Thanksgiving - How It's Done!

Okay, so I know there are those who thought !sacrilege! when I mentioned going to the Casino for Thanksgiving Dinner. But look at the artist's rendition of the new hotel wing, isn't it beautiful? (Okay, so I lost the picture of the casino. If you want to see it, go to http://www.northernquest.com/.) It will be open in early 2010. In the meantime, there is the Casino, restaurant, and convention center facility that is open and running. It's all located about 20 minutes away on the West Plains, close to where I used to work in Airway Heights, at Zak Designs. So close that we called the Casino Buffet the "Zak Cafeteria" as so many of the employees would go there for lunch on a regular basis. In any event, as I mentioned previously, the food is always fresh, and tasty and not loaded with sodium, as I find is the case with so many buffets. So away we went, and I started with a green salad and shrimp with cocktail sauce and some of the Asian broccoli that was listed as "broccolini" - and it was all good. After we had our starters, I went for the turkey and dressing with cranberry sauce, carmelized onions with steamed greens, and roasted winter squash. I finished it up with mincemeat pie for dessert. I enjoyed some Chardonnay with my meal while Janet had Burgundy (she favored the prime rib for her dinner). Janet's mom went traditional with the turkey dinner, too. We listened to music being played on the baby grand piano and took in all the people having a wonderful time ~ not cooking ~ on this lovely start to The Festive Season.

After our dinner, Janet wanted to walk around and look at the Casino a bit, so we did and we noticed there were lots of penny and nickel machines. So we decided to throw a few bucks away. We started with a dollar in a penny machine, and didn't get very far with that at all. So we wandered around some more, and thought we might chance another dollar or two and I found I was out of cash. While looking for the ATM machine, Janet said she'd spot me 20 dollars and I said okay, we can drive through a bank on the way home and I'll replenish my wallet. Well, we didn't have to do that. I saw the "Wheel Of Fortune" game and since I spend a few evenings with Vanna and Pat while I'm having dinner, I decided to play. Now, you know, these new video games have rules all their own, and I have absolutely no idea how you are supposed to figure them out. But this was a nickel game, so I felt okay in throwing away the money. Well, before I knew it, the machine was making lots of noise and giving me more "credits." Having no Real Idea what was going on, I just kept pushing buttons and getting more credits. Then a screen popped up and Pat and Vanna were Talking To Me!!! And I got to Play Wheel Of Fortune just like one of those lucky schmucks on TV. And somehow I Won even more credits. So I kept pushing buttons and winning credits until Janet was out of her money, and it was time to go. When I pushed the button to "cash out," I got a slip of paper that said I WON $613!!! Now, my friends and neighbors, THAT is how you have a great Thanksgiving Dinner!

But not so fast, I'm afraid. Earlier that same day, before going out to the Casino, I started on A Project. Seems some of the tiles around my bathtub/shower have been getting a little loose and I decided it was time to re-caulk them. So I started with scrubbing down the tiles really well and then decided to take out the caulk between the tub and the bottom of the tiles and "do the job right" by replacing that caulk too. In doing this, one of the tiles under the faucet seemed really loose, so I popped it off and it _was_ loose, and the wall in back of it was pretty much saturated. And there is a hole in the wall... So then, I thought, well, better look at those other tiles that seem loose, and I did, and I popped a few more off, and now my tub looks like this picture. More's the pity. As it turns out, Mel was just getting to the Casino with a group of friends as we were finishing our meal, and I told her about my findings on the bathroom tile project and she told me just cover it with plastic and call Les, and no showers until it gets fixed right. Nice that she has that confidence in me, right? But nicer still that she didn't think I could really do it myself. I mean, I probably can get the caulking done on the tiles that aren't saturated, but fixing the hole, that may be more than what I can reasonably do and still consider myself a good steward of this house. But, nice that the money was provided for the fix-it-up, no? Okay, enough for now, gotta get the pups for a walk while there's still a bit of twilight. Once again, Happy Turkey Day!