It has been a nice little break from the blog with a trip to Las Vegas and the celebration of Easter with Jennifer, McKenny and Miss Samantha. We had a great week and enjoyed the time with them immensely. Sam came and stayed at the casino with us the first two nights and we took her to see two movies at the on site movie theater. We saw Beauty and the Beast, which was tremendous, and Boss Baby, where Darla actually took a picture of me sleeping in the theater. Sam enjoyed them both and we ate too much movie candy and popcorn. Darla and I are both on a diet following our trip to Vegas. (I say that having just finished a barbecued cheeseburger with home made French fries.)
We flew in Wednesday night and didn't get in until 9 PM. We called and told Jennifer that we would be over early Thursday morning, but Sam was still up, packed and ready to go with Papa and Grandma. The girl knows when the spoilers come into town and didn't want to miss out. We drove by their place and got Sam and then got checked into the hotel. She was way too wired to go to sleep, so we stayed up talking and playing until almost midnight. Did I say spoilers?
Thursday we slept in and then headed out for breakfast and some shopping for movie candy. We drove down to Lumberjacks, a restaurant where "the big boys eat". We had a waiter, great guy, who must have weighed 300 pounds. Apparently, the big boys "work" there too. It is a Lumberjack themed restaurant with cedar logs, red checked tablecloths and lots of food for the money. We sat next to an older fellow, who counseled us to buy the "whole hog" meal, as he had enough for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He had about three Styrofoam containers packed to go and was sitting enjoying his coffee. We passed on that.
We did stop at the CVS and Darla was looking for some conditioner for her hair. There was a beauty store next door, but apparently it was just for black woman as they had straighteners, and jeri curl and other things, but no conditioner. She bought it at the CVS. Sam shopped for candy and ended up with something called Gobstoppers and Nerds. I settled for Reeses Pieces and red licorice. We headed back to the casino as the movie was at 1:50 PM.
We had dinner reservations at Maggiano's Little Italy, which is a must stop for us each time we travel to Vegas. The restaurant is located on the strip above the Fashion Show Mall. The picture of Darla, Mac, Jennifer and Sam was taken at Maggianos. We had the Family Meal that consisted of two appetizers, four main courses, and two desserts. We all walked the mall after dinner to burn off some of the considerable calories that we put away.
We drove Mac and Jennifer back home and then headed back to the casino for another night with Sam. We were able to get to bed earlier and wake up earlier. We all showered and headed to breakfast. We tried a little French restaurant that had baguettes, egg whites and crepes on the menu. We took one look at the menu and were out of there. Sam asked if we could go to Mimis as she likes the puppy dog pancakes there. We drove over and enjoyed a great meal and I even got a free meal by downloading their app on my phone. From there we stopped and got Sam a couple of Easter dresses at Target and then headed back to the casino for the 12:50 showing of "Boss Baby" where I got caught up on my sleep. Jennifer joined us at about 2 PM for some pool time. Tuesday was warm, but windy. Friday was ideal with a temperature of 84 degrees and a light breeze. We hung out by the pool for about two hours and then headed over to Jennifer's for dinner. Mac didn't join us as he has a 4 PM call everyday.
We played games at Jennifers' and then ordered Chinese food and then watched a movie. Sam had decided that she was staying home and we had packed up her bags. After the movie, she wanted to go back to the hotel with us. We should have let her, but she had already made her decision and so Darla and I went and lost $100 at the casino. Well, we got five drinks for that price, but it wasn't pretty. We were down almost $160 and made a nice comeback before heading to bed.
Saturday, we headed back to Lumberjack and had the same server. Jennifer, Mac and Sam came over and we hung out by the pool until about three and then packed up and headed to their house where we spent the night Saturday night. We went to church for the 5 o'clock service Saturday night and had a really nice service with good music and a great message about redemption. They highlighted a couple who were married young, divorced under difficult circumstances with cheating in the marriage and a sad story of lost love. The redemption came when the husband reached out to his ex after getting sober and making amends for his past. She had moved to Vegas and was a single mom. The man had joined the Army and cleaned up his act. They began a long distance relationship, eventually married and he relocated to Vegas where he is raising her child and they now have one of their own. They tied that message into the message of forgiveness that Jesus showed us when he died in our place to absolve us of sin.
The church was doing baptisms that day and had Icees, funnel cakes and a band playing. I think Sam thinks church is a party. I guess those of us who are members also consider church a party. We stayed for awhile and Sam got her snow cone. We went home and had leftovers and played games (Sequence and Connect 4). We tried a new game called Rhymes, but it was not a good one. McKenny had bought it and announced he was no longer buying board games. It was funny.
