Archive for October, 2008
I went to Fred Meyer on my lunch break yesterday to get a few grocery-related things I need at work (coffee creamer, mostly). While I was there, I went to the deli section to get something to eat. The woman behind the counter was almost finished weighing the order of the person in front of me, so I studied the food behind the glass while I waited. While she was down at the end of the counter ringing up that customer, a man came up and pushed his cart between me and the glass case.
A bit rude, I thought, but I figured he just wants to see what’s there for him to order, like I had done minutes before (though I hadn’t squeezed my way in between the other customer and the glass, I had just looked at the food around her.)
When the clerk came back, she looked me in the eye (obviously recognizing that I was the next to be served) and said “What can I get you?” As I was about to speak, the other guy started listing the things he wanted to order. The clerk shifted her gaze to him, but didn’t move to start getting his food.
“Did you seriously not see me here? You really didn’t notice that I was standing here waiting even before you pulled up with your cart?” I said. Which kind of surprised even me, because I’m RARELY confrontational. Something about this guy just set me off, I guess.
He said “I’m sorry, my mistake, where are my manners?”
Just kidding. What he actually said was “You were standing so far back, I didn’t think you were in line. You should have been standing closer to the glass case if you were waiting to be helped.” It was true that I hadn’t been standing right next to the glass, but I was standing close enough that he had literally inches on both sides of his cart when he pushed it between me and the glass. Plus the fact that I was just standing there waiting in that one spot, not shopping, not browsing, not wandering, should have been one of his clues.
“Oh, I guess they took down the sign that said whoever is standing closest to the glass gets served next, regardless of who was here first.” Turning to the woman, I said “I’ll have a bean burrito and a snack stick, and a fountain drink cup.” She smiled, got my food and took her sweet time ringing me up, which was just fine with me.
October 21st, 2008
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Read part three
Read part four
After the show, we had dinner, checked out a few more casinos, gambled a bit more, then headed back to our suite to wind down.
Kathy woke me up about 6:00 AM the next morning, fully dressed, asking if I wanted to join her down on the casino floor. I politely declined (”Heck, no! Wake me back up at a decent hour!”)
She came back into the room and woke me up at the crack of 9:00, and I showered and got dressed. We had breakfast, then took a relaxing walk through the botanical garden at Ballagio’s conservatory. It was decorated with a display highlighting “Wonders of America” (or something like that.) We then walked through the Paris Las Vegas casino across the street.
We then drove to the Venetian hotel and took a ride on the gondolas through the canals. There are actually two separate gondola rides; one outside, and one inside the Grand Canal Shoppes. We decided to do the indoor ride.
Since the gondolas seat four, we shared ours with another couple. Our gondolier was very obviously faking his italian accent, but was still entertaining. At several points during our trip, he belted out some really loud, operatic songs that seemed to echo through the whole building. He was actually pretty good. He reminded us to kiss as we crossed under each bridge, which he explained is a romantic tradition in Venice, Italy. Is it really a tradition, or was he just playing up the whole “Look at me, I’m a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, Italian gondolier” thing? I have no idea; I just know I got to kiss Kathy many, many times.
We also went to the top of the Stratosphere tower. There is an outdoor obervation deck at the very top, with several thrill rides. Just below that level is the indoor observation deck. The windows here are floor-to-ceiling, and they are angled in, so that you can lean out just a bit and see straight down through the glass to the ground 1000 feet below. Kathy doesn’t appreciate heights very much, so she stayed near the interior walls while I awed and got a bunch of pictures.
After that, we took in a Fountains at Bellagio performance, drove toward Hoover Dam (then turned right back around when we saw that traffic was stopped to a crawl with six miles left to the dam), then ate dinner downtown. We then wandered through the amazing Fremont Street Experience for a while. We watched speed painters, browsed a few booths, rocked to an amazing cover band, saw a couple drunk guys come this close to fighting, and then watched the show above us as the canopy of millions of LEDs lit up in animation.
The next morning, we returned the car, caught the shuttle to the airport, and flew back home.
I uploaded a bunch of photos to my flickr page. Go check them out!
October 15th, 2008
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We left our room and got back in the car to find a place to get breakfast. It was after 9:00 AM, and we had both been up since before 4:00 with nothing to eat yet. We drove to the Flamingo and had an excellent champagne brunch. We walked to the nearby monorail station and rode it to another casino, then later rode it back. When we got back to the Flamingo, Kathy took a quick pit stop, and I took that opportunity to find the will call counter where show tickets are picked up.
We walked around the casino for a while, gambled a bit, drank a bit, gambled a bit more, then had lunch. When 3:00 rolled around, we walked to Nathan Burton’s Flamingo Showroom to be seated for the show. I wasn’t discreet enough earlier when I had been looking for this theater as we were wandering through the casino, so Kathy had figured out that we were seeing a show here. Of course, the whole time we were waiting in line, she thought we’d have some sort of nosebleed seats. The Flamingo Showroom is pretty intimate, however; there really aren’t any bad seats. I had purchased seats in a booth right at the front of the theater.
