Nothing Happening Here

It's been more than 2 weeks since my last post. That tells you all you need to know about the exciting times of Donna and Keith. Yep, nothin' much happening here.

A recent sunrise in our neck of the woods.

After our Thanksgiving visit with the kids, we decided to live dangerously. We had some discounted rooms at Inn of the Mountain Gods in Ruidoso, so we decided to take them up on that offer. It really was a pretty pleasant experience.

The casino has placed plastic plexiglass barriers between all of the machines in the casino. I like that. The best thing, though, is that the entire facility -- casino, restaurants, hotel, etc. -- is now smoke free. Ahh, clean air. One of the best things about gambling in Cripple Creek, Colorado, is that all businesses there are smoke free. That's one reason we like going there as often as possible. Now we can add Inn of the Mountain Gods to that small but growing list of casino destinations that has a smoke-free environment.

We continued to practice caution in our behavior on the trip. We wore our masks everywhere we went unless we were eating or drinking something. Wearing masks really isn't difficult for us, and we consider it a very small price to pay for staying healthy and protecting those we care about. We also thoroughly sanitized our room upon arrival. Like many hotels these days, the casino does not perform daily cleaning of rooms for guests who are staying multiple days, and that is fine with us. We're pretty low maintenance, anyway. Best of all, though, it keeps people out of our room once we have sanitized to suit our needs.

We didn't win, but we enjoyed some good plays. I'm sure we will be heading back soon, especially if some better offers arrive in the mail. Donna and I play video poker almost exclusively in casinos. Every once in a while, Miss Donna will sneak off and put a few dollars in regular slot machines, and I might slip off and play a little electronic blackjack, but we prefer video poker. We came across a new-to-us version of video poker called Triple Chance Poker. It consists of 3 lines. The bottom line is standard video poker. The upper two lines are stud poker, but have various multipliers that appear quite a bit. I've not yet evaluated this new game, but I will before we go back. The pay table for the Jacks or Better version at quarter level was 99.54%, while the Deuces Wild was 99.73%. 

Last week was medical week for us. We try to schedule most of our medical visits for a single week rather than spreading them out. So last week, we had our labs done, met with our PCP for our annual wellness visit, spent some time with our dermatologist while she told us how old and ugly we are, and I visited my rheumatologist who expressed great surprise that I was still able to get around. Our labs were better than they had been in the last 5 years or so. I guess we might stick around for a little longer.

Looks like we will be traveling to daughter Courtney's home this weekend for an early Christmas. Donna and I (mainly Donna) will prepare a nice Christmas spread to take along, as we did at Thanksgiving. I'm basically a disaster in the kitchen, but I do a fairly good job of peeling, dicing, and other mundane tasks, which Donna is happy to assign to me. I guess you could say I'm her sous chef, but since there's just the two of us, that really is a gross overstatement.

We bought a nice ham a couple of days ago, so we'll prepare it along with some potato salad, baked beans, a couple of pies, lime jello salad, and a few other items that are traditional with us. I really like this meal much better than our Thanksgiving meal as I'm not too fond of turkey. For many years, I would smoke a turkey at Thanksgiving, and I did enjoy that. I'd crank up the smoker the night before and then put the turkey on just before midnight and let it smoke until noon the next day. But I stopped that practice 4 or 5 years ago. That is really the only way I enjoy turkey.

So now I look forward to our Christmas ham and all the sides. We're really looking forward to just seeing the kids, especially Xander. Now that he's a college man, he doesn't have a lot of spare time. He works part-time at a store in the Odessa mall, so most of his time is split between school and work. We just don't see him too much anymore.

In case I don't post another entry between now and Christmas, let me wish you a Merry Christmas and a very happy 2022. Let's hope and pray there are better times ahead.

We bought a couple of planters 2 or 3 years ago and have not used them for much. Recently, though, I planted some garlic in one of them, and you can see how well it is doing. I'll harvest sometime in the spring. Now I need to find a use for the other planter -- perhaps some radishes. I love fresh radishes in a salad.