Still Winter

Punxsutawney Phil has predicted an early Spring!  Excitement is in the air!  Will we be able to start working in the garden again soon? 

It's blustery cold today with some light snow flurries now and then.  We've been busy today - J. trekked to Costco to pick up prescriptions and a few grocery items and then went to Walmart to pick up a super large grocery stock-up order.  The local Carson casino I play out gave me my twice a year 'player perks' so we had $200 in a gift card to use - paid for a big stock up which we needed.  I'll need to commit some time to a pantry tidy this coming week and that's perfectly fine.  I'm starting to enjoy piddling around the house.  Then we trekked to the local casino for a wee bit of play and stopped at Smith's to get the few things we either forgot in our pickup order or items they were out of.  We (of course) added 4 items to our cart that weren't even remotely on our list - but that's what happens when you shop.  You see things that are a good deal and think 'well, let's get them'.  Diet Cherry Cream Dr. Pepper and three bottles of salad dressing.  We'll use the dressings no problem - and the Diet DP's were a splurge (because neither of us should really drink them) but it will be a nice treat once in a while.

A friend in Modesto, CA posted her daughter was selling Girl Scout cookies so I purchased 8 boxes - 4 Thin Mints, 2 Lemon and 2 Caramel Delights.  We checked the delivery status online and they were confirmed delivered on 1/29.  We did not have them, however.  Waited another day.  Still no cookies.  The record said they were delivered to a 'locker' on the 29th - but no key was in our locker to unlock any package locker on our mailbox tower down the street.  Wednesday, J. trekked to the post office and filed a report of a missing package.  The postal worker said they would check with the carrier.  Viola!  Key in our box yesterday so WE HAVE COOKIES!!   Woot woot!  Appreciated being able to order and have them delivered - even with the glitch.  We missed Thin Mints last year - we pretty much missed the GS Cookie event entirely last year and I didn't want to miss out this year, too.  I love how Facebook provides and reaffirms connection with people near and far.  

Tomorrow and Sunday will be Reno days - Tamarack Casino on Saturday and Atlantis on Sunday.  It's our weekly fun and we both look forward to it.  Next weekend we are attending the annual Big Bowl Bash event - we don't plan to play that day - no freeplay that day - so we'll enjoy the amazing 'tailgate party' food and then head home to watch the rest of the game.  Then back Monday or Tuesday for our weekly freeplay - yes, it's sort of cheap for Atlantis to not allow weekly free play on Game Day but oh well.  

J.'s been able to play some golf this Winter which is nice for him and his friends.  Weather has been fairly mild.  California is having a huge 'atmospheric river' this weekend and we are having a fair amount of rain and wind this weekend as well.

OH - I'm not sure I mentioned - we had a HUGE winds mid-January - our neighbors across the street lost shingles on their roof.  We thought we were fine - but later that week, our neighbor T. texted J. to say 'hey, meet me outside' - and sure enough, there was a section of the roof above my room with missing shingles.  We phoned our builder and he recommended a roofing company - they were pretty booked up during the M-F week but he offered to work on Saturday.  We weren't home - but the repair was done while we were gone - and thankfully, you can't tell at all where the replacement shingles were.  Beautiful job.  $300 which included a 2 hour labor minimum.  We were grateful to have it taken care of.  The shingles have a guarantee to not come loose up even with winds up to 100MPH - so we could file a warranty claim for the cost of the replacement shingles.  It seems like a waste of time given the repair bill was mostly labor.  

I'm off to get a flat bread pizza in the oven for dinner - J. doesn't like to eat this early so he'll cook his later.  It's nice to have plenty of food that sounds good to me - it's so hard for me to eat lately - I only want what I'm craving and my cravings change constantly.