After posting my last journal entry, I realized the Radcon report was incomplete. There are a couple of things I need to remember for next year. Such as remember to bring chapstick. Pasco was cold and dry. Sucked the moisture right out of me.

It also seems worthy to write down this year's hotel experience, which I guess the hotel did right in the end because I had forgotten all about the the check-in experience when I wrote the last journal entry.

We got to the Pasco Red Lion after a six hour drive. It was after ten o'clock in the evening and the Con, naturally, was in full swing. We checked in at the front desk.

Then we went to our FIRST room. Now, we knew the Red Lion was doing some remodeling in their rooms, so we weren't completely surprised. I knew something was wrong because when we reached our room, I saw a piece of masking tape on the wall next to the door with one word: grout. The door was ajar and we didn't need our key to walk in.

Inside this first room we found a bathroom that wasn't plumbed, no shower curtain, the shower drain was covered with duct tape, and the toilet handrails for the handicap were on the floor. The main room had the usual suspects for a hotel room plus a broom, an extension cord, a large assortment of housekeeping supplies, someone's jacket, someone's lunch remains, including an empty pint glass.

Well, I called the front desk and I was immediately put on hold. While I was on hold Ximena was checking out the bathroom and we switched places. Now I grumbled and moaned about this. I had been hoping to climb into bed, but this room wasn't going to do.

We go back to the front desk and get keys to room number two. This room was an ice box. We felt it as soon as we opened the door. I tried to turn on the heater but it wasn't working. So again we called the front desk. The manager was apologetic and maintenance couldn't get the heater going again--the heater was flipping the circuit breaker. The manager personally came to our room, gave us two tickets for a free breakfast on Saturday and Sunday, and offered another room down the hall. He explained the room still needed some work and housekeeping would prepare the room. We went down the hall to check it out and at least the heater was working. Minor remodeling things needed to be done, but it wouldn't bother us.

So we agreed to take that room and as housekeeping did their thing, we waited in the other room. The cold room. Ximena started to brush her teeth. Me? I grew up in Minnesota and now I know I have really lost my thick skin because I had to go wait in the hallway. The room was that cold.

When we finally got into the third and final room, and when the maid brought us our keys, she told us the front desk said they'd take the first night's stay off our bill. Not only did we get free breakfasts but our hotel bill was half what we'd been expecting.

It was annoying the first hour there (especially after a six hour night drive) but the hotel did good at fixing things.


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I'm back to working full time again. Eight months of this. I started Wednesday and I'm pleased with myself for practicing first things first. Instead of checking e-mail and Internet after work, I've been writing. One day I even wrote during lunch. I've also been checking e-mail and Internet as the last thing of the day. This is good.

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I've watched the first season of Lost already, but Ximena started watching it two weeks ago. Last Sunday all we did was watch the last four disks of season one. I am so hooked. I want season two now damnit.

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The neverending novel I'm writing never seems to end because I write too little in too long of a session. The words just come in small spurts. I can't get the flow. I swear my muse has an enlarged prostate.