After a busy week....

I went out tonight, to the Strip. I had an invitation to a hospitality suite at the Wynn for a company called Soviet Jeans USA. http://www.sovietjeans.us/ They were here for Magic, a clothing industry show.

Why was I invited and why did I go? Well. GC sent out the invites and Bok is the president of the company. Luca got there first and I arrived about thirty minutes later. The enormous suite was on the thirtieth floor of the Wynn Towers with a stunning view of the valley. The suite was huuuuge! And it was in a fairly exclusive area of the Wynn property, so we saw a famous basketball player and his girlfriend in the elevator. He was charming.

The group at the hospitalty suite was a mix of customers and the rest of us, who were there to fill the room with busy and work the room. It seemed to work.

Most of the people left by ten, which was the advertised end of the function. After that, luca and I got a chance to hang with Bok and Chuck, as well as a very nice doctor, a friend, named Armondo. It was interesting that we both had contact with the Breaux family in New Orleans and that we had both been in the family apartment in The Pontalba Apartments, a very historic place in New Orleans. Small world.

It was a really nice evening. It's always good to spend time with Gary and it was really great to see Chuck again and yes, really nice to see Bok again. He's a charming man and always the perfect host at a party. For those of you who have not met him, it's difficult to describe the effect that he has on others.

As we were getting up to leave he offered us another drink, No?, a water for your drive? A guava juice? Ah, then a hug...

My Dad had a minor stroke last week; he was at my brother's house and he could not hold his spoon at breakfast. This might have gone un-noticed at the retirement community where he usually lives, but at my bro's house, it was immediatly noticed and he was taken to the hospital at Plymouth, where my sis-in-law's mom is head of nursing, so he got very good care.

The nuerosurgeon there noticed something... and I had noticed it too, two weeks ago when I was visiting them all. Sometimes, my Dad would start to walk in a funny sort of way; it wasn't a limp, it seemed more like something that was related to some brain malfunction. My Dad has Alzheimer's and that is not on the table here, but it turns out that there is also something else, something that can be fixed with an operation, that would put him back where he was about three years ago. This would be great as he wouldn't have to go into a nursing home right now; he would be able to live more or less on his own for some more years in the community that he lives in now. The quality of life issue is huge here.

The doctor who invented this surgury is http://www.boston-neurosurg.org/faculty/black.html Dr. Peter Black. He is actually known world-wide for his specialty..

On the phone with my brother, we discussed what might happen with the insurance and he said that there was no way that we could afford this without insurance. He said, "After all Darryl, this IS BRAIN SURGERY!" I laughed so hard. I said, "Oh, not rocket science, JUST brain surgery!" O.K., it's serious enough, but we both needed a laugh. I love my brother.

My sister is there with them now. If the doctor in Boston can do the surgury and everything else is O.K., she might stay there for several weeks: the recovery and rehab time is six or eight weeks, and Karen has the time now.

In the meantime I am working hard on making everything profitable at work and making sure that my charges are productive and content; it's a challenge, but one that I thrive on.

Oh, and one last thing.

Go to one of my fav blogs! http://towleroad.typepad.com/towleroad/ , it's Towleroad.

Just scroll down, down.... stop! at the Mario Lopez bit. O.K., now scroll down a little more to the part about John Cameron Mitchell's "The Short Bus".

I think that Mr. Hedwig might have made us another jewel.



durlx le durlx

CBS Is All Katie, but Rivals Aren?t Standing By - New York Times

Katie Couric will rock, I predict.

I knew that she would when I first saw her with Bryant Mumble Gumble.

Some of you might know my story of how Gumble spit out my fried alligator strips on national teevee! Jane Pauly loved it, laughed hysterically at the time and talked to me afterwards...

Modern Fabulousity: ModMusic: Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright

Here's a link to Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright doing Geore Michael's "Careless Whisper".

It's very sweet!

Who's to Blame for State of New Orleans? - Forbes.com

Yes, indeed; who is to blame?

This is a fairly good piece about what went wrong and what has not gone right in New Orleans since Katrina.

The parts about the condition of the city now are true. I have confirmation from friends still there. The statistics are astounding! 70 million gallons of water leak every day from the water system, about as much as gets delivered to the homes and businesses of New Orleans.

There are less than two hundred doctors in New Orleans; before the storm there were over six hundred. There are 27 doctors left that specialixe in mental health in a city where people are suffering from incredible stress.

And the politicians in charge were never much good at solving any problem at all before the storm. After, they still seem to suck.

