All I want for Christmas...

It was obvious by our gifts that we're a 21st Century family.

Amber got the Happy Feet DVD (and some other gifts, including one pink and one purple "My Little Pwny".)
JE got Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Yoshi's Island for the DS, and Mario Party 8 for the Wii.
Liz got Puzzle Quest for the Wii, and My Sims for the DS (which I think she's forgotten about ;)
I got Ghost Squad for the Wii (I got it myself because I knew nobody else would, and no, I didn't buy everyone else's presents. I bought a few, but not all of them ;)

Liz and I also got each other some perfume/cologne.

I had to go in to work on Christmas Eve (the day, not the evening), I didn't have to go in (I could have used a Vacation Day), but I'd already said I'd be in and a few others had already requested the time off, so I went in knowing that I was missing the annual Christmas breakfast with Liz & the kids and the rest of her family. It used to be Christmas dinner (on Christmas Eve) but this year it was changed to breakfast. So I went in to work, thinking my wife and kids would be joining me for lunch. Instead, just before noon, Liz called to say the kids and their cousins were having a great time playing together, so they were staying at Uncle's for lunch as well.

One of my supervisors took off at noon. Before she left she told us our other supervisor was leaving at 2pm, so the three of us (in my section) would pretty much be on our own after that. Meanwhile our Bureau Chief was waiting for a call from the Commissioners' offices to see if we could go home early. I told our only Senior to call one of the girls in the Commissioners' offices (who used to work in our Bureau), rather than wait for 'them' to call us. So he called and discovered all of the Commissioners are on vacation this entire week. Hooray for them. Technically this meant our Chief could make his own decision as to whether or not to let us leave early, rather than wait for permission.

At 2pm my other supervisor left, telling us we could leave an hour early, "but do so quietly," she said, and so at 2:30 I was out the door and on my way to the bus stop to join my family, who were still playing happily at Uncle's house.

Back at work today I discovered our Chief pulled the same stunt as last year, going around at 3:30pm and telling everyone they could go home early. 3:30pm is the time I and a few others would normally leave anyway, so it's not exactly leaving early.

When they did this to us last year on Christmas Eve, a week later on New Year's Eve I deliberately kept asking our Program Manager if we were going to be let go an hour early. I even reminded her that I and several others come in at 6am and leave at 3:30, so it would be nice to know before that time if we could go home early. What happened? 3:30 arrived and our smiling Program Manager came around and told us we could all go home an hour early. Yeah, thanks for nothing. Then they go and do it again this year, and I expect they'll do the same again this New Year's Eve. Lovely. Just lovely. There are days where you don't feel appreciated and you wonder why you came in to work at all. Christmas Eve should not be one of those days.

Thank Orion for things like Ghost Squad where I can let off steam by blasting terrorists in the privacy of my own home :)

A weekend in Vegas

Friday, after watching (& video taping for the school) my son's Christmas program, Liz and I headed off to Vegas. This time the kids stayed behind so it was just the two of us in Sin City, and so this time around we were able to see a couple of shows: La Rêve, and Zumanity.

We also visited The Gun Store and fired an M-16 and an MP5, both full auto. I was seriously impressed at the almost complete lack of recoil on the MP5. No wonder SWAT and CTUs love them.

We also did a bit of gambling, but limited ourselves to the 1¢ machines. I ended up winning $30, but I think Liz spent that much herself, so we probably just about broke even :P

Hotelwise, the Monte Carlo is far superior to Circus Circus.

Do not go to The Wynn for their buffet dinner on a Saturday night. The food might be worth the $40 price tag, but it wasn't worth the 2-hour wait to get a table.

Not that far from the truth

Not going to be a good weekend

Liz's uncle passed away this morning. When I saw the text message from Liz my first reaction was to snap my phone closed. I don't know why. I'm not extremely close to her uncle, and the signs were very clear that he was fading and fast, but it was still shocking somehow. I snapped my phone closed as if that would delete the text message, but having already seen it deletion is irrelevant. Liz's uncle was in his 90s and until the last week or so was still living with his wife and their son in his son's condo. He was admitted to hospital, briefly moved into an assisted living center for a few days, and then was transferred back to the hospital where he spent his last few days.

By comparison my father spent a few days in hospital then was sent home where he died about five days later, in his own bed, with my mother and my sister by his side. I'd rather go out like that. I'd hate to be lying in a hospital bed, knowing I was dying, seeing my family for a few hours each day and when I said goodbye to them each night have no idea if that would be the last time we'd see each other.

Here, it was probably better for Uncle to pass away in the hospital. Likewise in Australia, except in Dad's case a palliative care nurse had just visited less than 30 minutes prior to him passing away, and because of that the police didn't need to be involved, there was no need for an autopsy, etc.

I suspect that sometime this weekend we'll be attending Uncle's funeral. It's sad because another aunty and a cousin are flying in from Chicago and New Jersey tonight. Like me with Dad, they also never got to say goodbye to Uncle.

The blessings we can count are that Uncle lasted this long, so even though his presence was missed at Thanksgiving dinner we were still able to celebrate. On a personal, somewhat selfish level, I'm glad that this year's family Christmas get-together (traditionally held on Christmas Eve) was changed from dinner to breakfast. With Christmas Eve being a Monday I have to work, so I won't be attending this year's get-together, meaning while the rest of the family has to contend with the hole left behind by Uncle, I can sit at my desk, bury myself in my work, and pretend that all is still right with the world. It's not that Uncle's death affects me so much, it's that I'd rather not have to witness the effect it's having on everyone else, especially Aunty. Ignorance is bliss, and this is one weekend I'll be glad to get behind me.

PSA: Facebook, Beacon, & Invasion of Privacy

If you and your loved one are on Facebook, and you shopped online for Christmas this year, chances are your loved one (& all of your Facebook Friends) may know what you bought for them, thanks to Facebook's Newsfeed & a tracking utility called Beacon.

But the good news is if you use Firefox, there's a workaround, as found at this site and reproduced here...

1. Download and Install the BlockSite plugin for Firefox (if you don't already have it).
3. Restart Firefox then select ‘Add-ons’ from the Tools menu.
4. Click the ‘Options’ button on the BlockSite extension
5. Click the ‘Add’ button
6. Enter http://*facebook.com/beacon/* into the input box
7. Click ‘OK’, then ‘OK’ again, and you're good to go.

If you already use Adblock or Adblock Plus you don't need to install the BlockSite plugin, just add the filter *.facebook.com/beacon/* to your block list.

Tap's Fish House & Brewery

Today Liz and I made our way to Brea for brunch at Tap's Fish House & Brewery. I was surprised when I got there to discover they offer not just the traditional Champagne Brunch, but a Beer Brunch as well. You all know what a Champagne Brunch is, well, a Beer Brunch is pretty much the same, just you get to sample two 16oz glasses of one (or two) of Tap's fine microbrews. Per our server's suggestion I ordered the Cream Ale, a light-bodied beer which was very easy on the palate, and disappeared very quickly when I made myself a cheese plate from the various cheeses available. The surprising taste was the bleu cheese which had a very strong, distinct flavor; it practically exploded in my mouth, and exploded out of Liz's when I gave her a small taste. No sir, she didn't like it. She also didn't like the Pumpkin Ale, my second beer of choice. I don't know how to describe the flavor of the Pumpkin Beer, which Tap's describes as "a medium-bodied ale made with 100 pounds of fresh pumpkins and spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice." They don't get the 100 pounds of pumpkin into each glass, but each glass sure does pack a lot of flavor. I ended up stuffing myself so much (the beer didn't help) that I told Liz we weren't going to the Brea Mall straight away, so we took a stroll around the shopping center across from Tap's instead, and that helped settle everything :)

Then we went to the Brea Mall, and that's pretty much the last time I set foot in a mall until at least the second week in January. Having worked in two malls for two Christmases, they're the last place I want to be between Thanksgiving and New Years. Not enough parking spots, too many people, not enough tables in the food court...so I'm doing my part to reduce the crush by staying out of them. The problem is Liz saw a Toys-R-Us catalog with a "Buy 2, get 1 Free" special on Wii games, so I think we're heading to our local Toys-R-Us tomorrow night. Monday night at a very small open-air mall, it shouldn't be too bad.

The problem will be buying three Wii games and not letting JE play them until the weekend, or Thanksgiving at least. Actually the problem will be buying three Wii games, period. We already have Mario Galaxy, Zelda:Twilight Princess, and Guitar Hero3. There's not too much else out there (that I know of) that's worth spending $50 to $60 on.

*edit* except I just found out that Link's Crossbow Training AND Ghost Squad both come out tomorrow, and both games can be picked up for around $50+tax. Bargain! One more game and Link's Crossbow Training (cheapest game at $20) is free!

Would you watch this?

It seems to me that if shows like "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila" can make it on the air, a show like I'm about to describe should also be hugely popular.

It's a variant of American Idol, but the contestants have to play Guitar Hero 3.

Wait! Wait! Don't change the channel just yet!

When you play GH3 the object of the game is to beat each song, but you don't have to play perfectly to beat a song. In the game when you beat a song you get a score based on how many notes you hit in a row, and when you used (if you used) your Star Power. You're also shown a percentage score, based on how many notes you hit. On "GH3: The Showdown" we'll multiply your score by your percentage to give you a Song Score. So the people who hit the most notes and use Star Power at the right time will get the highest Song Score.

Just like in American Idol there will also be Judges, who will be judging your stage presence. See it's not enough for you to hit every note and rack up a huge Song Score while standing there looking like a zombie; part of being a Guitar Hero is looking like a Guitar Hero. So the Judges will score you based on how well you can rock while playing, then your Song Score will be multiplied by your Judges' score to give you a total score.

The show will be filmed before a live audience who can dance and rock along to the music because there won't be any seats; yep, it's standing room only, folks. Because our Guitar Hero has to face the audience but also needs to see the notes he has to play, there will be a large screen TV at the front of the stage, facing him; but there will also be a projection screen on the back of the stage showing the audience what the Hero is seeing, thus they can see just how well the Hero is playing and egg him on when he's playing really well.

