02/28/2010 - Though a little windy, it was a beautiful day today reaching 71.9 degrees. To get a little exercise, I did some volunteer raking and cleaning up around out pool area. It was then back in to make lunch which we ate while watching the U.S. and Canada play for the Olympic gold medal. What a game. The U.S. came back from being down two goals with a tie breaking goal with only 23 seconds left on the clock in the third period to put the game into a sudden death overtime. Even though Canada scored first in the overtime to win the gold, it was a terrific, nail-biting game! Having seem so many outstanding American medal winning performances over the past 13 days, I have to say we enjoyed this winter Olympic games more than any of the past ones we have watched.
02/27/2010 - Just another retired day. Computer, reading, out for a little gambling entertainment in the afternoon; back for some TV before retiring in the evening.
02/26/2010 - After my normal playing around on the computer while Connie watched GMA and read, we headed to the library to replenish Connie's reading pile. We stopped at the "M" for a little play before heading to the Silverton Casino for two free seafood dinner buffets on coupons they sent us in the mail. What a great stop it was. I won a $1000.00 in a poker jackpot the short time we were there; flopped four 4's. The buffet at Silverton was outstanding. Free beer and wine with the meal. We had peal-em shrimp, crabs leggs, Oysters Rockefeller, shark Oscar, baked salmon, candied carrots, prime rib, Boston Cream pie and chocolate covered strawberries for desert. What a meal! And all for free. Gotta love Vegas!
02/25/2010 - I pretty much spent the morning writing book and movie reviews for my blog. I made a meatloaf with garlic mashed potatoes and french green beans for a late lunch/early dinner that we ate over American Idol. We then watched a Netflix documentary on surfing entitled, "Step Into Liquid". Shot around the world, this documentary zigzags from the waters off Ireland to Da Nang in Vietnam and Oahu's ripping North Shore. One of the most facinating things was surfing a 60-foot wave, 100 miles out to sea off the coast of California. Click here for a full review ... Step Into Liquid. We then watched a made for TV movie that we had prerecorded before watching some more of the Olympics.
02/24/2010 - Spent most of today on the computer catching up on emails, updating my blog, recording expenses and paying bills, etc. At noon we decided to shower and get dressed and head over to the "M" for the lunch buffet and a little gambling. When we got home we watched two nights worth of American Idol before heading to bed.
02/23/2010 - On the way back from Laughlin we took a little side trip to visit Grapevine Canyon, which is just a few miles north west of Laughlin. It is noted for its hundreds of petroglyphs. Here are a couple of pictures - click here for more pics and Info. Grapevine Canyon On the way home we had to stop at Smith's to replenish the refrigerator and the cupboards which we left kind of bare when we departed on our trip. After hauling everything, food and luggage, in and putting it away, we were tired. For dinner, I steamed up some asparagus which we had with a pre-roasted chicken, which we ate over some prerecorded shows.
02/19/2010 - We slept in until nearly 8:00am, the latest we've been able to sleep in in months. I got coffee at McDonald's which we had over raspberry danish we brought from home. Connie watched GMA and read her book; I listened to the audio recording of "Game Change" by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin on my MP3 player. This was an excellent book that I would recommend to everyone. After a light lunch we went to see the movie, "Shutter Island." It was quite intense. After the movie we changed and went to the convention center for Connie's "Birthday Bash" dinner and to sign up for tomorrow's slot tournament. Dinner consisted of salad, bread, spaghetti & meatballs, birthday cake for dessert and all the wine you could drink. It was actualy better than what we had expected. After dinner I won $92 playing poker before we headed to the room to watch more of the Olympics.
02/18/2010 - It was last minute email checks, breakfast, packing, loading of the car, stopping at the bank, the store for a few groceries and finally the gas station before heading off to Laughlin for our 6-day mini vacation. On the way out of town, we stopped at the "M" for two free lunch buffets. We then head towards Laughlin via Nipon, California which took us through the Joshua Tree State Forest. It appeared that I got around 19.5 mpg on the trip, which was still lower than normal. Guess I still got some adjustments that need to be made on the car. Picture of "Betsy" as we were making our late check-in at the AVI Casino. She still looks pretty good for 18 years old. After getting our room we headed to the slots and poker room for a little entertainment. Connie won $50 right off, however ended up $25 down by the end of the night. I won $45 playing Texas Hold-em. At 8:00 we headed to the room to watch the men's single ice skating where the U.S. narrowly squeaked out the gold medal.
