Posted by Pinky.

We just returned from Las Vegas yesterday. All in all I think we got a lot done. Although it was only a week long and Las Vegas really isn't so far away, by the time we got back we were all very, very tired - so tired that I feel like I should only be using short sentences to record my thoughts. Some people have been asking for a summary of what we did on our trip so here it is.

Sunday evening, June 10. Start walking to Las Vegas.

Tuesday morning, June 12. By the time we get to Las Vegas we're so tired we decide to rearrange our schedule and do 'nothing' the first day. We had planned to give ourselves Friday off but instead I'm out-voted 3-1 and we immediately use the first half of our play-day to nap and recover from the long walk (100 miles). After napping we rent cat bicycles (tricycle for Kim) for the afternoon and ride out to Red Rock Canyon, right outside Las Vegas. Our plan was find some nice shade and just sit around and admire the scenery, but when we got there it looked like everything was recently burned (desert fire? no shade at all) so basically we just had to keep on moving.

I had to take a picture of this - these mountain-sized rocks are at the Calico Basin at Red Rock. To me they looked like giant, sleeping cats.

Okay, maybe not so much in the photograph, but they did in person.

Anyway, by the time we got back to the city it was pretty late. We returned the bicycles and met up with two of our human being friends at their hotel in Downtown Las Vegas. They gave us food and let us sleep in their hotel room every night for the remainder of our trip. We didn't have a meeting that first night, we just went to sleep.

Wednesday, June 13. This was our first day of work. In the daytime we went to the Atomic Testing Museum for 'information gathering', from 9 a.m. when it opened until 5 p.m. when it closed. We took a short break for lunch (Himalayan food - loooks and tastes like Indian food to me). From about 6 p.m. till about 2 a.m. we had the first of several Pinky Show meetings. The meeting went long so we went to bed without dinner.

Thursday, June 14. Daytime was spent doing more information gathering. We went to the Nevada Test Site - home to about a 1,000 nuclear detonations and probably the most bombed place on Earth. While we were there we had a run-in with 'security' (with all their SUVs and guns and body armor) that was really an adventure in and of itself - but I guess that's a story for another day.

One of many warning signs at the entrance to NTS.

Thursday afternoon & evening: more meetings. Dinner was Las Vegas 'buffet food'. Between the two of them I think Kim and Mimi probably ate about a thousand shrimps. I have no idea how so much shrimp can fit in such a tiny cat (Kim). Buffets are a terrible idea.

Friday, June 15. More photography and note gathering at Lake Mead and Valley of Fire. These places are beautiful. And hot! The heat kept on making our camera shut down.

The water of Lake Mead is so blue it glows.

Lots of bright orange-red rocks at Valley of Fire.

Like the previous two days, we have a long meeting from late afternoon to about 3 a.m. Dinner is Chinese food. I'm still trying to avoid eating animals so I ate mushroom-noodles & pea sprouts while the others ate fish.

Saturday, June 16. Two more of our human being advisor-friends arrive in Las Vegas and we all have another meeting together. I have a baked potato for lunch. We break at 5 p.m. and attend a friend's wedding held in the backyard of a house on Torrey Pines Drive. It's a small wedding - 22 people and 4 cats. We have lots of fun and leave around midnight.

Sunday, June 17. Another full day of meetings, starting from the morning and ending at 10 p.m. We get dinner food from a Whole Foods Market. I have never heard of Whole Foods Market but apparently they are popping up everywhere. I don't know if the food was healthier than what we usually eat but it didn't taste good.

Monday, June 18. One last day of meetings. This meeting and the previous one centers on matters of financing The Pinky Show. On one hand I do realize that talking and planning about money is essential if we're going to be able to continue working on The Pinky Show. But personally I'd rather spend my time thinking about matters of history, culture, politics, and stuff like that, so basically these meetings feel like some form of mild torture. Regardless, by the time we say good-bye to our human being friends I feel like we've made some progress in terms of deciding on some of the things that need to be done in the immediate-future. We all wave good-bye to each other and they go catch their various airplanes to go back to where they came from. The sun goes down and we start our walk back home.

Tuesday, June 19. Arrive back home.

Wow, I was also going to talk about what we discussed in our meetings but this diary entry is already so long and I'm sure you're already bored by now. So I think I'll continue on tomorrow. Sorry.

~pinky