We ate dinner down at the Las Vegas Marina (I think thats its name). The restaurant had a very basic menu. They were closing at 6pm and could hardly wait for us to leave. It was odd.
Afterwards, we scurried down to Boulder Beach.
Its aptly named. You need shoes to walk on it. Its odd how they tout this as a beach. In Daytona, we noticed that they actually bring sand to the shore for people to walk on. They should do that at Lake Mead.
The Marina at Boulder Beach is much nicer. The restaurant looks oodles better. You can rent a tiny boat for $30 an hour, party boat for $40, a speed boat for $50 and a wave runner for $65 (all two hour minimum). Also, the Desert Princess offers a pizza tour 4pm daily that runs up to Hoover Dam and back.

I've been reading about gastro intestinal problems. The esophagus, mouth, teeth, tongue...their purpose is for eating.
It seems to me that they are necessary for animals. But, we aren't stupid animals.
All of the above could be replaced by introducing baby food right directly into the stomach. I could have done it with the plastic tube I ran down to my stomach.
It also seems to me that if you knew what the head needed from the blood, you could keep a head alive by supplying it externally. I'd be surprised if someone hasn't that done that yet.

I fixed my esophagus with a 1/4" plumbing tube.
It sounds disgusting, looks disgusting, but it was safe, and it saved me $5,000.
I had the surgery back in 2000, and after reading about it, really, I didn't see why anyone couldn't do it.
When I had surgery in 2000, they put me under. Then they took a tube with a camera on it and shoved it down my throat. Later I woke up, and they showed me pictures.
Putting me under, doing all the test, and almost all of their procedures were unneccessary.
It took me 2 minutes to do basically what sword swallowers do everday.
I read that some people with strictures have the esophageal dilation done several times a year.
Wow.

We BBQ'd steaks, tomatoes, and steamed some asparagus (with cheese sauce).
Wouldn't ya know, a tiny piece of steak got lodged in my esophagus. That was 12 hours ago.
I can only get small amounts of liquids into my stomach. I can't keep my spit down so I can't sleep.
I've got to just hope the little booger disolves.
Its a crap shoot.
Wait three days for it to disolve, or go to the hospital and let them push the thing out with a tube, but that'll eat up $5,000+.
I'd hate to die over something this pathetic.

For our Monday Night eat out, we went to the Kyle Canyon Lodge. It had changed quite a lot on the inside. The lodge's management must have decided to convert its cozy environment into high class dining. What a bad idea.
The warm, friendly feeling of walking into the lounge and seeing people cozying up to the fire place had been replaced by a tacky outdoor style atrium with a sign saying "Please wait to be seated".
The lounge chairs had been replaced with small café style tables covered with cloth. It was all restaurant, but you could still sit at the small bar and enjoy a smoke and a drink, all while playing video poker next to your non smoking table. That, to me, just seemed retarded.
Sonny, Becky and I sat a six top, ordered our drinks and checked out the menu. It was VERY PRICEY. We left before the waitress got back with our drinks.
Mt Charleston Hotel
Still hungry, we went a couple of miles down the mountain to the Mount Charleston Hotel. They've made some improvements! We were hoping to eat at their steak restaurant, but it's closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Too bad. The last I ate their, the restaurant had a lot of class, the prices were moderate, and the environment was excellent.
In its place, they offer food service in their lounge.
At the lounge, we were seated at a small table next to the fireplace. The chairs were plush leather and extremely comfortable. We ordered the the steak, trout and chicken dinners. The food was excellent, and the prices were modest. The average cost for a place was $20.
On the way out, I asked the front desk clerk how much the rooms were. She said $99 and up.

I was afraid that, after coming back, we might get lazy and we have.
- The air here has slowed me down to a turtles crawl.
- The comfort levels indoors are high with cable TV and high speed internet.
- We have plenty of time and money.
All those things have put our ambitions at an all time low.
I keep thinking this website will take off.
It still is the easiest place to advertise. I have a list of 14 other sites that advertise in Vegas. None of them work well. Getting search engines to see my keywords just isn't working the way the documentation says it will.
They lie they lie they lie, lol.

It was quite a zoo in here. Micheal wanted to bring her dog over and I said no, Sonny is sleeping.

We watched Robots. It was a a kids movie and I just couldn't come down to that level of entertainment.
Watching Amy was more entertaining. She rearranged our furniture!

What a pain! We still haven't finished the task. It got dark.

Monday, we stayed in Tallahassee, Fl at an interesting motel for $40 per night.
In the parking lot, there were kids swinging sticks around and I thought it might be unsafe...BUT, they were students studying martial arts. Their swords were dull, 12 pounders. Walking around, I found a Sasha, Tea, Coffee house with wireless internet and a belly dancer. People buy a bowl of aromatic tobacco, and smoke it for an hour in an opium pipe. Pretty strange, but it seems to work. LOL.