02/17/2010 - Today was final preparations and packing for our trip to Laughlin tomorrow. After washing, waxing and vacuuming the car, I decided to check all the fluids in preparation for the trip, even though I just had it in the garage two days ago. You won't believe it. The transmission fluid was down nearly two quarts. One of the jobs they were suppose to do the other day was to drain, flush, and fill the transmission. Hello! It seems you just can't get dependable work done anywhere these days. I took it back to the garage and let it be known that they had lost a lot of my trust. Upon returning home I had to help out a neighbor with a computer problem. Connie and I then had dinner and watched more of the Olympics, American Idol and a Netflix movie before heading to bed.
02/16/2010 - After our normal morning routine of computer, reading, etc, we tried to get caught up on watching some of the Olympic games we had previously recorded. Connie started making preparation for our trip to Laughlin on Thursday. We will be gone for 6 days.
02/15/2010 - Today it got up to 68 degrees for the second or third day in a row. I think Spring is on the way. Did some more catching up on the Olympic games. We are so glad that we can catch it all on our DVD player. Some of it is really boring that we are able to "zip" through 4-5 hours worth in a little over and hour, just watching the highlights. Went to the M for a little recreation. Connie did better than me. Came home and popped a pizza in the oven and watch TV.
02/14/2010 - VALENTINE'S DAY started of with a Valentine's card for my Luvie. We then watched some of the winter olympics over a breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheese and cinnamon raisin toast. I decided this was a good day to repackage all of the Christmas decorations and put them away for another year. We watched more of the sinter olympics over lunch. Later in the day we headed to the "M" for their wonderful seafood brunch. We enjoyed huge plates of Alaskan King Crabs Legs, along with some other tasteful items. After dinner we headed to the ballroom where they were holding an invitation only "Fantasies & Chocolate" Valentine's Day event in which we were both surprised and pleasantly pleased. Upon entering the lavishly rose decorated room we were each presented with "Chocolate Martinis." We spent nearly an hour and a half sitting and talking with some people we shared a table with, enjoying the open bar, live music and samplings from nearly 40 chocolate "stations" scattered throughout the room. The entertainment was provided by four girls playing violins and other string instruments on a stage in the middle of the room. They were quite good and very entertaining. On the way home, we stopped at Ethel M's cactus garden, which was specially decorated with thousands of pink and red lights in celebration of Valentine's Day. Even though we didn't get home until nearly 11:00, a late night for us, Connie had a really enjoyable day. Click here for a full-size view of the collage on the right. Valentine's Day Pictures
02/13/2010 - Didn't do much today. Had to wait around for the garage to finish working on the car. Supposedly had a "leaky" fuel injector. Got new plugs and a tune up. $145.00 - let's hope it does some good.
02/12/2010 - Went to the garage around noon with a neighbor friend and dropped my car off for some work. Been getting really lousy gas milage lately and thought I would have them look at it before out trip to Laughlin next week. Came home and watched some movies on TV and went to bed.
02/10/2010 - After a couple of more days of rain Monday and Tuesday, it is actually a nice sunny day, though only in the mid fifties. We decided to stay home today and catch up on some of our recorded TV shows. I got a long needed haircut on Monday, Connie goes to the hairdresser tomorrow. We went to the casino yesterday, Connie won - I lost. I've spent the last couple of days cleaning out one of the file cabinets in the den. It is truly amazing how much "stuff" you can file and save over the years. It seems like I do this every year and never seem to make much progress. This year I think I finally figured it out. In the past I would get to a point and say, "I'll finish this later" and then never get to "later". This year I decided to not put things aside for later. It has taken a lot longer to finish, however I have 'junked' a lot of 'stuff' I have been unnecessarily saving. Besides, I needed more room for 'new' stuff.
02/07/2010 - SUPERBOWL SUNDAY! We started the morning watching all the pictures of the "huge" snow storm that hit the east coast. Boy, did they get hammered. We've had two days of rain, yesterday being the worst. It was finally letting up by mid morning. Unable to shake her cold, Connie took a nap while I prepared lunch/dinner. I did a shake-and-bake chicken breast and large pork-chop, steamed a head of califlower, plus made some stuffing and Potatoes Au Graten. We ate dinner over the first half of the game. Even though the Colts were favored to win, we were both rooting for the Saints. What a game! Even though we were ahead by eight points in the last few minutes, making an interception and running it for a touchdown with less than a minute to go cinched it. We also thought the half-time show, performed by The Who was outstanding; one of the best we've ever seen. My brother thought they were "old" and that they ought to start getting some "younger generation" performers. Oh well. It was a great win for all of New Orleans.
