Oh, and...

The Bears of Friday. Polar bears are breeding like rabbits in Germany, which is awesome for people like me who want to see cute baby bear pictures every single day!

Closed

So I'm officially a homeowner now, and I have stacks of documents, keys and a bottle of chianti from my real estate agent to prove it.

Bought a refrigerator last night, looking at furniture this weekend and staring at paint samples, trying to make a decision. My belongings will head east next week on a moving truck, so I'll finally be able to sleep in my own bed again, use my own dishes, make espresso at home and look at my pictures again.

So much adultness and nesting. Yikes.

Let it rain

This great storm blew in today -- pounding rain for a while. I love it.

Everything is moving along for closing on the house Friday, I've arranged for movers, found a better deal on homeowners insurance and snagged a bunch of paint samples to go with my home and garden magazines. After Friday, I'll be able to go stare at the walls and picture paint and art there, watch the sun in the yard to see where to plant things and measure for a replacement for that heinous chandelier.

So this is what being a grownup is about, huh? OK. It's a whole new experience.

I'm hanging at home tonight reading about "new old houses," looking at furniture online and watching "Godfather III." Sometimes I forget just how bad this movie is. Who thought it would be a good idea? Who wrote this crappy script? And who made Al Pacino wear an ascot? The whole thing reeks. Except for Andy Garcia.

Give me the original any day.

I wish I had a picture of the Myrtle Beach Slingshot. I was offered a free ride on it today. But anything that involves giant rubber bands and 300 feet in the air? I'll pass. You gotta see this thing, though. I'll take some pictures on the next decent day.

A new awesome

Friday nights, Animal Planet, it's "Lemur Kingdom!" Like "Meerkat Manor," but the lemurs don't kill each other's children. The ring-tails are far, far cuter than those genocidal meerkats.

Love the lemurs. LOVE THEM! Watch their show. The lemurs need your support.

Found: One pair pants

This morning as I was rooting through my closet (because I was late for work and the dryer hadn't finished with the pants I wanted to wear), I found a pair of pants I literally do not remember buying.

I know they are mine because they fit and they were hanging in my closet and, most importantly, they are the proper color for my wardrobe -- black -- but I have no clue where they came from.

It's like a little bonus from my closet.

Here's a Black Bear of Friday to go with my newly discovered black pants. Sorry, it's all I've got.

This is the part where...

...I start getting addicted to home improvement shows. HGTV and TLC -- I can't stop. I've been watching all those "flip the house" shows, looking for decorating ideas for the new place.

Now that it's closer to closing time, I'm getting overwhelmed with the adult-ness of buying a house. Yikes. I like my vagabond life. This feels like cement blocks tied to my ankles.

But everyone assures me it won't, and that when I actually sign all the paperwork and get the keys, it will all be different. I'm taking a wait-and-see attitude. And in the meantime, I'm looking at paint for the hideous blue bathroom. Yellow, my sister says. I like yellow. That could be nice. Yellow with navy accents?

Last night was the first time in two weeks I've slept straight through for seven hours that didn't involve fever/delirium. Maybe this Devil Flu is starting to go away, finally. I still feel like hell, but maybe the third level instead of the seventh or eighth. Two weeks and counting...

Hope everyone gets to see the total lunar eclipse tonight. I wrote a little story on it for today, which was fun. I like talking to the people from NASA and NOAA -- they get so excited to talk about their areas of expertise. I think that's my first eclipse story in what, more than 17 years of journalism?

Anyway, if your area isn't cloudy, it could be fun to check out the orange/red/brown celestial event tonight.

Completely unrelated, but why won't blogger spell check my stuff anymore? I might need to update the template. That seems fraught with peril. Hmmm...

The Bear of Friday

Here's Knut, the little narcissist. But I don't blame him. If I looked like that, I'd stare at my reflection all day, too. Of course, he's not a tiny cub anymore, he's grown a lot. I'm just waiting for the flood of cute pictures of Flocke, the new baby bear, to come out.

Today I'm feeling thankful that my sweet friend Tom, who works at NIU, and his daughter Liz, a student there, were not injured. I called to see how Tom is doing, and he sounded shell-shocked and so sad. I cannot imagine what it would be like to go through a situation like that.

Foggy and weird

The weather, that is. Well, my brain is a little foggy and weird, too. I heard there was a cold front coming, but it doesn't feel like it right now.

There's this creepy mist everywhere, and it smells like the ocean (of course, you say, because you are at the ocean, but it doesn't always smell like it here). It reminds me of being in San Clemente as a kid, but I remember the smell of the sea there a lot more.

That's all I've got for now.

R.I.P. Chief Brody

I'll be watching my all-time favorite movie, "Jaws," tonight in memory of Roy Scheider. He made the most unbelievable movie ending ever work perfectly.

