Saturday
Now Playing: Not Fade Away -- Buddy Holly
On the plus side, I made a killing over the weekend. I attended a local toy show and scored a Boss Frog plush from Naruto. He’s an omnipotent ninja frog who, when summoned, can grant most any wish. I also obtained a Season 1 DVD set of the newest Doctor Who. BTW, Ed, it’s not Sienna Miller from Keen Eddie but Billie Piper. Lessee, I also purchased a DVD of Black Sabbath fronted by ROB HALFORD (originally Judas Priest) of all people. Apparently, he joined them for a handful of shows in mid 2004. I also got the Bionic Woman – the complete series on DVD to match my Six Million Dollar Man set. Streetlight and Rasputin Records also got some of my paycheck as I found killer deals on Back done on Harpsichord and a Buddy Holly Greatest Hits. I just can’t get that song “Not Fade Away” out of my head. It’s amazing how his music has lasted all this time and how his influence continues to be felt. I’ll have to dig out the quote of his about sounds he heard in his head. I could only imagine what he would do if he were alive today.

Aftermath II: The Inevitable Sequel
As I’m writing this, it’s a good week after getting home. My luggage is still not completely unpacked. Behind on my mail, my finances. Had a rough week at work. Whereas I usually have 2 workbooks staring at me awaiting final disposition, I found myself with five, six if you count the one hiding in the credenza. I stayed in my office for 2 days instead of the usual 1. Somehow I got it all organized. You’ll notice I said organized, not completed. I still have plenty more to go, not to mention catching up on things like expense reports and other weekly, monthly and quarterly obligations. Overall, not that great of a week. Our planned trip to Sacramento next week was abruptly cancelled. I’m still pissed off because of that. I was really looking forward to that.

Aftermath
Well I’m here. Barely. I must’ve had bad orange juice on the flight back. Long story short, I’m all cleaned out now. That juice moved through faster than a steroid-laden track star. So I was couch-ridden most of the weekend, with frequent express trips to the porcelain chair. I was a little too aggressive with my diet on Sunday evening so I had a bit of a relapse. But I managed through it. I stayed away from fire-from-the-pit-of-Hell spicy food the whole week actually.

Leaving on a Jet Plane
Now Playing: Flying To My Home -- Paul McCartney
Well, the flights were interesting. After I made it through security, I saw Jason Alexander. He was in town for CineQuest, San Jose’s annual film festival and awaiting his flight back to Burbank airport. I patted him on the shoulder as I went by. He was in mid-conversation. Afterwards, I went back and introduced myself, told him I liked his work, etc. He was very cordial.

On the way out, just as we were boarding, I realized that I clicked on the wrong flight when I booked it through our company travel website. It was going from San Jose to Las Vegas alright. The only thing is that it was via Glendale. No big deal. I was wondering why a 1 hour and 10 minute flight took 2 hours. I got there eventually.

On the way back, the flight was uneventful. Except, of course, for the orange juice I had. Man, it went through my like lightning. As soon as I got home, the floodgates opened up. I was sick all day Saturday. I even woke up early due to a gag reflex. I puked a bit. But it wanted to come out the other end for the most part.

Vegas Madness
Now Playing: Sweet Baby James -- James Taylor = live on Stern Show
My coworkers and I had dinner all five nights and we ate good. Lessee,

Joe’s @ Caesar’s
A great restaurant we first found in Chicago which has the best scampi to be found anywhere. I had the pork chops.

McCormick & Schmick{seafood)
after an aborted attempt at getting to Claimjumper

Caneletto
great italian with excellent ice cream and coffee
I had the risotto

Postrio (a Wolfgang Puck restaurant)
I had the lasagna. We also stopped for gelato at nearby Cocolini while being serenaded by a flute/bass/accordion trio. Out regular Diva was awol.

And finally…
Fontana Bar @ Bellagio
We had appetizers and drinks on the balcony overlooking the fountains at Bellagio. We caught about 6 shows. In between we listened to the music of a house band which played everything from Genesis to Skynyrd. They were great!

That’s the menu for the week. More later.