At the end of each night the two Heroes with the lowest score have to battle each other using Guitar Hero's very own in-game battle mode, with the loser being eliminated.

The final episode will have the last three Heroes battling it out for the title of Ultimate Guitar Hero. They'll each play a couple of songs with the lowest scoring Hero being automatically eliminated, then the remaining two Heroes will face off in a Best of Three Battle. The Ultimate Guitar Hero would get two customized GH3 guitars, their choice of a PS3, XBox360, or Wii console, plus a copy of GH3 for the same, along with a 60" Sony HD-TV and a home theater/surround sound system. The runner-up could get one customized GH3 guitar, choice of console w/ GH3, and a 46" Sony HD-TV. As far as final prizes go, it may not be a million dollars like you'd get for winning Survivor, but the people most likely to compete for the title of Ultimate Guitar Hero wouldn't be complaining, and the prizes could also be donated by your potential sponsors, being Sony, Microsoft and/or Nintendo, thus keeping your production costs down waaay low.

So if you're in The Industry or know somebody in The Industry and you like my idea, please feel free to steal it and plug it to somebody who can make it happen. I'd love to see a show like this, and if it knocked out A Shot at Love, that would just be gravy :)

How much is your time really worth?

I make approx. $32/hr at work. So for every two minutes that pass by while I'm sitting here, I earn $1. In a 40-hour week I earn approx. $1,280, but there are actually 168 hours in a week, so over the entire week of seven 24-hour days I earn $7.63 per hour or 13c every minute. Awake or asleep, working, working out, or just vegging out in front of the computer, I am accruing 13c for every minute that goes by.

Say it takes me one hour to perform a chore, like mowing my lawn; that's $7.63 of my time. If I pay someone to mow my lawn for me I will naturally compensate them more for their expertise, but if I can do the same job myself...for a lot cheaper, aren't I better off doing it myself? Hmmm, am I?

Let's say the Lawnmower Man charges me $15 to cut my lawn, which is a task I can do myself in one hour. In real terms I make $7.63 during that hour, so the $15 I pay the Lawnmower Man is offset by the $7.63 I make during that hour, meaning it really only costs me $7.37 to have the Lawnmower Man do the job, $7.37 is almost exactly one hour of my time anyway. So I can either spend a real hour cutting my lawn myself, or I can pay the Lawnmower Man to do it, and either way the real cost is the same (or close to). Interesting, no?

How much is your time worth?

Weather Watch Alert

This just in! And yes, it's a screengrab from an actual weather report which can be seen here until it gets taken down.


I guess 4 to 6-feet swells, with the occasional 8-footer, could be described as sweet in some circles. The minor coastal, low area flooding? Not so sweet.

Halloween 2007

As promised, here are a couple of pics from my office's Halloween party. Enjoy :)

The Mediterranean

After bumming around most of Saturday we decided to do dinner at the Mediterranean Garden Grill in Monrovia. I'd got take-out lunch from there before, and the food was pretty good, and somehow Liz and I were thinking of the same place so that was where we went. We really should have known better, at 7:30 on a Saturday night, but this is Monrovia we're talking about; the place is practically dead after 5pm on a Friday, except as we drove up Myrtle the old town still showed signs of life. The movie theater had people milling around outside, cafes and restaurants were jumping, and even some of Monrovia's small-town speciality stores had their doors open.When we turned on to Foothill and approached the Mediterranean we didn't realize it was the happening place to be in Monrovia on a Saturday night. We pulled into the parking lot, drove around the back of the building, and exited the other side. The lot was full (then again, it's a small lot) so we ended up parking on a side-street. Back to the restaurant we were told it would be about a 15 minute wait. Not too bad for a Saturday night, even in Monrovia.

The thing that got to us, and what really got to the couple ahead of us, was the apparently flagrant display of nepotism going on. A customer would walk up and the owner would greet him in a typical European fashion with kisses on the cheeks, followed by a very friendly conversation in Armenian or Greek or some language other than English. And shortly afterwards this guest and his party would be seated, while we waited outside. The couple in front of us eventually gave up and stormed off and I hardly blamed them, although it meant our wait was shortened so I was also happy to see them go ;)

It was close to a 45-minute wait before we were seated. Really, we should have known better. It's a Saturday night and we were there at 7:30 looking for table. Almost every restaurant worth eating at is going to have a long wait on a Saturday night. Next time we're either going at 6pm, or waiting until 8:30 or later. There also wasn't really any nepotism, just a lot of camaraderie among countrymen, and an owner wanting to try to get everyone seated. So he was seating parties of four ahead of couples, because he knew a slightly larger party that was occupying several tables pushed together would be done eating soon, so he could seat the party of four now, and in 10 minutes when the larger party leaves he can seat the three couples. It all makes perfect sense, except when you're waiting for a table :P

So our food finally arrived and we'd ordered the Dinner Combo for Two, which was the same dish the couple next to us had ordered, being two younger guys (in their 20s) with their toddler son (ok, he was one of their sons and probably the other's nephew...maybe, and even if it's something else there's nothing wrong with that ;). They ate their fill then called for boxes and ended up taking a lot of food home. Liz and I devoured pretty much everything between us, then finished up the evening with a serving of Ashta and a Baklava chased down with an Armenian Coffee, which comes served in a thimble not unlike an Espresso (which, contrary to popular belief, does not need to be drunk in one hit like a shot of liquor, although it must still be drunk within a couple of minutes of brewing or its individual components break down and it loses its flavor).

Just as we were leaving a couple of Hookahs were delivered to the party a couple of tables over from us. The interesting thing about the Mediterranean Garden Grill is its quasi-outdoor setting. Although you're surrounded by four walls and a ceiling, the windows are kept wide open and I think the owner has somehow got it classified as an outdoor restaurant. I'm assuming it's legal for diners to smoke cigarettes, cigars, or Hookahs, which can be rented from the restaurant for an after-dinner smoke, or it wouldn't be happening, right ;)

That night we finally got to enjoy an extra hour in bed as Daylight Saving Time officially ended, but we were still up somewhat early because we needed to go to LAX to pick up Liz's aunty, who was flying in from Chicago. We dropped her luggage at the in-laws' house then met up with the in-laws themselves (& our kids) at a local Shanghainese-style restaurant for lunch. I've been to this restaurant a couple of times now, and it drives me nuts, because their A/C fan is not balanced properly. It doesn't seem to affect anyone else but me, but the imbalance makes it oscillate at a particularly annoying rate which ends up giving me a headache. Last time we sat at the table in the center of the restaurant, and it was free when we walked in, and the waitress tried to show us to that table as well, instead I said I wanted to sit at the other empty table against the window. The vibrating fan was still audible, but not as intrusive as at the other table, so I was able to concentrate more on enjoying the delicious food, of which there was plenty. My dish of choice was Orange Beef, which came with several chili peppers that I managed to pick out. I thought I got them all but Liz's Aunty still found one. Lucky she had a glass of water, although milk or beer is better for putting out a chili fire. The in-laws had brought milk for the kids, but the kids had drunk it all :D

JE went home with Aunty and the in-laws, while we took Amber home for her nap. Liz decided she wanted a nap, too, and after a bit of fuss & bother and threatening to put her in her own bed, Amber finally fell asleep beside her Mommy. The house is so much more peaceful when they're all asleep :)

Waiting for Kimmel

The more correct title would be "Waiting for Rimes" as it was LeAnn Rimes holding up the show, but Waiting for Rimes doesn't have the same ring to it as Waiting for Kimmel.

Around 3:50 we headed over to the El Monte Bus Station where we caught a 484 bus to Union Station, followed by a ride on a Red Line Train out to Hollywood & Highland and the El Capitan Theatre. The eTicket told us the doors would open at 5:30, so we were in line and waiting around 5pm. Sometime between then and 5:30pm a staff member told us the egotistical diva known as LeAnn Rimes had arrived late (don't ask me how when she drives a Dodge Viper) and she wanted to practice her songs so we were forced to wait some more. It was almost 6:30pm when the doors finally opened and the line started to move, and it was 7pm by the time we'd been seated and Jimmy made his first appearance. I must admit, for a 1-hour show, I was seriously impressed that Jimmy managed to get the job done, interviews completed, etc, in about one hour. Nice work, Jimmy.

With the show over shortly after 8pm, and with the El Capitan being right across the road from the Hollywood & Highland station we managed to catch the 8:22 back into downtown, where we waited for our 484, and waited, and waited, in the cold, at the entrance to the Freeway, wearing not much more than jeans and light, short-sleeved shirts. For me, an ex-pat Aussie and former Victorian, it was nice, cool but nice. For Liz, a long time southern California resident, it was particularly chilly. We saved a few dollars on parking and wear & tear on our car by taking public transport, which cost us $6.25 total (for Liz, I already have my Metro pass for getting to work & back). Tickets for Jimmy's show were free, just in high demand, so we were lucky that Liz was able to get them.

We finished off the night with a late supper at the Red Ant, a local Chinese restaurant (somewhere on Valley Blvd. in Temple City) where you get a large portion of quite good food for a fairly decent price. For $20+change we were both fed to bursting, with food left over. All in all, it was a rather good evening.

Halloween 2007

Just like in years gone by our section once again led the way in dressing up (or down) for Halloween.

This time around we settled on a theme of Angels and Devils. I decided to dress in a manner similar to a devil/demon you might see on reruns of Angel, which meant wearing dark jeans with Doc Marten boots, my Punisher t-shirt, and my very macho leather jacket. When we bought a set of horns at the local Party/Costume store I realized my hair was currently too short (not to mention too sparse) to conceal the cord used to hold the horns on, so I didn't have a haircut for close to a month prior to Halloween. I also grew a goatee (again).

And here's a picture of me (in costume) with my kids.


