Las Vegas, Day 1 - Sept 1st

Hey, y'all!!!! I'm in VEGAS!!! I really cannot type on a laptop, so please forgive my brevity and any typos, please, OK?

First things first --Rebekah and her family are *so* nice and cool.I love meeting other homeschoolers... her kids were *so* nice!!!!! Iloved that Wendell has a cool W name -- like Woodrow and Warren andWesley. LOL!!!! I did read her report. She left out the parts about how sniffly I was and how Woodrow behaved like a wild child.

By the way, Rebekah, the watermelon was all that the birds ate beforethey got to the house and started settling in. I really think yousaved their stressed-out little lives!!! The birds were *very* freakedout by the trip.

In the way of a trip report, I still have a cold, which is making mepretty darned uncomfortable. I thought my head would explode on theplanes. Ouch!!! DFW -- HUGE!!!! Thank heaven Rebekah andWarren drove me to our terminal.

I had to go back through securitywith birds. (In Knoxville, they made me take birds out of carriers;Kito flew and freaked everyone out.) In DFW, they let me just reach my hand into the carriers and lift the towels, but that scared Noah and he made the most terrifying pteradactyl noise, which scared the wubba out of the TSA agents. They thought Noah was ripping my armoff. But the really weird thing was that there was some kind of party going on in the A concourse -- there was a jazz combo playing and women were putting leis on everyone that passed. I Have No IdeaWhy!!!!!!!!!!!! I've never seen anything like that. I kept expecting someone to say, "Can you give a dollar to [insert weird religion here]?"

Amy met us in the baggage claim area at the Las Vegas airport, where I observed that horrid behavior of people crowding right up to the carousel so you can’t get to your bags when they pass by the first three times. Trying to wrestle the huge box of cage parts off was dangerous; I nearly injured a man who refused to step back an inch. Amy took us to the rental car counter first, then she took the birds to her car and I took Woodrow to the rental car shuttle. Things are very spread out at that airport, and I was already worried. So, of course….I got lost the moment I left the rental car lot, and yes, I cried. Hard. I wanted to curse. I finally just pulled offthe road and called Amy and told her to come find me. She did. But not before a wrecker came and asked gleefully, "Didja breakdown????" Stinker. It was well over 100 degrees yesterday, although there is some disagreement about just how hot it did get.

It was stinkin' hot, though. Everyone agrees on that, and the locals have rules about when you can comment on the heat. It has to be in the 90's before you can say it's warm. Even the locals were commenting on the heat yesterday, and I *think* one of the TV stations said it was the hottest day so far this year.

Woodrow LOVES Amy's pool. (He's in it right now, and it's just 8:07 a.m.!!!) After Paul got home, I made sandwiches for me and the boy, and then decided I wasn't too tired to go see the Bellagio fountain show. I have *always* wanted to see it, and I have never before made time to see it. So we drove downtown (not a far trip from anywhere, apparently!), and we ended up seeing three shows.

We first saw it while we were sitting in traffic trying to get to the hotel. ROFL!!!! It was*gorgeous* that time -- a Celine Dion song, and was that Julio singing the duet? I don't know -- I'm not a Celine fan. The second time was from the hotel side of the fountain, and it was a Placido aria... I cried. It was truly stunning. Then we walked down to the front side of the fountain and saw "Proud to be an American." I'm probably the only American who doesn't like that song. I can't stand Lee Greenwood. I am a patriot, I just can't stand that song. But the *fountains* were *gorgeous*!!!!!!! Whoever programmed that bit really pulled out all the stops for that song.

It was getting late -- and for me and Woodrow, it was well after midnight -- so we started to leave. Woodrow was claiming that he was dying of thirst, and I promised him some ice cream before the third fountain show. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any ice cream. Paul and Amy said that was OK, they knew the perfect place to go, so we went to a place called Fat Burger. OMG. You guys. The Fat Burger is AWESOME!!!! But!!! The chocolate shake is a *religious experience*!!!!! I'm *so* not exaggerating!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't get to bed until almost 1:00 Vegas time, which was almost4:00 my time. Poor Woodrow wouldn't go to sleep until I was there. But the up side is, I got up at 6:30 Vegas time.

Today we're going to the Hoover Dam, and I just got a call from Amy. The servers are down at her workplace, and she can't program withoutservers, so She Might Come Home!!!! Aaaaaeeeeeiiiii!!!! I would really love it if she could come with us to the Dam. I'll let y'all know how it goes!