Noxious fumes

Perry has been attempting to gas us out of our home.
I am convinced of this.

He is letting loose the most noxious, vile, unearthly smells you can ever hope to survive.

I wonder if the CDC should get involved.

I hope this is temporary.

It's closing time for the cottage

The time has finally come.

Actually, it snuck up on us.

Scott and I will make the drive up to PEI tomorrow after I get home from work to close up the cottage for the winter. This will be a first for us. We have closed the cottage a whole bunch of times before, but it has always been after being up there for 2 weeks.

This time we are driving up just to close.
I am dreading this, I am not happy.

Perry, along with his pooping problems and the steam cleaner, are staying with Jape and Suzanne. He hasn't had an accident in the last two days, so our fingers are crossed that he won't have another.

I am going to have to get some serious sleep tonight, and possibly a small nap after work tomorrow. I really hate feeling like a zombie, but for this trip, I feel it may be inevitable. We will try to get this done as quickly as possible. Ghaa!

Mom's Surprise 70th

My sisters and I planned a surprise birthday party for my mom. The surprise was last night, and it was a total success. I couldn't have hoped for a better turn out.

I have neglected to post any plans on here previously in case mom checked out my blog...which she never does, but you never know. I have told her to check it from time to time in the past.

Anyhoo, the night turned out fabulously even after my almost meltdown. I had spent the last two days not sure that the lodge would remember that I had rented the space. I made the deposit approximately a month previous, and checked the place out. It looked good, I was feeling good. Then a couple of days before the party, I tried to call to confirm, and left a message, no one got back to me.
I then called early on the day of, and left a message, and no one got back to me...
I then was forced to call George Parrelli while he was at work at the Pleasant cafe bartending (he is a member of the lodge, a true old timer) and he gave me Andy's home phone number. I called Andy's home, spoke with his wife, and she put my mind at ease.

So, all went off without a hitch. I am pleased with the results. Mom got lots of gifts from people she loves, and was totally surprised.

Here are some pics...
A photo of what you saw as you walked in.

A matted invitation ready for signatures, along side the present table...

The birthday girl greeting her friends and family, here she is greeting my Aunt Elena


The birthday girl (in the center wearing a tiara). She was so surprised. This pic is after she had calmed down and greeted everyone. She is relaxing watching the juggler show.

Peter Panic the juggler/commedian. He did a great job, we had a lot of fun.

Peter almost rolled over Maria. She is okay...heehee.

Everyone had a great time, including Dolly the birthday girl.
I just got off the phone with her tonight. 1 hour 21 minutes 46 seconds. She is clearly still beaming. Happy birthday mom!

Sick Dog? I've had enough!

Perry is becoming as much of an embarrassment as my broken zipper.

This dog is still sick, but not acting like it (unless you count the endless diarrhea). I am at my wits end!

Scott and I woke up once again to a treat of loose stool in the book room this morning. This may garner a sympathetic reaction to readers of all ages, but our bedroom door was open and there was no whining, scratching, yelping, or general "I need to go out" type behaviour. In fact, I was in half sleep most of the night and morning, and heard nothing...NOTHING!

This leads me to believe that either Perry has totally lost his ability to hold any type of stool with no modesty, or that he thinks it is okay now to just shit in the same spot whenever he feels the urge. I say the same spot, because it has been the SAME SPOT for the last 3 accidents, and I use the term 'accident' loosely.

I am extremely thankful to my friends J and S for allowing us to hold on to their ultra powerful carpet steam cleaner, since it has been in use for the last week and a half. Thanks J and S!

So tonight, I fed Perry for the last time at 6pm, hoping to limit his 'need' in the morning.
I still await the results from the loose stool sample I brought to the vet on monday. He is acting very energetic and eats his food quickly. He is not acting like a sick dog at all. He still looks skinny, has not gained any weight, and Scott observed this morning that his last 'mistake' smelled like fresh dog food. A little disturbing, but we can only wait and see.

Scott covered the offending spot to 'shit on' with newspaper before he went to bed. I am hoping that either Perry gets confused by that and wakes us to go out, or he just fucking shits on the paper!

So J and S, are you ready to watch P next week? Ha!

No one's got my back.

I just changed for bed.

