So last night I was up until 1:30 am, couldn't sleep (which sucks when you know you're predestined to wake up at 6:30 am to cats fighting in the kitchen).

Something about being awake, half-heartedly surfing the web while everything is middle-of-the-night quiet, with Liz happily sleeping one room away, well, it reminded me of my second trip to Dubai. I was jet-lagged like crazy, and sat for hours in Liz's unfinished living room, reading wikipedia articles about the WWE and the 2004 World Series.

Seriously.

Anyway, last night - er, this morning - I decided to check and see what's going on in Dubai. Now that the whole sex-on-the-beach thing has died down I haven't heard much from our favorite Emirate. Here's what I found:

Dubai Mall is finally here - the mall at the base of the Burj Dubai opens Thursday morning. The 5.9 million square foot facility is home to Dubai Aquarium, Dubai Ice Rink, 1,200 retail outlets and 14,000 parking spaces.

You'll seriously want to remember where you parked.

They should add a car dealership - you think one would do quite well with the sheer number of people who are going to lose their cars.

Emirates Airline lands in L.A. with a splash - the Dubai-based airline began nonstop flights between Los Angeles and Dubai this week. What better way to kick it off than a party?

Tonight they're spending over $3 million to rent out the Kodak Theatre (home of the Oscars) and throw a shindig hosted by Hilary Swank, with music by Ricky Martin and dinner by Wolfgang Puck.

What, reviving Hollywood luminaries like Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall was too expensive? Couldn't they have unfrozen Walt Disney to MC it? Gotten Cab Calloway and his Orchestra to play some jazz?

Then again, reviving Ricky Martin's career might actually be more of a feat than bringing back dead people ...

Lastly my favorite article - Dubai runs out of gold on Diwali rush. The Indian holiday kicked off yesterday and apparently they bought all of the gold in the city.

What?!