02/06/2010 - Today was dark, wet and dreary. It reminded us of the dreary days of February back in New England. It poured "cats and dogs" all afternoon. We ended up going to the "M" for a little "play". Connie did much better than me. Afterwards we had cheeseburgers and onion rings at the Vig Deli. On the way home I stopped at Walmart and picked up a new inexpensive TV for the den. I got a 19" Flat Panel LCD-HD TV for $135.00. After hooking it up we again had ice cream for dinner while we watch some prerecorded TV shows.
02/05/2010 - It is amazing how much junk you can save over the years. I spent most of the day clearing out and organizing a file drawer in the den. Threw away "years" worth of paperwork that I no longer needed. Believe it or not, this took most of the day. I went out an bought an inside antenna for the old 13" analog TV we had been using in the den for the past six years. Previously I had it hooked up to cable. Once I dropped COX I no longer had a cable. Because of the "switch-over to digital, I couldn't get the channels we wanted. Bummer! I made banana splits for dinner over some TV shows.
02/04/2010 - I spent the morning working on the novel I had started back in 1993 and hadn't touched since then. Connie was still feeling sick; I made grilled chese sandwiches for lunch. After watching a few shows on TV I worked on my novel some more. I heated to turkey pot pies for dinner and we watched "Black Hawk Down." Even though we had seen it before, this was a great movie.
02/03/2010 - Today we had to sit around and wait for someone to come and hookup our DirectTV - between noon and 4pm. You know how that goes; they give you a 4-5 hour window and show up during the last hour. Boy were we surprised when they called and asked if they could come at 10:00am. We said :sure, come on down". Then maintenance called and asked if they could come in and install the new hand rails we had requested for the garden tub in the master bedroom and a new faucet over the kitchen sink. Connie was still feeling sick so we decided to stay home. I made chicken sandwiches for a late lunch that we ate over the Netflix movie, "The Hurt Locker." Excellent movie. We played with our new DirectTV remote, menus and tried to learn the new channel numbers for our favorite stations. Watch some shows and then to bed.
02/02/2010 - Today after doing some shopping and errands I headed over to the "M" for some poker. Connie stayed home and got caught up on some of her prerecorded TV shows before COX comes to take away their DVR player when we switch to DirectTV tomorrow. No luck at poker. Came home and fixed dinner and finished catching up on some of our prerecorded shows.
02/01/2010 - Today was Connie's Birthday. I got up and cooked her a nice breakfast; roast beef hash, scrambled eggs with green pepper and onion, and English muffins. After breakfast she got a call from her sister Patti in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Patti said they had been enjoying the 6" of snow they had received a few days ago. After watching some TV shows, reading and playing on the computer, we headed off to the "M" for their dinner buffet. Then home and a movie. Nothing really exciting.
02/27/2010 - Just another retired day. Computer, reading, out for a little gambling entertainment in the afternoon; back for some TV before retiring in the evening.
02/26/2010 - After my normal playing around on the computer while Connie watched GMA and read, we headed to the library to replenish Connie's reading pile. We stopped at the "M" for a little play before heading to the Silverton Casino for two free seafood dinner buffets on coupons they sent us in the mail. What a great stop it was. I won a $1000.00 in a poker jackpot the short time we were there; flopped four 4's. The buffet at Silverton was outstanding. Free beer and wine with the meal. We had peal-em shrimp, crabs leggs, Oysters Rockefeller, shark Oscar, baked salmon, candied carrots, prime rib, Boston Cream pie and chocolate covered strawberries for desert. What a meal! And all for free. Gotta love Vegas!
02/24/2010 - Spent most of today on the computer catching up on emails, updating my blog, recording expenses and paying bills, etc. At noon we decided to shower and get dressed and head over to the "M" for the lunch buffet and a little gambling. When we got home we watched two nights worth of American Idol before heading to bed.
