Still recovering from the busy week that just passed me by. I've spent the last seven days in three different time zones and boarded six different airliners traveling from the west to the east and back in dallas in between. I'm ready for the weekend and a chance to sleep late for a change.

The meeting in the exciting town of east aurora NY went pretty well. It was pointless for me to attend considering the issues laid out on the table could have easily been solved with a phone call. I guess sometimes it's just better to have a little face time with the people who pay your bills.

We stayed in a really neat bed and breakfast called the roycroft inn on tuesday night. Apparently the roycrofters were a group of famous artisans who had a strong influence in design around the prairie style and arts and crafts periods in america near the turn of the century. The roycroft inn was built in 1905 and restored in 1995 and featured a unique historical perspective of the movement. Tom Rau knew quite at bit about the period and even had some pieces that were true roycroft design. Maybe he's cultured after all and not just a terrorist.

Tomorrow is fig's bachelor party. I'm looking forward to a good nights sleep tonight and follow it up with a day on the lake and night on the town with the boys.

Episode ii opened yesterday and so far the public reviews have been great. Everyone agrees that yoda steals the show and the film "feels" much more like a star wars film. The entire creative group went to go see it over lunch yesterday on the company's dime. I might have gone, but I had too much work to do. I'll see it again soon, though -- guaranteed.

May the "making-fun-of-skaines" be with you (at my expense, no doubt). Read the entire article for best results.

Let the pointing and laughing begin...

I got a surprise phone call from blair yesterday morning asking me perhaps one of the dumbest questions anyone's ever asked me. It goes like this:

"Hey, man... annie has an extra ticket for a sneak preview showing of episode ii tonight in plano. Do you wanna go?"

Hmm... let me think about that.. how about "HELL YES!"

What luck! I spent the entire day gloating and make certain people who live in austin a bit jealous. :) After a long day at work taking the never ending beating from the impossible-to-please client, I took off for plano and got to the tinseltown at parker and the tollway around 6:30. Annie works for general mills who did a cereal promotion that involved episode ii so the entire office (and a few lucky guests) were treated to an advance screening monday evening. Needless to say I was thrilled to be there.

So after all was said and done, I was impressed, but also disappointed, too. I don't know -- part of me hates to even say the slightest negative comment given my lifelong addiction to SW, but sometimes I think the "flanneled one" tries too hard to wow everyone with an overdose of digital eye candy. It's not as if I was expecting the cgi to be scaled back after TPM, but I continually found myself almost distracted by the effects. I think that's what truly makes the original trilogy so great -- It had impressive effects that were truly ground breaking at the time and it they didn't get in the way of the story. I just felt episode ii relied too heavily on the effects. (the effects were impressive, though) Not only that, there was a little too much going on in my opinion for the two hour movie. Maybe I'll change my mind after a day or two to think about it.

It did have it's moments, though. I won't give anything away, but there's a lot of action and the few memorable scenes are real gems. I still highly recommend it and I'll be curious to see how the public responds. I'm just glad I got the see it early and didn't have the fanatic geeks waving lightsabers and cheering every five minutes in front of me. I didn't hear half of episode i the first day I saw it -- too many loudmouth geeks. And no -- I did not wear the boba fett costume, thank you.

Today I leave for new york on business to deal with the above said client. Any other time of the year, I'd be halfway excited about the chance to travel, but after the beating I took this weekend I'd just assume stay home.

UPDATE: after sleeping on it, I'd say my opinion is a little less negative this morning the more I think about it. It's episode ii, it's star wars and it rocked. I'll get over the other stuff...

Back to the grind. Only this time, I'm broke, tired and feel like I just got the crap beat out of me. Or maybe I should say "craps" beat out of me instead.

I hate vegas.

There's a scene in Vegas Vacation, where an overzealous clark w. griswold gambles his entire bankroll away on the strip and decides to try his luck outside the city in a hole-in-the-wall casino. Playing ridiculous games like "guess the number between 1 and 10" and paper, rock, scissors, he soon finds out that no matter where he gambles or what games he chooses, there's no luck on his side. That's the way I feel right now.

I've had runs of bad luck in casinos before, but I think yesterday was the record for me. My short run yesterday morning was followed with a beating where I every bet I placed was destined to end up in those huge stacks of chips on the dealers table. Of course, as soon as I decided to step away and cool off, the tables would get hot again. Lucky me. Oh well. I know well enough by now not to expect to come home any richer than when I left. Right now I'd settle for just making my money some of my money back. Damn.

Of course, the real reason I'm here is for blair and annie's wedding, which takes place this evening at the TPC in north las vegas. We had the rehearsal dinner last night at Mon Ami Gabi (french for "uppity steakhouse") at the paris casino. Jeff and I felt a little out of place since we were just the lowly ushers, but we had a good time anyway.

After dinner we decided to head downtown via a $20 cab ride and try our luck at the old school casinos. Rumor has it the slots are a little looser downtown and the payouts on table games offer better odds. I believe that when I see it. An hour later, my budget for the night was blown and I was ready to hit the sack and cut my losses. I think I'll save myself the trip next time and just stay on the strip -- better people watching here, anyway.

Viva Las Vegas!!!

Or should I say, Viva-take-all-my-money and call me a loser. Jeez-Louise. I go up, I go down. I win big, I lose big. So far the bleeding's not too bad, but I can't seem to get ahead and considering I've not even been here 24 hours, I need to find a good luck charm.

Jeff and I arrived at the Aladdin last night around 7:30 after a delayed flight from dallas. This is the first time I've traveled with the powerbook, so we made good use of the dvd player and watched the mummy returns. What a crappy movie. After arriving, we made a trip to the rio for the all-you-can-eat lobster and seafood buffet. I never thought I'd get sick of lobster tail, but after about 4 trips to the buffet line I had my fill. Ugh.

Come to find out, this luxurious hotel isn't doing so well. According to the dealers and cab drivers, the hotel is over 160 million in the hole and just filed chapter 11. Makes since considering a hotel with a middle-eastern theme probably isn't the best idea in the world right now. Bad timing, I guess.

Blair (boy wonder) had his bachelor party last night. We caught the tail end of it and I stayed up late loosing money at the craps table. I got to bed a little before 3:00. This morning, I grabbed a starbucks and managed to turn 20 bucks into $160. Of course a quick trip to the blackjack table and well, you know the rest of the story (see above)

I'm about to head off for lunch. I'll be posting pics real soon. Stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed for me. Congratulations, Jim!!!

Class is finally over. I had final review with the faculty yesterday to go over my student's work from this semester. I was somewhat apprehensive at first, and there were some things I could've done better, but all in all they were very pleased with the work produced. They even went so far to let me know many of the students said great things about me (probably for the free beer) and if an opening should present itself in the fall they'd like to have me back.

So the summer is soon upon us and with it come the annual events that I look forward to every year. Things like 100 degree temperatures, an increase in golf and outdoor activities and of course the annual fun run. In exactly one month from today, jessie and I will attempt to run 5k as fast as we can and see if we both survive the ordeal. I ran it last year in around 27 minutes and I'd like to beat that this year if at all possible. I started my training this morning with a 2 mile run through the park and I'll steadily increase my distance over the next month. Gotta stay the course on this one.

Tomorrow I leave for vegas and I haven't even begun to prepare for the trip. Tonight I'll spend a few hours getting things together and try to mow the yard before the weekend weeds take over. Speaking of yard work; after installing the bird feeder last week to make the front webcam a little more interesting, we caught the culprit who'd been pigging out on the birdseed. Check the little acrobatic bastard out. Film at eleven.