One of the girls at work dressed up as a classic angel in white, another as a classic devil in red. My supervisor bought the same devil-in-disguise kit as I, so he had the exact same horns, but he wore a black outfit with a cape (I've never trusted capes since The Incredibles). One girl wore a half & half devil-angel outfit with a halo held up by horns, and red & white wings (one of each color), while another was a "fallen angel" dressed all in black, complete with a bandage on her knee where she fell :D Another supervisor was also dressed in a black angel outfit, but we decided she was a Dark Angel, rather than a fallen angel. Finally the last two supervisors coordinated with one wearing a New Jersey Devils' sweater, and the other wearing an Anaheim Angels' sweater. Brilliant!

I don't have a picture of all of us, yet, but when I do I'll put it up, too :)

Hmm, it would appear it wasn't me she was worried about.

Friday night, after the kids were at the in-laws, I again told Liz we really should set up the Wii, but she pretty much stuck to her guns and it didn't happen. Saturday we ran a few errands, exchanged JE's Tiger Cub belt for a Wolf Cub/Sub Scout belt, then ended up in Pasadena where we spent most of the afternoon. And when we got home Liz still wouldn't cave in and let me set up the Wii.

Sunday came around and our clocks which are supposed to set themselves by the Atomic Clock every morning around 2am decided Daylight Saving Time had ended and so set themselves back an hour, so my gut was right as I lay there in bed looking at the clock, thinking it felt later than 6am, but I didn't discover that until I got up at 6:45, which was really 7:45am.

Liz got up around 9am and I heard her pottering around downstairs, and shortly afterwards the aroma of something delicious was wafting throughout the house. It was the chocolate cake she was baking for the Halloween party, which she later decorated and it turned out very well. We dropped off the cake at the in-laws then joined Xinh, Drew & Amanda for lunch at Souplantation, where among other things, the conversation turned to the Wii, specifically because Guitar Hero III:Legends of Rock had been released that very day, and Amanda was keen to get her hands on a copy.

After lunch Liz and I stopped at Target where we found two copies of Guitar Hero III. Both GH3 boxes were slightly damaged, as if something heavy had been sat on them. They weren't crushed but the boxes were not in perfect condition, so we felt reasonably confident in buying the lesser damaged of the two though. This would be the deal breaker :)

At home Liz finally relented and let me set up the Wii and after a spot of bother synching the second controller (there's a synch button on both the controller and the Wii which both need to be pressed) everything was up and running and we were playing, I mean testing, testing the Wii. The Wii sports disc worked just fine, Liz and I played a few games of bowling just to make sure, then wii...I mean we played some Baseball. When Liz took a break I hooked up the nunchuk controller and fired up Wii Boxing. I knocked three opponents on their backs, the first two went down in the first round, the third guy lasted into the second round, and by that time the sweat was pouring off me. I know you really don't have to bounce around the room as you Wii box, I know you can just use little flicks of your wrist to fight your opponent, but it's so much fun (and a HUGE workout) to box in a more realistic manner.

I decided I'd better have a shower before breaking out the GH3 and unleashing my inner rock god, so it was a much refreshed (& cleaner) Capn John who took the stage, ripping through the first few songs in Career Mode, before his groupie, I mean Liz, sent me out to get her some dinner. Don't we have Roadies for stuff like that?

Liz told me to hurry because her parents were going to be bringing the kids home soon.

"Ok, shouldn't I pack up the Wii first then?" I asked. Yes, I was serious. I'd had my play and now knew the Wii worked ok, as opposed to setting it up on Christmas Eve for the kids to find Christmas morning, only to discover we'd got a DOA console. Unlikely, but sometimes I worry about these things.

"Just leave it out," Liz said, with a sheepish smile.

I see...it wasn't me Liz was concerned about at all. She knew that if we set up the Wii, that she would be the one who wouldn't want to put it away.

So I left Liz in charge of the Wii and Guitar Hero and headed out to Jack in the Box. I'd attempted to give her a crash course in how to use the guitar-shaped controller but she told me she'd work it out. And so it was that when I got back I found her trying to play the first song, and failing miserably, because she was hitting the Fret notes ok but she wasn't strumming at the same time, so she was missing the notes and failing the songs. It's like playing a one-string guitar. You can hold down the notes on the fret board, but unless you strum the string you won't get any sound. Liz's performance improved dramatically with that one little change to her playing style.

When she sat down to eat her sandwich I took over, which is when the in-laws arrived. I went downstairs to meet them and we chatted for a couple of minutes as the kids went upstairs, and I could hear JE start chanting happily "We got a Wii! We got a Wii!" I'm sure the in-laws could hear him but probably had no clue what he was saying :D

After the in-laws left I joined my family upstairs and finished my GH3 set then turned it off so JE could play. He didn't want to play Guitar, he wanted to play Wii Sports. Specifically, Wii Boxing!!! So I again hooked up the nunchuk controller to the Wiimote, fired up Boxing, and JE began flailing away. Dancing in towards the TV he began throwing wild punches causing Liz some concern that we were about to experience our first Wii-accident.

I watched in amazement. I was sweating and tired after beating three fighters (total of no more than four 1-minute rounds), JE was still going somewhat strong after defeating his fifth opponent, and he wasn't pulling any punches, either. He had an uncanny knack of finishing his opponent off with a big, looping, overhand right that would almost take their head clean off. The ragdoll physics in Wii Boxing are a sight to see and when a boxer goes down he doesn't always go straight down. Often they will flip and spin and more than one boxer was dumped on his head by JE's overhand right KO punch. And JE kept on boxing. So much so that Liz told him he can't play Wii Sports in the morning because she doesn't want him going to school all hot & sweaty. I wonder how this will work in the afternoon as an incentive for him to finish his homework on time. With a Wii waiting upstairs, he just might be encouraged to do his homework a little faster.

After JE had boxed a bit the bunny wanted to play, so I fixed her up with the second Wiimote and nunchuk and she began trading punches with JE. Big Brother took it easy on her, until she landed a couple of big hits and then it was on and the bunny's avatar quickly found herself lying on the mat. When her toon got up the fight continued and JE was amazed to see his guy get knocked on his arse. But the foregone conclusion was inevitable, given JE's enthusiasm and boundless energy the bunny's avatar eventually went down for the count. Now sated she handed the controllers to me and went back to playing with her blocks while JE knocked around some more cartoon opponents.

I'll say this for it. The Wii is an awesome invention for letting kids (boys in particular) enjoy one of their most favorite activities, while still ensuring they get a lot of exercise. I'm sure JE slept well last night.

Anyway, I'm gonna finish off here. My arms and hands are a little sore. I think I'm out of shape. I think I need to train a little more ;)

We wanna Wii

After playing Wii (again) on the weekend, Liz finally caved in and Sunday night found her searching online for Wii consoles and packages. She found one site which claimed to run searches and tell you which stores had the Wii in-stock. Except it listed places like Gamestop.com and when we went there they were taking Preorders for a shipment expected in on Oct. 30...with a disclaimer that they may not get enough items to fill every order. The eBay price of the Wii was bizarre. Some people were listing them at $500 and up and getting bids, on a $250 console. After getting beaten on one console which went for $285 + shipping (about $320 all up) Liz just told me to call in to my local Gamestop on the way home from work Monday and see if they had any in-stock.

So Monday after work I found myself lining up behind a young fellow trying to return a game he was claiming didn't work on his console. The clerk was being very patient with the lad and realizing that helping him would take a while, he paused and asked if he could help me. It might be considered rude to help the second customer but if I'd had a simple question, like, "Do you have Heavenly Sword?" he could have pointed me in the right direction and gone back to helping the kid.

Instead I replied, "Silly question. Do you have any Wii consoles in stock?"

He thought for a second and said, "We might have one left. I'll check in a minute."

So he helped out the kid then went out to the back room and came back carrying a Wii console.

Wow!

After hearing about so many people having so much trouble trying to get a Wii, or spending far too much money to get one, I walk into my local store and walk out with the only Wii they have in stock.

Now there's just one problem. Liz wants our son to concentrate on his schoolwork and not have any more disruptions for the rest of the year, so I have a Wii at home, with Wii Sports, Zelda:Twilight Princess, and Mario Party 8 (we bought the games the next day) and I'm not allowed to play it :( It's tucked away in its box so I can't even play it after the kids go to bed.

Maybe when the kids go visit their grandparents this weekend I can talk Liz into breaking it out and having a play. Just to check that it works. I mean I'd hate to set it up Christmas Eve so it's ready for the kids first thing Christmas morning, only to "test play" it and find it doesn't work. Testing purposes, that's all. I'd hate to disappoint the kids Christmas morning. It's all about the kids, right ;)

One tough kid

The bunny had her 3-year old checkup yesterday. From the other rooms we could hear kids screaming and crying as they got their vaccinations, one little fellow in particular wouldn't shut up and must have been crying for a good 30 minutes as we waited to be seen by the Doc.

Finally the visit was over, bar the Nurse giving the bunny her Hepatitis shot. She asked me to sit with her on my lap, so I did, but I didn't quite understand exactly how the Nurse wanted us positioned, until Liz took over, holding the bunny's arms and sandwiching her legs between her own. As the bunny and I looked on the Nurse stuck the needle into her thigh and hit the plunger. When I looked at her face the bunny was just staring down at her leg as the Nurse pulled the needle back out. I was waiting for the waterworks but they never came. Seriously. The Nurse stuck on a circular bandaid and the bunny just looked at her leg and said "I got a boo boo," and that was it. No crying, nothing.

This is the same girl who comes running to us, crying, when she bumps her arm or leg and demands a bandaid for some non-existent injury. But she gets stuck in the leg with a huge needle and it doesn't faze her. Amazing.

Shop 'til you drop.

After dropping JE at school on Friday I returned home, only to head out again a couple of hours later with Liz for Dim Sum. Although 888 in Temple City has become our favorite Dim Sum restaurant I was not overly impressed this time around. But as Liz said it's probably because I didn't finish the meal with my favorite pastry, because there were none. The dessert cart went around a few times but with a very limited selection, then got parked near the kitchen and the server disappeared. Finally a lady emerged from the kitchen with a tray of small, freshly baked tarts, but she proceeded to go the long way around the room and we watched as one table then another took a plate or two. Finally Liz snared a waiter and told him we wanted some of the egg tarts, so he practically dragged the server across to our table, but not before another table took the second last plate.

