Vegas and Family time

 

That was a long time for us to be away from home. We had asked David to stay and house sit, but he is such a creature of habit, that he would just come by at night and hang out for a while and then go back to his house. The house survived, but then we didn't have Neil and Lilly watching it.

 

We drove home this morning, leaving Las Vegas at 5 AM and arriving back home here at 2 PM. I took the first shift of driving, stopping after 4 hours for breakfast in Tehachapi and then driving on to Bakersfield, where we gassed up and I turned the wheel over to Darla. She drove the last 4 hours or so to Roseville.

 

I got a text at breakfast that one of Pete's assistants gave her two weeks notice today. She came to us from Collier's, a real estate appraisal firm. She was an appraiser, but had taken insurance classes in college and wanted to give it a try. She is the young lady whose heel gave out when she was leaving the interview and she hit the ground. I called her Grace when she first started with us. She has been offered a promotion at her old firm at a significant increase in salary and she couldn't pass it up. It was one of those deals where she was basically doing the work of her superior and things went down hill after she left. She has been with me about 9 months and the handwriting was on the wall at her old firm. Pete is upset, but it will all work out. I will likely replace her with a new assistant for Matt and bill that salary to the Fresno branch, thus saving myself an assistant's salary on my financials.

 

We had a grand time with Samantha and Jennifer, McKenny, David, Daniel and Becky. Darla and I drove over to Vegas on Wednesday last week from Phoenix, leaving about 8:00 AM and arriving in Las Vegas about 1PM. We tried out a new casino in North Las Vegas called Aliente. It was a shot in the dark, but had good reviews and is located about ten minutes from Jennifer's house off the 215 Freeway. We were very impressed with the 5 year old casino, from the rooms that feature marble showers and high end furniture and fixtures to the 5 restaurants on site (coffee shop, buffet, Mexican, Italian and a steakhouse). The casino also has a food court with DQ, Rubio's, Johnny Rockets, Nathans, Panda Express and a sub shop. They also have a movie theater that came in handy for us when we watched Sam.

 

Darla and I stopped at the store and bought dinner fixings and breakfast food for Jennifer and McKenny. We had tacos the first night and I invited them over to the casino for dinner on my birthday Thursday. Darla and I were there to help pick up Sam from school on Thursday and then brought her back to the casino for some pool Jennifer and McKenny joined us for dinner at 5:30 as the Italian restaurant featured 50% pasta and pizza on Thursdays. We each ordered a pizza, which we thought were personal size, but they were mediums. Darla opted to try a slice of mine and had French onion soup. Jen bought me a card that said what a great Dad I was because I raised such a great daughter. It had a pin in it that read "My Daughter is #1!" and she had me wear it (you can see a picture of the three of us above..Sam, Jenn and I ). We went over to the DQ for dessert and Sam had her first Blizzard. The only downside to the evening is that Harvey called me in the middle of dessert and I had to spend about a half hour going over salaries in my office with him. Oh well.

 

Darla and I played video poker on Wednesday and Thursday night and had a good time, but I was cold as ice the first night. She kept us afloat, but I had a rough night on Wednesday. I bounced back on Thursday night, but we ended up giving some money away to the casino to make up for the $55 rooms.

 

Friday, the boys flew in and we had a dinner of leftover pizza with Jennifer ands McKenny before I headed off to the airport to pick them up. They were due in at 8:30 and called me at about that time to say they took the wrong tram and were at Terminal D. Nice, but Vegas has Terminals 1, 2 and 3. Daniel called back and they were at Terminal 3. I drove in and waited and got chased away by the security guards. I called Daniel and they were at the departures downstairs. I told him to walk upstairs and meet me. We finally hooked up and made the 30 minute drive back to North Las Vegas. Sam had the boys on the trampoline and jumping along with a light below the trampoline. Darla and I were tired after being at the pool again with Sam after school and were ready for bed.

 

Saturday, we were up and over to the house by ten and fixed a big breakfast of bacon and eggs with toast for everyone. Jennifer, Darla and Becky handled most of the chow, but I made toast. Darla and I took Sam with us and headed back to the casino for an afternoon at the pool with the 84 degree heat. The kids joined us later and we had a cabana for Becky, who is a light skinned redhead. We stayed at the pool about four hours and swam and talked and relaxed. Sam stayed with us as we were off to Maggianno's for dinner and then Jennifer and her brothers were going out on the town afterwards. On the way back to Jennifer's, Becky looked down and her diamond solitaire was missing from her ring. Two of the four prongs on the ring had broken off and the diamond fell on the floor of the car. They got to Jennifer's and were able to find the stone. Dan and Becky are convinced it was the alt water in the pool that caused the ring to break. I think the prongs had a stress fracture in them and the salt water caused the crack to spread and the prongs to break. Daniel looked up on the internet and found a site that talked about gold decomposing in salt water. Perhaps, but how do you explain the Spanish doubloons that were found on shipwrecks hundreds of years later in perfect condition? Or the number of people who swim in the ocean with gold rings and such and never have a problem. They should hold the jeweler accountable and have him replace the setting.

 

Maggiano's was typically FUN and we had the all you can eat with appetizers and dessert. Jennifer and McKenny sprang for a nice bottle of Malbec and it was a fun night. The old guitar player came around and Sam had him sing "Over the rainbow". It was great. We were seated at 8 PM and got out of there at 10 PM. The kids headed down to Fremont Street and Darla and I took Sam home to the casino for a sleepover.

 

We woke Sam up at 10 AM on Sunday and told her we had a surprise for her. She was sleepy until she heard surprise, then she was saying, "I'm awake, I'm awake!" We took her to breakfast and then to the noon showing of the new Disney film, "Cinderella." I was pleasantly surprised with how good the show was. it is live action (not animation) and had several actors I'd never heard of, but had Cate Blanchett as the step-mother, who is so cruel to Ella and names her Cinderella after she sleeps by the fire to stay warm after being banished to the attic and gets soot on her face. Sam really enjoyed the movie, the popcorn, the Icee and her Thin Mints. We had a great time with her and it is a special memory for the three of us together.

 

The kids were out late on Saturday and slept late on Sunday, finally getting up about the time we were heading to the movie. They all went out for brunch and then went to the Mob Museum in Vegas. David had seen it off Fremont street and wanted to go. They joined up with us about 4 at the pool. Sam made a little friend who was 7, in first grade and lived in Vegas. We asked why she was at the hotel and she said their house has "rats". Oh, the innocence of children. They played together at the pool for hours and it was pulling teeth to finally get her to leave as we had dinner at her house and then she had school on Monday. She had some homework to finish up and had a project to complete. David helped her with her assignment and David and Daniel both worked with her on the project, which was a Leprechaun Trap. Sam designed a trap with a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, an Irish Flag and the sticky side of a lint roller on the ground to trap the leprechaun. She also had a toilet roll made into a telescope to watch the Leprechaun as he got stuck in the trap. It was very well designed.

By the way, Sam is NOT wearing glasses now, but her Mom wears glasses and Sam wants to be like Mom, so Jennifer found her a set of plain glass glasses with no magnification that look like Mom's and she wears them everywhere. It's a stage, I guess.

 

It is late, I'm tired from driving and being up at 4:30 this morning, so I will bring this to a close. Thank you to Jennifer and McKenny for being such GREAT hosts (they even had Ginger Ale and Canadian Mist for me). We all had fun and it was a Great Family gathering. We love each of you. Ciao.