy gets on and comes up to where I'm sitting, looks at me. checks his ticket. checks the signage over the seats, and then tells me he's supposed to be sitting where I am. I take my ticket out of my shirt pocket and check it. I'm in the right seat, and buckled in, and intend to be an immovable force if need be, and in all fairness he did show me his ticket and it was printed for my very seat... so I sent him back up to the flight attendant to figgure out what to do about him. They had to check with the ticketing agent back at the booth, and they determined that I was in HIS seat... MY seat.... was now in first class. Acceptable. (I had paid for 1st class anyway.) The flight was uneventful. Mom picked me up and we went to lunch at Crackerbarrel - was my first time eating at one. It was alright, not excellent, but certainly not bad either.
So. That was the Honeymoon.
Michele was Flu like for the next week or so, I sorta picked it up, but not as severe and not for as long. For her, it got better, then worse on and off. Dr. said Bronchitus had set in. was not fun for her.
Got pretty angry at one of my bosses about a week ago. Dean was being a real Jackass. Don't really want to get into what it was all about, but I'm basically trying to avoid him for a while and fly low on the radar so I can't be written up for something petty. I am convinced right now that he would do it in a heartbeat if I gave him an oppertunity.
I signed up to start over in Roy Porter's Karate class. Karate I. 5:30-7:20 on M & W. When I got to the class it had been blue-noted. for those of you who have never gone to JCCC I mean they canceled it. So I went to the student center to reschedule... the only other Karate I class in the summer session was on Tues and Thurs. But at 1:30pm. Dosen't work with my Costco schedule at all. So instead I took the 7:30 - 9:20 Karate II class instead. The dude tried to tell me I couldn't because you HAVE to take them in order and without the pre-req, I don't qualify. He pulled my transcript and determined I was infact able to sign up for Karate II.
The first night of class we practiced all of the testing material from white belt through orange belt. The Geri routine still sucks. My form was unacceptably sloppy. I don't deserve my belt rank. But I knew that going in, and was prepared to start over from scratch. Roy explained that once you earn rank, you never lose it, even when you do lose the skills. Before I can test for my next rank, I will have to repeat all of my previous test to demonstrate I am at the appropriate skill level at the more basic techniques, but I am still to wear my yellowbelt, one orange tip.
Tonights class was sparring. I was sucking wind so bad. My kicks were slow and not always landing where I was aiming. Karma is going to hit me like a bus soon, One poor guy is fresh out of Karate I and tonight is his frist time sparring, we're going light, and my light tap to his abs landed low. Still a valid target in Karate, but for noobs we generaly only indicate groin shots, while they develop better blocking skills. Later we indicate less and stirke more to help motivate better blocking, but tonight was NOT the night for that. Then an hour later I'm sparring him again, and it happens AGAIN... the poor guy is in his 60s. he dosen't deserve this. I quit throwing roundhouses against him. I need to regain my flexablility, timing and aim. My left arm is good and bruised from lots of blocking.
My two rounds against Roy was every bit as humbling as it was supposed to be. Each time he gave me good advice when we were done. First he told me to try not to telegraph my attacks so much, I was winding up before my punches. During our second spar he asks me if I know why he keeps hitting me. "because my guard is shit?" No, well, a little, but not really. I guessed a few more times, each about spacifics on how he was defeating my guard, but what he was talking about was my range. I was too far out for most of the techniques I was throwing, and I would be much better served in close. I happen to know for fact that Roy can tear me apart in close too, but he's definantly right, I can't close the distance well enough in my attacks to really land them solidly, and Roy's kicks are king. In close, it's harder to kick me. Oh, He can do it! But it IS harder, suposedly. He said that controling the range will help me to throw effective techniques more often, and I'll waste less energy. He didn't say so, but my energy levels were piss poor tonight, so energy conservation is important to me right now. But Roy did counter by saying that while I need to conserve energy by reducing wasteful attacks, I do also need to remain in constant motion.
I wonder what Monday will hold. Wednsday I'm supposed to do my standing and moving Dachi test. I need to practice those. but tomorow is dedicated to household chores instead.
Oh yeah, I weighed in today. Drs scale said 380.0 grim, but it's a fact I have to deal with and as of today, it's a starting point. We'll see what 4 hrs of karate a week does to my waistline.
Oh, for those of you who have known Roy but haven't seen him in a while, He's still maried to his 2nd wife and is raising a toddler and an infant, both daughters. His hair is cut short, and he is wearing a BRAND NEW blackbelt. His old tattered one is being saved for his older daughter (Lillian?) when she turns 18 and earns a blackbelt. He's wearing a new one figguring tying it every day will have it worn out and beaten up by the time his second daughter (Violet) earns her blackbelt 18 years from now.