We decided we won't do Dim Sum on a weekday any more; weekends are a lot busier, but the food selection is far greater.

We dropped the bunny with the FIL for her nap, did a spot of shopping, then stopped for Boba Milk Tea, where the servers forgot to put the Boba in Liz's Milk Tea. Then we picked up the boy from school, got him a haircut and dropped him with the FIL as well. Then we went shopping, again, before winding up at Maki Sushi for dinner where we ate way too much food. I ordered a Fried Spicy Tuna Roll. This is twice I've ordered a fried "sushi" roll and to be honest, I'm not too impressed. It was tasty but the sushi becomes a lot "heavier" in being fried. I also ordered a dinner combo with a Philadelphia Roll and Teriyaki Chicken, while Liz ordered a plate of sashimi. With all of this following on the heels of two bowls of Miso soup and a salad that meant we were pretty well stuffed. Overstuffed, even. So we went to the local Trader Joe's to do yet more shopping, but for groceries this time. It really hit home now why they say never go grocery shopping on an empty stomach. I've done that before and you want to buy everything. But the reverse works, too. With a full tummy I looked at all the food and I didn't want to buy anything. But just walking around instead of sitting down like sedentary lumps felt good, and after buying some milk and a couple of other things we wandered into the Marshall's next door...where Liz did not buy a thing! Yeah, I know. That surprised me, too.

Saturday we pretty much bummed around the house until it was time to head down to the O.C. to visit our friend Susan for dinner and a games night. We also met Susan's boyfriend Lazlo for the first time, and our (almost) first conversation went something like this:

Lazlo: What would you like?
Me: Whatever it is that smells good.
Lazlo: That would be me.
Me: I need to get a bit more drunk first.

And I did...














...but the drunken tryst never happened :D

We played a couple of rounds of Apples to Apples, then Natey set up his Wii and we played Mario Party. After that Drew and I played a game of Wii-Baseball that Drew won, 3 runs to zip (I hit a triple but couldn't get the runner home). Then we played a few games of Wii-Bowling, and after I bowled a 200+ game we decided to create a Wii-Me of me. We had two more games after that (with me using my Wii-me) and I still bowled pretty well but didn't break 200 again. I bowled 5 Strikes in a row to get that double century.

We made it home around 3:15 Sunday morning but before going to bed I logged on to SigAlert.com to check out why the I-10 ramp off the 605 was closed. Which is how I found out that just before 3am there'd been an accident on the 605 at the 90. It had to have happened within minutes of us driving through that interchange.

5 hours later I woke up, then nudged Liz awake and told her to call her parents and let them know we weren't picking up the kids that morning like we'd planned. Liz called and spoke to her parents for a few minutes, then hung up and told me we were still picking up the kids because JE had been sick the night before. We picked up both kids and JE ended up throwing up a little in the car on the way home. Lucky the in-laws had given him a "barf bag". Actually a plastic shopping bag, but it worked just the same...maybe even better :)

When the bunny went down for her nap that afternoon Liz went and lay down as well, so I told JE to go lie down, too. He lay on his bed playing his Gameboy but when I checked on him after a few minutes he'd fallen asleep. And the house was quiet :)

For a 3-day weekend it sure has gone by pretty quickly.

Racial profiling? You be the judge.

Coming home from work today I approached one of the busiest intersection I have to pass through. Like many other drivers I have to make a left turn here because of a railway underpass project & subsequent detour on the road I'd normally take. Because of the detour the traffic really backs up at this intersection. So many people want to make this left turn that the official left-turn lane fills up, and so people pull into the center lane behind the left-turn lane, and in doing so they free up the lanes going straight ahead. Makes perfect sense to me.

This afternoon I did what I've been doing almost every day for the last couple of years since the detour has been in place; I pulled into the center lane and drove down passed everyone to the end/start of the left-turn lane. Just as I got there I saw a bike cop ahead of me, also waiting to make a left turn. Unlike me he was still sitting in the left lane (but not the left-turning lane). Behind the cop was a car also waiting to make a left-turn, and also staying in the left lane. Being a courteous driver (most of the time) I stopped my car behind this other car, sort of, she was in the lane next to me, after all.

Just as I stopped my car the bike cop turned around and if he wasn't trying to look like the T-1000 then it was an amazing coincidence. He pointed at me and gave me a long hard look and I just stared right back at him and gave him a single nod, and he finally turned back around.

I was thinking, "This is it. My first ticket for a moving violation." I've been dodging them for almost 10 years now ;) but when we got our green left-turn arrow the cop made a left into the left lane and zoomed off, meanwhile I turned left into the right lane (of a three lane road).

So here's the deal. I live in a predominantly hispanic area, although lately the asians are moving in (driving up property prices) and forcing the hispanics out. But I'm neither hispanic nor asian, I'm just about as white as you can get, so when the cop turned around to eyeball me he found himself looking at a middle-aged white guy with an almost military short haircut (did I really just call myself middle-aged?).

Now either the cop was only interested in people running red lights or speeding (bike cops are notorious for giving out tickets), or it's not close to the end of the month and he's currently looking good to fill his quota...or he decided to "let me off" because he'd rather find a hispanic-american to give a ticket. Or some other reason, who knows. Maybe being 4:30pm he just couldn't be bothered writing out another ticket this close to the end of his day. All I care about is I dodged another ticket :) I know, I know, they'll get me eventually. It's bound to happen sooner or later, but it didn't happen today :P

Improving on WoW

There are two ways to potentially improve on the World of Warcraft.

One is to make WoW a far more dynamic place, instead of the static world it currently is. But apparently Blizzard stated that will never happen because they want someone just starting the game now to experience the "same game" as someone who began playing a year ago. But that's jut a copout, rebutted by keeping "classic" servers, while adding new, dynamic servers. I think the zones known as "contested zones" on PvP servers could become a little more contested, and it would make the game a lot more interesting to people who enjoy the PvP style of play.

I'd love to see the Horde or Alliance be able to sack a town belonging to the opposing faction. Currently a few high level, Epic-clad players will storm an outlying town populated mostly by lowbies, slaughter the guards, then pwn the living hell out of any lowbies who foolishly fight back. This persists until enough high level players on the opposing team fly in and do some pwning of their own. Slaughtering lowbies is fun to some people, but they don't enjoy a dose of their own medicine. So when a real challenge shows up most people hearth back home.

But what if a large Guild descended upon a town, such as Darkshire or the Crossroads, pwnd the NPC Guards, planted a Flag in the middle of town, then defeated any resistance, including high level opponents. Then pwnd the NPC Guards again when they respawned, then soundly defeated a lvl 70 NPC Boss and several escorts when they turned up, all while fighting off opposing players. What you'd have is a situation not unlike a skirmish for a Tower or Keep in the Alterac Valley Battleground, only taking place in the World of Warcraft itself. And after sacking the town and defeating all comers, and holding the territory for a period of time, such as 30 minutes, the victorious players have a choice. They can keep the town, in which case it becomes a town under their faction's rule and the former owners now have to gather an army of their own to take it back; or the invaders can sack the town, getting some gold and maybe a few rare treasures, but their faction will not gain control of the town. In fact choosing to Sack the town will spawn an army of Elite Soldiers in the nearby capital City, wand unless the invading force is very large in number and very well coordinated, this army of Elite Soldiers will retake the town and destroy the invaders, driving them out of the town and making it a somewhat safe place once again. But with this being the World of Warcraft there is no place that's ever 100% safe.

But what if the invaders take the town? What about any quests you had from the townsfolk there? What if you'd set your hearthstone in that town? Simple, your hearthstone will be reset to the nearest capital city's Inn. And you can still complete the quests, but the townsfolk will have also taken refuge in that capital city, so you can find them there to turn the quest in. And if you're lvl 60 or higher, these displaced townsfolk will have new quests, asking you to talk to the city's leader, King, etc, about retaking their town. When you talk to the local leader you can get a Raid quest to help retake the town. The reward being some XP, gold, and an increase in Rep, and perhaps a Royal Tabard, ring, or necklace to show you are a loyal & willing soldier.

So, one way to improve upon WoW would be to allow PvP conflicts on a large, world-changing scale.

The other way? Borrow from Blizzard's own Diablo II. Go Hardcore. True Hardcore. Your toon dies, and that's it. You want to play again? Reroll.

Ok, considering there are classes with spells that allow them to resurrect other players, you don't suffer Permadeath if you can get a player to Rez you in-game before a certain time limit (like 30 mins or so). So there'd be no staying online for hours, waiting for someone to Rez you. 30 minutes pass by and that's it. You're dead for good. Reroll.

Imagine how white knuckle a Raid would be with everyone knowing that if they Wipe, almost the entire Guild will have to reroll and start back at level 1. Now while death would be permanent, you could essentially start the same toon over at level 1, sans all skills, items, & gold of course. This way you'd retain your toon's name, Guild Membership and Friend list, and more importantly perhaps, your Ignore List ;) but everything else would be reset. It would be a complete new start. I know what you're thinking. Have a Bank Alt, right? Send all your Gold, mats, spare items, anything not soulbound to your toon goes to the Bank Alt before you go adventuring. Good thinking. That way if you do die, your Bank Alt can finance you to help rebuild your toon. So the only real penalties for death would be reversion to level 1, and loss of any Uber Items associated with and being carried by that particular incarnation.

The one bug in this ointment would be the griefers. They'd be the players that get a kick out of ruining other players' days. Like the high level fellow that Ambushed me while I was crossing the bridge into Lakeshire and pretty much one-shot killed me. Yep, there really are folks out there who get a kick out of thinking they've ruined your day. In that situation I was more surprised than pissed off. Here I am, crossing the bridge into town. La la-la la-la. What the fuck??? I'm dead??? How the hell did that happen???

Check the Combat Log and...Stabby's Ambush Crits you for 1,427. You die. Well, duh! I almost died three times over from that hit!