02/23/2010 - On the way back from Laughlin we took a little side trip to visit Grapevine Canyon, which is just a few miles north west of Laughlin. It is noted for its hundreds of petroglyphs. Here are a couple of pictures - click here for more pics and Info. Grapevine Canyon On the way home we had to stop at Smith's to replenish the refrigerator and the cupboards which we left kind of bare when we departed on our trip. After hauling everything, food and luggage, in and putting it away, we were tired. For dinner, I steamed up some asparagus which we had with a pre-roasted chicken, which we ate over some prerecorded shows.02/22/2010 - Had breakfast at McDonald's and then went to play some slots and poker. I got a poker comp and went to the brunch buffet for a late lunch early dinner. Though no as good as we're used to at the "M", it wasn't bad for a total of $6. After lunch we played for a little longer before heading back to the room. I won $92 and Connie lost $4. Another good day. Watched the Canadians and the Americans win the gold medals in the Ice Dancing. It seemed like no one made any mistakes making it a very close competition.
02/21/2010 - Picked up coffee again and finished the raspberry Danish. We got the car from valet and drove to the outlet mall where we walked around and "window" shopped. Connie found some gold errings which I got for her as a late birthday present. We then went to see the movie, "The Book of Eli." I was not thrilled with it. After the movie we headed to the Colorado Belle for a little gambling and dinner. We both lost. We ate in the Boiler Room, a place where we have eaten several times before. We then went back to our room at Harrah's and stayed up till midnight watching the Olympics.
02/20/2010 - Connie read some while I finished my audio book. We then dressed and headed to the "Feathers Cafe" for two free breakfasts. We stuffed ourselves; pancakes, eggs, bacon & sausage and home fries! Connie went off to play here tournament and I headed to the poker room. Connie was unable to get enough points to win anything in the slot tournament. After she got me we checked out of the room and headed to Harrah's Casino,where were were spending the remainder of our stay. It was a very windy, cloudy and overcast day; one that you don't mind staying in and doing a little gambling. We stopped at McDonald's for a quick dinner before going to play. I ended up winning $140 playing $3-6 Hold-em. Before retiring to the room to watch the Olympics for the remainder of the evening, we stopped and had a hot fudge sundie.
02/19/2010 - We slept in until nearly 8:00am, the latest we've been able to sleep in in months. I got coffee at McDonald's which we had over raspberry danish we brought from home. Connie watched GMA and read her book; I listened to the audio recording of "Game Change" by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin on my MP3 player. This was an excellent book that I would recommend to everyone. After a light lunch we went to see the movie, "Shutter Island." It was quite intense. After the movie we changed and went to the convention center for Connie's "Birthday Bash" dinner and to sign up for tomorrow's slot tournament. Dinner consisted of salad, bread, spaghetti & meatballs, birthday cake for dessert and all the wine you could drink. It was actualy better than what we had expected. After dinner I won $92 playing poker before we headed to the room to watch more of the Olympics.
02/17/2010 - Today was final preparations and packing for our trip to Laughlin tomorrow. After washing, waxing and vacuuming the car, I decided to check all the fluids in preparation for the trip, even though I just had it in the garage two days ago. You won't believe it. The transmission fluid was down nearly two quarts. One of the jobs they were suppose to do the other day was to drain, flush, and fill the transmission. Hello! It seems you just can't get dependable work done anywhere these days. I took it back to the garage and let it be known that they had lost a lot of my trust. Upon returning home I had to help out a neighbor with a computer problem. Connie and I then had dinner and watched more of the Olympics, American Idol and a Netflix movie before heading to bed.
02/16/2010 - After our normal morning routine of computer, reading, etc, we tried to get caught up on watching some of the Olympic games we had previously recorded. Connie started making preparation for our trip to Laughlin on Thursday. We will be gone for 6 days.
02/15/2010 - Today it got up to 68 degrees for the second or third day in a row. I think Spring is on the way. Did some more catching up on the Olympic games. We are so glad that we can catch it all on our DVD player. Some of it is really boring that we are able to "zip" through 4-5 hours worth in a little over and hour, just watching the highlights. Went to the M for a little recreation. Connie did better than me. Came home and popped a pizza in the oven and watch TV.
02/13/2010 - Didn't do much today. Had to wait around for the garage to finish working on the car. Supposedly had a "leaky" fuel injector. Got new plugs and a tune up. $145.00 - let's hope it does some good.
02/12/2010 - Went to the garage around noon with a neighbor friend and dropped my car off for some work. Been getting really lousy gas milage lately and thought I would have them look at it before out trip to Laughlin next week. Came home and watched some movies on TV and went to bed.
