Sunday, January 31, 2010

A night on the town...



Being a poor divorcee, OK not exactly poor, but a heck of a lot poorer than I was as a married person, I'm all about enjoying free entertainment when I can. A while back I got a sent a certificate for a free nights lodging, and 2 free dinner buffets in Wendover. I saved it because, unlike most promotions it was actually good on the weekends, and it might make a fun night out. I found it the other day, realized it was about to expire so I decided it was time for a fun little road trip.

For those that don't know, Wendover is the nearest across the border gambling town in Nevada. Hop in I-80 drive 2 hours west, step an inch over the state line, and there you are. Nevada style decadence, built solely to entertain the people of Utah.
I'm not really a big partier or gambler, but it is fun to get out of town and do something different now and then, so I made a reservation, grabbed a friend and off we went.

We had a fun evening. Friday night is seafood buffet night, so it the best night for a free dinner, 3 kinds of crab, fish, shrimp, mussels, clams and oysters. I adore seafood, so it was a real treat for me. We wandered around a bit, I like to people watch and take in all the crazy lights. Eventually we found a bar with a live band, and stayed and listened for while.

I'm not much of gambler. My intuition, and the statistics course I took in college, tell me that if I were really going to win, these places wouldn't exist, so I'm pretty happy to just put a few bucks into a video poker machine and enjoy it until it's gone. I threw five bucks in the machine, played for at least an hour and several free drinks, and was still $0.20 cents ahead when I got bored with it and cashed out. This is what I don't like about casinos: a number of years ago they went electronic, so you put you money in, gamble away, and any winnings are printed on a receipt that you redeem at the cashier. How boring! I though it was much more fun when walked around with your tub of change, dropping quarters (or nickles in my case as they last longer)into machines, and get to hear the jingle of coins as they were expelled into the metal tray when you won. I miss the old days!

I case you can't tell by the pictures, I kind of like the crazy casino lights. They make you nuts, make you get lost easily, and make you glad you are not an epileptic, but I think they are fun to look at. Kind of like living in a Christmas tree.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Craft Night


Sarah had craft night at our house last night. Gotta be wary of those wild paintbrush wielding teenagers. Trouble makers they are. Especially those out of control boys!


Monday, January 18, 2010

Therapy...



Right after Christmas I contracted the coughy-crud. I'm not sure if it was caused by our ridiculously bad air quality or a virus or worse, but it started as bronchitis then went to my head and a tried to make me miserable for three, count them, three flipping weeks. What a lousy way to ring in the new year.

This weekend I still don't have a voice (some may call that a blessing), my cough is finally mostly gone, but the lingering effects of 3 weeks of feeling crappy and not getting exercise were making my nuts. So I decided therapy was in order. 3-S therapy: Sunshine, Skiing and Soaking.

The winter inversion had been bad this year, leaving us with bad air and little sunshine in the valley. So a trip up to Brighton took care of my first 2 S's. Clean air, sunshine, and fast skiiing... made me feel soooo much better. And since I had Monday off, I really treated myself by meeting a friend and driving clear up to Crystal Hot Springs for a late afternoon/evening soak. It was a lot of driving, but a wonderful, and theraputic, way to spend the day.
The view of the Heber Valley from the top of the Snake Creek Lift


Looking across from Great Western


The top of Great Western


Winter time steamy springs....


For the first time ever, I remembered to look up the pictues the Brighton photographer took while I was skiing. Not that you can probably tell by the picture but I had a speedy day... so maybe I should make that 4-S therapy: Sunshine, skiing, SPEED and soaking!

Friday, January 15, 2010

My Children...



I guess I don't really have "children" any more. My baby, Sarah, turned 18 on Sunday. I'm now the parent of two adults. I can't imagine how that happened, I swear I popped them out just the other day. But now here they are all grown up. It seems like just yesterday I had a houseful of kids for parties full of games and craft projects and treats and balloons and crazy cakes shaped like cats or caterpillars or butterfies. I kind of miss those days.

This year celebration was low key. Matt skipped his first day of classes so he could celebrate with us, Sarah's friend Neeka attended as did Nate (a friend of Matts from college who is living with us this semester). My neighbors also came over. I made, as always, Sarah's favorite chocolate cake. 18 is a lot of candles. I'd forgotten to buy a new box, so we made due with old ones saved from years past. We ended up with mathematical representation of age 3x3x2=18. That works doesn't it?



Thursday, January 07, 2010

Christmas '09

The bad blogger returns at last! Started a blog entry before Christmas but never got it finished. Then a few days after Christmas disaster struck... some rotten little cold bug invaded my bronchial tubes and I've been a sicky ever since.

So back to Christmas.... can I say I have the best kids ever. They are always so kind and polite on Christmas. Despite the mound of gift with their names on them awaiting opening, their first priority on Christmas morning is to give each other and me their gifts. I am so thrilled that they are so musch more concerned about each other that what "Santa" brought!!!

Perhaps their Christmas stockings help with their patience. Santa fills them with plenty of gifts, and lays them next their bed to be opened before they wake me up. I have to admit that at 17 and 20 those stockings are difficult to fill, but I still hear exciting exclamations coming from their room in the morning.

This year they surprised me by filling my stocking and placing it next to my bed. No one has filled my stocking for me since my mom last did. That would have been back int the early 80's. I was really touched. It made me cry a little.

Prior to opening their gifts the kids wanted to give the pets their gifts. A new toy for Oreo the cat, and a huge rawhide bone for Daisy. Daisy was pretty excited, she'd been eyeing those big bones on her walks through Petsmart. This bone had a red ribbon tied to it, and sometime that morning Sarah got worried that Daisy would chew the ribbon. So she got a scissor and reached over to cut the ribbon off. You should have seent the look on poor Daisy's face. It was as though she was saying to us "OMG, you ruined MY favorite present" Clearly Daisy had taken ownership of the bone, ribbon and all. Sarah felt bad, and extended the ribbon towards Daisy, who with a look of relief, quickly took it in her mouth, and set it next to her bone. She was not about to lose any of her gift!!! No way, no how!!

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