A Daily Diary - "August"

08/31/2009 - I spent the last two days working on some pictures I took of the "Pittman Wash" next to our apartment complex for a local photography contest. I really don't expect to win anything, however it was a good excuse to get out and take some pictures. I posted the pictures on my Photo Gallery Blog at the following address: Pittman Wash Series.

08/23/2009 - Today we went with a neighbor to the French Eiffle Tower restaurant at the Paris, Paris Casino on the Strip. They have a Sunday Jazz brunch for the next two months. Though a little expensive, it was very good, Connie had a pounded, crusted pan fried chickenI breast with Potatoes Augratin, I had a delicious pan fried rainbow trout and Marc had a Seafood Salad with Lobster, Crab and shrimp that look absolutely delicious. We then had apple stroudle strudel and probably the best Creme Brulee I've ever had. The female jazz singer with a three piece backup group was excellent. The views included the new City Center project and the Dancing Fountains at the Bellagio. It was a lovely brunch. Afterwards, we all went to Green Valley Ranch for some poker and slot play. I ended up the big winner, picking up enough to pay for lunch and pay for Connie's slot losses.

08/22/2009 - Today I got up late after being out all night Friday. My neighbor friend Jim and I went to the "M" and played poker til midnight and then went to Binion's on Freemont Street and then back to GVR. We didn't get home until 5:00am. I only mad a couple of hundred, but we had a lot of fun and a pretty good night. The rest of the day I worked on scanning and backing up all my old Federal tax files and reviewing a new disk management program for my computer.

08/21/2009 - After spending the morning at the pool finishing my book, "First Daughter" by Eric Van Lustbader, I went with my downstairs neighbor Ron to the local pool hall for some Nine Ball. I had a pretty good afternoon and won about 10 out of 15 games.

08/18/2009 - I went to the pool while Connie layed down and tried to get rid of a headache. I made a nice fruit salad for lunch which we enjoyed over some shows we had recorded. Mid-afternoon we headed to the "M" and played until dinner time. For dinner we went to their Italian restaurant, Marinelli's. I had the appetizer special, an Aui tuna salad, which was some of the best Aui Tuna I've ever had. We both had the Spaghetti Bolognese which was a filet mignon ragu with porcini mushrooms and a parmigiano reggiano. The whole dinner was comped and only cost us a tip.

08/17/2009 - I spent most of the day working on organizing my pictures on the computer and backing them up to disk.

08/16/2009 - Between the pool and going out to eat, we spent the last three days watching the PGA Championship. After a terrific start, Tiger Woods proved that he is human and ended up loosing to Y.E. Yang after going into the weekend with a four shot lead. Yang's victory will go down in history as one of sport's greatest upsets. The most notable aspect of it is that Yang did to Tiger Woods what Tiger has become famous for doing to everyone else.

08/13/2009 - After some pool time, I made "Sloppy Joe's" for lunch, which we both enjoyed throughly. We ate over our Netflix movie, "The Marine". Not the best movie in the world, however it was full of "action" and explosions. Later in the day I went to the "M" with one of my neighbor friends and played poker until four in the morning.

08/12/2009 - Today we went to see the movie "Julia, Julia", staring Meryl Streep. It seems that most movie goers rate this movie highter than the critics. It think it's because so many of us "grew up" watching Julia Child on TV and thought that Meryl Streep brilliantly portrayed the Julia that we all remember. We give it a strong 4-Stars.


08/10/2009 - Stayed home and watched Tiger Woods win the Buick Open. Yea, we know, it was on a week ago Sunday, however that was the day we left for Tahoe, so we taped it.

08/09/2009 - After a lovely morning at the pool reading our books, we headed to Green Valley Ranch for their Sunday Buffet Brunch. The hot steamed crabs legs were so good that we had two helpings. It was all we ate, except for some cold shrimp and a Caesar salad. We accompanied them with two spicy Bloody-Mary's and some champagne. It was a very enjoyable meal. After a little "playing" we then went home to catch up on some of our TV shows that we had taped while we were in Tahoe.

08/08/2009 - Home, home at last. Though it's always great to go away, after a week it is always nice to come home and sink back into your own bed. Unlike our trip up to Tahoe, this was just another one of those long uneventful 8-1/2 hour drives. Even though this was less of a vacation trip and more of a trip to take care of some family legal matters and celebrate my mom's 87th birthday, we still had a pretty good time.