Nathan Burton’s show was great. It was funny, without being stupid. His illusions were amazing, without being too over-the-top. His assistants were beautiful, without being slutty or relying on nudity.
Toward the end of the show, he asked who in the audience was here on their honeymoon; there was a smattering of applause. He then asked who was here for a birthday; again, a few people clapped and cheered. He then asked who was here for their anniversary, and as Kathy continued to sink lower into the booth in a futile attempt to blend in with the upholstery, I clapped and cheered loudly. The audience spotlight was turned to shine on us, and Nathan asked, pointing at Kathy, if this was my wife. The audience laughed as he said “Hey, this is Las Vegas, you never know.”
He then asked how many years we’d been married, and I shouted “Twenty!”
The audience applauded, then he asked me what the secret to 20 years of marriage is. I said “Do everything she says!” He then closed the show with one final trick (turning a glass of water into white confetti in front of our eyes. You can see the confetti still in his hair in this photo.) As we were filing out of the theater, other audience members were coming up to us wishing us a happy anniversary. It was a wonderful ending to a perfect day.
I told Kathy that the show was the last surprise I had planned. The rest of the day, and the entire next day, we were free to do anything we wanted to do.
Read part five
October 13th, 2008
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Read part two
We put our bags in the car, and spent the next few minutes figuring out how to adjust the seats and start the car (there’s no “key” in the cut-piece-of-metal sense, just an electronic fob that looks like a thumb drive). Once we got going and got on the road, I told Kathy I’d booked us a room at a place somewhere here in town. I asked her to punch in 2000 Las Vegas Blvd into the car’s in-dash GPS, so it can tell us how to get there. As we passed many of the large resorts, Kathy kept asking if this was where we were staying. I faked innocence. “Is the GPS telling us to turn here? No? Then I guess this isn’t it. We’ll just have to keep driving until we find it.”
Last November, the whole family drove to Las Vegas and stayed for a couple days as part of a larger road trip vacation. We rented two cheap rooms at the El Cortez hotel, right near the heart of downtown old Las Vegas. It was fine for what it was, a really cheap place for the five of us to sleep. It wasn’t the least bit romantic (nor was that trip intended to be). We don’t have any bad feelings about the El Cortez, we just think of it more like the “McDonalds” of Las Vegas hotels, I guess. We mentioned to each other at the time how great it would be to be able to stay at a nice place on the strip, rather than having to settle for just a bed and a TV downtown.
While planning this trip, I knew that Kathy would have been happy just being with me no matter where we stayed, even if it was some fleabag far removed from the strip. I decided early on in, however, that I had just one chance to really blow her away. So, as much as I could afford it, there would be no compromises.
Kathy and I were still heading north on Las Vegas Blvd. in the Mercedes, passing resort after resort, with the GPS telling us how much more distance was left to our destination. Kathy started thinking that we might be staying at some cheap hotel downtown, maybe the El Cortez again. Soon, however, the GPS told us to turn left, and I dutifully followed its guidance into the parking lot of the Stratosphere Hotel, at the north end of the strip.
We went inside and walked up to the check-in desk. I handed my credit card to the agent at the counter, and a few minutes later we were off to find the elevator to the 18th floor. When I opened the door and let Kathy in to see the room, she said “Wow, this is bigger than our first apartment!” I had rented a 650 square foot suite, with a king sized bed, a couch and chairs around the TV area, a small kitchen area, a dining table/work table and chairs, and a gigantic marble bathroom. The windows faced south, so it had an amazing view of the strip. It was perfect.
As Kathy started to unpack, I told her to hurry, we really need to get going. She tilted her head to the side, squinted her eyes a bit and asked if I had even more planned. I just said, “I’m really hungry right now, we haven’t had breakfast yet. And remember, don’t worry, I’ve taken care of everything.”
Read part four
Read part five
October 9th, 2008
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We park the car at the airport and I open the trunk, and only then does Kathy realize that I’ve already packed for us both. She still doesn’t really know what’s going to happen or where we’re going, since I won’t tell her anything ahead of time. Whenever she asks anything, I just say “Don’t worry, I’ve taken care of everything.” She asks if she needs to call her boss to let him know she won’t be in.
“Don’t worry, I’ve taken care of everything.”
As we take the escalators to the ticket counter level, she asks if we need to stop at one of the ticket counters. I had already printed our boarding passes online the evening before, of course. “Don’t worry, I’ve taken care of everything.”
As we are about to go through security, I mention to the TSA guy that Kathy doesn’t know where we’re going yet, and ask if it is possible for him to verify that she is a ticketed traveler without letting her see the boarding pass. He obliges, and this part of the surprise is safe for a bit longer.
