false alarm

overall i've had a pretty good weekend. there were a few meetings that went too long, but what can you do - pretend that your 1 year old nephew has had enough and you need to take him out? hmmm. not a bad idea. i think i wrote the other day that it was good to catch up with lots of people and meet some new ones too. i didn't realise how many people i knew in the states.

we said goodbye to hil and daniel around dinner time, then mum and dad and i headed out for dinner. dinner was good. they then went out and did the laundry and i caught up on some emails and chatted with a few people from all around the world - thanks msn. they got back and mum wanted to go for a swim, so we went down to the pool while dad watched the crows score yet another victory for the season on his laptop. go the mighty crows.

today we aren't doing much. just packing up this morning. we are hanging around in LA for one more day as my uncle is flying in from aus this afternoon, so we will have dinner with him tonight and we'll all stay at the same hotel, then tomorrow we'll head off to phoenix.

so last night just as i had got to sleep, this massive alarm goes off with this annoucement saying, this is an alarm, you need to evacuate the building via the stairs and assemble in the carpark, do not get in the elevator. and it keeps going. so mum and i jump out of bed (well i didn't jump, mum did, i just kind of rolled out after questioning if we really did have to leave) dad was still watching the footy. mum grabs her rings and her phone, i was just concerned about what i was wearing and decided i wasn't going anywhere till i changed my top. who knows what dad was doing. so we trudge out the room, there's another lady who is in the corridor and we all go out the backstairs. this alarm is still going off. we made our way round to the carpark, only one other man follows us out the building. we end up just going back inside and the guy at the front desk says it's a false alarm. great. thanks very much. we get back to the room to discover the card isn't working to get us back in. fantastic. dad goes and gets one that works. meanwhile, mum and i are sitting on the floor laughing about how we reacted and in the situation which for all we knew, could have been real. we get back into bed, it then takes me hour to get back to sleep. thanks sheraton. thanks very much.

for those back home in melbourne, hope that the long weekend was great. hope syg went well. only four more days till school holidays, don't go crazy.