Sunday we got up and had a nice breakfast, played the Egg fight game with hard boiled eggs (McKenny was the champion), and got cleaned up and headed to the park. I had hoped to play with Sam's RC car we got her for Christmas, but McKenny was getting it ready and the pull cord ripped out of the housing when he was starting it. We stopped and bought some drinks, chips and got Sam a new kite. It was breezy and a perfect day for a picnic and kite flying. We headed out to their nearest park and ran into about a two mile backlog of cars heading into the park. Apparently there was an Easter Egg hunt or something. We got out of there in a hurry and went to the Butterfly park near their house and relaxed there for a couple of hours.
There was a guy there with a monkey. He was dressed up in a flannel shirt suspenders and shorts...and so was the monkey. We laughed and Jen was remarking how the monkey looked just like his owner. The owner was black and I gave her a ration of grief for her comment. She was NOT amused with her Dad.
Sunday afternoon we went to a new Smoothie shop in their neighborhood and had sandwiches and smoothies for lunch. We headed back to the house and got packed up for our last night where we were moving to the Excalibur to be close to the airport for our 5:55 AM flight. John was picking Sam up at five, so we headed out about that time, actually passing John as he was heading through the gate and we were heading out.
I had credit on my Expedia account and got the hotel for $18, but we had to pay a $29 resort fee. Darla and I walked the strip and bought some snacks for the plane in the morning and then went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. We were in bed by 9:30 PM and up at 3 AM the next morning. We returned the rental car ( a nice Toyota Rav 4) and caught the shuttle to the airport. The guy sitting next to me was about 25 and completely bombed. How he drove his car back to the rental center was beyond me as he was wasted. He stunk of booze and couldn't keep his eyes open.
We were in Sacramento by 7:15 and I was in the office by 8:30. I had one unfortunate employee that was ten minutes late to work and I brought her in and explained that if I could start the morning on the strip in Vegas and get to work on time, she could too.
I got the financials for March and it includes our profit sharing checks from our carriers for the year before. I received over $120,000 in profit sharing last year and our profit for 2017 went from $100,000 to over $290,000. I was thrilled, but timing is everything and it would have been nice to have that news before Alan visited. Oh well. I'm taking the staff out to lunch on Wednesday to celebrate our good fortune (or hard work to be accurate)..
There are a couple of pictures above of my staff working on the grounds at a non profit called 916 Ink. They work with low income kids and kids at risk and provide an afternoon program geared to arts. They promote creative writing, crafts, painting, theater, etc. We hooked up with them earlier this year and helped them build a garden with planters, trees, rock and pea gravel. We worked Saturday and helped spread rock and plant trees and work on the benches and planters. I had poker Friday night and the work gig was 9 AM to 2 PM. I offered to buy lunch for anyone that came out and got there after 10 AM and bought pizza for my staff and all of the volunteers that showed up. It was fun. I included a few pictures from inside the Imaginarium, with an eyeglasses tree and a light tree as well as other exhibits, including their "author wall".
I have a new employee starting tomorrow. Alan encouraged me to bring in more young people. I had interviewed a guy who had just graduated from Lehigh in Pennsylvania last year and was working for a stats company that is affiliated with Major League Soccer. He grew up in San Diego and has lived in San Francisco, Denver and New York City. I really liked the guy, but Harvey thought he was a "flight risk" as he was used to big cities. We re-evaluated after Alan's visit and hired him. I had one employee who was on probation and I had her on a Performance Improvement Plan. She gave me her notice last week and saved me from having to make a tough decision on her continued employment. I'm living right.
I did go in and have a skin cancer screening. The spots that Darla found on my back were nothing, but he burned off a couple of spots and took one spot on my chest and had it biopsied. I got the results this week and it s a basal cell carcinoma and I have to go back in May 1st and have more of the surface of the skin removed to make sure they got all of the cancer. Make sure you wear your sunscreen SPF 50 or higher and reapply it every hour or so.
My PT is continuing and I am at about 80% of full Range of Motion. I have almost no strength and have just started strength training. I will move up to like a one pound weight this week. I am going to physical therapy twice a week and they are really stretching out my shoulder and working the muscles around the joint. I will start chipping and putting in about a month.
Well, Darla is waiting to spend the evening with me, so I need to bring this to a close. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. Remember that God chose us through our Saviour. Let's choose Love over Hate and Acceptance over Judgment and Affirmation over Criticism. I'll be back at this next week. I think I will start on the patio next weekend.
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