Settling In

A week and a day post furniture delivery and we are starting to feel more settled.  It's been completely awesome to have H. here with us - he and J. moved our smaller storage unit contents into a bigger unit earlier this week.  Today, J. rented a UHaul van and we moved some bigger things to storage - from both our garage here at the rental house and some furniture.  Chair and ottoman, a couple tables and the two huge Rubbermaid cabinets from the garage.

We emptied those 'man caves' before the move.  Turns out the movers put stuff in them before they taped them shut.  Hello, dishes we've spent a week searching for.  (I went to Walmart yesterday armed with a list and dishes were on it - but I didn't see any I liked so I bought paper plates instead).  We now have dishes - yippee!

In addition to helping us, H. trekked (with J.) to South Lake Tahoe DMV and left there with a reinstated California Driver's License.  This will greatly help him get a license in Texas and was the primary reason he headed back here.  It's all worked out wonderfully - he also trekked (again with J.) to the Social Security office to request a replacement SS card.  Another required item for a Texas license he will soon have (back) in his possession. 

H. and I also enjoyed a couple 'extra' days at Atlantis - just chillaxing and playing a bit.  We had such a great time and it was really good to reconnect a bit.  I had been sort of 'nervous' about his visit - excited to see him, of course!  But....well, it all worked out - we had a great time and yes, winning definitely helped make it a huge blast - but mostly, we just hung out together and that was really nice.  He attended an NA conference at Grand Sierra Resort during our extra Atlantis days (which is why we stayed in Reno vs. coming 'home' to the rental). 

I wish I'd done a better job of identifying things we definitely want/need to keep with us vs. things we really don't need until we're in the house....but we've managed to have most of what we need pretty handy.  Still looking for my box of shoes - I have no 'dress' shoes to wear if/when I dress up a bit - and we can't find any of the contents of the stuff in J.'s bathroom drawers and those things are needed.  They will turn up - maybe in a few months.  Oh well.

We made reservations to go to the NYE celebration at Atlantis and I am really looking forward to the event. 

H. returns to Houston tomorrow so it will be just me and J. until a week from Sunday when B. will arrive for a week!  It is great to have them both visit so they can see where we're at - and we can't wait to be doing all of this again soon when we move to the new house in the Spring.

In other news, I found a hair salon and got a haircut - I was over three months from my last cut and my hair looked awful.  For $30, I got a wash, cut, blow dry and style - vs. paying $25 in California for a 15 minute 'spritz bottle' haircut only!  AND she threw in a bottle of product for me to try.  I think we're going to love Nevada!

On Wednesday night, I Googled 'Best Mexican Food 2019 Carson City' and we headed to Minden (about 20ish minutes south of Carson City) to Francisco's.  It did not disappoint.  AND as we were winding down our dinner, I notice a lady entering with a little girl - and it was my friend L. and her husband A. and their two granddaughters - who are identical twins!  It was so fun to be surprised and to see them - and L. and I plan to get together soon!  J. had said as we headed there 'you may run into to someone you know' - and sure enough, turns out Francisco's is their fave Mexican place, too!

Last night, we hit up Atlantis for a free buffet (for me and J..  H. was comped.).  Good food and lots of variety.  I swore I would only play $50 or so but I played more than that - but thankfully, did a Hail Mary spin that paid well followed by another spin that also paid decently - and I left with $32 more than I started.  It was fun! 

I'm heading there tonight and tomorrow night for drawings - I wouldn't bother usually but I have a TON of entries into the drawings because it was based on your tier points from November 1st through today - and with us staying there for a week, I racked up a lot of points.  Worth trying for freeplay, cash or the grand prize (tomorrow's drawing) of a Cadillac car.  H. says 'Mom, I can totally see you in that car'.  We'll see! 

I also did a slot tournament Monday and Tuesday this week and while my place on Monday was nothing special, I placed first in my round on Tuesday and placed overall high enough for $100 in free play.  Combined with the $100 in FP for winning my round, I had $200 of fun - and considering I truly almost skipped Tuesday's round, it's a good lesson in 'you never know'.  A mediocre run on one day can be bumped up on Day 2 by extraordinary play - so never give up.  (Hence me going there two evenings in a row - can't win if you're not there and all those entries might result in something awesome happening). 

H. hopes I win the Cadillac.  I'm truly hoping for cash!  Or free play.

We picked up the cats on Tuesday and bless their hearts, they were so very happy to see us - and have been showering us with cuddles and love ever since.  They've been living the good life exploring all around a new place.  Mufasa took a small tumble when she jumped onto the stair banister and slid partially down, eventually falling off onto the stair side.  (Thank goodness it was the stair side because the other side is a 10 feet+ drop).  She hasn't done that since, so yay for their learning curve.

As you can tell, we are getting very settled and it is feeling like home more and more every day.  J. is loving being able to trek to the new house daily to check on progress and I'm loving just being home and close enough to Reno to head to Atlantis for events as I feel like it.  My play level isn't going to be non-stop - truly, no way.  (I spoke to someone I play with a lot who shared that she and her husband budget '$1,000 a day' and play every single day).  No, I can't do that.  And even if I could?  No, I don't think I would.  But I told J. 'when we're in our 80s and 90s and still doing well with our investments, all bets are off!'.