Swim down the river, Rez under the bridge and trot into town, reminding myself that I am playing on a PvP server, so I've pretty much agreed to be one-shotted by sneaky Rogues like Stabby.

So that would be one problem with a Permadeath Hardcore Server. Fellows like Stabby hiding out in an area frequented by lowbie Toons knowing that everyone he kills has to start all over if they can't get a Rez within 30 minutes. And chances are Stabby is going to whack the guy attempting the Rez as well.

You could always play on a Hardcore PvE server, where you're not as prone to being Ambushed by Stabby & Co., but even on a PvE server it's very easy to die if you're not being careful. Hell, I died the other day and it was practically an involuntary suicide. I'd dropped off the Scryer Elevator in Shattrath, a survivable drop if you're at full health, but I wasn't at full health. I still survived but was left with barely 100 hit points. Running into the center of Shattrath I took the portal to Stormwind, which takes you to the top floor of the Mage Tower. Running out the door I did what I normally do when I exit the SW Mage Tower; I ignored the spiral staircase and took the fast way down. Normally when I drop off the Mage Tower I have a lot more hit points, so normally I'll hit the ground and keep on running. This time when I hit the ground I didn't get back up. Oops. That would be an embarassing Permadeath.

"Rerolling, huh. How'd you die?"

"Splatted off the Mage Tower in SW. All the Rezzers just laughed at me :("

"LOL! You noob!"

So we have two ways to potentially improve upon WoW. And Blizzard wouldn't need to change the entire game. Keep the current servers exactly the way they are and set up brand new servers (so everyone starts at level 1) with dynamic zones, where towns can be sacked & pillaged, or even captured. And set up brand new Hardcore Permadeath Servers where dying means a lot more than just a corpse run back from the local Grave Yard.

A farm? In Los Angeles?

Ok, so it doesn't quite have the same ring to it as "A tiger? In Africa?"

Saturday afternoon I dropped the bunny with the Inlaws while picking up JE, then we were off to Wilderness Park where the Cub Scouts were having a BBQ dinner. We had a couple of hikes around the park, through the woods, and down by the river where we saw a toad. Apparently a couple of boys had seen a deer earlier, and we did see lot of tracks, but no more deer. There was a hole in the fence that's supposed to keep nasty animals out and it's not that I'm afraid of bears and mountain lions, ok, maybe I am, so after seeing the large hole in the fence I was glad we weren't camping there overnight.

As we walked back and got closer to the BBQ area we were met by the delicious aroma of barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs, and boy, did they smell good and kick our taste buds into overdrive. I ended up having two cheeseburgers, plus two helpings of the peach cobbler cooked in the Dutch Oven over the coals. The hamburgers were delicious but the peach cobbler was just divine!

Afterwards we all headed down to the campfire and toasted Smores. JE had two, I had one, then JE wanted a third but took one bite out of it and learned about the Law of Diminishing Returns. So not wanting to waste food I was forced to eat it. I wasn't feeling too well afterwards :P

Now it's Sunday and we've just returned from a trip up to Forneris Farms in Mission Hills, where they have a 4-acre Corn Maze (no, it's corn, it's not a Maize Maze :P) and a large Pumpkin Patch. We were there again with a few of the Cub Scouts and as we pased through the maze we had to find the 10 tires. With 8 boys looking we found all 10 and were back out within 40 minutes.

On the way home Liz wanted to stop in Pasadena at the Container Store, then we ended up at the Cheesecake Factory for an early(ish) dinner. My attention was caught by a couple two tables over, in particular by the fellow who had all manner of gang-style tattoos over his body, coming up from the neck of his t-shirt, etc. I was amused by the tattoos he had across the knuckles of his hands. "YOUR" on one hand, and "NEXT" on the other. Oh, I so wanted to tempt fate and ask where the apostrophe and E were, but I figured those people who did ask that were probably "next".

After dinner we stopped at Pinkberry's and were not overly impressed with their Green Tea Yoghurt. I thought it was ok, not sweet, in fact a shade on the tart side, which I liked. It complimented the Chocolate Drops and Orio Cookie pieces JE had added to the order. Liz took one bite and refused to eat any more. JE ate a bite, shivered in mock cold (it was a very cool frozen Yoghurt, then concentrated on picking out the choc bits and cookie pieces. So I ended up eating the lot.

We never bought back a pumpkin from the Farm because they were rather expensive, although they were good sized pumpkins, but it's still too early to buy a Jack O' Lantern pumpkin. Maybe next weekend.

Only in Australia, or maybe Russia

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian doctors used an intravenous feed of vodka to keep an Italian tourist alive after he consumed large quantities of a poisonous substance.

The 24-year-old man, in an apparent bid at self-harm, had swallowed ethylene glycol, found in antifreeze, which can cause death. Doctors administered pure alcohol, the conventional antidote, but exhausted the hospital's supply.

Desperate to continue the treatment the doctors at Mackay Base Hospital in Queensland state hooked up an intravenous feed of vodka, hospital officials said.

"The patient was drip-fed about three standard drinks an hour for three days in the intensive care unit," Dr Todd Fraser said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Fortunately for him he was in a medically induced coma for a good portion of that. By the time he woke up I think his hangover would have well and truly gone," Fraser said.

"The hospital's administrators were also very understanding when we explained our reasons for buying a case of vodka."

The Italian man was treated in the hospital two months ago and has since made a successful recovery. News of his treatment was only released on Wednesday.

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.

Time Warner =/= Customer Service

Last Friday evening our cable connection developed a persistent hiccup. We couldn't stay connected for more than a couple of minutes at a time, but our cable modem showed no signs of uninterrupted service; it never rebooted and we had solid green LEDs the whole time. (yes, they're supposed to be green and solid.)

I called Time-Warner and was on hold for perhaps 20 minutes. For some people, you might think that's an amazingly fast response time for a cable company, but I was rarely on hold with Adelphia's Customer Service for longer than 5 minutes. So I wasn't impressed.

We'd rebooted the Cable Modem a couple of times, and even did a full LAN reboot and powered down both PCs but the hiccup had persisted. (I call Tech Support as a last resort.) Of course when the Tech finally answered he still told me to reboot my cable modem, which I did to humor him. It didn't restore our service, but why would it? It hadn't worked for any of the earlier reboots (at least three of them). The tech claimed there was a problem at our end, that maybe it was with our Cable Modem. Yeah, right. You're only saying that because you know we're using our own Cable Modem and you want us to use, i.e., "rent" yours, for a monthly fee of course. Anyway, the Tech scheduled a service call, for almost a week later. Again, I'd called Adelphia before for service and frequently had a tech come out within the the next day or two.

Saturday afternoon Liz and I got home to find a message from Time Warner. "Hey, thanks for calling us. We found the problem with your service and we fixed it."

Uh, yeah. Didn't you say the problem was at our end? And wasn't that the problem which you couldn't send a tech to check out until next week? But now you've fixed it? Nice one.

Last night they called us back, but not recognizing the number (in fact it showed up as an "Unknown Name" 866 number on our Caller ID) we didn't pick up. The automated system then left us a pleasant message saying we should call to confirm, reschedule or cancel our appointment.

So I called back tonight, went through the automated process, pressed 3 to cancel our appointment, and was asked to wait while they processed my request. Then I was asked to enter a PIN number (a redundant word combination), which I didn't have. My non-existent PIN (N = Number) was not recognized so I was asked to enter it again, and again when I didn't enter it, it wasn't recognized, so I was told to call the 888-TW-CABLE number...being the one where I was on Hold for 20 minutes waiting to talk to someone on Friday night. No thanks.

I figured if they couldn't get their Automated System working properly to where a customer could cancel a service call, it would serve them right if they waste a Tech's time in coming out to fix a problem which they claim they fixed several days before. Of course the nice automated system chose that moment to call me back.

This time when I was asked to hold while they processed my request they actually transferred me to the automated man's wife. She asked me for my phone number then told me I was scheduled for a service call tomorrow.

Aah, no. I already told your husband I wanted to cancel it.

"If the current date & time are still suitable, please Press 1."

Didn't I do this before with your husband?

"If you need to change the date and/or time, please Press 2."

I know, I know. If I want to cancel, please Press 3.

I pressed 3.

"You said you want to cancel your service call. If this is correct, please Press 1."

I pressed 1.

"Thank you. Your service call has been canceled. Goodbye."

Hmmm...They always say that if you want something done right, ask a woman, and that appears to hold true for the virtual world, too.

Who do you know?

I have in my cellphone an entry for a man known as "Nick the Greek", and yes, that's his professional name. Nick is a very nice man and has helped me out more than a few times.

Our first meeting occurred when I had a very serious problem, and although I knew about Nick the Greek I'd never actually met him, but I knew he was just the man to help me out. I was at work when I'd noticed a seam in my trousers had come undone, creating a rather embarrassing hole in the crotch. Nick took care of the problem within seconds and didn't charge me a penny. From that day forth, whenever I've needed hems taken up or seams repaired, I've gone to see Nick. Nick the Greek. My Tailor.

Hello, Monday

I opened up an email from a coworker this morning who's notorious for sending out sometimes funny (sometimes sick) jokes and pictures. I thought the following tattoo was hilarious. Now I'm fairly accepting of tattoos as an expression of individuality, but as my coworker said, this one is definitely not something I'd want one of my kids to come home with. Still hilarious though :)

And before you scroll down any further, I strongly urge you to swallow any coffee, tea, milk or other substance you currently have in your mouth.

Happy Monday!

Signs of the Apocalypse

I'm wearing DKNY Jeans, with a Hugo Boss belt.

All I need is an Abercrombie & Fitch t-shirt to complete the look.

Lucky I'm wearing an orange "Life is Good" t-shirt with a stick figure person hiking, instead :)

Public Service Announcement - Head Lice

*Warning* The following post is almost guaranteed to make your scalp itch and your skin crawl.

It's not a pleasant experience to get a call from your child's school, asking you to come pick them up because they've got head lice. And then you see them and you wonder how on earth you missed the little sores all over the top of their little head, when you just washed their hair two nights ago.