08/07/2009 - We were sitting around Tom's talking over the week as we waited for mom to show up to take us out for a planned lunch at Applebee's when Tom had another one of his "heart arrhythmia" attacks. Tom said that they usually go away in 5-10 minutes, but because this one didn't go away after 20 minutes, he agreed to have us drive him to the emergency room. We called mom and had her meet us there. Unfortunately by the time we got him admitted, it had stopped and they were unable to get any readings. Because they were having an outside bar-b-que we decided to have lunch there. Afterwards we went back to Tom's and went through some mom's family pictures. Connie and I went to the Montblue Casino to play for a while and then returned to Tom's for a roast chicken dinner. We then watched a few TV show together and then returned to our motel room to pack for our return trip.


08/06/2009 - Went over to Tom's and began working on the legal documents that we needed to have mom sign. Picked up mom and went to a Notary Public's office to have everything Notarized. We then drove to Carson City to pick up my car.

08/05/2009 - We went to the grocery store to pick up cake and ice cream for mom's party and went over to Tom's to see Paul and Bonnie. Connie and I then went to Harrah's and played slots and poker to kill some time before our planned birthday party at Tom's. Gave mom some gifts and then Bonnie, Tom, and mom and I played dominoes until our evening outing. Tommy then surprised everyone by taking us for a 3-hour sunset dinner/dance cruise aboard the Tahoe Queen, Tahoe’s only authentic Mississippi paddlewheeler. We started our dinner with a plated wedge salad topped with vinaigrette and dried cranberries. Next, our trip to the buffet included Lake Tahoe Style Trout dressed with Pine Nut Cornmeal and a Lemon Herb Sauce, hand carved Peppered Prime Rib of Beef served with a Signature Rustler Steak Sauce and Roast Turkey Breast with a Wild Mushroom Demi-Glace. The Prime Rib was excellent. We ended with a three layer chocolate cake. The remainder of the evening we walked the decks, listened and danced to music and chit-chatted with family. Though it was a quite breezy and a little cool on deck, it turned out to be a lovely evening.

08/04/2009 - We had breakfast in our room and then went to see Tom and Bonnie. Bonnie, Connie and I then met mom at the senior center for lunch. After lunch they all followed me to Carson City to drop off my car at the Cadillac garage to have the alternator replaced. Connie and I then had dinner at the 16th floor buffet at Harrah's Casino. We ate free on comp points Connie had earned on our last trip to Laughlin. We then played poker and slots before returning to Tom's for some sitting around after he got home from work.

08/03/2009 - Surprised mom at the senor center for lunch. Bonnie, Connie and I Went to her place and let her show Connie around. Then we all sat around and talked before returning to Tom's. Tom and I put a charger on my car battery so that I could hopefully drive it to Carson City the next day to have it repaired. Connie and I grabbed a hamburger for dinner and went back to the motel and watch TV.

08/02/2009 - What a day this turned out to be. After packing the car, we went to the Cracked Egg, just up the street, for a nice breakfast. They have the best homemade coffee cake of any place around. We then piled into the car and headed for Lake Tahoe. Everything was fine until we approached Goldfield, Nevada, which was about 180 miles into our trip. As we were coming down the hill into town, the car "died". I lost all power, steering, brakes, etc. After checking a few things, I tried starting the car up and it seemed to run. Being a Sunday with nothing either in business or open along this stretch of desert road, we just continued on. I deduced that it was the alternator that had died and proceeded to shut off everything requiring power e.g. AC, lights, radio, and my electric cooler. Everything went well until the battery finally died as we hit Highway 395, just north of Topaz Lake. We were still about 60 miles from Tahoe and of course I had no cell phone coverage. Using a phone at a RV park store I contacted Triple A and requested a tow. It was 1-1/2 before the two truck arrived, however after that everything went smoothly. Needless to say we arrived at Tom's about three hours late. Tommy and I went to his work site to pick up his car which let us use during our stay and then I went to Motel 6 to check in and put our luggage in the room. Bonnie then treated us all to dinner at Denny's. After some more chatting at Tommy's we all decided to call it a day and headed our separate ways for bed.