What kind of gamer I am

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Your BrainHex Class is Mastermind.

Your BrainHex Sub-Class is Mastermind-Survivor.

You like solving puzzles and devising strategies as well as pulse-pounding risks and escaping from hideous and scary threats.

According to your results, there are few play experiences that you strongly dislike.

Learn more about your classes and exceptions at BrainHex.com.

Your scores for each of the classes in this test were as follows:

Mastermind: 14
Survivor: 13
Conqueror: 13
Achiever: 12
Socialiser: 8
Seeker: 5
Daredevil: 3

Go to BrainHex.com to learn more about this player model, and the neurobiological research behind it.

Woof

We tentatively adopted a dog. His name is Zeus and he looks to most likely be a poodle mix, possibly mixed with a shih tzu. He used to belong to the kids' maternal grandparents but they had to get rid of him because he and the dog they already had couldn't work out their differences. He was adopted by a mutual friend who lived across the street in the same building the kids' mom lives in. That friend has to move and Zeus needs a new home.

We've talked a lot about getting a dog and this was as good an opportunity as any. He knows us, he knows the kids, he's house-trained, he's a nice size, and he seems to be pretty obedient (though not particularly clever). We picked him up and brought him home today.

Thalia is deeply offended that we've allowed this abomination into the house. She's also nervous, bordering on frightened. She's keeping out of the way but hasn't really gone into hiding either. This is her house and I know she's not to just give up her throne. She's also very curious and I think she's working up the nerve to stand her ground and show Zeus who's boss around here.

If he and the cat can't establish harmony within a week or two, then Zeus will have to go.

Wrap up

The rest of my trip to California was filled with training, knitting, petting kitties, eating out, and a silent film at an outdoor theatre. Very good trip. I had many more blog notes but I misplaced the notebook. Good to be home.

Day 2

Today was a long day. Mostly training. Nothing I have to do is particularly difficult, but there are a lot of steps and a lot of little things to keep in mind.

Lunch was at a buffet called Souplantation that was some drive away in Ventura County. Salad, soup, pasta, dessert. I had a most excellent strawberry lemonade. I got to see a lot of ocean and a lot of farmland.

Supper was at a wee little Chinese restaurant in Agoura. Sesame chicken, pepper beef, and crispy shrimp. It's no Lingnan, but it was good. My fridge is filled with a few groceries and leftovers.

We packed it in early tonight and I've just been relaxing in my lovely fluffy bed, watching television and blogging.

Hampton Inn

My hotel is gorgeous. I took pictures of my room, which Barbara cherry picked for me, but I can't upload them until I get home. This bed is incredible. It's either a king or California king. It has lovely sheets, five pillows with two more in the closet, and the most wonderful fluffy duvet. It's like sleeping in a giant soft white fluffy cloud. The Hampton Inn actually markets the mattresses, pillows, linens, and even the towels and shower curtain for purchase. If I had a few thousand dollars and a larger bedroom I'd be pimping out our bedroom with this.

This morning, though, I had to switch rooms. I discovered that my door didn't latch properly and was unlocked all day yesterday. It wasn't an issue overnight since I had the dead bolt and slider both engaged. The hotel took 50% off last night's room rate and moved me to a new room down the hall. This room has nearly everything the other room had, but it's smaller and the layout isn't as nice. I'm fine with it. If I were staying longer or in the room more often I'd probably have held out for the latch to be fixed.

Day 1

So far I've seen a little stone cafe that is a Sunday morning celebrity biker hangout, the area where they film a lot of westerns, such as Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, and (from afar), Mel Gibson's crazy church (which is not in Malibu as the media always reports, but actually in Agoura).

There are a lot of mobile home parks here, but they don't fit the stereotypical image you get of a trailer park. These are classy mobile homes in lushly landscaped hills with stunning views. A modest mobile home about the size of my former house suite goes for about $250k. In Malibu, there are large and fancy mobile homes with ocean views that go for more than $1 million.

Two things really stand out:

1) The landscape here looks a great deal like the Okanagan and other parts of the BC interior, but with more flowers.

2) Palm trees! Honest to goodness palm trees, everywhere!

This evening we had a late dinner at Paradise Cove. I had the Macadamia Coconut Jumbo Shrimp. It was good, but the prices definitely include the amazing ocean view.

Sensory Overload

Farmland in California is incredibly precise. Perfect squares and rectangles, all neatly laid out.

The ocean is really big. I've never seen a body of water so large that I couldn't see any land on the other side.

Los Angeles is huge. It goes on forever. You can't conceive of how huge it actually is until you see it. I saw at least 4 football fields, Dodger Stadium, the Staples Centre, all kinds of baseball fields, lots of pools, and endless terra cotta roofs. Beaches that go on forever. The Pacific Coast Highway.

LAX is also huge, but not as confusing or overwhelming as I feared. It was pretty easy to go from the gate to the baggage claim, my luggage came quickly, and I had to wait about 20 minutes for my van to take me to the hotel. It's very loud, though. It was hard to find a place that was quiet enough to make a phone call that also had decent enough reception.

The drive from the airport was various kinds of crazy. First, there were a bazillion different buses, vans, and taxis all trying to pick up passengers at each of the seven terminals. Drivers here are very aggressive. Everyone drives far too close together because there are just so many cars. It doesn't feel overly dangerous since traffic moves so slowly so often. You know the wall-to-wall rows of cars, five lanes wide in each direction that you see in the movies and on TV? That's exactly the traffic I was in. The motorcycles routinely zip between the lanes! Crazy!

The neatest part of the drive was seeing famous routes I know from movies. Sunset Boulevard. Mullholland Drive. Ventura. Santa Monica. Malibu. Everything is familiar even though it's entirely new.