Australia

Geez, I love Australia.  Love everything about it, well except the commute.  That is bloody brutal!!

Just spent a little time looking though my Sydney city guide at the restaurants I love and miss and actually (finally) spent time reading it.   I found these little tidbits:

1.  Cab drivers rarely need or DESERVE tipping
2.  Taxis are best for zapping around, but you might find you have been in town longer than the driver.
3.  Swimming can be treacherous, it is risky to try and drown yourself just for the sake of being rescued by a strapping lifeguard.  If, however, you ARE drowning, Bondi has the best looking ones.
4.  Thongs are acceptable daywear…….they are flip flops mate.
5.  Bar Bouncers = “No, it isn’t a private party, ya big fat liar pants on fire”
6.  No reservations taken at many of Sydney’s most popular restaurants = STAND IN LINE!

Three Australian phrases that may be of use:

How ya goin’? =    Hello/How are you?
Good on ya, mate! =   Thanks awfully
Look at all the white pointers out there!! =  Those ladies on the beach will have burnt baps if they don’t cover up!

God, I LOVE Australia!!! LOL LOL  I wish our city guides gave this kind of info!

Thanks Luxe City Guide for the laughs!!  And the useful information too! Really….very helpful once I stopped laughing.

Christmas Mass

I went to church tonight for Christmas.  Well face it, I go every week.  I enjoy going to Mass.  A nice quiet time for reflection and it is only an hour out of my day once a week.  I can give that to God  .  It is my faith and my belief, although I explore others as I think religion overall is fascinating.

Well tonight, as you do a couple times a year, I get subjected to the people who only ever go to church twice a year, once on Easter and once on Christmas.  No problem, to each his own.  But the people sitting behind me tonight, did NOT shut up the entire service!!!  I would have moved but of course the church was filled to capacity and more with the once a year visitors.  These people were showing absolutely no respect.  I finally had to turn around and I said, ” One hour, all you have to do is SHUT UP for one hour. Do you mind? Can you do that, PLEASE??”   They didn’t shut up, they kept right on with their conversation, texting on their phones and blowing bubbles with their gum.  Yes, snapping their gum!  You can almost let it go from the ill mannered teens, but these were ADULTS.  My age !!  No excuse whatsoever!

I found myself tense and ready to slap them silly……. Nice…..in church, slapping some of the congregation  …..sigh……  I guess I need to go back to church and work on my tolerance …..again……….

Nightmare before Christmas…la la la la la la

I can’t get it out of my head!!!  La -la-la-la-la-la….la-la-la-la-la…. GOD!!!  I blame it all on the Niplettes.  Going through the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland we were all singing, and now that it is on the Disney Channel last night and today, I am still singing!!! 

Kidnap the Sandy Claws, beat him with a stick
Lock him up for ninety years, see what makes him tick
Kidnap the Sandy Claws, chop him into bits
Mr. Oogie Boogie is sure to get his kicks
Kidnap the Sandy Claws, see what we will see
Lock him in a cage and then, throw away the key

la-la-la-la-la-la——la-la-la-la-la—–

MAKE IT STOP!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!  Hope all is joyous and you all aren’t too snowed in for the weekend.

The Happy Zone

Ahh, Las Vegas.  Don’t you love it?  And if you don’t, what is wrong with you?  Obviously you are hanging out with the wrong people.  Just got back from a birthday trip to my happy zone….. Las Vegas…. The lights, the sound of the slot machines, the poker chips clicking in some nervous player’s hand. (pay attention to that, it is some players tell  )  Oh and the food! You know, if I actually lived in Las Vegas, I would probably be broke and weigh 800 lbs, and if I wasn’t broke, I would still weigh 800 lbs.  The food is just amazingly good.  Each of my trips gets just a little bit longer each time as I find yet another good place to eat.

Then of course, there is the actual playing.  I can sit for hours at a black jack table playing and chatting away.  Such a good way for me to spend the day! LOL  Better of course if I am winning.

I had a beautiful lake view room at the Bellagio (as if I get anything else) and just enjoyed the fountains before going to bed.

Hanging out with friends over this week was just the best.  The laughing and our snarky comments sent several dealers into fits of laughter themselves.  And good old Deb with her poker face…..NOT!!!  I swear, we laughed so hard on the 3-card poker table because we knew WHAT she had just by her various expressions.  There was the finger dance for a pair, they whole upper body dance for a flush or 3 or a kind and then the famous nekkid running around the table dance for a straight flush.  We didn’t see that dance this trip. But that is her tell if she gets a straight flush.

Then there is Leo.  We don’t let him get very far away, because when he is close by, we all win! LOL The minute he walks away to play on his own, we start to lose and then we just wait for him to come back.  Of course when he comes back it is to show us he had doubled his money on a slot machine!! That guy has more luck on those slots than anyone I know, even me!! LOL

There are of course various casinos where I do better than others.  Venetian, although gorgeous, is a casino where I have very bad ju-ju .  So, as I was playing this week, I had a few shoes on the black jack table that took more than they gave……it has been dubbed by Leo as having bad shoe-ju….. LOL Of course, we all blame the bad cards on SAM.  SAM would be the shoe that holds the cards; SAM (Shitty Ass Machine)  Deb of course would threaten to make it a toaster, but would then upgrade it to a microwave if it was nice.  We did end up with more microwaves than toasters.

In the end, we all had such a great time, we are doing it again the end of February.  Anyone care to join us?  Please come along!

This is just plain cool

You all know Gigi is getting married.  Well check this out http://www.uniproshow.com/ .  This is her fiance’s site.  He is a unicyclist.  He…is….amazing!!  He does a routine with a 12′ unicyle he designed himself.  People with talent just astound me!! 

