Recovering from the Holidays

Work has been a zoo the last couple of weeks. Rudee and I both had short weeks due to the holidays but unfortunately the work just piled up and we have both been extra busy trying to catch up. The extra days off were nice but we are paying for it now :-(

New years Eve we were invited by Steve and Trish Suter to ride along with them to, where else, a casino. We first met our son Matthew and fiance' Mandy in Lafayette for breakfast before hooking up with the Suters' at their house.

We all piled into their car and the 2 hour drive went by pretty quick. We had reservations at a motel near the casino and decided to check in prior to trying our luck. Since we made our reservations fairly late we didn't have many options and the rooms were expensive. We decided to split the cost of a 2 room suite and it worked out well. The motel was even providing a shuttle service to and from the casino.

We gambled a little in the afternoon and I was doing pretty good and came away with a little of their $$. We didn't want to press our luck too much and decided to go find a place for dinner. Steve drove us into the town of New Buffalo Mi. and we found a nice sports bar that turned out to be a great little place. We all enjoyed our meals and it wasn't too expensive either.

After dinner we spent some time back at the motel and I even took a little nap hoping this would help me stay awake to usher in the New Year :-).

We took the shuttle back to the Casino around 8pm and the place was packed. We mostly walked around and people watched. The slot machines were all full and most had people standing behind them waiting their turn to play. This was not my idea of fun but the casino did provide some roving entertainment. Here is a photo that Rudee snapped on my cell phone of one of the dancers.

In case you are wondering, I'm the pervert on the left and Steve is the pervert on the right :-)

We fought the crowd for a couple of hours and decided that was enough and caught the shuttle back to the motel where we ordered a pizza and watched the ball drop in Times Square. Maybe I am old fashioned but I miss Dick Clark and his "rockin New Years".

We made the drive back home Saturday and it was nice to have another day off before going back to work. None of us really had any big New Years resolutions. I guess our only one is to pay off as many bills as we can so we can get closer to retirement. I even put a countdown timer on my phone that shows how many days I have left to work. Right now I am at 1429. That sounds like a lot but if you subtract week ends, holidays and vacation days it doesn't seem as bad. Who knows, maybe we can go sooner if we keep at it :-). I'll keep you posted.