Blog Archives

Well, let me say right off that I’m going to leave the “nice” pictures from our weekend in Las Vegas to Jeff’s blog. Instead, I’m going to focus on a few oddities.

First off, the facts. We truly had a fun time. The highlight was catching up with Jeff’s friends Matt and Lisa who were visiting from Detroit. Jeff and I stayed at the Venetian, which is certainly a spectacular hotel. We ate well (too well), walked all over the strip, and blew through my $35 jury pay in no time. We visited the new Wynn hotel, watched the fountains at the Bellagio, and traveled to the top of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Casino.

So, what did we learn in Las Vegas? Well, I found a truly comical foreign language channel on TV. It was like a train wreck. They appeared to play non-stop action movies with really bad special effects.

We found a favorite penny slot machine named “Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania”, which played to a B-52s Rock Lobster soundtrack. We found ourselves seeking out Larry in each of the casinos we walked through. “Its a biggun!”

In the midst of all the glamorous new casinos, you still don’t have to wander far to find classic Vegas. It is everywhere, and its what makes this town so unique. This sign is from the New Frontier Casino…which oddly enough is also the site of the new Trump Hotel. Strange bedfellows indeed.

And finally, my continuing obsession with San Jose. Just how is it that this glitzy watch store at Caesar’s Palace has listed San Jose alongside of Paris, Milan, and London? Jeff announced an immediate boycott of the store 🙂

Oh, while I’m at it, let me update everyone on my dear Russian friend Elena. Yes, she continues to write, even though I have never written back. Today’s short installment focused on shopping and work. Nothing quotable…just persistent.

Well, I wrapped up three days in a jury selection pool today. I will admit that the process was quite interesting to sit through for the first time. Fortunately, I did not get selected for the final jury. I don’t mind serving, but it was a five week trial, and I just know it would have been a pain to work around.

The best part was observing the people. Particularly the people who CLEARLY were trying to get out of it. My favorite was the young woman who when asked said that she would find it hard not to read about the case and the subject matter on her own. When the judge asked her if she would resist the temptation if he directly asked her not to, the woman answered, “I would try, but I probably would anyway. In fact, I already did some research on it even though you told us not to earlier.”

THIS is the state of society 🙁

For my three days, I made a quick $35, which I plan to carelessly gamble away in Las Vegas this weekend. Look for pictures on Monday.

For now…we are off!

Well, at no prompting from me, my dear Russian pen pal wrote two notes. She switched email addresses again (address number three for her). Here are clips from the two emails:

“I did not receive the answer from you. I hope that all well there. It can be not reached the letter you? I donot know. Write to me the letter.”

“Only the short letter. The first day of spring today came.Spring this time of love and happiness. I wish you good mood.”

By the way…according to the Weather Channel, the high temp in St. Petersburg is supposed to be 19 degrees Fahrenheit today!

So, to contrast, here is a photo from this weekend in SF. This is Dobie’s favorite perch on the balcony. She loves to watch the birds in all the backyards we overlook.

With the threat of returning winter rain Sunday, Jeff and I decided to get out and enjoy the sunshine and warm temperatures. We headed south to the Pinnacles National Monument–about two and a half hours south of San Francisco. This is a hiking park, so we chose a trail that would take us to one of the more unique local features–the Bear Gulch caves. This gave us a nice view of the landscape, the rocks (including numerous climbers…no that is not Jeff nor me), and some cool caves to walk through.

Right on cue…the rain arrived Sunday morning. The garden is happy 🙂

Well, I did in fact write back to my Russian spammer and indicate that I’m sure that she had the wrong address. I did this from a safe address to see what direction the spam would take. Well, I got a lengthy response in very broken English. I won’t include it all, but a small segment will give you an idea.

“I the operator in the telephone company. I am 27 years old. My growth of 176 centimeters. I like music and to dance. My hobby it cheerfully to spend time with friends. … Probably it is interesting to you why I decided to get acquainted with you. It is very simple. Recently my fellow worker married the person. Certainly we girls envied her. But when I learned that she got acquainted with the husband on the Internet and that he from other country I decided too to try to find somebody.”

Oh, she also included a slightly tawdry photo. So, being the paranoid sort (and Jeff being even more cautious than me), I will let the conversation die here. I don’t want all of this to lead in some nefarious direction. Something tells me that the next email will contain a plea for money or something like that.

Back to photos of random places.