Today, Sunday, July 16th.
(With the exception of the Bodies exhibit, which follows...)


Luca and I posed patriotically today, as we always do around this time of year, in front of the Liberty Bell.

But first, he came over to my house to view my new living room furntiture and my new sleigh bed, which he approved of. We had some lovely Yirgah Chaffe coffee and a slice of Belgian Chocloate Mouuse Cake, which although I had spent a lot to procure, I thought a bit rich. We talked a bit and then went to the nearby Kohl's department store since luca had a thirty dollah coupon! He bought some new white trainers, (luca throws his old trainers away at the first sign of smudge. It's true!) I bought some ankle socks to wear with my Crocs. Btw, luca once again said that he would never, ever buy a pair of Crocs, ever! Of course, I find this highly amusing.

We went first to the "Bodies" show at the Tropicana, which I've covered in the prevous post and then we went to Macau's for enormous Chimichangas. We got a $1.12 discount on each of our entrees, because that was the high temp for the previous day! Today, I think it hit 115...

Next, we went down to the strip, parking at the Gold Coast, because it's easy to do. We took the walkways over to the Bellagio, to see the seasonal floral exhibit there.


A miniture Bellagio!


I'm sure that Alex is reliving his recent visit..


After that, we went to retrieve the car, so we had to pass through thre Gold Coast. I noticed one of my favorite slot machines, a "Double Triple Cherry" and played it to great success coming out sixty dollars ahead.

Next, we went north to the fabulous Fashion Show Mall! It's a very big mall on the strip with all of the big department stores as anchors and lots of fashionable shops.

And there is often a fashion show...




Most amusing. The models were very young and mostly inexperinced. The boys looked like they would rather be almost anywhere else and the girls looked like they were willing to do anything at all to live the glamorous life of the catwalk. One poor thing was particularly inept at that cross legged, high heel walk that the pro models do; she looked like she was marching through a bog in hip waders.

We continued through the mall, stopping at a wonderful shop called "teavana". You get it, of course; tea plus nirvana... I wanted some Irish Breakfast tea and the clerk told me that it was $3.20 for two ounces, but she was obviously disappointed at my choice, so I asked for four ounces. Then she asked my if I had a tin to keep my tea safe in and I told her "Yes!" as if I actually had such a tin and who in their right mind wouldn't have one! It's a wonderful shop really; the aroma is intoxicating.

We meandered through the rest of the mall, checking out Z-Gallerie, which had nothing much realy and then got back in the car. luca came back to the house for another piece of chocolate mousse cake and a beverage and we talked for a while and checked e-mail and looked at pics of various naked mens on the net as one does. Then there was a fairly strong wind storm for a while, and then it was getting dark, so he headed back north to his home.

I decided that I needed cigs, so I went to the local to get them. The wind was still very strong and it took two tries to get the gate to open in the wind so I could get out of my complex.

The wind has died down now and I am sitting in my garage, downstairs typing away and watching the dessert crickets skitter around beneath my feet. Poor things; soon they will be dead as I have sprayed the entire garage, per luca's instructions. It's not that they are like the cockroaches that I lived with in New Orleans; they seem to be clean and efficient little insects. It' s just that although they might prefer to live outside, they do get into your house and then they make so much noise, so it's better that they don't.

BTW, the Irish Breakfast Tea is fabulous!



-durlx