People Visiting Report

Saren's friends came and went. Actually it's been almost a week now. I think they all had fun and I know it was really good for Saren to have her friends actually here in the flesh.

I took them all to the AdventureDome, which is an indoor amusement park underneath a giant pink dome. It's part of the hotel/casino Circus Circus, which has been around for quite some time and is a place where several people I have known and been related to have worked.

I first went to AdventureDome when it opened in 199-something or other. I think my friend and I may or may not have skipped school to go there. It has a big pink roller coaster that has loop-de-loops and such and my friend and I went on it over and over and over. There was also a water ride and that was all I remembered about it from then.

Now it looks somewhat worse for the years that have passed. I spotted a rather large crack in the pink glass dome while I was waiting for Irina to go on the Frog Hopper for the fifteenth time. She sure loved that thing. She and I went off on our own and periodically met up with the older kids.  It was packed and kind of humid and I never did get to go on the roller coaster that I so loved as a teenager. Or maybe I just loved that day. Saren declared the roller coaster boring.

I also took them to see the last Harry Potter movie. Irina went with us to that too. She spent the whole time with her hands over her ears and then fell asleep in my lap. After we got out I thought that I had liked the movie. I'm not as sure now. Sometime before it came out we were watching TV and they were having a Harry Potter marathon, as they are wont to do, and I started thinking that I would really like to re-read the whole series from beginning to end. I got to the very end of the last book when we went to see the movie and I feel reading the books so close to seeing the movie was a mistake. I was irritated about small decisions the film-makers made that were departures from the book. Little things that didn't make any difference really. But even so, I had some problems with the way they did the end. Whatevs. I love Harry Potter.

I took the kids to the airport on Tuesday and then we came home and all felt really happy that we had the house to ourselves again. Don't get me wrong, we were all glad they were here (not Harper), but we are introverts at heart (not Irina) and it just felt really good to be back home and by ourselves. Even Saren, and she obviously was the one who enjoyed the company the most. With the possible exception of Irina, who loved them all dearly and wanted to spend every second with them.