While undressing, I noticed that the rear zipper on the skirt I was wearing was all the way down.
The only thing keeping my skirt from falling down was the catch at the top.
How embarrassing.
I've been showing a little slice of my aqua blue undies all day long(or at least since the zipper fell down).

I am now in a state of self-conscious distress.
Thanks for reading.

Alien Amoeba Pendant

So, the pseudopods are more round in this version, but all I could think of was an amoeba when I look at this. So maybe this is what an alien amoeba looks like...who knows?

I melted the balls using sterling silver scrap wire and sheet. I formed the bezed using fine sterling bezel wire and soldered the bezel and melted blobs of silver onto a backplate.

I sawed out the design, which rounds each and every sterling ball and then filed and sanded until I could file and sand no more. I think it still needs some more, but after two days on this project, I just would like it to be finished. I oxidized and polished it. I may work more on this in the coming weeks, but tommorow I will just wear it as it is. I am happy with the outcome, but it could be better.


There is a gouge in the bezel (between 9 and 10 on a clock) which will not come out, but I am fine with that if I keep this for myself.

This is quite heavy for its size, the balls are solid sterling and the backplate is 24ga. I will wear it tomorrow and see if I get any feedback on it.

Perry's Prognosis

The vet called tonight at 9:30pm. Yeah, 9:30pm.
I was so nervous all day wondering what the hell is wrong with my dog, and everytime I called the office, I was given the same mechanical statements, I would get a phone call. I didn't expect it to come so late. Scott and I were watching 'What Perez Says' when the call finally came in. As a matter of fact, Scott had just said something like "we aren't going to hear tonight" when I shushed him cause my phone was ringing.

So, the vet told me that Perry's problem is not serious, it is not something that cannot be managed or cured. His bloodwork came back good, and his urine tests, too.
His problem is that he has NO bacteria in his intestines. Or at least that's what I got out of the conversation. There was a whole lot of medical mumbo jumbo that I am too innocent to comprehend, so...

Here is my take on the prognosis...in laymans terms:

Perry has evicted the good bacteria in his system. He told 'them' to get the hell out by not eating. This has caused a whole lot of diahhrea and a bit of vomiting. The food that he has been getting down is being all curned up by his stomach acids, but when the churned food gets into his intestines where the good stuff happens, it is not being absorbed into nutrition, it is just coming out. He has not been getting any nutrition out of what little food he has been eating. So, he has been losing weight, too.

The food that I picked up at the vet is a bland, easily digestable canned food that Perry can't get enough of. He actually scratches at his bowl for more...he has never done that with any other food. He had two cans yesterday, and three today.

Unfortunately, he still has diarrhea. I expressed my concern to the vet, and was told to start mixing in some good bacteria into his food. So I will pick that up tomorrow at the vet office, along with a different type of food to feed him until the diarrhea stops.

Perry is already acting alot better and hungry, which is GREAT, and I am sure when he gets his buddies back in his system, he will be having some great sturdy girthy poops once again.

I am so relieved. I hope the bacteria treatment works.

My P-Love is ill.

I am afraid my poor P-Love is sick. Really sick.
Perry has had diarrhea bad for the last 4 days that I have noticed, and loose stools for a lot longer than that.
He has been losing weight, most noticably to me the last week or so.

He lost his appetite for his food about 2 days ago, and would only take snacks willingly.

So this morning I awoke, took a shower, and got ready for work, all while P stayed at the top of the stairs between the bedroom and bathroom doors. I walked over him about 6 times. I finished getting ready for work, walked downstairs to find about a 5 foot length of diarrhea on the carpet along with 2 small piles of vomit.

This dog does NOT make a habit of shitting in the house. He can actually hold his needs for hours and hours usually, so I knew something was wrong.

I called Julie (the shop needed to be opened), called the vet, and called Scott.
The vet accepted my plea for Perry to be seen immediately and I rushed him over.
He was examined, prodded, had blood drawn, and I was asked a million questions. His temperature was elevated, he was dehydrated (not so much so to require an iv), and his weight was 6 pounds lighter than his last visit (June).

So, until I get any blood work results, I am left with 3 scenarios. I am sure the vet wants to rule out the worst first and then focus on lesser problems.
I left the vet with my sick dog with the knowledge that we could be facing cancer, lyme disease (kidney shutdown) or a gastrointestinal disorder.
As you can imagine I am quite beside myself over this at the moment.
I was also asked to gather a urine sample to bring in, I wondered if I would be able to do this, but I was successful this evening, so it is in my fridge right now in a little test tube with rubber top that the vet gave me.