I'm now a rich man again...haha. I cut it awfully close this time though. I've got to watch that.
By staying over in Orlando to the end of January, it put things on a tight schedule.
But I based my decision on someone saying he thought my website could make some good money.
He never said anything good about it before, but that just his nature.
So, I stuck around for another month, and coded.
I was also worried about getting screwed by this same person.
I forget why exactly, but I'll pick my business partner better next time.

We got the UBelt back on, along with all the bolts (except for one). The car is a screamer!
As far as I can see, the transmission and engine are in great shape. I'll out run my F150.
If a guy at Pep Boys said the head gasket was blown on that car, he's wrong.
The lesson to be learned is, when you take your car to a mechanic, you should already know whats wrong with it.
From my experience, the auto industry constantly takes advantage of people.
Case in point: I had a $99 coupon for a complete brake job.
I was standing in line, waiting to get my truck serviced. While in line, I listened to the people talk to the service man. None of them got the $99 special. They all had other problems that would cost over $400. The coupon was a lie.

I love that buffet. On Monday night, its always seafood night, and they have everything imaginable (except for lobster).
Someone in line gave me a two for one coupon, so for three people it was only $34.

Total Time: 4.5 hours. Water pumps can be a real booger. We've still got to install the U Belt.

A-1 Truck Driver Training 1105 Industrial Rd Boulder City NV
ALL POINTS TDA 123 WATER ST HENDERSON NV 89015
JOIN 705 E 4th St. Winnemucca NV 89445
MTA 3200 E. Cheyenne Avenue Module 3 Las Vegas NV 89030
Southern Nevada CC 6375 West Charleston Blvd Las Vegas NV 89146
Western Truck School, 85 N. Edison Way #2/3 Reno NV 89502
Western Truck School 3603 Las Vegas Blvd. N , Suite 112, Las Vegas, NV 89115

• Minimum 22 years old
• Must have 6 months verifiable OTR experience in the past 36 months
• Must possess a valid CDL with Haz-Mat endorsement in the state where you reside
• No DUI's, DWI's or any other violations involving drugs or alcohol within the last 5 years
• No more than 3 moving violations in the past 3 years.
• No more than 3 preventable accidents in the past three years.
• Truck must pass DOT and USA inspections.
• Wheelbase not to exceed 260 inches (center front hub to center last hub).
• Weight not to exceed 19,000 lbs with half tank of fuel.
• Must have truck title and proof of payment on Federal Highway Use Tax.
• Proof of insurance

It didn't take that long really, but we ran out of light, so we'll wrap it up tommorrow. There was no water in the oil so the guy at Pep Boys was FOS. If a head gasket is blown on it, thats not how he found out. 3 more hours, and the water pump will be finished...yahoo! Next we'll deal with the flat and the battery.

Preferred Basic installation for 1 room.

Strange how there were probably more people there than in downtown New Orleans. hmmm.
Monday night is their Seafood night and it was excellent.

Bought a stove for the house for $120. It looks and works great. As usual though, the gas pipe to connect it turned out to be a royal pain. There doesn't seem to be a standard for gas fittings anywhere, so, I'm plagued with an assortment of adapters, none of which, work.

I talked with the dude for over an hour.
Our appraiser was more than happy to discuss how he got into his career. Things have changed.
It used to be that an house appraisers job was more like a juice job than anything. Its still, kind of, sort of,  that way now. But with the housing sales boom in Las Vegas, that attitude has relaxed. These guys go to school for 2 weeks (for $1,000), and you must be an apprentice for two years. They must have a job before they can get their license too.
Catch 22 - To get a job, you need a license. To get a license, you need a job. Hmmm. Who thinks this crap up?
He said you can expect to make $40,000 a year doing appraisals, it was easy work, and fun.
He said the best money in appraising was sail boats, and its a wide open field right now.
The things I didn't like about his appraisal:
He took pictures. And when he was in the kitchen, he mentioned we had a garbage disposal. So, I'd expect he's not going to fluff the appraisel like my last one did.

I've got to repair a ceiling today.
The loan is for $60k, 5 year fixed at $940 a month, which leaves a large margin for if I ever decide to rent this place out again. Everything is kewl.
The thing I don't like about refinancing is sending all of my information to someone. They wanted my business license and two checking statements this last time. In other words, they want to see if I have $3,000 before they write me a check for $60,000. hmmm. The logic eludes me.
Talked to Ida
She's quitting smoking. I wish her luck. She sounds like heck!
The Frontier called Sonny on his day off.
He'd fixed a food warmer switch with one his boss gave him, and the switch burned out again. They insinuated that Sonny can't fix crap. It turned out it was a faulty switch, an old one they had laying around.
I wonder how many of places do that kind of thing.
They called him at home to make him feel crappy about his work. No apologies or mention of the switch came up again.