May 27, 2004
Palm Emergency
Ack! I can't sync my palm and my computer! I have no way to meld my two loves: My Palm and my Outlook.
I can't tell if it's a problem with the palm itself or the cradle in which I rest the palm while I synchronize.
I hope hope hope hope hope that my Palm doesn't fizzle in the meantime. I would lose so much information!
Anyone had this problem before? Please tell me yes. Then tell me it's easy and cheap to fix.
May 24, 2004
He (finally) did it!
On Saturday, I was surprised to see my parents had joined the Vrontikis Family gathering. They had driven in to see Dimitri propose to me.
Yes, after nine years, he actually did it! We'll be married, oh, in February or so. Hooray for us!
May 22, 2004
My Big Fat Greek Reunion
I am posting from sunny, beautiful Los Angeles where I am enjoying the yearly Vrontikis family reunion at Dimitri’s Aunt’s house in Westwood. So far, we’ve eaten, danced to 70’s music, and…well…eaten. That’s the way these things go.
This morning I went to the 24 hour fitness in Beverly Hills. It was pretty much like I expected. Hard bodies (surgically enhanced) diamond encrusted women (surgically enhanced) and me. It was funny. The gym has a parking garage, and I think that the attendant was surprised that I said both good morning to him (when I came in) and "Thank you, have a really nice day" in Spanish (when I left.) I got the feeling that he gets ignored most of the time.
Last night the whole family went to see Troy. I wasn’t’ expecting the fam to like it, since the Greeks are portrayed as power hungry, hair-extended bickering warlords. True to form, we didn’t enjoy it. The dialogue was really flat, the accents, were…erm…inconstant and quasi-autralo-anglo-turk-yankee, and the soundtrack was laughable. Please, please don’t see it. (Since movies in LA are $10.50 – yes, $10.50, how the devil do you Angelinos afford to live? it was a big waste of time)
On the docket for today is more eating, more dancing, and strolling through Olivera street. I’ll post pictures when I return.
May 19, 2004
I am queen of the 17 minute mile
Bow before me! 24 Hour fitness, watch out!
May 18, 2004
Rules for Tourists
Last night at midnight I was at the airport picking up Dimitri from his business trip in New York. His flight was pretty late, so I had ample time to people watch at the airport. As a public service for all Las Vegas tourists, here are a few ground rules you must adhere to if you are indeed going to visit sin city.
1.Do not try to dress like the locals. The old adage may be true: “when in Rome, do as the Romans do”, but don’t try it in Vegas. It may be helpful to blend in the background when studying, oh, silverback gorillas in Africa, but not in Vegas. You see, locals do NOT wear gold lame disco shirts, nor do they wear too-tight velour jogging suits with Mr. T style gold jewelry. I have yet to see a local wear ringed knee-high tube socks with jogging shorts and a loud Hawaiian shirt. Trust me, you look like a moron.
2.Fanny Packs are stupid. So many of you feel the freedom and ease then comes with carrying your belongings in a satchel that straps to your waist. You can carry your sunscreen, your camera, your hotel key, and about forty dollars in quarters in those packs. You resemble the burros that Juan Valdez uses to cart sacks of coffee beans from the mountainsides of Bogota. “But purses are so easy to steal” you tell me, weary of the sketchier element that indeed hangs around the Strip like those sucker fish who cling to sharks. True, but how smart is it to replace your purse with a cheaply fastened, easy-to-spot satchel that can be ripped off your torso without your knowing it? Stupid...er…jackass.
3.While Vegas sports some of the most liberal smoking laws outside Turkish Opium Dens, it is still rude to blow smoke in people’s faces. Yes, you can smoke just about anywhere in Vegas you like (save the inside of your own coffin, I suppose), but, and this is the real shocker, not all of us puff the ol’ coffin nails. Smoking while standing in line at the buffet line, for example, is the height of uncouth bad taste.
4.The red “Don’t Walk” sign is not optional. You may be on vacation, but traffic signals are not.
5.Yes, ladies of the evening are pervasive in Las Vegas. The police, for the most part, do take an “If you can’t beat ‘em, ignore ‘em” approach to most…erm…escorts. It is, however, unadvisable to proposition ladies who you think look the part. See rule #1. You probably just propositioned an Wisconsin farm girl, and that, dear friend, will get you thrown in the hoosegow.
6.No, I don’t know Wayne Newton. Nor do I know any of the people from The Real World who stayed in The Palms. Stop asking me.
7.Rent a car. It’s so amusing to see tourists try to walk from The Mandalay Bay to The Stratosphere in the dog-days of summer. More enterprising criminals will follow you, wait for you to pass out from heat exhaustion, and steal your fanny pack.
8.Tip people appropriately, and don’t think that the lounge singer should play “Hey big spender” when you tip a cocktail waitress a fiver. She walks around in ass floss and high heels for her entire shift. You can tip her a bit more, you schmoe.
9.I like the new Vegas marketing tagline “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” but herpes has a loophole.
Fellow Las Vegans, what other rules have I missed?
May 14, 2004
May 12, 2004
Attack of the Killer Tzatziki
I accidentally left a tupperware container of Greek Yogurt Salad (Tzatziki) at the office.
It was there for about a week on my desk.
Now, considering the fact that my food was technically alive when it was fresh, I should have been aware of the fact that its eventual decomposition in the Tupperware crypt would not be pretty, and would, in fact, resemble a scene from The Mummy. You know, only slightly dea
It didn't occur to me that my tupperware was a hotbed of asexual activity until I tried to clean out the Tupperware. It resembled a thick, blue/green shag rug.
