Living in Las Vegas has many downsides. For one, smoking runs rampant here, making it hard to buy groceries or pharmaceuticals without having to expose one's self to tobacco's toxic fumes. There are a lot of people here who don't know where they're going when they drive (which is understandable) and drive erratically as a result (which is unnecessary), plus a lot of drunk drivers. The lights that entice the tourists ensure that even driving half an hour into the desert won't allow a clear view of the stars.
But the overriding drawback of Las Vegas is the heat. I'm Canadian. I like snow, which is rare in Las Vegas (see the Las Vegas snow page for more). No, I don't want it all year (and for the clueless, it does NOT snow in Canada all year), but Christmas without snow is just wrong to me. A hot summer's day to me should be no more than the upper 20s C, and a stinkin' hot day would be in the 30s C. But in Vegas, the days are so hot that even going outside for a short time can be unbearable.
So of course, everything is air conditioned. But when we went to Australia for six weeks from May to July, 2000, we were good energy conservationists and turned off the air conditioning in our apartment. We didn't have our hamster yet, and knew the plants would be fine since someone would come in to water them.
We diligently put all of the cheap Easter chocolate in the fridge so it wouldn't melt. We made sure there was nothing fresh left out to rot. We knew it would get hot inside, but we closed the blinds to help keep the sun out, and left it at that.
Of course, we managed to completely forget the stock of expensive Baker's chocolate, as well as my tub of precious last President's Choice Decadent Chocolate Chips. I went to great effort to bring those down from Canada, since I know American chocolate is usually too sweet, and no chocolate chip in the world beats PC brand for my cookies.
And we didn't even consider the candles such as the cheap tapers I have around in holders, or the nice round ones I'd been saving for something special.
From this point on, it's best to let the pictures speak for themselves (thumbnails lead to larger versions)...
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Melted candles, moved from where they melted to be on display. Notice the round blue one on the top shelf is not quite so round anymore. |
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Close ups of the candles. |
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Two pics of the melted chocolate chips, one in the tub, one out. The chocolate re-hardened, but you can see where I drew a line with my finger in it when it was melted. You can also see how the cocoa butter melted out of it. |
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Page last updated June 5, 2004.
Email me at kimberly@kimberlychapman.com
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