mere days away from our departure for tokyo. if you have any last minute travel tips for the region, get ’em in quick! two weeks not at work sounds excellent right now too, because it’s been a busy couple weeks.

although part of me foolishly wishes the vacation wasn’t happening just yet… everyone just got halo and there’s a LOT of fun to be had playing it online with all my friends, whose fervor i can’t imagine will last past the next month or so.

oh, and there was a weird twist to the xbox tragedy. after a long, pointless, disappointing call to the service line sunday night, where they said, ‘it’s still in the factory, call back after wednesday and we should be able to update you’, to which i responded, ‘really? it’s almost been a month!’ before eventually hanging up, i got a monday surprise. a box arrived for me with a new (or at least different, refurbished) box in place of my twice-broken one repaired again, and a coupon for a month of free online service with an apologetic form letter. i guess it’s nice of them, although A) it should have taken way less time, and B) it’s extra strange that the service number people had no idea they had already sent me a box back. maybe i’ll get another one through some fluke in the system if i call back? re-selling one for a few hundred bucks might be enough to make the whole ordeal worthwhile…

finally, an addendum to the bizarre near-miss of our day-before-the-fire wedding trip to malibu. i found a photo of the hotel that my coworkers who decided to stay the night locally all slept in. this is it the next day — the hill in the back that appears to be getting dumped on is right where we had a few beers on a little patio area the night before. crazy.