Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Yeah, I know, I'm way past due on posting Las Vegas pictures. Sometimes there are just so many to go through!

Once we had set the date, my sister and I started thinking of what we wanted to do in Las Vegas. I decided to look up aquariums, and discovered there was one at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino. That went on my To Do list. Mary-Anne likes mermaids and aquariums too, so that's where we went on Tuesday morning.

I'd never ridden a monorail before, but we ended up taking two to get to the hotel. It was quite a hike through the hotel but we persevered and got there.

Well worth the trip.


The first levels of the aquarium had reptiles and some fish.


Komodo dragon.














Whoever thought of putting tunnels through aquariums is a genius.




Imagine this being part of your work day - diving through an aquarium.






There was a touch tank. These guys are rubbery.


Mary-Anne said this was a Star Wars creature. It does remind me of the Millenium Falcon.


Lionfish! It was hanging like this, I did not forget to rotate the photo.








In the latter part, there was a huge shark reek in a tank. I decided that when I win the lottery, I will build an impressive aquarium, and it will be built in such a way to make the fish very easy to photograph, without glare on the glass.






I had a lot of fun playing with my bounce flash and trying to get great pictures. There was another tunnel through the reef.




We saw other people trying to get photos with sharks in the backgorund. Mary-Anne suggested that she sit in the tunnel and I just experiment and see what I got. She never looked behind her, she just looked around.

She had no idea this was there.


My favourite.


I really, really loved this experience.


Of course we stopped in the gift shop. I had to have this glass seahorse. The clerks wrapped it in many layers of bubble wrap for the flight home, and it arrived perfectly intact.

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Halloween and Kitties

Because I don't know when my windows are being replaced, I didn't go batshit crazy decorating for Halloween. I went for "friendly" and "charming" and "please please please come to my house I've lived in apartment buildings for so long and I've never trick-or-treaters living on my own ever so please come here I have candy".



On the window ledge are little dollar store LED lights and decorations. I went to Vegas earlier this month, that's where my money went. :-)

That white window screen I made this summer really stands out at night. Did not know that. At least it will be replaced, hopefully soon.

I also hung a battery-lit paper lantern from my mailbox and placed a cheerful dollar store pumpkin on the steps, to show that I welcomed trick-or-treaters. And I had to have a cat decoration too!



I got off the bus at 6 and was dismayed to see there were already trick-or-treaters so I quickly hustled home and turned on all the lights.

And lo, the trick-or-treaters came. The very first one was a toddler in a bear suit who tried to enter my house, he wasn't entirely sure why he was there.

There were about 30? In the space of three hours. In my initial excitement I was very generous with the treats, then started rationing them to one treat per child. Especially if the child was old enough to sport peach fuzz, and/or his voice has changed. Some of those boys were taller than me!

When it was 9:19 pm, I'd just had one more trick-or-treater, and I was down to four tootsie roll pops. The novelty had worn off. I turned off the lights and went upstairs for a bath.

What did I dress up as? I was initially going to do a very casual Star Wars fan. That morning I spotted my Soft Kitty hoodie and went a different way. I drew some whiskers on my face and I was a kitty.



And then I pretended to be a 15 year old girl on MySpace five years ago.



The cats were not impressed with this strange-people-coming-to-the-door nonsense. Chloe stayed upstairs the entire time. Hermione ran around the house, especially whenever the doorbell rang or someone knocked on the front door. Charlie was grumpy because he was trying to nap, while these hooligans kept coming to the front door and making noise.

In quieter times:




Sometimes I get to sit in that chair too. :-)

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KITTIES

There is an awful lot of this going on, while the weather is cool.



Frankly, it's a miracle that I get anything done, with the Charlie and Hermione ongoing lovefest being so darn cute. :-)

A couple of nights ago. Chloe started chattering and meowing and making me run to see what was the matter.







In case you haven't figured it out - she was following a spider, in the upper left corner of two of the photos. I got sick of her chattering, got the broom out, and swept the spider towards her.

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Meanwhile in Calgary

Meanwhile in Calgary, a photo by angelamermaid on Flickr.

I'm waiting for a chinook to melt this so I can move stuff inside.

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Vegas baby - Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Outside the hotel was a wildlife habitat. Of course there were flamingos!















Mary-Anne's favourite colour is purple.

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Vegas baby - The Flamingo Hotel

My sister and I stayed at the Flamingo Hotel as part of a package. A little worn around the edges, but a nice hotel, and centrally located. This is Barbie's our bathroom from the Go Room.
 



