Rancheria

We left the house shortly after 8. Headed to the bank and then out of town, leaving Tracy at 8:30. At the Casino just after 10. Might have (in hindsight) been a bit early. Machines were cold. Oh so cold. By 10:30, I was down a bit - then hit a $60 quarter jackpot to get closer to even. Then lost more throughout the morning. I switched to nickels and played a fun 'video slot' game - kept getting the 'bonus round' and was up, at one point, $60 in nickels. Sadly, I did not cash out. Oh well. We had lunch around noon and then headed home. J. turned his $20 in chips into $55 on the way out. I turned another $20 into zero. It pays to have a hubby with silver hair, 'cuz we got the senior discount for lunch, too - which didn't matter anyway, since they comped our meal. I think they took one look at my play for the morning and thought 'the least we can do is give them a free lunch'. J.'s getting Sr. discounts all over the place. He's playing golf tomorrow and is a senior there, too.

We lost less than we budgeted to lose. I'll be returning the leftover cash to the bank tomorrow. I never feel badly about losing because, basically, we're gambling our spare change. Since we were married, I've kept a 'fun money' account. Every night, I take all my loose coins and put them in a coin bank - then roll that change and bank it. There's currently $129.50 waiting for deposit in my nightstand. It adds up. I've finally got J. trained to contribute regularly as well. Used to be, if something was $1.09, he'd dig around for a dime or a quarter or nine cents and pay. Now, he gives them $2 and gives me the change.
I'm working on the kids. The other night, I asked B. if he had any change - and he cleaned $10 off his desk. Seeing how gleeful I was, he brought me another $5 from his sock drawer - including some 'pence' leftover from his Europe trip. I gave those back. I'm trying to demonstrate how quickly little sums add up.

So we 'lost' some spare change today...and we had a lovely time. The weather was beautiful, the drive was pretty and relaxing - I love J. going with me for a lot of reasons, but especially because I don't have to drive and can just enjoy the scenery.

Tomorrow, it's back to work. Thankfully, it looks like I won't have to work this weekend. YEAH. That's a great feeling - it means I've 'caught up' a bit and while there's still a ton to do, I feel OK about getting it done during the normal work week. I will probably bring a few things home to work on over the weekend, but I'm fine with that. Just not having to 'go in' this weekend is a nice treat. I'm hoping nothing happens in the next two days to change that. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Or say a little prayer. Your choice.