Yeah, It's Been Awhile

My car is making a slight noise when I'm shifting from 1st into 2nd, and from 2nd into 3rd. Of course the warranty on the repair is expired. I have an appointment for it next Friday. I'm prepared for the possibility that my car might be put out to pasture. At least it's a buyer's market right now. With the sad state of car sales, and my kickass credit scores (the Big 3 credit agencies scored me at 835, 817, and 808), I can get a car at at great price and low interest. We'll see what happens.

We went to Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago for our anniversary. Lots of walking, lots to see. The only pics we have are from the photo booth at the Nascar Cafe (!) at the Sahara. It was great to have 10 days off--very refreshing. Mostly we hung out at the MGM Grand.

Saturday is Valentine's Day. I already told M that I don't want flowers or anything like that (okay, some flowers would be cool--I always like flowers). We eat out so often that going to a restaurant is nothing special. My idea of a great Valentine's Day is that we're gonna watch the NBA All Star game and all the other competitions that are taking place. Rudy Fernandez is in the Slam Dunk contest.

Picadilly Flea Market is tomorrow. Maybe I'll get some cool scores.

Las Vegas

M and I went to Las Vegas last weekend for our anniversary. It was cool; I'm sure we'll go again soon.

Some pointers:

1. You're going to walk A LOT. Our legs were sore for two days afterwards from all the walking we did.

2. Take the monorail. Sure, it's a little spendy, but it more than makes up for the price. You get great views of the Strip, and it stops at most every hotel.

3. The buffet at the Rio is the shit. You can take a free shuttle to it from Paris. The other buffets in town are embarrassing compared to this one. I've never seen a buffet before where they have crab legs and red velvet cake.

4. Ignore how much everything costs and just pony up the money. Las Vegas is like being trapped in a big airport. It's all over-priced, and that's how it is.

5. Buy bottles of booze and cigarettes from somewhere other than a casino. The bottle of Bailey's we bought at a liquor store would have been $10 more if we'd bought it at the casino gift shop.

6. It's hard to tell the Las Vegas hookers from the women trying to look like one. Typical look: Sky-high stilletos, halter mini-dress.

7. You tip for everything. The economy has even hit Vegas. There's a sense of desperation among the service industry. This is the first place where I've been flat-out asked for a tip.

8. You can't get it all done in one trip. We plan to hit downtown next time. We got a lot done in three days, but there's still a lot to explore.

Yay My Day Off

I got my replacement Social Security card today. We tried to go to Comcast to get our digital converter for the bedroom (otherwise we get only channels 2-30). The line was out the door, so that's gonna wait till next Friday as soon as they open.

The Trader Joe's parking lot was a clusterfuck as always. They had this new fondue we're gonna try. I wish a Trader Joes would open downtown. I don't think they'd put the Kiva out of business. I can't imagine their clientele sidling over to Trader Joes. And I hate driving over to Oakway Center.

M picked up this crockpot we've been eyeballing for a year at True Value. It has three different inserts so you can make different size meals. We already have a crockpot, but it's too big. Now we have options. AND it was $20 off. How cool is that?

I got my xmas present from my brother, Jeff:

He also sent me the following CDs: 3Oh!3, GnR--Chinese Democracy, and two Martina Topley-Bird albums. Katie, you'll be getting a copy of the 3Oh!3 the next time I see you.

As soon as the garlic in the oven finishes roasting, I'll prepare the baked brie. Yum! Hopefully I will see the Blazers beat the Hornets tonight. Not sure if Roy will be playing.

Now I Get It

I've been watching VH-1 since I got home from work. I watched profiles on the years 2003-2007, and now "The 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs" is on.


An abandoned pawn shop on the other side of our alley burned to the ground yesterday. My neighborhood smelled like a campfire when I got home from work last night.

I saw this recipe online tonight and can't wait to try it....

Stupid Drivers!

Someone sideswiped M's car sometime between 5:30pm last night and noon today. They broke his driver-side taillight and his side mirror. Of course they didn't leave insurance info. If you hear anyone talking about doing this, please let us know. I hope it was some drunk fuck who sustained some damage to their car and wonders what happened last night. Whoever did it definitely has some gold paint transfer on their car.

This could have been so much worse. Luckily, M is friends with a Honda mechanic who probably has all the spare parts needed. It makes me mad, is all.

My days off this week were split because of xmas. I don't feel like I've gotten time off because we had to do "family get-together" on xmas, and tonight we have to go to a friend's house for a birthday party. I don't have to go, but I'm obligated. I wish I had internet on my phone so I could watch the Blazers game while I'm there. I don't like being hugged by hippies that I don't know, and that's gonna be happening.

A Long Friday

It snowed again last night, and the silence outside woke M and I up early. Really early--out of bed before 5am. We made boozy coffee, steak and sweet potato hashbrowns for breakfast. Yum.

My plan for today had been to go to the Social Security office today and apply for a replacement card. I lost my secondary wallet last week and have been dealing with that ever since. I swear I won't ever carry my Social Security card or account numbers with me ever again, I promise. My lunch hours and time after work have been filled with phone calls to credit agencies (and getting yelled at by the Experian agent for paying for my bank's monthly fraud service instead of theirs), closing and re-opening checking and savings accounts. I gave my car insurance my new checking account number, only to find out that my payment had been posted to the old account the same day I closed it. So back to the bank for a letter to prove I'd closed my account due to fraud.

Anyway, I still need to get a new Social Security card. It had snowed overnight, the weathermen were saying how slippery the roads were, and M saw a minivan do a 360 in front of our house. It's probably gonna be a couple of weeks before I can get to the Social Security office. They don't do anything about your number unless actual fraud is committed, so I might as well not not deal with the bad weather.

So, I lost my wallet because I wasn't paying attention. Hopefully whoever found it looked for cash, threw the rest away, and it's buried in a landfill. Hopefully none of the homeless who hang out in my work's parking lot know how to commit identity theft. I console myself that my social security number can be accessed any number of ways besides by my own stupidity. I wonder which illegal alien is gonna have my name. The odds of someone using my spare keys are slim. I'm gonna be reading my monthly credit reports like a hawk.

The weather's been really shitty all week. Oregon is unable to handle ice, and I'm tired of white-knuckling the drive to work. I'm tired of my car doors icing shut every single time, and having to spend a half hour to get the car's windows scraped and defrosted.

This is the worst possible time to have bad weather, workwise. The recession has been really hitting us, and the ice & snow is making it so much worse. I've never seen it like this.

Peggy also died a few years ago during Christmastime, during shitty weather. I couldn't fly home because the weather in Colorado was so bad, and it was Christmas retail.

This week has been a real grind. It's been nice staying inside and not having to deal with it. This week really wore me down. So fuck it, why bother getting my social security card right away if I don't need it?

I made spaghetti carbonara (mmm, bacon) for dinner, then we watched the Heat beat the Lakers. We flipped off Kobe after his final shot didn't go in. Fuck Kobe. Brandon Roy got 52 points against Phoenix tonight. Close game all night. Right now, Denver is getting their asses handed to them by Cleveland. Cleveland's uniforms tonight are ugly. They remind me of McDonalds.

Christmas on Mars

We're watching the Flaming Lips' "Christmas on Mars", and I think it's gonna be 86 minutes of my life that I can't get back. Sorry, Chad. But I did recognize Fred Armisen right off. I think I'll go take a nap now.