Great Weekend

Can't believe it's already July 4th!  My Retirement Lalapalooza weekend was loads of fun.  On Sunday, the winnings dropped off a bit and by the end of the day, I was thinking 'why do I do this'?  And then I headed to some fave machines and saw a guy I've played with before (Don) and we proceeded to have an absolute blast.  He's a really fun person and we cheered each others wins and bemoaned our losses.  It was a fun filled evening and I remembered that it's the fun of meeting people that adds a lot to sitting at machines for hours.

There were some snafus on Monday morning with the new player club - I had to go to the VIP office to get our new cards and they don't open until 8AM.  I was there standing outside the door the minute they opened - only to find out that they weren't ready to issue cards yet so I'd have to come back - around 10, they said.

I was mildly irritated because this change has been known for months - so I didn't understand why they weren't prepared?  And irritated because the Players Club wouldn't issue me a card because even though the new system showed the level we should be at (I had logged on to our account that morning), he couldn't issue the card since we 'didn't meet the tier points required'.   Right.  We never do because we aren't local and it would be impossible for non-locals to play enough since the tier levels are based on time at machines.  He said he couldn't issue the card and I'd have to see my casino host.  (Her office is in the VIP office but she was actually off for two days.  I knew that because she found me a couple times over the weekend to check in and had mentioned she was off.  She's the best casino host I've ever had - always makes a point of finding me.).

SO....I considered just heading home - but J. and our friend R. are heading up this Monday in a 15 foot box truck to take a huge load of stuff up to storage and I wanted to get all the cards and parking permits picked up and squared away so J. wouldn't have to deal with that - they will get to the hotel super tired and ready to just have dinner, enjoy a little play and get some sleep.  I managed to get them a Concierge Tower room which is super cool - and the reservation person also booked us three nights later in July, also in the Concierge Towers so double super cool.  Those rooms are nice with refrigerators and there's a 'restaurant' with complimentary breakfast and happy hour nightly.

Instead of packing up, I headed over to the Loteria slot machines - the Major Jackpot was super high and I'd been chasing it for days.  I truly didn't have a lot of money left and I don't like to go home broke so I was bemoaning that I probably should just not play.   I put in $60 and nothing happened.  I started to put in every penny I had left but put in another $40 - something told me to not spend the time to do more $20's in - just get to playing - and on spin # 2, this happened:

I'd hit the major!!  When the middle Major and the 2nd Mini crowns dropped, I yelled "Please let there be another crown" and BOOM - it happened.  (Three crowns on same row trigger a win of the amounts on the crowns plus the bonus round where more crowns drop).

I stayed and played a bit - also picked up our cards and parking permits at 10 as planned - put some back but hit another $900 on the machines I played with Don the night before so all in all I did great.  Now have a fun money cushion for upcoming trips which is great.

My drive home was uneventful and not too long and I was glad to be home close to 5.

It's 9:25PM here and the fireworks have started - it sounds like a war zone and it will until midnight.  Thankfully, the dog is sound asleep - they don't phase her.  And the cats are equally oblivious.  I'm going to head to the kitchen to do some packing - I'm trying to pack things that we rarely use to take to storage.  I started to type 'never use' but if that were true, we'd probably donate them.  Still, I find myself keeping things because we might use them - the new house with it's ample storage should make it easier to keep things reachable and more usable than here.  So I hope, anyway.

We also looked online for ceiling fans - we love the ones we purchased for this house 19 years ago - and they are still available.  They've doubled in price but oh well.  We didn't order them yet but we will.  Waiting to see that we have room in storage.  And we will also ask at the lighting appointment if they can order them for us.  That would be easiest.

B. heads home on Sunday - the time with him has flown by.  Last night, we did a family dinner at Sizzler - it was a good time.  He's not sure if he'll make it home (to the new house) for Christmas so we'll just have to wait and see.  Hope he can.