Why do I always miss it?

I'm home for the little snows, but I'm always away for the big ones. Yesterday we had 20 inches. Here is our deck.

Let's Talk Hotels

So by now you travel a lot. When I'm at the same place for a while, I like to stay at the same hotel for consistency. Last time I was in LA I was at the Radisson. I have the highest status there now, so I've been working on my Hilton points, which necessitated my staying at a Hilton property this time. With my Silver status (so far) I get an upgraded room, fridge, etc., it's pretty nice. In California I tend to wake up on my own about 4 am, go to the gym and get to work by 7. Back at the hotel by 7 this doesn't leave me much time in the room itself. I have my little patterns going (iron everything the first night I'm there, keep things in certain places, etc.) So last night I'm in the room for about an hour and I look over near the microwave to where I keep my Blackberry charger (plugged in) and my hair trimmer (this short, short haircut needs a lot of maintenance). Well imagine my suprise to find both of them gone. Skip will tell you I'm the forgetful type, but I know where my stuff is in a hotel room. I had already been there four days. So I do a quick inventory of the room and also find out that my suitcase has been moved from a corner of the room to the middle of the floor. Ummm.... So I didn't find anything else missing. I searched in every nook and cranny of the room to make sure I wasn't crazy but didn't find the missing items.

I then went to the front desk to report stolen items. The guy didn't know what to do in this instance. He finally finds a report for me to fill out and I ask him the $10,000 question. I'm supposed to stay there at least four more weeks. If the person/people who clean my room find out I've filed a report, how will my stuff possibly be safe? He doesn't have an answer for me at all. So I decide to wait until the morning to figure out what to do.

In the morning I put the suitcase on the bed, open it up and there are my two missing items, all by their lonesome in the suitcase. Anyone who has ever watched me pack knows that the charger goes in my laptop bag and the hair trimmer goes in my toiletries bag, I would never just throw them in the suitcase like that. So what's up? The only thing I can think of is related to tips. I usually leave one tip ($20 for the week) on my last morning. Since this was on my last night maybe this was their way of scaring me into tipping them? Well I was goint to tip anyways, but it certainly worked and now I feel much less safe in hotel rooms.

Rush Limbaugh is a big fat douche...

for saying that Michael J. Fox is "moving all around and shaking and it's purely an act". Perhaps Rushie is running low on his meds.

I know, I'm harsh.

I think I met one of Deb's "friends"

My friend Deb has a great blog and has written how service people really annoy her. Well one of them came out to California just to help me yesterday.

I was at Best Buy yesterday to pick up a video game, and when I got to the register I put the game, my Rewards Zone card and a coupon on the counter. All three were separated, you couldn't miss them. This guy is talking very intently to another employee and I was thinking "he should be paying attention to me" but I didn't want to seem rude so I didn't say anything.

So he scans my Reward Zone card, hands it back to me and as soon as I have put it back in my wallet asks me "Do you have a Reward Zone card?." Being the smart-ass I am, I said "Do you mean the one you just handed back to me?" At this point the other employee (a woman) wisely ceases their conversation and slinks away. After saying, "oh", he tells me my total. So I (with a great amount of patience) pick up the coupon that was right in front of him and make SURE he can now see it.

OK!

BTW, my new (repeat) job is pretty good. I'm working on the same application as I did last time, same office, same view, same people so it's very familiar. This week is milk-everyone-for-United-Way-money which means bake sales/doughnut sales/bagel sales/hot dog sales/ice cream sales/raffles, etc. galore. Since they give money to organizations that discriminate I have never given a dime to the United Way and luckily I can't eat any of that (yummy) stuff now anyways!

Only ONE MORE DAY until my favorite sushi in the world. What time is it? 4:43 am? Must be time to go to the gym!

Where have you been?

Well the good news is that I've actually been home since August 10! The assignments I've had since then have been remote. Remote work is great because it's much easier to concentrate and focus on work (and it's fun to take Gaston (the dog) out for a walk at lunch!)

My Mom came to visit a few weeks ago, we had a lot of fun. She and Skip did things like the casinos during the day and we all did things at night after I was done with work.

Last weekend Skip and I were in Vegas. He got a free trip through work. I had to work part of the time we were there but it was still fun. We stayed at Red Rock Casino Resort and Spa. Amazingly beautiful but the service was pretty awful.

We saw Phantom - The Las Vegas Spectacular, a 90 minute version of the Broadway show. With as many Broadway shows as I've seen, I've never actually seen Phantom. I enjoyed it a lot. A woman a few rows back had the biggest boobs I have ever seen. They were as big as a kid's head, seriously, they were just insane.

So tomorrow I leave for another five week stint in Los Angeles. I've been to this client before, they are very nice, so I'm looking forward to it. I'm especially looking forward to having my favorite Sushi in the whole world, Kabuki Sushi!

Fun fact. When I was last at this client (August 25th) I weighed 30 more pounds than I do now. I can't wait to see their faces when I walk in!