It's no suprise to me and that's why I took to the road with a great sadness in my heart. I miss what used to be my home...




durlx

Teens Defend Polygamy at Utah Rally

This is interesting. Polygamy usually falls beneath my radar. I think, "Well. that's strange."
There may be some very good polygamous families, and there might be some good children in them, but it's difficult to know for sure, given the generally held opinion of such families. The data is also below the radar.
The worry is always that there might be a psychopathic patriarch, a mesmerising sadist who abuses the woman and children in his "family", both sexually and socially. We know that such things have happened, and the situation can go awfully wrong, resulting in a suicidal "cocktail party", a la Jim Jones.
Still, this is an "alternative family" and as such, it is thrown into the same pot as "gay marraige".
My personal view of this is that I want recognition of my relationship with another man, but I only care about the civil aspects of it. I don't care about any religion and what it's rules are in this respect. They are welcome to practice what they preach to their own flock, but that's it. I promise to do the same.
But when it comes down to who gets the money and property, and who gets the right to love and care for each other in any situation, that's where I draw the line. That's what is important to me. I want the same civil rights as any straight couple now, and I am willing to extend those rights to any family group that does not inflict it's will on any other individuals who do not desire it or require it. That means that women and children live free from domination by one man, or anyone. In a family where there might be a "father" and several "mothers" and some children, the "mothers and fathers" must work together and have equal power in that endeavor.
By comparison, gay relationships are cake, at least at the one on one level.
Yup, I'll support the ploygamy thing, but only if the daddy can prove that he is worthy of a higher standard.
Rat Crazy Horn Dogs need not apply.



durlx

In Search of Celine Dion!

You know, One of the things I love most about Kathy Griffen is her Celine stuff! Like even though Celine's Vegas show is always sold out weeks in advance, when she comes out on stage for the first time, Celine looks as if she is totally surprised that anyone showed up! Kathy's line is that Celine is sitting backstage and finishing her make-up and she turns to her husband and says, "Reny, per-hops... zis is zee night, dat de do naht cum..." Bwahahahaha! This is proof that Kathy Griffen is a brilliant comedian.

Celine lives in a fabulous home in Lake Las Vegas. During the negotiations for Celine's fabulous multi-million dollar contract with Caeser's Palace, she "apparently" asked for a helicopter to take her to and from work. Sadly, she has had to put up with a twenty-five minute limo ride to work and back...

So, today, Sunday, luca and I went in search of Celine! Well, not really. We drove the 15 minute drive to the Lake Las Vegas Resort. It's very interesting there; it's a small valley with lots of scenic hills sticking up all about and a lake in the middle. For those of you who know little about desert ecology, a lake is a rather unusual sort of thing, but none-the-less there is one there. More amazing are the streams and waterfalls and rapids. I'm not sure where this water comes from, but there sure is a whole hell of a lot of it! There are boats!


First, we went to the Hyatt, which was gorgeous, really! We had lunch at one of the pool-side restaurants. Now luca loves meatloaf and often orders it, although it can be a disappointing choice, and I am myself a big meatloaf fan, but I just don't have the faith to always order it for fear of dissappointment.

OMG! This time was totally the charm! This was honestly the best meatloaf I've ever had! It came with perfect garlic mashed potatoes and a "gravy", which was truly a sauce, a brilliant! sauce with bits of morels in it! And really nice, almost perfectly cooked baby carrots! Also nice yeast rolls with decent butter. Fabulous! Really! I very rarely get food at a restaurant that I like as much as I liked this.



Then, we went over to the area by the Ritz-Carlton and I proceeded to lose $60 on slots in the casino, but it did take a long time. So, I am even with the last outing with luca, and I'm still over $2,000 ahead lifetime. My lesson learned today: I should only play Double Triple Cherry slots. I seem to always win on them.


We walked around in the shopping area, which, I think is supposed to remind one of Tuscany, bawahaha! This is a multi-billion dollar developement, and the public areas seemed deserted... although some parts of this place are quite nice.

The we drove around a looked at the condo and private home areas. Really, this is a beautiful place. It isn't finished yet, but I think there's a lot of potential; and I am sure that Celine has the most amazing views!

After that we headed back towards my house, stopping on the way to do some shopping; a little at Curcuit City, where I coveted a GPS for the car, and luca got a hand-held dictation machine, and then to Pier One, where there was nothing on sale to tempt us, and then to Office Max, where I found the right ink and some paper for the printer. We did stop in at Wild Oats; the cheese case was astonishingly spare...