Luckily, this kind of shag was flushable. Ewww.
May 10, 2004
When it pees, it pours
Not only has the cat attempted to ruin the dining room table and peed on my guest bed, but she puked on the floor on my side of the bed. I think she’s trying to tell me something…something along the lines of….I like dad better than I do you.
Friday night was a date night with Dimitri. We went to dinner and saw Van Helsing. It was a fun monster movie. My only complaint is that there’s only one scene with Hugh Jackman topless and sweaty.
Saturday was reserved for sleeping in and shopping. I went to Lane Bryant to get a new (smaller) pair of jeans and some new (smaller) shirts and new (cute) undies. I really like Lane Bryant. They make plus-sized clothes that don’t look like the muumuus that Mrs. Roper wore on Three’s Company. Their clothes are stylish, form fitting without looking slutty, and relatively well-priced. They’re still too expensive for me, but that’s because I’m accustomed to Wal-Mart and Target pricing.
Sunday was reserved for teaching. My first appointment was at 10:00 am and I didn’t get home until 10:30 pm. Bleh. I called my mom between classes and wished her a happy mother’s day. I had sent her a card, too.
I finished my Dan Brown book, Angels and Demons. I enjoyed it, it was a real page-turner, but not as cool as The DaVinci Code. Kat, you can borrow it any time. I’m reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban again so I can be ready for June 4th when the movie comes out.
May 6, 2004
May 5, 2004
Uh oh...I agree with Bill O'Reilly on something
Wow. I never thought in a million years that I would agree with super-conservatve Bill O'Reilly on anything. But after the flap over Ted Rall's cartoon about Pat Tillman, I actually side with O'Reilly; Rall was out of line and insulted the family of a dead soldier in order to make his point about the uselessness of the war in Iraq.
If you haven't been following this on the news, Ted Rall is an ultra-liberal political cartoonist whose cartoons appear in some 140 newspapers across the country. On Monday, most of those 140 newspapers opted not to run Rall's latest cartoon, which depicted Pat Tillman, an NFL player who opted to join the army rather than continue his football career, in a negative light. Tillman was killed in action, and Rall's cartoon calls him a "sap" and an "idiot."
Most newspapers (including MSNBC) will not post the cartoon, but you can see a copy of it here
While I agree with Rall's depiction of Bush as an untruthful, crazed man leading us into war with a country while offering pretty lame motivation for fighting, I think he (Rall) crossed a line insulting the dead soldier. He has every right to say what he wants, and I won't be boycotting his cartoon any time soon, but this particular column is just plain bad. I can't imagine what the Tillman family's reaction was when they saw the cartoon.
The transcript of the O'Reilly interview with Ted Rall can be found here.
What do you think?
Thanks, Sue
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May 3, 2004
I wonder if Goodwill accepts cats
My weekend blogging-topic checklist:
1. Table dancing/Cat urine
2. Bahama Breeze
3. Plasma TV
4. Goodwill
5. Birthday Dinner
6. Hack hack hack!
I'm ready to kill Ruby, my calico cat. She's been quite the turd lately. Dimitri brought me flowers on my birthday, and we set them in a vase on the dining room table while we went out to dinner. We return a few hours later to find the vase upended and oogie flower water dripping from the table on to the floor.
Ruby must have knocked over the flowers soon after we left the house. The water had seeped into the wooden table and warped the wood TERRIBLY. Dimitri started yelling and cursing. I accessed that dusty mental copy of "Hints From Heloise" and remembered that salt is a good desiccant, and leaped to my cupboard to find my tub o' salt with the girl and the umbrella on it.
I dumped a few pounds of salt over the affected area and massaged it into the table while Dimitri yelled and gesticulated at the cat. We left the salt on the table overnight, and, by morning, most all of the swelling had gone down. We probably won't need to replace the table, which is a good thing. The cat, however...
Ruby has been really interested in the new comforter in the guest bedroom. It's shiny and silky smooth, and she loves to jump on the bed and pad around on the bed. Apparently, she loved it just a little too much. She PEED right in the center of the bed. Comforter, sheets, mattress, all Rubified. %#$#@R! !!!! Thank goodness everything is machine washable.
Good: Went to Bahama Breeze on Saturday to meet up with a few folks. Met Stephanie for the first time.
Bad: I paid the tab on my credit card, once everyone gave me cash for their food. I ended up having to pay about $10 more than was my portion.
Dimitri ordered a plasma TV that he found online for "a really good price." He was setting it up when Kat and Jenny came by the house to see the new guest room (Pre-urine. I think.) Dimitri sucked Kat into a highly technical conversation about web servers and other techie stuff. At 11:45, Jenny and I leaped in to rescue Kat from the conversation so the girls could go home and Kat could get up early to do her boob-run.
I have six or seven bags of clothing to donate to the Goodwill. I'll be dropping the stuff off to them today. I'm sure that they'll make good use of it. I'd love to pretend that my main motivation is helping the less fortunate, but I'd be lying if I didn't also mention that my main motivation was to clean out some of the scariness that is the "junk room". A junk room is what happens when two people have a house with no children. The junk collects and breeds. I want to get that room cleaned up, and getting rid of the old clothes was the first step.
My birthday dinner was nice. We went to Fellini's inside the Stratosphere. Steve (our waiter and friend) had the chef make a sugar-free dessert just for me. Awww. That was sweet.
I'm coughing like a fiend. My cold won't go away. I can't drink orange juice or take cough medicine (both have lethal amounts of sugar in them) Grrrr.
So that was my weekend.