Beaver - Los Vegas!

Yes, yes I know it's Las Vegas and last week was our best ever trip down there!

We arrived after a relatively uneventful 7 hour drive (couple of sets of roadworks, no rain in Cedar City and a half hour sit outside of St George) I was feeling pretty tired and just wanted to go up to the room and sleep. So C waves me over, and I'm just trying to figure out how to bring two carry ons a camera and a large bottle of water when a voice next to me says "Don't worry I'll get that." I looked up to find F standing there. He and A had flown over for the week to surprise us - and what a lovely surprise it was. Consequently we stayed on another day so drove back on the Saturday instead of Friday.

We were a bit in the dark about the wedding arrangements - my instructions from M were meet us at the RedRock morning of and our plan on Wednesday was to drive over to the RedRock and leave a message at the front desk for M, R and the others to say which room we were in and could we get their room numbers. Instead, after breakfast A and I got back to the room to find C on the phone with M. We drove over to the Best Western they were all staying in and managed to get most of their luggage plus R's parents in the Element with us. R, M and her parents would be getting the shuttle from the hotel to the airport and from there the shuttle to the RedRock. So we got to the RedRock first and put the luggage into storage. The others turned up in a hire car (they got fed up of waiting!) about an hour later (they also got a little lost!) We left them to check in and arranged to meet up at the Stratosphere later. We had dinner with A and F at Margaritaville and then over to the Stratosphere. C and R went on the big shot M and I stayed on the ground!

Next morning we collected W and M from their hotel and took them over to the RedRock. The girls went to M's room and the boys to R and H's. M looked fantastic and once we'd got her into the dress we headed down to the limo. R didn't want to see her until the start of the ceremony so he went in the front and the driver put the privacy screen up. We followed the limo the the Valley of Fire NP. The site of the wedding was an arch overlooking another valley beyond and it was a spectacular view, it was also fun getting up there as the climb was quite steep and not to be attempted in posh shoes. Once we got to the top, we kept out of the way as the wedding people took over. The ceremony was fairly short and once the photos had been down we headed back down and out of the 102 degree heat - so glad I bought a hat. From there it was back to the RedRock were no one batted an eyelid at a wedding party eating pizza in the food court! After that we all went in the pool for several hours to cool off. In the evening everyone came over to the Luxor and we all had the buffet. After that we gambled for a bit and then said our goodbyes.

Friday morning we caught up with A & F and decided to go down to the RedRock so they could see what all the fuss was about. It really is a classy hotel and being waaaay off the strip works in its favour. We were just going to look at the pool area when R grabbed me from behind and after a hug fest we all went up to the room so that A & F could see it. At reception we ran into the others, they were just going out to the strip but we decided to stay and have some lunch and a bit of a gamble. I did well - better than I've ever done. After lunch, on a penny slot machine I won $163 and we bumped into the wedding party again - aparently the strip was a zoo and so they'd come back for some sanity.

On our last night we went to the buffet at the Rio which was very good and then down to Freemont street for the light show we've heard so much about. Shame we had to arrive right after a drug bust and that's the first place in Vegas I haven't felt safe but the show was great and we left right after. Saturday morning most of us left, me and C back to SLC, M & R towards Palm Springs, R & H to Toronto and W and M back to NL. A & F went back to UK on Sunday.

My Best Friend's Wedding

So here we go, tomorrow C and I are off to Vegas for M & R's nuptials. This will be the smallest wedding I've ever been to including the bride and groom there will be eight people, his parents, her parents and us. M you will shoot me for this but I can remember the second you two met! We were just about to leave for the ceremony and R and Menno were standing with us in the lobby and you and L and L & A came flying in - as usual you'd got lost on the way up (quote from trip to check out Farnham college me "get in the right hand lane" you "I can't it's full")and as you were signing in I pointed you out to R and his eyes lit up and that was that. All I can say is it's about time guys! six years is a long time to keep people in suspense.

and they wonder why there's a war on terror

C has been away the last couple of days. Due to come back today I got a message on the machine about the chaos in London so I turned on CNN - hype Al Queda hype hype. So then I turned to the internet and BBC News 24. So now I know what C was referring to. I called him and warned him about taking his handluggage on the flight and that all liquids would be confiscated.

He just called me steaming mad, it seems he got into it with a TSA official who after taking his toothpaste(not a liquid last time I looked) and can of deodorant told him it was all his fault because 'your lot' and I quote 'started it' Now C is as white as a ghost, and he doesn't wear a turban in fact he looks nothing like a radical muslim and luckily the guy's supervisor was standing right next to him so C let him have it along the lines of MI5 and Scotland Yard arresting these men before they could carry out their plan unlike the CIA, FBI and the entire Bush Administration who royally screwed up and allowed September 11 to happen.
Admittedly this was a hick from Nebraska who probably stabs himself in the chest every time he puts on his TSA badge but C told me that he has been taken off duty and hopefully they will fire the twit.

So C will be coming home stinky and I'm not kissing him until he's cleaned his teeth.

Arrrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!!!

As you might be able to tell I am not a happy bunny! Pissed off would be a better description!

It started out just fine, a simple -early- trip to the Doctor's office for this sore throat I've had for just over a week. Feels the same as the one I got at Xmas so all I was expecting was Robitussin on steroids. According to my Doc though there is no infection so she gave me a prescription for an allergy - nasal spray and some anti-inflamatories.

The trouble started when I got to Walgreens to fill the scrip, first-off, even though I showed my insurance card I paid in full for the medication, plus the fact that it took nearly an hour to fill the damn scrip - they told me twenty minutes. So I'm sat there playing Sudoku on my palm and there's a well-dressed middle-aged African couple sitting next to me. They were there when I arrived so god knows how long they had been waiting. The guy went up to the desk at least 3 times that I saw and each time they told him they were working on it. The last time he goes up they tell him that the insurance company won't allow them to fill the RX so the only way they can fill it is for him to pay cash. (Blatant extortion - thought I - keep 'em waiting long enough and he'll do anything to get the medication for his wife.) It turns out this was not the case as when the chap got his wallet out they discovered they didn't have enough of the medication for even one dose. So that would be incompetence then.

So basically I just wasted an entire morning!

Normally when Americans do customer service I can't fault it but this, well I shudder to say it but the whole episode made me miss the NHS!

Oh yeah the anti-inflamatories are 800mg - each! and it says to take 3 a day (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Needless to say I won't be finishing the course, no wonder people get stomach ulcers over here!

Green sky in the morning

Last year on our writing course our instructor who is from the midwest was talking about growing up with the constant threat of tornadoes and one comment he made stuck in my mind. If you ever see a green sky he said, head for the basement.

This morning we were expecting storms but what we got was much worse. I was just about to call Mum and was checking out the back to see if I could see Dory - the workmen are back putting up the ceiling so as usual she was outside - and the sky was the colour of pea soup! In the time it took me to dash from the kitchen to the dining room and back again the sky at the back was blue and the green was heading towards the folks near Mt Olympus. They say it wasn't tornadic but this storm ripped up trees, split power poles like matchsticks and dumped so much rain on Salt Lake county that places that have never flooded before got soggy basements. B had to go home from work as a couple of trees had fallen in his yard. C missed the whole thing - he was in a meeting room with no windows.

Amazingly all the time the storm rages our power stayed on except for one tiny blip which lasted less than a second. However it seems I spoke too soon. I arrived back from J's in the afternoon - clear skies, no wind, sunny - to find that the power had gone out. So it was back to the dark ages last night.