The Influenza

So I have the actual influenza. Don't think I've ever had the actual disease/virus/plague before. No wonder people die from this. It sucks. But Gatorade and Tamiflu are god. So is sleeping 20 hours a day.

Here are a few more pictures of the house. I was going to take some new ones yesterday during the inspection, but I fell asleep on the living room floor.

If anyone has any suggestions about what color to paint the hot-blue-dolphin bathroom, I'd be obliged. All I know is wow, do I not like that blue.

I don't know what to call this post

I'm NyQuil hung-over, haven't gotten nearly enough sleep to make up for last weekend's airport fiasco (I love that word) and have a chest cold, just sitting there, waiting to turn into bronchitis.

I'm going to blame it on US Airways. In fact, all bad things now are US Airways' fault. Got a problem? Yes you do, and it's US Airways' fault.

However, I signed all the loan docs for my house yesterday, and, out of the blue, got a really awesome gift from a co-worker, Johanna, who knew I wanted a Coach purse. There's an outlet store here, but even at outlet prices, I wasn't going to buy one. She came in yesterday afternoon and handed me this red paper bag with the Coach logo on it, and inside was a beautiful, simple, black shoulder bag. I love it. She's so sweet -- she said "If you don't like it, I can exchange it." Are you kidding?

I don't know what I could possibly have done to deserve that. Maybe sometimes you just get gifts, even if you didn't do anything special.

I'm going to start posting pics of the house, little by little, and thought I'd start with the Chandelier from the Titanic. This will be moved to the Carolina room (the enclosed porch, sunroom, bonus room, whatever you want to call it), which will be the TV room when I get a TV.

In addition to this gorgeous piece of lighting art, you'll probably notice the lovely French street-scene border around part of the top of the kitchen.

That goes, too.

P.S.: Blogger won't run spell check for me any more, so forgive me if there are boo-boos.

Back in the MB

So, any urge to travel that might have been remaining from my trip across the country has been sucked right out of me, at least for now.

Three days.

It took me three days to get home.

I seriously started having that surreal feeling that I would never get out of the airport or out of Vegas.

You know what? I'm not even going to rant about it. I'm just going to say these things: I never need to go back to Vegas again, US Airways broke my 12-pound (as in British pounds, not weight) suitcase from Scotland, and I could have spent my days off in Rome.

OK. On to other things. It's Super Tuesday!

Not Leaving Las Vegas...

...at least not anytime soon.

I was supposed to leave Sunday, but it's now Monday afternoon, and I am still here at the airport.

About 5 a.m. Sunday, the fire alarm in our hotel went off and we had to evacuate for an hour. Finally got back in and got about two more hours of sleep, then had to get to the airport. As I was putting my bags in the trunk, the super-windy wind blew the trunk lid down on my head. I think I might be a little concussed. The lump has gone down, but my beezer still hurts.

Then, we get to the airport and find out both of our flights are delated. Jocelyn's took off about 2 hours late, and mine, well, didn't. I was here for 10 hours yesterday before finally getting a room nearby and trying to book something, anything, out of here today.

US Airways rebooked me for 7 this morning, so I got here at 5:30 a.m. (at least I got a straight 5 hours of sleep), and as soon as I checked in, they said the flight has delayed until 9 a.m.

Grrrrr...

Then, they announce there's a part broken and we have to wait for it to get here from Charlotte, which is where I'm trying to get to to catch a flight back to the MB.

Now, allegedly, I'm leaving at 4:30. But if that part doesn't arrive, or can't be installed in time, it looks like I'll be staying in Vegas again tonight.

I thought the saying was "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas," not "Those who come to Vegas stay in Vegas."

If I'm here much longer, I'm gonna have to start looking for work.

The Vegas Bears of Friday

I was looking for pictures of circus bears, you know, for Vegas, but then realized how funny they are not.

So, what happens in Vegas ... is I buy a house. My house offer was accepted (on the house with The Titanic Chandelier and the big fenced yard, in case I've sent you pictures), and when I get back Monday, I need to finish up the financing and inspection stuff. Been on the phone most of the morning with my realtor. It will be nice to own a house, I think.

Jocelyn arrived last night and we took a tour through old downtown Vegas, which is definitely the skeezier side of town. But, if you need to know where to get feather boas or a room by the hour, or both, plus dollar shots, I know where to go.

We're getting ready to go to The Venetian for a gondola ride and lunch at Enoteca San Marco, where I am planning on eating stuffed zucchini flowers until I am stuffed. Unless they suck. But I'm pretty sure they will not.

Went to The Bellagio yesterday. Wow. It's huge. I had no idea it was acres and acres big. They have a beautiful atrium with a Chinese New Year theme, and giant red, silk Chinese hanging lanterns. Gorgeous. What a lovely place to lose some of my Luxor winnings.