I do have some good news tho. I also left the vet with some medications and some prescription canned food. I fed Perry a half can when we returned from the vet, along with the first of his doses of meds. He gobbled up the food.
I went to work fully expecting to come home to another mess of diarrhea and vomit, and I didn't. Perry actually was hungry when I got home, so I fed him the other half can and he gobbled that up, too.

This evening he was ravenous, I fed him a whole can and he wanted more. I gave him his night meds and he seems to be doing better. Both the meds are for intestinal disorders. One actually is prescribed for ulcers, too.

So, I am beginning to be a bit optimistic. I fear the worst, but I am hoping for the best. I know dogs don't live forever, but I am not done with Perry yet!
I will bring the urine to the vet in the morning and ask about the bloodwork, I hope they have something to tell me. I will post when I hear more.

Filigree pendant and earring set

I really thought this would come out a whole lot better than it did.
I am not completely happy with this set, but I will still wear it and get some feedback, maybe someone will like it.

Filigree is something I have been thinking of trying for quite some time, and I had mastered it in my brain a long time ago. I didn't realize that my brain's idea of this design and my actual execution could be so different. I really had this all figured out, but the finished pieces are not up to par to my original idea. I will practice more and maybe someday I will have something to be proud of.

I wanted this to be totally plain, but since the outcome wasn't so perfect, I decided to texture and hammer a bit to mask the mistakes. There are a couple of joins that didn't solder, too, so don't be too judgemental, I already know they are not perfect. Enjoy.


I don't know if you can tell by the pictures or not, but the earrings are much nicer than the pendant. I will try again, and post my next attempt.
I still really like the design, but I think I can do better...yes...for sure I can do better.

Field Hockey!

My sister-in-law Denise called me earlier tonight to get some ideas on some jewelry items she could sell at consessions at hockey games her daughters were involved in.

I tried to brainstorm with her on the phone, and came up with some ideas involving making a design she made using polymer clay. Then I would take her clay design and make a mold of it. The mold would then be used to fabricate the design using precious metal clay (PMC). I am not a teacher, but I was willing to try. Anything to help my adopted-by-marriage sister.

I was thinking that I would make a mold of her original, and instruct her on how to use the PMC to create silver charms out of it. This would have been a whole lot of work for an already too busy gal as her, but that is what we ended up deciding upon...well.... I brainstormed by myself later on tonight, and came up with something that she may just like even better.



So, here is what I came up with, it involved 1/2 round wire, a hammer, a screwdriver, and pliers. This took a total of 5 minutes to complete (without adding the chain). I added the chain because I plan on giving this necklace to my jr. varsity hero Leah (#2 niece) but I think Denise could sell these pendants easily at games for some profit. I will attack her tomorrow with my newly revised idea and see what she thinks of it. I think the less time she has to work on it the better. She is a busy gal as it is.

Late Saturday Night Rambling

September, I can't believe that it is already September. I can feel the fall in the air already. It is so cold this evening, I am shivering as I post. I closed a couple of windows, but this is the season of anything goes weather, so I didn't close them all.

Last night Scott and I met Jape and Suzanne for dinner, we went to Bamboo for sushi. It was really really good. Suze and I split an order of toro...mmmmmmmm, expensive, but worth it.

Before I met them at their house (Scott was already there), I made a new ring. I struggled with the filing to make the pieces fit before soldering until I decided to just smash and solder...and it worked! Anyone interested in this particular technique that I frustratedly stumbled upon can feel free to ask, I have no secrets! I will spare the gorey details for now.

Here is the ring.

After struggling for about 1 hour trying to get the sides of the shank to fit perfectly to the circle for soldering, I gave up and just smashed the ends of the shank with a planishing hammer and soldered it to the back of the circle. Okay, non-secret revealed. There ya go.

I love this ring, I wore it all night yesterday, and most of today. I don't have it on right now, or I would be staring at it on my finger and making boku typo's.


I have tomorrow off, I plan on cleaning and straitening up the house (yeah, laugh all you want Suze and Jape) and cleaning the bathroom so I can finally have some guests over. The summer seems to have been my cleaning season off. I aspire to have people over, I really do. Ughhh!

