Daily Diary Notes - July

07/30/2008 - Today Connie awoke with some continued numbness to her left arm and leg that she experienced yesterday and hadn't said anything. So we ended up going to the Medial Clinic just up the street. After 4 and 1/2 hours they had taken a cat scan, x-rays, blood work and didn't find anything obvious. They scheduled her to see a neurologist on Friday and to get another bone test for her osteoporosis. I thought that the CT scan, which uses special x-ray equipment to produce multiple images or pictures of the inside of the body and a computer to join them together in cross-sectional views of the area being studied, already provided enough information, that when read by a trained radiologist, would show problems such as cancers, cardiovascular disease, infectious disease, trauma and musculoskeletal disorders.

07/29/2008 - We just returned from a last minute trip to Kingman, AZ and Laughlin, NV with a neighbor. Our first stop was Kingman, the Heart of historic Route 66 & one of the hidden treasures of Arizona. We started out by having lunch at Mr D's Dinner. They have a great hamburger, sweet potato fries and the best fried onion rings we've had since New England. We then went to the Route 66 Museum at the Visitor's Center and the Mohave Museum of History and Arts. We enjoyed both and found they offered a lot of information. After a little picture taking, we then headed for Laughlin.We stayed at Harrah's for the night, played slots, poker, came in 5th place in a poker tournament and had an otherwise good time. The next morning, we enjoyed breakfast by the pool, and enjoyed the beach on the Colorado River, before having a buffet brunch and heading back to Las Vegas.

07/27/2008 - This morning we sat on our deck reading while we thoroughly enjoyed a drenching rain, thunder and lightening storm that lasted more than 30 minutes. Quite a rarity for us. We then went to GVR for a champagne brunch of crabs legs and some of the best bar-b-qued ribs we've had anywhere since we came here.

07/24/2008 - This evening we went to the Springs Preserve and had dinner at Wolfgang Pucks' Cafe and listened to some live jazz while we dinned. Dinner was good, but the heated double chocolate pudding cake with chocolate ice cream and drizzled chocolate sauce was excellent. After dinner we came home and watched one of our favorite summer TV shows, "So You Think You Can Dance."

07/22/2008 - Today we were treated to the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, by a neighbor friend for taking and picking him up from the airport last week. Needless to say we thought it was great and that Heath Ledger's stunning portrayal as The Joker was surpurb. He completely and totally nailed it. We think he will probably get nominated for an Academy Award. See my review for more ... Movie Review - The Dark Knight. We went to the Cheesecake Factory afterwards and had a wonderful dinner.

07/20/2008 - We spent the weekend watching the 137th Open, at Royal Birkdale, which will be remembered for its wild weather, and its pure drama in the fantastic play of Greg Norman, who led the tournament after three days of play. While many waited for what they thought would be an inevitable fade-out by the 53-year-old Norman, he not only defied the years and the cynics, but actually improved his position. With more heavy wind, particularly in the morning, conditions remained far from ideal. None of the remaining 83 players broke par, and 72s were enough to plant Norman and defending champion Padraig Harrington at the top of the leaderboard going into the final round. The wind was never less than 20mph, and at times gusted up to 50mph causing many good scores being wrecked by double-bogeys or worse. Is was so bad on the greens they almost considered stopping play because the balls were moving without even being touched. As were many, we were rooting for Greg Norman and were disappointed when he got beat by Padraig Harrington, even though Padraig played a fantastic final round and really deserved to win.

07/18/2008 - We went to the South Point Casino to see the 38th Anniversary Tour of the "World Famous" Lipizzaner Stallions. A show hearkening back to time when the horse was a symbol of grace and majesty, the Lipizzaner Stallions were truly a great experience to watch. One does not need to be a horse lover to enjoy this equestrian treat and the beauty of these majestic animals. Over the years, twenty-three million people throughout North and South America, Great Britain, Europe, Australia and Hawaii have seen this internationally acclaimed spectacle. Click Here to Read More ...

07/16/2008 - Today for something different we went to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. It is a caffeteria style buffet featuring a hge salad bar, pasta bar, and desert bar. Connie liked it, but I wasn't that impressed.

07/14/2008 - We decided to do something different for lunch today and went to the Cheesecake Factory. We had an excellent lunch. We shared a Caesar salad, Connie had a sun-dried tomato and chicken fettuccine with a tomato cream sauce, I had a grilled chicken fettuccine with a spicy chipolata sauce. It was too bad that we were not headed home afterwards, as we had enough left over that it would have easily made another meal.