02/10/2010 - After a couple of more days of rain Monday and Tuesday, it is actually a nice sunny day, though only in the mid fifties. We decided to stay home today and catch up on some of our recorded TV shows. I got a long needed haircut on Monday, Connie goes to the hairdresser tomorrow. We went to the casino yesterday, Connie won - I lost. I've spent the last couple of days cleaning out one of the file cabinets in the den. It is truly amazing how much "stuff" you can file and save over the years. It seems like I do this every year and never seem to make much progress. This year I think I finally figured it out. In the past I would get to a point and say, "I'll finish this later" and then never get to "later". This year I decided to not put things aside for later. It has taken a lot longer to finish, however I have 'junked' a lot of 'stuff' I have been unnecessarily saving. Besides, I needed more room for 'new' stuff.
02/07/2010 - SUPERBOWL SUNDAY! We started the morning watching all the pictures of the "huge" snow storm that hit the east coast. Boy, did they get hammered. We've had two days of rain, yesterday being the worst. It was finally letting up by mid morning. Unable to shake her cold, Connie took a nap while I prepared lunch/dinner. I did a shake-and-bake chicken breast and large pork-chop, steamed a head of califlower, plus made some stuffing and Potatoes Au Graten. We ate dinner over the first half of the game. Even though the Colts were favored to win, we were both rooting for the Saints. What a game! Even though we were ahead by eight points in the last few minutes, making an interception and running it for a touchdown with less than a minute to go cinched it. We also thought the half-time show, performed by The Who was outstanding; one of the best we've ever seen. My brother thought they were "old" and that they ought to start getting some "younger generation" performers. Oh well. It was a great win for all of New Orleans.
02/06/2010 - Today was dark, wet and dreary. It reminded us of the dreary days of February back in New England. It poured "cats and dogs" all afternoon. We ended up going to the "M" for a little "play". Connie did much better than me. Afterwards we had cheeseburgers and onion rings at the Vig Deli. On the way home I stopped at Walmart and picked up a new inexpensive TV for the den. I got a 19" Flat Panel LCD-HD TV for $135.00. After hooking it up we again had ice cream for dinner while we watch some prerecorded TV shows.
02/05/2010 - It is amazing how much junk you can save over the years. I spent most of the day clearing out and organizing a file drawer in the den. Threw away "years" worth of paperwork that I no longer needed. Believe it or not, this took most of the day. I went out an bought an inside antenna for the old 13" analog TV we had been using in the den for the past six years. Previously I had it hooked up to cable. Once I dropped COX I no longer had a cable. Because of the "switch-over to digital, I couldn't get the channels we wanted. Bummer! I made banana splits for dinner over some TV shows.
02/04/2010 - I spent the morning working on the novel I had started back in 1993 and hadn't touched since then. Connie was still feeling sick; I made grilled chese sandwiches for lunch. After watching a few shows on TV I worked on my novel some more. I heated to turkey pot pies for dinner and we watched "Black Hawk Down." Even though we had seen it before, this was a great movie.
02/03/2010 - Today we had to sit around and wait for someone to come and hookup our DirectTV - between noon and 4pm. You know how that goes; they give you a 4-5 hour window and show up during the last hour. Boy were we surprised when they called and asked if they could come at 10:00am. We said :sure, come on down". Then maintenance called and asked if they could come in and install the new hand rails we had requested for the garden tub in the master bedroom and a new faucet over the kitchen sink. Connie was still feeling sick so we decided to stay home. I made chicken sandwiches for a late lunch that we ate over the Netflix movie, "The Hurt Locker." Excellent movie. We played with our new DirectTV remote, menus and tried to learn the new channel numbers for our favorite stations. Watch some shows and then to bed.
02/02/2010 - Today after doing some shopping and errands I headed over to the "M" for some poker. Connie stayed home and got caught up on some of her prerecorded TV shows before COX comes to take away their DVR player when we switch to DirectTV tomorrow. No luck at poker. Came home and fixed dinner and finished catching up on some of our prerecorded shows.
02/01/2010 - Today was Connie's Birthday. I got up and cooked her a nice breakfast; roast beef hash, scrambled eggs with green pepper and onion, and English muffins. After breakfast she got a call from her sister Patti in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Patti said they had been enjoying the 6" of snow they had received a few days ago. After watching some TV shows, reading and playing on the computer, we headed off to the "M" for their dinner buffet. Then home and a movie. Nothing really exciting.
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