Daily Diary Notes - November

11/29/2008 - Spent several hours today researching insurance policies and finally decided to change my auto policy with GEICO. With the exact same coverage, by switching to AARP-Hartford, I saved over $400.00/year. I saved so much that I even picked up a Renters policy, which I had dropped from Farmer's, for only $170.00/year. Two policies for one and still saved over $200. Such a deal.

11/27/2008 - Today we again awoke to a pouring rain. Since yesterday morning we have ended up with nearly .75 inches which brought our yearly total to over 2.2 inches for the entire year so far. We tried to go to a Red Lobster today to have a nice Maine lobster for Thanksgiving, but they were closed when we got there. We ended up at a restaurant called Mimis Cafe, where we ended up with an excellent meal at a very reasonable price, plus had enough left over for a complete meal again tomorrow. For a "chain" restaurant it was very good. It's always good to have leftovers after Thanksgiving. We then came home and watched a Netflix movie, The Kite Runner, which was excellent.

11/25/2008 - Today was our 38th anniversary which we celebrated by sitting around reading, relaxing and watching a movie, until we went out to dinner. We decided to try a new restaurant and were extremely pleased. Read more ...

11/22/2008 - Don't know where the time goes. Doesn't seem like it's been anywhere near two weeks since I updated this. Oh well, here goes. Connie got her hair done last Tuesday, thereby embarrassing me into getting my fifth haircut this year. We went to see the new James Bond movie, "Quantum of Solace". Click here for our review. I came in 3rd in a Omaha Hi-Low tournament a week ago and won $500 for the night. Been doing a lot of emailing back and forth about my friend back east, Sol Negm, who nearly died of kidney failure. Also found out that Jay Tonkin, the fellow I went to work for when I retired from the shipyard, is dying of cancer. Have also been dealing (unsuccessfully) with the management here at out apartment complex over the enforcement of rules for other tenants and some proposed changes they are making. Other than all of that, we've just been doing our normal book reading, going out to eat, gambling, and watching TV.

11/07/2008 - Another week gone by, Zip! We just got back from a five day stay in Laughlin, complements of Harrah's. I even got us a free upgrade to a nice room overlooking the river by tipping the desk clerk $10. Laughlin is located right on the Colorado River only about a hour and a half ride south of us on the Arizona boarder. We spent the first night reading our books and watching some of the election coverage. It turned out exactly as I had predicted. Connie placed 32nd in the free 2-day invitational slot tournament, beating out about 275 other participants, and winning $50. Beside sitting around relaxing and reading our books, we naturally did some gambling, went to a movie, "Pride and Glory", ate out every day and spent one day visiting the "London Bridge" (view pictures) at Lake Havasu. Our biggest disappointment at Lake Havasu was a failed visit to Angelina's Italian Restaurant and Cafe, by far the best restaurant in town. It didn't open until 5:00 pm and we had to be back at Harrah's by six to pick up Connie's tournament win. Our last night we had a great restaurant find, a place called "Granny's Gourmet Room" at the Pioneer Gambling Hall. Way more than we expected. The decor was lovely. We each had French Onion soup gratinee with crouton and Gruyere cheese, Medallions of Beef with roasted garlic, shallots, red wine and mushrooms, asparagus and oven roasted potatoes, glass of wine and a raspberry white chocolate mousse for dessert. It was an excellent meal and the price was right, only $50 for the two of us. All in all it was a relaxing get-a-way.

11/02/2008 - Here it is another month gone by. My how time seems to fly as you get older, or is it just us? Spent the last couple of days hanging around reading and catching up on watching some of the TV show that we had recorded on TIVO and getting ready for our trip next week. We're head to Laughlin for four days. I did go out and shoot pool with a couple of my neighbors yesterday and today. I actually did pretty good, my old game seems to be coming back to me.