where there's smoke...

We just had a building fire a few blocks away from us downtown. Saw flames and lots of smoke from my window on the 51st floor. They had to close the air intake valves on our building or the smoke would have clogged up our system. Haven't heard if anyone was hurt. A lovely way to start a weekend though.

Monday and Tuesday next week Stacey and I will be attending the first real public days for Disney's California Adventure. That's the new themepark they built in the old Disneyland parking lot. So far the reviews have been fair to good. I haven't heard any really negative reviews at all. I'm taking that as a good sign.

Today marks the official opening of Downtown Disney -- a shopertainment (oooh, neologism) center that occupies the space between the two parks and the hotel complex. We've been there a few times already for pre-opening days and plan to enjoy a movie or two at the new AMC theatres this weekend (hey, that's a good idea for tonight). Come on down and join us... parking is free for 3 hours and 5 hours with validation. Enough for dinner, a movie, and some shopping.

Stormwatch 2001

Ugh. Rain. Southern California has been hit and so traffic has been really bad, waves have been crashing high, and power outages have struck downtown... not here, of course. But just a few streets away. It would have been interesting to see what sort of emergency procedure we put into action if the power had gone out. Would we work out of our homes? West LA? Comdisco? inquiring minds want to know.

Speaking of power... it looks like the Feds might shut off the power flow to california sometime later this week. Both the big utilities are in horribly over their heads in the rip-tide created by their recommended deregulation of the energy system. Somebody is getting rich off this and I suspect it will be the powerplant owners and somebody is going to have to pay to keep the lights on and I suspect it will be the tax payers. Should be interesting to see how this plays out over the next couple days.

I must be getting old. If I don't get 8 hours of sleep these days I'm a total wreck for the rest of the day. Last night was one of those nights with noisy roommates, police sirens, creaky bones, where it all added up to a fitful night of (un) rest. I hate'em.

Stacey and I walked over to Barnes and Nobles last night with a $25 gift certificate from her mom burning a hole in my pocket. After much enjoyable browsing I ended up with a copy of the 2001 Writer's Market. I'm hoping to expand some of my writing for LaughingPlace.com and send it off to some travel magazines (for pay, I hope). The first article I'm hoping to sell is my Grand Californian Review. If anyone out there would like to send me a critique of the article I'd be very happy.

Had a good weekend that ended with an allergy attack on Monday. Missed work, but got lots of extra sleep. You figure out that score.

Went to Lost Wages to see Stacey's new cousin Max. He's a real cutey at 24 days old. Not very fussy or noisy, he mostly sleeps and feeds. Had dinner at one of the famous LV Buffets, this one at Main Street Station Casino downtown. Afterwards we walked over to Fremont Street to experience the Experience. Unfortunately all those bright lights in quickly changing colors hurt Stacey's eyes. So we ducked into a casino (Binion's Horseshoe) for some single deck Blackjack. We both plopped down $20 at a $2 minimum table and then held on for a very fun and profitable 1.5 hours. By the end of the night we were each up more than twice our initial chips (Stacey more like 5 times)... we also played a really fun slot game based on Yahtzee. I won big there. So we'd basically paid for food and gas for the trip in one night. Woo Hoo!

We returned to So Cal and made a stop at the Disneyland resort (it's hard to resist) to see what changes had occured over the weekend. Ate lunch at ESPNZone. Good food at resort prices (had a 8 ounze turkey burger that was wonderful) -- kinda funky setting. We ate on the Studio grill side which boasts a live set for filming ESPN's UPClose show. With filming in progress it was busy, but pleasant. The otherside seemed too dark, and too much like a sports book from a Vegas casino to me. Upstairs was the biggest disappointment, however. They have a huge game area upstairs, but the prices are so inflated it's just not fun. Since I heard the restaurant was opening up I've been looking forward to a game of Air Hockey (Disneyland removed their tables over two years ago). At ESPNZone each Air Hockey game is $2.50... games at Disneyland used to be $0.75. I'd pay a $1.00 a game... but $2.50 is just unreasonable. Looks like I'll have to wait even longer to get my air hockey fix.