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About
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"Everybody sees what you appear to be, but few feel what you are."
Machiavelli,
The Prince
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Lauren's Webpage...home of the "Engineer/Troublemaker"
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Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Diary of a business traveler, Day 1 (continued)
Yesterday afternoon I took a much-needed four hour nap, went to the grocery store to get a few necessary items, and went in to work for what I thought would be just a few hours. I was wrong. As soon as I showed up I heard several different renditions of, "Thank goodness you're here!" which were followed by more than a full shift of work (10 hours). I got completely sucked in. Ugh. I felt kind of guilty because I was still wearing the jeans, Gator t-shirt, and fleece jacket that I wore on the plane and I looked pretty sloppy. But since I wasn't technically supposed to be there I figured it was OK. I was able to escape from work at 7 AM only to go back to my hotel and find the lobby full of high school kids, their chaperones, and all of their luggage. Fortunately there was still some cereal and milk left in their aftermath for my dinner. I intended to work out in the hotel fitness center after "dinner" but I was so exhausted that I fell asleep immediately when I got back to my room. And so ended my first day of this business trip. I know it's only going to get worse from here on out, but I'm ready. We've been training for this for years.
Posted at 3:35 PM, 0 Comments
Monday, March 08, 2010
Diary of a business traveler, Day 1
I woke up this morning at 2:30 AM after 1.5 hours of sleep to finish all my last-minute packing and get ready for the airport shuttle to pick me up. I was absolutely exhausted. For the first time I was glad to have a window seat on the plane because I was definitely going to sleep. The shuttle was supposed to pick me up at 3:40 AM, but it was running late (which resulted in two calls to our home phone which were quite jarring that early in the morning). By the time the shuttle arrived it was almost 4 AM, but that was OK since the United counters don't open until 4:30 AM anyway. Checking in at the airport that early in the morning is always pretty simple, even though I had to bypass some folks in the United bag check line because they couldn't grasp the concept that they could use any of the half dozen available terminals. They thought they had to wait until the folks in front of them were done first. This has happened to me more than once and I just don't get it. I feel like a jerk walking past them, but I hate waiting for people who don't know how things work. Security was a real pain today because I was traveling with a laptop, an external optical drive, and a Kindle. I thought the laptop was the only thing I needed to take out of my bag before putting it through the x-ray machine, but I was wrong. So my bag had to go back through the machine with the optical drive and Kindle in a separate bin. Annoying. The flight itself was pretty uneventful, especially because I slept almost the entire time (4.5 hours). I was excited to see that most of the snow that blanketed the ground during my last trip has melted by now. Driving around with 6-foot snow drifts on the side of the road was a bit scary. Fortunately my little Toyota Matrix rental and I didn't have to worry about that today. Right now I'm sitting on the bed in my hotel room (it's actually a "suite" but that means it's just slightly larger than a regular room and has a couch) debating what I want to do next. I need to go to the store and get some food before I go into work tonight, but I might need a nap first. This is going to be a crazy week and I won't have any time off until Sunday at the earliest. Here's hoping I can make it through with my sanity intact.
P.S. I'm having trouble getting used to the smaller keyboard on my new laptop so please excuse any typos that I don't catch before publishing!
Posted at 12:47 PM, 0 Comments
Thursday, March 04, 2010
My new laptop is out for delivery! Hooray! Unfortunately I won't actually receive it today since I won't be home to sign for the package, but I should be able to pick it up at the FedEx facility tomorrow. Double hooray!
Posted at 9:16 AM, 0 Comments
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Las Vegas 2009
Dan and I left for Las Vegas in the early afternoon of December 27th (after some post-Christmas shopping) with no comprehension of what we had in store. It turned out that we weren't the only ones who decided to drive to Vegas at that time because the traffic was absolutely horrendous. So by the time we arrived we had been driving for 7.5 hours, which is almost twice the usual trip duration. Somewhere along the way (probably while crawling through Baker) we realized that we were going to miss our 8 PM dinner reservation at Craft Steak so I called them in an attempt to reschedule. Fortunately they had an opening at 9:30 PM, their last seating of the night, and with a little luck we made it there just in time. We were staying at the Excalibur, but we initially parked at the MGM Grand (the location of the restaurant) so that we would be on time. Dan and I had both been planning to change clothes at our hotel before dinner because Craft Steak is a nice restaurant, but due to our limited time frame we did some quick wardrobe enhancements instead. So in the parking structure of the MGM Grand I swapped my Converse All Stars for boots and buttoned up my cashmere cardigan to hide the fact that I was wearing a Trogdor t-shirt. I guess that was enough to make myself presentable for dinner because they let us in. The food at Craft Steak is amazing, by the way. I would highly recommend eating there because not only do they have delicious steak, but the starters and sides are pretty incredible too. After dinner Dan and I drove over to the Excalibur, checked into our room (a smoking room, unfortunately because we arrived so late), and slept off our large, late dinner. (As a quick aside, I paid a little extra for a "widescreen" room at the Excalibur, which is supposed to have a large window with a superior view, but since we were on the first floor our view was of the side of the casino building. It was a total rip-off. We did see some abandoned gardening equipment which I can only assume someone has given up for lost, but I don't consider it a "view.")