Then to my place, close by, and after a bit, luca headed north to his home on the other side of the big valley. A nice day...

Here's a little insight: as the plane was approaching the airport for a landing, I thought about if I felt that I was "going home" and I decided that I didn't feel that way. Not yet.

The next morning, when I walked into the store at 5 AM, I did feel like I was home. During this year long migration I've always felt that way when I walked into one of our stores; it's been a touch stone.

Vegas isn't home yet. Will it be? I don't know.

And don't even ask me about LA, I don't want to live there...


durlx

I read a lot of blogs every day, and I am amazed at how people keep up with all that frequent almost daily posting!

I don't have as much time for this as I used to, but then again, I am working now full time...

So, anyway, I took the "red eye flight" to Boston a little over a week ago to join my family for a few days. I got into Boston around 8 AM and took the bus out to my brother's place. I took a nap and then we drove into town again to pick my Dad up at Logan. The traffic is all effed up since the roof fell on that poor person, but not all that much worse than usual. We parked and then got into the terminal just in time to meet my Dad's flight. It's important to meet my Dad on time; with the Alzheimer's, you just can never be sure if he's going to get very lost.

My brother met him and got him to us by the baggage claim area. My bro went to get the car and I waited with my Dad and my lil' neice for the luggage. I realized, as we were standing there, waiting and talking, that my Dad wasn't all that sure who I was. I knew that this was coming, but it was still a shock. I chatted away and I could see that after a while he knew me, but I don't think he could have recalled my name. As the week went on, I learned that he probably had more problems with all of our names than he did last Christmas.

We got back to my brother's house, had something to eat and turned in. We got up early the next morning, packed into the car and headed up to the Mountains of New Hampshire.


It was very pretty there. We had a two story condo rental way up the side of the mountain. There were warnings not to take out the trash after dark because bears might be out there! This greatly helped keeping the kids in after dark, but for all the time I spent out there at night, I didn't see a single hairy man. I think that the bear business is more about stirring up business for the rentals than anything else.

This area of N.H. is all about skiing in the winter, but during the summer, it is home to Storyland, a children's theme park. I spent two days riding kiddie rides with my neice and nephew; it was sweet, very sweet! Now, you must understand, whereever we went, there were thousands of kids, and especially at restaurants. Crayons were always served before bread and butter. Now matter where we ate, the kids outnumbered the adults by two to one. To their credit, the local restaurants were great at handling the family business; one 300 seat place which had both a great adult menu and a very good kids menu, had a free face painter for the people in line and once inside, there was a play room and a movie room. For those of you who haven't dined out with pre-schoolers recently, I can tell you that this was all a very good thing. The wait staff was extremely patient about all the jumping up and down from the table, but then they probably have something similar with the drunken winter ski crowd...

We stopped at this waterfall area on morning and my sis-in-law managed to get a good pic of Uncle Bunny and the kids.


The next pic is special because it shows something about my Dad; as vague as he can be about what is happening around him sometimes, on other times, he is totally there in the moment. I was just about 15 feet below my brother and my Dad and I told them that I was going to take a pic. I yelled out to my Dad, "Your hiding behind the tree!", and I hit the shutter.


As you can see, he was right on the mark.

It's amazing and strange, the things about him that are there and the things about him that are not. I am happily stunned that his sense of humor remains.

We headed back to my brother's house on Monday, and Tuesday, we went in search of a good lobster roll. We tried one in Plymouth, and at 14 bucks it was not a success. sigh. Then it was off to Logan Airport again. I had an 8 PM flight which would get my home by a little after eleven, but no such luck! The JetBlue Airbus computer did not believe that the emergency doors were closed and locked.

When they herded us off the plane and told us that Burger King was on the way, I thought that we would be there all night, but we were back on the plane and in the air by a bit after eleven. I "slept" on the plane, (it's a lie you tell yourself, it's not really sleep!), and got home around two AM, got to sleep around 2:30 AM and got up at 3:30 AM to get to a 5 AM meeting with my team, followed by an "all store" meeting at 6 AM, where I spoke to all assembled briefly, but effectively. Then I went home and took a nap and went back to work at noon. As I was leaving work at 4:30 PM. I realized that I was finally starting to crash; a good nights sleep fixed all that.

It was a six day vacation, but I must say it was successful; I came back refreshed.

The kids do that to me....




durlx