07/13/2008 - Today I played in a $10,000 freeroll hold'em tournament sponsored by the poker room at Green Valley Ranch. I came in 5th and won $473.00. Then it was off to the airport to pick up my neighbor. His flight was on time, but because they lost his luggage, it took two hours before we were able to get out of the airport. Didn't get home until midnight.

07/11/2008 - Even though there was a lot of thunder, we only got a small amount of rain last night. Got up this morning and drove one of our neighbors to the airport. Figured as long as we were up early we might as well go out for breakfast, so we went over to Sunset Casino and had their buffet breakfast. It was quite good, even better than Green Valley's.

07/10/2008 - Hot! Hot! Hot! Today was 107 and it's been nearly 110 for the past week. The rest of the week looks like it will be about 102, but with rain in the forecast, the humidity has been much higher than normal, nearly 60%. We sure could use the rain though. Our total rainfall for the year so far has only been 8/10's of an inch. Went out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants tonight, the Elephant Bar, and had one of their new summer specials, Grilled BBQ chicken, shrimp and spare-ribs, corn on the cob, baked beans, coleslaw, and watermelon. It was very good.

07/06/2008 - In addition to watching some very exciting Olympic trials all week with all kinds of records being broken, today we watched the Wimbledom Men's Finals. Every year we get into watching the three major tennis tournaments, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open. a few weeks back we watched Rafeal Nadal win the French Open, as expected, for the fourth time. It will be called the greatest final ever. It was certainly the longest at 4 hours 48 minutes, and that is without the two rain delays. We both agreed it was the finest tennis match that we had ever witnessed. Nadal dethroned Roger Federer after a five-year reign by winning the longest-ever Wimbledon men's final. The consistently heartstopping 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7 tie break), 6-7 (8-10 tie break), 9-7 was a pleasure to watch. Read more ...

07/05/2008 - Today was errand day; bank, gas, Walmart, library, pick up some show tickets, and brunch buffet at Silverton Casino. With buffets like this, why I haven't gained weight living here is a mystery even to me. Starting with two peach champagnes, we headed straight to the crabs legs and were served up with what appeared to be nearly a full pound of steaming hot crab with real melted butter. My next trip included some french toast battered in crack oats, fresh scrambled eggs and bacon. Connie had some delicious looking prime rib with garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed summer squash. My last trip included some of the best Chicken Cacciatore I ever had with some excellent curry shrimp on rice from the Chinese station. We both finished with another glass of champagne, some chocolate covered strawberries and a delicious blueberry pie. For dinner this evening we had a banana split. A neighbor then called and asked if we want to go out and gamble for a couple of hours, and we said why not. Connie lost, I won.

07/04/2008 - FOURTH of JULY! It was already 95-degrees when we got up this morning. Connie cooked a nice breakfast before we headed to the pool to get some reading done before it got too hot. We had plans to watch the FAB (a Beatles group) and the Henderson Symphony followed by fireworks at the Events Center in downtown Henderson this evening, however, due to the predicted 109 temperature, we decided not to go. Instead, watched the 35th annual Independence Day celebration of the Boston Pops at Boston's Charles River Esplanade. This year Rascal Flatts was the guest performer under the direction of conductor Keith Lockhart. As usual, the finale included an explosive fireworks display accompanied by the "1812 Overture" and was a great reminder of the year we chartered a 32-foot sailboat and sailed to Boston and watched the performance live. Of course the best part this years was we watched from our living room which was a cool 75 degrees.

07/03/2008 - Here we are at the 2008 half-year point already. Sure doesn't seem like the year is half over already! Today we were taken out and treated to lunch by a friend of ours who used to live in our complex. We then went back to their house and play a board game. On the way home Connie and I decided to sop by the casino at GVR, and what a deal. About 10 minutes after I sat down to play poker the jack pot hit and I won $337.00. Not a bad day.

07/02/2008 - We had our normal free buffet lunch at GVR and then sat for some slots and poker. Having lost at poker, I decided to take Connie home and go back for a more extended play. After about 8 more hourse I finally got my money back, made a profit for the day of about $40 and won an entry into a $10,000 free-roll tournament their holding on July 13th. First prize in the free-roll is $3,500. Wish me luck.