We arrive at the gate so early that the agents haven’t even updated the board for the flight yet. This works in my favor, since it is that much longer that Kathy is kept in the dark. We sit in a section of seating near the next gate over, so Kathy still won’t be able to see the board once the agents do update it. She still doesn’t know where we’re going until an hour or so later when they finally announce the boarding over the intercom. “We’re going to Las Vegas?!”
The flight left on-time at 6:00 AM sharp. It was a great flight; quiet, not crowded (we had the entire row to ourselves), and relaxing. Even though she had only slept about four hours and I had slept only three, we were too excited to snooze. It’s pretty rare that we get to take a plane anywhere, so it’s always a treat to look at the scenery go by 30,000 feet below. She wanted to know what we were going to do once we got into Las Vegas. “Don’t worry, I’ve taken care of everything.”
We land, and I tell her that we should probably see about renting some cheap wheels to get around town. We catch the shuttle to the off-airport rental car center, and I find the Dollar Rent A Car counter. I tell her to wait in the lobby, which is far enough away that she won’t be able to hear the transaction. She tilts her head to the side, squints her eyes a bit and asks if I’ve already reserved a car? And if so, what kind? “Don’t worry, I’ve taken care of everything.”
Ten minutes later I have the rental agreement in hand, and we make our way out to the garage to get the keys. As we’re waiting for the attendant to tell us which car is ours, we are standing right next to a new Corvette. I joke about how cool it would be to drive a nice car like that for the week-end. She groans, in a “Yeah, right” kind of way. I don’t think we’ve ever driven anything nicer than my Volkswagen or her Honda. “Sir, here are your keys. You car is right there, three spaces down.”
As we approach the CLK500, Kathy says “No way! You rented us a Mercedes?!”
Read part three
Read part four
Read part five
October 7th, 2008
July 9th, 2008, was our 20 year anniversary. I wanted to do something big for Kathy, and I started planning early. After discussing options with many people, including her best friend Lori, I decided to surprise her with a weekend in Las Vegas. My grandparents lived there years ago, and other family and friends still live there, so we’ve been there many times, and always have fun. Every time we’ve visited however, there has been something “missing”. Kathy’s hinted that she would love to see a show sometime. We always seem to stay with family, or in the cheapest room we could find. We always seem to make one compromise or another. I hoped to make this a trip that she would remember for a long time.
I arranged with her boss for her to have Saturday July 19th off (she has Sunday-Monday off normally.) I told him what I was planning, and asked him to keep it quiet until we were back from the trip. I also arranged with Lori for her to pick up Lexi sometime after we left the house and keep her for the week-end. I knew the boys would be OK on their own.
She figured that I was planning something, but I wouldn’t give her any sort of hints, or even confirm whether I was actually planning anything or not. When it came time to actually start booking and purchasing the trip, however, I finally had to acknowledge that I was up to something. The only thing I told her was that I had some plans, and that she was not allowed, under any circumstances, to go on-line and look at the checking or credit card accounts. This was about 2 and a half weeks before the trip. I told her that all would be revealed soon (but I didn’t say exactly when), and not to ask any questions. Any at all. Not a single question. None.
That didn’t last long. I was able to deflect almost every question with an answer of “You’ll see” or “You’ll just have to wait” or something else along those lines. At some point, she even asked point blank “Does my boss know what’s going on?” This wasn’t a question I could sidestep without it being very obvious that I had in fact arranged for some time off with him, and since this was to be a big part of the suprise, I had to lie to her.
“Your boss? No, of course not! Why would I involve him? He doesn’t know anything about the plans I’m making!”
I did make it clear that when the surprise started, she would very definetely know it. If she ever thought to herself, “I wonder if this is part of the surprise?”, the answer had to be “No”, because I was going to make it VERY obvious when it did start.
The morning of Saturday July 19th, I woke her up about 3:30 AM and said “Get up and get dressed, your surprise is starting right now.” She asked if she should wear her work clothes, and I told her just to wear something casual, that we’d be back in time to change clothes before she had to go to work. Since she wasn’t going to be working again until Tuesday, I didn’t technically lie. I said not to worry about packing anything, just to get in the car so we can start the suprise. In the trunk of my car were two suitcases I had already packed with several changes of clothes for both of us. I had even purchased travel size toothpaste, toothbrushes, soaps, etc, so I could pack absolutely everything ahead of time without her noticing that stuff was missing from the bathroom.
We drove from our house in Beaverton to 26 East, then to 405 South, then to 5 North, then to 84 East, then to 205 North, the whole time trying not to be too obvious that we were heading in the direction of the airport. Once on 205, I tried to stay in the left lanes. Just when we were about to pass the off-ramp to PDX, I swerved across all lanes (remember, it was about 4:00 AM and the freeway was empty) and took the exit. She just about screamed, “I knew it! We’re flying somewhere!”
Read part two
Read part three
Read part four
Read part five
October 5th, 2008