what are the odds

that I would have seen both the movie on the flight out and the movie on the flight back? pretty good actually with as infrequent as our cinematic experiences are these days these two I have indeed seen and enjoyed. Maybe it was a good thing as I fell asleep on both flights and would have missed over 1/2 of each.

signs of the times

-trade show seems lighter this year with many vendors foregoing the show all together
-the sales rep I use to spend the day with I spent all of maybe an hour with this year
-the penny & nickel slot machines once hidden in the back corners of the casinos are all over the place and very easy to find

travel day from...

well I was gonna say hell but maybe it wasn't that bad more of a comedy of errors really. Flying with sidekick to Las Vegas for work okay got to McGee Tyson all set board plane en route to Detroit even start to taxi out, I settle in with my book not really paying much attention until the captain explains we are heading back to the gate as engine 2 would not start and they do not know when they can get a crew to fix this or if they can fix this. An annoyance but bettered discovered on the ground than in the air. Back in airport flight re-booked after an annoying line I am not sure where the one man was trying to get to but it took an inordinate amount of time to rebook him. Jump ahead a couple of hours as we are close to boarding on our new flight headed to Atlanta except not so much as bad weather had shut down Atlanta airport so back to the counter we went. This time they booked us on United through DC yup had to travel to DC to travel to Vegas..I kept trying to push first class but to no avail in fact the United flight didn't even have a first class section. We did get put in the exit row which is roomier and so much more pleasant for lengthy flights who knew? But first we had to survive the flight to DC with 3 of the most ill behaved children in the universe sitting behind us and I'll call their parents ill behaved too as they did nothing to try and control their children ugh! I have a fairly high tolerance for out of control children but they were over the top I have never been so happy to get off a plane before! Thankfully a short layover & we were on our way again. Got to Las Vegas way too late to pick up Penn & Teller tickets but we planned on grabbing our luggage and then a decent meal. A solid idea in theory except our bags stayed in DC and would hopefully be on the next flight arriving at 10pm...good grief this has never happened to me ever so I had stopped packing an extra change of clothes years ago(but luckily still did pack extra underwear) and of course TSA prohibits just about every other toiletry & make up item under the sun anyway. We had to fill out some paperwork then we had to wait for the shuttle bus to the hotel. A lengthy wait as it turned out and then we were the last stop on the drop off route..of course we were...What followed was a really lengthy and slow moving line at the casino. At one time some of the casinos had check in stations at the airport that were wonderful I wish they had not done away with them. as a precaution we picked up some basic toiletries then headed up to our room and then dinner. This puts us at after 10pm and a call into United has out luggage supposedly still in DC and not leaving till morning so off to a cheap & tacky souvenir store luckily Vegas is lousy with them and a couple of shirts purchased to sleep in. There was concern about when luggage would arrive as we had a vendor appt at 9:30. Since it was so very late I was waiting to cancel till first thing in the a.m. as neither of us were going to venture out in our day old travel clothes. Thankfully upon waking around 5a.m. we saw the blinking message light and were pleased to find our bags safely at the hotel and were able to make the show as scheduled. So moral of this roundabout long winded story always pack a complete change of clothes in your carry on

however Fred Meyer all about the customer service

I will admit when the new super fancy Kroger opened with a jewelry store inside I did poke a little fun okay a lot of fun...
what a lovely diamond necklace where ever did you pick that up?
oh this 'ol thing it was just next to the dairy section yes take a left at the eggs
Anyway after about a year without my watch do to lack of battery I decided what the hell I would bring it along to the grocery store drop it off while I was picking up my milk & eggs. and so I did they were very friendly and surprise of all surprises when I went to pick up my watch the first battery was free yes free as in no charge for the battery or for putting the battery into the watch for me the real issue all along). The sales girl even reset the watch to the correct time. and quite frankly it looked like Fred Meyer had some nice stuff so with birthday and Christmas fast approaching I did mention this as a possible locale for David to scout out a gift or two for me..wonder if he should bring the kroger shopping card? will those count as point towards a gas purchase?