It's also rather scary to google head lice and come across articles which tell you that most over-the-counter medicines and shampoos are useless because, just like Golden Staph, repeated exposure to various anti-Lice chemicals has built up their immunity and we now face...SuperLouse!

But discovering your child has head lice doesn't make you a bad parent...although there must have been a bad parent somewhere way back when who sent their child to school with lice and let them infect everyone else's kids, including your own.

It's also interesting to discover that the carpet in a classroom can be completely free of lice despite the room being occupied by kids infested with hundreds of lice, because lice need to eat about every 6 hours and don't survive very long when removed from their human host. In fact it's downright pleasing to discover that, because it means if you can get the lice off your kid's head and keep them off your own, you can eradicate the problem within 24 hours.

So they say the shampoos may not work, but guess what? They still make us parents feel better. And at least we're doing something, right? And maybe they don't kill the lice outright, but getting covered in irritating chemicals still can't be a pleasant experience, for a louse. And being repeatedly tugged through the teeth of a very fine comb can't be very pleasant, either. And combining the two experiences is almost guaranteed to make your average, common, everyday louse (and maybe even SuperLouse) lose his group on your child's hair and get washed down the drain.

So, while lice may be becoming resistant to anti-lice shampoos and washes, I'd still recommend using them as directed. And before rinsing the shampoo out I suggest using that little fine-toothed comb and comb through their hair first, yes, shampoo and all. Do it with your little one standing in the shower or bath and immediately rinse the comb under the water before running it through their hair each time.

And if all else fails, there's always MagiComb!!!

Now if you'll please excuse me, my scalp is itchy and I need to scratch!

A long, wet, and fun weekend

Friday night, after dropping the kids off with the in-laws, Liz and I made our way over to the Vineland Drive-In Movie Theater in the City of Industry to watch the Bourne Ultimatum. All of the weather reporters had been predicting rain & thunder storms but nothing had come down yet, although on our way over we saw a few flashes from down Orange County way so the thunder & lightning were out there.

It's very different to be "standing in line" but sitting in your car, waiting to buy your ticket to enter a Drive-In. There were only two lines going in so we were slowly moving up, bit by bit, when a car pulled up on our left, the passenger door opened, and a girl jumped out and ran up to the ticket window. A minute or so later the girl ran back and got into her car, and a ticket attendant came out of the ticket booth and opened a gate, letting the girl's car through and the one following it. Liz was fuming but calmed down somewhat when the ticket attendant closed the gate and stopped a third car that had come down behind the first two. She gestured at them to go back then ran back into the booth. The temperature in our car raised a little again when it looked like the driver of this car was thinking about trying to cut in front of us, but finally he managed to make a three point U-turn and back he went to the back of the line. The car behind him did the same thing but I think the third car behind them cut in line somewhere behind us.

Something that irritates both Liz and I is people who hold up lines by asking stupid directions, like: Where do I go? What should I tune my radio to?

To complicate matters the Vineland Drive-In does have four screens, one in each corner of the lot, but it also has sign posts, clearly visible while you're sitting in line, showing you what movie is playing on what screen and in which direction you'll find that screen, and it even has signs clearly posted at the front showing you what station to tune your radio to for each movie. But obviously some people still weren't paying attention at all and felt compelled to ask the ticket booth attendants "Where do I go to watch Halloween? What do I tune my radio to? etc, etc, etc."

Finally we got to the booth and I handed over $20 and said Two Adults, please. ($7.50 per adult, kids under 9 are Free!!! Not that the kids were with us.) The attendant said something in return and it took me a second or two to realize she was asking what movie we were here to see, which makes sense, they probably need to keep track of how profitable each movie is as they probably need to pay royalties based on attendance per movie. I said "Bourne Ultimatum", the girl rang us up and as she handed me my change I said to her, "Back behind us on the left, tune in to 91.9, right?" Both her and the other booth attendant happily replied, in unison mind you, "You got it!" It probably makes their day/evening to serve customers who know the routine and don't stop to ask, "Where do I go? What do I tune my radio to?"

I haven't been to a Drive-In for close to 20 years so it was quite fun and very nostalgic for me, and until this night Liz had never been to a Drive-In, ever. Although she's a woman of the world, having lived in several cities in three countries (four if you count six months in Australia) it makes me happy that there are still "firsts" I can do with her. She'd never seen Rocky Horror Picture Show until I stopped on it while channel flipping one evening, and this weekend at the Drive-In was another First that I was able to share with her.

Usually each of the screens at Vineland has a double feature but our screen tonight was a triple header, although it was "Halloween" both before and after "The Bourne Ultimatum". Not overly concerned about watching "Halloween" we made our way out when "The Bourne Ultimatum" was over. I found it amusing that they finally introduced David Webb in the third movie, when he's a huge plot element of all three Ludlum books. Then again, almost the only thing the books and the movies have in common is Jason Bourne. It's very easy to read the books and disassociate them from the movies, treating them as additional adventures in the life of Jason Bourne.

It's a good thing we didn't stay for "Halloween" because the rain finally came down shortly after we got home. I've never been at a Drive-In when it started raining, but I'm thinking it would drastically affect screen visibility.

When I woke up Saturday morning it was quiet...too quiet. I looked at my bedside clock and found a blank face staring back at me. I looked at the VCR and it was blank, too. The power was out. That would explain why it was so quiet; with the power out our air filter wasn't running. I got up and checked my watch and saw it was only 8am. Normally at this time I'd have breakfast then jump into Azeroth and get in some uninterrupted WoW-time, but we had no power, so WoW was not gonna happen. But I still needed to eat breakfast so I could take my antibiotic (to treat a Sinus Infection I've come down with) so I had breakfast, called the El Monte P.D. to ask about the power situation and got SoCal Edison's number. When I called SCE I got a recorded message telling me the power had been out since 4:30am but they expected it restored by 1pm. So I crawled back in to bed and snuggled up next to Liz, and went back to sleep.

An hour or two later we were woken up by people talking outside. It was the HOA President talking to another resident but Liz couldn't quite understand them. I knew what they were talking about, though; how to get our front gate open without power. They worked it out because when Liz and I went outside the gate was sitting wide open. Lucky my car is parked outside because our garage door is electric as well, although I'm sure there's some way to manually open and close it so we probably could have got Liz's car out if we'd really needed to.

We went to Liz's hairdresser first so she could get her hair done then we hit the local Norm's for second breakfast/lunch. It was pretty busy and when two seats opened up at the end of the counter I told Liz we should sit there instead of waiting for a table, so we did. I told the host we were sitting at the counter and gave her our name so she could cross us off the list of those waiting for tables, but she only remembered when another waiter called out our name and she turned to point us out. By that time our food was arriving so I'm glad we sat at the counter because my body needed fuel. I had no idea what my temperature was but it was 99.8 on Wednesday when I went to The Doctor's. Hot bodies need fuel, and mine was Hot. A medium-rare 16oz T-Bone steak, 2 Eggs (over medium), and breakfast potatoes got the job done.

Meanwhile the rain had started pouring down again and Liz was concerned about her hair getting wet on our way back to the car. I gestured to all the customers waiting for a table. I told her nobody was in a hurry for our counter seat (by now there were 8 to 10 counter seats available) so if we had to, we'd sit there drinking coffee until the rain stopped, which I knew it would, and soon, because it had been raining off & on all morning. Sure enough, as I was mopping up the last of my egg yolks the rain slowed down and before we'd paid our bill and made it outside it had stopped completely.

I called SCE and the recorded message had changed. "We expect power to be restored by 4:30pm." The power goes out, and it takes them 12 hours to restore it? Lovely. We went home anyway, planning to restock the fridge at SCE's expense. Hey, if they want to take 12 hours to restore power so the food in our fridge goes bad, they can reimburse us the replacement cost. Nearing home we saw lights on in the 7-11. Down the street there were several security lights on outside people's homes. We swung into the drive and the security gate was closed, but a press of our remote had it sliding it open. Hooray! We had power! We didn't need to take SCE to court to make them pay for our food after all.

We spent the next few hours bumming around the house, which meant WoW for me, and Animal Crossing on the DS for Liz :) With my Guild's help and a friend of a Guildmate we took on the 18 portals of Black Morass, wiped on the 12th Boss, but bounced back and blew through all 18 Bosses without any further incidents. And just like that I and another Guildmate had our Karazhan keys. And just in time to help Raid Sunday afternoon, which I did, but more on that later.

About 6:30, suspecting that rain would have brought out the worst in our fellow L.A. drivers, we left for dinner at the Red Ant, and so it was that by 7:30 we were on our way to the Blu Monkey in Hollywood to celebrate a coworker's birthday. Traffic was so light that we were there by 8pm but the Monkey doesn't open until 9pm. Lucky we spied a Pier 1 Imports so we managed to kill 20 minutes there, and then there was a Ross's down the road which hung out in until right on 9pm, despite it being one of the messiest Ross's I have ever seen...seriously.

While Liz was shopping, knowing my coworker is normally very punctual I texted her and asked if she was going to be there at 9pm. She said she probably would, but that we didn't have to be. I replied that we were right there, killing time in the Ross's just down the road, so we'd see her at 9.

With the Ross's about to start kicking customers out we left then drove across the road to valet park behind the Blu Monkey. We may have been able to stay parked where we were, given there's a 24hr Ralph's supermarket there, but I told Liz I'd rather not risk it. Who wants to leave a club in the middle of the night and find their car has been towed because it was parked in a supermarket parking lot for too long? Not me, that's for sure.

The alley/parking lot behind the Blu Monkey and its neighboring establishments was very dark, with not a single sign to point our way, but the valet had gestured towards the end of the alley so we slowly started down that way. Then we were passed by a guy carrying a case of bottled water. He looked like he knew where he was going so I asked him about the Blu Monkey. He was only its bartender, so of course he did. Yup, they'd barely opened their doors. We followed the bartender in and were their first customers of the evening...almost.

