Halloween

Last night, we took our neighbors G. & T. to Atlantis Steak House.  It was their first time there.  We were treating this time because they took us to the steakhouse in Fandango for our anniversary so we were treating them for their anniversary.  

We started with some slot pay - nothing was hitting.  I did hit a little something right before dinner but was glad to have dinner reservations be a required 'stop' point.  

The meal was lovely - service was a tad slow because the place was absolutely packed.  We've never seen it so busy - and it was a Thursday night.  Good to feel like restaurants are getting closer to being 'back to normal'. 

We had a fun time, conversing about everything under the sun.  We had Baked Alaska for dessert.  We each got a different side -creamed corn with a kick, potatoes au gratin, lobster mac 'n cheese and sauteed spinach.  Each side was enough to share - tons of food.  We all took home a generous amount of leftovers.  

We headed out to play again post-dinner.  I headed to the machine I do my free play on each week and won a bit.  Then headed to Dragon Link (where G. & T. had headed to - since I couldn't do my free play on Dragonlinks).  G. and I were sitting close to each other cheering each other on.  I made up a LOT of lost ground and it was a super fun evening.  We got home close to 10:30.  What a wonderful time!

G. shared that our neighbor (down the street a bit) H. had told her that she thinks we will get a few Trick or Treaters this year - we had none last year.  I told G. not to buy candy - we bought some at Costco and had more than enough to get both houses through the evening.  I'm not sure what to expect but we're prepared.  J. got the skeleton to sit on the bench on the front porch and we're going to hang a spider on one of the carriage lights.  We also plan to get dry ice to use in our witches cauldron - it is lightweight plastic and we need something in it heavy enough to keep it from blowing away if the wind picks up. 

Our Wednesday conference call with our finance guy resulted in all of us agreeing we will increase the monthly draw we're doing against our IRA's.  The additional monies will go mostly into savings but we are going to use some of it for a cleaning lady/crew and in the Spring, we'll hire some help for the garden as well.  I'm super happy about that - the house always looks fine - but the house is never 'spotless' all at the same time.  The daily things we do keep things clean but...not every floor in the house is mopped on the same day.  Having help will be such a huge relief.  

Feeling blessed.  Life is good.  

OH!   Exciting news!  B. will be here for Christmas!!  He arrives on 12/22 and leaves on 12/30.  We are super excited to have him visit and it will be the first Nevada Christmas we've had with a son in attendance.