Our first goal for December 28th (after moving into a non-smoking room) was to have breakfast at Hash House a Go Go because when we saw this restaurant on "Man vs. Food" it looked too irresistible to miss. Apparently it's a very popular spot in Las Vegas because we had to wait a while to be seated and then a longer while to get our food after we ordered. In deference to "Man vs. Food" Dan and I ordered their famous Fried Chicken Eggs Benedict (see photo above), but split it between the two of us since we had early dinner plans. I would have liked to try their French toast as well, but the chicken was already more than even the two of us together wanted to eat. And it was pretty good too! After breakfast (more like brunch or lunch since it was afternoon by the time we were finished) we headed over to the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, made famous by "Pawn Stars" on the History Channel. This is quite a popular place too because of the show, but we were lucky enough to find a parking space and not have to wait in line to go inside. Also, we were fortunate to see the father and son owners of the shop who are featured on the show actually working there that day. We didn't buy anything, but it was neat to see the place in person since we've seen it on television so many times. Our last stop before dinner was Caesar's Palace because I wanted to go to FAO Schwartz. On our first trip to Las Vegas in 2001 I saw a stuffed cat there that looked a lot like my cat Bob (black, white, and fat), but I didn't buy it and I've regretted it ever since. This time there were tons of stuffed animals in FAO Schwartz, but no stuffed fat cat. Too bad. We did see a version of our favorite stuffed monkey, but it wasn't nearly as cute as the one Dan brought home from the DC Zoo a couple of years ago. Despite browsing though three floors of toys we left empty handed, but we were looking forward to our dinner reservation that night. We weren't able to eat at the flagship Joel Robuchon restaurant because it was completely booked during our trip so we went to L'Atelier instead, which is a slightly more casual a la carte version. To be honest, L'Atelier was still a bit fancier than I'm comfortable with, but the food was good and Dan really enjoyed it. Going to new restaurants with Dan is always fun. No matter what the food tastes like it's always a good experience. The morning of December 29th Dan and I checked out of the Excalibur very early to drive back to Los Angeles because Dan was hosting a Dungeons & Dragons get together at our house at noon. On the drive we could see snow-covered mountains in the distance - a gorgeous view, especially from the middle of the desert. Luckily the traffic was light on the way home and we arrived at our house at 10:30 AM with plenty of time to prepare for guests.
Posted at 11:22 AM, 0 Comments
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Webpage neglect has reared its ugly head once again. I already have another holiday retrospective written, but I have to retype it at home one of these evenings before I can post it. That'll have to wait until I have any free time at all. Should be sometime in 2011.
Posted at 12:57 PM, 0 Comments
Sunday, February 21, 2010
The new laptop has been ordered! I decided on a Dell Inspiron 11z, by the way. I'm ecstatic!
Posted at 2:34 PM, 0 Comments
Sunday, February 14, 2010
At this location on December 29, 2005 Dan asked me to marry him. And on February 13, 2010, I went back to said location for a short visit. This little pier overlooking Big Bear Lake is very special to me because it's where Dan and I got engaged. So while Dan was snowboarding with some friends at Snow Summit yesterday for his birthday I took a walk down to the lake. As of yesterday there was about four feet of pristine white snow on the ground at the park where this pier is located and the lake was frozen over, as you can see in the photo. It was really beautiful. However, it was 52 deg when I took this picture! It was a little strange to be standing in the snow when it was that warm. Big Bear has gotten a lot of snow already this winter, but it rarely stays cold enough for the snow to last long. Dan said the snowboarding conditions at Snow Summit were the best he'd ever seen, despite the warm temperatures. Mother Nature must have known it was his birthday!
Posted at 8:30 PM, 0 Comments
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