Perry is afraid of sports

Poor Perry gets frantically insecure when loud sports are on the television. I say insecure, but what I really mean is insane.

Scott is watching a UFC fight on tv, and Perry is cowering at my feet in the kitchen.

I briefly sat next to Scott to watch a little of the fight, and this poor dog circled the coffee table trying to gain purchase underneath our feet. Circling the table, getting pushed, circling more, getting yelled at... This results in Scott yelling at Perry to get "OUT" which only makes Perry's insecurities worse. It also tends to put Scott in a bad mood, which makes Perry even more irritating (P only likes happiness). When he gets yelled at in such a way, he ends up with his head down trying to find a happy, quiet, safe place.

I ultimately had to move my body to the kitchen, which forced the dog that lives by my feet to follow me. I don't understand this behaviour, but I should be used to it by now, because this is how he has been since we took him home 11 years ago.

Poor, poor sketchy dog.

Here is a picture of P thoroughly relaxing...see? He does relax sometimes...sometimes. Yeah, his insecurities are not physical ones, just mental ones. How sexy is he?

Can't Sleep

I don't know why I can't sleep tonight, but here I am awake and surfing the internet.
I checked all my usual haunts, and my etsy store...I even bought something on etsy tonight.

I bought a watercolor 4x6 card from my good friend Meilan from Vancouver. A card with a thistle painting on it, by Meilan's Mom. Thanks Mei!

If Scott wasn't sleeping right now, I would be hammering something or other. That is what I seem to be doing on my off hours these days. I made a couple of pairs of earrings tonight, but the sun is my best light for pictures, so I will have to photo them when the sun comes up....yeah, I know I won't be seeing the sun come up. It's too late for me. I will make my second attempt at sleeping now.
Thanks for listening.

Using Scraps

I looked at my ever growing silver scrap pile today for some inspiration.
I know that is a stretch, but you never know when something will hit you.
I bought an ounce of 3/4" sterling discs about 2 months ago and haven't really even looked at them since, until I started going through the scraps. So I used the discs as bases for these two abstract pendants/charms.

This one started as a panda face, but the ears wouldn't fuse on, so I soldered a dunce hat on instead. I guess I was angry with it, so I decided it needed the dunce hat to go sit in the corner. It is about 1 3/16" from top of hat to bottom of disc.

This one is truly abstract. I don't even know what it looks like other than maybe some kind of chinese or japanese symbol. Just writing this gives me tons of ideas now...hmmmm. This one is approximately 1" from top to bottom.

Both pieces are fused silver. Both have been highly textured, hammered and oxidized.

The End

Grandma Anna died friday morning, August 17, 2007.
Aspiration pneumonia did her in.

I am an asshole, because I am so ambivalent to this news. Actually, I am not ambivalent, I am unaffected.

People keep saying "I'm so sorry" and I keep hearing myself say "don't be".
Grandma Anna was evil. Evil to her dying breath.
There is an entire ward at the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center sighing releif.

Tomorrow is her wake and funeral. A short 2 hour wake, then a service, then to the graveyard. We will all go out to chinese food after.

We're Home

We have been home now for a couple of days.
The trip to Vegas was truly an experience I will not soon forget. We have already been talking about getting a group of people together for the next trip. We had a great time alone, but I think having friends/family around would be even better. The last two days my feet hurt (never go on vacation with new shoes) but that didn't stop us from walking many, many miles.

We finally did catch the Mirage volcano eruption. I think because it was cancelled the first time we tried to watch it, I ultimately found it to be less than climactic. It lasted a whole 2 minutes.

Thursday we went to the pool to kill some time, and I had a long island iced tea with nothing in my stomach, I do not recommend this. Scott had a strawberry daquiri. Then we went to lunch at Bill's Gambling Hall, it was just okay.
We had dinner that night at Isla in TI, I had salmon over a cole slaw and tomato salad (excellent!) Scott had roast pork loin (also excellent). We wasted a bit of time gambling at the video poker again, and then turned in early.

Friday we checked out as late as possible because we would be homeless all day waiting for our late night flight. Our flight was cancelled due to poor weather in New England. We flew on standby to Washington DC, and then had a 2 hour layover and flew standby home, we lucked out because we actually made it home (4 hours late). Others didn't fare so well. I am a bit peeved because I spent the money for a direct flight, but since the cancellation was weather related there really is nothing anyone can do for that.

