Las Vegas, 5:15 PM: Tonight (or tomorrow morning if you want to be picky) is when I’m catching my flight back to DFW so that I can go with the trainers down to Waco tomorrow. The current plan is that I need to be at HP at 7:30, so assuming everything is on time, I should have enough time to actually go home first before heading to the stadium. This will allow me to put up my AIM away message like I have all season long summarizing whatever game I’m at. Hasn’t let us down so far this year, so why break the pattern?
KA last night was a completely different show from Spamalot but still amazing in its own way. You have to wonder who at the Cirque offices thought, “Hmmm… we should make a Cirque with vertical fighting!!” Best Cirque I’ve ever seen, and I’d go back to see it again even. My score: 9/10.
Tonight is David Copperfield, the last of our shows. The reason I put this one at the end is because I figured it was the safest bet, but after having seen our first two shows, this one may ironically end up being the least impressive. I’ll post about it tomorrow after I get home from the game since that should probably be around 10:00 (Dallas time, not Vegas).
Las Vegas, Personal - Dallas
Las Vegas, 3:50 PM: Yes, an even earlier post today. We’re going to eat at 5:00 and then have a 7:30 show, so I figure that waiting until after the show again could have ill results. In fact, had I waited last night, I wouldn’t have been able to make a post by midnight Dallas time.
Spamalot was much better than I expected it to be. It used a couple of very well known Monty Python scenes (or maybe just lines, not sure), but considering that I don’t really like the movies at all, Spamalot was a welcome surprise. I chose to schedule it for the first night since I didn’t want to have it at the last and potentially end on a bad show, but I definitely think it’s a contender for my favorite show of the trip. My score: 9/10.
Tonight our show is KA at the MGM Grand, so my review of it will come tomorrow afternoon. This will be I think the 4th Cirque du Soleil show I’ll have seen, the first ones being Mystere (here in Vegas at Treasure Island), Dralion, and Varekai (both in Dallas on tour at Fair Park).
Las Vegas, Personal - Dallas
Las Vegas, 5:05 PM: Well, now that I’m back in Vegas for the first time in way too long, I have to make sure that I play the time zone game for the next three days. Since our show isn’t until 8:00 tonight, I want to make sure that it doesn’t go too late and cause issues. Therefore, early post.
Brandon is actually here today, so we’re going to dinner with him before our show. Time to get changed and then go eat.
Las Vegas, Personal - Dallas
The forecast for Saturday in Waco has been brought down about to a high of only 57. Not necessarily cold yet, but not nearly as comfortable as 74 would have been. I guess I’ll be planning on having a long sleeve shirt and jacket for the game (which is apparently at 2:00 now, not 1:30 — doesn’t change the fact that I still need to be on that insanely early flight though).
I’m cutting my N800 from my trip list since it’d realy serve no purpose at all except for the few games that are on it. I’m going to have my DS (and I’m taking my PSP also, each with only one game though) which should be more than enough for casual entertainment. Come on, this isn’t some random trip to the Northeast, this is Vegas. If I need entertainment that can’t be provided by what’s already there, maybe I should be reevaluating why exactly I like going there so much.
Personal - Dallas
Brain Age 2 is an interesting “game” for the DS that falls under Nintendo’s Touch Generations brand. It’s basically more of a tool to help you exercise your brain by doing various mental tasks, and then based on your speed and performance, your brain’s “age” is determined. I’ve only unlocked about 5 or 6 of the modes so far, and unsurprisingly I’m better at the ones involving numbers and math than I am at the letter scrambles and word games.
I got a new suitcase today since my old one was definitely showing its age. I haven’t actually packed anything yet, but I figure that’s what tomorrow night can be good for. I do need to make sure that I’m taking all my chargers and other cables that might be needed for full functionality of my devices, but beyond that, I should be fine. Phone, N800, iPod, DS, and laptop I think should just about cover it. I doubt that I’ll take along my portable DVD player since I can’t really think of a time aside from the trip there when I’d have all that much downtime for it to be useful. One less thing to have to deal with going through security isn’t a bad thing.
Personal - Dallas
Waco, Saturday, currently predicting a high of 74. Thank you, weather gods!! I will happily accept that for any game, especially after yesterday. Ironcially, it’s going to be warmer in Waco than in Vegas (the irony is that Vegas is basically in a desert area).