We walked in and there was no sign of Faye. I texted (you know, that word doesn't look like it should sound, I'm going to use txtd from now on :P So I txtd Faye "We're here. You're not. You're late :o" A few minutes later she was walking in the door :D

Having Reserved the Back Room, which is actually at the front of the club, we were a little surprised to see two large platters of food sitting on the two tables there. Two huge plates of empanadas, tiny strawberry trifle cupcakes, and rolled baklava. Along with someone's drink and 1/4 of an empanada (3/4 eaten). Pondering where the food had come from, if it was safe to eat any (I ate a baklava, one of Faye's friends ate a strawberry trifle), Faye's friends cheerfully piped up and said they'd ordered it. "Surprise," they said, but you could tell they weren't responsible.

Then another girl arrived and claimed the food. No, not a coworker nor a friend of Faye's. She was part of a different party. She also claimed she'd Reserved the room we were now sitting in. Faye turned around and looked at this woman and I could tell she'd just gone into combat mode. Faye may look all cute & girly-girl but she's not someone I'd want to mess with. She's a woman who knows what she wants and if you're in her way, she'll roll right over you...or through you. "I Reserved it too," she told this woman who'd dared to challenge her, "and I confirmed it earlier this week."

"We were expecting about 40 people," the woman said.

"I'm expecting 50," said Faye, "maybe more."

Obviously not as dumb as she looked the woman quickly backed down, so we graciously helped move her plates of food to the other end of the club. Some time during the next hour we found Faye's Reservation sign in one corner of our room, buried beneath some cushions. Nice try, silly woman.

It's been a long time since I went clubbing...a long time ago, in a country far, far away :P

We had a really great night without drinking too much, although the three Heinekens I did drink had me burping more than I usually do, and the pepper steak dinner I'd had at the Red Ant did not make for pleasant-smelling burps. Liz was being critical of me burping up a storm, until she made a burp of her own and it wasn't particularly nasal friendly, either ;)

Not being as young as we once were we Cindarella'd and were home by midnight, just. I was up again at 8am but unlike Saturday morning, this time I stayed up and finished sorting through the comics I brought back from Australia. By 12-noon I was done, with three Trader Joe's paper shopping bags of comics ready to go up on eBay, just awaiting pricing, photographs and descriptions. And my back was killing me.

I logged in to WoW and saw we barely had enough people on to hit Kara (minimum of 10, if we have a perfect class makeup) but Raid time was still almost an hour away. I got my Raid gear out of the bank, repaired my Armor and refilled my ammunition pouch, then made my way to Kara's front door. As Go-Time drew near more and more Guildies logged on and joined us, and a few people couldn't resist having a duel or two. One of our Rogues took down both our Protection-spec'd Warrior/Tanks, twice. The two Tanks then Dueled each other while the Rogue and I got it on, and I somehow managed to beat him. Rogues can be nasty if they sneak up on you from behind, because they can Stunlock you, basically getting in numerous free attacks while your toon stands there, dazed, unable to fight back. But most players don't have a Pet Cyboarg, who I'd set to Aggressive, meaning he would attack anything that came within range. Pets are good at sniffing out stealthy Rogues trying to sneak up behind their Master, so before the Rogue could close in and Stunlock me Cyboarg had hit him, bringing him out of stealth and preventing him from using his most devastating attacks on me. Despite not having done any PvP for a while, I've still put in many, many (far too many) hours on Kwazi, and for me, playing him is like riding a bike or playing a Piano. You may not do it all the time, but you never forget how to do it, so it wasn't long before the Rogue went down, but it was still a fairly close fought duel. As we bandaged up the Rogue mentioned our two Tanks were still going at it. With Shields for protection against each other's one-handed weapons, which don't do a lot of damage to begin with, they were barely hurting each other. It was one of the longest duels I've seen between two players with no way to heal themselves midfight. The only possible longest duel would be between two Healadins, or Healing specced Paladins. Holy Warriors with one-handed weapons & Shields, but who can also heal themselves and so take forever to kill. It was a closely fought fight that swayed back and forth as each player got in the odd big hit. And when it was all over and they'd bandaged up, I laughed my head off as they went at it again, with the same molasses-slow result.

Finally we had the players & classes we needed to attempt Kara and in we went. With this being the Guild's third foray into Kara for the week, several bosses were already down, and we were up to the Opera event, perhaps one of the most unique and novel Boss fights in the game. There are actually three different Opera events but the one we drew was Romulo & Julianne. Yes, a play on Romeo & Juliette :P

In the WoW version Julianne comes out swinging and the Raid has to take her down as fast as possible. Romulo then comes out to avenge her and the Raid now has to take him down, without a break. When he goes down there's a momentary pause...then both Romulo & Julianne pop up and the Raid has to defeat them both, with a twist. They must die within 10 seconds of each other or the one who fell will rise back to life. Several times we attempted this encounter but were never successful. On the second last attempt we took out Julianne but were unable to defeat Romulo within 10 seconds and Julianne came back with a vengeance. The last attempt was a repeat of the preceding one, Julianne went down and everyone turned on Romulo, and 10 seconds never seemed so long. Finally Romulo went down and everyone held their breath...only to see Julianne rise from the dead, followed by her lover, 10 seconds later. With our Casters and Healers out of mana, the lovers danced a lethal tango over the Raid and one by one we died a death. Somewhere along the way we stopped off at The Maiden's chamber, and after two attempts we successfully defeated the 50' tall colossus. So my first foray into Kara wasn't all doom & gloom, and despite dying numerous times it was still a lot of fun.

And that concludes a saga-length blog entry and this weekend :)

Twins through IVF

In Vitro Fertilization is a method used by some couples who have (for one reason or another) been unable to conceive through more natural means.

One of my friends and his wife chose to use IVF when they'd been unable to conceive naturally...ok, ok, when his wife had been unable to conceive naturally. Happy now? So they did the IVF and his wife got pregnant, as frequently happens with IVF, and they ended up with twins, because after years of trying his wife had finally conceived naturally at almost the same time as she underwent IVF. Both embryos developed and in nine months she gave birth to twins...sort of...one boy, one girl :) And they were as happy as pigs in mud...probably even happier than that :)

This morning I caught a news report from Australia about a Lesbian couple who'd used IVF to conceive and they were suing their doctor because they'd had twins and they only wanted one child. To one set of parents, two children were an unexpected blessing. To another set, two was one too many. Strange how the world works.

Britney Spears is not fat.

She's not in the shape she used to be a few years ago, but if you look at this picture...

and you really think she's fat...then you've got more problems than Britney does.

Her performance was very lackluster, the lip synching was not convincing in the slightest, and she didn't even seem to be trying, what with her dance moves that weren't, but she's not fat.

The Tam O'Shanter

A Tam O'Shanter is a scottish bonnet or cap. The Tam O'Shanter I'm going to write about today is a Scottish-style pub or restaurant, but an upscale one, not quite somewhere you'd go with the lads for a pint after work or the game.

Two days ago Liz emailed me (at work) saying she'd made a reservation for Lawry's in Beverly Hills, but the earliest she'd been able to get was Saturday Sept. 15th. Wondering what Lawry's was, and why Liz was keen to eat there, I googled them and found out they are a steakhouse (of sorts) that specializes in Prime Rib. I promptly hit Chowhound.com and discovered mention of a place called the Tam O'Shanter, owned by Lawry's, and reported to serve a Prime Rib the equal, if not better, of their parent company.

I emailed Liz back telling her about the Tam and a few minutes later she replied that she'd made a reservation for 7pm for the next night, being last night...and that she'd canceled the Lawry's reservation :P

So shortly after 6pm last night we tootled off to Glendale and the Tam, which is located no more than 10 minutes from where we used to live in Eagle Rock. We got there about 30 minutes prior to our reservation but the host checked her computer and said she could take us back, and we got our first real glimpse at the inside proper of the Tam O'Shanter.


That's not the entire restaurant, it's just one small area, but it's even more amazing than it looks in that picture.

Male waiters were wearing tartan waistcoats, female waiters were in almost full, formal highland dress. The busboys were wearing puffy pirate shirts ;), knicker bockers with knee-high white socks & blacks shoes. The dining area was divided into several smaller rooms and we were taken in to one of the back rooms and sat at a table in the corner. The table was set for two but was larger than most two-person tables. I hate restaurants that use tiny tables in order to accommodate more people (and make more money), then squeeze 3 or 4 people into a table designed for 2. The chairs! Oh, the chairs. You can see them in the picture and they were practically arm chairs. Large, comfy chairs that you sat back in to and said, "Oh yeah, I'm not getting out of this seat in a hurry." And we didn't.

Liz elected not to have an appetizer, but her Prime Rib meal came with a salad anyway. I chose to strart my meal with the Scotch Rarebit, a variant of the Welsh dish with a similar name, and I was not disappointed. Although little more than a warm, thick cheese concoction with a dash of whisky, mustard & nutmeg, it was surprisingly good when spread on the thinly sliced toast that came with it. I actually ran out of toast and ended up using bread to mop up the last of the Rarebit from the small, metal tureen.

When our entrées arrived (note: the entrée is what North Americans call the main dish, and no, I don't know why. Maybe just to be contrary?) we were not disappointed. My Rib Eye, cooked to "medium", was perfect. A little pink in the middle and very tender. I ate a few mouthfuls then cut off a slice to share with Liz, and I think I gave her the best cut from my Rib Eye, not to say the rest of it wasn't amazing as well, but the expression on her face as she ate was a sight to behold; it literally melted in your mouth. Liz's Prime Rib was good, too, but I thought my Rib Eye was just a little better.

The wine I had complimented my Rib Eye perfectly. I have no clue what it was, I ordered it at the recommendation of the waiter, but it was a delightful Pinot, not too rich with just a little bite to it. I drank the whole thing and enjoyed it to the last drop. Unusual for me, who's not a big wine drinker.

Although we'd rejected the chocolate soufflé at the start of our meal as the dessert of choice (you have to order the soufflé at the start of the meal because they cook them to order), we still took a look at the dessert menu and ended up ordering the Coconut Bread & Raisin Pudding with Vanilla Cream Sauce. Oh boy! It was goooood. Liz & I split one between us and we finished the lot, except for one small piece. I told Liz it's good manners to leave just a little bit because it tells your host you've had sufficient to eat. Besides which, we were both Stuffed! Yes, with a capital S!