Movies and Television
Now Playing: Elton John -- Levon & Someone Saved My Life Tonight
Well I saw Constantine recently and I liked it. I heard mixed reviews on it, mostly bad. But I liked it. I also saw The Ring 2. That was a good movie. Kind of predictable. Not as scary as the first but still good. I watched it in a dark room so the screen was casting shadows all about the room, which made me jump from time to time. What else, what else. I've been keeping up on 3rd Rock From the Sun, Season 3. That is such a funny show that never jumped the shark. Also, Keen Eddie, a short-lived fox cop show with a very dry sense of humor. I'm watching the Dark Skies pilot on Starz Edge this morning, eating cereal. Another great show. I'm hoping this comes out on DVD soon, officially anyway. Also, one of the reasons I'm hoping Heath Ledger wins tonight is that with luck, it will lead the studio heads to release as much of his catalog as possible, including the 1997 Fox show, Roar. Great show. I saw Crash a few weeks ago. Incredible movie that everyone should see. I know I'm forgetting some.

What a week!
Now Playing: Diana-Princess of Wales Tribute
Well I started off the week by making a stupid choice and basically biting off more than I can chew. I worked out of east side San Jose solo. Everyone told me to take someone along with me but noooooooooo. I had to do it by myself. Looking back, I did a pretty good job. I stretched it into four days (3 1/2 really) instead of 3. This was broken up by the fact that I had a death in my extended family recently and had to attend the...rosary/wake/service. So I took Thursday off. A lot of ups and downs. That must be why I'm so tired this weekend.

Buckethead
Now Playing: Manhattan Transfer -- Greatest Hits
So Friday night was the Buckethead concert in Santa Cruz. The four of us drove down the mountain and got there in plenty of time. Of course, it was general admission, which meant we would be standing for several hours. At first, we were near the entrance, which was a good view. We soon had an even better view, as a friend of ours, led us to the edge of the pit. Throughout the night, we felt the pit move towards us like the ocean waves.

Two of my friends actually crossed the pit on their way to the front. I found out at this concert that my cell phone, the Motorola V710, takes a lot crappier pictures and video than the majority of cell phones out there.

We did get some good clips.
overall it was a great show. The sound mix was off, as the vocals, whether it was the bassist/singer or the pre-recorded Disneyland Haunted Voice recording, were drowned out by the volume of the music. Of course, most of it was instrumentals. The bassist has a good voice, as evidenced by his turns at Stone Free by Hendrix and Wonderboy by Jack Black. The drummer, whose name I could not tell you, is amazing. Very entertaining and a great drummer to boot.

The most amazing moment came when Buckethead performed I Love My Parents. In this 10 or 15 minutes version, he had the audience in a trance. No moshing. Everyone was just swaying to the music. It was great.

You can really hear the influences on Buckethead's music, whether it is the blues or funk or Hendrix or even country. Then there are the other cultural references, such as the obvious Giant Robot, Disneyland and KFC.

Oh, and I wore my red contact lenses. I got quite a few stares and comments. The rest were too out there, being one with the herbal universe.

All in all, a great show.

Credit Card Usage
Now Playing: DJ Tiesto, Just Be
Okay so this could have fit in the Pet Peeve section of my main website but I wanted to practice my blogging skills.

**SIGH**

I went to a local drugstore to pick up a few things.
I decided to pay with a credit card so I swiped it through the customer-side terminal. I pushed all the right buttons, it was very polite with me.
The clerk bags my purchases, whips out a pen, rips off the receipt, hands me my copy and asks me to sign the store copy.

I do so and she tskes it and the pen back. That's it. I take my bag, smile and ask, "Don't you need to see my credit card?" She gets this look of horror on her face and stutters, "Uh, uh..."

"Well," I reply, "I hope it was mine. See ya." And with that I'm out.
They don't care. They're just running through the motions. I could use anyone's card. They won't care. I find that fewer and fewer places actually ask for ID or even check for a signature. These people make me sick. And yes, I know it's mostly because, working at a bank, I see the downside of credit card fraud up close and personal.

What a week
Now Playing: Peter Gabriel's album, UP
It was sooooooooo cold this week. Way too cold. I don’t do well in cold. If it’s below 75 degrees, I’m cold. I went through a lot of hot chocolate, coffee and tea. Lots of soup. Comfort foods. I did have to go back to work this week, which was okay because I was getting cabin fever. Despite what my co-workers may think, I was just lying down at home, watching television. Okay, that didn’t sound right. I was doing that but it wasn’t like I stayed home just to do that. I did manage to get caught up on stuff around the home. Now the only thing I have left to deal with is this cough. It’s not really bad but it is annoying. Fortunately, it is getting better with every waking morning.