We had a daytime version of the pageant at our church today, and while my voice wasn’t exactly in good shape due to standing in the cold yesterday for numerous hours, I managed my song well enough and got compliments on it afterwards. Up until Wednesday, I have two things left on my schedule. First, tomorrow I’m probably going to head to the middle school for a little bit in the afternoon for my semi-annual visit to the few teachers I had who are still there. Then on Tuesday I’m planning on going to the high school in the morning to talk more about the second semester plans for the online course stuff.
Personal - Dallas
There’s been an issue that I’ve known about since about the JJ Pearce game this season. This issue is as follows: in 4A, Division 1 teams play only five playoff games while Division 2 teams play six (twice as many D2 teams, extra round to compensate). As I mentioned before, Pearce making the playoffs sent us D2 rather than D1 like we’ve been the past few years. This doesn’t seems to be a problem until you start to analyze it. An extra playoff round means an extra week to the season. An extra week to the season means a week closer to Christmas. An extra week to the season (in this case) means the week of our trip to Vegas.
As I said, I’ve been fully aware of this fact for about two months now. I kept it relatively quiet since we had to win our game today in order for it to even become an issue. Well, we won 42-13, so it now becomes an issue. The good news is that the game is next Saturday. The less good news is that it’s in Waco at 1:30. We already had a mid-day flight out of Vegas anyway, so having to come home earlier on Saturday wasn’t really going to make me miss anything. The solution was to have me get on a 12:40 flight back to DFW so that I could be back here in time. Wait… a 12:40 flight for a 1:30 game. Oh, I’m sorry. That would be 12:40 AM.
Under this plan I’ll get to DFW at 5:00 (AM again, of course). Knowing early HP schedules, there’s the distinct probability that I won’t even go home first (I’m going to be taking my car to the airport also) but instead head straight to HP when I arrive. I’ll most likely get less than two hours of sleep on the plane, and hour total if I’m lucky on the way down to Waco, but I’m going to be one tired trainer when we get back to HP after the game, win or lose.
Personal - Dallas
I have everything I plan on wearing (or at a minimum, taking) tomorrow laid out on my floor so that when I have to wake up at 7:00, I’m sure nothing gets left behind. The general schedule seems to be for us to be up at HP around 8:00, leaving there around 8:45, and then going to eat (presumably) breakfast before going to the stadium. The stuff I’ve read seems to be favoring us over Everman, so hopefully they’re correct. Losing first or second round is disappointing, but right before state is even worse (as I know from baseball last year).
Having the game on Saturday this week has thrown me off as to what day it’s been since about Wednesday. No TV shows really being on doesn’t let me use that as a guide, so all the days just seem to run into each other. My mind probably won’t be expecting to go to church on Sunday when I wake up, but I don;t really have an option for that one because of our pageant.
Personal - Dallas
If I’m cold on Saturday (which I’m sure I will be, but I mean uncomfortably cold), it definitely won’t be due to a lack of warm clothing. Today I went out an bought some long sleeved ColdGear Under Armour which will be worn with a long sleeved shirt, a t-shirt, my UA fleece, a hooded sweatshirt, and possibly even a jacket over that. The trick will be managing those upper layers as I go inside to outside to inside ad nauseum so that I’m never too hot.
I paired my bluetooth headset with my new phone (even though the manufacturer’s website says it’s not compatible) with the intention of wearing it on Saturday also. That way if I get a call, no need to pull my phone out of my pocket and expose my head to the elements any more than necessary; I’ll just need to hit a button on the side of my head and all is well. Playing around with all this technology coincided with a strange beeping noise coming from somewhere in my room, and it took me about 30 minutes to finally find out what it was. I’d never heard it before from my headset, it didn’t sound loud enough to be coming from my phone, so what was it?? Turns out, it was the low battery warning tone on my N800. :)
Personal - Dallas
In fact, according to Weather.com, it’s only getting colder. The high now is only supposed to be 41 and it’s also supposed to be windy. Not fun, not fun, not fun!!! I may be breaking the record for number of layers of clothing I’ve worn at any one time; I can count a minimum of 4 that will likely increase to 5 or even 6.
My day can best be summed up as “played WoW”. As a result I’ve made quite a bit of progress, but there are probably some other things that I should be spending my time on also. Well, I’m not going to get to play it much next week, so I guess if I just play it a lot now, it all balances out in the end. :)
Personal - Dallas