we finished yesterday's donuts for breakfast. we went to the top of the stratosphere (free until 2pm i think) and rode the rides. yeah, there are rides at the top of the stratosphere. i rode x-scream and insanity. they're not as great as the names imply! x-scream just dangles you over the ledge to make you pee your pants. for me, it was just a photo opp. i asked twiddle thumbs to stay in the observation deck at the window where you can see x-scream. i sat in the very front and had my hands up like i always do. twiddle thumbs said people inside commented that the girl in front is crazy. thank you. then nopalita and i rode insanity. it's like swings up above. all it does is twirl you around. it feels a lot more intense than it looks. it looks slow but you can actually start to feel the Gs on it. there was another ride but it has no sense of height phobia associated with it so what's the point if there is no fear? i've ridden the same thing at great america. there used to be a roller coaster but they don't do that one anymore. high maintenance. they're supposed to install something new. the elevator operator said a bungy jump all the way to the bottom. twiddle thumbs and i thinks he must mean something like the sky jump at sky tower in auckland. it ain't no fucking bungy.

i could only bare to be outside long enough to take this picture

after the ride adventure, we went to ceasar's palace for lunch at the cheesecake factory. i just had a veggie burger. no big whoop but they make their own. it's like half grain patty, half veggie patty. not bad. our vegas adventure was pretty much done by this point. it was time to go home. we didn't want to get stuck in traffic. i drove back home the entire way by myself. so it wasn't a full relaxing no drive for me road trip. on the way back, it was amazingly hot. you know it's hot, duh it's the desert in the summer, but to see the temperature off a thermometer is the amazing part. 128F (53C) read one sign. last night watching the news at 2am, it said it was 95F (35C) at that time. you know you're in trouble when the low is 95!

i got home and looked at the mail that arrived yesterday. one of my friends in santa cruz sent me something. i touch the envelope and i don't need to guess, i know what it is. she told me about it. i can't believe it. it's the damn book signed by angela davis. 2 months shy of 2 years. there's a note on it from the department manager apologizing that it got pushed to the side for awhile. the autograph is very generic. i waited for this? that's ok. i have this perverse thing where i collect book signatures of bitches. i really haven't made my mind up about miss davis but there is one professor that i fucking hate. she's so pretentious. we had to read her book in a class. she wasn't from ucsc but she teaches close enough that she came down once for some guest thing. i went to that fucking thing and had her sign my book. i talked to her a bit to confirm what a bitch she is. i was a little miffed that miss latina did not sign the book in spanish like she did for all the other latinas. you know why? because she asked me, "you don't speak spanish, do you?" something like that. no, but that doesn't mean i don't appreciate autographs with a spanish line or two. cabrona.