Vegas, Baby! Vegas!

Just about ready to head over to CES and check out the up and coming techy goodness! I'm not sure how much gambling we'll do this trip, but if our luck continues the way it has been so far, we probably should give it a go.

True to form, we were running late getting on the road yesterday. There was a house to clean, haircuts (and color for one of us...not me!) to be gotten, and an editing project to be finished (again, not me). We have a habit of driving to Vegas at night, which definitely has disadvantages, but more advantages such as no traffic.

We'd made a reservation at Palace Station, an off-strip hotel that recently underwent much-needed renovations. They had the best price of any of the hotel-casinos. Even better than The Orleans, which is where we usually stay for CES. Palace Station used to be really gross, but is better since the refurbishing. Well, we booked a room for about $90/night, a good rate for such a busy convention time.

Arriving at Vegas at 3:30am can be a good thing. It's happened to us before elsewhere and again, the "only rooms left" were suites. We actually got put into a $1500/night "grande suite" and we get to stay in the whole weekend. Once at The Orleans we ended up in a suite bigger than our house (I am not kidding) with a shower bigger than our one measley bathroom back in North Hollywood. We had to move after the first night though. Here's the view from the bedroom:

You'll note the nice widescreen tv! We have a huge bathroom and a powder room! Too bad we'll barely be in here. Anyway, I have gadgets to go drool over!

Oh, and it's in the 60's today and sunny. Much better than last year when it snowed!

Ren Gets Bored and Inquisitive

Some new questions from Ren, who was bored yesterday:

1. Have you been listening to any podcasts lately? If so, what ones?
To be honest, I haven't quite figured out the whole podcast thing yet. So, no. I don't get a lot of opportunity to even listen to my mp3 player since I don't really have a desk job or a very long commute.

The only one I really ever listen to is Geeks On with Eric when we are driving somewhere. We know one of the guys on it, so Eric downloads it. It can be fairly entertaining. They lose me a bit if their episode is too video game talk intensive though.

2. I see you got a lot of interesting things for the holler-days. No one wants to pick a favorite but what really stood out to you?
I'd have to say seeing Little Drummer Bowie. I'm so sorry you didn't get to see it. It was hilarious and I laughed so much. It really helped bring me out of my holiday funk a bit. But yeah, I don't like picking a favorite, so I'm going to say Solvang was great too.
Oops! I realized I didn't answer your question appropriately. Yes, I did get some cool holiday gifts. Stand-outs include my artwork by Ted Meyer, the books I received, and my iDog. Oh, and I got a really, really cool fuzzy orange scarf!

3. Did you have fireworks at Disney on New Year'’s Day or was it too rainy? Did you see that crazy Tinkerbell? Would you do that? (if you don'’t know what I am talking about then clearly you didn't see it)
They did cancel the fireworks on New Year's Day, however we saw a bit of the display while having dinner in New Orleans Square the previous Thursday night. We couldn't see much of the fireworks, but we heard everything and saw Tinkerbell. I've see her a few times before and HELL NO! I'd never do that!

4. I have only been to Solvang once and I didn'’t get to have any aebelskiver (but I bought some mix and never made it)! What do you like to do in Solvang? (They have a good book store if I remember correctly).
There is a good book store and lots of other unique shops. There used to be a great toy store too, but it closed, as did several of the shops. I like to walk around, eat some aebelskivers and other Danish food. There's a pet supply store we always go to and that was one place we were able to take the dogs in. We really didn't go into many shops since the canines were with us. It was a beautiful day though and a great place to take photos. It's very small and quiet, so a few hours is usually enough.

5. Any particular stand out moment of 2005?
I can NOT narrow this down to just one. There were several, including:

• Seeing all five original members of Duran Duran in concert
• Our 10th Anniversary/Belated Wedding Reception/Oscar party
• Visiting with some college friends in NY
• My first trip to the Sundance Film Fest

6. Any thing you are particularly looking forward to in 2006?

• Sundance
• Comic Con
• Possibly getting a new digital camera (I'll be checking them out in Vegas at CES!)

7. I hate resolutions, I prefer to have motto for the year. What do you think your motto for 2006 will be?
"Less eating, more drinking!!!"

8. What do you think will be the "big thing" for 2006?
Impeachment of the President and/or portable media devices (hey, I can tell you more after CES!)

9. Come to think of it, what the heck was the "“big thing"” for 2005?
Portable media devices, Xbox 360 Playstation 3, and Blu-ray DVD

10. Please tell me one thing you will absolutely, positively get done this year…
Write and/or assemble and self-publish a book or two. (Maybe if I get them done in time for Comic Con, maybe a couple of nice geeks I know will let me put a few out at their booth in exhange for (wo)manning the table some!)

It's Keeps Getting Better

Ever had one of those days? years? 2006 seems to be starting out a bit bumpy. I'm tired and just out of it. Not thinking straight and feeling disorganized.

The good news is that I found out I have tomorrow off! Since we are leaving for Vegas tomorrow night, I now feel less stressed about some of the things that need to be done before we can go.

Edit: Just realized I also have Monday off for working next weekend!!! So, that is 5 days off in a row. It makes up a bit for working so much over the holidays.