Remember earlier I said we weren't getting out of those chairs in a hurry? We somehow took almost 2 hours to have our meal. For parents of two small children this is unheard of, but then our kids stayed with their grandparents last night so that helped immensely. We were able to take our time over dinner but it never felt like we were trying to stretch the meal out. It was a fantastic night for just the two of us.

One fine day, down at the office

At work today one of the ladies noticed the roll of plastic wrap she'd put in the kitchen a few weeks ago was gone, so she sent out an office-wide email stating that while the roll was for general use by the office, she would appreciate whoever took it returning it to the kitchen. Perhaps in the vein of a letter written by a young lady over 100 years ago, my coworker's email was sent with the subject line of "Why Virginia...Why???"

I couldn't help myself and decided to throw a bit of fuel on the fire.

I hit Reply All and stated that maybe Virginia used the last of the plastic wrap so she threw out the box, but (I added), given that whenever we have donuts or cakes in the breakroom, the empty box is always left on the table and never thrown away by the person who takes the last donut, I said I thought it was unlikely that Virginia would throw out the box after using the last of the plastic wrap.

Then again, there's a lot more humor value in taking the last donut and leaving the box lying around, because you just know the next person to come in will see the box and get all excited, but when they open it there's no donuts, just Doh! Nuts!

The coworker didn't quite get my punny joke and stopped by to say the box of plastic wrap was practically brand new, but one coworker came back with a comment of his own, referring to Virginia as Ms. Wolf, stating that perhaps we could lure her out by leaving a couple of boxes of Donuts in the breakroom. A third coworker stopped by my desk and said he thought Virginia's last name was Slim.

I restrained myself and this time just sent an email to the few people that I knew would appreciate a good Pun ;)

I stated that Virginia Wolf was known to a couple of people, but she now went by Virginia Slim, but if Virginia continues to take the last donut, I said, she won't be Slim for much longer.

One of my coworkers rose to the challenge and replied, saying that leaving out a box of donuts sounded like an excellent way to smoke out Virginia Slim.

Boy, do we have some sick people in our office, me included :P

The real post

So the primary reason for going to Australia this time around was to meet Keith, the new man in my mum's life, and to walk her down the aisle when she married him.

Keith & Mum met us at the airport, along with my older sister, Kim. And strangely enough, it didn't seem strange seeing Mum with Keith. Even when they kissed in front of me it didn't seem that odd, even though Keith is not my Dad. I mean when you think about it this is someone who's not my Dad and he's kissing my Mum, but it was a non-issue. Both my kids took to him like he was a long lost uncle (or grandfather ;) and again I didn't have any problems with my kids calling someone not my Dad "Poppy".

During the second week we went out to the cemetery. In cleaning up my old things I'd found my old wooden Emmaus cross so I decided I'd leave that at Jonno's grave while we were out there, it was strangely symbolic because our Emmaus group pretty much died when Jonno did. In fact most of the Emmaus members dropped their crosses on his coffin before he was buried. I've left mine there now, too, just 18 years later. Funny to think that Jonno has almost been dead now for as long as he lived. That's one of those "What ifs?" "What if Jonno hadn't died? What would life have been like now with my best mate still around?" And honestly? I have no idea.

I got a little teary when I saw the plaque on Dad's grave and we put some flowers down there and I knelt down to wipe some grass off that had been sprayed there from a recent mowing and that was when I really broke down and cried. I'll always miss my Dad, but life goes on, too. Life has to go on, because the alternative is not an alternative, it's just a cop out.

Life goes on and now my Mum is married to the new man in her life and I still miss my Dad a hell of a lot, but I'm ok with Mum being married to someone else.

Walking Mum down the aisle was partly tradition, but I also wonder if maybe that decision was also made as therapy for me as well. By walking Mum down the aisle, as I mentioned in a post a while back, I had to confront the fact that my Dad is dead and life is still going on. Well, Dad being dead never entered my mind as I walked Mum down the aisle. In fact it wasn't that hard at all. I was looking Keith in the eye the whole time and smiling at him in an attempt to show that the wedding had my full approval (which probably has something to do with Dad's death), but of course Keith wasn't looking at me, he had nothing but tear-filled eyes for my Mum. Which just made the whole thing easier still, seeing just how much in love with my Mum he was.

Now that they've found each other and made this commitment to each other, I wish my Mum and Keith the longest, happiest & healthiest of lives together.

There and back again

I think I've used that as a title before. Meh.

Carol & Zac drove us down to the City last night (which was actually about 36 hours ago, now), we stopped at Kim & Shaun's place, had our Fish & Chip dinner, and after a tearful farewell Carol & Zac drove us on to the Formule 1 Hotel located a short walk from Tullamarine. We checked in and got two rooms on the third floor, and after discovering the F1 had no elevator were fortunate to be able to relocate to two first floor rooms, considering we had about 8 pieces of luggage between us all (including the in-laws). The in-laws and JE took one room and Liz & I and the bunny took the other. The rooms were very basic but cheap, and given that we really were walking distance from Tullamarine it wasn't a bad choice of hotel, just we had far too much luggage. It's probably an excellent choice for the economically-minded businessman traveling light. After getting settled in to our room I headed over to the airport and "borrowed" a couple of luggage carts, which I parked in our room ready for the next morning. Breakfast was a cheap $6 Continental provided by the F1, but given that breakfast at the nearby McD's would have cost the same (if not more) but with less food, it was the more economical choice. Then we hoofed it over to Tulla.

We checked in about 2 hours before departure time, smooth as silk (unlike LAX) and still got 4 seats together. The in-laws asked about switching to our flight (theirs was going via Aukland) but it would have required spending a few extra (hundred) dollars, so they got to visit New Zealand (Intl. Airport) for a couple of hours. Although they left just 30 minutes later than us, they touched down at LAX over 3 hours later, due to their NZ stopover.

At the wedding reception the previous Saturday, a cousin-in-law mentioned Emirates Airlines as being an extremely comfortable (pampering) airline to fly. Given that a lot of Big Oil probably flies Emirates, that's completely understandable, and from a fatalistic point of view, I honestly can't see Muslim terrorists targeting Emirates Airlines and daring to incur the wrath of their megarich brothers, so it's possibly one of the safest airlines to fly, as well. The CIL said Emirates allegedly provided even better service than Qantas, and he's probably right, I think Qantas' service, while still among the best in the industry, has slipped somewhat during the past few years.

We caught a shuttle home from LAX, a remarkably painless affair. $70 to be delivered to our door, and in a very quick time as traffic was the lightest I've ever seen it. In fact it was downright spooky to see just a handful of cars on the freeways at 8:30am on a Monday morning. Sure, it's Labor Day, an almost nationwide Public Holiday, but still. "It's quiet. Too quiet."

Finally home it still wasn't time to rest. Our bathroom looks awesome with the new shower stall in place of the old bathtub. It's a lot more open now, for a small bathroom. I would have liked the toilet moved into the corner but the plumber said it would have violated a building code by not having enough space between the toilet seat and the walls. Liz freaked out because all the items left on the bathroom counter were covered in dust, but given that the Plumber was a family friend and we barely paid him for the work (we paid for the materials, new toilet, floor tiles, shower stall, etc, but I don't think we paid him) I said we could hardly complain. Liz complained anyway. She likes to complain. Sometimes I don't think she's happy unless she's complaining. Weird, really, coz she's not really happy then, either. Or maybe she is.

While Liz cleaned house I went and cleaned out our Post Office box of two weeks of mail then picked up Anzac, and was happy to hear the girls apparently bring him out for a bit of a walk every day. In fact one of the girls said she usually gives him the run of the office during the day on weekends. It's a good boarding kennel because it's also his vet, and they do grooming as well so we get him bathed before I pick him up.

After dropping Anzac back home I still hadn't finished my errands. The weather report on the plane as we were landing said temperatures of 40C+ and it sure felt like it as I headed back out to get some milk and lunch. I don't like to run the A/C in my car if I can avoid it so I was sweating like a pig by the time I finally got back home.

After lunch we all took a nap (except for JE), and when I got up I emptied the suitcases of my comics and trading cards (watch this space for eBay auctions ;) Over the years I've accumulated more than 6 photocopy boxes full of comics. I have easily 1000+ comics, including quite a few Capt. America comics, which may be worth a small bit now that the Captain has been assassinated...unless "they" bring him back. Did I mention the 1.5 hour nap is all the sleep I've had in the last 24 hours? On the plane trip back I watched FF4:Silver Surfer, The Flying Scotsman, Borat, Ocean's Thirteen, and Blades of Glory. I'm only linking The Flying Scotsman because you should know of the others, but if you like bios (or Billy Boyd ;) it's worth checking out.

So, now we're home and somewhat unpacked, and fighting the ants which have still come in looking for food & water (even though we've been gone for two weeks), and for some reason with just the four of us here...the house seems strangely quiet. Even when we were down in Munro at Keith's place with just the six of us there (Mum & Keith and the four of us), the peace & quiet of slow life in a tiny country town (village, even) didn't seem as quiet as this quiet of our house right now.

It would be nice to move back to Australia, even to settle somewhere in Melbourne, but I can't see that happening unless we win the Lotto, because I'm doing too well here in L.A. to start all over again in Melbourne.

Did I mention it was my birthday while we were there? Being a Rowan Atkinson fan my family got me Mr. Bean's Holiday. No, we never went to the movies. Bean's Holiday was released pretty much everywhere but the U.S. many months ago, so it was already available on DVD in Australia. So while everyone else is watching Bean in the theatres here, I watched it in Australia on DVD, and I have it on the TV here, right now, because the kids love the physical comedy of Mr. Bean as well. In fact The Whole Bean (the complete set of the TV series) always accompanies us and the portable DVD player on long car rides.

Anyway, it's now gone 7pm, so it's time to get the kids some dinner and get them into bed, even though it really doesn't feel that late. That's Jet Lag for you.