The first night, we wandered around the casino and found a '50's style diner. Complete with jukeboxes that played songs for a nickel. I thought they were just for show but Mary-Anne proved me wrong.



We also found some shops. Featuring this unbelievable sweater. No, I didn't buy one.



Didn't buy any of these.



Totally got a pink flamingo Christmas ornament. I ended up buying many ornaments, guess I'm putting a tree up this year!



This is more of what I expected to see. I was taking a picture of the legs, and a passing dude said, "You want your picture taken with those, right?" Sure!



Our hallway.



The view from our room.



The adults only pool. Because of the liquor being served. To our surprise, it closed at 6 at night. So Thursday and Friday, we got out of bed early in order to get our swim on. There were also hot tubs. I loved swimming in that pool, and going under the waterfalls.



If we'd had a free night, we would have totally seen this show.



In fact, our first night in the lobby, someone tried to give us free tickets to the show. She had passes for a variety of shows. Because I was single, she focused on me, wanted to know my salary range (I lied). We kept waiting to see what the catch was, to get free tickets. Mary-Anne caught on faster - I'd have to go to a "presentation" at another hotel about time shares. We passed on the free tickets, despite the salesperson's attempts to guilt us. We didn't have enough time to be browbeat about something neither of us had any intention of buying.

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Oh Hell No

This is the hole blasted in my upstairs bathroom ceiling when I tried to fix a toilet.

I picked a plumbing company off of the Better Business Bureau website. I declined to book after-hours, as that came with a $199 fee just to show up. I have a working toilet in the half-bath, and I can still shower and bathe.

Having been in customer service, I have become very accommodating on the phone. I've dealt with many jackholes always trying to get the best deal, get the most money, ask for credit for the tiniest issues. I pride myself on not being an asshole.

I booked the appointment for today, for when I'd be back from Vegas. For 2-4.

First they called to say their tech was running late, because of emergency calls.

Then they called to say he was still running late.

Then the general manager called at 4 to say that the tech was still running late. I asked if I had time to run out to the store and he said "yes", and confirmed they had my cell # in case things looked up.

I went out - and discovered that the new Wal-Mart in the area is finally open. Yay! I was home quickly.

Then another woman called. The tech was on his way!

Then she called back. Because the tech was going to arrive after 6, there would be a $199 after hours fee. Was I okay with that?

I told her that after being delayed four hours, I was not okay with that fee, and I would be going with another plumbing company if they were going to charge me that. She said she'd get back to me.

When she called back, she couldn't do anything about the fee but she could reschedule me for Thursday morning. So we rescheduled.

I'm tired of having to go downstairs to pee in the night. Having watched many an episode of Hoarders, peeing in the bathtub is not an option. And I doubt that I can get another plumber in before Thursday, without an emergency fee. This is not an emergency. It's an inconvenience.

Then I tweeted about it. Ace Plumbing in Calgary.

Whatever happens, this is going on their BBB feedback. And if they also whiff the appointment on Thursday morning, I will try to find another. It's hard finding a reputable company without word of mouth - I'm automatically excluding anyone whose address is a private residence.

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Seven Things About Me

I was tagged on LiveJournal, and am reporting here.

I got tagged: Choose seven random things about yourself, then tag five other people.

1. I was tricked into auditioning for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat in university. I knew I was tone deaf, so when a person encouraged me to try out, I asked her if there were non-speaking parts, and she said "yes" in order to get me to come to the audition. The truth is, there are about two spoken sentences and everything else is sung.
2. Obviously I wasn't prepared to sing at the audition. The director told the auditioners that "O Canada" was a good audition song. So I sang "O Canada" in French, because I'd memorized it in French class the previous year and it would make me different than the other people who sang it in English. I had a great time being in the chorus.
3. The next year, when auditioning for Godspell, I sang "Nothing" from A Chorus Line. It took chutzpah and a certain naiveness for me to do that. I had a great time being in the chorus.
4. I still haven't painted any rooms in my house. I realized that I'm still in the renter's mindset of not making drastic changes, so I'll paint a bathroom when I get back from Vegas.
5. I've submitted three photos to http://cat-shaming.tumblr.com. I love that blog!
6. This weird guy struck up a conversation with me at a C-train station last week. He mentioned that he works with special needs kids as some sort of inappropriate pick-up tactic. It didn't work.
7. I'm not going to tag anyone. I don't mind being tagged, but I get shy about tagging others. Besides, I have far more than five interesting people on my flist, how can I ever choose? :-)

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