What f'ing time is it?

Okay..... on Friday (11/18) the Dubyas (Big & 'Lil) and I jumped on an airplane headed for Arizona..... the long way (yeah, I know.... but we're poor and I'm a sucker for cheap flights). We left our humble home in CT around noon..... our flight was scheduled to leave out of Providence at 4:40pm and we wanted to leave ourselves plenty of time for traffic, a stop for lunch and some cushion in case of the all-but-inevitable baby meltdown. All went perfectly.... we got there with plenty of time.... got through security.... even managed to have a couple of pints before boarding. The first leg of our flight landed in Nashville, TN at 6:25pm..... but that's central standard time.... one hour behind CT time which is eastern standard time. Our second flight departed Nashville at 7:50pm and landed in Las Vegas, NV at 10:05pm..... but that's pacific standard time.... two hours beind Nashville and three hours behind CT. Needless to say, when we finally (and I mean finally) arrived at the Las Vegas Hilton..... it was nearly 3:00am in CT time or midnight Vegas time. At this point, the Big Dubya started correcting me... telling me that it really no longer mattered what time it was in CT, we are in Vegas Baby! But, try telling that to an infant who eats on a fairly rigid schedule.

We spent Saturday walking around Vegas and we had a really great day -- despite the gambling and prostitution, Vegas is really a fairly family-friendly city (Relax, it was a joke!) The Big Dubya seemed to enjoy seeing public drunkenness (as he writes here) and hopes that at some point we can get back for a longer stint.

Around 3:00 pm (keep in mind, we are on Vegas time now) we hit the road to meet up with our friends in Lake Havasu, AZ. After a stop at KMart (which has slot-machines!!!) for supplies (diapers, wipes.....) we made it to Havasu at 6:00 Vegas time.... cuz, yes, you guessed it.... Lake Havasu City, AZ is on mountain standard time.... for those keeping score that's two hours behind CT, one hour behind Nashville (not that we care about Nashville anymore) and one hour ahead of Las Vegas.

As if all of this wasn't confusing my simple little mind enough..... we were close enough to the CA border that sometimes our cellphones (which were also serving as my watch and alarm clock) picked up an AZ (aka mountain time) signal and sometimes it picked up a CA (aka pacific time)
signal.... the time displayed on my phone would just change, and then change back, then change again.... and I hadn't even moved! So, long story long -- I never knew what the F*CK time it was the entire week we were there!

Our return trip was similarly confusing to me..... let's just say that we left our friends at 4:00am Havasu time on Friday...... 7 states and a visit to the grandparents in Boston later...... the Dubya's and I got back to our home in CT at 4:00pm CT time on Saturday -- yes, it took us 36 hours to get home -- but our parents got to see the 'lil guy, so.... we are back in the good graces after blowing off Thanksgiving