Dog Days of Summer

It's just past the mid point of August.

We're winding down towards the end of summer and it feels good to do so...the weather has again been almost unbearable here in Vegas. We're sooooooooo looking forward to Fall - then we can complain how cold it is :-).

The grass is always greener on the other side.

We've had a great beginning to a weekend weather-wise in Vegas. Things are starting to dry up after a relatively wet week where we saw heavy rain, thunder and lightening and humidity levels in the 30%s and 40%s. It's starting to cool down as well. We've been told the temperatures should stay in the mid 30sC and lows to the mid to high 20sC. Daylight is getting shorter as we near September...I was thinking how close we are to Hallowe'en and was quickly informed we hadn't seen the end of Summer yet and not to be so eager to jump ahead. I've started a new business and that's all I see myself doing now is looking ahead...sometimes I need to slow down, take stock in the "now" and be present.

I had a great day and I'm having a wonderful evening.

Back Soon,

VP

Bloggin' in LA

Starbucks at 7th and Figueroa

Just got in at the Mayfair Hotel in downtown LA right off of 7th and Figueroa...awesome location for a quick few days to do some shopping, work, whatever. The 7th&Fig shops are located within walking distance of the hotel - great shopping (Macy's has a location here), international food fair, Morton's Steakhouse, Golds Gym and Starbucks...I could live here. For $99.00 a night plus $10.00 daily parking(what a steal by LA standards) you can't go wrong. The furnishings are dated and worn but the view from the 10th floor is pretty awesome. Where the hotel sits, 1256 west 7th, it's about 4 short blocks to Figeuroa...I walked to the shops but if I were a single female I'd probably take a short cab just to be safe. The security at the shops is visible enough and I didn't see any homeless or panhandlers, but the area just outside the hotel is a little gritty. So far so good my check-in experience was good Ramon and Maureen were very friendly, even the attendant at the parking garage next to the hotel was very welcoming. I'll let you know if anything pops up.

Contacted Denise Ronayne from the House of Blues Sunset Strip and will be heading over to her house for a visit...looking forward to that. She's a very dear friend of mine from Las Vegas and like a lot of my friends from Vegas, she left for greener pastures. It's been a while since I've seen her and I've never been to her home...this will be fun. Still waiting on hearing back from Nigel Skeet.

Back soon,

VP

Off to LA

Taking off to LA this morning...with a wee bit of a hangover courtesy of Coors Light...will be there for 3 days for work related activity associated with Arrogant Apparel. Will be hooking up with some friends in Hollyweird and heading into Long Beach for a show.

Back soon,

VP

Do I look Tired???

Do I look tired? You bet I do...my frickin' HD broke down in my 13 month hold MacBook...I couldn't believe it. I didn't have my shit backed up because I just used my Mac for surfing and email...I told myself that there was no frickin' way my computer would breakdown so soon. I treat this laptop like a small child, wrap it in neoprene before I put it into a deluxe padded computer knapsack. I don't drop it, in fact I place the unit on a cool pad before I even power it on...the frickin' thing has never even been placed on a bare table. Yet for some reason the hard drive started clicking on Friday.

It wasn't until then that I realized just how screwed I was.

I take the laptop into my local Apple store where I am subjected to dealing with a store appointed "Genius" wearing a shirt with the same title boldly emblazoned up on his chest ( and I thought I was the one who owned Arrogant Apparel!!!). The options were limited - I could send the unit into a 3rd party data recovery company (I'll get to that later) or my Genius could swap out the Hard drive and the old HD would be sent into Apple to be destroyed - WTF!!! Are you kidding me? Lose all my data on a drive- no retrieval, nada, kiss it good-bye.

So after humming and hawing we decide to take the unit to another authorized Apple dealer to change out the HD and try to send it into the 3rd party recovery co. When we get to the 2nd store we're informed basically that the problem is quite dire and basically I'm screwed. I'm told to contact the recovery company to get a quote..."well bend over Pat, 'cause this is gonna hurt" I'm quoted by the ever so friendly customer service associate the "estimated quote will be between $500 and $3900" but I can expect the recovery to be around the $2400 amount... :-0

I just about puked.The computer cost around $1400...

I'm sending the drive up to Canada to see if we can retrieve the data there without having to sell off a kidney.

Today's tip - Back your shit up.

Back soon,

VP

Ireland with Noel and Ryno

Just getting caught up on some writing and I wanted to add some shots of the recent trip I took over to Ireland with my brother, Noel, and travel partner, Ryno.


(Left to Right- Conor, myself and Ryan )

We travelled in to Shannon initially versus flying directly into Cork...this saved us on our flight from Vegas as we used US Airways - they have a hub in PHI and fly directly into Shannon. From there we rented a car and drove just over 2 hours to get to Cobh, Cork. The drive is becoming increasingly easier for me although I had not driven this road before. We had absolutely brilliant weather on the first night in Cobh at Conor's place.


(Noel and Conor)

Noel arrived the next day in from Vancouver via LGW - a little jet lagged but determined to make the most of his time just the same.







After getting acquainted with the locals, we drove down to Dingle to meet up with our infamous Uncle Pat. Pat or "Paddy Walsh" is well known in the small town of Dingle, Kerry - this is not necessarily a good thing. It is said, "You can't choose your family"...ain't that the truth...Pat was his usual cordial self until it came time to hitting me up for money a trait he is well known for. After I declined we were told we were no longer welcome to sit and drink with him...typical Paddy Walsh.




(Noel with Paddy and Inside Dick Mack's Pub)

Back to Cobh for a bit then off to Crosshaven, Cork along the water to meet up with Kieran (Conor's older brother) to have beaucoup drinks with he and the locals at Cronins. The bar was fantastic...so much better in my opinion now that there is no smoking in the pubs. The company was great and it had been a while since Noel and I had gone out for a pint.





(The group of us in Cronins,Keiran and Conor, Ryno at the beach)

We had a great time together even-though the weather was horrible at times we all got along very well and we enjoyed ourselves.

Typically as we get older we tend not to be able to take these types of trips together - some have wives and families of their own. The free time we had in our youth has given way to tight schedules, tighter budgets and even less time - I was truly blessed to be able to share some great quality time with Noel, Ryno and the cousins.

All the best,

VP