It was a great and relaxing weekend away. Darla has been working so much with Silpada and her Arco Arena gig, that it was nice to have a weekend with each other. My friend, John set up a nice hotel suite for us at the Silver Legacy. Reno has improved in that the El Dorado, Silver Legacy and Circus Circus casinos are combined together and you don't have to go outside to go between the casinos. The weather was borderline Hot with 77 degrees on Saturday and 81 degrees yesterday. The temperature feels even warmer because you are in the high altitude.
We got up to the casino about 6:30 on Friday night and hooked up with Bob and Debbie for dinner. It was Bob's 59th birthday and we celebrated by going out to dinner at the Steakhouse at Circus Circus. We had originally made a reservation at Sterling's in the Silver Legacy, but switched out when we found out that they charge about $45 for your steak and everything else is ala carte. The Steakhouse at CC is very nice, upscale and they serve you your salads at the table adding whatever you want to the salad. Bob had a Caesar salad and they prepared that table side with anchovies and the whole shooting match. Circus Circus has a fixed price menu and Bob and I both had the Steakhouse burger. Sounds kind of boring, but the burger is served on a huge Kaiser roll and is made from ground New York steak and filet mignon. It truly was a steak burger and you don't ruin the flavor with ketchup and mustard. A little steak sauce and salt and pepper was perfect. The fixed price menu is $18 and includes appetizers, main dish and a dessert. We all left stuffed. The casino was crowded as Tony Bennett was playing in the showroom and a bowling convention was in town. I fit right in with my gray hair.
Golf Saturday was a little rough for me as Darla and I stayed up until 2 AM gambling the night before and I was awake at 6:30 AM and couldn't get back to sleep. those free drinks from the night before were playing with my nerves and I four putted the first hole for a double bogey. I did birdie number two and ended up with $36 in skin money. That, unfortunately, was the highlight of the weekend. I struggled both days shooting 94 on Saturday and 92 on Sunday.
I was a little down in the dumps when we got back on Saturday and paced the room a bit. Darla was down getting a pedicure at the spa with Debbie and I showered and was relaxing looking out the picture window, when I looked down and saw police cars, yellow tape and a body under a tarp. Some poor schmuck ended it all with a swan dive off the ten story El Dorado parking garage. I watched as the coroner came and inspected the body, took photos and hauled him away. By six o'clock, the maintenance crew had scrubbed and power washed the lot and all signs of the trauma were washed away. We found out later when Darla went back to the spa Sunday to get a toenail touched up that the manicurist was in the garage right before the guy jumped. He was arguing with his girlfriend, cussing and ranting. His body was a good fifteen feet from the edge of the building, so he definitely jumped. It was a little freaky and I had to go meet people and drink some good red wine. It just wasn't right.
We did meet Steve and Brenda who came over to see the excitement of the suicide in our room as they were across the hall and looked out over Virginia Street. We had a bottle of wine with them along with Bob and Debbie and Bob and Vicki and then walked over to John and Camille's suite at the El Dorado. John knows the GM at the El Dorado and he fixed them up with a great suite. A hot tub was in one corner, a couch and love seat in the other and a pedestal with a pop-up 40 inch television at the foot of the bed. You push a button and it rises from the pedestal ala Jay Leno on the Tonight Show. We had more wine and appetizers with John and the whole gang and then walked four blocks over to the Old Santa Fe Basque restaurant on Lake Street directly behind Harrah's.
The Old Santa Fe is great and also has a fixed price menu. $19 for chicken, $22 for New York steak and $24 for rib eye. Darla and I both had the rib eye and they served lamb stew, steak soup, bread, green salad, beans, french fries, beef tongue, wine and our main course followed by ice cream for dessert. The party was alot of fun and we had 20 for dinner. You can see the pictures above. They also serve Pecan Punch, which is a house specialty and made of pecan liqueur, a Toscana liqueur, a splash of soda and a floater of brandy on the top. Gasoline flavored Pecan brandy, I'd call it, but it kind of grows on you. We hung with the gang for awhile afterwards and then made our way off to the poker machines. I'd say we lost about $150 over the weekend, but didn't pay for our room, so it was a wash.
Darla and I have invited John and Camille to join us in Las Vegas in May and they are trying to work their schedules out to do it. Hopefully we can make that happen, but we will be there with or without friends. Jennifer hosted her Mom and her husband and her step brother who turned 21 on Saturday night at midnight. We talked to Jennifer last night and she sounded tired.
I had one of those "oops" moments at work today. I wore khaki pants and brought a leftover barbecued chicken breast for lunch. We have cheap Wal Mart silverware in our kitchen at work and the knife I was using broke in half, flew up in the air and landed right on my crotch covered in barbecue sauce. Nice. Luckily, I have the waterproofed pants by Docker and the sauce wiped right up. I was using a wet napkin and it didn't even dampen the pants at all.
Darla and I did sign our contract to have the roof redone next week. They are putting on a charcoal colored composition tile. I have also had a company out to clean the tile and back splash on the pool and have set up to have another contractor come out and do the staining of the deck surrounding the pool. He agreed to do it for $1,300 and my cost with just materials and sealant would be close to $700. He is also giving me a 4 year warranty against peeling or fading, which is worth it . What I want is to have the work done and forget about it instead of having to worry about it every swim season.
Work is going strong. Darla and I will take my number two underwriter and his wife to dinner at Henry's Steakhouse in the new RedHawk casino in Placerville on Friday night. I personally will be celebrating the close of the Modesto office and the success that Pete has been having so far this year. He has made a strong case as a superior underwriter this year and deserves recognition.
I had over 50 calls on the free furniture out of Modesto and settled on a start up company and a guy with a big enough truck to haul the stuff. I got rid of everything except three lateral file cabinets that I have to pass off this week. I will then do a walk through of the offices with the property manager and wave goodbye to Modesto. The one guy with the startup showed up first without any help. I set him straight that I would not be moving furniture that day. He walked across the street and hired two Hispanic gentlemen to help him move. He loaded up his Dodge Ram and drove over to his shop where another guy would help him unload. When he got back, his two helpers were busy moving equipment for the other guy. Ray was furious and started yelling. I told him to calm down and he apologized after getting an agreement to have the other guy chip in part of the $15 per hour he was paying his guys. I let them take everything and told them that the only thing I needed was a desk chair for my Modesto employee who works out of her house. I put it in the corner, propped my briefcase and laptop on it and when I finally took a break and went to the bathroom, the guy with the big truck had set my stuff on the floor and was gone with the chair. I would think in the scope of things that would be pretty bad karma to steal a chair from a guy who is giving you free office furniture, but what the hey.
Well, dinner is being called and I'm hungry. I had blood drawn this morning after a 12 hour fast and I'm a little low right now. I hope you are all well. Be good to each other and Dad and Shirley: "Bon Voyage." We'll call you Wednesday night. Ciao.
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