Vegas

My birthday celebration this year was in Vegas. Originally, I was going to visit the Grand Canyon. However, meeting Mary changed that. Specifically, a friend, an archaeologist, of hers was going to be in Boulder City, a short drive from Vegas. That and Mary's familiarity with Vegas and its surroundings tipped the scale.

One of the nice features of this trip was this: departing New England in the midst of pouring rain and temps in the 50s and heading west to dry desert temperatures near 100. Ahhhh....

Coming from that geographical context, I was inspired to snap some photos as we passed over the Rockies. Check them out. Remember: You can see a larger version of each one by clicking the picture.


Finally in Vegas, I was pleased to pick up my car rental—a PT Cruiser. It proved to be very practical in the desert heat—i.e., easy to cool and to keep cool as well as easy to drive.

Unfortunately, our arrival in Vegas was tainted by a major computer problem at the Mirage registration desk. Close to an hour passed before we finally got our keys and headed for our room. Ugh.

Fortunately, that was the worst of the hiccups for the trip. The service at the Mirage and elsewhere was excellent. That was a welcome contrast to the lousy service I got at a bed and breakfast in Gettysburg last year.

A friend suggested trying a gondola ride at the Venetian. Here's a shot of what that would entail.



Expand it. Notice the pedestrian and auto traffic close by. Also, check out the gondola and its passengers in the foreground. No cover. The temps were close to 100. Yeah, it's a dry heat but too oppressive for my tastes. Pass.

The Vegas strip pretty much bored me after a few hours. Among other things, it made me wonder if the number of zombie movies pouring out of Hollywood could be explained by the intense number of pedestrians pouring onto the Vegas strip at night, walking in a sluggish, zombie-like fashion.

Anywho, on my birthday night, we took in a show at the Mirage. We saw Cirque du Soleil's
The Beatles Love performance. Yawn. It had its moments but for the money I laid out I was expecting something exotic, some kind of big finish. Nope. If we had kids in tow, it would have been an appropriate choice.

The next day, we headed for the desert to see the Valley of Fire. This was cool. However, as we got deeper into the desert, I paid attention to the fact that gas stations were few and far between. In fact, on the whole excursion, I saw exactly 1 gas station. So, I gassed up at the first station even though my tank was close to full.

Some shots and comments from the Valley of Fire follow.

This patch of rock gave me a surprise. While walking across it, I kicked a stone. When it skidded across the rock, it produced a hollow sound. The baked boulders are hollow! Yet we could walk across them safely.

Another tourist snapped this pic for us. Getting to this spot was slow. We trekked up a bumpy dirt road off the main paved road to get there. But the view was worth it.

Mary and I just liked the contrast of the white boulders rising abrubtly out of the red stone surface around it.

Here's the road home. It was a nice contrast of green grass, black mountains, the valley of red rock and especially the man-made, well paved road through it all.

That's it for tonight. More pics to follow.

Marilyn Monroe

I found this image of Monroe on a postcard during my recent visit to Boulder City, Nevada. Specifically, I found it tucked away in a tiny shop named Classic Hollywood Gems within the Boulder Dam Hotel. Dee, the shop owner, was very friendly, commenting on how much she liked Monroe. I do too.

I especially like this picture. In addition to its style, it reminds me of Charlize Theron. However, after looking at dozens of pictures of Theron online, I saw none that supported that impression very well. Theron is beautiful, of course. I think she could manage a pose to resemble Monroe, especially decked out the way Marilyn is in this photo. But the total look is, of course, Marilyn's own.

Backyard

In New England this spring, the first half of April was colder than the first half of January. However, when the weather finally broke, it did so bigtime. With that, Mary and I went to work on the spring clean-up needed for her backyard.

I took some time out from those chores to take these pics.

Ahhhhhh....

First, we start with Meowfi (sp?), one of Mary's cats. This guy weighs over 30 pounds! You can't see his girth from this angle but it's there.

Here are some views from Mary's porch.

I'll end for now with two pics of a colorful hammock. First, the color.

Finally, the cashing-in...

Renovations 4

Well, M, here are some progress pics you requested. Please note: something is amiss with my digital camera. It's literally spotty—showing spots where none exist in my freshly painted bedroom.

This first pic shows the green blinds coordinated with my new comforter. I've studiously avoided the carpeting. Though it's nicely revitalized, it's part of what will eventually be gone.

Next, check out this before pic. It's a nasty water stain from a roof and outer wall leak (now repaired). And check out those blinds. Spartan, at best.

Fortunately, some primer and sealer patched it up perfectly. Check out the results.

Though it may not seem like much from these pics, the improvement, with just this much, is huge for me. I'm happy with it. And, of course, I'm just getting warmed up. :^)

Renovations 3

I forgot to add that Mary helped me replace my ancient vertical blinds with homier tab-top blinds. They're a nice shade of green to compliment the new wall paint and my bed linens.

Things are moving along nicely. Next target—clearing the bedroom closets and scrubbing the ceiling and the walls before applying primer to them. I may stop at the primer/sealer. It's not like I'll be seeing the closet walls all the time.

Renovations 2

Though I'll be replacing my carpeting with laminate flooring, I agreed with Mary to rent a Rug Doctor (RD). It'll be a while before I can arrange all the details for the big change. In the meantime, her assumption was that a lot of dirt would have built up in the carpet in spite of my vacuuming.

Sure enough, the RD sucked up loads of dirt! As I poured each bucket down the drain, my conviction to switch to laminate flooring deepened all the more.

Apart from that, I'm now a convert to the effectiveness of tools like the RD when the choice is made to keep a carpet.

If you haven't used this yet, be prepared to be at this for a while. Unlike vacuuming a carpet with a normal dry vacuum, this one requires you to pull it backwards...slowly. Then, you roll it forward (in neutral) to start a new row of cleaning.

Also, be prepared to stop often to empty the basin into which the dirt from the carpet has been dumped. It washed down the bathtub drain with no problem.

The payoff is worth it—a revitalized carpet! Plus, check out this price—a little over $20! Gosh, I feel a little emotional right now. Capitalism at its finest. I'm a little verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic. The peanut is neither a pea nor a nut. Discuss.

Renovations

Condo renovations are underway! Mary recommended before and after pics but I chose not to. I'll just post some nice pics toward the end.

We've started with my bedroom. The most dramatic change, as far as painting, is already done. I didn't realize how much it needed a paint job until everything was out of the room. Then, when I saw the contrast of the white primer against the old paint, especially the area above the heater...yikes!

But, I'm a little ahead of myself. The stumbling block had been the damned, late 80s popcorn ceiling. Usually, the stuff is difficult to remove. Fortunately, we found that the crud was so old and brittle, it just scraped right off with a putty knife. Nice.

So, we cleared the bedroom ceiling of the mess, applied primer and then the fresh coat of paint.

Check this out—the paint started off as a light shade of purple and then, as it dried, changed to white! Purpose: Make it simple to see where you left off. How cool is that!?

For the walls, I chose a very light shade of green. Without anything in the room, it looks like a light yellow. I'm not describing this well. I'll get some pics posted later. For now, suffice to say that the color struck me as having the quality of a chameleon, blending in well with a wide range of color.

Mary is both my muse and my cattle prod for this project. She's a welcome force!

Next, the carpet will be replaced with laminate flooring. Among other factors and Mary's reasoning, this site influenced my thinking. I'll use area rugs as needed.

As part of that, I'm gutting my closets, rethinking everything, even wardrobe.

Long story short, the redesign of my bedroom is serving as a model for the rest of my home.

Change is good!