Anyway, we are home now, and glad to be home.
I really missed Perry.
Vegas was a blast!

Full Wednesday on the Strip

Scott and I made the absolute most of today. I don't think we could have done more.
It is now about 3:30am, we just came in from the casino, and this is going to take me about a half hour to list everything we did.

1. We walked the strip from TI to the Monte Carlo and had lunch at the Brew Pub there.

2. After lunch we walked to New York, New York and rode the Coaster...Oh My God! What a rush!

3. Walked to Excaliber and took the tram to Mandalay Bay, went to Shark Reef and spent about 2 hours there.

4. Wandered the casino at Mandalay Bay, and then took the tram back to Excalibur.

5. Walked back to New York, New York and took the footbridge over to MGM Grand.

6. Shopped the stupid tourist crappy stores in that area

7. Went to Bill's Gamblin' Hall & Saloon and stayed for the 'Big Elvis show' Saw four Elvi singing in turn. The headlining Elvis was about 400lbs. At one point three of them sang together...very entertaining to say the least.

8. Hit every casino on the walk back to our section of the Strip. We didn't gamble in any of them, but just wandered around.

9. Stopped at The Venetian to stand on the balcony to watch the Volcano erupt from the Mirage which was ultimately cancelled due to inclement weather. Inclement weather didn't last long at all.

10. Back at our hotel, we gambled a bit on video poker and then went to the Social House for sushi. Yummmmm.

11. Walked back down the strip to Bill's to see a lounge act. The band was called Symmetry. The best part about this act was the back up dancers.

12. Walked back to TI and stopped in several casino's on the way just for kicks.

13. Settled down at the bar in TI to play some more video poker and have some drinks.

Now we are so tired, our legs are jello from all the walking. When we were asking someone directions to somewhere they said we couldn't walk there, but we did! Pooh to them!
I need sleep!
I am so tired!

There are lots more things that I can't think of at the moment that we did today, and Scott is asleep so I can't ask him to remember right now.

Tommorrow we plan on spending some time by the pool and relaxing with a huge margarita.

I took so many pictures today but I am too tired to post them. I will post them later.

Sleep...sleep...sleep.

Lions, Dolphins and Prosciutto

Today was a full day.
We went for breakfast at the coffee shop in the hotel, it totally could have been Bickford's or Denny's, nothing special. Then walked around for a while, took the walkway over Las Vegas boulevard to the Fashion Show Mall, wondered why we were there and headed back immediately. We wandered around until we decided to visit the Segfried and Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage. This was a great way to waste some time. I loved this place. I want a dolphin.

Oh! I also want a tiger!

They also had a very rare "push me pull me" I always thought these were fictional until I saw one up close.

After being in the sun for too long once again, we headed back to the hotel to do a bit of gambling and have a couple of drinks, I am down $15 total so far, Scott is down a bit more. We sat at the bar and played video poker and lasted for about an hour until we got bored and decided to go wandering again. We headed over to the Venetian again because that place is just unbelieveable.

We had dinner at Mario Batali's restaurant Enoteca San Marco. Fabulous meal. I highly recommend eating here if you can afford it. It's a $$$$ restaurant, but worth it.
The menu is made so you can have tastes of different antipasti and small meals. We had a cheese plate (fontina, gorgonzola and parmigiano reggiano)accompanied by three condiments (honey with black truffle, brandy soaked black cherries, and dried apricots with mustard/red pepper), prosciutto de parma, spinach and pancetta salad with mushrooms, and bread. Then Scott had Crispy duck & house raisins, and I had Reginette with sausage, broccoli rabe & chili. So good!

After dinner, we walked the Strip. In and out of different Casino's and shopping malls. I bought a pair of shoes. Cute Dansko sandals (Suzanne raved about them) on sale at the Walking store in the Forum Mall.

Later, we caught the pirate show outside of our hotel and then walked to Bellagio to catch the fountain show (Marsha suggested this). We HAVE to go watch this again! We didn't get the best vantage point, but it was just amazing!

This water show is really a sight to see. This picture is when it is just getting started, my camera died so I couldn't get a picture of it when it was full on excitement. I am sad for that, but I have the memory. Incredible.
We must have walked about 10 miles today in total, Scott is now snoring once again next to me and I will be snoring soon, too.
Did I say what a fabulous time we are having here?