A Day in the Life

You know, there comes a time in everyone’s life where they realize they really are not in control of their own lives.  You would like to think you are but then something happens to bring you back to the hard cold reality of the real world!  God I hate that!!! LOL  The last couple months have been a real eye opener for me.  A hard lesson in NEVER ignoring your body and what it is telling you, and it talks to you all the time.  Most things are ignored and thought of as just symptoms of growing old, but they are not.  A lot of times they are signs of something more serious going on.

I have spent the last couple months being poked, prodded, examined and sometimes scared to death with what the results could have been.  Luckily in the end after all the pain, bleeding, poking, etc., surgery has hopefully fixed my issue.  Turns out, if you ignore it, blood loss can actually kill you. Did you know that?  ;-) Of course you did.  But as we do, you ignore things and hope they will go away.  Well they don’t.  I was told many times over this course that I was extremely lucky I did not have a stroke (several in fact) or heart attack.  I guess in that respect, it pays to be a lazy old fart.

But once all is said and done here, my energy level is coming back.  All along I just kept thinking I was completely out of shape, which I am, but in this case there was a specific issue for shortness of breath and pains in the chest and head.  I still tire very easily, but find if I take my time and I can just push through it.  My memory unfortunately also seems to have been affected.  I suppose that is the case when it doesn’t really get enough blood.  But I am told that will come back eventually.  It is frustrating though, when you are used to thinking fast and at this point are lucky to remember where you are going when you cross the room.

So in the end, all will work out.  Moral of the story though, if it is bleeding and isn’t stopping…….it won’t go away on its own. OK??  Good……

DragonCon

Well there it is, DragonCon.  Don’t know what that is?  Well check it out, www.dragoncon.org .  I just got back from DragonCon in Atlanta, Georgia and it was fantastic.  I will have to get some photos from some of my friends as even though I brought my camera, I took only 3 photos. LOL So much to do and so very little time.  As usual, the costumes were amazing.  They are by far the best I have ever seen at any convention.  They really take their time in development  and detail!  Awesome. 

Of course I was working as usual.  Wrangling the actors and helping them make some money.  But how fun is that.  PLUS, I was in the autograph area sitting next to a couple of hot commodities.  LOL  You know, overall, some of these actors are quite hot!! LOL And although some of those hot guys can be jerks, for the most part, they are friendly and quite nice. And of course, next year, whether I am working or not, I will be going, made my hotel reservation already and the hotel is almost already sold out!  Hopefully they will release some rooms again later. 

The weather this year was also very tolerable.  In the past, the humidity passes the temperature and it is miserable.  This year, temps were low and humidity almost non-existant!  Well for Atlanta over Labor Day weekend anyway. 

Everything was smooth sailing, from my flights to everything at the convention……..then of course, I came home……LOL   Seems there was a thunderstorm and a power outage (no biggie), however it blew something big in the elevator and the elevator is out of service……indefinitely.  Not bad really, except when you have to shift 2 large suitcases UP the three flights of stairs.  Ugh.  Thank goodness it was only three flights.  I sure hope the elevator comes back on soon.

Almost the end of summer

As I get older, time passes faster….a LOT faster.  Why is that?  Are we just so incredibly busy with our lives and working that we just don’t take the time to enjoy the seasons (when we actually get them up here) ??  It is tough to realize that all the things you planned on doing this summer are only half done and you are no closer with a plan on actually completing them.   Not that they are so important, it is just easier to do them in the sun than the rain. LOL

Living in Washington

OK this was forwarded to me today and I have to say, IT IS ALL TRUE!!!  I live here and have done all those things.

• THIS IS WHAT JEFF FOXWORTHY HAS TO SAY ABOUT ‘LIVING IN   Washington !
  
  If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don’t work there, you live in  Washington  

  If you’ve worn shorts, sandals and a parka at the same time, you live in Washington    

  If you’ve had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed the wrong number, you live in Washington  

  If you measure distance in hours, you live in Washington .  

  If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you live in Washington .

  If you have switched from ‘heat’ to ‘A/C’ and back again in the same day, you live in Washington

  If you install security lights on your house and garage but leave both doors unlocked, you live in Washington

  If you can drive 75 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching, you live in Central, Southern or Eastern Washington .

  If you design your kid’s Halloween costume to fit over a 2 layers of clothes or under a raincoat, you live in Washington  

  If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow and ice, you live in   Washington .  

  If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction, you live in  Washington  

  If you feel guilty throwing aluminum cans or paper in the trash, you live in Washington  

  If you know more than 10 ways to order coffee, you live in Washington

  If you know more people who own boats than air conditioners, you live in Washington

  If you stand on a deserted corner in the rain waiting for the “Walk” signal, you live in Washington

  If you consider that if it has no snow or has not recently erupted, it is not a real mountain, you live in Washington.

  If you can taste the difference between Starbucks, Seattle’s Best and Dutch Bros, you live in Washington.

  If you know the difference between Chinook, Coho and Sockeye salmon, you live in Washington .

  If you know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup , Abiqua, Issaquah , Oregon , Umpqua, Yakima and Willamette, you live in Washington .

  If you consider swimming an indoor sport, you live in Washington

  If you can tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese and Thai food, you live in Washington .

  If you never go camping without waterproof matches and a poncho, you live in Washington

  If you have actually used your mountain bike on a mountain, you live in Washington

  If you think people who use umbrellas are either wimps or tourists, you live in Washington

  If you buy new sunglasses every year, because you cannot find the old ones after such a long time, you live in Washington  

  If you actually understand these jokes and forward them to all your  Washington friends, you live or have lived in Washington

Serves him right…….

Downloading music illegally and spreading it around needs to be stopped.  Serves this guy right.  He should have paid .99 cents for each song downloaded then he wouldn’t be made an example.