More tomorrow!

Road Trip

Ok, now it actually is August 14th. It is 1:50am. My computer time is incorrect.
So, I will tell you about my day...

We checked out of the hotel and met Julie and Nick this morning at Dad's house for breakfast...really just toast and coffee, and then went to the cowboy store. I bought a pair of cowboy boots. I hope to get some use out of them, but I do live on the east coast, so I don't want to look like a freak, well, yes I do actually.
Nick bought a pair, too. He also bought a shirt. Scott bought nothing.

We said our goodbyes, and headed to return the car. Got to the airport, rented another car with a slight delay, they had cars but not enough people to move them. Strange. We ended up waiting about 1/2 hour for a car that we had reserved. I was getting so peeved, I almost went to the next car rental place and asked them if they had a one way rental available, but I bit my tounge and stayed as patient as I could. We finally got a car, a very comfortable Impala and started our journey south.

The ride south was beautiful, especially the southern most part of Utah into Arizona.
Really incredible parts of the country. I am so glad we decided to drive instead of fly.


Driving through these rocks was just spectacular!

Driving through the Moapa Indian Reservation at sundown we could see the sunset over the Sheep Range mountains.

And just as the sun went down, we came around a bend, and there she was. We were running out of gas and determined not to stop for any since we pre-bought the tank. SLC to LAS on one tank of gas. We returned the car, that had been beeping at us telling us that we were low on fuel, completely empty. Ahhh the poetry of it.


We actually made great time, it only took us about 5 hours. We left at 3:30pm and got here at 8:30pm. We took a cab to the hotel, checked in, and walked around.
Here is a photo of TI from the over street walkway to the Venetian.

A very tired couple in Venice. So, so very tired and weary.

Scott has been snoring next to me for a couple of minutes already. I walked down to the casino about a half hour ago and bought a beer in the gift shop. That beer is long gone now, only the second one since we got here, we seem to be off our game. We will try to do better tomorrow. Yay for tomorrow!!

The weekend in a nutshell

August 12, 2007 10:30pm

Park City.

This weekend has been one big party for Dad.
Friday night we went to a Cowboy cookout at friends of Dad and ChaCha’s. A very eccentric rich horse breeder/construction worker who lives only a few minutes from the Weller compound. The couple built the enormous house themselves with overkill of cowboy motif including furniture and chandeliers made from recycled wood and antlers. There was one man cooking steaks on a large grill outside, and all the fixins were inside, we were too late for most of it. All we got was salad and steak. Was delicious though.

Saturday we all got pedicures, and then went to Dad’s house for the big party. Scott and I were on parking duty to make sure that no car was blocked.
Here we are playing valets...

We had fun even tho we were put to work. After about an hour of that, we went inside and mingled and had a great time. I met a lot of my Dad’s friends who I hadn’t met before, including some Mohab cowboy type people who were true cowboys. Especially Vince and his girlfriend Deb. Vince was at the Cowboy Cookout the night before. He was quite a character and an excellent guitarist. He brought his steel guitar and played slide all night.

Nick played a bunch of songs and then Vince plopped down and accompanied him, and even later, Sand (another true cowboy) pulled out his guitar and joined in.

Later, Dad's present from ChaCha arrived. We all went to his big cutting circle to watch a firedancer. This picture really isn't very good, but you get the idea. She was dancing with fire! Ha!


Sunday, Scott and I went to Park City Ski Resort and took the PayDay chairlift up to the top of the mountain. It was spectacular! Windy and sunny. The ride took ½ hour to get up to the top and another ½ hour to come down. We both got sunburns, especially on our knees and faces.
We then went back to the hotel room and changed for the nights festivities.
Julie and Nick prepared an Indian feast. About 20 of the 50 people from last night were there for the feast. Delicious but dangerous Indian food. Scott and I have been burping and farting all night (in the privacy of our hotel room).

So tomorrow we are on our way to Las Vegas. We go back to Dad’s house for breakfast, and then Julie and Nick will take Scott and I to a cowboy clothing store. They went there yesterday, and Julie got a cool pair of cowboy boots, and Nick got a shirt. I may get some cowboy boots. Scott wants to get some cowboy shirts and possibly some boots, too. Then we return our car at the Salt Lake City airport, only to rent another car for the 5 ½ hour or so trek to Las Vegas. This should be an adventure.